Sunday round-up

Another quiet day ahead as the summer lull really takes hold.

Wha little news there is concerns Thierry, naturally enough. When asked about the situation Keith Edelman said:

These are decisions for Arsene. It’s his job to manage the team and it would be up to him. That’s how we’ve always worked with Arsene.

Which is fair enough. Patrick Vieira says:

If Arsenal do lose Thierry Henry it will be a big blow for the club and for the players who stay there. But whatever is the best decision for Thierry, I’m sure he will take it.

Obviously the ideal situation would be if Thierry Henry were to get himself properly fit and motivated and burning to play with Arsenal because if he does leave we’re losing a truly amazing player. We shall just have to wait and see.

There’s nothing happening in Spain yet because today is the final day of the league season there. Can Madrid win their first title in four years? Will Barcelona do it again, the jammy cunts? Will the two of them somehow slip up and let Sevilla in? Frankly, I really don’t give a shit although I would prefer Barcelona not to win it but then that means van Nistelrooy will win it with Madrid, the enormous, horsefaced cunt that he is.

Even when it doesn’t involve the team you support football can be an emotional rollercoaster. Well, not so much a rollercoaster as the waltzer. Or bumper cars. Bouncy castle then. Football is a bouncy castle.

Pffff. See ya tomorrow.

Saturday round-up

Morning all, it’s a fairly quiet and to be honest I think we can all do with a quiet one after the week just passed.

The Sun reports that Arsene Wenger flew to African two weeks ago for a meeting with Samuel Eto’o (wouldn’t Spain or somewhere in the middle have been easier?) and got the green light from the striker (who has consistently and vehemently said he wants to stay at Barcelona) about a move to Arsenal but the board (who have always said the manager would have money to spend) turned him down flat. Yeah, right.

Looks like we’ve signed Havard Nordveit, the young Norwegian centre-half. A fee of around £2m has been reported but given the fact he’s only 16 years of age I can’ t imagine we’ll be seeing him in the first team any time soon no matter what the reports say.

Thank you to everyone who emailed me the picture of Thierry Henry in a ‘Spurs’ shirt. Some basketball team are called Spurs too. I assume, like their London counterparts, that they are cunts. At least by association. I’m not a big basketball fan, I have to say.

This made me laugh. Nice work.

Oh, and as it’s quiet well done to Arseblog reader Andy who has just given birth to a little girl called Hermione. Most of us have wives for that sort of thing so he’s gone above and beyond. Congrats.

And that’s about it. The weather here is much better today in that we still have the grey, overcast sky but none of the torrential, freezing cold rain. I think I’ll sit outside with a good book.

Until tomorrow.

Arsene will let Thierry go – Arsecast 32

It’s funny how quickly things change in football. Even a week ago I would have, and did, pour scorn on all the stories about Thierry Henry leaving Arsenal. Now, I don’t think I’d be so quick to dismiss them (despite knowing how the Spanish press works) and being brutally honest I think Thierry leaving the club is a real possibility.

The Times picks up on L’Equipe’s story about Arsenal Wenger holding talks in Paris with Ferran Soriano about the whole situtation and it’s believed that he will want Samuel Eto’o as part of any deal. I am told that this is more than paper talk and if Arsene can get the deal he wants and the deal which he believes will benefit Arsenal Football Club then he will let Thierry go.

The motivation behind it remains unknown although it’s probably a combination of things including Henry’s desire to play somewhere else, Arsene’s belief that now might well be the right time to let him go especially if he can get a quality player like Eto’o as part of the deal and maybe the idea that a change is good for Thierry and good for Arsenal. That said, Arsenal hold all the cards here. Eto’o has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to leave Barcelona and Henry has three years left on the deal he signed last summer so if it’s not right for the club then he won’t be sold, simple as that.

It’s a huge shift in position from a year ago when Thierry said he would never play in Spain and this would be his last contract. Why that has happened is all conjecture and speculation but you can hear myself and the man from East Lower discuss it in the Arsecast. While it is a big deal I have to say the idea of him leaving doesn’t upset me nearly as much as it would have done last summer and I do hope that if it is going to happen it happens quickly, tidily and without any (more) bullshit which leaves a stain on Thierry’s time at Arsenal. With Barcelona concentrating on the final day of La Liga I don’t expect any big news between now and then but who knows?

If I had to put money on it right now I’d say he won’t be an Arsenal player next season.

In other news Ryan Babel says it would be a dream to play for Arsenal and he has supported them since he was young. He’s a decent looking player but he’s got to come to augment the squad and not as a replacement for Thierry. As talented as he is I can’t see him scoring 20-25 goals each season.

Thomas Sorenson reckons Nicklas Bendtner could become the top class striker that Denmark has been waiting for but again warns that he needs to work hard and take his chances when they come to him.

Full fixtures for next season are here. August looks like a decent month for us and this time around we need to make sure we get off to a good start. The three games we have are certainly winable and we don’t want to be in a situation where we find ourselves off the pace quite so early. There’s a run of games at the end of March – start of April that could make or break us (hopefully) but maybe we should just concentrate on getting there in good shape first.

And that’s that. Now, time for the Arsecast.

In this week’s Arsecast, brought to you by OleOle.com the football community that is free to join, I talk to the man from East Lower about the whole Thierry situation, the Man in the Bar has a player history and there’s a look back at some vintage post season material from Arsenal mixed with all the other waffle.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (14mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So, let’s get these Arses going. I have a feeling there’s going to be lots to talk about today.

Keeping Thierry happy – Fulham at home on the opening day

Yesterday The Sun reported that in order ‘to keep Thierry Henry’ happy we were going to try and sign David Trezeguet from Juventus. Not to be outdone the Mirror reported that ‘to keep Thierry Henry’ happy we were going to buy Ajax’s Ryan Babel for £6m.

This morning I can exclusively reveal that in order ‘to keep Thierry Henry happy’ we’re going to construct an enormous gold statue of Thierry Henry in the concourse of the ground with a massive altar for people to worship at, change the name of the stadium to Thierryburton Grove and unveil a new shirt sponsor ‘Fly Thierry’ in advance of the airline he’s sure to launch at some point in the future.

The reported £40m ‘war chest’ might ‘keep Thierry Henry happy’ too. If the papers are to be believed it’s like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart has all these mad powers and everyone has to make sure he’s happy and consent to his every whim or he’ll kill them.

Tomas Rosicky says he wants to stay at Arsenal despite interest from Atletico Madrid. I don’t think we saw the best of him by any means and if he can get through the season without a series of niggly injuries I’m sure he can contribute more.

The Sun reports that Chairman PHW and Keith Edelman met with Satan Kroenke in New York yesterday. There are no details on what was said, what kind of sandwiches they had or if they made fun of his moustache. I suspect David Dein will be brought back in order to ‘keep Thierry Henry happy’ but whether he accepts the role of concierge is anyone’s guess.

After bringing you the white away kit ahead of anyone else Arseblog (thanks an eagle-eyed reader) was first to show you pictures of our third kit which could be worn in European games. As many have pointed out it could be the club trying to fool Henry into thinking he’s playing for Barcelona! Except horizontally. I have to say I much prefer to the white one which, while a smart looking kit, is not an Arsenal kit because white kits are for cunts.

Spare a thought for former Arsenal man Paolo Vernazza who has just been released by Dagenham and Redbridge. His slide down the leagues has been steady ever since he left Arsenal and it shows how much the academy has improved when the players we release now go on to have Premiership careers.

Next season’s fixtures are out this morning. Will update here on our first game. Update: We open with Fulham at home.

And that’s your lot. More tomorrow.