Right now we have had Nigel de Jong and SWP linked from City. de Jong is a decent player and I think he would offer cover for Song in the midfield but what people have to realise that in order for City to sign a player over the last couple of seasons they have had to chuck enormous wage packets at players.


Given that Arsene is very strict about his wage structure at the club, City players would more than likely have to take a massive wage cut to join Arsenal sort of dashes the chances. It has also put a lot of players in the Harry Kewell situation being that they have priced themselves out of the general market.


SWP is a different matter because of the obvious ties to the club but he has never been overly excited about joining the club in the past and it isn't as if we haven't tried.


English football is fundamentally flawed, I cannot get my mind around it. First of all If I was sacked for failing at my job I would not expect a years salary. And that is what it looks like if they sack Capello, it was stupid to give him a new contract without any get out clauses.
That is only part of it though! Apparently Roy Hodgson is going to be revealed as Liverpool manager. He has sacked off his job at Fulham so he can go and try to save a ruined club. I like Roy but I think he is behaving in a fairly poor manner. It is not his fault it is the way of managers. Will he have to pay Fulham a years salary or can he just up sticks and leave, giving no notice and just going.


How can a manager expect players to be loyal if you are willing to do that?


Apparently we are signing Koscielny is going to sign soon. Can't really get too excited since I know nothing about him. On the bright side he is a replacement for Gallas and if he is dump then he is a replacement for Silvestre!

There are stories circulating about Jay Simpson being told to find a new club. Although Jay has been in the Carling Cup squad for the last couple of seasons when he hasn't been on loan but there was never any real hope of him becoming an Arsenal first teamer. You can tell by the way they are integrated into the first team.


A direct comparison between he and Bendtner can be made. They were both considered bright hopes, admittedly Bendtner was brought in and Jay was an academy player and they were both sent on loan early to pick up experience, they both played similar numbers of games and yielded similar returns but Bendtner was part of a victorious promotion winning side at Birmingham City and Jay slumped with QPR. I think the winning spirit has really been drummed into Nik, obviously he is not short on confidence and just had a more successful World Cup than Wayne Rooney!


The trouble with our young and talented squad is that it will mean only a couple of academy players even face a chance of being offered a senior contract and even then it will be a life of reserve league and maybe a game if there are lots of injuries. There is a pecking order at Arsenal and it is something like this.


First Teamers (Cesc, Arshavin, RvP)
Benchwarmers (Merida(I know he has left), Vela, Traore)
Carling Cupers (Wilshere, Watt, Gilbert)
Shipped in foreign players (Barazite, Coquelin, Nordtveit)
Academy players (Freeman, Murphy, Hoyte)


However it is a sustainable model and it also helps promote players for the Premiership, if you look at the English talent Arsenal have provided, there are the likes of Bentley, Sidwell and Muamba.


I predict that the only current crop who are likely to make it are Deacon, Afobe and Wilshere, maybe J-E-T. It is the fault of the Premiership, not Wenger or Arsenal.

Christian Eriksen, young super Dane, played in the WC and has been making more of an impact in the Dutch league with Ajax. The rumour comes from when it was brought up in the winter, apparently Bergkamp said to Wenger that he should sign the player.


First of all, if you have just got a job coaching a team (as BD10 has with Ajax) you are not going to tell people to sign your hot prospect. Especially if you are as loyal as Bergkamp, if you do you will not be going to the newspapers to do it. I am pretty sure Wenger and Bergkamp will be in each others phone book and not have to converse through the media.

He is a tidy little player and very similar to someone called Jack Wilshere. He is a player I would rate but we don't need him for a start, Ajax don't need to sell him and he wants to stay in Holland a bit longer.

Rumour Rubbished!

In the world of football news and reporting, the Daily Mail is about as reliable as the Underground, personally on my many trips to London - I have found this to be a quick and efficient but rather sweaty and cramped mode of travel - but my London friends assure me that it is unreliable and a real pain, just like the Fail. So when they fire in an article about a player from Arsenal who had his leg practically severed being sacked off, everyone takes it for gospel?


For a start why would you sell someone who is in such bad form that they are worth nothing? And just before pre-season? If anything he will be sent on loan this season.


