Arsenal FC Blog’s coverage of the 2010 World Cup and beyond

Mate congrats – this is all very exciting. Will be eagerly awaiting your coverage! Go Australia!

Great site mate; Looking forward to the new projects; Lovely content. Good luck with the nomad- i like the name a lot

I just luv your Posts!!!

Get involved! I’m all for being the second half of FN:2010 as long as I can shake this ridiculous hacking cough which has come on board in the last few days. It truely is awful.

Europe awaits your arrival Andrew, and I can’t wait.

Wow, that is brilliant. Andrew, I am wishing you all the best as you work on the project. i can see the future is already bright.

On your way to L’Africa du Sud make a point of having a stop over in Nairobi Kenya to freshen up and have a feel of the land with Real Nomads.

Welcome Mike, Andy thinks you can out shine him in the postings, take the reigns and steer it to greater heights.

All the best in S.Africa mate, can’t wait to see how it turns out! Will hopefully catch up for a beer and an Arsenal game next season in brissie. Take it easy and enjoy!

Andy, its been a pleasure reading your blog over the past few years. Looking forward to hearing about the World Cup exploits via FN. Will be at the launch next Sat to share a beer, a couple of fuck-off spreadsheets, and a cheeky whiskey or two.

Great blog! Well wishes in SA and good luck in Berlin. I’m sure you can take your career to the next level. I can’t wait.

Best of luck Andrew.

I look forward to AFCB relaunch..But as as much as I’m looking forward to June 11th 😉

thank you keep it up

Good luck mate and great to hear the AFC blog is going to be bigger and better next season.
Just one question though, why Germany? I mean no offence it’s a nice enough place, I’ve been there but 1 year is a long time.

I read this blog pretty regularly, but don’t comment. I have to say — congrats and good luck to Andrew. Thanks for all the great writing and staying positive. Looking forward to reading about the world cup. I still wish Ireland had made it . . .

picked the below up from a chav forum:

cfc1905 (Chelsea): JoeC has recently done an interview on Chelsea TV and for someone who had just completed the double he was not very happy and still complaining of lack of game time. I believe that he has already signed in principal and agree that as a London boy he would prefer to stay in the Capital. Seeing as Harry has said he has not got him then Arsenal seems the logical place to go. On the wings you only have Walcott or Nasri (to the best of my knowledge) so a fit Joe could replace either of them. But therein lies the problem, is he really fit and fully recovered as his form for Chelsea was patchy to say the least? In his defence he probably would have preferred a run of games rather than cameo performances but he obvioulsy did not do enough to warrant starting or being kept on. I think probably a good calculated gamble and if he regains his form he can certainly be a match winner. KTBFFH

Arsenal turn down Barca offer for Fabregas

Arsenal Football Club have today released the following statement about captain Cesc Fabregas:

“Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is under contract with the Club until the summer of 2015. He is a highly valued member of the team and part of our future plans.

“We have followed recent speculation linking Cesc with a move away from the Club but as there has never been any official approach for him, only two informal exchanges, in which we made it abundantly clear that we have no interest in transferring Cesc, we have refrained from publicly passing comment. However, yesterday evening we received an offer from Barcelona for Cesc and in response, we immediately and resolutely told them once again that we have no intention of selling our captain.

“To be clear, we will not make any kind of counterproposal or enter into any discussion. Barcelona have publicly stated that they will respect our position and we expect that they will keep their word.”

New article in metro… http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/828929-joe-cole-to-join-arsenal-on-free-transfer-after-signing-three-year-deal?

I don’t think Cole signed for us. Its either ManU or ManCity but definitely not us. Arsenal will never pay the wages J.Cole commands, this is all rumours.

I’ll believe it when I say it, nothing against J.Cole as I think he is a very good player. Of course he is on a free but Arsenal have never broken the wage structure for any players except; Sol Campbell, Henry, Fabregas (at least those i remember correctly). However I welcome him with open arms if he comes, he can take over Theo on the right and show(mentor) Theo how to play a 4-3-3. It’s just that 120k for wages is ridiculous even for Cole’s standard. 120k is for someone like Messi.

all the very best Andrew 🙂

oh arsenalfcblog. you are the wind beneath my Arsenal wings. i am just ahlfway through working out a footballing holidays over europe and through south america. Can’t wait

Im tired of Fabregas putting us on pressure. I just pray Barca raises the right amount and takes the burden off us. He has shown his heart is not with the club and he should go only if a 50 plus m Euros are paid together with Yaya toure. We shall do far better without him if we add 5 more good players from his sale. Tired .

