Udinese Preview and the Obvious.

 

 Game : ARSENAL VS UDINESE

 Venue : Emirates Stadium.

 Kick off : 21.45 Kenya time (GMT +3)

So despite the obvious story, I really want to stay focused and concentrate on the game ahead. Although I’ll get to it in a bit. We Play Udinese later today, in the first of the two most important fixtures this month, the other being the away leg obviously. I do know that we play Liverpool and Manure in the same month, but must I remind you that this is a CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFIER?! We are getting into a very tough patch in the fixture list, which goes something like Udinese (h), Liverpool (h), Udinese (a), Manutd (a). After these games I think we can have a more vivid picture of what to expect this season.

Onto the game, we have Nasri (yes he is still here) and Rvp suspended oh Wenger too, will be serving his touchline ban, Rosicky had a knock against Newcastle and will undergo a late fitness test. Nothing major, I expect him to pass as fit. There is still no date to Jack’s return and Diaby is still a good way out. With those absentees I expect us to line up as follows :

SCZCESNY

SAGNA   KOSCIELNY  VERMAELEN  GIBBS

SONG 

           RAMSEY          ROSICKY (ARSHAVIN)

GERVINHO (WALCOTT)  CHAMAKH  ARSHAVIN (GERVINHO)

With the bench looking something like this: Fabianski, Djorou, Frimpong, Carl, Alex, Miyaichi, Bendtner. If Rosicky is passed fit then I expect him to line up alongside Rambo, if not, then Arshavin should take the central role with Walcott filling in on the right and Gervinho moving to the left. Le Prof says he expects Bendtner to feature as he is still with the club, maybe one last taste of champions league football before he goes? I like the tall dane, in fact I prefer him to Chamakh at the moment, he is a good player (not as good as he thinks he is) but he has such a big ego that it gets in his way most of the time.

Now Udinese is no push over, with the likes of Di Natale, Kwado Asamoah and Mauricio Isla in their ranks you do see why I am abit cautious with this one. Even more that we are playing the 2^nd leg away after facing Liverpool and before facing Manure. That being said, we should have enough in us to see off this depleted Udinese side. The ideal situation would be us demolishing them today, thus taking the pressure off when we meet in a fortnight, but being an Arsenal fan you do know that we don’t normally go the ideal way. I just hope that this will not be one of the many times where we make it really hard on ourselves, at least let us not concede today. 

I don’t have much in stats but I know that we do have quite a record against Italian opposition, four out of five times we have come out victorious in two legged ties! I expect them to defend deep, as any team would at the emirates and try to take us out on the counter. They are also quite a force when it comes to set pieces. I won’t predict a score line but I’ll call a victory for the gunners and No am taking no draws, a non scoring one maybe. 

Wow...you just had to do this!

Now to the story on everyone’s televisions, radios, timelines, news feeds…yes it is finally over! The soap opera that was threatening The Bold & The Beautiful in length. It has taken forever but it’s finally done, not the ideal ending but an ending none the less. I don’t know what to feel right now, rather since the news broke out on sunday night. I kinda feel like a guy who has been left by his super model girl friend for her high school sweet heart, who is an s.t.d infested loser (though he doesn’t look like one). Only time will tell, back to my mixed feelings. Am happy, that the saga is over, then really sad that it had to end this way, then really pissed at the price that we sold him at, then just really mad at the Cunts (As I always am.) This is not very easy for me, those who follow me on twitter (@pitseh_poghie) know that I ranted quite a lot. Moving on swiftly, like the club should. It will be interesting to see who le prof brings in as the replacement.Whispers of Eden Hazard and Marvin Martins are already doing rounds, but I don’t expect him to splash the cash, as according to reliable sources the £30M will be paid in installments, we only have 12M – 14M of that in the account, so yeah. Sorry if I burst a bubble there. The other talking point with his departure is definitely the arm band, as much as I’d like to see the Verminator have it, you feel Robin is already defacto captain with Rosicky his likely deputy or more probably the Verminator. With Rvp’s injury record, whoever gets the deputy’s post will surely see more of that band around his arm than usual deputies do. There is another scenario which I see possible, with Le Prof so keen on keeping Nasri, he might use the captaincy as bait. Recent history has turned our captain’s office to the last step towards the exit door at the emirates. I really hope that I am wrong.What about Sagna? Next, what happens to the ‘Cesc role?’ do we do away with the current system, which was developed to suite Cesc and his abilities? Or do we elevate another player say Jack, Rosicky or Arshavin, Nasri maybe (*hides*) to that role? 

