Barca continue to annoy & Gervinho in for a medical?

Morning Gooners,

So, lets start with Barca so we can get it out of the way. Our favourite Spaniards have come back and said "sorry about that ridiculous £27m offer, we were only joking. How about £34m?" hopefully the club have told Barca to stuff it again and not to come back until they have a proper offer. How can Cesc Fabregas, a world cup winner and European Champion be worth less money than Andy Carroll, a player that's has 1 good year in the Premiership and a couple of caps? We've all seen the quotes that supposedly came out of the club saying that if Barca meet Arsenal's valuation then we'll sell him, now ignoring the pointlessness of that comment (I thought that's how every transfer works!!) you'd think Barca would hear it and pay the money we are asking or sod off!!

Apparently, according to the Mirror, Barca are now also after Samir Nasri. They report that Barca will come in with a bid of £20m which in all honesty is a good offer for a player who is in the last year of his contract and playing silly buggers with a new contract. I still think that Nasri will sign and we'll be enjoying watching him for another 4 years or so at Arsenal.

OK, now for some nice news, reports were flying about yesterday that 'someone' had arrived at the Colney for a medical. Mixed with reports from France that Arsenal and Lille had finished some pleasant conversations the general consensus is that the player mentioned would be Gervinho which would be welcomed news. Gervinho was named Ivory Coast's player of the year last season beating the likes of Yaya Toure and Drogba, that has to be good pedigree that will improve our squad but as normal no further news came out of Arsenal, and chances are we'll wait a couple of days for the move to be officially confirmed and all the press stuff released at the same time. Lets hope its the first of many new faces welcomed to the club.

We also seem to be getting closer to signing Gary Cahill from Boltom. I know that a lot of fans are waiting for this but I really don't see what all the fuss around Cahill is about. Is he really better than Koscielny or Djourou? Really? We'll wait to see what happens but I really don't see Cahill as the player to save our defense.

Ricardo Alvarez also seems closer to his Arsenal switch for about £11m. Talks between the clubs have been ongoing for a while now and last night Alvarez tweeted about his love for Arsenal ans how playing for "The Arsenal" would be a dream. There is still some doubt about the authenticity of the account but I remain hopeful.

Other news is that Arsene Wenger has moved the start of pre season training forward a couple of days so now our boys will all be returning on Monday morning to start preparation for what will be one of the most important seasons in the clubs history.

It will be interesting to see if everyone is present or players currently involved in transfer dealings will be back late, or indeed at all, it will also be interesting to see if we have any new faces confirmed in time to join them. Only time will tell.

Also thew new away kit has been revealed by the club. When I say revealed, I mean confirmed what everyone has known and seen for months now. I actaully don't mind it, it's not my favorite kit we've had by any stretch of the imagination but it's not as bad as some people are making out. At least our players seem to like it, Jack Wilshere and Rambo have both tweeted about it but then again, they probably have to.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

Barca's first move not so Fab & other transfer updates

Afternoon Gooners,

Wow, I've been away for seem like an age but in all honesty there has been no new news to share. In some aspects that's still the same but we have had a couple of teaser stories come out of the woodwork to keep us entertained.

The only real place to start is what can only be the start of another truly annoying summer affair with Barcelona. It was reported yesterday that Barca have approached Arsenal with an opening verbal offer of £27m for our captain Cesc Fabregas. Obviously this was laughed at whole heartedly and Barca were told that the offer was no where near good enough. Although at first read that sounds a good thing, it's not. "The offer is not good enough" is not the same as "Piss off, he's not available" 

I expect Barca to come back with an improved offer and if it reaches the area of £35m plus add ons then I think it will be excepted and if an offer is excepted I am certain Cesc will take the opportunity to rejoin his boyhood team. The good news however is that I don't think Barca will move that high for a player they don't need. Fabregas will not be a regular starter at the Nou Camp, you just have to look at the stats for the current Barca stars to see that, for example Xavi made 3'411 passes last season and had a 94% success rate - that's insanely good, Cesc is a luxury for Barcelona, not a necessity and they will spend or indeed already have spent in other areas.

