Good morning to you.
It’s Friday again. That means we’ve gone through another week without any of the following things happening:
- Signing a new player
- Signing more than one new player
- Selling a player who has said they want to leave the club but for whom nobody has bid
- Selling a player we wouldn’t mind keeping but who is being a dick so we might as well sell him
- Selling a player we definitely don’t want to sell
You’ll notice how I finished on a positive note there. I think we need a bit of that. The silence from the club, the stasis we find ourselves in, and the seemingly endless nothing that’s happening is messing with the head. It’s like an internet powered doom spiral. You know what it is but you just can’t help yourself. We’re all just sitting around waiting for the headlines to appear on Arsenal.com:
Eboue: why I’m proud to be the new captain
Denilson: I feel centre-half will really suit me
Bendtner: I am the greatest left back that ever lived
Squillaci: Arsene’s new 1-0-9 formation will be a challenge for me!
The less that happens the more we speculate and despite what people say about a dearth of imagination as we’re bombarded with content all day long, TV, phone, iPad, tPad, iPadphone and so on, there’s some amazingly creative stuff going on.
People are inventing quotes, photoshopping heads onto bodies to make it look as if transfers have happened, and some scamps are even vandalising Wikipedia. And we all know vandalism is a by-product of boredom. These folk need an internet youth club to keep them occupied. Online bovver boys.
As I’ve said all week, I get it. I can understand it, I know why it’s happening and why people feel the way they do. However, I’m remaining calm and moving about in an orderly fashion, not rushing hither and thither with my arms in the air shrieking. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good rush and a shriek, I most certainly do, but there is absolutely nothing I can about any of it just now. Therefore I’ll try and maintain some distance from the whole thing.
I still believe we will make signings this summer. I have to believe that. Otherwise I’d think the club was poorly run by a bunch of inept, clueless buffoons and I don’t think that’s the case. I’d be shrieking then. I don’t believe they’re blind to the issues we have that need to be addressed or fan sentiment. I don’t believe we’ll go into the new season without strengthening. I just don’t.
If we do, and I stress this is a big if, I will organise a meeting in a large park and we can all go shrieking and arm waving together. It will be cathartic. We can comfort each other, and possibly drink beer together, and vandalise some bus shelters (out of frustration, not boredom), and know that we’ll be brothers in waving arms as we battle relegation in the season ahead.
For now, I have to believe that the club has a plan, that they know what they’re doing, that the silence is the famous ‘working behind the scenes silence’ and not the ‘nothing’s going on silence’. There is certainly a time to make a judgement, and that time is drawing nearer, but it’s not here just yet. That’s how I see it anyway.
Looking around at the news this morning and there’s little new. The Mirror picks up on the Juan Mata story. Apparently ‘negotiations are underway’ between Arsenal and Valencia. The only thing I can really find about this story in the famously transfer frenzied Spanish press is a quote from the Valencia president who says Mata is staying. Let’s hope he’s just playing the long game.
Meanwhile, the Independent reports that Nasri has returned for pre-season and told Arsenal of his desire to leave. He’s desperate to go, in fact. Which doesn’t quite tally with The Guardian’s report that he’d be quite happy to sit out the final year of his contract and go full Bosman next summer. Who to believe? Whichever story/stories are accurate, there can be little doubt Nasri has had some bad advice this summer.
Why create such a fuss now when the lottery-esque free transfer is just 12 months away? Is Arsenal such a terrible place to be that he couldn’t hang on? He could have Flaminied his way through the next campaign and gone to a club of his choosing. Now he’s dependent on somebody making a bid substantial enough for Arsenal to sell, otherwise he’ll have stay a club whose fans are far from appreciative of his behaviour. Not the cleverest move, you have to say.
The Cesc thing rumbles on. Barcelona say they’re happy to wait but we simply can’t allow that to happen. This issue over the two youngsters, Toral and Bellerin, seems to be causing a problem but all it does is show what a pack of talk big, act small cunts they are. Next they’ll be saying that they left Puyol’s hairbrush behind when we allowed them to use our training ground ahead of the Champions League final, and that should be discounted from the price too.
If they won’t pay what Cesc is worth, or can’t pay what Cesc is worth, then a line needs to be drawn under this situation. It cannot be allowed to rumble on until August 31st. As much as it might pain them to hear this, Barcelona need to realise they’re not the most important people in the world, they’re not that special, and we’ve got work to do for the season ahead. The club have to be strong over this or it will continue to dominate and influence our preparations.
You won’t be surprised to hear the various Spanish papers are reporting Cesc saying “I will never play here again” using The Sun as the source for the quote. The quote, of course, never appeared in The Sun. Such is the way of the silly season, I guess.
Alisher Usmanov has bought more shares. 68 of them from one shareholder at a price of £14000 per share. His aggressive purchasing means fewer shares remain outside the grasp of the two billionaires. Regardless of this, and the fact he’s nearing 30% which may give him access to accounts, as long as Kroenke holds 66% there’s not much our portly friend can do about anything, except bluster from the sidelines. Which I fully expect him to do.
And finally we’ve apparently had a bid for Oxencart-Chamberpot turned down but you’ll forgive me if I don’t get too het up about not signing another 17 year old.
Now, breakfast. Then waving and shrieking. Just kidding. Till tomorrow.
