May 28th
Welcome to Saturday – the day of the week with the most ‘aturday’ in it. A quick round-up of what’s going on for you before I start running around the house packing my bags and getting ready for my votage half-way a little bit across the world Europe.
Arsenal released 5 players yesterday. Frankie Simek, Jordan Fowler, Danny Karbatteryoon, Olafur-Ingu Skulason and Adam Birchall were not given new contracts when their current ones expired. Best of luck to all of them wherever they end up. Sol Campbell reveals how hurt and frustrated he was when Arsene Wenger told him the night before the cup final that he was going to be on the bench. Speaking on England’s tour of America he said “We had a few words.” It’s good that he was hurt, it shows he wants to play, and sometimes big players need something to keep up their motivation and desire later in their careers. When you’ve got real competition for places, as Sol does for his with Philppe Senderos, then it helps keep performances up. And speaking of Senderos – he’ll be rewarded for his outstanding performances in the latter part of the season with a new deal. Arsene Wenger said “Philippe has been magnificent. We will talk about a new contract when we report back in July. Hopefully, it will be sorted out before the start of the season.”
Can’t argue with that, really. Liverpool are after long-time target, and someone who is still on the list, Shaun Wright-Phillips. That’s us and Chelsea in the fight now and even though the player himself says he wants to stay at Man City given their financial situation a big bid would probably be too hard to refuse. Whether or not the price gets too high for us remains to be seen. The Sun links us with a £10m bid for Newcastle’s Jermaine Jenas. I hope not. Tony Adams could join the coaching staff at Feynoord.
Finally, congratulations to long time arser and possesser of Popeye style forearms, Boghog, for claiming the landmark 250,000th arse. That’s a lot of arses, you slackers. And that’s it. We’ve got an evening kick-off in our match later. That’s some type of football, at least. You’re all invited to watch, the address is 301, Barcelona.
