Well whaddya know?
It appears football’s longest running and most tedious transfer sage could be coming to a close. There are reports this morning that Andrei Arshavin is flying to London (he’s so awesome I bet he doesn’t even need a plane) to wrap up his move to Arsenal.
Of course we should tread softly. Reports have suggested many things over the last 30 intolerable, mind-numbing days, most of which have turned out to have as much truth in them as a Richard Nixon fairytale.
Wenger was full of denials yesterday. No, we hadn’t agreed a fee. No, we had not applied for a work permit. No, whatever it was the journalist said we had done we hadn’t actually done at all. And that has been his line throughout this whole thing. He has been giving nothing away from the Arsenal side of things. Of course there’s been a huge amount of ooze emanating from Zenit and from the bloke representing Arshavin in this deal, Dennis Lachter.
So for Arsene to say little and then to discover there’s been all kinds of stuff going on is no surprise. At the same time I’m not holding my breath. Until I see an announcement on the official website then I’m going to treat everything with just a hint of skepticism.
Nevertheless Wenger did spell out why he wanted Arshavin. When I saw the headline I thought, ‘Hey this is going to be a short article. He’s just going to say ‘Well, anything’s better than Eboue‘, but he went into a little more detail, saying:
He’s a guy who can go past people in the final third. He can have the key, individually and collectively. He is an experienced player, 27, a good age and we are a very young side. You can see with the replay of the FA Cup we have the desire to do well in every competition and one more body could help us.
And it’s hard to argue with that, especially with the absence of Cesc, Walcott and Rosicky. So we’ll wait and see but it does look like something’s stirring. Although we’ve said that before. Christ, I’ve got to move carefully this morning, I’m sitting so directly on the fence here I’m in danger of rupturing myself.
The manager also went on to talk about why he wasn’t going to buy a central midfield player. Now, I’m pretty sure I’ve said enough about our need for a central midfielder over the last few months so I’m not going to over old ground again. However, I’m not sure Arsene’s reasoning stands up to much examination. He reckons we have the talent here already, saying:
I agree that people always want better players but many clubs when they want better players come to see us so that means our players are good. For example Milan wanted Senderos. Senderos is 22 and Milan have scouts everywhere, so that’s why I believe we have the needed quality.
So, if Senderos was so good that Milan wanted him why did we let him go? Seems a strange argument to me. Anyway, I shall continue to rely on the evidence of my own eyes and I still think this is an area where we need to buy to improve. And let’s move on.
We do, of course, have a rather important game of football today. West Ham, currently in their best run of form under Zola’s management, arrive at the Grove today. I don’t need to say how important the three points are, nothing less than a win today will do.
In terms of the team I suspect he might shake it up a little bit ahead of the FA Cup replay on Tuesday. I think he might drop Adebayor (he deserves it after his Goodison Park horror show) and start Bendtner alongside van Persie. In midfield there’s really not much he can do, to be honest, beyond starting Eboue on the right and choosing between Diaby and Song to partner Denilson.
I know people might say he’s too young but in games like this I’d be really tempted to start Wilshere on the right. People may scoff but Wilshere is obviously an exceptional talent and we had Cesc starting games when he was just 17, why not Jack? Could he offer any less than any of the other options? I don’t think so.
Who he plays in the centre of defence will be interesting. I’m assuming Djourou will keep his place and I think Gallas will continue, meaning Kolo’s bizarre season continues. Back in the side, as captain no less, then back on the bench in no time at all. Whoever does play there though is going to have to be wary of Carlton Cole who is on a very hot streak at the moment.
So fingers crossed for a good performance and the three points. I know we’re on an unbeaten run but a good display coupled with the points would be a big confidence boost.
Finally for today, a cheery tale. It turns out that Sp*rs, for the game next weekend, have sold tickets to Arsenal fans at the wrong price. £10 less than they should have done, in fact. When the Arsenal box office sent out the tickets to Arsenal fans they included a letter saying fans should do the right thing and pay the extra tenner.
I think we all know what the ‘right’ thing to do here, is don’t we? What are you going to spend your tenner on then?
Till tomorrow.
