A week since my last post. Not a lot’s happened, that’s why, apart from the now default ‘Fabregas to leave’ rumour (swiftly followed by his denial). Are we going to have more of this? Seems likely – unless he retreats to a monastery and takes a vow of silence.
Some of the more fanciful links see us linked to Benzema (deeply unlikely) and Ribery (source: The Daily Star – so don’t go out and get Ribery printed on your new away shirt just yet). This stuff can be so far fetched – I can’t see it happening.
A raft of ex-Arsenal players being linked to returns to England too – Vieira, Hleb and Reyes.
I’d love to see Vieira back – but I can’t see that happening either. He’s 33, and got about a million miles on the clock. It would be like buying a vintage Alfa Romeo: Deeply desirable new, but a bugger to run in later life.
Hleb too – I’ve been wondering for a while, ever since he didn’t even make the Champions League final squad, whether he might find his way back to England. Sure, London was too busy for him, but clearly Barcelona wasn’t (work that one out if you can), so maybe. Deeply infuriating though he was, he’d be a desirable signing. Experience of the league, fabulous close control. As long as prospective employers don’t expect him to score goals then he’d be worth a pop. Can I really see it happening? Not really – I suspect he’d rather stay in Spain or return to Germany.
As for Reyes, well one of the other Arsenal blogs picked up on his remarkable fall a while ago (apologies bt I don’t recall which one it was). He’s gone from a player who in 2004 was worth up to €17m to one now on the market for £4m. And he’s only 25.
Anyone wanting him would have a job on their hands even at that price. As well as turning round three years of worsening form, they’d have to entice him back to England. He hated it here. Hated the weather, the food, said there was nothing to do. I can’t see it happening.
We’ve had Adebayor linked to Milan again, though, a rumour that refuses to go away. But read what the Milan honcho says and he’s hardly wheelspinning his way to London to bag his man.
“If Dzeko is [available] we will start talking sums. Adebayor and [Sevilla striker] Luis Fabiano are the alternatives. For Adebayor there has been a telephone call, during which Wenger was friendly.”
More here.
Hardly the ringing endorsement Adebayor would like, eh? He might find it harder to find the club of his dreams than he thinks. He’s on fat wages for a start, and he doesn’t strike me as being the kind of player who’d be happy to take a wage cut. To be fair to him, I’ve yet to see a footballer who would.
It’s rare for a player to be so universally disliked, I must say. I am a little more cicumspect: I don’t like his attitude but if he can score 16 goals in a bad season, and 30 in a good one, then he should only be sold if a) the price is right and b) we have a replacement lined up.
Unless the Dzeko deal falls through though, I wonder whether it will happen at all.
Tags: adabayor, benzema, fabregas, hleb, reyes, ribery, vieira
Remarkably, it’s less than a month until our first pre-season match, against Barnet on 18th July.
It’s gone fast – partly because we’ve had the U21s, partly because of the Confounded Cup but principally due to the fact that Wenger has made a statement of intent with an early summer signing.
Now, if you’re paying £10m or thereabouts for a defender – the most we have ever spent on someone in the back line – it’s safe to assume that, as many other bloggers have already, that barring an injury or a calamitous piece of judgment from Wenger, Vermaelen has been signed with a view to being a permanent fixture.
So with Senderos also having returned, it’s easy to see why the rumours are currently strong that we’ll be offloading one of our other central defenders. With Gallas, Toure, Vermaelen, Senderos, Djourou and Silvestre in the same position, it doesn’t take a genius to see that one, and probably two of those players will leave. Four central defenders is ample.
So we all expect some activity there.
Somewhere else we’ve been expecting activity is in central midfield, which might go some way to explaining why Diaby has apparently eschewed his summer holiday in favour of beefing himself up in the gym.
Diaby is not stupid: he can see that his chances will be diminished next season if he doesn’t step up a level. On the evidence shown so far, the ‘new Patrick Vieira’ is not even as good as the currently ageing one – not that there aren’t flashes of brilliance there. His goal at Anfield in the Champions League quarter-final in 2008, his league goal at Villa last season; at his best he can be fabulous. But he does need better concentration, he needs to stay fit for longer and he needs to up his workrate, so it’s pleasing (if the story is true) to see that he wants to push on.
The same goes for the others in central midfield: Denilson (a massive 51 appearances last season), Song (48) and even Ramsey (22) will feel threatened by any newcomer just as their colleagues in the back line probably are now. Fabregas’ inclusion is a given – but none of the others can be so confident.
So are we likely to see one of the above leave too? If we signed a big name central midfielder who will slot straight into the side then it wouldn’t surprise me, and the most obvious candidate to go is Diaby himself. Denilson has enjoyed Wenger’s favour all season, Song improved massively and Ramsey is still very, very young.
So as I said, all power to Diaby for wanting to do something positive.
Anything else this evening?
Well, Melo is flattered by Arsenal’s interest. I wouldn’t get too giddy by this – it’s the eyelash-fluttering stage of the relationship. Wenger might not even spot him across the crowded dancefloor, but even if he did, we’re probably a long way off a first date.
