The Goon Blog

Putting all the Arshavin business to the side, we face a very, very difficult trip to Goodison Park today to face an in-form Everton side.

Key Man

If we are going to win we are going to need an early goal, last time out it was Nasri at the grove and this time round he is going to be key again in his link up with Robin Van Persie.

We are going to need big performances and they will have to start at the back with William Gallas likely to play. Let me state this now; IF WE PLAY GALLAS AND TOURE TOGETHER WE WILL PROBABLY LOSE. I hope thats clear enough. The T&G Partnership lack dominance in the air, we are still vulnerable with Djourou in there, but if he wasn’t we would be even more hapless. Felliani and Cahill along with Lescott are great in the air and have scored their fair amount of goals this season from set-piece situations, we have to get this right or we could go down 2-0 or 3-1 or something embarassing and potentially terminal to our title and champions league hopes.

So my back line would be like this if we have to play Gallas,

Sagna—Gallas—Djourou—Clichy

This is one of the reasons i disagree with Wengers choice to pick Toure as vice captain, he is by no means assured of his place in the side.

Moving onto the midfield i expect to see it at full strength minus of course the injured. With a couple of slightly easier games coming up we should not need to play Song in midfield but sadly, i expect to see Eboue. We will probably line up like this,

Nasri—Denilson—Diaby —Eboue

I wouldn’t say thats a strong midfield at all actually but its probably the best we have at the moment. Shameful isnt it.

Up front its bound to be Van Persie and Adebayor, im really starting to worry about Van Persie getting overplayed and injured because dare i say it, he is looking a hell of a player. Adebayor has to start putting the ball into the back of the net again or his place is going to start coming under increasing scrutiny, Vela, Eduardo and Bendtner are all going to be itching for starts soon and Adebayor is no longer an indespensible member of the team.

I wish to apologise for a simple error in my previous post of which the title was ‘Official: We didn’t make Arshavin bid’ or something like that, i actually meant that we had not done the deal as was being reported. It was a simple error done out of tiredness and sorry for any confusion.

Ive heard that the game tomorrow is not on TV, if it isnt i am not going to be at all happy,

Actually, il be rather pissed off.

Let me know your thoughts on the game, will we win?

Gooner14 will here later with a match report and there should be a new banner soon too.

Til next time

This transfer is going round more times than a bloody merry-go-round.

At the press conference before the Everton game tomorrow Arsene Wenger, in no uncertain terms has put us straight on the fact WE HAVE NOT MADE AN ARSHAVIN BID. In the words of the Frenchman,

“[That is] not true,” he replied. “In this job ‘far’ doesn’t mean a lot. I believe that we are not close to concluding any transfer, Arshavin or anybody else.

He then went on to have another little dig at Zenit St Petersburg,

I am only responsible for the statements we make and I cannot be responsible for the statements that other clubs make,” said the Frenchman.

“Zenit look to have different voices coming out of the club and I’m not sure if it always the official voice. I believe what I see and what I hear directly.”

How many more twists will this take? I know i have blogged many times with headlines such as ‘Arshavin deal finally done’ (that was a joke), ‘Arshavin fee agreed’ and so on but from this day, and this very moment i will only give you updates when they have been confirmed by a reliable sports network or Arsenal.com. No more of this Russian newspaper stuff.

Im fed up of this, you are probably fed up of this.

Later i will give you an Everton preview, what Arsene said regarding the Micah Richards bid and more.

‘Til Then.

Oh for Jesus Sake.

We have finally agreed a fee.

And Arshavin who has been, by his own admission, praying for a move to Arsenal.

So why go and put the whole bloody move in jeapourdy? It has taken weeks to get to an agreement on price and he is having second thoughts over wages, its not like we are offering him 10 grand a year, we are offering him £80,000 a week! But he wants £100,000 a week, its crazy, ludicrous and quite frankly he can piss right off. Does he not know the state the current financial climate is in?

Zenit have said on their website,

“The fundamental understanding over the transfer of the player is achieved between the clubs,” read the statement. “At the moment the basic obstacle in realisation of the transaction is Andrei Arshavin’s personal requirements.”

AAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

When is this all going to end!

*Sobs into coffee*

I really am sick to the back teeth of this.

