january 25th
Well we’re back and in one piece after a rather fun weekend in London. There were beers and wine and pizza and table football and caiparinhas and Nazi taxi Chelsea fan taxi drivers on Saturday night, while Sunday was the match – what a good performance that was, without Shay Given Newcastle would have been doomed – then a big meet up with a load of Arsebloggerers in The World’s End on Sunday.
That too was most amusing – apart from the cunt who stole my mate Chris’ jacket which had his phone in it so if you see someone walking around with big grey jacket that doesn’t look like its theirs please kick their face in and steal it back – and it was great to meet the people who have been reading the site all this time. London is a really weird place though. Here in Barcelona we don’t go out until around 10pm, in London they’re getting ready to kick us out of the bars then. It was very strange to be in one of the biggest cities in the world and not be able to get a drink after 11pm. We actually ended up in a bowling alley drinking pints, playing bowling and taking advantage of some slack security to increase the bowling ball collection of one of our group by one. All very surreal but great fun. Thanks to all of you who were there and we’ll have to do it again soon.
Funniest football moment of the weekend was watching the warm-up and our subs were in a circle playing keepy-up. At one point van Persie flicked the ball through his legs to Fabregas who controlled and knocked it to Eboue who took it on his knee and clipped it to Cygan with the back of his foot. Pascal’s first touch wasn’t quite right and then he just booted the ball about 100 feet in the air, stood waiting for it to come down so he could control it then missed it altogether. Classic.
So back to the Arsenal stuff and there’s been loads happening. I’ll do my best to condense it. We’ll start with our old chum Jermaine Pennant who looked to be on the right track after previous indiscretions but after reports in yesterday’s papers that he was involved in another drink driving incident, despite his licence being suspended, he’s been farmed out on loan to Birmingham and I’d imagine that’s the last we’ve seen of him as an Arsenal player. AW gave him a second chance and he’s thrown that right back in his face. Obviously he’s a boy with a lot of talent but not much between those big ears of his. Too much too young maybe but he’s never fulfilled his potential here and maybe he needs to be at a club more suited to his level. The car Pennant was driving was not Ashley Cole’s despite some media reports saying it was.
Arsenal are set to appeal after the FA found them guilty of working with an unlicensed agent during the transfer of Quincy MD. The club was fined £10,000 and given a two year ban (suspended) from any transfer activity. A statement from the club said “The incident was at worst a technical misdemeanour of administration and the club is contemplating an appeal, as it feels the penalty is disproportionate to any offence which may have been committed. Arsenal is fully aware of its obligations under the FIFA Players Agents Regulations and indeed has been at the forefront of strengthening the rules regarding agents.”
Edu has revealed he wants to leave Arsenal as soon as possible with Spain his most likely destination. Well, there’s a shocker. It is a bit of a shame though, I think he’s a quality player and whoever signs him is going to get his best years. Good luck to him. Meanwhile Manuel Almunia has revealed that he and Jens Lehmann don’t get on at all and has accused the German of not being supportive of him during his spell as number one. Watching them warm up together yesterday it’s pretty obvious there’s not much of a spark between them but this kind of petty squabbling in public doesn’t do either of them any favours. I say we sell them both and buy somebody good. Problem solved. Dennis Bergkamp wants a new deal and Thierry Henry wants Dennis to get a new deal.
And that’s about it. I think it’ll be a quiet week to recharge the batteries. How are you lot then?
