Morning all, hope this finds you all hale and hearty.
Alexander Hleb is leaving Arsenal. There’s a shocker, eh? It’s been on the cards for the last couple of weeks and his agent officially confirmed it last night, saying:
I can officially confirm that a short time ago Alexander decided that he will leave Arsenal and join another club. Of course Arsenal and Arsene wanted him to stay but they have accepted the player’s choice.
A short time ago! Hahaha. Hleb had his head turned in Milan over a Cornetto, don’t fucking insult our intelligence by saying he’s only recently come to this decision.
Alex has spent three good seasons at Arsenal and he wasn’t sure he could maintain the same level that he has been showing if he stayed. It’s also true that he felt uncomfortable off the field.
The implication of the first part of that sentence is quite wonderful, isn’t it? He’s basically saying that if Arsenal forced him to stay, which they could do by refusing any offers, he may not perform to the same ‘high’ standards he has in the past. He’d deliberately play poorly. What a cunty thing to say and while I know people will say this is just his agent speaking, ultimately Hleb is responsible for what his agent says about him and his Arsenal career.
So Hleb’s instructions to his agent have been to find him a new club and to make threats of poor performance to Arsenal if he wasn’t allowed to leave. Classy, really fucking classy. And what was he going to do anyway? Score less goals? Shoot less often? Slap more players in the face to get a deliberate three match ban?
It’s a shame that Hleb never worked out. He was technically as good a player as I’ve seen in a long time. His close control and dribbling skills were fantastic but he flattered to deceive since his arrival. His failure to score more goals is a big negative and I don’t care what anyone says about him being a provider or the provider for the provider – when you play as a winger/support striker in this Arsenal team a return of 11 goals in all competitions in three seasons is just not good enough. To be honest I think that for all his skill Hleb is probably one of the easiest players in the squad to replace, his departure shouldn’t set alarm bells ringing by any means.
It looks like Samir Nasri is the one who will replace him, I suspect the deal is done and we’re now just awaiting official confirmation. We might be losing some experience, Nasri is only 20 years of age, but I would be very surprised if he didn’t offer us more than Hleb.
As for the Belarussian, well, he is now irrelevant. I don’t care where he goes and I don’t care what happens to him when he gets there. I just hope we get a big chunk of what we paid for him back in a transfer fee.
Carlos Vela says he can’t wait to get his Arsenal career started, calling his move a ‘dream come true’. Hopefully we’ve fully briefed him about London being a big place where it rains more often than in Guadalajara.
Arsene Wenger says Lassana Diarra panicked and left Arsenal too soon. I think it’s fairly obvious that Diarra has no character to speak of, no willingness to fight for a place at a big club. When you have a player who demands to leave after just four months, who lies about what he was promised, then you have a player who lacks backbone and that’s a player you’re better off without in the long run.
Torric Jibril is a Ghanaian wonderkid, apparently. He’s signing for us, apparently. His agent is called ‘Prince Omar Ibrahim’. Awesome.
That’s about that for this morning. I’m off to have a consoling breakfast roll while I weep those salty tears of sadness about Hleb’s departure.
Till tomorrow.
