Arsenal play either Dinamo Zagreb or Ekranas 29 July, 2006

In the Champions League qualifying round draw yesterday, Arsenal got Dinamo Zagreb or Ekranas. We are likely to travel to Croatia to play Dinamo as they beat Ekranas 4-1 in the first leg of their match, the second leg is on August 2nd. To be honest, I was going to write a little piece about the teams, but really, who they fuck are they? Who gives a shit who these crappy teams are, they are going to be thrashed by us while they are standing around with their mouths open looking at our shiny new stadium. According to one person in my comments Dinamo are a good side, well they must be okay to get into the Champions League (*cough* Tottenham) but still, it should be a walkover for Arsene’s boys. We will be without Lehmann, Senderos, Ljungberg and most probably Cole but still they shouldn’t cause us any trouble. All I wanted in that draw was for the second leg to be at home because I’m away for the first leg and wouldn’t be able to go. Oh yeah also I didn’t want that Israeli club that Liverpool got, looks like they’re going to play the match elsewhere.

David Dein, when talking about the draw afterwards said that there has been preliminary talks between Arsenal and Chelsea about Ashley Cole. So yeah, hopefully he fucks off soonish. However Dein-o emphasised that Cole is still our player, I think Ashley has other ideas though…Either that or he got dumped for having a small willy and is in a state of depression and the “Girls Aloud” person or whoever she is just wanted to divorce him and steal all his money because her band were shite.

Erm, other news, two cunts have moved elsewhere. Ruud Van Nistelrooy has gone to Real Madrid. Good. I can’t stand looking at his face any longer. The fee is thought to be just over £10m and it is rumoured Ruud is getting paid 5 bails of hay a week and a sugar cube for every goal scored. Man U have used this money to help capture Carrick from Tottenscum, they had a £10m bid rejected and they had an offer accepted yesterday of something like £18 or something. Carrick will no-doubt replace Roy Keane in the center of the park for Man U, I’m not that bothered about the move because we’ve got Fabregas and I’d rather have him than anyone.

Right I’m off now, enjoy your weekend

Champions League Draw Today 28 July, 2006

Today at 11:00am we’ll find out who we’re playing in our Champions League qualifiers. After beating Tottenham to 4th place last year we have to go through the qualifying round first, unfamiliar circumstances for Arsenal fans. A list of who’s in the draw with us can be found here but to be honest with you I don’t really understand, there’s seeded teams and non-seeded blah blah blah…I’m sure it will be explained to me a thousand times when I turn onto Sky Sports News at 11. The first legs will be on August 8th or 9th and the second legs are on August 22nd or 23rd, you can check this out on the fixtures page where I’ll update it with who we get and what dates the games will be on.

In other news it looks as if there’s a possibility that Chelsea won’t sign cAshley Cole, Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports:

“We will find a solution regarding the left back position. We are looking at options but it is not a disaster if nothing comes of it. We are well enough covered for that position.”

Not very strong words from the Chelsea’s boss but it still does seem likely that Cole will go there. However the idea that Cole might stay is quite strange, in Gooners’ eyes he’s pretty much gone and is hated by most of them, imagine now that Cole does stay, would he get booed in front of 60,000 of his own fan? At the moment: yes. If there were a dramatic turn of events then Ash would have to make a public apology to his manager and his fans and ask for support back. At the moment I still see Cole playing in blue next season but there is a slight chance he won’t leave, I mean after all he’s still got 2 years left on his contract with us.

