Bayern sign Ribery + other random stuff 8 June, 2007

I suppose the top story is Bayern Munich signing Franck Ribery. Whether or not he was actually one of our targets I don’t know but we were strongly linked anyway. He’s the German side’s record signing at £17m and after losing Pizarro to Chelsea I think he’ll do well there. So we’re not getting Ribery, but we are being linked with Florent Malouda. The Lyon winger would fit in nicely at Arsenal I think but we’re going to have to outbid the likes of Chelsea to get him, so I don’t see it happening.

There’s some worrying quotes from Thierry Henry as speculation over his future is still going on. Just read this and see what you think:

“Everybody knows that a lot of stuff happened at the club recently that wasn’t supposed to happen. In terms of the departure of Mr Dein, the bosses have been unsettled and a lot of players have been unsettled in the club. I was devastated. Everybody who knows Mr Dein, we know that the guy loves football. What I’m saying to you is that Arsene and Mr Dein, although no one is bigger than the club, are really close to being Arsenal. If you ask me, they’re the two people for me who come really close to ever one day saying it. But I would like to say that whatever happened, Mr Dein leaving wasn’t a clever move.”

He’s also been saying about Dein’s departure has unsettled some players and some are thinking about their future, even Titi. I don’t thin it’s something to get too worked up about but Cesc was saying something similar recently too. However Henry also said, “I said to you, and so many times at the moment, I’m an Arsenal player.” It’s quite a strong thing for him to say but he’s still not saying ‘…and I will be next season’. Possibly some worrying times for Arsenal fans ahead but I don’t want to jump to conclusions, we all know what the media are like and how they can twist words out of you. Pires still can’t keep his mouth shut either, he’s been saying he thinks Thierry should go to Barca. As far as I’m concerned, Henry’s staying for now.

Quite a few of our players have just come back from internationals, here’s the round up from those games. Ljungberg’s Sweden got 5 against Iceland, as did Emmanuel Eboue with Ivory Coast against Madagascar and Lehmann kept a clean sheet in the 6-0 win over San Marino. Also Nicklas Bendtner played in the abandoned game for Denmark against Sweden. Nick’s side were 3 down within half an hour but managed to pull the scores back level late in the second half. Then in the final minute, Denmark’s Christian Poulsen punched Markus Rosenberg and was given a red card by the referee Herbert Fandel. Then a Danish fan charged at the referee! He was stopped by the players but the ref wouldn’t carry on the game even though there was a minute left and Sweden were about to take a penalty. Quite a funny game.

Right that’s it, have a nice weekend.