Hurrah, we’re into July which means football grows ever closer. I have to say I’m getting a bit twitchy, not quite as twitchy as old Harry, but twitchy nonetheless.
July might also bring about more transfer activity as many players contracts run until June 30th and if you remember last summer we had the issue with Nasri not being able to sign due to financial jiggery-pokery (that’s the technical term), so things might get a bit interesting in the next few weeks.
One man who looks unlikely to join us now is Felipe Melo. There was a lot of talk about him but yesterday it was announced that he had signed a one year extension to his contract at Fiorentina. According to the Italian club:
Details of an agreement for the extension of Melo’s contract until 2013 with a buyout clause were defined.
Interesting that they specified there was a buyout clause. I suspect they know there’s genuine interest in the player and want to maximise any transfer fee they get. On the other hand though the player signing a new contract might just hint that he wants to stay in Italy for a little while yet. Still, there are plenty of fish in the sea, I hope.
The club yesterday announced the departure of eight players and that four youngsters have signed professional terms with the club. So it’s congratulations to Luke Ayling, Craig Eastmond, James Shea and Cedric Evina and ‘Cheerio’ to Rui Fonte, Abu ‘Wake me up before you’ Ogogo, James Dunne, Rene Steer, Paul Rodgers, Vincent van Gogh, Anton Blackwood and the world renowned Amaury Bischoff PI.
Also announced by the club is our ‘third’ kit which even by the woefully poor standards of recent efforts is quite simply horrible. A white pin-striped shirt with grey shorts and white socks. From the marketing bumph:
The kit echoes design elements of the north London club’s away kit including a white shirt with redcurrant pinstripes and a polo collar. Further shirt details include a panel of horizontal stripes at the back of the shirt, to mirror the craftsmanship of a fine English shirt.
A fine English shirt? Really? Do they honestly think anyone buying a football shirt gives a shit about that?
“Are you going to buy the Arsenal third kit, Mick?”
“I wasn’t but then I read that the craftsmanship mirrored that of a fine English shirt and I was sold. I shall be quite simply the most elegant football fan in my local”.
“And I hear the shorts have echoes of those worn by combatants in the great couture wars of the early 1920s”.
“It just keeps getting better”.
I remember reading in the past that proposed new kits were shown to special focus groups who helped during the process. Does anyone know anyone who has ever been involved in anything like that? It’s hard to imagine that any Arsenal fan gave this white thing the thumbs-up. We’ve been down the white kit road before, objections based on the sheer cuntishness of teams who wear white are still relevant today, but more and more it seems like Nike and the marketing people are foisting kits on us that are less and less Arsenal.
I’m sorry but the new away kit, the blue one, is appalling. This monstrosity of a thing is even worse and to expect us to go and buy this when we don’t even have a proper home kit, one with white sleeves as is traditionally Arsenal, is taking the piss.
All the marketing speak in the world doesn’t make up for the fact that this kit is about as Arsenal as pink shirt with lime green polka dots and bright orange shorts.
Booo, I say, and hopefully we won’t see it too often next season.
Not much else going on. Philippe Senderos potentially going to Villa you already know about. So let’s leave it there for today.
More tomorrow.
