Cattermole / Vieira / Ferguson / Adebayor

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There have been rumblings that Arsenal are after Lee Cattermole.

And the usual crap on News Now comes up, but there seems to be new levels of idiocy on the Arsenal blogs these days. I actually read on one blog that ‘Lee Cattermole is just what Arsenal need’. Along with that post, there is one video of him dribbling and taking a shot (which is saved) and then another showing a fight he was involved in.

Now I honestly don’t know if this is an attempt at satire or actually serious.

But if it is real, it is the most retarded thing I have read this summer.

Lee Cattermole! He is just a thug who, if I remember correctly, loves the kind of tackles which break your leg. Just the thought of him training with our squad would give me sleepless nights. We have injury problems in training as it is, so why we would want someone who could take out our entire team beggars belief.

That’s all I’m going to say about that ‘rumour’.

Vieira’s Return

I’ve tried to ignore it as part of the summers silly season, but it does look like there is a possibility of Vieira returning to the Premier League, to join our rivals Spurs.

Harry Redknapp seems to think that Vieira might return to North London, and that the former Arsenal captain wants to join Spurs.

There are a lot of people saying that if Vieira did join Tottenham that he’d taint his legend at the club, but personally I don’t think it matters one bit. Patrick Vieira was and will always be an Arsenal great and he truly is a one of our greatest ever captains, and one of the most successful.

And that’s how I will always remember him.

The fact is Arsene let him go because he didn’t think he could do the job anymore. What Paddy decides to do with his career after that is entirely up to him. Obviously Vieira isn’t going to be the same player he was at Arsenal, so while he will probably improve Spurs they will still be a mid-table club.

And he’s been away from Arsenal for the last 4 seasons. I could see the uproar if he joined them from us, like Sol Campbell did, but he isn’t. And while rubber face Redknapp compares the possible signing to Sol’s move across the divide the fact is it isn’t the same.

Sol Campbell moved at the peak of his career to win honours (and you can’t blame him leaving Spurs can you?) while Vieira is in the twilight of his. If he wants to continue playing and Spurs are his only option then good luck to him I say, and you’d have to say at Tottenham he’s going to need it.

Alex Ferguson and Adebayor, Again

Again Fergie has talked about Manchester City and all their strikers, and he said about Adebayor:

“When someone offers you that kind of money, it is a big attraction.

“That is the reason they have gone there.

“At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us.”

What a classy guy.

I love how he said he joined Citeh not for the money, and then it turns out he was pimping himself out to teams like Chelsea and Manchester United.

And what I love even more is how they weren’t even interested in him.

Fergie also talked about how Manchester City were a small club, but instead of being accused of having a hate campaign against them you can just read about it yourself.

Unfortunately Alex Ferguson Talks Sense, Yet Again

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If I’m being completely honest, I don’t hate Alex Ferguson. I used to when Arsenal and Manchester United were locking horns at the top of the Premier League in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but the hatred has subsided somewhat. I suppose just in the same way that Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson’s seemingly intense rivalry has cooled off in the last few years.

There are a few reasons for this.

The first one is Jose Mourinho. Just when you thought Alex Ferguson was a complete and utter twat, here comes along Mourinho. Most people will remember him for being ‘special’ and adding a bit of spice to the Premier League, but I won’t. He was disgusting to me in the way he behaved and conducted himself.

He’s the one who tapped up Ashley Cole. He caused Anders Frisk to end his 18 year career as a professional referee because he was receiving death threats from Chelsea fans. He called Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’. Everton threatened him with legal action after he came out and said Andy Johnson was a cheat.

And Mourinho is the man that declared he would rather join Liverpool than Chelsea as he had several reservations about how Chelsea was being run. Unsurprisingly he moved to London a couple of weeks later.

You can read what I thought of him here.

Right, I’ve gone well off topic. The point is I don’t hate Fergie, I just have a general dislike towards him. And on the whole, you have to respect what he says. Hate it or not he’s been hugely successful at Manchester United.

In July 2007, when Arsenal sold Thierry Henry to Barcelona everyone (including a lot of Arsenal fans) thought this was the start of a massive decline. Everyone thought that we would drop out from the Top Four and Arsene Wenger was losing his marbles.

Actually, doesn’t this sound familiar every summer?

Anyway, while everyone was writing off Arsenal one of the very few people to come out and disagree was Alex Ferguson. I remember watching that Sky Sports interview and people thought red nose was crazy. He said:

“Arsenal are still a big threat and they’ll be in the top four, and I’m more convinced they will be in the top four without Thierry Henry.

“I just thought it was time for him to go. Arsene Wenger knew that, and I think they’ll do better.”

It was an very unpopular view at the time, and one not shared by many Arsenal fans.

And what happened?

Arsenal improved that following campaign by fighting for the Premier League title for the majority of the season.

So fast forward to exactly 2 years later and Ferguson has come out with this about Manchester City:

“It won’t be easy for them to win anything, even with the players they have bought.

“I can’t look at them as our main competitors. Liverpool and Chelsea are our main competitors.”

