Rumours, rumours – by Billy the Dog McGraw
The story of Cesc Fábregas was that he had the DNA of Barcelona in his blood.
Well some of his blood anyway. Red blood cells don’t have DNA in them, which is a statement I would have used had Barcelona employed me as a copywriter, during the four year courtship of the boy who used to play for them. But they didn’t ask me, and instead ran only part of story in their hysterical attempts to persuade Cesc to break his contract which had an almighty six years to run.
(Actually that shows the pointlessness of contracts, but that’s another matter).
Back to DNA which is found in the white blood cells only. If you want to have a look and see if yours is linked to a particular football club you extract it from the blood cells using detergent and then adding alcohol – which when you come to think about it, is right for some footballers.
Today there is talk of Cesc leaving Barcelona – which raises the question: if it isn’t Barcelona’s DNA whose is it?
Barce has not been a perfect hunting ground for Cesc. He plays in just over half the games and is having an affair with a much older woman with big [Careful Billy – Ed] ambitions. Daniella Semaan is the lady in question, she is 38, and is married to Elie Taktouk who is getting very edgy.
There is a lot of talk of Cesc and Daniella emigrating to London. You can read all about that, and how pulling out of the European Union, in the Daily Mail, which also seems to consider fascism quite a jolly thing really, which only got a bad name in the 1930s.
Now whether Cesc comes back depends not only on his girlfriend but also on who is Arsenal’s manager at the time….what with the rumours circulating that Mr Wenger has already agreed a deal with PSG to join them in the summer.
There’s also a rumour that Arsenal are going to sign goalkeeper Iker Casillas from Real Madrid, whose “relationship” with José Mourinho, is said to be “frosty”. But then Mourinho is on the way out of Madrid, perhaps to join Arsenal because Mr W is off to France.
But then again Arsène Wenger wants to bring Sevilla’s midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia to town, but then again again so do Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid. But then again again again again if Mourinho comes to Arsenal then maybe Kondogbia will come with him, or not.
There was a poll of Arsenal fans done in one part of the gutter press (The Times I think) and something like 98% of those voting said they would welcome Cesc back. So that’s all right. (Amusingly it is said that Song desperately wants to come back, but Arsenal don’t want him).
I suppose we could do that thing that they did in Spain of announcing that Cesc is flying out now to sign up. Today, tomorrow, the next day… but that would get boring.
But what of Mr Wenger – if he goes will Cesc follow the Master? PSG seem quite certain that they have got a deal, but it could be for 2013 or 2014. Mr Wenger always says he never breaks a contract, but then that is countered by the rumour that his current contract has a get out clause that allows him to leave one year before the end.
I know that Mr Wenger likes PSG, where Ancelotti is said to have told PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi that he would not be staying as manager). But but but… Mr Wenger’s never supported the mass buying up of players that the rich clubs do sometimes.
PSG took on David Beckham(!), and have Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Javier Pastore. Mr Wenger would like to work with such players of course, but just buying success is not his style.
Besides there is even less competition in France than there is in Spain, where at least you have two clubs. PSG is now the French league, and will almost certainly win the league this weekend.
So what am I trying to say in my usual muddled way? That who we buy among the big names depends on who is our manager next season and that the big names in journalism are saying Mr W is off. I really would be quite amazed if Mr Wenger left, but far less amazed if Cesc Fábregas came back claiming that Arsenal was in his DNA.
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
- Royal Arsenal: from the Common to the Manor. Coming next.
The sites from the same team…
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Societ
With his girlfriend having a name like that, she belongs at Arsenal but is she any good in goal?
I doubt Wenger will leave Arsenal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he extended his contract. Expect a deluge of rumours all over the press concerning AFC as the season draws to a close.
It would be interesting to make a note of every rumour and see how many come true by the start of next season.
@Rupert
A list of ‘rumoured’ transfer targets seen in the press last summer was compiled and stood at well over 100. I think the only one that came to fruition was Podolski which was common knowledge anyway. Just shows how much credence we should attach to these (fairy) stories doesn’t it.
