Kolo wants to stay for life

On June 19, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Kolo Toure has spoken about staying with Arsenal till the end of his career. He has been a fantastic player for us and apart from a little loss of form during last season, he is still one of the best centre backsw in the world today.

“When I put the shirt on it means a lot of things for me. I will be so glad to finish my career here. At the moment everything is going well.

“We had a great season and played some fantastic games, but we went away without any trophies – and that’s a big, big thing for us.

“The team are still really strong, the club are still really strong and the manager is doing a great job.”

At 27 he is at what may be the peak of his career, and with his pace and skill he will surely be an Arsenal legend when he retires.

Vieira, just how we remember him!

On June 19, 2008September 30, 2008 By jamesgillespIn Video3 Comments

Remember those glory days, when we battled it out with Man Utd evey season for the title and Vieira graced our midfield? Remember the antics of our players, Vieira in the tunnel with Keane, the brawls, Keown on Van Nistelrooy, the pizza incident?

Well it seems the rivalry is for life, as during France – Holland, Vieira, ex-Arsenal, and Van Nistelrooy, ex-ManUre, had an argument in the tunneland ‘traded insults’. Vieira was also spat at by a Dutch fan.

Van Nistelrooy purposely waited for Vieira after the 4-1 defeat to the Dutch in Berne last Friday. There is a video, which I am looking for showing Vieira in the tunnel apparently being pulled away from arguing with Evra, and apparently Van Nistelrooy was waiting afterwards.

Anyone got a link to the video? It would be interesting to see!

Update:

Thanks to Dariano we now have a video, this footage only shows a clash with Evra, before the problems with Van Nistelrooy.

Arsenal Transfer Rumours: Arshavin, Camacho

On June 19, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Transfers10 Comments

The Mirror is linking us to Andrei Arshavin. They say we will pay £10 mill. The guy is a 27 year-old midfielder, he plays for Zenit St. Petersburg and he’s very, very good. I’ve seen him play a few tiomes and been impressed.

As for Arsenal signing him, I think it’s unlikely. We hear these sort of rumours everyday, and something with no evidence whatsoever can officially be classed as a ‘rumour’ at this stage.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see us sign him, but we have other options. The benefits of signing Arshavin is that he has experience, is at the peak of his career, and is an excellent attacking player.

We’re also linked to a kid called Camacho from Spain. He’s apparently an impressive, young Atletico Madrid midfielder, and Chelsea want him too! He is captain of Spain’s Under-17 squad, and to be honest, I think he’s probably on the Arsenal radar, but we won’t sign him either!

Oh yeah, we’re not signing Albiol either! His agent said it!

Nasri to finally sign after France exit Euro 2008?

On June 18, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Transfers2 Comments

According to La Provence, Samir Nasri’s transfer to Arsenal will be finaised in the next few days. I expect this transfer was put on hold for Euro 2008 and it was widely expected that Nasri would sign on for us after France were out of the tournament.

La Provence ran an article about Marseilles transfer ambitions and mentioned this:

“In a few days, the departure of Nasri with Arsenal will be made official, considerably reducing the wage bill of the club.”

This makes sense in the context of Marseilles tranfers, because they are rumoured to be after Ben Arfa, and transfer money from Nasri, as well as a lower wage bill would free them up in the transfer market.

Hopefully this will go through in the next few weeks, it’s always enjoyable to see a new signing, but I won’t be hysterical if it all turns out to be rumour!

Update 0140 hours 19 June:

Even the BBC is running it!

Barca negotiate for Hleb and Adebayor, but will either go?

On June 18, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Transfers1 Comment

Barcelona have been involved in transfer negotiations for Alex Hleb for some time now. They are also apparently looking to pick up Adebayor on the way as well.

Hleb seemed more likely to leave than Adebayor. Wenger recently faxed AC Milan to tell them Adebayor ‘is not for sale — not for money or gold’.” and I can’t see that his attitude to Barcelona will be any different over Ade.

