Football transfers are all smoke and mirrors; Mulder and Scully would find the search for truth in this arena as painfully frustrating as in the search for extra-terrestrial life. They should have gone to Slough for that answer. I guess that was too simple, too limiting for the producers of the television series. One which poses such questions and then finds the answers in the first episode is somewhat limiting. You could stretch it out by encompassing the whole trip and show it real time: Episode One – The Journey To Flight; Episode Two – Q; Episode Three – The Wait. Even then I’m not sure there’s much mileage in it. Well, beyond that actually travelled.
You might have guessed that this morning’s blog is smoke and mirrors; there’s not much going on. Arsène has applied the usual caveats to talk of signing Edinson Cavani so the much-mooted £30m transfer is off. If it were ever on in the first place. Which I doubt. A new reason for not buying a player emerged, that they would be cup-tied in the Champions League. HOUSE! Yes! I’ve won the Arsenal Transfer Bingo – every reason not to sign someone has now emerged.
For Wenger, it is a bit difficult to know what he is supposed to say. Being unable to play in one tournament that can still be won is really scraping the barrel as reasons for public inactivity goes. I suppose that when names are mentioned in future, he will have to rely on “Warm”, “Hot”, “Ice-cold”, as answers when hacks turn in their questions about who is the latest target. Or continue to feed off the desire of the support for ills to be cured and make up transfer targets. The latter is the easiest course although the former has potentially more fun. For one press conference at least. In part. For five minutes.
It is inconceivable that a player would be rejected simply for being cup-tied for the remainder of this season. We are still playing for fourth place – there is not point in looking beyond that until Tottenham are overhauled; take fourth then look at third and so forth. Well third. Sigh. The ardour with which a high cost signing was pursued without any hint of substance was incredible; that shows the depths to which the confidence of some has fallen. Perhaps it’s true, I doubt it. Stories with seemingly more depth have turned out to be false and the ultimate beauty of the scenario is the barreness. I’m liking it more as I think about it.
Fortunately Wilfred Zaha is still on the market despite being signed by Manchester United last week. Well, that’s what the papers claimed and maybe United have tried to reach agreement with the Palace. A shame they’ve been talking to Liz and Phil rather than Prince Ian of Selhurst. Fortunately Theo Walcott is signing his new deal. By the speed of his signature, when he’s learned joined up writing. Either that or Arsenal are waiting for the Banda machine copies of the contract. Look it up if you don’t know what a Banda machine is. The youth of today.
Patience is a virtue at the moment, the view that most transfer business is done in the final week is going to be realised for anything Arsenal do. Which isn’t much of a guess since by this time next week, we will be into the last week of the window. Understandably in one sense, Wenger is waiting to see what happens with Abou Diaby, waiting to see if there is any reaction to recent injuries. If none, he should still not rely on the Frenchman as anything more than a bit-part player overall. When fit, great but unfortunately his fitness issues mean that he is not a player around whom a squad can be built. To do so is folly.
That contract is another reason for delaying signature(s). Until Team Walcott do put pen to paper, words mean nothing. However, is signing a new striker now the highest priority? In some eyes yes, others think more protection for the back four is still the more pressing need.
Transfer talk is a vicious circle. The more that the rumours mount, the more that there is a clamour for truth. In a situation such as Arsenal’s where the first half of the season has left the team short of expectations, action is going to be the only thing to sate demands for improvement. Yet clubs are already facing pressure from agents who try to create an auction on a sale through leaking to the press. Making formal announcements only invites other clubs who are interested, to act and possibly usurp a deal. Let’s be honest, in any walk of commercial life, successful deals are not trumpeted until the ink is dry. Football is no different.
It’s just that the horn section should have been exhausted by now.
’til Tomorrow.
@Matt
Arsene isn’t off his head at all if you really think about it. Since we truly don’t know how other players are getting pad not to mntion the fact that he is a vital piece.
We can’t strengthen yet mate we have 1 more very important world class RB to take care of. If we are strengthen and re-signing him then I am all for it!
@Matt
Isn’t it crazy that one, Jermain Pennant was an Invincible and he scored a hat trick in the first game. O how a player with talent that has fallen off the radar.
Thanks for that, Y W. I must have missed the news.
Actually, did you notice that the new page was just a rewrite of the old one. A cut and paste job if ever I saw one. Very lazy work. Must have been the shock of the signing!
I was wrong.
