Stoke Blues, Early rumours & Kronke's plans hit snag.

Afternoon Gooners,

I have come out from my hiding place in the hope that all the Stoke-ness in the world has been evaporated and we can all move on from what has to be 90 of the most depressing minutes of the season. Never have I felt so crap watching a game. All I wanted was a spark of enthusiasm, a droplet of effort, a trinket of passion and all I got was 11 players plus subs who thought pre-season had already started.

No player can take pride from that performance on Sunday and I hope they are made to watch the game in full by Arsene Wenger over and over again in a hope that they will realise just how bad they were and decide to at least turn up for the final two games of the season otherwise we could well find ourselves having to play a qualifier for the Champions league next year. If that happens then despite reaching further points in the cup competitions and challenging for longer for the title, the season has to be seen as a backwards step from last year.

I desperately tried to find some positive points in recent day’s news to pick me up but failed miserably. Instead I found a load of ex players saying we weren’t strong enough, Sagna speaking out saying we had no fight and Wenger sounding more beaten and pessimistic as I have ever heard him since he first came through the front door at Highbury. However, in his depressing press conferences and interviews of late I very much get the impression that Wenger finally believes that something must change but more than that is already planning ahead and making decisions on how to improve our squad in the summer. He said:


"We have our plans and we know what we will do"

Now I know eleven words hardly make a complete argument that change is imminent but this is a quote at the end of a long period of acceptance for Arsene Wenger and maybe it’s just my new way of channeling optimism but I honestly think we will see a busy summer this year with up to 3 or 4 players coming in as well as going out.

One of those players linked has been linked with us for a while and is the mountain of a man Christopher Samba of Blackburn fame. In fact, Samba has gone one step further and claimed that he was close to joining us in January, now I personally don’t think we need a world class centre back to come in so someone like Samba could do the job but I’ll look closer at transfers once the season has finished.

Slightly higher caliber player linked to us again recently is Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. Wenger is a fan of Benzema and has publicly admitted liking the player and although he would not pay the £35m that Real did, a cut price of £15m-£20m may tempt him to bring in the big name player many fans are craving.

Players are still being linked with moves away but there are seemingly more and more stories claiming that Liverpool have joined Real Madrid and Manchester City in the chase for Gael Clichy. Now the fact that many teams would be interested isn’t a shock however the fact that the price being flung about is only £5.5m has literally had me on the floor in stitches, a much needed laugh for Gooners in this miserable week. £5.5 million... Really? Anyway, as I said I’ll look at transfers in a bit more detail at the end of the season.

Other news floating about at the moment is all about Stan Kronke’s takeover.  Just when Silent Stan thought that a fat greedy Russian was the only thing standing in his way of a complete takeover, the Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) have contacted their members advising them not to sell their own shares to Kronke.

There are about 1’000 shareholders and supporters in the AST and last year they set up Arsenal Fanshare which has seen 1800 fans buy small stakes in the club but the total investment has risen to above £650’000. The deadline for Kronke’s offer is May 27^th but AST have said they feel the future of the club will be safer if it is not controlled by a single owner. A letter sent out by the group included quotes such as:

"The AST believes that Arsenal is stronger when supporters are represented in its ownership structure,"

"This arrangement means we can ask questions at an AGM and scrutinise the official report and accounts, something the AST has gained a reputation for doing with clarity and expertise.

"We also think that having supporters involved in the ownership helps to give the club a real sense of 'belonging' and acts as a check and reminder to those that run the club that its most important asset is its supporters."

I have to say that on many levels I agree with them but in all honesty as long as the takeover doesn’t turn hostile and cause issues behind the scenes at the club I don’t have much preference on which way it turns out.


Anyway, I’ve muttered on for too long today so I’ll leave you now to mentally prepare yourself for tonight’s game between City and the spuds. I can’t decide what result would make me smile more, obviously City dropping points is good as the bigger the gap between us and them the better but at the same time, knowing even a sixth place finish for Spurs wouldn’t give them European football of any sort next year makes me smile a lot. I guess the best result would be a draw as that would leave Spurs behind the scousers and would mean one win from our last two games would guarantee us third place and avoid those annoying qualifiers in July/August.


Until next time,
Goonerfish.