Arsenal have been linked with Mario Baliotelli again. Lets just blow this one out of the water straight away. Jose left Inter, Mario has no reason to go now. The only reason there would be is if he has a bust up with Rafa, if he upsets 2 managers how can we want him!


Le Grove stated that Micah Richards of Man City is a Gooner, he isn't he grew up in Leeds and said that he didn't enjoy watching football but loved Vieira. A line has to be drawn under all of this linking to City players. We are a better team than them and to be linked to signing their cast offs is embarrassing for the club. I can excuse Richards, Ireland, Johnson, Hart and Richards because that was before they tried to copy the Real Madrid business model, but no more please!


Joe Cole is free as a bird after the World Cup Howler, I had to play cricket and so glad I did, came in for tea to see Germany put goals 3 and 4 away. On the bright side I won a quid from a 14 year old, like taking money from a teenager! Joe recently said that he left Chelsea because of the politics, I don't like them but I would lose interest in Cole if he was to really have a go. Him signing could be good or bad depending on what the wages are. If we lose him to Spurs that could be embarrassing.

Portugal and Brazil are boring the arse off me so I have decided to focus closer to home.

The Arsenal squad has been worrying me for a while. If you go through the squad by position you can see areas of weakness. The real problem is the squad is deep in numbers but class is a different question. Arsenal have a number of players who are not good enough to be starting for a top four club but too good to rot on the bench (the likes of Denilson, Traore, Vela, et al). It is difficult to know what to do with them, loaning is the best idea but it means they are not trained into the Wenger system.

Goalkeepers
Obvious weaknesses, Almunia and Flapianski are weak and error prone keepers. Realistically They both need to go. Szczesny looks like one for the future but cannot be considered as next seasons starter. Vito looks like he cannot be trusted as the first choice of keeper. Therefore a keeper needs to be signed.


1, -VACANT-
2, Szczesny
3, Vito
4, Almunia*
5, Flapianski*


Leftback
With Gibbs hopefully returning from injury there will be a lot of pressure on Clichy for a first team start. Clichy is error prone but offers a real option between the boxes - provided he doesn't have to cross! Sadly Armand Traore is not close to Premiership standard.


1, Clichy (just)
2, Gibbs
3, Traore*


Rightback
Sagna for me was poor last season, he is not a rock defensively and his forward play is embarrassingly poor, he couldn't hit an army of Bendtners attacking a cross. I think Eboue has done enough to deserve a first team spot because of his high work rate and dedication, coming back from the booing showed real determination. We do need another player to give us adequate cover in this particular area.


1, Eboue
2, Sagna
3, -VACANT-


Centreback
TV5 is the obvious number one DC but that is partly because he is the only real option. We haven't seen Djourou for a year but I think he and TV5 could be a good match because they are both athletic and Djourou offers some real height and power. I hope Campbell signs a new contract because his positioning is perfect and he is an Arsenal legend.
Bartley is not experienced enough and he is 4th choice. We need to sign 2 DCs, Koscielny looks nailed on and then one more.

1, Vermaelen
2, -VACANT-
3, Djourou
4, -VACANT- (Campbell)
5, Bartley


Defensive Mid/Holding Role
Song seems to have made this position his own but he is the only real option for it. Diaby doesn't seem to really fit there and Denilson has been shocking all season. I give him one more season to prove himself as a player. He has captained Brazil in pretty much every age group and I see no reason why he shouldn't be a good player. and Eastmond is a long way down the pecking order.

1, Song
2, -VACANT-
3, Diaby
4, Denilson

The rest will come soon.

Apparently we have chucked in another bid for Mark Mark Schwarzer, at 37, he may represent a decent bit of cover but it seems to go against the Wenger philosophy. The standard chat is that he will be doing a holding job until Wojciech Szczesny is experienced enough to play in the Premiership. Personally I would like to see him have a chance now, I also think Vito is a good keeper and the best of the 3 options last season. Given the ammount of chances Almunia and Flapper had Vito was overlooked. At least if we gave him a good run we could have checked him out for 10 games.

I feel that it is my duty to comment on the England game, I fell asleep for 10 mins of the second half. Funnily enough, its not the first time! The only reason I was awake for the last two was I was eating. The qualifying was a regular snooze fest! The media have jumped back on the bandwagon with all the winning the WC tosh, England beat a nobody country 1-0. Not the stuff of champions. I am going to be playing cricket on Sunday so will miss the match, unless of course we do a rain dance?

