Hello all. Last night was a little rowdy for me so I slept in pretty late today, hence the late post. Not a whole lot going on with Arsenal today ahead of the West Ham game tomorrow. Arsene Wenger gave an interview to Arsenal TV Online, and said he wants to get the Arshavin deal done before the match tomorrow. He also said he has looked at other targets besides Arshavin, but given the fact that the transfer window is just about to close there isn't a lot of time to get any other deals done before the deadline. So it looks like the only signing this window will be the Arshavin signing, and you probably know my thoughts on that already.
The good news today is that Arsenal applied for a work permit for Arshy and it was granted, so he will be able to move and play right away as soon as a deal gets finalised. That's pretty good news just so long as the deal actually gets done. Even though I am not particularly excited about us signing Arshavin, I'm sort of excited just because of the fact that we're actually buying SOMEONE.
In financial news, yesterday I mentioned that it would be disastrous for Arsenal to finish outside of the Champions League Places.
Well apparently Peter Hill-Wood reads the blog because he directly responded to that today, saying that it would not be "financial armageddon" if Arsenal finished outside of the top four.
We can't afford, in the current economic state, to not qualify for the Champions League, and at this rate it won't happen. We're developing the Highbury Square flats, we're paying off the new stadium, we have fairly high player salaries to pay, and the Champions League provides a lot of revenue towards those expenses.
"But although missing out on the Champions League for one year would be a big disappointment, it would not mean financial armageddon for Arsenal. When we worked out our budget, and did our fund-raising calculations in respect to the new stadium, we did not assume we were going to be in the Champions League every season. That may be an assumption at other clubs, and it's not for me to comment on the way they are run, but we did not want to get out of our depth in terms of paying our bills."It makes some sense I suppose but it's disheartening to hear that it would almost be accepted if we were to finish outside the Champions League spots. Yeah sometimes you have bad years and you have to work through it but I think of all people PHW should be saying we NEED to make the Champions League. Accepting mediocrity does not bring trophies to the club.
So tomorrow we have West Ham, and it's a match we need to win. West Ham handed us our first ever loss at the Emirates and we've got them at home tomorrow. Villa have continued to take three points from their matches and we've got to do the same. As I told Joaquin yesterday, an unbeaten run means nothing if they are all draws. West Ham also are on an unbeaten run, theirs is 7 games, so it's another team in good form and could be a dangerous one for us.
The injury news is the same. Rosicky, Eduardo, Theo, Cesc, Silvestre are all out. I'd like to see two goals from RvP and another from Ade. 3-1 to Arsenal. Cheers.
4 comments:
I've heard that Arshavin aparently hasn't signed for a work permit, as shown here- http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_4874138,00.html, posted at 2pm GMT.
Would love a trade deal between Toure and Richards, but reckon would be better if it was between Gallas and Richards.
And since there's only about two days until the window ends, fingers crossed that we do land Arshavin, or all Wenger's hard work will be gone to nothing.
I really hope all the details get squared away and we end up signing Arshavin. I realize that once everyone is healthy he will likely not have a spot in the starting lineup for every game, but when I look at the really good clubs out there I see a lot of class players on the bench.
Plus, as you mentioned yesterday I think, how often is Arsenal really 100% healthy?
I'm sorry, but someone just tell me that we did not just draw with West Ham. 22 shots against 2 shots, 13 to 3 corner kicks, and 63% possession to 37%, but no score?
Ade was rubbish in that game, and Wenger only putting on RvP in the 68th minute????
Okay, having a draw with Everton away is good, but clearly dominating against West Ham at home, well.......
Lets just say we need a bit of improvement.
By my math, we have 1 goal in the last 270+ minutes in all competitions. Arshavin won't solve all the problems, but we clearly need help in attack.
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