Morning all,
A few bits and pieces to be going on with this Sunday morning. In which I’m not hungover at all. Oh no. Not one bit.
Now, you know the way everyone, and by everyone I actually mean everyone in the whole entire world, even people who don’t care about Arsenal or know about Arsenal or even know what football is, wants Arsene Wenger to buy more experienced players? Well, it turns out this is a bandwagon that can’t be ignored and Jabba the Usmanov is all over the papers this morning urging the club to do the same thing.
He certainly doesn’t say ‘And here’s a big bag of money to go and do it. It’s a present from your favourite Uncle. Now come sit on my lap! *slurp slurp*’, so I think we can write it off as just waffle. Meanwhile there’s an interesting piece by Henry Winter about foreign owners, and Usmanov in particular With a more clear definition of what constitutes a ‘fit and proper’ person due to be revealed on Monday he writes:
Passing the fit and proper person test should not be a problem for Kroenke. Usmanov will have to answer plenty of questions.
If it was a ‘fat and proper person’ he’d be halfway there already. Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week. I do think we’re in for a long, hot summer, not just in terms of the weather (I’m saying this in the vague hope we might actually get some hot weather in Ireland), nor in terms of the transfer business we won’t be doing (vague hope, reverse jinx, blah blah), but in the Arsenal boardroom.
There are many issues outstanding and I don’t think they can go too much longer without being resolved. Lady Nina wants to sell her shares and buy a luxury mobile home to spend her holidays in and that 15%+ is going to be crucial in deciding the future of Arsenal Football Club. Despite Usmanov’s substantial shareholding I’m sure there’s still a reluctance on the Arsenal side, which now includes Kroenke, to deal with a man whose reputation, like his lawyers, has gone before him.
Anwyay, we’ll see what happens. Elsewhere Amy Lawrence, on whom heavy money has been placed for the Bendtner Pants machinations (what a title for a film that would be), talks to Guus Hiddink who says of Arsenal:
They like to play with the style they play which is good to see, but maybe they might bring in one or two or three who can give even more power to the team. If they want to go for silverware they might have that conclusion.
She goes on to say in the light of Arshavin’s arrival:
Buying experience goes against Wenger’s grain but when he comes to analyse the season in the summer, he cannot possibly fail to notice what a difference it makes.
I’m sure he’ll notice it, it’s just whether he does anything about it that’s the worry. I can’t say I’m too enamoured by the idea (slightly tongue in cheek it might be) of buying Didier Drogba though. It’s bad enough trying to cope with Sylvester in an Arsenal shirt, the idea of Drogba in red and white would make my breakfast come back up, if I’d had any.
The People reports that Arsene has turned down the chance to manage Man City. What a chance. Pffff.
Oh, and lest we forget there’s the small matter of the game against Chelsea this afternoon. I think third place is beyond us to be honest but it would be nice to garner some revenge for that horrible afternoon at Wembley just a few of weeks ago.
We beat them at Stamford Bridge and it would be nice to do the double over them again. It’s another chance to ‘welcome’ back Cuntley Cunt and a win today would go some way to restoring our pride which was hurt so badly by United this week.
The team news is that Andrei Arshavin looks set to miss the game, maybe he’ll have recovered from his flu to take part, so the squad is the same one as midweek. I suspect he’ll probably mix it up a little bit. Diaby might play because being tall is one of the things you need against Chelsea but who he picks and where he picks them is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.
There’s little or no tension going into this game, which is a shame considering the opponents and the time of the season we’re playing them at. Who will react better from their Champions League exit? Who wants this game more? We’ll see later this afternoon.
A full report on the match and more tomorrow. Have a good Sunday folks.