Obviously people who believe in rain dances making any real difference are fairly delusional but in comparison to Galatasaray it seems like fairly normal behaviour. If you haven't seen, they made a FOUR MILLION POUND bid for Alex Song, there are some Turkish football board members being surrounded by people in white coats.

Ryan Babel is apparently being looked at by Wenger, I rate him highly even though he has been disappointing for Liverpool. They are supposedly looking for £10-12m for him, considering they have to lose about half of their squad of 400 in order to fit the new squad regulations and cut their costs without CL football, they should take about £3!

The Sun have excelled themselves with some journalism. A FIVE line article saying Chamakh wants Gourcuff to sign for Arsenal. Talk about the twitter revolution!

Koscielny is apparently on the way, it's just taking time. The story is that Wenger hasn't got his Blackberry, do we not pay him enough to be able to cope with the expensive roaming charges? We need to get him in so we can focus on one of the other 2 defensive signings we make.

I have just worked out the Galatasaray logic, they thought that if we sell Fabregas for £40m then £4m for Song was an acceptable offer...Sneaky

If I was to write a transfer wishlist it would involve a real raid of Benfica, the 3 players in particular are:-

Oscar Cardozo - A tall and technically gifted striker just coming into his prime.
Angel Di Maria - A classy winger, who at 22 still has a lot to come but will probably go to Real Madrid.
David Luiz - A strong defender who has a good reading of the game and is well experienced for a 23 year old.

Apparently Chelski are trying to get Luiz for £10m, if I was bidding I would chuck in a £15m bid and just accept that you have to pay a bit more if a big club is interested and get it all sorted out.


Sami Khedira has also been linked, if you are German and play in the midfield you can expect to read that Arsenal want to sign you! Stephane Sessegnon has apparently said he wants to leave PSG, sounds like the sort of Gallas replacement we want to avoid.

On that note, its official Billy Gallas will not be staying at Arsenal. I would like to thank him for a few years of service. Obviously there were problems, the tantrums, the autobiography, the fact that the squad dislike him, the loss of the captaincy and worst of all...smoking! The criminal! I'm just glad we managed to get rid of him without the own goal threats he made to Chelsea. The worst thing was we got our pants pulled down by Chelsea for Cole. £5m plus a player they didn't want any more, Cole is probably the best left back in the world and we got an average defender and £5m. Ouch!

I have been diving between the cricket and the football, France are awful! It would be well and truly hilarious if there were not 3 current Arsenal players playing today!

There has been infighting, inbreeding, potential boycotts and all sorts. Samir was lucky to have not been picked. Things are pretty much the same in the England camp so Theo is in the same boat.

Walcott was given too much too early and it is really beginning to show. Through the season he has been unlucky with injuries but because of the selection policy at Arsenal players are not punished for poor performances he is not dropped for poor showings. Being about the only Englishman at the club has given him popularity with the fans. The hat-trick was one of those things that raised expectation and his profile with the England setup, they also gave him several chances before dropping him.

Theo is almost the spoiled child of English football, I am not saying that he is spoiled but he obviously gets preferential treatment. Being dropped from the England squad might just sort him out and teach him that he won't get everything his own way, it might even teach him to put in a bit of effort in the gym to fight for his place.

Nasri is in the same situation, he is one of my favourite players in the squad but he has yet to really stand up and be counted for Arsenal, the two stand out moments are the United match last season where he scored a brace and the way he played against a weak Porto side in this seasons CL round of 16 home win. I think that if Cesc went Samir would be a direct replacement. What can you do to boost a player? say look we paid £12m for you can you please do something to be better!

There are whispers that Clichy is going to leave, first of all he won't because he loves the club but if he was to go we would be able to really hold out for him, we are almost due to give him a testimonial! Same with Fab, why don't we have one every season?

Lloris was a joke dealing with the first SA goal and the second to a degree, he has Arsenal Keeper cross syndrome, symptoms include being a muppet and letting your defence down.

Is it possible to wear an England football shirt without looking like a Sun reading, BNP voting mentalist?

