Good morning! Nothing, and I mean nothing, happened over here in my corner of the USA and as far as I can tell nothing happened over in England with the Arsenal. Typically, at least one of my neighbors is the kind of guy who buys a bunch of bottle rockets and sits on his front porch shooting them at my house. This year, the city made all fireworks illegal and precious few people felt like tangling with the police I guess, so we had no one reliving the Star Spangled Banner over my home: it was a welcome relief.
It’s this time of year when player’s agents similarly like to shoot contractual bottle-rockets over the powder keg that is the Arsenal and, like my fair city, only a few agents took time yesterday to do so. Obafemi Martins, who is so constantly linked to Arsenal that I don’t typically bother reporting it has made a ground breaking statement of his intent to play for Arsenal:
Arsenal is a big club that everyone wants to play for. I am thrilled and it will be nice to play for such a team but, now that I am a Newcastle player, there is nothing much to say. If it is true, both clubs would have to reach an agreement. Is Arsenal a good club? Yes. Would I love to play there? Probably, if Newcastle are ready to listen to them. But if Newcastle says no then it’ll be no because I still have a contract, I expect the club to speak to me when I get back. I am not saying I want to go but, if anything happens, that’s football.
What I don’t understand here is that it seems like Martins is saying that he’s still under contract and that it’s not the player who decides where they will go but rather the team who hold the contract that decides. A player who wants to honor his contract and speaks respectfully of his employer? That’s ground breaking stuff in modern football.
I like Martins and think he’d be a good addition to the club but I don’t think he’s good enough to be a starting striker. He’d make a great super-sub because his pace would terrify the tired legs at the end of the match but (and it’s a big but) he doesn’t really have the scoring knack that a striker needs and he doesn’t even have the passing knack that the backup striker needs. Maybe Wenger could polish him up and turn him into something special, look what he’s done with Adebayor, but I think Martins may be too one dimensional for Wenger’s taste. So, I’d be surprised if there’s anything in this whole Martins story.
And that’s it for Arsenal news today. I’m not kidding.
Maybe Adebayor will decide on his future soon, then we’ll have something to report. Until then…