Birmingham have signed Fabrice Muamba and Seb Larsson on season long loans. I think this is a great move for the two youngsters, Birmingham are still quite a big club even after their relegation but still I think these two will have a chance in the side. Hopefully they come back full of experience and hunger to play and I wish them luck there. Also, our reserves winger Ryan Smith has signed for Derby with on undisclosed fee. I don’t think he had much of a chance at Arsenal, especially with Theo Walcott he would never really get into the team. That means another Englishman gone to add to the list but Wenger has said how difficult it is to buy good English talent today. We says he hopes to sign a defender and would preferably want an English one but prices are too high in England, a good example is Curtis Davis: a decent player, not amazing but quite good, however West Brom want a whopping £10m for him which is just way too much really. Davies went to West Brom last summer for only £3m, it just shows you what it’s like, also clubs think they can get more money out of the bigger clubs and can charge more, that’s why he’s gone up by seven million. Wenger had this to say:

“I know the prices in England. The prices for young talent are the prices you’d pay for established players. We do it sometimes. We did it for Theo Walcott for example but we cannot do it always. We have Toure, Djourou, Senderos and Cygan. If we can find someone and we can get them then we will do it. But at the moment I have not found anybody. But remember these defenders went 10 games in the Champions League without conceding a goal so I cannot say they are bad. I am a strong believer in them.”

True words from the boss but I think everyone feels at least one more signing would do just nicely and would settle a few nerves. It’s now Friday and there was no signing this week. So I guess we now hope that we sign someone next week. The team are currently out training in Austria and their next match is on Monday against Schwadorf. I’m off, have a good day people.

News Roundup 26 July, 2006

Jermaine Pennant is currently having a medical at Liverpool and is set to sign for £6.2m from Championship side Birmingham. When we sold him to the Blues part of the agreement was that if he was sold on we’d get 25% of the fee, so if he does go for £6.2m then we’d see just over one and a half million pounds of that. Which is pretty good for doing nothing.

In other transfer news, Arsene Wenger has admitted that Cole might not be an Arsenal player next season.

“If you want me to guarantee he will be here next season I cannot do it. He has only two years left on his contract. We have not made any movement there and when you have a player in that situation you cannot say much. There is nothing going on with Ashley at the moment. There is no offer and we are not talking to anybody about him.”

Arsene said he still has hope that he’ll be an Arsenal player come the end of August but I think he knows he won’t be, and even if he did the fans would let him know he isn’t wanted here. The fee looks like its going to be anywhere between £16m and £30m, it really does depend on negotiations and if there is that buy out clause in Cole’s contract. The Independent says that talks between Arsenal and Chelsea have begun which Arsene Wenger has just told us is bollocks; also they say that we’ll spend £10m of Cole’s transfer fee on West Ham’s Yossi Benayoun. I don’t see why we’d want him seeing as we’ve just bought Rosicky who I think is going to be a big star for us, The Independent points this out themselves too so I don’t see why they bothered to report this shite. We won’t be buying Benayoun, but we will be selling Cole, Chelsea will hope to sign him before the 8th August because that’s when we play our first Champions League qualifier game and if Cole take’s part in that he won’t be able to play for Chelsea in the competition. He’s on his honeymoon at the moment so as soon as he gets back I’m sure Arsenal and Chelsea will meet.

Three of our reserve players are subject to transfer speculation: Nicklas Bendtner who threatened to leave if he wasn’t going to be playing more first team football has announced that he’s going to stay. Rangers were very interested on taking the boy on a season-long loan but Wenger has said he has a place here. Ryan Smith hasn’t been seen recently and he might be having talks at Derby, their manager Billy Davies was interested in Celtic’s Stephen Pearson but it looks as if he’s going to be staying in Glasgow. His next choice is our 19-year-old Ryan Smith so maybe there’s a possible move there for him, I would be too bothered if he left, he’s not an amazing prospect. The other reserve player who’s being linked with another club is Fabrice Muamba who Sunderland want on loan. I quite like Muamba and he could be a decent player for us in the future, Sunderland who last season took Hoyte on loan would like to borrow another player for their Championship campaign. Their new manager Niall Quinn says he has spoken to Arsene twice and it looks as if Wenger will grant Sunderland their wish in hope that Fabrice will gain some first team experience.

