It’s Thursday today and we’ve had a couple of days of pre-season training under our belts, with some really good news that Rosicky, Eduardo and Gallas are all back in training and raring to go… some quotes recirculating the net and the papers from last season again but all in all, the player is back and he’ll make a considerable difference this season if he is available.
A new quote, I think is this:
“I am missing the competition. Playing alongside Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott makes you feel comfortable and I think that I will quickly forget that I have been out for a while. Now that I have recovered, I am a new option for the manager. We have a strong team capable of moving mountains in all competitions.”
Myself and the famous Bob play Masters League in Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 on The Playstation 3… and we try our best to keep it Arsenal, play the Arsenal way and follow Arsene’s policy. I’ll tell you something right now… Tomas Rosicky is our best player in our team – he assists so much, scores from long range and has immense dribbling ability – when we play the game, it really does highlight what we’ve been missing. Couple that with the left foot of Eduardo whose finishing is also categorised as immense, and we’re onto a winner with those players back, no doubt.
The players we have added, were 3 seventeen year olds, a defender, a central midfielder and a winger, and on top of that we traded Bendtner for a player called Gouffran (who seems to score every game), Armand Traore for Vanden Borre and more recently we managed to trade Hoyte + Cash for Agbonlahor (we’re in mid season now) so pretty much not outside of the Arsenal way – we have tried several times to get Arshavin but the player is way too loyal in the game…! And we’ve refused to be lured in attempts to purchase players like Kaka, Robinho, Ronaldo etc…
Anyway back to the wonderful world of real Arsenal, and as you may or may not know, Van Persie has been speaking about his new contract and had this to say:
“I’m so happy to have signed a new long term contract. I’ve been at the Club for five years now and there really is a great feeling here at Arsenal. We have a top class manager, a squad full of superb young players, a world class stadium and brilliant supporters. Arsenal Football Club has a very bright future and I want to be part of it. My heart is with Arsenal and I just can’t picture myself in a different shirt. I just can’t see it now because I love this Club so much. If you look at the last five years, look at the steps I have made every season, if you look at the support the Boss and the whole Club gave me, the fans gave me, my team mates gave me – this is the right decision.”
A player like RVP epitomises what Arsenal is all about. We signed him back in the day for £2.5m if I am correct as a young player and developed him as we do our younger players – he’s had the chance to train and learn from Arsenal legends such as Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry and I believe he is really at home at the Emirates. If you’ve read the recent interview with Robin in the official Arsenal magazine, you’ll have heard how he has really changed from a “bad boy” to a perfect gentleman in respect to his life off the pitch and that makes a big difference to your game.
Arsene was, of course, delighted that Robin has extended his contract, saying:
“It’s fantastic news that Robin has committed his long term future to Arsenal Football Club, we’re all delighted. Robin is a hugely gifted player and has the talent and goalscoring ability to win matches at the very top level. We have already seen many times what Robin is capable of on a football pitch, but at only 25, there is still much more to come from him. Robin has the potential to become a true Arsenal great.”
It’s clear that there is more to come from the Dutchman and by commiting his future to the club, we’re going to see a lot more from him as we look to win our first trophy in quite some time next season.
And in a recent statement by Ivan Gazidis, he has outlined the focus of securing existing players on long term contract, a la Van Persie instead of splashing out and not really being able to afford it.
The Board decided not to issue permanent capital in the hopes of signing one or two players in an inflated transfer market. Instead, the focus continues to be on securing the services of talented young players we have on long-term contracts and making very selective acquisitions, only where a new signing will add real value to our already strong squad.
Although some newspapers report this as “Wenger Robbed of £60m”, in actual fact, nothing has really changed. We had £14m to spend, we spent £8.5m on Vermaelen, we now have £5.5m left. I believe Arsene had in mind that there may have been extra money coming in from Adebayor or Senderos, neither of which seems to have materialised. The discussions with Fiorentina on a Melo deal will only work if they accept Eboue and around about the £5.5m which is the rest of our budget… a little less than Juventus, but that deal also looks like it’s on the rocks. Apparently Juventus had a cash + player deal accepted, but the player in question, Italian winger Marco Marchionni, has not been able to agree personal terms…
“Unfortunately, nothing will be done. We only asked for €200,000 (£173,000) more than the amount Marco earns at Juventus, but Fiorentina wouldn’t agree. It’s a pity.”
Good for us, and will this whole thing end up with Melo coming to Arsenal?
Finally, Newcastle defender Bassong confirms we did bid for the player – maybe before the signing of Vermaelen and Messi has been in the press talking about bringing Cesc to the Nou Camp this summer… neither likely to happen!
More tomorrow…
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