Gunnerblog

Leaving us so soon, Amaury…?

349 guns June 11th, 2009

Hello hello.  It seems like ages since I updated.  I’ve just had a very busy couple of days, and yet if you asked me I couldn’t really tell you where the time has gone.  There’s a tubestrike on it London which is making things particularly tricky: in recent days, many Londoners have had to walk some of the way into work.  Using our actual feet.  At this stage, no-one knows if we’ll ever recover.

In terms of Arsenal, there isn’t masses to report on.  It’s all quiet on the Vermaelen front, for one thing.  The Sun has linked us with a £4m swoop for a 16-year old, which is probably the most credible rumour around right now.

The same story mentions that Amaury Bischoff is set join AC Milan for free.  Should that be the case, I suppose we’ll just put him down as a gamble that didn’t work.  For every Henry, there is a Diawara.

Seeing as even the PM has been required to comment, there’s no way I can get through this blog without mentioning the extraordinary events up North, where Manchester United have accepted Real Madrid’s record-busting £80m offer for Cristiano Ronaldo.

It is an extraordinary sum for any footballer, especially when you consider that the player himself wants to go.  Unlike Kaka, who would happily have remained at Milan, Ronaldo’s efforts to depart kicked up plenty of dust and fuss last Summer and would undoubtedly have done so this.  United have done well to a) get that amount of money, and b) avoid a painful summer of wranglings.

That said, they are still losing one of the world’s best players.  I’m sure they will spend big to replace him (my money would be on Franck Ribery), but it’s unlikely that anyone they secure will reach the performance levels that Ronaldo has achieved in the last few years.

Will it affect United’s dominance of English football?  Impossible to say.  After all, they recovered well enough from the loss of David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy.  Ronaldo’s impact has arguably been greater even than those, but a motivated later of lesser ability could still see their team thrive.  Much will depend on Alex Ferguson’s transfer market activity from this point on.

Fair play to Florentino Perez, though.  That man doesn’t mess about. Let’s just hope he doesn’t set his sights on Cesc…

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