The Goon Blog

The only hard fact about the long running Arshavin saga is that it will all by over by 5pm, or in the following minutes.

And it is about time and im sick of writing about it.

Former Gunner Emmanuel Petit has been talking about how we are badly in need of experience, speaking to the BBC he said;

“The club needs to spend a little bit of money to bring some experienced players who can hold the dressing room and be a leader on the pitch,

“When I see Arsenal ready to spend £15m on Arshavin, I don’t mind, but I would rather spend that kind of money on bringing back (AC Milan’s Mathieu) Flamini.”

I agree totally. Its something we lack but we do have it within the squad, more than you may think at first glances. The point about Flamini is a very good one and im sure if he turned up at the deadline every Gooner would welcome him with open arms. I would.

Petit seems keen for us to spend money, highlighting the defence as a key area and adding more experience to the defence,

“I would rather spend money buying some defenders and one more goalkeeper. But you need experienced players to win games at the end.”

We really do need a big Russian or Italian rock in the middle of our defence, not that it will happen as Wenger does prefer more athletic centre backs.

That hideous, ugly man Matt Le Tissier has been spouting off about Wenger leaving Robin Van Persie on the bench, along with lots of other people actually. I think it was a good decision in all truth, we had enough class out there to create chances against West Ham, they just cant play together.

He said;

You can’t win the title with your top-scorer sat on the bench. It’s a pretty clear signal, I think.

“It was only about 10 minutes before half-time when Emmanuel Eboue, who in all fairness wasn’t having a very good game, hobbled off and they put Carlos Vela on in front of Robin van Persie.

If Van Persie was booked he would have missed the game against Spurs next weekend, a game that we will have to play much better in as they always raise their game against us. Would you rather Van Persie on the bench or suspended?

It was a brave, and good decision in my view. If you disagree feel free to comment.

What the hell does Matt Le Tissier know about aiming for league titles anyway? Since when was he involved in one at Southampton? Go and specialise on Championship football you jumped up prat. Think of the bigger picture maybe?

Im really starting to get pissed off with people blaming Wenger, why not look higher up in the Arsenal set up? He is not Arsenal for christ’s sake. Shitanta Sports Pat Dolan is the most rrecent offender,

It is going to be five years since Wenger has won a league title and four years since he won a trophy. People need to ask him some serious questions.

Ask him questions but he is by no means to blame. The buck does not stop at Arsene and people need to realise that.

I will try and update you with any relevations, RE. Owl faced Russian.

Til Then.

Keep up to date here

Sources close to The Goon Blog, and the Russian press suggest Andrei Arshavin is not on his way to London, but he has been there for the majority of the day.

Its rumoured that he was met at the airport by officials of Arsenal Football Club.

Sky Sports have claimed that Arshavin is ‘on his way’ in a private jet but that information may have been delayed as it was being confirmed by Sky Sports who have got many things wrong during this tedious transfer.

Back later.

Its going absolutely mental tonight, people texting Lachter, Sky Sports doing their bit to get us all excited then let us all down, commenter’s claiming they have had texts back from Lachter.

Its mad.

Ive tried texting him myself but the message did not deliver, maybe it was user error or a duff number i don’t know, but if you want to give it a bash head to the FIFA Agents List.

Gooner Talk have been up to date throughout the whole saga, passing Russian press information onto us and contacting Lachter himself and getting answers. My advice is if you are hunting for Arshavin information go there.

I did say that i would not keep going on about the deal a few days back but it just cant be helped, transfer deals have dragged on at times but this one is unique. Its utterly mental and to be honest, its not good for the game or player involved. Its probably like this because we go by the rules.

You know what, i am not even going to guess what will happen next.  I don’t want to use my brain power on even thinking about it because ive got a bastard cold, im nackered and quite frankly, i want to sleep and not wake up until Tuesday morning.

I was going to bring you a preview but i have not been able to research too deep into anything. West Ham are on a decent run, much like us and they have that Heskey mach II in Carlton Cole up front. And he has been banging them in recently, the net that is, not the stand like he usually does.

I remember when he used to be more of a threat to birds and UFO’s than the goalkeeper. I hope he has one of those days tomorrow, might get rid of some of those bloody Pigeons around London.

I’m unsure if Wenger will change much from Wendnesday, part of me thinks he will field the strongest team possible and rest players against Cardiff at home, one thing we cant afford is to underestimate one of these two teams.

