End of the Week Transfer Update…. 30 May, 2008

Hi there. How are you? Cool. Good week? Ok. Erm. Hi.

God it’s quiet it here.

Well there’s precisely fuck all going on at the moment. God knows what Wenger’s up to, probably hidden away in a dark room hooked on Grand Theft Auto 4 or something. Without the normal Friday press conference, there is really nothing to tell you about. Usually I come home from work on a Friday and Arsene’s given us a load of juicy topics to talk about. But no.

At the beginning of the week I said we could look forward to a busy week of transfer action. Come midnight on Tuesday, there was still nothing, but that’s ok, keep calm, I could at least talk about Danny Fiszman’s latest interview. Yesterday morning I broke the news that there was no news and realised that my prediction of a hectic week was far from true. Now today I’m sat here at the computer with absolutely nothing to talk about. I’m just rambling on here by myself.

There is but one story in this barren land that has any interest. Adebayor says he’s definitely staying and wants to go all the way next year. He’s also said that Flamini’s departure wont affect us and we will just move on:

I came to Arsenal with a mission to succeed. I’ve assured the gaffer Arsene Wenger I’ll stay because I believe in the team and I want to assure the fans my concentration is here. I have no reason to leave so I’ll stay to ensure that together we’ll win silverware.

Mathieu’s a good player but his departure doesn’t mean Arsenal is about to collapse. Our team is a deep well of talent. I am confident we are capable of winning titles and we will return for next season hungrier to be successful.

Ade is one of those players who you feel like he actually plays for the badge on his chest. This season he looked more like an Arsenal fan that our best striker and he celebrated every one of those goals like he meant it. I love Adebayor, and if these rumours of a move to Barcelona were true and he did leave then we would lose a lot of our spirit.

I was never worried that he was going though. Honestly. The stories quite clearly were going nowhere and Adebayor was always staying. My only concern though, is whether he can keep up that form and go on to score another 30 goals next season. If he does, then he really has established himself as a great player.

That’s it. That’s all the news. Well, everything that’s worth talking about anyway. If you click on to NewsNow you’ll see loads of “Arsenal sign £12m star” and “Wonderkid moves to North London”. It’s not true, it’s nothing you haven’t heard and all this is coming with no evidence to back them up.

I’m going to go now. Otherwise there’s just going to be an awkward silence. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have something decent to talk to you about. Otherwise we’re just going to have to find another subject for this blog…

Where is the news? 29 May, 2008

I predicted a busy week but it’s now Thursday morning and we’ve still heard nothing. The Nasri story hasn’t really made any developments although the Telegraph are saying he has signed. I don’t really listen to anyone else saying he’s signed unless it comes directly from Arsenal.

Although it seems like the deal is very close to being done, I just can’t take this story and believe that he is now our player. Until it comes out on Arsenal.com, he’s still not an Arsenal player. Maybe it’ll all get sorted today, but I have no idea. People I know are saying that he is all but signed but I don’t know anything for sure.

Hleb says he’s never said he wants to leave, which is true, it’s all been his agent. Alex has been very quiet about it all since the story started, but I still believe he’s going. I think it would be very strange to have Hleb still at the club come August, I no longer regard him as an Arsenal player.

I kind of want him to leave, I’m not his biggest fan and it looks like a few clubs are interested so we could get a bit of money for him. Hopefully his departure will finally sort out Nasri’s transfer.

In other transfer news, The Guardian are reporting we’ve had a bid for Cardiff’s Aaron Ramsey turned down. I’ve never really discussed this guy on here because there’s never been any developments on his story. It looks like he’s being hunted down now but with Liverpool and Man Utd reported to be interested too it’s no going to be simple getting this kid.

Robin van Persie has been talking about our wage structure saying that if we paid more we’d keep all our players. He says he can understand why players might want to leave Arsenal when they can get silly money elsewhere.

He’s also said that it’s very important that this team stays together and he will be upset if players decide they want to move on. So, he thinks we should start paying big money and then we wouldn’t have this problem. It is frustrating as a fan, because there’s nothing we can do about it. Football is all about money today, and it’s only getting worse. It’s just something we’re going to have to accept. Our only hope is that the crest on the man’s chest means more to him that the pay slip he gets.

Cesc’s been given the no.10 shirt for Spain, which I understand is quite a big thing as it is given to their best/most important player or something like that. So well done him. He says he’s definitely staying at Arsenal and wants to win the league. I doubt that will stop the rumours this summer though.

Ok I have to go get ready for work now. Speak to you Friday night.

Good Riddance Hleb 24 May, 2008

It has been confirmed by his agent that Alex Hleb will be leaving Arsenal this summer. Whoop-ti-fucking-do. He’s just said he’s decided to go, talks are in place and the deal will be announced next week:

I can officially confirm that a short time ago Alexander decided that he will leave Arsenal and join another club. Of course Arsenal and Arsene wanted him to stay but they have accepted the player’s choice.

