So yesterday’s West Ham capitulation means the league is no longer the slimmest of possibilities. It was always just a pipe dream anyway. A crack pipe dream.
Wigan’s win over Aston Villa could have a bearing on today’s game as well. Villa were battling with Everton for the final UEFA Cup place and now the blue scousers have a 3 point gap so it’s not as crucial for them to get a result today. A draw would cement their place in Europe next season though so I expect them to be a bit ‘behind the ball’ today.
You wonder with nothing left to play for now whether the boss will bring in a few youngsters for the last couple of games. We’ll wait and see what happens there. Right, a quick Sunday round-up.
Reports in Italy suggest that Mathieu Flamini has signed a 4 year deal with AC Milan. Of course we’ll wait for official confirmation on that but you wouldn’t put much money on him staying now. He’s been a great player for us this season and I think we’ll miss him but it’ll be interesting to see how the boss replaces him. There’s no other player at the club with similar qualities so a transfer move is on the cards. And while I wish Flamini well at his new club (except when he plays us) there’s just a little part of me that hopes Inter cream AC in the Milan derby today and the Flamster finds himself playing Everton in next season’s UEFA Cup. Petty, I know, but still!
The Times runs a piece about the search for the new Managing Director. There are some interesting names in there. Birmingham’s Karren Brady, Premier League Chief Exec Richard Scudamore (booooooo!) and even Michael Grade, ITV and former Channel4 boss. I think this is something the club will want to sort out sooner rather than later with what looks like a busy summer ahead of us.
Theo Walcott talks to the Sunday Mirror and says he wants to start more games while the Observer reports that Bacary Sagna is to be offered a new deal.
The Daily Mail has a report, based in figures from the AST, about our transfer budget this summer. They reckon the manager has around £25m to spend but some of that money is/was earmarked for the renewal of Flamini’s contract and a new deal for Hleb. With Flamini on his way we need to prioritise and frankly giving Hleb more money seems foolish to me. The AST are meeting with Arsene and Ken Friar in the week ahead and hopefully we’ll get some info from them to pass on to you here on the blog or the Arsecast.
The manager talks about his transfer policy and in the cold light of day the fact is the team has made an improvement this season. As we go into the final home game of the season that’s not something that should be overlooked.
Hopefully the lads can respond and put on a good show today. The fans deserve it, the players deserve it and everyone who has worked so hard this season deserves it. Wasn’t it a final home game of the season some years ago when we stuck 6 or 7 past Everton? Same again please.
Right, that’ll do. See some of you later for a pint, talk to the rest of you tomorrow.
