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.
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Sunday, 22 July 2012
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:
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.
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.
Thursday, 12 July 2012
RVP U-turn and other news...
Well this was reported a few days ago, I debated writing about it then but decided I'd wait until this new round of talks were over, then got bored and decided to write about it.
After the big "I'm not signing statement", it appears that Van Persie may sign a new contract following a new round of talks with Ivan Gazidis. It seemed odd to me at the time to release the statement and for it to be worded as bizarrely as it was. Word on the grape vine is that it was written by his agent, who I will come on to in a minute, with a bit of RVP input. According to Sky's Dharmesh Sheth this was all in the aim of negotiating a more frugal contract, which is entirely believable looking at Robin's agent.
So Robin's agent...well...Kees Vos is the sort of man that gives football agents a bad name, now that's saying something. Everything I read about him is simply that he likes to keep moving players around to earn a nice commission for himself. It was his idea to release the statement with the intention of either: increasing the chances of a transfer or increasing the value of a new deal, thus increasing his commission. Quite why players choose him is beyond me but there you go. So after Kees brainwave, we stand where we do now, knowing nothing more than we did the other day. If you'd like to personally tell Kees what you think of him then use his twitter here.
Now I'm not going to comment on what I think Robin will do, because simply I don't know. Should he sign a new deal he may get a rather frosty reception from some of the fans. A lot of the love we felt for the dutchman has evaporated, myself included. That said I stand by my statement from the last post. There is no way he will be as prolific as last year, that was his peak season.
For now we can only wait and see what comes out of the club. When that time comes I'll be on it!
After the big "I'm not signing statement", it appears that Van Persie may sign a new contract following a new round of talks with Ivan Gazidis. It seemed odd to me at the time to release the statement and for it to be worded as bizarrely as it was. Word on the grape vine is that it was written by his agent, who I will come on to in a minute, with a bit of RVP input. According to Sky's Dharmesh Sheth this was all in the aim of negotiating a more frugal contract, which is entirely believable looking at Robin's agent.
So Robin's agent...well...Kees Vos is the sort of man that gives football agents a bad name, now that's saying something. Everything I read about him is simply that he likes to keep moving players around to earn a nice commission for himself. It was his idea to release the statement with the intention of either: increasing the chances of a transfer or increasing the value of a new deal, thus increasing his commission. Quite why players choose him is beyond me but there you go. So after Kees brainwave, we stand where we do now, knowing nothing more than we did the other day. If you'd like to personally tell Kees what you think of him then use his twitter here.
Now I'm not going to comment on what I think Robin will do, because simply I don't know. Should he sign a new deal he may get a rather frosty reception from some of the fans. A lot of the love we felt for the dutchman has evaporated, myself included. That said I stand by my statement from the last post. There is no way he will be as prolific as last year, that was his peak season.
For now we can only wait and see what comes out of the club. When that time comes I'll be on it!
Thursday, 5 July 2012
RVP won't sign a new contract, we shouldn't give a fuck
OK I've just deleted this whole post and I've started re-doing it because what I wrote first just didn't really sound right. So this is take 2. Now I've been saying all season about how we need to sign him up and how we needed to do this, I should be gutted. Quite frankly I'm really not. I don't know why. Possible because I've seen this done a million times with Arsenal, I've seen bigger players leave and more important and honestly better players leave (Cesc, Henry). But mainly because when I wrote this the first time I read it through and thought: but was robin really all that? 8 years and he had one blinding season and now his head has doubled in size.
His statement quite frankly was baffling. I don't understand why he would release it in the way it was worded. The club he spent all season saying he loved and he basically said I've outgrown you. Somewhere up in the crazy dutch mind of his, he thought he was saying the right thing and let us down lightly. That completely backfired. The hero-to-zero tag is definitely what happened in this case. Fans aren't stupid we all know that by saying what he did, he drove his transfer value down, meaning of course when he signs, his wages can be higher. I genuinely thought he was better than that.
I know last season he effectively won us 3rd place, but apart from last season did he really do much? I don't think so. Reports say we're going to be offered £22m, remembering he will be 29 before the season starts, I think that's a decent sum for a player whose reached his peak and has had one good season. But now everyone is asking should we sell or should we hold him to his contract.
