Well there’s good news, and some quite bad news… 18 October, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
I’ll start with the good news I suppose. The shareholder’s AGM was held today and there has been an agreement to extend the ‘lock-down’ agreement. When Kroenke starting buying up shares in the summer the board took note and decided that if they all agreed to ‘lock-down’ and not sell they Stan wouldn’t have been able to take over the club because of the large percentage of the club the board own. This agreement was only a short-term thing and was due to expire in April. However, at today’s AGM they’ve decided to extend this to October 2012.
This is great news. An extra 5 years to hold off Usmanov and there’s nothing stopping them extending this ‘lock-down’. There’s also some extra clauses added to the agreement which chairman, Peter Hill-Wood explains here:
“Under the new agreement, the Board members have agreed not to dispose of any of their interests in the Club before 18 April 2009, other than to certain permitted persons such as close family. After that date, for the remainder of the term of the agreement, they can only sell their shares to another person if the other parties to the agreement do not wish to buy them. The agreement is for five years (until 18 October 2012), although it can be terminated early by the parties on its third anniversary (18 October 2010).”
So that’s the good news. This is the bad news.
Robin Van Persie is fucking injured. I don’t believe it. The news of Senderos’ injury I brought to you the other day (with all respect to Phil) isn’t really that bad and we can cope without him especially with Gallas’ return. However Robin is our best striker and is on top form at the moment.
The injury happened in Holland’s qualifier for Euro 2008 against Slovenia; Robin fell very awkwardly on his knee after an hour of play which you can see a photo of here. This is possibly the worst injury we could get at this time with a lot of important games coming up. If Fabregas got injured we at least have good back up but we haven’t really got that many strikers. Eduardo and Adebayor are the most likely pairing now, but Bendtner will be drooling at this opportunity.
As with Senderos’ case, there’s still nothing on Arsenal.com. The players are all returning home now and I’m sure once our own medical team has assessed the players there’ll be an announcement on how serious these injuries are. If you want to look at Robin’s injury optimistically, think back to Hleb’s incident against West Ham. It was a similar sort of knock, which looked quite bad, but he was back straight away starting the next game.
Here’s a round-up of all the internationals.
Fingers crossed on Robin, I’m sure we’ll here more soon. Until then.
ps. what a load of shit from england. meh.
I don’t think losing RvP is disatrous, our confidence is still sky high and I think goals could come from anywhere, the way we play. Time for Eduardo to step up to the plate, so to speak, although it’s important not to expect too much too soon from him. It’s very irritating nevertheless though and I hope it’s not too serious because that really would be fucking unfair. For him as well as us.
Lets hope the injury is nothing serious. I had the worst fears seeing Hleb’s injury. Maybe Rvp can shake it off within a week, just like hleb.
RVP has almost certainly done his cruciate I would have thought. I did something identical to that photo last year and my cruciate ruptured. It’s not good news. The least he would have done is medial ligs which is at least a month.
he managed to limp off afterwards so doubt very much he has ruptured his cruciate….
I think that we are actually covered on strikers, especially if Vela comes back to the team in January, as it has been reported today.
If RvP is out 3-6 weeks, then Wenger will recall Bendtner to the bench. Hopefully, Nick will take his chances and Wenger will be convinced to have him to start the League and the FA and sub on Premier and CL.
As for Phil, he was doing quite well since he came back this season, and I believe that we are actually weaker with Toure/Gallas. Let’s see how Gallas does on Saturday, but I wouldn’t prefer that pairing come the Scouser and Manure game.
It’s awful to hear about Robin, but let’s not get into that “one man is the whole team” mode like happened with Henry. We do have at least some depth with our strikers. Yes it’s scary to run this thin on strikers, especially in light of the fact that we’re going to Anfield the week after Fat Sam comes by and then Man U at home… not to mention Prague in between. There’s Sheff U for the Carling Cup mixed in there too, but honestly… I think Vic Akkers can go out there by himself with Emma Byrne between the sticks and we’d still take the points from that one. RvP might not be back until the Reading match on Nov 12. That’s a long time to go as thin as we are on strikers. But, it will be interesting to see how Eduardo & Bendtner will do. Grow up fast, boys!
I don’t think the team is thin on strikers because we have three proven top class attackers in Ade, RVP and Dudu plus a guy with the potential to do it in Bendtner. I think Walcott will get there quicker than people think as well. Nevertheless the Liverpool and Man U games suddenly look even tighter, I’d definitely take two points from two. That photo looks wrong – if that was me I’d be out for 12 months minimum! Let’s just hope it’s not as bad as it appears.