Reina for the Gunners now Benitez has gone?

As someone said over here, some people like to look back at the good old days. We all do that at times. But looking back is sometimes dangerous because we see the past that we want to remember and not the past that has happened in reality. If I remember my childhood and the summer holidays it looks like I was living in Spain somewhere because the sun was always shining and it was warm. But in fact when we had 1 week without rain in the summer it was a very rare thing and yet when I remember those days it looks like that. So we have to be careful with looking back.

Some people still blame Wenger for letting Henry, Pires, Bergkamp en Vieira go. Yes they all went away from Arsenal in the space of some 2 seasons. But let us take Bergkamp to start. He was just getting too old for playing in the EPL. Yes he still had his moments of brilliance but those days and moments were getting rare. I want to be the last one to give the impression that I talk down Bergkamp as I think he was one of the most important players during his career at Arsenal and maybe a bit underestimated by some people. But it was clear for everyone and certainly for him that he had to stop playing football at that age.

Henry left us because he wanted to win the Champions League and he thought it would be impossible at Arsenal. Maybe if he had scored our second goal in the final we would have won the Champions League in 2006. But he missed and Arsenal missed out . Since then 3 seasons and only one was a good one. The other 2 seasons have been rather poor for a player of his standard. If we would have won the CL and if he would have stayed and produce the same seasons at Arsenal maybe those same people would have said that Wenger should have sold him as he was no good anymore. I think Wenger let him go because he was having troubles with his health and that he wanted to reward him for his best years at Arsenal.

Pires also had one good season left at Villareal but the other seasons he was sitting on the bench a lot. He also grew older and it showed in his performances. Did we really had to hang on to him? He got a lot of injuries also in his last few years so did we had to keep him? And when did we had to let him go? It’s easy to say we should have kept them but this was not realistic and certainly with Bergkamp and Pires.

Vieira is the one player that maybe could have made a difference in my opinion. At first sight he seemed to have won a lot of titles in Italy. But there is one big but. When I look at Italy and the Italian league I don’t know how you win titles. Do you win it on the field? Do you win it with making phone calls? Who knows what else is done over there. One of his titles in Juventus was taken away by the Italian FA as the title was won by doing all kind of things that involved referee match fixing things. And then he went on to Inter who had a run of titles but their name also has been mentioned recently in court because they also seemed to have ordered refs for some games just like Juventus had done. So excuse me but winning the league in Italy is something that doesn’t mean a lot to me. But he has it on his list of honour that is something you cannot take away from him. But if we look at the Vieira from these days it is clear to see that he is at the last stage of his career. The stage where you have to choose between ending your career with grace or keep hanging on and get the most (moneywise) out of it. But I really wonder if Vieira would be better on the field than Song for the moment. I would chose the Song from now always ahead the Vieira from now.

Some people call Wenger arrogant and accuse him of megalomania. I cannot come up with an answer if Wenger is arrogant. To know this you have to know him in person. But if Wenger is suffering from megalomania this is a thing that we can try to find out. If in my country they call a football manager as someone who is suffering from this they mean people who spent millions without thinking of the future. Like in the French expression: après nous la déluge. Which means something like : cleaning up the mess is for the others. This is working like Redknapp did at Portsmouth. That was megalomania. He bought as if he was Real Madrid. Gave players big contracts and gave them high wages and when he saw that the ship started to sink he went on, leaving the broken pieces for the ones that came behind him.

