Apologies for the slightly late blog but I have been feeling sick and needed the lie in. I still feel like I have been battered by a bunch of old ladies with rolling pins. Stupid old ladies.
We’ll start this morning with the Chairman who, in an interview with Mihir Bose (Oh, the irony), made it quite clear that the club is not for sale to Alisher Usmanov or anyone else. He says:
The major shareholders have no intention of selling and wouldn’t welcome an offer. But we will have a dialogue with any principal or major shareholder.
So that means they will talk to Usmanov as he’s a major shareholder. He doesn’t see any point in talking to David Dein though as Dein is not a major shareholder having cashed in his chips to the tune of £75m. When asked if he’d be speaking with Dein, he said:
I see no major point in that, I’ve had 25 years of listening to him.
Wonderfully dismissive and an instant classic. It’s like someone who’s been trapped in a hellish marriage and no longer has to listen to their nagging and annoying spouse. His thoughts about the influx of foreign investors are bang on the money too. None of them (Abramovich apart) are sugar daddies willing to just throw money at things without looking for a return on their investment. You only had to read the papers this weekend to see the financial strife the Glaziers are in at United and the stories about the Liverpool owners having to borrow huge amounts (on the club) to bring forward their new stadium etc.
The quick fix, while attractive, is often the worst long term option and I think we should be glad that we have a board who are willing to do things the right way.
Moving away from that we look at Emmanuel Adebayor who looks set to mend his fences with the Togo national team and will probably miss up to six games in January when he goes to the African Cup of Nations.
Meanwhile William Gallas is hopeful of being fit for the weekend’s game against Sp*rs and he says his recovery from injury is ‘going well’.
Apart from that there’s not much going on. There are more internationals this week so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for good results for our boys and no injuries. If you have Sky you can watch some classic Arsenal games on channel 442. At 11pm it’s Kanu v Chelsea from the 99/00 season while at 11.30 you get Arsenal v United from 01/02 and that Thierry Henry goal. Worth checking out. I don’t have Sky though. Gah.
Right, off to lie down again. Laters.