The only other news is some quite bad news and it is that Freddie Ljungberg might miss the start of the season with an inflammation around his ankle. Wenger says he’s had an injection but probably won’t be ready for the Villa game on August 19th, which would also rule him out of the Champions League qualifiers.

I might not be able to write a post tomorrow, I’ve got a busy day. To compensate you’ve got two posts today you lucky bastards. Have a good day.

Not Much News Once Again… 24 July, 2006

In trying to find some Arsenal News to talk about I came across this which kept me amused for some time. If you are bored take a look.

Ok, I did find some news: After Vieira’s great reception on Saturday, Bergkamp feels it would be a good move for Arsenal to bring him back. Vieira’s club have been relegated to Serie B with a -30pt. start and many players want out, Paddy being one. Barca are aparantly interested but it looks as if Inter Milan are set to sign the 30 year old. Personnaly, I don’t see Vieira returning, but Dennis has been counting the number of people that do.

“I think about 56 people said to me today that Patrick should have another year here and I hope he will. Maybe that’s not the right thing to say in football, but everyone saw what he did in the World Cup and if he can get to that level with Arsenal, it would be fantastic.”

I hate to burst Dennis’ bubble but I really don’t think Arsenal will win the World Cup to be honest…

If he did return it would mean we’d have three top quality centre-midfielders fighting for the two slots in the team. This would be a really good thing as it would improve the players if they knew they’d have to keep up their form or lose their place in the team and also it puts another player between Alex Song and the first team. I don’t think Wenger would approach Vieira though, if something was to happen it would have to be Paddy coming to Wenger asking for a return to Arsenal. Like I said I don’t see it happening but it might be quite good if it did, it would be healthy for the squad and it would be reassuring to the fans. The question is though, what number would he be?

Also Dennis Bergkamp has ruled out a return to football, for the moment anyway. He says he just wants to do ‘nothing’ now, he want’s to enjoy not having to go to training and take his kids to school. He hasn’t rule out possibly ever becoming some sort of coach or scout and has had talks with Wenger about this but for the moment anyway he is finished with football.

This week I expect a signing. I’ve said this before but this week has to be it. Newcastle have been showing great ambition by signing Duff and look to be signing Klose too, and if they get Owen back from injury then they’ll also be in the mix for Champions League places. We need to bring someone in and West Brom’s Curtis Davis looks to be the one at the moment. Not a very exiting player really but still, a possible signing. However he’s said that he wouldn’t mind staying in the Championship if no deal is done, which seems likely as the Baggies have put a hefty price tag on the full-back. We’ll see.

Hopefully they’ll be some more news around tomorrow. Hopefully a signing, well I’ve got to be optimistic. See ya

The Magnificent Ashburton Grove 21 July, 2006

Well yesterday the ‘Emirates Stadium’ opened its doors to a mass audience for Members Day. This was the first time gooners were allowed to see their new stadium and personally I was vey impressed. It’s an amazing stadium. It’s huge and every seat gets a good view of the pitch. The only flaws I could think of is that there’s a fair amount of exposed concrete still around but to be fair that can be touched up pretty quickly and also from the upper tier the sloping roof obstructs the view of one of the big screens and you have to turn around to see the one next to you. Apart from those two minor things it’s an incredible stadium and probably the best in England, Old Trafford might have a larger capacity but thats only because Americans usually use two or three seats at a time. Here are my pictures from the day:

(click to enlarge pics)

The outside of the stadium is just a teaser of what’s to come inside, I love the huge crest and the curving glass walls but the two cannons are a bit strange outside the armoury shop. They’re not as crap as I thought they’d be but still, would be better just not to have them at all. The queue for the new shop was massive as you’d expect but they were offering free prining on the first 500 shirts sold and a free towel with every shirt.

Then I went through the new card entry system which had no problems as far as I saw, people went through easily with a flash of the card. There were queues to the turnstiles though, I’m not sure what that was about, probably the amount of people wanting to go in at once and the bag checking. However the queues moved quite quickly. When I got into the seating area this was the amazing view which I was greeted by, it sent shivers all over me. I know it just looks like another picture you’ve seen on the computer before but this is it, it doesn’t look real when you stand in front of it, it just looks like a photo on the website. Truely amazing stuff.

