Here we see the new home kit which although traditional looks to much like the 2006/08 shirt for my liking. However I’ll grow to liking it…..again!

Im not saying the draw is possibly fixed or am i? but what i am saying is isn’t it quite a coincidence how we happen to be drawn together after much media hype on the subject.

Ooo well whats done is done, i am not too worried about Celtic, who have a very poor away record in Europe although we have never played them before if they play anything like Rangers did in the Emirates cup who according to stats last season are better than Celtic than we shouldn’t have a problem. Especially as we are away first, we can bring them back to the Emirates and finish ‘em off.

Transfers
On the transfer front, Wenger has said that Arsenal are intereseted in Brede Hangeland who in my opinion would be our ideal signing. Height, strength and premier league experience. But what does intereseted actually mean? I don’t really want to go too much into this as i feel there is a long way to go. All i hope is that Senderos goes which would clear the way to a signing and pleaseeee let it be Hangeland!!

To recap here is the full draw:

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PLAY-OFF DRAW

Champions Path

Sheriff v Olympiacos
Salzburg v Maccabi Haifa
Ventspils v Zurich
Copenhagen v APOEL
Levski Sofia v Debreceni

Non-champions Path

Lyon v Anderlecht
Celtic v Arsenal
Timisoara v Stuttgart
Sporting Lisbon v Fiorentina
Panathinaikos v Atletico Madrid

Just another quick off the topic moan…Am i the only one who hates the new Sky sports theme? the older one was soo much better. sorry folks just had to say something!

Happy with the draw, any worries on the Arsenal side or do you hate the Sky Sports theme tune too?….leave a comment.

HarregasTheGooner.

Fiorentina announced last week that the deadline for the deal to complete was Wednesday, and they also said Arsenal had to lower their asking price of £9 million, in my opinion understandably so. There was no news yesterday of this deal so i presume the deal is dead. Fiorentina did announce that they had other targets so Eboue wasn’t a deal that was desperate for them. So thats that

I’m not sure what to think about this, I would of liked the £6 million they offered but lets be honest Wenger wouldn’t of bought so I’m somehwo thinking lets keep the player.

The Viera situation

No news in this case I presume is bad news. Since the Emirates cup press conference on Friday showed that Wenger looked keen on bringing him back nothing has been heard since. Not even papers gossip. Maybe the weekly Friday press conference today should inform us more, but i doubt it seeming Wenger is very quiet to say the least about his dealings! We will see, hopefully!

L’Equipe announces new bid for Chamakh

I doubt this very much seeming Chamakh will be a free agent in the summer but the French paper has published that Arsenal have increased their offer to 9 million euros or 7.6 million british pounds. Is it worth it though for a player who only has 1 season on his contract?

Anyway this is what he had to say with the bold line showing his total stupidity:

“If they are interested in selling, we are interested in buying but if not, then we will look to Fabregas.

“Compared to him there is no available alternative left in the market, so we will see what happens.

“But after last season we only need small adjustments – a left-back, a central defender, a midfielder and a forward.”

ONLY A FULL BACK, CENTRE BACK, MIDFIELDER AND FORWARD. YOU’VE GOT HALF A BLOODY TEAM THERE. SMALL ADDITIONS IS ONE OR AT MOST TWO PLAYERS NOT FOUR. ARSENAL ARE A TEAM THAT NEEDS MORE THAN JUST SMALL ADJUSTEMNTS, BUT HERE WE ARE ONLY CURRENTLY BUYING A CENTRE BACK.

MORE THROUGHOUT THE DAY PEOPLE….

The Rossoneri’s first choice remains Wolfsburg forward Edin Dzeko but with the Bundesliga club remaining firm that he is not for sale, Milan are starting to look at alternatives.

Galliani indicated on Thursday that they might be interested in Adebayor and it now appears that the Serie A side have stepped up their interest in the Togo international.

“We don’t have any agreement with Dzeko,” said Galliani. “He is a Wolfsburg player.

“Dzeko has expressed his liking for a move here but at this moment there are no negotiations yet.

“We wrote to Wolfsburg and they responded that he is not for sale. If Wolfsburg change their minds we have agreed they will call Milan. If they do I am ready to immediately leave and go there.

“There’s no fee yet, at the moment Dzeko is not for sale. If he becomes for sale then we will start talking sums.

“Adebayor and (Sevilla striker) Luis Fabiano are the alternatives. For Adebayor there has been a telephone call, during which (Arsenal manager Arsene) Wenger was friendly.”

“I’m not sure how many times I need to talk directly about my commitment to Arsenal as I continue to say the same thing over and over again, but it appears that every time I have spoken to the Spanish media recently, my words have bounced back to England, leaving question marks about my future.

“So, for anyone who is unclear or may have misunderstood what my position is, let me make myself absolutely crystal clear. I am wholeheartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great Club.

