Good morning from a grey miserable Dublin. The rain is teeming down and it looks like it’s going to do that all day long.
So I’m loathe to start the day with anything negative. Instead let’s rejoice and sing songs at the news that Gael Clichy has signed a new long term contract with the club. Good news and let’s hope the young man can keep going after a fantastic season last time around. He really was the model of consistency and energy, his defending has improved considerably and if he can now add a bit more of an attacking threat to his game he’s gonna be awesome.
Right, so from positive to tedious negative. The rumours about Adebayor abound. This morning’s El Mundo says Marc Ingla flew to London on a ‘lightning’ visit to discuss both Adebayor and Hleb. They claim that Milan have a copy of a letter signed by Adebayor telling Arsenal that he wants to leave. A transfer request in which he asks to be able to speak to big clubs in Europe about a transfer. Quite a development, if it’s true.
However, Marca ran a story yesterday saying that Barcelona had agreed a €27m fee with Arsenal but we’ve asked Barcelona not to announce it until we’ve found a replacement. It does strike me that perhaps the Madrid based Marca is trying to cause the deal some problems by running a story like that.
If it’s true then they’ve blown the whole thing wide open, if it’s not true and the deal doesn’t happen then they make Barcelona look like chumps. As I said yesterday though there’s really far too much going on around Adebayor for this to be all speculative. We’ve read his agent saying that he’d sign for Milan, who are playing UEFA Cup football next season. It’s hard to think his agent would turn down an approach from Barcelona where Adebayor could play alongside Henry again. When he wasn’t sitting on the bench watching Henry play alongside Bojan and Messi.
At the moment the facts, such as they are, is about as far as I’m willing to go with this story. Further comment or opinion can wait because we have to also accept the fact that the Spanish press are notorious shit-stirrers and putting words in players mouths or transfer requests on clubs tables is all part of the tactics. Let’s wait and see.
Goodplaya has some info – and I know Goodplaya would not print this sort of thing unless there was something to it.
Eurowatch – mad game last night, eh? No real Arsenal interest though. Tonight sees Robin van Persie’s Holland take on Russia. Vague Arsenal interest in Andrei Arshavin?
Arsene Wenger talks about Euro 2008 to the BBC. Hopefully this plays for everyone. I know they’re a bit funny with regions and things like that. He talks about van Persie saying he can ‘do anything’ and calling him ‘top class’. If he can stay fit, of course.
Right, I’m off to enjoy the rain. Have a good day.
