Cole Out, Gallas in, Reyes Out, Baptista In & Cygan Gone 1 September, 2006

Yesterday was the busy day I hoped for as Arsene Wenger managed 3 departures and 2 arrivals. Of the 3 scenarios I predicted yesterday I think ‘The best case scenario’ is the most similar to the to the actually events: Cole went to Chelsea for £5m + William Gallas, Jose Reyes and Julio Baptista swapped but on one year loan deals. Tevez and Mascherano went to West Ham and we never pursued Naismith. And instead of Song leaving, Cygan left and Villarreal paid us £2m.

Yes Pascal Cygan has joined up with Robert Pires at Villarreal on a two year deal for £2m. Nobody expected Pascal to be leaving, people have wanted it for a while but never realistically thought it would happen. I’m happy that Cygan has gone and wish him the best of luck but I’m also quite sad. Cygan was great at Arsenal, not in terms of ability but in the comedy factor. It’s kind of sad to see him go but all good things must come to an end.

Also leaving was Jose Reyes who secured his “dream move” to Spain as he goes to Real Madrid on a one year loan. It’s his birthday today and he say’s he is a very happy boy. However, he is a little shit. He is on the same level as Cole. Every fucking day he’d say how he wants to leave Arsenal and how he’d do anything to play in Spain. I don’t think he realised that he’s actually not an amazing player, in the end a deal went through. Good. The loan is only for a year but I don’t expect to see him back at Arsenal. If he doesn’t make that permanent next summer then it’ll be another Spanish club he’ll sign for.

As part of the deal loaning Reyes to Madrid, Julio Baptista (The Beast) has come the other way. He joins on the same terms as Reyes but I hope if he has a successful season with us he’ll join full-time. Once he experiences Premiership football I think he’ll enjoy it and I think he’ll enjoy life at Ashburton Grove with Arsenal. Still nothing official on this deal on the arsenal.com yet but realmadrid.com has confirmed it. I think he’s the sort of player we need here, A strong, physical player who can play a role in midfield as well as up-front. You’ll probably remember last summer he was a transfer target as we tried to sign him from Seville, in the end he chose to go to Madrid but found himself on the bench as they also signed Robinho as well as having Raul and Ronaldo. I think the Henry/Baptista partnership will work well with the pace of Thierry and the strength of The Beast. I reckon he’ll take the no.9 shirt, he’d look good with 10 but I think that’ll be left for a bit.

After a summer of speculation the Ashley Cole and Gallas deal finally went though at the last minute last night. It was very nerve-wracking around midnight last night as we knew both players had medicals and was just a case of doing the paperwork before the clock struck 12. There was no announcement until 1 o’clock last night and after an exhausting deadline day I just had to go to bed and just hoped I’d wake up to the news. And I did. Cole joined Chelsea for £5m + Gallas, I think we could have maybe got a bit more money for him but it doesn’t really matter. I’m not that bothered that The Russians now have Cole, they were good anyway without him, Wayne Bridge has made an excellent start to the season and Cole won’t add a great deal more. I’m glad the little fuckers gone. Hopefully his new sponsors Samsung will give him all the phones he needs to stick up his arse.

As part of that deal we get William Gallas who I think is a great addition to the squad. He can play either centre or left back, which is exactly what we need at the moment with our injuries. I think the back four for our game against ‘Boro will be: Eboue, Djourou, Toure and Gallas. Gallas will probably take Cole’s no.3 shirt I reckon, we definitely aren’t going to be saving that number for respect…

So that was all our transfers of the day, there were alot more on a busy deadline day which I’ll go through tomorrow including a very dodgy looking deal where West Ham got the Argentinean duo. Also Spurs were active yesterday and new Sunderland manager Roy Keane had a very busy day. I’ll talk about these transfers tomorrow, until then. I’m off to change the squad page, fuck off Ashley, good riddance Jose and farewell Pascal.