News on Arsenal 21 July 2012

Hi Gooners.

Five more Saturdays without proper football and then it’s back to business… Roll on August 18th and back over the Emirates..

Will RVP be part of the squad that starts next season? Well that surely depends on how quick AFC can get rid of him and for the best possible price.  Right now we are in the bluff and counter bluff stage.

AFC know RVP is leaving, hough Arsene will of course say otherwise,  he has too, otherwise it could affect transfer fee. . Thing is so do United, City and Juventus and paltry offers are said to have been made between £10m-£13m from said clubs that are in for RVP…  Nice to see old Rednose make the first moves on the war of words, not unlike him to open his gob first… These offers though are just the opening salvo’s in the bidding war between the clubs interested.

Maybe they should just stick RVP on eBay. Starting price, £18m and then let United, City and Juventus bid up each other. Add on £1m for postage and eBay fees and don’t put the picture of RVP with grey hair as the gallery picture.

The three clubs interested in signing RVP all look like they are willing to pay RVP upwards of £150k-a-week salary to get him.. It makes me wonder why then they only value him at between £10-13m. RVP in the Sun (yes the Sun) is saying he wants £195k-a-week. I thought it was not about the money Robin?

I’m all for RVP leaving this summer. I think RVP has shat all over the club and the fans. Too many fans have been annoyed at his stance since he came out with his statement 10 days ago. @Persie_Offcial twitter account is taking a fair bit of abuse from Gooners.  I am not sure bridges can be rebuilt on this one. RVP could have been a genuine legend at the club and for me has thrown it away for the money. The stuff written and spoken about trophies is a smoke screen in todays football.

Arsenal are not taking RVP on the clubs Far East tour. Injured? It would sort of make sense not to take RVP “he leaves when he wants” why take the chance of injury sodding the deal up if he is going to leave anyway.

When RVP leaves who would be my choice who he ends up with? Quite frankly I don’t give a Gareth Bale…

United could be stronger with him, so if he goes there, I would hope Arsenal do a cash/player deal with Welbeck coming the other way.

City would definitely be stronger, but they will surely have to get rid of Adepaymore and maybe one of Dzeko, Aguero, Tevez. My bet would be Dzeko, so a cash/Dzeko deal from City for me…

Juventus cash only please and use the money for Llorente…

A good read here of Arsene Wenger’s first interview of the new season. A few quotes

If you look at the campaign as a whole, we lost only two of the last 16 league games and created a fantastic run. In the end we finished with 70 points in third place, as you say, which is respectable. And we qualify for the Champions League for the 15th consecutive year. Of course we are very proud of that, especially with the season having started how it did.

The priority is again to fight for the championship and Champions League. To finish the season as high as possible. What is as high as possible is to finish first. It is as simple as that.

I believe that to lose £150million a year, you don’t deserve a lot of credit to win a competition.

I think AFC will be a much stronger squad/team unit next season. Too,much of our play went through or relied on RVP. Therefore I see the  rest of the squad taking much more individual responsiblity as well as team responsibility, sharing the goals around, more emphasis on the defensive midfield side of things with players like Song or maybe M’Vila doing what their job description says on tin… With Steve Bould on board , what I think are all good individual defenders should end up playing more as a unit… Hopefully this will mean say 12/18 goals less conceded. Hopefully the same amount of goals as last year scored, maybe even 10/12 more…

Time also I think to stop knocking the club. The media are brilliant at knocking AFC leave them to do it. The season is fast approaching and time to get behind the club/team/manager/players. Time for us fans to do our bit.

I’d like to see AFC pay more attention to the FA Cup as well! Even though Arsene feels the League & Champions League are main priority. The FA Cup is still one of the great cups.

Arsenal leave for their Far Eastern Tour today and the squad is :
Mannone, Miquel, Aneke, Eisfeld, Chamakh, Ryo, Eastmond, Yennaris, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Coquelin, Gibbs, Song, Fabianski, Jenkinson, Walcott, Szczesny, Djourou, Afobe, Vermaelen, Diaby, Santos, Gervinho, Arteta and Bartley

Sagna, Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky will not travel due to injury an all unlikely to be availible for first team duty until late September. BFG, Podolski, Giroud, not sure why? and Bendtner Andrei Arshavin maybe due to the same reason RVP is not travelling.

There are plenty rumours of players AFC are meant to be setting their transfer sights on…..  Who? Well let’s just say about 50 players in all positions at a cost of around £500m.

Carlos Vela has left for Real Socidad and good luck to him. I really thought he’d be special and make it in the Prem. Seems I was wrong and I do hope he hits it off in Spain, quality little player.

I got sent this picture yesterday by a mate who works at Docklands. Apparently Stan the man is in town and what a way to arrive… Not as big as Romans I grant you, but told worth at £50m.

Kroenke’s Yacht

I wonder if he is here to actually make some decisions and sell RVP and open the cheque book for the other three major signing (inc RVP’s replacement) that are most definitely needed. Hope springs eternal!!!

I see Lee Dixon has left BBC for ITV.. Not sure I like either Channel when it comes to watching football, but Lee, surely BBC is better than ITV with the crass, un-fully Adrian Chiles, who would not know a decent quip or joke if it jumped up and kicked his teeth in… Maybe Lee has eyes on making ITV coverage a better.  Personally I’d get rid of most of the before, during and after match expert analysis as it does my head in. Experts telling me what I have just seen with my own eyes. Jobs for ex-footballers and the boys that’s what it is… Can’t we just go back to commentator, commentating on the match?

A few words for Stuart Pearce for his efforts with Team GB (Sod right off). What a pile of shi*e that was last night. Should have been about 7-0 to Brasil.  When Brasil were bringing on Pato, Team GB were bringing on Sordell. Sad, really sad…  So after watching Brasil, I’d stick my neck out and say if they are kept apart Spain v Brasil looks like the Olympic football final. For those that say Spain’s passing tippy, tappy football is boring, look at both Brasil and Spain then look at Team GB and England… I rest my case.

Cheers @harlowgooner