To anyone really confused after seeing my last post today, it’s been deleted. Just ignore it, sorry about that.

Anyway, onto the news then and yesterday Robin van Persie’s new contract was officially announced. It was in the papers last week but you cant be too sure until it’s on Arsenal.com so I’m delighted it’s all done and sorted now. Robin said he couldn’t imagine himself anywhere else and is hungry to win trophies at Arsenal. He said in one interview that his desire is high and he would not have stayed at Arsenal if he thought we were not going in the right direction.

What we need from RVP now is another injury-free season. For me, last year was almost his final chance to prove to me that he’s not just another Arsenal sick-note. Well he has to do it again this year and prove it wasn’t just a one-off. Robin grows and grows with confidence and ability, and each time he gets an injury he’s back to square one again. Over the course of a season he can improve a lot so I’m hoping he can get a good run of matches in again this season.

Talking of matches, the first set of fixtures up to December have been chosen by Sky and ESPN and there’s a few changes to make note of from the original list. Our season opener at Goodison Park has been selected by ESPN and is now a 5.15pm kick off, when Spurs come to the Grove on Halloween we’ll be playing at 12.45pm and Chelsea’s visit at the end of November has been moved to 4 o’clock on the Sunday. There’s a few more changes in there so take a look at that link and update your diaries.

There are some more pre-season fixtures announced too. There are local games against Maidenhead and Borehamwood but before you spend loads of money getting there, they are just ‘Arsenal XI’ fixtures.

Not to be outdone by Arseblog, Arsenal.com have brought out another Exclusive interview with Ivan Gazidis. He must be getting sick of it!

Not much else going on to be honest. Newcastle defender Sebastien Bassong says there was an appraoch from Arsenal this summer but with the amount of centre backs we have at the moment I don’t think there’ll be anything in this story. If anything there will be defenders leaving this summer – not any more coming in.

I’m off now, thanks for reading.

I don’t know why but I’ve been really looking forward to the first shots of the players back in training. It’s the first glimpse of the squad ahead of the new season and a chance to see Thomas Vermaelen with his new team mates for the first time. Tomas Rosicky’s there too which is strange to see, as is Eduardo. Go take a look if you haven’t already.

There were a few missing though, Fabregas, Walcott and Gibbs were all absent after their summer international commitments. I could run through who else I don’t see there but that’s just speculating over nothing, they could just not be in any photos; although I’m pretty sure Adebayor’s not in there even after his agent said nothing has changed with his situation at Arsenal.

Gallas, Silvestre, Senderos and Djourou are all there though and I’m glad to see Big Phil back in an Arsenal shirt. As I said yesterday, I don’t expect all of those players to remain with us this season but we’ll see. The latest on Senderos is a story in The Daily Mail who say Bordeaux will bid £5.2 for the Swiss international. Sounds pretty realistic but when can you ever trust what the Daily Mail say?

Not long ago I told you about Andrey Arshavin ditching his agent, Dennis Lachter in a move to represent himself personally. I said at the time that it was great news because Lachter is a slimy little cunt who will try an engineer a move whenever possible. Well, he’s done it. Headlines reading ‘Lachter invites Arshavin Barca Bid’ are appearing all over the net. Now, forgive me if I’m wrong but doesn’t he have fuck all to do with Arshavin anymore? If those quotes about Andrey leaving his agent were true then he’s got nothing to do with this.

Here’s what he said anyway:

“Before anything else, Barcelona should make a formal offer.

Then we can sit down and speak.”

Who the fuck is ‘we’?! It shows true cuntery to whore yourself out to the whole of Europe before finally securing a move to then start all over again just six months later! Fair enough we might have bought him on the cheap but that’s got nothing to do with it.

I genuinely believe Andrey is happy here in London and I believe him when he says, “I am Gooner.” Lachter however is nothing more than a money grabbing, unfaithful twat and I’m glad AA23 did the right thing and got rid of him while he could. I don’t know whether being his own agent is the best idea but I’m sure he’ll get someone a lot less of a dick than Lachter in at some point. Hopefully this story is just rubbished away like all the others seeing as Lachter has nothing to do with Arshavin or Barcelona’s supposed interest.

So Dennis, just fuck off. Thanks.

Arseblog has just put up an exclusive interview with Ivan Gazidis which is well worth a read. He talks about all things to do with the board and club ownership, transfers, how he got the job and more. I think it’s great that such a big figure at Arsenal recognises the blog world for what’s its worth and doesn’t just ignore what a massive fan base there is behind them. I’m sure a business man like Gazidis knows how important the blog community is, not only is it the voice straight from the fans but it’s just as good a way to get information out as the official website. The club has made more and more of an effort to get in touch with blogs and it’s really makes you feel appreciated when they get in contact. So well done Arseblogger for getting the interview and well done the club for letting him speak – more in the future please.

Right I better be off I have a busy day sorting my emails out. As you can imagine my inbox is full of messages from Ivan Gazidis, Arsene Wenger, Dennis Bergkamp, Tony Adams and others trying to get an interview on The Cannon. Jesus just leave me alone for once.

-

ps. Just as I finished writing there was some more news. Wenger wants a meeting with Fiorentina and Eboue would be ‘a valid swap’. More on Friday, I don’t think I’m going to be around tomorrow.

I’m really starting to miss football now. The Confederations Cup and the U21 Euro Championships kept me slightly entertained for a while but now it’s just dead. In just 12 days time I’ll be watching Arsenal play Barnet at Underhill and as always I can’t wait to see us back in action again.

Preparations for the new season started today as most of the players returned to training. I’ve been waiting all day for photos to be put up but it looks like we’re going to have to wait until tomorrow, no doubt they’ll go up just as I’ve finished writing this. Manuel Almunia has been talking about the new season already and has said we must get off to a good start. Last season we started badly and it set us up for a poor season but the year before we began well and mounted a strong title challenge. It just goes to show how vital the first few games are and even though it feels a bit more relaxed because it’s early days we still need the points. Here’s what Manuel has been told July’s Arsenal Magazine:

“Overall we needed to be more focused at the start of the season. If we had all been more involved with the mission at the start of the season, it could have been a better year for us. In the last half of the season I think everyone realised what was required and you could see the results.

I think sometimes something has to be said to make things work right and when certain things were spoken about, it proved to make people focus on things.

The second half of the season showed what we can do, but you have to be fit mentally and physically from the start and be fully involved with the project of the boss. That is what we need to do from July this year, from the minute we get back for pre-season. We need to make sure the group is together and focused after the break and to show our total commitment.

I am sure that because we have the quality, next season will be much better than the one we have just finished.”

We all know that we did improve considerably in the second half of the season and the players do too. Almunia suggest that they weren’t fully focused at the beginning of last season but are ready to right those wrongs this time around. I hope the players have come back today and got in the mentality to put together a title-winning season. It’s not going to be easy, not one bit, but if we commit 100% from the very beginning we’ll give ourselves a good chance.

There’s still quite a long way to go until the end of the transfer market but I’m hoping we can keep this squad together. It might not be perfect but they all know what went wrong last season so they all know how to put it right this time around. The players are just as upset as the fans about the long wait for trophies so next season they should be doing everything to bring an end to that.

Maybe one or two will leave but I think if we can keep it to a minimum it will help us. Of course, there’s still time to bring people in too. Felipe Melo’s name has been brought back up after Fiorentina confirmed we are the highest bidders, however the player has spoken again saying how happy he is in Italy. You know, this could be one of those scenarios where a player is actually committed to a club no matter who wants to buy them. It’s becoming more and more rare but believe it or not there are some players that are just happy as they are.

It’s all very confusing, the Melo saga. Fiorentina, his agent anf Melo himself have all said contradicting things at different points over the summer and I have no idea what will happen. Gunnerblog thinks we won’t meet the buy-out fee on Melo’s contract and will possibly look elsewhere. Who knows?