The Joe Cole transfer story has been about as up and down as you would expect. I really struggled to think we had a chance with him. I still do and I think it is the reason we got through the hard times of the stadium move and managed to stay in the CL all the time. Wenger has a very rigid pay structure at the club and the players understand where their position in that is and it works. Even if many people think players are over-paid. Theo would be the highest paid player at Everton for example.

I think Joe Cole is a class player and would do a good job for Arsenal but you have to ask the question about his value to the club. Whoever he signs for will have to pay him a six figure weekly salary. This is not only a risk because it is a huge amount of money but given his injury history he could be like Harry Kewell or Owen, costing us about £1m a game he actually plays. Secondly think of how much it would upset the star players in the squad who are paid less than him.

If players wanted parity with him it could boost the clubs wage bill up by millions annually. This would prove problematic. We have lost Gallas who was on about £80,000 a week, Silvestre and Senderos would have been on about £30,0000 each so effectively it would stay the same in terms of actual cost but not when you factor in all the other costs.

I could see Spurs breaking the bank for him because they are happy pouring money away and United still need to replace Ronaldo, Cole would come close.

Arsenal are still not wealthy enough to be one of the big boys. Look at the way Barca are bullying us. We might have to ride out this storm and accept that we are in it for the long run.

Laurent Koscielny has apparently signed for Arsenal for a deal around £10m. A similar fee to what was spent on TV5.

Koscielny is 6'1" or if Wikipedia is to be believed 7'4", either way he will be decent in the air, this is further backed up by the 3 goals he scored last season.

He spent a couple of years in the French second division which is very much like the second division in rugby, Brutal! It also means that he has had to work hard to progress to a better club. He has been very good in terms of adjusting to Ligue 1 and helped the team gain their highest finish in the league. The majority of Arsenal players have been picked up from clubs at a young age or come through big teams academies. A player who has had to battle up the ranks is something that will help the fighting mentality of Arsenal.

Personally I am a bit sceptical about him because of his lack of experience compared to the likes of Vermaelen who is the same age and captained Ajax and played in the CL by the age of 23. I also follow Ajax to an extent and knew that he was a good option, Ajax have a MEAN defence, signing Jan Vertonghen would be my first Choice. But like I said the other day, we have been linked to the whole squad!

Obviously rejecting a signing that I have never seen play is churlish and he has obviously been well scouted but Arsenal need leaders and hard men. Lets hope if we do sign him (a bid has apparently been accepted) that he and TV5 can form a watertight partnership for the next 10 years, we might not even need to sign a new keeper!

On a Personal note My football hating Spurs supporting (out of spite) father has got World Cup Fever, just as it has bored the arse clean off me! Great song here though!

I Really did think this World Cup would be a hub of footballing excitement but in the end it has been a massive disappointment so far. Watching England and France scrapping for qualification will be the highlight, unless of course England play like the last 2 games, then it will be a further display of unimaginative boring rubbish.

Laporta has reportedly said that he knows Fabregas wants to join Barca, the only way he can know this is if he has spoken to the player, if they have spoken to the player then they have broken the rules. Obviously this is a bit more official than just behaving like scumbags, we all know that anyway!

I also saw that Mr Laporta said that "Arsenal will eventually give in" now the source I found this on is a good reporter for a bad website so the credibility of it is slightly questionable but I believe it was said. If I was a member of the Arsenal negotiating team (which is probably about 30 strong) I would read that comment as "We will keep bidding until you accept the bid, please don't accept one too soon because we are going for record debts".

They are so desperate for Fabregas to sit on their bench that they have literally tried everything except the Mafia sending a horse head in a bag to the stadium. I would rather Arsenal kept him for 5 years and let him go on a free than this (we will make more than £40m in image rights for him anyway). If he doesn't want to play then he can sit in the reserves and waste. This has become a battle of principals. Or £60m

Arsenal dot com have been doing these player season reviews, I have failled to read a single one because they are picking nobodies (youths and players who are leaving). I really do find the site utterly unpleasant, everything is either trying to sell something overpriced or feed some political style spin and its always transparent rubbish. I can use my facebook account to click that I like the stories, well Arsenal dot com, I don't.