The pitch was immaculate like Highbury and looked like an excellant playing surface, also we have those new moving advertising boards now.

I decided to make the most of the day and wonder around the stadium. I moved over to the halfway line point in the West Stand. Then the team came out for training and were welcomed to thier new home with a chorus of “Arrrrsenal, Arrrrsenal…” which was quite load considering the small amount of people inside and he sheer size of the place. I can’t wait till saturday when we’re in full voice. The players started to do laps of the field and I got bored and behind me was one of the parts where the stadium curves up to it’s highest point so I went to go have a look at that.

After climbing to the highest point of the seating and out of breath I thought I’d take a picture of the way down. You can see right over london from up here really is amazing.

The players still doing laps i decided to moved over to the top of the North Bank, quite incredible here to but personally I’d rather not sit this high, my sason ticket is 4th row so quite a comparision to up here.

Then looking over the North-East corner wall you see Highbury over the rooftops, just in the same way I used to go out onto the West Stand balcony and look at Ashburton Grove. It’s a massive contrast from Highbury and I hope we can have many great memories here as we had there.

Then I finally picked a seat as the players started to play mini-games. It was the same sort of squad as the Barnet game so no big names here apart from in the corner was Adebayor, Toure, Eboue and Rosicky doing some light training who had just come back from their summer break.

After the training session the players tried to kick balls up into the upper tiers which gave some players the opertunity to get embarrased. Cygan was at my corner and was quite funny watching him trying to boot the balls, and aparantly at the other side Song didn’t even get one ball up there. Well if he can’t play football and he cant do that, I really don’t know why we have him here. After this people started filtering down to the Lower Tiers for ‘fun and games’. There was a few inflatable footy games about and some other crap but I just used this opertunity to have a wonder around the stadium.

Then I took a walk round the outside of the stadium for the first time, it really is impressive, I hope you get the chance to go down there one day. I checked the shop again but the queue was double the size and was at least a 2 hour wait to get in, so I just went home. It was a really good day, I was impressed with the new stadium massivley and I’m looking forward to Saturday now, that should be amazing. They’ve announced the plans for the teams, the first half will be normal Arsenal v Ajax with current squad members but after the interval the Legends take the field with a few top names set to return: Wright, Vieira, Cruyff and Van Der Sar to name a few. I’ll talk about the match more tomorrow.

In Wenger’s interview afterwards he said he wants to add one or two players and it’s being done quietly and efficiantly. That really lifted my spirits, I wanted to know that Arsene had ambiton to sign someone and hopefully he’ll do it soon. It wont be Buffon though as he’s going to stay in Serie B with Juve. But we don’t really need a keeper though, its a defender we need, especially if Cole does fuck off. Kerrea Gilbert has gone to Cardiff on a season long so thats another defender out. I’m not going to bother speculating on who it might be because whenever I do I seem to jinx it and they don’t come.

It’s Bergkamp’s Testimonial tomorrow, I’m so exited. I’ll have a proper match preview in the morning before I go to the game. Have a good day.

Members Day Tomorrow – The Beginning of the New Era 19 July, 2006

Instead of talking so negative about we are all doomed if we don’t sign anyone, I’ve chosen to look on the bright side of the situation. Tomorrow is Members Day, the first time we get to enter the magnificent new Ashburton Grove. It’s started to sink in at the Wigan game that the club are moving and now today I feel it again, and I know tomorrow when I’m wondering around the “Emirates” it will really hit me hard. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time, about 3 years actually, ever since plans were made to move a few hundred yards across Islington I’ve been exited. Although I know tomorrow will be good, Saturday will be even better. Dennis Bergkamp, arguably one our greatest ever players, and it’s last hurrah for Arsenal, I know it will be a special day for everyone. He’s had a fantastic time with us, click this to see a photo collection of his Arsenal Career.