@Mick, I merely wait for the first team sheet of the season, that’s all the facts I need.
@Guillaume le Chien,
Come On, Billy, get up to date. Danny already has a child of a few weeks via Cesc and the talk is that the pair are looking at property in London Town so that the bairn can be educated in England.
If the boy ever plays for Barcelona, he can break his contract by claiming his heart(and DNA) are in London and he can then sign cheaply for Arsenal, Spurs ,Chelsea or Leyton Orient.
Of course, the child may be a girl in which case all this is a load of rubbish…
One of my favourite stories from the bible is the story of the lost son.
As a kid I found that such a warm story. Maybe in the back of my head I thought: Oh, well I can do whatever I want and my parents will always welcome me back. But then again I was a nice boy when young (like to think I still am now) and so didn’t leave the house wasting all my money and then return poor. No, I just left poor. 🙂
But having Cesc back would mend my broken heart a little bit. He broke my heart, he kicked my in the b********ks with him leaving, he made me spit blood, he made me angry. But I really can’t help it that I would be happy to see him back. For once I am willing to believe a rumour. For once I am hoping that this rumour is true.
I can’t help it but Cesc is my lost son. The Arsenal player I loved most of all. Even more than Van C*nt.
Can you imagine Cesc and Cazorla running the show… oh my God… I just wetted my pants.
Oh well I can dream can I?
Mind you he will have to make a public apology at first 😉 But he is too good to let him slip away.
@Walter, I bet you’d get over RVP if he came back. I doubt Cesc will come back, if only because I don’t think Wenger would take him back.
Personally I’d love to see him return.
Really cannot see wenger going unless there are family reasons we do not know about…..not before the end of his contract anyway.
Would love to cesc back, but he will not come cheap, and would we still deal with dein lesser? Would not impress the fans to see him somewhere else.
I’ve assumed for years that if the press know about it, it is either: wrong, already happened, or going to happen in the next 24 hours.
It means I am occasionally wrong, but by far beats the odds of believing anything anything they speculate about.
Don’t know why people keep saying and keep on believing stuff like that. Wenger has never broken a contract and he never will. Also, he had said previously he doesn’t believe in get out clauses, he believes a contract is a contract, so it would be extremely surprising if his contract does have a get out clause. For me, those are just paper talk, looking to sell more papers.
I would really, really, really like to see Fabregas back in Arsenal and I really, really, really wouldn’t mind if he picks up Song on his way to Emirates.
Fabregas is a good kid. I followed his tweets before Arsenal matches last season – his heart is divided between Arsenal and Barcelona and nobody should ask him to apologize for that.
“and I really, really, really wouldn’t mind if he picks up Song on his way to Emirates.”
Josif,
Keep that hope alive. 🙂
Josif,
I only want him to say: Sorry Walter for breaking your heart 😉
Cesc Fabregas isn’t going to come back to Arsenal anytime soon. It’s just some rumour made up by the press, who saw how Barcelona were destroyed by Bayern, saw Cesc playing centre bench (Thanks Walter) and saw the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, or stir the waters in the hope of causing trouble. That’s it.
If I am wrong about the above, and Fabregas is available in a deal which suits us, I would take him back because he’s a fantastic player and would improve us. It still wouldn’t be the same as it was. He’ll just be another player who joined us to help us win. He won’t be OURS, like he was. Not to me at least.
And yes, I would take Van Persie back as well if it came to that. Only for his talent. The relationship would be clear. We pay you, you help the team win. Nothing more than that.
Song..I don’t think he’s in Wenger’s plans anymore. Or we wouldn’t have sold him.
Mind you I will not shout Wenger out, Kroenke out, Gazidis out, the coffee lady out when Cesc doesn’t come back 😉
What about Benteke???
He has scored 18 goals in his debut season in the league and has got 4 assists to his name as well. Statistically, these are very good for a player who is just 22 but I haven’t seen him much.
