Sky Sources: Man City close to signing Nasri and Clichy

I was going to write today about an Arsenal source talking about us signing Cahill and I will touch on that in a bit. But I'm starting with the news that Man City are closing in on signing Samir Nasri and Gael clichy. This story has literally just been broadcast on SSN. The report suggests they are going to offer £20m and to be totally honest if its true we should take it. You must remember this is player who is on the last year of his contract and is stalling over a new deal due to money. If he is motivated by money then he is certainly going to the right place with Shake man-I'm-a-spoilt-rich-cunt-suer throwing money at things to please himself. But as many people have stated including myself, he had a good 6 month spell and we all got a bit caught up in Nasri fever, but really he hasn't shown that he is a tried and tested performer. To top that off we'll also make a cool profit on him.

When I look at Nasri now I see a player who has 1) let success get to his head and 2) has let his agent convince him he really is that good. The term money talks is a certainly true when it comes to Nasri who was stalling over an extra 20k a week, Man City are reportedly offering him an extra 90k a week taking his salary to an eye watering 180k. Now I don't think I'm alone here when I say that he is not worth that, so best of luck to city with that and once again not letting the squad gel and settle will be their downfall.

As for Clichy I couldn't give two shits where he goes. In earlier posts I said he was past it and I stand by that, he hasn't been at his best for seasons now. As much as it pains me to say it, when we let that money grabbing arsehole Ashley Cole go, we lost the best left back in the world. Clichy stepped in for a while but in recent seasons his touch has gone and I think its time we all went seperate ways. No fee has been mentioned for him but I would assume its between the 5-8m mark.

However there was talk of players moving the other way. Now who exactly would we want from their squad? well in a perfect world I'd like Yaya Toure but we all know that won't happen, no doubt we'll be offered some two bob defender or midfielder such as Kompany. So lets look at it this way is £25m about the right price for Nasri and Clichy? Well yes an no. Yes in the situation we are in where Nasri has a year left on his contract and isn't going to sign a new one and in Clichy's current form he isn't worth much. No in the sense that Nasri is certainly a talent and when Andy Carrol commands £35m then Nasri commands more than £25m on his own. But such is life and football.

Onto what I was actually going to post about. An "Arsenal" source yesterday said that we were going to move in on Gary Cahill, now many people have doubted whether Wenger will pay the £17m that they want including myself. But reports suggest that we will pay his get out clause and then offer them a player, namely bentfoot. Now this may sound stupid but it may have more support than you'd think. They have lost Elmander who has moved to Galatasaray and Bendtner could be his replacement so we shall see what develops.

That's it for now but be sure to check back and I'll keep you updated on the Nasri/Clichy saga and anything else that happens. Remember we follow a club not a player...

New Facebook page

Just a quick update here really to say that Gunnar's Blog now has a new Facebook page, so get on there and get liking. Its also an area for discussion on the topics that are covered here so let me hear your opinions and get some feedback.

Here's the link:

Thanks guys and gals.

Barca bid for Cesc

It emerged today that Barcelona have made their first bid for Fabregas a pathetic £27m which when you compare to the £31m they offered last year which we also turned down, is rather insulting to Arsenal, the fans and Cesc himself. The argument that they gave that over this season he's undergone "wear and tear" is complete bullshit. Thats simply Barcelona not wanting to pay top prices for top players. Claiming that a player who is 24 is suddenly worth less than when he was 23 is absolutely pathetic. I can imagine once they stated the offer our representative simply getting up and walking out. When they pay 40m euros for David Villa, they should be aware that we aren't letting Cesc go cheap.

Anyway rant over. So what else is on the grapevine? Well quite honestly nothing new. Apparently we are preparing a bid for Samba who has stated that he is open to a move, which I would welcome should it materialise. I think he's a strong, tall player who is what we need at the back. The other piece of old news once again links us with Cahill. Another play who I would welcome at the back as he clearly has talent. However not talent worth £17m.

I understand a lot of fans are getting impatient with Arsenal as we dont appear to be doing much, but apart from Manchester United who have signed Ashley Young (why?) not a lot of clubs are doing tonnes of business. I'm sure behind the scenes we are sorting things out, Arsenal have a habit of doing nothing, then out of the blue making a signing. I also see that we have apparently signed Ricardo Alvarez according to the Metro (about as reliable as the mirror). Hey even his Wikipedia page says he's an Arsenal player so it must be true!

Well should anything dramatic happen (not bloody likely) then I'll keep you posted but until next time enjoy the weather while you can!

2011/2012 Fixtures

No more news on the Nasri or Fabregas front just the usual shit from Spain and the normal bollocks in the Mirror. Apologies to fans of the paper but they fabricate so much dog shit it unreal, everyone claims they are the first to report every big transfer but when they link us with every player under the sun is it really surprising?

Anyway the big news on Friday was the release of the 2011/2012 season fixtures. We start our new campaign with a tough month, firstly against Newcastle away. Avoiding a repeat of last years disastrous second half would definitely be handy. This is followed by a Champions League Qualifier and then we entertain Liverpool at home. Then obviously the Champions League Qualifier 2nd leg and then a trip to Old Trafford. Other important dates are October 1st which is the Scum away, the return of that fixture is 25th February, Chelsea away is October 29th and the return of that is April 21st. United come to town on January 21st.

