Monthly Archives: May 2008

Saturday round-up

Morning all from a very sunny Dublin. It’s almost continental it’s so warm and lovely. Not that I’m complaining, mind.

We’ll start with Robin van Persie who says he has never thought about leaving for a less physical league, like Spain, and says that it’s not all about the money. The important thing is keeping the team together. And to do that, I heard one Arsenal player say during the week, you need money. Who was that again? Erm… anyway, Robin says he’s discussing a new contract, which is good news if there’s a clause saying we can melt him down for the world’s most expensive glue if he gets crocked again.

There’s great news about Eduardo who looks to be well ahead of schedule with his injury. He’s quoted as saying:

I am returning to Europe from Brazil at the beginning of August, perhaps even the end of July. Doctors tell me by then I will be fully recovered and able to play football again. I hope so too. I’m feeling well and my rehabilitation is going better than I would ever have hoped.

That is excellent but I suppose when a guy suffers an injury like that it’s probably better to err on the side of caution. Frankly, I thought we’d be lucky to see him before Christmas but you have to assume the doctors know what they’re talking about.

There’s not much else in the world of Arsenal to talk about to be honest. There’s the FIFA 6+5 thing which really is the most nonsensical piece of crap Sepp Blatter has ever come up with. It simply cannot work in Europe, the EU have already said it contravenes rules of competition and free movement of workers and, ultimately, it does nothing except lower the quality of club football in a vain attempt to make the international game more attractive. Someone needs to take Blatter to one side, have a quiet word and make him step down. And if that doesn’t work throw the cunt off a bridge.

As reported earlier in the week Norwich City physio Neal Reynolds has joined the club. He talks about why he joined and explains the new role he’ll carry out which has been created by Arsenal from this season on.

And that’s about that. It’s a beautiful day, get out and enjoy it.

Ade's number 1 + Arsecast 78

Good Friday to you all.

We’ll start with Emmanuel Adebayor. In this morning’s Sun he has made his position quite clear despite all the speculation surrounding his future. He says:

I came to Arsenal with a mission to succeed. I’ve assured the gaffer Arsene Wenger I’ll stay because I believe in the team and I want to assure the fans my concentration is here. I have no reason to leave so I’ll stay to ensure that together we’ll win silverware.

It is hard to imagine Adebayor using the term ‘the gaffer’ but nevertheless it’s a fairly unequivocal statement. This comes on the back of further reports in Spain this morning that he is the number 1 choice for Barcelona this summer. This is on the back of reports yesterday that Zlatan Imbrahimovic was the number 1 choice for Barcelona this summer.

Still, it’s good to hear him so positive. Meanwhile Barcelona’s outlook on Alex Hleb has changed somewhat. They still want him but they want to do the deal for €15-18m and not the maximum €20m they said the other day. They also want to see if, perhaps, we’d want to do a player swap. Can’t think of anyone we might want from Barcelona though. What a pack of useless shitkickers they are.

The Mirror, yesterday, linked us with an £8m move for Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey. I mean, come on. Seriously. Obviously the player’s agent is mates with a Mirror journo who put that story together to raise the profile of a player nobody had ever heard of really. I don’t see us spending that kind of money on a keeper, certainly not a 21 year old. It’s gonna happen now, isn’t it?

Gratuitous Nasri content – Did you know an anagram of Samir Nasri Arsenal is ‘Airman lasers rains’. I think when he does sign if he doesn’t laser the rain during his first game we should consider him a complete flop. Yeah, he might score a couple of goals but dammit I want players who can shoot lasers at the rain.

Now, onto the Arsecast.

I tried to get someone involved in a blog chat this week but the clever bastard, knowing there was no Arsenal news to talk about really, claimed his kitchen had been destroyed by a cyclone or something so it’s just me waffling today.

On the show though there’s a player history from the Man in the Bar, Eboue is there, George has a tale of the unexpected and some other waffle along the way, generally involving Arsenal, Hleb, Nazzzzzzzzri and stuff.

To subscribe to the Arsecast in iTunes simply click here, to download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (13mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Right then, that should see you right for today. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Hleb playing politics – van Persie's silly comments about money

So Alexander Hleb has been speaking about the stories linking him with a move away from Arsenal.

He’s been gushing in his praise of Arsene Wenger, calling him the best manager he’s ever had, he says he’s disappointed not to have won anything with Arsenal and that stories suggesting he wants to go because of that are false, and that that club means a lot to him.

His words are carefully chosen though. When he denies ever saying he wants to leave he’s quite correct. We’ve had almost total silence from Hleb since these stories emerged. It has been his representatives who have been doing all the talking.

So while Hleb can certainly deny saying he wants to leave Arsenal it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to. He makes no assertion that he wants to stay, the only thing he says is that if he were to leave it would not to be another English club – which is exactly what Ashley Cole said. I wonder if the fact that Mourinho is set to take over at Inter has sparked a bit of a rethink from Hleb. I don’t see Hleb as a Mourinho player and I’m not sure Hleb would enjoy Mourinho as a manager. So what was almost a certain deal is now doubtful.

