Ashley Cole’s move to Chelsea could be completed in the next 24 hours according to the Guardian (although The Sun claim there’s an issue over a £1m bonus which sums up this whole mess nicely). Roman Abramovich will dig under his matress a bit more and cough up some extra cash bringing the fee close to £20m which is more than acceptable in my view. They also report that Cole was not part of the official team photograph taken yesterday although José Antonio Reyes was.
Thierry Henry has spoken about how he’s tried to convince Cole to stay but the Captain is intelligent enough to know that Cole and Barnett have made it impossible for him to stay at Arsenal. With everything that’s gone on and the book on the way Cole ran the very real risk of being barracked by Arsenal fans whilst wearing the shirt. He’s wanted out for a long time now. Remember him on the front of the News of the World with the headline, “I wouldn’t stay for £200,000 a week”? I do. Thierry trying to convince him to stay is like pissing in the wind.
As I’ve said all along it’s very sad what’s happened. A good young Arsenal player has had his head turned by money. He’s had his bridges burnt by a man who is supposed to do the best for him and his career and he’s been convinced by people more intelligent and conniving than him that it was Arsenal’s fault. If he had half of Cesc’s brains he’d realise that Barnett might have made him a bit more money by ensuring he moves to Chelsea but he’s left behind a place where he could have been a true legend, an Arsenal boy through and through. Maybe he’ll realise next season when he lines up at Ashburton Grove and hears the reception he’ll get from our fans.
There’s no movement on the José Antonio Reyes front. The only story I can find is in Marca and they quote Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon as saying:
The problem is with them [Arsenal] because Reyes does not want to continue in London
Er, the problem is yours, cunto, because no matter what Reyes wants he’s got a contract until 2010 and you’re the ones that want to buy him. I’d say negotiations are complex because of the deal we did with Sevilla and the various bits and bobs that went with it. There’s some talk of them being owed money if we sell him to another Spanish club so I would say Arsenal want Madrid to take care of that on top of the transfer fee.
On the other hand though there might be no movement because we don’t to sell. With Franck Ribery now saying he’s going to stay at Marseille that option to replace him is gone so maybe José might just have to stay whether he likes it or not – although this picture strongly suggest that he wouldn’t like it one bit.
Whatever is going to happen with those two I hope it happens, conclusively, soon because the new season is just 8 days away and we need to bring in new faces to replace them and bolster our squad.
You can read more from Thierry Henry about his thoughts for the season ahead here – just skip past the Cole stuff you’ve already read. Lauren says the loss of so many players is “not good news”, the master of understatement there, but that Arsenal will cope.
And that’s that. Till tomorrow, Arsefans.
