Thursday 30 July 2009

Farewell to the last of the Invincibles

So, after 7 odd years of sterling service, Kolo leaves for a big old paycheque and a few less games a week.

To be honest, you can see the reasons behind the move, he didn’t look the same player since the last African Cup of Nations and the Malaria at the beginning of last season seemed to have made his arse swell. This coupled with the fact that we had 7 centre backs at the time (well, Kolo, Gallas, Vermaelen, Djourou plus the bit parts of Song, Senderos and Silvestre) means that something had to give. And at an alleged £15 million it made good business sense that it was Kolo.

When my uncle stalked him last week, Kolo said that he wanted to stay. There was something about the delivery that made it sound like things were afoot to sell regardless. And with sales of the Highbury Square development struggling it’s more than believable that the board would want to cash in when a big, OTT offer comes in.

The only concern is that some of this and the Ade fee isn’t re-invested into the squad. You don’t buy a defender for £10mil and have him sit on the bench, so Vermaelen had to start with Gallas. Djourou looks encouraging. But if when one of those gets injured you’ve got one of Song, Senderos and Silvestre to replace them. It’s a case of pick your poison. Either Arsene has a master plan, or his hand is being forced by finance.

But anyway, reasons aside, Kolo was one hell of a servant and we can only wish him well, and that he boots that big streak of piss we sent oop north up in the air in his first training session.

In other news we beat Hannover 96 1-0 last night, Cesc finishing off a nice passing play. Cheers to Arsenalist for the highlights. Next up its Athletico Madrid in the Emirates Cup, not sure my liver can cope with this.

I’ll put some odds and sods about Austria up at some point.

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Wednesday 29 July 2009

Back from Austria and Hungary

A decent report will appear here soon. Here’s a few pics to whet the whistle (inc one of us with Slaven Bilic!)

DSCF2233 DSCF2190 DSCF2224 DSCF2227

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Thursday 16 July 2009

Don’t want to jinx it

I don’t want to jinx anything, so I’m staying silent ‘till it’s a done deal…..

Monday 13 July 2009

Hartson’s next battle

HARTSON_John_19950415_GH_L

Cancer is a c**t. Thankfully it’s not yet touched my life directly aside from a couple of cats having to be put to sleep because of it, but chances are it probably will. Anyway, getting to the point, ex-Arsenal striker John Hartson has been diagnosed with testicular cancer that has spread to his brain.

He seems upbeat in his interview with the S*n, so lets hope he can do to this what he did to Berkovic!

Puts things into perspective really…..

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Thursday 9 July 2009

Purgatory

There’s been a bit off stuff going on:

Jabba has said some stuff

As has Ivan

RVP has declared his love and put pen to paper

Melo: Will he/won’t he?

Pre-season games announced. I’ll be at the first two.

TV has begun it’s fixture tampering for the season. See how the changes f**k up your travel plans.

The Ashes have started, it’s looking tight.

I could write a proper blog

But I can’t really be arsed

***insert motivation here***

Thursday 2 July 2009

Valencia away?

I loves me football shirts I does. Well, apart from our w**ky third kit which I’m still seething about. But anyhoo, I often mooch about on FSC to check out who is bringing out what, and stumbled upon Valencia’s new offering, which included a rather awesome 90th Anniversary kit.

I then read the description:

“The Valencia kit with the names in the shape of a bat commemorates the 90th birthday of the club, and pays tribute to all men who have defended the team on the pitch.

Valencia will wear this kit against Manchester and Arsenal in the pre-season and in the big matches of the Spanish League.”

Valencia away pre-season in the Mestalla? News to me. So I checked their official:

“This summer, Valencia CF will face some other great European teams. Tough opponents such as Werder Bremen, Manchester United or Arsenal, as well as Borussia Dortmund or Sevilla FC, will be a perfect test for our team. Valencia CF will start the official campaign on 20 and 27 August with the previous play-off of the new UEFA Europe League.

August 8th      Official Presentation - Trofeo Naranja at Mestalla. Valencia CF – Arsenal

 

Camp de Mestalla – Awesome (and soon to be gone)

Not sure what the “or” bit is about, I mean given the choice between us or Manure we all know what the correct one is, right?

So, keep them locked as we could have a pretty sweet pre-season game on our hands.

 

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Wednesday 1 July 2009

Well done Nike

Well, the new 3rd shirt has been revealed. A glorified white polo shirt and blue shorts? Someone needs a f**king slap…….

gun__1246373132_thirdkit4 gun__1246373121_thirdkit3

If you’re sick in the head this abomination is out on Thurs 23rd July. I’m going to spend the rest of the day trying to find out which c**t at Arsenal approved this.

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