Archive for July, 2009
July 18th, 2009
The full squad to face Barnet today has been announced as follows:
Manuel Almunia
Vito Mannone
William Gallas
Johan Djourou
Mikael Silvestre
Thomas Vermaelen
Tomas Rosicky
Andrey Arshavin
Jack Wilshere
Thomas Cruise
Craig Eastmond
Luke Ayling
Conor Henderson
Francis Coquelin
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Mark Randall
Emmanuel Frimpong
Gilles Sunu
Sanchez Watt
Jay Simpson
Nacer Barazite
The big news is obviously the availability of Tomas Rosicky, who hasn’t played for Arsenal for a torturous eighteen months. The fans aren’t the only people delighted to see his return, as captain Cesc Fabregas makes clear:
“I have spent a lot of time with him and I know how he feels. I know what he wants and I have never seen a guy being so committed, so professional and never giving up. If this happened to me I probably wouldn’t want to talk to anyone, I would be always down and angry. But he’s unbelievable and when we see that he will be back next season, he will be strong and hopefully he can help us improve a lot.
He’s the type of player you enjoy playing alongside and as a guy he’s amazing. He didn’t deserve his injury but I am sure he will come back stronger. I wish him all the best because everyone here at Arsenal loves him a lot.
I feel sorry for him but I don’t need to say that to him, he’s my best friend in the team and one of my best friends in football and my life.”
Obviously it’s early days yet and there will undoubtedly be fears of a setback (Eduardo, almost as a warning to Rosicky, is unavailable for selection day despite starting back at training with everyone else). That said, the positive spur of actually getting some game-time might be just the fillip he needs to complete his recovery.
Also on show will be new boy Thomas Vermaelen. Philippe Senderos is left out of the squad, presumably to prevent him picking up an injury that’d rule him out a move.
Speaking of moving, Emmanuel Adebayor is still an Arsenal player, with the latest rumours suggesting he’s in a dispute with the club over a £2m loyalty bonus. Having not requested a transfer, Adebayor is technically due the money, but we all know it’s the player himself who has made his position untenable.
The sooner it’s resolved the better. Rumours to continue to link us with Marouane Chamakh as a replacement, but I’m increasingly unsure our interest is genuine. Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc has confirmed that there’s been no offer for the player, whilst Chamakh himself seems to be preparing himself for a move to Blackburn or Sunderland:
“Today Sunderland and Blackburn want me, where I could have signed because I have an agreement on all things with them, even if [Bordeaux president] Mr Triaud asks what I am going there for. I am thinking at the moment and I will take my time and decide.
With Arsenal, it is not advanced enough the talks. If the deal happens with them my dream will be realised, but it does not bother me to play with Sunderland or Blackburn.”
Perhaps our lack of interest is because the Adebayor deal is not yet complete, or perhaps we’re just not as keen as the press would have you believe. Whilst I’m swatting down rumours all over the place, I might aswell mention that we’ve not bid for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar either.
It’s weird and exciting that we’re playing today, even if it is only against Barnet. I’ll be heading down there in couple of hours myself.
Come on you Gunners, I suppose…
July 17th, 2009
Andrey Arshavin has given an in-depth interview to SkySports, which will most likely be used as part of their coverage of the Emirates Cup. However, you can watch it here, or read a few choice excerpts below. Read Andrey’s thoughts…
…on Arsene Wenger:
He is the reason I am here. Of course he is a very strong coach. He gives me a freedom on the pitch – I like it. He is everything at Arsenal.
…on where Wenger deploys him:
He gives me freedom and he found out a new position for me. I never played left-midfield before I came to Arsenal, but we will see what will happen.
…on his preferred position:
I would like to play in the position where I am useful for the team.
…on Emmanuel Adebayor’s potential move to City:
I think it’s a very difficult question for Arsenal and for Adebayor aswell. He is an excellent striker – everybody knows him – he can score from nothing. But it’s his decision: does he want to stay or does he want to leave?
…on needing to strengthen:
Now we hvae a strong squad – I don’t have any doubts – but I told you: if we need someone, Arsene will buy – it’s his decision. He knows better.