Martin Keown’s been talking about a number of different things from Senderos and Djourou, to Wilshere and the future. It’s a bit long but it’s worth a read, he always knows what he’s talking about. He believes both Senderos and Djourou have bright futures but I think we all know there won’t be room for both of them. Martin reckons Djourou’s on the verge of making the first team and just has to keep pushing before he makes it

He also says that if Big Phil has learnt from his loan move in Milan he could come back a better player and end up staying at Arsenal. Keown says he has all the attributes to become a world-class centre back but has been very unlucky and accident-prone. At the moment it seems like he is unwanted by both Milan and Arsenal, I’m sort of hoping he’ll be given another chance here but I’m sure we’ll find out what’s going on in the next few weeks.

With the arrival of Vermaelen it’s going to be very hard for either of our Swiss defenders to make the side with a fully fit squad. One of Toure or Gallas could still be off though, so don’t count that out but there’s one thing I’m pretty certain of and that’s we won’t be starting next season with Vermaelen, Gallas, Toure, Silvestre, Senderos and Djourou in the squad.

Another player who’s future is still uncertain is Emmanuel Adebayor. When the season ended in May I think everyone was certain he’d be finding a new club this summer but he’s still here! The latest from his agent is he’s staying at Arsenal which would surprise a few people, including me. Milan have now put in a bid for Luis Fabiano after saying they’d be trying for Ade if they lost out on Dzeko. Well it’s looks like he’s not even their second choice any more! At the moment it looks like he’s staying but don’t be surprised if this one goes right down to the wire.

Well that’s it for today I think. Oh, Arshavin was voted 2nd in Arsenal.com’s player of the season which I think makes van Persie the winner. Don’t quote me on that but I think he hasn’t been picked yet. Make sure you have a look at Arseblog tomorrow, he’s got an exclusive interview with Ivan Gazidis ahead of the new season.

Right then, I’m off. Thanks for reading.

Felipe Melo only signed a contract extension at Fiorentina a few days ago but that has brought no halt to the transfer speculation. When he re-signed on the 30th June I ruled us out of a move for him but it looks like I could be wrong. His agent says they are not in talks with any club yet but names Juventus as a club Melo would like to play for. It seems his recent contract extension was meant for one purpose only – the buy-out clause. By creating this they have made it impossible for clubs to bargain with the price, so if they want him they have to pay for him. The price tag on Melo is £21.4m but we rarely spend over £15m for a player – only on special occasions do we splash the cash. I think Wenger has seen the price tag and done his best to get around it by offering a player + money deal – Fiorentina have confirmed we have a made an offer for the player which was not up to the valuation but they would consider a price reduction if the deal included Emmanuel Eboue going the other way:

“Fiorentina sporting director Pantaleo Corvino, in denying the transfer rumours of the past few hours, which sees Felipe Melo definitely at other clubs and reporting potential meetings to finalise the transfer of the player, underlines the following:

“In case the footballer has already reached an agreement with any club, the release clause fixed with the player himself is €25million. We would not contemplate any exchange, unless it is to the liking of Fiorentina.

“Arsenal is the only club to have come close to the sum established by the release clause.

“Fiorentina in turn proposed to the aforementioned club a reduction in the amount set by the release clause by including right-back (Emmanuel) Eboue in the deal.”

I think many, many Gooners will be delighted at this news. A lot of people want Eboue out of the door at any cost, I am not like that but I will admit that I wouldn’t be too upset if he left! He has changed for the better recently but that doesn’t make him my favorite player. If we can sort something out with Fiorentina then I would be very happy.

I don’t really seeing us paying the £21.4m so by sending Eboue the other way (a surplus player anyway) we can bring the price down to our level. The sooner we enter negotiations the better because now they have announced they will sell Melo for that set price there are bound to be a few clubs interested. Juve might be Melo’s personal choice so if they make a bid we could lose out on him.

This is quite big news, for a club to come out so clearly talking about their transfer business isn’t common. We know Wenger is very against it so hopefully this announcement won’t put him off. More news on this as it comes, it seems the Melo story isn’t over yet.

The Independent are reporting that Robin van Persie has signed a contract extension until 2014. It hasn’t yet been announced on Arsenal.com so I’m not taking this as set in stone just yet. Yesterday I spoke briefly about how I was concerned by him not signing on yet but it looks like it will be wrapped up shortly. Hopefully The Independent do know something and it will be officially announced soon.

I also spoke yesterday about Marouane Chamakh and Wenger’s possible interest in him. Well the Bordeaux coach has said any deal must the be sorted out quickly so he can plan ahead of the new season. We are tied down until Adebayor’s future is sorted so we can’t offer anything yet. On the subject, Arseblog has a leak of a Michael Owen-style brochure for Ade which is worth checking out.

Right I better be off, I have my second work shift of the day in an hour and I need food. See ya.

In an interview with the French media Arsene Wenger has revealed the names of two attacking players he’s had an eye on this summer. They are Bordeaux’s Marouane Chamakh and (soon to be) Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. We’ve mostly been linked with defensive midfielder’s recently but this news suggests that Wenger will ignore that vacency again. He says we’ll only bring a striker in if we lost one and Arsene has said that Adebayor’s future is down to him:

“If he does not want to stay, he will leave but I think that he will be still at Arsenal this season.”

He’s not being shoved out the door, if he wants to leave then we’re not bothered. Strong contrast to last year though when we were saying he is 100% not for sale and we will do everything we can to keep him. Arsene says he thinks he will stay but he could just be saying that; Milan want an attacking player, Ade wants to go to Milan, we’re quite happy to let him go – all the elements are there so I reckon he’ll sign for Milan. If he does go then we’ll have a bit of money to get a replacement and when asked whether he was interested in Chamakh, Wenger said:

“Yes, but only in the event of a departure.”

So if Ade leaves get ready for a heap of Chamakh stories. Wenger was also asked about any other possible French signings:

“There is one who interested me but he (Karim Benzema) left for Madrid. I did not make of approach because I would never have thought that Lyon would sell this year.”

Even if we did know that Benzema could be persuaded to leave Lyon this summer we would’ve never been able to compete with Real Madrid or Man United’s terms. He was a player United identified as a possible Ronaldo replacement but Real were quick in there with a tasty bid and it was too good to turn down. Now the Premier League champions have strengthened added to their attack by signing Michael Owen.

It’s a bizarre transfer, one day you’re organising meetings with Stoke and Hull, the next day you’re signing for Man United. He has not impressed since returning to the Premiership with Newcastle and as a result has not been considered to play for England for a long time. Of course the service at United will be better than at Newcastle so he might get a few more goals that way but I just generally don’t think he’s that good a player any more, he’s past it. Well the experiment of Henrik Larsson worked for them before so this might too. No doubt he’ll score against us this season.

We’ve also secured a signing today – Kieran Gibbs on a long term contract. It’s yet another new deal for one of our young stars. Making sure our promising talents stay at the club is just as important as making new signings and I’m glad we’ve got another player signed up. What excites me is four out of the five young players we’ve re-signed this summer are British – Gibbs, Walcott, Ramsey and Wilshere. Having all the foreign players that we do doesn’t bother me but I look forward to us hopefully having a few more local players in the future. By the way, the other player that signed a new deal was Fabianski.

All this news of new contracts has reminded me about van Persie. He still hasn’t agreed a new contract. There were some positive quotes recently about him getting it sorted but there’s still no news. Hopefully it can get sorted before we start pre-season, otherwise Wenger really is going to have to look at some attacking players to bring in.

Thanks for reading.

Ah it’s so hot. Too hot. This is England for christ’s sake I can’t be dealing with this weather. Even lifting my fingers to the keys is tiring. Anyway, while the BBQ is heating up I’ll bring you up to date with what little news there is.

Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere have both signed long term contracts this week. A bit odd seeing as Ramsey only transferred here a year ago and Wilshere signed professional terms in January. It just shows how highly we rate the teenagers. They will no doubt be an important part of future midfield – possibly even midfield partners.

I’d like to know the length of the deals but as always they are undisclosed. I reckon they could be somewhere close to 8 years Fabregas signed for last time. Aaron has spoken about his new contract saying he’s happy he chose Arsenal, is pleased with his first season but hopes he can get a few more games next year. A few bloggers have discussed a possible loan move for him next season, I’m sure he would do great at a lot of clubs and gain some good experience but it’s up to Wenger. I’d guess that he’ll stay and get more cup games and the occasional league game, he’s a good player even at his age and has proven that he has got the talent to play at this level.

This summer has gone money-mad. Real Madrid and Man City have been flashing the cash – Madrid like never seen before. They’re just about to make another top signing in Benzema and then after that possibly Ribery! Then there was Man City offering £25m for Eto’o a player with only one year left on his contract. It’s not just that though, they were willing to pay him something ridiculous like £250,000 a week! I don’t remember the exact amount but I know it was stupid. Ivan Gazidis has been talking about salary capping after all this ridiculous money spending and I think he has a very good point. Other clubs are never going to be able to keep up when players are being offered a quarter of a million pounds for week’s work. I don’t think salary capping would ever be able to be brought in, but this summer it has got to that stage where it is just getting stupid.

On a side note, seeing as Real Madrid are signing the talent of Europe and Man City are by no means finished business… who are United going to get to replace Ronaldo and Tevez?

Gallas has said he’ll be staying at Arsenal next season but has not spoken about extending his contract. He currently has just a year left on his deal and would be able to go on a free next summer. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s exactly what he did but to be fair that wouldn’t bother me at all. I’d like another year out of Gallas, he’s done really well since losing the captaincy and although he might not be the most liked player he does his job at the back and that matters more.

We’ve been linked with Werder Bremen’s ‘Naldo’ after their manager said he is no longer in their plans. I have no idea why they don’t want him anymore but they said he’s likely to go for about €10m and Arsenal are the most likely destination. He’s a defender and he’s 26 so I guess if any of our defense leave (which there is a big chance of) then this guy could be a possible replacement.

Right, the BBQ is good to go. I better be off. Thanks for reading, enjoy the sun while it lasts.

New pictures of our 2009/10 third shirts have been released – and they’re fucking hideous. I think I showed you an image of it before but there are new images released by the club if you follow that link.

It’s even worse than I first expected, the dark shorts make it actually look like a Spurs kit. I thought the last white shirt was bad but this is worse.

I’ve heard that the club shop was dead for the new away shirt release and it hasn’t sold well at all. I will admit to not minding the new away kit but this is a shirt I can’t image us playing in. I hope they find this even harder to shift at the club shop rather than last time when the white shirt became a top seller.

Just a quick update because I’ve just seen these images and I wanted to share them. Speak to you soon.

Hello from a surprisingly rainy Bournemouth. As London passes the 30℃ mark I’ve been sat inside watching the rain all day. A bit jealous but I guess we do get our fair share of sun down here.

Anyway, the top story in the Arsenal world today you’ll notice is not in my headline – and nor should it be. The Sun have printed a ridiculous story with the headline ‘Andrey is Shavin a laugh’. The article is only five lines long. Five lines of absolute shite:

ANDREY ARSHAVIN has stunned Arsenal by revealing he wants to play for Barcelona.

The Russian striker, 28, who joined the Gunners in a £16.9m deal five months ago, said: “If I have the chance to play for Barcelona, I’d be really happy.”

Wow. Just wow. I thought the Cesc stuff last week was ridiculous but this is something else. I was getting angry about the Fabregas rumours but this just makes me laugh. Using a complete bullshit quote completely out of context just to fill a gap in a newspaper. Now the story has spread and ‘Arshavin to Barca’ stories are all over the internet. It doesn’t deserve any of your time so lets just laugh and let it pass.

There’s some big news on the transfer front as two European stars announce they’re staying at their respective clubs. Dzeko has said he is 100% committed to Wolfsburg and is looking forward to the new season with them. That should mean that AC Milan will set about signing Adebayor as their 2nd target. This might get moving next week now so expect some action.

Felipe Melo has also decided to stay with his club signing a one year contract extension. No doubt this will mean an improved pay cheque for Melo but it also includes a buy-out clause. This new contract doesn’t necessarily mean an end to the transfer speculation; Fiorentina have set a price at which he can bought out so if any club decides to meet that then he can still be off.

Today, Amaury Bischoff has left Arsenal along with seven others. Arsenal Blogs around the world are today paying tribute to the great man and Arsenal Shorts has news of a support line set up by Vic Akers. Oh Amaury, we hardly knew you. Reports of Barcelona coming in for the midfielder were dismissed as ‘a practical joke’. Maybe he’ll go back in the wilderness to find his inner child, who knows? James Dunne, Rui Fonte, Abu Ogogo, Raul Rogers, Rene Steer, Vincent van den Berg and Anton Blackwood are all following Bischoff out the door at London Colney.

It’s not all sad though because Luke Ayling, Craig Eastmond, James Shea and Cedric Evina have all signed professional contracts with the club after last season’s Youth League and Cup double winning side.

It wasn’t a good night for Theo Walcott’s England U21’s last night as they lost 4-0 to Germany in the final. I went down the pub to watch it and we didn’t threaten enough. I think we had the more attacks but the Germans were much more clinical and sealed it with some good goals. Theo didn’t look very dangerous again up there on his own but Gibbs did a good job down the left.

So everyone is on summer holidays now. Cesc, Gibbs and Theo are all done serving their countries. Obviously they all played the maximum amount of games they could rather than getting knocked out early and getting a rest, but that’s just our luck.

What can you look forward to this week then? Erm I’m not sure, maybe the transfer of Adebayor might speed up and we can get the transfer ball rolling again.

Speak to you soon.

Happy Sunday to you. Not a great deal of news today, nothing major’s happened anyway. I guess the top story is Robin van Persie saying he will be staying at Arsenal. To be honest I was never worried that he’d leave but it was a risk. Well he’s confirmed that he wants to remain in North London and he wants to become the best while he’s bere:

“I’m not in negotiations with any other club – just Arsenal. I want to become the best player in the world. My career will only be a success when I consider myself the best. Anything less won’t do.

I see the potential at Arsenal. We have to do it. One fact which aggravates me is that in the five years I’ve been at Arsenal, we’ve won exactly the same number of trophies as I did at Feyenoord – ONE – that’s not enough. When I arrived here, Arsenal were winning trophies for fun. But, if everyone is fit, we have a heck of a team and it’s up to me to ensure we go out and win these trophies.”

Ambitious statements from Robin but fair play, he should set his aims high. It really hits home that statement he gives at the end there – we’ve won one trophy in five years. When you think of it like that you can maybe understand Robin hesitating over his new contract. I’m glad that he does understand the potential of the side though and is going to stick with it. Hopefully he can get that new contract signed up soon.

There’s some news on Adebayor’s possible transfer. As I said in the week AC Milan want Dzeko from Wolfsburg, if not they’ll take Adebayor as second choice. Dzeko is the ball that’s going to get everything rolling and he’s said he’ll be staying at Wolfsburg but not by his own will:

“I am not happy. I would like to join Milan, but I am tied to a contract and the club have decided not to release me.”

Doesn’t sound concrete to me but if he’s going to honour his contract then good on him. Wolfsburg will probably offer him a better deal but he’ll probably reject it. It might force the Bundesliga champions to cash in and sell him while the iron is hot, as they say. I don’t know why ‘they’ say that or who ‘they ‘ are but that’s not important.

