AFCB editor Andrew Weber rounds up the day’s news…
Transfer window goes mental
In a transfer window that has been calmer than Gilberto Silva, the news from the past twenty-four hours has gone all Jens Lehmann. It reads like this:
- William Gallas is to complete a medical with Spurs.
- Fulham have turned down another bid from Arsenal for Mark Schwarzer.
- Sevilla have confirmed Arsenal’s offer for Sebastien Squillaci.
- Jay Simpson has ended his 12-year career at Arsenal by signing for Hull City.
While it is reassuring to see that bids have been put in for both Schwarzer and Squillaci, both players I would like to see come into the side to complete the squad, the news about Gallas is a massive shock.
A former Arsenal captain about to sign for Spurs? My word, it’s massive.
In some ways I think the news will please the Arsenal fans who never really liked Gallas and never, ever wanted him to be captain the club.
I cannot personally put myself into this category but I know a lot of people only supported Gallas because he was an Arsenal player and will welcome the opportunity to rip into him at The Emirates at the next North London derby if he does indeed sign.
Can you imagine the songs that will be sung about his tantrum at Birmingham? It’s going to be intense.
It’s also interesting to note that if Gallas does sign for Spurs, he will have played for all three of the biggest clubs in London: Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs.
In the hypothetical handbook “How to be a Popular Londonder 101” I would suggest this would be way down the list.
On another note, regarding Simpson’s move to Hull I just have to say good luck to him.
He’s always given his best for Arsenal and done well when called upon once or twice for the first team and I hope he can push on and make something of his career. A goal or two against Spurs, Manchester United or Chelsea would go down nicely, too.
Frimpong “betters” Nasri
Just one day after Samir Nasri was announced to have sustained a meniscal knee injury, Arsene Wenger announced that Emmanuel Frimpong has gone one better in the 2010/2011 Arsenal Injury Competition by tearing his cruciate knee ligament.
“We have had another blow with Emmanuel Frimpong. He has done his cruciate in training. That is a massive blow. A cartilage is three to four weeks but a cruciate like that one Frimpong did yesterday is six to nine months. I rate him highly and I still have a lot of faith in him but we will miss him for six to nine months.”
As the manager stated, it is an absolutely massive blow for Frimpong, who impressed in a couple of pre-season friendlies and looks a genuine candidate to nail down a starting position in the team later in his career.
Although it is unlikely to impact the team much this season – each one of Alex Song, Denilson, Abou Diaby and Craig Eastmond are ahead of him in the pecking order – the injury will effectively put his development as a player on hold for an entire season, which is a massive shame.
Obviously I wish him all the best in his recovery and if one good thing can come out of this I hope it’s a burgeoning friendship with fellow knee-injury suffer Nasri.
Keep an eye out for a matching pair of “Frimpong & Nasri BFF” tattoos to surface sometime next year.
Good news for the weekend
Thankfully I can sign off with some really good news today: five first-team regulars have all been passed fit and are eligible for the team for Blackpool on Saturday.
“All are available – at different levels [of fitness]. I need to make up my mind who I integrate in the squad. But there is no major problem for anybody really. Denilson has not played since 14th April and not played one minute of a game [in pre-season]. He still needs to work. All the others are quite available, at least to be on the bench. But at the same time we do not want to rush it. To have a good season you need a good preparation so we want to especially build up Cesc and Van Persie well. They came back on 5th August and you need three to four weeks’ preparation if you want to do well in the Premier League.”
Judging from those comments you have to assume that Djourou and Song will start the game, Fabregas and van Persie will be on the bench and Denilson will be given a further week’s rest.
I mentioned yesterday that I feel the midfield will see Song combine with Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere, a combination that should be strong enough to see off newly-promoted Blackpool at The Emirates.
I totally agree with the manager about Fabregas and van Persie: I see no reason to bring them back at this early stage of the season and I believe we have more than enough good players to cover until they are fully ready to play.
Although starting well in the league is important Manchester United in particular have shown in recent seasons that winning the title is a marathon, not a sprint and I would be much happier to sacrifice a little bit of quality in the early stages in order to see us finish strongly.
Have your say on the AFCB news round-up by leaving a comment.
I am hoping that Wild Bill Gallas is going to commit a final act of Arsenal loyalty by picking the ball up on the edge of his own box in the North London Derby, swivelling around 180 degrees, and then thundering a bullet-like shot into the top right hand corner of his own net before celebrating wildly with the Arsenal team.
Even then, I think we’d all think he was still a bit of a tosser.
All i have to say is since Arsenal fc have the money and also needs to buy prayers, please do it fast by signing a CD.& GK. By then all will fine for the almight Gunners
Gallas who? I wont curse or rant at him, always treated him like he was never there, in fact I was gutted when he signed. If I was at the Emirates I would stand up and clap then beat my chest whenever Gallas does his forward runs. I bet the players threw a sexy party when Gallas didn’t renew. What party do you think they were at when Bendtner had his pants down…..
