How about a little transfer speculation to start today’s blog? The Mail is championing Louis Saha as a potential target and with the Everton man out of contract from the summer a cheap as chips move might just suit Scroogesene Wenger. It probably wouldn’t suit Everton though for whom the Frenchman is top scorer.
While they want him to stay, I’m sure, if he’s determined to leave they might as well just hang on to him until the summer and if he leaves pissed off then it’s not going to bother them too much, is it? The other thing to consider is that the boss ruled out a move for Carlton Cole on the basis that he already has enough injured players, why sign another one? On his day Saha is a fine player and a good finisher but as most of his days are spent in the treatment room it would seem a strange signing. That said, he does have an added Frenchness about him which Çarlton Çolé does not.
Meanwhile Andrei Arshavin has spoken about our chances of silverware this season, and says:
My greatest dream is to win a title with my club. Naturally, it would be better if we won the Premier League or the Champions League. But to do this we need a miracle – which is to start playing finally with our optimal line up. I do not think we have had it once so far this season.
He has a point there, in fairness. Even after we’d thrashed out what exactly our best XI was, the idea that all of them would be fit at the same is just so far fetched. Honestly, I have no expectation that this will ever happen again in my lifetime, although what a bonus it would be to have everyone fit and raring to go. You can’t say it wouldn’t make a difference but I think over the last few years footballers in general have become much more susceptible to injury and when you’re already an injury prone squad it’ll affect you even more.
Arshavin goes on to talk about the transfer window and says:
I have a feeling that Arsenal are not going to buy any new players in the winter transfer window. Or if we do, it will be at the very last moment.
Of course that is just a feeling. Very often the players are as much in the dark as anyone else about what the manager’s intentions are with regard to transfers. He doesn’t go about the place discussing potential targets with them so while they might hear something when a deal is close the fact that Arshavin doesn’t know anything isn’t a sign nothing’s going to happen – if you can make sense of that mangled sentence.
What is more worrying I suppose is the fact that he’s still talking about finding it difficult to adapt to English football and complaining about his foot injury. I do like him and he is capable of special things but I don’t think I’d be alone if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed with his overall contribution, especially in recent times. I’m aware he’s doing a job he’s not particularly suited to but I watched him on Football Focus being interviewed by Lee Dixon and he said he didn’t mind playing up front because he didn’t have run around a lot. He said it with a smile but he is quite … erm … static, at times. Hopefully he’s saving himself for the important part of the season and a rake of goals when we play United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Villa will do the trick.
Good news from Cesc as he declares his hamstring is now 100% and he’ll be back in the team to face Bolton at the weekend. It might be the first of two games in a matter of days against them as Arsene Wenger describes the fixture pile-up as ‘a nightmare‘. It also makes you stop to think about those folk who call for a winter break in the Premier League. Imagine how congested the fixtures would be then. The only possible way of doing it would be to reduce the amount of teams in the league and while those with a reasonable expectation of a top 10 finish, and certainly the big clubs, would happily go for it, those who battle relegation every season wouldn’t even consider it.
I like Thomas Vermaelen, as I’m sure most of you do. He’s been a good addition to the squad and while he’s not flawless he’s still very young and will improve over the years. What I think I like most about him though is that he really, really hates when we concede goals. When we played Celtic at home in the Champions League early in the season they scored a late consolation goal and he went mental, gutted that we didn’t keep the clean sheet. He might have become a bit desensitised to that, playing in front of a series of dodgy keepers all season long, but he still hates it and describes the goals we conceded against Everton as ‘stupid‘. I like that kind of honesty. Too often footballers make excuses or look to shirk responsibility but he doesn’t. That hatred of conceding goals needs to be instilled in all our players so midget midfielders don’t get a free header from a corner or other midget midfielders with stoopid hair don’t find themselves with a free run on our goal from inside their own half.
There’s still no progress with Fran Merida’s contract, apparently, which really does lead you to believe he’ll be off in the summer. Arsenal will have made him an offer, the boss will have spoken to him about the role he believes he can play in the years ahead and let’s face it, if Fran was happy with it he’d have signed the deal. I’m pretty sure the whole thing is about his chances of playing rather than the money but I’m unsure what there is to still be talking about.
For today then, that will have to suffice, mostly because there’s nothing left to talk about.
