Archive for July, 2008
July 7th, 2008
Peter Hill-Wood can usually be relied upon to talk with admirable frankness about the goings on at Arsenal. With his comments on the possible departures of Adebayor and Hleb, this trend has continued.
When it comes to the issue of Adebayor’s potential move to Barcelona, the Chairman is unequivocal in his response:
“We want him to stay, definitely. Adebayor still has a long time [three years] left on his contract, and we have absolutely no intention of releasing him from that contract. You want to keep your best players and Adebayor is one of those.”
On the Hleb situation, he is rather less robust:
“Hleb has made it clear he wants to go. I think maybe he will go.”
As arseblogger points out, he speaks more openly about Hleb leaving to drum up interest, whereas with Adebayor the interest is already there – his resistance simply increases the price. But as I said before, PHW is a disarmingly honest man. I don’t think these quotes are pure game-playing from the Chairman of the Board.
Arsene has known for some time that Hleb would be leaving. He’s obviously fairly accepting of it, and has already moved on, making a swift (but since prolonged) move for a replacement: Samir Nasri.
But losing Adebayor was never in the plan. Last season, a style of play emerged at Arsenal that was undoubtedly superior to what we had seen in the previous two campaigns. It was a direct style based upon Cesc Fabregas playing early raking balls in behind for Adebayor to chase. The fact that Togolese forward was caught offside more than any other player in the Premier League is only partially due to a lack of footballing intelligence – it is due more to the sheer number of times we tried to release him.
Arsene will know that getting thirty million quid for Adebayor is all well and good, but only if you can replace him with someone of equivalent pace, power, and goalscoring capacity. Arsene is lucky that when he sold Henry Adebayor stepped up to the plate. To replace a thirty goal striker twice in two seasons might be a bridge too far even for Le Boss.
I also don’t think that Adebayor will kick up a fuss if he is forced to stay. He does love the club, the team, the fans. He just quite fancies trebling his wage. But he must also know that consistent form at Arsenal will provide similar financial reward further down the line.
If we can find a buyer, Hleb is gone. But if Adebayor goes, it will be because the manager has found a suitable replacement. Until he has that, the Togolese is staying.
July 6th, 2008
It’s been a funny Summer on the European transfer market. Aside from Daniel Alves’ long-predicted move to Barcelona, none of the bigger fish available have been caught. The likes of Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Drogba, Lampard, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Andrei Arshavin could all move this Summer, in one of the biggest shuffles of Europe’s top cards in some time.
The first dominos to fall in this star-struck rally could be two of our own: Emmanuel Adebayor and Aleksandr Hleb. If Barca secure Adebayor, it would seal the fate of Eto’o and Ronaldinho. Furthermore, if they were to take Hleb, it would free up Arshavin to move elsewhere – perhaps even to the Emirates. As Arshavin’s agent explains:
“Arshavin’s future may be dependent on conversations about [Alexander] Hleb, [Emmanuel] Adebayor, Cristiano Ronaldo and others.”
Whilst Arsene is hardly keen to sell those two stars, he trusts himself to replace them with players of equal quality. That is part of our transfer policy for the forseeable future, according to Le Boss himself:
“The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players. We manage at Arsenal to maintain all our football ambitions — national and European —while having to free up – for 17 more years – an annual surplus of £24m to pay for our stadium. The club’s strategy is to favour the policy of youngsters ahead of stars and to count on the collective quality of our game. “
The first sentence of that quote seems alarming, and I wonder if a degree of mistranslation is involved. Were Adebayor and Hleb to join Flamini on the exit list this Summer, it could represent the start of a worrying trend. Although players have been sold before, in most cases it’s been on Arsene’s terms. This time the players are leaving seemingly against his will. A reassertion of authority may be required, and for that reason I suspect one of those players will be forced to stay.
Eventually, someone will make the first move and the merry-go-round will begin. And then, things will get really interesting.
July 4th, 2008
When Patrick Vieira left, back in 2005, signing Marcos Senna was a possibility. The Brazilian’s talent had finally come to prominence on the European stage after an excellent campaign with Villareal, and with his powerful running and shooting he was seen as an ideal replacement for the iconic Frenchman. In Summer 2006, we were linked again, with the Brazilian-born Spanish International seen as being able to provide competition and support for the by-then established partnership of Cesc and Gilberto. Senna was also linked heavily with Manchester United, who in the end plumped for Michael Carrick.
Two years on, with Flamini departed and Gilberto seemingly on the wane, the name of Senna has cropped up once more, with Villareal warning potential suitors they’ll have to pay his full buy-out clause of £25m to secure his services.
Frankly, at that price, they can keep him. Although he was one of the more impressive midfielders on display at Euro 2008, I’m not convinced there’s much Senna can do that Gilberto can’t. What’s more, Senna is actually slightly older than our own Brazilian.
Whilst I would like a dynamic young replacement for Flamini to come in, the presence of Gilberto, Diaby, Denilson, and Song leads me to conclude that it’ll take a pretty special player to force Arsene’s hand. Whilst Senna is good, I’m not sure he’s that man.
July 3rd, 2008
Today saw the launch of our brand new home shirt, and I have to say I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one.Â
Although some are unhappy about what they perceieve to be the abandonment of our white sleeves, the kit reminds me of the shirts we wore in the late nineties, which is no bad thing.
Whilst debate about the home kit will doubtless continues, there can surely be few arguments against our new away kit, which has been specially designed to commemorate Anfield ’89:
 Last season I didn’t buy either the white or Barcelona-esque away kit, but I imagine you might catch me sporting on of these yellow jobbies come August.
With so many of our players’ futures still to be decided, I won’t hazard a guess at what name might be on the back. Which is either exciting or terrifying, depending on which way you look at it.
Till tomorrow.
July 2nd, 2008
Cesc Fabregas is a worthy European Champion. After coming so close in the Champions League final in 2006, he has now achieved the accolade at International level with Spain, at the age of just 21. One can only imagine what else he might achieve before the end of his career.
It is remarkable that Sunday’s final was only the second game Cesc had started in the tournament. Kept out of the side by Xavi and Iniesta, he had been used primarily as an impact substitute by Luis Aragones – a role in which he consistently impressed, particularly in the crucial semi-final victory over Russia. Fortunately for our man Fabregas, an injury to David Villa allowed Aragones to bring the Catalan into a five man midfield, and he duly played a solid if less spectacular role in the victory over Germany.
Cesc then dedicated the victory to Arsenal fans everywhere. Lovely to hear, and yet another reason why many would like to see him made club captain this Summer. Hopefully soon he can add more trophies to his haul, this time in the red and white of his club side.
Arsenal have reportedly turned down a £24m bid from Barcelona for Emmanuel Adebayor. Hard to know how accurate those reports are, but if so it’s good to see we’re determined to drive a hard bargain.
More on this signing if and when it happens. Would certainly be an odd one on paper.
I have the feeling the shape of our squad will become much clearer in the next seven days. Could be exciting.
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