Good morning to you all. Another working week almost done. Unless you happen to be working on Saturday or Sunday in which case the fact that it’s Friday makes not the slightest bit of difference to you.
Let’s start with the football and after some early reports which suggested William Gallas was suffering from the same ‘How long is he going to be out for’ injury as last season the boss revealed he’ll be back in full training this week. He’s not being considered for the Sunderland game but it’s better news. The other injured souls, Rosicky, Lehmann and Alex Song, are all close to returning as well.
The Sunderland game on Sunday, at a stupid 12noon kick off time, may see the manager tempted to rotate his squad a little bit, particularly in midfield. The options he has must be the envy of other clubs – especially Man United who know have their two main central midfielders out for the next 4-6 weeks. Wenger can choose to bring back Gilberto, let Diarra play, give more time to Denilson or Diaby, or stick with the Cesc – Flamini partnership which has performed so well. It’ll be interesting to see what he does.
Speaking to Setanta Sports Carlos Vela, on loan at Osasuna and likely to get more playing time because of injuries in their squad, says he’s learning English and wants to emulate Cesc Fabregas. The young Mexican has got a good chance to show what he’s made of playing in La Liga and he’ll be looking to make the kind of impact his countryman Giovanni two Saints has made at Barcelona.
Theo Walcott reveals the squad this season have been enjoying meals together and going out with their wives and girlfriends. Probably to swinging parties. Oh yeah. Interesting that he said this did not happen last season.
Arsenal yesterday confirmed the meeting with Stan Kroenke and further comments from the Chairman, MC P to the HW, suggested the meeting was warm and constructive. Having signalled his intent to the board to remain as a long-term investor in the club the Chairman was hopeful he would become part of the lockdown agreement currently undertaken by board members. He said:
I think it would be rather nice if he would join the lockdown. It’s obviously up to him, but we would certainly welcome it. He knows perfectly well what we are up to with the lockdown and I don’t think he disapproves of it. We have been comforted by that. We don’t want to be taken over.
Cautious words, really, but I suppose things are a bit delicate. As mentioned previously if Kroenke sides with the board (as The Sun seem to think he has or will) and joins in the lockdown then Fat & Orange are screwed. I did like Usmanov’s attempt to be nice to Kroenke by saying he likes one of his ice-hockey sides. ‘They are a good team’, he said in that way when the mother of a 17 year old with a band that practices in the garage says of her son’s song ‘It’s got a good beat’.
Interesting stuff though. Also interesting is the news that Sepp Blatter wants to take on the European Union and restrict the number of foreigners each team can have. Frankly, I don’t think that’s a fight he can win and I hope it destroys him because it is the most ridiculous idea. That a team is forced to play players simply because of their nationality is completely wrong and for me, like the idea of giving the 4th Champions League place to the cup winners, it is designed simply to lower the quality of club football, thus making the increasingly shoddy international game appear better than it actually is.
He can shove it directly up his hole. Now, onto this week’s Arsecast.
In this Arsecast I talk to Yogi’s Warrior from A Cultured Left Foot about where the hell he got that name from, the board room stuff and the football stuff. As well as that the Man in the Bar has a player history and there are a few other bits and pieces in there too.
Remember, the Arsecast is sponsored by OleOle.com, which now has introduced a video upload feature. So, like YouTube you can create and upload videos, search through other people’s, and best of all the videos are all about football so you’re not bogged down with a load of crap when trying to find something to watch. Check it out.
To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (15mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode47.mp3]And there you go.