Being brutally honest we HAVE to sell now. We've been in this situation before and we know the consequences of holding out and having the whole thing explode in our face. With the new season upon us in around a month and a half, we need to reinvest and we need to do it soon. But will Arsenal re-invest? This is what really gets supporters wound up, we sell these players OK, we don't have much influence over that but the money seems to disappear into some account somewhere. I can already see what the excuse will be this time "We bought 2 new strikers already, what more do you want?"
Staying is now the worst possible scenario for him, does he really think the fans will so willingly take him back? I am saying this now, IF he did stay for the last season, I will not cheer any goal he scores. I'm pretty sure there are many the same out there.
But at a club that isn't built around him I can't see him being anywhere near as prolific. Another name in a team of individuals, we saw it at the Euros, he will flop next season, mark my word!
His statement quite frankly was baffling. I don't understand why he would release it in the way it was worded. The club he spent all season saying he loved and he basically said I've outgrown you. Somewhere up in the crazy dutch mind of his, he thought he was saying the right thing and let us down lightly. That completely backfired. The hero-to-zero tag is definitely what happened in this case. Fans aren't stupid we all know that by saying what he did, he drove his transfer value down, meaning of course when he signs, his wages can be higher. I genuinely thought he was better than that.
I know last season he effectively won us 3rd place, but apart from last season did he really do much? I don't think so. Reports say we're going to be offered £22m, remembering he will be 29 before the season starts, I think that's a decent sum for a player whose reached his peak and has had one good season. But now everyone is asking should we sell or should we hold him to his contract.
Being brutally honest we HAVE to sell now. We've been in this situation before and we know the consequences of holding out and having the whole thing explode in our face. With the new season upon us in around a month and a half, we need to reinvest and we need to do it soon. But will Arsenal re-invest? This is what really gets supporters wound up, we sell these players OK, we don't have much influence over that but the money seems to disappear into some account somewhere. I can already see what the excuse will be this time "We bought 2 new strikers already, what more do you want?"
Staying is now the worst possible scenario for him, does he really think the fans will so willingly take him back? I am saying this now, IF he did stay for the last season, I will not cheer any goal he scores. I'm pretty sure there are many the same out there.
But at a club that isn't built around him I can't see him being anywhere near as prolific. Another name in a team of individuals, we saw it at the Euros, he will flop next season, mark my word!
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Olivier Giroud Official
So this is no surprising mega signing, its been on the cards for the last 2 or possibly 3 weeks (I'm losing track of the time without the usual football). After England spectacularly went out of the Euro's we need something to cheer us up. Maybe this will be it.
What do I know about Giroud? Well quite frankly not a lot. He spent this season with surprise Ligue 1 winners Montpellier playing a total of 40 games and scoring an impressive 24 goals in league and cup. Standing at nearly 6'3 hes a giant of striker and has won the highest percentage of aerial balls this is the highest in all 5 of the top leagues this season. I'm sure I've done what plenty of Arsenal fans have this morning which is as always gone onto youtube and searched for videos of him.
From what I can tell and must say I have never seen him play so don't hold me to this. He's certainly not the quickest but he looks to me like a poacher with a fair few of his goals coming from following the ball in (something all good strikers should do). That said his technique looks superb and although he lacks pace his timing seems to be impeccable. He certainly looks like he can finish.
His height is obvious but unlike other he seems to be able to actually head the ball, I'm always amazed by the sheer number of tall strikers who either can't head or can't jump but this doesn't seem to be a problem for him.
OK now that I've gone over the bits that make everyone very excited, in the name of being fair I need to make some points. Firstly unless Wenger knows something we don't I can't see how we're going to be able to play 4-3-3 without leaving a high profile player out. We have 4 international players to fit into 3 places: RVP, Walcott, Podolski and now Giroud. Assuming he plays that formation and I know its good to have depth but will any of those players be happy playing every other game, I'm sure the 2 lads won't and Walcott certainly isn't going to be. RVP unquestionably has to play.
What about 4-4-2? OK so Walcott and Podolski on the wing, Giroud and RVP upfront. So then who loses out in the midfield: Wilshere whose our creative talent? Arteta who we just signed? Song who sits infront of the defence? Rosicky who just signed a new deal? that's without mentioning Ramsey. I genuinely can't see how it will work without shifting some players but I wouldn't want to lose any of those.