I seem to remember at the time Fabregas was sold, reports said we have a buy back clause as part of the deal giving us first refusal on him if Farca were to sell him.
i love this light hearted banter in here.i esp love the van c*nt expletive by walter..priceless. never knew you had that in you.on cesc, hope he comes back sincerely.but i give it a 3% chance of happening.someone between carthola and wilshere will have to be shifted to the wings. which further means podolski maybe consigned to the bench a lot more next season. and then we may need to restructure the gameflow of the team around cesc again. but then again if wenger gets him back, he must have a plan ehhh?
@Arun
I remember Benteke saying he is an Arsenal fan earlier in the season. I am sure he would be eager to come, but I confess to not having seen too much of him on the pitch.
@Everyone
Am I the only one that thinks there is a link between Cesc leaving his long term girlfriend around the beginning to mid 2011, then leaving Arsenal at the end of the season? (I looked up the story on google)
His new girlfriend seems a right – what’s the polite term…goldigger? – I wonder what kind of influence such a person has have on his personality?
I have mixed feelings about taking him back. He has been fairly respectful to the club (apart from the whole contract sage thing). He is still a fantastic footballer. But how would his return affect the dressing room? We seem to be getting rid of the big egos and bringing in more team spirit and harmony. ‘Not sure’ is my conclusion.
Both the Cesc and AW stories smack of press construction. So Cesc has a new girlfriend living here, is that a good reason for to ignore what his DNA has been telling him for years ? With the best of the Xavi/Iniesta years possibly behind them surely Cesc should be looking to cement his position at the club of his dreams, not leave it.
As for PSG and AW, well it appears Ancelotti will be away to Real this summer so there will be a vacancy. But he is also apparently unhappy at having to work under a Sporting Director at PSG? Would AW accept it having been so against that model here?
AW would never walk away and break his contract so it would require Arsenal to be party to any move from the outset.
Neither will happen.
I too would like to see Cesc return although there is the saying “never go back”. What I don’t know though is how do you incorporate Jack and Cesc in the same team?
Would take Song back on a free as well, if the reports about his own self importance were the reason for him leaving, then he will have come back to earth with a bang and also realised that the grass is not always greener.
Re AW, amazing how the same reporters can say for years he’s not good enough for us as we haven’t won anything for 8 years but now he’s about to walk because he’s too good for us.
Worst thing is the amount of uneducated people out there that can’t see through this hypocritical rubbish.
My thoughts are that Martin Jol will come to us and Michael Jackson will succeed him at Fulham. There’s already a statue of him there and I’ve heard from a very unreliable source that he is alive and well and just needed some time off with Bubbles.
It all makes sense as his come back tour will start at The Emirates in the summer.
You heard it here first!
Our team is beginning to cohere judging by the last few weeks. Why upset the balance by taking Cesc back? Not that I don’t like him, I just think he should bide his time at FC Farca. They never made a secret of the fact he was intended as an understudy in the midfield and he joined them anyway. I say to him what thousands of Gooners say to Le Coq: be patient. We are where we are today because he and the other departees could not reciprocate the Arsene’s faith and patience. He was a bit more class than Song, Na$ri or Rotten Vile Person in leaving but he left. And it particularly galls me that he paid part of his own transfer fee to leave us. No, let Cesc love us from Catalunya while we build on what seems to be taking shape at the moment with a few dependable signings in necessary areas.
Wenger to PSG, please God, let this be true! Everytime Wenger is being questioned, things like this keep coming.
We all know Wenger won’t have the same power to make PSG his playground, so this is not to be believed, unfortunately. We have to put up with Wenger a little longer.
Let’s hope Wenger won’t be offered a contract extension. This is the best we can hope for.
Sav from Australia,
This one was for you yesterday. Perhaps you missed it or had no time for it? Who can say? http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/28699/comment-page-3#comment-620267
In the words of Mr. T
“I pity the fool!”
haha..bad timing bob.. I meant the guy above you 🙂
Thanks for replying to me Bob. I understand where you’re coming from now. You have a good point. Personally, I would have dumped him (Persie) down a toilet rather than keep him, but you make a good argument.
