Lots going on this morning as the players drift away.
Most of the talk this morning is about Emmanuel Adebayor and the ‘I’d love to play for Barcelona’ stories. Now, I’ve read the interview as it appeared in El Mundo and some of the stuff he says could certainly be interpreted badly but I suspect it has been well and truly doctored.
I’m not 100% confident that the questions haven’t been made fit the answers, if you get my meaning. It is El Mundo, after all, and we know how the clubs like Barcelona use the papers to unsettle players. Now, I think Ade could probably have been a little more circumspect but to me he seems like a very open guy who loves to talk and I think he got taken advantage of a little bit. The bottom line is that when the story appeared in the Spanish press an article was posted on Arsenal.com with the following quote from the player:
I don’t know why people want to put words in my mouth. As I said on Friday, I love Arsenal and I will be here next season. I am off to Togo tomorrow but will return to Arsenal for pre-season training in July.
And to be fair to Adebayor this isn’t the first time he has well and truly shot down speculation surrounding his Arsenal future. It’s easy to do it if you want to. We’ll see him in July and that’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned. It won’t be the end of the shit stirring from the Spanish press, of course, those rancid horse fisters will be at it all summer, but we’re used it by now, aren’t we?
Tomas Rosicky is confident he can be fit for next season after his knee was made bionic. He’s got two titanium anchors keeping his ligament secure so fingers crossed that will do the trick.
Lassana Diarra is still mouthing about his move from Arsenal, the little dolphin headed cunt. He says he wasn’t treated well enough – I say he was a fucking pussy who gave up at the thought of a little competition. He says he hopes he ends up with more silverware than Arsenal did this season. I say ‘COME ON CARDIFF!’.
You know silly season is well and truly upon us when we get linked with a £20m move for Argentine Mauro Zarate. He played for Birmingham this season, on loan from some Qatar club, and scored a couple of very nice goals but £20m is just ridiculous. I’ll give them £186.98p and I will say ‘That is my final offer’ and when they try and speak I will go ‘Shhhhh, final offer’ and then when they try and speak again I will go ‘Shhhhhh’ again because that’s really fucking annoying but they’d deserve it for trying to get me to pay £20m.
Jens talks about his time at Arsenal, the last season in particular, and has some words for Manuel Almunia. No, not those kinds of words. Jens says:
I told him he should never take anything personally and that somehow he will realise he will benefit from that competition between me and him because it made him better. That is basically what I told him and we’re OK now. From my point of view, it’s over. If I see him next season somewhere, I can always come to him and shake his hand and wish him all the best. I respect him. You will have to ask him what he thinks.
There probably is a good deal of truth to that. Knowing someone is breathing down your neck all the time does keep you on your toes. Let’s hope Fabianski can do that next season. In fact, the young Pole said he learned a lot from Jens – I expect the first ‘Almunia is shit, I should be playing’ stories to hit the wires by the end of August.
Newcastle have apparently told us Obafemi Martins is not for sale. We’ve been linked with the 43 year old for some time now but I can’t really see that we need him.
A new name has cropped up in the search for Arsenal’s new MD. Fulham’s David McInally is linked with the job. I don’t know the first thing about him. Except his name. I know his name.
And that’s about the size of it. I’m trying to sort something out for tomorrow’s Arsecast whereby you can call in but the number isn’t working just at the moment. I’ll update here when I have it sorted and give you some info about what I’m looking for.
Update: Ok, there’s a telephone number you can call – I’m looking for your best moment from last season (it can be a goal, a result, a trip, seeing someone fall and hit their face on something) and your worst moment. Just leave a voicemail, try and keep them as brief as possible, save me the editing!
The number to dial is 020 7193 6971 from inside the UK and +44 20 7193 6971 from outside. I’ll leave lines open until I get too many to deal with.
Line is currently: CLOSED – Thanks.
Until tomorrow.
