Daily Archives: April 30, 2008

A Late Saturday round-up

Well, first of all, you may have noticed that I can no longer post as Tom, so I came up with this very witty moniker, but I can assure you that it is actually me (which may or may not be a good thing).

Secondly, due to a communications/brain fault on my part, and a memory like a sieve, I’m afraid I completely forgot that I had to write today’s blog, despite it SAYING ON YESTERDAY’S PAGE THAT I HAD TO WRITE IT. So sorry about that.

Plus I’m monumentally hungover, so, well, you know what it’s like. *boilk* Ssssh. Stop shouting.

So, anyhoo. As Blogger mentioned yesterday, today I shall be updating you on who we haven’t signed, who we aren’t close to signing, and who else has left and whether the lights are still on. Well, I think I’ll leave the list of people we haven’t signed because that list is quite large.

I’m afraid the second list (who we’re close to signing) is pretty short too. In that it’s none. As far as I know, the lights are still on, and no one else has left, unless they snuck out as Gunnersauras (please, Eboue, find that a funny idea).

My take on the whole transfer saga is that we will get someone, probably on the last day. We all know Arsene, like the rest of us, believes transfer fees are absurd, wages are absurd, and that the club must live within its budget. I don’t speak on behalf of the manager, obviously, and I expect as an economist, he would probably say that supply and demand dictates that transfer fees and wages are what they are because they are. And while both fees and wages are absurd relatively speaking, it’s hard to argue with that.

Anyway, I think even Arsene, wearing one of those little sleep masks you get on a long flight, in a dark room, on another continent, with earplugs in, could see that we desperately need at least one central midfielder. I think what’s happening – and I have no basis for saying so other than pure speculation – is that we have made enquiries for one or two players, maybe more, but that to drive down their transfer fee, we’re waiting until the last minute to make an offer.

What? It’s something to cling to!

Take the reported interest in Gareth Barry, for example. If Liverpool were quoted £18m, baulked (rightly, in my opinion), and we offered £15-16m on the last day, Villa would be much more inclined to sell. All just my opinion, of course. Alonso too. I’d be absolutely delighted if we signed Alonso. I know some Arsenal fans are less than impressed with that idea, but I think he’d fit well, and frankly, to have him and Cesc in there, for Arsenal and for Spain – that could help us keeping Cesc for a long time, something I think every Arsenal fan wants.

Of course, this waiting until the last minute works both ways – you might have to pay over the odds, or not get anyone at all. Which doesn’t bear thinking about.

Anyway, enough of that. I prefer to think that we’ll get someone.

Arsene hints at late transfers. Alonso – please. Apparently the boss has also been sticking up for Adebayor. I don’t know if these are repeats of comments he’s already made, or new ones, but like everyone else, I’m pretty disgusted with Adebayor’s behaviour over the summer. I don’t think we should be booing him, but then I don’t think kissing the badge was entirely tasteful either.

On to today’s game against the Barcodes. Apparently Gallas and Fabregas will stay in the team having recovered from knocks midweek, but Fishface is still out injured (unless that bloke wins the Champions’ League for us, against Man Utd, with a 35 yard screamer, I’m always going to hate him – sorry). Samir Nasri has got over a virus so he’ll stay in the team, along with Theo (who I thought did absolutely brilliantly the other night; he looked composed, his pace is frightening, and most of all, I think he’s growing up, knocking defenders off the ball).

The Barcodes, on the other hand, are without Martins, Duff, and that Fat Australian Cunt. They do have Michael Owen though, the wee fuckbag, so whoever we play alongside Gallas at the back will need to put in a few ligament tearing tackles on him. God I hate him.

So that’s your lot. Apologies again for the late blog. Maybe you see you tomorrow if Blogger’s move hasn’t finished.

Come on you reeeeeeeds!

