Written by Mean Lean on Sunday, 10 July 2011 15:46
Samir Nasri has left for Manchester City in a fee in the region of £20m, Arsenal have made contact with Aston Villa over Stewart Downing and we are looking to pay £18m. You must understand that this information has not come from me so don't shoot the messenger. I understand that this information has come from the very understanding Sky Sports News. They happen to understand quite a lot of things that are quite far away from the truth.
The Downing story is so transparent that it is almost laughable. Apparently Downing still would prefer to join Liverpool over Arsenal which if there ever was a doubt about the story then that just blew the plan wide open. Liverpool have offered an amount for Downing that Aston Villa have rejected, they want Liverpool to table a higher bid and why not after watching them spend £20m on a rookie midfielder.
Is it ridiculous to suggest that Villa have leaked this to the media so Liverpool raise the stakes. Choosing Arsenal is a good idea as we do not publicly talk about which players we do or do not look to buy.
In real life news and not stuff invented by people with an agenda, the Arsenal boys have set off on tour which means it is now only a few days until we watch the Arsenal play again. I am very excited about this. At the end of last season, I was willing the weeks to go by, for the curtain to close but now I cannot wait for it all to begin again.
Manuel Almunia and Nicklas Bendtner did not travel to Asia as they are apparently in talks with other clubs about a departure away from the club. I think that sounds very credible and is probably far closer to true than the usual 'understands' statements.
Who those clubs are and in which country/league remains to be seen. Many players vanish off the footballing radar when they leave the Arsenal, I am not sure if that will be the case this time with Nicklas Bendtner. I suspect that he will have a good career and this potential move will be very good for him and probably good for Arsenal given the system and style of play we have. Manuel Almunia is the type of former player that could well disappear from our ear shot if he finds a club abroad, which I am sure he would try to do.
It is quite remarkable how last season you couldn't squeeze past a comments section, blog and forum without hearing Arsenal fans call for a new goalkeeper. I was one of those people before you ask. Now you do not hear a goal keeping peak out of anyone about that position.
With the departure of Clichy and the possible departures of both Bendtner and Almunia then it looks as if the door is open for new signing to walk through. One will be Gervinho on Monday after his documents are sorted out and perhaps we can bring some more in shortly.
I didn't understand the madness surrounding Wenger's interview. People were shouting '1 or 2 signings?!!!!!!' with many exclamation marks to prove their level of anger.
The thing is, we have to follow rules that all the other clubs have to. We can only have a certain amount of players in our squad and those players are divided by age, homegrowness and lack of homegrownningness.
This is what some people would have wanted Arsene to say.
'Ze squad is merde, I am looking to cut some of this 'deadwood' I have lurking around the squad, I don't really care how much they go for, just go FFS! Then I am going on a mega splashing spree to splash some cash from my warchest. I am looking to spend big money this year to show some intent. I look at ze likes of Henderson, O'Shea and Jones and I feel full with jealousy. I will hand over my list of targets for you to have a look at..'
That of course would be a little silly from every position apart from the making fans excited part. It would of course make it more difficult to shift our squad as teams would know that we are trying to pack them off and it would also make our hand much weaker when trying to buy players. I am not quite sure what those comments would do for the rest of the players really. Not sure if our young players would get all that excited about being called deadweight, a word that has sprung up and has caught the internet virus, spreading around faster than a snotty nosed man on a packed train in rush hour.
Which brings me onto his Kieran Gibbs comments. Wenger was asked about why he let go of Gael Clichy and his answer was that Kieran Gibbs needs to get games and push on.
Firstly, Arsene was not going to say, Clichy is not good enough and I want to replace that area of the team. Wenger wasn't going to say that Clichy moved to Man City for extra cash or to win trophies.
Remember, Arsene Wenger is not writing a comment on a blog, he is talking in public where millions of people listen closely to what he says.
We know how much Wenger publicly likes to give his players confidence, especially young players and that is what he tried to do with Gibbs. He has done it to make young players in the past. He wants to let Gibbs know that despite his injury problems, he has a lot of faith in him and to continue to work hard because he will get his chance. This doesn't mean that we are going to go into the season with one left back. I reckon that Traore and Botelho have gone to Asia so Wenger can have a close look at them before making his decision. Whatever happens, we will need at least two players in that position, even more so with Gibbs recent injury problems.
A couple of seasons ago, I found myself disagreeing with Gooners about Gael Clichy and a high number of people were arguing in favour of Gibbs to be in the first team because he is better defensively and has a better final ball. Now, at least in a few examples. I have heard the same people say that Gibbs has got bad positioning and shouldn't be near the first team.
Personally, Gibbs should be competing alongside another quality left back so I do expect Arsene to go back into the market for that position. Once Gibbs stays clear of injury then he is certainly good enough to claim that position as his own, even at the expense of someone like José Enrique. Other squad members such as Traore have a chance by impressing in pre season so the boss has to make that call. As he did last summer when giving Wilshere a chance instead of buying someone like Gareth Barry.
In other news Thomas Vermaelen is determined to make up for lost time after missing much of last season. Good news. He is like a new signing. In fact he is like three signings. I mean can't he can play center back, left back and defensive midfield right?
Wellington Silva goes back to Levante swing on loan, and with a new manager at the helm, hopefully he will see plenty more first team action than the previous coach. Good luck lad.
Back tomorrow.
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