Arsene Wenger promised the fans that he was going to be active in the transfer window this summer and I must write that I haven’t been disappointed with the club’s activity since the start of the month. Due to the trophy drought amongst other reasons, player departures have made more waves than arrivals but there are happy times again because Gervais Yao Kouassi of LOSC Lille Metropole is on the brink of wearing the Red and White for a fee of £10.5m.
Gervinho may not be a player that’ll score 40 goals for us next season but his introduction to the squad would add healthy competition in the wing positions. As calm and fatherly Arsenal’s boss may seem, Wenger is a manager that can be ruthless at times when it comes to squad selection. Lauren was Arsenal’s right back for many seasons but his injury paved the way for a certain Ivorian farmer that benched him even when he came back. Gilberto Silva also found himself in a similar situation after the Copa America of 2007. The Flanimal came in his stead to be one to the most effective holding midfielders in the land but he went for the big bucks in Italy a season later.
Still sticking with player arrivals, Arsenal has had their bid for Douglas Costa rejected because Shakhtar didn’t want Arsenal’s Brazilian escort-in-chief in the part exchange deal. Wenger was pondering a move for Will.i.an with Denilson as bait but it seems as if Shakhtar needs only the quid because they feel the Denilson won’t add any value to their squad and game play. This means that Arsenal has to turn its attention to Sevilla because there was a point in time when they offered £8m for the bloke. Denilson earns £52,000 per week so his departure will be good for the club’s wage bill and it will also mean that there’ll be space to add a new player as a replacement because the Premier League’s 25-man squad rule still stands.
The media Vultures have reported that Arsenal is set to miss out on Velez Sarfield’s Ricky Alvarez because Roma has already made a £12m bid for the young bloke. In Football Manager 2010, I managed San Lorenzo de Almagro and Boca Juniors in the Argentine League but in all the games I played against Velez, there was no winger that terrorized my teams but for a player in the Apertura to leave the shores of Argentina for £12m he must be something. My pal and a fellow Arsenal blogger Vijay Murali did well to analyse the pros and cons of Little Ricky so if you really want to know the bloke, just click on the link.
The media Vultures have a knack for creating spicy stories so they’ve reported that Gunner reject Sebastian Larsson claims that we want him back. The most hilarious story of them all is that Arsenal is now linked with Tottenham’s elf that put a tattoo of a penis on his hand, Jermaine Defoe. Defoe is very excellent finisher on his day with his goals against Wolves labeled as evidence but a striker that scores 4 goals in 22 games doesn’t deserve to strike for Arsenal Football Club. Van Persie had 22, Walcott had 13, Chamakh had 11 while Bendtner had 9. Vela scored only 3 goals before going on loan to West Brom but I’m positive that if Vela played 22 games for Arsenal he would have scored 10 goals at least. Vijay also wrote about the pros and cons of signing Defoe and I was really impressed with what I read.
Moving over to player departures, the usual suspects haven’t appeared today but the player that wants to move away from Arsenal didn’t even make it to the list of want away players that I published yesterday. Emmanuel Frimpong has said that he’ll leave the club if he’s not guaranteed first team action next season. We live in times when the gooners are crying for solidity at the holding midfield role and Frimpong pops up from the lair he has been hiding in. Frinpong should feel free to make his move to Shangrila FC for all I care. Wenger has tried the youngster thing for 6 years and we all know the end result. npower Championship sides like Charlton and Cardiff City have placed the young lad on their radar so Arsenal should do well to get a million or two for the English bloke with Ghanaian descent.
Fabregas has been the subject of speculation regarding a move to FC Barcelona but the Barcelona hierarchy has come out to say that they won’t break bank to get Super Fab because they feel that his worth has reduced in the turn of the year. Whether his worth has reduced from £50m to £1, Fabregas is a happy Arsenal player whose contract expires when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan finishes his 2nd term in Nigeria so Barcelona can keep their mouths shut and wait for Fabregas to grow grey hair before he returns back to them. At least by that time, he’ll probably be bored of winning many trophies for Arsenal.
The 2011/12 season is around the corner so the FA decided to be release fixtures for all the 38 League matches Arsenal and the remaining 19 teams will play from August 2011 to May 2012. Arsenal will kick-off their Premier League campaign in the home ground of the side that made Arsenal enter the record books for the wrong reason, St. James Park. The build-up of the curtain raiser will probably be dominated by the last meeting between both sides that ended in what the neutrals call an epic. Arsenal’s first match against bitter rivals Tottenham will take place at White Hart Lane on the 1st of October, 2011 while the return leg at the Emirates will take place on the 25th of February but like last season, the game could be postponed if Arsenal makes it to the Carling Spoon final because the final is scheduled to take place in Wembley on the 26th.
In other football news, the Korean FA has handed lifetime bans to 10 K-League players that were involved in match fixing scandals. The players involved may also face 7 years in prison if they are found guilty of the allegations pressed against them. Just like the way that bloke in the MLS got a 10-match ban for breaking another professional’s leg, UEFA needs to employ stricter rules to make the game better.
In 2006, Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggiana got involved in a match fixing scandal that saw the clubs interact with each other as well as referees over games that were to be played. Juventus was demoted to the Serie B and 9 points were deducted from them. This made the club lose stars like Zlatan Turkeymovic, Monsieur Vieira, Fabio Cannavaro and many more first team players. 3, 8, 11 and 15 points were deducted from Lazio, AC Milan, Reggiana and Fiorentina respectively but if the players and managers knew that they could be banned for life if they were engaged in such an activity, the scandal wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Mullan received a 10-match ban for breaking a fellow professional’s leg, Ryan Shawcross on the other hand stopped Ramsey from playing active football for an entire year but he just received a 3-match ban and continued his rough tackles after taking the 3-game break.
Well, I won’t blame some of the clubs in World football for being corrupt when those in F.I.F.A. are not better off. You can read about FIFA’s corruption timeline here. I broke it down from start to finish. 🙂
I apologize for the lateness of my post but I believe it’s something that you’ll have to get accustomed to. I’m usually very busy during the day so I’ll prefer to do my blogging at night.
Just eat Gooner Daily as your Arsenal dinner before getting some sleep. 😉
Sayonara.
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