july 1st
10.29 – Welcome to a brand new month on Arseblog. The first 6 months of 2003 have just flown by. I can’t believe it’s July already.
This is going to be a month of more transfer news and speculation than you ever thought possible. AW returns from his holidays, he’ll have Danger Dein’s cheque book out and he’s going to shop like a shopatron (that’s a shopping robot that hasn’t been invented yet, but trust me, it shops a lot.)
It looks like he’s going to start with a new goalkeeper. Colombian Oscar Cordoba has impressed during the Confederations Cup and at 33 he’s got the experience to fill DS1’s shoes whilst giving Stuart Taylor a chance to progress further. I don’t know too much about him, but according to reports from regular forumers and influential London crime family members, he’s just what we need. Who am I to argue?
His situation isn’t straightforward though. He’s on loan at Besiktas from some Colombian club and although the Turkish side want to buy him and claim to have first option, Arsenal are set to gazump them and sign Cordoba who has apparently told friends he’s agreeed a 2 year deal.
The search for a centre-half will continue though, as long term target William Gallas prepares to talk to Barcelona while Jaap Stam says he’s staying in Italy.
Sylvain Wiltord wants to stay at Arsenal, but he wants a longer contract than the 2 years he’s been offered. He’s already got a year left, another 2 makes it 3, and under the circumstances, that seems like a fair offer to me. Inter Milan head pasta maker Massimo Moretti has said the two players they want are Freddie Ljungberg and Ryan Giggs. “Regarding Ljungberg and Giggs, they are quality players but they are both under contract with their respective teams. We will obviously have to talk to the respective clubs before going any further.”
Freddie’s agent played down talk of a move saying “He (Arsene Wenger) will not let Freddie leave.”
Thierry Henry on his plans for the next couple of weeks “I will go away now and sleep, sleep, sleep.” He deserves it.
So, expect things to happen this week. Harry Kewell will make a decision one way or the other sometime by the end of the week/month/year/decade. His agent deserves some credit for making this the most tedious transfer story of the summer. At least Beckham was done and dusted with 10 days or so. Speaking of which, El Beckham has his medical live on TV today. I can’t wait for the ‘cup and cough’ bit.
*cough*
Also, as it’s a new month and we’ve just done a record 420,000 page views for last month – check out the benefits of becoming an Arseblog member.
*cough*
