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.
Tags: Alex Hleb, Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor, Stan Kroenke
March 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Adebayor wants to stay, but does wenger want to keep him is the question, Bendtner, Van Persie, Eduardo and Arshavin are on fire. Nasri or Diaby can also play behind the front man.
Adebayor’s arsenal future seems bleak. We have far better team spirit with him not on the pitch. It’s shown in recent weeks, we’ve been a lot better without him. Our season will go up in smoke if his wasteful finishing graces the emirates once again. This is our big chance for silverware and we’ve gotto take it.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Disagree about Adebayor. He has the most assists and goals for Arsenal after van Persie, and he’s been out for 2 months, unlike van Persie. The only reason fans have beein feeling badly about Adebayor is because he doesn’t know how to play without Fabregas, the only difference is that the rest learned, while Adebayor got injured.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
gotta say I’m more in the Ankush camp than the MH camp on this one.
If Ade would BLOODY STOP DRIFTING OUT WIDE TO GET THE BALL SO THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOBODY IN RED IN THE BOX then he would be a real asset, particularly against the lesser teams.
Also, though the talent you list is impressive, MH, it looks pretty clear that Arshavin is to be a winger for Arsenal and I wouldn’t allow Nicky B’s recent form convince you that he’s ready to be one of our main strikers just yet, as he remains prone to total incompetence and is as yet unproven at the highest level.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
sorry but if you can’t play football for the reason of one player, you shouldn’t be playing for arsenal.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
If Ade would BLOODY STOP DRIFTING OUT WIDE TO GET THE BALL SO THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOBODY IN RED IN THE BOX then he would be a real asset, particularly against the lesser teams.
I could not agree more…
March 30th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
don’t think adebayor will leave in the summer for £30mil. he didn’t go for that last summer as AC Milan knew it was more than he was worth. this season has seen them justifying that decision. they certainly won’t be offering that kind of silly money after the season he has had. i do think he has missed eduardo. not only do they generally complement each other on the field and struck up a pretty good partnership before eduardo got injured, but hopefully it will motivate adebayor to start running again because he knows he’s not going to be an automatic starter. The big difference in adebayor’s game this year is that last year he started running from the first whistle, right to the last and this year he just looks like he can’t be arsed. i’m fairly sure that if wenger was to sell him he would just keep the faith with bendtner. i think wenger should sell him to barca and he can face the same fate as hleb. good player but nowhere near the best player in the world and unfortunately barca have a team full of the best players in the world!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
simple.. Adebayor just suck.. he’s getting the overrated kind of reception… once too many with his golden chances to score goals.. he’s just like kanu.. on/off form…
nothing special.
Go away adebayor… go away.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
you’re right. that is “simple”.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
c’mon Gunners, he’s A GUNNER. becos of the filrting with AC Milan, all detractors come in for his departure.
we need to be a team now. and he has pledge his loyalty to say that he is staying and he has no regrets to not leave.
taken that his form dipped, but RVP is not exactly on the scoresheet alot is he?
this is the time to gather all strength of the players, Gunners in a word. we need the depth, no one should leave.
welcome him and spur him on, no more booing and no more leave-us-you-useless.
each and every player is important to us now, we cant let other clubs poach our players anymore. Fab is needed, so is Ade. lets us spur all of them on and win the FA and CL. if we dont, let us be the Goonners that are not easily divided. stay a Gunner.
we are one, and now we need you. stay a Goon.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:09 am
That’s RVP and Bendtner injured now…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/mar/31/arsenal-premierleague
March 31st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
@Goonitall
‘RVP is not exactly on the scoresheet alot(sic) is he?’
Is that the same Robin van Persie who scored or assisted every single one of our goals in January? And who’s got 16 goals this season? Just so we’re clear…
March 31st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Now, now Grabber. Mustn’t go ridiculing The Reader(s).
March 31st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I’m also unclear about how one can be ‘exactly’ on a scoresheet. Can one be ‘vaguely’ on the scoresheet? ‘Loosely’ on the scoresheet, perhaps? Maybe if only half your name is written on, or it’s written in pencil and then rubbed out so you can kind of see your name but not really?
March 31st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
You can be “doubtfully” on the scoresheet, Grabber. Otherwise there would be no call for the Dubious Goals Panel.
Van Persie’s goals are only dubious in the sense that it is dubious whether anyone will ever be able to score such good ones ever again.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:05 am
I think RVP will leave irrespective of what we win. Arsene will want all of his youngsters to improve so he will let him leave…:-P
I somehow think that Arsene usually likes to do things which he thinks will help the Arsenal youngsters improve. So if Vela has to have any chance of playing more next season others will have to leave.
RVP is expendable because there are other’s who can fill is position. Adebayor is unique in the sense that he is the only player who holds the ball long enough for others to help in the attack. So ade stays and RVP leaves is my opinion.
There will be others leaving too for sure…let’s see in the end of the season…GO GUNNERS…!!
April 1st, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Adebayor is unique in the sense that he is the only player who holds the ball long enough for others to help in the attack. So ade stays and RVP leaves is my opinion…
While he does hold the ball up well, he needs to stop trying to do this from am offsides position. The man is forever getting flagged for offsides.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Van Persie to leave? Are you mad? He has been our most consistent player in the last two months. This is total rubbish P-lam, rubbish of the highest order.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Excellent! If I could write like this I would be well chuffed. The more I read articles of such quality as this (which is rare), the more I think there might be a future for the Web. Keep it up, as it were.