You know the season is well on the way when Arsenal start picking up injuries. A squad which is already braced for several departures in the next month has been hit by a couple of injury blows.
The first bad news is that of a cruciate ligament problem for 19-year old Conor Henderson. The Irish midfielder was filling in at left-back against Cologne when he twisted his knee in the final seconds. Arsenal.com say he’ll miss “a minimum of six months” – the player himself has already written the season off on his official Twitter account. It’s a shame as the very fact he was in Germany was indicative of how highly Arsene rates him. Hopefully he can follow the lead of Emmanuel Frimpong, who suffered a similar injury only to fight back in to first-team contention a year later.
Theo Walcott also returned home early from the German training camp with an ankle problem. Arsene said:
“It is an ankle injury that comes and goes. We need some more investigation because sometimes he’s completely free of it and sometimes it affects him. But we had to send him back because he couldn’t practise any more.”
Whilst it doesn’t sound like a serious problem, any recurring injury is a bit of a worry, and without wanting to panic anyone it sounds like the sort of thing that might require surgery to resolve. However, I’m sure Arsene will want Theo fit at the start of the season, so any major treatment will doubtless be put off now.
If Theo does miss the opening games, Arsene could be reliant on Russian forward Andrey Arshavin, who has targeted 15 goals for next season. Although the player has been heavily linked with Galatasaray, I can’t see him being allowed to depart at a time when the futures of fellow playmakers Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri are in so much doubt. Arshavin has looked sharped in pre-season and could be an important senior member of the squad in 2011/12.
Another player heavily linked with Galatasaray was Ivorian full-back Emmanuel Eboue. However, the latest news from the Turkish media suggest his move may be off after Arsenal raised their valuation of the player to £7m. That seems an improbably high price, so at this stage it could just be media tittle-tattle.
One man who is definitely loping towards the door is Nicklas Bendtner, whose Dad suggests he is inundated with offers. Personally, I don’t care he goes so long as we get a decent fee – one that is reinvested in the squad.
Reinvested, perhaps, in one Juan Mata. Valencia and Spain’s attacking midfielder has been consistently linked with Arsenal throughout the summer, and with the Cesc Fabregas saga coming to a head, Madrid-based daily Marca have suggested we’ve gone as far as to meet the buyout clause in his contract.
Mata would certainly meet a lot of the criteria for replacing either Cesc or Nasri, but for now let’s take these stories with a pinch of salt. So many times in the past we’ve questioned the authenticity or motives of Marca when printing stories about our players – this very morning they also ran a story suggesting Cesc is on “strike”, which simply isn’t true.
Finally, raise your mug of tea because Gunnerblog is seven years old today. Thanks to all who have read, through its many incarnations. Lets hope we can make this year the best of all. Any maybe have a trophy too.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has always been one of my pet favourite Arsenal youth prospects. Perhaps it’s because he, like me, is left-footed. Perhaps it’s because I identify with his poor use of grammar and laziness. Or perhaps it’s simply because I have always been drawn to mercurial talents. I love a Grimandi, but I prefer an Arshavin – someone capable of real magic.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is one of those players. Don’t believe me? Look at this. Or this. He’s got all the ability in the world – but unfortunately, at the highest level, that isn’t enough. Arsene clearly feels he needs a move away to fulfill his potential, and so he’s joined Ipswich on a permanent deal.
Like Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, I’ve decided that a change is as good as a rest, and have decided to give Gunnerblog a lick of paint. There’s still plenty going on on that front, so don’t be too hasty in your judgements. Much as with Arsene’s squad rebuilding, a lot of work needs to be done between now and the start of the season.
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.
Arsenal defeated FC Köln in their latest friendly and will now embark on a training boot camp all the way until Wednesday, when they will return to prepare for the final stage of pre-season, headlined by the Emirates Cup and the return of one Thierry Henry.
I only caught the first-half in full, in which Arsene continued with his central midfield trio of Song, Ramsey and Wilshere. Wilshere was masterful: if Cesc really does go in the next week or so, we’re lucky that we have a player of such extraordinary talent already within the ranks.
Gervinho began his Arsenal career in style, scoring twice in the opening 15 minutes. Both goals were the result of great movement, darting inside from his starting position on the left. Although he was withdrawn after half an hour with a minor knock to the knee, it was a very impressive cameo. He demonstrated pace, intelligent movement, and smart finishing – qualities reminiscent of another winger Arsene signed from France: Robert Pires. Obviously Gervinho is a comparatively raw player, but the addition of smart shooting and incisive running to our berth of attackers can be no bad thing.