Samir Nasri's contract is another worry to Arsenal fans everywhere. News has been coming out of the club that negotiations have been progressing nicely and more talks are set for the near future although no target completion date has been set. Personally, I feel quite positive that Nasri will stay, I think more than money, it is a case of Arsenal proving that they will be challenging and winning trophies for the duration of his new contract and I think the influx of new signings and keeping Cesc, or a combination of the two will be enough to convince him of that.

Enough of players leaving, what about those coming in? It looks like the Gervinho deal is still not as complete as we thought. Recent talk is mixed, some saying that Arsenal and Lille are still not agreed on a fee but the more popular theory is that a deal is done and Arsenal are just waiting to make the announcement. Lets not forget, the international transfer window opens on July 1st which is next Friday and we all know how much Arsenal enjoy making announcements on a Friday.

Another transfer that seems to have real legs to it at the moment is Valez Sarsfield's Ricardo Alvarez. Palermo president has spoken in the press this week stating that 

"We had a specific interest we had in hand as early as January. Unfortunately, our mistake we did a quick run at the moment and has already signed for the 'Arsenal'. "

Now before we take that as gospel, Maurizio Zamparini (Palermo's president) is known for both attention seeking and talking bollocks however, Argentinian press is suggesting a deal is very close, if not complete and we know that Arsene was in Argentina a few weeks back so again maybe the magical Friday 1st July will see an announcement on Arsenal.com along with some shiny new photos of new signings posing in their new shirts.


The only issue I have with both Gervinho and Alvarez seemingly close to joining is that it makes it more likely that Arsene Wenger expects either Fabregas or Nasri to be playing elsewhere next year but you never know, with both players unproven in the best league in the world, Gervinho and and Alvarez may both be seen as squad players at the moment given us much needed depth and are more likely to replace the likes of Rosicky in Wenger's plan than Nasri or Fabregas.


I'll leave you on that as I go away and plan my euphoria for next Friday when we announce all of our signings. (What? I can be hopeful can't I?)


Till next time,
Goonerfish.


Don't forget, for more ramblings on all things Arsenal, you can follow me here on twitter.

Arsenal Fixtures: Scary start or chance to display our dominance?

Here we go Gooners. It's fixtures day!!

The fixtures for the Premier League season 2011/12 were released this morning and we start out (hopefully title winning) season with a trip to St James Park to face Newcastle.

Champions League qualifiers then surround Liverpool at home and are followed by Man Utd Away so not the easiest August we could ask for.  These games could shape the way season goes so as hard as it may be it is important to get off to a good start.

Other key dates are the Spuds, Away Oct 1st, Home 25th Feb. Utd's trip to Ashburton Grove is on 21st Jan. We play Chelsea Away on Oct 29th then at home 21st April in the fourth from last game. Man City Welcome us on 17th Dec and they come to us on 7th April.

If we are still in the race for the last few games we have a relatively nice run in with Stoke (A), Norwich (H) and West Brom (A) in our final three games

Here are our fixtures in full:

August

13 Newcastle (A)

20 Liverpool (H)
27 Man Utd (A)
September
10 Swansea (H)
17 Blackburn (A)
24 Bolton (H)
October
1 Tottenham (A)
15 Sunderland (H)
22 Stoke (H)
29 Chelsea (A)
November
5 West Brom (H)
19 Norwich (A)
26 Fulham (H)
December
3 Wigan (A)
10 Everton (H)
17 Man City (A)
21 Aston Villa (A)
26 Wolverhampton (H)
31 QPR (H)
January
2 Fulham (A)
14 Swansea (A)
21 Man Utd (H)
31 Bolton (A)
February
4 Blackburn (H)
11 Sunderland (A)
25 Tottenham (H)
March
3 Liverpool (A)
10 Newcastle (H)
17 Everton (A)
24 Aston Villa (H)
31 QPR (A)
April
7 Man City (H)
9 Wolverhampton (A)
14 Wigan (H)
21 Chelsea (H)
28 Stoke (A)
May
5 Norwich (H)
13 West Brom (A)

So Gooners, what are your standout fixture? Where will you be fighting for tickets? The fixture release means only one thing, the season is close and I for one can't wait!!

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

Gazidis Q&A Breakdown & Gervinho update

Morning Gooners,


All together now, Hurrah!! Something to write about other than transfer rumours!!

Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis bravely stepped up in front of the Arsenal Supporters Trust among others to front a question and answer session. I can only imagine that Gazidis prepared long and hard for all of the inevitable questions that would fly his way and he wasn't left disappointed.

