Gunnerblog

Back to School + Arsenal move for Niang

868 comments July 9th, 2012

The Arsenal squad recommence training at London Colney today, and they’ll be buzzing with the usual ‘back to school’ excitement.  What’ve they been up to over the holidays?  Has Mikel Arteta’s hair shown any sign of moving?  What cool new pencil case has Andre Santos got?

Of course, not everyone will be in attendance.  Term might have started, but most of the boys are still absent.  Anyone involved in the European Championships will not return to training for a week or two yet.  Another absentee will be Yossi Benayoun, who has returned to Chelsea after the end of his loan spell.  Clearly, no-one told Andre Santos:

Oh dear.  The cuddly Brazilian will be gutted about the departure of his pointier Israeli chum.  I am a little too: Benayoun’s commitment to the cause last season was greater than many on far longer-term deals.  Whichever club ends up signing him will be very lucky indeed.

Another man unlikely to be at Colney is Aaron Ramsey.  The Welshman flies to Spain this week to train with Team GB ahead of the Olympics.  He has, however, spoken briefly about the situation with another absentee, Robin van Persie:

“I don’t know and we as players don’t know what is happening so we will just have to wait to see what happens.”

Basically, he doesn’t know.  With Arsene Wenger now back doing his day job as opposed to commentating at the Euros, I think it’s highly likely he’ll be asked to comment on it sooner rather than later.  When he does, it should make interesting reading.

Unsurprisingly, since the RVP news broke we’ve been linked with a few forwards.  I actually don’t think that his departure would prompt a major signing: Olivier Giroud would simply be hurried in to action more swiftly than Arsene had envisaged.  However, the likely departures of Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu-Young, along with the fact that Joel Campbell has joined Real Betis on loan, mean we could have room for another striker in the squad.  Someone like M’baye Niang.

Reports in France suggest 17 year-old forward Niang is about to join up with Arsenal for a trial period.  His club, Caen, were relegated from Ligue 1 last season, and would be keen to cash in on their prize asset.  Niang is a phenomenal athlete, who started playing top level football aged just 16, and would clearly be an exciting capture for Arsenal.  You can read a fuller profile of him here.  Of course, even if he did sign there’s every chance he’d be loaned out again, so I wouldn’t rush out and get your shirt printed just yet.

Pre-season training is upon us.  The players will be suffering, but for me it’s sweet relief.  The season creeps ever closer.

Talking About A Revolution

105 comments July 6th, 2012

I’m not going to call this a blog. I’m going to call it a statement. I’m not going to publish it, I’m going to release it. This, it seems, is the new vogue. Less than 24 hours after Robin van Persie rocked the boat with his public declaration, Alisher Usmanov’s Red & White sought to tip it over with a few words of their own. As I said on Twitter: Robin turned on the fan; Usmanov’s arrival on the scene was the shit. Cue mess.

The statement, which arrived in the form of a public (or at the very least deliberately leaked letter) to Arsenal’s board members, can be read in its entirety here. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you give it a once over. At first glance, it’s stirring stuff: a vision of a debt-free club, able to compete for the most talented players and the most prestigious trophies. It’s a rallying cry to a disenfranchised fanbase to rise up, and put the sword to their indulgent, swan-eating stadium-building Etonian oppressors. But before you pick up your pitchfork and find a set of stocks perfectly sized to encase the round head of Ivan Gazidis, stay a while, for in my mind echoes the nasal voice of my GCSE History teacher, Mr. Kinder. He taught us about some of history’s greatest movements: the English civil War; the French Revolution; the American uprising. Whatever the setting, his mantra remained the same: “When assessing evidence, always consider the source”.

Now Mr. Kinder was a strange man. Very slightly built, and seemingly demure, but with the capacity for astonishing outbursts of anger. Imagine if Martin O’Neill was anaemic, and a teacher. But he did know a thing or too about history. Admittedly he knew almost nothing about football, but that’s not relevant in this instance.

He did know that when people say something they’ll often do so with a motive. And there was a word for that, I seem to remember. It was called ‘propaganda’. Propaganda, for those who did not have the benefit of Mr. Kinder’s guidance, is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of community toward some cause or position. And that’s exactly what Alisher Usmanov is trying to do.

I have to credit his PR people. They’ve managed to turn many fans’ opinions of him around entirely, from a predatory villain in to a red and white knight, say bestride what must an incredibly strong horse. He’s cleverly turning the debate from ‘Why not to support Usmanov’ to ‘Why should we support Kroenke?’, and it’s working in his favour.

I don’t quite buy it, though. My primary objection is this: Red & White state in their letter they “will never do anything that would destabilize or “create conflict” at the Club”. And yet at this very moment in time that is exactly what they, like Robin, are doing.

Wherever you stand on Red & White and the current board, I’m sure we all agree that this kind of public bickering is altogether unseemly. Unfortunately I don’t expect it to end any time soon.

Here’s a quick run down of what else is happening in the Arsenalsphere:

_ The club have cancelled a planned trip to Nigeria this summer. It’s a big shame for our fans over there, who must rightly feel a little jealous of that fact we’re going to Asia for a second consecutive summer, but I’m sure the club will make sure we recognise our huge African fanbase sooner rather than later.

