You know, when I wrote this the other day I was being slightly, only slightly, tongue in cheek.
It hasn’t taken David Dein long to talk about Arsene’s new contract, saying:
When I left his future was very much in the balance. He said to me at the time that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay on. We had a chat and I thought it was important that he should stay on for the future of the club.
Now, I know Arsene and the Orangeman are friends but I wonder how Arsene feels about being brought into every discussion Dein has at the moment. He joins up with Usmanov and he’s mouthing about how he told Arsene to sign a new deal. Now Arsene signs and he’s talking about how he was going to leave.
If we examine what Dein says – and cast aside any doubts we might have about how true it is – we can look at it like this.
David Dein is at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger says he is unsure about staying. David Dein is fired from Arsenal. Arsene Wenger then discusses a new deal with the current board and decides to stay. To recap – Dein at Arsenal, Arsene unsure. Dein gone, Arsene signs.
Hmmmm. Perhaps that’s not quite what Dein was trying to get across there. Whatever he is trying though I think most fans can see through it for the bandwagon jumping it is. To insinuate that Arsene’s future at Arsenal has anything to do with him smacks of arrogance and frankly it seems a bit like he’s using his friendship with the manager to further his own agenda. I’m not sure it’s worked this time though. We all know Arsene is an intelligent man and stayed for his own reasons and, more importantly, made his own mind up. To me it’s disrespectful and cheap to suggest otherwise.
Keith Edelman explains the ‘Emirates effect’ and why Arsenal don’t need ‘investment’ from billionaires, oligarchs or anyone else. And here’s what’s going on at United (thanks rainman).
There were internationals last night and some of our lads were on the score sheet. Eduardo put two past Estonia while Tomas Rosicky scored for the Czech Republic. Jens Lehmann played the full 90 for Germany and while the German coach is backing him to win his place back, Jens is making none too complimentary remarks about Manuel Almunia.
Now, I don’t have any problem with anyone being self-confident but there’s no need to slag off your teammates. Let’s face it, Almunia isn’t the one who made two quite pathetic mistakes this season, is he? He might be fit again but I don’t expect him to go back into the team for the Sp*rs game.
Reports suggest that Arsene Wenger, along with Mourinho, are supportive of Michel Platini’s plan to change the CL format. What he wants to do is give one of the places to the winner of the domestic cup competition. I’m surprised that Arsene is in favour, I have to say. To me it devalues the competition and I’d question Platini’s motives. It seems like it’s designed to lower the quality of the Champions League and thusly make international football, which is now far behind the top club football, more interesting. Any team can have a good cup run due to some lucky results and a handy draw, whereas 38 games of a league season dictates the 4 best teams in the country. I wonder if Arsene really is in favour. We’ve finished 4th the last two seasons, with Platini’s new plan there’d be no Champions League football. I call shennanigans on this one.
Right, that’s your lot. Until tomorrow.