To be honest, nothing that came out of the session was at all surprising. Mr Gazidis stated that the board support Kronke and in turn he fully understands the club. He said that everyone supports Wenger and also said that Wenger will and does answer to the fans (This statement got a very disrespectful laugh from many of those present) he expressed his "profound disappointment" at the way the season ended and he echoed Wenger's comments that the club expects a very busy pre season. He said:

“Coming off the end of the season, I share with you a sense of profound disappointment. We had a season that promised a great deal and looked like it could turn into a very special one but in the end a familiar story began to tell itself. I understand the feelings that we all felt.  “It is very clear we had some shortcomings and in this close season we are going to see some turnover of players. Some new signings will be coming in and some of our existing squad will be going out. As Arsène has said, it will be a busy close season for the Club.

"The trick will be identify which parts to keep and which parts to turnover. And we will do that within our financial capabilities.”

"Mr Kroenke is known to the Directors and they have confidence in him. In his track record in sports, and also very importantly his track record with Arsenal, he has used a self-sustainable model and brought success to his sports teams and he wants success for Arsenal. 

"He has grown to love Arsenal but he will remain in the background. This is not somebody who steps forward and looks for a public profile."

Now, I wasn't there but from what I've seen and heard Gazidis handled himself very well and although  he will not of cleared up all of Gooners worries and fears I feel he has gone a long way to reducing them. Gazidis made a point of saying that the football and it's fans seem to have too much distance growing between them and he didn't want Arsenal to be part of that, these forums give fans a fantastic opportunity to get face time with the club's bigwigs and their voices be heard.

If you are more interested in how this event went then pop over to Arsenal.com where they have provided the videos for free.

OK, OK, you've twisted my arm, I'll talk about transfers.

Chatter seems to imply that Arsenal could have as many as three deals virtually completed and up to another three in the pipeline. The three that seem to be holding the most weight are Samba, Chamberlain and Gervinho.

The Alex Chamberlain deal has been bubbling since January and his Dad has been less than subtle about his preference for his son's next club. Samba is a defender who's style does not currently exist at Arsenal. Personally I think he will be able to do a great job for us against so called lesser teams but I still think any transfer depends on two factors, firstly if Samba himself is OK playing only a handful of games because if everyone stays fit, that's all he will get and secondly if the clubs can agree a fee which is now much more doubtful now that Blackburn will be desperate not to lose him after seeing Phil Jones already leave for a bigger club.

The biggest movement at the moment seems to be with the Gervinho deal. Speaking to RMC Radio, Lille general manager Frederic Paquet said:

"He actually wants to go," 

"We have developed contacts with Arsenal. We will soon discuss with them to see what they want.

"He expressed his desire to leave for England so we'll see what will happen.

"Gervinho chose to leave for England, so that limits the scope of the situation.

"We will meet soon with Arsenal, see what they offer - but he is a player of value."

A lot of Gervinho's qualities are obvious and he will be a very useful addition to our squad but one factor that seems to be overlooked is that he has just won the domestic double in France against teams with more money and experience. He has the very thing that our squad is missing,  that mythical knowledge of winning trophies.


Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we'll see a few new faces appear in an Arsenal photo shoot.


Till next time,
Goonerfish.


Don't forget, for my pointless ramblings throughout the day on all things Arsenal follow me here on twitter.

Van Persie, Transfer status and Usmanov - Friend or Foe?

Afternoon Gooners,

21 Days since the season has ended and the feeling of frustration we felt throughout May just hasn't stopped. With stories of transfers flying about as freely as you like and new signings being announced all over the place the lack of immediate changes to the Arsenal squad have left many fans clinging on to the previously mentioned frustration and in some cases it is transforming it into pure anger.

Lets all just take a step back shall we. The players do not return to training for another few weeks and our first friendly game is not until July 13th so Wenger has plenty of time to act. We have brought in Carl Jenkinson from Charlton and although at only £1m and with only 9 first team appearances under his belt he's not the big name superstar people are expecting, it is a start. Combine this with reports that we had a £16m bid accepted for Blackburn's Phil Jones and the current stories of us being close to finalising the transfers of Gervinho, Samba and Chamberlain (Although again, don't believe everything you read) it would seem that Gazidis and Wenger are in fact very busy trying to make the additions to our squad that 1) we need and 2) we can afford.

