February 1st
Well, transfer deadline day was yesterday and there was a bit of Arsenal involvement. Not that we brought anyone in. No last minute suprises despite Arsene Wenger saying he ‘admired‘ Joey Barton who, for some unknown reason, put in a transfer request to Manchester City who had stood by him through more than most clubs would have.
However, we did move a couple of players on. David Bentley, predictably, moved to Blackburn Rovers permanently for an undisclosed fee. Despite a wonderful debut goal for the club he did not much else, had a poor loan spell with Norwich and you’d have to think Blackburn is about his level. No doubt we’ll get some more guff from him about how he was never given a chance at Arsenal as opposed to him never doing enough to warrant a real chance.
Also on the way out was Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who moved to Spartak Moscow, also for an undisclosed fee but some reports put it around the €3m mark which is good business by anybody’s standards. With Adebayor and Walcott signed the other week and Lupoli and Bendtner looking far more likely to make an impact in the first team the stepover kid won’t be missed. I never really understood what people saw in him anyway so there are no tears here let me tell you.
As well as that Jeremie Aliadiere returned from his second unsuccessful loan spell since August and promptly went straight out on loan again to Wolves. Third time lucky perhaps? You’d have to think his long term future is away from Highbury too and I don’t mean the new stadium.
Ahead of tonight’s game against West Ham there was bad news with regards to Lauren who has a knee problem which could keep him out for a month. Without him, as well as Cole, Clichy, Toure, Eboue and Cygan that’s rather a fair chunk of our defensive options. I’d imagine the same back four of Gilbert – Djourou – Campbell – Senderos will start but if any of those should pick up a knock our options are extremely limited, to say the least. Perhaps recalling Justin Hoyte might be on the cards. As well as all the missing defenders we’ll be without suspended Spaniards Reyes and Fabregas. Gilberto, Pires, Henry and Bergkamp are all back in the squad though. A win would move us to within a point of Sp*rs, with a game in hand, after they lost 1-0 to Fulham last night.
With all the focus now on finishing in at least 4th place Arsene Wenger has called on Thierry Henry to show his committment and sign the new deal that has been offered to him. The boss says “I think he knows the best way is to sign first and qualify after. I think that’s the only way you can do it because you need to be committed to qualify. He did not promise me face to face that he would sign, but he told me he wants to stay. For me that is basically the same.”
Certainly knowing the captain was staying for sure would be a big boost and would give a big lift to in the final months of the season. I don’t think he’s going to be rushed by anybody though.
And that’s that. Don’t have time to update the archives this morning, will sort that out later on. Welcome to February.
