We’ve languished five whole days in the transfer window. Five. Seemed like longer than that, didn’t it? Arsene has ducked and dived and the many Arsenal fans who have been holding out for a hero to arrive on whom they can pin all their hopes are still waiting for that man. Some are becoming desperate, pleading for Arsene to spend many millions on players like Stewart Downing. Any signing, they cry, is better than no signing at all.
Arsene says he wants “super-class” talent or nothing. That was the approach in the summer and that got us Nasri and a cavernous hole in central midfield. By the way, could people please stop saying that we “didn’t sign anybody” last summer? Nasri was quite clearly a signing, as was Ramsey. What you mean is that we didn’t sign the right players or that we didn’t sign enough players or that we didn’t sign players for the right positions. But we definitely signed players, so don’t pretend otherwise.
Yesterday saw us tie down Young Jack Wilshere to a reported 8 year contract. Wish they’d give me one of those. He’s the sort of talent that is very very hard to find, and it’s interesting that almost exactly ten years on from Arsene saying it would take ten years for Arsenal to start producing young players of adequate technical ability, along comes Young Jack. Shows you he has a fair idea what he’s talking about. Hopefully there’s more coming too – I hear Ashley Young’s kid brother Kyle is pretty useful.
Speaking at Jack’s signing, Arsene said (not for the first time) that he thinks Jack has “tremendous penetrative power“. Crumbs, and only just turned 17! Along with the importance of defending set-pieces assertively, Arsene has never really grasped the British obsession with innuendo, has he? Perhaps someone should have sent him Carry On for his Christmas in order to school him against pulling out such cracking gags in public.
One team who has been very active in the transfer window is Sp*rs, who look like wrapping up Defoe for £15 million. That’s a real bargain when you consider that Bent was £16.5 million, but when you remember that Bent is amongst the worst footballers on the planet and that Defoe is very, very average, and that Sp*rs only sold him the other day for much less than that, the whole thing actually appears to be a scandalously poor piece of business. Why do they keep trying to re-buy players they only just sold? Or sell players cheaply that they only just bought expensively? It’s like they’re short-selling in reverse, seeing how much of a loss they can make. Kaboul is another classic example. Hell, if we really want Luka Modric why not make a cheeky £2 million bid for him right now? At Tottenham it’s instant impact or you’re out the door and they don’t care how stupid that makes them look as judges of footballing ability or how perenially shite it has made their football team. Those Gooners getting antsy about Wenger’s apparently inexhaustible patience with players like Bendtner should thank their stars he at least has some pride and some stubbornness about him and that we’re not as hilarious or as crap as Tottenham with their insistence on massive player turnover year after year.
Redknobb has done a fine job at his recent clubs – Southampton, Portsmouth, West Ham – but it’s interesting, isn’t it, that they are now languishing financially and having to sell (or having already sold) the very players who brought them their success under Harry. Hopefully the Levy-factor will limit his success at Sp*rs and when he is sacked 7 games into next season he will leave his traditional legacy of financial meltdown and relegation struggling, something I think we’d all like to see more of at Sp*rs, if only to provide an amusing side-show to fretting about our own problems.
A cursory round-up of today’s transfer guff, with the tabloid hacks already wearying of their task.
Man City to buy Yaya Toure for £24 million! Folly, sheer folly.
Arshavin to buy out his own contract! Ok, go on then son.
Kranjcar to Arse! Fine. Probably won’t happen but wouldn’t mind if it did. A vanilla-flavoured gobbet of gossip if ever I licked one.
Bendtner + £5m = Matthew Upson. If this is anything to go by, The Sun’s journalists obviously weren’t any use at algebra when they were at school, which is possibly why they ended up writing Arsenal fetish erotic fantasies with no basis in reality and publishing them in that foetid abcess of a newspaper. The might as well have written 1 + 5 = 16, which as we all know, simply isn’t true.
Tags: Andrei Arshavin, Arsenal, harry redknapp, Jermaine Defoe, Matthew Upson, tottenham hotspur
January 6th, 2009 at 11:36 am
…how long before the first Tevez to Arsenal story of 2009?
