Just a super-speedy shifty at what’s going down today:
Bendtner is injured, and could miss the City match. But we could have Cesc back, Theo and Eduardo shouldn’t be far away, and both Robin and Ade (touch wood) will be good to go. Not too big a blow, you’d think?
Cesc feels we can still win the league. I really really like Cesc, in fact I might go so far as to say that I love him. But that’s absolute cobblers.
Adebayor, who scored an outrageous goal against Cameroon (outrageous because before he scored he appeared to give Reading’s gargantuan defender Andre Bikey a sound thrashing,) disagrees with Tony Cascarino (see rant in previous post) and instead wants to stay at Arsenal. Sorry Tony.
On balance, I reckon that’s probably a good thing. This season hasn’t been his best, but at his age and with his ability, he’s certainly worth hanging onto as a player who could turn into something very special. Plus, while it’s extremely tempting to fantasise about what you’d do with £30 million and a hole in our strike-force (Villa, Aguero, Benzema, Bent etc), you know in your heart of hearts that if we got that money Wenger would spend £2 million on a 17 year old Austro-Hungarian full-back of Burkinabean extraction, extend Nicky Bendtner’s contract to 2034 and trouser the remaining £28 million.
Financial climate, young team, complete faith in Jay Simpson, etc.
Yet more rumblings and sudden, shifty goings on in The Boardroom. Danny Fiszman has sold about 5% of the club to Stan Kroenke (marvellously photographed here), who now has roughly 20%. Not that sure what to make of it, except that it’s probably a good thing that Usmanov isn’t having things all his own way as he tries to buy the club, and at least our Boardroom doesn’t contain a snarling Suralun Sugar, the man who sold all his shares in Sp*rs in 2007, describing his 16 year involvement with the club as “a waste of my life”.
The Sun, whose (very ugly) sister paper News of the World incensed the Arsenal community yesterday with a story about Cesc which used Barcelona’s rumour-mongering in the Spanish press as evidence for Cesc’s actual unhappiness at Arsenal, pulled out a belter of a headline on the share deal, a headline which achieved that rare fusion of top-notch punnery and bare-faced xenophobia: KROENKE BUYS MEATY STAKE!
Superb, I think we’ll all agree. If only the tabloids could stick to what they do best – idiotic witticism and the harmless libelling of celebrity chefs – rather than feeling the need to dabble in racism, nationalism, war-mongering and the general effort to terrify and intimidate their unfortunate readership into a violent, howling rage of misguided hatred and confusion. Everything would be much more chilled out, wouldn’t it?
Finally, former professional footballer Alex Hleb has been whingeing to anyone who’ll listen about his lack of playing time, being as he is in a competition for places with the best player in the world (’lil Lionel Messi), the guy who used to be the best player in the world (big Thierry Henry), and the guy who keeps Fabregas on the Spanish bench (’lil Andres Iniesta).
UpForGrabsNow would like to extend our condolences to Mr Hleb, adding that he is a complete moron. Honestly, you thought you could rock up in Catalunya and oust those 3 with your pernicious brand of Islington Ubershuffling?
Nonsense, I tell you.
Don’t forget to enter our Herbert Chapman t-shirt competition. According to the Sun newspaper, they are this summer’s “must-have” item and you can get your mitts on one really easily. See www.upforgrabsnow.com/competition for full details.
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