Whether his loss is for the better or not will be a question that only time can answer, but if I were to call it. Definitely for the better, he had become an excesc (it’s not a typo) baggage to the team and his situation had affected the general focus and balance of the squad. As a player he is definitely is a big loss but overall it’s a loss that we can take. I feel that he has left just when he was at the brink of being a legend here, guess he wasn’t patient enough. Whenever I hear the name Cesc Fabregass, I’ll remember the Pizza throwing incident at Old Trafford or that night at Millan, or the one man show goal against Tottenham or even the 20 minute demolition of Aston Villa. For these and many more memories that you have left us, I salute you Francesc Soler Fabregas and wish that you turn out like your friend Hleb! Okey am joking (this part is really hard) I wish you all the best in your future endeavors! (there I said it!) As the best might see you back here. Yes there is a buy back clause in his contract that gives us the first refusal incase the cunts want to sell him. As in we have to refuse buying him first before they can sell to another club. If we do not buy him, then we get a 50% of the fee that they sell him for. Quite the deal huh?! 

As I post this Emmanuel Eboue *sob* has signed a 4 year deal at Galatasary,more to follow.

With that Ladies and Gentlemen….

 

Kwisha.

Newcastle 0 - 0 Arsenal Review and Score Card.

I said that I’d take a draw from this fixture, from how we played and that we finished the game with ten men. I’m glad we walked away with a point. This match will be remembered more for its side shows rather than the game itself. Not that it had that much on offer,it was a rather boring game to be honest. We dominated possession as always but lacked the ideas and directness to convert our possession into goals. 

Going into the game, all eyes including mine were on the defence, I must say they outdid themselves on this occasion. We defended absolutely well, especially on set pieces which is great to see. The Veriminator and the Kosher were rock solid..Dancing rasta (Sagna) and Gibbo were also not bad though they were caught out once or twice..nothing alarming. Then the tall pole never put a finger wrong the whole match..he was exquisite. It’s good to finally have a decent goalkeeper. With these performances you feel le prof will be abit reluctant to buy a defender. Though we do need one more, It’s only one game after all. 

The worrying part was mainly our creative end of the midfield and the attack. Rosicky though he had a decent outing was not as creative as I’d have wished. Rambo also had an ish ish game, a couple of misplaced passes lost possession quite a number of times too. The little Russian assassin did pull out some clever moments (Yes the chip) here and there but I expected him to have a larger impact on the game. Gervinho was dangerous down both wings, but his final ball was wanting most of the time. I like the fact that we have started using the wing interchange..Gervinho, Arshavin and Rosicky at times worked well together. Vanpersie, well he was wasteful and looked rusty let’s hope it was just this once. In this department I felt that we lacked in creativity and sharpness, Rambo and Rosicky were abit slow on the ball when I felt that they needed to be a tad bit quicker. Let’s face it, this is exactly what Nasri and Cesc offered us. One their day they were our creative engine.

Now to the incidents,first I’d like to hail Song for his foresight. He stamped on that Barton prick for his yet to come antics. That being said, Song deserved to be sent off for the stamp as it was rather a stupid thing to do at the time. He still might get red carded in retrospect by the F.A, this would mean that we face Liverpool and United without him and Gervinho a very tricky situation as Wilshere is still out. Then to the mother of them all, a story of reacting to contact, no matter how small it is. There was contact when Gervinho hit the ground from the challenge albeit very minimal, not enough to bring him down but it was there, meaning it was a penalty. Then the nut job that is Barton felt he had to air his grievances the best way a he knew how to, dragging Gervinho to his feet warranted a sending off, no question. At this point any man would have reacted the same way as Gervinho, though with varying degrees of force. Being a sharp man, he used an open palm and taped Barton’s face and yes the tap means there was contact thus Joe reacted to the contact and what a reaction it was!! The Ref here has no option but to send off both of them, but what does he do? Books Barton and sends Gervinho to the showers. I think Barton plays his role quite well,he gets under our players' skin with great ease,two players sent off in two games against us.On a side note,I couldn’t help but imagine if this was Manure and Gervinho was let’s say Nani. Barton would have been banned for months and Manure given a penalty. Two if possible,the first for the tackle and the other for Joey Barton, oh well..to be a gooner! I don’t think that we’ll appeal this one, and if we do it will be a very long shot.

Here are some quotes from le prof on the game..

"I thought we had a solid performance and were in control. Newcastle had last season’s 4-4 more in their mind more than we did. They organised not to concede goals, defended well and it was very difficult for us because we played a team who was highly focused to defend.
"We missed something, the regret is that we missed something in the final third and in the speed of our passing. But, overall, we had a good performance. I can’t remember giving Newcastle a chance at goal and, away from home, you have to give credit to our team for that.

We try to play football and, if you watched today, you will see that. Overall, I feel we have been very harshly punished today. We try to play and sometimes we overreact. We have to take control of that. If we have an area to improve on, then that is it. We will learn from that today."

