Jens staying, Jose going, but what about Julio? 26 April, 2007

Jens Lehmann has announced he’ll stay at Arsenal for one more year. There’s nothing official coming out of Arsenal saying so but the German no.1 has said he’ll be here for another season and that Champions League football is his main factor for staying. Here’s the exact quote:

“I will play another season for Arsenal. It is a big club with sporting perspectives. That [the one-year deal] is not a problem. I do not necessarily have to extend for two years. For me, it depends on playing in the Champions League in the coming season. I wouldn’t like to sit in front of the TV on Wednesdays, thinking ‘I could have been there’.”

It’s not a very convincing quote but his intentions are clear: He wants Champions League football and he would’ve liked the two year deal but is not that bothered. He also added that he’s considered a return to Germany so I wouldn’t be surprised if he did one more year here and then went back to the Bundesliga. However he might not be our first choice keeper next year. We’ve been linked with Pele and Craig Gordon amongst others but we’ll see if Wenger gets out the Arsenal Chequebook in the summer.

The other bit of transfer news today is on Jose Reyes. As I’m sure you know he’s spent this year on loan at Real Madrid and is hoping on making that move permanent. He says that even if Madrid doesn’t want him he’ll find another club that does in Spain. He added his has no intention whatsoever to return to London. Also he started talking about the English climate again but we’ve heard that one hundred times before.

Part of his loan deal was Julio Baptista coming the other way. It’s a bit of an understatement to say ‘The Beast’ hasn’t had the best season ever. It’s been his first season in the English league, which was always going to be hard, but in the latter part of the season it became obvious he really is lacking in some of the vital ingredients as a football such as a first touch, control of the ball, awareness, positioning and finishing. All things that are part of the player, not things you can blame on the pace of the Premiership.

I was very exited at Baptista’s arrival and I even got ‘The Beast 9′ on the back of my shirt. However I’ve now become slightly embarrassed of it in a way. He probably still needs time to adapt and improve but that’s going to take another year or two and I don’t know whether we have the patience for that. Next season we’ll have Adebayor, Henry and Van Persie as our main 3. If he was to stay he’d be fighting for a place with Bendtner and the others and I really don’t think a top-flight footballer like him would be happy doing that. I see Julio moving on in the summer, it’s a shame he hasn’t done well but he’s simply not good enough.

That’s enough for today, see ya.