Up For Grabs Now

With all the doom-mongering and transfer-related whingeing that’s been going on, only the very perceptive will have emerged from this summer having retained the memory of Arsenal actually owning any players whatsoever. And some good ones, too.

Grabber has done a fine job of swarthily surveying our array of attacking players like the seasoned trooper that he is. Now it’s my turn, with the case for the defence.

Manuel Almunia: combines a career as a top-flight goalkeeper with a part-time role as a German-baiting waiter. Also combines being Spanish with being English, and not getting picked for Spain with not getting picked for England. An Arsene favourite. For years completely unfancied by all, sundry, and everyone else as a bench-warming, cross-flapping enigma, you’ve got to admire the pluck of the man Mad Jens once complained had “only started playing football aged 30″.  Hope he stays fit.

Lukasz Fabianski: A blonde girl in a pub once told me that Fabianski is the best looking Arsenal player since Flamini. Be that as it may, his carefully slicked down fringe didn’t do much to quieten the howls of agony when he inexplicably charged past the onrushing Drogba at Wembley in the spring. Still, we all make mistakes, and he’s made some decent saves. Only 24, and improving. But hope Manuel stays fit.

Gael Clichy: A big season for Gael as he tries to dislodge Evra from the France team. Evra looks permanently furious and fights with passing groundsman at the drop of a rake. Clichy is extraordinarily fast, but developed a nasty tendency to fall over at crucial periods, such as in injury time against the hated foe. Hopefully this will be stamped out and he will finally learn to shoot. A top player who should be looking to last the season this year.

Bacary Sagna: Arguably the best player in the world. Sure, you’d have to argue that one pretty well, but if we had eleven Bacary Sagnas… well, I’d stick four in defence and the rest would have to compete with the others for places. One could probably play in midfield somewhere. And we might get away with playing a couple in the Ladies team. A magnificent defender, a soldier, and a gentleman.

Thomas Vermaelen: If you can’t sign Nemanja Vidic, why not sign someone who looks a bit like him? Steely of eye, iron of jaw and proud of forehead, Vermaelen has all the physical attributes to prove the doubters wrong about Wenger’s ability to buy defenders. Plus, he’s captained Ajax already and at 24 should have valuable experience and some great years ahead of him. I think he will prove to be a very shrewd buy.

William Gallas: Still here. After all the huffing and sulking, Wenger did the unthinkable and got rid of plucky Kolo instead, which leaves a lot of responsibility with Gallas. Unfairly maligned for his generally solid performances in my opinion, Gallas’ experience will be hugely important. He should realise that it’s his last season at the top, nail his colours to the mast and play a blinder. Could still be a world-beating stopper for us if his head is right and he can gel with Vermaelen.

Johan Djourou: Cited by Wenger as one of the many (three) tall players in our squad, this could be a breakthrough year for the young swiss, who has clearly muscled himself well ahead of Senderos in the picking order. Must steer clear of injury, but a first team spot is certainly not beyond him this season.

Emmanuel Eboue: So good, we profiled him twice. Arguably the best player in the world. Mad, bad, and often dangerous to pass to. Let’s hope that when he does get on he plays in defence, that he continues to cut inside so thrillingly (and entirely unpredictably) and that he wins a penalty at Old Trafford with a dive so egregious that it shocks the world. Reportedly wanted by Barcelona as a replacement for the tediously magnificent Dani Alves, and who can blame them?

Back 4 Extras: Arsene Knows. More than anything he seems to know how to find lithe quicksilver young left full-backs. Kieran Gibbs will have to fight it out with Armand Traore to be Clichy’s back up this year, though both players could surely also be useful on the wing if pressed into action. Mikael Silvestre continues to cement his place as a firm fans favourite, which is why we all hope he’s used sparingly.