Also the last international striker we signed from the French league who was good in the air turned out to be Chamakh so...more to come soon.
What do I know about Giroud? Well quite frankly not a lot. He spent this season with surprise Ligue 1 winners Montpellier playing a total of 40 games and scoring an impressive 24 goals in league and cup. Standing at nearly 6'3 hes a giant of striker and has won the highest percentage of aerial balls this is the highest in all 5 of the top leagues this season. I'm sure I've done what plenty of Arsenal fans have this morning which is as always gone onto youtube and searched for videos of him.
From what I can tell and must say I have never seen him play so don't hold me to this. He's certainly not the quickest but he looks to me like a poacher with a fair few of his goals coming from following the ball in (something all good strikers should do). That said his technique looks superb and although he lacks pace his timing seems to be impeccable. He certainly looks like he can finish.
His height is obvious but unlike other he seems to be able to actually head the ball, I'm always amazed by the sheer number of tall strikers who either can't head or can't jump but this doesn't seem to be a problem for him.
OK now that I've gone over the bits that make everyone very excited, in the name of being fair I need to make some points. Firstly unless Wenger knows something we don't I can't see how we're going to be able to play 4-3-3 without leaving a high profile player out. We have 4 international players to fit into 3 places: RVP, Walcott, Podolski and now Giroud. Assuming he plays that formation and I know its good to have depth but will any of those players be happy playing every other game, I'm sure the 2 lads won't and Walcott certainly isn't going to be. RVP unquestionably has to play.
What about 4-4-2? OK so Walcott and Podolski on the wing, Giroud and RVP upfront. So then who loses out in the midfield: Wilshere whose our creative talent? Arteta who we just signed? Song who sits infront of the defence? Rosicky who just signed a new deal? that's without mentioning Ramsey. I genuinely can't see how it will work without shifting some players but I wouldn't want to lose any of those.
Also the last international striker we signed from the French league who was good in the air turned out to be Chamakh so...more to come soon.
Monday, 18 June 2012
Fixtures 2012/13
It's that morning again where we all attempt to digest our fixtures for next season. Not that what any of us say is (normally) ever right. This morning Arsenal fans all over twitter have been almost wailing about how we're gonna finish 10th and how everyone is going to leave. Firstly at the end of the day you have to play everybody twice, secondly if we are going to be the club that we all want us to be, we shouldn't fear these fixtures we should look at every game assuming we can win.
I'll give you a little run down of our first 10 games: Sunderland (H), Stoke (A), Liverpool (A), Southampton (H), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H), West Ham (A), Norwich (A), QPR (H), Manchester United (A). I'll admit on the face of it, it doesn't look great but like I said you have to play everyone, everywhere once. I quite fancied to have Liverpool early on as I think they're gonna be a bit shaky at the start of the season. If we come out of those games with 23/24pts then we'll be laughing. I may be a bit optimistic there but why not?
Other dates to pen into your diaries are November 17th when we play the first North London Derby of the season at home. January 12th and 19th we have Man City at home and then Chelsea away respectively. March 2nd is the reverse of the derby at Shite Hart Lane. Manchester United at home is 27th April and we finish the season off with a tricky trip to Newcastle.
We aren't the only team to have a dodgy run though. Man United have an away game after every CL game including ones against Chelsea and Man City I think (don't hold me to that!).
Please remember that these games will be subject to change for Sky and now bizarrely BT, so game dates and KO times will fluctuate throughout the season. Finally the Carling Cup is now known as the Capital One Cup which looks very cheap in my opinion.
I'm sure there's more transfer ramble to come in the coming weeks, so check back soon.
I'll give you a little run down of our first 10 games: Sunderland (H), Stoke (A), Liverpool (A), Southampton (H), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H), West Ham (A), Norwich (A), QPR (H), Manchester United (A). I'll admit on the face of it, it doesn't look great but like I said you have to play everyone, everywhere once. I quite fancied to have Liverpool early on as I think they're gonna be a bit shaky at the start of the season. If we come out of those games with 23/24pts then we'll be laughing. I may be a bit optimistic there but why not?