…on playing for Arsenal in the Champions League:
I want to play in the Champions League very much. I am looking forward to our first game in the Champions League because we have to qualify, and of course now it’s my first target.
…on what it would mean to win for Arsenal to win the Champions League:
It means everything, because Arsenal didn’t get any trophies for several years.
…on his favourite Arsenal goal:
I can say my first goal for Arsenal [against Blackburn], because the first goal is always important for any player.
…on his four-goal haul at Anfield:
Of course now most people recognise me as a boy who scored four goals! But now I have to prove it happened because I am a strong player.
…on the Arsenal player who has impressed me most:
I think it’s Cesc Fabregas. His vision is excellent: he plays every ball into a perfect position for our players. He is fantastic.
…on what he likes about football:
I like scoring, I like winning, I like celebrating something.
…on what he doesn’t like about football:
Training alot! But I know I am professional and I know I must do it!
…on wanting to renegotiate his contract to improve his takehome wage:
I did not complain about tax – it’s a newspaper which writes a lot. Of course, if the government of England put rates up, I think no-one will be happy.
Typically forthright stuff from the spiky Russian. It’s pretty exciting to be heading into his first full season as an Arsenal player – during the interview he was keen to stress that we haven’t yet seen the best of him, which makes for a mouth-watering prospect in the coming months.
It’s also good, if not particularly surprising, to hear about his respect for the abilities of Cesc Fabregas. Getting those two working in tandem is going to be key to our chances of success – and holding on to those two players in the summer of 2010 will be a hell of a lot easier if we end the year with a trophy.
Emmanuel Adebayor’s move to Man City drags on. The press are suggesting the hold up is over personal terms, which seems to make sense: Arsenal and City appear to have reached an agreement on the £25m fee some time ago. The sooner there’s some resolution on this the better, so let’s hope we hear something more progressive today.
The man being mooted as Adebayor’s replacement, Marouane Chamakh, has once again signalled his interest in moving to London:
“Arsenal would be perfect for me because it is a big club and I know some of the players in the squad.”
Chamakh is a talented player and would be an interesting option, but if needs be I’d far rather all the money went on that all-important central midfielder.
Have a good Friday, everyone.
July 16th, 2009
One can’t help but feel that all Arsenal news is on hold until Emmanuel Adebayor completes his move to Manchester City. Whilst he was granted a work permit to change employers yesterday, stories in the press suggest the player has asked for more time to mull over a move to a non-Champions League club.
I’m sure he’ll go in the end. He’s not happy at Arsenal and I can’t see another club matching City’s bid, whoever his agents might approach. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place – but it must be some consolation that the hard place will play him about £150,000 p/week.
Once Adebayor goes it’ll all kick-off – we’ll be linked with every unheard of French-speaking striker under the sun. Whilst Marouane Chamakh is the early favourite, we may not bring in a striker at all – though that, I believe, is a conversation for another day. On the subject of signings, Brazilian midfield target Felipe Melo has made his move to Juventus official.
Yesterday I bought myself a ticket for our first pre-season friendly: the annual jaunt at Underhill, home to Barnet FC. The club have suggested some of the players who might be available, and it’d be particularly strange to see Tomas Rosicky and Philippe Senderos in an Arsenal shirt, for varying reasons. Indeed, Senderos is a demonstration of the fact that Adebayor might not be the only squad member to depart before the season begins.
Finally today, I just want to congratulate Robin van Persie on being voted the club’s official Player of the Season, and on a more sombre note to send my best to John Hartson and his family. Hartson occasionally divided opinion as a player but I’m sure everyone is backing him in his battle against ill-health.
Come back tomorrow to see if we still have that Togolese fella.
July 15th, 2009
With reports of a medical having taken place and a work permit hearing in Manchester to follow this afternoon, it looks as if Emmanuel Adebayor will be a Man City player by the end of the day.
The fee is reported to be around £25m, which would make Adebayor the most expensive African footballer in history. The figures for his wage fluctuate, but at the upper end of the spectrum, £170,000 p/week would make him the highest paid player in England. They are huge sums – greater than either we or Adebayor could possibly gain from any other club. Milan’s highest offer last summer was reported as £24m – considering how Adebayor’s stock has fallen since then, an improvement on that would be remarkable.
