Category Archives: Arsenal

Sneaky, sneaky, Wenger

In his Friday press conference, Arsene Wenger spoke frankly about Silvestre and the in code about his interest in Barry/Alonso.  First to the Silvestre story, Wenger let out that the player had already “been released” by Man U and was virtually at the signing table with Citeh — rumor is he’d even already had a physical with Man City — when Arsene swooped in and offered the player a spot at Arsenal.  So, one of the questions that I had was completely put to rest; how on earth did Ferguson allow a player of any value go to a title rival?  Simple, the player was released by the team and anyone who would pay the agreed upon fee (£750,000) could negotiate with the player. The fact that Fergie corroborates Wenger’s story makes me feel really good about this signing.  Not only does Arsenal get a vastly experienced player who plays his heart out on the pitch, but they got him dirt cheap and the pulled one over on Ferguson’s acolyte Mark Hughes.  I’ll bet if Silvestre stays healthy he will be seen by Gooners as yet another master stroke by the boss.

Meanwhile, the boss was more circumspect with his statements about Barry/Alosno.  I’m lumping both players together here because, they are both 27, both play midfield, both are cup tied, both are Arsenal targets and both players fit Arsene’s quotes.  Thus, I consider Arsene to be chasing both players and whichever one we get, I think Arsenal fans will be happy.  I’d prefer Alonso because I think he’s a technically superior player, he’s Spanish, and he would fit right into the Arsenal midfield.  On the other hand, Barry would bring steel and English-ness to the team, and let’s not let the importance of having Englishmen on the team fall to the way side.  Rumor has it Arsenal have already negotiated a contract with Alonso but Liverpool is refusing to lower their value of the player at £18m, even though, as Arsene points out he’s cup tied.  Villa, similarly, are stuck with their £18m valuation since they have already turned down a lesser bid from Liverpool.  I suppose they could offer Arsenal the player for less, but wouldn’t that allow Liverpool the same chance to swoop for the player that Arsenal just did for Silvestre?

More importantly for me is I don’t get the sense that Barry wants to play for Arsenal.  No.  He wants to play for Liverpool, you know, to “fulfill his dream.”  I think Barry is a smokescreen.  Arsenal are in for Alonso and Alonso only.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  Just the other day I was preparing you all for a summer with no more signings and now here I am hopeful that the team will sign the one player I wanted all summer — starry eyed optimist that I am.

On the injury front, Diaby is getting better, Song is back, Silvestre has a strain, Rosicky is two weeks away and Cesc is being evaluated day-to-day to see if he’ll play on Wednesday against FC Twente.  If there’s any chance he’ll get hurt, don’t play him.  End of story.  As for Diaby/Song, I suspect that Song will play in the holding midfield position but you know, after Wenger put Eboue there, it’s pretty much a crap shoot as to who will play where right now.   In which case, I’m going with… Gael Clichy in the holding midfield spot.  Why not?

It was inevitable after the signing of Silvestre but there are now two rumors about Senderos.  One has him going to Milan (Vincenzo Morabito anyone?) and the other has him going to Newcastle.  I think Arsene really likes Senderos, in spite of the collective wisdom of the Football Manager playing population, and wouldn’t be shocked to see him stay at the club.  If they let Senderos go, there will only be 6 defenders left, right?  That’s not enough depth to make a serious challenge for the two big trophies.  Sorry, I’m skeptical.

The Story That Won’t Die

Almunia is making noise about playing for Engerland again.  Dude… you don’t want that shiat storm.  Almunia would have a better chance winning over Spurs fans after a switch than he would of convincing English fans that he should be the English #1.  He would have to be the best keeper England ever had in order to just keep the blatant xenophobia down to a low roar.  No, I think Capello would lose his job if he appointed Almunia and I stand by ready to eat my words.

Finally

Just an honorable mention to Rambo, who was selected to play for Wales in their World Cup run up.  Good for you, son.

And I only got 7/10 on this quiz about Silvestre’s transfer to Arsenal.  How many can you score?

Then there were 8…

Armand Traore has officially joined Pompey for a one year loan. That brings Arsenal’s total number of fully qualified full backs to just four (Sagna, Eboue, Clichy, and Silvestre). And brings Pompey’s total number of former/current Arsenal players to: well, damn near the whole team. Arsenal on the coast indeed.

The squad just got a little bit thinner in defense (not that Traore was going to have much chance of breaking in to the first team) so, do you all still want Wenger to ship Senderos? Doing that would leave just 7 defenders (8 if you count Eboue).

