Midweek and it’s kinda quiet. The open training session took place yesterday and was streamed live by the official site. It was quite interesting to watch but the non-stop commentary made it sound a bit like a footballing Eurovision – only a little more camp.
It looked like fun for those that were there. There were some Q&A sessions with the players afterwards for the fans who attended and at one of them Robin van Persie, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna were asked which player in the world they’d most like Arsenal to sign.
The answer – Patrick Vieira. Of course it could be a little joke at all the rumours but we’ll see. Afterwards Bob Wilson, who was compere for the day, said of potential new signings:
I think Arsene will add a minimum of one, possibly two. He has the money to do it. But you know, and I know, that he will just not go in for the sake of spending money.
And despite the cash he’s raked in from the sales of Adebayor and Toure, plus what’s added when the Senderos deal becomes official, he’s not prepared to pay above what he considers a fair price. Speaking about a deal for Marouane Chamakh the boss told L’Equipe:
In five months, if he doesn’t prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything. My offer seems fair to me, taking the market into account. Chamakh would be good, but there are other options should we wish to pursue them.
In the current context, to me, it is over. Let’s say that at the moment it is terminated.
So he’s really sticking it to Bordeaux. Accept what’s on offer from us because he’ll go on a free if you don’t. Bordeaux, as you might imagine, aren’t too happy at being held over a barrel like this and have dug their heels in a bit. So things remain at a bit of an impasse there.
The Sun reports this morning that we’ve had a £5.5m bid for Sevilla centre-half Fredrico Fazio turned down. I’ve had a look around the Spanish sports papers this morning but I can’t find anything about it at all and they’re just full of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid stories. Funny to think a player who was on the verge of moving to us for about £12m last summer will cost £30m this time around but this is just more evidence of how the market is being distorted by a couple of clubs.
Still, I can’t help but look wistfully at Alonso going there. I think he’d have been a fantastic signing for us (but obviously not at £30m). Oh well.
There’s some utter tripe this morning about Cesc and Milan and £31m bids and all that but I’m really not going to give it the time of day.
Arsenal Analysis has some quotes from Eduardo about his comeback and his involvement with the Croatia national team.
I was scouting around on Flickr and came across some shots from yesterday’s member’s day (thanks to Abdul for the offer of his pictures). Anyway, this particular one of the team photo for the season was interesting.
If you count it up we have 4 keepers and 24 outfield players. Compare to the team photo from the 84-85 season where we have 15 outfield players and 2 keepers. I know football has moved on and squads are bigger and all that but it’s still an interesting comparison. Plus the 84-85 group had far more in the moustache department than we do now.
The Telegraph reports that Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith is considering selling her shareholding in club with one of the offers coming from ‘the former Soviet Union’. Doesn’t wherever that bid came from have a real name? Obviously that would make you think that whoever’s making the bid is Usmanov friendly. As I said before the next few months are going to be very interesting as things in the boardroom come to a head. This Mexican stand-off can’t continue forever.
And that’s about that. Have a good Wednesday, more tomorrow.