The score card :

1. Woijciech Szczesny (A-) – As I mentioned earlier, he never put a finger wrong. Though he was not called up that much, he commanded his area superbly. Came out for crosses perfectly, he is like a breath of fresh air out there.
2. Bacary Sagna (B+) – Was solid, though he looked rusty going forward and his crossing was not all that good. Was caught out once by Obertan but got back well. Was one of the few that tried a shot from outside the 18’ though it went into Orbit the idea was good.
3. Thomas Vermaelen: (A-) – He was rock solid back there, was impressed by the way he handled the aerial balls against Demba Ba. He stood his ground after Orbetan’s back heel to close down the striker denying him a clear shot.
4. Laurent Koscielny (A-) – Was also impressed by his aerial prescence and his awareness, made a few vital interceptions and tackles. Great to see him forming a partnership with the Verminator
5. Kierran Gibbs (B+) – He did outdo himself out there, performed better than I had expected, though he sometimes got carried away and was caught out of position once or twice. He can also do better from his crosses.
6. Alexander Song (B+) – He broke down their play oftenly, using his strength to bully the Newcastle defence. How many times did he shield that ball off them? Quite a number. He covered the back four well tracking back every time.
7. Aaron Ramsey (B) – An ish ish game from the Welsh captain, not bad but not good either. Not the best passing, also his urgency on the ball was wanting. Though you have to admire his work rate.
8. Tomas Rosicky (B) – Another one with a great work rate, and just like Rambo he had an average game. He needs to have a bigger impact on the game as he is our chief creative mind out there.
9. Andrey Arshavin (B+) – Was abit more involved but like his counterparts did not have that much of a game either. Another one who should take up more responsibility now. Liked the rotation with him the Little Mozart and Gervinho.
10. Gervinho (B+) – Was terrifying every time he charged down the wings, but his final ball let him down. Great in 1 on 1 situations. Also has a great work rate, he should shoot abit more though.
11. Robin Van Persie (B) – Was wasteful in a number of situations, took a lot more time than he usually does to shoot especially in the penalty area. But shot really early towards the end of the game, when he should have taken a few more touches. Another one who had an ish ish game.
12. Theo Walcott (B) - Injected some pace into our attack, got into decent positions and had a shot in too. (One of the few). He still is running straight at defenders, he should learn a trick or two.
13. Emmanuel Frimpong and Johan Djorou – Not much to rate from the two, as they were to hold on to the point when we were down to ten men. Glad to see Frimpong though, he should give Song a run for his money.

With that, ladies and Gentlemen…

KWISHA!!

Newcastle Preview

The season is finally here,tomorrow all the talking stops and the football kicks off in earnest. Personally am not so happy with how we are going into this campaign,we have spent the better part of the transfer window doing basically nothing. Yes we’ve brought in Gervinho who is the only addition worth mentioning really. Not taking anything away from Carl,Ryo and Alex,but in all honesty they have a lot to prove. We have let go of Clichy and Denilson though temporarily which were good moves,I still maintain the previous should be replaced. Then there’s the Cesc,Nasri saga that won’t just go away..yesterday le prof had this to say…on Cesc 

"We hope it will be sorted out very quickly one way or the other. We'll know very quickly."

And on Nasri..

"The Nasri situation is stable,"."Again it is very difficult to speak about possible transfers but we are in a situation where we have to make decisions one way or the other. Ideally you want it to be sorted out before the season starts."

This morning he said…

"I expect nobody to leave the club," he said. "I believe the best thing for us, one day before the season starts, is not to focus on the possible transfers. I cannot say it will never happen, I cannot say it will happen. At the moment there is no news and if we have any news to give you, I promise you we will do it."

Now am I the only one confused here? He is the same guy who said if we let Cesc and Nasri go we can not be considered a big clu..then he syas this today..

"Manchester United let Christiano Ronaldo go, do you think they are not a big club?"

Let me diverge and give you my quote of the interview..

"Do we want to buy? I don't know because at the moment we have too big a squad. We have too many players.

"To add players, there is a strange thing that I don't believe people who watch football are still conscious of what is going on in the world.

"There are 350 players in England who have no job and we have a massive squad so we are not in a position where we are short of players."

I won't get too much into it..but I pray that he's just playing the pres.

Back to the siasa,I think the management is to blame for letting this saga drag on this far. If rather when we lose the duo right now,we’d definitely have to replace them and pray to the Almighty they gel in as fast as humanly possible. This whole situation would have been averted by doing our business early. Getting players after the respective leagues have kicked off is a real hard task.

