Blah blah blah news etc… 30 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers.14 comments
I can tell this is going to be one very boring summer…
The top story? I suppose it’s the announcement that Arsenal are playing in the Amsterdam Tournament this pre-season. It adds to quite a busy pre-season schedule with the customary Barnet game, Austria tour and the new Emirates Cup competition. We get back to action on the 14th July when we travel to Underhill. Click the link to see our other pre-season fixtures.
The only other story of any interest is on Carlos Vela this is the young Mexican striker who we signed for about 2.5 million pounds a couple of seasons ago. However, he’s been constantly loaned out since we bought him because of issues with him getting a work permit. Carlos spent last season with Segunda Division side, Salamanca but has caught the eye of Levante. They are keen to get the teenager on loan but insist it all down to Arsenal.
It seems the Thierry Henry to Barcelona rumour just wont give up and there’s fresh stories on that. Apparently, we are going to be offered £17 + Eto’o for our captain. Personally, I’d take that! However it’s just a stupid rumour and I will be very happy to see Thierry leading out Arsenal next season.
Robin Van Persie has backed up Wenger‘s theory that we don’t need to make a great deal of changes this transfer window. I do see the point, but I think a winger and possibly a striker are needed. It’s probably not a definite necessity but I do think we could be strengthened. I wouldn’t be very surprised if we see no more signings this summer but we can pray.
Until next time…I’ll try to find some news.
One keeper in, one keeper out. 27 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Transfers.5 comments
This weekend it was officially announced that we have signed Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. The 22 year old has signed on a long-term contract from Legia Warsaw. He won the championship in 2006 with them, and has also been named the best goalie in the league for 2006 and 2007. He was also was named in the Squad for the World Cup squad last year. His name is pronounced ‘Woo-Kash Fab-Yan-Ski’ encase you’re wondering.
With Lehmann confirming he’ll be staying for at least another year we were not on the hunt for a world-class no.1 this summer. Fabianski isn’t a top ‘keeper yet but is still young, he’ll slot into the squad nicely and fight for his place. Wenger said that if Jens had left, Almunia would’ve just been promoted anyway. So we now have Lehmann, Fabianski and Almunia for next season, a good selection and I’m sure Wenger will do all he can to rotate them around. Lukasz is definitely one for the future, lets hope he comes good.
‘What about Poom?’ I hear you ask. Well he’s moved to Watford. With our new signing it was going to take some sort of a miracle for Mart to find his way into the team. At Vicarage road he should be able to secure some first team football with the remaining few years of his contract. I say good luck to him, he hasn’t really been called upon here but I doubt he ever really expected to be. I believe he never let in a goal for us, which is quite good going.
Last year Wenger had Almunia playing in the domestic cup competitions, and Lehmann in the League and Europe. I think this coming season he’ll have to try something similar. This is almost certainly Jens’ last year here; I think he’s on the decline. So this season is the opportunity for Fabianski and Almunia to fight it out, and for one of them to establish himself as Lehmann’s successor.
Another player who looks to be leaving is Mathieu Flamini. He’s been talking about his lack of games, particularly in finals. He says he would play most of the games on the way to the final, then be snubbed for the final game. He’s a good player; just I think there are better ones than him here now. I will be sad to see him go but I think it’s best for both him and us that he moves on.
Thanks for reading.
p.s. retrofootballtshirts.co.uk have slashed their prices if you fancy going and having a look. Click here or the link on the side of my page.
Baptista definately leaving + other stories 25 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers.13 comments
There’s a little bit of news since I last posted, which is nice, so I’ll just get straight into it. Julio Baptista has been told by Arsenal that we will not be signing him permanently and he’s now just expecting to go back to Madrid. My guess would be that he’ll move somewhere else, probably staying in Spain but I don’t think Real really want him. But that’s just my guess and I don’t have a fucking clue. Here’s what Julio said:
“Arsenal have told me they are not able to buy me and so all I can do is return to Real Madrid. I have enjoyed my first season with Arsenal and in England. I adapted well. I didn’t play much at first but finished much better. The first year is very difficult. The English league is very strong and very competitive with great teams.”
It’s a real shame it never worked out for him at Arsenal but I think the physical nature of the Premiership was even too much for ‘The Beast’. Speaking of Real Madrid, rumours of Cesc Fabregas moving have started up again. It’s a complete load of crap that’s not even worth me talking about so I’m gonna leave it there.
