It’s a little over 24 hours until the transfer window closes and I thought I’d run down the rumors and any facts that we know. Before we get started though, I want to point out that I will always strive to name my sources. I feel like if you don’t name your sources then all you are doing is the bidding of whomever you are repeating the rumor for. I mean these aren’t life or death situations, there’s no one going to war over this information, so naming your source shouldn’t be a problem. I do know people “inside the club” and there has been only once where that person passed me information that I put on the blog anonymously. It turned out to be false, or maybe not false, but rather, perhaps, “fanciful.”
There are plenty of bloggers who do have contacts in the club and they steadfastly refuse to name their sources because, well, because if they did the well from which their fanciful predictions springs forth would quickly dry up. There’s nothing Arsene Wenger hates more than a talkie toaster.
I always find it funny that these bloggers get 98% of their predictions dead wrong but it’s only the 2% that anyone remembers and they quickly become a “reliable source.” For example, the Warren Barton quotes I put on the blog about Shay Given “definitely” coming to Arsenal. I reported what I and others heard as part of a Fox Super Sunday Plus after match special that ran only in the United States. Many other people heard Warren Barton say definitively that he has had contact with Shay and that it was a done deal and it’s looking like Shay to Arsenal is not a given after all.
What I think was actually going on was Shay’s camp trying to move along a deal with Arsenal, which was always going to be exacerbated by the fact that City are pretenders to the throne and won’t want to give Arsenal a key component. I have no doubt that Given wanted a move to Arsenal, but as Wenger points out today, clubs still have a say.
Funnily enough, John Cross from the Mirror has maintained for several weeks now that Arsenal are still after Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer and Fulham for their part are not willing to let go of their number 1, unless they can get a replacement in. This is corroborated by Mark Hughes when he says:
Mark Schwarzer has made it clear that he would like to go to Arsenal so we are trying to look at other options. I’m always interested in quality players and Shay Given is a quality player. Make of that what you will. But I have said that if we can’t get anyone else in, Schwarzer will have to stay.
Sparky’s openness makes for an interesting quote and sort of matches well with all parties. Wenger has said that the transfer window is like the terminator robot at the end of the terminator movies “dead, but not finished.” Perhaps he plans to man a time machine and go back to find Sarah Connor and put her in goal, swooping in at the last minute to present her registration to the FA? We can assume that Given is using his contacts in the media to push for a transfer out of Manchester City. We know that Schwarzer is looking for one last hurrah in the Champions League and has handed in a transfer request. It all matches up very nicely and as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the 2% that us bloggers will get right.
If it happens. Given is on a pretty hefty salary and Fulham’s wage bill has been historically very small so I wouldn’t be surprised if what’s holding up the deal is something like Fulham asking for City to pay part of Given’s wages. Please note that last bit is what we call “making things up” and should not be confused with “actually knowing what’s going on.” Only a few people involved in these deals have that knowledge and they aren’t talking. I’m just wondering out loud, which I’m allowed to do since I am a blogger and not a journalist.*
I also have trusted sources that I will quote from time-to-time and one of them is the French language newspaper L’Equipe. They have recently started publishing a weekly roundup of the gossip columns but other than that one article a week they have been 100% reliable. If they say, for example, that Juventus is interested in taking Armand Traore then you can believe that they have sourced the article well and that there is interest from Turin.
I also like L’Equipe for their simple yet accurate reporting on deals that have been done. For example, they are reporting that Ibrahimovich is returning to Milan, though this time with AC, and that Mascherano has completed a move to Barcelona. Neither of which is actually shocking news but what I particularly enjoy is reading how much each player went for. Ibrahimovich just cost Barcelona Samuel Eto’o and cash which raised his transfer to the equivalent of 75 million Euros and they have turned around and sent him back to Italy on loan with an option to buy… at just 8 million Euros a year over 3 years. Considering that Barcelona just bought David Villa, that they are giving away Ibrahimovich and that they are paying somewhere near £14m for Mascherano, it really puts the £24m Cesc Fabregas bid into perspective, doesn’t it?
Anyway, those are the only reliable things I have to report. Sorry, if it’s not exciting enough for you. Maybe next time I will have an EXCLUSIF for you. In the mean time, I do want to say one thing about Almunia. There is a good chance that all this wheeling and dealing (NSFW LANGUAGE FROM REDKNAPP) will not come to fruition and Schwarzer will stay at Fulham. In that case, I am with the others who have said on this blog that at 6pm GMT on Tuesday we need to back Almunia 100%. I won’t doubt your commitment to the club or anything but I will doubt the logic of taking him down. I’m not talking about saying that he had a bad game, I’m talking about the constant moaning like a Pulis about him not being good enough. Maybe he isn’t good enough, but he’s possibly all we got and after Tuesday there isn’t much we can do about that.
Right, that’s well and truly it. I’m off to stand around outside the Stadium of Light and see who they cut today and make sure I can get Arsene a screaming deal on one of their 20-odd holding midfielders so that Alex Song can have an experienced back up.
Cheers!
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*I have noticed a sharp turn in what passes for journalism these days with copy being directly, erm, copied from one source to the other without so much as a changed word. I’ve also noticed that many journalists are actually turning in to bloggers, writing opinion pieces, and even appearing on blogs in a turn where the blogger interviews the journalist. The professional has clearly been hit by tough times and the writers are doing anything to stay relevant, including the hit whoring that used to be the exclusive purview of us bloggers. So, when people come on here and complain about my “journalistic integrity” and duty to report fairly, I kind of understand why they might be confusing me for a journalist. After all, I read them every day and the standards at places like the Mirror and the Daily Fail are actually lower than mine — they just don’t use the word “cunt.”
