After our fast start, Köln started to come back in to the game, and were given a helping hand by a quite stonking own goal from Carl Jenkinson. His lobbed effort over Szczesny would’ve made any Lee Dixon highlight reel. Only time will if he can earn comparisons with Dixon for stopping goals going in our goal as well as spectacularly and accidentally scoring them. From what I’ve seen of Jenkinson he looks a good prospect: tall with a long stride and decent touch. Peversely, in some respects his technical limitations are what excite me about him: it may be he’s more interested in ‘defending’ for defending’s sake than anything fancy. Still, a huge step-up awaits him, and his signing has to be regarded as a bit of a punt. Hopefully a more accurate one than the one which looped over Szcesny and in to our own net.
A word on Marouane Chamakh, whose pre-season form continues to be worrying at best. He seems to be playing entirely bereft of confidence. The obvious thing to say is that he “needs a goal” but at the moment he shoots with so little conviction that the only way I can foresee that happening is by some sort of miraculous accident. Of he and Bendtner, I have more confidence in the Dane at the moment, so if he does depart I’d like to see us bring in another forward who can play through the middle.
From the highlights I’ve seen of the second half, Andrey Arshavin was the main threat, producing a series of impudent flicks and skipping runs inside from the left. Perhaps the arrival of Gervinho, as well as the possible departure of one or two other high profile creative players, will unleash the Arshavin we all know is lurking beneath the pot belly and half-hearted jogs.
The only real downside to the day was a potentially serious injury to young Conor Henderson. Henderson, a midfielder by trade, had replaced Kieran Gibbs at left-back.
The absence of Armand Traore from the squad leads me to wonder whether or not Arsene’s recent quotes about the necessity of finding a new defender referred to a left-back rather than a centre-half. Arsene said:
“Certainly, we will have to find one more defender. We [are] working on it.”
The recent bid for Phil Jagielka led everyone to assume he was referring to a centre-back, but Traore’s absence yesterday means he could equally have meant a full-back. The certainty with which Arsene says we will “have to” find this defender is the sort of tone he only adopts when referring to an obvious hole in the squad – not an area where he already has four experienced players plus youngsters Bartley and Miquel and the versatile Song.
Of course, there is the possibility that Traore was simply injured, and I’m reading something in to nothing.
And ideally, of course, we’d add a left-back and a centre-back. And a striker. Let’s see. Big week on the way.
Arsenal.com announced this evening that due to a “muscular injury” Cesc Fabregas did not travel with the rest of the squad to Germany. Ostensibly, it’s a hamstring problem. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I have to say that I’m more of the mind that the injured muscle in question is his heart – torn between Arsenal and Barcelona.
Of course, Arsenal and Arsene knew that the captain’s absence from yet another leg of our pre-season would provoke speculation. That’s why they slipped the official announcement out late on a Friday evening.
Even if Cesc is injured – and I have my doubts – he could certainly travel with the squad. Many of the players have spoken about how much the trip to the Far East helped bring the group together, and the five days or so in Germany will most likely have a similarly alchemic effect.  Surely, as captain, Fabregas ought to be part of that.
The answer lies in a line that Arsene actually said in relation to Manuel Almunia and Nicklas Bendtner, who’ve also stayed at home:
“As long as the situation is not settled, we have to focus on the coming season with the players we have. The players who are uncertain, it is difficult for them to focus on being completely committed.”
That’s it, in a nutshell. Cesc won’t be welcomed in to the preparations until Arsene is confident he will be part of the squad beyond August. He’s already planning for the worst-case scenario, and preparing for life without him.
I think Arsene is prepared to lose one of Cesc or Nasri, but not both. In fact, in some respects, the very fact he won’t stand for losing two at once is what means one has to go now. Because if both stay, the chances are they’ll both leave next summer anyway. We should at least stagger it.
And I think that as things stand, the man on his way out is Cesc. There are a variety of reasons, but the main one is the fact that Arsene feels the constant speculation over his future could both destabilise the squad and damage the player’s focus. In an interview in the Far East, Arsene said the time to let a player go is when he begins “disturb the efficiency of the company”. It seems that Arsene feels that Cesc’s situation may soon start to do that.
You already know I don’t agree. If I managed Arsenal, I’d point to the end date on Cesc’s contract, tell Barca where to go, and sell Nasri to the highest bidder. But despite several applications stating all of my Football Manager 2011 achievements, I don’t manage Arsenal. And it feels very much like today’s decision for Cesc to stay behind leaves him closer to the door marked ‘Exit’ than ever before.
According to some reports, a Barca delegation was in the country today to hold talks with Arsenal. They’re also negotiating the sales of midfielders Romeu and Jeffren to Chelsea and Bolton respectively, to add some more cash to a kitty that now contains a €12m downpayment from Roma for Bojan. Little by little, Barca are edging towards an offer above the £35m threshold. And by leaving Cesc at home, Arsenal have demonstrated their increasing willingness to accept.
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Arsenal play Cologne in our next pre-season friendly, tomorrow at 2.30pm UKtime. You can watch it live on Arsenal Player.
