High stakes
Written by Paul Williams on Thursday, July 29, 2010
I'm not used to doing a Thursday blog, I normally play football after work so leave the laptop at home. However my hamstring is knacked and so no football = laptop in the bag = blog. But it might take me a while to get going today, please bear with me. To begin with let me say that I think I might have gone over the top yesterday. I do. I think I got carried away in suggesting there was scant evidence that Arsène was actively seeking to address the issues we have in the centre back and goalkeeping positions. It was pointed out to me that the links with Per Metersacker and the Cagliari goalkeeper, Federico Marchetti suggest that, against a background of the usual radio silence, there is actually a lot of noise in the background. Which is true. He sounds like our kind of goalkeeper too, having let in 4 goals out of six shots at the World Cup just past.
Cheap shots aside, we have also been linked again to Stuttgart's German centre back, Serdar Tasci. I mentioned a few months back that the Evening Standard were reporting our interest, but according to Football365 we have now had discussions with the German club. However, we have not yet made a bid. Have I died and gone to heaven? I might begin to think I had if we were able to sign an Italian international goalkeeper and two German international centre backs, though at this stage, I would of course settle for one.
As we're discussing transfer talk, I'm going to have to mention the fact the Evening Standard have a report on their website regarding you know who. Graham Hunter, the Standard's man in Barcelona reckons that in the next 48 hours Cesc will tell Arsène that he wants to join Barca and he wants to join this summer. I imagine their meeting may hit a bit of an impasse when Arsène tells Cesc that he has a contract for the next five seasons and is expected to honour it. Especially if the noisy old catalonians can't bring enough money to get in the room, never mind joining the table to play the game. Cesc is an intelligent young man, it shouldn't take much to get that point across to him. It seems that Cesc was labouring under the impression that he would be allowed to leave for the right fee, but that Arsenal's refusal to even countenance negotiating has left him feeling a bit let down.
I know how he feels, poor love.
I think in an ideal world then we should accede to Barcelona's overtures and transfer him with the minimum of fuss. However, this is not an ideal world and I think that if Arsenal's stand is to have any meaning beyond this summer, then Cesc will go to Barcelona only once Barcelona have spent their entire transfer budget for the next five years on him. And promised to piss off and never, ever, try and sign one of our players again.
Or is that my ideal world scenario? I'm confused now.
My first indication that all was not well in Cesc land came during his interview after that Champions League defeat at Porto. The nail in the coffin of his Arsenal career appeared to be the sheepish way he led the team around the Grove after our final game. He was not a happy chappy- of course, his fractured leg may have had something to do with that.
Anyway, I stood in what is now called the Clock End that afternoon with James and Chris. Along with our fellow Gooners, we applauded a Fulham team that were proving most compliant in providing us with the three points we needed to guarantee third place. They were also going to their first ever European final, which of course, they lost in heart breaking fashion to Diego Forlan's Atletico Madrid. Supporting a club that knows European heart break only too well, it was easy to sympathise with them. But no more, because the man they call "Sparky" is about to become the manager there, so we can guarantee that loveable little Fulham are going to be trying to kick the crap out of us next time we go to the Cottage.
I was going to delete that last bit, but surely in these fractured times we live in- universally referred to as the close season- one thing that can unite us all is distaste for a man whose approach to football left Cesc wondering how he could ever have played for Barcelona. I hope he suffers an epic fail during his stint at Craven Cottage, I really do.
That wasn't too bad for a Thursday, was it?
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