Alex Song: Turned himself into a bit of a lynch-pin by the end of last season, though that was partly because we didn’t have any other players left. A good start could see him kick on to become a major force, though you still wonder if Wenger doesn’t see him as a defender. The face of Arsenal’s cosmetics range, there is still time to make yourself smell like Song. Prone to dozing off against correctly-termed lesser teams, our soft underbelly is likely to completely collapse without him, unless we get another defensive midfielder soonish.

Denilson: Famously “not as good as Kaka”, as the woman behind me repeatedly insists on pointing out, Denilson is a very promising talent, who must be looking to really impose himself on the team this year. Blessedly injury-averse, the ever-present young square-pass merchant isn’t going to convince everyone, but he’s convinced Mr Wenger, who will want him, like Song, to add a bit of grit and consistency to his game. Also like Song, likely to be the scapegoat for any poor results.

Aaron Ramsey: Tidy, skilful and a future mainstay. Looked overawed at points last year, but should know his way around by now. Not one to hang about and clearly convinced of his ability (just in a Welsh, rather than Danish way, if you get me) Aaron is likely to see a lot of gametime, especially if no other central midfielders arrive. Did I mention that some Arsenal fans want to see a defensive midfielder brought in?

Prognosis: The patient is a bit off-colour for this time of year, and looks thin around the middle. Would benefit from a muscular injection in defensive midfield and centre-half. What an original conclusion.

Thank God the season’s here. There’s been far too much Arsene-bashing from the press and some fans, and futile, circular, transfer-related harping. A win on Saturday would be the best way to forget all about it.

Amid the understandable brouhaha over Adebayor’s delicious overhead kick, photographed in all it’s glory here, it has yet to be pointed out that this may well be the very first time during the Wenger reign that an Arsenal player has scored an overhead kick. Truly a momentous effort then.

Some will surely point to Eduardo’s chest-and-volley-on-the-swivel against City last season, but in my view that’s exactly what it was – an ingenious over the shoulder effort which can’t quite be classified as a thoroughbred overhead kick in the Ronaldinho/Crouch mould.

If you can think of others do put them in the comments, it may be that I’ve forgotten some gem or other.

It’s been one of my odder gripes over the past few seasons that we haven’t had players who were that keen to score overhead kicks. Sure, Thierry had a go once or twice, and there was never any doubt that we had players who were technically proficient enough to pull it off. For me, it’s an attitude thing. Wenger’s boys are all about crisp finishes into the bottom corner having bamboozled the entire defence in the build up. 

At their best, it’s more about running it in than walking it in, but this doesn’t involve a lot of crossing and when the ball does go in the air, our players immediately try to bring it down again to pass to a team-mate. The glorious thing about the overhead kick is that it is a desperate measure, a moment when tactics and team-mates go out the window, when all the player is thinking about is getting a shot in, however difficult that might be. And while having such intelligent players is fantastic, you do miss that impulsive, score-at-all-costs instinct that Ade showed on Tuesday.

While we’re on the topic, here’s the greatest overhead-kick I’ve ever seen. 88 minutes gone in their last game of the season, 2-2 against Valencia and needing the win to qualify for the Champions’ League, Rivaldo (having already scored both his team’s goals) produced this.

I want to see some of that from Eboue in the Champions’ League final, and then I want to see Peter Hill-Wood imitating the bloke at 0.10 in that clip. Top exultation from that man.

Moving on, it’s looking like Manuel our Spanish waiter goalkeeper will be sidelined with Le Gal for a wee while, which means Lukasz Fabianski has the chance to impress. Its a big chance for him, too. He’s been patiently chalking up cup appearances, and though he’s 24 he seems to have a good attitude and a commitment to biding his time and making it at Arsenal. He looked sharp on Tuesday and if he needs inspiration he need only remember Alex Manninger, who famously came into our 1998 side and performed heroically. Not that doing similar would necessarily mean we’d have to ship him off to Fiorentina, either.

With Djourou looking good, I hope we won’t miss Le Gal too much (though it would be very nice indeed if his injury turned out to be less serious than it looked), and with Silvestre on his way back we should have everything nothing to worry about.