  Game : NEWCASTLE Vs ARSENAL

  Venue : ST. JAMES PARK

  Kick Off : 19.30 (Kenyan time)

To the game,we do not have very pleasant memories of our trip to Newcastle. This fixture last season was the start of our now famous melt down. This time it provides a good chance for the boys to exorcise the demons that have haunted them since last time,early on in the season. We should,I’d imagine look to start off strongly with a win here as the next couple of fixtures are not any easier. We have virtually everyone back from injury except Jack and Diaby. Cesc will miss due to ‘lack of match fitness’ (yeah right) and Nasri is a doubt as he has developed 'a sickness' according to Mr.Bean,yeah a cash sickness! We should have a fairly strong squad out,which can see off the magpies. I expect us to line up as follows

                                              Szcesny

  Sagna  Koscienly      Vermaelen   Gibbs

Song          Ramsey

Rosicky

Gervinho      Van Persie     Arshavin

  

Fabianski,Carl,Traore,Djorou,Walcott,Chamakh,Frimpong,AOC(Chamberlain),should get an opportunity from the bench. But whether Walcott starts in place of Arshavin or Gervinho is the only contention I see and maybe Traore or Gibbs. I know that I have not put him there,though I'd like to see him get a run out,yes Ryo. This game will give us a slight idea of what Wenger has been cooking up all summer,I surely hope that it does taste good! It will also do one of two things..silence the doom brigade or turn them up a notch higher. I’d want a victory here though a draw would be acceptable too. Another school of thought would want a defeat that may serve as a wakeup call to the bean man then maybe he can buy some players, maybe. I don’t buy into this, a loss would dent the already fragile situation at the camp and will not necessarily assure us that Le prof will buy. If it would have an assuarance that he’d buy were we to lose tomorrow then I’d definitely take the loss! 

These were the images last time.

As I said before,this match will give us an idea of how we’ll play tactically this season,any new twitches and all to our previous systems. I’ll have an eye out every time we concede a set piece,see how we’ll defend them. Any improvements in this area will be highly appreciated. The midfield battle will be interesting as Rosicky comes up against Barton,also look out for Tiote and Gutierrez down the left. I won’t do any statistics on this one,as the only one that I feel matters is,we lost a four goal lead here last season. With that I’ll be bold enough to predict a 2-1 win for us..fingers crossed,eyes closed!

With that Ladies and Gents,wear your colours tomorrow with pride,I know I will..and do enjoy the game and the weekend. Word of advice though, don’t let your weekend hinge on this one…

KWISHA!

 

A worried Arsenal Fan.

I wrote this on the 8th of August..after watching the Charity shield game the previous day..did not get time to post it but finally have..enjoy.

It’s the eve of my birthday and instead of preparing for the festivities ahead,I just had to write about this club that I’ve come to hate the fact that I love,this much.

Lets get to it then,on Sunday I,like many of you here watched the community shield game for one of two reasons. Just cause you had missed the football weekends or as a gooner to gauge our opponents ahead of the season. It was a game of two halves I must say.First half,Man city’s sheer strength,power and grit saw them take a two goal lead into the break,deserved or not is not the point. This half worried me as an arsenal fan,I kept asking myself how Koscienly,Gibbs,Wilshere hell even Vermaelen would handle Balotelli,Yaya Toure,Micah Richards,De Jong and the other watu wa mjengo they have. These guys were banging Vidic,Rio,Evra,Carrick off the field at every opportunity. So at the end of the first half,I was confused. I laughed at the manure fans (I never let such chances go by,lets face it they are very few of them these days) but was really worried at the fact that we had to face Man city a minimum of two times next season. How did the swahili wise men put it,’ukiona mwenzako akinyolewa…?’ exactly.

So with the second half I expected more of the same from city but had a keen eye on what Saf would do to try and stop hawa wasee wa mjengo! I had to confirm whether the substitutes he had made were actually correct. You are bullied off the ball and what do you do? Replace your old heads with younger overall lighter players. At that point I was sure Saf had found Mr.Bean’s supply,it took a whole ten minutes for my ordinary football mind to realise what the gaufer had just done. He had replaced the old, familiar and rather comfortable with the young,hungry and more passionate. All of a sudden the mjengo guys were being run rugged around the ground with crisp quick touches and movement off the ball. Whenever they had an opportunity on the ball they were being pressed,no the right word is gang tackled out of it.These kids were like hyenas out there. So I wondered what saf would have told the young lads he brought in,well simple really “You want a chance..here it is prove yourself!” Here is a player who knows that there is a ‘better’ player ahead of him and this might be the only chance he has of playing first team football in a while.(not unless you are Rio’s sub ofcourse!) Do you think he’ll give a rat’s ass whether it’s a mjengo guy or a steel pole ahead of him? He’ll bite his way through if he has to! After this half I was a really really really worried young man.. 

Quickly to my point before you start checking your address bars,yes this is still Kenyan Gunners,the Arsenal blog. What Saf did,is prove le boss wrong on a few fundamental points that he makes. The major one being that experienced players kill the development of the young crop. This principle has seen us lose Ljumberg,Pires,Henry,Gilberto..(I’ll cry if I go on) with the promise that we have young players with loads of talent to fill in. But who do they have to look upto? The difference between say Wilshere and Cleverly no this will not bring it out the way I want to,Jack is several steps ahead of the ka ‘clever’ guy. Rafael and Gibbs,the kid from samba has the likes of Vidic,Evra as role models to look upto. Gibbs on the other hand has Squillaci! And no the Verminator is not yet there in terms of experience. The difference between these two sets of kids is that the Manure set are more hungry,determined and dare I say more focused than the kindergarten we are running. Our kids are spoilt,they have an unlimited number of chances,they know that even if they fuck up this weekend the manager doesn’t have much of a choice than to stick with them. Thus they get comfortable,it’s like taking two hunters to a jungle give one an unlimited number of spears and the other,just one. The  first guy will be like our Kenyan police,trigger happy! He'll shoot at anything he/she sees they’d be reckless,the other dude will be more careful,precise,he wont make a shot until it is beyond doubt that he is going to make the kill. Now you get it..

