Friday Round Up – Arshavin/Clichy/Ramsey/Cardiff 23 January, 2009

There is loads of news today, typical of a Friday but would’ve been nice if we had something else to talk about earlier in the week.

I’ll get the token Arshavin story out of the way first and it’s pretty big news – Our final offer of £12m + £3m bonuses has been rejected. I’m sure that’s over now, I’m not expecting this story to carry on. We have confirmed that we will not be increasing our offer and I think Zenit did pretty well to get us to £15m anyway.

The Daily Mail today ran a story that a deal would be done shortly as a £15m deal has been accepted by Zenit. There were no quotes and no sources in that article so I immediately declared it to be complete bollocks.

When asked about the transfer in today’s press conference, he didn’t have a lot to say and declared the signing only 2% of his interests. He also spoke about how he was against the transfer ‘window’ and thinks it should either be completely open or closed over the course of the season.

I’m expecting some sort of official confirmation over the weekend that negotiations are dead and buried; I’m sure the manager or a member of the board will be asked about it at some stage. And then, we can finally stop talking about this Owly Russian, his cunt of an agent and the greedy Zenit St. Petersburg.

There’s an odd story on Gael Clichy which I came across earlier today, it is a series of photos of Gael Clichy enjoying his suspension a bit too much! After picking up his 5th yellow card against Hull he had pretty much two weeks until his next game so Wenger probably thought it was a good time to give him a break. However I’m not sure this is exactly what he had in mind… these pictures will probably end up on his desk at some point and I don’t think he will be too happy.

Personally, I think it’s fucking hilarious. But then I am not his manager. If you’re reading Gael – Happy Hangover.

Aaron Ramsey has been talking about his return to his boyhood club this weekend. He’s worked his way through the ranks at Cardiff so obviously the club means a lot to him. Despite this, he’s really looking forward to the game and wants to beat his old club.

Wenger has said that he will not hesitate to play Ramsey if he will add something to the team. Arsene is a big fan of the Welsh midfielder and thinks he is a big name for the future of Arsenal. I would not be surprised to see him start on Sunday; hopefully the occasion doesn’t go to his head.

One more piece of team news ahead of the FA Cup game and Gallas is back in the squad. I think Arsene will avoid making a decision in defence and play Toure and Djourou saying that he didn’t need to rush Gallas back. I dunno, I’m just guessing but now with Gallas, Toure and Djourou all fighting for two spaces we’ll see who is in Arsene Wenger’s favour. I’ll talk about all things regarding the game tomorrow in the match preview.

Just quickly, because this post is getting long now… Arsene has said that Eduardo still needs a few more games before he’ll be back in the first team. The player himself said that he felt ready to return after the Stoke game but it did seem a bit premature. As much as we can’t wait to see him playing we’re just going to have to wait.

The Boss has also been bigging up Denilson saying that the media doesn’t give him anywhere near the credit he deserves. Must say I’m guilty of not giving the Brazilian much credit either but I’m still not completely convinced by him. Maybe I’ll see it in this second half of the season.

Well that’s it for today. Happy Friday everyone, I’ll speak to you tomorrow. Thanks for reading.