Gooner Daily

I’ll start today’s post with a quote culled from Arseblog.

It was vital Patrick stayed because, by keeping one of the main leaders of the team, Arsenal are demonstrating they want to progress. That was an important message to make. If you let a player of Patrick’s stature leave, your whole credibility is shot to pieces. That’s why keeping him here was so important. For me and the others, it shows Arsenal are serious about wanting to be one of the best clubs in the world.

These words were made by the dreamy Count Robert Pires in the wake of speculation linking Patrick Vieira away from Arsenal.

In all my years as a staunch and devoted Arsenal fan, I’ve seen players come and I’ve seen more go. Some Gunners have left the club after devoting the best years of their lives in service to Arsenal. My top five in this listing has figureheads like Tony Adams, David Seaman, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry. Other Gunners left Arsenal FC because they wanted to see how green the grass was on the other side. Aliaksandr Hleb, Mathieu Flamini, William Gallas and Emmanuel Greedybayor are the most recent names in such a list.

Arsene Wenger built this present crop of players from scratch and has been duly disappointed and frustrated by their exploits on the pitch in recent times. There have been games where the players have made Wenger feel like Odin of Arsgaard. I vividly remember watching Arsenal play Villarreal in the Champions League quarter final of the 2008/09 season. Walcott’s chip was the pick of the goals but the smile on Wenger’s face that night was radiant enough to create the kind of cosmic rays that formed the Fantastic Four. Wenger was very proud to know that his young guns qualified for the semis with an impregnable home record in which no goal was conceded before Manchester United whooped his team up the arse.

There have been other games when the bottle of water in Wenger hands has been his sworn enemy. There have been games were he simply threw it away while there were others where he lashed out at it with the kind of kick that would have made a Rugby scrum-half proud.

Arsenal went through another season without winning any silverware so it was expected that some Gunners in the squad would be disgruntled and might want to further their careers elsewhere in search of silverware. While the season was in progress, there were some Gunners that singlehandedly took off points away from Arsenal. Almunia (West Brom), Rosicky (Sunderland), Squillaci (Wigan), Clichy (Shakhtar), Eboue (Liverpool), Djourou (Stoke) while there were some Gunners within the squad that gave 110% in every game and shone through the dark times.

Despite the shortcomings of the season, Robin van Persie won the Bronze boot with 18 league goals and smashed record after record with his amazing influx of goals, Jack Wilshere won the coveted PFA Young Player of the Year and was in the middle of a tug of war between England and Arsenal, Samir Nasri’s scintillating first half of the season earned him the French Footballer of the Year award while his compatriot Bacary Sagna continued his evergreen consistent displays that saw him score two goals. The season also saw the rise to glory of Johan Djourou and Wojciech Szczesny.

Arsenal capitulated in the tail end of the season and Wenger was quick to admit that work has to be done this summer. He has just signed Carl Jenkinson from Charlton but he has been strongly linked with Gary Cahill, Chris Samba, Gervinho, the Chambered Ox, Captain America and SuperTed.

Despite all this potential transfer targets, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy have been the bookies favorites to leave Arsenal Football Club. All the talk of Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson and Manuel Almunia has vanished into thin air. Cesc’s transfer situation involves that Spanish outfit that’s infested by aliens from different galaxies. Nasri and Clichy on the other hand have a year left on their contract so Arsenal is facing a potentially precarious situation because the club to see Nasri and Clichy join new employers for free just like Mathieu Flamini.

Manchester United and Manchester City had the happiest set of fans last season because both clubs made history. United shattered Liverpool’s only bragging right by being the champ19ns for the 19th while Manchester City won their first trophy since the days Hector was the Prince of Troy. Mancini is a coach that has a lot of money at his disposal while Sir. Fergie is a coach that’s never afraid to put his money where his chewing gum infested mouth is.

He has already spent an approximate of £50m for just three players but he has told the media Vultures that he’s confident that he can land Nasri. Nasri flirted with the club a bit after Evra’s comments so I’m not surprised that Sir. Fergie has decided to gun for a player that he never would have gone for under normal circumstances.

Arsenal has agreed to give in to Nasri’s demands for pay parity with Fabregas so every gooner is still optimistic that Nasri will sign a new contract. Manchester City have also decided to spice things up by planning a £20m bid for Nasri.

The ball is definitely in Nasri’s court in a situation like this. Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Bayern and Inter are all in his case. There’ll be no need dwelling to much on Nasri’s issue because he’ll be the only to decide if he wants to stay or go. Man City are also gearing themselves for a bid for Clichy.

Manchester City is a club that’s renowned for giving exorbitant salaries so I won’t be surprised if Clichy says that he was a boyhood Manchester City fan and it would be his dream to play for them. Wenger has reiterated that he’ll only favor a move abroad but if Man City decides to bring a mouthwatering fee, I’m pretty sure that Arsenal might cash in on Clichy.

In other news, Juan Manuel Mata has dismissed claims that he’s on the verge of a Valencia exit and he has told the media Vultures that he’s happy at the Mestalla.

I guess that we’ll never see a media Vulture headline like,

Arsenal has bought a player that really Matas

The tweet of the day goes to Yusuf,

@YusufAFC4lyf: #NowPlayingTrack – “Waiting in Vain” by Bob Marley & The Wailers – damn waiting in vain for @Nanas08 to sign #GoonerFamily

O Nas Nas, what’s your name,

Just sign the deal. You wanted more money, we’ll give you more money.

Please the voting hasn’t ended yet so I’ll be honored if you vote for Gooner Daily as the best Sports blog in Nigeria.

Sayonara

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