I really cannot say that Wenger is doing such a thing. He is doing the opposite. He is making sure that whenever he leaves Arsenal the club will be in fine shape. He guided us to the Emirates, he gave us the best youth academy in the EPL, he was building for the future. And I think he was the biggest victim of all this. He knew it would be difficult to win prices like he was used to. But he always kept the interest of the club on the long run as his priority. He could have left on several occasions and go to Real Madrid where he would have had all the money available for him to win things. He was linked with every top club in Europe in the last years, linked with the French national team but he decided to stay to help Arsenal survive the most difficult period in their existence if we forget the events of 100 years ago when we almost lost the club for ever. And in all those years when we had to be very careful with every pound we had he kept us in the Champions League. He gave the fans a football style that is admired in the whole world. And by the whole world I mean that part of the world outside the UK. The part of the world where people also take a look at the way you play and not only at the prices you have won. The part of the world where people can see beyond just success for the sake of it. And yes sometimes you can lose a game with the way we play. Those things can happen. At Everton we countered them for a few goals and won the game and we got it the other way round against United. That’s football you know.

Just like the manager who will stick to his players. Have you ever heard a manager openly saying that his player is dross or rubbish? The manager who would do such a thing is a bad manager. Because a manager his job is to build up his players and not to break them down.

Some people keep talking as if they know Cesc in person and have heard the conversations between Cesc and Wenger. I don’t know these conversations so I cannot comment on that. Maybe it would be a nice thing if the rest of us do the same. Because saying that Cesc wants to leave now because the media tell us this story doesn’t make you look like a clever person. It only gives the impression that you are a parrot.

Has Arsène lost the plot big time? Then why is his name mentioned every time when a big clubs wants a new manager? Now it could be that some of us are far better in knowing it all than people who work in football night and day. Yes that could be the case. Why would Milan, Real Madrid, and fill in any name that has been linked with Wenger the last years want Wenger as some of us clearly know he has lost it. Maybe those who are saying that he has lost it are in fact just saying that they have lost something. They have lost the knowledge that in all football clubs there are times when you win things and times when you don’t win. Especially when you are building or have build a new stadium you will have a difficult time. Look at where the other teams that have build a new stadium in the last decade, find themselves right now.

I think we are doing pretty good if you keep that in mind. So it’s not over. It’s just a new start. You just have to open your eyes and want to see it.

This Xavi geezer is really beginning to get on my t**s. The bloke is a diabolical mug who never keeps his lips closed. Has the man got a case of OCD? Does he have to repeat himself several hundred times a day to get on with his life? Every day I trawl through News Now to see who Arsenal have signed and all I seem to see is this man running off his mouth. It is getting boring. More boring than watching paint dry. In fact, more boring than watching Chelsea play. The man is a fantastic player. I probably enjoy watching him play as much as anyone but as a person he is a plonker. Xavi should show Arsenal a bit more respect because from what I’m seeing he, and Barcelona, have lost a lot of mine and I’m sure many others too.

By the way Andy very well done.

Right lads I’ve set up a fantasy league on Sky Sports site if you wanna join the league the pin is 48924 and the leagues called arsenal bloggers…..costs nothing to play and it will be a bit of craic.
Ice my teams name is 2 easy joey….dont ask why…..hope you play, aswel as gunnerboss,laninja and nonny.

@shambo – fanx mate. I’ll check it out. Give a whirl. Where do i go? what do i do? I’ve just been to the Sky Sports site and so much stuff on there I don’t know where to look. Where do you find this league? I’m not all that internet savvy – in case you hadn’t realised…i can’t even drop the smilie’s into my posts lol:

by the way England are shite and are gonna get their asses kicked in this world cup – and I’m english. shouldn’t have a non-english person in charge of the national team anyway. that’s humiliating in my opinion. and how can you take Heskey and leave Walcott? What!!?? ‘s’gotta be Spain to win it hasn’t it? by a country mile. after england’s pathetic, overpaid, rabble are drubbed they’ll hopefully boot out Coppleo – get an english manager in and start getting some of the young english Gunners in in time for the next world cup.

@algunner,
nice one mate, shud be a laugh.
@nonny,
just type in skysports world cup fantasy football on google and youll find it, youll have to put in your e-mail and register some details but its easy. Then you’ll have to find ‘private leagues’ and type in the 5 digit pin which is 48924 and then you can join ‘Arsenal bloggers’ league….in which I am going to kick all your asses!
As Arsha would say; ‘simples’….p.s everybody else get in on it, it costs nothing and could destract us from going on the transfer rumours sites, for a while at least.

