So the team are in Austria right now at the traditional training camp. There was no squad list published, I shall endeavour to find out exactly who went today, but Arsene spoke about what was on the agenda, saying:
We have six players coming back to join us on Monday when we go to Austria, and then the hard work starts.
I’m assuming those six are World Cup players, Clichy, Diaby, Sagna, Vela, Eboue and Song. There’s no Gallas or Sylvester as the manager confirmed what we pretty much knew already, their Arsenal careers are over. No tears shed here, let me tell you.
This morning’s Sun reckons guests at Sol Campbell’s wedding were ‘left with the impression’ that he was on his way to Sunderland. Quite the most spurious of sources there but as I’ve said all along it wouldn’t be a surprise if he went elsewhere. Our need for a centre-half remains despite the return of Havard Nordtveit from about half his life on loan. The BBC’s Phil McNulty reckons our bid for Jagielka was made weeks ago with no further contact since Everton told us to do one. Whether that was pre or post Koscielny agreement I just don’t know.
As for the man between the sticks we have to wait and hope something happens but Wojscez©® has his eyes on the number one jersey. He says:
I want to fight for my place. I don’t want to give up my place at Arsenal to go on loan. I went on loan last year, I have proved that I can do a job for Arsenal and now I want to see if I can really do it.
There’s no doubt he’s a confident young man but what he did last year was go on loan and prove he can do a job for Brentford. Doing it for Arsenal is not quite the same thing. I would be dubious about making a 20 year keeper is as the number 1 but I’ll tell you this, if it came down to a straight choice between the keepers we have now I’d hand him the number one shirt and a big box of laxatives to ensure none of the others did anything on match day but clutch the sides of a toilet, grimacing and perhaps mewling slightly, whilst unleashing unstoppable torrents of watery poo.
He clearly fancies his chances based on the competition he’s got at the club right now and who can blame him? He knows there’s a big opportunity there and if he gets a chance to play in pre-season then he’s got to take it. Almunia and Fabianski have had countless opportunities and fallen short while Mannone looks like an Italian Stuart Taylor to me, someone who will spend most of his career understudying.
Obviously the ideal situation would be for us to buy a proper keeper, let Wojscez©® develop, learn from him, play the cup games, fill in when required, and then step up when he’s really ready. Fingers crossed on that one.
The word on the Caledonian Road this morning is that Eduardo did not travel to Austria yesterday and underwent a medical in London ahead of the move to Shaktar Donetsk. Hopefully it all went well and we should get more information on that fairly soon.
Another man on the move yesterday was Joe Cole. He turned down Champions League football from Arsenal and Sp*rs to sign for Liverpool. I can’t say I’m too unhappy, really. We have a plethora of players in that mould, Arshavin, Rosicky, Nasri and, perhaps crucially, Jack Wilshere. Signing Cole would have sent a message to Wilshere that he would have been on the fringes for at least a season, maybe more, and I’ve said all summer that I’d like him to play his football with us next season. I’m not suggesting we rely on him, he’s still very young, but integrating him into the side the way we did with Aaron Ramsey last season is the way to go.
Let’s not forget Ramsey, before that vomit-mouthed, bone-headed, knuckle-dragging, low-browed, piss-drinking mastodon snapped his leg in two, had moved above Denilson in the pecking order and looked set to play a big part in the final part of the season. There’s no reason why Wilshere can’t make a similar impact, especially with someone like Rosicky entering the final year of his contract. He’s got the talent, he did well at Bolton last season, and I’d rather we gave a player who really is the future of Arsenal a chance than a window-licking, mouth-breathing, fly-catching, bollixed-knees like Joe Cole.
From a football point of view that’s about that but the Arsenalisation of the Grove continues apace with the news that the stands are being renamed. Once again there’ll be a ‘North Bank’ and a ‘Clock End’ (at least that gives us one more song to sing), along with West and East Stands. A replica of the Highbury Clock has already been mounted inside the stadium. It’s probably stuff that should have been done right at the start but this is much better late than never.
And that’s about that. There’s a match tomorrow. We play Sturm Graz at 6pm so a bit of football to look forward to.
Till then.
