“How much do you want for this player? I’ll give you £25m in hard cash”
“No deal!”
“How about this great load of gold bullion?”
“No deal!”
“What about these precious gemstones”
“No deal!”
“A rare signed copy of Sergeant Pepper’s?”
“Oh, go on then!”
It’s going to take something like that for Arsene Wenger to sell Emmanuel Adebayor apparently. It seems the boss sent a fax to AC Milan telling them that Adebayor was not for sale for ‘money or gold’. Heh. And who says fax is a dying medium?
As I mentioned yesterday there was a lot speculation in the Spanish press yesterday, none of it concrete in any way though. It just said that Barcelona wanted Adebayor. Of course this has translated in a cast-iron £24m bid according to reports today. There’s more in today’s papers but again it’s all very vague saying Barcelona want to sign him blah blah blah.
While the best part of me knows what the Spanish press are like part of me keeps thinking of the interview Adebayor gave to El Mundo back in May, complete with picture of him holding and reading a copy of the paper. I wonder does his hero worship of Thierry Henry have any bearing on this whole situation. We shall see. With Barcelona admitting that none of Eto’o, Ronaldinho or Deco is wanted next season they’re definitely looking for a forward. Adebayor certainly fits the bill.
You have to imagine though that if Arsene is so against Adebayor leaving for Milan he’s got to feel the same way about him leaving for Barcelona. It’s all mad, Ted.
Still, it was more positive about another striker last night as Robin van Persie completed 90 minutes for Holland, and scored, as they beat Romania to advance to the 1/4 finals of Euro 2008. He drew praise from his manager, Marco van Basten, who said:
I am very happy for him. He had a long and difficult time without playing and he was completely fit when the tournament started. Now he has finally played 90 minutes; he didn’t start easily but worked hard and after all his hard work, he was rewarded with a nice goal.
RVP himself called the Romanians ‘hard work’ and he’s certainly playing himself into contention for a starting spot and it’s good to see him look sharp in general and particularly around the goal. Like every Arsenal fan I hope he keeps it up but more than that stays injury free.
In today’s Euro 2008 games Cesc should start for Spain against Greece while the Arsenal interest in the game between Sweden and Russia is reliant on ex-Gunners Freddie Ljungberg and Seb Larsson.
Speaking of Spain yesterday’s Mirror again linked us with a move for Valencia defender Raul Albiol. Valencia are in serious financial strife and clubs will be looking to take advantage of this – I suppose that kind of a situation would suit us.
And that’s really about that. Don’t forget the Eurocast, the Euro 2008 podcast, will be available later on this morning.
More tomorrow.
