Gazidis Rejects Usmanov, Like a Boss

Busy day yesterday in Arsenal world, so let’s get stuck in.

First, Arseblog scoops everyone with his interview of Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis. It is an impressive and professional interview, and could easily be used as a template for any aspiring journalists. Remember Giovanni’s goal against Arsenal last year? You know the one, left side of the pitch, he hits a screamer with the outside of his right foot, postage stamp? Arseblog’s interview is like that, except if Giovanni played for Arsenal and hit the goal. You know what I mean… Blogs 1-0 Press.

Then, to add to the surreality of our world, The Telegraph catches on to Arseblogs hilarious Adebayor brochure, after it’s made the rounds, and publishes it in today’s paper. 4 days after even I had made mention of it. Blogs 2-0 Press.

So, now, like the circle of life, here I am talking about that, and how the blogosphere scooped them, which I’m sure they will talk about next week some time, and then it will be 3-0 to the bloggers.

Did that make sense?

Anyway, there’s no reason for me to rehash the Arseblog interview with Gazidis, it’s been hashed plenty. If you want to know how many dozen players Arsenal are signing this year for how many billions of pounds each, you should just go and read it.

I will say this, Ivan Gazidis, in the interview on Arseblog and on the dot com, comes off as a very impressive speaker and thinker and with him at the helm, I think Arsenal’s in very good hands. He says that he wants to grow the club’s brand, to increase the international presence, and there’s more than one hint that Arsene Wenger is at the club for the long haul.  Moreover, the whole club seems to be aching for a trophy and everyone, from players to the CEO, claim that this is going to be our year. From the dot com he said:

We’re laser focused on next season. Our young players have some very valuable high level experience under their belts and will be one year older and better, mentally and physically. They will learn the lessons from last season and will be better players next year as a result. They are ready for the challenge, believe me. If we have a successful and healthy pre-season preparation, we will have extra depth in the squad, with a fully-fit Eduardo and Tomas Rosicky returning, and Andrey Arshavin eligible for all competitions. In addition, Thomas Vermaelen will be available from the outset.

Did he just say that Eduardo, Rosicky, Arshavin and Vermaelen are all going to have frickin lasers on their heads this season? Holy crap, who needs a midfield enforcer when we’ve got Vermaelen with lasers???

Seriously though, every Arsenal supporter would love to see Arsenal bring in an experienced central midfield partner for Cesc. Which makes us all get uptight when we see a story that oft reported Arsenal target Felipe Melo is not signing for Arsenal but is instead signing for Juventus. Two words about that story my friends: The Sun.

This transfer has been up and down, left and right, there’s even an Eboue thrown into the mix, so you’ll pardon me if I take what the Sun has to say about it with a huge grain of salt. In fact, fark that, I’m not even taking it with salt. I will wait until I see him in a Juventus kit before I believe a word that fish-wrapper has to say.

And if we do lose out on Melo, oh well, there’s Blaise Matuidi or, and I really do think he’s on our radar, Lorik Cana. Speaking of which, here’s why I think it’s going to be Cana and not Matuidi or Melo: first, Wenger tried to bring him in to the club when he was younger — that means we’ve been tracking him a long time and we all know how Wenger likes to keep tabs on folks a long time before buying them. Second, he’s cheap. At a mere £6.5m, he fits in Arsenal’s budget, Melo’s reported £21.5m does not. Don’t believe me? Read the Gazidis interviews. Third, he’s not French but speaks the language and plays on a French team (Olympique de Marseille). And finally, when Wenger buys, he likes to surprise. So, erm, don’t be surprised to see someone other than Melo come in.

And finally, in the time honored tradition of “incendiary headline, tiny news blip” I will end today’s article with a huge “meh” and simply say, yes, the board rejected Usmanov’s rights issue. From what I’ve read, it looks like it was exactly what we all feared: a publicity stunt to get Red & White holdings some press over the possibility of big spending on incoming players in the off season. Gazidis basically said that because of the way our debt is structured and our super low interest rate, the rights issue would not have cleared up enough principle to free up a significant amount of money annually.

That’s what they are publicly saying about this rights issue. I have no reason to think they are lying.

That said, I do have every reason to expect that Usmanov and his cronies will now do a full court press in the papers and we should see more “spendthrift Arsenal” and “only a big money backer can get Arsenal fans a trophy” articles in 3… 2…

P.S. Yay for van Persie and yay for Arsenal, him signing a long term deal with the club is one of the strategies that Gazidis talked about in his interviews yesterday. You mean you haven’t read them yet? What’s wrong with you???