You can get much better for a more experienced view on the situation.

And while he didn’t mention Arsenal in the same breadth as Liverpool and Cheslea, he did talk about Arsenal saying:

“Arsenal have the biggest job to do because they have sold Adebayor and don’t seem to have the money the rest have got.

“How Arsene develops his team will be his biggest test.

“The one thing we know about Arsenal is that they will play some of the best football you will see and they will create chances.

“They could easily re-establish themselves and challenge for the league again.”

Which on reflection is a fair view.

We do know that Arsenal are going to play the best football in the league, and we do have a chance to challenge for the title again. But obviously making that a reality is going to be difficult since United and Chelsea have more experience in winning the title in recent seasons, along with a few other factors. We’ll just have to wait and see how our season pans out.

Disrespectful Adebayor Is Truly Deluded

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As if Adebayor couldn’t get any more unpopular with Arsenal fans, he’s come out with this rubbish after leaving us for Manchester City:

“People who think that I have joined City for the money are wrong. If I had made a move for that reason then I would have been playing for Barcelona or Milan last season.

“I want to win silverware and trophies. That is my ambition.

“The team has quality and a manager who knows what he wants.”

This is despite being paid a reported £170k a week at Manchester City, almost double what he was on at Arsenal.

And he’s moved from a team that has regular Champions League football to a team that doesn’t. I have to laugh when he actually believes he could have been playing for Barcelona last season. This was a side that won the treble – Adebayor is kidding himself if he thinks that he’s on that level.

He’s ended up at Manchester City!

If Barcelona or Milan really wanted him then they would have got him.

And the idea that he’s left Arsenal to win trophies and not for the money is comical. How are Barcelona not on course for trophies? They’re the best side in Spain and the best side in Europe so why didn’t you leave last summer to ‘win trophies’ eh?

Pull the other one, Ade.

The sad fact is none of the big sides wanted you, and in the end you engineered your won demise at Arsenal.

I thought we’d heard enough of his idiocy over the last 12 months but it seems it isn’t going to end soon.

Adebayor / Time To Get Excited / Ibrahimovic

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I’ve always said that looking forward to the new season only started once Adebayor left Arsenal, and last night it was finally confirmed.

Thank God for that.

Looking back the whole Adebayor situation was a strange one.

When he arrived in January 2006 we didn’t really expect much of him. Thierry was the main man, we had Reyes would could play up top and Robin Van Persie was starting to break into the first team. Plus the 2005/2006 season will largely be remembered by Arsenal fans for the Champions League run to the final which he wasn’t apart of anyway, since he was cup tied with Monaco.

The next season was up and down, the highlight of which was grabbing the winner at Old Trafford against Manchester United. It wasn’t really a settled season with Adebayor, Baptista and Robin Van Persie all fighting to play alongside Thierry Henry.

But the 2007/2008 season was the one where the Togan would come into his own. With Baptista and Henry going to Spain, Adebayor was now first choice and didn’t he relish it? He racked up 30 goals in 48 games and scored some wonder goals to boot – and his cracker against Spurs was voted the Goal of the Season. He brought us to the brink of the Premier League title and we all thought he was one for the future.

But unfortunately after just one good season the guy thought he was as good as Thierry Henry.

He was offering himself to clubs like AC Milan and Barcelona and seemed disappointed when he didn’t engineer a move away from The Emirates. I suppose seeing players like Hleb and Flamini leave for those teams and realising no-one actually wanted him got the better of Adebayor.

And to last season.

He still scored 16 goals but the effort, desire and work-rate which made him so popular wasn’t there anymore. He made excuses and started spouting a lot of crap to the press and media. The fans aren’t stupid and he got really defensive in that infamous BBC interview with Garth Crooks.

I don’t think as Arsenal fans we’ve been so fed up and sick of a single player before.

So for that Emmanuel Adebayor, well done.

It would be silly to think he’ll be a flop at Manchester City. They have a huge array of attacking talent now and teams should be worried about what they can produce next season. The biggest job Mark Hughes will have is keeping all of those forwards happy. They now have Adebayor, Tevez, Santa Cruz, Robinho, Elano, Bellamy, Benjani, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Bojinov all fighting for places in attack.

You can say what you like about mercenaries only interested in money but these guys are still professional athletes. Manchester City will be a force in the league next season, especially with no Champions League football to distract them from the Premier League.

But I’m also very excited about Arsenal in this coming campaign.

Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo should be back and when those two players are fully fit and on form they are top class players. I am especially excited to see what Eduardo can do as Arsenal’s first choice striker and hopefully get a full season under his belt. We’ve all seen glimpses of magic he is capable of and he could be the key next season. Remember, he only needs one chance to score, not five or six.

I truly believe in most areas of the pitch we are very strong. Attacking-wise we are right up there (injuries and fitness permitting) and in defence we seem to be well covered (although I’d like to know what the situation with Senderos actually is?). The only position I think we struggle is providing a partner for Cesc in central midfield. For me, the current situation isn’t good enough and our defence is exposed far too much. Denilson and Song, although they have improved, are not the answer. Diaby is frustrating too. And God forbid Cesc Fabregas were to get injured – then we’d really struggle.

