Eboue, JET & Lansbury edge towards exit as “Exodus week” begins…
782 comments July 25th, 2011
This feels like a big week for Arsenal. It’s a week when July ends, August begins, and we move to within just a fortnight of the big kick-off. It’s also a week in which Arsene and Arsenal would like to resolve several transfer issues: mainly the one surrounding their captain, Cesc Fabregas.
Of course, there’s no guarantee it’ll all end this week, but if we’ve got any sense we’ll have Barca a notional deadline of August 1st. With the Alexis Sanchez deal done and dusted, Barca should be able to focus their efforts and enter a definitive period of negotiations with Arsenal. I’m sure the club would like to spare themselves the awkward scenario of having to leave Cesc out of next weekend’s Emirates Cup without explanation.
The official line is still that he’s suffering with a hamstring injury. Perhaps – but Arsene also told us Emmanuel Eboue didn’t travel to Germany because of injury, only to reveal last night that he may well be leaving the club. Arsene said:
“How many will leave the club? I said from the start I will fight to keep everybody. Nicklas Bendtner might go and Emmanuel Eboue might go. They can talk to clubs, but the rest I will fight.”
A few whispers on twitter suggest Eboue’s probable destination is Galatasaray. I have to say I’m slightly surprised. Eboue has his faults – many of them – but having lost Gael Clichy we’re desperately short of cover in both full-back positions. Of our current quartet (Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs and Traore) only Sagna could be said to have any real experience of top level competition. No wonder Arsene said he’d “have” to sign at least one defender.
Youngsters Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Henri Lansbury stayed behind in London with Eboue, Bendtner and Cesc, and could be leaving the club themselves imminently. Emmanuel-Thomas is reportedly on the verge of a £1m to Ipswich. I have to say, I’ll be sorry to see him go, as I was always excited by his extraordinary potential. Tall, powerful and skillful, the world of football seemed to be at his very gifted feet. Unfortunately, great thought the feet were, the head never quite matched, and he didn’t show the required application either at Arsenal or in a number of loan spells. If he ever knuckles down he’ll be a hell of a player. If he doesn’t, this could be the beginning of the end of a hugely promising career.
The Lansbury story is one that involves a bit more conjecture. On the player’s personal twitter account this morning, he initially tweeted about “bad news”, before pondering if it was “time for a new chapter”. You don’t have to be a literary boffin to read between the lines and see that he could be on the move. With only twelve months left on his deal, a fee of around £2.5m could see him on his way. If he does go, I hope we insert a Barca-style buy-back clause for a player who is very much in the Arsenal mould.
Ah Barca. That name again. Something tells me we’ll hear it a few more times before the week is out.
Brace yourself. This ought to be painful.
