My goodness it’s been cold in Brisbane today. It’s normally the type of weather I enjoy given the ridiculous amount of sunshine and heat we usually get, but today has been a struggle. Just thought you should know. I’ll move on now to more important matters then, shall I?
I’ll start things off with want-away midfielder Alex Hleb. There has been a very predictable backwards shuffle in the media today with regards to the comments made by Hleb that I included in yesterday’s post. Indeed, the man himself found time to update his personal website with the following message relating to his apparent slating of both Arsene Wenger and Cesc Fabregas:
“The statements in the papers are definitely not my statements. I would never ever say something disrespectful about [Wenger or Fabregas]. And there is a simple reason for this: Cesc is a very good friend of mine and Arsene is one of the persons I respect most.”
I’m happy to see that, as I requested, readers of this blog did take it pretty easy on Hleb yesterday because this was ALWAYS going to happen. Case closed, no more to be said. Except that the English media are a pack of idiots – but I’m sure you knew that already.
In other news, according to AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani (how much more are we going to hear from this chap over the break?) Arsenal changed their stance on selling Emmanuel Adebayor and are now open to offers for the Togolese striker. Galliano had this to say on Italian show Antenna 3:
‘I will reveal to you a scoop. I have received a letter from Arsenal that says, ‘Following our communication of June 13, in which we informed you we were not willing to deal over Adebayor, now we are writing to tell you that we will consider a deal if it still interests you. If Adebayor decides to leave Arsenal, we are certainly interested.”
Although it would appear like an official change of stance from Arsenal and Wenger in particular, it’s really nothing we didn’t already know. We found out last week that the club value Adebayor at around £30million and if any club – be it Barcelona, Milan or West Bromwich Albion – want to pay that price then Arsenal would be open to negotiations.
Thoughts on Adebayor
As it is, we also already know that AC Milan do not have that amount of money, so Galliano’s comments are something of a moot point unless they up their offer. I personally doubt they will do so, which means that the ball is very much in Barcelona’s court. Should they fail to match Arsenal’s asking price then Adebayor will likely remain at the club.
Although I was as outraged as everyone with his head-in-the-clouds comments a week or so ago I have to admit that if I had a preference, I would like to see Adebayor stay. But only on one condition; that he absolutely wants to. And unfortunately, at this stage, it’s quite clear that he has no idea what he wants. Apart from more money, of course.
I think Adebayor has the potential to achieve a long and successful career at Arsenal – but he needs to get his head sorted out quickly if he wants to keep the respect of the fans. Otherwise, I would be happy for Arsenal to sell off Adebayor for the price they are quoting. After all, few could argue that it’s very, very good money given he was purchased for only a tenth of that price two years ago.
The final news of the day is the rather tenuous suggestion from Sky Sports that – because no-one has made a bid for Sporting Lisbon’s Miguel Veloso – Arsenal are ready to launch a bit for the player. The link is made even more fragile by the fact that Sporting apparently value the player at around £23.8million, almost double what was paid for Sylvain Wiltord, Arsenal’s record signing, all those years ago.
If they seriously think Wenger and Arsenal are going to splash that sort of money on an unproven youngster from Sporting Lisbon then they are gravely mistaken. After all, when’s the last time a young player from Portugal ever made an impact in the Premiership?
Oh… right. Bother. Did I mention it’s cold today? Bah. Good riddance.
What do you think?
Have your say on Hleb, Adebayor and Veloso by leaving a comment.
Those sagas are neverending stories!When AW will sell them everything will go better and better..I’m glad that Hleb said he has a lot of respect for Cesc and AW, but it’s too late to step back I think..Sell them, bring in Nasri and a surprising signing – as AW has always done – and we will be ready to get trophies!
@ AndreaR – The stories are all a bit *yawn* aren’t they? How’s Italy going? What has the media had to say about Adebayor?
Yeah!Never ending ….till it’s a ending story.
I believe Adebayor should if he only want 2 stay. I bet if he leave he will later regret it like Anelka
Adebayor is a brilliant player and he can play wide. I would like him to stay but if he doesn’t want to stay back then we have to search for a new striker. A goal poacher will be better as no team creates that many chances for a striker as Arsenal does. So some one like Santa Cruz can score for us. But my main concern is about a replacement for Helb and Flamini. We need a holding midfilder who should be a strong tackler as well as good in passing the ball around. Eboue can play in such position but still we need a cover for that position. Replacing Hleb is difficult. If Nasri signs he has to prove his worth in such position. But over all if things go well we have a strong team. Cesc Fab, fit Thomas Rosiky , fit Van Persie , Theo walcot(I am looking for him this season), Clichy , sanga, toure are world class. Carlos vela should come good this season. Over all apart from central defensive owes we donot need to worry much.
