Morning all. A fool and his money are soon parted, as the saying goes. It seems our boss is no fool because the main story of yesterday was Arsene’s ‘I’ve got faith in my squad and therefore I don’t need to spend any money but if I wanted to spend money I’ve got loads but I don’t because my players are so ace’ extravaganza. Normally we don’t get that story till mid-summer when everyone’s convinced themselves we’re about to sign Johann Franz Peledinhodona.
The timing is odd but I don’t think it’s anything more than a story to give a boost and some belief back to the players. He can’t very well come out now and say “Yeah, I can’t wait for the summer so I can sell Eboue to any cunt that’s thick enough to take him and then spend some of the money on a decent winger and a few other players too”.
He is like the southern preacher putting his hands of the foreheads of his own players and saying ‘Bel-ieve! Bel-ieve!’ and our players are falling down with the visitations and the power of the Lord and stuff. Now, I’m a fan of AW’s recent policy. I thought it was very risky and my cap is very much doffed to the man for having the courage to go through with it but it would be nice to see us buy a player that had actually managed to escape the womb. Anyway, I’m not even going to get into that now. There’s a whole summer of ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’ which is actually ‘Have we signed anyone yet? Have we signed anyone yet?’ still to come and frankly I can wait a long time for that crack to start up again.
Former Gunners have been talking. Robert Pires extols the quality of the Premier League and believes Arsenal are good enough to win the Champions League, while former captain Patrick Vieira says:
I hope Arsenal win it. They have been waiting a long time to win this trophy and they deserve to win it. We came very close a couple of seasons ago and I hope this is their year. I watched them in the San Siro last week and they were incredible. In terms of quality they have an outstanding chance now and I really hope they do it.
The draw takes place tomorrow, of course, and we’ll have at least one all English quarter-final. UEFA will do as much as possible to ensure an all English final doesn’t take place. Frankly I hope it’s another Liverpool v Chelsea borefest while we get Fenerbache or Schalke. I have a feeling it’ll be United handed the easy draw though.
Alex Hleb talks about how Jens Lehmann reacted when dropped this season for Manuel Almunia. He says:
At first when Jens was not picked, he was very angry. He did not speak any more. He has a good heart — as long as we speak about private things. But when he stands on the training ground, he becomes a different person. The way he acts there sometimes needs getting used to.
He also refers to Manuel as ‘popular’ and it has been suggested that the players prefer to play with the Spaniard. Anyway, how long have we been hearing that all goalkeepers are mad? And Jens was known as Mad Jens. So he’s double-mad. And he’s German. So he’s triple-mad. And he’s over 35 years of age which adds a half a madness so by that scientific reckoning Jens is three and half more mad than your normal goalkeeper. Or something. I know, I know, he said some things, he tampered with the brakes on Almunia’s car, he cut words out of newspapers and sent threatening letters to Almunia, but who amongst us hasn’t done that kind of thing? Exactly.
Wigan want to take some of our young players on loan. Steve Bruce had a bucketful of Arsenal youngsters at Birmingham and now he wants some more at the JJB. I suspect Arsene would be reluctant to send them anybody unless they had a pitch they could play football on.
That’s about it then. I’d better try and get an Arsecast together. Till tomorrow.
