july 29th
Well, after the deafening silence from the captain, it’s nice to hear one of our other midfielder’s who’s been linked with a move away from the club come out and say his piece. Edu and Barcelona have been mentioned together in recent weeks, but our smiley Brazilian is happy at Arsenal and wants to stay. On his own official website he says “A lot of people know that my contract with Arsenal ends in January 2005, so some offers are arriving and more will arrive. But I want to confirm that I’m happy at Arsenal, nicely settled-in, they’re a great club and my thoughts are on staying.”
Which is good to hear and let’s hope the club sort him with the contract he deserves. He also mentions that he won’t be back at the club until August 15th as Arsene Wenger wants him to get a good rest after his Copa American exploits, in which he single-handedly won the tournament for his country.
The boss spoke last night about Patrick Vieira after our 2-0 win over Sturm Graz (goals from Reyes and Jeffers). He’s a very canny man is our manager, his comments put some amount of pressure on Vieira who now knows that if he decides to leave he’s going to make his manager, someone he respects hugely, look a bit foolish. AW said “I am confident he will stay at Arsenal. I have repeated that before many times. I cannot do much more.”
David Seaman is widely being reported as saying he doesn’t think Vieira will leave, but amongst the article are a couple of quotes which haven’t been picked up. Spunky says “Maybe after eight years he thinks it’s time for a new challenge. Patrick’s a big influence on the team, maybe not as big as he likes to think, but he is an important member of the Arsenal team.”
Vieira’s agent yesterday denied that personal terms had been agreed with Madrid. Well, what else could he say? Madrid too took a step back for fear of making their tapping too obvious. As it stands we’re still none the wiser to the intentions of our captain and the whole thing drags on and on like some kind of Tom Hanks movie.
Once again there’s not much else happening. As tedious and irritating as this Vieira thing has been, at least it’s helped fill the column inches.