I can’t tell you anything about where he will be playing yet. Talks are under way, and I don’t have the right to make them public. I think that the issue of his new club will be clarified in the next few days.”

Alex has spent three good seasons at Arsenal and he wasn’t sure he could maintain the same level that he has been showing if he stayed. It’s also true that he felt uncomfortable off the field. Alexander wants a change of scene. That’s had a large part to play in his decision.

Basically, if you can’t be arsed to read that, it’s a load of bollocks. If you want to know what I think, I reckon he just realised he can get more money away from Arsenal, his mate Flamini has done it so Hleb’s fucking off too.

I would much rather the agent just tell the truth and go:

Well, Alex has become a greedy cunt and is gonna leave Arsenal so he can get more money. Maybe Inter, maybe Real Madrid; he doesn’t really mind because he’s never going to care about the team he’s playing for, just the pay-slip.

He’s not unsettled in London, in fact he had a great time at Arsenal with Rosicky, Fabregas and Flamini but he doesn’t give a shit anymore and wants to go where he can shove as much ice cream as possible down his greedy little mouth

You can tell I’m not bitter. I’ve never really liked Hleb to be honest though. Right from the off, when he picked the no.13 shirt, I thought hang on, something’s not right here. At the beginning of this season though, I did start to warm to him. He was a vital part of that side that made such a good start to the campaign and he was finally starting to look like a decent player.

However I still had my reservations, and shortly he went back to the same old Hleb. Fair enough, he was playing he preferred position behind the striker, and he excelled there, so when he was moved back to the wing he was upset. But, he was given plenty more chances in that role over the season but he never recaptured that form he showed in August and September.

This Arsenal side is going though some big changes this summer. That’s half of Arsene’s first choice midfield gone now. We have Vela coming in, and I’ve heard that the Nasri deal is all sorted; we’re just waiting for an announcement. So it’ll be a different Arsenal side come August, lets just hope we can still play the same and Arsene gets them to settle in quickly.

Nothing official has come out about Hleb though. Expect that next week. Thanks for reading.

Watch The Cesc Fabregas Show! 19 May, 2008

If you were around last week, you’ll remember that I had a competition for tickets to the recording of The Cesc Fabregas Show. It was filmed last Tuesday in Wembley; I went along with the misses, my two competition winners Alex & Gill and Gilbertosilver from Gunnerblog. It was a really fun event although it involved standing up for several hours. It was strange to be so close in such an intimate space with Wenger, Fabregas and others and I was really grateful for the experience.

Tonight is the live showing of The Cesc Fabregas Show. There are two showings this evening, one starts now at 6:30pm but there’s one later at 9:30pm. It’s on Sky Sports 1, sorry those of you that don’t have Sky, I bet there’ll be DVDs coming out or ways to see it on the Internet.

Look out for everyone. Gill looks like a lady, Adam looks like some bloke, GilbertoSilver looks like a tall guy and I look like a random geezer.

There isn’t much news about, well there’s bits but I’m going to be a really crap blogger and leave it for tomorrow night. I’m really sorry but I can’t do it right now. 1.) Dinner’s ready in a second, 2.) I want to watch TV, and 3.) I really need a piss.

Thankyouverymuch. Promise there’ll be a decent write up tomorrow. Until then.

End of Season Awards 07/08 16 May, 2008

Player of The Season

It just has be Emmanuel Adebayor. I was a tough choice, but his efforts over the whole season have to be enough to win it. Flamini, Fabregas and Clichy were all up there but Adebayor has topped that list for me. His job as a striker is to score goals, and he’s managed to hit that magic 30 mark, something we haven’t seen since Henry was in his prime. After Titi’s departure and Robin’s injuries, we wondered where to goals were going to come from but Ade has shown us he can be our top striker and that’s why he’s my player of the season.

Young Player of The Season

Again, this was a hard one to call, but this has to go to Cesc Fabregas. You sometimes forget this kid’s age when you see him all the ball and there’s no doubt now that he’s a vital part of our team. Cesc won the PFA Young Player award this season, so not only is he the best youngster at Arsenal, but the best in the league. We’re expecting big things from this one next season.

Worst Player of The Season

Emmanuel Eboue. There is no one else, surely, who has consistently fucked up like him. Now I hate being harsh to our own players, but I’m not alone. Wenger has even this week stood up for Eboue but I don’t buy it. He contributes nothing to the team, on the pitch and his antics are just embarrassing. I must say, the diving has been cut down but his bad performances have been highlighted when Walcott replaces him with about 15 minutes to go and does more than Eboue’s done all game.

Most Improved Player of The Season

This was another hard one to pick. Who has improved considerably from the 06/07 season? My nominees were Almunia, Flamini, Song, Walcott and Adebayor. I’ve gone for Mathieu Flamini. At the end of last season, he looked like he was going, and no one really gave a shit. A strong contrast to this year when we were all praying for him to stay. He proved himself to be one of our best players and formed a fantastic partnership with Cesc in the middle as our holding midfielder. No one would’ve ever thought it but he put in the hard work and it paid off.