Ready to pounce here, preparing to swoop there: there’s genuine hope that Arsenal’s summer business is beginning to be done.
Clearly, the most likely and immediate incomer is defender Thomas Vermaelen, due we are told for a medical tomorrow.
All he needs to prove to Tony Colbert is that he hasn’t got balsa legs and the deal should be done. His arrival – fingers crossed and all that – could precipitate a bit of movement in the other direction. I can’t see Senderos staying (the only player currently on my transfer ‘Ins’ – strictly speaking he counts as an addition to the squad), but nobody is clear if any of our central defenders, Djourou apart, will 100% be here next season so your guess is as good as mine.
Other linkees are Marouane Chamakh, Felipe Melo and Uncle Tom Cobley. I have no idea of the veracity of any of these, except for the latter, of course. Cobley is not a footballer.
And finally, Theo Walcott’s peculiar pre-pre-season continued tonight with a second half cameo for the England U21s that was full of promise. He’s been average one moment and excellent the next, and substituted twice at half time – once for the seniors and once for the U21s.
The bottom line for me here is that Walcott is a work in progress. It’s absolute lunacy (though sadly, absolutely predictable) for people to write Walcott off so early in his international career, as some have done. He’s 20 years old. He still has a lot to learn, but overall, in a year that included 4 months out, Walcott has made massive steps.
Nothing to add, really.
Tags: chamakh, melo, uncle tom cobley, vermaelen, walcott
Hard to know what Wenger makes of this transfer pandemic, isn’t it?
The great man has kept radio silence over the last week, presumably either because he’s off on business or because he’s staggering around Blackpool half cut wearing a Kiss Me Quick hat.
But we can guess: For a man who has long (and correctly, in my view) espoused common sense in the running of a football club, this mayhem must be deeply discomforting.
Live by your means, that’s his maxim, and he has always done that.
Real Madrid’s claim that these transfers pay for themselves is hard to believe with the eye-watering numbers that promise to change hands – £140m thus far. I mean, if an £80m transfer made financial sense, why don’t all clubs do it?
I suppose the answer to that is, for Madrid, it just does. Their fanbase is truly global, and with all due respect to the great Italian and English clubs, nothing touches them for glamour and history. Nine European Cups says it all.
Doesn’t make it right, though. In a summer when Wenger is presumably working in the £5m-£15m range, these kinds of deals will not help one jot. The market is further skewed by petro-dollars and dinars. This is going to be a tough summer for Wenger, I suspect. Not so much because his targets will be snaffled – he always manages to pull a relative unknown out the bag (Nasri, Sagna, the list goes on). But more because the sheer greed of footballers and agents will doubtless fuel the demands when there are millions being spent across Europe. Britain’s tax changes and the weakness of Sterling add to that, when you’re buying outside the UK.
For what it’s worth, on some issues I agree with Platini. The Champions League is horrendously predictable at times, principally to satisfy the wealthy clubs. He’s done something about that – and even though it might affect Arsenal, I’m not opposed to the early stages being shaken up a bit.
But I don’t see how he can realistically do much about the money being spent.
We can of course fall back on the fact that money does not buy success. That comes from having a great manager, a sensible board, and with the allowance of time to get things right (and make mistakes).
As Romford Pele said today on the Arsecast, there’s nobody better than Wenger for Arsenal at the moment. if anyone can battle the tide of money sweeping Europe, it’s him.
One more thing:
For those of you who access this on an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry Storm, I am playing around with a specific mobile template. I remain unconvinced as to whether it’s any better or more usable than accessing the standard web page, so if you have any feedback do let me know. My email is eastlower AT googlemail.com or you can get me via Twitter.
Tags: crazy money, transfers, wenger
We’re still ‘on the brink’ of signing Vermaelen, I see. It says so everywhere.
I suppose I can’t complain: compared to the Nasri transfer last summer, and numerous other last-minute in and out jobs like Gallas and Arshavin, this close season – all two and a half weeks of it – have been a breeze.
The Vermaelen story has the longest legs – it’s just a shame the player doesn’t.
In all seriousness, any central defender worth £10m must have something about him, even in this inflated market. Tony Adams might know a thing or two about defending but I doubt he’s been scouting him for months, as Wenger is bound to have been doing.
Wenger’s defensive judgment is not bad – he lengthened the careers of the famous back line, he bought Campbell, Toure, Lauren, Lehmann, Clichy and Sagna amongst others (let’s put Stepanovs down to a bad day at the office and this season’s sieve of a defence to there being something in the water).
Whether or not Toure, or indeed Gallas or Silvestre, will head the other way in any defensive revolving door remains to be seen. Personally, I’d be keen for both Gallas and Toure to stay. We all know the guff that went on in the run-up to Gallas losing his captaincy, but he was very good in the latter part of the season. And though Toure hasn’t been quite the buccaneering Ivorian of old, he’s an old head and a club stalwart.
It does feel as though one of them might go, though. We could do with four central defenders – we needed as many as we could muster this season – and we have four now. Who goes will depend on a myriad of factors. Whether we can get good money, whether it’s the right time, but above all, whether one of them wants to leave.
