… that Aston Villa’s captain Martin Laursen will be out injured for 2 months.
True, this isn’t as exciting as the story where we pretend to have scooped everyone else about the Russian fella while in fact slavishly quoting from the Daily Mail’s risible attempt at journalism.
But Laursen’s injury could be even more important.
“What?” I hear you cry. “What on earth could be more important than our signing or not signing a Strigiformic (owlish) winger who I once saw on the telly? He even scored a goal! I mean, it’s been all over the papers and blogs and everything? What could possibly be more significant than that?”
To which I would coolly reply, Champions League football next season, that’s what. I’m hoping today’s news signals a change in Villa’s (so far very good) fortunes this season.
Both clubs are now skipperless. Sure, you can argue that with Knight, Davies and Cuellar still competing for places in their central defence, their squad is rather better prepared for their captain’s lay-off than our midfield is to compensate adequately for Cesc’s absence, and you’d be right, but Laursen’s lay-off is certainly good news for Arsenal.
I don’t mean to sound morbid, or like some sort of hideous Villa-obsessed twitcher, and of course it’s never nice to see footballers getting injured, especially when they’re on top form, as Laursen is. But over a season the way these things parcel themselves out around the different teams in a league can prove critical, and often has for Arsenal in the past.
Pre-Cardiff Wengerisms:
Denilson is a really good player who doesn’t get enough credit from the media. He sure doesn’t, Arsene, though I think even some Gooners of the more Le Grumble persuasion are beginning to see what a talent he is. Of course, on UpForGrabsNow, you won’t find anybody agreeing with media hype (or the lack of it).
Man Utd have got it easy. ‘Twas ever thus.
If we sign that Russian fella, good. If not, also good. Agreed(ish). This is not going to be among the many blogs hurling its toys out of its pram and demanding a shirt-presentation ceremony or seven to save our season. Unlike Grabber, I think Arshavin would be an outstanding signing, especially if it means Eboue can return to buttock-snogging the bench on a regular basis.
On balance, I’d say “If we sign that Russian fella, great! If not, not quite as great admittedly but still no cause for infantile hair-tearing web-based sulking.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
No you need to say Laursen is out for 2 months AND Young is suspended for the next game. With no captain and basically their only real playmaker out for a spell, their luck is going to be tested and I hope they lose.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
ohTO ohTO oh to be oh to be a GOONER
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
good post. yeah i too saw that three blogs claimed we’d signed him last night. funnily enoguh they were presumably american blogs since this news only featured on new posts from these blogs at like 1am gmt. i’m pretty sure that no americans found that out, since i seriously doubt we’re conducting negotations so late when it’s not even deadline day.
and please nobody ever quote a tabloid and talk of it as being true, it’s so rarely true it’s laughable. the mail published it because arsenal signing andrei is likely and will probably happen over the next couple of days. by claiming to know it’s happening ‘WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS’ is laughable tabloid journalism. they just play the odds since that’s likely to be true, anyone could guess that. then they claim they got the news early when in actual fact they just guessed a pretty easy chance right.
nobody take that crap seriously, believe we’ve signed him when you see something on arsenal.com. anything before is NOT official and is 99% likely to be peopl just trying to look like they have an inside source.
no blogs have any good sources, they just guess and play the odds. don’t believe a fucking word of it. it’s just an attempt to look better than the other blogs and get hits and i for one am bored sick of it.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:15 pm
it’s great news for arsenal that laursen is out.
he’s one of the best few defenders in the league (i wish we had him) and with young out as well their decent team suddenly looks notably less decent. that can only be a good thing for us.
i think chelsea play liverpool on the 2nd of feb or something. IF we can win our next league game and chelsea win suddenly liverpool really don’t look that good for the title. anything is possible but we’d be catching them fast IF it happens. let’s pray!
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Well Ryan , maybe we should be looking at Australian Blogs seeing as they are 8 or 10 hours ahead of us so our tomorrow is their today and seeing as its tomorrow that the news will be confirmed about Gillette-butt, they should know already. Yes this is based on the same theory as Terminator movies.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
So this Ivan Gazisis was brought in to handle the contracts and transfers. He can’t even complete the Arshavin deal when the other side and the player want to get it finalized.
This will only lead to our tapped-up players — RvP, Ade, Cesc — getting more unsettled and looking at clubs that at least try to improve the squad.
He has accomplishing absolutely nothing in the last three weeks, but I can now bring my PSP to the Emirates and watch replays on delay.
Should be helpful when we are watching the reserves play FC Metalist Kharkiv in the UEFA Cup.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
That’s fine, they’ll have injuries but should we rest our fate in their hands? not smart, Bendtner should be on loan, as should walcott who’s development has sputtered since leaving southcoast should have been on loan as well, denilson on loan, diaby on loan, never should have sold so many of our older players. We may make the top four but that’s all this squad will be capable of.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:48 am
my god…it has actually come to this..we are now celebrating the fact that aston villa have lost one of their players for a while. good blog and good point but seriously-shouldnt the very fact that this brings us joy really make us question what has happened to the club we love-only cesc and kolo remain of the team that last won us silverware and no doubt this time next year they too will be gone-the last three years of ”transition” have led us to a very sad place where we celebrate the loss of a player from what has been a mickey mouse team for many years
January 24th, 2009 at 11:11 am
as the old saying goes, you can only blog what’s put in front of you.
i would add that while Villa haven’t been great for a while, they are pretty strong right now and need to be taken seriously as champions league place challengers.
@p-lam, I’d be very cautious of placing all your blame on ivan gazidis without an intimate knowledge of what exactly has been going on.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Grabs —
Surely I was a bit hard on Gazidis. I never wanted David Dean to leave and still think it was a mistake by the club. So I do have a partial view of current management.
I will quickly praise Gazidis if he can do something to improve the club:
1) Complete the class signing Arsene stated he wanted to make earlier in the season.
2) Sign Theo and RvP to long-term contracts… maybe they could even delay negotiations with Eboue until this is done.