Arsenal close in on £7m deal|Mass Clearout Planned.

Welcome to another day everyone. I hope the past two days have been good to you.

The picture above reminds me of how much I’ve missed the little Russian we once loved. I still love you very much, Andrei! Nothing sexual of course!

Whew! I’m glad I cleared my mind on that. So enough with the emotional talk.

Plenty Arsenal news this morning, let’s head straight into the post.

It looks like we’ll be making an early move for Ajax captain, Jan Vertonghen this summer.

Having seemingly sealed the deal for Poldi, it is believed we are trying to tie up a cut deal in the region of £7m for Vert, who has only one year left on his contract.

Apparently, Wenger has learned from his mistakes of last summer and is looking to conclude business very early this time around.

It can also be viewed as a ploy to make RVP sign on. A statement of intent, signaling to Robin that the club is serious about challenging for the title next season.

Talking Robin, there’s been talk he’ll be offered 120k to make him stay. We all know he’s not about the money, and while a pay rise will surely help, the team’s chance of competing for trophies is the determining factor.

A major clear out is expected this summer. It is believed some fringe players will be sold or released as the case may be to give space for quality players.

Daily Mail reports that Arshavin’s loan move is likely to be turned into a permanent deal. Naturally you’d expect me to be gutted if that happened.

Arsenal are also looking to make Denilson’s move to Sau Paulo permanent. The Brazilian side are however reluctant to pay him 50,000 quid weekly, something we paid him for how many years? Says a lot really.

It is also believed that players like Nik Bendtner, Vela, Squillaci and Almunia will be sold, freeing the club of up to £23m in annual wages. 23m we hope will go into signing new quality players.

One quality player who won’t be signing for us is Mario Gotze. News broke he signed a new deal with Dortmund yesterday, one which ties him down till 2016.

I won’t say I’m disappointed because I honestly didn’t think we could sign him. I mean, he’s valued at £35m or thereabout, way out of our fishing range.

So with Gotze a no-go and Podolski as good as signed. What player(s) would you love to see at the Emirates next season? In an Arsenal jersey of course!

Let me know in the comments!

Have a great day ahead!

Podolski ‘Set To Join’ Us | Santos Back in 2 Weeks | News Round Up.

Top of the morning to you wherever you’re reading this from, or should I say Hi 5-2 you all?. Well then, straight to the post shall we.

News broke yesterday and twittermania ensued that we’ve agreed terms with Lukasz Podolski to join us in the summer with the only thing remaining now is a deal with the club. I wanted to doubt it seeing as its season ticket renewal time but from what we heard, we agreed a couple of deals in January but agreeing with their respective clubs was the problem.

If this is true(which I believe it is) then that’s a good move and he’s NOT going to be a replacement for RVP. He’s very versatile and can play on the left of a 4-2-3-1(4-3-3) formation or behind the main striker or alone upfront as he’s done for Cologne thus far. So that’s one down, hopefully 3 more signings to come(a DM, AM, Winger).

Four players might not be enough but its a good start, because if you look at the players leaving us this summer(Arshavin,Bendtner,Chamakh,Squillaci,Denilson,Diaby(50:50),Benayoun(back to Chelsea) ) we should replace at least 3 of them and then promote from within. And don’t tell me about how signing established players will hinder growth, instead it only helps(look at United, Bayern & Barca to name a few). M’vila, Gotze, Hoiliet maybe? And then move Walcott forward? Let’s wait and see.

PLAYER NEWS

Andre Santos…….
The defender tweeted with his account yesterday that he’s back in 2 weeks and to me that’s great news as we all know Gibbs can’t play back to back games without a knock. So that’s very great news as we now have 2 LB’s and 2 RB’s(Sagna & Jenkinson) and won’t have to play anyone out of position again.

Someone asked me on twitter yesterday if I see Wenger buying a defender and I said NO. Why you ask? Well by beginning of next season, we’ll have Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Santos, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Mertesacker in the first team, that’s Seven defenders and I didn’t include Miquel, Bartley, Djourou.

Maraoune Chamakh…….

Fiorentina are rumored to be interested in taking the forward off our books permanently and I say we should jump at whatever offer as I’m sure he’s ready to leave. Will it leave us short when he, Park & Bendtner leave in the summer? Maybe. But if we can get the aforementioned players and with the attackers we have already, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Van Persie has been talking of late about his love for the club and the papers reported it this morning that he told the dutch coach he sees his future at Arsenal. Its simple, give him the salary he wants, if its 150k/w or 130k/w with a lot of add-ons and a huge signing off fee. He’ll stay because he loves the love club, he just wants to sit with the gaffer come end of season, know what the clubs plans are and then hopefully sign the extension/new deal.

No club football this midweek as its International week and a lot of our players will be in action. One game to look out for is England-Holland. I hope Van Persie is rested to keep him fresh. From wherever you are, have a solid day. Cheers.

Follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs

Escobar

Wenger Says ‘NO’ To Podolski/Gotze Et Al As Club Legend Henry Returns

Imagine my joy when I first heard that the deal to bring Henry back for 2 months was in the pipelines. 4 years ago when he left, I never though he would return to Arsenal in a playing capacity, as a coach maybe, but lo and behold, its here. The club legend is back.

Chamakh can’t impress anyone, his body language reeks of sulking, like a kid who had his candy collected by his parents for being naughty but can’t complain. Park? I don’t even think we bought him for sporting reasons seeing as he hasn’t even made a substitute appearance in the league. So the return of Henry is much welcomed.

