June 28th
So after a plethora of quiet, dull days yesterday exploded into action with all kinds of stuff going on.
We made our first signing of the season and it wasn’t a huge surprise when Alecksander Hleb joined in a deal from Stuttgart which could, all things in, cost us around €15m. The manager was very happy with his new player, saying “He is a player I have admired for some time now and I know he will provide our squad with great quality,” while the player himself said “I am very happy to have this fantastic opportunity to join Arsenal. They are a Club with a great history and many world class players.”
Like most people I don’t know too much about him but if the boss is happy, I’m happy and it’s nice to have some good news after what has been a pretty difficult summer so far. Signing players is good news, you know. And we’ll be signing other players too. That’s also good. In other good news Robin van Persie has been released from jail in Holland and is free to travel to England to join up with the club for pre-season training. The Dutch police are stressing that he’s still a suspect and we really have any new information about the case but you’d have to think, and hope, that this is a step in the right direction.
More transfer news came when goalkeeper Stuart Taylor was sold to Aston Villa in a £1m deal. He was never able to maintain a level of fitness to sustain a challenge for a regular spot and there were, for many, doubts about his ability at the very top level. It does raise the question about whether or not a goalkeeper is on the boss’s list. I don’t think it would be a huge surprise if we signed a keeper. After signing a new deal just a couple of days ago Jeremie Aliadiere looks to be heading to Celtic for the season. Hopefully he can stay fit and get a whole campaign under his belt. Good luck to him up there.
Still no ADSL and I appear to have caught a cold in the middle of summer and it took me ages to get to sleep last night and I thought the alarm clock was a fire engine siren in my dream and that they were trying to put out a fire on my feet which threatened the lives of all the tiny people who lived between my toes. Most odd.