I was always fancying Clichy when he was one on one with his attacker, surely not someone to be brushed aside lightly, but I think it’s correct to point out that in attacking sense Gibbs is offering us much more. I think the numbers are very clear in that regard. Clichy had 1 goal and 9 assists in almost 200 league games for us, while Gibbs is going to take that number over. He is already at 1 goal and 7 assists with just 50 games played.
Also, Clichy was in the later years of his career with us often prone to playing attackers onside.
I think with Gibbs potential he will eventually be able to eclipse what Clichy has offered us. He is just as good at intercepting as Clichy was, but he needs to be more consistent defensively. With Kieran just being 23, I wouldn’t want to swap him for any other left back in the league.
Thought he was gone when he sold his house. I was wrong.
@C
I think you may have misread my cheap Chilean red induced ramblings.
I think he has got this one right and I’m very happy with how section of January has turned out.
It was a rhetorical question – a cursory nod to the double standards that often pervade on these here electronic pages.
C
Splitting hairs, perhaps, but Pennant didn’t make enough appearances to be awarded a league winners medal, and his hat-trick was in the 02/03 season.
Can you believe he’s 30, though!
Time flies.
So, Jack. Alex, Aaron, Kieran, Carl and now Theo. End of an era, start of an era – it’s all a question of emphasis.
Yes it feels like the beginning of a new era Merlot. I couldn’t see the wood for the trees after our defeat at Old Traford a couple of months back, but I can see the future of Arsenal taking shape now. Keep those core of players together…and it should be an exciting one.
“Trafford”. Dear me.
I remember reading about Pennant when he left Spain to return to England. Seems he left his Porche at the railway station and forgot about it.
http://www.news.com.au/world-old/soccer-star-jermaine-pennant-forgets-he-owns-porsche-leaves-it-at-train-station/story-e6frfkyi-1225991770821
My pound shop sells vibrating cock rings! Now that’s just wrong! and they sell them next to the ’3 packs of ibuprofen for a quid’ .. and then next to the cock rings there’s pound shop lubricant…. am I just being fuddy?
@Matt
No I understood you post mate I’ve been drinking and well, I seem to answer with craziness. I got off early so atleast I wasn’t at work. I did understand and knew you were happy with how January has turned out as many of us are(though we do sometimes want more but were fans what do you expect).
Pennant scored at the beginning of the unbeaten streak May 2003 against of all teams Southampton hahahahaha.
On another note, Joel Campbell is doing really well. Got to watch him play against Aletico Madrid yesterday and looked good even though his team was completely overwhelmed by Falcao and the boys.
Honestly I’m suprised that the Walcott saga has ended with his signature but to be fair it has looked the mostly likely outcome for about the last two weeks.
The cynic in me believes he simply didn’t have a better option. Chelsea, Utd, Man City if interested would have seen him fighting for a start and with a lower profile. Don’t get me wrong I’m very glad he’s staying, I just don’t want him kissing the badge at the weekend.
BRF,
Even if he scored a hattrick and we win?
@BRF
He never asked to leave and has always said he wanted to stay. He has fought and battled for Arsenal. He signed a contract to stay and at the end of his contract he will have been here for 10 years. If he wants to kiss the patch I’ll love it because IMHO he has earned it because HE IS STILL HERE! He again never asked to leave just asked for a raise when his contract was coming to an end, nothing wrong with that.
lol H, if he scores a hatrick and we win ill do the badge kissing. Well it is against the Chavs, he can have a quick peck I can live with that. However if he ever does the Bale celebration he’s dead to me.
C I’ve read your post and I can hear the chirping of fledglings, I see lambs jumping in the fields, I smell the cherryblossom in full bloom.
Look Im glad he’s stayed but when it comes to players and Theos contract talks I’m a bit more cynical. He’s taken the descision for one reason it’s the best thing for Theo Walcott.
What do we expect Theo to do , think what’s best for george Rodger.!!
He needs to learn how to clap, however!
If Theo’s contract is only for 3 and a half years does that mean he can renegotiate next summer?
He’s a canny lad. I hope he manages to keep up his form
*qualified gloat alert*
I always thought (certainly hoped) TW would stay so I’m pleased to have been right about that one.
Trouble is, I was badly wrong when it came to Viera, Cesc and RvP.
A rare case of three wrongs ending up with a right, then.
I hope the boss extends his contract in 2014. This would allow his project to provide the rewards his deserves and would also mean that DB10 could slip in nicely with the sort of succession planning the club favours. His recent interview just fills me with hope about this:
“I would (consider it), yes,” he responded in the interview when asked if he would like to return to Emirates Stadium.