John Cross of the Daily Mirror made a very important point last week when the news broke, he said “the signing of Henry would be wonderful for Arsenal so long he’s not the only signing and proper acquisitions werte made”, but it looks like AW is going to be very foolish and do what he’s always done, get bargain transfers and return the money to the board.

With the obvious deficiencies in the squad, Wenger came out yesterday and said that
“he’s not looking to make permanent deals and possibly make only loan signings as he has a large squad”

In so doing, ruling out any Podolski, Gotze, Hazard or full back moves.

Really? Large squad? Since when did large squad mean quality squad? I’ll wait. We have a large squad consisting of dead weights(Arshavin, Chamakh, Squillaci), seasoned crocks(Diaby, Rosicky), and Park. That’s 6 first team players with two of those out of contract in the summer. Why not sell them seeing as there’s interest in 3(Arshavin,Chamakh,Rosicky) and replace them now instead of waiting till the summer?

Instead of rejoicing about Henry returning, I’m here dismayed at the reasoning of Wenger. Needless to say, we’re doing little to persuade RVP to sign on or show ambition. But when I remember how before the season started and Gazidis said its “Cool” if we don’t make the champions league next season. SMH

QPR PREVIEW
There’s really not much to say here, Walcott is fit after a stomach bug kept him out of the last game, so expect him and Ramsey to return and Benayoun & Rosicky to drop out. I have a funny feeling RVP won’t start the game as its not possible for him to play tomorrow and then on Monday at Fulham again. So I expect the squad to look like this.

Predicted Line-Up: Szczesny-Djourou-Kozzer-Mertesacker-Vermaelen-Song-Arteta-Ramsey-Gervinho-Walcott-Chamakh

See you here after the game. Have a swell day

P.S Emmanuel Frimpong would be joining Wolves in January till the end of the season, let’s pray he turns out like a Wilshere.

Follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs

Thanks for the memories Henry……can we have more please

Wenger Says Yes To Gotze. Song Steals The Show as god RVP Shoots Down BVB.

Group winners with one game to spare, who would have thought that was possible seeing as we were ‘in crisis’ at the beginning of the season and the stalemate against Marseille threatened another episode of last season’s drama where we had to qualify as runners up on the last day.

No such thing this time as Robin Van Persie as always came to the rescue infront of the Emirates faithful which had gunners legend Henry & tennis legend Roger Federer amongst them, but despite bagging both goals, Alex Song was the obvious man of the match.

Arsene named the same squad for the first time in almost a year but had Diaby back in the team(on the bench) as the only plus. The game itself was a lull at the beginning and the earliest chances fell to the away team but they were tame chances which Chezzer dealt with very well. At the other end, Weidenfeller had to be alert to claim a wicked cross from Walcott which was aimed at RVP.

Wunderkid & reported Arsenal target was having an off game as he carried an injury along but a collision with Vermaelen from Lars Bender saw the latter go off with a broken jaw. He got Verminated if you ask me. Gotze was to follow suit almost immediately as he couldn’t continue. All this in the first half alone. You’d think we would have it easy but Dortmund continued to frustrate and it ended level going into the break.

Second Half

It started way better than the first ended and Gervinho continued to cause chaos with his speed and dribbling but no end product. The first goal came and my dear was it a joy to watch, receiving a pass from Ramsey, Alex Song took the ball to the by line, cut in between two markers, faced with three more, with a fast feet move, bamboozled them before sending a cross for RVP who nodded home gladly.

For a second the whole stadium wondered if ‘Black Messi’ was the one who just pulled off that magnificent move. Gervinho was next to follow, sent through on goal with just the goalkeeper by Ramsey, he fluffed his lines and Hummels got back in time to clear the danger. For all his hardwork and ease at going past players, Gervinho finishes worse than a girl. The strikers in the Arsenal ladies team finish better.

The second goal which was inevitable, came through the unlikeliest of routines. Arteta fashioned a near-post corner for TV5 to flick into RVP’s path. Robin was never going to miss from there. 2 nil and we were cruising! We were 2 goals ahead and definitely through to the next stage.

An almost perfect night, which would have been perfect had Song and Djourou not contrived to gift the visitors a goal. Song tried to waste time on the ball, but he should have been doing that at the opposite end of the pitch, not so close to his goalkeeper. The ball was stolen from him as he tried to pass to Djourou, a cross was sent into the area and somehow we conceded. Vermaelen’s reaction to the goal tells a story!

Notwithstanding, we got 3 points, top the group and get to avoid the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Our last group game away to Olympiakos is a mere formality now and it gives us an opportunity to rotate. Considering how we got into the group stages in the first place, this feels too good to be true!

After giving Dortmund the respect of not unsettling their star player before a game between both sides, Arsene confirmed the club’s interest in Mario Gotze. In his post match interview, Le Boss asserted his eagerness to bring the little magician to North London. Said He,

“For me, Mario Gotze is a player for the future, he is very talented, has a great attitude. It’s no surprise to me that all big European clubs show interest in him, as we do also.”

It remains to be seen if he does not end up on the list of “players we almost signed”.

That’s all from me today, we have weathered the storm and are finally on our way back. There is still a lot of room for improvement though. If you take into account that Man United, Chelsea and City still have to play the last game to ensure qualification, it’s really not a bad time to be a gooner.

We play Fulham on Saturday, it wouldn’t be selfish to ask for more of the same, would it? And this means 3 points, good football and more goals for the Dutch master!

Have a wonderful day wherever this post meets you! Do leave us with your thoughts and comments!

Cheers!