Pre-season is turning the final corner of its last lap, speculation about ins, outs and shake it all abouts, intensifies. Does it matter? Nope; passes the time though. Arsenal head to Germany today for a training camp; it will be interesting to see which day this week Santi Cazorla joins them. Perhaps he has already climbed through an open window in the hotel and is already waiting for his new team-mates. We need to see the kit being loaded onto the plane as well; anything oversized might be housing the midfielder.
That speculation briefly peaked yesterday when the Fifa website announced Rondon’s signature for Rubin Kazan signalled the second departure from Malaga, Cazorla being the first. There was a hasty rewrite that removed the offending paragraph. Fifa has form, jumping the gun on transfers before which is the problem when an official website relies on a news agency for their information.
The training camp in Germany is the chance to hone and integrate the new players into the team. Whether it is the starting line-up remains to be seen. Certainly the arrivals of Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski have put an unprecedented amount of pressure on incumbent players across the frontline and midfield. I cannot recall a time during Arsène’s reign when there was this level of talent at his disposal. If van Persie’s head is not in the right place, step forward Giroud. Gervinho, Podolski and Arshavin fight out the left whilst Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Cazorla the right with the latter pair capable of playing across the centre of the pitch. Rosicky, Song, Arteta and Ramsey need to be at the peak of their powers.
Of course some will leave, their jet plane taking them down by The Thames or some other european destination. For van Persie, the chances of him travelling to Manchester City as anything other than an opponent dimmed to their lowest point with Roberto Mancini’s admission that be unable to shift their deadwood means van Persie is unlikely to join. Expect him to sign by the end of the week as they seek to deflect the media from their tail in this deal. It might be true in which case Rodney Marsh’s curse still stands. Widely believed to be the reason City’s 1972-73 title challenge faltered, Marsh told the world that United are a spent force and that if van Persie wants to win trophies, he ought to join City. And then came Mancini’s statement.
But – and it’s a huge BUT – if van Persie remains, Arsène’s options are varied. The fabled Plan B which Marouane Chamakh ought to have provided now falls on the shoulders of Olivier Giroud, according to Carl Jenkinson at least,
The manager knows crossing is one of my strengths and he has asked me to get as many balls into the box as I can. But, at the same time, he has told me not to cross for the sake of it. It is an asset of my game and one I like to use. We like to keep the ball moving and create goals in different ways – but crossing is a strength that I like to use when I can.
Which is all well and good but I would rather he focussed on his defending first and foremost. He had his warm-ups, getting back into focus, in Asia where positionally the youngster was still in Ibiza. That’s fair enough; pre-season is all about shaking cobwebs and preparing for the time ahead but with so few friendlies in comparison to previous years, next weekend’s encounter in Cologne is rather more edgier than it might otherwise have been.
The defence in general has a huge weight of expectation on its shoulders. Despite Pat Rice being an acknowledged club legend as a defender, the myth was that nobody schooled the defenders in their art, manifesting in the decaying goals against column over a number of seasons. It is a hard point to argue against but too much of that blame is being placed at Rice’s door; he was not the only member of the coaching staff. With Steve Bould’s elevation, expectations surged that things would improve.
The manner of goals conceded in the three tour matches might actually have done him a favour. They were, on the whole, sloppy goals to ship and that deflated the air balloon, allowing the expectations to wheeze out of the small hole. It buys time; it allows Bould to concentrate on that area without a burden being placed following successive clean sheets. You know the scenario would have been blown out of all proportion pre the kick-off against Sunderland until the first goal went in and the criticism returned. At least to some extent, the expectations have been neutered with unrealistic hopes dimmed.
That’s it for today. ’til Tomorrow.
Dex @ 8:31
Hope you are right. I wonder if the stock offering from the glazers is a way to make some cash for them selves but more important, knock down the debt load to a more palatable level for a potential buyer. That debt belongs to the Glazers I suspect and would be eliminated if someone was able to buy the team from them just like when someone buys your house and you pay off the mortgage. If the next owner does not need to use a leveraged buy out the way the glazers did then they could turn that revenue stream into buying players instead of paying off debt. I am encouraged to see arsenal is continuing to build for the long term future but is also starting to bring in experienced players and hopefully setting sites on short term success since the long term future is a big unknown. Who would have foreseen the rise of man city when we were putting together generation cesc 5 years ago?