Well if the Dzeko thing does fall through then they are supposed to be coming in for Ade. I think if anything £20m+ gets offered we’ll take it right away. More on this next week I’m sure.

The News of The World and The Sunday Times are both reporting us making a move for Lyon’s Karim Benzema. He’s a great player and I’d love us to get him but I don’t really believe these rumours. Man United are supposed to be getting him with some of the Ronaldo money and that would price us out immediately. The only way we’d want Benzema is if Adebayor did get sold but even then I don’t think we can win a bidding war with Man United. The tabloids are saying the player would rather join Arsenal than the Premier League Champions but, well, that what the tabloids say and they might as well be saying he prefers Cheerio’s to Coco Pops… whatever they say could be bollocks.

On Friday night I watched the England U21s play Sweden in the Euro 09 Semi Finals. Theo Walcott and Kieran Gibbs were involved and played a full 120 minutes each. I tuned in at half time when England were 3-0 up and they managed to throw it away in the second half forcing extra time. The scores stayed 3-3 and it was penalties to decide who went through to the final. Theo and Gibbs converted both their penalties and we’ll be playing Germany in the final tomorrow night.

I’ll definitely be watching that, any England vs. Germany final is worth watching. Theo Walcott will be playing centre forward as Agbonlahor and Campbell are suspended; ‘keeper Joe Hart will also miss out after picking up a yellow in the shoot-out. So hopefully Theo will score but to be honest he didn’t have a good game on Friday, he was sloppy and made some poor decisions. However with his pace he’s always a threat so hopefully he can up his technical side for the final.

Cesc Fabregas’ Spain won today in the 3rd/4th place play off against South Africa, however Cesc was an unused substitute the whole game. It was a dramatic end to the match, South Africa went 1-0 up in the 73rd minute but two goals from Guiza in the 88th and 89th minute put Spain 2-1 up right at the end. However South Africa made it three goals in three minutes scoring in the 90th minute to force extra time. Spain won in the second half of extra time thanks to Alonso.

The Confederations Cup Final is on in an hour, I’m gonna watch that and hopefully get a look at Melo and see if he’s actually any good. Thanks for reading.

At a time where misleading headlines rule the world/News Now, I have made an extra effort today to bring you an article that does exactly what it says on the tin. First, there some news from Andrey Arshavin and I guess it’s good news. He’s left his agent Dennis Lachter and will now represent himself:

“Recently I sent a formal letter to Dennis Lachter, which said that I do not want him to continue to represent me and that I will act on my own behalf.

‘This is no way associated with my Arsenal contract. On the contrary, I want to express my deep gratitude for Lachter’s help in moving to the English club.

But now I am having operational problems and Dennis, who has a newborn son, lives in Israel and cannot always be close to me, so it is easier to solve all these problems myself.”

I say this is good news because Dennis Lachter is a horrible football agent to deal with. After Euro 2008 he flirted outrageously to every top club in Europe to try get as much money for Arshavin and himself as possible. No one bought it and in the end he joined us for about half the price he wanted in the following transfer window.

I don’t know how it’s going to work now with Andrey representing himself but I’m sure it’ll work out for him. I’m glad because I’ve always been worried Lachter was going to start flirting with more top clubs sooner or later whilst Arshavin was still in contract with Arsenal; Almost immediately after sorting out the deal Lachter was already talking about possible moves in the future. Good riddance, Dennis.

Birmingham City are lining up a bid for Arsenal Legend Patrick Vieira. This comes after our ex-skipper saying he needs first team football ahead of next summer’s World Cup; it’ll be his last chance to compete in the competition and he wont get in the French squad just sitting on Inter Milan’s bench. He says he’s having a meeting with Mourinho to decide his future, if it’s not at Inter then he said he fancies a move to Ligue 1. PSG look the most likely to get PV4’s signature but Birmingham’s chairman David Gold has said they are going to give it a shot:

We have pulled rabbits out of the hat before and we want to do it again, but you can’t do these things unless you try. People would see Vieira as the second Dugarry if he came to Birmingham. Even now it’s not impossible but the odds aren’t good, we maybe only have a one in 10 chance.”

I doubt Paddy would want to join a club with such a low profile, as much as I bet he’d like to return to England I don’t see him playing in the Blue of Birmingham City. PSG, Lyon or Marseille would suit him much more and he’d still have a chance of first team football whilst playing for a top side. I’m interested to see where Vieira ends up so if there’s any more news on this I’ll bring you up to date.

And finally, U16’s and U18’s star Samir Carruthers has turned down a new contract with Arsenal and has chosen to move to Aston Villa. He has captained our U16 side on a few occasions and is a highly rated winger but he has chosen to move on. Villa’s academy director Bryan Jones said he chose to join then because of their excellent facilities and their record of giving youngsters a chance in the first team. Erm excuse me but aren’t Arsenal better known for both of those things? I would guess we would’ve wanted to keep him but there’s no official comment from the club on it. I dunno, maybe we thought he wasn’t going to make it as an Arsenal player. I hope he doesn’t go on to become a great player with Villa that we missed out on but I wish him luck in his career.

Right then that’s it for today. Satisfied with a non-misleading article? Tomorrow I’ll probably bring you news of ‘OMG ARSENAL STAR SET TO LEAVE AND BLASTS WENGER!!1′ when the story is actually Bischoff deciding to move on to a new challenge or something.

Thanks for reading.

The top news today is all Cesc Fabregas related. This after some fresh quotes that have appeared in The Sun (you can see where this is going already can’t you) saying he is angry with Arsenal and we are ‘impotent’. It’s all been mistranslated to make it seem like he wants away from Arsenal. He said he is angry in the same way that we are ‘angry’ at not winning any trophies. It doesn’t mean he’s in a strop or anything he just saying he wants us to win stuff. And with the impotence thing, another poorly mistranslated sentence.

It really pisses me off all this shit about Cesc leaving every summer. After going through it summer after summer with all our top players I have learned just to ignore it because it’s all bollocks anyway. These Fabregas to Spain stories have been cropping up this summer too but I have just chosen not to report most of them on here.

Every so often the captain has to come out and release an ‘official statement’ declaring he’s staying. This must get so repetitive and frustrating to do and is pisses me off equally as much as it must do to Cesc Fabregas.

It’s happened again this afternoon, that Sun story spread and now there’s an official statement on Arsenal.com from Cesc saying he’s staying. It’s got all the usual stuff we’ve seen time and time again but this time with a bit more emphasis:

“I’m not sure how many times I need to talk directly about my commitment to Arsenal as I continue to say the same thing over and over again, but it appears that every time I have spoken to the Spanish media recently, my words have bounced back to England, leaving question marks about my future.

So, for anyone who is unclear or may have misunderstood what my position is, let me make myself absolutely crystal clear. I am wholeheartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great Club.”

What that says to me is – Stop talking to the Spanish press then! That’s a bit harsh though, it’s the English press that pick up a bit of Spanish transcript and translate it whatever way they want. Not saying the papers in Spain are all good and innocent, they do try to get things to slip out. In another part of that interview The Sun picked up on they asked the question if Cesc’s family would support him if he wanted to move to Real Madrid. Cesc gave the usual stuff any son of a proud family would give about ‘my family will support any decision I make etc.’ So the papers have taken that and that means Cesc’s off to Real apparently.

He was in action last night with Spain as they got knocked out of the Confederations Cup by USA. It was a massive shock and Spain’s incredible winning streak has been broken by the complete underdogs. So Cesc is still out in South Africa at the moment, whether those quotes on Arsenal.com were done by Cesc on the other side of the world or they were ghost written I don’t know but the message is the same.

I need to change the subject now, it’s pissing me off. I’m just ranting, I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Hopefully that is that for one summer but would it surprise you that once this is forgotten about it all starts up again? I bet for players they must sometimes think ‘oh for fucks sake I bloody will move then so you just shut up.’

