After the ho-hum 2-2 draw away to Barnet and the ho-hum “we all knew he was leaving because he acted like such a jerk” transfer of Adebayor, it’s pretty quiet out there today.
I would like to direct your attention to Adebayor’s interview over at Man City’s home page, because three things stick out. First, in talking about what he’s going to do for City supporters, he claims he’s always given his best at every club, and so he will keep giving his best. I really do hope he gives them his best: his top quality offsides, and his very best dressing room strife. Now that he’s the top paid player in the EPL, I also hope that guys like Tevez, who work their asses off, get super frustrated with Adebayor and the huge paycheck he commands for lounging around.
Second, don’t be surprised if Mark Hughes is incapable of motivating Adebayor and we see him slip down the bench behind Roque Santa Cruz after the first 5 games of the season or so. If he puts in the kinds of performances for them that he did for us, there will be no room for him at the strikers table in a City squad that has 9 men to fill the chairs. Typically, a manager would be embarrassed to sit a player making £170,000/wk but this is one case where they will sit him if he becomes a distraction.
Third, the watch he’s wearing in that interview is, well, ostentatious. If you’re going to leave the club who nurtured you, stood by you when all others thought you were crap, and go to a team that pays you double, a team of mercenaries, and sit in an interview and talk about how you’re not doing it for the money — you may want to take off the $100,000 diamond studded watch.
Oh well, it’s over now, he’s one of the enemy. Thanks for the goals big fella, may you lose a step in your stride and may you always find yourself offside.
The question on the lips of every Arsenal supporter now is “what will Wenger do with the money?” And so I’m sure many of you have gone to the trusty ole Football Manager and are ready to tell us all who we can get for £25m.
Go for it. In the past I’ve said that you can’t speculate because you don’t know how much so and so is worth, but now you know. Here’s £25m, spend it how you see fit.
You should know, however, that after the Barnet match, the boss publicly said that Arsenal will only buy “if we find the right players and we feel it is needed, but we are not in a hurry now.” Of course, I think we’d all like to believe that this is because he’s playing things close to his chest and doesn’t want to artificially inflate the price of any target. But given his recent history, sigh, it might just be true that Wenger thinks this squad can handle the pressure. As the unofficial Wenger Weatherman, I’d say that the transfer outlook is partly cloudy with a 50% chance of not buying anyone.
I tend to agree with Arsene that Arsenal don’t need another forward, but I sincerely hope he sees the need for reinforcements in the midfield and possibly defense. After all, pretty much everyone on the planet, including the team captain has said so. And, no, I’m not condemning Song and Denilson, they are good players who would grow exponentially under the careful, quiet, tutelage of someone like Toulalan.
Anyway, there’s really nothing going on today. The team is flying to Austria for their annual tour of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthplace, where they will start their twice a day workouts and get into shape. The next pre-season friendly is on Tuesday and you can see it only on Arsenal TV Online.
One last thing I want to mention is that the Sounders v. Chelsea game yesterday was pretty neat. No, I don’t mean that the Sounders got beat by the Scum, I mean that the fans were singing the whole time! I barely even heard those annoying horns! Now, that could have been accomplished through strategic mic placements but even if it was, it indicates a commitment on the part of the club, and ESPN, to make MLS matches more watchable and interactive for the fans. If it was genuine raucous support by 70,000 people, well then I’m proud of the fans!
The other really spectacular thing is that the match was broadcast in HD. I’ve seen matches in HD before and frankly they are always eye-poppingly beautiful. I can’t wait to see Arsenal in HD and if ESPN gets the EPL feed over here that will happen sooner rather than later.
There was only one sort of black mark on the game and that was the pitch. I guess they brought in a real grass pitch and laid it over the top of the plastic pitch they normally play on. There were clearly problems with the temporary pitch as several players were unable to control the ball and even one time the goalkeeper Keller put his foot on the ball, to stop it, and promptly fell over. I guess they are donating that pitch to a local school, which is nice, and they’ll bring it back in for the Barcelona game, which is also nice, but as an American, I guess I’ll have to wait and just dream of the day that “soccer” is played on grass here.
That’s all for today, see you all tomorrow.
