A quickie

A super quick one this morning as the removals men are coming soon and I have to go sort out stuff about our pets because some people are unbelievable cunts.

The Champions League draw was made. We got Porto, Hamburg and CSKA Moscow. Not bad, you have to say. Chelsea and Barcelona got drawn together again, heh, although they should both come through that group without too much trouble.

Afterwards Jens Lehmann said he was happy with the draw because he gets to play in Germany and he refused to comment on the Ashley Cole situation except to say the whole thing was getting on his nerves. Jens is a Gooner. He’s also UEFA’s goalkeeper of the year. Well deserved.

Chelsea’s horrific slapheaded Peter Cuntyon was still hopeful that a deal will go through and his comments only add to the weight of evidence that it’s Cole and Barnett holding up the deal. There’s been some more talk of Gallas being part of the deal as well.

Double-D confirmed Atletico made a bid for José but confirmed it was turned down and suggested that it was likely the Spaniard would remain an Arsenal player for the season ahead. Meh. I’m bored of it all now. Que sera, sera, as they say in some place or other.

And that’s all I’ve got. Today is going to be madness. Wish me luck.

D-day

A very quick blog this morning as it’s all systems go around here. Mrs Blogs et al are heading back today and I’m staying here to finish packing up the house ahead of the removal tomorrow. Such fun.

We’re through the Champions League group stages after beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 last night. Even though they scored first we were never in any real danger. Freddie Ljungberg equalised for us before a late Mathieu Flamini goal – set up by sub Theo Walcott – gave us the win.

Not too much to say about it other than it was nice to get a win at the new stadium and it will have been a decent exercise in building up fitness and match sharpness and a nice little confidence boost for everyone. It really isn’t worth any more analysis. Job done, next game please.

In other news José could be off to Madrid but to play for Atlético who have made a bid, according to reports.

Jose Mourinho meanwhile is set to leave it as late as possible to buy Ashley Cole so Arsenal can’t spend any of the money. He might want to keep a closer eye on his team and leave the the transfer shenannigans aside because Chelsea lost 2-1 to Boro last night.

Robin van Persie talks about he’s changed and how he wants to do more for the team this season in a pretty decent interview in the Sun. I loved this line:

I can understand that folk say I’m arrogant. I saw myself walking on the TV not so long ago and I thought to myself ‘That’s an unpleasant posture – can’t I change the way I walk?’

Brilliant.

Right, finally thanks a lot to Goalhanger for the Dennis Bergkamp t-shirts and the Highbury periodic table posters. The RNG did it’s thing and the four winners of the t-shirts are Carrie C, Valerie G, Tom Brooks and Stanley Howie. The 2 posters go to: Richard Whitehouse and Sean Garvan.

Thanks to everyone for entering and thanks to lots of you who left nice messages about the upcoming move. I’m sure you understand I just don’t have time to reply but I really appreciate it. Oh, and one person entered about 50 times – 15 with option a, 15 with option b and 15 with option c. Really covering all angles there. All their entries got deleted.

Ok, that’s it. I’ll be in touch with the competition winners as soon as I can to get addresses and sizes and all that.

Hasta mañana, arsepals.

Shut up and possibly, no definitely, *boilk*

Urgh and possibly *boilk*. No. Definitely *boilk*.

Ow. Sweet holy jumping mother of the sacred heart of the crucified Jesus. Going away parties suck. Well, they suck in that they’re good fun but this morning is a whole other thing. We have to take the animals to the vets, sort out some banking and do other sober activities and frankly, my Arsenal loving chums, I might still be drunk.

We still haven’t sold Ashley Cole, sorry, I mean Cuntley Cunt but Arsene has reiterated his desire to have a settled squad. He also confirmed we’ve made a bid for William Gallas but we may have AC Milan to compete with.

Tonight we play some Croatians. We’re 3-0 up from the first leg so anything less than a result which puts us through will be a total disaster.

The boss has also revealed his worry over fixtures, how Theo is going to be fabulous, how José is going nowhere and something something something.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Now, I must put animals in boxes, drink coffee and go to the bank. I love doing stuff. Mrs Blogs, Blogette and the Blognimals are leaving tomorrow. Argh.

Oooooooh, did I mention *boillk*. I’m so twisted I can hardly even spell *boilk*.

Till next time.

3 days and counting

Busy busy busy, so I’ll try and keep this brief.

The main story this morning is that Chelsea have offered us William Gallas as a straight swap for Ashley Cole. If that is true then they can go fuck themselves. Firstly, we don’t need Gallas and secondly there’s a rather large difference in price between a 25 year old with two years left on his contract and a 29 year old in the last year of his.

I really wish they’d sort this thing out once and for all because it’s unseemly and distracting especially when we have a game to concentrate on this week. When you consider that a lot of the delay is down to Cole himself it’s even more galling. Just piss off, Ashley.
As I told you the other day José Antonio Reyes agent went to have more talks with Real Madrid and he’s quoted in today’s Sun:

If all goes well, Reyes will move. Since he was 12 he always wanted to play for Real. But there’s never been an agreement. It was a love that stayed undeclared.

Maybe because José only learned to speak when he was 17. Fuck me, what a load of melodramatic bollocks. Marca is reporting that according to the Guardian that AW is looking at Jonathan Woodgate to bolster our defence. Insane. The bloke has never played more than 7 consecutive games in his entire career and all he’d do is keep Gary Lewin too busy to look after Emmanuel Eboue next time he pretends to be injured during a game.

This, I have to say, has been possibly the most unhappy summer transfer window I can remember.

In other news Theo Walcott talks about how he felt at home the moment he touched the ball in his fine debut, Jens Lehmann wants to go one better in Europe this season. Tomas Rosicky talks about his fitness and how well he’s settling it at Arsenal and Freddie Ljungberg talks about how proud he is to be Swedish captain.

Finally, to Robert Pires who, like Edu last season, left Arsenal for a Valencia based club and has torn his cruciate ligaments meaning he’ll miss most of the season. A real shame, get well soon Bobby.

Finally, finally, it’s about time we had a competition. My chums at Goalhanger have given me 4 of these brilliant Dennis Bergkamp t-shirts and 2 A1 sized posters of the Highbury periodic table.

All you have to do is answer the following question: Arsenal fans went walking along and singing a song in a Bergkamp:

a) Underpants

b) Wonderland

c) Panzer tank

Answers to bergkamp@arseblog.com. Winners will be announced on Thursday.

Ok, more packing. Hurrah.