Morning all.
Dublin has returned to normal following the visit of some American rock star yesterday. Can’t say I’d ever heard his music before but he must be pretty good to have entire swathes of the city centre closed off. I guess he was just lucky that we have so many unemployed people who could spend all day waiting around for him to appear. I mean, if you’ve got nothing better to do …
Anyway, back to the altogether more amusing and interesting world of Arsenal and we’ll start this morning with Jack Wilshere whose presence at the European U21s is no longer required. This is because he told Stuart Pearce he didn’t want to go, citing the hard season and a decline in fitness as the reason. He said:
Over the last few weeks I have been feeling tired and my GPS results have shown that. It shows I am heading for an injury and that is the last thing I want. Especially heading into the Euros.
I said I wanted to play and I meant that. I wasn’t lying. I wanted to play. I still want to play. But I think it’s the best thing. Obviously there’s a risk of injury and missing some of next season. I’m not saying I’m going to get injured but I want to be 100%.
Which is really quite sensible and the right thing to do. There will be the usual outrage from those who think anyone who turns down the chance of playing for England is capable of Queenicide whilst spraying graffiti on Stonehenge and wiping their arse with the flag but for me Jack is doing the right thing.
Comparisons with David Bentley, who a few seasons ago pulled out of the same tournament for much the same reasons, are sure to crop up but here’s the difference. One, Wilshere is now almost fully established as a senior international, Bentley was not. And two, Bentley is a massive, chavvy, up his own arse cockplunger who thought he was god’s gift to football. And he had stupid facial hair, like an idiot musketeer.
Arsene Wenger will be relieved and Fabio Capello too. Although the Italian didn’t have the balls/authority to tell Stuart Pearce to leave Jack out he’ll have a better, fresher, fitter Jack Wilshere for England’s Euro 2012 campaign next summer. And those who criticise Wilshere might do well to remember that too. Say what you want about the U21s providing ‘tournament experience’, the bottom line is nobody cares for one second who wins it. Nobody. And anything that makes England better for next summer should be a good thing.
Meanwhile, the manager has suggested he’s going to be busier than usual in the summer although you hardly need confirmation of that given the current circumstances at the club. The boss said:
The market will be hyperactive because everyone believes financial fair play will happen soon. So we are quickly doing the last buying before the stores will be closed. And for the first time for a while, I will be very active, too.
I’m not quite sure what he means by the stores being closed. If we’re spending our own money and living within our means surely we’re entitled to go shopping any time we want. And given the financial situations at many clubs I suspect they would welcome our business. We’re not putting this on our Sharklay’s Bank credit card, we’ve got c-c-c-c-c-ash and we’re spending it like a fox.
As for the being active part well that almost goes without saying. We know Denilson is on his way and yesterday Nicklas Bendtner’s agent and father, his fagent, revealed the Big Dane wants out:
Nicklas has made his decision and told Arsenal: he wants to leave the club. I can say that there is serious interest from English and German clubs and it is not going to be a problem to find him a good club. In terms of his price we expect that Arsenal will treat us with respect, as we have always done with them.
Now, I think Bendnter’s a decent enough player and at 23 has the potential to improve quite a great deal over the next few years. I also think he’s a player who, if he applied himself more in training and took the football a little more seriously, would be even better now. He’s had a mixed relationship with Arsenal fans but considering his starts, considering the amount of times he’s been asked to play as a wide man, his goal record is pretty healthy.
That said, it does seem like he’s gone as far as he can with us and we’ve gone as far as we can with him. A change is probably for the best for both parties. In terms of the price though, if the Bendtners are expecting Arsenal to let him go for a knock-down price then they ought to think again. We’ve spent a lot on his education and development and I think he’s a player that will score plenty of goals in his career. I’ve no real issue with letting him go provided that a) we replace him in the transfer market and b) we get the right kind of price for him.
Meanwhile, the Mirror suggests Zenit would be interested in taking Andrei Arshavin back to Russia for a fee of around £7m. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this were to happen and considering Arshavin is training with Zenit this week, ahead of Russian’s Euro qualifying game, it might be the perfect time for him to let them know if he were interested in going back. I think we’d be prepared to do this deal if it were on the table.
So that’s a couple of forwards out, there are further doubts over the future of Gael Clichy and I expect him to go. There’s the Nasri situation and then, of course, we’ll all wait and see what happens with Cesc. Already there are the stories doing the rounds that he said his goodbyes to staff at the training ground and if you were to ask me now to put money on him being at the club next season I don’t think I’d take that bet.
Ignore any stories about Real Madrid, they are outright nonsense, but nonsense the club is probably happy to entertain for the sake of its negotiating position. It remains to be seen whether or not Barcelona can come up with a deal that’s acceptable to Arsenal. When you see Torres go for £50m, Andy Carroll for £35m and Ronaldo to Madrid for £80m, this is the kind of territory we’re in. Cesc is one of the best players in world, educated and developed at Arsenal, and again his fee should reflect that. If that offer comes in then Arsenal will let him go, so it’s down to Barcelona now and how much they want him.
Perhaps Barcelona’s new sponsor, the Qatar Foundation, will donate some money to the cause. Money they saved by having a work experience boy knock up their logo in Word. I mean, really? All that money and Times New Roman is the best you can do. Still, that’s by the by.
So here we are and we haven’t even mentioned players like Almunia, Rosicky, Squillaci and Vela, who are all thought to be surplus to requirements this summer. It means we’re going to get the closest thing ever to a transfer frenzy at the club, they’ll be coming and going like Karma Chameleons. Oh boy!
All the talk is of the players on the way out, and little about who’s coming in. The Sun links us with Sergio Canales whose Real Madrid career has not taken off the way many expected. He would be an interesting one but I don’t give much credence to the story. The Mail suggests we might be after Stewart Downing, a player who, if he were right footed, would be scratching around the Championship somewhere. As for the rest, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Finally for today, the club has announced the pre-season friendly in Malaysia. We’ll play a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on July 13. Details of the game in China are set to follow.
Right, that’s about that. Welcome the off-season, folks.