According to Barcelona they might not sign Hleb either. Barca vice-President Marc Ingla:

“The negotiation with Hleb is still in progress and despite him being a player with special qualities, if his club are not ready [to sell him], we have other options in mind,”

A lot of the rumours seem to have been started by papers with nothing better to write and fuelled by statements from agents. Players words can also be twisted to misprepresent them as well.

Adebayor has spoken this summer already about his desire to stay as an Arsenal player, and that is the only outcome I can see. Hleb has not been so forthcoming, and his agent said he wanted to leave, but as time passes it looks less likely.

The whole situation will be done and dusted come the end of the transfer window, so wait and see, but don’t be suprised if both of these players are wearing Arsenal shirts next season.

Van Persie on form for Holland – Video of his goal

On June 18, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Video

Anyone watch the Holland vs. Romania match last night?

I did, along with the France vs. Italy game, France have been a shambles this tournament. But that’s another matter. If you missed the Holland game, you missed a great RVP goal.

Click here to see his goal.

RVP wants to play for the Dutch in their EURO 2008 Quarter-final against the runners-up of Group D, which will be decided tonight. He had this to say:

“Of course I want to start the game, every player does,”

“But there is a lot of competition with the strikers here – which you can see from the fact we have scored nine goals already in three games.

“I would like to play but I will trust and respect the decision of the manager. He knows what is best for the team and whatever he decides I will give everything I can to help the team.”

Arsenal fixture list released

On June 17, 2008August 24, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Champions League1 Comment

The Arsenal fixture list for 2008 – 2009 has been released, starting with a home game against newly promoted West Brom. They were never a classy team during their previous spells in the Premiership, but their form in last season’s Championship and FA Cup suggests to me that they might be a little better this time around, a high scoring team but defensively questionable.

A foreseeable problem is that away games surrounding the earlier Champions League matches like a fog, and this caused Arsenal problems last season. The team dropped points in similar matches – remember Wigan, or Middlesbrough?

The season might also have an interesting finale, the last 6 games include Liverpool away, Chelsea at home and Man Utd away. This is similar to last season, and those late games were devastating. The squad will hopefully learn from their experience last season, come back as a better team, and keep their concentration.

Rosicky to stay injured next season?

On June 17, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Tomas Rosicky, surely the unluckiest player in the current Arsenal squad in terms of injuries. The guy is an amazing player, but he just can’t stay fit for us, ever since he joined the club he has been plagued by muscular injuries, especially to his hamstrings and groin.

He said:

“It will be yet a long time before I return, but at the start of the new season – some time in August – I will hopefully start with training,”

So after months out he may finally return to fitness in August. You have to wonder, how much of a role will he play for us next season.

This news comes after his operation to ‘fix him’ in May, which means that he should be injury-free next year. Rosicky should be better, but we have seen players never properly recover from recurrent injuries in the past. I just hope Tom can get over it and get back on form for us, because without him in the side we lack some attacking flair and pace.

Tomas was also upset at the spectacular defeat of his country, the Czech Republic, by Turkey

“The finish was a collapse, as if the guys stopped playing. I am very sad”

Turkey came from 2 goals down to win 3-2, after a horrific Cech error (scummy Chelsea) this sent the Czechs out of Euro 2008! It was a brilliant match, check the highlights out if you didn’t see it at the time!

Arsenal make £1.65 million!

On June 17, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Transfers3 Comments

Fabrice Muamba the ex-Arsenal midfielder has left Birmingham City for Bolton for a reported fee of £5.5 million. The reason this affects us is because when Birmingham signed Muamba from Arsenal we put a 30% of next sale clause into the deal.

This of course means that we get 30% of the cash which Bolton paid. If that is £5.5 million, then an astute piece of buisness just brought us an extra £1.65 million for Wenger to spend at the shopping mall we call Euro 2008!

Arsenal Away Kit 08/09 – New pictures

On June 16, 2008July 5, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal54 Comments

Looking for the 09/10 kit? It’s here!

New pictures have emerged of the Arsenal away strip for next season (2008/9). It’s based on the 1989 Championship winning kit, worn at Anfield when we won the title with a historic Michael Thomas goal!

I like this a lot better than the new home kit, yellow is the only good colour for an Arsenal away strip!