Hello and welcome to another week of summer which means that the new season is slightly less far away than it was last week.
All the talk this morning is about Thomas Vermaelen. Again. Supposedly a fee has been agreed between the two clubs and now we wait all the other stuff that goes with it. It can take time though. Remember last summer we had agreed everything with Marseille for Samir Nasri but it took an age to complete for various reasons.
People might talk about him only being 5’11 but I’m not sure it really makes that much difference. A good defender is a good defender, no matter what height he is. For example, Christopher Samba is 6’5, that doesn’t mean you’d want him at Arsenal. And people don’t realise that Alex Song is only 5’4 without his hair. Now, I’m not saying Vermaelen is a good defender, I don’t really think I’ve seen him play (as I was watching a different Euro 2008 from some of the experts), but you can’t write him off just because he’s a bit shorter than you might like.
For all we know Wenger is planning on doing a Petit with him and converting him to a central midfielder.
Setanta Sports quotes Vermaelen this morning, saying:
Moving to Arsenal is the right path for me. It is a great sporting challenge and I will also be financially better off. I think everything is going to be okay.
There’s some of the fire to go with all the smoke at last and I’m happy for him that he’s going to be financially better off. Recession? What recession? I suppose now we just wait for this to be announced on the official site some time in late August.
Meanwhile the Daily Mail suggests that Vermaelen’s arrival could see Kolo Toure upping sticks for the Burj Al Manchester. He was linked heavily with Citeh in January, going so far as to hand in a transfer request, but reaffirmed his commitment to Arsenal (coinciding with his return to the team, funnily enough). The Mail says a swap deal involving Kolo and Micah Richards might be the cheese. Interesting. Very similar players, in my opinion, but obviously Richards has youth on his side.
I know this is also all speculation but I do wonder about Kolo’s future at the club. He’s had a fairly poor run of form and I suppose the manager has to decide if this is just a lull in his career or if he feels that Kolo has peaked and will struggle to find the form which made him such a favourite. Arsene has spoken about the ‘threat’ of City but I think, realistically, the threat City pose to other clubs is not so much next season but this summer as they try and lure players with big salaries/signing-on fees.
They can offer players massive wages that in more difficult economic times other clubs won’t be able to match. And while you might question the ambition of some players who choose to go there you have to accept that for some players the height of their ambition is to earn as much money as possible. But nobody we sign would be interested in that kind of thing …*cough*…
Not much else happening really but if you’re missing football then here’s a chance to go see the London Masters 5-a-side tournament. Arsenal are in there with Sp*rs, Chelsea, West Ham, Fulham and QPR and all this week I’ve got tickets to give away.
I have five pairs of tickets and to win all you have to do is answer the following question:
Ray Parlour’s nickname was a) The Ginger Avenger b) The Romford Pele or c) Johnny Fire-extinguisher.
Answers to [email protected] and the winners will be announced on Friday. The Arsenal team on the day will include Ray, as well as Nigel Winterburn, Stefan Schwarz, Paul Merson, Michael Thomas and more. Should be fun.
Right so, have yourselves a good Monday, more tomorrow.
