Yes there’s no football on today either so any football news is sparce, and any arsenal news? not very likely. Anyways, this is what ‘news’ I have found.

Ticket details for Dennis’ testimonial hav been released today, prices range from £40 to £20 depending on how high up you want to sit. They have limited capacity to a maximum of 54,000 which is still alot, thats still 16,000 more than the maximum of Highbury.

Cesc wasn’t too happy to be knocked out of the World Cup, he’s only 18 and you could see how upset he was. I’m sure nobody would want to get knocked out but he spoke of how his nation felt good about this year, and the competiton finished far too early for them. He also mentioned how it was hard returning home after being eliminated, remember the boy’s only young and has just broke into one of the top sides in the world cup. He should be able too see the positives soon and I’m sure he’ll grow from strength to strength. He also talked about his link with Real Madrid, this would never happen, he is a barca fan at heart and we all know how dedicated he is at Arsenal. I’m ignoring all Real speculation at the moment, because to be honest, it’s all just bollocks. It’s presidential candidates promising things that will never happen if they get elected, it’s all politcs which should not be envolved in the game of football.

That’s your lot for today, Germany v Argentina tomorrow, hopefully that will spark up some news. Cya later.

Yes today is the first day since the world cup started where there is no footy. The next match is on friday and it’s Germany vs. Argentina, England’s two rivals battling for a place in the semis. I’d rather Germany win, Argentina have looked very strong this year and I’d like to avoid them, also I’d like it to be England v Germany in the final, just like it was 40 years ago.

Tony Adams has been appointed as assistant manager of Portsmouth. Will be nice to see our famous old captain back in England and will bring an extra spice to pompey v arsenal. We visit them on the last day of the season, and they take the trip up to North London on 16th December.

Sky Sports have announced that Arsenal will be playing AZ Alkmaar on the 4th August in a pre-season friendly to open thier new DSB Stadium. However this is the same date that Arsenal v Borehamood is sheduled for, so I’m not sure whats going to happen there. I will keep you posted on that one, however the Borehamwood fixture is officially an ‘Arsenal XI’ fixture so maybe both will go ahead on the same day. AZ Alkmaar finished 2nd in the Dutch League last season behind PSV, and we could be facing former Netherland star Ronald de Boer. He is working on his fitness but could play a part in their pre-season fixtures.

That’s it really apart from Real Madrid saying they won’t be getting Wenger but I have been ignoring all those stories anyway. Have a good day

I have just got back from my last day at college and my summer officially starts here. This will mean more posting on me blog and also will mean i’l have to find a job….poo. Anyways, you don’t wan’t to know about that, you want arsenal-news, so here ya go.

Gunnerblog has posted some new pics of a fake arsenal shirt design. Honestly, I was gonna put that picture up today, but GS got there first. Oh well. It’s a fake anyway so doesn’t really matter. I thought that we were keeping the same 2nd and 3rd shirts from last season to next but just with different sponcor. Would save me a bit of money for once.

Aparantly we’ve offered a contract to Hatem Trabelsi. He was playing with Tunisia in the World Cup but decided to retire after being eliminated from the competition. He is out of contract at Ajax and his agent had this to say:

“There’s a contract ready for him at Arsenal. I can show you that. I get calls from English clubs every day. Manchester City and West Ham have been in contact. Hatem definitely wants to play in the Champions League and he’s not going to stay in Holland.”

So basically, he’s definatly leaving the Amsterdam side, it’s just a question of where to? He plays right-back from Tunisia so I’m not really sure how he’d fit into our side. He’d probably be fighting for a place with Lauren, and at 29 he’s not got that many more years left in him than Ralphy. It would be a bit of a stupid buy if we did, seeing as we’ve already got Eboue ready awaiting.

I went down to Highbury again yesterday, went to collect my piece of turf. Was quite weird going there again, however, I really did get the feeling it was over. Everything seemed old and dirty, things hadn’t been maintained properly, there was some vandalism and some of the signage had gone. Then I thought of the new shiney arena across the road, and that really did feel like home. I could not imagine us playing at Highbury again, that feeling had gone, I’d said my goodbyes on 7th May. We collected the boxes with our turf in at the Clock/East corner, so you got to have another look inside the stadium, surely this was my very last time.

