Good morning,
let’s start with the most interesting and exciting news of the morning: my beard. It has become quite fullsome indeed and leaving aside the dusty bits it’s coming on very nicely. It is, however, getting to that stage where it becomes itchier than Madonna’s clunge so I have to fight my way through the desire to shave it all off again.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way we can do the latest on Emmanuel Adebayor. As it stands the deal hasn’t gone through yet although he was granted a work permit yesterday. However, the Guardian reports that he’s asked Man City for a ‘few days’ to think about the move, worried about how it will be perceived in Africa.
Hey, they’re too busy blessing the rains down there to worry about what some gangly footballer does. And I’m pretty sure Adebayor isn’t that worried about it, especially when he sees those extra zeroes on his proposed salary. I suspect this is just a bit of posturing. It’s clear that Arsene Wenger wants him gone from Arsenal, why would he stay? He can always talk about what a fantastic ‘project’ it is at Man City and while there’s no European football this year the club has shown its ambition with the signings its made this summer blah blah blah.
I’d be happy enough to write something that sounds not too trite, if that’d help. Interestingly one of the reports yesterday said that Adebayor’s advisors had offered him to Man United as well. I know it sounds ludicrous but given the kind of people he’s surrounded with I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that were true. If I had to guess I’d say United weren’t the only club to get a phone call from his agent and not the only club to put the phone down laughing when they heard his wage demands.
Anyway, as I said yesterday the sooner this is done and dusted the better for all concered.
Meanwhile a deal to bring in the man hotly tipped to replace Adebayor, Marouane Chamakh, may be complicated by Bordeaux’s desire to have Sylvester included. I say complicated but it’s not really. We should wrap him up, stick a bow on him and give him to them for free whether we sign Chamakh or not. It’d be like a little present to help foster a friendship although one Bordeaux fan on Twitter yesterday wasn’t that keen on Sylvester. I can’t imagine why. He also thought that Chamakh was a good player who would do well in England and at Arsenal so we’ll see what happens there.
I can’t imagine there’d be that much reluctance on the manager’s part to include the former Man United man in any deal. With 6 centre-halves and three left backs (not including Sylvester) at the club at the moment I don’t think we’d miss him that much. And if you were to look at the centre-halves he is by far the obvious choice if you were told to bring one out into the woods and then drive off.
There was some talk yesterday about Klaas-Jan Huntelaar being a possible Adebayor replacement but honestly I can’t see it. He’d be far more expensive than Chamakh who at £7m is a relatively inexpensive gamble for a position in which we already have plenty of options. I would much prefer to see the bulk of the Adebayor money go to strengthen the centre of our midfield where I think we’re not quite as optiony, if you see what I mean.
One man who won’t be an option is Felipe Melo who has finally signed for Juventus. He was crap anyway, we didn’t want him. Yeah.
Not much else happening. I see Alexander Hleb is trying to talk his way out of Barcelona, criticising Pep Guardiola for not giving players confidence. This would be the same manager who took his team to the Spanish title, the Spanish cup and the Champions League. Imagine if the players had some confidence. He also says Thierry Henry has told him to stay as his first season in Spain didn’t go well. That Henry, what a joker!
And a little bit of good news. There were reports that Hull City and their permatanned used-car-salesman looking gleethound of a manager was hoping to sign Lauren from Portsmouth. Poor Lauren, he doesn’t deserve that. Well, reports in Spain suggest that Almeria are offering him a contract and I hope he’ll go there, enjoy the sunshine (oh God I miss the sunshine. And cheap beer. And mojitos), and play some football for someone other than a twat you wouldn’t piss on if he were on fire.
Unless you could piss petrol, in which case I’d bring slasher movies in a whole different direction.
Right so, have yourselves a good Thursday. Keep the fingers crossed about you know what. More tomorrow.
