Starting with the young guns, they put in a pretty good performance yesterday beating Barnet 2-1 in the first friendly of the season.
Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wiltshire both put in classy performances with Ramsey controlling much of the play in the first half with positive forward runs and creative passing before a host of changes at half-time.
Going into half-time 1-0 down thanks to a nicely worked Barnet free-kick, Luke Wiltshire was one of the many substitutions that were made and also the most effective. The pacey forward looked lively and layed on Arsenal’s first goal for Jay Simpson. He was also instrumental in the second goal which was slotted calmly into the net by Nacer Barazite. A good warm-up for the Arsenal youngsters and a nice first glimpse at Aaron Ramsey who is a very interesting prospect.
Now for the old guns, and that rat faced c*nt, Hleb has decided to stir some shit up by suggesting that Fabregas may/should come back to Barcelona. Here’s what he had to say
“He [Fabregas] told me lots of things [about Barcelona], his time in the academy with players like Pique, Messi and so on,” Hleb told Barcelona’s official website.
“He loves this club, and though he’s at Arsenal, who knows, maybe one day he’ll come back here.”
Thanks for that Hleb, i guess Fabregas didn’t mention that Barcelona is actually quite a big city aswell. Here’s hoping you fall flat on your face Alexander.
Arsene Wenger has today hinted at a new gun, but this one is going to have experience.
“We are in the market and if there is a good opportunity we will take it.
“I cannot give you any names, but we are still thinking of bringing in one more. We will buy a player with experience.”
Well lets hope that the experienced player is someone that is going be playing alongside Fabregas as that where we need it.
Poor poor Adebayor, it looks more and more like he’s going to have to swallow his pride and return to Arsenal and try to regain some of the faith that have been lost in him by the fans. Wenger is not going to be pushed around over wages demands and even worse for Adebayor is the news that Arsenal have apparently not received a single bid for him, so say The People:
‘Adebayor will return to Arsenal training tomorrow and discover there’s not been a single bid for him this summer.
‘While the 24 year-old Togo international has repeatedly declared his intent to quit the Gunners to join the likes of AC Milan or Barcelona, he now faces an embarrassing truth,’ the newspaper continues. ‘At the moment there are no takers for him. He faces the prospect of starting next season in an Arsenal shirt and having to win over the Gunners fans who have been incensed by his lack of loyalty.’
And Wenger doesn’t seem like he wants to entertain the idea of him leaving after the Barnet game yesterday:
“Adebayor is under contract and is in a completely different position to Hleb, and I expect he will be at training on Monday,”
“Adebayor is a player of Arsenal football club and I’m confident he will be here at the start of the season.”
Well this is right out of left field. I think a more surprising story would have been ‘Rosicky to play some part in the season’. This is what the man himself had to say:
“I know I’ll miss the start of the club season,” he told Czech daily Sport.
“According to plans I should be back on the field in September.”
I sincerely hope that he will be back in September, after a 9 month lay-off, considering the side of our midfield we can’t cope with any of our players missing for that amount of time.
I’m sure that the Goonerblog readers will agree with me that there is nothing more annoying than the same story being re-hashed day after day untill there is actually some real news to report. It’ll also come as no big surprise that the story I am talking about is the rumoured interest in Gareth Barry, so if you would like the angle to be this:
“Arsene Wenger must decide whether to step up his interest in Aston Villa’s unsettled England international Gareth Barry following the departure of long-serving midfielder Gilberto Silva.
With the combative Mathieu Flamini having also left on a free transfer to AC Milan at the end of last season, Wenger is facing up to the task of rebuilding the heartbeat of a team which set the early pace in the Barclays Premier League last season before eventually fading out of the title race.”
If you prefer more of an outlandish predition side of things -
“That’s my prediction, Gareth Barry will sign today, I had inside information from a Grover last night that Barry’s agent was at the training ground yesterday and that can only mean one thing, he will sign.
Wenger will offer £12 million plus Justin Hoyte and O’Neill will bite his hand off, everyone wins, we get experience, class and the next England captain, Villa save face and get a replacement right back, and there aren’t that many on the market, so it’s win, win.“
The only other pick from the morning news is that Barcelona have been priced out of the race to sign Adebayor and are focusing their attentions on Berbatov.
