Tag: Transfers

Clichy Talks And Where Is Flamini?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Morning,

I have to ask the question, where is Flamini?? I don’t think he has signed a new deal if we haven’t heard from him today, but thats the thing, we haven’t heard anything from him! So we shall have to wait and see, I only hope we won’t miss him too much if he has gone.

Clichy talks about the transfer rumours saying:

“It’s up to everyone to think what they want to do.

“But we’ve got so many examples of players who leave to win the Champions League and titles, and that didn’t prove them right.

So true Clich, how many times have we seen ex-Arsenal players falter elsewhere. He went on to praise the squad, and their belief:

“I think that we have to believe in the quality we have in the team at the moment.“I believe in it, most players believe in it and I’m sure we can do it.

“So we just have to stick together and work hard because with the team we have, we’re so young, the future is in front of us and we’re going to do something great that’s for sure.”

Thats the sort of thing we want to hear, inspiring stuff, and it’s all true!

There’s a good season review here, which points out the fact that we played very well for most of the season and should be positive about next season.

We’ve taken Ergotelis’ 16-year-old striker Nikos Karelis on trial according to Setanta. At the weekend he became the youngest player ever to play in a Greek Super League game. One for the future if we do take him on.

Eboue wants to keep his spot on the wing, after a lot of critcism this year.

“I have worked very hard to change my game to be able to play in midfield. Now, I want to keep playing there and keep improving to become a better right midfielder.

“I need to do better and be more effective next season. I want to show the coach that he got it right by asking me to play there. I want to pay him back.”

I think he is a decent defender, but he hasn’t impressed me at all on the wing. His passing and shooting are not up to scratch, many times he has found himself in front of goal, only to fluff the shot. He also dives a bit.

I don’t hate him, just don’t think he should play on the wing. You can’t say he hasn’t tried.

Hill-Wood Worries About Flamini

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

Thought I would post up twice toady, due to the fact this is important!!

Peter Hill-wood, our Chairman, has said that he is worried Flamini will leave. Click Here.

“We have made what we think is a pretty generous offer and we are waiting to hear whether he will accept or not,”

“You just don’t know nowadays. You think players have a pretty good life but, somehow, someone persuades them the grass might be greener somewhere else.

“So I don’t know the answer, all I know is we think we have pushed the boat out.”

His comments suggest that we have offered the Flamster quite a substantial pay-rise. Thing is Juve are coming in for him with a bigger offer.

If he hasn’t signed by now I think we will probably lose him. Now might be his best chance to make it big, play in Serie A and make a lot of money.

If you’re reading Mathieu, please sign on! We need you!!!

Hleb Banned, Flamini Rumours

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Alex Hleb has been charged with violent conduct by the FA. Click here.

“Hleb was involved in an incident with Reading defender Graeme Murty during the second half of the match at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday 19 April.

“Walton has informed The FA that, had he seen it at the time, he would have shown Hleb a red card for violent conduct.

We have yet to hear from Hleb about why this happened. I have seen pictures but no video, if anyone has a link to a video then post it up!

They haven’t decided how long but I guess it will be three games, which puts him out for the rest of this season. We need his creativity and the midfield is looking strenched right now with so many players unavailable!

Who do you think will fill in for him??

Diaby is another one to add to the injury list after the reserves game on Monday against West Ham. Everyone raved about the performance after Wilshere ‘ran the show’. We won 2-0 and played well.

There are reports that Juve are in the chase for Flamini. All I can say is that this is a rumour, and it really would be very shit if he left in the summer!

Wenger has said how hard it will be for him to watch the Champions League Semi’s. The performance last night would have been hard for anybody to watch it was so boring. The Boss said here:

“It will be extremely painful because it’s our biggest disappointment since I have been here. We should be through despite all that happened.

“If you are played off the park and the team is better than you, then you accept it but when you produce the two performances we produced and lose the games, it is much more difficult to take. I feel we had the potential to win the Champions League and the title this year.”

Arsene really is upset about how our season has finished. I think everyone is. We have played amazing football, and we really really really deserved to get something to show for it.

We just had such an awful run. It’s a pity really, and I think Arsene feels worse than he ever has before, I do too!

Also according to Palermo’s president we aren’t interested in Amauri. We have made one signing!

