Not too long ago a prominent Arsenal blogger said about Hleb’s move to Barcelona:
As for Barcelona there has hardly been a word about him in the Spanish press for ages and given the money Barcelona have already spent this summer I’d say there’s no chance of him going there now.
Now it seems that he is on his way to Catalunya and that old cunt at Arseblog has egg all over his Paddy face this morning … oh.
Strange one really, I didn’t think there was any prospect of him going there. Sport runs with a headline saying HLEB: SIGNED while El Mundo has even put a ‘Best of Hleb’ YouTube video on their homepage. The Spanish press reckon we’ve been paid €15m which could possibly rise to €18m if Hleb scores more than 3 goals a season so €15m it is.
I can’t say I’m too unhappy. Hleb has always seemed like a fairly nice bloke and he is undoubtedly one of the most skillful players I’ve seen at Arsenal. His close control and ability to make space was truly outstanding at times. Ultimately though, a grand total of 11 10 goals in 3 seasons for a player who played wide and as a support striker is simply not good enough. He didn’t make too many assists either. When he was good he was very good but too often he was just mediocre. His unwillingness to shoot was massively frustrating too.
The hints from his agent this summer that he would find it hard to maintain a level of performance at Arsenal should he not be allowed leave were out of order in my opinion and the player himself said:
I feel I can’t keep squeezing enough out of myself to satisfy a team like Arsenal. As a professional I honestly told Wenger that at our two recent meetings.
Too much like hard work, it seems. But if he thinks there’s pressure at Arsenal wait until he gets to Barcelona with the press and the fans who, this season in particular, are going to be so demanding that even Prince would be shocked.
For those that suggest the squad is weakened by his departure I give you Samir Nasri, a player with more of an eye for goal and from wide positions goals can win you trophies, as we’ve seen with Ronaldo and from our own point of view with Pires and Overmars down the years. €15m represents good business from a financial point of view as well.
It does leave Adebayor’s potential transfer to Spain a bit up in the air though. Which probably won’t suit him but then maybe he’s about to learn that sometimes it’s best just to keep your mouth firmly shut so you don’t make yourself look like a cunt and make life rather awkward for yourself.
Another player who could be on the way out is Gilberto. The press have picked up a story that started on an Arsenal blog about him moving to Panathanaikos so credit this time to Arsenal Analysis who have been running it for the last couple of days. It’d probably be a good move for Gilberto, he’d get a longer contract and more Brazilian weather. Still, I’ll be sad to see him go, he’s always been a top class professional and a good example to some of today’s more impatient and live-in-the-moment players. You just hope that if he is leaving then we’ve got somebody lined up to replace him because central-midfield will start looking a bit light otherwise.
The Sun uses a Bacary Sagna interview from a French newspaper to spread more doom and gloom. Can’t see too much wrong with what he says myself.
So things are beginning to start moving in terms of transfer activity. Let’s be honest about this, there hasn’t been much doing for any club as of yet this summer so I’m not at all worried about our perceived lack of business. A few deals will happen and the rolling stone will start gathering some moss and it’ll all be grand.
Right then, 5 pairs of tickets for the London Masters were up for grabs and the question was ‘Under Arsene Wenger’s reign only two players have scored on their league debuts. Who are they?’
The key word in the question there was ‘league’. The vast majority of entrants got Freddie Ljungberg v Man United correct but a lot of people then thought Reyes v Chelsea or Gilberto v Liverpool in the Charity Shield was the right answer. They were wrong. The answer was Adebayor v Birmingham in Feb 2006. So there you go. The Random Number Generator did its thing and the winners of the tickets are:
Dan Merryweather, Mark Maynard, Richard Cain, Alex Williams and John O’Brien.
Well done to you, I’ll be in touch this morning to get details from you and don’t forget to check out the Masters football website for more information about the tournament – it could be your last chance to see a soon to retire Ray Parlour in an Arsenal shirt.
That’ll be that then. More, including an Arsecast, tomorrow.
