What a refreshing change to be able to bring you some actual transfer news this morning. Not gossip, tittle-tattle or tabloid scuttlebutt. A nailed on signing.
Sadly enough it’s Fulham who are making the signing, not us, and the Official Arsenal Centre-Half Exodus 2010 has begun as Philippe Senderos yesterday became a cottager. He signed a three year deal with Fulham who have snapped him up on a free transfer.
Regular readers will know I’ve long had a soft spot for Senderos and I do feel we could have handled his situation a lot better. He was a bit error prone, as young centre-halves often are, and people always talk about how he wasn’t able to cope with Drogba. I think it would be fair to say that when you look at the amount of goals Drogba has scored in the last few years, and against whom he has scored them, Senderos was hardly alone there.
His Arsenal career effectively ended after the Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool and the manager’s confidence in him seemed to wane dramatically. He spent a season on loan at AC Milan and came back to us when Vermaelen and Gallas were beginning their goalscoring partnership. He went to Everton on loan in January but played little due to injury. A fresh start was required and that’s what he’s got – I hope he does well there.
At the same time though I just wonder if we might have handled things a bit better. I remember his Champions League debut against Bayern Munich. Watching in a bar in Barcelona he was thunderously awesome that night and I felt we’d found a real player. I think it was Tony Adams who revealed that Arsene was considering making him captain when Vieira left and in the summer of 2006 he was handed the number 6 shirt. That’s how highly he was rated. I’m sure the plan was for himself and Kolo Toure to become the first choice centre-halves.
The arrival of William Gallas put paid to that though and I think that was a big factor in subsequent events. Maybe he did find the pressure a bit difficult to cope with but remember he was a big part of the defence which got us to the CL final, there’s plenty of pressure involved there. I might be a bit biased but my overall feeling is that Arsene could have dealt with things more adeptly. And when the manager goes out and signs a player like Silvestre, who at no stage in his Arsenal career ever did anything to suggest he was a better player than Senderos, you do have to wonder what he was thinking. When you see some players defended to the hilt for their calamitous mistakes it raises more questions. Why was Wenger so harsh with Senderos and Lehmann, for example, and so soft on Fabianski and Almunia? Why would he think a Man United cast-off was ever good enough for us? It’s weird, really.
Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge now, good luck to Big Phil and I hope his career gets back on track. And the Official Arsenal Centre-Half Exodus 2010® continues apace as Phil’s great nemesis, William Gallas, looks set to move abroad for a bit of Greek. I saw this first on Arsenal-Analysis and according to radio reports in France he’s set to move to Panathinaikos on a 3 year deal. Yesterday it was announced that he has refused to talk to the press for the duration of the World Cup.
Apparently this is a protest at Domenech or a protest at the French press or so as not to muddy the waters regarding his own future. Or something. It might even be something else and I’m sure if it is it’s just as tedious as the others. Leaving aside the way he single-handedly ruined My Philippe’s Arsenal career he’s stained the legacy of a couple of real Arsenal legends. He and Kolo famously fell out and I think the biggest mistake of Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal was making Gallas captain and the way he did it. Gilberto Silva found out via the press that Gallas had been given the armband and it turned out to be a most uninspired choice.
When things were good he coasted along in the role quite well. When we needed our captain to stand up and be strong he threw a tantrum at St Andrew’s and sat down on the pitch crying. We know from various things that have been said that he’s not exactly the most popular man in the dressing room either. He made comments which were too caustic and far too public. With hindsight you can see that what he said probably had some merit but he went about it like a madman trying to remove a splinter with a blunderbuss.
He was a good player on his day but he’s not going to go down in the annals as a great Arsenal defender, not the way we’ve defended during his time here. And aside from all that we do love to talk about van Persie and Eduardo and all our other injury prone players, but in every season since he joined Gallas has spent a significant period on the sidelines. I never liked him when he was at Chelsea, I never really warmed to the bloke at all when he wore red and white, and while I’m not going to throw a party at his departure I won’t be shedding any tears either. Enjoy the feta and the ouzo, William.
So, assuming that Gallas story is on the money (and even if it’s not he’s definitely going somewhere), that’s two down. Sylvester is, I hope, on the verge of signing for Doncaster or someone like that, leaving Sol Campbell as the other potential departure. As I said before what the manager wants from Sol and what Sol wants from Arsenal might well be different things. At this stage of his career he’s looking for a decent amount of football. However, at this stage of his career he really shouldn’t be anything other than 4th choice at Arsenal next season. Arsene might want him to stay but he might well choose to go somewhere he can play more than he would with us.
That would mean our centre-half choices are Vermaelen and Djourou. No wonder the manager says on the end of season review DVD:
The basic improvements that have to be made is defensive and with spending the right money. The right money is not necessarily quantity because you never know how much people want for the players you want.
But what I mean by the right money is that we will not be scared to spend if needed.
At this point it’s not about being scared. I’d be running around like a drunk dad on Christmas Eve lashing loads of centre-halves into a basket and hoping a couple of them turn out to be ok. To be fair he’s got time enough but you would have to hope that our targets are already identified and work on bringing them in has already begun. You don’t need me to repeat the names we’ve been linked with over the last few weeks. We’ll probably sign none of them anyway, but it’s vital we get ourselves sorted out in this area sooner rather than later.
And we’ve also signed a goalkeeper. Shame he’s a 17 year old Argentine.
You’ll notice I’ve managed to get through this whole blog without mentioning **** ******** and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Mostly because there’s nothing left to talk about this morning.
Only two days till the World Cup though, that should help to pass some time. Till tomorrow, folks.
