Saturday 13 June 2009

Money flows as the summer burns on

Despite the rumours the only actual confirmed news of the summer so far is that Lucas Fabianski has signed a new long term contract at the club. Fabianski has made some errors, but overall he's shown he does have the ability and one would never expect a young inexperienced keeper to look like a commanding senior pro straight away.

The money being thrown around by Real Madrid is nothing but obscene, Arsenal Insider talks about conflicts at the club and the financial implications of this wanton cash extravaganza. One can't help but feel that Manure will find it very hard to replace Ronaldo in the short term, he has been their main attacking threat in recent seasons and even with eighty million burning a hole in their pocket it is never easy to replace your best player. On the background of clubs like Liverpool making decent losses despite very successful seasons on the pitch then this all begins to look rather unsustainable. Spending money one simply doesn't have and taking massive gambles with a club's future doesn't appear clever to me.

There have certainly been plenty of rumours about signings so far, no surprise there then, one of the strongest has been about Thomas Vermaelen of Ajax, Arsenal FC Blog has an Ajax fan's opinion on this rumoured signing. He would almost be worth signing just to piss off the potato headed Martin Jol, would that result in a steamed potato I wonder? There are also rumours around the young PSG centre back Sakho, these appear less credible as here we only have word from the agent who is probably trying to move his client for as much cash as he can as quickly as possible.

Anyway back to reality and Kieran Gibbs has been impressing for the England U-21s in his old role of central midfield, Theo Walcott has played a couple of times for England and has a great chance to show how he has developed in the U-21 championship, while the club have announced their seven new scholars, you can read more about these seven lads courtesy of Young Guns. The close season is a nice opportunity to forget about football for a bit, soak up a bit of sun and relax. Maybe some people enjoy reading the never ending tedious rumour mongering in the media, not me, I'd rather be doing something else like playing golf or sipping a cold pint of ale.

6 comments:

Ted said...

Quite agree. The Twenty20 has been good so far, although Gibbs and Walcott for the Under21s might get my interest back. I forgot sometimes just how young Theo is - perhaps we expect too much of him?

1979gooner said...

very true,

we do expect a lot, he's bound to be a bit naive at times given his age and inexperience, plus this last season has been his first proper season with a fair few games and even then he had a decent chunk of it out injured

Rhinogooner said...

Glad to see you back 1979. I've missed reading your drivel ;-)

Today I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the Van Persie contract situation. I've been reading different opinions floating around out there on the web, but I'm not sure what the consensus perspective is on this subject.

As a bonus question, with Madrid throwing around obscene money for star players this summer, if they were to offer us £40m for Cesc, would you be inclined to accept that offer?

Anonymous said...

Cesc too is pretty young, easy to forget. developmentally, he's pretty experienced of course, but he's still a young guy.

I would hate to see him go. I don't think anyone on the team isn't irreplaceable, but it would be a huge blow to morale.

on another note, what about singing Deco? any thoughts? I think he would be a good fit and cheap.

-rahul-

Ted said...

Good point that Cesc is still young (maybe just turned 23?).

I have mixed feelings about Cesc. He had a bad season last year, but maybe I am a harsh judge of him. That said, if someone offered £40m for him, I would take it without blinking. Arshavin is a ready made replacement, so is Nasri. And if we did need a ready-made experienced man I would ask Everton to name their price for Arteta. Or we could pick up one of the Dutch lads on the cheap from Real.

Swapping Arteta for Cesc and banking at least £20m would sound like good sense to me.

In fact, looking ahead to next season, the only names I can put on the team sheet and say "they must play" are Alumunia, Arshavin and Song.

I don't even have strong feelings about RVP at the moment - I am more inclined to go with Bendnter or Eduardo and perhaps push Theo forwards as well.

So, in answer to Rhino's question, I would give RVP a good and decent new contract at the top whack that we pay (80k per week?), but I would not break the bank to keep him.

1979gooner said...

I am unsure about Cesc, he played so poorly last season but he is such an important status figure for the club. Psychologically it would be such a statement of our lack of intent to sell Cesc that it cannot be done, I fell maybe it would be wise to sell him in a couple of years for big money.

Arteta is great but has just done his ACL and will be out for most of next season. Cahill is a player I really like and Arsene has been hailing him recently.

I agree with Ted, a good wage no problem but we have to remain in reality, RVP worked hard last season but his goal scoring record was not as good as it should have been.