In a way every game from now on, be it against Manchester Utd, Real Madrid, Roma or Blackburn Rovers, its a cup final. In a blink of an eye this season could be an utter disaster.

Then it still has the potential to be a good one, football is a funny sport isn’t it?

One thing we can put to bed is the Central Midfield area, Wenger has made it perfectly clear he is not looking to add there.

“I believe that we have the needed quality in the middle because [Abou] Diaby develops very well and I think that [Alex] Song develops well. I don’t believe that Denilson gets the credit that he deserves at the moment.

“At the back you can see the quality of players we have like [William] Gallas and Kolo [Toure] and [Johan] Djourou, they are in their national teams and to find better players is not easy.

“I agree that people always want better players but many clubs when they want better players come to see us so that means our players are good. For example Milan wanted [Philippe] Senderos, Senderos is 22 and Milan have scouts everywhere, so that’s why I believe we have the needed quality.

“Djourou is 21 and you think he will be better and we have to give him a chance.”

Bit of an essay there, cutting the jargon that red highlighted sentence is the most important.

This season is a true test of Gooners faith and Wenger is putting his faith in his youngsters. He has given this club and its supporters great times, we have achieved things that ten years ago would have been laughed at. Wenger deserves the time to try and do this his way with no interference. He will be, and is being criticized but we will have to trust him.

I do.

Right, my two cents on Arshavin. Sod it, why not speak what i think.

Wengers comments that have appeared this evening lead me to think that we will get him, i am being ever so cautiously optimistic.

“He’s a guy who can go past people in the final third, he can have the key, individually and collectively.

“He is an experienced player, 27, a good age and we are a very young side. We will not have Fabregas in the next six to eight weeks, we will not have Walcott in the next five weeks, Rosicky in the next eight weeks.

“You can see with the replay of the FA Cup we have the desire to do well in every competition and one more body could help us.”

He does not say those things about a player that isn’t his very often.

Monday maybe, i will put a penny bet on Arshavin arriving by 3pm Monday afternoon.

There you go, knock yourself out with Arshavin-ness.

Til Tomorrow.

Rui Fonte a highly rated young forward has moved to Crystal Palace on loan for the month of Febuary, this has just been confirmed on Arsenal.com.

The 18 year old is highly rated within the corridors of Ashburton Grove and is tipped for a big future.

I somehow doubt he will make regular appearances but the change of scenery and different training styles over at Palace will enable him to learn things he might not otherwise pick up at Arsenal and hopefully he can get a bit of time on the pitch too.

‘El Nino’ – as he is known, is described as a ’stylish and classy striker’ accoding to the Young Guns profile.

Good luck Rui.

The Andrei Arshavin saga looks set to continue up to the dying minutes of the transfer window as we have sealed a work permit for the Owl lookalike.

This news comes courtesy of SSN.

Now the work permit is in place we can keep Zenit dangling for a few days longer, turning up the pressure on them and after Hill-Wood has said ‘we won’t be the ones picking up the phone’, its down to Zenit by the looks of it.

Id say this is a positive sign, there is probably a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we are unaware of so all news that gets leaked id take with a big pinch of salt as its usually from the Zenit end, and we know what they are like.

Lets hope that we get more news later.

Update: Wenger has denied we have got a work permit, or even applied for a work permit. For Jesus sake.

“No, and we have not applied for a work permit yet for Arshavin or anybody else.”

I think the lesson is do not ever trust Sky Sports anymore.

Sorry guys, bad news.

Just a little titbit before Gooner14 comes up with the match report.

Zenit have said that a one off payment of 15 million is acceptable for Arshavin, who lets face it, we do need after a shocking performance at Everton.

This news comes courtesy of Sky Sports.

The main sticking point is the wages, some reports say that Arshavin wants a crazy 135K a week, which i am sure is utter bollocks.

Other reports say he is niggling for a 100K a week contract, the same he is on at Zenit.

Wengers comments on the saga after the game were;

“There is nothing new, because today I have been focussed on the game, and I did not pick up any phone calls so nothing has happened. It was 90 per cent that I will be able to give you more in the next two days. Remember in this job the other 10 per cent can be more important than the other 90 because people can change their mind quickly”

On another note, lets get Van Persie tied down to a very, very long contract with a buy out clause of 100,000,000 yeah? What a stunner he scored in an otherwise shit performance from the lads.

Right, Gooner14 up next with the report.

Talk to you soon.

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.