So the rumours are true – Henry’s a Barcelona player

So Thierry Henry has left the building – it’s now official, having passed his medical, Henry is now a Barcelona player for a fee said to be 24 million euros, or £16.1M. After losing Henry there’s a lot to ponder, too much for me to possibly cover in the detail I’d like with but one post. And so all I’ll do here is pay tribute to a club legend and wish him all the very best in this new chapter of his career. Other matters such as whether £16M was enough, who will take the captaincy and perhaps most importantly, who will replace Henry, will be covered in due course, but not today.

Now I don’t know about you, but personally, I don’t feel an ounce of bitterness toward Henry. I couldn’t possibly. He’s given us eight years of fantastic service and has more than repaid any debt that he owed us and Arsene Wenger. Irrelevant of whether Dein left or not, I think Henry wanted a new challenge and Barcelona is a club where he has more chance of silverware in the short term. We’re a club in transition, boasting a mostly new (Gilberto, Kolo and Ljungberg the remaining exceptions) generation of playing talent and while this is one of the most promising squads in football and we are on the up, for the past two seasons we’ve finished fourth, albeit with a champion’s league final appearance thrown in between. While the future looks promising, I‘m pretty sure he wants to win things now as well as adding a Champion’s League winner’s medal to the trophy cabinet. I don’t blame him for this and I don’t blame him for leaving despite saying last summer that he’d finish his career here. He obviously thought that he made the wrong decision in the end.

Henry was a fantastic player, a brilliant player, one in a million. He’ll go down in history as one of Arsenal’s greatest players, a real legend, and note, I’m not one to use the term ‘legend’ lightly. He’ll also go down in Premiership history as one of the greatest and would make a real claim at being the Premiership’s best so far. Watching him has been nothing short of a pleasure. A true masterstroke of a signing by Le Boss and one whom I hope will continue to do well in his new surroundings though it would be nice if he saved any off days for us.

• This article made me laugh. It suggests Wenger is certainly not a great manager. I feel like writing a full length response to tackle the points made but I won’t, it doesn’t deserve that much, no, I’ll just laugh.
• We’re linked with Alberto Aquilani, who’s said to have impressed for Italy in the Under 21 Championship. I saw him against England and he didn’t look bad. I do believe he’s a central midfielder though and we’re in no dire need of extra central midfielders.
• Saying that, we’ve been linked with Sakari Bagna pretty heavily of late, a right back, and it’s not exactly an area of the squad that requires dire strengthening. Both Justin Hoyte and Eboue were signed to long term contracts quite recently.
• There’s talk that the board will block a bid for Nicholas Anelka, which is rather ridiculous. The board have always let Wenger get on so why they would that change now?
• Wenger has also told the board he’ll sign a new contract providing they reinstate David Dein. Again, highly unlikely.

Well it’s Tuesday

Apologies for going haywire for a week. Simply, I was a bit bored – a bit bored of the same old rumours, the same old news when looking back, very little of note’s actually happened since our season ended. We’ve managed to sign Lukas Fabianski and Mart Poom went the other way but aside from that, nothing’s been concrete, there’s been a lot of talk about Thierry Henry leaving (even to Liverpool) and now it would appear there’s a story to run on Wenger leaving to Barcelona, because obviously he wants to follow Henry. I’d actually be a little worried if Barcelona did approach Wenger because he’d be perfect for them and vice versa but worrying about that now’s stupid. We all know he’ll see out his contract and after that, who knows. We’ve got him for at least another year though, and that’s a cert.

During the week in which I’ve enjoyed my time out, we’ve managed to sign a player by the name of Havard Nordtveit for a fee in the region of £2M. He’s sixteen and plies his trade in the second division of Norway. The figure might seem a little high then, but it’s likely to be based on appearances and stuff so won’t end up costing us much if he doesn’t amount to much here. Won’t see much of him for a couple of years, I’d expect and not being a keen watcher of the Norwegian premier league, let alone its second division, I can’t comment on whether he’s any good or not. First teamer at sixteen says something about his credentials though.

Well it’s Tuesday and as many of you I’m sure know, there was talk of a big transfer involving Arsenal going through today. This got a number of Gooners pretty excited, I on the other hand am not surprised by the deal being Aliadiere to Middlesbrough, word being that it’s all been finalized. We already knew that though. As ever, I’d like to know the fee but it’s something Wenger often keeps close to his chest. I’d hope we got 2-3M for him as he’s worth that much for sure.

All the luck to him and providing he doesn’t score too many goals against us when we face Middlesbrough in the future, I hope he does extremely well. He’s had bad luck with injuries and otherwise could’ve made it here. There was a point where he was a talent of huge potential. I appreciate the job he’s done this season too. There was a lot of pressure on him to perform and there were some real highlights, especially where the Carling Cup was concerned. He also impressed in one of the FA Cup games after coming off the bench. So yeah, good luck to him. He deserves to be a first team regular as opposed to being fifth choice with us.

