Still no news on Cesc – maybe because there isn’t any? 20 May, 2010

The Fabregas to Barcelona stories are still coming from various blogs, newspapers and sports channels but to sum everything up – nothing has happened at all. There’s still nothing from Arsenal about this apparent meeting with Wenger, no quotes from Cesc, nothing official from Barcelona or anything else for that matter.

In an attempt to keep the story going the tabloids have to just make up some shite. The Mail reckon we’re asking for £80m but reckon Barca want to give us Hleb back as part of the deal and The Guardian are claiming he will be reunited with his former club by the weekend. The Guardian are usually quite a respectable source of information so I’m hoping they’re just jumping on the hype bandwagon with that one.

The fact of the matter is though that the papers can write whatever the fuck they want; they can say that we’re setting up a straight swap for Messi and I wouldn’t care. I’ve been writing this blog for four years now and the biggest tip I’ve taken out of it is take everything that’s written in the papers with a bucket of salt. Tabloid speculation is 90% untrue so there’s no point even wasting your time with it. A lot of the time I totally ignore these sort of stories but as this ones so widespread, so important and won’t go away I guess it needs a bit of comment. My way of dealing with things is don’t decide anything until you hear anything official. I couldn’t care less what is written until I see something on Arsenal.com, or from the manager or player’s mouth.

I would be expecting something soon to be honest, to confirm or deny the stories but nothing has come up yet. Maybe the clubs are in talks, maybe Wenger is still talking to Cesc about it or maybe nothing has happened at all – who knows? Only they do and it’ll stay like that until the time comes. I’m praying our captain wants to stay as much of the next Gooner but you wont see this blog getting caught up in anything until I hear it from higher up.

Seeing as there is no news on it then, lets move on. Sol Campbell’s been talking about his proud comeback to Premiership football. It is quite an achievement really and you can only put it down to his hard work and determination. He might’ve lost a bit of fitness with age but he makes up for it in effort and a player that will turn 36 next season is likely to get another contract as the highest level. He’s shown what it takes to be a fighter too and some of the younger players in this side should take note of that, the thing with bringing through a young side is that there isn’t many players that have won things in the squad and you need that sometimes.

Sol reckons we need to bulk up the side a bit and says ‘you can’t rely on just 13 or 14 players’. This is something fans have been saying for a long, long time but whether we don’t have to money or other reasons it hasn’t been addressed. We are one of the unluckiest teams ever with injuries so it doesn’t help to have such a small first team squad. We’re in the market to improve the squad now and I ‘understand’ (as is the expression nowadays) that the first addition will be announced Monday or Tuesday. We have to keep going though and if we can make it two new signings before the World Cup I think that’s a good start.

In other news Robin van Persie’s been talking about helping out the team and Theo Walcott’s saying he wants to make much more of an impact at this year’s World Cup. And that’s about it then today. Maybe we’ll hear something much more concrete do to with the Cesc stories over the next few days but until then speculation with carry on, and on, and on. What a bore.

Speak to you soon.

It’s not Cesc’s time to move on + The Cannon is 4 today 18 May, 2010

I’ve come home today to see news breaking everywhere that Cesc is off to Barcelona after a meeting with Arsene Wenger. Nothing has been confirmed, nobody knows the truth but a lot of people are running around like headless chickens. I will admit I am concerned but I have by no means conceded to losing our captain. He recently said he wants to get his future sorted before the World Cup which surprised me when he’s committed himself to us so many times:

“I want to make a decision about my future before the World Cup. It’s impossible to perform at a tournament such as the World Cup if you’re not fully focused on the sporting aspects of the game. It does not benefit anyone.

If I ever leave Arsenal it will be to play for Barcelona. I would like to go, whether they want me or not is another matter. I am 23 years old and I have a long career in front of me. I’ve never hidden the fact that playing for Barcelona is a dream that I would like to fulfil.

I’m very happy at Arsenal. I’m in no hurry to leave the club. Barcelona are still playing for the Liga title and I’m still an Arsenal player. It would be a lack of respect to discuss a transfer now.

No candidates for the Barcelona presidency have approached me, so I don’t feel used.”

I find it very weird reading that, it doesn’t sound like it’s something he would say and it’s completely contradictory. The bit about one day joining Barcelona is nothing we haven’t heard before, so is his confirmation he’s happy at Arsenal but I don’t know what he’s talking about sorting his future out before the World Cup. Unless he wants to sort out a new deal or he wants to leave now then I don’t know why he would say that.