Well Philippe Senderos has gone and it looks like William Gallas is on his toes too.

Its a shame really because I feel that both should have become Arsenal legends.

The truth is the closest they ever came to becoming icons at the club was wearing the shirt numbers of former idols Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp.

Big things were expected of Senderos and Gallas when both signed for Arsenal but neither really hit the heights expected of them.

In Philippe’s case he is a confidence player and to be honest that confidence was continually beaten out of him either by being over-looked for first team action when in form or by Didier Drogba.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Senderos has nightmares about Drogba. He had plenty against him on the pitch.

It’s funny that in this day and age we judge players so early in their careers. Back in the day players like Senderos were given a lot more time and more leeway when making mistakes.

Look at Tony Adams in his early days. He wasn’t called a donkey for no reason.

The difference is that Adams had the character and self-belief to overcome the criticism and become one of the biggest figure heads in Arsenal’s history. Senderos hasn’t got that.

To me, Phillipe Senderos has got great ability and had his mental strength met that natural talent then we could have had a player who became even better than Tony Adams.

Unfortunately Arsenal Football Club is too big for someone like Phillipe. Fulham will be a better level for him and I expect him to do well there.

I’d like to add that people often forget that he took Cesc Fabregas under his wing and helped the Spaniard settle into London. I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.

I wish Senderos well. In his case there will always be that question of ‘what could have been’.

William Gallas is a different kettle of fish.

When the Frenchman signed I was ecstatic to be honest and I truthfully believed that we got a better deal than Chelsea did in the Gallas-Cole swap deal. Especially when we received £5m too!

Looking back at his time with us I’d have to say its been a bit of roller coaster ride for him. Despite this people will know that I love Gallas and rate him very highly. Always have and always will.

I’ll admit though that I thought the move would have had more success. Especially on the trophy front.

When he was announced as captain I thought at the time it was a good move. He was a winner and he could only lead Arsenal to silverware.

It didn’t pan out that way.

The captaincy was taken from him in controversial style. I don’t actually think he did a lot wrong. When criticising the squad he only said what a lot of us were thinking wasn’t he?

Would there had been so much uproar had Cesc Fabregas said the same?

I think regarding William Gallas he wasn’t really given a chance at Arsenal. He was never popular with Gooners but there are times when he didn’t really endear himself to many of us.

Especially the Birmingham incident…….And surprise. I defended him then too!

What went wrong with Gallas? He should have become a legend. He is a world-class defender and I’m gutted to see him go.

The man should look back at his time with Arsenal and as in Senderos’ case think ‘what might have been’.

Maybe if his attitude had been a little better there would be more Gooners out there, like me, who are disappointed with him leaving the club with no silverware and really as a bit of an outcast.

It should have been a whole lot better for both.

Lets hope that the next players who grace the prestigious numbers 6 and 10 fare better than their predecessors.

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/222/transfer-zone/2010/06/10/1968070/revealed-joe-cole-has-signed-a-contract-to-join-arsenal

Look at this piece of article which say J.Cole has signed an contract with arsenal. I don’t now how reliable the source is….

did we get joe cole?? Goal.com says we did…

That Cole-story, don’t really know if I should believe all that talk! He’s a great player, but where should he fit in our team? We’ll see what happens…

Good luck Mate!!!!

@ Shambo – thanks I’ll get on that and use my superior intellect to defeat youse all.

@arron – interesting comments on Gallas. Sounds like it was off another site but what the hell. I too thought we’d got the better deal with the Gallas/Cole swap when it happened but, I also agree, that Gallas’s problems are all mental. maybe he got spoilt at Chelsea, i don’t know, but he’s a great player who never really looked like he wanted to graft for us when the going got tough. If the god-like genius that is Arsene Wenger has a fault (and for me he is THE best) it is that he shows weakness towards his compatriot’s. Indulges them much more than he’s ever shown any of the Brits in his team eg. Bentley, Pennant, Jeffers, Upson etc, and, most famously, Cashly Cole. How many chances has he given Diaby? Why sign Silvestre? Has he ever bollocked Gallas and told him to pull his finger out?
Ultimately if Gallas and Sillly go 3 or 4 new defenders can only be a good thing. As yet we’ve bought no one. Chamack was a free…