Let me start by saying I think it’s a signing that makes sense for Man City. They have signed a proven Premier League player from a top four club – they will see it as strengthening whilst weakening a rival. I don’t doubt that Adebayor is a better player than Roque Santa Cruz, and he and Carlos Tevez will form a dangerous partnership. Adebayor will score a good few goals, and at times he, Robinho, Tevez and Ireland will click with such attacking verve that some fans will wonder if we made a mistake in letting him go.
Well, we had no choice: Adebayor’s Arsenal career was over. The majority of the damage was done last summer, but when that blew over and he signed a new deal there was a chance for redemption. An early hatrick at Blackburn made that look like a genuine possibility, but as the team’s collective failings dragged the whole squad down, Adebayor sank lower than most. His effort levels dropped and he began to look like a man who wanted to go to Milan and was now medicated only by the soothing morphinous effects of a new £80,000 p/week contract. The nadir was that now infamous interview with Football Focus in which Adebayor seemed to blame the fans for his own poor form. He had given up. City were the only plausible way out this summer, and unless there’s a last minute hitch, Adebayor will grasp it.
I can’t hide that for much of his time with the club, Adebayor has been a favourite of mine. Whilst he has long been a man who divided opinion, there will always be players who capture your imagination for various reasons, and for me Adebayor was one. My initial respect for him was built on his remarkable work-rate. That evolved as the player did; he seems to me to be the most recent and arguably most successful recipient of Arsene Wenger’s transformative alchemy: he took a trouble-making unknown from the substitute’s bench at Monaco and made him into a £25m 30-goal striker.  The romance of that process is what created Arsene’s reputation as a star-maker. Le Boss took a man whose career was going nowhere and made him a global footballing star.
Adebayor, sadly, was too stupid to ignore the advisors who doubtless surround him and realise that for himself. At Arsenal he had a wonderful platform to go on and write his name among other great goalscorers: despite question marks over his finishing he is well over half the way to 100 Arsenal goals. Instead, he threw his toys out of the pram until they were returned with bundles of cash, and when they were he lay there and sucked his thumb instead of continuing the hard work that had got him to that point.
It is, in the words of Elton John, a sad sad situation, but fortunately one that it seems will soon be resolved.
July 14th, 2009
It looks very much like Emmanuel Adebayor’s three-and-a-half year spell with Arsenal is coming to a close. After Sky broke news of interest from Manchester City yesterday, reports in the last hour indicate that a £25m fee may have been agreed, and The Daily Mail have gone as far as to suggest Adebayor underwent a medical this morning.
I’m hesitant to say that a deal has been struck – City are unveiling Carlos Tevez at 2pm and we may learn more then – but I would now be surprised if an accord can’t be reached in the next few days. It’s a deal that suits all parties:
- City land an established Premier League name and goalscorer
- Arsenal sell at a good price
- Adebayor saves face by joining the City ‘project’ and earning an exorbitant wage
It’s been clear for some time that Arsene is willing to let Adebayor go. The manager has never been one to keep a disenchanted player around, and would also be keen to utilise the funds Adebayor’s sale would provide to strengthen elsewhere.
When AC Milan’s interest focused on Luis Fabiano, I began to think that Adebayor would stay for the forthcoming season. Fortunately, Samuel Eto’o’s dilly-dallying means City have come in for the Togolese striker, and will probably end up paying a good deal more than Milan would have offered – I suspect the Italians bid would have been closer to £15m than the mooted £25m on its way from Manchester.
Adebayor is clearly unsettled at Arsenal, having flirted openly with Milan and been further discomforted by their angry reaction to his folly. I’m sure he would rather join the Italians, but in the absence of any serious interest the opportunity to become one of the best paid sportsmen in the world will provide some consolation.
The danger, I suppose, is that we might be strengthening a rival, but the simple antidote to that is to spend the money we get intelligently. Perhaps a striker will arrive (Marouane Chamakh continues to be linked), but the priority still has to be a holding midfielder.
With a press conference from Eastlands in a matter of minutes, hopefully we’ll have more news this afternoon. It’s entirely possible that Adebayor could walk out alongside Tevez, signifying a transfer that’d be celebrated as much in North London as in Manchester.
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