Fellovergen – no, that’s the first I’ve heard of changes to RvP’s website …
I’d call that a pretty significant change Andrew, his lead picture at the time of his statement was one to distance himself from us, it scrolled on a timer through other pictures but the homepage was orange. The picture now is Arsenal and it no longer scrolls… read what we may into that
Oh shit
thought you’d like that George
Bill – there appears to be all sorts of things going on with the Glazer’s latest attempt to raise capital.
Not least, the sacking of the guy responsible for signing off the $559 million Manure shirt sponsorship on behalf of General Motors. There’s a suggestion that this extraordinary deal may have been linked in to making the share issue look better value than it actually is.
Combine this with the prospectus behind the deal massively over-stating the scale of Manure’s support by describing their ‘following’ as including the fans of Arsenal et al who will follow the progress of Manure as a spin off of supporting their own club.
Watch this space; it doesn’t look too clever – the recent SAF ‘clarification’ is also part of the murky mix.
Haha! George, you getter get busy knitting him a welcome mat!
Bill; I cannot profess to be an expert about the ManU debt, but my take on it was that it is the CLUB that has been saddled with ALL the debt. The Glazers lent the money to buy the coub and used the club as collateral.
The recent share option, which has been widely criticised over here as it gives them 10 votes a share and any other new share owner just one a share, plus HALF of the monies raised is only going to help reduce the debt, the rest going to the glazer family.
The flotation has reduced the amount they have to pay each year, just to service interest repayments, by less than £5m a year.
The debt is on the club, so will be part of the cost of any sale.
Thanks for the update fellovergen. That IS news dude.
But is it “good” news?
Where’s my dynamically generated gravatar?
no sooner said then it’s scrolling again… damm me reading too much into something… breathe George… breathe
Fellovergen – well spotted; certainly not the actions of someone desperate to put clear blue water between himself and the club …
The intro scrolls but it settles and stops on RvP in an AFC shirt.
Yep, it does ‘settle’ on the Arsenal wearing RvP. Oooh now, and yes george it WOULD be good news.
*
Well what about my gravatar?
So no club will stump up for him and he might now stay with Arsenal .Despite us going in the wrong direction for our illustrious captain.
Whoopee fucking do.
Nice Georgaki
George;
You are being as boring as Frank about this. Cannot be arsed discussing it any more. It isnt even proof of anything and now the daily m*il are reporting he was on the plane to germany too.
Well Georgaki is Pyrovolitis
Fuck of Dexter I didn’t mention the rat first .I am just responding to new information.
So poor Georgaki had to change his name to Pyrovolitis to get his gravatar to work!
For those who might be curious ‘Pyrovolitis’ means Gunner in Greek.
Hey Pedantic, Pyrovolitis is also George from Chesterfield. Looking forward to hearing more from you on the Fans Forum with Tom Watt!
This is fun. Perhaps this will also work?
Ah George from Chesterfield.I have heard you on as well I think?
Irishgray August 6, 2012 at 4:45 am
MDGunner – As I have no idea what “comment.e” is, my lawyers have advised me to ignore your cease and desist letter.
**the ‘.e’ denotes English UK as opposed to English US-screwed upness
Maybe next time you will double check your spelling before going all legal on my Irish ass.
** that would be the lillywhite blimp we can see from DC
Had 2 Jamaican beef patties tonight by the way, very good! Obviously not one of your recipes
** You should try one of my new Essex pasties covered in Bisto Chip Shop Curry Sauce. Delish.
)
And again
You have. I rant against sugar daddies, Russian gangsters and Arab dictators polluting the EPL!
Dex and Andrew:
None of us know whats really going on. Hopefully Man U will end up sinking under their debt and when Fergie retires they could be in real trouble. On the other hand there are ways they could come out looking stronger then ever if they get the right person to buy the club. Most likely somewhere in the middle, but who knows.
