Lies, damn lies, and transfer rumors

Tony Adams seems to have lost his mind.

First, he tells the world that, basically, he’s going to be the next coach for Celtic. As my regular reader knows, I trumpeted this move as a real chance for the beleaguered former Arsenal great to get a shot at real management but given some further revelations I’m not sure how fit he is any more. First off, Celtic came out and called the idea “complete garbage.” And then, the guy who is supposed to be Adams’ link in to Celtic, the former Celtic manager Wim Jansen, basically said that he hasn’t spoken to Tony, has no desire to return to Celtic, and isn’t appointing Adams manager of anything.

But wait, there’s more…

That was yesterday’s Adams news, today has Tony spouting conspiracy theories about Wenger and the Arsenal board and going on to mumble incoherently about how little money Arsenal have to spend. The whole quote looks like this

People on the board – and the fans – want more, but they can’t actually back it up with financial weight to do it. They’re not financing him. I don’t think Arsenal have got any finance.I don’t know who it is, but I think there’s someone on the board who’s not pro-Arsene. I don’t know who it is, but that’s what I’ve heard.

The fans have got very high standards now. I remember when I first broke into the team, losing 4-0 at Maine Road and the fans were doing the conga. They didn’t expect much. But they expect a lot now. They’re crying out for experience and the fans are not silly, they know the team needs experience at the back and in central midfield. Arsene knows, too. He’s not a silly man. But you tell me a player they can get for the money they’ve got. It’s unrealistic.

The first bit there about the board member who is anti-Arsene is straight up tin-foil hat stuff. “I don’t know who it is, but I’ve heard someone hates you!” Wait, it’s not even tin-foil hat, that’s straight Junior High shit.

But what makes this a compelling quote is the second bit, where he rejoins reality and adulthood and talks about what we all know: Arsenal need some fresh blood in midfield and defense.

And no sooner than you could snap your fingers and say “haggis” he’s back into conspiracy territory talking about how the board doesn’t have any money and then about how there are no players for Arsenal to sign anyway. As far as I’m concerned, Tony Adams is dead wrong. It’s funny because he  sounds like one of the doom and gloomers we get on the comment board here.

Frankly, I’m dead tired of saying this, but Arsenal certainly have the money to spend if they (the board and the manager) want to spend it. I’ll put a page up at the top of the screen (similar to my page about players who didn’t come to Arsenal) later this afternoon, and you all can refer to that from now on. Until then, you just have to look at my remarks linked above.

So, Mr. “Arsenal have the money” who are they going to buy?

I know one thing, whomever Wenger buys he’s going to have an eye for a deal — which has nothing to do with the board and everything to do with the boss’ philosophy.

Here are today’s hot deals:

Joleon Lescott is being pimped at 7% off. Wanting to cement a place in the England national team, he’s supposedly engineering a move away from Everton and Arsenal are one of many teams mooted. Chances of this happening, 3/10 — if Arsenal are competing with City for his signature, they will need to recruit Lescott with other English National team players, like Theo Walcott.

Blaise Matuidi is offered at buy one get one free. Tired of fighting to remain at the foot of the French league, Blaise is supposedly courting interest from Pompey, Tottenham, and Arsenal. Chance of this deal happening, 6/10 — everyone knows that Arsene loves plucking French players from the continent for cheap, plus, Tottenham and Pompey are no real competition.

Bruno Alves is being offered at full price, but they throw in one of those airplane bottles of tawny port. Tall, good in the air, technically good with the ball, experienced, and a leader; all of the qualities that Arsene hates! No, seriously, I can’t see Arsenal getting a deal for Alves and unless Wenger’s ready to pay full price the Porto player isn’t going to Arsenal. Chance of this happening, 2/10.

Samir Nasri is being offered as “like a new signing” and fully expects to play defensive midfield in the future. Ugh… Chances of this happening, 11/10.

And finally, the world’s dumbest apology

Before I sign off for the day, I thought I’d link to Gareth Barry’s apology to Villa fans. Now, I consider myself the master of the apology. I can say some stupid, un-researched shiat and totally apologize the very next day and generally get things right and set the table straight again. While apologizing my formula is to try to show some humility, explain myself using logic, and be sincere in saying “sorry.”

Gareth Barry does none of these things: it’s almost an anti-apology and as such one of the most humorous things I’ve read in a while. As far as I can tell he left Villa because he “needed a new challenge,” has “two kids to feed, man,” thinks City will “challenge for honors,” thinks regular football at City will somehow get him a place on the English National team ahead of their very crowded midfield, and “will always love Villa.”

The only person who could top that apology is Adebayor when he apologizes to Arsenal for leaving this summer.