Benteke is a one-man-team (with all due respect to Weimann, Lowton and others who are helping him to keep Aston Villa alive). One of the numerous talented Belgians that possesses pace, strength and composure despite being only 22. However, I believe that his price tag will work as hands-off warning for most of the clubs and, as we have been used to, that probably includes us as well. I don’t see him playing in Aston Villa next season and I wouldn’t mind seeing him in red and white Arsenal shirt. He is young, pacey, strong, already proven in Premiership and, if he manages to avoid second-season-syndrome next season, he could be the leading striker in the Premiership since Suarez will miss out the first six matches next season (provided that he stays in Liverpool) and Van Persie will find it much harder to repeat two-and-a-half-season streak of goals and no injuries next year. Of course, an arrival of either Cavani or Falcao would change my bold prediction. 🙂
I think Benteke is a very good player, but not what we need. At least unless we think of him as an upgrade on Giroud, which I’m not sure is true anyway. If we have both Giroud and Benteke in attack, and no other striker comes in, I think we’ll lack some variety. I’m not sayng they are the same player. I’d just like some more variety in attack. If we get Benteke AND another striker then sure. But that won’t happen.
Hear usmanov has been questioning stans desire to win things…..again…..who knows, he may even be right, but this coinciding with stories about wenger going to PSG…..who happen to currently stand against everything wenger believes in in football…..and numerous stories throughout the uk press since last weekend slagging off the team and club…..does make you wonder what or who is behind it all. If it is our friend from the east, he is not doing himself any favours with the aim of getting on the board, and despite what I believe may be several lines of interest, stan has enough behind him to see off a hostile takeover.
Mandy
Maybe. But the key factor here is the fans.. Usmanov needs Arsenal to do badly in order to take over the club. Since that is the only way fans will care about who owns the club. If Arsenal do well, Usmanov is forgotten. If Arsenal don’t do well, and fans are persuaded to stay away and not spend their money, the self financing model fails. The media coverage, and the refereeing is all connected.
And I’m reminded of a sentence which made zero sense in that R&W statement which followed RVP’s statement. The bit about “so far this ambition has been to finish in the top 4. In the future this may be lowered” (or words to that effect) It didn’t make sense in context there, and it very much reads like a threat to me. Let me in, or face the consequences of not finishing in the top 4. I agree with your statement on the other thread about the PGMOL not being done with us yet.
Think vps statement was a huge threat shard, the aspect you mention, as well as a threat he could reveal more, but would at the time not do so ….out of respect for the fans…….nice guy.
I do have my worries stan could be a fast buck merchant, hope I am wrong, but guess the short to medium term will reveal all. What I cannot understand with some fans, stan has not yet at least taken a dividend, but usmanov quite clearly states he would be open to taking them. Yet as people believe his easy out of power promises, he is the saviour to some fans. I reserve judgement on stan, I admit I am ar from sure, but something about usmanov worries me. If it sounds too good to be true………
About Benteke I will try to ask around a bit. One of my friends from Arsenal Benelux supportersclub is a youth coach at RC Genk the former club of Benteke.
He is a real nice Gooner by the way and very Untold kind of fan. 😉
What I remember from his is that he was not that convinced about his abilities to make it at the top. He was famous for his misses in the past. In fact more misses than goals in his first years in the top Belgium league.
But will not bother with consulting him as the price tag is like said a bit high for Arsenal it seems.
But one thing is for sure: Benteke would love to play for Arsenal as it is his dream club as he was a kid. He has said that even long before he came to the PL.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-major-shareholder-alisher-usmanov-1862540
Here it is, so much anti club chatter out there at the moment. Timing is everything. Usmanov claims he represents the fans, but wasn’t he once a Utd fan according to popular myth and legend?
