Morning all,
I watched Arsene’s press conference yesterday and there’s plenty to talk about from it. The most obvious thing is the Andrei Arshavin situation about which the manager was saying very little. But he said he was saying little because sometimes it’s best to say little and the obvious implication he was making was that there was something going on.
When pressed by one journalist to confirm that negotiations were ongoing he said, with a smile:
I cannot confirm or deny anything.
And that’s just the way that Arsenal do business. Like it or not that’s how we operate in the transfer market and that’s how it will be. It is quite obvious that Arshavin is on the agenda though and personally I think he would be a good addition to the club.
However, like many others, I feel that his arrival would be more welcome were it to be part of a couple of moves this transfer window. Wenger spoke about missing Rosicky, who he expected to play 80% of our games this season, and that the priority was to bring in somebody in that position. When asked if he was looking for a ‘defensive player’, not necessarily a defender or a midfielder, he didn’t completely rule it out but again stressed the priority was the creative side of things.
I don’t know why but I was thinking about that this morning and for some reason Arsene reminds me of Willy Wonka. Even when Cesc was fit we needed a central midfielder, now he’s out until April and we don’t seem to be doing anything about it. Our defence has been shambolic at times this season, the manager himself has admitted that Toure and Gallas can’t play together, yet we don’t seem to be looking for a centre-half – despite the fact we know he himself prioritised this area in the summer.
If we’re the little girl who turns into a blueberry he’s not giving us the antidote, just more sweets. Or something.
Anyway, I’m clinging to the hope that he wants to get the Arshavin thing done and dusted as quickly as possible before he addresses that area. It’s a slim hope, I know, but I’m clinging nonetheless.
He made it clear that nobody would be leaving the club. He was asked about Kolo and his transfer request and completely ruled out him or anyone else being sold in January. He even said Kolo will be captain for today’s game against Bolton.
It’s quite a turnaround. Kolo could hardly get in the team in recent times, he slapped in a transfer request – obviously upset about something – and now he’s captaining the side! Perhaps a clear-the-air chat with the boss has helped and I have to say I’m suspicious about the Gallas injury and Kolo’s immediate and significant resurrection. Maybe that’s just me though.
There was all kinds of other stuff about how de-stabilising the January transfer window is and how he’ll use his money intelligently and his thoughts on the NASA’s discovery of a black hole at the edge of our universe and whether or not we could use that for time travel to go back in time to that Bolton game in the 2002-3 season were fascinating but rather too in-depth for this morning’s blog.
He spoke about Eduardo and said he was impressed with him in training but would not put any date on his comeback. Seems fair enough to me. In training the lads will be going easy on him, in a match situation it won’t be the same and with only 45 minutes of reserve football under his belt it’s rather premature to expect him to get back into the thick of things already.
So Bolton later on – what do we really need to say about it other than the priorities are three points, then a decent performance, but I’ll take the three points over anything else at the moment. We’re currently on our longest unbeaten run of the season and irrespective of the quality of any team that’s something that does bring confidence. Fingers crossed we can keep it up.
In other news Leopold Mendacious has been in touch, he of the real ANR, don’t you know. His thoughts on the transfer window and more in 2009 – The Facts.
Right, so that should keep you going. Here’s to a good win today, talk to you all tomorrow.
