With the new season so close now it’s surprisingly quiet. This is probably because of the round of international matches that the powers that be have arranged this week.
Instead of players being at their clubs, putting the final touches to their pre-season preparation, they’re away with their countries. Granted, some of them are World Cup qualifiers but the majority are friendlies which must be hugely frustrating for the managers.
Arsene Wenger said this week:
We have to cross our fingers and hope everybody comes back in good shape.
And I don’t suppose he’ll have been encouraged by the news that Johan Djourou was sent home from the Swiss squad with a knee problem. To be fair Swiss coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, said:
We don’t want to take an unnecessary risk shortly before the start of his club’s season.
All the same it’s very rare that national teams let players go on a precaution. They usually keep them with the squad, as is their right, unless the injury definitely rules the player out of the match in question. And if Djourou is not fit enough to play for Switzerland tonight then you have to make him a doubt for us this weekend. And then you’re just a little tweak or a muscle strain away from playing Everton with Sylvester in the centre of the defence. Fingers crossed Djourou isn’t that badly hurt.
Perhaps our need for defensive reinforcements has brought about this story from the Mail. They say that Ivan Gazidis was in Germany on Monday making a £12m bid for Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic. How much truth there is in that I have no idea. If he was actually in Germany then you have to think things have progressed beyond the point where we simply fax them a bid but at the same time this is the Daily Mail.
All things considered I would be much happier going into the new season with another central defender in the squad. Give me a central midfielder on top of that and I’d be as happy as Larry. Of course it won’t happen pre-season but hopefully before the transfer window closes. Further thoughts on the state of the squad right now in the season preview which should be along tomorrow.
Fabio Capello has ruled out Manuel Almunia as a potential England goalkeeper. To be honest I’m quite happy about that. I know the rules regarding qualification for a country are more relaxed now but ultimately Almunia is Spanish and should play for Spain. If he did play for England he’d have been on a hiding to nothing the minute anything went wrong. They’ve given native Englishman David James enough stick down the years, imagine what they’d do to Almunia if he make a mistake. I think it’s best for all concerned that he concentrates on Arsenal and forgets about England.
The Catalan sports papers, Sport and El Mundo, are full of Cesc stuff again this morning. El Mundo happily bleats about his ‘Barcelona DNA’ and has an old picture of him in a Barcelona shirt. Sport claims Arsene Wenger says he’ll start negotiating with Barcelona once they open the bidding €45m and has a little side article which shows that Arsenal fans are ‘divided’ on the prospect of Cesc leaving.
This article quotes two ‘internautas’, one of whom says ‘Cesc was always going to go back home and why would he want to play for a club which came fourth in England when he could play for the Champions League holders’. The other ‘internauta’ says ‘Arsenal made Cesc what he is today!’ blah blah blah.
Quite obviously fabricated, Fabregasricated even, but untimely as you know this stuff is going to be picked up again in the English papers. All we can do is refer to this and take the captain at his word. He’s going to lead the charge this season, the Spanish papers can say what they want.
Not much else happening so time to announce the winners of the competition. There are five copies of Arsènal: The making of a modern superclub by Kevin Witcher and Alex Fynn to give away. The question was ‘Which Arsenal player made his debut in a 2-1 win over Burnley in the League Cup in 1967?’
The answer was … Pat Rice. Not Ray Parlour. Not Emmanuel Eboue (seriously). Not Liam Brady. Pat Rice.
Thanks to all who entered the competition, the RNG has done its thing and the winners are as follows: Daniel Wilkie, Benjamin Chiu, Paul D’Arcy, Valerie Galvin and Frank Owusu. I’ll be in touch with all of you for details, to everyone else better luck next time. But if the book tickles your fancy you can get a £1 discount off the cover price (making it just £4.99) if you buy online here by using the code ‘rocky’ at check-out. It’s well worth it.
Right then, that’ll be that. More mañana.
