Mike Ashley and injury/Partizan stuff

I know this is an 'Arsenal' blog but this does not mean all the talk needs to be Arsenal related, some wider issues and events have to be mentioned from time to time, for one they are interesting and secondly I enjoy having a rant about them, frankly if people don't want to read it then don't, you don't have to! Chris Hughton was yesterday sacked as NUFC manager by Mike Ashley, having achieved first time promotion from the Championship and then having made a decent start in the PL this year, it is quite astonishing that Ashley has acted in this way.

Mike Ashley is a stupid fat twat, this much is clear and has been for some time. A popular chairman who knows football well and who makes wise considered decisions he most definitely is not. The noises coming out of St James Park go to prove just what a stupid and ignorant man Mike Ashley is, although some of the comments from ex-staff and players have been rather veiled, it is abundantly clear that Ashley is not a popular man and not a man whose knee jerk reactions are doing the football club any favours. Hughton had done a fantastic job, a very popular man with the players, he had created a great team spirit having taken over when this was at rock bottom, Ashley's decision to sack him is so stupid in so many ways, it is almost hard to find words that can describe just what a stupid fat twat the man is, I think stupid fat twat does it nicely though. Mike Ashley is a great example of how luck can make you money, it certainly can't have been brains or intelligence that did it.

Enough of Ashley's stupidity. It is interesting to read a lot of absolute garbage about various injuries to our players in the media. Apparently Koscielyn 'could be out for three weeks' and this is some kind of exclusive headline. Note the words 'could be', Koscielny was clearly not knocked out and probably has a grade 1 or 2 concussion. Obviously it is slightly hard to make a prediction not knowing the details, but it is likely that Koscielny will only have to miss a week if his symptoms have settled down quickly.

Now to Mr Vermaelen. Here we have a big potential problem. The recent stories that go under the 'exclusive' banner have revealed that he will be out until the new year, this is not new news. We knew he was only in a walking boot at this stage, so it will be well over a month before he is back in the action. The problem is that he has pain in his Achilles, he has no abnormality on MRI scanning, this is a tricky condition to manage as it is so poorly understood. There is a good chance that it will just settle down and never cause any further problem, the other side of the coin is that fact that sometimes this condition never really settles down despite numerous different treatments and it can end footballing careers. I hope the Verminator falls in the former category, we'll have to just wait and see.

Partizan await on Wednesday night. I read Arseblogger's comments on the Song deployment and had to agree with every word, Arsene's logic and strategy here appear to be sadly lacking. If we can't beat Partizan then frankly we don't deserve to go through, obviously I hope this isn't the case but we cannot afford to be complacent, victory is never guaranteed. Djourou will start alongside Squillaci, it will be interesting to see if Gibbs gets the nod at left back. As always I'm damned if I can predict the midfield and attacking line up, it's a bit like predicting the weather really. Come on you Gunners!