The thing about Stan is, even if you don’t consider his record of staying in for the long haul, at this moment in time, his interests and Arsenal’s interests are pretty much in unison. He can’t afford to let the fans become too disenchanted, or his investment’s value goes down. He needs Arsenal to grow further to either sell, or make his investment portfolio more profitable. Arsenal don’t want an owner who meddles in team affairs, and don’t demand an owner who pumps his own money in. It’s a win-win. At least for now.
With Usmanov, our loss is his gain. That makes him dangerous.
I believe the only reason Kroenke was brought on board and then was sold shares to was to protect Arsenal from being taken over by Usmanov. It’s no guarantee that Kroenke won’t turn out to be as bad or worse. But it’s something of a start.
Walter
I think Benteke has said that even while playing for Villa. If we are looking to buy 2 forwards, I’d take him. But that won’t happen and he won’t offer us something too different from Giroud, plus his price tag is likely to be too high as you say. Maybe in a couple of years 🙂
Agree again Shard, think Stan was handed it on a plate, quite possibly given whatever he asked for. He may well share the Arsenal vision, but he could be an extreme form of it. Wenger has seemed very cautious transfer wise since he has taken over, and wenger has taken considerable grief. But as you say, there is a fine line between what he may view as good business and totally pissing off the fans….and who knows, maybe even some players. This summer will reveal so very much about what certain people are really about. Is stan a responsible custodian owner with an eye on FFP, a fast buck merchant, or a cheapskate expecting far too much from wenger….and the paying fans? Is our model unsustainable in this league and does stan realise this? or are we on completely the right track, as senior club sources indicated a few months ago in 442 magazine? Wish I knew, seems to be a lot of conflicting messages from too many agenda driven sources. as you say, whatever stan may or may not be, a lot will be fan driven. But for now, just backing the team,,everything else seems too complicated!
Sperez…do we have to collectively bitch slap you again you cretinous moron? The best WE can hope for is that you’ll be run over by a Millwall team bus or better still that Wenger, while driving home from training will accidentally crush you under his car wheels, not having seen your slimy carcass slithering towards the AAA warren. If he did see you,he’d surely backup and run you over twice to be sure all the shite was crushed out of you. We could then bury you in a matchbox.
Shard,
It was worth being out of time with you to be rewarded with the Mr. T reference! Pity the Fool, indeed!
weedonald,
you’re right: so foul a sky clears not without a storm.
New article by Swiss Ramble explains that we won’t be making any major signings soon. It explains the difference between balance sheets and cash in the bank.
Mandy Dodd,
Re your comment at 11.31
I haven’t seen any pictures of him as a teenager sitting on his bed wearing his arsenal shirt with Arsenal wallpaper yet.
Stuart
Thanks for the tip off on the Swiss Ramble article. I don’t think that’s what he concludes regarding Arsenal.
Stuart,
are we vindicated now?
time to do nothing significant, is it?
ready to defend that?
Shard,
From my understanding, with regard to ‘cash flow’ ie, money sitting in the bank, we have very little or we are (to quote) ‘hovering around zero net cash flow’.
Stuart
As I understood it, that is cash flow from business. We still have cash reserves. We will have cash freed up through some players’ contracts running out, and we’ll have the component of Emirates money which was brought forward (I see no reason the club would do that except if they were looking to spend the cash)
We have cash.
Plus, we don’t need to pay for the players in one go either. Remember that they are generally paid for over the years (and that is probably where most negotiations get stuck rather than overall price)
Shard,
We will have…. is not about the now. It’s a bit of a mine field but my understanding is the cash balance is at zero.
Stuart,
Though it will bruise your traditional (austerity-worshipping) defense of the minimalist realm, you might start with what LeGrovel is reporting today from its sit-down with your man, Gazidis.
Stuart,
Would having kept Alex Song plunged the cash balance into the minus zone of the dread deficit spending? Is it Medeival economics r’us?