Just had a look at the Arsenal USA page. Feel sick! It is so shameless and patronising. Man up Arsenal FC. I love US football even Landon Donovan, who is class sounds as though he knows nothing about soccer, just because of their accent and terminology It's hillarous! Maybe he should read the Arsenal USA Rules. SO funny!

Laurent Koscielny has apparently been bid for again. Which is nice, I might actually have to do some research on him soon!

Apparently Yaya will go to City this week. I hope so because not only will that save about an hour a week of my time reading boring articles linking him to us but it pushes Ireland down the pecking order.

At the moment Theo and Nasri are very lucky not to be involved with their counties, both shambolic infighting! Apparently Clichy, Sagna and Diaby are the only Frenchmen coming out with any respect!

Maybe if Fabregas does something hideous for Spain, like an own goal that puts them out of the WC Barca won't want him! Maybe he could kick Wilson Palacios really hard in the scrotal region?

In some sort of Football Manager type spending spree I have tried to work out what would be done if Fabregas went to Barca.

Firstly no spending spree would be worthwhile if you have no money so where is the money? Well there is apparently between £25m and £50m in the kitty at the moment through player sales and being an efficiently and responsibly run football club. There will also be a £50m windfall from the sale of Fabregas. A penny less and I will be calling for the heads of several members of the backroom staff. Barca bought Ibrahimovic for £40m + Eto so they can't be too worried about wasting money.


Firstly if you sell you must replace. The realistic replacements are:-

Gourcuff - He seems to fit the Wenger requirements. French, "he az a good engine", good passing and movement. I think he is a good player and over 6" which would add a bit of physicality to the side. The downside is cost.

Ozil - similar to Gourcuff but German, he has become hot property after the first German match as the media jumped on the bandwagon. He is the closest option to Cesc in terms of contribution with 15 assists and 9 goals. It would be difficult to get him now and I think we have missed the boat on him.

Ireland/Johnston - Great players but very much comparatively bargain basement, they are out of favour with City and would love first team football.

The most obvious choice would be nobody. move Arshavin to play in the hole behind the Chamakh attack and RvP. If not Nasri is another option. I really rate him and would love him to be able to step up, we spend £15m on him and he needs to if we are being honest.

The other choice is to keep him but it would effectively cost the club £60m (missed transfer fee and wages) and nobody knows what will happen if he does play again, he might get the Ronaldo sulk or the Gallas own goal threat.

Basically I have no idea what to do with Fab, that would be the conclusion so sorry for wasting your time! Actually sell Fab for £60m and its all good.


Next

Sort out our SHAMBOLIC DEFENCE. Clichy and Sagna have been disappointing this season and offer very little going forward because of their AWFUL crossing, however they spend a lot of their time going forward making us vulnerable to attacks. I am not saying to drop them but I am convinced that Gibbs should start ahead of Clichy and maybe Eboue in front of Sagna but where we need a world class player is the Gallas replacement. A Chiellini/Pique/Puyol/Lucio type of player who will really influence things and control the team. Especially if we lose our captain. We need a strong spine to the team and a world class defender will help with that. Gallas had no respect in the team and you could tell. TV5 needs a world class partner, it will make him look better and give him more confidence, centre backs are a team.

I don't think we should spend all of the money but things need to be changed.

Firstly a Goalkeeper needs to be bought, a good one. Robert Green!

Who else? Oh Kaka, Chavi and Messi!

This is getting so silly, Ozil has one good game for Germany in the WC and so he gets linked with almost every top flight club, stories about Chelsea chasing him since he had his mother’s milk still wet on his chin and all of this media rubbish is so very boring. Look at the Gourcuff situation, he had one average game and everything has gone quiet. Premiership teams do not buy players on a whim especially when they are likely to be paying another £10m plus in terms of wages, they do a lot of scouting. Arsenal have been linked to him for almost a year now but the sensationalist morons who write for the plebeian newspapers can’t help themselves, they are like lie junkies willing to sell any principles they once had for one single hit on their page.

I read that the Mirror had to sack 200 people from their staff. I have sympathy for people losing their jobs but its like the Nazi guards being made redundant after WWII, they were doing awful things and now have nothing. I just hope the person who decided to employ Stan the dogger is one of the ones to lose their job because he is an awful awful man. Is that slander? Probably not due to the fact that it is a) a personal opinion and b) true. I hear if you say allegedly you can say whatever you want so let’s stick that in somewhere!