These kids as much as they are talented,more than the manure ones by far if I may add,lack the driving force to realise their respective potentials as individuals and as a group. How do we rectify this? In my humble opinion which has been floated severally..is bring in some old heads and do it now. The kids will now have a hard time securing a regular position in the team thus they’ll work harder! Then maybe I can stop almost peeing my pants every time I watch other teams play. And as if they were reading this post,Arsenal have just confirmed the signing of Alex Oxlade Chamberlain from Southampton..yes another kid (18). For a fee growing to up to £17M anyone say Matta somewhere? Don’t get me wrong this kid is dynamite (just like the rest of them) and will add a new dimension to our game fast and direct. (don’t we already have that? Read Walcott,Gervinho,Miyaichi) Why risk £17M on a kid who has played  43 games scored 11 goals and created 9 others in the second division when you could get a world class defender maybe even two (this is Wenger after all!) who can..I don’t know help us with our real problem?!! Okey am not the manager here,so let me hope that I am wrong and all this makes sense in September or even better May 2012.

Looking at this from another angle though,the bean man is adding lots of pace to our attack,last season we were guilty of being one dimmensional and closed down way too easily. Imagine Alex and Miyaichi coming on from the bench in the 75^th minute…

With that ladies and gentlemen..a happy birthday to me oh and…

KWISHA!          

P.S If I were you,I'd start getting rid of my Cesc and Nasri Merchandise like right now!!

Pre-Season,The endless loop and Much more!

Mambo?

A lot has been happening around the gooner world since I last posted, the Asia tour, Gervinho (FINALLY!) and of course there’s the Cesc, Nasri, Cesc, Nasri, Cesc, Nasri endless loop among a whole lot of speculations! 

Ryo Vs Malaysia XI

Let’s start with the Asia tour, not much here as I think it was more a commercial tour than a sporting one. Finally we get what a pre-season tour should be about. I picked up a few things from the games we played, which saw us beat Malaysia XI 4-0 then draw 1 all with Hangzhou Greentown. Among them is that Mr. Bean has not changed one bit. If you watched the Hangzhou Greentown game and have a brain between your ears and have been watching Arsenal over the recent past, you will surely bare me witness. Hangzhou just sat back and defended pretty well all we could do is… well you already know what we do in these situations. It worries me that we still don’t have another dimension to our play to see off a ‘pub team!’ Onto the positives, Carl Jenkinson looked real good on the right, he tackled well, made good runs forward and pretty good crosses.Yes he was caught out a few times but always got back! It was nice seeing the Verminator back, his partnership with Kosc did look solid. Ryo Miyaichi is special, for those who have not seen what he can do, imagine Theo Walcott with a whole load of step overs and a football brain! I hope that my high hopes in this kid don’t crash and burn. Nasri showed us all that he will play his best for us no matter what is going on off the pitch in case you doubted. I end my Asia wrap up with a concern, down the left with Clichy gone, we are left with Gibbs and Traore as options, not much huh? At least Gibbs got through a whole 90 minutes spanning two games without breaking nor spraining something! Traore back from his loan spell at Juve, where he did not get much play time but he did look a bit more confident and settled than he was when he left us. Between these two we have the experience of a teenage mum. What am saying is we need a left back and not the Verminator! Oh and Rosicky scored..

Clichy left (hehehe) as I have previously said,he had become a liability and it was about time he moved on. I do hope that he carries his form into Man city though I don’t see him making it to their first 11! Denilson completed his move to Sao Paulo (*does the Tevez dance*) on loan (*slowly sits down but still nodding head*). I hope he rediscovers his Brazilian roots and actually starts playing like one, then maybe we can have him back. Gervais Yao-Kouassi (Gervinho) is finally a gunner, must our transfers drag on this long? Anyway he is here, better late than never I guess. I have already said this he is a welcome addition to the squad, he can play at both wings and just behind the striker. He is fast, skillful, powerful and a real fighter. From his 93 appearances for Lille he’s scored 36 goals and created 14 others, pretty impressive. His arrival should create the competition needed in our forward line, especially for F1 piki piki. I hope he does feature in Koln so we can all catch a glimpse of him.I think he'll wear the #9 shirt,which is rather obvious.