“It is a fact that we have not won a trophy for four years and yes, I am angry about that, but that anger stems from the deep deep desire I have to win things with Arsenal. I care about this Club and believe in this team. I am proud to captain this team and proud to wear the shirt. It really upsets me when people express my thoughts otherwise. The spirit in this squad is fantastic and we have the ability and mentality to compete on all fronts for silverware. Make no mistake, we are focussed and determined to show that we are capable of achieving great things together.”

I’m sorry but for legal reason we’re not allowed to shwow on this site the full fixtures but you can see them by clicking here

Arsenal skipper Fabregas misses tough-tackling Mathieu Flamini who quit the Gunners last summer for AC Milan and has not been replaced.

Fabregas said: “We are accustomed to playing alongside the likes of Patrick Vieira, Flamini and Gilberto Silva.

“Last season we were weak in this position which is so important, especially for teams like us.

“When we attack, it is vital to know someone is behind you to win the ball back.”

Fabregas has been constantly linked with a return to Barcelona, where he came through the youth system.

And while Barca won La Liga, the Spanish Cup and the Champions League, Arsenal had a fourth successive season without a trophy.

He added: “If you do not win titles then you cannot be happy.

“Losing the semi-finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup meant we fell short and lacked that little bit extra.

“I’m happy at Arsenal but four years without success for a player who wants titles is a lot.”

With Yaya Toure Fabregas’s favourite choice maybe a move could be possible even though his agent ruled-one out almost immediately as we were linked. If we could give him £65,000 a week and a three year deal that would suit all and we wouldn’t have to pay much for him either. Cmon Arsene get out the cheque book!

Andy Robinson

Any Comments?

This is true becasue it has come of their official website saying:

Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.

At Cristiano’s request – who has again expressed his desire to leave – and after discussion with the player’s representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player.

Matters are expected to be concluded by 30 June. The club will not comment until further notice.

Yes, finally that idiot will be leaving English football for the better!

Here we go from start to finish

In spite of all the glitz and glamour of football, players are still traded like cattle. While the cattle may have some ability to effect the situation, ultimately, they are still horse traded by CEO types in dark smoky rooms over glasses of fine whiskey. Please note that small clubs will go through a process similar to this, it’s just that some people may wear many hats. Please also note that this is the process that managers would like to happen, it very rarely ends up working this way.

The ‘British’ (as opposed to the ‘European’, more on that soon) process of football transfers should work a little something like this:

Step 1: Identify the requirements
As a season (or half season) draws to a close, the club board will draw up targets for the manager, for example “We want to come in the top ten, and get in the last 16 of the FA Cup. The managers task is to assess the feasibility of this objective.

Step 2: Spot the gaps
Once the manager has been assigned their task, they will look at their squad and make an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of it. Let’s say the manager is worried that their right fullback is a little old and injury prone. The manager will go to the clubs chairman and say “Boss, in order to achieve the lofty ambitions that you’ve set me, I’ll need a new right back”.

Step 3: Determine the money
At this point the board will give the manager insight into how much money they’re able to spend on this player; “If you don’t sell anyone, you can spend £3million this year and then £500k every year for four years on this person.

Step 4: Identify the targets
The manager will then speak to their scouting team; “I’m looking for an attacking right back, who has a decent rate of assists, who is at least 24 and has experience in one of the major European leagues.” At this point the scouting team will review their database of players they’ve scouted and provide a shortlist of players who fulfil the criteria dictated by the manager.

From this list, the manager will review the players to determine which ones best fulfil the needs in the squad. This may include watching videos of the player, talking to players team mates, talking to his agent or manager, watching the player in person, Arsene Wenger watched Jose Antonio Reyes 67 times before he made an offer on him, and he still sucked.

Step 5: Make offers
Once the manager has identified a target, the buying club will make an enquiry to the selling club, a little something like this:

Buying club: Hello? Selling club? I like the look of your right back George Rightback, what kind of offer would it take to prise him from your cold dead hands?
Selling club: George Rightback? He’s a key player, we’d never sell him, not even for £5 million

Step 6: Club Negotiations
(Horse trading occurs)

Step 7: Player negotiation
As the transfer gets nearer to completion; both clubs think they’re likely to be able to trade the player for an amount which is appealing to both parties, the selling club will give the buying club to ‘open talks’ with the player. This does not mean that the deal is done, far from it, it just means both parties believe that the deal could go through. At this point the buying club will discuss with the player (and possibly his agent, and possibly his manager to)

Step 7: Agreement
If the clubs can agree on a price and the player is offered a contract that is acceptable to them, then the deal can be complete. If the deal is made outside of the transfer season, then the player will officially be a player for the buying club when the transfer window opens.

What could possibly go wrong?
This is a fairly complex process already, but when you’re involving all sorts of egos, different languages, different cultures and many stakeholders with different opinions on how much each player can work, you can imagine that all sorts of things can go wrong. We’ll be talking about these in future articles.

Any Comments?