Talking of defenders, I see that Kieran Gibbs scored twice for the England U21s tonight.
With Gibbs and Clichy, we’re sorted in that department. I know it’s early days to say this, but for how long can we keep them both happy?
Evening folks. I’ll keep this one brief for a simple reason: The season is over and the silly season has yet to begin in earnest. But I thought I’d poke my head round the blogging door anyway.
In fact, the transfer window opened today with a whimper – perhaps because it’s precisely now when players and managers head off to their sunbeds, leaving us to devour the titbits offered by the back pages and footballers’ agents. It’s not much to go on.
It’s also deadline day for season ticket holders to renew, a fearsome time when 40,000 people take an unpleasant seasonal financial hit. Was I ever considering not renewing it? Pah! Despite a season of decidedly mixed performances, and it being a hell of a lot of money, going to the football is as fun as it ever was and it’s a very difficult thing to quit when you’ve been doing it, as I have as a season ticket holder, for 15 years. I’ll be there again, of course.
Something of interest though: Some details on the TV and prize money have come out, revealing what we all knew already and explaining perhaps why Arsenal sank £16m into Arshavin’s purchase in January – that the Champions League remains a crucial cash cow for the big four.
The £23.4m we earned from the Champions League is the fundamental difference in TV revenue between us and fifth-placed Everton. That’s a hell of a lot of extra dough.
What is a little odd is that, while Chelsea earned a little more from the Premier League (thanks to finishing a place above us), we earned £3m less than them in the Champions League despite reaching the same stage, and playing an extra qualifying round. It being late in the evening, I’ve yet to work out how that might be. Something to do with coefficients? Seeding? I’m not sure.
It’s also instructive to see how little the Uefa Cup brings in. For a competition that, from next season, could require 19 games to win, the financial rewards are surprisingly feeble. Any surprise that Villa and the Spuds threw the towel in there?
Anyway, here’s hoping we get drawn against Lokomotiv Plovdiv or someone like that in the qualifiers.
Right, that’s it. Who will we be signing tomorrow, eh?
Update
The answer to that last question is clearly ‘nobody’ seeing that I’m a month early. Got slightly ahead of myself there.
Tags: champions league, revenue, silly season, transfer window
So, after all that Theo Walcott was called up for the England U21 side due to take part in the European Championships next month, alongside team-mate Kieran Gibbs.
It’s great news for Gibbs, but a mixed blessing for Walcott.
In a generally disappointing season, Gibbs’ emergence was a definite highlight for me. I can’t think of any other player of his age and his experience who ended up playing in an FA Cup semi-final and two Champions League semi-finals in their first 15 senior games for their club – and he acquitted himself excellently. Of course, he made a mistake that precipitated our second-leg Champions League meltdown, and he looked raw at other times, but he did incredibly well by and large, and shows great promise. Seeing that he won’t be considered first-choice left-back next season, a close season tournament such as this is crucial to his development.
With Walcott, it’s a little different, even if he is only a year older than Gibbs and would also benefit from the experience. Because unlike Gibbs, he’ll also be playing with the senior England side, so I can see where Wenger’s anger at him being used by both comes from. Apparently, he’ll only have had a week off by the time pre-season training starts.
The issue is complicated by the fact that, as far as we can tell, Walcott is keen to tuck into as much summer football as possible. So he’s got his club boss pulling him one way, his national bosses another and his heart in yet another.
Even if you take his mid-season three-month layoff into account, as a key first-team player Walcott will need a decent break this summer, and unless something gives (ie he’s used as a sub only for the seniors) then he won’t get that. And when the World Cup starts this time next year, what kind of a state will Walcott be in?
Arsenal.com Anfield ‘89 feature
Where did those twenty years go?
26th May 1989 was the moment that has come to define Arsenal’s modern era – a league title that propelled us forward as a club. It was also the most impossibly close finish to a league season – the goal required to win the title coming in the last minute of the last game against the other team challenging for it. Sky would wet themselves if they had such a scenario now. It would have ‘Fireworks Friday’.
It was also our first league title in 18 years – which puts our current five title-less years into some perspective.
Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people with a fabulous Anfield ‘89 story to tell. I didn’t hitch-hike up the M1 or arrive in the ground just as Smudger knocked in the first. I wasn’t celebrating down in N5 or watching it on a black and white set at 3am in some far off land.
I was just watching it at my Mum and Dad’s house on the portable telly. I think they had some people round (it was a Friday night) and when Thomas’ goal went in, going ballistic and hurtling round the house as I did, I think they must thought I needed sectioning.
Even now, listening to Brian Moore’s ITV commentary makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It’s unbelievable.
More coverage here (7m 15s in)
BBC radio commentary here
News coverage here
And understandably, Arsenal.com have gone large on it too.
John Lukic, David O’Leary, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould (Perry Groves), Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn, David Rocastle, Michael Thomas, Kevin Richardson, Paul Merson (Martin Hayes), Alan Smith.
Legends, all.
Tags: 1989, It's up for grabs now..., thomas