I was in the queue with the ‘highbury screemer’ lady, she shouted her trademark: ‘COME ON YOU GUNNERS’ for the last time that famous ground. And then that was it, walking down Avenell Road, parallel with the East Stand as I would on matchday, it was a little emotional actually. You might think it’s silly, but so many memories are inside that stadium, it was like my home from home, every time i went in there it made me smile. Then walking away to the station I was thinking about how its just going to be knocked down. I really don’t want to see those pictures of it being ripped up, it’s going to be really sad I think.

When I got home I bought my tickets for Arsenal v Borehamwood, my local side. Can’t wait for that, should be good fun. I just can’t wait to be back watching us again, I miss it. The tickets for Barnet come out on Sunday, I’ll be going down to get them as I’ve done 2 years running. First time I went it was 10-1 and last year it was 4-1, hopefully something similar this year. It’s always a really nice relaxed atmosphere down at Underhill, all the Gooners congregating again, it’s like a little reunion. Then I’m not sure when the tickets for Dennis’ testimonial come out, definitely want to go to that. My new season ticket might be valid for that, not sure.

Anyways. Thanks for reading, a bit of a long post today, lasagnechef.

Not a load of news to report on really, the only thing that has caught my eye is Gunnerblog’s latest pictues of next seasons arsenal shirt. I’ve heard some mixed opinions on the shirt but personally, I like it. I really like the touch of The Cannon on the back of the neck, very nice.

Also due to the lack of news, I got bored and set up a MySpace account for The Cannon. Well I dunno…If you’ve got myspace yourself, make sure you add me please. Thanks.

Last nite a saw a bit of a card-fest between Holland and Portugal, the winners of course to face England in the Quaters. I think there was 4 red cards and 16 yellows, no exageration, it was seriously that many! Was quite funny really, it was up there with our very own Graham Poll’s 3 yellow cards to one player. Portugal came through 1-0 winners in the end to face England in the next round on Saturday.

Also you might have noticed I have changed the header to a more World-Cup friendly version. Yes. I seriously have been bored recently. Just a quick post for today, check out the myspace please.

The FA have finished the investigation into the Newsnight claim that Arsenal had illegally given sums of money to Beveren. They found nothing wrong with what we’d done, and it was just newsnight being wankers again.

Lehmann has told Arsene that he should sign his German team-mate Miroslav Klose. We’ve been linked with the striker for a litlle while now and has impressed in the World Cup with 4 goals so far with Germany who play Sveeden today. However, Werder Bremen have insisted he is not for sale, but if we were to offer something over £10m for him I’m sure they’d have to have a think about it.

In the World Cup, England have lost Michael Owen with cruciate ligament damage which could see him out for 6 months. To be honest, I feel quite sorry for the toons, but you can’t help but laugh. You’d think this might make way for a striking positon to open up for Theo Walcott due to Sven stupidly only picking 4 strikers to go to Germany. However it looks aparant that he is too scared to play the 17 year old and the loss of Owen will result in a new formation which would include Carrick in a 5-man midfield and possibly seeing Hargreaves at right-back. It would be such a shame if Sven doesn’t give Theo any sort of a run-out, and I’m sure the whole country would love to see him be given a chance. Lets hope he comes on tomorrow and scores the winning goal to take us through to the next round! That would be nice.

