Adebayor deal confirmed, what happens now? 20 July, 2009

Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.
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Arsenal.com have finally acknowledged Adebayor’s move to Manchester City and we can now start to think about where that money will go. It’s not unlike the official website to report news a day or so late but it is unlike them to report on possible transfer targets… Well the main story earlier today was ‘Wenger – We’re keeping an eye on Chamakh‘. We’re a club that is very quiet when it comes to transfer dealings, it makes sense doing business like this and we always keep things on the quiet. That’s why it was a surprise when Wenger admitted he was following Chamakh a few weeks ago.

Now Arsenal.com have published these quotes from Wenger’s post-Barnet interview:

“We keep an eye on him. He is one of the players that we will follow and if we went for a striker then he would be one of the possibilities.”

It’s fairly well known by everyone that we are keeping tabs on Chamakh. The player himself knows it too but in a recent interview with L’Equipe he said he’s not so sure if we’re interested anymore:

“I want a new challenge, I have a weakness for the English league. My dearest wish is to leave Bordeaux. I have repeated it for several months and I hope my officials will listen to my wish.

With my agent, we have agreed terms with several English clubs that are keen to sign me. They are just waiting for my decision. They are notably Sunderland, Blackburn, Tottenham and Fulham. Arsenal? I don’t really believe in it anymore. My officials have not received any offer so far.

I have not made my decision yet. I am studying the offers.

Well if he has offers from other clubs and Wenger really is serious about him then he better hurry up and get a bid in. It is a little off putting seeing clubs like Sunderland, Tottenham and Blackburn are after him but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s shit. There are other clubs in the Premier League with money to spend and the availability of Chamakh is something that probably appeals to him. However I think if we came in with an offer we would become front runners. It’s down to Arsene now.

Gunnerblog has been discussing other possible Adebayor replacements. He names Real Madrid’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar as a possible option but Sky Sports are today reporting he has agreed to join Stuttgart. I saw on Twitter there was a bloke at Barnet on Saturday wearing a ‘Huntelaar 25′ shirt; either he knows something I don’t, his name is coincidentally Mr. Huntelaar or what’s looking quite likely he has just wasted £45.

In other news Wenger has been talking about Tomas Rosicky saying he feared for his career at one point. I think we all did really. This season is the moment of truth, Saturday was all good to see him playing again but how will his body react to a full football schedule? If he has fully recovered then it’ll be fantastic for us. I think it will be a bit stop-start for him this season, a bit like when Eduardo returned from his leg-break. So I’m going to treat it as bonus if he does make a full recovery. It’s great to see him back in an Arsenal shirt though.

I mentioned yesterday how I know nothing about tomorrow night’s opponents SC Columbia. Well the club have done a ‘Get to know…‘ article for us. Their full name is SC Columbia Floridsdorf and they play at Stadium *ctrl+C, ctrl+V* Schwarzlackenau. They play in blue and black so it could mean a first appearance in our new 3rd shirt. Some of the facts that Arsenal.com found were a but shocking though:

• SC Columbia are an amateur team with no professional or semi-professionals in the squad.
• They currently compete in Austrian’s Fourth Division.
• Their most prominent player is 44-year-old fee-kick specialist Julius Simon. He scored 10 goals last season and has 23 caps for Slovakia
• Manager Franz Maresch took the helm two years ago after spending time playing for the club. The former-professional striker, 37 (7 years younger than their best player!), used to ply his trade in the Austrian Premier League.

No disrespect to SC Columbia but I think tomorrow night’s game could be the first win of the 09/10 pre-season. There’s no hint of the squad yet but it definitely wont be any of these players who are playing Lincoln City in a friendly tonight. If there is any more news on tomorrow’s game then I might just be able to do that match preview after all.

Thanks for reading.