Tony Adams has said he’d love to manage Arsenal one day. He’s probably our most famous captain and he’s loved by all Arsenal fans but in recent years he’s turned to the side of management. It would be quite special having Tony as our manager but he’s got a long way to go yet. He had a spell at Wycombe, which didn’t end so well, but at the moment he’s working as Harry Redknapp’s no.2 at Pompey. Here’s what he said:
“Managing Arsenal is the ultimate aim. The club was a massive part of my life. Who would not jump at the chance to do that job? Everything is in place – the backroom staff, facilities, training ground and scouting network is phenomenal.
I would love for Tony to become Arsenal manager one day but he has a lot to learn and is nowhere near our standard at the moment. Possibly one for the future, we shall see.
I mentioned the bollocks coming from Spain about Cesc to Madrid, well talk of Henry to Barca has started again which I think is quite ridiculous. Anyways, Eto’o has been talking about the possibility of him coming. It’s no secret that Samuel is a big fan of Titi’s and has said on a number of occasions it’s his dream to play with him. But to be honest Sam, if it’s gonna happen, you’re going to have to come here…and that’s not going to happen.
Finally, the scum have bought Garath Bale. There was a bit of talk about him coming to us but I never believed he would…I don’t think we really need him.
Have a good weekend.
Season Review 2006-07 22 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Champions League, Cup Games, Premiership.9 comments
Well, 4th again…we’re not getting any worse…but we want to do a lot better than that. We never threatened in the cups, apart from the reserves who did very well indeed in the Carling Cup, and should’ve won it. But that means it’s another trophy-less season, two in a row. Shadowed by the whole Highbury 1913-2006 thing, a Champions League Final and the first season at the new stadium it’s been kept fairly quiet but on paper we’ve won fuck all. The 2005 FA Cup win seems a long time ago now and another barren season and we will not be happy.
In the very beginning, Gooners’ were getting a little worried about our lack of signings. It became increasingly clear that Arsene had no intentions of doing much in the transfer window, then on deadline day it all happened. Cygan left but he wasn’t going to be missed and the two lads who everyone thought would leave, Cole and Reyes, jumped ship and we got Baptista and Gallas. Now at the time this seemed like great business. Two great names and big talents and maybe they could add that little bit extra Arsenal needed. Ok, we lost a few players but I strongly believed we’d come out of it with more talent.
Also that summer we signed Rosicky and lost Bergkamp. The Dutchman’s testimonial was very emotional and really kicked off the season and opened the new stadium in style. The jaw-dropping Ashburton Grove really inspired Arsenal fans and they definitely thought we could make a push for the title.
However it wasn’t to be, the season started off as it was to continue by going a goal down…looking back, 1-1 against Aston Villa at home is terrible…and we lost the next game to Man City but because it was the start of the season, there wasn’t really much panic. With no decent result yet in the Premiership, an early visit to the champions elect Manchester United was all we wanted. However we won 1-0 thanks to Adebayor and that was when people really started believing.
We were incredibly unlucky with injuries this season. Gallas who I was quite exited about was injured for a very long time and Thierry Henry who’d just snubbed Barca and signed a new deal had most of the season out. When he did play, he wasn’t at his best either, but somehow he scored 12 goals. I’m exited to see what Titi we will see next year. Robin Van Persie was brilliant this year but again, he had terrible luck with injuries. I’m pretty confident he’ll be our biggest goal threat next season. There are literally one or two players who had a completely injury free season. If it had been different then maybe we wouldn’t be in 4th, but who knows, but that’s football for you.
I said throughout the season, our problem was sloppy goals conceded and too many missed chances. We lost to Sheffield United, West Ham, Everton, Fulham, Man City…yet we beat Man United and Liverpool. We need to get more up for the smaller games and play just the same every game. We gave some crap performances and it was incredibly frustrating to be an Arsenal fan. Next season they must tighten up at the back, not concede stupid goals and play their heart out every game, even if it is against West Brom. Also, the strikers and midfielders need to have a bit of shooting practice and learn not to panic in front of goal. Next season we will have Henry, Van Persie, Adebayor, Walcott and Bendtner all fighting for a place in the team and I’m quite exited about how that’s going to turn out.
Wenger’s not been very active of late in the Transfer window and he’s always stood by his current squad. Arsene has said for a long time now that if we have a fully fit squad, then we don’t need any signings. I mean look at those strikers above, any team in the world would love to have the option of selecting those players. At the back we have Toure and Gallas who are strong defenders plus Senderos and Djourou who can do a very job but remember they are still young. Talking about it now, we do have a good squad, just look at those names, but it’s all about how they perform on the pitch. Midfield is the one area we need to buy in my opinion. Well I think we could do with another wing-back but I know we won’t get one so I’m not gonna even go there. We have so many central midfield players but we lack a decent, proper winger. We have Rosicky and Hleb who are the first choice players at the moment but they were both central midfielders before coming here and can’t be expected to do the business out wide.
