Amaury Who?

Amaury Bischoff up until recently played his football at German side Werder Bremen. The twenty one year old midfielder has a history of injuries and has made just one appearence for Bremen’s first team. With his contract expired he has since left the club and claims a move to Arsenal is imminent.

This appears to bother a lot of people. What people ignore is that it’s a win win situation. Bischoff sounds like a decent enough talent so why not take a chance on him if he is available on a free? If reports are to be believed a one year contract is on offer and so if Bischoff doesn’t cut the mustard in a season I expect that will largely be spent in the reserves, no harm will have been done. Wenger will probably extend his contract and if he isn’t good enough further down the line he will be shipped out and we will make back the money we shelled out to him in wages through a transfer. No harm done.

He’s not a replacement for Mathieu Flamini and I’m not about to question Arsene Wenger’s eye for a talent. He doens’t always get it right, granted but I’m sure I recall cries of discontent at the arrival of Kolo Toure, a similarly unknown player at the time.

Wenger may see Bischoff, a midfielder or right sided winger, as someone who can play in a different position, as he often does. Whatever the reason for his signing, it’s pretty much risk free and so I’m surprised at the reactions of some who have the taken the opportunity to rant at Wenger for making a move for yet another kid.

In my absence Adebayor is said to have said something about wanting a higher wage. He can’t seriously want 120 grand though, not after one very impressive season. He deserves a pay rise, sure, but Thierry Henry wasn’t on that much and he’s a way away from proving himself to be at the same level. Barcelona or Milan wouldn’t seriously consider paying the greedy bastard that much would they?

Nasri looks ever closer to signing. I’m not really frustrated that it has yet to be announced officially, I’m patient and am sure it will be done sooner or later. Marseille have signed Ben Arfa who has taken Nasri’s number and now the replacement has been signed, I would assume that inches the Nasri deal inches closer to completion. The Marseille chairman says it will still take a few days to iron out the finer details.

Earlier today there was a story linking Nicklas Bendtner with a move away to Italy. That was quashed fairly sharpish though by the Dane’s father.

Spain and Villarreal’s almost thirty two year old defensive midfielder Senna has been linked with a move to Arsenal, to replace the void left by the departed Flamini. It’s not very concrete, with one Pascal Cygan claiming he has heard we are in for him and that Arsenal rarely make mistakes. Funny you should say that Pascal as you must have been one of the exceptions.

What else? Eduardo looks to be on the mend. I’m doubtful he will be rushed and the recovery process will still be a long one. I would imagine he’ll be playing football in the reserves for a fair while upon his return to a football pitch in order to regain match sharpness.

And Theo Walcott has been handed the number 14, which of course was Henry’s number before he made the switch to Barcelona. Well done Theo!

I returned from my outing to Vienna Monday, of which Sunday was obviously the highlight. It turned out we wasn’t in a box but the seats were great and it was a good game, fortunately. The atmosphere throughout the day was brilliant and my only grievance was that England wasn’t a participant, which didn’t stop them from stealing some of our songs for the prematch shenanigans.

The Ernest Happel Awaits

On Sunday I will be in attendance at the Euro 2008 final due to take place in the Ernest Happel stadium. Germany, having beaten Turkey 3-2 and Spain, having beaten Russia 3-0, will both meet in the final and I’ll be rooting for the Spaniards.

It’s not just that I don’t like Germany (damn Nazi’s!) They would have to do an awful lot Sunday to convince me they deserve to win, having looked rather weak throughout the tournament so far and certainly second best in their loss to Croatia who I actually fancied to make it to the final before they lost out to the Turks cruely on penalties. Spain on the other hand have been the more entertaining of the two and they do of course have Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas in their ranks.

To Arsenal now and the Adebayor stories continue to pick up steam. Wenger reckons it was the Milan game where the world’s top clubs (I say top, but I consider Arsenal to be better than both Barcelona and Milan, certainly the latter whom failed to even qualify for the Champion’s League this season) started to take notice of the wealth of talent Arsenal possessed. He’s probably right. Some bloke says that Ade has a 70-80% chance of joining Milan. He also says Arsenal are looking at signing Peter Crouch though so maybe he’s just bonkers.