In the rumor mill, reports are that we put in £10M bid for Everton’s Phil Jagielka, which was rejected. First why should we even go for Jagielka in the first place? He is not all that, in fact his partner Sylvian Distin is way better. Jagielka just like most English players is overly over rated. I absolutely see no reason we should get him, he is exactly what we have now. Short (meaning he has no aerial presence ) and shaky! Another that got me is that we have given up on Cahill and are looking to sign Birmingham’s Scott Dann, HOW?!! Why would we be keen to sign defenders who are worse off than, or even the same as what we already have? Defenders who are playing in teams that leak in more goals than ours?

We play FC Cologne in Köln, Germany tomorrow before the start of the squad’s training camp. This to me is our first real pre-season fixture. Not taking away from the teams we have faced, but Cologne should give us real opposition and a chance to gauge ourselves heading into the season. A main stay of the Bundesliga, Cologne finished tenth last season on 44 points. They have the likes of Lukas Podolski,Kevin Pezzoni, Milivoje Novakovic and Michael Rensing in their ranks. Again this should be a real test for the squad. Sources have revealed that Almunia, Diaby, Eboue, Bendtner and ofcourse Cesc will miss the trip to Germany,all who have been linked with moves away from the club. The game kicks off at 16:30 Kenya time you can catch it on SS3.

To the endless loop, one part of the loop seems to have reached an end as Nasri looks happy and set to run out his contract. That is if we fail to convince him to sign a new contract before then. Mr.Bean says he is willing to lose him on a free, I don’t know if that is the smartest move financially but it goes to show you the confidence Mr. Bean has in the King Cobra. I don’t want to see us lose him anytime soon, he is a great player and an integral part of this group. I agree with the good professor on the risk he has taken in not selling him, it could make the difference between winning trophies next season and not. 

The other part of this loop doesn’t seem to have an end in sight, and it worries me. The cunts are just being themselves, making it difficult for all of us, with chief cunt Xavi leading her divas in the ‘Cesc has Barca DNA’ choir. And when I mean they are making it hard for everyone, this includes Cesc. We all understand that he would wish to go, the club has made it clear that a £40M price would have to be paid to facilitate this. So what do the cunts do? They go ahead and make a £25M bid, if I were Cesc I’d have been very insulted. As much as it is difficult for the maestro, his silence is not making things any better, though at this time it looks like the right move. He doesn’t want to make a statement that would come back and bite him in the ass! What if he comes out and says that he wants to go to the Cunts now, then the poor (you already know the name) can’t come up with the cash and he’s stuck with us? But he could always say that he is happy with us and doesn’t want to leave, there’s no harm done there lol!

I don’t need to reiterate the importance of keeping el’capitan with us. What he offers us, is I dare say almost irreplaceable. Since August 2008 Cesc has created a goal scoring chance every 25 minutes he is followed on that log by Xavi at 27 minutes and Iniesta at 46 minutes. Our squad is built around him and his abilities, he is our captain (whether he is a leader or not is a debate for another day!).The ‘4-3-3’ formation we use was adapted to suite him. Selling now would mean that Prof will have to restructure big time, it’s not the time to do that. Not when we are very close to realising the potential this squad has. Although people argue that his sale may spark a rejuvenated side of sorts, bring out another player. Most give the example of Liverpool with Torres and Manure with Ronaldo a while back. What they don’t realise is that the two were more of finishers rather than creators, you can easily replace finishers. The real architects behind Manure were Scholes and Rooney, Ronaldo only put the finishing touch to the piece. See what losing Xabi Alonso did to Liverpool? 

Now this brigade seem to have the support of the professor, he had this to say in Malaysia when asked “When do you say,I have to let him go?” by a journalist. The ‘him’ does not refer to any player in particular. Here is what he sayed..

  “When he starts to disturb the efficiency of the company and only you as boss will know that. Sometimes it’s difficult to know, because when a guy is very important at a company, the natural run of that company goes through him. That has a disadvantage too, because it keeps other employees with qualities quiet. Then if this guy goes, sometimes you see others step up and take responsibility and you didn’t even know they had it. Sometimes you have to take these decisions without really knowing what will happen afterwards. It’s always better to get rid of someone who is too disturbing rather than keep him because he has the quality.”

Now if these quotes are indeed true,they look like quotes from river road because prof. already said he wants to keep him.. then I think I should drop my campaign to keep the maestro!

They say a picture speaks 1000 words.. well these Chinese gooners summed it up for me. (Don’t mind the English)

For those who have china phones it reads "Barca pay 40 million take cesc away or go home to wank!

"

 Before I leave,guys are complaining that posting a comment is proving to be a tall task! Here is the procedure :

1. Type your comment,in the 'post a comment' section.

2. Click on the 'Comment As' scroll down bar.

3. Select 'Comment as Anonymous'

4. Click on the 'Post Comment' tab.

That's it..and don't forget to leave a name,thank you.

And with that fair Ladies and Gents…

KWISHA!!