Ah I’m rambling now, back to the season. So yeah, after Man United things looked on the up but towards the end of the year we went through a bad patch and started dropping points everywhere. Wenger said wouldn’t be any signings in the January sales, which was disappointing but oh well. We started getting things back on track in 2007, I do remember saying ‘we’re unbeaten this year’ and we all wondered how long it would last. At the end of February/beginning of March we had very important games in all competitions coming up…and we lost them all. Our season was over; it was a really hard time for Arsenal fans.
An exiting trip to Cardiff ended in disappointment and 3 days later we were out of the FA Cup. However I think the biggest loss to take was the Champions League, especially after doing so well the previous year. We were handed the easiest draw possible in PSV, but we we’re knocked out. We lost 1-0 away and had it all to do at the Grove. We came so close but it wasn’t good enough, we needed a goal so badly that night Wenger brought on an obviously unfit Henry who hurt himself so bad that was him finished for the season.
So yeah, by March it was all over, nothing to play for. An unfamiliar position for Gooners. The only thing worth playing for was the possibility of an unbeaten first season at Ashburton Grove, but that was ended by West Ham of all teams in April. After that we only had a couple of games to look forward to, Tottenham away and the visit of Ashley Cole’s Chelsea. In the end the money-grabbing twat chickened out of the game but our one-all draw meant we took Chelsea’s title away and it was very sweet.
We nearly jumped Liverpool and into 3rd on the last day of the season but Baptista’s missed penalty at Portsmouth meant we could only manage a draw making us 4th only on goal difference.
Overall it’s just been a very average season. There were a few highlights: Cardiff obviously, even though we lost it was a great day and I still think we were the better team. ’2-0 and you fucked it up’ was good. Beating Man United at home in the last minute of extra time was amazing. The cup results at Anfield were brilliant and being there for the FA Cup one was something special for me. And generally just exploring the new stadium and getting to grips with it being our new home has been very different. I suppose 4th isn’t so bad, Any worse and I would be fuming, any better and I would’ve been quite pleased. The FA Cup and Champions Leauge were disappointments but oh well, it was fun before we got knocked out. Next season I am looking for an improvement, winning a cup competition would do just nicely. The Premiership (or Premier League whatever it’s called now)? Well I reckon 3rd or 4th again right now but I can’t really say until August after seeing what happens in the transfer window. But the key to United’s success was consitancy, and not letting in sloppy goals. Lets just try doing that.
Well that was my attempt at a season review. It’s really not very good at all but it’s the first one I’ve done. Thanks for reading anyway. I haven’t really gone into depth on individuals; I’m going to do this as separate posts over the summer. It’ll give me something to do.
See ya.
The Ladies are perfect / Ade wants TH & AW to stay 21 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers.10 comments
Yesterday the Arsenal Ladies completed the perfect season with a 6-0 win over Leeds. That’s 22 games, and 22 victories. Quite remarkable really. Not only did they go through an entire League season and win every game, they also completed the quadruple, winning the UEFA Cup, League Cup and FA Cup as well as the Premiership. This is an amazing achievement and I think it deserves a mention.
The men went on a 49 game unbeaten streak but that included 13 draws and we only won the league. Also, it’s not as if all the other women’s teams were crap though, Everton in 2nd only drew one game and lost four, and Charlton behind then only drew one more than Everton. It was probably quite a good season for those two teams but Arsenal were just a different class.
The only other news story that caught my eye was Adebayor saying he hopes the captain and manager don’t leave. Obviously, but should he have to be saying that? Every time I saw the back page of a newspaper last week there was always a little headline on Henry or Wenger. I didn’t even bother reading the load of crap it probably was but it is a bit annoying. Thierry’s linked with Barcelona again but I really don’t see him going this season, I’m not worried about him. With David Dein’s departure, Arsene’s been rumoured to be on his way too, but again I don’t think he will. Here’s what Ade said when asked about it:
“I don’t know yet, I think they are going to sort out all the problems. I hope the boss stays, he is the man for Arsenal, the key. I hope he stays and helps all the young players.
“Of course I do [want Henry to stay], he is one of the best players in the world. He is an amazing player so I hope he will be at Emirates next season again.”
As I say, I’m not concerned about these two but you can’t completely rule it out. I think Wenger will move on anyway in the next couple of years and Henry, well he seems to be gradually becoming less of the player we once knew. Maybe that’s down to injuries but I don’t know. We’ll see next season how he shapes up.
Right that’s it for today. Happy Monday.
The FA Cup Final is boring / New new Away Shirt 19 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Transfers, Uncategorized.19 comments
Shame we’re not in it.