If Cazorla ends up in an Arsenal shirt it will be the best summer of business since we bought DB10 or TH14 back late in the previous century. Props to the Stan and the management for being proactive. If we keep RVP that would make it even better. We could make a real challenge for the league title or the CL if we can play some defense. What a change from last summer.
And right you are to do so George .I remember thinking that was the sort of call I would have liked to have made.
I’m trying to modify my gravatar to be Georgaki-Pyrovolitis
Cleared my cache
Let’s see this time
Bingo. Go on you gooners, Georgaki-Pyrovolitis has a gravatar
Ok. I’m hitting the sack. Tomorrow Santiago Cazorla will be announced as an Arsenal player.
Me. I’ll take it as a given.. I think his website is a first step on the road to recovery, bit like AA really and I’m not talking the Owly one
Bill – I hope Manure don’t sink under the weight of their debt as this would end up with some kind of resolution which would only work in their favour.
The main problem Mancy fans of the club have is the Glazers’ insistence of valuing the club some way north of its likely true value. The most recent share issue was, I understand, valuing the club at about $3Billion. Even at half that valuation I think it’s likely that only sovereign wealth funds would be in play for an outright purchase.
The best thing that could happen for all those who would wish to see their wings clipped, is for the Glazers to cling on as long as possible and for SAF and his successors to be forced down the road footballing austerity; the kind we as Arsenal supporters have had to become grudgingly accustomed and powerless to resist.
If you think a segment of our fans are weak, ignorant and incapable of coping without a trophy for a few seasons, that will be as nothing to a club that has had two decades of dominance or near dominance.
And it’s why I suspect Manure may unwind more quickly than we might prefer and the Glazers may be forced into an early sale. The impact on Manure’s bottom line of low-achievement on the pitch is far greater than for us as every last sinew of their balance sheet is tweaked for maximum – or near maximum – success.
It’s a dangerous game and one they may be losing, albeit possibly slowly, at first…
You say we don’t know what’s going on Bill but actually, we have a fair idea; what we can’t be sure of is how quickly the fall will come and how effective and how speedy the savior turnaround will be when – of if – it comes at all.
Andrew:
In truth I don’t want to see the Red Mancs go broke. They are one of the reasons that the EPL has become such a world wide brand and is considered by most the best league in the world. Just by their presence they bring billions into the league coffers which helps everyone. It would be nice to see them struggle with austerity and may be struggle with playing for 4th place for a while just to get even.
I agree completely about their fan base. I suspect the fan civil war that has erupted here would be nothing compared to what would happen if the Red mancs stopped winning trophies for a while.
We don’t want Man U to go broke Bill .Just a Liverpool 20+ years in the wilderness will do nicely.
Read this article earlier from the FT and the on writing the final sentence i hope Stefan Szymanski had his tongue placed firmly in cheek
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d3cd3c6e-dd57-11e1-8fdc-00144feab49a.html#axzz22n7oldUs
George
Oh and you debate at about the same level as your dear departed friend Frank too!
Fuck off is about your limit isnt it old chap.
Ffs what is it with the meek red manc apologist,how times change?wiltord’s title winner@the theatre anyone?
The oligarchs screwed the landscape obviously but Arsenal showed dynamism in weathering the shitstorm…
Rednose,Graham Poll, chav$ki,and the sheikhs NOTWITHSTANDING!
Fellovergen – just an odd article through and through.
The writer has taken the trouble to appear balanced whilst giving a broadly favourable thumbs up to the running of the club.
His uncritical repetition of the number of Manure followers at 659 million gives the game away as much as anything as he fails to provide the balancing distinction between followers and actual supporters; likely to be two very different figures.
He makes little reference to the net outflows of cash from the club in the form of interest payments and how minimally this will be reduced by the latest fiscal wheeze.
In short, it just smells of PR spin on behalf of the Glazers, though I could be wrong.
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=9050
Today’s post
Miami said: Zinc, I’m not writing any team off because you just never know what can happen. Did anyone see how successful Newcastle would be last term? I think not
It is a fact that United are getting older, all teams are of course but with United you have Vidic returning from a long injury and Rio just isn’t what he was. I tend to think this is what people are getting at. Giggs and Scholes are certainly the elder statemen of the team.