I am not normally a fan of players speaking out to the press, it normally seems to serve absolutely no purpose at all and has more potential to cause harm than anything else, however I couldn't help but enjoy recent quotes from Robin Van Persie.  Talking to 'The Sun' he said:

"Every year it goes wrong in an identical way and that is frustrating,"

"When you look at results in the last years, Arsenal shouldn't be talking about winning the league because too many times that has gone wrong.

"Of course the hunger and desire is great but sometimes you have to eat and be realistic.

"But I believe with the signing of a number of players, we should be in there competing for the prizes.

"Even now, it's still unbelievable we didn't win the Carling Cup as that was the breakthrough moment, showing everyone we could win a cup and create a belief within the team.

"When I talk about that it still hurts. It was so stupid and I ask myself 'how did that come about?"

He also mentioned the lifestyle of modern footballers:

“The really top players aren’t fooled by riches or fame because they are fully focused with their football,”

“For me, it’s very important to be having breakfast every morning with my two children and that wouldn’t be possible if you were hanging about in a disco all night."

In my opinion these quotes are from a player who lives and breathes Arsenal's values. If some of our players concentrated more on their football instead of the fame, money and lifestyle it brings then maybe fans wouldn't be calling for them to be moved on. Arsene's project youth depended a lot on players dedication and commitment and some of the ranks such as Denilson and Bendtner just haven't given it.

I wouldn't be a pre season blog if I didn't run over the transfer latest so her it is:

Gervinho: Depending on what you read this transfer is at different stages. We have either had a £8m, £10m or £12m offer accepted or Lille haven't received any offers except one from Spurs. It seems that both Spurs and Man City have entered the race for his signature which could disrupt any deal because we simply can not compete financially with City. However on several occasions the player himself has described Arsenal as his preferred destination so only time will tell.

Samba: It would seem that Wenger is taking samba into serious consideration and has tested Blackburn's resolve to keep the big man by suggesting bids of around £9m but if Blackburn are holding out for much more a deal would be unlikely.

Cahill: Bolton are looking for a fee in the region of £17m if reports are to be believed. This is a ridiculous amount for a player who is in the last year of their contract and has no European experience. If a deal for Cahill happens it will be for much less than Bolton's valuation. Also Man City have reported an interest so financially he's not even worth Arsene considering.

Obviously Players looking to move on include Denilson, Bendtner and Clichy. With the first two it's simply a case of finding someone that will take them. Clichy however is a slightly different story. Liverpool and Inter seem to be main contenders for his signiture but the £5m price tag being thrown about is ridiculous. I know he is in the last year of his contract but if you compare him to the £17m Bolton are asking for Cahill I would be expecting £8m to £10m for Clichy's services. Also I really hope he moves abroad, I couldn't take seeing him playing for a different team in the Premier League.

I'll finish today with Usmanov's desperate plea to get into the fans favour. You can find his quotes here courtesy of Tim Payton of AST.

Having read them it my opinion that this is simply excellent work from a very good PR firm. He is saying everything the fans want to hear but as for the bit that says he doesn't want to join the board, if he was offered a place today he would snatch at the chance. Usmanov wants to make a quick buck from our club and would not hesitate to ruin the financial structure the club has fought so hard to build. He would look for quick success while disregarding the future of the club. Mr Usmanov, you are not needed and more importantly not wanted please kindly sod off. (However if you want to leave Dein then I'd be grateful)

A final quote from Arsene Wenger to finish off

"Its great clubs who make players, not other way"

Never a truer word spoken Mr Wenger, listen up Samir and listen hard. Sign your contract and let us make you great.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

1st signing in the bag - Day of the transfered youngsters

Morning Gooners.

So, the summer transfer saga has now officially started.

Arsenal yesterday confirmed the signing of Carl Jenkinson from Charlton Athletic for an undisclosed fee which in most circles is believed to be in the region of £1m.

Admittedly I do not know a lot about our new youngster other than he can play all the way across the back line and towers in at about 6' 1" but more importantly, he's a Gooner!!

