Right then, let’s start with Double-D who, according to reports this morning, has held talks with Stan Kroenke about selling him the 14.6% of Arsenal that he owns. No real surprise there. It’ll be just the conditions of the sale that will make for interesting reading as he’s unlikely to sell without some guarantee of a place in Kroenke’s boardroom and no doubt he’ll be talking up his relationship with Arsene and how all the players love him and that he brings a real glow to the place.
The same article says the Chairman will make a statement to supporters in the programme for the Fulham game, which will be interesting to read. Meanwhile Danny Fiszman has broken his silence to say reports of him having secret meetings with Russian investors are a ‘total lie’. I wonder where that story could possibly have come from then…
Away from that there are some stories to get through. Thierry Henry feels the team lacks concentration and this is the cause of so many lost points while the manager has again said the move to the new stadium meant it took us some time to feel comfortable when playing at home. When he says we drew some games at the Grove we would have won at Highbury it’s hard to argue.
Julio Baptista will not be staying at Arsenal. Both the Sun and the Mirror are reporting that Baptista has been told he’ll be going back to Madrid (where he’ll probably score 50 goals next season) which leaves Jose Antonio Reyes in a bit of a difficult spot. He’s made sure that everyone knows he doesn’t want to return to Arsenal, bad weather you see, so he’ll be up for grabs to anyone who has the requisite funds to spare this summer.
Aston Villa’s Martin Laursen says Nicklas Bendtner can be a good player if he works hard and takes advice from more senior players and Bendtner’s new strike partner Andy Cole has been quick to dish some out. He looks like he’ll be given his chance at Arsenal next season and while he’s done well at Birmingham there’s a feeling he can be a bit lazy and allows games to pass him by when he’s not in the mood. That’ll have to change if he’s really serious about making it at the top level.
Arsene Wenger has backed Demento for the manager of the year award, pointedly ignoring Mourinho and having a nice little dig at Chelsea’s style of play.
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In this week’s show there’s a triple-decker, menage a trois (but with 4) blogchat as I talk, AT THE SAME TIME!!!, to Gunnerblog, East Lower and Goodplaya. As well as that The Man in the Bar is back and sober, Arsene Wenger Hawkins is there and there’s more of the usual waffle.
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[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode25.mp3]That’s that then. More tomorrow.
