Gooner Daily

Thank God its Friday.

A day before Arsenal’s curtain raiser at St. James Park. Every gooner looks into a new season with optimism but there’s a dark cloud that is covering everything Red and White and it involves two of the club’s best players that are moments are from having new employers.

Samir Nasri has been at the club for three years and has been mediocre in his first two seasons. His third season at Arsenal was his best because he surpassed everything he had achieved in the previous two. He scored more goals (15), he was a better player, his technique improved and so did his confidence levels. Wenger had the chance to offer him a new deal when he was still on fire but he chose to wait till the summer. Another costly mistake by Arsenal’s professor.

With a year left on his contract, Arsenal had two possible options for the French maestro; to renew his contract or to sell him instead of letting him go for free. The contract has been on the table for all eternity and it seems as if Nasri has decided to fold his arms so Arsenal might be forced to cash in on the player. Teams like Inter, Bayern and Chelsea courted the player but the oil rich Manchester City put their money where their mouth is to make several bids for the player. The media Vultures have reported that the Arab money boys are preparing a £22m bid for Samir Nasri and there are also claims that he might be earning £185,000 every week. A 270% hike in his salary. For a player that has a year left on his contract, that’s a marvelous piece of business and I’m pretty sure that Wenger is going to cash in on the lad despite claims emanating that he’s willing to keep him at the club and let him go for free.

With Fabregas poised on a move away from Arsenal, Nasri might follow suit. However, a new replacement has been linked to Arsenal by the media Vultures, Jadson Rodrigues da Silva or Jadson as his simply known in Shakhtar Donetsk. Jadson started his football career back at home with Atletico Paranaense in 2003 playing 66 league games for them scoring 20 goals. As expected, his exploits in the Brazilian league didn’t go unnoticed so he was snapped up by Shakhtar for £4.3m. In his time at Shakhtar, Jadson has helped the club to win four Ukrainian league titles (2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010), three Ukrainian Super Cups, one Ukrainian Cup (2008) and the Europa League (2009). As a renowned Brazilian attacking midfielder, Jadson has an amazing technique on the ball because Brazil and technique go hand in hand. He’s also an expert penalty taker like other renowned Brazilians too. Finally, he’s a flamboyant attacking midfielder with excellent dribbling skills, a deft first touch and a nice passing range.

In my opinion, all Brazilian attacking midfielders are the same but each player has a distinct attribute that separates him from the lot. Ronaldinho has all the features Jadson possesses but he has extraordinary inhuman dribbling skills; so extraordinary that players clean the turf with their shorts when Ronaldinho comes around them, Kaka on the other hand is a lethal finisher and has a quick acceleration, Robinho is a trickster while Rivaldo (in his time) had the sweetest left foot in existence.

Still sticking with transfer news, the media Vultures say that Wenger has revived his interest for Boy Wonder Karim Benzema. I’m pretty sure that signing a player like Benzema will cool the troubled waters at Arsenal because he could be used as the main striker will van Persie could drop a bit deeper. Benzema could cost around £27m – £30m but money can’t be the issue because the sales of Fabregas and Nasri would fetch up to £60m.

There are also reports revealing that Arsenal is linked with FC Twente’s Bryan Ruiz who is available for just £13.75m. That transfer fee is a typical Arsenal-like fee but I doubt if we’ll go for the lad because he’s primarily a left winger and Arsenal is blessed in abundance in that playing position. So blessed that Wenger will start using a blindfold and a lucky dip to pick a player from the box. Another player linked with a move to Arsenal is Hamburg’s Eljero Elia. Juventus have placed tabs on the player but he’s saying that he’ll prefer Arsenal to Chelsea.

More wingers…bleeeh!!!

Newcastle has also joined the long list of teams that want Nicklas Bendtner and they are considering making a bid for the rangy Great Dane. There’s no point writing about Bendtner’s situation because it’s already a done deal: Bendtner wants out. Whether its Besiktas, Sporting CP, Dortmund, Hamburg, Sevilla, Aston Villa, Newcastle or even Enyimba FC or my Platoon 1’s football team in my NYSC camp in Okada, Benin, they should bring an amount that will be acceptable to Arsenal FC.

When I became an Arsenal fan ages ago, the first back four I ever knew was an all-English affair led by Mr. Offside himself, Tony Adams. His partner was Martin Keown or Steve Bould as the case maybe but the center backs had the support of two brilliant wing backs, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn. After hanging up his boots, Winterburn became a commentator and still remains a life-long fan of Arsenal. While monitoring the ongoing situation at the club, he has concluded that Arsenal can still challenge for the league title without Fabregas and Nasri. He says,

“if you lose Fabregas, then you lose Nasri, you have really weakened your team but you have to be positive as long as you can bring in two players that will compliment the team, then hopefully Arsenal can be in a situation where they can challenge for the top four”

He then went on to say,

“A big signing doesn’t mean that you’re going to be successful…(Torres, anyone)…..Manchester United have made big signings that haven’t worked our for them but they’ve also made relatively unknown players that have worked very well for them….. (Bebe and Obertan..lol)”

“You’ve got to bring in the right type of player and I’m confident that before the end of this transfer window, Arsenal will make major signings. Whether they are big enough for the gooners, I don’t know”

I’m 100% behind this Arsenal legend. Its true that Arsenal hasn’t won anything even after King Henry departed but they have been close and he wasn’t really missed because Emmanuel Greedybayor (as annoying as it may seem) did a very good job in the 2007/08 campaign with his 30-goal haul. Robin van Persie has taken over the mantle of goal scoring and he smashed in 22 last season. An injury-free van Persie will be very disastrous to the opposition and I’m confident (like Winterburn) that Arsenal would sign ideal replacement for the want-away players.

In other Arsenal news, Wenger he declared that he’s happy with his center backs, so its fair to say that they’ll be no more Samba, Cahill, Jagielka, Dann or Mertesacker. 🙁

Get ready for another season with Sebastien Squillaci, Mr. Calamity himself.

The sentence of the day goes to Arsenal Mania,

Cesc Fabregas: “bought for pennies, (soon to be) sold for pounds and a few fond memories in between”.

I’ll miss Francesc Fabregas Soler 🙁

My 2nd best player of all time after Thierry Henry but just like Henry,

I’ll still be at Arsenal even if Cesc goes to Barca. 🙂

My blood cells are Red and White.

The last time I checked, those were the colours of Arsenal football club.

Sayonara.

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