Round-up of the week: The greatest villain in Arsenal history?
Add comment June 28th, 2009
Can you blame me for my occasional absences when things resolutely refuse to just, well, happen?
It tells you something when the biggest story of the week is in fact the denial of another story. Fair play to Cesc, though: he doesn’t mess around. With Real Madrid reportedly planning to spend £30m or so on Xabi Alonso, and Barcelona already possessing the world’s most potent central midfield, I think we can be sure of seeing Fabregas begin next season as Arsenal’s club captain.
Who will partner him? Not Yaya Toure, who was signed a new deal with the Catalan club. Perhaps Felipe Melo, who you can all watch play for Brazil against the USA in the Confederations Cup Final at 7.30pm. There’s talk of a £20m+ fee, which I’m sure would rule us out, but if we can negotiate the price down then he’d be an excellent signing.
AC Milan have named Emmanuel Adebayor as a potential signing, should their bid for Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzeko collapse. Much as I’d like to think we might pick up a £20m windfall from Milan, this looks to me like a tactic for force Wolfsburg to the negotiating table.
Both The Sunday Times and The News of The World have suggested this morning that should Adebayor leave we’d look to replace him with Karim Benzema. Benzema is a player about whom I have my doubts – but then the concerns I have are very similar to those that led me to believe Fernando Torres wasn’t worth what Liverpool paid for him. Regardless, I can’t see us competing with United financially. And perhaps more depressingly, I’d question the scale of the player’s ambition if he chose us.
Speaking of United, after a relatively low-key few years out in Spain, Ruud Van Nistelrooy is back on our wanker-detecting radar. Not content with his goal-plundering years in Manchester, old horseface is planning to climb right back to Darth Vader-esque villainy by joining forces with Blackburn Rovers and their very own Emperor Palpatine, Sam Allardyce.
I shudder at the thought…