• We’re linked with Valencia’s Miguel. I’m sceptical that this will happen because Wenger’s only recently tied Justin Hoyte and Eboue to long term contracts. There’s also the small matter of Kerrea Gilbert’s return and I’ve heard he’s better than Hoyte. Even with the African Nations Cup, we won’t need another right back. I’m fairly sure Hoyte will be trusted with that. Miguel will also cost a lot. Chelsea are more realistic suitors.
• Bakari Sagna, a player we’ve been linked with of late has apparently rejected offers from Lyon and Newcastle, holding out for an approach from Wenger, which again, won’t be likely to happen, because he’s a right back, and we have no need of another right back.
• After helping them win La Liga, Reyes has said he wants to stay at Real, or else in Spain at least. That doesn’t mean they want him though and we’ll have to wait and see what comes of that. As much as I think his ability as a player would be welcomed back at Arsenal, he doesn’t want to be there and so keeping onto him would be fruitless.
• The search for a new director of football continues, as Nicky Hammond of Reading snubbed Wenger. Oh well. I’m sure we’ll find someone competent enough to fit the bill.

And that I’m afraid is your lot.

Flamini’s one who’s most certainly off

Already, and the summer transfer season’s not long begun, we’ve been linked with what would seem to be every player under the sun. At the same time, according to certain media, the majority of our players appear to be on the way out. One such player is Mathieu Flamini and sadly, this is the one with some weight behind it. He’s no longer happy at Arsenal and when he says he has to think about his career, he’s probably right. He hasn’t played since February after all, partly down to injury but more down to the emergence of Denilson who Wenger is likely to mould into our new utility squad player and a better one than Flamini at that. There’s also the return of Alex Song to consider, who’ll no doubt be used as further midfield back up if called upon.

All in all, the central midfield department’s beginning to show the signs of some serious congestion, something which I think is enough to put the lid on rumours linking us with central midfielders for the time being.

Flamini was never a brilliant player, never an automatic choice for us. However, his role remained an important one and his being here has made a difference. He’s racked up a nice amount of goals this season and let’s not forget his filling in at left back for Ashley Cole last season which worked so well. It’s a shame that he’s off but an inevitable shame. He’s good enough to ply his trade elsewhere where he’ll be granted more first team opportunities after all and I can certainly see his future lying with a French club who do alright for themselves.

You can understand his frustrations which stem, he himself has claimed, from not playing a part in any of the cup finals we’ve been involved in during his stint as a player, notably the Champion’s league final because while he wouldn‘t usually be considered for such an important fixture, he’d been heavily involved in getting us there. There’s the argument he deserved to be there on that merit alone though it’s not a game to be taken likely and with Cole’s availability, you can understand the gaffer’s decision to drop him, though it must’ve come as a blow.

Just a shame that we’re unlikely to make a profit as Flamini can legally buy out his contract if he wants and will probably do so.

•  Word from the Star on Sunday is that we’ve made a cash plus player offer for Fernando Torres. I doubt the validity of this being the first I’ve heard about it all, that I’m sure a striker is not Wenger’s priority and Torres will probably cost too much.
• Peterborough are leading the chase to sign Jay Simpson, a player in our youth ranks who made history by netting the first hat-trick at The Grove.
• William Gallas and Abou Diaby have both been called up to the France squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers where France will face Georgia and Ukraine next month. No surprise with Gallas but it’s nice to see Diaby continue to be selected and deservedly so. He’s made two recent appearances for the international side already.
• Birmingham City are hoping to seal a loan deal for Johan Djourou and are waiting on a response from Wenger. I don’t see it being accepted though as that’ll result in a shortage of central defenders, something we won’t want especially when we could be losing Kolo Toure for up to six weeks to the African Nations and given Gallas’s injury history.
• There’s a nice bit about Pires’s return from injury and how he’s been doing well with Villarreal here. I saw him play against Barcelona and for someone who’d been out for a long time, he did exceptionally well. All the best to him and may he stay injury free in the future.
• No longer is he on the move to Barca. Nope, Henry’s now off to Inter and in exchange, we’ll be getting Adriano. This seems all the more logical because president of Inter, Massimo Moratti has come out and said ‘I can say we will be making a major signing this summer which will excite the Inter fans.’ That should be enough proof to suggest that Henry, despite having claimed his future’s with Arsenal numerous times, will be used as bait for Adriano.
• Franck Ribery will decide his future next week, with ourselves and Bayern Munich thought to be leading the race for his signature. Ribery had this to say, ‘At the end of next week we should know more about my future. It is possible that I stay at Marseille, with the prospect of playing in the champion’s league. That can attract me.’ I honestly don’t know where he’ll end up and I guess we’ll just have to wait until next week and hopefully learn more then.