Briliant read buds
Just one thing, no matter what, W Gallas is a very good player and if the dirty spuds buy him then their defense will be twice as good and he will have a point to prove when playing against us
Gallas is still a better central defender than anyone we’ve got other than Vermaelen. We’ll look a bit silly if he does well up the road and we carry on conceding crucial goals through comedy defending.
Mr webber you made an error here “he will have played for all three of the biggest clubs in London: Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs ” it should be .”he will have played for the biggest club in London: Arsenal ” . I’m not having a dig at the other 2 clubs it’s just honest truth No one knows who Spurs are outside England. And Chelsea were Arsenal’s punch bag for decades until a Russian Billionaire decided to buy them few trophies. Now correct that please it’s very offensive.
What a slap in the face for Wenger.
He stuck by Gallas during the debacle after the birmingham game, through his hampering of team moral and even sacrificed fan favourite and Invincible Toure….maybe hes not such a good judge of character, I love Wenger but some of his shortcomings have really been exposed in recent seasons and hes as much responcible as rat Gallas, who has taken a PAY CUT to play at spurs. Unbelievable stuff.
Spurs have central defenders like king, dawson, bassong, woodgate and now gallas, we have verm,koscielny and djourou………seriously whats goin on in Wengers head?
Who thought back in May when promises of restructuring were being thrown about that we would be in this situation with 9 days left in the transfer window……alot of fans have a new slogan; In Arsene We Rust………as a fan I have never felt as disconnected from the club as I do of late….compltely bewildered with what direction we are going in…..moving to the emirates was supposed to be the stepping stone to competing with Europes elite…..when is that gonna develop????we are behind real,barce,utd,chelsea,milan and inter on appeal, maybe even pool and city now, and we couldnt even muster the interest to bid a meagre 13m for ozil, now were stalling over Given when there should be nothing stoppin us from getting the guy, honestly if it were fergie or mourinho, even benitez, they would have had their house in order long ago…….whats the thinking by the board and manager, how are fans supposed to tolerate it year after year??
I now its negative but what have we got in return for our patience and loyalty???
Top 4 and a helathy bottom line???there are thousands of football clubs financially secure in world football, we were this way before Wenger and we will be again, so I ask you what have we got for our time and money?????weve got strung along for the majority.
rant over….apologies to those offended
Sounds like bad news all they way around…. what a tool Gallas is. He’ll get more boo’s than Adebayor.
Spot on as usual Andy, feel a bit down about Frimpong injury, I really like how he performed in pre season, seems like he’s going to bulk up on the body mass. Maybe become Arsenal’s own Essien.
@Shambo
Agree with that negativity, although a tosser, Gallas is stil a very good defender and Spurs do have a large pool of defenders but most are crocked; Woodgate and King.
Only thing I want to point out is actually not lots of club in the Premier League is in a financially stable condition, the epl clubs are in debt of 4.3bn or 3bnplus if I remember correctly. Only Bundesliga is operating at a 138million profit. Even if we bid for Ozil, he won’t want to come here, simply because the attraction of playing with players such as
Ronaldo,Kaka,Higuain,Benzema and of course Ozil stated he wanted to work with Mourinho.
Shame is Arsene has money to spend but no club(epl) is willing to sell because they then have to find replacement adding to their already mounting debts. However I’m just as perplexed that this goalkeeping situation was not sorted out last may. As many here have stated if Arsene really wanted Mark.S he would already paid the sum.
I believe and so strongly that William Gallas did what he could to make us the Arsenal fans happy. I still remember him fight to get a goal when there seemed no hopes for Arsenal. Now if he finally leaves us, we should be kind to him to wish the best at Spurs.
Yesterday Diaby scored a goal, but to tell you i don’t admire Diaby’s game most times. The fact is he is very good. He can dribble, he can shoot, but why does he lose the ball so easily to the opponents????????????
Vs. Blackpool … Walcott played well and with new found confidence but he still makes wrong choices. He shoots when he should pass and he passes when he should shoot. Rosicky was like a new signing. Lots of energy, took responsibility to drive the team forward. Long may it last for him and the team.
Wiliam Galas,wasnt aliability, he played his part,, yess he made some errors but who didn’t?….so i wish him good football where’ver he goes…
I really don’t understand why anyone will want to boo Gallas or any other player who decide to ply his trade elsewhere. In fact, I wouldn’t boo Adebayor because he paid his dues for the team. Gallas did too so the issue of booing should not even arise.
Truth be told, I am somewhat indifferent this season because Wenger was busy fighting to keep Cesc and 4got to get some quality people into the team. Givens is ready to come to Arsenal but do we have the will to approach him? He would want to play Champions League so what is keeping Arsene from cutting the chase and get us a keeper? All we do is hear rumours of Arsenal’s interest in this player or that player but when it will matter most, we will sing a different tune.
How come our hearts skip each time we play either United or Chelsea? Are those team not made up of 11 players? Yes, 11 quality players but what do we have here? Only a handful – V Persie, Cesc, Arshavin and who else? Nobody should tell me we don’t have money cos we do. Get the cheque book out and sign players and stop playing with our emotions pls.