Wenger has obviously seen something special in the kid so fans should have faith in that and on the same day that Liverpool paid £20m + Ngog for Sunderland's Henderson and Man Utd secured the signature of Phil Jones from Blackburn for a reported £16m, both of whom are a similar age to Jenkinson, our £1m could prove to be very good business. Depending on Jenkinson's current ability this could be another push towards Eboue's exit from the club, only time will tell.

With Gervinho expected to be announced over the next week or so it seems we can expect a busy and active summer, however, it seems many gooners are still unhappy at Wengers lack of activity and have picked on our failure to land Jones as the main source of their apparent anger. This next bit is for you if you are one of those people. Arsenal had a £16m bid accepted for Jones and Arsene Wenger met with him and it would seem we offered the kid higher wages than Utd but because Jones wants to stay in the north west he has chosen to join Utd. Wenger and Arsenal did what they could to try and sign him but he chose a different club, just like Ramsey rejected Man Utd a few years back to join Arsenal, you win some you lose some.

There appears to be a lot happening behind the scenes this summer and players are constantly being looked at, even to the extent that Giles Grimandi was seen scouting at a U21 game last night.

A big welcome to Jenkinson, you have joined a great club (as you already know) and we hope you enjoy a lot of success here.

The summer has started, but please Mr Wenger keep it going. I still expect to see another 3-4 players come in and on top of kepping Cesc and Nasri at the club I think we can call it a successful summer and push on for trophies next year.

Keep positive Gooners, it's going to be an interesting transfer window.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

You tell em Robin!! plus Rumour round up

Evening Gooners,

I've not written much in the last week but that's mainly because close to bugger all has happened. We've had links with players thrown about like everlasting gobstoppers in Willy Wonka's factory, some of the stories have been believable, a few have, in my own opinion, been quite possible but most of them have been complete nonsense. I expect these rumours will carry on for the whole of the summer but why get excited now? We will have nothing confirmed until at least June 9th as that is when the transfer window opens.

So far we have virtually had confirmed 4 transfers into the club (2 youngsters from Barca, Ollsen and Jenkinson) and we have heard both Denilson and Bendtner confirm they will leave the club as long as someone will take them and Arsenal have confirmed several youngsters such as Randall and Cruise have left the books. This shows that we are going to have a very active summer at every level of the club.

The chatter at the moment seems to be quite confident that we will be revealing our first main signing of the season at some point next week (by main signing, I mean 1st team) and the consensus is that it'll be Gervinho from Lille that is having his photo shoot with his new Arsenal kit. Gervinho is very much a Wenger signing, he's young, he's skillful and entering the last year of his contract he will be at a cut price, anywhere between £8m-£10m.

Arsene Wenger has been out to South America either looking personally at a player or meeting a player we hope to agree terms with. If it is the second of those options then the stories regarding Ricardo Alvarez a couple of weeks back could prove to have more backbone to them than many expected.

One rumour that now seems to be squashed for good is the arrival of Karim Benzema. First, Benzema himself came out and said he wants to fight for a place at Madrid then after that Mourinho has said that he sees Benzema as "untransferable". Ah well tabloids, time to pick a new target out of thin air.

On a personal note, Robin Van Persie, stand up and be proud you fecking legend. RVP has been quoted by a Dutch TV station accusing Chelsea players of " bitching" about referees. He said:

“People who are watching the game on television and fans really do not want to see these kind of things.

“If you want to witness a lot of complaints, you should just go the bakery or something. There’s always people nagging there as well.

“Chelsea players are always bitching against the referees. I really cannot understand that. Just shut the f*** up and focus on playing football.”

You'd think on his wages he wouldn't need to go into any bakery, let alone one that was full of bitching customers.  However I love the fact that he has named Chelsea in that quote, I don't know if that was actually part of the interview, I'd be surprised if it was, but some things just make you smile when you read them.

Two things however go against RVP's rant. First is little Jack Wilshere who has actually said Arsenal players need to surround the referees together other it makes players like Robin Van Persie look like they are always having a go at them, secondly he is not the most accepting of a lot of decisions concerning Arsenal, he's never - to my immediate knowledge -attempted to convince a ref to book an opponent but we need look no further than his (albeit ridiculous) red card against Barca, there wasn't a lot of focus on just playing football by anyone in a yellow shirt that night.

I shall free you now from my ramblings as we all prepare to keep everything crossed that our players survive the dreaded round of internationals over the weekend.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.