Flamini Contract And Reading Preview

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Reading, Saturday 19th April, 1245 KO. Ashburton Grove

I’ll be at this game. Click here for BBC preview.

Line Up

Lehmann

Toure Gallas Song Clichy

Walcott Gilberto Fabregas Hleb

Adebayor Van Persie

There’s a good chance Theo Walcott will get a start today, he has impressed going forward, and now that some of the pressure is lifted maybe Arsene will be thinking a bit more attack minded.

Song will probably start again, unless Wenger has a reshuffle and puts Toure at centre back and Eboue on the right. Senderos probably won’t be back. I think Le Boss wants Song to get some games under his belt to step up for next season. He performed well at the African Cup of Nations so it will be good to see how he does.

Of course Mad Jens is in there as well! Apart from that unchanged.

Coppell commented earlier in the week about changing the Reading line up after their defeat at Craven Cottage, which has been hyped up a lot. Reading have a poor away record, but in the Premiership everyone is good enough to beat anyone on their day, and Reading are scrapping at the bottom of the table. We still have to see this season out so a good performance and plenty of concentration will do fine for me!
We are still linked to loads of players, none of whom we will sign.

Also Wenger had this to say about Flamini’s contract situation:

“We are getting close to ‘yes’ or -no’”

He wants to stay and I believe him. But as long as he has not signed, he is free to sign where he wants. We have set ourselves a target at the end of April to finalise the situation, one way or the other.

“April is an absolute deadline because, afterwards, we have to make decisions in the transfer market. My first target is to keep the team together, but we want to continue to respect our wage structure. That is very important. Flamini has to fit in that.”

This is all good stuff, and I think there’s a good chance he might stay. I know thats what we need.

Here Wenger agress with my opinion that defensive errors have been our problem this season.

Arsene looks ahead to the Reading game:

“Now is a good opportunity for us to show mental strength and to finish as well as we can, as high as we can because second place is still possible.”

This is so true for us, we have to play for our pride and for second spot, if Avram and Chelski beat us to it I won’t be happy.

Anyway, I feel sick, so I’m off. Plus I have a game to get to!

Lehmann To Start Again?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Jens Lehmann will probably start against Reading on Saturday.

Reading Previews here and here.

The 38-year old, will get a chance due to Almunia’s wrist injury.

Almunia is going will for a fitness test this morning according to Arsenal.com, but it is touch and go. Lehmann will most likely play again after being in goal against Man Utd as well.

“Maybe Manuel Almunia will be available, I don’t know. I will make a decision on Friday morning. He got injured in training on the Friday before Manchester. We sent him for a scan and there was an inflammation so he could not play.

“But Flamini is not back, Sagna is not back and Tomas Rosicky is out.”

If Lehmann does play it will probably be one of his last apperances for us, he’s on the way out, because he wants first team football, he hates Almunia playing ahead of him and he has caused such a fuss this year that I think Wenger has to offload him.

‘Mad Jens’ has had ups and downs for us, his early days at the club saw some calamitous mistakes, especially in clearances!

But he was in goal for the whole of the unbeaten season and has seen a lot of success with us. This year his moaning and slagging off of poor old Almunia has been pretty low, but that’s Lehmann, a crazy German really. He had the same sort of rivalry with Oliver Kahn when Kahn was Germany’s No.1. Wrighty7 weighs it all up here.

Anyway, elsewhere, yesterday Lauren said here that if we had a few of our more experienced players (like him?) then we would have won something this season.

“I felt I was still able to contribute to the team. When you have experienced the highs and lows we went through and when you have competed against Chelsea and Manchester United in the past, it helps you in difficult situations not to lose your head.”

Fair point, but that’s not the route we have taken. If we still played Lauren then we wouldn’t have discovered Bacary Sagna, and to be honest I think that the side can now mature together. It’s all very well criticising in hindsight, but I think Wenger has a great record of picking the right time to let players go.

Next year with more experience and a bit more steel I reckon we’ll be mounting a stronger challenge. Remember the sort of football we were playing before Christmas? Amazing stuff. If we can keep our heads down then it could be our year.

Ian Wright has left the BBC (Click here) because he felt like they were using him like a:

“comedy jester to break the ice with Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen “

Those guys are pretty awful sometimes, anyway, good on you Wrighty, good luck on Gladiators!!

Transfer news: we’re linked with the Palermo striker Amauri here. Make what you will of it!