Apparently Silvestre is sniffing about a very lucrative deal to move to a Middle Eastern club, personally I would say he should go and play in Australia or Chile just so he is as far away from the Premiership as possible. He is a liability, A United Liability.

I can’t understand why Campbell has not been offered a new contract. I don’t think he is first choice but not only was he good when he played, arguably our best player in the second half of the season but he is a leader, obviously loves the club and even though he probably couldn’t beat Maradona in a race his positioning is so good and he can read the game so well. Think how useful that would be for the likes of Bartley and even Djourourourou. The team needs players who the fans genuinely love and Sol is one, in the current squad I think he and RvP are the only 2 who really have such popularity. Obviously Cesc’s popularity is waning by the day and Arshavin is too lazy for fans to get behind.

I have had a new idea for Cesc, it is one that is fool proof (so Barca will understand it), they keep flapping their gums about how he will be playing for them, we keep rejecting bids until £60m. We sell him, their finances go sour (this will roughly be about the same time as Spain goes bust since they bankroll Barca), we then buy him back for £15m? How do you like them apples?

Wenger wants to buy a defender before the end of the WC (World Cup not Water Closet) but he also wanted to buy all the players before the world cup, next it will be that he wants to buy players before pre-season training, then pre-season games, then before the season starts, then the window closing, then before February. Nothing is easy with the club. It does sort of make it more satisfying though.

Did you know you can win the WC without scoring a goal in open play?!

England tonight...Excited?

I have never been one of these conspiracy theorists but the match schedule is rarely kind to us and once again it has proven tricky. At least we play United and Chelsea after CL matches where they will be likely to be moved to Sunday kickoffs. At least we don’t have the 4 match death march like last season.

We will play Liverpool in the first game of the season. A game I hope to go to with the Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club (ASSC). They are a fantastic lot of Gooners. They sent a coach full from Aberdeen to Sunderland which is pretty impressive since they didn’t get home until 2am! I really would advise you join your local supporters club because it is money well spent and a great community. The game I am looking forward to will be Blackpool away for a bit of banter and an overnight stay in what is a traditional and classy place, its in April so I might even get the Speedos out!

Just after I said about Requeme being good for Arsenal he was linked! Don’t know if that’s just because I have a massive brain or because he has a switched on agent trying to get him into the best club in Europe (maybe not statistically but historically and in terms of class).

My Graham (Plumbers merchants) WC Wallchart is wrong so I have no real idea when about 40 Arsenal players fight it out in Mexico V France but I will be a keen spectator. It is such a shame Le Sulk (Nik Anelka(no relative of Le Grove)) left because he had a chance to be a real icon for the club but to be fair he was a pain and we cashed in on him. He would be our highest scorer by now but instead will never really be remembered as a great player by any club except Bolton! It would be a shame for the same thing to happen with Cesc. Arsenal are good with their legends, I bet Fabregas would never be seen embracing the Nou Camp like Tony, Dennis, Ray et al do with the Grove.

Barca have said £40m is the tops for Fab, they said that about £30m. They are spending £70 on Torres apparently...Should clear a bit of Liverpool’s debt!

How do people feel about me kicking off the old twitter account again? I mainly use it for Gooner news but will do it if 3 people tell me to. I always think it’s a bit of an ego trip but my ego grows with every time someone likes my facebook status...rarely.

This is just a quick post to signify my rage over an article published on Tribalfootball this evening.

The 23-year old midfielder's relationship with the Frenchman is understood to have become strained after he expressed his desire to move to Barcelona.

That would be when Fabregas said about 10 days ago that he had just had the most amazing conversation with Wenger.

I think the bit where it says understood is as accurate as "a source close to the club" or "a friend of the player", it basically means we want to get some hits or even sell some advertising.

I also heard the interview with the BBC in which Fabregas said what was reported by these mugs. It is known that Wenger rarely focuses on opponents and spends most of his time focusing on his own players and their game. The negative tone in this article is purely the author trying to build things up for a future story.

The fact that the title is "Fabregas has pop at Wenger and Arsenal training regime" tells a story.