Biggest Disappointment of The Season

There are a number of contenders for this ‘prize’. I personally expected big things from Abou Diaby but this never happened, instead it was Flamini that made the jump. However I’ve gone for Robin van Persie. I really expected him to become the best striker in the league and be scoring for fun but he has been injured for most of the season once again. It’s not so much his own fault, but it has been very disappointing. He was just getting into some great form when he picked up that injury back at the start of the season and he never made it back. He had a few more games this season but he never impressed. I hoping that next season he can, 1.) Stay fit, and 2.) Fulfil his expectation.

Best Signing of The Summer

In this category there are four nominees: Fabianski, Sagna, Eduardo and Diarra. I was exited about the Diarra transfer on deadline day, but he never really got the chance to play, he was one for the future but he didn’t have patience and fucked off to Portsmouth in January, good riddance. Fabianski has done ok when he’s had the chance this season but he’s still looking quite raw. Eduardo was just starting to look a great player and was just starting to find his feet in the Premier League when he picked up that injury. Hopefully he can carry on where he left off when he returns. So the award goes to Bacary Sagna. This guy was a relative unknown when we signed him but what a player he turned out to be. At the time I thought, do we really need another right back? But he’s been incredible, he slotted in right away and has been a perfectly suited player to our game. He was named in the PFA team of the season ahead of everyone else and in his first season that’s quite an achievement. Well done Bac.

The Un-Sung Hero

Without a doubt, Gael Clichy. What an absolute legend. He won’t get any awards this season, that’s for sure, being a left back he’s never really going to make the headlines (unless he wants to be like Ashley…), but he’s been brilliant this year. He also made the PFA team of the year, which shows you that his fellow professionals admire him too. He’s 22 and I honestly believe that he is better than Ashley Cole ever was for us; I’m not just saying that. This boy has got so much energy and will give everything for the whole 90 minutes. The amount of times I’ve seen him chasing lost causes with 5 minutes to go when everyone else is knackered is just remarkable. He’s totally committed and that’s what I love about him, he’s meant to be signing a new 4 year deal soon and he fully deserves it.

Goal of the Season

There were some absolute wonder-goals this season, but for me a brilliant goal should be in a massive game too. So, I think there are obvious choices. Adebayor’s flick up and volley into the top corner against Spurs was incredible and I believe it won Sky Sports’ goal of the season competition. However, for me it has to be Fabregas vs. Milan. It’s one of those goals I will never ever forget, I remember Cesc picking the ball up in a bit of space about 30 yards and I saw him lining up for the shot. I though, “Oh, don’t shoot…” But it went perfectly into the bottom corner and we’d won the game. The celebration was incredible too; I just love Cesc’s goal-face. What a goal, still gives me goose bumps.

Low Point of The Season

Being knocked out of the Champions League at Liverpool was heartbreaking, but Tottenham 5-1 Arsenal was horrible. I know it was only the Carling Cup and it wasn’t our full team but any loss to the scum is bad, personally. I cannot stand Spurs and I always dreaded them beating us. It was something like 12 years since they last beat us and the way they did it was embarrassing. They were better than us on the night and it was a sad, sad day for football.

Highlight of The Season

Has to be AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal. It was a massive game, set up so perfectly and we delivered the perfect performance. We totally dominated the European champions in their own back yard and it really felt like this group of lads had come of age. Being there was incredible too, it was my first European away trip and certainly one I’ll never forget.

Season Review: 07/08 15 May, 2008

Well what a roller coaster of a season that was. It really had everything, injuries, title races, embarrassing defeats, huge wins, elation, depression, cup runs, incredible performances, stupid mistakes and more.

Going back to July, I don’t think anyone really knew what to think. Thierry Henry had just left for Barcelona and all the media had written us off. They all thought that this would be the year that we’d drop out of the top four and everybody was tipping Tottenham to take our place. How very wrong they were. This was my prediction on the season ahead back on the 19th July:

07/08 will be interesting, Henry’s gone but Van Persie will have a brilliant season in his absence. He looked good last year but got injured halfway through; he still ended up our top scorer though. Walcott and Adebayor will also be looking to step up and I predict good things from those two.

Eduardo was incredible at Dinamo Zagreb scoring more goals than appearances last season; lets see how he does in England. I predict 4th again, the top three have strengthened this summer and will be too much for us. Give our young side a year or two and the title will be back to where it belongs.

That was my honest opinion. I believed that 4th was very realistic. I was a bit worried about Henry leaving and the other top three strengthening but I still thought we would comfortably get 4th. I thought Spurs would make 5th or 6th. I was right about Walcott and Adebayor stepping up, Ade had a great season and Theo made a fantastic improvement.

However in my look at the team ahead of the 07/08 season, my big tips were Robin van Persie and Abou Diaby. I wasn’t right about Diaby, he has just carried on as normal but to be fair he never really got many chances, and they were all on the left wing this season. However Robin started really well, and he was the early leader for the golden boot. He was just coming into some breathtaking form but that when the injury hit. He got a few games after that but he never really broke back into the side.

