november 1st
Welcome to a brand new month on Arseblog. Only 8 weeks till Christmas and only 365 days until this day next year. So what exciting news do we have to bring us into what has been, in the past, a traditionally difficult month for the mighty Arsenal?
Well, the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) dismissed Marseille’s appeal over the Mathieu Flamini transfer. They wanted the deal overturned and for the player to return to them. They also upheld the $480,000 fee that Arsenal paid for the time Marseille spent training him. In a statement yesterday the club said “The decision shows that Arsenal Football Club and Mathieu Flamini have at all times acted appropriately in this matter. Both the club and the player are looking forward to putting this behind them and moving on.”
So all’s well that ends well in that case. Kolo Toure on Robin van Persie – “Robin is a great young player and we will definitely see more from him.”
Hopefully he’ll get a start tomorrow against Sparta Prague.
A question and answer thingy with former captain Frank McLintock (yes, it’s a quiet day and I’m desperate to fill space).
The big non-Arsenal story of the morning is Roy Keane’s interview for United’s own TV channel in which he blasted his team-mates as not good enough to play for Manchester United. He singled out Alan Smith (har, blue lipped twat), Kieron Richardson, Darren Fletcher, John O’Shea and Liam Miller as being way below the standards expected at a big club like United. The boss of MUTV decided it was too inflammatory and pulled it from schedules to be replaced by Gary Neville’s Prank Phone Call hour, or something.
Keane was said be upset after seeing United get battered by Boro at the weekend. Maybe this is his way of motivating his colleagues, can’t see that it would be particularly effective though. And as funny and hilarious as it is to see things like this it’s slightly worrying in that United play Chelsea next and they are one of the only teams who we can realistically expect to take points of the blues. With this latest incident on top of Ferdinand’s dreadful form (substituted 3 minutes from time just so the manager can make a point) and van der Sar now showing he’s actually as dodgy as fuck it doesn’t bode well for Sunday.
And you thought we had it bad?!
Right, holiday here today but I’m off to work because I’m a dedicated professional. *cough*…