I guess 8 is enough?

Hey, also, I love this, there’s a transaction every 12 hours it seems. Come on, baby needs a new defensive midfielder!

Arsene in Switzerland

Rumor has it that the boss traveled to Switzerland to watch the Swiss dismantle poor Cyprus 4-1. Sure, he could have been there to watch Djourou (but not Senderos since he’s still injured) but, of course, the rumors are that he was there to watch Inler. I say this is all rumor because I cannot find any news reports putting Arsene in Switzerland last night and you’d think they’d be all over this story since they are the ones banging the ‘Inler to Arsenal’ drum.

There are some actual reports linking Djourou to Rennes for a season long loan.  I’m of two minds on this one: on the one hand, Djourou will only get better by playing.  On the other hand, he’d get even better by playing for Arsenal.  He really made an impression on me so far this season and frankly I’d love to see the kid stay and compete for a spot in defense or possibly in that midfield position he covets.  Of course, now with Song coming back (which is just a bizarre thing to say) and Silvestre an obvious and immediate third choice getting any spot in defense is going to be difficult.

The aquisition of Silvestre also makes selection and keeping all these players happy more difficult.  Because now Arsenal have 9-10 guys competing for 4 slots.  Obviously, the starters at full back are Sagna and Clichy and now they have cover of Eboue, Toure, Traore and Silvestre.  But the center of the field is a bit of a jam: Gallas is not going to lose his starting spot unless he climbs on the professor’s desk and takes a huge dump in front of him, that’s about as close to a guaranteed spot on the team as you get.  Which leaves Toure, Silvestre, Song, Djourou, and Senderos all fighting for that last spot.  I can see some games where he’ll rest Gallas and start Silvestre — but that can’t be more than a handful of matches, really.  So the million dollar question is; can you really see Djourou, Song, or Senderos dislodging Toure?  I really have a hard time seeing that.  No, it’s more likely that they too won’t get more than a handful of starts when Arsene needs to rest someone.  So, barring any injuries, I see 4 players who won’t split more than 20 games among them.  That’s why we’re hearing rumors that Djourou is going out on loan.  If he stays, it will be interesting to see how the boss balances that congestion out.

Meanwhile, I have to admit that the midfield is looking a little thin.  I just happened to cruise over to the dot com to refresh my memory of who’s on the team and noticed that they are putting up some rather strange divisions.  Maybe it’s just for the sake of having 9 defenders, 9 midfielders, and 6 strikers or maybe that’s how Arsenal see all those players, but they are now officially listing Eboue as a midfielder and Theo as a striker.  This means that 5 of the 9 midfielders currently listed are either injured or under the age of 19 and have never played a single professional match for Arsenal.  Wouldn’t it be funny if Eboue is Arsenal’s first choice defensive midfielder all season?  No.  That’s not funny, that’s nightmare fuel — because then I have to listen to all of us Arsenal supporters bitch and moan all season about how horrible he is.

Yesterday was International Friendlies day and just about every player for Arsenal put in some work.  Fortunately, not much happened in the matches — well, “not much” except Robin van Persie put up this spectacular goal.

I had to watch that over and over again.  Could it be that RvP is back to 100%?  That would be a pleasant surprise for Arsenal.

Before I sign off for the day (unless Arsene signs Inler this afternoon) I just want to rake over the dead coals of the Silvestre signing one last time.  It’s done now, the boy’s a Gooner and of course I support him 100%.  Also, as my regular reader knows, I am usually the first person to call for solidarity behind the player, the team, and the coach: just look at how I still want to give Senderos a chance!  I think the signing just took me and many others by complete surprise and my initial reaction was quite negative.  But, on reflection I think it’s a tremendous signing.  Gunnerblog gave me some perspective on the whole affair: we just traded Hoyte for Silvestre AND got £2.25m out of the deal.  Fair enough piece of business if you think about it that way.  A vastly experienced defender, superb professional, who is hard working and dedicated and will be great cover should anything befall our current back 4 in exchange for a kid with some potential who was going to have a hard time making the first team no matter what.  That’s smart business and good for our championship aspirations.

On that note, unless Arsenal sign Inler, I’ll see you folks tomorrow.  See, I can be positive about Arsenal signing a Manc.

P.S. reports are that Liam Brady is currently under observation at a hospital in Dublin.  Nothing more is known at this time, except that he felt “unwell” and checked himself in.  May it be a simple thing and Godspeed on a quick recovery Liam.