The interest from Barcelona and Real Madrid is there but these clubs declare interest in almost every player in existence during the course of a summer. He who is flavour of the week (mint-chocolate, perhaps?) can find himself off the menu the next. My own opinion is that Hleb still wants to leave Arsenal but he’s playing politics a bit in case it doesn’t happen.

The Telegraph says we’ve signed some bloke called Samir Nasri for £12.5m. Does anyone know anything about this guy? I mean, wow, this one has come right out of left field.

Meanwhile Robin van Persie says Arsenal need to pay better wages to keep the top players at the club. Rather injudicious comments from a man who has hardly provided value for money since his arrival at the club. I really like van Persie, I think he’s an excellent player, but when you’ve completed a full season, injury free, and earned the big, big money you’re earning then you can say something about this, Robin.

His comments are made rather more foolish when you look at the books and see that our wage bill is more or less the same as United’s and I think the bit about players earning three or four times more has to be put in context. No doubt he’s referring to Mathieu Flamini who was on a relatively low wage since his arrival and his Milan deal will have increased his wages by that much. On the other hand a Rosicky or Hleb going somewhere to earn four times his current wage which instantly become one of the best paid players on the planet. Silly stuff – A Cultured Left Foot has a nice take on it too.

The Guardian reports that we’ve been knocked back by Cardiff after a £5m bid for wonderkid Aaron Ramsey. The Welsh club are looking for more cash up front and we’ve offered a deal based on his appearances and achievements. They say we’ll go back and offer more, we’ll wait and see.

Right, that’s your lot. Perhaps we’ll get official confirmation of this Nasri fella, whoever he is, later on.

Barcelona claim to have reached agreement with Hleb

Welcome to the Hleb-go-round.

Yesterday Real Madrid confirmed their interest with manager Bernd Schuster saying he was ‘surprised’ the player was available. This morning Sport, the Catalan daily, is reporting that Txiki Begiristain, Barcelona’s sporting director, flew to Germany yesterday to meet with Hleb.

Begiristain apparently told Hleb that Guardiola really wanted him at Barcelona. Hleb told Begiristain that he had other offers but he was ready to listen to Barcelona and now, it seems, there’s a verbal agreement between the player and the club. The next step, reports the newspaper, is for Barcelona to open negotiations with Arsenal. Now, I’m pretty sure the procedure was that you had to ask the selling club for permission to speak to the player, but then this is Spain, and the reality is that this is the way transfers are negotiated.

A club will find out if they can reach an agreement with the player then go to the club. This report suggests that Barcelona will play hard-ball with Arsenal and will not pay any more than €20m for Hleb. Honestly, if they offer €20m for him that’s a great bit of business. And I wonder if a Guardiola managed Barcelona might suit Hleb better than a Mourinho managed Inter. Anyway, we’ll see what happens but on the same day that United are reporting Real to FIFA for the way they’ve shamelessly pursued Ronaldo it just shows you the same thing is happening to us, although I think we’d be much more annoyed about it if it were someone like Cesc and not Hleb.

Speaking of Cesc the Telegraph says the club are bracing themselves for tough contract negotiations with the young Spaniard. As Arseblog told you last month his new agent is Darren Dein and there is certainly a level of acrimony between the club and the Dein family. We all know what Cesc does for us, how good a player he is, we don’t necessarily need reminding in a newspaper article which does little but make fans anxious. I don’t think there’ll be any problems with any negotiations over Cesc. And, apropos of nothing, the young man is set to wear number 10 for Spain in Euro2008.

There’s a story about Nasri and his agent confirming he’s leaving Marseille and is interested in a move to Arsenal. Not much point in linking to it though, if Nasri doesn’t sign for Arsenal I will eat my very hat.*

Marco van Basten says he won’t be risking Robin van Persie in a warm up game as he needs more time to recuperate from his thigh injury. The words risk, recuperate and injury should just be tacked onto Robin’s name at this stage.

“What a goal from Robin van Recuperate!”

What’s interesting is van Basten’s view of Robin as a ‘special player’. There’s no question he’s capable of incredible stuff at times but perhaps van Basten sees something of himself in the Arsenal man, his career having been cut criminally short by injury.

Johann Djourou says he’d prefer to play in midfield than at centre-half, saying a Makalele style holding position is his preferred place on the field. He’s very highly rated inside the club, remember Wenger years ago refusing to name him for fear he might be poached, and there does seem to be a gap in the centre of the park with Flamini and Diarra gone and many suggesting Gilberto + Cesc would be a backwards step. I can’t see it happening though. Not yet anyway. But who knows? Look at the way Flamini took his chance during pre-season and the early part of last season. Remember Kolo’s transition to centre-half was founded on some great pre-season performances so you never know.

We’ve got a new assistant physio – Norwich City’s Neal Reynolds is set to join the club.

Right, that’s your lot. Till tomorrow.

*hat is made from marzipan