Good morning, the person who is in charge of providing existing players with new contracts has been a busy person this last little while.
Yesterday Tomas Rosicky became the 15th player since May to sign a new deal with the club. There’s no talk of quite how long the deal is, there’s certainly no mention of it being ‘long term’ like most of the others, but you have to imagine it’s probably for the next couple of seasons with maybe an option to extend if things work out.
Now, there are those who might think that giving Rosicky a new deal is a bit odd, considering his record with injuries. It would be fair to say he hasn’t exactly provided value for money since his arrival at the club. A serious knee problem threatened his career and kept him out of the game for over 18 months. Previous to that he was in and out of the side as he suffered the kind of niggly injuries which prevented him from getting a good run in the side. You wonder, of course, were those small injuries a consequence of the underlying knee problem.
Anyway, fast forward and here we are. He’s played 15 times for us this season and when he is fit he’s a good player to have around. You have to assume that before any contract has been awarded to him that rigorous medical tests have been done and there’s a reasonable expectation that he’s going to stay fit and not suffer the same kind of serious injury as before. If there’s an element to his contract that provides a certain amount of his wages on a pay-as-you-play basis then all the better. To my mind it’s a good move and I like him as a footballer. He’s a clever player, adds depth and quality to the squad, gives us another option in midfield or as part of the front three, and at a time when we’re bemoaning the lack of options from the bench it makes sense to extend his contract provided his fitness isn’t an issue.
Tomas talks about wanting to repay the faith the club have shown in him and you can’t argue with that. Arsene Wenger says:
Tomas’ vision and touch is remarkable and I know that we will all benefit from his input in the coming seasons. Tomas is a special talent and we’re delighted that he has committed his future to Arsenal.
And it also shows that lessons have been learned when it comes to players contracts running down. Edu and Flamini are both players I think we should have kept but because their contract reached the stage where they could negotiate freely with other clubs they found better deals elsewhere. With the benefit of hindsight both of them might think differently but it’s good to see the club have reacted to this and are ensuring this doesn’t happen … for the most part.
I say that because reports in AS (Spanish language), the Spanish sports paper, say that Fran Merida has signed for Atletico Madrid. Since January 1st he’s been able to discuss terms and sign for another club and their interest in him has long been known. Obviously we’ll wait for official confirmation of this but AS seem pretty sure, they say he’s signed a 5 year deal. I mentioned yesterday how he must have seen the emergence of Ramsey and the midfielders ahead of him and thought the path to the first team was extremely difficult. If he has signed for Atletico then I’m not really surprised at all. It’s a shame in one sense because Arsene Wenger rates him very highly but he was one for the future, it’s not a big blow to us at present.
In other news Nicklas Bendtner is set to resume full training this week, which is good news. He says:
I hope to be able to make my comeback against Bolton on January 17th, the day after my birthday. That would be the best gift I could give myself. At least it is my personal goal, so now we will see. It’s been unbearable to be outside for several months because I felt that my club needed me during that time.
Good news if true and he’s a bit ahead of schedule, I think. The Times is reporting that Cesc’s injury is a bit more serious than first thought and while there was some hope he might make Everton this weekend, the same Bolton game is more likely for him. As I keep saying the main thing is to ensure he’s fully fit when he comes back because we need him for the rest of the season, there’s no point in taking a risk with him in the short term when we don’t really have to.
West Ham, Portsmouth and Burnley are the clubs chasing Jack Wilshere on loan. The manager says he’ll make a decision towards the end of the month, which makes sense considering the injuries we have just at the moment. Apparently Jack doesn’t want to go to the Championship though I think he’d be mad to rule it out.
Abou Diaby says he’s willing to take over the Alex Song role if Arsene Wenger wants him to. I’m not sure it’d suit him at all, to be honest. He certainly contributes more going forward and if fit Denilson is the more natural replacement to sit in front of the back four and play it short to those who can do more damage with the ball.
Not much else happening really. There’s a lot of talk about Patrick Vieira returning to the Premier League with Man Citeh. Understandable that he’d go there, in fairness. He knows Mancini well, it’s a World Cup season and they’re probably offering him a huge amount of money. It’d be strange to see him in England playing for someone else though. As others have pointed out it’d be a bit like seeing Liam Brady in a West Ham shirt. Still, if he does go there I hope he creams Adebayor right in the cunt during training.
Also, where exactly did Tomas Rosicky sign his new contract? Was it in the grim communist 1970s suite at the Grove?
There’s a press conference today ahead of the Bolton game so we should get confirmation of the Merida news with snippets re potential signings, the future of Senderos and other stuff too. More on all that tomorrow.
