Transfer madness this morning sees us locked in battle with Man United for Cardiff’s wonderkid Aaron Ramsey. Both sides have had bids accepted by the Welsh club and it’s now down to the player to decide who he wants to join. Honestly speaking I’m not sure I really care that much about this one. I know some people might say we lack ambition/resources if it doesn’t happen but as a club we’re chock full of 17 year olds with loads of potential.
The kind of signings we need this summer are men who can grow proper beards and get served in pubs, not lads who need fake ID to get into a late showing of the Exorcist. He may turn out to be a very good player, it may even be for us if he thinks he can learn more at Arsenal and get his chance earlier, but if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to worry (until he comes back to haunt us in three seasons time).
Good news regarding Bacary Sagna – he’s signed a two year extension to his contract. I suppose to reward his excellent season last time around but also to extend the protected period for another three years.
Alexander Hleb is very close to Barcelona, according one of his plethora of agents. As expected the minute Mourinho took over at Inter then that move was out of the question. Hleb also just got married, apparently. The Spanish press were reporting that the man who would be a Barcelona player within ‘hours’ had married his TV presenter girlfriend.
I do wonder why exactly Barcelona want Hleb though. He’s certainly not better or more productive than Iniesta who plays a very similar role. He’s not going to play up front with Henry, Messi and Bojan there, plus I’m sure Barcelona will bring in another striker. Part of the midfield three with Xavi and Iniesta, that’s a lot of work for him to get through – certainly not work he ever had to do with us. It’s a strange one but if the money’s right then I won’t be crying over his departure. I just wonder do Barcelona really want him – it’s all agent speak at the moment
This article, which features the hideous face of Didier Drogba (sorry!), suggests that Kolo Toure has made himself available as one of the three over 23 players for the Ivory Coast’s Olympics squad. I can’t imagine the boss would be that happy if it were true. More than most Kolo needs a good rest this summer. We should send them Eboue. Whether they want him or not.
Freddie Ljungberg has lashed out at Arsene Wenger and Arsenal following his sale last summer and suggested he was made play with injuries after receiving painkilling injections. He says:
It’s all about my injuries. Wenger simply doesn’t like those who show a weakness. With him, you generally feel as if you were in the army – it’s only in public that he may appear to be some sort of man of liberal views. In reality, his belief is natural selection. After I recovered, I was given a chance in the typical Wenger way: I was expected to run and intercept and score just the same as before. He just didn’t give me enough time to do it properly. I had no time.
Which is strange because for two seasons Freddie’s goal return was negligible, he spent more and more time out injured and he looked a long way from the player that was so effective for us. That’s plenty of time in the cut throat world of top flight football.
What’s most odd of all is that he says he went to West Ham so he could play against Arsenal as often as possible. He wanted to prove that he wasn’t finished as player. Two goals all season long for the Hammers still leaves him with it all to do. And I suspect the fact that West Ham were paying serious wages (if Lucas Neill was on £60,000 a week then Freddie would earn more than that) had a lot to do with his decision. I have to say this doesn’t really sound like Freddie though. These comments, if true, are surprising and a bit disappointing.
Jens Lehmann has joined Stuttgart. Good luck to him.
David McNally was one of the names mentioned as a possible replacement for Keith Edelman. Speculation will no doubt increase now that he’s left Fulham.
Finally for today just a reminder that if you find yourself unable to visit Arseblog due to stern IT departments then you do have a couple of options. Firstly, you can subscribe to the mailing list and have a steaming fresh load of Arse slammed into your box every morning. Secondly you can use the RSS feed and then use a site like Bloglines or Google Reader to view the blog.
Right, that’s about that. More tomorrow.