As people will have noticed yesterday I said that I like Le Grove, this caused a bit of a problem with people and I would like to justify myself, LG is one of those sites that has a reputation for being hard on Arsenal and there are things I agree with (like Wenger being slow to accept things are not working(see Denilson/Almunia)) and some I don't (some of the treatment of Gazidis). Someone said it was an anti-Arsenal blog, why would 2 people religiously publish a long post every day at 9am?

There seems to be a big void between Arsenal fans and I will touch on this when there is even less news to comment on than today.

I leave you with the question would you rather have something that kisses up to something or something that is a thought out personal criticism?

I was sad to read the article on Young Guns saying about the players who were not offered new contracts with Arsenal, I always expect the young ones who don't make it to go on and play for Championship clubs but it seems to be a really low standard
Not much happening today as far as I can see, apparently Laurent Koscielny wants to come and is asking for the transfer offer to be accepted. Well, his agent said that, I hate agents, they are like lawyers with no principals! I have seen nothing of him like most Gooners, but my guess would be that given his Polish/French heritage he will be a fighter but quick to surrender. Just realised that French jokes don't really work when we make up most of the French squad!

I was thinking about the Fabregas situation and potential suiters, a player who I have always rated is Juan Roman Riquelme. His passing is electric and free-kicks are pretty good too. He is 31 but on a free for a year could do a good job, he lead Villarreal and then they collapsed without him. A class act. He never really had any pace to lose so that will not be a problem! Cesc has practically no pace and he is still world class.

Michael Johnson would be another player who could fit in but he may well be too broken to be a worthwhile signing, having only made 4 appearences in the last 2 seasons and whether City want him or not, there is also a danger we just turn into a side that signs all of their cast offs, with links to Richards, Hart (who is class) and SWP.

I saw bits of the Portugal match and it tickled me when the ref booked Ronaldo, there was no reason for it other than the ref thought he was an arsehole, well thats what came up on the press association news feed. "Ronaldo booked for being an arsehole"

Just seen that Spain have decided to avoid using Cesc, you get the idea from Barca that the fans pine for him but considering he would be behind Chavi, In a fiesta, Buscuits, Pedro and Villa (attacking midfield), I don't really think the fans really give a toss about him its more the fact that we stole him!

Gutted about Senderos getting injured, I will always like him a bit out of sympathy but because he has a big heart and gave his all for Arsenal.

The WC is excellent for blog writing due to the fact that it really is so so boring. You can write with it on in the background. Final whistle! Spain lose, GOOD! Thats what you get you player poaching turds.

Right I am sick to death of these Barca folk behaving like animals.

First of all, they are bankrolled by the Spanish Government, so by everyone in Europe since the Spanish income is pretty much totally reliant on subsides due to the 23% unemployment rate, so effectively WE AS ARSENAL FANS are paying for Cesc to move to another team!

Secondly, They still owe several clubs money for players, INCLUDING ARSENAL.

Thirdly, the way they have gone about the deal has been appalling and must be considered to be tapping up. My personal favourite bit was when the first bid was laughed out of the room and they said well Cesc could buy out his contract...classy!

Fourthly,

"The sooner everything is unblocked, the better, but it must be understood that we, as the buying club, want to pay the least (amount) possible, and Arsenal, as the selling club, want to charge the highest possible amount of money."

That is the sort of business understanding that has really gripped me, I wasn't sure how bargaining worked but now I know, that business degree was really worthwhile!

I don't know if I need a fifth thing? if it comes up then I will let you all know.

Arsenal have decided to try and do the right thing by avoiding any real speculation or help sell newspapers. In all honesty the club has come out of it looking really weak, at least when United sold Ronaldo they got a fortune for him and looked like they won. I could see Fab go for under £45m and it will be a disgrace.

Finally I would like to give a shout out to Le-Grove, I read it daily and on a couple of occasions it has really annoyed me (during the early 2010 slump) but overall it is a great blog, reliable and I have dealt with Pedro a couple of times and he has been really helpful and encouraging with this blog. When I am next down for a match I would definately be in for getting a round of Peronis in! I didn't mean for that to sound quite so arse kissy but it really gets my goat when people slag something off for being negative without any real reason, reading Le Grove makes you think. Arsenal have under-achieved since the stadium move and things have to change.