Stuart
Cash FLOW from the BUSINESS was near zero LAST YEAR(remember, accounts were for 2011/12) That doesn’t take away the cash reserves we have. (Money in the bank)
In fact from the same article you get this “Arsenal’s cash balances standing at £154 million last summer (almost as much as the rest of the Premier League clubs put together) following many years of positive cash flow”
Those cash balances were 123 million in November, after which we’ve increased the wage bill through extending contracts for our young brits, and buying Monreal, so is likely to be lower.
But we’ll still be freeing up cash through player departures, we already have more cash than anyone else (a fact that infuriates some), and we’ll be getting more cash from TV, and Emirates, and season ticket renewals.
Even if our business operation once again leads to a cash in-cash out (I just made up that term) equation this year, we’ll still have an increase in cash availability.
In simpler terms Stuart.. We spent all the money our business generated last year. It’s like saying your kid spent the entire pocket money you gave him last month. So his cash flow from you is zero.
But he still has the money he put in his piggy bank. And he has your promise that you are going to increase his pocket money so he can continue spending as he does and still save up, or he can plan to spend on more expensive toys.
Stuart,
The now is not frozen in time. It’s a construct that you make and seize on like a cudgel. For instance, two and three transfer windows ago, it was well known that AFC was going to be getting (with others) a big baloon payment for TV rights. Was that “now” to have been uncoupled from the expectations of TV rights? or of the impending new Emirates deal of magnitude? or of the closing of a real estate deal, etc. etc.? You seize on the “now” like it’s a talisman and imply that an entity like AFC can only proceed on the basis of what is strictly in hand. What kind of ambition is that? What kind of business is that? And let’s not get into replying with a “straw man” construct; as if the only alternative to (your preferred) spending exactly what we have is our going wild with splashing cash for Falcao here and Ronaldo there like the proverbial drunken sailor. While you may or may not fear deficit spending (if it’s even that, except by your calculations) as something intrinsically reckless, I consider your austerity worship, or call it budgetary conservatism as – in an actually competitive football club – instrinsically reckless.
Usmanov’s utterances are becoming predictable in both timing and nature. For someone who professes to be a fan and a shareholder I’ve yet to here him praise the team (for example, turning things round in terms of recent results and performances) yet he spouts the same complaints about limited ambition from Kroenke and the Board. Because ‘Silent Stan’ doesn’t do public pronouncements there is never an effective counter to his claims. Maybe that’s for the best as a slagging match between the two largest shareholders would only stoke the fires, no doubt to the delight of the media.
Is it coincidental that stories like Wenger to PSG so often coincide with the Usmanov outbursts? As the richest man in the country you have to wonder what strings he might be able to pull with the media in terms of generating stories.
Should we not make the Champions League then we can expect further broadsides from the Russian. His background and wealth indicates a man who is used to getting his own way. In that scenario next season could be seismic both on and off the field, ending up with Wenger not renewing unless he could pull off an unlikely premiership trophy.
And on that note of increasing commercial income..
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/gunners-welcome-imperial-bank-as-partner?
Shard
I don’t see anything wrong with keeping that money in the bank for unforeseen circumstances and continue to live within our means. I don’t run my own finances by spending all my money and having nothing in the bank for an emergency (ie, loss of job) so why would I expect anyone else to?
Stuart
We’re not going to spend all the money in the bank.
It’s fairly simple.. Arsenal made x amount last year. and they spent the same x amount. Some of it was spent on one time expenditures such as on infrastructure. Our wage bill will drop with contracts expiring. So we probably won’t need to spend as much in the following seasons.
Plus we’re going to also get in y amount of money through enhanced tv deals and sponsorships.
Which makes our next year’s total x + y, while our expenses (without buying new players) will reduce to say, x – z.
That leaves us a cash flow surplus on last year of z + y. Which we can use to sign players, and pay wages. This is without dipping into the reserves at all.
But we don’t need all that cash in reserve now that we know we’ll be getting some cash in the following years. So we have the option of spending from our reserves too (although not finishing them)
I think you misunderstood the zero cash flow. It is only an annual assessment of income and expenses. That doesn’t mean we don’t have cash already, and it doesn’t mean that we won’t have access to cash the following year. It just means that last year, we used up all the money we made. We’ll still make money this year and the next. In fact, make more money.