Cesc..Mata and the 'Almosts'

Ayeiya....
So finally the Cesc trilogy has hit a high..if you haven't heard it by now,welcome back to earth! Don't expect me to update you.. I'll say one thing though..this is business,if those cunts cant come up with what we are asking for..they can go shove Pedro and Busqets up there! An interesting development came up yesterday..when Madrid were said to have bid 50M pounds. Now I don't know if it's true but if it is..Cesc should be in Madrid for a medical lol!. What am trying to say is that if he leaves he right now,it should be at our own terms..I think I've said more than one thing there!

Another who looks like hitting the exit door is Gael Clichy! Initially I was nearly over the moon when I read this story..but I looked at his stats..then I could bearly get over a vitz! Look at this..http://www.anfieldindex.com/2685/liverpool-fc-transfer-scouting-stats-left-backs.html a comparison between him,Enrique,Baines,Cashley and Evra!

Last season He made 111 tackles..with an 81% success rate,the highest in the league.He made 110 interceptions an average of 3.2 per game.He's made 1 defensive error in his 2970 minutes played.
Now that is impressive,but at the back of your mind that is if you are anything like me..you cant shake off the image of Clichy being skinned by Nani or him giving away the ball at the corner flag leading to a goal or a poor clearance. This is still the image I have of Clichy..a very big contrast to what I had when he replaced Cashley..

Then he was 'The Fucking Hawk!" intercepting passes with precission,tackling like he was defending his wife..making foward runs like he was running towards a clande! One thing he couldn't replace in Cashley was and is the goals. Have you seen the attacking stats? He has scored 1 goal in his Arsenal career that is 187 appearances..despite this during his peak,he was voted best LB in the league..but then when he slumped..Woi! Looking at this,I say we should let him go if and only if we get a solid replacement..and don't tell me that we have Gibbs! This replacement in my eyes is Leighton Baines! He scores goals..brings a load of experience and should be pretty cheap!

Now to something that is getting really frustrating..our Entry door! It is like the kaos with their 'no vaa' phrase.for those who don't get me..the kambas are originally long distance traders..the 'noo vaa' is kao for 'it's just here' (loosely translated to it's very close!) if a kao tells you this..take a donkey (there are no cars in ukambani) cause you are going to have the longest walk of your life! Enough with the cultural lesson now where were we? Oh yeah..the transfers. I have been telling you that we are close to signing Alvarez,Cahill,Samba and Gervinho I guess I was looking at it with my Kao eyes (yes I am)..though Jenkinson did come through.This is my new approach,we are close to signing no one!
It really worries me the way we are dragging our feet..for two main reasoons :
1. Our fixtures..especially the small bit of a champions league qualifier. Pre-season is in less than a week,we need our new signings to blend in and fast!Thus the need for them to be with us during the pre season games.
2. With our rigid financial policies,the more we drag our feet the more the chances of Man city,Madrid,Chelsea e.t.c will swoop in and hijack the deal with double the amount we are offering!
It would surprise me if Mr.Bean doesn't already know this.

Juan Mata..apparently this is the guy to replace Cesc,though I think we already have a potential replacement in Nasri and or Rambo (I am doing a whole post on 'The Cesc succession" so no need to dive in now). Juan Mata (Valencia) 23 years old plays C.a.m or Winger. Very skillfull just watch what he did to poor Pique..chobo tu!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm4tsmNlmUQ
He says he wants to win something with Valencia..I don't know if that is going to happen any time soon as long as Valencia are playing the same league with the Cunts and Madrid. This doesn't worry me much,looking at Valencia's financial state,they'll look to cash in on him..like they did with Villa and Silva last season! My biggest concern is that he started at the Real Madrid academy went to their B team before leaving for Valencia. How long till we hear 'He has Madrid D.N.A?' He is a good prospect,would love to have him but eeehhhh No thank you!

Now remember when I wrote my summer wish list? And I left the striker part blank..well now I have him! (drum rolls) Romelu Lukaku.This kid is ddyyynaMITE! Plays for Belgian club Anderlecht,18 years old but his physique can only be rivaled by that of J.E.T (Jay Emmanuel Thomas). This is a goal machine in every sense of the word  He played for Lierse from 2004 until 2006,scoring 121 goals in (hold on to your seats for this)....68 games.He was in negotiations with Chelsea but with Boas going there,you know he'll prefer Falcao to him. Now this is where we get in..Rumours are that we are ready to fork out 18M pounds for him!
I'd be the happiest bugger in town if this goes down..and he is Belgian so expect the Verminator to have a word or two with the kid! Fingers crossed..

Finally..If you wanted confirmation of at what a pile of junk we have as 'players' and no not all of them..just look at Denilson,Bendtner and Almunia..After poor Denilson played smart and said he's leaving,I think he expected a crowd of clubs knocking at his door for his services but oooohhh Wapi? Nothing! That goes for Bendtner too..though it is said that he had attracted a certain german club who have denied any interest in the Dane. Now what is happening with Almunia? He doesn't think that he's staying here..maybe as a cleaner! Hata Sofapaka jamani...
 With that..As we were gooners
Kwaherini!

