Koscielny new deal + transfer rumours

Hi all, just a quick post today as I am extremely busy. 

As I'm sure many of you know, this morning Laurent Koscielny has agreed a new long-term deal with us. We have been criticised for our defensive frailties over the last couple of seasons but Koscielny, especially last season, I think has been fantastic. He's really got his head down and got on with the job in hand making crucial interceptions, tackles and scoring the odd goal too including our winner at West Brom. He has really won the fans over and it's great to see him (much like Vermaelen) sign a contract, no fuss, no problems and focus on his football. See Robin, it's not that hard is it?

In other news and these are only rumours I have seen from various sources that we have agreed personal terms for Malaga winger Santi Cazorla. He's a lad I don't know much about I'll admit but he would be yet another addition to our attacking line up. Giving us plenty of depth up front. I don't know whether he's a left or right winger but it means there will be hot competition for one side. 

Malaga are currently in a bit of a financial situation. With the new owner piling money in at a rate of knots, there have been issues with players wages not being paid and tax problems. If they don't wipe their debt by July 31st, they will be relegated and banned from playing in the Champions League. This gives us the opportunity to possibly force a sale of around €20m.

Yesterday Wenger also stated that we won't be going in for Yann M'villa, unless Wilshere or Diaby suffer a setback which sadly seems likely. I think it's risky to gamble on Diaby's fitness and bringing in a player as cover would be no bad thing. But we can only speculate until anything else is said. 

We play the Malasyia XI later today in our first proper pre-season match, let's see what happens and pray for no injuries. Till next time.

Arsenal in Asia, problems back home

Afternoon all and what a fine afternoon it is here in in the sun! At last. So since I last posted we have revealed our away kit for next season and well. To be frank, it's awful. Firstly, we have never worn purple and there is no connection with purple to the club. Apparently it's to celebrate the Jubilee year with a more regal colour scheme harking back to when we Royal Arsenal, fucking eons ago. Secondly: hoops...really Arsenal? We shouldn't play in hoops because it puts us in the ball park of other shittier teams such as QPR and Celtic.

 
Anyway the squad have arrived in Asia for their pre-season tour of the continent. Obviously there are 2 main aims of these tours: 1) commercial gain 2) pre-season preparation, but it really is great to see so many fans turn out to see the team and I hope they put on a display to make the fans proud, because at the end of the day whether your a fan living 5 minutes from the Emirates of a fan living 5000 miles away we're all equally important. 

The squad has a few omissions including Chamakh, Bendtner; new boys: Podolski and Giroud and of course RVP. I'm not going to go into intense detail about potential bids, or who said what but the interview given by Wenger earlier he re-iterated that he wanted to keep hold of him and that:

As for the rest I will do what is in the best interests of Arsenal Football Club. That, at the moment, is where we are. There is not a lot more to say than that.

I'll leave it up to you to judge what is in the best interest of Arsenal Football Club. With bids reportedly made and rejected at £8m, £10m and £12m, it suggests that we are going to hold out for a better price if Wenger does decide to sell him. Which would be good if we actually did that as, lets face it, in recent years we've been a bit of a pushover when it comes to transfers.

One thing is certain is that we need to sort it out, sooner rather than later. The longer this rumbles on the more and more I start to worry that we could be left without a main striker with a few days left of the window. A situation we could do without being in. We either need to decide to sell and do it now or decide to keep him and make it public that hes staying.

I am also beginning to worry that because this situation is dominating the headlines, other areas where I feel we need to strengthen may be getting overlooked. With it looking likely that Wilshere will be out for the start of the season, we need to bring someone in who can give us that edge going forward. Easier said than done I know. I also think we need a defensive midfield player with Diaby being so injury prone its impossible to say whether he will be able to get a consistent run of matches, or even if Wenger will play him. I don't know whether there are more players that we have lined up but with this RVP stuff not going away I can't see anything getting done until its resolved.

That's your latest for now, if there are any developments be sure I will post. Enjoy the sun people.