0 comments

  1. Like I said yesterday, Tony Adams have had very few bright moments over the past year.

  2. That Adams quote is not very well articulated to say the least, but I’m afraid there may be some truth to it. Our spending over the last few years just does not make sense. The Wenger quotes, the financial reports, the actual spending… it just does not add up.

  3. I think Adams needs to not talk until he’s fully recovered from the sauce. SPL may not exactly be the most compelling league but Celtic are certainly not moronic enough to hire a man who couldn’t even manage Pompey. Celtic have a winning tradition and see CL football regularly and Adams was clearly never going to meet the qualifications for that. He’s also not exactly the most articulate human being and at least hiring someone to write his comments for him would do a world of good for his image because he clearly cannot compile his own.

    Denilson has the potential to be a solid player and the thing about stats is simply that they tell you everything about the player but if you can’t read the stats properly or see their connection to real life then they’re just numbers open for interpretation. I could as well make 5000 back passes to my keeper and be the best passer in the league – doesn’t mean that I’m worth my salt. Denilson simply just doesn’t make the impact we expect of him from his position – he is supposed to start the attack from the back but most of the time he just turns the play sideways rather than forward. I honestly can’t remember many defense splitting passes made by him, whereas the likes of Alonso can pick Gerrard or Torres out from the half-line.

    In any case Alonso is a great player but not one we need alongside Cesc. As much as Cesc thinks he and Alonso would function well in the midfield, he forgets that Mascherano is one that affords Xabi the time and space by cutting out the opposition and feeding him the ball. We need a fighter and experienced one at that who will allow Cesc to roam the field without having to worry too much about tracking back and stifling the attack.

  4. I agree with most of what CaribKid said about Denilson but I dont agree with his last comment about him never being able to become an impact player. Its way too early to make that comment about him. He is 19 ffs! Think how far he has come in a year and you will see the point im trying to make. Last year he was a part of our carling cup team. This year he has held his own against some good teams (the Roma game comes to mind). Yes he was outclassed in a few games as well but they were top teams and I dont think realistically you could have expected more out of him. Denilson was asked to play 1st team football 2 years too early but I do feel he is going to develop into one of those quiet, efficient players who goes about doing their business w/o too many people noticing.

    Lately I’ve seen a lot of articles comparing Arsenal with Barca and how maybe we should adopt their formation etc. etc. Barca plays 4-1-2-3 (though most ppl like to simplify this to a 4-3-3, that is incorrect), and because of alvez, they frequently switch to a 3-1-3-3 when attacking (alvez moves up the field and pujol covers for him at right back). The Barca players are also quiet different from Arsenal. Most of their attacking players like to make a run at the defense which creates a passing/shooting opportunity. Arsenal just doesn’t play that way. Our emphasis on passing and moving is much more than theirs and we play the game at a much faster pace. One of the most shocking comparisons I have read in the last few days in Cesc and Iniesta. Now these are two completely different kind of players. Cesc is not a dribbler – Iniesta is. Cesc probably has better range but Iniesta can tear open a defense with his dribbling. I have seen almost every Barca game this season and at no point did i think Cesc is like Iniesta. Xavi maybe… but unfortunately Cesc still has some ways to go before he can get to Xavi’s level. We should stick to our 4-4-2 formation because that’s what works best for us. I hope Wenger goes back to the basics next season and stops tinkering with this team

  5. most arsenal fans seem to be very divided on denilson. but i think we can all agree that we need a CDM. someone that denilson can learn from and become a better player in the future.

  6. Denilson made 155 interceptions which top the entire Arsenal team followed by Clichy with 123 who is a defender. Denilson tackled opponents for 128 times which is again the highest for Arsenal but with 77.3% success rate which is not too bad for a 21 year old in a top 4 Premiere Club. Denilson made 2533 passes with the accuracy rate of 87.3% followed by Sagna with a total of 1669 and 85.9%. The last game against Stoke he was able to dish out 114 passes and made 110 acurate passes. Xabi’s last game he was able to make 69 passes and 61 of them were accurate. All the other aspects of their game were pretty close. Denilson to sum it up is a work horse and with that work rate he puts in garnish it with the experience he had this season he will be better than Xabi in the coming season if not it would be the season after that.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/5037770/Arsenal-Football-Club-Players.html

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/5037770/Arsenal-Football-Club-Players.html

    http://footballstats.telegraph.co.uk/PlayerStat.aspx?p1id=5033&p2id=2538&p1league=50&p2league=50&p1match=16108&p2match=16108

    Tim I was trying to reply on the Denilson string up above but an error kept on showing I had to post it all the way down here.

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