January 6th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
i love those tevez to arsenal stories-star wars wasnt real but i still bloody loved it.
kranjcar i rekon could be possibility-with pompey going into meltdown he may want to jump ship..while were at it we could nab tony onto our coaching staff.
while i would agree that all things in the sun including that on page 3 are fake, the upson story (5mil + Bendtner) has also appeared in the times and the metro so may have some element of truth.
As for spurs, they are quite literally the most ridiculous club in the world. By 2010 they will have overtaken chelsea for spending on transfer fees which is truly insane, but it would appear their never ending honey pot will just continue to fork out for average players.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I really think we need luka modric replacement for Cesc and miguel veloso rerplacing Flamini that woul be wonderful and maybe anoder new centre half maybe micah richards that would be a dream come true
January 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
When Spurs sign Glenn Hoddle and Jurgen Klinsmann from the Golden Sunset Retirement Village (where Hoddle is passing his remaining years trying anxiously not to do anything bad so he isn’t disabled next time around) for £20m they’ll have a surplus of players so we’ll get Modric for free before they sign him back from us for £30m next summer after he continues the mediocre season he’s had for Spurs and doesn’t ever play.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Well though Spuds are like the English Inter where they sell players cheap and end up buying them back for double what they sold them for, it’s really the manager that somewhat dictates who is on the team. Levy though is really a clown when it comes down to it. If not for their support Spuds would probably have dropped down into the Championship already. In any case if the Spuds board knows what’s god for them they’d have tossed out Levy long ago.
In regards t Arsenal, maybe we really do need to consider a takeover. While I love the idea that the club is one of the few remaining top teams who run itself as a business and not as some billionaire’s boy toy we have to evolve with the times. It’s really no coincidence that Chelsea and Liverpool’s recent successes have all come after they’ve been taken over by some fat cat. Man Utd are no exception either though Fergie is a top class manager, he probably couldn’t do as well as he has been without the Glazers because it wasn’t until then that they began to build the squad they have. Abramovich came in and Fergie didn’t win anything for 3 years until the take over came into full effect. I don’t know if Usmanov or Kroenke are the right people to own the club but unfortunately if we expect to compete at the top and attract top transfer targets we need financial clout. Having to pay for our stadium, team salaries, staff salaries etc all out of our own profits will leave little for us to afford the new right faces which we seemingly need.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I totally agree with ‘Abdul’. Veloso and Richards would sort us out no end. Not sure about Modric as he’s been tainted by the scum, i would quite like to see arteta at the club: he has prem experience, can play on the right if needed and is probably the most cesc-like player in the league… can also crack in a free kick from time to time.
From what i’ve seen of veloso, he would be perfect! he has the steely defensive ability that we so desperately need in the middle and has a huge amount of technical ability. COME ON WENGER, YOU MUST KNOW THESE THINGS!!!
January 6th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Not sure I agree with Richard and Veloso. Richards is massively over rated and definitely would not sort out our problems at the back, he’s a liability himself at the moment. Veloso’s having a bad time this season too and isnt a regular starter for Sporting because of it. He’s just another name thats been shot around in the tabloids that people have picked up on and keep regurgitating.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
just get rid of bentner for a start to generate some money
, veloso he would be good aswell as long has he can slam into a tackle then geat . i think wenger will pull off a signing that we are not aware of someone unknown may be or may not sign anyone , if not sack him!!
January 7th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Thanks guys, I keep listening to all good ideas but have not heard anyone talk about Gallas. I wonder if you are satisfied with his services-Perhaps he’s jinxed all of us. My say is,as long as we still have him in our defence,we still have a million reasons to worry about. If I take you back alittle, Senderos and Toure gave us avery solid piece of defence,then came Gallas, and all hell broke loose.We lost a title we had won comfortably having earned it since the start of the season-that was last season. We have since played a little well but consided silly goals. If you really love Arsenal please give him away and get one more CD to add to Djorou and Upson.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
good one peter gallas is causing more in our defence he should be sold and silvester they don’t have future wit gunner