Yes Shard, I did look at it differently and see that now however, I don’t see the problem with waiting for the income to increase before spending it even though we do have our own free overdraft facility available.
Stuart,
The problem is quality and quality in depth that can be manifested on the pitch.
Stuart
I don’t think the club are going to overdraw their resources. They’v been careful enough this long, and won’t throw it away. We have a substantial amount of cash though. To not spend it when we can (and when, as seems likely, there’ll be a good few quality players on the move) would be counter-productive. The impatience exists in the fanbase. If the fans turn on Arsenal, our capacity to make money reduces dramatically. Meaning we’ll have to use up all our cash reserves very quickly just to stand still.
I think the club will spend. The manner of their announcement of the Emirates deal, portraying it as a game changer, the fact that they asked for some money to be paid early. All of that to me suggests that we’ll be spending some money in the transfer market. I think that’s a good thing, because we can afford it.
Shard
I’ve got no problem with spending money, I’m just not a believer of spending it before you have it.
I have a credit card but only buy things I can already afford to buy using the card for the convenience extra protection it offers me.
Shard
Also, I”ve not said were going to overdraw our resources, I was simply comparing our cash reserve to a free overdraft facility.
Off topic, but nice to know we have beaten both champions league finalist recently, small consolation.
x-Cesc back?
The Guardian’s comment on his performance tonight:
“4 Fábregas looks lost in this Barcelona team”
“The former Arsenal captain is coming to the end of his second season at Camp Nou and it is a shame to see him so hesitant and lacking in confidence. On Wednesday night he was playing as the focal point of the Barça attack with Lionel Messi not risked, but he failed to make any impact whatsoever against a Bayern defence missing Dante, who was not feeling well. Cesc Fábregas is unlikely to be regretting his move – Arsenal, after all, have just been fighting to be in the top four for the past two seasons – but will he consider a move somewhere else in the summer? He is 25 and it is clear that he has stagnated.”
I’m guessing, should Bayern win the final, the Guardian will remind us how they swept aside Arsenal’s (who struggled to stay in the top four) former captain’s team en route to the final. An all-German European final will end up being about Arsenal somehow.
Yeah Al, its funny how everything has a negative connatation on football. Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting retires…another sign that Arsenal have no ambition! Hmmmm…
I think Mr Wenger will be around at Arsenal for a few more seasons yet and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fabregas back this summer.
Maybe slightly off topic, but it seems one of Le Groves authors has been summoned to the club, along with a few other other bloggers. If todays post on there was correct, the club are pretty annoyed about personal attacks on various people in the club and are clearly trying to set the record straight. According to this LG article, the club state quite clearly that it would be ridiculous for Stan to hoard money in the way some suggest, it would not be tax efficient apart from anything else. And with todays savings rates, vs the risk of under investing. They are also saying what many have been, expect some positive changes from now on.
I am not going to put a link on here to Le Grove, but even if you never read this site, todays main article is worth a read, will be interesting to see how their readers react to this chastisement, if it can be called that.
Anyway, apologies for even mentioning this site, even with context, but my only real valid point, the club do listen, are reading what is out there and that will include this blog, great to know that so many on here are keeping up the good work!
@Mandy Dodd
Too late. Shard has beaten you to it.
You’re right though, its makes very interesting reading.
Of course Arsenal reads Untold 😉
Sorry shard!
Mandy,
Why sorry??! In any case, the article I’d highlighted was the one of the previous day. In fact, even today’s article might be worth a read, if only to see what they are saying. Something’s gotten into Le Grove recently. Pedro sounds almost happy with the direction of the club, even if he sees Wenger as not the right man for the job (which is ok), and casts aspersions on his motivations (which is not)
A far cry though from the sometimes quite openly xenophobic, blatantly anti-Arsenal, abusive posts they’ve put up in the past. I’m not saying they have turned over a new leaf or anything like that. Just think the developments are interesting.