Morning from a very wet Dublin. It’s lashing down here today. Gah. Anyway, lots to get through so the weather can take a back seat.
We’ll start with Ajax defender Thomas Vermaelen who looks set to join us in the very near future. His agent says:
It’s more a question of when’ than one of if it will take place.
A fee has reportedly been agreed, I’d assume personal terms with the player have been sorted out and now it’s just a matter of checking his knees and getting his signature on a contract. Exactly when that happens is anyone’s guess but I think we might see him sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile Emmanuel Eboue is thinking about leaving. He barely featured in the latter part of the season after being infuriatingly regular earlier on. He says:
It would be very difficult to leave Arsenal, but I believe it would be more difficult to experience the same season, not on the pitch. Anyway if I leave Arsenal, it will be for another league, because it is out of the question I will play anywhere else in England.
Cheerio then. I would shed no tears if he left.
Bacary Sagna, like Gael Clichy, was reportedly linked with Real Madrid. In an official statement on the club’s website he reaffirmed his commitment to the Arsenal, saying:
I have seen the quotes attributed to me in the French media today and I just want to put the record straight. These comments are not accurate and I’m not aware of any speculation linking me to another club. I am 100 per cent committed to Arsenal. This is a great Club and I’m proud to wear the shirt.
Good man, Bac. I know a few people thought he suffered from ‘difficult second season’ syndrome but I thought all in all he was the most solid and consistent defender we had last time around. Plus at a time when we need to strengthen the squad the idea of letting first team players like Clichy and Sagna makes no sense to me.
Cesc Fabregas, as we know, is away with Spain for the Pointless Cup, and he’s apparently not best pleased with Xabi Alonso. Alonso, having put him out for four months last season, clobbered him again during training and Cesc is due to miss Spain’s game with Iraq with a sore knee. Quite how sore it is we don’t know. There’s no suggestion it’s anything serious at this stage but I’m expecting news by the end of the day that he’ll have to have his torso amputated.
Nicklas Bendtner has been talking about his pants-down episode after the Man United Champions League exit. While he fully accepts he shouldn’t have been out on the town after the defeat he claims he was set-up by the tabloids. He says:
Of course I don’t run around with my trousers down – why would I do that? There was just one who pulled my pants down as I stepped out into the street, and then there were 10 to 15 photographers just standing there waiting to take the picture, as if they were awaiting the situation. There was clearly something agreed beforehand.
Now, I’ve warmed a great deal to Nicklas this season but this sounds a bit iffy to me. How did the paps decide who was going to do the pants pulling? Short straws? Rock – paper – scissors? I suspect Nicklas is in the habit of wearing his pants very low, like many young people these days. They seem to think that their hips are not a crucial part of the pants wearing process and instead use a belt to fasten them just above the crack of their arse.
With a few drinks on him and perhaps a recent trip to the men’s room it could well be that he didn’t fasten them correctly and thus they fell down. Anyway, it’s all done and dusted now. I did like what he said about his form and the reaction he got from fans:
I wasn’t too upset with the Arsenal fans because, for two months, I wasn’t happy with how I was playing myself. They were just frustrated, like me, that I didn’t play as well as both they and I knew I should.
And he got his head down, worked harder and ended up with a very respectable goals total for the season. Let’s see if he can kick on next season.
The Mail, bastion of truth and accuracy that it is, is linking us with a £15m move for Felipe Melo. He’s a Brazilian midfielder playing for Fiorentina with a penchant for cards. 17 yellows and 3 reds in his first season, according to the article. Sounds like just what we need. Any student of Wenger will know we win more trophies the more red cards we get. Time to roll back time, folks.
In non-linky news Stuart Pearce is apparently set to unleash his wrath on Theo Walcott and drop him from the England U21 squad. What a twat. He insists and insists that Walcott plays then after one poor performance, in which none of the England players played particularly well by all accounts, he drops him. Top management.
Elsewhere Emmanuel Adebayor has been banished from the Togo squad for yet another bust-up with a coach. It seems to happen every single time he goes away on international duty and Togo have had a number of coaches down the years, the common denominator is Adebayor. At this rate we’ll be lucky to get thruppence ha’apenny for him.
Finally the fixtures for the new season are out this morning at around 10am. Will update the first few here when they come out, officially. From what I hear we’ve got a tricky start though.
Update: And here are the fixtures. We start away to Everton, followed by a home game against Bolton, a home game against Portsmouth and then we’re away to Man United.
The first North London derby takes place at home on October 31st (provisionally) and the end of January/early February throws up some very interesting fixtures. United at home on Jan 30th, then Chelsea at home on Feb 6th which is followed by Liverpool at home on Feb 9th. What a 10 days those are going to be.
Should all go well our run-in is not bad at all. The last four games are Wigan, Man City, Blackburn and on the final day of the season, Fulham.
It’s all very real now that the fixtures are out. I can’t wait.
Till tomorrow.