I’m watching it at home very very bored and decided to muck around on photoshop and I came up with this version on our new away shirt, by the way the real one is on the kits page.
I wish.
The only real news about is Freddie Ljungberg talking about his desire to stay at Arsenal. He was linked with a move away in January and it looked like West Ham were likely to snap up the Swede. He’s been Mr. Arsenal for quite some time and true fan’s favourite but all good things must come to an end. I think he can still do a job for us but he’d definately not going to be a regular. We’ll see what happens this transfer window.
Back to the game now, still 0-0…what a load of rubbish.
Happy Birthday The Cannon 18 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in The Cannon News.14 comments
Yep, The Cannon is 1 today. Our Champions Final was a year ago yesterday and I decided to start a blog after arriving home from Paris. I’m really shocked at how my website has done, I started it up just as a bit of fun but it’s done really well and my site has had the top story on NewsNow quite a few times which I think is quite good for a new blog.
It’s not been the best season to start up an Arsenal blog, the 06/07 season has been quite a depressing one for Gooners. 4th again, I suppose we narrowly lost out on 3rd by goal difference but it’s still not amazing. We were knocked out of the FA Cup and Champions League early, which was a massive disappointment. However the young guns did get all the way to Cardiff in the Carling Cup, they outplayed Chelsea in the final but unfortunately they lost. I’ll go more into depth on the season probably next week when I do the full length 06/07 review.
So what’s next for The Cannon? Fuck knows, it’s a bit of fun really. This summer I’m going to sort out all the squad and kits pages etc. It takes fucking ages to change something on there so I hope people actually go and look at it.
I was trying to think of something different I could do for the birthday and I came up with something, I’ve reverted the site back to the way it looked when I first started it. Don’t worry, it’s for today only. Meh I dunno, just thought it would be something to do.
Right then, I’m off to cut the cake and open some presents. Have a nice day.
Random News Stuff… 17 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.12 comments
I think there’s gonna be quite a few of these no-news days in the coming months. Kinda lucky for me really, I have my final exam project to hand in and I shouldn’t really be on here to be honest but thought I better do a quick update.
Johan Djourou has been talking about out young players and how they will make a big impact again next year. He also said he’s happy with the amount of games he’s got this season but hopes he can get even more appearances next season.
Alex Hleb has been praising Arsene Wenger and described him as “a coach sent by God.” Alex might need to get in Arsene’s good books as he looks like one of the people who could be on the way out in the summer. I think it’s more a fans’ wish than a reality though, Wenger rates Hleb much higher than the Gooners’ do and I’d be very surprised if he’s not with us come August.
And there’s more rubbish bits of news but s’nuffin you don’t already know about last season. Right, I must get on with my work.
p.s. it’s The Cannon’s 1st Birthday tomorrow…don’t expect anything special though.
Have we found our new no.9? 15 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers.55 comments
Maybe.
It looks quite likely that ‘The Beast’ we be leaving and there’s no chance Reyes will return, so that would make the no.9 shirt will be available. Some say the shirt is cursed, and those people might have a point but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nicklas Bendtner claimed the shirt in the new season. He signed a 5 year deal year today showing us all just how much faith Wenger has in him. There were doubts whether he’d break into the first 11 at Arsenal, and possibly move on this summer but it looks as if Wenger intends to break him into the side. I do like Bendtner, I’ve seen him a few times for the reserves and he looks a good prospect, but I don’t think he’s quite first team Arsenal material yet to be honest.
I know Nicklas said earlier in the season that he’s only interested in the top level of the game now and said he’d only return to Arsenal if he was guaranteed first team football. Sounds as if the boy has quite a big ego because most players are going to find it difficult to beat Thierry Henry, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor and the upcoming Theo Walcott into a team. If we are unlucky as we have been this year with injuries I’m sure Nick will get a pretty decent run in the side next season; but other than that, he’s going to have to work very hard to get in the team. So with this new 5-year deal, don’t be surprised if you’re seeing ‘Bendtner 9′ shirts around the Grove come August.
Emmanuel Eboue also signed a long-term deal today. He established himself well in the last season at Highbury but was always 2nd choice to Lauren, now he’s moved on to Pompey Eboue is now officially our first choice right back. Quite a few people aren’t going to happy about that, and there were shouts that we might sign someone in the summer but it was never going to happen and Arsene’s confirmed this by offering him a new deal.