Right, onto Nacer Barazite who i feel has a massive future at Arsenal Football Club. For starters he has a crazy amount of technical ability and whilst he has struggled at times on loan at Derby he has saved games for the side. It seems he is looking to follow Jay Simpson’s path by being in the cup teams next season, he said:

“I am looking forward to the rest of the season. I wanted to stay because I was really happy here and playing games. I feel I have still got a lot to learn here. Hopefully, I can keep learning and playing well and then go back to Arsenal at the end of the season and take my chances over there”

I have seen him on a couple of occasions and i think he is a hell of a talent, he always stood out for the reserves and hopefully he can turn all this potential into class.

In some great news Thomas Rosicky has returned to training, its fantastic news but he will take ages to get back to full fitness and thats providing he doesn’t pick up any niggling injuries that is in reality, very very likely after being on the sidelines for a year. His agent said:

“It is a huge and positive advance in his situation as well as a hope that Tomas’ uneasy injury spell will end,”

Lets hope he does return, i have had my doubts but hopefully he can prove us wrong.

As you can guess most of the news at the moment is regarding our Russian Owl Faced friend and we will bring you news of the ongoing saga as we find it.

Now, if you have a bit of time on your hands why not go and listen to the YoungGuns podcast?

Right sorry for the shit blog today. I really am, til tomorrow.

The Goon Blog understands that Alisher Usmanov is to cover the three million gap in-between Arsenal and Zenit’s valuations of forward Andrei Arshavin.

This Russian source confirm that Usmanov is going to step in and also said Wenger has been after Andei since the summer;

‘Wenger then personally went to the stadium to watch the game of Russian attack, and after the match came in the locker room and congratulated our players on the victory, highlighting the game Andrew Arshavin.

Since then, the Frenchman does hope to get Arshavin, although the other day and admitted that the failure of the negotiations will not be a tragedy for him.’

Mitrofanov, the Zenit St Petersburg club director has also said;

‘It is likely all be resolved today – it was on Monday appointed a regular meeting of the board of directors which will decide.

Last night, Representative Dennis Lachter was authorized on behalf of Andrei to negotiate personal terms on a contract’

Looks like we will have definitive news by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Deal has been confirmed on Russian TV according to sources.

Just to be straight with you, i am a massive fan of Arsene Wenger, i admire him and its not too often i criticize him but today is one of those days I’m afraid. I think he cocked up.

For those of you that don’t know, we had a goal-less draw with Cardiff City of the Championship. The damn Championship. We played poorly and the only player i saw with intent was Van Persie who really did not want to face another game, or to put it another way, he didn’t want another game to drag this team through.

Arsene Wenger has a big problem in the motivation department if im honest with you,it seems the players are never up for the games against opposition that isn’t fellow top four or Tottenham.

Do you remember the days where we could come out of the tunnel trying to finish the game in the first twenty minutes? The times we did that we had someone like Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira who were a massive presence and were very, very motivational players. We lack that kind of player now, and the emphasis of motivating the side now falls on Arsene Wenger because at the moment we really lack that motivation and drive at times we really need to nick wins, save games and end potential bannana skins early.

Another point that i have spoken about before is the decision to give the captaincy to Kolo Toure, i think it was a massive mistake.

The reason is Kolo is not assured of his team place, yes he is one of the most experienced players out there but he has been crap over the past year. Gallas has a big shout to be in the team instead of him as much as i hate to say it. I have covered this before so I’m not going to go over old ground but its just my opinion on the matter.

Today i thought Wenger made a mistake by not giving Adebayor a start today. He has not played as many games as Van Persie recently and he is in desperate need of games, but for some reason Adebayor was on the bench and Bendtner was partnered with Van Persie. I really don’t see Wengers logic here because i accept we need creativity but why not stick Nasri behind the strikers?

If Van Persie gets injured we are royally fucked and we really need him for the next two games that come in quick succession.

Yesterday – and today so far – have been rather silent on the Arshavin front as he gets his inevitable mention here.

I take it two ways – no not like that you dirty minded arsebandits- either the deal is over, kaput, done, dusted and having had a big F slapped on the documents or negotiations are so intense nobody has managed to shout their mouth off. I think it might be the latter as Zenit would have inevitably been mouthing off if the deal was kaput.

Right im sorry its been such a negative blog today, i really do admire the big man Wenger but i do feel he has made a few mistakes recently.

