You know, it’s so very quiet at the moment I’m growing a beard to help pass the time. I am slightly concerned that certain sections of said beard appear to be covered in dust or flour, for they are rather whiter than I would have liked.
I don’t quite know how the dust or flour is getting on just those bits and none of the others but without little mysteries like that life would rather dull, don’t you think?
The way things are going I’m going to be like ZZ Top before anything interesting happens again. When the main story of the morning is Manuel Almunia raising his pert cat-in-heat arse to England’s Tom cat Fabio Capello then you know there’s little or nothing happening. We’ve been down this road before, I don’t think Almunia should play for England. I know some people might think it’s a bit much for an Irishman to say such a thing as had an international team full of players whose only link to being Irish was eating Kerrygold butter and a fondness for pints of Guinness.
But while vague family connections are one thing playing for a country simply because you’ve been there for a few years is another. To be honest I don’t really know why he wants to play for England. Maybe he gets lonely when all the other players are off on international duty.
Speaking of other players we should see the return of almost all the squad today. Bendnter, van Persie, Adebayor, Eboue, Sagna, Clichy and more will be back to compare tales of summer high-jinks and whatnot. I may be completely wrong but I suspect Cesc, Theo Walcott and Kieran Gibbs will get some extra holidays having been away on extended international duty.
Gunnerblog asks ‘Who is Blaise Matuidi?’. Turns out he’s part Lassana Diarra, part Ocelot, part something else that’s even cooler than an ocelot. Or a left footed central midfielder who plays for St Etienne.
I do like to anagram people’s names. Blaise Matuidi is ‘Abused Militia’ or for the food conscious amongst you ‘Bulimia as diet’. Add ‘Arsenal’ to his name and you get ‘A Dalmatian Buries Lies’ or, if Rosie O’Donnell were to take charge of a lot of Spanish ships, we have ‘Lesbian Armada Utilise’.
Hilarious anagrams aside I do wonder about him. Yes, we could certainly use another Flamini or Diarra type player, but at 22 does he bring the kind of experience that most of us would like to see in central midfield? The whispers about Melo made more sense because of his age and his experience – he ticked all the boxes in that regard.
Matuidi has no international experience, he’s been playing in Ligue 1 for a team that only avoided relegation on the final day, and you’d have to wonder would he bring more to the team than Denilson, Song or even Diaby (taking into account the step up in quality, the time to adjust to the English league). At this point one more signing would do me but I’d like that signing to be of Arshavin standard. Someone to come in and add quality straight away. I think that’s the kind of partner we need to bring in for Cesc.
Matuidi could well be a good player, I really don’t know that much about him, but on paper he’s not going to have me throwing a party if he arrives. You could turn it around and ask me who else is out there? Who would I like to see come in? And the honest answer is I don’t know. However, I’m not the one paid big money to sign players for Arsenal so it’s over to you Arsene!
Some bad news for former Arsenal striker John Hartson who has been diagnosed with testicular cancer which has spread to his brain. I don’t think there’s anybody reading this whose life hasn’t been affected by cancer in some way or another so I’m sure, like me, you’ll wish him all the best.
And that’s about it. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get a bit of training ground news or gossip and the first pre-season game, against Barnet, takes place at the weekend so that’s something to look forward to. Actually, does anyone have a calendar for the fixtures which works with Mac (iCal or iPhone). There was one last year but I can’t seem to track it down this time. Any help gratefully received.
Sorted. Right, have yourselves a good Monday. Back tomorrow.
