News round-up: Almunia, Melo, Keown & more 6 July, 2009

I’m really starting to miss football now. The Confederations Cup and the U21 Euro Championships kept me slightly entertained for a while but now it’s just dead. In just 12 days time I’ll be watching Arsenal play Barnet at Underhill and as always I can’t wait to see us back in action again.

Preparations for the new season started today as most of the players returned to training. I’ve been waiting all day for photos to be put up but it looks like we’re going to have to wait until tomorrow, no doubt they’ll go up just as I’ve finished writing this. Manuel Almunia has been talking about the new season already and has said we must get off to a good start. Last season we started badly and it set us up for a poor season but the year before we began well and mounted a strong title challenge. It just goes to show how vital the first few games are and even though it feels a bit more relaxed because it’s early days we still need the points. Here’s what Manuel has been told July’s Arsenal Magazine:

“Overall we needed to be more focused at the start of the season. If we had all been more involved with the mission at the start of the season, it could have been a better year for us. In the last half of the season I think everyone realised what was required and you could see the results.

I think sometimes something has to be said to make things work right and when certain things were spoken about, it proved to make people focus on things.

The second half of the season showed what we can do, but you have to be fit mentally and physically from the start and be fully involved with the project of the boss. That is what we need to do from July this year, from the minute we get back for pre-season. We need to make sure the group is together and focused after the break and to show our total commitment.

I am sure that because we have the quality, next season will be much better than the one we have just finished.”

We all know that we did improve considerably in the second half of the season and the players do too. Almunia suggest that they weren’t fully focused at the beginning of last season but are ready to right those wrongs this time around. I hope the players have come back today and got in the mentality to put together a title-winning season. It’s not going to be easy, not one bit, but if we commit 100% from the very beginning we’ll give ourselves a good chance.

There’s still quite a long way to go until the end of the transfer market but I’m hoping we can keep this squad together. It might not be perfect but they all know what went wrong last season so they all know how to put it right this time around. The players are just as upset as the fans about the long wait for trophies so next season they should be doing everything to bring an end to that.

Maybe one or two will leave but I think if we can keep it to a minimum it will help us. Of course, there’s still time to bring people in too. Felipe Melo’s name has been brought back up after Fiorentina confirmed we are the highest bidders, however the player has spoken again saying how happy he is in Italy. You know, this could be one of those scenarios where a player is actually committed to a club no matter who wants to buy them. It’s becoming more and more rare but believe it or not there are some players that are just happy as they are.

It’s all very confusing, the Melo saga. Fiorentina, his agent anf Melo himself have all said contradicting things at different points over the summer and I have no idea what will happen. Gunnerblog thinks we won’t meet the buy-out fee on Melo’s contract and will possibly look elsewhere. Who knows?

Martin Keown’s been talking about a number of different things from Senderos and Djourou, to Wilshere and the future. It’s a bit long but it’s worth a read, he always knows what he’s talking about. He believes both Senderos and Djourou have bright futures but I think we all know there won’t be room for both of them. Martin reckons Djourou’s on the verge of making the first team and just has to keep pushing before he makes it

He also says that if Big Phil has learnt from his loan move in Milan he could come back a better player and end up staying at Arsenal. Keown says he has all the attributes to become a world-class centre back but has been very unlucky and accident-prone. At the moment it seems like he is unwanted by both Milan and Arsenal, I’m sort of hoping he’ll be given another chance here but I’m sure we’ll find out what’s going on in the next few weeks.

With the arrival of Vermaelen it’s going to be very hard for either of our Swiss defenders to make the side with a fully fit squad. One of Toure or Gallas could still be off though, so don’t count that out but there’s one thing I’m pretty certain of and that’s we won’t be starting next season with Vermaelen, Gallas, Toure, Silvestre, Senderos and Djourou in the squad.

Another player who’s future is still uncertain is Emmanuel Adebayor. When the season ended in May I think everyone was certain he’d be finding a new club this summer but he’s still here! The latest from his agent is he’s staying at Arsenal which would surprise a few people, including me. Milan have now put in a bid for Luis Fabiano after saying they’d be trying for Ade if they lost out on Dzeko. Well it’s looks like he’s not even their second choice any more! At the moment it looks like he’s staying but don’t be surprised if this one goes right down to the wire.

Well that’s it for today I think. Oh, Arshavin was voted 2nd in Arsenal.com’s player of the season which I think makes van Persie the winner. Don’t quote me on that but I think he hasn’t been picked yet. Make sure you have a look at Arseblog tomorrow, he’s got an exclusive interview with Ivan Gazidis ahead of the new season.

Right then, I’m off. Thanks for reading.