Ibrahimovic & Eto’o

I know it has nothing to do with Arsenal but I just have to bring this up.

Even with obscene sums of money being thrown around for players such as Ronaldo and Kaka surely this deal is the most ridiculous?

Barcelona are offering Samuel Eto’o, £35 million and Hleb on loan in exchange for possibly the world’s most overrated player. And I’m not exaggerating. In Europe he’s done nothing. He might do well in Serie A but let’s be honest, that league is probably on the same level as the Dutch league.

At Juventus, he played against Arsenal twice in the Champions League. Toure and Senderos not only kept two clean sheets but had relatively easy games. That’s right, Phillippe Senderos! He has also drawn blanks against Liverpool four times and Manchester United twice in recent seasons. I would take Eto’o over Ibrahimovic every single day of the week. At least he’s won the Spanish League and Champions League several times.

I heard recently that he is the highest paid footballer in the world along with Kaka, and if that’s true then the mind boggles. This joker is no where near the same level as Kaka or Ronaldo.

I’m Back / Adebayor / The Future

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Some of you may have noticed I haven’t posted on here as regularly as I usually do, or maybe not.

Partly it’s because I was devastated with how the season turned out. As fans we live on hope and that gradually died as the season went on, and despite the ‘scathing’ posts I might have posted over the last season you’ll see that most of my posts over the last few years have been particularly positive. As ever, before the new season starts I have fresh hope and optimism for the season to come.

Another reason is while this particular blog and domain has been going running since February 2006 (initially started in early 2005), back then there were a handful of Arsenal blogs online. Now though it is a Arsenal blogosphere, and there are literally hundreds of Arsenal fans airing their views online. While this is great, there is now an over saturation of Arsenal information, unfortunately most of it completely b*llocks. Newsnow is awash with so much transfer crap it’s unreal. But obviously these cheap hits are used to increase traffic to advert filled web pages called ‘Arsenal blogs’. This site costs me money but I do it for the love of Arsenal I’m glad I don’t fill the site with needless adverts.

Anyway, we know Wenger’s transfer policy, and that will be 2 or 3 players over this summer if we’re lucky. And then there’s the annual ‘Cesc to Barcelona’ stories, and now it seems Arshavin has been dragged into it with quotes from last year before he joined us.

The fact is over the only way to not go crazy is to ignore the rumours and speculation over the summer. It gets tiring season after season and unless someone signs or leaves then it’s not news.

Adebayor

But it does look like Adebayor is leaving us.

I’ve held back from commenting on this as I didn’t want to jinx the move. When I first heard the news I was ecstatic, and on reflection how sad is that? I am happy for a player to leave Arsenal. But Arsenal is a club built on respect and the fans aren’t stupid, they know when a player is taking the p*ss.

Despite pretty much hating Adebayor over the last season (like most of you no doubt) the season before he was epic. For me in the 2007/2008 season he was phenomenal. Don’t let his idiocy over the last 12 months fool you, this guy was potentially on the way to becoming one of the feared strikers in Europe.

Playing alone upfront is a very difficult skill and he had it. You need incredible power, strength and desire to pull off that position but he did it. He would single-handedly rip defences apart for fun. He was close to becoming a Didier Drogba (not the diving play-acting one). He brought us to the brink of our first Premier League title in 4 years.

It’s funny how quickly things can change.

Desire was a massive part of Adebayor’s form and ability but this season he lost it. Without his personal motivation he’s not even half the player he can be. So while we’ve done well getting somewhere in the region of £25 million for him don’t think Manchester City have just bought a dud. It wouldn’t surprise me if he found his spark again and scored 25 goals for Citeh next season. He has a new challenge to look forward to and will be playing alongside some top class players.

The Future

No doubt we’ll be linked to various strikers to replace Ade once he officially leaves, but I don’t think we need a new striker.

We have RVP who seems to have found his form, although that is largely dependant on whether he can stay clear of injuries. We’ve got Theo who might be asked to step up this season and then of course we have Eduardo, who is sensational and deserves a whole season to show what he is capable of. Bendtner will also be used a lot more this coming campaign with the departure of the Togan.

And we also have a lot of other options on top of that.

If Nasri and Rosicky can keep fit and give Arsene options out wide then that leaves Arshavin to fill in behind the first striker, and that is something I would love to see. This boy can score anywhere on the pitch and the team should be based around his world-class talents. If Wenger uses him right, he could has as much impact as Ronaldo did for Manchester United. He is that good.

I would be happy with one more signing, and if it was a physical central midfielder.

Arsenal will always make chances to score goals, it’s in our blood. But unfortunately, defending as a unit isn’t. We don’t have big players like Vieira, Petit and Gilberto anymore who know how to fight and win the ball back. On paper, our back five isn’t bad – our major weakness is that our defence is exposed far too often.

We need to learn how to defend as a team.

A defensive midfielder with a bit of experience would set us up nicely for the season ahead.