Firstly, a quick congratulations to one of my heroes, Mr Jens Lehmann, who rightly scooped Uefa's goalkeeper of the year award yesterday. We wouldn't have had much of a season without him last season, and I hope he can keep up his high standards for one more year; the prospect of Manny 'safe hands' Almunia coming back is a worrying one.
Jens received his award at the Champions' League draw, where we were matched up with Porto, Cska Moscow and Hamburg. Most people seem to have been rather complacent about this, but, as usual, I'm slightly worried. We should win the group, but its a considerably harder proposition than last year's - even if it couldn't really have been that easy again. I would say we have to take maximum points at home, and only bank on draws away from home. Going to Moscow is always a bleak prospect, and Hamburg and Porto will also be tough to beat at home. Quiet optimism is my view on things therefore.
Hilariously, Chelsea were drawn with Barca again. Maybe they should just have pistols at dawn between Rijkaard and Mourinho. Although, if they did, Mourinho would probably turn round early, shoot Rijkaard in the back, and then claim it was his unique intuition as the 'special one' which allowed him to do it. Or something like that.
Less than a week of the transfer window remains - thank god - so the endless stream of rubbish will soon be at an end. Until January at least. It appears that we're offering Chels a deal that would see them give us £10m and Gallas for Cole - a deal which is more than fair. Indeed, if they did reject this deal, then they have no intention of treating this deal with any respect for us at all. If they refuse to sell us Gallas at a reasonable price, why should we sell them Cole? If both clubs accepted that they had to give an unhappy player to a rival club, and Chels also gave up on their frankly antagonistic approach of merely offering us Gallas for Cole, this situation could be sorted posthaste. Either way, I expect Cole and Gallas to swap clubs, or for no deal to have transpired, by the close of the window.
I could comment on the Reyes situation, but frankly I can't be bothered. Never, ever going to be sold to Atletico for the £8m or whatever they offered, and unless any club comes in and offers somewhere near £15m+ he'll still be an Arsenal player next week. If he sulks all season, and plays rubbish, he could be flogged on the cheap next summer - and we could get Ribery to boot - but nowt will transpire regarding him for the time being. Whoops, that was a comment on the Reyes situation. It seems I can be bothered.
Aside from these deals, nothing else has really appeared on the rada, even if Arsene is supposedly operating 'under it'. I'm not setting my hopes too high that we'll have any new players by next week, and if we do I think it may be Gallas or nothing. And, for me, Gallas and Rosicky, with Diaby and Lauren coming back soon and being the proverbial 'almost a new player', isn't too bad a summer. I think Bendtner will definitely be pushing for the first XI when he returns in January as well. No Gallas, and we may be looking a little thin.
Tata. Gb.
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4 comments:
I agree with you on Reyes, but was just wondering why doesn't Gallas buy himself out of his contract and then we give him a signing on fee, and then sell Cashley for 20mill.
If we do that, we get one over on Chel£ea and we also are 17-18 million quid richer because of Cole's sale. The reported deal at the moment means that we are basically losing 8 million to a club that don't need it.
Who reckons that we'll get Faubret or whatever he's called from bordeaux.
Adebayor really gets too much stick. He's at least a second option in attack is TH10 & RVP are floundering. Though, he was at fault for the goal at villa. I don't know why we don't go for Gravesen. We need that steel and cover.
I think we need some new signings the way we are playing now. Just read Wenger saying that Adebayor is intimidated playing at home now etc etc. I dont think we are strong enough upfront and with Reyes leaving we need to bring a goalscorer. Why dont we swap Reyes for Maxi Rodriguez. Defensively no one seems to know thier job. Henry and Gilberto are irreplacable at the moment
Do any of you boys think that Wenger's seriously after Mascherano? It's so exciting that I can't see it happening. Arsenal buying big on a defensive player? Mon Dieu!
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