So, in the beginning, it started very badly. Jens Lehmann let in a ridiculous goal against Fulham in the first few minutes of the season. Things had got off to the worst possible start but we came back to win that one 2-1. Then, the very next league game against Blackburn, Lehmann did it again, spilling a shot which cost us the three points. However, a few days later we found out Lehmann had been dropped for our next game against Man City, Almunia got the start and we ran out 1-0 winners. That was the beginning of the end for Jens Lehmann.

We then got into a run at good form, and on the 15th September it was time for a trip down Seven Sisters Road to Tottenham. If we won there, we would go top of the league. We won 3-1 Thanks to two incredible goals from Adebayor and Fabregas. I was there and I will never forget celebrating them.

So that meant we saw ’1.’ next to our name for the first time in like three seasons. It was early days so I didn’t really think much of it, but we held that spot from there on for most of the season. We sailed through our next few games in September and October which included a 5-0 win over Derby, and 3-0 home win against Juande Ramos’ Seville and a 7-0 thrashing of Slavia Prague.

However the very next game we dropped points for the first game in a while, the 1-1 wasn’t really a bad result. I’ll always remember that game for Cesc’s brilliant celebration. A couple of game later, we entertained Man United at home and we just managed to nick a point in injury time thanks to William Gallas. The lino correctly flagged that the ball went over the line and we kept our unbeaten start going with a 2-2 draw.

Come December, I started to believe that we could actually be challenging for the title here. I didn’t want to get carried away with our good start, especially after the pre-season where we were totally written off. The media had changed their mind about this young Arsenal side and were now raving about them. I remember headlines calling us the 2nd generation of the Invincibles.

I didn’t like this pressure though and soon enough, we lost. The unbeaten run ended against ‘Boro when we lost 2-1 at the Riverside in a poor performance. We now only had a point gap between us and United in 2nd and it was back to reality for the Gooners. We had to bounce back though; our next two games were against Chelsea and Spurs, both at home. We showed our character and beat Chelsea 1-0 thanks to a first half Gallas header and beat the rivals 2-1 in an incredible game (on my birthday) in which Almunia saved a Robbie Keane penalty.

These two game showed that we could come back after a disappointing defeat and showed quality where it mattered. There are important qualities of Champions and we had to somehow hang on.

Things were going well, and despite the injury troubles we kept up the pace at the top of the league. The youngsters were doing well in the Carling Cup too and made it to the semi finals where we were drawn against Tottenham. Walcott earned us a 1-1 draw at home and it was all set up perfectly for the 2nd leg at White Hart Lane. We were having trouble selecting a team so we had to draft in a couple of first teamers’ but it still was a mix and match side. It all went wrong for us that night though, Tottenham had been psyched up for the game of their lives, and they did it. They beat us 5-1 in one of the worst footballing nights of my life. They were better than us on that night, I have to admit that. Spurs went on to win the Carling cup beating Chelsea in the final. We had to stand up, and get on with it, and that’s what we did…

Two 3-0′s against Newcastle in the FA Cup and the League in the space of three days quickly re-focused us and we were back on track.

So that was January, and we were still up there, in the fight. February was to be a massive and decisive month for us. After finishing 2nd in our Champions League group, we were drawn with AC Milan in the knockout stages. But before that, we had to play Man United in the FA Cup. Now it was well known amongst Arsenal fans that we weren’t interested in the FA Cup. Being 5 points clear in the League, and with AC Milan to come to Ashburton Grove in the next game, I wasn’t bothered by our 4-0 defeat to Man United. Obviously, it wasn’t nice, and it meant we were no longer in the FA Cup, but it was the other two competitions that we had to focus on now.

A few days later, it was AC Milan. We drew that one 0-0 setting it us nicely/nervously for the match in the San Siro. However the next game, was arguably the most important out of the three, against Birmingham…

Early on in the game, everyone at Arsenal was stunned by a shocking Eduardo injury. Fans, players and staff felt this challenge deeply and seeing Eduardo it that much discomfort was quite disturbing. It obviously affected the players and we could hardly play football for the remainder of the first half. Arsene had to give an important team talk at half time, and it worked. Theo Walcott helped us get to 2-1 in the process scoring his first league goal for the club.

Everyone’s thoughts were with Eduardo but it looked as though we were just about to hang on to the lead and maintain the 5 point lead when we conceded a penalty in the very last minute. It’s too late now to continue moaning at the referee but lets say that it was a dubious decision against Clichy. Gallas, like all fans, couldn’t believe it and walked up the other end of the field in disbelief. The penalty was converted and the game finished 2-2. Gallas slumped to the floor in a very visual display of his emotions, something he was later criticised for.

I didn’t care; I would’ve been the same. Every Arsenal fans across the country was in the worst mood that day. We still drew, but the harshness of the penalty and the shocking injury to Eduardo. It all just seemed like the end. We were still clear at the top but this was unsettling times for The Arsenal.

