Posted by Sonuvagun
Right just a quickie today, mainly because there’s nothing much interesting to comment on in the Arse-o-sphere right now. Except the slightly unpleasant smell of Arshavin being ‘mistranslated’. I’m not going to get drawn into the mini-saga in any detail but there’s been a flurry of stories about Arshavin over the last couple of days with sensationalist titles, quoting him as wanting a move to Barcelona, that he would never kiss the Arsenal badge and then having a pop at our medical staff.
Most of it was completely overblown: usually some slightly misadvised phrase like ‘I would never kiss the badge… but that doesn’t mean I don’t love Arsenal’ which was then of course given the toilet rag treatment, with all the quantifying statements taken out, for maximum effect. To be honest, even though I believe our Andrei does respect and enjoy playing for Arsenal, he does ask for it sometimes (‘it’ being the controversial headlines he stirs up) with his ‘honest’ and ‘outspoken’ ways and I can understand why AW is starting to get pissed off with him… Once he finishes his playing career a job in media relations is clearly not on the cards.
Summer transfer talk has already begun and the fact that Wenger has publicly stated he wants to bring in 2 or 3 experienced players before the World Cup starts has given the press carte blanche to link us with anyone who has ever donned a pair of goal-keeping gloves or headed a ball out from a corner. Some surprising comments from Brede Hangeland show that we did in fact make a formal inquiry about him last summer – he feels that reaching the UEFA cup final with Fulham justifies rejecting our offer. Clearly he’s not the brightest glowworm in the hedgerow but when Athletico Madrid spank them 3-0 and they finish in the bottom half of the table perhaps he’ll grow a pair and join the big boys. I for one would like to see him in an Arsenal shirt.
Speaking of Athletico Madrid I’m a big fan of their young keeper De Gea… he’s a bit young to come in and solve our problems but having watched him in action a few times he has that elusive ‘presence’ that Bob Wilson talks about here. Hopefully one of Arsene’s spies is keeping a beady eye on everything from his ball control to his bowel movements just in case.
Ok all this gumpf is getting in the way of a match preview of the Blackburn game on Monday. It looks like Denilson is out and Arshavin is a maybe, other than that we’ll be hobbling on with our geriatric back line and Flapianski, so the miracle of last week’s clean sheet is unlikely to be repeated. I can’t remember the last time we actually spanked someone but let’s hope our boys get the net bulging as I think for fans and players alike it’s important to restore some self-Arseteem and finish as close to other two as we can…