“We have started something good now at Ajax and I know a little bit in my role now, what I like and what I don’t like so if I could fulfil a similar role abroad, especially at Arsenal.
“That would be one of the things that I would like to achieve in the future. But not in the near future because we have just started here.”
So sadly, I’ll be beating the ‘In Arsene We Trust’ drum for a good while yet.
Arsene’s said what many of us have maintained regarding Abou:
“Honestly, what he has gone through is unbelievable,” Wenger said.
“It is frustrating because it all started with a bad tackle at Sunderland, in the last minute of the last game of the season, which was decided already. You always think ‘how can one thing that was so stupid can have such an impact on a career of such a big player?’.
“This now is a big period for Abou, and he is conscious of it.
“You do not want to put any pressure on him, though, because he has enough and Abou puts himself under so much pressure.
“He is a very conscientious guy. You should see how he works, how he is focused every day, because when a guy suffers as much as he did he becomes very professional, very rigorous.
“You have some guys, they can drink five beers, come to training, and play and go home and nothing happens to them.”
Wenger added: “When you have a guy who is a lot injured, and he has not a serious life, you can say ‘you see, you are punished’, but with Diaby, he has a very serious life – he doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t go out, and is very conscientious in training, so you always feel sorry for him.
“You are in a position where you have to have patience, because what did he do wrong? Nothing. At least you have to give him a chance.”
Fingers crossed, fitness becomes a permanent for him now. I’d still like cover for him and that is simply because his importance to the team seems obvious. Hence the importance of planning to manage any absence.
Dgob – I have no doubt that a fully fit Diaby would have seen Arsenal experience a different outcome in countless games and competitions in recent seasons. A full trophy cabinet and a player exit door covered in cobwebs would have been at least two of the likely outcomes.
And just imagine how less dominant the teams featuring Patrick Viera would have been had his career been similarly blighted with injury …?
If he ever were to get right then I believe those positive outcomes would still await – and that very much includes with the existing player rosta as well as tomorrow’s.
ArsenalAndrew,
I absolutely and emphatically agree. It’s just a case of hoping that he can stay fit. I find myself leaning on the experience (health wise) of the Dutch boy. Fingers crossed, this is the moment when his health corner is turned.
The successes associated with the Vieira era could, I really believe, be surpassed with the current squad (one or two much discussed additions not withstanding).
Thanks Dgob.
To all the faithless, loose-lipped naysayers..
AW is as decent as they come…”at least you have to give him a chance.”
“Wenger added: “When you have a guy who is a lot injured, and he has not a serious life, you can say ‘you see, you are punished’, but with Diaby, he has a very serious life – he doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t go out, and is very conscientious in training, so you always feel sorry for him.
“You are in a position where you have to have patience, because what did he do wrong? Nothing. At least you have to give him a chance.”
One of Arsene’s great strengths is his appreciation that all players have strengths and weaknesses and this is the attribute that allows him to stick by players for the long run. Some might use that as a stick to try to beat him with charges of sticking too long with players for whom the proverbial ‘twist’ might be an alternative and ‘better’ option.
For me, I disagree, as after a decade and a half + of following AW’s career at Arsenal, I now know he sees things in players I’ll never see unless put on a grass covered plate right in front of me. Preferably with a label stuck on it. With an arrow.
I’m not suggesting he never makes mistakes btw, but his successes have been stellar and remain unrivalled and unmatched. Whilst pretty much every signing is a big gamble, few managers can generate the excitement levels Arsene achieves simply by signing someone.
And when AW next makes a marquee signing – whenever that may be – I wouldn’t mind betting that it shatters the old AFC transfer record purely because the guy’s ability to amaze and surprise remains, in my view, undiminished.
Brentford FC @BrentfordFC
All supporters coming down to help clear the pitch this morning will receive a free ticket for today’s match. #brentfordfc
How good is that?
Top club, Dups! My Dad’s old 2nd team for when he couldn’t get in to see his beloved Gunners.
Purple Verve,
Here, here!
ArsenalAndrew,
“the guy’s ability to amaze and surprise remains, in my view, undiminished.”
To true.
“Too true”, even
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10436
Today’s post: Theo, Diaby & Former Captains
http://arsenalist.com/
I hope Diaby keeps fit, I really do. I’m sure he is everything that Arsene says. It must be a big ‘if’.
I like what you say there Andrew, certainly true in the past, but is it accurate these days?
All of our recent signings have all been established internationals of much sought after younger players apart from the odd ones and, perhaps, Gervinho.,