AC Milan have said they are looking for a striker but their main target is Dzeko, if they can’t get him then they’ll go for Adebayor. Haha, how does it feel to be 2nd best? Not so big now are you, maybe if you put some effort in you might be their no.1 target.

The Felipe Melo story has been cooled today, his spokesman has said how happy he is in Italy and has no desire to move. Doesn’t sound very good if we are actually interested in signing him.

I’m going to go now, writing this has somehow made me angry! The new away kit came out today, I was going to go down the shops and try it on but… I dunno, I didn’t. I think it’s alright but I know a lot of people hate it, I’ll have a look at some point this weekend.
Right then, I’m off to vent my rage somewhere. Thanks for reading.

Hello from very sunny Bournemouth, I’ve been down the beach today and it seemed like 30 degrees down there. Beautiful – doesn’t make you miss the city much. However while I was on the beach today I thinking how I can’t wait to be back watching Arsenal again. I’ll be there when we play Barnet in just over 3 weeks time and then again at the Emirates cup.

Arsene Wenger’s been speaking ahead of the new season on quite a few things so lets just get into it. He says he doesn’t want to lose many players this summer after what happened last year. He said losing Flamini and Hleb was too much and we had to rebuild. He’s not concentrating too much on just keeping the side together though, he wants to improve it too:

“I want to add to the squad and I have identified one or two targets. But identifying players and buying them are two different things.

Ideally I would like to bring everybody in before we start back in pre-season training in July. I don’t want to leave it until the end of August.”

However he doesn’t think the side needs rebuilding:

“We are at a stage were we need to convince people that this team does a lot of things right. It does not need to be transformed.

We don’t need that many players really, a defender (which we’ve got) a central midfielder and possibly another forward player if Adebayor leaves; more on him in a bit.

Arsene has also been thinking about a possible formation change. Next season we will have a lot of talent going forward – Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and Nasrito choose from. The boss thinks we might be able to pull off a 4-3-3 quite effectively:

“Next season we will play the formation and system that most suits the players and the balance of the team. That means it’s not rigid. It can evolve throughout the season, depending on circumstances and personnel.

If you play with Theo Walcott for example, you are more tempted to go for three midfielders because Theo is more of a forward than a midfielder in a 4-4-2.”

So don’t be surprised to see us shape up a bit differently next season. If we did go to a 4-3-3 then I guess we wouldn’t really need to add a quality central midfielder but it would be good to have one when we resort to 4-4-2.

He sounds positive about making a couple of signings but has cooled it down a bit reminding us we don’t have loads of money. He says we can’t afford to splash around £100m but we don’t necessarily need to. He believes in this side so much and every year they are improving so there’s no point in signing a £30m player if the next season one of our original players would’ve improved to the same standard. I’m still looking forward to a signing or two but I know that we don’t need very many.

Wenger’s also been talking about Nicklas Bendtner:

“When Nicklas is really switched on and focused, he is a handful for any defense in the world. He has shown that in the second part of the season. People forget how young he is, but I am sure he has won many people over in the second half of the season.”

He really did come on a lot in the second half of last season. He had a shit time at the start of the campaign then something just clicked in his head. Now he’s liked by a lot of the fans for his attitude and the effort he’s started to put in. He’s scoring too and if he can continue to improve next season I’m sure he’ll be awarded more performances.

Especially if Emmanuel Adebayor makes way and there’s some fresh news on that. His agent says he’s had contact with a ‘very important team’ but nothing from Chelsea, Man United or Italy:

“As of today, I have not even got evidence to speak of presumed interest from Chelsea and Manchester United. It’s a given fact that Carlo Ancelotti likes the player seeing that last year he tried to sign him for Milan, although Chelsea have not contacted us.

We have not received any calls, not from Milan or Ancelotti. Another team has contacted us, but I cannot say anything, it’s a very important team.

There has not been any meeting with Milan for Adebayor and lately I have not received a call on their behalf.

This doesn’t mean Ade is for sale to resolve Arsenal’s economic problems. I spoke with Arsene Wenger this morning and he told me nothing of the kind.”

Yeah, we know he’s not being sold for the money – it’s because he’s useless. I wonder who this ‘very important team’ is though. It’s not going to be another English club, I think he’s saying Inter and AC Milan haven’t contacted so it could be a Spanish club. I’m still not sure whether Ade is staying or not but to be honest I don’t really care. If he says then as long as he bucks his ideas up then I’m happy, if he goes then meh, whatever.

Right then I’m off to enjoy a bit more sun. Thanks for reading.

Just a few little stories to bring you up to date with today, so I’ll give you a few little thoughts on those. The time shortly after a signing is usually a quiet one so I must take whatever news there is and make the most out of it.

First up, Fiorentina’s Felipe Melo has spoken about Arsenal’s reported interest. News of this came up last week whilst I was away so this is the first time I have covered the story. It sounds exciting doesn’t it? Straight after buying an established centre back we’re linked with a Brazilian holding midfielder. He played 90 minutes in Brazil’s 3-0 victory over Italy but was outshone by a certain Gilberto Silva playing a similar role. Melo is 7 years younger than the Arsenal legend though and has plenty of time to fit into his mould.

Here’s what Melo said about Arsenal anyway:

“Obviously it is a good thing that great clubs are interested, as it shows that I worked well. But as I said, I have a good relationship with Fiorentina, with the directors and the fans.”

He hasn’t said anything right or anything wrong but more importantly he hasn’t denied or confirmed anything. Despite only seeing clips of him in action with Brazil I’d be quite excited if we did put a bid in for this guy. He was an important part of the Fiorentina side that finished 4th this season and was well known for his no-nonsense aggressive football. If anything more on this develops I’ll bring you up to date on it – however, last week Eboue’s agent said Fiorentina aren’t good enough for his client but I know I’d take some sort of a swap deal…

Abou Diaby has been hard at work this summer; instead of spending his spare time on holiday he’s been working with a personal trainer ahead of the new season. His trainer has been speaking to the French media saying Diaby wants to improve his physical power to be able to be stronger in the challenge. Obviously, this is positive news; Diaby is a player I wouldn’t normally associate with putting in extra effort so this is good. He has the stature to be just as strong as Vieira but at the final second he can be seen pulling out of challenges or giving up. If this training goes well for him we could have a much improved Diaby next season.

He did have that awful leg break up at Sunderland a couple of years ago so I guess you can’t blame him too much for pulling out of challenges but it’s not helping his football. There is another part of his game that he needs to work on and that’s his work rate. He has a lot of talent and from time to time he shows us but too often he is seen ambling around the field giving the impression that he doesn’t give two shits. This news of him putting in extra training suggests that he’s going to buck up his ideas next season. It might turn out to be very well timed too; last season his appearances were few and far between not to mention being all over the midfield whenever we had injuries. Clearly Wenger doesn’t know what to do with him and 08/09 could be his chance to prove his worth.

Andrei Arshavin has been talking to Radio Zenit in Russia about all things football and has revealed he might not retire at Arsenal. He played for Zenit for a long time and wanted to play abroad, but he says he wants to return to St Petersburg to finish off his career there:

“I played for Zenit for a long time and now I want to play abroad and then return to St Petersburg to finish off my career there,”

That’s fair enough. It reminds me of Thierry Henry’s situation who still says he wants to return to Arsenal one day. However I think now that Titi’s return will come after he has retired as some sort of coaching or ambassador role.

And finally, Nicklas Bendtner’s agent/father/fathent has been speaking about his son again and this time he says he’s staying at Arsenal. There’s been a bit of speculation about a possible move to Roma but the fathent says he was simply there on holiday. I believe him.

Ok that’s you up to date for today then. Thanks for reading.

