So here we are on the eve of the World Cup and naturally enough a lot of the focus is on that. Arsene Wenger is out in South Africa ready with a bag of 5ps to sign any defender that looks like he can stay upright for 90 minutes and a keeper who only drops the ball when he means to.
Speaking of keepers, and not of the World Cup (more on that anon), this morning’s Mirror reveals that we’ve made a bid for Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer. Hurrah. But Fulham turned it down. Not hurrah. Chairman PHW says:
We certainly have made an inquiry for him and they are not prepared to sell him, so we have gone away.
And I hope we stay away. Not because of the player or his qualities but because we know what it’s like to be hassled over a player you don’t want to sell. I realise there’s a big difference between a 23 year old and a 37 year old who might fancy a crack at the Champions League for a season or two, but if Fulham have been definitive then I think we should respect that and look elsewhere. Otherwise we’re no better than Barcelona.
And speaking of said 23 year old, PHdaWgnizzle said:
We are not posturing at all. We are determined to keep Cesc.
That he’s on the front of the new edition of the Arsenal Magazine isn’t exactly proof positive he’s staying. It just means he’s an Arsenal player at the World Cup and having him on the front will probably sell a few more copies. It probably would have been a story if he hadn’t been on it. The conspiracy theorists could have had a very field day, their favourite kind of day, so while it’s a vague positive it’s not much more than that. I don’t think our transfer business is tied necessarily tied to magazine covers.
As fresh rumours emerge about Joe Cole signing for us after the World Cup, the chairman appears to have ruled out a move, saying:
I had a long conversation with Ivan Gazidis, who had been with Arsene and his name never came up at all.
Quite stunningly throwing people off the scent entirely. That’s the Arsenal way. We’re hardly going to come out and say ‘Yes, he’s a player we’re interested in’. We simply don’t do that. And saying his name never came up could mean all kinds of things. Like he’s already signed and we don’t need to talk about him, for example. Anyway, we’ll see. I do take the point the article makes about having many of the same kind of midfielder (a bit mongy/Prisoner Cell Block H looking, injury prone, less than five feet tall), I just think there’s too much smoke around this one to rule us out altogether.
The Metro says we’re going to offer him £150,000 a week, which really is too much money for anyone to do anything. I mean, I wouldn’t turn it down but still. For that sort of cash I’d want at least two goals a game from him and a case of beer delivered to my house afterwards.
Meanwhile, Arsene has spelt out his master-plan for next season:
We need to be more steady defensively and concede less goals.
Yes! I like it. None of your complicated tactics this, or inverting the pyramid that, simple, honest to goodness, old fashioned just don’t let in as many goals as we have been. Why muddy the waters with convoluted, intrictate systems? Just do one thing better. Even our lot should be able to manage that.
William Gallas, currently living the life of a Trappist monk, speaking only when necessary (“Fuck off, Evra. That is my seat on the bus”), has told France Football he’s:
Disappointed by the lack of consideration (respect) given to him by some of the board despite him having prioritised negotiations with Arsenal over the last few weeks for an extension of his contract.
Boo-hoo. If it was such a priority why didn’t he negotiate earlier? If he really wanted to stay at Arsenal something would have been done months ago. Strikes me that he let his contract run down, figured he’d get a rake of offers as he was clear to leave on a Bosman, and now those offers aren’t coming in he’s finger pointing at us. Apparently the Panathinaikos story is a non-runner too, but I don’t really care where he ends up. Cheers to L’Ol’lie for the L’info.
And staying on the France thing their World Cup camp is, apparently, in turmoil as senior players want Domenech to pick Diaby over Gourcuff and Thierry Henry over Sidney Gouvou. This suits me down the ground, sorry French readers, as I’ve got a hefty bet on a South American double in Friday’s opening games. I fancy Forlorn to smack a couple of past the French and Vela to score 3 chips of varying beauty to beat the hosts. I stand to win a cool €31 so I hope you’ll forgive me.
I think we all know which Arsenal players are on World Cup duty. Arsene will hoping none of them get the final because of the way it affects a player’s season afterwards, but he had words of comfort for Samir Nasri and Theo Wallchart who both missed out. It’ll be interesting to see how they both respond. Theo will know he needs to play better for both club and country. Nasri too but he’ll, perhaps, realise he’s dealing with a grade 1 mentalist with Domenech. That doesn’t mean to say he shouldn’t go at things with the same determination and gumption that I’m sure Theo will, it’s just a cheap dig at a man who believes in star signs.
Finally for today I got an email from The Sun who have entered Arseblog into a World Cup sweepstakes for the top UK football bloggers (irony of which is most amusing). I don’t know who any of the other contestants are, I don’t seem to be able to find that out, but you can see a video of the draw they made here – Arseblog got Holland.
So I’ll be following the World Cup with even greater enthusiasm than before, hoping the Dutch finally fulfill their total football potential and so I can win the GRAND PRIZE. No, not £10,000. Not a page 3 girl. Not a year long subscription to Rupert’s papers. Better than all that. An interview with The Sun’s chief football writer Shaun Custis.
As the man in the video says “Wow”. I am almost speechless with the awesomeness of that prize.
The thoughts of winning such a marvellous thing are making me all giddy so I’ll leave it there for today. Come on Holland!
