It’s a very quiet Friday, ladies and gents.
Having scoured the morning’s press for you there’s little or nothing of any great interest to bring you. In Spain the news is dominated by Joan Laporta managing to survive the goat fucking scandal so there’s nothing new regarding Hleb or Adebayor beyond what we already know.
The Sun reports that we’re after some Colombian guy called Falcao to replace Adebayor if he goes. They quote the player as saying:
I know there is interest from Arsenal and that excites me. If there is an agreement between the clubs I’m ready to go. It would mean a huge leap forward in my career. I can guarantee my financial future. The Premier League is sensational.
Wonderful, once he can guarantee his financial future then we’re all happy. That said it does look suspiciously like a Wenger signing. Bloke nobody’s heard of – check. Reasonable transfer fee – check. Bloke nobody’s heard of – check. And such.
However, the Daily Star says it’s Huntelaar we’re after. Whether that’s based on any new information or simply a rehash of Sunday’s News of the World story I just don’t know. And frankly, I don’t really care.
Some interesting comments from Nigel Winterburn in the Guardian, particularly about the way the manager would feel very let down by the behaviour of Adebayor and Hleb. AW has managed to engender great loyalty from his players but, as Goodplaya points out, we’re now looking at Hleb, Adebayor and Diarra all leaving when he didn’t want them to.
Is it a sign of a deeper malaise or have we just been unlucky to have three guys who have put their own agendas first? With Adebayor and Hleb it’s undoubtedly money (although Hleb’s decision to leave, I’m told, came after Eduardo’s injury and the sustained kicking he got last season), while Diarra left to make sure he was part of France’s squad for Euro 2008 – and look how well that worked out.
There’s no doubt the squad needs a bit of experience but above experience we need to replace those who have left/are leaving with quality.
And that’s a theme touched on in today’s Arsecast by Amy Lawrence who joins me for a chat about the squad, Cesc, Adebayhelb and other stuff too. There’s also a player history, tale of the unexpected and a chance to win the new home shirt with thanks to Nike. The winners of the Arsenal Stadium Mystery books are revealed too.
To subscribe to the Arsecast in iTunes simply click here, to download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (17mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
And there you go. Have a good Friday, more tomorrow.
Update: It seems some bloke called Samir Nasri has signed for us. That was unexpected.