As for news, well there isn’t much. The 2006/07 squad numbers were officially announced so there will be no more number changes. Also Nicklas Bendtner has threatened to leave if he is not part of the squad this season. I think he’s being a little selfish, he’s only 18 and could get a chance this year but he won’t be an important part of the team. Maybe next year he’ll start coming into contention and i’m sure in the future he’ll be an exiting player for us. His agent has announced he is suddenly desperate to play first team football, the interest from Rangers must have tempted him and wondered if the grass is greener. Maybe it’s worth sitting him down and telling him, right now, he’s only on the fringes of the team but in a year or two he’ll be an important part of Arsenal, one of the biggest clubs in Europe. A loan deal for this season would be best for him probably if he want’s regualar football but Wenger doesn’t want him to leave which might suggest that he could be apart of the new Ashburton Grove era.

The only other story which caught my eye was Tottenscums new-big money-waste of time-waste of space-dickhead-signing Dimitar Berbatov. He’s been saying that he want’s to end Spurs’ record of not beating us and score the winning goal. Well I could go on and on about how shit he and his team are and how they haven’t got a chance in hell but that would be a waste of time.

I got my new shirt yesterday, I decided on getting it blank in the end, I’ll get it printed another time, hopefully there should be another signing yet. Members Day tomorrow, I’m off early in the morning and I’m a lazy cunt so I wont be posting before I go, I’ll do a write up when I get home from it. Untill then

New Kit Out Today 18 July, 2006

(yes that’s the only news there is…)

The new home kit for the 06/07 and 07/08 season goes on sale today, also today sees the opening of the brand new Armoury Store. Click on the link to see pictures and it does look quite impressive, I’m probably going to pay a visit either tommorow or thursday. I’m going to get my new shirt in my home town of Borehamwood where its only £31 or £38 with printing, a bargain. The question is what to get printed? It’s between Cesc, Kolo, Senderos, Henry, Rosicky, Bergkamp or i might get Theo Walcott who was interviewed about the new kit at our London Colney Training Centre:

”I like the look of it, it’s a nice fit and I’m looking forward to wearing it next season. Even if it’s in the reserves, I just want to play my football. Hopefully next season I can show what I can do.”

I wasn’t expecting him to say that, I hope he does get a chance with the full team this year, it’s a shame to waste such talent. I’ve been to see him at the reserves once and I was really impressed with him, he should definatly be on the bench for us, ready to come on and cause a shock, a bit like Lennon for England in Germany. Also Thierry Henry had something to say about the new kit:

”It’s nice to go back to red and white, it’s like one of the old school shirts. I liked the redcurrant but I think Arsenal for some reason belong in red and white so I’m happy to see its return.”

I personally liked the redcurrant kit too and I know that some other gooners don’t, I thought it was a nice touch for the last season at Highbury. However I am glad to be back in the traditional red and white. To celebrate the launch of the new kit I’ve added a new Kits page (www.the-cannon.com/kits). At the moment they only go as late as 1990 but I will put in the older shirts soon.

Also Kolo Toure had a word saying that he hopes it can bring us the premiership title. It’s not going to happen though if we don’t make any signings. At the moment this is how Chelsea and Arsenal will probably shape up at the start of the season bearing in mind injuries and possible transfers.

I really don’t think we have much of a chance beating that side to 1st place as it currently stands. We desperatly need a signing and the player who I said looks most likely to sign, Curtis Davies has just had an offer of £8.5m from Pompey, who musn’t be getting Sol I guess now. Portsmouth have shown more ambition in this transfer market than Arsenal as have Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and others. To have any kind of fighting chance we need to bulk up the squad. Another player we’ve been vaguly liked with is Feyenoord striker Dirk Kuyt who’s taken a few days off to consider his future, but Arsene has said we won’t be buying any more forward players this summer.