We had to try and refocus ourselves, but it just didn’t happen, March was awful for us in the Premiership. We drew our games against Aston Villa, Wigan and ‘Boro which meant Man United could overtake us on ‘Grand Slam Sunday’. And they did, we surrendered our 1-0 lead at Stamford Bridge to lose 2-1. The worst imaginable had happened, from such a strong position we’d lost it.

Our next game was against Bolton; here was the chance to end the month’s awful league form with a win. However our bad luck continued and going in at half time we were 2-0 down and had Diaby sent off. By this time I think pretty much every Arsenal fan had given up. It was terrible; I just couldn’t believe how we’d come to this. However, in the second half we completed an inspiring comeback and managed to beat Bolton 3-2. Cesc’s last minute goal won s the points and his celebration is still my desktop background. Even though we should’ve never got ourselves into that position, it was amazing to come back like that. It lifted spirits and gave us a bit of belief going into the final few games.

March was bad, but our awful league form was forgiven for this:

Incredible. The critics wrote us off but we went to the San Siro and gave the game of our lives. I was lucky enough to be out in Milan for the game and it’s an experience I will never forget. Cesc Fabregas’ late goal was incredible and an image that will never league my mind.

Obviously, at the time, I didn’t really see it that well, I was too busy going mental like I’ve never gone mental before. It’s just one of those unbelievable goals that you celebrate like you don’t care if you hurt yourself and al you can say is: “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!” No, just me? Well it was fucking beautiful. Adebayor made it 2-0 thanks to some good work by Theo Walcott. That completed the incredible win against AC Milan. It’s a game I will never forget; we outplayed the current European champions, in their own stadium and proved our worth.

In the next round, we were drawn against Liverpool and we were obviously on a high from the last round. The Scoucers had disposed of the other team from Milan so they weren’t feeling too bad either. By coincidence, the two legs were either side of a league game against Liverpool. All three games were of the utmost importance. The first leg was at home and it finished 1-1 however we’ll always feel we should’ve won that. Liverpool’s goal was a very sloppy one to concede, we should’ve had a penalty and Bendtner stopped on of our shots on their goal line right at the end.

Next up, it was them in the league, and it was also 1-1, both sides fielded a weakened side but we still really needed to win this. Focus now turned to a massive night at Anfield. It was an incredible game and it looked like we’d won it late on when we made it 2-2 thanks to another great Walcott run and Adebayor finish. I went mental as usual but just a few minutes later Liverpool were awarded an incredibly soft penalty, just to rub it in our faces that we didn’t get one in the first leg. Gerrard scored it and they ended up 4-2 winners. It was a very sad night but I have to admit it was a brilliant game. I still feel we should’ve won it but oh well.

We were pretty much out of all competitions now. Next we had to go to Man United, we had to win there to have any hope whatsoever of getting back into the tile race, but in reality we felt it was all over for us anyway. We lost 2-1 and it finally felt like it was over. In a way it was a relief but it was very depressing thinking back to what a strong position we got ourselves into and then lost.

The remaining four games of the season we played like friendlies. We could still mathematically get back into it but we knew it was all over. Chelsea beat united at Stamford Bridge to take it down to the wire but in the end the inevitable happened and Man United became Champions.

So that was the story of our season basically. Well done if you managed to read all of that, it was emotional. We’ll learn a lot form this campaign and we’ll come back even stronger next season, but more on that in a couple of months. I’ll also do an end of season awards type thing soon. Thanks for reading and thanks for following us over this difficult season. Ooh to be a Gooner!

Bring on the Summer 12 May, 2008

We played out our last game of the season yesterday up at Sunderland, and depressingly, it’s all over now. We were 1-0 winners with Theo Walcott scoring inside half an hour. I didn’t watch the game, and I didn’t even manage to catch the highlights thanks to my Sky + fucking up. I have seen the goal though, Gilberto threaded it through to Theo from about the halfway line, Walcott took it under control well and slotted it nicely home.

It’s been really good to see Theo scoring this season, we signed him back in January 2006 I believe but his first league goal only came a few months ago against Birmingham. Theo’s just breaking into the team at the moment and for m, this season he’s been a great player. Why he hasn’t got more starts, is beyond me but Wenger says that next year he will be regarded as a member of the first team and he will be fighting for starting spots.

Theo has played a lot of his games on the wing, however this season he’s proved that he can do it up front too. Hopefully he continues to improve and makes a difference next year. Cue Wenger with the ‘he’ll almost be like a new signing’ line…

However, we hope to be making some actually real signings this season. Last summer we saw a few departures but the additions of Bacary Sagna and Eduardo Da Silva proved excellent signings by Wenger. This year I’ll be looking for similar efforts from the manager; then those two names were announced, I was please, however I had no idea who they were or how good they are. So this year, whoever we sign I’ll have faith in Arsene’s judgment that they’re the bollocks. Here’s what Wenger said about some possible summer signings:

“I know what I want and I am very confident. I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. But the fans should be re-assured by what they see.