“Barca are now poised to offer £24million after losing patience with Arsenal over Emmanuel Adebayor who has been valued at £35m for the Togo striker .”
Now I for one have no interest in seeing that lanky “I play for the love of football, but must think about my retirement when I’m on £40,000 a week and in my mid-twenties” c*nt ever put an Arsenal shirt on again. Too much has been said, the Arsenal fans want players who love the game, who love the sport and most of all, who love Arsenal. His demands for money contradict everything he has been preaching and if he does stay at the Grove he should expect a very frosty reception. If I was Wenger I would drop the unrealistic price of £35m which has been reported and accept anything over £25m and think about what he’s going to do with the money before the start of the new season.
Arsenal have confirmed the transfer of Gilberto to Greek side Panathinakos as expected. At 31 and after falling down the pecking order at Arsenal, its not a surprise to see him moving on. Panathinakos have apparently offered him a great 3 year contract meaning he will be the highest earner in the league and we know Wenger wouldn’t of extended his contract for more than a year at his age.
Gilberto will always be remembered as a key member of the formidable ‘invincibles’ team which won the title back in 2004. More than anything else, I think Arsenal fans have always admired the way he conducts himself as on and off the pitch, a real professional.
When the captaincy was taken away and handed elsewhere and when he wasn’t making the first team Gilberto was always dealt with things in a mature and intelligent manner, refusing to be drawn into criticism of the manager or team mates. Best of luck to him at Panathinakos, Gilberto is definitely one of the good guys in football.
Its a shame that the Telegraph continued with the recent spate of sensationalised bullshit that they seem to be spurting out from every diseased filled orifice that makes the Sun look fucking clever by descibing Gilbertos desparture as “the lastest of Arsene Wengers midfielders to jump ship“.
The article continues -
“With the ink having scarcely dried on Alexander Hleb’s contract with Barcelona, Gilberto’s departure will be another blow to Wenger, who has now seen three of his senior midfielders leave this summer.”
Probably my favourite quote -
“Perhaps worse is Gilberto’s admission that he leaves the Emirates “hungry” for titles, suggesting that he has little faith in his former club’s ability to produce the goods.”
Yes its Gilberto who has lost faith in Arsenal, that’s why he’s moved to the best league in the world, the, erm Greek league, to play for Panathinakos.
Sandy Macaskill, you are woefully ignorant fucktard.
Moving on, surely Wenger will be looking for at least one central midfielder. Any guesses?
A low key start to the day today, and with the Hleb story still dominating i’ve decided that i should never have to say the man’s name again. So with that in mind if there is ever any need, he shall, from this moment forward, be referred to as Splinter and nothing else people!
If you would like to see Splinter in some sickening badge kissing type photos then go ahead.
Now on the subject of what to do with that £12m we got for the sewer dweller, Wenger has thanked Splinter for his time at the club
“We must firstly thank Alex for his contribution towards Arsenal Football Club during his time with us,
Alex played a significant role in the three seasons he was with the club.”
“We are comfortable with our decision to let him go and we are all looking forward to continuing our preparations for the new season ahead.”
And in preparation for the new season Arsene has been mulling over a bid for Gareth Barry, the £18m price tag is not something that you’d usually associate with an Arsenal target, but if that could be brought down a bit i think it would be a cracking piece of business. The Independant said this:
‘Wenger is still unconvinced that Gareth Barry is value for money at the £18m asking price at Aston Villa, with his move to Liverpool on hold, perhaps permanently so unless Pool can find a buyer for Xabi Alonso, it is Wenger’s decision to make.’
Yes, and whether Wenger decides to make a bid for Barry or Alonso, i feel that the experience and maturity they’d bring to the Arsenal midfield would be a great benefit. For the whole story go here.
Now some may see this as Arsenal losing a quality player, but having already replaced him with a fantastic talent in Samir Nasri, all it means if we may now be in a position to make a bid for whoever Wenger deems fit.