August
Sat, 19th H Aston Villa (PREM.)
(Tues, 22nd A Wigan (PREM.))
Sat, 26th A Man City (PREM.)
September
Sat, 9th H Middlesbro (PREM.)
Sat, 16th A Man Utd (PREM.)
Sat, 23rd H Sheff Utd (PREM.)
Sat, 30th A Charlton (PREM.)
October
Sat, 14th H Watford (PREM.)
Sat, 21st A Reading (PREM.)
Sat, 28th H Everton (PREM.)
November
Sat, 4th A West Ham (PREM.)
Sat, 11th H Liverpool (PREM.)
Sat, 18th H Newcastle (PREM.)
Sat, 25th A Bolton (PREM.)
Wed, 29th A Fulham (PREM.)
December
Sat, 2nd H Tottenham (PREM.)
Sat, 9th A Chelsea (PREM.)
Sat, 16th H Portsmouth (PREM.)
Sat, 23rd H Blackburn (PREM.)
Tue, 26th A Watford (PREM.)
Sat, 30th A Sheff Utd (PREM.)
January
Mon, 1st H Charlton (PREM.)
Sat, 13th A Blackburn (PREM.)
Sat, 20th H Man Utd (PREM.)
Tue, 30th H Man City (PREM.)
February
Sat, 3rd A Middlesbro (PREM.)
Sat, 10th H Wigan (PREM.)
Sat, 24th A Aston Villa (PREM.)
March
Sat, 3rd H Reading (PREM.)
Sat, 17th A Everton (PREM.)
Sat, 31st A Liverpool (PREM.)
April
Sat, 7th H West Ham (PREM.)
Mon, 9th A Newcastle (PREM.)
Sat, 14th H Bolton (PREM.)
Sat, 21st A Tottenham (PREM.)
Sat, 28th H Fulham (PREM.)
May
Sat, 5th H Chelsea (PREM.)
Sun, 13th A Portsmouth (PREM.)

So, Aston Villa are our first premiership challange at Ashburton Grove, I cant wait to go through those turnstiles and be back watching the gunners again. Our last home fixture of the season is Chelsea, a potential title deciding match, wouldn’t you just love it if we lifted the trophey against The Russians. Then we finish off the season away, possibly trying to beat Sol Campbell’s Portsmouth.

We travel to premiership new-boys, Watford on Boxing Day, watford were always ‘my championship team’ that I followed after Arsenal, so personally I am looking forward to watcing our boys teachin’ ‘em a lesson at Vicarage Road; they visit the magnificant Ashburton Grove on October 14th. We have quite a tough run-in with Liverpool, Newcastle, Bolton, Spurs & Chelsea in the final few months, and we also kick-off with an early trip up to Old Trafford. This is only the ‘draft copy’, so expect there to be some minor alterations mainly due to the TV schedule. The Wigan away game on the 22nd August is already due to be changed due to a Champions League game already scheduled 4 that day.

Today Arsenal.com released the first teaser-shot of the new kit for our first season at Ashburton Grove. Its refreshing to see us back in the traditional red and white from last season’s 1913 tribute. We will be wearing this new strip for the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons as opposed to a new shirt every season we’ve been seeing recently.

I quite like the design of the shirt even though it is a bit blurry, so below are some pictures I’ve found over the summer of the new shirt; they were a bit small so I had to strech them a bit, but you can still see. There is a slightly different image on gunnerblog; gilbertosilver also believes that some players may be changing thier numbers next season. I would go along with this in thinking that Walcott will, and possibly some other youngsters like Eboue, Larsson, Bentner and Djourou; also don’t forget that Rosicky is yet to be assigned a number, and remember the famous no.10 is now available.

The premiership fixture list will be released on Thursday, I’ll post again then. I look forward to seeing who the first visitors to Ashburton Grove will be. Oh wait, it’s going to be Ajax, forgot about that. But still, I’ll comment on our fixtures then. Bub-bye!

Nothing much to report really due to the world cup but there are still some rumours flying about anyway. Another Real Madrid presidential candidate Juan Miguel Villar Mir says that he will bring Wenger to Spain. I don’t know know about you but I’m getting really bored with these “Wenger to Madrid” stories; the hopeful president claims he has opened negotiations with Arsene but these people will say anything to get elected.

Also we aparantly having a look at a Chievo winger called Franco Semioli. He’s 25 and is meant to be a real talent, but to be honest, I think we need some other positions more than another winger.

But the big story at the moment is Ralph Lauren linked with a move to Sevilla. He would be a replacement if the club were to lose their Brazilian full back Daniel Alves, who has set his sights on a move to Liverpool. Eboue has emerged as a real talent of late but has also displayed some silly diving antics which he has also shown for the Ivory Coast in Germany. Although Eboue is a good player, and will no doubt be out future right-back, for now he is young and still has much to learn; whereas Lauren, we know we can trust. He is 29 so still has a few years left in him, I’m sure Sevilla would love to have these, but I’m sure everyone related to Arsenal FC would rather him play out those years at Ashburton Grove and then see Emmanuel Eboue come through. Lauren has played for Sevilla before in the 96/97 season where he played for the B team, the move might be slightly apealing but Arsene will let him know he is a part of the team here, and convince him to stay.

