Well, top o’ the mornin’ to ya. Arseblog is in Dublin. I’m sitting here in a strange house with a cup of coffee and I’m really feeling the difference in temperature between here and Barcelona. It is very green though.
I’ll have to change the name of the site now too. Arseblog – “tis feckin’ excellent, so it is, ya big bollix”. Oh, it runs off the tongue so well.
So there are two working days of the transfer window left and nothing has happened yet. That Arsene is such a big tease.
The Sun reports our move for Carlos Tevez gets closer but at the same time says Javier Mascherano could move to Manchester United. I could live, I suppose, with us not signing Mascherano but not if he moved to United. I’d really have to question why, when every man and his dog reckons he’s exactly the kind of player we need, that AW would sign a forward instead and let his player seriously strengthen one of our main rivals.
The Sun also says Ashley Cole will stay because Chelsea would not let Arsenal have William Gallas. However, the Mirror reports that David Dein turned down a £21m cash offer from Chelsea and if that’s true then David Dein is a fucking fool. It would be a world record price for a left-back, Cole has wanted out of Arsenal for a long time now, the Arsenal fans have wanted Cole out of Arsenal for nearly as long and to reject that kind of money is just nonsense.
In the past I might have thought Dein was too savvy for that kind of thing but nowadays you get the feeling he’s trying to uphold a personal reputation as a wheeler-dealer ahead of doing the best thing for the club. If Cole stays, as looks likely, he is certainly going to be the most unpopular Arsenal player that I can ever remember.
To quote Peter Hill-Wood:
I hope his attitude is right. If he is going to be miserable and sour, there is no point. Hopefully, he will get his head right.
Exactly. And if he’s bitter at how he’s been treated or that a good offer for him has been turned down then his head is never going to be right.
Atletico Madrid have increased their offer for José Antonio Reyes to €20m according to reports. That should be enough to get him on his way. If our squad is going to be as small as we all fear it is the last thing we need is two players who just don’t want to be part of it and I’m not the only one who thinks that.
Anyway, I can only hope that coming back here brings us the luck of the Irish and Arsene gets his chequebook out between today and tomorrow. If not I have to say I’m going to start to feel uneasy about the season ahead.
