Morning all, loads to get through today.
I suppose we should start with the news that, as we told you some time ago, Gary Lewin is leaving Arsenal after 30 years to take up a full time position with England. Best of luck to him, he might have saved John Terry’s life but we can’t let that overshadow all the great work he’s done down the years. Ken Friar says:
Gary will be greatly missed by all the players and his work colleagues at the Club and I know he will still keep in touch, as he will still have many friends here at Emirates Stadium. We wish him the very best of luck for the future in his new position.
His replacement will be announced in due course. Also, in more official news from the club Alex Song has signed a new long term deal. He had a few decent games towards the end of the season so fair play to him but I think he’s still got a bit to do convince people he’s the real deal. It looks like we’ll be seeing more of him all the same.
Alex Hleb is now wanted by Bayern Munich, according to reports in Germany. This would make more sense to me although Deco, in an interview with El Mundo, says Hleb would be a good replacement for him at Barcelona. Meanwhile the Sun quotes Hleb as saying:
I’ve two years left on my contract. And if I do move it’ll be by mutual consent with Arsenal.
Splendid. Whatever. The Sun also reports that Everton are interested in Joao Moutinho, the player who is one R away from being a huge cunt. I liked the look of him during Portugal’s game against Turkey. He’s quite Flamini in his way. I’d have to see a bit more of him and any link is purely speculative anyway so I might as well shut up about him. Done.
Gilberto says he wants to stay at Arsenal next season but admits it’s down to the manager if he wants him to be part of things. Personally I don’t think we can afford to lose his experience and professionalism from the squad. I’m not sure he’s going to be first choice again but we can’t complain about lack of depth and let players like Gilberto go. The Brazilian has also warned younger players about leaving, saying:
In my opinion Arsenal is still a great, great club and fantastic for any player in the world. It’s a gamble when you move to another club. It would be a good thing for them to stay at the club because they know each other very well. They have a better situation than last season and could use the feeling of disappointment as an inspiration for next season.
At the same time he admits that another season without a trophy would make it difficult for the manager to keep the squad together. The next campaign really is vital.
One of the youngsters who certainly won’t be leaving is Theo Walcott and he’s determined to become more regular in the first team. He’s set himself targets in terms of appearances and goals and, like Vela, he’s someone I’m really looking forward to seeing next season. His improvement was noticeable over the course of last season and I’m hoping that run at Anfield was him coming of age. For someone who hasn’t really got going in his career and struggled at times with the adaptation to football at the highest level he has been quite effective in terms of goals and assists. What he produces when he really kicks on is going to be very interesting indeed.
The Guardian reports that we’re favourites to land Aaron Ramsey despite Cardiff wanting him to go to United so they can have him back on loan next season.
Update: The BBC says we’ve signed him.
Kolo Toure suggests we fell away last season because we didn’t have the same focus and desire as we did earlier in the season. Is that another little dig at the lack of leadership from the captain? As we’ve talked about many times before I think the manager’s got a decision to make this summer with regards to the captaincy and it’s not going to be an easy one.
Arsenal interest in Euro2008 came via an unlikey source last night. Robin van Persie played 20 minutes for the Dutch who beat Italy 3-0 in what was the best game of the tournament so far. Former Gunner Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored the third goal too. In the other game France drew 0-0 with Romania and that was no more than they deserved. Domenech’s team was awful, you could see how the dynamism of Clichy and Sagna would have made a real difference while William Gallas had a couple of tricky moments at the back.
Today’s Cesc’s Spain play Russia at 5pm while it’s Greece v Sweden in the evening game. For those of you interested in a bit of a predictions game we’re doing one over on The Week in Football where you’ll also find the Eurocast, a Euro2008 podcast. There are phone lines set up so you can phone/Skype your thoughts on the games and take part in the podcast, as well as an email address. Details over there.
Right, that’ll be that. Busy morning ahead. Carry on.