Thats all for now, Brasil play tonight, hope we get to see Gilberto play, and Ronaldinho break his leg, that’d be nice.

There’s not much news to mention, so i’ll just get into it…

Blackburn are reportely interested in signing super-cygan. I think this would be a good move for Pascal for 3 reasons: 1. He actually has a chance of playing 1st team football there. 2. Blackburn have managed to get into europe this year and are doing well under Mark Hughes. And 3. We just have to get rid of him…now, while we have the chance.

Eidur Gudjohnsen has completed a move to Barcelona. I’ve always been a fan of Eidur, not only his football, but his accent, i could listen to it all day.

In world cup news France v Switzerland (aka Henry v Senderos/Djourou) ended up in a 0-0 draw. Many gooners eyes may have been on an unimpressive Ribery who didn’t do alot really, and Henry wasn’t his arsenal-self but he never is for les bleus. Also Spain played their 1st game of the tornament in a convincing 4-0 win over Ukraine. The game saw Cesc Fabregas come on late as a sub which was made him Spain’s youngest ever world cup player, no run out for Reyes though who’s commitment to stay at arsenal is still yet to be clear.

In other news I had lasagne for dinner tonight, lets hope i cooked it properly this time…

I was only able to see the 2nd half of the USA vs Czech Republic but what I saw of our new boy, I was extremely impressed. His 1st goal was incredible, it was in the 1st half but I have seen clips of it, he collected the ball about 40 yards out and blasted it into the far corner beating ex-scum keeper Kasey Keller. This amazing shot might have been aided by this new ball that has been introduced but it still took some skill. In the 2nd half he had a similar effort denied by the crossbar, but still was an impressive strike. His second goal was started off by him and was played through by Nedved. He ran from the edge of the centre circle and chipped it over Keller with a cool and precise finish. Also I noticed throughout the game he made some nice passes, made space and was generally a great all round player; not sure if he was man of the match or not, but definatly should have been. Very exited about his future with Arsenal and cannot wait for him to pull on the red and white.

In other news, Roy Keane has retired from football at the age of 34, what a shame. And Tony Adams is set for a role at Portsmouth where Harry Redknapp is very exited about the possibility of the ex-Arsenal Captain becoming his assistant. I’d quite like it if he does join pompey, be nice to see him over here in the UK again, would make Arsenal vs. Portsmouth a bit of an occasion anyway. That’s it for now, hope to update soon, thanks for reading.

We are aparantly closing in on a deal for a 17 year old Dutch player Vincent van den Berg. The Heerenveen midfielder is said to have had meetings with Arsene Wenger and our famous dutchman Dennis Bergkamp, and has been offered a contract for us. I know nothing about this boy but it does sound quite exiting doesnt it?

We’ve also been linked with Luis Jimenez who’s been on loan at Fiorentina in Serie A for 6 months but his team Ternana have been relegated to Serie C so it is very likely that he will leave. Arsenal are reportedly interested but newspaper speculation is on overload due to the summer break, so you are unsure how ture this is.

England won 1-0 today, no Walcott which was a shame, I think we could of used someone just to liven things up, there is a danger he will never play in the tournament. Lets hope Sven does give him a go. It’s so hot here and I cant stand to sit at the computor any longer, see ya.

There’s not been alot of Arsenal News recently, hence not posting for a couple of days. We have been linked with a few players: Lens full back Benoit Assou-Ekotto, a young Valencia midfielder Jaime Gavilan, and Marseille’s Franck Ribéry.

Arsene has been saying that he would be happy going into next season with the current squad however some additions would be nice. I feel we do need to add a couple of players before August but nothing will be done untill after the world-cup where the gaffa is also doing coverage for french television. However, Franck Ribéry wants to decide on his future before the 1st game and it looks like it’ll be either us or Man USA. Marseille have already rejected a £9m bid from the Americans and value the player at a whopping £25m. I doubt anyone would be interested in him at that price tag; Ribéry would probably like to play in the Premiership but it looks unlikely the Ligue 1 side will allow him to go.