“We must firstly thank Alex for his contribution towards Arsenal Football Club during his time with us. Alex played a significant role in the three seasons he was with the Club. We are comfortable with our decision to let him go and we are all looking forward to continuing our preparations for the new season ahead.”
Goodbye Alexander, and although i drooled over your fancy footwork on more than one occasion, your incredible lack of goals won’t be missed here. There is a new kid on the block, and his name is Samir Nasri.
It would seem that Gilberto will be departing the club this summer and heading to Panathinaikos after six years of being the “invisible wall” in the Gooner midfield. There has been constant speculation since his place came under threat from the emergence of Flamini.
“Greek sports radio Station Sport FM claims that the Brazil international will arrive in Athens on Wednesday to undergo a medical and put pen to paper on a three-year contract.
Barring any last-minute changes, the World Cup winner will sign a deal that will see him earn around £6million over the next three years, making him by far the best paid player in the country in a move which will cost Pana almost £8million in total.”
Not a bad pension for a man in the twilight of his career.
There’s also speculation that we’re interested in taking an 18-year-old winger off their hands, apparently
“The 18-year-old is considered one of the brightest young talents in Greek football and has been attracting the interest of a host of clubs.”
I’d probably be a bit more enthusiastic if the word Greek was replaced with Spanish, English or even fantasy for that matter.
Speaking of interest in players, everyone is desperate to link us with Gareth Barry again and also Xabi Alonso both of whom seem resolute on leaving their clubs. Either player could be a very good purchase for the Gooners but it just doesn’t seem very Wenger like, I mean, i have actually heard of these two.
Possibly my favourite piece of news today is that the rat-faced Belorussian is due to have a medical at Barcelona today
“The Spanish giants have confirmed on their official website that, providing Hleb passes his medical, he could sign his contract within 24 hours.”
Well there’s nothing groundbreaking to report for you Gooner fans today, a sneaky phone call is probably the biggest news of the day.
According to Martin O’Neill, Pat Rice made a call to check how things were going with the Liverpool deal and to drop a suggestion that Arsenal maybe interested in the services of Garteth Barry. He said:
“Myself and Steve Walford both know Arsene Wenger’s assistant Pat Rice,he phoned Steve to ask how the Liverpool thing had gone and said that they might show an interest.
At the end of the conversation Arsenal said ‘that’s fine’ and that they’ll let us know. That is exactly what happened.”
Now the cynics out there may think that it’s just a scare tactic to get Liverpool to finally stump up the cash that Villa are crying for, and although that may be true i think we all know that Martin O’Neill speaks the truth…just ask Robbie Williams.
In other news Carlos Vela has decided he wants to be a “Warrior” for Arsenal and I for one am loving the new lad’s spirit. For the full interview and a bit of sucking up to Fabregas go here.
Well that’s it for today, hopefully tomorrow we’ll have news of the Ice-cream loving, big city hating scumbag Hleb sodding off to that rural village they call Barcelona.
Here at Goonerblog we decided it’s been too long since we have been able to drool over the majestic talents of Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp.
The man who made Nikos Dabizas his unwitting assistant in one of the most magical goals in history against Newcastle and whose cheeky chips where nothing more than his bread ‘n’ butter. A true Arsenal great with loyalty, passion and the vision to pick a killer pass that is a quality you simply cannot teach.
Ladies and gentlemen, sit back and enjoy some of the very best of this truly unique player.
Ok I’m back, I have been out of the game a while with a few other projects but Goonerblog will now be updated regulary. Probably.
I am also looking for guest bloggers and posts if anyone is interested having their say about Arsenal, please contact me via the contact form.
So, completely out of the blue this one, we have now officially signed Samir Nasri after so much speculation. A typical Wenger signing, young, French, quick and technically gifted. Nasri said -
“Arsene has a great reputation and he is one of the best managers in the world. He has proved that he puts a lot of confidence in the young players and he gives them a chance.
“It was very important for me to have such a great manager to work with and I’m really looking forward to working with both Arsene Wenger and all my new team-mates.
“I can play in the centre or on the wing. During my career, I have played behind one or two strikers or on the left, or the right hand side.“
With the ability to play wide left or right and behind the striker it gives us plenty of options and pretty much sounds like a direct replacement for Hleb.