Well as I’m sure you are well aware Thomas Vermaelen has signed for Arsenal and as always it’s ‘on a long term contract for an undisclosed fee’. Ajax have confirmed he has been bought for £8.5m but could rise to £10.2m depending on appearances and what not. I have a feeling we will be paying that full fee of just over ten millions pounds though – he is the most expensive defender we’ve ever bought and I’m expecting him to go straight into the first eleven alongside Gallas or Toure.

However the futures’ of those two are not sorted; Kolo Toure could be on his way to City if The Times are correct with their reported incoming £12m bid. I’d feel really confident about our defense next season if we could keep Vermaelen, Gallas and Toure but I expect all three demand first team football. If I had to say I think one of Toure or Gallas will leave and if we do get offered that reported £12m for Toure then I think we’d be mad not to take it.

I love Kolo Toure, but as much as I don’t like to admit it he is in decline. Man City would be paying for experience and heart, which is why I’d still be gutted if we lost him. There’s still a chance Gallas could go, there’s talk of Milan lining up a bid and Gallas himself might try to engineer a move if he’s not happy at the club which wouldn’t surprise me. If I had to choose one of the two to keep it would be a tough choice – my heart says Kolo, but my head says Gallas. Since he lost the captaincy he was a solid defender and a true professional.

Anyways, back to Vermaelen. It was obvious we needed a defender and I’m glad we have that sorted now. I believe Wenger’s back from holiday now so I look forward to a couple more additions this summer; one isn’t enough. Vermaelen seems to be everything we need though – He’s an experienced defender, he’s got a good few years ahead of him, he’s played many games in Europe, he’s an established International and he’s left-footed. Once upon a time you could’ve said all those things about Silvestre – Vermaelen is the much younger and much improved version of the ex-United centre-back so I think if any of our defense is leaving it’s going to be Silvestre.

There’s been a lot of talk about Vermaelen’s height and in his official factfile the club have listed him as 182cm (6 feet). I don’t know why there has been so much fuss about how tall he is though, if he can defend he can defend. I’d be a bit worried if he was 4 foot 8 but he’s not so lets just forget about it.

I can’t wait to see him in action this pre-season. All I remember of him was him he and van Persie squaring up when we played Ajax that time. He’s coming here with a fresh reputation and can work to become a respected Premier League defender. I do know that he is a committed player and he says:

“I just want to assure the Arsenal fans that I will give everything for this Club and I hope we can enjoy winning some trophies together next season.”

He also said how he was sad to be leaving Ajax, which is understandable. He fell just short of 150 appearances for the Amsterdam club and became captain of the side during his time there. They will sorely miss him but hopefully he can be just as successful here.

As I said, I don’t think we should close the chequebook here though. A holding midfielder should be the next item on our shopping list, a long overdue purchase but one that’s still required. Also, there’s bound to be departures this summer and we might have to account for those too. It must be said though we do look a little bit more complete with this signing. A little bit more complete than Man United anyway who are now without Ronaldo and Tevez for next season, leaving them just Rooney and Berbatov who has hardly impressed since whoring himself from Tottenham.

It’s nice to come back from my break with some proper news to report. Not a great deal has gone on whilst I have been in Kent and there’s no point in me re-capping it all now. The fixtures were announced on Wednesday but that’s all been discussed elsewhere now. The only other bit of news today is about Emmanuel Eboue who says he’s had no contact with PSG. He says they are a good club but has no immediate plans to leave Arsenal, however he did say he wasn’t happy with the lack of appearances he’s getting. Well with Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and Nasri to compete with next season I don’t think it’s going to get any better for him.

Right that’s your lot for today, thanks for reading and speak to you soon.

If you’ve missed me saying so all weekend, I’m away this week. I’m off to Kent in about an hour and I won’t be able to update the site until the weekend. You might get an update Friday night but to be honest it’ll more likely be Saturday. In the future it would be nice to be able to have someone fill in whilst I’m away and give me a hand with the site but that looks like some time away at the moment. I’ll bring you an update on today’s news before I go…

I mentioned Tomas Rosicky yesterday talking about his injury situation but there are some fresh quotes out today. He’s been talking about his fitness and his chances of making a full return next season:

According to (fitness coach) Tony Colbert, I could have been playing at the end of the last season, he saw no reason why I shouldn’t, as he thought my fitness was okay. The club decided not to play me.

They did not consult with me. They saw that I was okay and maybe they just did not want to take the gamble. I think that it was obvious from the training that I was ready to play, if not for 90 minutes.

Until I play in a league match I will not be able to tell what my chances are. When it comes to fitness alone, I must say that I am in a better shape than I was when I came to Arsenal. But I don’t know what will happen after I make repeated sprints from one end of the pitch to the other.”

It’s understandable that Tomas wasn’t risked, we didn’t really have much to play for in the league and it would’ve been wrong to throw him in at the very deep end against Chelsea or Man United in the cups. We opted to give him the summer to be safe and I guess we are expecting him to be fully fit and ready to take part next season.

It gives me confidence when he says that he’s the fittest he has been whilst at Arsenal, however the fact that he’s not sure about the constant sprints you have to endure in a game situation worries me. Surely he would have practiced this? Especially if he says he’s in the best shape he has been for a long time.

I’m starting to think we can’t expect too much from Rosicky next season. I bet it’s going to be like Eduardo’s comeback last season where it was very stop-start with little niggling injuries every so often. Maybe towards the latter end of the season he might get a run of games but don’t expect him to return on the first day of next season and play every minute of every game right up until May.

There’s been talk this week about Gael Clichy moving to Spain, It’s been mainly the tabloids stirring so I was never that worried but you never know. Well Gael has said he will be staying at Arsenal – he admits he is flattered to be linked with Real Madrid but wants to respect his Arsenal contract.

He didn’t have the best season this year but he’s still one of my favourite Arsenal players. I look forward to him returning from injury and seeing him next season, I think Gibbs’ emergence will inspire him on a bit more and we can get the best out of Clichy again.

Last night, I watched most of Spain’s 5-0 thrashing of New Zealand just to see Cesc playing again. It was an absolute walkover for Spain, it was like playing a Sunday League side, Torres had a hat trick inside 20 minutes and Fabregas got the fourth soon after, it was a bit of a tap in but I was still happy to see him score. He looked hungry last night and was really enjoying his game; you would be though, playing for one of the best teams in the world. Hopefully a win in South Africa this summer will bring him back to Arsenal high-spirited.

And finally I said about Paris St Germain’s Mamadou Sakho being linked this week, well he has denied it all and will be staying with PSG. That’s that then.

Well thanks for reading, I better get going now. Speak to you at the weekend.

Well it’s Sunday so much my prediction of a transfer this week looks like it’s not going to happen. In fact, there hasn’t really been any news since last weekend on Thomas Vermaelen. Maybe we’re in talks, maybe it’s all broken down, maybe he’s on holiday or maybe even he’s gone on a top secret mission to space to discover life on Venus – we just don’t know.

There really isn’t much news at all to be honest. Sky Sports have published a quote from The Daily Star from Arshavin’s agent saying his client is happy with his current deal. This after rumours of the Russian wanting more money because he didn’t realize the tax in Britain was so high. I went onto the Daily Star website to find the story but I haven’t got a clue where it is.

However, I did find these quotes from Charlie Nicholas on there who has been quite blunt about what we should be doing this summer. He things we should be strengthening in all areas – especially defense. Charlie reckons we need a number of top signings and a big clear out of all the under performers. He says Adebayor, Eboue and Djourou should be sold and Gallas should go too “if he’s not up for it.”. He also said that van Persie should shut up and sign a contract. It’s clear he’s not happy with the state of his former club but insists Wenger’s the man to turn it around.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m off to Kent tomorrow and I’ve taken a break from packing to write on here, but there’s really not much going on. I won’t be able to update the site until next weekend – so, seeing as you’re going to have to get your daily Arsenal fix elsewhere next week I’ll bring you a round up of what’s going on around some other Arsenal blogs today.