News is breaking all over the net that he’s said he wants to move on already and apparently today he’s told Wenger he wants to go to Barcelona. We’ve heard these sort of rumours come out before but today seems like the worst it’s ever been. I usually would just wave these stories off as nonsense but when it’s so widespread as it is and you have respectable journalists such as John Cross confirming he could be off I start to get worried.

In the next few days or weeks I’m sure we’ll find out just how true these stories are and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say I hope they’re not true. I would be absolutely gutted if Cesc moved on already; I’m ready to let him go one day but not now. I just feel it’s not his time to go, we’re so close to fulfilling our potential at Arsenal and I know Cesc wants to lift a trophy for Arsenal as much as we do. I just don’t get why he’d give up on us now, he would have to truly believe we’re not ever going to make it and to be perfectly honest without our captain we really are going to struggle to reach those heights.

There’s nothing we can do but wait until we get some official confirmation on this. If it’s all bollocks again I’m sure Fabregas will be pretty pissed off at having to declare his commitment yet again but it’s not us doing this it’s the Spaniards. I’m genuinely praying that Cesc stays, if only for just one more year. Please Cesc, not now.

Lets move on shall we and Chamakh is ‘understood’ to be in London holding talks with us. So basically that could mean anything, no ones spotted him in England or anything just someone ‘understands’ that he’s here, great. I’m sure he will be over at some point in the near future to discuss a possible move.

I’ve been writing The Cannon for four years today and to be honest it’s not the happiest birthday I’ve had! All this uncertainty about Cesc has got me worried. Apologies for another barren week on the blog, it’s been a busy seven days for me but I’m back now, so thanks for sticking by. Thanks to everyone that reads the blog and hopefully we’ll be celebrating the 5th birthday with a few more bottles of champagne and with Cesc Fabregas still on the books.

Whatever happens though I’ll still be here this time next May, talking crap about Arsenal never mind who plays for us and where our season ends up. That’s the quality thing about football, shit happens but you know the club will always exist and that’s all that matters at the end of the day – being a Gooner.

Thanks for reading the past four years. Speak to you soon.

Time to look forward to next season 11 May, 2010

So we did it, we secured third with an easy win over Fulham who obviously had one eye on this week’s Europa League Final. No match report from me because I didn’t really see a lot of it to be honest, I drifted in and out with several dying feeds but what I did pick up is that we had no problems seeing them off 4-0. In the end we didn’t need to win as Spurs threw away a 2-0 lead at Burnley to lose 4-2, which was quite funny, but we can’t say we haven’t done similar in recent weeks. It’s nice to end the season on a high though after everything that’s happened and we can start the preparations for next season.

Wenger says we conceded too many to win the league which is a fair assessment really. At least we can look at that and improve for next year. William Gallas wasn’t at the Fulham game so we can all but assume he is off now, there’s been no talk of a new deal for Silvestre and nothing has been sorted out for Sol Campbell yet. So surely we must be in the market for a central defender as well as a goalkeeper this summer. Djourou came on for half an hour on Sunday – his first appearance of the season. If he can stay fit next year then that’s another option but I feel we need another top signing that can come straight in to our defence with Vermaelen. Wenger might see Johan as our new first choice defender but I think we should at least bring someone in to compete with him, we’ve hardly seen Djourou all year so we’ve got nothing to go by to suggest he’s good enough.

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of transfer speculation to come over the summer so we’ll have to just wait and see. I wouldn’t say signing a striker is a priority but we’re getting a pretty good deal on Chamakh and we know Wenger loves a bargain. It’ll be great to have a bit of competition up front and Robin van Persie is looking forward to his arrival. We’ll have a wealth of attacking talent if Chamakh completes his move so I think it’s now time for Wenger to start looking further towards the back of the XI.

It won’t be long until we have to start talking about a deal for the manager himself. Wenger has got one year left on his deal and despite saying he is very happy here he has denied signing a new deal already. I’m not worried and Ivan Gazidis isn’t either, he’s confident that Arsene will extend his deal again to beyond next year. I know there are a few Gooners that are looking for us to make a fresh start and call it a day on Arsene but I don’t think his project is over yet. I was glad to hear him say recently that we don’t need any more kids; it’s now time to take those youngsters that he has brought through the ranks onto the big time. This year wasn’t quite our turn, injuries, mistakes and a bit of immaturity left us short but we are so close now to fulfilling our potential, I’d be very surprised if Arsene left without guiding his legacy to the top.

