Afternoon All,
The news coming out of Belgium is that Thomas Vermaelen will be flying to London later today to undergo a medical at the Emirates. The deal is done, the terms are agree and subject to a medical, the player is ours. It’s been a tough one, the partnership of Gallas and Toure on paper should work – but over the last two seasons we have seen it’s vulnerable and it’s going to be very interesting to see which one of the two players is dropped.
“The signature is not there yet, but everything is in order. On Friday I will fly to London to undergo a medical. Then I hope to sign.”
And the player himself his very excited about his imminent move to the Emirates, citing today as one of the best days of his life.
“I feel so proud. Arsenal is a fantastic club, and as a child I watched them play. On Friday, if I go to Emirates Stadium I will be seriously impressed. This will be a big change in my life, next year I will suddenly be facing the best strikers in the world. This does not scare me, I will give everything my body has. This is one of the best days of my life.”
Arsene has obviously decided to reshape the defence and Vermaelen is the first signing in that department – maybe Bassong will be the second (according to some reports) as he recently admitted he was talking to two Premiership clubs, whilst Toure has been linked to Man City. As I’ve said countless times on the site, I think letting Toure go will be a mistake as he’s Arsenal through and through – personally, I’d like to see the four players at the back Toure, Gallas, Vermaelen and Djourou – whether the former first choice pair will accept not being first choice is another matter all together.
Senderos is another defender – the player will be returning to the club – but news is that Fiorentina are interested in the former Milan loanee, and that could open the door for a exchange for Felipe Melo – although the Brazilian enforcer has given mixed signals to whether he wants to stay in Italy or move abroad.
Back home, well back to things closer to home, and despite being dropped from the starting line up, Theo Walcott stole the show as he came on as a substitute as the England Under 21′s beat Spain Under 21′s 2-0 in the European Championships. The player deployed on the left of midfield show amazing pace to push forward in the final third, and found James Milner with a great cut back to make it 2-0 to the three lions – if was a great performance by England and we’re now into the semi-finals of the competition.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Arsene, as he talks about the beautiful game…
“Every manager needs to have a global vision of the game he wants to play, and to make it as simple as possible. I am a great lover of a game based on technical skill, mobility, movement. I Iike a dynamic game, and I like a creative game, so I try to build teams and to scout players who are built around that kind of skill.
Of course, the gaffer has a job to do in the defensive department this summer but that won’t let him change his focus and how he wants the game to be played.
“How do you develop creative players? First with the technical skill, secondly, by encouraging them. The first thing a player loses is the capacity to dribble if you don’t work at it in training. Dribbling is linked with confidence and if you do not allow your skilful players to work on that, they don’t produce it in the game. And we must encourage players to be audacious in matches, because most of the players who are creative sometimes are inhibited in the big games because they have a big responsibility on their shoulders.”
And with players such as Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Rosicky, Vela, Eduardo and Van Persie, Arsene has some of the world’s best creative talents at his diposal.
I, for one, can’t wait to see how we do this summer and simply can’t wait until the next season kicks off.
