Morning all. It’s Friday and I really should have waited to inflict the hangover till tomorrow but what can you do?
Let’s start with José Antonio Reyes. He’s been speaking to Marca about the possible move to Madrid and and this is what he says:
I don’t know anything but the days pass and I can’t deny I’m a little nervous about the rumours. The truth is that I know the people [Arsenal fans] love me and that the fans are with me but I can’t adapt to this life. I miss Spain and I have a unique opportunity to go back thanks to Madrid’s offer.
Everyone must understand that I can’t let this opportunity pass me by. Madrid is unique.
Then about playing in the Champions League game against Zagreb he says:
The manager hasn’t said anything and I don’t know if I’m going to play or not. I hope not or that the situation is sorted beforehand. It’s clear that if I play in the Champions League signing for Madrid will be much more complicated. But I have to play, I’ll play.
What can you say? Obviously he’s unhappy in England and has been for some time. Is it worth keeping a player who so badly wants to be somewhere else and at this stage no hastily published denials on arsenal.con are going to paper over the very obvious cracks.
The main problem is how close it is to the start of the season and that his versatility is important in our squad right now because we’re quite threadbare. However, he’s got a contract until 2010 so it will have to be a healthy offer for us to sell.
If the manager used the money from his sale to replace him with quality I wouldn’t have any problem with him going. Like I’ve said previously I really like José but he’s just never going to settle in England and we have to face that fact. What worries me is the possibility that we’ll sell him and replace him with a 16 year old Ugandan who played in the French 3rd division.
If Reyes goes and if Cole goes then the manager simply must get his chequebook out and replace those players with real quality. If he doesn’t I really worry for us in the upcoming season. You’d have to think a fee for Reyes would be somewhere around £15m and Cole something similar. With the money he already has to spend and this great lump there’s no excuse not to go shopping, least of which is we’ll desperately need to strengthen our squad.
Speaking of Cole former Arsenal player Frank Staplegun reckons we should sell Cole as soon as we can and for as much money as we can. Thanks for that remarkable bit of insight, Frank.
Today we actually do play AX Alacazam and I really am interested to hear what Arsene has to say about Reyes, Cole and anyone else. You can see the game from 7pm CET on Eurosport.
Let’s wait and see.
