Monday, May 22, 2006

The great Sol Campbell transfer mystery.

So Sol's gone to Fenerbahce screams Myles. 'No he hasn't' is the general reply.

This statement appeared on the official Fenerbahce website:

Rumours that we have agreed all terms with Arsenal FC’s Sol Campbell are untrue.

Claims that the player concerned will be arriving in Turkey to complete the deal do not reflect the truth.

Now, this statement is clearly written by someone who knows his legalese. Note: 'that we have [not] agreed all terms' - does this mean some terms have been agreed? Does this many terms are in the process of being agreed? Does this mean terms were ever in the process of being agreed?

The second statement is no less ambiguous: Could he be completing the deal elsewhere? Does this refer to the immediate future, or the entire summer?

Overall, I would be wary of those who would say that this is a comprehensive refutation of Fener's interest in Sol. Personally, I'm now of the opinion that a deal is being negotiated, but it is unclear whether it will be successfully completed. I also think that the £8m figure is too high.

Which leads me to 3 conclusions about Myles's post yesterday:

1) it was a total wind-up and Myles is trying to make a point about Football rumours. Conclusion: unlikely, I think even Myles would know better.

2) Myles's 'sources' misled him into thinking that negotiations were complete, and Myles jumped the gun to get what he thought was a scoop: Most likely. If so, slightly annoyed at Myles, but its just his journo instincts coming out.

3) Myles was right, and all other parties are in denial. More likely than 1), yet still, I feel, unlikely.

Either way, I hope you all realised that I was merely passing on information yesterday, due to the shock of the situation, and also trying to pass on info to potentially substantiate Myles' claims - something he had, as per usual, failed to do.

What the whole debacle has shown, is that the majority of Arsenal fans are willing to let Sol go. Whilst I agree with this opinion, I was most dissapointed to see Arseblogger's blithe comment: I won’t be sorry to see him go one bit.

I will, despite his frankly awful season, because Sol has been a great servant of the club up to this year. He was an integral part of two championship winning sides and, as many of us accept, this would have been three if he had not sustained an injury at such a critical moment in the 2002/3 season. He hasn't quite turned into the Tony Adams replacement as a lot of us hoped when he arrived, but i still think he's, overall, a legend. It's the right time for him to go, but that shouldn't blind us from the great performances he's put in over the years for us. Nor the fact that he was a titan on Wednesday night, and put in one of the great performances of an Arsenal player since i've been watching the team.

I'm sure that in the next few days this story will either become fact or slip away to nothingness. Either way, I'll be surprised if Sol is with us in August. If so, bye-bye, but thanks.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sol was suspended in 2002-03 (for a forearm smash on Solsjaer), not injured.

Goonerboy said...

Yeah, I forgot to write that I actually doubt Sol wants to go to Turkey. He will if pushed though.

Anonymous said...

I dont think he wants to go to Turkey but He will leave for free thats for sure. He is one of our top earners and he is not a key player anymore so It seems likely he is moving on. Probably to an English team but Fener can offer him CL football and Sol is abit unpredictable so I believe it might happen. He has been a great player for us I agree he deserves more respect. He was great against Barca and Sol has a big part in the improvement of Kolo Toure. He has been a rock for us and I wish him all the best

Anonymous said...

Thereddragon, at least have the courage to name which team you support!! If you cant do that dont bother posting your meaningless views!!

Goonerboy said...

thereddragon's remark has been deleted as i have no desire to see this turn into a banal banter blog.

AvP said...

Sol wont go anywhere, he will be an Arsenal player next year.

needs a wage cut tho

Anonymous said...

Well done Goonerboy. People like thereddragon must have real sad lonely little lives if all they can do is search for other teams fan blogs to invade!!

Anonymous said...

Rather than having a dig at Myles, why didnt you do your own research before reproducing his article, he can only take responsibility for his own site, not for you quickly copying the info so you could be seen as being part of the scoop info!

Goonerboy said...

I did not do that, and I'm not having a dig at Myles, if you read yesterday's or today's article.ANR is my favourite Arsenal site on the net.

All i did was wonder where he was getting his information from. And I reproduced another article to see if any one could shed any further light.

Anonymous said...

Myles site is by far the best Arse relatet site/blogg/independent Arsenal page on the web. Look at the NewsNow top Arse stories and his site always tops it, abow stories from BBC, Sky, Arsenal.com etc. So Im not alone thinking so. You dont have to slag him of just because he can write and have an interesting view on the Gooners and do have exelent sourses to back up his news.

Goonerboy said...

For fucks sake:

I AM NOT HAVING A DIG AT ANR.

I'M JUST INTRIGUED AS TO HOW HE CAME TO HIS CONCLUSIONS.

Anonymous said...

So - it looks like we're signing Rosicky! If anyone can tell me the address of the official (or even an unofficial) Borussia Dortmund site, I'll tell you what they are saying (I have good German).

Anonymous said...

Greets to the webmaster of this wonderful site! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
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Anonymous said...

Sol concluded the deal with Fenerbahce and signed a binding protocole. The official contract is to follow after the World Cup.