Bank holiday *boilk*. Oh Germans and your delicious beer, why must you tempt me so? I am eternally grateful to UEFA for rigging the Champions League draw so Arsenal played Barcelona and I had a good excuse to go stock up at the Spanish pharmacies for their delicious, horse tablet sized pain killers.
Tomorrow we play Blackburn and there’s not much in the way of team news. The injured ones are injured and the not injured ones will probably get injured at some point. Sam Allardyce, the walrus of football, says in the News of the World that he ‘always outwits’ Arsene Wenger. I’m thinking this is a typo and it should read ‘outweighs’.
I know we’ve had our run-ins with Walrus and his teams down the years but I don’t remember him winning too many of them. There wasn’t much wit involved when Blackburn got a 6-2 spanking at our place earlier in the season. I suppose what he means by ‘outwit’ is ‘deliberately and cynically foul and injure Arsenal players’. In which case I have got no argument against that at all. That game against Bolto in 02-03 season still makes me cross so I shall move on.
It’s mostly just transfer stuff to be honest but the People has some quotes from Andrei Arshavin in which he says he’s off to Barcelona:
I am going to Barcelona in the summer. I have always dreamed about going to Spain and playing for the best team in the world. They were unsure about me when I was playing in Russia but I have shown them that I’m the real deal and I know they are ready to talk to me.
He goes on to say that Gael Clichy would also love to play for Barcelona. Obviously he just wants a bigger boy to go with him to look after him. I have no idea where these quotes come from and a quick check on El Mundo or Sport has shown nothing – although they’ll pick them up soon enough. Until I get a bit more info about where this has originated from I’m not saying a lot – though the article suggests the quotes are very recent.
Even by Arshavin’s outspoken standards this seems a bit much and I suspect there’s some mischief making going on here. The line about competing for his place with Xavi and Iniesta did it for me. Two quality players who work their nuts off in every game won’t have too much to worry about if the Russian stroller arrives.
Also in The People a story linking us with Danish centre-half Simon Kjaer. A fee of £10m is mentioned and wages of £100,000 a week are also mentioned which is probably why the same story says we might look at Hull’s Steven Mouyokolo who would undoubtedly be a cheaper option.
In the Mirror a story saying we’re after Scott Parker. I’ll admit, I thought he would have been a good signing for us a couple of seasons ago as we were waiting for Song to develop. To be honest, I think even now he could offer something to our midfield. He’s a scrapper and there have been times we could have done with that kind of player this season. As he’s the only West Ham player NOT up for sale though, I don’t see it happening. The same article also says the boss is looking at Joe Hart, Brede Hangeland and Aston Villa’s James Milner.
The boss talks about Samir Nasri and says Robert Pires is good example for him to follow and says his future is not in midfield:
Robert is a good target for him because if he can score the number of goals Pires scored then he will be an exceptional player. I see Nasri in a wide role because he has the tricks, the pace and don’t forget that Fabregas plays in the central role.
I think I’d be quite happy if Nasri started to deliver like Pires, whose goal record was quite fantastic. He’s still young, remember Le Bob arrived here when he was 26 or so, Nasri is still only 22, so he’s got time on his side, but no matter how many goals he scores he’ll never be as dreamy as Bob.
*swoons*
The Daily Star say we might be interested in Joe Cole who is available on a free transfer this summer. It’s not the first time I’ve heard his name mentioned when it comes to a move to us this summer. However, he’s a bit too like Sylvester for me in that he seems to have a lot of trouble closing his mouth, the fly catching cunt. Also in the Star a link to Ibrahim Affelay, a PSV winger. That’s eight players linked in one blog post, not too shabby at all. Still, we’ve got to do something with the millions we’ll get from selling Arshavin to Barcelona.
Right, have yourselves a good bank holiday Sunday, shame about the weather but I think I’ll stick a couple of quid on Chelsea turning over the ‘smashers big style and see what happens there. Till tomorrow.