Gervinho,Cahill,Samba,Cesc,Nasri all the way to Nwankwo Kanu!

Let's kick off with what seems to be the imminent arrival of one Gervinho from Lille.Some sources say he's going to be announced as soon as this weekend,I think I am safe hanging my neck out and saying we already have him..what with his club president already saying that we are in talks with him! Its just a matter of when rather than if..When he does sign,he will be a great addition to our right wing,with the lack of out and out wingers that we have..his arrival might finally allow F1 piki piki to play as a central striker..though I dont see his diminutive figure coping well with the likes of Vidic,you have to say his pace will frighten any defence on any day!


Next up..reports have it that we are going for both Cahill and Samba. According to  Goal.com  we are bidding for both at a total of 24M pounds. I'd be very happy if we could get both,but I don't think we will. This is just a clever way to stabilize the prices..kinda like we did when we signed Nasri..we had bids for him and Ben Arfa.The idea is to show the other club that we have other options..pretty cunning!
Add to this news that Squillaci might be on his way out...YIPPEEE!! We'd have the personel to make this a water tight defence..with the right training and systems of course.

Christopher Samba.

Gary Cahill.

King Cobra (Nasri) has finally seen the light,he's back to the negotiating table.I take this as a positive sign that he wants to stay..and I think he will do just that! His Agent had this to say..

"I want to clarify that there has been no break with the Gunners over the contract renewal and we should meet again soon with Arsene Wenger.
There are a few clubs interested in Samir, but it is useless to name them. Before listening to other teams, we need and we want to talk with Arsenal."

Mr.Bean has a way with his words..remember Cesc and his 'greatest talk I've ever had' last summer... now you see why am confident he's staying.

Cesc finally spoke out,he was at Madrid launching some product that I don't remember but he said..
 "I am an Arsenal player. I have been very happy for eight years and I am very happy. There have been no decisions."
He went on to talk about our kadrought..quite honestly if I may add..
"A player who is not frustrated at not winning titles is either lying to himself or lacks ambition," he said.
He then said that any decision on his future would come from Mr.Bean..
"He (Mr.Bean) is the boss and makes the decisions,"."You should ask him. I haven't seen him for six weeks."
 Now from where am seated El Capitan is not going anywhere. Not anytime soon..

It's been silent on the Alvarez front..that means one of two things. We already have him and are just waiting for a date to announce it..or we have gone cold for one reason or the other. From what I hear,the 12M price tag is abit too much for a player who would need a lot of paper work and adapting to the Epl..makes sense to me.
We have a bid in for Willian (Shaktar Donesk)..12M (What's with this 12M..we are bidding the same for everyone!) I really pray that this one goes through..fingers crossed!

Now to my little scoop..Patrick Vieira has been released by the Mancs..I think we should get him..am not yet sure where we'd fit him but he should be useful..I mean we signed Campbell and Lehman..surely This steam engine is better than the two. Even as a coach or a mentor,I don't know just get him!!
Oh..and before I forget Mad Jens has been let go.. :( so I guess we will be looking for a keeper,though we have Mannone somewhere!
While Mr.Bean is getting Vieira,he should pick up Hleb..no not sign him,just to talk to Cesc and Nasri on the consequences of leaving!

Before I leave..a story that I feel did not get as much coverage as it deserves. Especially from the gooner world..One of the greatest players to put on the red and white..Nwankwo Kanu had his testimonial this week in Lagos,after 16 years doing duty for the super Eagles..Fittingly it was graced by the African greats the likes of  Samuel Eto'o, Emmanuel Adebayor, Sulley Muntari, Rigobert Song,Emmanuel Eboue,Jean Makoun, Khalilou Fadiga, Anthony Baffoe, Jay-Jay Okocha, Sammy Kuffour, George Boateng, Joseph Yobo,Taye Taiwo, Herman Hreidarsson,Obinna Nsofor,Michael Essien, Kolo Toure, Stephen Appiah, Kalusha Bwalya, John Utaka, Finidi George, Mutiu Adepoju, Obinna Nwaneri, Yakubu Ayegbeni, Elderson Echiejile, Onyekachi Okonkwo, Raphael Chukwu, Daniel Amokachi, Uche Okechukwu and Ogbonnaya Kanu. It was a Super Eagles vs World XI..the Nigerians won 3-1 with Kanu netting the first goal..I'd like to pick out what Eto'o said..
"Kanu is undoubtedly the most recognised, successful and talented footballer I have ever seen on the field,"

"It was not hard to honour him by travelling down because he is an icon of the African game and we must honour him.

"After playing against him, I was honoured and today I came here to show how much we respect and appreciate his achievement, inspiration, motivation and charitable gesture."

Beating Snr.Song as he has done over and over again!

The players after the game.

Kwisha...(I have my new slogan!)