Arseblog runs the headline: EXCLUSIVE: Huge alien colony found living under Arsenal’s pitch, and has news of an interview Cesc has given in Spain.

Gunnerblog is lost for words on this very slow Sunday.

A Cultured Left Foot has also picked up on the Charlie Nicholas comments and talks about Tomas Rosicky. He was in The News of The World today talking about his injury problems and his future at Arsenal:

“If I find the form I had before my injury then I will play. Wenger was frustrated when I told him I would need to undergo more surgery.

But he has not tried to kick me out so he has faith in me.”

It’s not just Arsene Wenger who is frustrated by Rosicky’s ongoing injury problems but I’m hoping just as everyone else is that next season we can see him return to football. Last season he was supposed to be close to making a comeback but kept getting delayed. Arsene always describes a player returning from injury as ‘like a new signing’; in Tomas’ case if he does return then the expression couldn’t be any more justified.

Gooner Talk reports some more bad news for Man United as referee Rob Styles is set to quit football this summer. Thank God. And finally, Arsenal Spot has some photos of Samir Nasri and Djibril Cisse enjoying the beach in Miami.

Well that’s what everyone’s talking about today and a there’s few blogs to keep you busy next week. Of course there a loads more – have a look at my links on my sidebar to the right and keep an eye on NewsNow’s Arsenal feed.

I should be able to bring you one more update tomorrow but if there is absolutely nothing going on then I’m not promising anything!

Thanks for reading.

It’s Saturday, and there’s no football. It’s so depressing. However it does mean we are another week closer to action and it’s only five weeks today until we play Barnet at Underhill. I’ve been going to our opening pre-season fixture against Barnet for a few years running now and every year I get even more excited about seeing us playing again.

I’m hoping there’ll be some unfamiliar faces on show that day and Dennis Bergkamp agrees that we need to make some signings:

“It’s wise to get some new players in for the team’s sake. It’s always a good feeling when you get four or five new players in the dressing room.”

It’s true, spirits will be high if the players know the club means business and goes out and makes some quality additions. Dennis also talks about van Persie’s current contract situation saying you have to respect a players decision to make his mind up; maybe a few decent signings and RVP will see that Arsenal are going forward. When asked, Dennis did admit that Yaya Toure could be a decent player to bring in:

“He [Yaya Toure] would fit in straight away, of course, because of family there. He was training with us I think for a few weeks.”

The Yaya Toure rumour has come up so many times but recently the players agent has come out saying he’s upset with his current Barca deal, however it looks like a pay rise is more likely than a transfer at this moment.

We’ve also been linked with Paris St Germain defender Mamadou Sakho after his agent said he will be leaving the club soon. He’s only 19 but apparently Bayern Munich and Barcelona are interested but we are the front-runners. His agent also mentions Man United, not to say that they are interested but just to say they are a better club than us. Cheers. Whether we are actually interested or not, who knows? All we do know is that his agent seems like a bit of a prick.

Lukasz Fabianski has signed a new long-term contract today and Arsene Wenger has been singing is praises. He might’ve made a few mistakes last season and he might not be every Gooner’s favourite player but I have patience for him. He does make some excellent saves but his decision making is 50:50, he doesn’t fill me with confidence but I know it’s early days yet for him. I do wish that we used Almunia for the FA Cup but it’s all great experience and soon enough we will have two solid ‘keepers that we can rely on. For the moment though I will admit that I don’t think he’s quite ready.

Philippe Senderos, we haven’t heard from him in a while. Well he’s due back from his loan at AC Milan around about now and it looks like Milan have turned down the opportunity to take him permanently. Now, apparently he’s returning to Arsenal to fight for his place after a year’s experience in Serie A.

I don’t think Big Phil’s return is such a bad thing you know. He’s as bad as some people say he is and we could do with a few more players in the defense pecking order ahead of Silvestre. He did actually get a fair few games for Milan this season but they don’t see him as Maldini’s replacement, which is fair enough because they are massive boots to fill. I think they will used some of the money for ‘Kaka to get a big name defender. Gallas’ name has been thrown about but we’ll have to see.

With links to Vermaelen and Sakho this week I don’t know if there will be a place for Philippe when he returns but we’ll have to wait and see.

Jack Wilshere says he’s been taking tips from Theo Walcott on how to break into the team whilst Theo himself has been thinking about becoming a striker. I’m sure he’ll get lots of experience this summer up front with the U21’s and maybe if Adebayor does leave this summer then maybe TW14 could get a chance to play striker next season for Arsenal.

Right then, I better be off now. Bit of a long post today but then I guess I missed out yesterday. I’m afraid I’ll be missing for most of next week too, Monday afternoon I’m off to Kent until next weekend and I really doubt I’ll be able to update the blog over there. I’m sorry!

Anyways, I’ll speak to you tomorrow and Monday morning before I go. Until then.

A number of things have gone wrong for me today including most recently my MacBook charger deciding it wasn’t going to charge my laptop. Next to the little battery icon it just says ‘(Not Charging)’. Why?! Why are you not charging? It knows it’s plugged in because it’s come up with this message so what the fuck is your problem?

It seems the world is against me today, nothing truly bad has happened just a sequence of frustrating events have put me in a bad mood. I sat down to write the blog a little while ago and now this, the battery’s got a little bit of life left so I’ll bring you up to date.

I guess the top story today has nothing to do with Arsenal, it’s Cuntiano Ronaldo’s £80m move to Real Madrid. He’s not gone yet but the fee has been agreed etc. Without thinking about the footballing side of things just yet, that is a ridiculous amount of money for a football player. Now Man United have all that cash to buy whoever they please. They could easily get three top players with that cash and will no doubt be a strong force next season.

Madrid broke the transfer record earlier this week after agreeing a fee for ‘Kaka to move from AC Milan, now today they’ve smashed it again. I must admit I will be pleased to see the back of Ronaldo; but I do worry what United will do with all that money.

We had a few players in International action this week. I watched Theo play 90 minutes for England last night in their 6-0 win over Andorra, he was energetic and desperate to make an impression. He ran after a lot of last causes and troubled the very weak Andorran defense. I was hoping he might get a goal and he almost did about two minutes in but it wasn’t to be. He had a decent game but it was really a warm up for the U21s tournament he’ll be involved in this summer.

Cesc Fabregas had to be taken off at half time in Spain’s win over Azerbaijan with a head injury. It came after a clash in the penalty area and although it has been confirmed on Arsenal.com there’s still no time frame on the injury. I’m not worried it’ll be enough to put him out of our preseason but I am kind of hoping Spain leave him out of the Confederations Cup. It’s a long shot but it’d be good for us. Cesc has also confirmed his intentions to stay with us this summer.

Andrey Arshavin and Robin van Persie we also involved in international action, the Russian getting an assist in his game.

Right well I’m going to leave you now. I need to chill out and get a beer before I do something stupid like chuck my laptop across the room. If any Mac-heads know what my ‘(Not Charging)’ message is about, let us know please.

Cheers.

Player of The Season

This was quite a tough choice this year, last time Adebayor was a clear winner but this year it’s a totally different story. My nominations for 08/09 player of the year were Almunia, van Persie and Arshavin. There were a few others I thought about – Gallas was excellent after he lost the armband and although Cesc was good it wasn’t his best season. Almunia has done very well in front of goal but I don’t think he’s my player of the season, van Persie had a good year, a great start to ‘09 and did really well to stay fit but my player of the season is Andrey Arshavin. I was a bit unsure about picking him as he’s only been here half a season but since he arrived he has just been superb. He’s consistent too – every game he makes those passes no one else would see and does something special. I’m really looking forward to next season when we’ll have the whole campaign with his quality.