But on the plus side we are still on this unbeaten run, we kept a clean sheet and… and… and… and…

We still look rather tepid, like a wine that has been corked, like a tea bag left in the cup for too long. Like a saggy carrot. We are looking rather anemic.

Just one thing that has rather pissed me off this weekend is the FA are an English association for English clubs. Why are we playing a Welsh side in an English competition? That also play under Welsh FA rules? What do you think of that? Let me know because I’m not so sure i support it.

If they want to play in our competition they should bloody well play under our crappy associations rules!

Thats your lot today from the rambling git i am. Why you read this i don’t know.

Well, ’til next time.

Sorry, i really could not resist.

Advocaat wants the deal done, Arsenal want the deal done but it seems Zenit want to take their time. They issued a deadline of last night but it seems they have broken their own curfew as the saying goes.

I really am sick to the back teeth of the Arsh-a-go-round, the sooner a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is said the better? Maybe Noel Edmonds could be brought in to sort this deal out?

Advocaat is running out of patience, saying here

“I hope that, with regard to Arshavin we will have finally taken some action. The whole story takes too long – It is time to give a final answer, clearly say – yes or no. I hope that the club would say. It would be better for Andrey, and for the team.”

I think it would be better for everyone.

Onto Cardiff tomorrow and i think we will win this one and rest a few key players. Wenger hinted that Gibbs will start at left back,

“Maybe Gibbs [will play at left back],”

And with Gallas in contention we could see either Toure or Djourou rested. I would also not be supised to see Denilson rested as he has made the most appearances this season and the more tired he gets the greater chance he has of picking up a knock.

Bendtner will probably start up front with Van Persie getting a rest because, quite frankly if he is injured, we are fucked.

Arsene has been generous of Aaron Ramsey’s praise recently, and Friday he again spoke of the youngsters talent,

“I’m very happy with Aaron and I believe he will be a very important player for the Club. He is ahead of schedule and I’m impressed by what he has done by now but he is only 18.”

Whilst he also pointed out, he won’t let sentiment interfere with his selection,

“We go there to qualify, the most important thing is that the team goes out on Sunday and plays to win the game.

“I love Aaron Ramsey and I believe he will be a great player for Arsenal Football Club but we don’t go there for a testimonial.”

I think he will get some part to play in the game, hopefully he can grab a goal.

The NOTW is again chugging out articles printed months ago, this one about Robin Van Persie’s contract renewal, he will get a contract, and probably a big pay rise on his 65,000 a week. God, what do they do with all their money?

We have also been linked to Micah Richards, even if this is true its a bad bad move. He is not a patch on the player of two seasons, or even a season ago. He has loads of potential but he is regressing rather than progressing at the moment.

On the line up, im expecting something along the lines of this;

Fabianski, Sagna, Toure, Djourou, Gibbs, Nasri, Song, Diaby, Eboue, Bendtner, Adebayor

Back to Owly-Russian and Gooner Talk says that he is due to arrive within two days, i think its all guess work at the moment. The Russian press come up with a story, the English regurgitate it with a few amendments and its just one big game of Chinese Russian whispers.

Right, im sadly going to miss the game i think, i will do my utmost to get some highlights down my throat for my next post.

Til Then Arshfans.

Well this is a bit of cheek from Zenit isnt it? They have moved Arsenal’s deadline to this evening. It think it just shows that they are arrogant little bastards who are playing games.

The source of this is the Sport Express; and the main Zenit official negotiating the deal (Maxim Mitrofanov) has said,

“If Arsenal do not take, and this is our proposal, Arshavin the club will not be sold. In any case it is decided until the evening Saturday,  Nevertheless, Arshavin could still be in England. They are interested in a few clubs that have a formal proposal, we have not yet done, but to make it ready.”

They are putting the pressure on us to raise his fee, they are truly scummy gits and it is clear that they care about money first, and the interests of their players second.

To be honest id rather us surpass the deadline today, let Arshavin go on strike, and then come back on Febuary the 2nd with exactly the same offer and see if they take it then. Its been made pretty clear that we are the only club interested in the Russian.

Arshavin has also said yet again that he wants his club to sell him;

“I can only wait, as the situation is resolved. On the “Arsenal” offer of 12 + 3 million pounds i know and believe that under current market conditions it is more than adequate. but  alas, its not me that decides.”

I feel sorry for him.

Rot in hell Zenit.