Woo-Kash Fab-Yan-Ski

As has already been reported by the media, we’ve managed to snag Lukas Fabianski. Only, this time it’s quite official. From what I’ve seen of him he doesn’t seem a half bad purchase either. He looks comfortable catching the ball and seems very much an excellent shot stopper, managing to keep efforts out of the net that you don’t expect to be saved. He’s made four appearances on the international scene and he’s been voted the best goalkeeper in the Polish Premier Division for two seasons running. Obviously there’s a slight difference in quality between the English Premiership and the Polish equivalent but he’s only twenty-two and that’s quite a feat. However poor the league may be, you can’t do much better than be named the best in the league for two years running. I think he sounds like a talent and one that could potentially replace Jens Lehmann and what’s more, at twenty-two, solve our worries about the position for some time to come.

The other news on the goalkeeping front is that Mart Poom has paid a trip to the departure lounge and has made a move to Watford. With three goalkeepers on the books already (Jens, Almunia and Poom) and the arrival of Fabianski it was inevitable that someone was going to have to make way. I thought it would be Almunia, in that he had a much better season this time round and proved himself capable enough to play a regular role in a midtable side. With the competition of Fabianski, I assumed Almunia would be off and Poom would remain a third choice, and would be lucky were he to put in another performance for the first team, ever. Although, there’s still time to see off Almunia and it’s certainly something of a possibility. Wenger could turn to Vito Mannone, the young Italian, to play Poom’s role. Mannone spent three months of the 2006/07 season at Championship side Barnsley. He’s barely nineteen but has himself acknowledged that keepers tend to break into first team football later than outfield players and will wait for his chance. With a bit of experience now under his belt, he could be ready to be called upon if needed for the first team squad, though even then it’s unlikely Mannone will get much first team playing time.

It’s difficult to predict what role Fabianski will play this season. If Wenger does intend to keep hold of Almunia, it’ll mean some strong competition for Lehmann. Fabianski is seen as the more likely successor and the prospect of a starting berth in the Germany squad for Euro 2008 will mean motivation for Jens. I think Almunia’s performances will have attracted attention though and the addition of Fabianski could see him being all for a move to pastures anew. I’ll speculate further on what roles our goalkeepers will play in the coming season once we know just who we’ve lost and gained. As yet, I’m not entirely sure business is done for Wenger in the goalkeeping department. So it’s a good luck to Mart Poom who might not have played all that much for us but was there if we needed him and a warm welcome to Lukas Fabianski.

And in other news…

• Barcelona won’t rule out the purchase of Henry says Sky Sports News, which is fair enough. They might well be interested. I doubt highly of course that they will get their man. Last season he hadn’t decided on his future, he hadn’t signed a new contract. This time round both he and Arsene Wenger have consistently told us that he will be going nowhere. He stayed with us last season and I don’t think we’re about to see him do a U-turn in the near future.
• Rio Mavuba has said, in response to speculation linking him with a move to Arsenal, that there’s much competition for a place at Arsenal in the role he plays and that he’s looking for first team football so as to earn himself a place in the national side for Euro 2008. Not that I see it happening anyway. As good a player as he sounds, there is already enough competition and you’d first have to  see some players going the other way before we consider signing him. I’d be all for him staying at Bordeaux another season and keeping tabs on his progress though, something which could well be on le boss’s mind too. Gilberto Silva’s not getting any younger after all.
• According to The Mirror, we’re after Joao Moutinho. A very promising talent, I‘m sure there are a number of clubs out there keeping an eye on him. Word is that we are preparing a £15M bid. He can play pretty much anywhere in the midfield and that will be seen as a bonus. Position wise, he‘s more often than not employed as a central midfielder though of course Wenger could always convert him to the wing if he saw potential there. Reports coming in suggesting that he’s signed a six-year contract at Sporting however kind of dispel this rumour, which quite probably had little truth in the first place.
• Nigel Reo-Coker’s handed in a transfer request. We apparently had a bid for his services rejected in January but even if that was true, I doubt now, with the emergence of Denilson, Wenger will look to further strengthen the central midfield.
• Bayern are supposedly leading the race to sign Franck Ribery. They’re rebuilding the squad after a disappointing fourth place finish and it’s being touted that they’ve made the first bid for his services. The sale of Hargreaves will provide them with some well needed funds and along with a host of other clubs, Bayern have reportedly been looking to sign Ribery for a while.
• Lastly, Togo have lifted the international suspension of Emmanuel Adebayor and two of his team-mates. There was an argument over bonuses owed to the players for reaching the finals of the world cup which now would appear to be resolved, or more to do with Togo not wanting to lose their best players as the African Nations approaches. That’s bad news for us by the way, meaning we’ll end up likely losing another playing to the tournament which runs in the early part of 2008 and could result in losing certain members of the team for a period of up to six weeks.