Another Friday is upon us and the main issue of the day is … injuries.
Starting with some good news, Djourou, Denilson and Song are all likely to be back from their knocks and are in various stages of contention for the weekend. Djourou will probably start, seeing as he’s the only available centre-half bar Vermaelen, Song could well come back into his midfield holding role, while Denilson should provide some cover from the bench having not played football since April.
We should also see Cesc this weekend too. Whether it’s from the start or not remains to be seen. The manager is hinting he won’t be rushing the captain, or Robin van Persie, back after their World Cup exploits, which I think is pretty sensible. With all due respect to Blackpool this is a game we shouldn’t need to take too many risks with. The benefit of getting a proper pre-season, even if it is late, shouldn’t be underestimated.
There was bad news, however, for youngster Emmanuel Frimpong who did his cruciate ligaments in training and faces 6-9 months out. It’s a real shame for the youngster who did well in pre-season games but I’m really not sure it’s going to have that big an impact on our season. He’s never played a league game for us, I had my doubts as to whether he was actually ready to do so this season (I think a loan move would have been ideal), and while I fully understand people’s frustrations with yet another serious injury I don’t really understand all the gnashing and wailing.
Aren’t many of the same folk bemoaning The Frimster’s injury the same folk who would prefer the manager to go out and buy experienced cover for Alex Song? If it were Song who were injured then I’d be a lot more worried. So while it’s terrible for the player and I really hope he recovers well let’s not kid ourselves that Frimpong was a vital component of our squad.
Speaking of which Fulham have apparently turned down another offer from us for Mark Schwarzer. Early reports said we made exactly the same offer as the previous one – a cunning trick designed to catch the Cottagers cottaging – but subsequently it has emerged we offered 20p more. So, stick that in your hat those who say we’re fannying around and not taking things seriously.
If I had to guess I’d say the hold up is entirely down to Fulham’s search for a replacement. They won’t let Schwarzer go until they’ve got someone lined up. They know he wants to leave, they know we want to buy him, they’re trying to squeeze us for as much money as possible, and the whole thing is rather more complicated than it should have been. I still think it’ll happen, not in time for the Blackpool game, but hopefully before Blackburn, the most racist team name of them all.
As for the defender there’s nothing new in the Spanish press this morning regarding Squillaci. Sevilla have gone public with our interest, which doesn’t normally go down well with Arsenal, but I can’t imagine this is going to spark a stampede of clubs looking to sign him. We’ve had dealings with del Nido before, he’s a difficult character when he wants to be, but I’ve got a feeling this one is 99% in the bag. Sure, it’s an Aldi bag but it’s better than no bag at all.
Young Jay Simpson has joined Hull City on a three year deal. Expected fee to us around £1.5m which isn’t bad at all. Good luck to him up there.
What do Panathanaikos, Juventus, PSG, Roma, Celtic and Hamburg all have in common? They all decided that William Gallas wasn’t worth the money he was looking for. Gallas left Arsenal this summer in the belief that he’d walk into a massive Bosman deal but his wages proved the stumbling block time and time again. And I’m sure his character played a part in some of the failed moves.
Now, it seems he’s going to play for Sp*rs. How nice. Any comparisons with Sol Campbell are totally inaccurate seeing as Sp*rs fans really liked Campbell before he left. Gallas was hardly a favourite amongst Gooners. And quite amusingly, they’re not amused either. A passing Sp*rs fan on Twitter said ‘Ex Chelsea & Arsenal. Only way he’d be more unpopular at WHL is if he joined the Nazi party’. It should all work out beautifully then – but if he does end up there we’ll have to keep a close eye on him, we know he has no compunction about scoring against his old teams.
I always thought he was a massive injury-prone cunny, this would only ice the cunny cake. With icing made from warthog’s jism and hippo abortions.
Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and on the show with me is the man from East Lower to talk about football and injuries while Tim Payton from the AST discusses the Arsenal Fanshare scheme. There’s the usual bits and bobs in there too.
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Right then – go forth and have an injury free Friday.