Arsenal

Wenger Talks Plus Hleb and Flamini Rumours

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Morning,

Just thought I’d mention, if you haven’t subscribed to the ArseSpeak RSS feed you can do it by clicking here! It makes it much easier to keep up to date with the latest posts, why not try it!

Wenger says he’s not afraid to spend big in the transfer market, I guess we all knew that anyway though, he just doesn’t always need to. Really we just need a few quality players, big or small amount doesn’t matter.

There are rumours concerning Hleb and Flamini see here.
Bayern and Juventus are linked to Flamini, while Hleb is being followed by Inter (more ice-cream promised) with more interest from Real Madrid, Juve and Barcelona.

It would be very damaging to us if we lost these guys, they have been two of our most crucial players this year, and to lose half of your first choice midfielders would be hard. I think it is speculation, but a very real possibility.

The Flamster will hopefully sign a new deal in the next few weeks while he’s out injured. Hleb I hope will also see how good he has it here at Arsenal.

They should remember the curse! Players who have left under Weneger never do as well at their new clubs!

Sagna says he could spend the rest of his career at Arsenal. He loves the club and it shows, he has been one of the most consistent performers this year making the right back slot his own! I hope he does stay for a long time.

Glen Little really wants to beat us on Saturday. It’s funny, because Reading players always seem to make these comments, I remember Dave Kitson saying something similar a few months back!

Ade says here that the team owe it to the fans and his mum to win the remaining games.

“What we have to do to achieve things. That is the most important thing now.”

“It is difficult, but I know my mum will be somewhere watching the TV, so I have to play for her, all my family and all the people who love Arsenal.”

“We have to win all those games now, to play for our honour and for our fans.”

“The fans have been great to me this season, always singing my name and taking me into their hearts.”

“I hope to do something better next season than what I have done this year and hopefully bring something home for this club. Those are the things I am fighting for.”

Rosicky is continuing to recover from his injuries back home in Prague.

Interesting stuff here at Arsenal Vision, some really great analysis on the untruths of the media and our squad. Turns out we have a good goal return from the strike force, just lack goals from midfield:

“The fact still remains that Arsenals strikers; Adebayor, Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo and Walcott have scored more goals than any strike force in the league except Tottenham’s.”

“56 goals from the Arsenal frontmen. United’s Tevez, Rooney and Saha have 39”.

Wrighty7 backs Gallas against the backstabbers out there, I have to agree. People seem to be looking for scapegoats, especially Adebayor and Gallas. They were both being praised by everyone two months ago, Gallas was a fantastic leader and Adebayor a goal machine. Now Gallas apparently should lose his captaincy and Ade is awful.

How stupid, people should get real and see how much good work they have put in this season. Wrighty also bigs up our excellent full backs Clichy and Sagna.

Hoping we can keep the squad together,

Cheers

Arsene’s Anger! Injuries & Transfers

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

So lets get it started:

Robin Van Persie has returned to full training, and will make the team on Saturday, not sure whether he will start. After 6 weeks out with a ligament injury it will be nice to have him back. Click here for more.

In all probability Flamini is going to miss the Wigan game through injury (not very sure what is going on here though!), ArsenalPies has an article here, Diaby is also injured. This leaves us without Flamini or Fabregas, never fear, we still have Hleb, Gilberto, Diarra, Denilson, and Song.. I’m sure Gilberto and Diarra will be salivating at Flamini’s misfortune, while Diaby curses in front of the telly at his bad luck.

Arsene has had a moan about the Ivory Coast’s “stubbornness” in calling up players for international tournaments. Toure and Eboue will both be called up over the winter for the African Cup of Nations. In 2006 both Toure and Eboue had to be pulled out of the FA Cup tie against Cardiff because they were called up for the maximum period, 15 days before their match! Just to go and sit in a hotel room! Wenger is really hacked off! Read here at the Beeb..

“They are so stubborn that there is no point in even speaking to them.” Arsene Wenger on the Ivory Coast FA..

Transfer rumours..

More sources are backing up the story that we are monitoring the Modric situation, with an eye to sign him, Chelsea are also moving in for a possible £30mill bid according to SkySports. The Telegraph says here he wants to move maybe this winter.

Apprently we are interseted in signing Martin Caceres, according to himself, as well as Juve and Real… The 19-yr old Uruguayan is a promising defender playing for Villareal (on loan at Recreativo). He has been compared to Montero in the Telegraph, click here. Seems a bit of speculation here.