There’s more than just transfer plans to sort out this summer. The Arsenalization scheme has major plans this summer, which include the renaming of the stands North, Clock, East and West, the stones to be laid outside the Armoury, a new Clock End clock to put inside the stadium and more. I’m looking forward to coming back for the Emirates Cup at the end of July already.

However whilst Arsene and Ivan are busy preparing us for next season most of our lads will be thinking towards South Africa now. The provisional England squad was named today and Theo Walcott is our only inclusion. Sol Campbell wasn’t expecting anything but was still hoping he might get a call up, however it’s probably going to take an injury to someone for him to get on that plane to the World Cup. It’s a shame because this is certainly his last chance to pull on and England shirt and to have Ledley King picked over you must not be nice. He won’t mind though, it would’ve just been a massive bonus to an up and down season for Sol. I guess it’s good from an Arsenal point of view because if we do sign him up again he’ll be a bit fresher in August.

Still, it’s a shame not to see him involved in the World Cup and it means we have just the one Gooner going to South Africa this summer. It’s going to be hard getting behind most of the names representing England but I guess I’ll just have to get over that. I’m still looking forward to the World Cup, at least we’ll have something to watch over the break before we get to see Arsenal again in July. The fantastic guys at SoccerPro.com have sent me this brand new England World Cup Jersey for the tournament. I quite like the new goalkeeper shirt and I will be wearing my whites greens with pride! If you haven’t checked SoccerPro.com out already they have a whole load Soccer Gear and Soccer Uniforms on the site and a massive range of World Cup Apparel so go check them out if you haven’t already got your shirt for the summer. Thanks again to them for the shirt.

Well the season’s finally over now and it’s time to look ahead to 2010/11. I must admit it’s a bit of a relief to have finally reached the summer but I’m already raring to go in August. Hopefully Wenger will make the necessary improvements we need and we can go that step further next season. News, reactions, signings and whatever else comes our way to come on The Cannon all summer long. Until next time, thanks for reading.

Fulham Preview: A chance if anything to prove we’re a cut above Tottenham 8 May, 2010

It’s been a funny old season of ups and downs and it finally comes to and end tomorrow. We found ourselves in a late title race, we were outsiders but had a chance and in the end we couldn’t get the results. It was good to be involved again but when we did drop out we dropped out badly. So badly in fact we’re now 10 points off second with Spurs breathing over our shoulder after the winning run they’ve been on.

It’s been a good few weeks for Tottenham, since beating us they went on to beat Chelsea and Man City and have secured a Champions League qualifier spot for next season. Arsene Wenger has said that they deserve to be where they are and has also reminded us that Champions League qualification is no easy thing and says we must not take our position for granted. It’s true, it’s weird seeing them lot celebrate they way they have when we’re just used to achieving that every year. You are reminded how lucky we are. Redknapp is set to be manager of the year for what he’s achieved in the league yet Wenger does it every year without fail, spending nowhere near the twitchy one. Maybe if Liverpool weren’t so shocking this season Spurs wouldn’t be up there but they took advantage of the opportunity and beat Man City into the top four.

If we lose tomorrow and they win they’ll overtake us on the final day and take third. It’s an unthinkable outcome. We need to put in a performance tomorrow and make up for recent results by beating Fulham. Lets end the season with some sort of dignity. I don’t even want to think about that lot finishing above us and going straight into the Champions League group stages. The players and manager plan to thank the fans after the match but if we lose again tomorrow I can’t imagine it’s going to be a very nice place to be. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that so lets not go there.

There was no pre-match press conference so team news is sparse. We know we’re down to the bare bones anyway, Clichy might return at left back but no one else will return. We’re so short of players that the official match preview suggests we might bring in Henri Lansbury who’s returned from his loan spell at Watford. He might make the bench but I expect Eastmond or even Eboue to make up the midfield again:

Fabianski
Sagna – Campbell – Silvestre – Clichy
Eastmond
Nasri – Diaby
Eboue – van Persie (c) – Arshavin

It’s a weakened team for sure but certainly one that should be able to see off Fulham and secure third. The visitors are playing in the Europa League final in the week and are likely to rest players. They appealed to get the game moved to today but it wasn’t allowed. They have nothing really to play for in the Premiership so I’d be surprised to see a full XI. They played almost full strength in the week at Stoke so they’re not 100% focused on Europe but if I was them I wouldn’t want to risk anyone tomorrow. Whatever happens they’ll send out a team that will want to win the game and will be capable of causing us problems.

