Well well, his lordship Baron Harris of Peckham must have certainly enjoyed his Chardonnay-fueled lunch before speaking with Nik Simon of the Daily Mail! Goodness me he certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons with his comments about “£200 million in the bank” for AW to spend. First of all, you never disclose as a club what your war-chest really is…that’s obvious to all and so are the reasons.
Secondly, as a non-executive director of Arsenal Holdings plc you don’t meddle in the day-to-day running of the business. Lord Harris was out of line completely and I would reckon that Ivan is going to have a few words with him. I seriously doubt we have allocated £200 million for transfers…we probably have cash and commercial lines which amount to that and possibly more but that isn’t really the point, is it? Watch this space for Ivan’s response.
Speaking of Lords…Lord Bendtner returns! He should receive a rousing welcome back from the Arsenal faithful when Wolfsburg takes the field. That in itself is probably worth the entrance fee of £29. Oh Lord (the one above that is)…please ensure he doesn’t score against us…I simply wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry!
Welbeck still suffers from “bone bruising” and Alexis will miss the first game or so. So the question’s been asked “Who plays on the left?”. Excellent question. I think we have enough there. Theo or Oxlade-Chamberlain could certainly play there. Or! Ramsey drops into Santi’s role in the deep and Santi moves up on the left, and Jackie-boy plays on the right of Ozil. I don’t think we’re in any kind of trouble with those 2 out for a bit. What does concern me is that Welbeck has missed the pre-season with the team. That’s a big setback for Danny and the team. Let’s hope he recovers real quick and gets his game going.
The transfer rumour mill seems stuck in the forward gear. Benzema, Lewandowski and Reus going round and round. Even our “inside man” Muzzi Ozcan has gone all silent on the “signing of the season”. As Andy Warhol once declared “everybody will have their 15 minutes of fame”…well you’ve had yours Muzzi. Soon we’ll have Alex Pato back in the mix! Whatever happened to that boy? Brazilian boy burnt badly by Barbara Berlusconi…:) Gosh he was such a talent and probably still is…there you go Wenger…still young, cheap and the upside is potentially huge 😉
The Emirates Cup is on this weekend and we should get to see our boys step it up a couple of notches in terms of performance. Can’t wait for that. We should win our 2 games against Lyon and Wolfsburg (note to Lord Above..don’t forget what I asked you for), but more importantly it’s about the quality of the performance.
Well that’s it for now. Enjoy the games and keep up the passion in a positive way you Gooners!
TJ