Arup Mondal I am too looking at young Theo this season, he did good least season, 4 prem goals, great assist (most notably liverpool) and now wearing the magical 14 shirt I will be keen for him to do well, I also will be looking at Ramsey! we need a holding mid and a def!! I say bye ade cuz im gettin annoyed bout this, hello 30 mil, buy David Silva/David Villa/Eto’o.
Ade isn’t going anywhere BUT if a team is willing to shell out that kind of money for him and he really wants out, then sell! I like Ade but I also like Henry and the world didn’t stop spinning when he left. I still don’t think Ade is going anywhere and that works well for Arsenal.
I think Hleb will stay. If Arsenal are going “open” with Adebayor it means they’re speaking the plain English, not running around the house in a little car. I’ve come to the realisation that if Adebayor leaves (which I do not want) looking at the form RvP was in at Euro and that Bendtner is my love child, we could do worse.
Fellow gunners, sometimes u make me so sad, what do we actually need in our team, every player being linked with us, we like, how many of them can we get or use? Everybody is talking about a holding midfielder, why? don’t we have Song,(my prefered choice) Denilson, i don’t like Diaby sinds he is lazy and afraid to tackle. We have Vela, Walcott, Van Persie, the next best after Fabrigas, Bentner whom i rate than Adebayor, Eduardo is coming back, Rosicky, Ramsey, pls i don’t want to continue, we are ok, my only worry is a back up for our central defenders, maybe if we can sell Ade, we can use some of it to buy Micah Richards, that’s it, we don’t need anything more, Arshavin, Villa, Silva, Eto’o, these players are just commercials who are in for the money except maybe Villa who really wants to join us. Stay back and enjoy the new season as u will be shocked, Arsenal is going to win something this year, we were very unlucky last time and we all know it, so relax and see.
i cant count how many times i have said this but UNPREDICTABLE, unpredictably has said it all…im sure whatever happens in this transfer market saga arsenal will definately take something shiny back to the emirates(excluding the emirates and amsterdam cups)! its not about the players, its about the team!!
Ideally i wouldn’t want anyone to leave arsenal as i think our squad is growing into a formidable one full of quality, but as far as Hleb goes the guy can leave and ruin his career somewhere else if the only reason he is leaving is money related because to be honest the man isn’t irreplacable. I’m not at all worried either about the departure of Adebayor i know the guy scored 30 goals last season but lets face it almost anyone could score in our team with the amount of chances we create as a team, and i think the man’s got a cheek asking for a 90% pay rise after only one good season, if he does it next season then he would have a case for arguement but it’s too soon for arsenal to whack him on anything like £120,000 a week, so if it was up to me i’d sell him to Barcelona or AC Milan and purchase another striker with less of an ego problem. In terms of transfers i believe 4 players are needed to cover our behinds next season, No 1) we need defensive cover so i think Jolean Lescott would be ideal No 2) midfield is a bit lightwieght i know Miguel Veloso is on the radar but i think Gareth Barry or the italian Aquilani would be better suited No 3) a wide player is needed to give us width and penetration from wide areas i know we’ve all but nailed Nasri but i think a David Silva or even Andrei Arshavin would be ideal and No 4) a striker who would replace Adebayor is Pavlyuchenko the guy’s got it all as has KLass Huntelaar and both would be cheaper than the sale price of Adebayor.
Tottenham’s fire power really looks explosive…geovanni dos santos, gomes from psg, luka modric and some other people…ramos really means business this season and look at barcelona too…daniel alves, seiydou keita and now inevitably hleb…well lets get this show on the roll arsenal…we’ll show these clubs how to play football!!!! i really cant wait for this season to start!! we are winnig all four trophies…
i would like Arsenal to sign the players Anonymous has stated!!
Dos Santos admittedly good but i am not to worried about him, Gomes is a goalkeeper! Mosric is dangerous fair enough but i wouldnt say they are explosive, they could lose Keano too! We need a ST who can score 90% of chances cuz we wud win games 10-0 all the time.
i agree with you jay but if you add those names above to the already existing tottenham side, it would be explosive, but i know arsenal though…and besides we can only get better…atleast north london derbys would be seriously exciting
yeah Tottenham got better attack but last season they were supposed to have a dynamic quadruplet in Keano, Defo, Berba and Bent and they finished below top 10, so enough said.
worried about spurs hahahhahahahahahahaha that’s made my day guys put it like this who would you rather…..
wallcot-bent
toure-lescott(even with a giant forehead still can’t score with it)
almunia-robinson
fabregas-modric
vela-dos santos(mexican coach said vela I’m agreeing)
rvp-keane
chimbonda-sagna
kaboul-clichy
ade-berba
Now matter who they buy they will always be in our shadow as 1 good win in the cc over 10 years is something we should never worry about untill they can win the league or fa cup or even qualify for the cl so there’s only 1 team in london with great history and an even greater future.
arsenal-chelscum
Still us 1st everytime in the above list but i’m bot biased at all.
butterfingers u said what was in my mind!
thanks i needed that!!!