Other dates to pen into your diaries are November 17th when we play the first North London Derby of the season at home. January 12th and 19th we have Man City at home and then Chelsea away respectively. March 2nd is the reverse of the derby at Shite Hart Lane. Manchester United at home is 27th April and we finish the season off with a tricky trip to Newcastle.
We aren't the only team to have a dodgy run though. Man United have an away game after every CL game including ones against Chelsea and Man City I think (don't hold me to that!).
Please remember that these games will be subject to change for Sky and now bizarrely BT, so game dates and KO times will fluctuate throughout the season. Finally the Carling Cup is now known as the Capital One Cup which looks very cheap in my opinion.
I'm sure there's more transfer ramble to come in the coming weeks, so check back soon.
Monday, 11 June 2012
Who could/should go?
Well its been an age since I last posted mainly because nothing at all is going on really because of the Euros. I could go into some post about how RVP had a shocker and SZCZ got sent off and how Podolski was but it seems rather irrelavent. So instead I thought I'd do a post that was quite popular last year. Who should go?
Well coincidentally the first person that I'm going to talk about apparent is 'keen' to leave Arsenal to join an Italian team and that defender is Johan Djourou. I have never really rated him to be honest, he always seems clumbersome and doesn't really know where he should be. His clearances also leave something to be desired. I can understand that Djourou wants to play football more regularly, hes still young-ish at 25 and he wants to move to something new. The reported 10m Euros seems a bit high to me not that I'm complaining, also I think Djourou's aim of a top 5 Italian team may be a bit ambitious.
Another defender who I think we could see depart is Squillaci, at 31 this could be his last move and he is well out of favour with manager and fans alike. Yes he's had injury problems and his early performances were OK but he's gone rapidly downhill. The only issue with him is that his age may inhibit possible deals. I can't see him leaving however. I think we need some new younger defenders to step in when needed.
It terms of current midfielders I'm happy but would like to see a few more players brought in to give us something a bit different, I think we've been a bit too predictable this season. That said with Denilsons loan coming to an end I think he's one we could really do with seeing the back of, I never rated him and don't think a one year loan spell will have made much difference.
Talking of players returning from loans, in the striking department we have the worlds greatest striker returning and I'm sure we'd all be happy to see him depart. A permanent deal would be best for all involved. Chamakh is one that I think is the most obvious to leave and I think he will, he's been so poor recently and I think a fresh start would be best for him. I can't see Park leaving for some reason despite having little impact mainly because he hasn't been played.
So that's a little shortlist of people who I think we could see leaving. I'll be back soon with players who I'd like to see (mainly those who have been rumoured), till then take care.
Well coincidentally the first person that I'm going to talk about apparent is 'keen' to leave Arsenal to join an Italian team and that defender is Johan Djourou. I have never really rated him to be honest, he always seems clumbersome and doesn't really know where he should be. His clearances also leave something to be desired. I can understand that Djourou wants to play football more regularly, hes still young-ish at 25 and he wants to move to something new. The reported 10m Euros seems a bit high to me not that I'm complaining, also I think Djourou's aim of a top 5 Italian team may be a bit ambitious.
Another defender who I think we could see depart is Squillaci, at 31 this could be his last move and he is well out of favour with manager and fans alike. Yes he's had injury problems and his early performances were OK but he's gone rapidly downhill. The only issue with him is that his age may inhibit possible deals. I can't see him leaving however. I think we need some new younger defenders to step in when needed.
It terms of current midfielders I'm happy but would like to see a few more players brought in to give us something a bit different, I think we've been a bit too predictable this season. That said with Denilsons loan coming to an end I think he's one we could really do with seeing the back of, I never rated him and don't think a one year loan spell will have made much difference.
Talking of players returning from loans, in the striking department we have the worlds greatest striker returning and I'm sure we'd all be happy to see him depart. A permanent deal would be best for all involved. Chamakh is one that I think is the most obvious to leave and I think he will, he's been so poor recently and I think a fresh start would be best for him. I can't see Park leaving for some reason despite having little impact mainly because he hasn't been played.
So that's a little shortlist of people who I think we could see leaving. I'll be back soon with players who I'd like to see (mainly those who have been rumoured), till then take care.
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