Right time to watch Christiano Ronaldo and work out whether I would have been able to like him if he was a Gooner, the answer...NO!

I just read that there is apparently going to be a bid for Mesut Ozil, the question is why wasn't it nailed on a week ago? Before prices go up after the World Cup like Wenger said. Buying players from Germany is never cheap, look at Hargreaves and how much they want for Dzeko so I think it is likely that we will be priced out unless Fabregas goes.

ACLF nailed the nail on the head

Arsene has been very impressed by the Dutch qualifying campaign for South Africa is covetously glancing in the direction of the Eredivision. Specifically he is looking at Ajax. More specifically at Stekelenburg, van der Wiel, Suarez and now Vertonghen. That takes care of the defence and attack. Such is his eye for a bargain that he has talked Ivan Gazidis, Kroenke and Usmanov into buying the club rather than separate bids for each of the players.

The article can be read at http://aculturedleftfoot.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/arsene-to-buy-ajax-roy-of-the-rovers-win-a-home-shirt/

but he missed the links to Eriksen, Aissati and Emanuelson! It is getting silly the number of players we are linked to, especially from Ajax!


What needs to be remembered is that we NEED defenders, it's why we lost the league and it is why we are in danger of not progressing. The only thing that can be said is that it is purely a matter of time before defensive players are bought unless Kyle Bartley is going to be making regular appearances.

Just a quick word on the new away shirt, its grim, I don't like the tight bits on the arms, they squeeze my enormous guns and it seems to be a very dirty shade of yellow. If they had just copied the last yellow shirt and given it a V-neck it would have been perfect. I wonder how quickly I could get one sent over from Thailand on eBay? If Nike had spent a bit more time on the design instead of messing around on Photoshop editing pictures that would be great.

The WC is particularly boring, I have lost interest, I found that I was watching too much TV with Big Brother too, it is delightfully awful so I chose to give up boring football unless there is a gooner link. Apparently Adebayor's mobile telephone went off while he was on the BBC, personally this does not surprise me as he is the least professional footballer this side of the Conference, it's a shame Adrian Chiles left for ITV because imagine the hate you could expel with Chiles, Adebayor and Lawrenson on screen at the same time! While talking of awful media sources. The Times has turned into some sort of mental version of Heat magazine. The Sunday verson of the paper featured Darren Fletcher getting married on the front page, sad, really sad, didn't he know that there is a World Cup on? Didn't he get picked? Oh he is Scottish. Sad times for you my friend (by friend I mean I strongly dislike you).

Ivory Coast v Portugal? I will watch it if Eboue promises to stamp on Ronaldo's ball bag.

After a few weeks of holiday and an ongoing spat with the advertisers, who you may well have noticed have gone Gooner Get Ya is now a free blog, advert free and no whoring myself out for gambling! I also deleted all of the posts from the last year to avoid them getting any free advertising!

The WC has started and having watched almost every match it has yet to really get going. From a Gooner point of view Diaby has been the pick of the pile, he was stunning against the Uruguayans but couldn't make the difference. RvP and Bendtner were both fairly wasteful and nondescript in the lunchtime match today. Ozil was apparently looking pretty special for the Germans but surely his price is rising too quickly.

There has been a change in the Barca hierarchy but that is the last thing that will be said about Cesc and those cheating, thieving turds. What they have done is massively immoral and should be punished by the fair and in no way biased football governing bodies.

Personally if there was a deal done, it might not be the worst thing in the world depending on the situation, anything under £45m is offensive and we should be calling for heads on plates but if we could get £60m+ we could do well with that. Steven Ireland and Gourcuff/Ozil/other young replacement for Cesc. The club definitely rely too much on him and are often left wanting when he is injured, just look at the poor showing at the end of the season and the need when he came back against Villa. Maybe even buy Gerrard to upset Jose!!

We have about 2 central defenders so maybe better think about buying some of those Arsene...

There have been a couple of rumours about Eduardo moving and fans saying that he should go. My question would be why not send him on loan for a season for him to get his confidence back and see what happens?

Just realised that I am missing Cameroon vs Japan, must go and watch Alex Song be wasted on the bench...IDIOTS!