A fairly slow one this morning with the main story centering around Arsene Wenger and Real Madrid. Shit stirring Real President Ramon Calderon threw AW’s name into conversation saying that they had had talks with him about replacing Fabio Capello (the coach who won them the league and got sacked). Arsenal were very quick to rubbish the story, releasing a statement saying:
It is completely untrue. Arsene Wenger has not had talks with Real Madrid and is committed to Arsenal Football Club.
Now, he might well have been talking to Real Madrid but it was probably about José Antonio Reyes, not the manager’s job. Still, Calderon has to make it look as if he’s tried everything before giving the job to someone else. Honestly, it’s such a poisoned chalice at that club. Vincente del Bosque did great things and won the Champions League the season he was sacked. Capello won the league and got sacked. Just make sure you don’t raise the expecation levels too high, Ramon. As well as that he’s currently under investigation due to the scandal over the postal votes which were not counted when the Presidential election took place last year. A key witness said he saw postal votes being tampered with. That key witness is now on the board of Real Madrid. Classic.
AS report that Reyes is in London trying to sort out his future with Arsenal. Real Madrid and Sevilla are said to be interested and they say Arsenal would accept €10m for him despite looking for €14m not so long ago. Real only want to spend €7m and will do everything in their sneaky, tricky power to lower the price with Calderon giving fresh hope to the player saying he could be an important part of Real’s future. José is in Arsene’s office, going:
“Por Favooooooooooooooooooooooor” and Arsene Wenger is all like “Whatever” and he’s like “Mister, pooooooor favooooooooooorrrrrrrr” and the boss is like “Don’t be up in my grill, bitch”.
Sevilla should have plenty of money to buy him after their sales in recent years, their European exploits and the fact they’ll have Champions League football. We’ll just take Dani Alves as part of the deal. Lovely. Nice doing business with you.
Carlos Tevez and Man United? Well, Tevez would be nice and the idea of him going to United is a bit scary but his ownership situation is complicated to say the least. Reports this morning say that United will pay Kia Jorbachian £6m to ‘loan’ Tevez to them for the season. They then have to pay Tevez £100,000 per week which, for one season, works out at over £10m for a player you don’t own and can’t sell. The Premier League are saying that West Ham must be the ones to receive a transfer fee but I doubt, if the deal goes through, they’ll see a penny of it.
Plus I think we might be in the market for a striker still. It’s just a feeling but I’m wondering if Arsene doesn’t see Eduardo da Silva as more of a replacement for Pires, to provide the goals from midfield we missed so much, while still bringing in a striker like Anelka or Martins. Anyway, thoughts on that in the Arsecast.
In this week’s Arsecast, brought to you by OleOle.com who have great coverage of the Copa America at the moment, you’ll find me waffling, the Man in the Bar with his guff, more from David O’Leary and that’s about it. No blogchat this week so it’s a slightly shorter ‘cast.
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[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode35.mp3]And that’s the end of that chapter. More tomorrow.
