Oh no, it’s the opening of the hunting season

So here we are again at the start of the most silly time of the year: the transfer window.

If we think we have seen and heard it all about Cesc going to Barcelona by now, I think it will be nothing with what we are going to read and hear from today until the end of august. I think we will read from everyone that has something to do with Barcelona in the next weeks and from any relative from Cesc that he wants to go to Barcelona someday. That someday will be lost in translation somewhere down the line, I think.

From the president of Barcelona down to the lady that makes the coffee at Nou Camp we all will be hearing from them how much Cesc likes Barcelona. The English media will take this over and report it in big capitals that Cesc will be gone again. Don’t expect anything else in the next months. So if you can’t stand the Cesc going to Barcelona talks it will be a hard 2 months for you.

The situation for the moment is not so clear. Cesc has said, like on many occasions, that if he will leave he will be heading to Barcelona. But he never said in public that it had to happen now. Barcelona want Cesc but they don’t want to pay for him, or not much, because he is one of them. They think that Arsenal should let Cesc go for half the price he is really worth because he played in Barcelona until he was 16 years. Now I don’t know how on earth this is a valid reason to pay a player only half the price he is worth.

Just imagine that if we would want to buy Bentley back. I know it’s hard but just try to imagine. Do you think Spurs would say: okay because you raised him you can have him at half the price? I think in this case it will be more if we even would want him for half the price. Or would Chelsea let A. Cole go for half what he is worth?

Another thing Barcelona has been doing in the Cesc saga in the last couple of years is to make it look like Arsenal and Wenger being some kind of child kidnappers. Yes Arsenal has brought Cesc to London and has done the same thing with many other players at that age. But is this kidnapping? I think that at the age of 16 a lot of adolescents have a very good idea of what they want to do. I have had 4 children passing in that age category, the youngest one being just 16, and I can tell you that at that age they really know what they want to do. Try to give them other thoughts at that age. If they think something is white, just try to convince them it is black.

My daughter, who is 16, she really wants to go to Spain in the next summer to go working there in the touristic sector. She wants to take care for the children during the day and to widen her horizon. Now it could be that I am not 100 % happy with this but on the other hand it makes me a bit proud to see that she has a strong will and is not afraid to take on the world and go to another country to see what she is capable of.

So I think that Cesc when he was 16 was already old and wise enough to see the chance he got and took them with both hands or feet in this case. So we did not kidnap Cesc, we gave him a chance to fulfil his dream of being a profession football player. Barcelona can be unhappy about that, I can understand that, but it just means that they did not offer the same chance to Cesc as Arsenal did.

So Barcelona is pointing with their finger to us as the bad guys who kidnap their beloved ones under their nose. But in fact Barcelona is like the thief that is yelling very hard ‘hold the thief’ pointing to someone else in the hope the police take the wrong one and they can escape. So is  Barcelona whiter than white?

Lets just take Messi. He was 13 (thirteen) years old when he came all the way from Argentina to Barcelona. He played for  Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina and was then brought over. So Barcelona did exactly the same thing as Arsenal did with Cesc. Even worse. A young person of 16 has a far better way of understanding things than a 13 year old. At 13 your are still a kid. At 16 your are a young adolescent.

So Barcelona is far from the white horseman on the white horse. In fact isn’t it a bit cynical  that they “support” Unicef, the child organisation that should be against kidnapping children and then they go to Argentina and get them a 13 year old wonder kid.

But it makes me wonder that if Newell’s Old Boys would come out in the open now and declare that as Messi has their DNA in his body he is one of them and should return home now. How would Barcelona react? Would they say: ‘Oh yes, off course you can have him at the lowest price you want.’ I think they will say to them to forget it. But when it comes to Cesc they like to forget how they got Messi to Barcelona.

I really hope Arsenal reminds them of this. And in the last days it looked that Barcelona was tracking back a bit. Them saying they don’t want to pay that much for him lookes like a way of letting it go. But if the media will let it go is to be seen.

Back to the rest of the transfer window. We will be seeing the whole team leaving this summer. Well most of them have already left for the world cup. But all of them will be away at some stage in the next months, if you want to believe the media that is. A lot of fans will, once again, step in the trap and think the end is near. Lucky most of our readers over here are a bit wise and will not believe every rumour printed on paper or published on the internet. But even so it’s not a nice way to spend the summer.

Wenger has said that there are only 3 players that could leave us this summer: Campbell, Silvestre and Gallas. Those are the one who’s contract ends this summer and that for the rest no one is for sale. Now if some club would make an offer that is so big everyone can be sold I think but the intention is clear: we don’t want to sell, we don’t need to sell. And those who want to buy must pay the price.

But these words have all been forgotten by the media so they will try to sell every possible Arsenal player in the next days. So it will be business as usual this summer as in any transfer window. Just try to live with it and don’t get excited over the constant rumours that are being spread. Just enjoy the summer and relax, I would say.

The only thing we all can be sure of is that when the first game starts The Arsenal will be out there defending our colours. And at the end of the day that is the most important thing that really matters. The Arsenal will survive any transfer window.

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Temporary editor’s note: As Tony is going away for a few days to get a well deserved rest,  I have agreed to take over the operation of the site during his time away .  If you have something that cant wait to be published you can send it to this  email address  walterbroeckx@hotmail.com.

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