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!
Cesc Fabregas, representing his contry at Euro 2008 is keeping up to date with what’s going on at Arsenal, he wants Hleb to stay and play with him.
“I have always said that Hleb is an incredible footballer and what he has done is underrated, well, everything that he does, because he is still an Arsenal player,”
“That kind of footballer deserves more credit. But I tell it to you, he is an incredible footballer. I hope we’ll carry on playing together for years.”
This mentions nothing about whether Hleb is actually leaving and I think he needs to make his mind up. It’s very nice that Fabregas wants to play with him, but the transfer saga surrounding him is growing to crazy levels.
His transfer options have been reduvced since Mourinho doesn’t want him at Inter. It looks like Barca might come in for him but nothing is very clear right now.
Yesterday saw Holland continue their good form and thrash France 4-1 at Euro 2008, putting them through to the Quarter-Finals, and France on the brink of disaster. The game itself was a great spectacle, both sides had a lot of chances, but Holland’s counter-attacking play ruined France’s chances of a comeback.
This game mirrored in some ways the transition at Arsenal, with players like Henry playing for an aging France side, while young starlets like Van Persie (when fit!) scoring. The Dutch play a great passing game, and have really stood out for me. The way they have brushed aside the two finalist of the 2006 World Cup is impressive.
I can only hope that we can start getting more results like this next season, and one for the future – I wouldn’t mind seeing Van Basten at Arsenal when it comes to the day that Wenger retires.
Eduardo is recovering fast from his horrific leg injury. Every week we seem to get little bits and bobs from his native Brazil on the progress he’s making.
We’ve heard even more recently as Croatia play without him in the Euros. Bilic, the Croatia coach, has now said that Eduardo might even be back for pre-season training at the Arse.
“He is recovering and may even join Arsenal for their preparations. Eduardo’s absence is a handicap, we feel it all the time.”
This would be great news, but the club should be wary about bringing him back too fast, I’m sure they will get it right this time, look at what happened when we tried to bring Van Persie back quickly – he got injured again.
For Eduardo to get back to his best he needs time to recover to 100% of what he had before. This will take a while and it won’t help to rush him back.
Nevertheless, I hope his speedy recovery continues and he is back playing for Arsenal as soon as he is 100% better!
Hello, I hope you are all enjoying the spectacular Euro 2008. It’s so much more fun when England aren’t in it!!
The news today is that Ramsey has flown out to Switzerland to meet Arsene Wenger.
Ridsdale, the Cardiff chairman:
“I spoke to Aaron on Friday night.
“He told me he’d had a great day at United and was on his way to see Arsene. After that, the final decision is up to the boy.
“Aaron spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson before visiting United. He’s a sensible lad and will listen to what Arsene has to say.”
I still think this guy will go to Man Utd, he seems the sort of player who they would sign, and Man Utd say they will loan him back to Cardiff if he signs, which may sway the player.
It will be interesting to see what his decision really is. A young prospect is never a bad thing to have at your club I suppose!
Hopefully Wenger’s intellectual charms can win the boy over after Alex “Rudolf” Ferguson had his way with him.
Arsene Wenger, that brilliant philosophical genius we all love, has hit Basel with the intention of signing some fresh talent for the Arse.
Arsene was at a press conference last night as Castrol Index ambassador, and he told journalists:
“I’m here with my cheque book If I see something I like….I don’t rule anything out.”
“If I fall in love with somebody, why not, but we all know the big players. What we know about big championships nowadays is that we don’t discover players any more in big tournaments.
“You expect Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Franck Ribéry to stand out, but I’ll have an eye on Mario Gomez with Germany, [Karim] Benzema for France and [Luka] Modric in the Croatia team.”
There will be a lot of Gooners out there salivating at the thought of Wenger out to sign up the top players of the tournament. I would say to them, have patience and wait and see what happens. If there are players good enough for us who can be signed then the club will do all they can to sign them.
Some Arsenal fans at the moment seem to be desparate for a signing. It is true that Spurs have signed up a load of decent players, but rest assured, if they were good enough for Arsenal then we would have got them, it’s unlikely that they would have chosen a lesser club after all.
So wait and see what gems Wenger can unearth.
Almunia speaks here on how he is maturing into his role in the first team, he has come in and played well this year, looked solid, without really being tested too much. He is still adjusting and maturing as he hasn’t been playing first team football for us before. He reckons the team are playing amazingly well, but rightly says there is stil a long way to go.
“I like to compare myself to a wine which gets better with age. I hope that I can keep getting better when I am 31, 32. I do not know how long I will go on for.”
Hopefully he will keep maturing, but I don’t see him as the long term option for Arsenal unless something changes drastically. He’s obiviously worried about the threat of Lehmann saying:
“If I am thinking about January or February in the next game I could make a couple of mistakes and be back on the bench. Football is very cruel – and especially with goalkeepers. That is why it is such a difficult position to play.”
Well at least he has a bit of pressure to keep him on his toes, I’m sure Lehmann would quite like to see him slip up, but lets all pry that doesn’t happen. I like Almunia, so hopefully he can go on and continue to do well for us.
Willy Gallas really has fun talking to Arsene Wenger and he’s chuffed to bits that he got made captain (over Toure and Gilberto)..He tells SkySports
“Before, I used to keep to myself. But I like those new responsibilities. I really have fun with the talks I have with Arsene Wenger.”
He says the reason for his injuries last year were because he wasn’t properly settled, he is looking a lot better this year, I am starting to like him, especially for that goal against Man U, although he still can only make one pass.
Euro 2008 qualifiers gone, we can all get back to the good stuff. No teams from Britian or Ireland in the Euro, how about a Home Nations next summer? Not with McClaren thats for sure he’s out, click here..
Reuters look forward to the weekends games here. With “Arsenal look set to show England how its done“. Well yeah, cause we don’t just hoof the ball to a freakishly tall man..
Our women’s team has been knocked out of the UEFA Women’s Cup after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Lyon, so they won’t have the chance to retain the title this year. It was their first defeat in 21 months!! Click here for more..
Bendtner has scored twice in 5 days for Denmark, round up of his performances and the other internationals here at Arsenal.com
Hleb was taken off at half-time due to injury in the Belarus – Holland match last night, Gunnerblog says it’s likely he will miss Wigan on Saturday.
Clichy talks about the foreign quota rubbish which is boring now but he makes a good point we have heard before:
“The nationality is not the main important thing, it is just the quality you want your team to play.”
As well as that they also have reviews of our 5 loanees, including Vela and Djourou here!!
Thank You, and Goodbye!
England just lost 3-2 against Croatia at Wembley. I don’t care about internationals, but I thought I should mention this from an Arsenal point of view anyway. Hey Modric looked good tonight, maybe we can sign him up, if we are in for him?
I won’t say much, I’m not bothered about England at all. The repercussions will be that McClaren is probably sacked, people will be going crazy about ‘so many foreign players in England’ sounding like the Church vs Darwin… Some people inevitably will be targeting Arsenal and Arsene over this…
The thing is the FA have been more bothered about Wembley than building a national centre of excellence, like Clarefontaine in France, to aid the development of players. I hate the crap that is said about foreign players, I think that people need to look hard at the facts.. They need a shock to realise that England are a load of rubbish and they are bloody lucky.
This should have happened earlier. They are not even comparable to N.Ireland or Scotland, or Ireland.. The media frenzy is going to be ugly and pointless.
ArseSpeak 