Against Wigan and Blackburn we took the lead and went on to lose. We have to learn that the game isn’t over until it’s over and that is especially true on the final day of the league. Anything can happen so we have to be fully focused up until the 90th minute and beyond. It would be nice to see us kill off a game too and would be the perfect way to end the season.

So lets win comfortably, take third position and whatever Spurs do they stay in fourth. I can just about take them getting into Europe but I will not be happy if they finish above us.

Enjoy the game those going. Thanks for reading.

Adebayor still useless as Spurs qualify for Europe 6 May, 2010

Last night’s ‘Champions League playoff’ was so unbelievably full of cuntitude I couldn’t bear to watch. A win for Spurs was enough for them to qualify for at least the Champions League play-offs, something we wouldn’t hear the end of all summer. A win for City would’ve put them in the driving seat for Europe which would give them the appeal to attract all the top stars mercenaries from around Europe and probably make them title contenders for next season. As I’m sure you know Tottenham won 1-0 and will be in the Champions League next season; they might have to rename it do you think?

Being an Arsenal fan it’s horrible to see them lot achieve something like that, they’ve broken into the top four and they’re loving it. Hopefully they’ll do an Everton and it’ll be just a one off and crash out at the qualifiers but it does seem weird that they’ll have a little Champions League crest on their sleeves come August. However in the long run it’s probably better that they made it and not City, Spurs will never challenge for the Premier League title, I’m not just saying that – they probably know it too. The European qualification will give them a bit of extra cash and I’m sure they’ll spend big this summer but not to the same extent Man City would. Mancini will still splash the cash but he wont have that bargaining factor of being in Europe’s elite competition and maybe a few will be put off by that. It’s probably only a matter of time before City reach the heights they are expected to but it’s nice to see them fail after all the money they have invested already.

I couldn’t watch the match last night but by all accounts it sounds as if Tottenham’s desire shone through and unsurprisingly the money-grabbers at City just couldn’t be bothered. Adebayor was apparently a shower of shit again which is quite hilarious really considering how well he used to play against Tottenham for us. We did say we was a lazy, useless cunt but no one listened. Look at some of the comments from some Man City blogs today (findings thanks to Dublin Adam).

This is our City:

This is ultimately a minor blip in our journey and let’s face it, obstacles were bound to pop up along the way. Spurs being one of them and player failure being the other, I was never pleased with the capture of Emmanuel Adebayor but still he gained the chance to prove me wrong but did he?

The guy is a glass half full, a complete waste of money and while everyone else tried against Spurs, he just gave us another half hearted performance, does not deserve to wear our colours and is an embarrassment.

Blue Days:

Adebayor – Further evidence that, against the bigger central defenders, Adebayor is no target man. Needed to show more intelligence against a well organised back line, and be in place to attack crosses. 5/10

Vital Football:

Adebayor (4/10) Very poor. He lost every header to Dawson and again operated wide too much. He was afraid of the physical battle and never looked at the races.

The Lonesome Death of Roy Carroll:

Adebayor – Not as bad as his shameful showing at White Hart Lane in December, but not very far off. As our gameplan descended into more and more predictable direct fare, Adebayor should have tried harder to win those headers we were presenting him with. But his interest waned, as did his competitiveness in the air. No link up play or goal threat to speak of. 4/10

It might be annoying to see Spurs get into Europe but Adebayor’s performances can be some sort of positive. The best money we have ever made – now if only we’d spend it…

The first signing of the summer is almost without a doubt Marouane Chamakh. We’ve known for some time now that he is likely to sign and he is talking about his move to Arsenal again and sounds really up for it. We were after him last year but couldn’t agree on a price so he looks to be joining us on a free this time around. A good bit of business there Arsene. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that one announced as early as this month.

Arsene has been asked about his transfer business this summer a lot already and said the other day that he’s no longer after kids. He says we’ve got enough young players now and any new additions will be ones with experience. It would make a nice change and I think he’s right, there’s no point in constantly adding understudies to the squad, we need ones that will make an impact and come in right away. Chamakh will be a good addition; I think the next items on Arsene’s shopping list should be a goalie and a defender.