_ Terry Burton has been appointed as Reserve Team Manager and Head Development Coach, essentially taking on some of the duties previously belonging to Steve Bould and Neil Banfield. The guy is Arsenal through and through and everyone around the club tells he he’s perfect for the job. Here’s a nice story about how he helped Aaron Ramsey to turn down Manchester United and sign for us.

_ Denilson has extended his loan spell with Sao Paolo for a further twelve months. Nice guy though he is, it tells you a lot about the disproportionate amount of money he was being paid that an Arsenal that we’ve had such trouble moving him on. At the end of this loan spell, his contract will be just a year from expiry – it wouldn’t surprise me if we never receive any true transfer fee for him at all.

_ Finally for today, have a read of this from Robin van Persie in 2008. How things change.

Robin Van Persie: Classy Player; Classless Exit Strategy

424 comments July 5th, 2012

Gunnerblog has been going for eight years this month. When you’ve been writing a football blog for as long as that, you become acutely aware of the cyclical nature of sport: you constantly have to find new ways to describe ‘thrilling’ comebacks, ‘shock’ defeats, and ‘unexpected’ triumphs. You’re always wary of sounding like you’re repeating yourself, or treading on old ground.

As an Arsenal blogger, this is particularly difficult. Our seasons have, of late, had an air of ‘deja vu’ to them: a promising start followed be a painful collapse. At least last season had the good consideration to feature three or four collapses rather than one disastrous diminuendo.

There is one specific theme I’ve become accustomed to facing. At this point, it is tempting to copy and paste an article I’ve written focusing on Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, or Cesc Fabregas. Instead, I’ll try once again to find new words to describe the beginning of the end of a relationship between club, captain, and icon. Robin van Persie is leaving Arsenal football club.

It’s a bold statement, but one that is impossible to contest. Certain fans cling to the similarities between the statement Robin issued yesterday and the transfer request issued by Wayne Rooney in October 2012. Rooney’s turned out to be a posturing act, designed to force United to increase his pay packet. I’m afraid, as far as Robin is concerned, there are several key differences. In the first place, Rooney was a good deal further away from the end of his existing – United were in a far stronger position. Secondly, Robin has already made plain that this is not primarily about his wage. Thirdly, Rooney was never likely to move away from his native north-West; Robin has already showed a willingness to change scene. And lastly, the Englishman always knew his goals were achievable with United. The Dutchman plainly does not feel the same way about Arsenal. The most optimistic prognosis is that he stays for twelve months before departing on a Bosman, but for reasons I’ll go in to later, that seems infeasible. In all likelihood he’ll be off in a matter of weeks.

We can’t pretend to be surprised by that prospect. We all knew this was a possibility. And we’re used to it by now – the loss of a star player and a captain has become routine; like a shake shedding its skin we’re accustomed to building new teams, new heroes. What’s so disappointing about this year’s annual betrayal in the manner of it. After keeping his mouth shut during the Euros, at Arsenal’s behest, Van Persie has gone rogue and issued a full and damning statement. It’s a statement that damages the manager, the chief executive, and the club as a whole.

I can imagine the way Van Persie’s ‘people’ have sold it to him: “It’ll keep the fans onside; show them you share their concerns. People will appreciate your honesty”. I’m sorry to say that if he bought in to that he has been severely duped. This statement makes Van Persie’s position as captain, and at the club at all, untenable. There is no way back from this, and as such he’s immediately knocked a few million quid of any price Arsenal could hope to get for him.  The buying club will know that, and will doubtless have told Van Persie that without such a statement, any transfer could falter.

He did, however, have other options. People criticised Cesc for his silence last summer, but it was one borne out of a respectful pact with Wenger, allowing the club to negotiate a marginally better, albeit only slightly, fee from Barcelona without the added pressure that would have been created by public statements from the player. Alternatively, an agent friend of mine told me yesterday it is common for a player to do a deal with his club whereby he maintains a public silence in exchange for a small percentage of his eventual fee. In speaking out so vehemently, Van Persie has set light to bridges built over eight eventful years.

The club’s response was swift but ultimately meaningless. To say we “expect” our captain to fulfil his contract moments after he has done something we plainly did not expect at all demonstrates our powerlessness.

For Robin to be so bold, I suspect he already has an agreement with his next club in place. My hunch is that it will be Manchester City: a club who will surely satiate his desire for trophies, as well as providing a huge payday for a player who is 29 next month and beset with injury problems.

Arsenal are left to pick up the pieces, yet again. Fortunately some of them are already in place: yesterday ought to have been a ‘good news’ day, as Lukas Podolski officially signed his contract to join Olivier Giroud at the club. Van Persie’s imminent departure puts enormous pressure on those two players to hit the ground not just running, but sprinting.

There will be plenty of fans and pundits in the next few days getting their violins out for Van Persie, telling us how such a great player ‘deserves’ the opportunity to pursue their goals elsewhere. I won’t shed a tear for him. I’m an Arsenal fan, and I love the club above any individual. If Van Persie was the fan he claims to be, he’d be staying and fighting to win something his our club, our team.

I think that’s the saddest part. Deep down, we all hoped Robin would be a footballing anomaly: the one player who put the love of a club before purchased trophies and piles of cash. The bitter truth is that at the end of it all, he was just like all the others.