It would be better to buy someone who has played in England because they are less risky, but it costs more money if they are from the Premier League, so maybe I will try to do both.”

Promising words from Le Boss. I’m excited by the fact that we could have a new signing as early as two weeks but I’m more impressed that Arsene might actually spend a bit of cash and bring in an established Premiership player. Who has he got in mind? Niko Kranjcar? Gareth Barry? Probably both but it’s what he can afford to do. More on this in the week.

It’s set to be an exciting summer of comings and goings. Flamini, of course, we already know will be leaving, he’s signed a pre-contract but I guess technically he’s still our player for another month or so…yay. Gilberto Silva will decide on his future shortly. Lehmann is off, retiring or moving to another club, we don’t know yet. Hleb might be going to Inter, Wenger insists he’s staying, Hleb’s people are determined he’s going. I don’t really care to be honest.

Hopefully we keep the squad together but we’ve been promised a couple of signings and I can’t wait to see who Wenger brings in to boost the squad. I still believe that next year could be our season; I’m just depending on Wenger to make the right additions.

I’ll write up the season review in the week some time. Thanks for reading.

Sunderland Preview: Kids to get the final game 10 May, 2008

While Wenger argues with media over our players, it’s easy to forget we’ve got a game tomorrow. As I glance at Arsenal.com now, 1 of the 11 headlines is to do with the Sunderland match, and that’s just the preview. In fact, all week there has been little talk about our final game of the season, only to do with the coming and goings of players…more of the latter.

A couple of days ago, Arsene said he might take a few youngsters to Sunderland:

“It should be nearly the same group of players who are available. Nobody is coming back from injury certainly.

But I could give one or two players an early breather because they go to Euro 2008 or the African qualifiers.

So Kieran Gibbs, who got on the bench last weekend, could be involved again, so could Mark Randall. But I am really not sure yet.

It is the last game of the season, and we have nothing to win or lose. There is a strong argument there for giving the youngsters a chance but I’d still like us to go full strength. It’s very difficult for me to guess what team Wenger might field. So I’m just going to show you what I’d do, if it were up to me:

I’ll start from the back, I think Lehmann should play, either as a sub or a starting place. I heard he’s stuck on 199 appearances for us and it’d be nice for him to bow out on 200 games for the reds. That 199 stat might be total rubbish though, in that case, play Fabianski. I’d really like to play Traore, he could do with a game at left back but Gael Clichy is one game away from playing in every single game of a Premiership campaign, and for an Arsenal player, that’s quite remarkable.

In midfield, I’d play Randall on the wing. There are rumours that he’s getting promoted to the first team next season, and if he is, then this is the perfect chance to try him out. Also, it puts Eboue out the team. Up front I’ve gone for Ade and Bendtner again, notice how that’s a 4-4-2 not a 4-4-1-1. That didn’t work in the last game and I don’t want to see it again. Play them as a partnership or not at all.

Sunderland will be up for this, they’d love to beat us and from what I’ve heard from Roy Keane this week they aren’t giving up even though they have nothing to play for. So we’re going to have to try and be up for this game. Any youngsters involved will be really up for it and keen to impress the boss but I wouldn’t be surprised if not everyone puts in the game of their lives.

I’m kind of worried about us losing. It really could be anything, if we play like we know we can, a nice end of season thrashing would be nice. I’m betting on 0-0

Tomorrow’s game isn’t on TV, and I’m not going, so I’m not going to be able to follow it at all I don’t think. So there’s a possibility there will be no match report. Or I might even have to go off the highlights…we’ll see.

Enjoy the game if you’re going, it should be a laugh. Thanks for reading.

“I’m leaving”, but “I’m going nowhere” 9 May, 2008

Confusing title, maybe, but these are the words from Alexander Hleb and Emmanuel Adebayor today. The Belarusian has been linked with a move to Inter recently and now his agent has said he is definitely going:

Alex is preparing to make one of the most important moves of his life. He is leaving even though Arsenal want to offer him a new long-term contract.

Only time will tell if it is the right decision but there’s no way back now. Everything will be settled in the next two weeks.

Fucking hell he’s not letting us down easy is he? Not like, “His time at Arsenal has come to end and, Alex is keen on a new challenge…etc” What a wanker. In today’s press conference, Wenger said that he has never received any interest from other clubs for Hleb and he has never heard anything from the play himself asking to leave. It all seems a bit strange to me, whatever, we’ll see how it goes. I’m not really that bothered if he leaves; I was more worried about Flamini. Wenger says he’s under contract; he’s definitely staying, but his agent says otherwise.

Adebayor has also been ‘linked’ with a move away. Basically, someone made up a story that he wants more money, or he’s off and it’s absolute bollocks. Wenger admits he has no idea where this idea has come from. This afternoon we heard from Ade, and he’s described it all as ‘rubbish’. However, he does admit he’s upset that we haven’t won anything and he’s desperate for trophies.

