A quickie this morning, which is always quite nice you have to say, as I have to go see a man about a dog who plays golf. Funny how the Christmas period screws up your brain. I really thought it was Wednesday today. Shame that never happens in a normal working week, eh?
We have Sheffield United tomorrow and the team news and all that guff will emerge later in the day as the press conference takes place. This time there has to be rotation because of injuries and tiredness and stuff. The most obvious change should be Julio Baptista in for the injured Adebayor but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Flamini come in for Cesc who could do with a day off to recharge his batteries.
And Cesc has been speaking about our European campaign. Having come so close last time around he’s determined to go one better this season, saying:
If we want to win the Champions League, then we have to touch the greatness we did last season. We know we can do that, because we showed it against Real Madrid, Juventus, Villarreal and then Barcelona. As a player, I do not believe in looking back and regretting things. I only do that when I feel I have failed and that I need to learn from the reasons for that failure.
Jens Lehmann has laughed off reports that he’ll quit after Euro 2008. The Germanian says:
Hahahahahahahaha. I laugh off such reports.
Seriously though, he says he’ll retire from the national side but still feels he can maintain his current level and will be looking to play on at club level for a while yet. Much as I like Jens I think this season really should be his last with us. I fear a Seamanism, if that doesn’t sound too rude.
Emmanuel Adebayor has been named Togo’s foreign-based player of the year for the second year running. Can’t imagine the competition is too high, in fairness, but well done to him all the same. Gunnerblog has a nice series of extracts from his interview with arsenal.con.
Meanwhile Anthony Stokes is waiting to see what’s going to happen to him. His loan spell runs out tomorrow and that could be his last game for Falkirk where he’s banged in 11 goals so far this season. Unless the boss has plans to use him at Arsenal, which I doubt at this stage, he should probably stay until the end of the season.
And there’s not much else happening. Expect a weekend of transfer speculation as the window is set to open early next week but it does seem likely that the only movement will be players going out of the club. Jeremie Aliadiere seems to be first to leave and that should be confirmed soon enough.
Right, off to see the man. Laters.