Ok well I’m off to buy my new shirt, hopefully Arsene buys a new player. Have a good day.

A fair bit of News…[still no signing] 14 July, 2006

We’ll start at the beggining and Franck Ribery’s agent has strongly denied any talks with Arsene Wenger and insists the player is staying at Marseille. I would mind that too much anyway, we don’t really need him and there are other positions that need filling more; however if Reyes was to leave then he would be an option. They has been no talk about Jose in the Media which either suggests a deal is being done secretly or it’s all just bollocks and he’s staying at Arsenal.

Also we are reportedly interested in West Bromwich Albion’s Curtis Davies. He would be a good replacement for the recently departed Sol Campbell, however Bryan Robson has said he is not for sale and has rejected an offer from Spurs amoungst others. He’s only 21 so has got he best years ahead of him, I think if we did manage to capture him it would be a smart signing also seeing as he’s English would be another reason to bring him in. Even though Robson has said he will not be leaving, it won’t be very hard to get him, Albion aren’t the richest club in the world so any decent offer will have them drooling.

On the subject of West Brom, Theo Walcott’s wild rumour of joining them on loan is complete rubbish and his agent has come out saying he will definatly be at Ashburton Grove for this season. It was suggested that we would give Theo to them for a year if they would sell us Curtis Davis, sounds a reasonable proposition but Arsenal Do not want to let Theo go, hopefully it’s because we’re going to give him a chance this year.

A brand new player Arsenal are being linked with is Franco Semioli the Chievo. We have aparantly been watching him since he left Inter Milan and have now offered £5.5m for him. I know nothing about him but aparantly he plays out on the flanks. However he has a strong desire to stay in Italy and wants to play for Roma:

“They are my first choice for the way they play and the importance of the club,”

Talking of Italy, we are due to find out the verdict of the match-fixing scandal in Serie A and find out if/who will be relegated. The proposed time is 7:00pm local, I will talk about what happens tommorrow. After this there will be a massive spending spree for clubs like how women flock to the January sales, it’s going to be mad. However, some players have pledged to stay at thier respective clubs despite this.

Tommorrow I’m finally going to see my beloved Arsenal in the first pre-season fixture of the summer: Barnet v Arsenal. I will have a match preview of this tommorrow and we might be up against some familiar names.

And finally Johan Djourou has been allocated the no.20 shirt, again this was confirmed by the Arsenal Shop. Also our new home new shirt is aparantly out a my local sports shop, I know it’s not meant to be out yet but my brother saw it in a different branch in Watford and this shop has done this sort of this before. When the new England shirt came out they released it a week before it was meant to, so now I’m off to go see if they actually have it, see ya!

Two New Number Changes 12 July, 2006

There has been more number changes once again released by the Arsenal Shop. Kolo Toure has switched from number 28 to 5, and Philippe Senderos has gone from 20 to 6. Both players old numbers were not a reflection of thier importance to the team and have been given the choice of a new, lower one for the new era at Ashburton Grove. Also, I have said before that Fabregas has changed down to no.4 replacing PV but he chose it because of his hero, Pep Guardiola. Also our new signing Rosicky has taken no.7, you can see all these changes on the squad page.

Not much real news to report on, Arsene Wenger has hit back at rumours that Fabregas is off to Madrid and said he’s not going anywhere. He said he’s an important part of the team and will be ignoring any offers we get for him. Also Newcastle have entered the race for Saviola who I really is a strong posibility of our next signing. He is in London at the moment, and his agent has said it is most likely he’ll be with Arsenal next season that anyone else. Not so long ago, Cristiano Ronaldo not suprisingly said he wanted to leave Man U and avoid a severe beating from Rooney, but Man U have just come out saying they won’t let him leave and go to Real Madrid. Also whist looking through the Man Utd News I saw this fantastic headline for Paul ‘Ginger’ Scholes. Brilliant.

Right, have a good day, keep checking the Arsenal Shop as new numbers are being released all over the place. Have a good day.