Finally, if I was a betting man, which I might be, I’d haul my considerable crease onto Betfair and buy up some odds on a Liverpool comeback at Stamford Bridge. They need three goals, but they got four at Old Trafford and will, crucially, be attacking a Terry-less Chelsea, a team which often loses at home to very bad teams indeed. Plus if you do it on Betfair you can wait til Liverpool go a goal up and the odds swing enormously back towards them, sell some of your stake, and hopefully win whatever happens. Easy. Just don’t blame UpForGrabsNow if it all goes tits up.

Good morning and welcome to yet another instalment of tedious speculation about Andrei Arshavin. Nope, scrap that. As far as I’m concerned the last word on the matter has come from the Arseblogger with his astute owl comparison. We will not be mentioning the Arsh-word until something actually happens apart from his agent sitting in London hotels claiming that “ten, fifteen, twenty-five” top clubs all want to buy his boy. Now, there’s quite a big difference between having 10 clubs interested and twenty-five, isn’t there. It’s also curious in that case that they only ever mention Arsenal as even vaguely interested (and Sp*rs, but let’s be realistic here). Anyway, I’ll draw  a line under the whole sorry affair until Arsene says otherwise:

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That feels better, doesn’t it? In place of the Arsh-word I’d like to suggest a player who I would love to see Arsene bring in this January. I’ve hinted at it before, but I really do think that Juan Sebastian Veron would be worth a shot.

In his favour is that he’s experienced at the very highest level of European football, can still pass like no-one else in the world apart from possibly Cesc, is being seriously considered for captaincy of the Argentinian national team and was last week awarded the South American Footballer of the Year award for his superb performances for Estudiantes, suggesting there is a lot of skill and influence in the old dog yet.

I also think he’d be very cheap and could be interested in a loan deal. I’ve seen him making noises about going to Lazio, but Lazio don’t seem to keen, probably still annoyed at his departure in 2001. Still, the fact that he’s interested show’s he’s got the appetite to get back in the big time.

 He’d bring us exactly the kind of guile and experience that we need so badlyfor our midfield in the short term. He’s obviously eligible for the Champions’ League, where he was never short of superb for United and I certainly don’t see how he could do any harm to our season.

Clearly, people will point to his failure at United and Chelsea. Of course he never produced as everyone expected him to, but I always felt the extent of his “failure” was overblown by the then unheard of transfer fee shelled out for him and the media’s desire to pillory Fergie as we stormed to the title in 2002. Arsenal play their football in a very different way to Chelsea and United and his sheer passing ability might see him fit into our style surprisingly well.

He is a player of rare class and natural ability. Might it not be worth having a Bischoffian “gamble” on him?

Very interested to hear your thoughts on the idea of Veron coming to Arsenal.

On to other stuff, and I always enjoy reading TribalFootball if only to laugh at their always bizarre angle on footballing developments. Yesterday they ran the headline: “FABIANSKI REVEALS ARSENAL KEEPER DREAM!” What a revelation. Who could ever have guessed that all this time he was hoping to get a game. Someone better tell Arsene, pronto.

The crowning glory, though, was this little jewel of an analysis of Sp*rs purchasing of Jermaine Defoe:

Tottenham have got the 26-year-old England star on the cheap. They will only pay around £6million for him as Portsmouth still owe them £7m from the original deal and on their other Spurs signings Younes Kaboul and Pedro Mendes.

It is an incredible piece of business by Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

They’re right to use the word “incredible”. As in, incredibly foolish, incredibly profligate, incredibly expensive. However much you try and make the deal look “on the cheap”, it quite simply wasn’t. That £7 million which Tottenham “saved” was money they were owed, y’know, like it was going to belong to them pretty soon. You can’t just pretend it never existed.

 Apparently Jermaine was charming enough to request £700,000 from Portsmouth as a “loyalty bonus”, which Tottenham kindly paid for them. Snivelling. Little. Gits.