Young Player of The Season

We have so many great young players so this is always going to be a difficult one to choose but this year I think it has to go to Kieran Gibbs. He made an appearance against Plymouth in January when Silvestre had to come off injured, that day he filled in really well and had a solid hour to show the fans what he’s about. Then when Gael Clichy got injured Gibbs was given a chance at left back and he made that position his own for the rest of the season. I’m a big fan of Clichy but Gael has got a bit of work to do to get back in the side, Gibbs has a great future ahead of him.

Worst Player of The Season

I don’t really know who deserves this title, last year it was Emmanuel Eboue but this season he has got his act together a bit. He started the season his old self and it lead to being widely booed at Ashburton Grove. It was harsh but it taught him a lesson and I think he’s getting better. I don’t think he was our worst player of the season though, I’m tempted to say Adebayor but that’s a bit strong I think. So I’m just gonna go for Mikael Silvestre, simply because he’s made some shocking errors this season and he’s still a Manc cunt in my eyes.

Most Improved Player of The Season

There are a lot of players who have improved this season, Almunia, Gallas to a degree, Song, Gibbs, Denilson, Walcott and more. Nicklas Bendtner has matured as a person this year and his attitude is much better. He’s still not quite there in terms of ability but towards the end of this season I feel like the fans have really warmed to him. However I think Kieran Gibbs has to take this award too. He came from a no one, a reserve player with potential to an established Premier League and Champions League full back and has filled us all with confidence and belief he can go forward.

Biggest Disappointment of The Season

Biggest disappointment this season is without doubt Emmanuel Adebayor He was my 07/08 Player of the Season but he has absolutely flopped in just a year. Last summer was horrible watching him flirt with all these clubs after a great year with us. He went from hero to zero with the fans and had a lot of work to do to win them back, we all knew about his work rate so I for one thought that he’d be back to his best quite quickly. It never happened though, he’s had a very lazy season, he’s been anonymous in games and a completely different player to the 07/08 one. Last summer there was talks of a £30m transfer to Milan before he bagged an £80,000 a week contract with us, one year on and he’s probably only worth half of that.

Best Signing of The Summer

The nominees for this award are Ramsey, Nasri, Bischoff and Silvestre and for me it has to be Samir Nasri. Ramsey has looked good when given the chance but it’s early days for him. Silvestre I’ve been not so impressed with – a very odd signing and Bischoff I have only seen a few times and I think he might be off this summer. Nasri has been on and off this season but started the campaign very well. There was a memorable brace against Man United too. He’s slotted right into this team, it’s like he always played for Arsenal – he’s needed no time to settle in. Next season he will have had a year’s English football under his belt and I think he can get better.

The Un-Sung Hero

I was tempted to go for Almunia with this prize but I think he does get the recognition. I was also thinking about Bendtner, I know a lot of people really don’t like him but if you watch him he really does try and he always gets in really good positions. He’s quite an unlucky player though, hopefully things keep on improving for Bendtner and next season could be his big break. I’m going to say this year’s un-sung hero isBacary Sagna. Last year I named him best summer signing and he’s continued his great form this year. He too, like Nasri has slotted perfectly into this Arsenal side, he knows exactly what his job is and does it very well. Next season I’m sure we can continue to count on him but it’d be nice if he got a bit more recognition.

Goal of the Season

There were some memorable goals this year but the one that stands out off the top of my head is Arshavin’s 2nd vs. Liverpool. The 4th was also a special goal with Walcott’s run but I think the 2nd was better. He intercepted a pass in Liverpool’s defense, took a touch and unleashed a belter swerving into the opposite corner. It was an amazing shot and Reina was never getting it. What a game that was though, the 4-4 at Anfield. Without a doubt the game of the season, I was going mental watching that even though the result didn’t mean much to us. Gunnerblog has all the goals here.

Low Point of The Season

There are three that stand out to me, one was the late comeback Spurs had at Ashburton Grove, also the day out at Wembley ruined and the other was being knocked out of the Champions League against Man United. Going into the game we knew it was going to take something special to make it through to the final but there was so much hope going into that game. It had been built up so much and we had so much belief in ourselves but it didn’t work out. It’s the atmosphere inside the ground before the game that gets me the most. I was watching on the TV but I was so jealous of everyone there. It looked incredible, the best I’ve ever seen it. The first few minutes were just deafening from the Arsenal faithful and it gave me goosebumps. Then the night was over so early before we were even given a chance. It did show us what we are capable of when it matters though.

Highlight of The Season

It’s not a good sign that I’m having trouble thinking of what moment to choose for this. We haven’t really had any incredible moments. There was the penalty win over Roma, the progression into the Champions League Semi Final, the day out in Wembley (up to a point…), Spurs sitting rock bottom of the table, the wins against United and Chelsea and Cesc becoming captain. I think my highlight is going to be a kind of an overall thing – the unbeaten run and the improvement in the second half of the season. After a not so great start to the season it was good to see us dig in and we showed Villa why we are a top 4 club. Hopefully next year I’ll have a much more memorable highlight to talk about.

I stand by my prediction of a transfer this week as the signing of Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax looks even closer. Now the player himself has spoken to a Dutch newspaper about the rumour and it looks like he’s on his way:

”In the coming days there will be more talks. Moving to Arsenal is the right path for me. It is a great sporting challenge and I will also be financially better off. I think everything is going to be okay.”

I’m not worried about that money comment, he’s just being honest – I don’t think he will be swerving off the road anytime soon.

He would be coming over as a bit of an unknown quantity but it means he could make a fresh start at Arsenal. The picture I’ve chosen above shows Vermaelen squaring up to van Persie at the Amsterdam Tournament in 2007. You might think it’s a bit of an odd picture to chose for two people who could possibly about to become team mates but it triggered my memory of the player when I saw it. I can think back quite clearly to that game, I remember Vermaelen being a no-nonsense defender and he fought hard for Ajax.

It’s the right attitude to play in the Premier League, if he did sign I would look forward to having another player in the side who wont wimp out of a challenge and will fight for the badge on their chest – that’s what we need. I think we’re close to wrapping this up, hopefully I’ll have more news on it tomorrow.

With Vermaelen’s possible arrival, some think that Kolo Toure could be on the way out. He handed in a transfer request to go to Man City in January but we made him stay, he might try to leave again this summer though, especially if we do sign another defender.

I think I speak for all of us when I say I’d be gutted if he left. He’s a proper Gooner and very much loved by the Arsenal fans, he might have lost some of his form but he still gives everything he’s got and that’s what we love him for. For those reasons and the fact that it’s Man City, this whole thing seems very similar to when David Seaman left Arsenal. If we could convince Kolo to stay it would be great for our options next season but I would understand if he wanted to leave.

England U21’s beat Azerbaijan 7-0 tonight and Kieran Gibbs had a 90 minutes to remember. Gibbs got England’s 5th and 6th and picked up the man of the match award. You know what, it doesn’t surprise me – Gibbs has been excellent this season and has filled in just as good as any other Premier League defender. Never once was I worried about him standing in, even in the massive games against Man United and Chelsea towards the end of the season. He had that slip against United in the Champions League but we’re all over that and so should he. This guy’s got a great future ahead of him and Gael Clichy hasn’t just got an easy walk into the team when he returns from injury.

England had to bring on a reserve ‘keeper to play striker for the last 15 minutes as all the outfield substitutes had been used. Stuart Pearce says he didn’t want to disrespect Azerbaijan but he had no choice through injury. Does make you think though, why did he name two substitute goalies on the bench?

I have to go now, I’m meant to be going out for a mate’s birthday tonight and it’s almost midnight, fuck. Spent most of the day today finishing stuff to the new look of the site, let me know what you think of it. Need to do the squad pages and kit pages next, if you see a photobucket notice there don’t worry, I’ll be sorting that too.

Thanks for reading.