Somewhere it was mentioned that Adebayor is demanding 120K a week. I think that’s nonsense myself but if it wasn’t and I was Le Boss I would probably laugh and tell him not to be such a greedy fucking cunt. 120K after one very good season? Barca and Milan will not offer him that, surely not. There are rumors abound that Arsenal don’t pay top dollar wages but we do, a player has to earn it first though. While Adebayor may have deserved a rise, anything above the 60K bracket for me is pushing it. But, like I say, probably nonsense.

Papers today linking us with a move for Miguel Veloso of Sporting CP, basically Manchester United’s feeder club. We do I would say need a defensive midfielder to replace the departed Flamini and Velosos is very highly rated.

Oh and Marseille signed Hatem Ben Arfa I think the other day which would seem to pave the way for Samir Nasri’s arrival at Arsenal. Happy days!

Off tomorrow to Vienna so don’t expect any updates until my return Monday. I hear the weather’s fantastic out there.

Euro 2008 Gets Underway

Despite the non inclusion of England, I found myself fairly excited about the summer’s international tournament which I can go into as a neutral. I was left dissapointed after a series of dull fixtures reminded me just how dull international football can be. And then came the Dutch.

Pre tournament Holland were not among the favorites – not up there with the Italians, the Spanish and the French because, despite some attacking firepower, they boast a lackluster defense. Yesterday they put on the best showing of the tournament so far. Holland are great to watch, which was what I was thinking before they even opened the scoring against World Cup winners Italy. Their passing was great, the technique of the players far better than any other European national outfit. Holland won me over immediately, albeit supporting a team with Ruud Van Big Nose in it is a hard task.

Throw in Arjen Robben at a later date and a sharper Robin Van Persie, who made a late cameo appearence and you have a very serious candidate for winners of the tournament.

Jens Lehmann aims parting shot at Gunners? Not quite. Being substitute annoyed him, he claims, but of course it did. Let’s just the ignore the part of his comments where he says “Arsenal will remain a beautiful experience in my life. Both on a sporting and personal level, I reached the top there,” which I think is a good note to leave on.

Arsenal have a new home kit and though not revolutionary, I like.

Alex Song, now more of a central defender, has signed a long term contract with the club. The player, who has been the subject of criticism in the past, proved at the end of last season that he had something to offer, when given the chance to play in the team ahead of Philippe Senderos in the last few games of the season. Premiership new boys West Brow are said to be interested in bringing him in on loan, which is something I wouldn’t rule out. Wenger looks likely to sign a new center back this summer and that means someone out of Senderos, Song and Djourou is likely to be on their way, whether that be on a tempoary or permanent basis. A season’s experience of regular football at center back could do Song a world of good.

Bayern are said to have joined the hunt for Alexiander Hleb cue talk that we might enter the race for Ribery in a swap deal of some kind, though we would surely have to offer some money in addition to Hleb. The whole swap thing’s just a theory though and unlikely to happen.

Patrick Vieira could be returning to the Premier League as part of the Arsenal retirement home at Portsmouth, which would be cool but he’s nowhere near as good a player as he used to be, which is probably why new boss Mourinho would let him leave Inter.

Finally, Gary Lewin has decided to become England physio on a full time basis. Best of luck to him though I would imagine this means that we will now finish below Tottenham in the Premier League next season. Shit!

Edit: That Welsh kid, Aaron Ramsey of Cardiff City, is said to have noted Arsenal as his preferred destination. I haven’t seen much of him myself. He is 17 and broke into Cardiff City’s first team last season, resulting in a late cameo appearence in the FA Cup final against Portsmouth. I’m fairly happy about this given that Man Utd had prematurely announced their bid had been accepted and were obviosly confident about getting their man. The stumbling block could be that Arsenal don’t want to loan Ramsey to Cardiff for next season while Man Utd are prepared to do that.

