Right, so that interview yesterday in the Kenyan newspaper, which was widely quoted, provoked a reaction from Arsenal yesterday.
They released a statement saying the boss had never given a one on one interview and that the press should not quote him from it. Rather like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted the news pages were full of stuff about Almunia’s silly mistakes and how England should have taken Walcott to the World Cup.
What’s vaguely interesting is that they didn’t say “These quotes are fabricated”, they just said no one on one interview had been given and the quotes were ‘not correct’. Various people have told me of an interview which went out on Kenyan TV but footage of that has been impossible to track down. I’ve come across newspapers making up the odd quote here and there but never a whole interview. It’s most odd, really.
Anyway, we did get some real, authentic, bona fide Arsene quotes yesterday when he told us the defensive spending was not done:
We identified Koscielny as a very, very strong centre half. He can be an outstanding addition to our team. But it is not over, we are still open to buy.
We are still on the market for another defensive player because we have the need for one more.
There’s that fourth centre-half I’m talking about. The Sun link us again with Algerian Rafik Halliche but I think whoever we get needs to be established, quality and preferably with Premier League experience. There’s been talk of Bolton’s Gary Cahill who would more or less fit the bill. Let’s face it, Koscielny is a newcomer to the English game and will need time to settle in and sort himself out. Djourou has the makings of a good player but appears to have osteoporosis in the bits where he doesn’t have spina bifida and that just leaves Vermaelen.
So, in my view, we need somebody who will come in and be ready straight away. For me that’s not an Algerian from Benfica. We need proper competition for places at the back and we need all four players to be closer in quality than the ones we had last season.
Gallas and Vermaelen played nearly every important game because they were obviously the best two defenders. Yet you could argue they were overplayed. Gallas broke down with a few months to go, Vermaelen missed the final few weeks of the campaign through injury. And that’s because our options, such as they were, included Sylvester, which needs no explanation, Senderos, who AW didn’t fancy at all, and then Sol Campbell who performed well to write a nice little chapter at the end of his Arsenal career.
Now, clearly there’ll be two who will emerge as the main partnership but for the sake of avoiding injury, providing rest and everything else, we’ve got to be able to rotate our centre-halves a little more confidently. It’s good to hear we’re still looking. Hopefully something will be announced soon in that regard.
Those who thought Sol might stick around will be disappointed with the news that he’s on his way to Sunderland. Apparently he’s had a medical there and Mrs Doubtfire has convinced him to eschew the delights of sunny Glasgow for the sparkling North East. It’s all about regular football for him and I don’t think he was going to get as much of it as he would like if he’d stayed with us.
The Sun reports that Sheffield United want Kyle Bartley back on loan for another season. Probably not the worst idea in the world.
The manager also spoke about Nicklas Bendtner’s injury saying the player was going for some tests (yesterday) but he didn’t think it would be a big problem. Just the 6 months out so.
Had a quick peek at the Spanish press and El Mundo reports that Sandra Rosell will be in South Africa this weekend and will try and meet with Arsene Wenger over the transfer of Cesc.
“Arsene, we want to buy Cesc”.
“He is not for sale”.
“Not even for … *checks pockets* … €14.47, all the money we have?”
“He is not for sale”
“I will throw in the Sagrada Familia. Or Puyol’s hair. It’s like Samson’s hair!!”.
“Go away”.
Should be an interesting conversation if it ever happens.
Right, I have to go speak into a microphone. Till tomorrow.
