The months of June, July and August are renowned for one general type of news as far as club football is concerned, transfer speculation. These are the months where the heavyweights of club football go on the prowl to enrich their squads with talents from all over the Milky Way while other ‘smaller’ clubs will also make their bargains from time to time. Arsenal FC is regarded as one of the big boys in World football so it was expected that the club would be active this transfer window after the fans saw the team capitulate in grand style at the business end of the 2010/11 season.
While some players in World football dream of wearing the Red and White, some players within the squad have decided to set their sights elsewhere in search of greener pastures. Nicklas Bendtner is one of those players that want to close the curtains on his young Arsenal career. He had his breakthrough in the 2009/10 campaign when rVp suffered a lengthy layoff thanks to that Italian Capo called Chellini. Bendtner scored some vital late goals for the club as well as his first senior hattrick in his professional career when Arsenal trounced Porto in the Champions League 1st knockout phase.
Bendtner hoped that he would build on the performance of the 2009/10 season but an operation after the World Cup hindered Bendtner from starting the season with his club. With rVp also out thanks to an ankle injury he sustained against Blackburn in August, the burden and responsibility of the attack was bestowed on the newbie Marouane Chamakh and the Moroccan performed admirably. rVp’s resurgence in the 2nd half of the season saw Bendtner and Chamakh get limited playing time so AW decided to deploy the Dane to the right wing for him to getting playing time but Bendtner has showed his dissatisfaction in that role. After saying that he wanted to leave the club, some teams were on the alert with Sevilla and Besiktas being the potential employers of the Dane. Besiktas has decided to take the bold step by approaching Arsenal with a £10m move for the bloke. A move to Besiktas from Arsenal would show that Bendtner really wanted playing time but I feel it’s a step in the wrong direction if you ask me.
No disrespect to Besiktas but Bendtner is a 22-year old player not some old hag that wants to end his days in a European club. The player is unhappy at the club so his departure would be welcomed by some fans. I’ll update you with more of Bendtner’s imminent move out of Arsenal as the days go by.
Gael Clichy is another player that might seek greener pastures elsewhere because he has a year left on his contract. Arsenal has offered the Frenchman £80,000 per week but he hasn’t signed yet. Liverpool recently brought a £5m bid for the lad but I wrote that it would be heartbreaking to see Arsenal enrich its rivals. AW has now come out to say that he might be resigned to losing Clichy but he’ll only favor a move abroad for the Frenchman. Inter, Juventus, Bayern and Roma have put Clichy on their radar and there were reports that Roma wants to offer Jeremy Menez in a part exchange deal for Clichy. I wrote about the pros and cons of Clichy in my last post so I won’t go down that road again but I’ll be extremely disappointed if a stalwart like Clichy decides to leave the club after his years of service.
Nasri is another player that has fed the media Vultures with eye-catching headlines in recent times. The media Vultures reported that Man Utd are pondering a £10m bid for the chap but AW has said that he won’t sell to the club’s fierce rivals. They now report that Bayern Munich has joined the list of clubs that want Nasri but AW has said that he’s confident that Nasri will stay.
There was a quote AW made about Nasri so I thought it would be nice if I shared it.
“If he looks behind he’ll see that he came a long way with us and he still has a long way to go”
I wrote this in my last post,
“Should he decide to leave the club, he should always remember that Arsenal was the club that made him who he is today so it will be preferable for both parties if he goes to a club far away. Arsenal and Man Utd are not like AC Milan or Inter Milan where you change interchange players as if you’re draft picking them like the NBA”
Nasri will make a big mistake if he leaves Arsenal at this point in his career. He just produced a very good half season and he now feels as if he’s the king of the World. There are also some outrageous reports that he has told the club to offer him £160,000 or he’ll leave for Man Utd. I tend to wonder how the media Vultures come up with such stories.
Moving over to the happier section of transfer speculation which involves players coming into Arsenal, the media Vultures say that Arsenal has won the race to sign Gervinho but they reported earlier that he might not be interested to a move to England yet. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed on the Gervinho saga. He’s a very good player and I’m positive that he’ll contribute immensely to the club next season if he decides to join.
The media Vultures also say that Arsenal is in pole position to sign the Chambered Ox. I’m not going to throw any party if Mr. Oxlade-Chamberlain joins Arsenal because he’s not the kind of quality player that Fabregas, Walcott, rVp and Nasri have in mind. This is just June and there are still 2 more months for transfer activity so I’m still confident that AW will bring in that quality player that the Arsenal World demands.
The last time Arsenal was linked with off the field news was when Mr. Kroenke bought a large stake at the club. The rule book states that he’s now eligible to make a takeover bid but he still has Alisher Usmanov to contend with. The richling has come out to say that the Arsenal board is one of the reasons why the club is still trophy-less.
This was the pick of the bunch,
“What however is not clear is whether the board shares this view. For too long they have seemed happy to sanction second, third and fourth as being acceptable, whilst at the same time they are planning to sell their shares.”
The Uzbek has been under hibernation like a bear for centuries so he decided to bring himself to the spotlight again. Instead of discussing how he’s going to deal with his shares when Mr. Kroenke comes for them, he’s busy saying bullocks about his club.
I published a page on the reasons why Arsenal is still trophy-less and the points I stressed on include Arsenal’s predictability, lack of transfer ruthlessness, focus on technical ability over leadership influence, the way we have handled the rVp’s injuries, faith in El Capitan, immeasurable faith in youth, mockery of the Carling Spoon in previous years, the French revolution and the continual belief in underperforming inconsistent players.
Those are the true reasons why Arsenal has gone through 6 years without a trophy, not the board.
Get that into your thick rich skull Alisher.
The sentence of the day goes to Arseblogger. This was in the wake of the news that Arsenal wants to make a £15m bid for Stewart Downing.
“Arseblogger: He is so terrible at football that he has an entire syndrome named after him.”
I hope you like the new upgrades I made on the blog
Sayonara.
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