In other news, Wenger says Jens might retire and Rosicky will miss Euro 2008. Arsene, like me, has said that he’s not bitter over Flamini’s departure saying that he always gave 100% and was a true professional, pretty much what I said the other day. Good luck Matty.

Right, I’ve got to go to Job no.2 now. Jesus this is a long day. Have a good evening, don’t get too drunk…I’ll get jealous. See ya.

Cesc Fabregas Show Competition Winners 8 May, 2008

Alright? Cool.

This is going to be a really quick post because I’m fucking knackered. Working two jobs, one all day, one all night isn’t fun. I really don’t know why I’m doing it. So that’s why it’s now half 12 and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write to you.

I would go through the news that’s about, but I’m sorry I just want to go to bed.

Just quickly came on to reveal the two lucky winners competition, the prize was a ticket to go to the live recording of The Cesc Fabregas Show on Tuesday night The other day I asked you:

Cesc Fabregas made his full Arsenal debut against Rotherham United on October 28th 2003. It was a Carling Cup game at Highbury, the final score was 1-1 but the kids won on penalties. What was Cesc’s squad number in that game?

a.] 57
b.] 34
c.] 15

The answer was a.] 57, not 15 as a lot of you put. One of you even put b.] 34, which was a totally made up number, so I’d like to extend my congratulations to you. If you want proof, watch this of Cesc’s debut:

So the Random Number Generator picked two winners and they are *drumroll* Alex Crisp from London and Gill Rendall, also from London. Congratulations to you both and check your fucking emails now ‘cos we need to get these tickets to you. All those of you who didn’t win, hard luck, but hang in there ‘cos if one of those two can’t make it I’ll do another draw!

Right I’m falling asleep on the keyboard so I better go thanks for readgifznhdnsm…zzzzzZZZZzzzzzz…

‘Let’s win it next year’ + Cesc competition 7 May, 2008

Does anyone else feel like the season has finished already? With this great weather and nothing left to play for I keep forgetting we’ve actually got a game this weekend. There’s absolutely no build up to Sunday’s game against Sunderland yet, so news is quite limited.

The big news is Flamini leaving, but I spoke about that last night and we just need to move on from it now. I’m not that upset about it really; the fact that it hasn’t happened suddenly has sort of softened the blow. With the recent departures of Henry and Vieira, I was really upset, but when you look back on it we sold them at the right time. So I’m not going to fuss about this one. Not that I’m saying Flamini is on par with Vieira and Henry…

Wenger had a Q&A yesterday with the shareholders, so there’s a few stories coming off of that: He wants us to bounce back and win trophies next year:

“We were close this year but we did not win and what I expect from my team is that, if you are a winner, you say ‘let’s come back next year and win’. If our players are not capable of doing that and just want to walk out for bigger contracts, for me that would be the biggest disappointment.

If you are a winner you say ‘you beat me now in a game but give me a chance to come back and beat you’. That’s what I expect of a team. If they cannot do that then it means I was wrong completely in my whole judgement of this team.”

Notice the little dig to Flamini in there? If think this side does have a really good passion and winning spirit in the core. Gallas, Toure, Fabregas, Flamini, Adebayor, van Persie etc, they are all winners and will be big players when it counts. I’m pretty confident about next year but I’ll talk about that in the summer…

I like what Arsene’s saying though, if this side can come back after this season’s disappointments, right their wrongs and go all the way, it will show an enormous amount of character and I think for once we’ll be admired for something by the other clubs and media. Next year, we will still be a relatively young side, so if we could do it, it would be amazing.

This side has to stay together though. Flamini was a really important member of the first 11, so we cannot afford to lose anyone else. That’s why Wenger has said he’ll do everything he can to keep Alex Hleb at the club. It would be great if he stayed, but I’m not too keen on him now that he’s so publicly made us aware he’s not fully focussed on Arsenal. If he goes, meh, not the end of the world. But if he stays he needs to put this summer’s activity behind him and get on with playing.

The other day I told you about a competition to win tickets for the Cesc Fabregas Show. Click that link to see the question. If you haven’t entered already, THEN DO IT. I’m telling you now that a few people have got this one wrong so if you’re feeling lucky (and knowledgeable) then enter the competition. You have to be available next Tuesday evening the 13th May though. It’s being filmed in London, and I know not everyone on here can make that so I haven’t particularly been bombarded with entrants. So if you can make that night, then enter, because the odds are good.

Right, this London sun has worn me out, so I’m off. I will hopefully speak to you tomorrow to announce the winner(s) of the competition but thinking now, I don’t know when I’m going to get the chance. I dunno, I’ll have to try and find some time. I’ll see you when I see you.

Bye Bye Mathieu 6 May, 2008

Well it has been officially announced on the AC Milan website for some time now but tonight they’ve finally decided to update Arsenal.com with the news that Flamini will move to Milan in the summer. My current thoughts are: Well thank fuck that’s over. I’ve been waiting for them to announce it on Arsenal.com for bloody ages so I could talk about it on here but AC Milan’s site beat us to it.