Arsene has said he will not buy anyone unless they are exceptionally good, i.e. no buying for buying’s sake ! But will strengthen one area. Firstly on Caceres this is a rumour and I’m skeptical about it. Caceres would be a good signing for defence which isn’t so well covered especially as Toure and Eboue are both off to the African Cup of Nations this winter.

Luka Modric is seen as a great talent and obviously really wants to come to the Premiership, but we rarely sign players we are linked with in this way and I can see Chelsea snapping him up quite easily, only to assign him to the reserves.

Also on Agbonlahor, he has come out to say that, yes, the rumours about his move to Arsenal were pure speculation.

UPDATE: Seeing as the Mputu post is proving so popular I thought I’d do a bit more coverage on the guy.
Tresor Mputu, 21 years old, Congo striker with 3 goals in 12 caps for his country.

He has played for TP Mazembe since 2004, a prolific goalscorer. See one on YouTube click here check out the goalkeeper’s celebration.

He Scored twice during the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign. He started the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations well, scoring a goal against Togo, but he was sent off against Angola and was suspended for the rest of the tournament.<

His manager says he is the best young African striker.

He's currently on a 10 day trial at Arsenal, his agent says the transfer is 70% done.

Walcott on wanting to bring his Under-21 form back to Arsenal here.

Also Jol has rejected an offer from Birmingham City for him..

Plus Win a copy of The Arsenal Miscellany signed by Frank McLintock! on Arsenal-Mania.

Flamini Injury? Wenger’s Best Transfer Signings

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal3 Comments

Morning all!

Setanta run an article about Flamini missing France’s last training session, Domenech says he “suffered a little something”, meaning maybe he’ll miss Wigan on Saturday which means no Fabregas or Flamini, a chance for Diarra and Gilberto?

Arsene Wenger has spoken out against bullying with this Video on youTube, he also says he was “really sad” that Scotland didn’t make it through to Euro 2008..

Who have been Arsene’s top 5 signings, Sportingo.com ask here, the author came up with these as his top 5:

1.Thierry Henry – Who else! Our record goalscorer, winner of countless awards, possibly the best player Arsenal have ever had..

2.Patrick Vieira – Another brilliant Frenchman (or Senegalese..) was the lynchpin in midfield tirelessly working. Sublime.

3.Francesc Fabregas – the future of Arsenal, Barca are eternally bitter that we nabbed him and see him as ‘theirs’. Passing, goals and pace.

4. Marc Overmars – Arsene took a risk in bringing him to Arsenal, he was so fast, really great winger and goalscorer, sold along with Petit for £30mill to Barca.

5.Kolo Toure – Our best defender, totally versatile, he has pace, power, he can tackle, head, pass, shoot, dribble.. I love Kolo…

I reckon that’s pretty good, but it doesn’t even include Pires, one of the best midfielders I have ever seen (remember the chip over Schmichael at Villa!!). What about Ljungberg?? Another one for the future, Van Persie, who I’m sure will prove himself, and countless others. Arsene has brought these players in for meagre amounts of money, transformed them, and also has always sold them off at exactly the right time, look at us without Henry this season, generally at a profit too. He is fantastic in the transfer market and much has been made of our scouting system. It always amazes me, the sheer talent he brings up.. Of course there are always flops – Diawara! Stepanovs! No matter though, Wenger is a fuckin brilliant manager!!

Arsenal.com interview Justin Hoyte, who is frustrated at the lack of chances in the first team this season, Sagna, has played brilliantly, out of the limelight but solid defesivly and great going forward. Hoyte says:

“I want to be an Arsenal player…It is frustrating but I am a professional and need to behave that way and focus on the job in hand.”

He is hoping that injuries and suspensions can help him push his way into the team. Truthfully, i don’t reckon Hoyte is quite good enough to get into the team on a permanent basis, he may leave at the end of the season..

They also have some interesting statistics, only the ‘Invincibles’ did better in their first dozen games, compared to other championship winning seasons. The statistics look good, and we have had a few hard tests, but with Man U playing well and other contenders around too it looks like it will go right to the wire if we can stay in the race the whole way.. Check out their table here, it does look good!

