There was nothing Arsenal about yesterday’s games at the World Cup. Japan went out on penalties to the Greens Paraguay while Spain’s 1-0 win over Portugal did not feature Cesc for even one second.
On Twitter a lot of people suggested Cesc (our newly crowned player of the year, btw) would have to get used to this if he went to Barcelona this summer. Personally, I don’t think he’d spend very much time on the bench if he did go. He’s too good a player to sit on his hole. I did think Spain could have used him, what with Portugal’s Blackburnesque defence but there you go. Eventually Dayvid Vil-la got the goal that puts them through the quarter finals.
Back at home and there’s a few little bits and pieces beginning to happen. Today is June 30th, I suspect the deals for Gallas, Sylvester and Sol Campbell all expire after today and the latter took a trip to Glasgow yesterday to meet with Celtic. Apparently they’re prepared to offer him a two year deal and regular football, which is certainly more than he’d be offered at Arsenal. While I enjoyed his comeback last season and the way it made things a bit more right about his time at the club, if he really wants to play football he’d be mad to turn Celtic down.
He’ll be 36 in September and with the best will in the world he’d really have been little more than a bit part player with us. So if he goes and the two Frenchies leave we’re left with quite a centre-half shortage. If we accept that Koscielny is going to sign it means we’ve got him, Vermaelen and the rather injury prone Djourou to choose from. There’s really not a great deal of experience there. After that you’re looking at youngsters like Nordtveit and Bartley and frankly that’s just not enough.
Which is why I think we’ll have to sign another centre-half and why I think this centre-half needs to be experienced, preferably in the Premier League, and have the kind of qualities (footballistically, as Arsene likes to say, and leaderishly, as I like to say) to make sure we’ve got a solid unit at the back. Who that might be is anybody’s guess but given our record with injuries and the fact that our defence is an area that needs serious work, I can’t believe Koscielny will be our only signing there. I should point out that I am available for around £10,000 a week. My birth cert (purchased via ObafemiDocuments.co.uk/realage) confirms my age at a mere 24.
Rangers Algerian centre-half Madjid Bougherra says:
I heard that Hamburg and Arsenal are interested through the papers, but there is nothing official as yet. For me, it is also time for payback because I don’t think a lot of people remember that I played in the Premier League with Charlton.
Quite right, Magic. Not a lot of people do. Or if they have they’ve blocked it from their memories.
The other day The Mail ran a story saying that Arsene Wenger had told Eduardo he was ‘surplus to requirements’ at Arsenal. Today The Mirror says Eduardo has told his agent he wants to quit and go somewhere else, with Aston Villa mentioned as a possible destination. I think he’d be mad to go there – a move to Spain would probably suit him down to the ground and I can’t believe there won’t be clubs there willing to make a bid for him. If English football is the problem why go to Villa? Wherever he goes, and I think it’s kind of inevitable now, I hope it works out for him.
It would make you wonder if another striker is on our agenda though. There was talk yesterday from Inter Milan’s troublesome Mario Balotelli who said he was glad to hear Arsenal were interested in him, but we know that kind of stuff is ten a penny during the summer months. It means little. Nice striker from Nice Loic Remy would like a move to Arsenal as well.
Also in The Mirror, Newcastle are interested in taking midfielder Henri Lansbury on loan for the season, which I suppose would be no bad thing for him, and for us, to see how he copes with Premier League football. It’s interesting how clubs are doing this now. It used to be a very continental thing, loaning players to clubs in the same league to properly gauge their ability, it’s becoming very much the norm in Engalnd, certainly for Arsenal, now.
Having been released by those quimbashing snotgobblers at Barcelona, it looks as if Thierry Henry is off to the MLS (hat tip to Robixsmash).
And that’s about that. Our pre-season training starts next week, the players not on World Cup duty will be back running laps and doing that thing where the trainer shouts “1” and you jump for header and such. Sophisticated training methods, I know, but that’s the way it is at the top level.
Till tomorrow.