Spurs win last night means that they can overtake us on Sunday if we lose to Fulham (or if we draw and they win 11-0). It’s put the pressure back on us and if we somehow managed to fuck this up I think there would be a reaction from the fans I would never hope to see. We have to see the season off with some dignity otherwise it’s going to be a very long, horrible summer. Build up to the Fulham game to come, thanks for reading.

I’m back – The Arsenal break down, Fabianksi, Campbell & more 5 May, 2010

Hello again, it’s been a little while. Things have been pretty shit football-wise recently haven’t they? I took another break from blogging just because I couldn’t really find the motivation or the words to describe what was happening. For the first time in a long, long time I didn’t watch on TV, didn’t try get a working stream or didn’t listen on the radio to the Arsenal game on Monday, I just left them to their own devices. I thought that another bad display would make me even angrier and to be honest I just couldn’t be bothered to let a silly thing like that get me in a bad mood. And lucky I did miss it in the end, as I followed occasionally on Twitter and the Sky Sports app it became apparent we didn’t give a crap again and produced another bad loss against a shit Northern side after going ahead. I’m glad I didn’t watch it and all I’ve seen from it since is one photograph of Robin’s header.

Call me a rubbish fan or whatever you like, I know my reasons for not watching. I feel bad for the guys that went up there for the last away trip of the season to see another lackluster display. I hope they had a good time despite the result, somehow. Wenger has described our passing as an ‘illusion’ and from all accounts it sounds like we were pretty awful. Sounds like we started well but went into that too familiar mode of giving up once we score – and that all too familiar sight of seeing us pay for it. We didn’t have the greatest of teams out which is a factor but there is no excuse for anyone in Arsenal’s first team squad to show such a lack of desire. That’s what bugs me the most; I can accept defeats when we’re fairly beaten but when he frankly don’t try it infuriates me.

Fabianski’s little end-of-season run of games isn’t going too well either is it? I hear he messed it up again at the weekend, I don’t even have the will to see it but I heard what happened. These games were meant to be a chance for him to prove how good he is to us and stake a claim for the spot next season but it’s gone completely tits up – no one trusts him now. I saw an incredible stat on Twitter yesterday, he’s played 9, won 2, drawn 1, lost 6, kept 1 clean sheet and conceded 16! I know Wenger is a big stat man so surely that says it all, and that doesn’t even show the numerous mistakes he’s got away with. I think instead of pushing for the no.1 shirt next season he might find himself looking for a job.

Comparisons can be drawn to Alex Song and how awful he was in his early Arsenal career but as Arseblog pointed out the goalkeeping position is not one we can afford to let someone make mistakes in. Sol Campbell thinks he just needs games but we can’t just keep giving him his chance if it’s so badly affecting our results. Maybe he should go on loan somewhere, I have no doubt that he will improve with experience but I don’t really fancy us being the team giving it to him.

Talking of Sol, he’s been awarded player of the month with a landslide 49% vote with the nearest rival being Bendtner with just 12%. It’s great for Sol and it’s well deserved too. He’s been one of the few that has really tried in this season run-in right from when we were still in the race to now. He’s done himself proud and most Gooners are up for giving him another year. He’s been talking about his chances of making the World Cup too. It would be good for him and I think he could definitely do a job for them this summer. His main rival for a spot is Ledly King – both are as unfit as each other but both are in good form. I hope for Sol’s sake he makes it to South Africa.

Talking of the World Cup, Gallas says he will be fit and to be perfectly frank I couldn’t care less. I’m pretty much certain now he’ll move on this summer. I’m not bitter, he’s done alright to leave on good-ish terms and I would’ve taken him for another year or two if he wanted to sign but he would’ve done it by now if he wanted. He’s had all this time off with injury to discuss a deal if he was going to sign one so I’d be very surprised if he stays on now. Wenger’s given him until the end of the month to make a decision so I guess it wont be too long now until we know if we need to look for another centre back.

Bolton have asked to keep Jack Wilshere for at least another 6 months at the start of next season. Owen Coyle’s saying that if Arsenal don’t think he’s going to play with us then it would benefit him, us and them if he went on loan again. I see his point, I guess it all depends of the comings, goings or lack of this summer but I can see Jack playing a part at Arsenal next year and I think Wenger thinks that too.

OK well that’s enough for today. There’s an important game between Spurs and Man City tonight, which could secure third for us or could put our position in doubt going into the Fulham game. I can’t decide who I want to win so I’ll just let what happens happen. Speak to you soon.