Rosicky, Vieira and the CL qualifying draw

Anyone remember when this used to be the qualifier, and has now been “Americanised” into the ‘Champions League Playoff!’ Pffffft.

Anywho, we find out who stands in our way of making the group stages of the CL at sometime after 11am today, once the tools at UEFA have finished poncing about with opening ceremonies and rimming eachother. We can face one of the following:

Fiorentina

Athletico Madrid

Celtic

Anderlecht

FC Timisoara

Personally I’d prefer Anderlecht as they’re easier than Fiorentina, Athletico Madrid and Celtic and not an unknown quantity like Timisoara so we won’t underestimate them. However I expect we’ll get Celtic and probably f**k it up and wind up getting knocked out of the Europa League by Fulham. God I miss the times when we could be pretty much guarantee we’d get someone like the champions of the Isle of Wight and know we’d make the group stages! I’ve got a bad feeling about this, I can feels it me me’s loins, I tells ye!

In other news, Thomas Rosicky’s period of fitness has ended at the 3 weeks mark with a hamstring injury. Not a surprise considering Eduardo had a similar problem after a lengthy period out. The club think it’ll be 6 weeks until he’s fit again, we’ll see!

In transfer news, Wenger confirmed that he’s thinking of maybe bringing in one offensive and one defensive player, and that he’s keen on Fulham’s Brede Hangeland but the club haven’t been in contact. He also said any deal to bring Patrick Vieira back isn’t on the cards at the moment. It’s good to know that Wenger realises we’re a bit short of experience and quality at the back and I would welcome those two in with open arms frankly.

Anyway, a spot of breakfast and a meeting before the draw. Fingers crossed!

Technorati Tags: CL qualifier,Hangeland,Vieira,Rosicky

The hit of the whole fruit

 

Plenty to write about at the moment, which makes a pleasant change!

First off, Emirates Cup. The first game wasn’t really much to write home about. We looked comfortable but not overly threatening and it was only after Arshavin put us one up with 8 left on the clock that the game got exciting. However the entertainment did increase significantly at half time with the midget footballing genius that is Jack Wilshire, more on him later. Anyhoo, Athletico beat our offside trap with worrying ease to equalise just minutes later, before Arshavin scored from a ludicrous angle shortly after that to win us the game.

The next day was Rangers, who were dismantled with brutal ease, Wilshire finishing off a nice passing move inside 2 minutes, and Eduardo applying a good finish after 8 mins. Wilshire made it 3 towards the end with a nice left footed volley as we re-gained the Emirates Cup.

Since then it’s all been about the boy Wilshire, who got man of the match in both games yet somehow didn’t get player of the tournament (AA did, got to be a sponsor thing I guess). Responses have ranged from the red-tops calling for Jack the lad to be in the England squad for the next qualifiers, to Wenger saying that he wants to protect him and use his sparingly. Wenger obviously speaking more sense than the tabloids, as well as Wilshire played at the weekend, had they been competitive games there wouldn’t be a hope in hell the Rangers players would have given him as long on the ball as they did! Still, the future looks bright.

Arseblog and Gunnerblog announced that Senderos to Everton was a done deal, confirmed this morning, by the Swiss FA, that talks had begun but so far nothing from either club or the player, who incidentally is training at the members day even as I write this. In fact Sky Sports News are now reporting that Everton have confirmed talks are taking place with us for Senderos. The rumour elsewhere is that this will be part of a 3 way transfer (kinky) of Big Phil going to Everton, which will then see Lescott leaving them for Citeh who in turn will sell us Micah Richards. Probably all b****cks but I’d take Senderos out and Richards in!

Marouane Chamakh isn’t a happy bunny, saying that his current employers Bordeaux are blocking his dream move to Arsenal, this after Wenger saying he won’t improve on the alleged £6 million offer that has been rejected.

The Vieira thing has gone quiet, although he’s been dropped from the French national side after Domenech stated that he needs to play regularly. Le Boss has said he wants all his transfer business to be concluded by the time we play Valencia on Saturday

So, here’s hoping to a busy end of the week!

Technorati Tags: Pre Season 2009,Rangers,Athletico Madrid,Emirates Cup,Valencia,Vieira,Senderos,Everton,Chamakh,Richards.

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.

Technorati Tags: Kolo Toure,Pre Season 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!)

Technorati Tags: Pre-season 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…..

Hartson’s next battle

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…..

Technorati Tags: John Hartson

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***

Technorati Tags: Pre-season,Fixture Changes,Jabba,Ian Gazidis,RVP