Arsenal Pies talks about Vela here he can’t wait to get back to Arsenal and play, he does look exciting!! Arsenal Pies also has a nice round up of all our players international performances.

Walcott tells SkySports he is finally over his shoulder injury. Good stuff Theo!

Great news here about Arsenal’s season tickets, finally you will be able to resell them through Ticketmaster if you can’t find anyone to take them off you. It has been a problem for years that Arsenal refused to buy back unwanted seats and people would either give them to touts or not use them at all. This system makes so much more sense to me!

On the transfer front more rumours we are moving in for Modric and Jaaskelainen…

Steve Bruce, that lovely man, is back at Wigan and his first game will be against us on Saturday at Ashburton grove.. looking forward to that.. So.. till tomorrow!

Mputu, Bould, Boring Internationals, Come on Scotland!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Just a quick one today, there isn’t too much news which I haven’t covered yesterday..I have to get off for a 5 hour train journey to Kent in a minute, joy…

So news on another man who wants a bit more playing time, Diarra.
In the article it mentions how ironixc it is that he plays more for France then Arsenal.. In the end it comes down to when the team is getting results and on form there is little point in disturbing a good line up. Diarra knew how congested our midfield was before he came and if he expected to walk straight into the team then he is a bit naive. He will get his chance if things go his way but I wouldn’t expect to see too much of him this season, especially as Gilberto has vowed to stay and fight for his place..

There’s a Q&A with now 45-year old Stevie Bould on the Arsenal Website

Also I haven’t made much comment on Tresor Mputu, the Congo striker who is apparently on a 10 day trial at the Arse.. According to his coach he is the best thing since sliced bread but it sounds like an awful lot of hype… Thirdgen’s Blog has a good bit on him from yesterday here

Finally a little question on Theo, what do you think about his penalty last night? Comment whatever you think, I want to hear.

Foreigners Restricted in the Premier League? Money Motivation

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Talk from Platini here today about the amount of foreign players used for Arsenal and Man Utd:

“I am totally against this philosophy and I am a firm believer that we need to take care of the identity of the club.”

This is something we have heard from him before, I said all I had to say on this yesterday. Gerrard is also worrying about the foreigners in the Premiership and their effect on the England team’s performance. This is so uttlery stupid but as Arseblog says it will grow and worsen depending on England’s performance in Euro 2008, if they fail to qualify then there will be a storm of media articles about limiting foreign players. For Christ’s sake even Gordon Brown is having a look at it now, the stupid thing is that restrictions may go against EU law, and in any case it would lower the quality of the League and not necessarily make English players better.. They need to get a grip, a meritocracy is the way forward.

Mixed news now, Cesc saying he is not motivated by money, and doesn’t want a move away from the Gunners, see the Telegraph article here.

He says:

“Being a Gunner is very special, something I am proud of. This is a really small club on the inside, like a family, but it’s huge on the outside.”

He’s been a major factor in our great form this season, his 11 goals and passing ability are a centrepoint of the team. The Spanish press are always sprouting these stupid rumours about him and fair play to him he always shows his Arsenal colours. Incidentally suspended for the next game against Wigan.

Another central midfielder speaking about transfers is Diaby, he is thinking about a move away as soon as January if he doesn’t get games:

“I need playing time. I thought that I would continue [to play] after I scored (against Derby County) but it did not happen.”

I would be very sad to see him leave, it is a problem for Arsene that we have so many good central midfielders in the squad, a good problem, but still Diaby has shown a lot of promise. With Flamini keeping even Gilberto out of the team Diaby doesn’t have much of a chance and you can take your pick from Denilson, Diarra, and Song who also want to play there.. Diaby has played on the left for us a few times but that isn’t his natural position. I would rather lose Song and Diarra to keep Diaby, after all he knocked John Terry out..

Germany coach Joachim Lowe wants Lehmann to be playing first team football before Euro 2008, he said he is going to have a serious chat with Lehmann about the situation, although he is backing him to play in the tournament.

Also Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti has doubted whether Arsenal are good enough to win the Champions League:

“It’s necessary to know how to handle the pressure and tension in the best way. I am not sure they are trained for this.”

This is a concern, obviously with a young side we may not have the experience to hold up under pressure but this season has shown a new resilience in the squad which was missing last season. We shall have to see how we hold up come spring, I don’t want to comment this early, but I do think the squad is much matured this season and have learned from the mistakes last year.