Djourou came off injured after 17 minutes for Switzerland last night. heavy strapping on the thigh at pitchside suggests hamstring trouble.
i have to say um an optimistic kind of guy but the Van Persie is not the same as Hleb’s,the way he went down is more similar to the way Owen went down in the world cup but not as worse as Owen,i dont know where the news has come from but they saying he could be out for a month which is not that bad considerin the way he went down.Bendtner will be lookin at this with a lot of optimism for his chances,i think the main thing now is Eduardo and Ade hit the ground running as a partnership,it could be likely that Wenger might still Dudu still needs a bit more time so we might resort to Hleb playing behind Ade,either way the main thing is we keep the momentum going,that means getting those goals more importantly the points(maximum points)
without RVP we really have no one to take free kicks. damn! this is exactly the same point last year when we went down the toilet. rvp in great form and then gets injured.
hopefully, dasilva will prove a better replacement than baptista. would it be possible to be worse?
no i think EDuardo has already proved that his better than Baptista first of he doesnt miss sitters plus his movement is good.his settled off the pitch so he says so um sure we will start to see the best of him on the pitch,the few times he has played he has shown that his a hardworker and is always in the right places when balls fall into the six yard box if anything his had chances and thats a positive sign lets jus wait and see but as been said before lets not expect too much.i have been thinkin bout it and i dont see why Bendtner and Ade couldnt wok together,balls floated into the box could almost be guaranteed to be ours and the like of Cesc,Hleb,Diaby,Rosicky picking up the pieces could turn out well,bring on Bolton,and um sure after that game we can see whether we should panic or maybe we have jus found another attackin combo…
Yes, Eduardo is definitely a great finisher inside the box. I think AW probably got him for just that reason. So, I suppose Ade’s going to take all the setpieces with RvP out? Or will that be Cesc?
Yeah its really disapointing about Robin but this season as apposed to the last number of seasons is that in Eduardo and Bendtner we have ample cover and very hungry players too. We’ll miss him for set pieces definatly but they say a month which isn’t bad when i saw it i feared a acl injury which would of been 6-8 months. He’ll miss the Huge away game at Liverpool but i wouldn’t be suprised if he was back for the Man U game, Wenger said at the end he hoped he’d be back soon and they do their maximum to get him back. Sounds reasuring.
It looks like we could get Drogba on loan at the moment if we are really desperate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah, a month ain’t too bad. but considering what usually happens with the arsenal medical staff, that means his foot will fall off in a few weeks.
and scurvy, are you serious? adebayor to take free kicks? the guy can do a lot of things but guide the ball accurately with his foot ain’t one of them. fabregas, toure, rosicky are more deadball hitters. that is, if rosicky’s malformed hamstring doesn’t pop first.
it will be fun to see da silva get an extended run-out. hopefully he’s settled in a bit.
I didn’t say Ade was good at it, but I’ve seen him take free kicks when RvP was out… or maybe I’m thinking of PKs. Not sure now.
Its time for Bendtner and Eduardo to show their class. Bendtner has been furious that he has not been able to play much in first 11….this is the time for u boy, u have Bolton, ManU and Liverpool + the CL matches to prove ur worth….it doesnt get better for u, if u prove it here, then ur career is going to sky rocket !!!
What I see with Usmanov is that he won’t be with us in 5 years. Not fit.
This may also be the opportunity to give Walcott his chance. Watching the England U21 game this week, Brian Marwood commentating kept saying that Theo was rusty due to not enough first team action.
It has also been banded about that he will eventually make a better striker than the winger he is being asked to be at the moment.
Well perhaps its time to see if this is true and that we have the next Michael Owen in the middle rather than the current headless chicken on the wing.
jack scurvy, Ade has never taken a free kick for Arsenal. how can you get confused between a penalty and a free kick?!! go and watch the rugby or something.
san fran is right that Cesc will prob take our long distance free kicks, while Toure might try a couple of bullet ones if they are central. he has never scored one of those yet. rosicky could be aother option and I think his corners are the best of anyone’s.
The free kick situation is definetly a weak area now, lets hope Cesc steps in there.
All the enthusiasm about Vela coming back should be tempered with the fact he has only played 76 minutes this season for Osasuna.
Bentdner should get some playing time, and this will be the chance for him to put up or shut up, he has a huge ego, but if he scores in next 2 games he could really become a fixture.
We still dont know extent of RVP injury he was supposed to have a scan, but nothing has been said since then, exept original AW comment.
I’m not confused between a free kick and pk, I just wasn’t sure WHICH I saw Ade do in the past. I’m sure you’re right.
Free Kick takers will be either Rosicky, Cesc or the hammer foot of Toure (he has to get one in sooner or later). Eduardo is a specialist pen taker so he may well take one if we get any.
Eduardo will hopefully cause both Liverpool and Man U problems with his movement and lethal finnishing – even if his movement creates extra space for Adebayor or one of the midfield lads to bomb into.
Another thing just occurred to me… why in hell would you have the tallest striker on the side take a free kick when he should be forward trying to head it pas the keeper? I’m not sure what I was thinking. It had to be PKs I was thinking of with Ade, probably when RvP & Henry were both injured at the same time last season.
I hope you’re right about Eduardo when we go to Anfield and Man U come to Ashburton Grove. He’s a fast little nipper.