This will obviously be a real test of our teams quality and depth, should it go wrong the season may be a slow started but on the other hand should it go well it will give us a good kick start. It could well depend on who we bring in once the issues with Nasri and Cesc are sorted. Should one of them go Wenger knows he will need to spend to bring in a really top class replacement, especially for Cesc. The same goes for Clichy who has been linked with Liverpool and AS Roma. Gibbs although has shown he can perform, there is a question mark over his head as to whether he can be consistent enough.

A fee has supposedly been agreed for Gervinho but once again its from The Mirror so fuck knows whats going on with that transfer. Renewed speculation that we are interested in Gary Cahill comes from a number of other sources and it all over other blogs and forums, I have no news on this so that's also up in the air. The Mirror the other day posted the story that we were interested in Jermaine Defoe, I mean that useless faggot of a football player would be far from welcome at the Emirates, not a lot of weight in that story though.


That's about it really, should anything else happen I'll keep you posted.
Have a good day.

Nasri, Gervinho and others

The news seems to be that Samir is interested in United, OK we all knew that and reports today suggest that United are prepared to table a bid of around £10m. Now that to me seems like a complete piss take. When you consider that Henderson went to Liverpool for £20m and Jones to United for £12m. Nasri is easily better than both of these players so £10m is a low, low offer and people say "Yeah but they're young and English", that may well be the case but it doesn't neccessarily make them good, England haven't won a World Cup in decades (Now I've said this the U21's will probably win the Euros). But if this news is correct then its smart play from United's camp. A bastard for us, but smart from them. They know he's deliberating over what to do and this means that he won't be happy staying so £10m is low but as we're in the current situation we may end up considering it.

However as I said in my last blog, if he doesn't want to stay for the sake of an extra 20k a week then he can fuck off. We don't want players who are motivated by money, we want players who want to win and have the capability to help us. It also appears that Clichy may well be off to Liverpool for around £5m, taking all into account not a bad price and its been on the cards for a while now. Although I've been blowing Gibbs' trumpet all season I'm hoping Wenger will dig into the money pot and buy a solid left back as I do think we need one.

Now the story was broken yesterday by Arseblog that we have engaged in talks with Lille over both Eden Hazard (what a name) and Gervinho. Now of course these aren't defenders but Lille did win both Ligue 1 and the French Cup (I know right!) so they would both be welcome players. But they are two of Lille's instrumental players so whether they'll be willing to let them go for the price we offer is a totally different question.

Reports today also suggest we are interested in the young lad Oxlade-Chamberlain. Now don't get me wrong the 17 year old is a good player and certainly has a bright future but is he really what we need at this precise moment. Not really however this being said he does sound like a typical Arsenal signing, young and with plenty of potential. Should we sign him then I would imagine Wenger will keep him locked away giving him plenty of reserve team play time or even loan him out which I suppose would be a good thing. All game time is good game time and all that.

I'll finish today with an interview I saw on Sky Sports News with Djorou. Now as regular readers know I've been his biggest critic this season by a long way but he said that we need to strengthen the defence and that he is prepared to fight for his place. Now he may have caused us some problems and cost us some goals but its nice to see someone who actually has a desire to better himself as a footballer and not a desire to piss of for an extra £20k a week. No prizes for guessing who that was directed at. If anything big happens I'll be sure to post but until next time, enjoy this fine weather!

Transfer Talk

Sorry this post is late, I've had a busy weekend. So this morning it appears Nasri hasn't committed himself to Arsenal. Well its not really that surprising and after reading into it and thinking I began to see where a few people were coming from. Basically Nasri has us on the ropes, he knows that we could be in trouble could a few other big players go and as he had a good season he can put the pressure on us with the threat of his departure. According to others his agent is a wanker who looks only for the money so he may be under his instruction to say what he said but he has a brain between his ears and it may have hurt a few Arsenal fans. At the end of the day if he is motivated by money then we don't want that sort of player so if he wants to leave so be it. Yes he's had a good season but not had good SEASON'S. We aren't looking at a player who consistently plays world class football and has done for 6 or 7 seasons.

In other news we've been linked with 2 strikers: Benzema and Gervinho. Both are good, obviously Benzema is the better if the two but I see 3 issues with these players. Firstly they are strikers, we need to sure up the defence, if Wenger can't get this through his head then he really has lost it. Secondly with our current set up how exactly would they slot in, unless we lose a current midfielder which in all honesty wouldn't surprise me. But finally can we really see Wenger buying either of these, really?

On another note we've added to the 2 Barcelona 16 year old's that we've signed with one of the biggest names of the season, Kristoffer Olsson. That's right the 15 year old Swede. And people say Wenger has changed his ways. But as always with Arsenal, speculation is rife as to who Wenger really has his eyes on. Until we are linked with an achievable target who is a solid defender it will be hard for the die hard Arsenal fans to get properly excited.

I also so in the papers that Gallas in his normal big headed way has come out and said that Wenger was wrong to get rid of him. Sorry William just what the fuck have you actually done this season?? Hmmm? Thought so. To be perfectly honest I never did like his attitude, always thought he was better than he was (Bendtner syndrome) and always thought he commanded more power at the club than he did. He also stated that its too easy for us all to blame him for our problems. I don't know anyone who blamed him for our problems cause he made no impact. So the usual shit spewing from his mouth about us.

So that's pretty much it for today, I'll try to keep everyone posted should anything interesting happen in terms of news or transfers but we're in the lull between seasons end and the main dealing during the height of the summer.