Morning all,
we’ll start with confirmation of the news you already knew that Thomas Vermaelen is to undergo surgery for his ongoing achilles problem. Except it’s not surgery. It’s a ‘procedure’.
‘A surgical procedure?’, I hear you ask. Yes, yes it is, but it’s not ‘surgery surgery’. There’ll be no opening of his chest, cracking of his breast-plate and tinkering with his heart. No, this can surgery is barely worthy of the name. It all seems a bit hair-splitting, to be honest.
‘Arsene, are you having a meal?’
‘No, it’s just a late supper’.
‘That’s a meal’.
‘No, it’s supper’.
The main point is that they’ve put a 4-6 week timeframe on his return which is the first time there’s been anything definitive since he got the injury. Apart from at the start when we said he might be back for the West Brom game, and then said it might be ten days, and then we gave up because we were unsure what was going on and lived in fear of him having to have surgery. I mean a procedure.
Yesterday an Arsers regular, and all-round surgeon, emailed me to tell me about the surgery and said:
By the sounds of it he is having an exploration of his Plantaris tendon. Removing it seems a good idea, as long as he doesn’t suffer any complications like infection or bleeding.
He then went on to say:
Compared to an Achilles tear this is still nowhere near as significant – so fingers crossed he dies well.
Which, knowing our luck, is exactly what will happen. I suppose the good thing is that they’re confident enough to give us a return date. What we have to bear in mind is that Vermaelen’s last game for Arsenal was against Blackburn on August 28th so it’s going to take him some time to get match fit again. I suspect the second leg of the Barcelona game, which he’s targetted for his comeback, will be too soon.
Still, as we ponder our centre-half situation The Mail will make you feel better by suggesting we’ve made an enquiry to Aston Villa about Richard Dunne. He’s been unsettled at Villa this season and was dropped from the team for a few weeks after Houllier took over. There were also reports of a training ground bust-up with Gary McAllister. All the same that’s no reason for us to get involved.
Obviously I don’t watch Villa that closely but from what I can gather he was dropped because he was playing like a big cunny. He certainly ticks a number of boxes that Arsene might have on his checklist. Experienced, experienced in the Premier League, very much a stop-gap signing, cheap as chips probably, not very expensive at all, wouldn’t cost very much money, discount value, economical and cut-price.
On the other hand though he also ticks other boxes such as: not that good, as slow as Arseblogger, capable of kicking air instead of the ball, no experience of Champions League football, overly Irish and grows large with food. I know we need a centre-half but surely Richard Dunne is not the answer. It does seem like the kind of signing Arsene would make though. He’ll have looked at the success of Sol Campbell last season, a similarly heavy unit, and thought ‘this could work!’.
And here’s what I’ve just realised – the signing of Sylvester was a piece of long-term planning by Arsene Wenger. He knew that the giant-headed, can’t close his mouth, Frenchman would be such an appalling disaster that any subsequent signings would appear much better than they actually were. Seriously, try it yourself. Sylvester or Richard Dunne? Oooh, Richard Dunne please. Sylvester or Titus Bramble. Gimme that damn, Bramble. Sylvester or that useless Greek serial killer Liverpool have? Serial kill me, baby! Sylvester or 14 stone of goat poo mouled into a basic human shape and covered with a football kit? GOAT PLOP!
I’m onto you, Arsene, you cunning bastard. We’ll have to wait and see what happens but this would not surprise me in the least if it went through. And I’m back to being serious again.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Leeds and it looks as if Wojscez©® will continue in goal after Lukasz Fabianski suffered a ‘small setback’ with regard to his shoulder injury. It’s interesting that despite him being the only ‘senior’ keeper at the club who is fit to play there isn’t any real drama or fear. I think it’s an indication of the faith people have in the young man. There’s a sense that he’s got it – it being the indefinable quality that sets one player apart from another. Like Jack Wilshere has it, Craig Eastmond does not. The only It he has is a copy of Steven King’s book, translated into txt spk.
“OMG, lk at dose bloons?! Itz dat fkn clwn agin! lol”
Manuel Almunia is still ‘injured’ but should something happen to Wojscez©® I suspect he could be patched up in record time. James Shea is likely to continue on the bench and that’s not a bad thing. Being around the first team, the match day preparation etc, will give him a taste of what it’s like and hopefully spur him on to make the step up. Beyond that there don’t appear to be any more injuries. There’s some talk of the return of Diaby in a little while but I’ll believe that when I see it.
There are already reports that we’ll rotate the squad for tomorrow night’s game against Leeds. I think that’s inevitable, to be honest, but I suspect he’ll put out a team with one or two more ‘first team’ players than he might previously have done. More on that tomorrow.
Finally for today, Arsenal have come to an agreement with Feyenoord over the loan of young players such as Japanese karate master Mr Miyagi. I suppose it’s a way of us bringing in young players from around the world who otherwise wouldn’t get a work permit. Or, indeed, to loan out young academy players and give them experience. I don’t think it’s been formalised yet but it looks like that’s going to happen.
“Wax on, right hand, wax off, left hand”. He’s gonna be some player.
Have a good one.