I’m sure we’ll hear it all summer but here’s the first quote of Wenger saying he targets the title next season. It’ll all well and good saying it and I know one of Arsene’s main points is ‘when we get our injured players back’ but everyone knows if he’s going to challenge with the top teams he’s going to have to spend a bit this summer. I’m sure Chelsea will buy, they always do, Man United will have some extra cash from winning the title so they’ll add to the squad and Liverpool’s new owners have promised Benitez a large sum of money to spend. To be fair, yes we do have some pretty good players coming back from injury but I’m sorry that’s not going to be enough. We’ll see what happens in the coming months.
Thanks for reading.
I’m back! 14 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in The Cannon News.17 comments
You may have notice I haven’t been around for two weeks! I moved house last Tuesday but the useless wankers who supply our internet never came to deliver the hub thingy so I haven’t been able to log on the net. Finally today I set it up and The Cannon is back up and running.
In the past fortnight I’ve missed quite a bit, sorry. I won’t bother recapping it all because, 1. I’m sure you’ve read it elsewhere by now, and 2. I can’t be arsed to. I have got a match report from the Chelsea game up finally, I wrote it out last week and when I got a chance to I was going to post it up on the site, I thought that was going to be the next day but yeah. There’s no report from Pompey game because to be honest, I didn’t see it. I watched the highlights last night but I didn’t really get a great deal of information. It finished 0-0, Baptista missed a penalty and had a few shots saved in what could quite possibly be his last Arsenal appearance. If we’d won we would’ve finished the season in 3rd as Charlton held Liverpool at Anfield but oh well, 4th doesn’t really bother me.
I’ll get a proper post up soon…I know, I know, I’ve been away for 2 weeks and don’t even write anything. Well there’s the Chelsea match report below if you wanna read that. To come there’ll be a 06/07 season review, player reviews, transfer targets and all that sort of stuff. Plus, The Cannon’s 1st Birthday is soon.
Right then, I’ve got fuck loads of work to do this week but yeah, see you soon.
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea – 06/05/07 – (Premiership) 14 May, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Premiership.add a comment
On Sunday it was the last game of the first season at our new home which was always going to be a little bit special but was made even more so by the visit of Chelsea. They needed a win to stay in the title race with Man United; anything other than that and the trophy would be leaving London.
It was a bit weird thinking that we would make the old rivals win the league if we held up Chelsea but at the same time it would be beautiful seeing the money-grabbing wankers crying, especially Ashley Cole. Speaking of him, Sunday was meant to be his first return to Arsenal after leaving in the summer. I think I said back then that I see him not playing in his return and chickening out on facing his old fans. Surprise surprise he didn’t make the squad and names such as Scot Sinclair took his place on the bench. Didn’t stop us having a bit of a sing-song about him but really it was a moral victory on our part. He might have been ‘injured’ or ‘tired’ or some other rubbish like that but we all know the real reason.
It was a strange sort of game; I don’t think either side played particularly that well. The first half was quite open, each side having one or two decent chances but nothing really that memorable. Half time approached and it looked as if it was going to be 0-0 going into the break but then Baptista found a way through and before he had the chance to get a shot away he was brought down by Boularouz and the ref pointed to the spot. Boularouz was sent of for his challenge as the last man, the Chelsea players and staff were furious but it was an obvious red. Gilberto placed the ball down and finished well past Petr Cech to make it 1-0 to The Arsenal at half time.
I thought before the game that because Chelsea needed a win they’d be going for this one and Arsenal always play better when the opposition team is pushing forward leaving us more space to work with. So one goal down at half time I thought this would be doubled and to add to that they were a man down.
However the second half didn’t plan out this way and it carried on just as in the previous half. Both sides looked more threatening in front of goal though. Chelsea equalized midway through the half through Michael Essien. It was a good goal, well struck and left Lehmann nowhere. The fans went wild as maybe they could snatch that win they were desperate for. They did look threatening to get that second, Jens Lehmann had to make a good save late on and a good shot from outside the box beat our German no.1 only for the linesman to rule it offside.
Eboue nearly scored a wonder goal near the end but it flashed off the bar. In the end it finished 1-1, a fair result I feel and Manchester United are the 2006/07 Premiership Champions. Chelsea tried not to look down but you could tell deep down they were devastated and it was great.
The plans did the customary end of season lap of honour; was nice to see Van Persie and Henry out on the pitch again, and Mathieu Flamini who I might’ve seen for the last time on Sunday. I can’t believe that’s it, the seasons over, it’s gone so quickly. Well yes we have Pompey at the weekend but I mean that’s all our home games, and all the games I’ll go to this season. It was a good day in all, some Gooners were a bit upset we didn’t win but I wasn’t bothered, the score made no difference and to me was just another good day out at The Arsenal which for me, is what it’s all about.
We look forward to Portsmouth now and then it’s the summer break. Thanks for reading.