Player of the season and all that jazz

With the season over I thought I might take the time to celebrate the best of the best for Arsenal this season in a virtual ceremony that I will hope to repeat on an annual basis.

Player of the season

It’s tough to choose and that the same could not have been said were I writing about events of last season is a good thing, surely, demonstrating the sort of strides forward our players have taken.

1) Sagna – What an incredible season it has been for another of Arsene Wenger’s French import success stories. It is well recognized that foreign footballers need a reasonably lengthy spell of playing time in order to adapt to the demands of the Premier League. Sagna on the other hand made impact with immediate effect, fitting like a hand in a glove and proving several times better a right back than his predecessor, Eboue. Not only is he defensively sound, Sagna also provides a threat overlapping on the wing and bombing down that right hand side and can provide an end product to his runs. Widely recognized as the best right back in the Premier League and surely a serious contender for best right back in the world. Sagna was a signing few thought we needed but as it turns out he has had a crucial part to play in our title challenge this season.

2) Adebayor – It took me a while to become convinced, I’ll admit. I recall being less than impressed with Adebayor at the beginning of last season and failed to see why Wenger had gone for a player who was so shit at finding the net. He really was, wasn’t he. His composure in one on one situations was terrible and yet despite that he won me over. I saw that his work rate and physical presence gave us something extra and because of that he was a useful third option, behind Thierry Henry and Robin Van Persie. Well in Thierry’s absence this season he has found that goalscoring touch that he was so lacking. Few, including I, would have predicted Ade to nab a figure anywhere close to thirty.

Strangely enough he still has his critics, those that complain of an erratic first touch, which is a fair enough complaint but more baffling is that there remains constant slating of his finishing. He is no fox in the box but thirty goals in a season proves something, does it not? His goals were crucial to our campaign.

3) Fabregas – Started the season in electrifying form. Fabregas had previously found goals hard to come by and had an annoying habit of shooting straight at the opposition’s goalkeeper. He found goal scoring confidence though, adding a crucial element to his game that had been missing. He really was excellent in those first few months but then he got injured. Coming back he wasn’t the same Fabregas, not for a long while, before again finding form against Milan in the Champion’s League. That he failed to maintain his form over the season is the reason he misses out on being any higher. He is though a brilliant little player, quite amazing for his age and has showed signs that there is more improvement to come. His vision and passing has been extraordinary at times and the defensive side of his game has improved dramatically.

Honorable mentions – There is no shortage of candidates for Arsenal’s player of the season. Gael Clichy is one, though his form tailed off a bit toward the end of the season. Then you have Mathieu Flamini and Hleb. Flamini, though gone, deserves recognition for a marvelous season in which he appeared to give 100% in every game, with energy fueled performances that saw him much to the surprise of us all take Gilberto’s place in the team. Hleb might well be next to follow Flamini out of the door but I would hope not, given that he has finally come good. After two seasons of promising performances marred by his lack of consistency Hleb looked to have finally found his feet (though not his scoring ones.) He was one of those key to our terrific opening run of form and struck up a fantastic partnership with Cesc. For what he lacked in shooting ability he made up for creatively.

Signing of the season

1.) Sagna

2.) Eduardo – The Brazilian born Croatian international took a while to find his feet, as is the case for many foreign imports. He later however went on to prove that he had a deadly finishing ability, chipping in with his share of goals before injury ruled him out for the remainder of the season, an injury that he will keep him out for much of the year in fact.

3.) Fabianski – Has shown a lot of goalkeeping potential. Good enough I reckon to keep Manuel Almunia on his toes next season in the absence of Jens Lehmann.

Most improved

1.) Flamini

2.) Hleb

3.) Adebayor

Best Defender – Sagna

Best Midfielder – Fabregas

Best Forward – Adebayor

Young Player of the Season

1.) Fabregas

2.) Clichy

3.) Walcott – Showed much signs of progress in the latter half of the campaign, the highlight of which was his run at Liverpool, culminating in a goal for Adebayor in the Champion’s League.