In other news, Sol wants the Scottish fans to get behind the English for some reason which is like saying Spurs shudda been supporting us in the Champions Leaugue Final. Sol, it’s just not gonna happen. And Madrid have admitted that they tried to sign Henry. Well who fucking wouldn’t? come on. Yeah so that your lot, hopefully they’ll be some more news soon, maybe Ribéry’s signing? He aint the prettiest bloke in the world though…

As you may have read yesterday, Arsenal are undergoing an investigation from the FA thanks to the the BBC’c Newsnight investigation. Dein wouldn’t be too pleased with these latest stories and wouldn’t be a great help to him with the FA Board elections the next day. I think this supiciously timed story from the BBC is much more than a coincidence, I reckon Newsnight purposly put this story out to put Dein under pressure before the elections.

As a result, Dein lost his place on the FA Board after a vote between all 20 representatives. I’m sure they’ll claim the decision wasn’t based on the Arsenal-Beveren story but it’s bound to have an impact. There was also alot of hype over the appointment of the next England manager. Dein was apparently envolved in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s decision and Arsene Wenger not getting the Job. But I don’t understand the fuss about that because they set out to get an English manager in the first place didn’t they? Plus, Arsene would never of left for that position anyway, it was nothing to do with Dein. His replacement on the board is the Man USA chief executive David Gill who is also vice-chairman of the G14 Group, at least people cant put all the blame on Arsenal every time the FA makes a decision. However, it’s only a position on the FA Board, who really cares? It’s not going to effect Arsenal in any way so don’t really matter.

There’s not a cloud in the sky today and England play Jamaica in about an hour, so I’m going to settle down and watch a bitta Saturday footie, I miss that. Lets hope our Theo Walcott gets another good run-out, and a goal would just top it off. Also the one and only Charlie George is opening my local Paddy Power today, so might go down to that. Have a good weekend.

Yes thanks to the BBC’s Newsnight programme, we have landed in a bit of trouble with FIFA. All that show does is dish out the dirt about people and compainies, and they chose their next target to be Arsenal. It’s all about our relationship with KSK Beveren, you probably know that we do have a partnership with the club and there is an annual friendly match between the two sides. Also players move between the two clubs to help thier development, including the lastest high profile player to make the switch: Emmanuel Eboue.

Newsnight have discovered that an annoymous investment of £1.1m was made to Beveren in 2001, which has been traced back to Arsenal. A statement was released saying we did give them a loan and emphasised that it was not in violation of any rules though. Also, Arsenal were the main shareholders of NV Goal, who pretty much control the club.

“We confirm we have never owned, directly or indirectly, any shares in Beveren or had any power whatsoever to influence the club’s management or administration. We did in 2001 provide funds of €1.6 million by way of loan to a member of a consortium who used the money to assist in stabilising the finances of Beveren.”

Premier League rules say that clubs can’t own shares, make loans, or be apart of the management of another English club. However these rules apply between two English clubs only so Arsenal’s envolvement with the Belgian side Beveren is fine by these regulations. Despite this, FIFA will be looking into the matter, and the FIFA president Sepp Blatter said this to the BBC:

“Let Arsenal give us, and give especially to the FA in London, a report and then they shall report it later to Fifa,”

Despite all this, don’t worry too much, we haven’t done much wrong and if those basterds at Newsnight decided to chose a different club to have a pick at then I’m sure there would be much darker secrets in other clubs locker rooms; for example Chelsea, we all know about the Ashley Cole tapping up incident.

In other news, Wenger has come out saying that he just cant wait for the new season to start as he felt we were harshly done by last year: coming so close to winning the Champions League and finishing a poor 4th. Also he has claimed Rosicky was always the replacement for Pires and is the perfect man for the job. Arsene says he wanted to sign someone as soon as he knew Bobby was off to Villarreal and Thomas was his main man. And as I’m sure you’re probably aware Shevchenko has signed for the Russians for something stupid like £34m, and Chelsea have announced he will continue with his famous no.7 shirt. Remember you heard his signing here first on The Cannon.

Hopefully my next post will be some good news, Arseblogger recommended we could remvove this story from the back pages by another signing, that would be nice. Also The Cannon has just got it’s 1000th hit, thank you so much, keep up the support!