Cesc clear of spitting; Show me the Mannone
Add comment May 22nd, 2009
For the past few days I’ve been meaning to ask if anyone knew where the verdict on spitting-gate had disappeared to. My fear was that it’s taken so long to be decided that any ban would now spill into next season.
Well, it was needless fretting: Cesc Fabregas has been cleared of both charges. It’s fantastic news, and extremely embarrassing for Phil Brown who pushed so hard for this hearing. Indeed, it could still get better with Arsenal fans, with Brown set for a personal hearing on his own conduct next week.
The early team news for Sunday’s game with Stoke sees Samir Nasri out and Lukasz Fabianski a doubt, so Vito Mannone could be handed a first league start. The availablity of Emmanuel Adebayor was not mentioned, and when asked yesterday by ArsenalTV whether or not he could guarantee Adebayor staying this Summer, Arsene was not decisive:
“Yes, but that depends as well… it’s very difficult to go into any individual assessment of that… the only thing I can say is that Adebayor is under contract and he is with us and that’s it.”
Rumours today link us with a £15m swoop for Brede Hangeland, which seems like an awful lot of money, but Arsene did say that he has a couple of players already in his sights:
“Yes, we have one or two targets, but we are analysing every position very well.”
He then went on to use Nicklas Bendtner’s improvement throughout the season as an example of the reasons not to buy and block the potential of his young squad, and it’s hard not to feel that comment was somehow relevant to Adebayor’s future too.
Very brief blog today because I’ve got to take my dog, Daisy, to the vet. FA Youth Cup Final today – get down to the Emirates and cheer on the kids.
