Celtic in the Champions League & news round up 7 August, 2009

Hello there. Apologies again for randomly disappearing off the face of the earth. I’m back in Bournemouth after a hectic trip back to London, haven’t really stopped to be honest. I’m not going to go through everything I’ve missed because I’m sure you have read it elsewhere by now.

However the draw for the Champions League Qualifiers has just been done and it’s Celtic. It’s a great tie and although a bit tougher than we might’ve hoped for this early stage, what a game it’ll be. The first leg will be up at Celtic Park and then the deciding tie will be in London which I think will be an advantage. Visiting Celtic is always going to be tough and I’m glad that we haven’t got to go there in the second leg to secure qualification. I think a lot of people predicted this tie and it’s set to be a classic. There’s no doubt we should be winning this but it’s not going to be easy. Celtic hadn’t won away in Europe in God knows how long until this week, I’m not sure how long it’s been until we last didn’t make the group stages but I don’t want to be looking that stat up either…

Celtic are one of my teams to be honest, I’ve been up to see them a few times with my Granddad having a few season tickets up there. I’ve even got a couple of Celtic shirts. I’d like to go to Glasgow for the first leg, it’ll be a great trip but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it with work and other stuff going on. I’ll see. I bet there’ll be a load of you organizing it this afternoon and I am so jealous of you.

There’ll be plenty more build up nearer the game, it’s less than two weeks away so not long to wait anyway. We’ll bring this up again nearer the time.

In other news, Tomas Rosicky has picked up a hamstring injury but Wenger has tried to play it down. Arsene says these kind of problems are normal after a long period out of football and we’ve seen this before. The word is about 6 weeks out, which in itself isn’t the end of the world at this stage but what bothers me is that we’ll be lucky to see him back in those 6 weeks. I’m expecting this to take a bit longer to heal and then when he’s back what if he picks up another injury straight away? We’ve seen it before in Eduardo’s comeback season.

After all the hype about Tomas’ return, I’m starting to realise we can’t rely on him until at least January. Wenger wont admit this though otherwise he’d be forced to sign even more players. Hopefully Samir Nasri can make a speedy recovery to cover us for Rosicky’s inevitable niggles.

Jack Wilshere could be an option on the wing as an attacking midfielder but I know Wenger is reluctant to throw him in. Sure, he’ll do something special and impress everyone but he’s not ready for a first team schedule, we can only afford him to play a part now and again. Arsene has compared him to Rooney in his early days, I think we all remember him and that last minute goal for Everton against us. One of them from Jack and then I think I can forgive the Shrek comparisons.

Before the Emirates Cup Arsene Wenger said that all transfer business would be done before the game in Valencia. Well that’s tomorrow. So either nothing is happening or he was talking crap. I don’t think our chequebook is closed; I bloody hope it isn’t anyway. We’ve been bidding for Chamakh this week but yesterday Wenger sounded negative about a deal happening. Bordeaux have put a ridiculous valuation on him seeing as he becomes a free agent next year. We’re in a good position because we’re not desperate for him. I believe this one will go down to the final day of the window when Bordeaux realise they either have to take our decent offer of £7m or £8m or face losing him for free.

Wenger says he expects business to get moving in the final week and still insists we are looking at one or two options, “One could be in the defensive areas, and one in the attacking areas.” We’re no closer to finding out who those players might be but it looks unlikely to be Patrick Vieira. However he has responded to the talk of Hangeland saying we have looked at him but made no contact as of yet.

I think he is waiting for the Senderos deal to be completed before contacting Fulham. But then in turn I think Everton are waiting for Lescott to move to City before completing the Senderos move. Once that happens then we can expect some action. Fulham are concerned about losing Hangeland and I’m sure Roy Hodgson will do what he can to keep him. I just hope that if Wenger is serious about buying another defender (which he should be) he has another option lined up if Hangeland doesn’t happen.

As I said, we’ve got Valencia tomorrow so I’m sure there’ll be press conferences and such in the lead up to that bringing us more news. So no excuse for me not to update then? Well… I am working all day tomorrow up until kick off so I can’t make any promises. Sorry! Speak to you soon.