Draws cost us the title, not the Old Trafford result

Morning all, I have to admit it’s a bit painful watching the Champions League semi-finals. United were fairly rubbish against Barcelona last night but Barcelona were pure Arsenal at their worst. Lots of nice passing with hardly a shot in anger.

And the Gods ignored my pleas so that if United were to get through to the final then at least Ronaldo would be suspended or something. Pffff. Tonight’s it’s the ‘smashers v Cuntski. I have to say from a news point of view Liverpool v United in Moscow could be fun, those KGB fuckers would have great fun when the two sets of fans started killing each other. We shall see.

Arsene Wenger reckons losing the game at Old Trafford was the one that cost us the title. He says:

I feel we were one game away in this championship. If we win at Old Trafford, we are champions. It’s just one game, and in that game we were 1-0 up and we had two or three chances to score the second goal, so you cannot say we had a bad season.

I would have to disagree with the manager there. I think it was three games that really cost us. Birmingham away, Boro home, Wigan away. Those three came as part of a sequence of four draws – the other was against Villa which, given their position in the league, you can’t say is a bad result. With all due respect to those teams we should have won those games, not easily, but we should have won them. Even losing to United and Chelsea if we’d done that we’d now be sitting two points clear at the top of the table. I can see where the manager is coming from with his assertion, but even had we won at Old Trafford we’d be two points clear of United but one behind Chelsea.

Emmanuel Adebayor has warned title rivals that we’ll learn from this year and come back stronger next, saying:

This season we may end up with nothing, but it will not look the same this time next year.

That’s the kind of spirit you need in the squad. I’ve said it before that often the pain of coming close and losing is as great a motivator as you’ll get as a footballer. There’s no doubt this season will have hurt this squad, their pride will be dented and I suspect they won’t look back on the Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge results half as much as they will to the games at St Andrews and the JJB and the Boro game at home. Hopefully lessons will be learned.

Speaking of Adebayor the boss says he scored twice as many goals as he expected him to this season. Which must be a nice surprise. He’s challenged him to show a ‘mark of class’ by repeating it next season and frankly I’m a little worried about how people will react if he doesn’t. Anyway, that’s by the by. You get the feeling Arsene thought that with the sale of Henry we’d become less reliant on one player for our goals. Maybe he thought they’d be spread about more but with only Cesc really getting any from midfield and injuries to van Persie (whose removal, no, not that kind of removal, against Derby was merely precautionary) and Eduardo it meant the responsbility fell to the big man and for the most part he stepped up and took it.

Eduardo’s injury was the real downer, I think. He’d just settled in, got used to the pace of the English game, and with 12 goals up to that horrible day had begun to start scoring regularly. People were comparing him to Robbie Fowler and I sincerely believe that had he been fit he would have scored the goals which made the difference in the those drawn games. He might have prevented the losses against United and Chelsea too. So fuck you Martin Taylor, you big, clumsy cunt.

Lukasz Fabianksi says his goal for next season is to be Arsenal’s number 1. The young Pole says:

I am not here just to be the second goalkeeper, I want to be the main goalkeeper. Manuel and Jens are fine goalkeepers and we all get on well but I will be fighting to be ahead of them.

He’s set to start the final league games of the season as the manager gets to look at him in a more pressured environment than the Carling Cup. He was ok against Derby, I thought, made a couple of good saves but he needs to be more dominant and decisive in the area. Let’s see how he goes.

Today is the day that Arsene Wenger put a deadline on Mathieu Flamini’s new deal. There’s a contract on the table from Arsenal and the manager says he still doesn’t know if the player is leaving or not. I don’t think you need to be a genius to work out that if he was going to sign for us he’d have done it by now. With crazy Bosman money on offer elsewhere I think it’s now safe to assume that he’s going. Which is a shame but there you go, we’ll just have to find someone else to replace him.

Right, that’s about it. Don’t forget the competition to win the classic 80s shirt from Toffs, the very difficult question is on yesterday’s blog. You have until midnight tonight to get your entry in and the two winners will be announced tomorrow.

Until then.