It’s been a very long process, the decision on Flamini’s future has gone up and down, left to right and every possible outcome discussed. It’s a shame he’s decided not to stay with us but at least we’re still not left in the dark about it.

Flamini has had an incredible season with us this term; I would even go as far as saying he was probably our best player this campaign. It looked like he was certain to leave last summer but for some reason he didn’t and he actually ended up starting our opening games of the season. At the time, the explanation for this was that Gilberto Silva was still tired from international duty.

Mathieu got a little run in the side and he never shifted since. Gradually, but quickly, people started to realise that Flamini was some player. After a couple of months, he became irreplaceable, forcing Gilberto to the bench, the man who was favourite to become the new Arsenal captain after the departure of Henry.

Flamini was technically brilliant but the thing that stood out for me was his commitment. He gave more than 100% every single game, despite the opposition and chased down every ball. He formed a great partnership with Cesc and it was no surprise to see us rise to 1st in the league.

He became a fans favourite and Gooners were calling for a new deal. However, as time went on his situation became more worrying. I was always confident he’d stay; I always thought that the contact just hadn’t been sorted out yet. However by about March I just realised it was never going to happen. We were all praying for him to stay, but it came apparent that Mathieu was after a very generous salary and was not afraid to look elsewhere for it.

We could never compete with Europe’s elite and a move to Italy or Spain looked likely for the Frenchman. There’s one thing I’d really like to say though, I totally admire the way Flamini has gone about his transfer. He has been incredibly committed in every game he was selected for, even though his future was in doubt. That is a fantastic quality and proof of a true professional. Right up until that injury at Anfield, he gave absolutely everything for Arsenal and very once showed that his mind was elsewhere. And for that I admire him and wish him good luck at his new club and wherever he goes after that.

So he’s chosen AC Milan, the team that we outclassed at the San Siro and knocked out of the Champions League. They’re not doing too great in the league this season either, currently they’ve just scraped into 4th but that Champions League spot is by no means guaranteed yet, they have a lot of work to do.

You’d have to question Flamini’s ambition if he’s signing for a club that might not necessarily be in Europe’s top competition next year. Well it isn’t really about that for Mathieu. We know that he’ll do his everything for the team, no matter what the prize is. But the main reason he’s chosen AC Milan, is for the money.

I heard that he’ll be getting 144 grand a week at Milan. Now I don’t know whether that’s Pounds or Euros, but even if it is that’s still close to £90,000 a week. That incredible money either way and you’d have to be mad to turn it down really.

I don’t blame him for going one bit, but I just wished that Arsenal meant more to him than the money and he stayed. Oh well.

He’s still officially our player until 1st July, he’s signed a pre-contract agreement with Milan or something like that which means we’ll still be paying him until the end of his deal, nice work I suppose!

Both he and Ashley Cole have left Arsenal at times when they are close to becoming Arsenal’s best players. Both moved on to make the most of the money that is available in football. However they way that Flamini has conducted himself this final season will make me love him forever. He wasn’t a cunt about it (like Cole), and just did his job and got on with it. Since cAshley moved to Chelsea his career went downhill, I honestly hope the same doesn’t happen to Matty, good luck mate.

The Cesc Fabregas Show – Win Tickets! 5 May, 2008

You might’ve heard about this new thing from Nike: The Cesc Fabregas Show. Here’s the official website. Below is a little teaser video, with Cesc doing a bit of acting…

If you go onto their website there’s two more videos to watch, Cesc and Senderos star in a little sketch with Matt Lucas and they set Fabregas on fire, don’t worry he’s fine!

You might’ve known that there were tickets up for grabs on their site, but all 400 have been given away now. However, I’m lucky enough to be able to offer you the chance to go to the live recording in London.

The show is being shown on Sky Sports 1 on Monday May 19th but you could be there in the live audience when they film it on the evening of Tuesday May 13th. All you have to do is answer this question:

Cesc Fabregas made his full Arsenal debut against Rotherham United on October 28th 2003. It was a Carling Cup game at Highbury, the final score was 1-1 but the kids won on penalties. What was Cesc’s squad number in that game?

a.] 57
b.] 34
c.] 15

Email your answers to: fabregas[at]the-cannon.com (just replace the [at] with a @ sign). The competition will close at midnight on Wednesday 7th May so get your answers in asap.

Obviously you must be available to make it to London on the evening of Tuesday May 13th for the filming. I’ll give you all the details of where it is and stuff if you win. So don’t enter if you’re from the other side of the world. I’ll email the lucky winner just to make sure anyway. If you do enter and you obviously wont be able to make it to London then you’re just stopping someone else who entered from going. And please, only enter once, I can tell if you’ve entered more than once so you’re wasting your time.

By the way, I’m not actually sure how many tickets I’ve been allocated to give away, but I’ll find that out today and then obviously I’ll pick as many winners as there are tickets…

Good luck everyone! I’ll let you know on Thursday who has won.