Chelsea have more to work on than United, and if you have seen any of the preseason games you would have noticed the horrid defending. The Chelsea unit is looking slow, the MLS Allstars opened them up way to easily even in a preseason.
My issue with Arsenal at this point is 1) they needed more games for Podolski & Grioud in the team, and 2) they need to be more aggressive in pressing the opposition players when they don’t have the ball.
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I tend to not take too much away from pre-season (even the Community Shield told us nothing last year – everyone concluded from that that United would walk all over City but when the season started things were different), we’ve seen horrible defending from Arsenal too but I’m hopeful that a fully fit back line with Steve Bould imparting his influence will actually see us defend better this year.
Yes, United might appear weaker on paper but players could still come into their squad before the end of August and I find it hard to believe they won’t be stronger this year than last. I’m not betting on them winning anything, I’m just not getting overly excited about their prospects or ours.
I agree weith your two points on Arsenal, we could do with another friendly before the season starts really.
Bill said:
Zinc
Red mancs showed some real cracks in their attitude and motivation last year in the CL and the end of PL season which is completely different then the past. I still think they will finish ahead of us and fight with city for the title but I think we are back heading in the right direction and can catch them in a couple of seasons especially if fergie slides. I suspect someone very wealthy will buy them before they completely implode financially and even with FFP if someone erases their debt they will have enormous long term spending power because of the revenue they generate. Interesting times ahead
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I agree – but let’s not forget that United sustained almost as many injuries to key players as we did last year and they still finished on the same points as City, United are too much of a force to whimper out of the fight in my eyes and if they see a slide this season expect a big summer next year and as if you say someone can wipe their debt out which seems to be completely within the rules of FFP their annual turnover enables them to make huge squad investment.
I agree about our position too – our future is bright, I expect City and Chelsea to dominate over the coming years but I don’t see them sustaining a position like ours and we’re starting to have a squad capable of winning things I think. I’m very excited about our future and hope that Usmanov isn’t allowed to get his greasey fingers into the board room, without him the next ten years could be very exciting but at the same timer I don’t want to get overly excited about the coming season – gooners are already being labelled the ‘new scousers’ on F365 because of the outlandish predictions being put out left right and centre and when I see fans predicting a haul of trophies and the dissolution of all our opposition I start to understand why we’re being made fun of so much, it’s simply fanciful.
ArsenalAndrew said:
Zinc – time will tell but few would deny Manure are now financially a shadow of their former selves. They haven’t even come close to replacing Ronaldo; even their current star player had a very ordinary time of it in the Euros.
The Arsenal foundations to which I refer comprise a solid mixture of our finances, our fan base, our stadium, our squad and a Manager who will most likely go down as the greatest visionary in the history of the game.
No-one, to my knowledge, has “written off” anyone but many of us here on ACLF do believe – and with more than a little passion – that Arsenal are well placed to challenge on all fronts.
I’d invite you to share in that belief if your heart is truly in it?
Is it?
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Manchester United are in an awkward financial position but one the club can and will cope with, people have been talking about how bad the Glazers are (which I agree with) and what a negative effect they will have on the club since they first joined, since then United have won the EPL 4 times, the league cup 3 times, the Champions League, World Club cup and the community shield.
I’m aware that the Glazers have just taken a big chunk of money out of the club but they also paid down a big chunk of the debt, because of the global clout they have they can sustain this debt and pay it down slowly – it appears to have effected their squad spending but they still have a massive wage bill and they still strengthen in every window.
Replacing Ronaldo is laughable, who is there to replace him with, Messi? We’ve not replaced a lot of players from the past, but top clubs don’t do that with their top players, they find new talent and develop new names – let’s see what happens with Kagawa because he really impressed me with Dortmund and has the right technical attributes to become a big name.
I completely agree about your list of components in our foundations and I’m positive about our future, but I’m not buying into the narrative that we’ll come out of the quagmire as a bulletproof backflipping Jesus Christ of a club while all the superpowers wilt away under our dominance – I’m not saying you said that, but there’s a general vibe around that we’re suddenly about to destroy planet earth. (light-hearted hyperbole)