Arshavin Finally Signs For Arsenal

Photo Courtesy of Arsenal.com

Hello all. What a ridiculous day yesterday was, eh? I think the Arshavin deal was off and then on about five different times in the span of about three hours. When we went past the 5:00 pm deadline it looked like we weren't going to get him signed at all, but the news broke an hour and a half later that Arsene Wenger was confident we had him signed but the Premier League office had all gone home so they couldn't approve the deal yet. It sounded pretty strange but that was confirmed this morning when the Premier League confirmed that Arshavin is an Arsenal player. To quote Arshy:

"Now I can say only one thing - that if I play for Arsenal, it will be at number 23."

Number 23 huh? That's a big act to follow since the great one wore that number. That's right, I'm talking about Michael Jordan. I wish he would have said more than "only one thing" though, like that he was determined to help the team, was going to score 45 goals in this half of a season, and would once again kick John Terry in the face.

It's a relief to me that we were able to bring in somebody to help the squad out in this time of need. I would have prefferred a defensive midfielder or a defender as you all know if you've read the site before, but we do need some help with goal scoring lately so he should be able to help with that. However, I don't like that we've pursued this player since last summer and it took us until almost February 3rd to finally get him signed. Don't say it was to get his price down, because it wasn't. To quote Zenit representatives:

"The conditions of the contract are very favourable for Zenit," Petrov said. "The value of the deal is much more than £12million."

So chances are the deal is around the 12 million + 3 million in installments. So why did it take us so long and why were there not other options when it looked like the Arshavin deal had collapsed?

I think we really do miss David Dein in a way. Yeah, he has a totally different way of thinking than the rest of the board, but maybe he is half right. He is certainly wrong to team with someone like Alisher Usmanov, and I'm not saying we need a sugar daddy, but maybe we do need a board a little more willing, maybe even one that encourages, spending money. To me it seems like Arshavin was our only target and that does concern me because we haven't even adressed all the team needs. Maybe Arsene thinks that Alex Song is good enough...errrrrr...capable of playing in this league...errrrr...no he's shite. We needed a defensive midfielder. Gallas isn't getting any younger or any better either, so we're going to need a defender soon too, but no, we wouldn't want to go ahead and sign say, Micah Richards while his value is at it's lowest point because of his dip in form.

For now though, we must be happy to have Arshy the Gunner. I'm sure he'll help the team, especially while Cesc and Theo are out, and maybe with a little luck he'll win us the game over Sp*rs this weekend, who may start the old duo of Defoe and that cartwheeling cunt Robbie Keane. Sp*rs and Liverpool are really just a bunch of horrible cunts are they? Selling players back and forth six months apart, good business you wankfests.

I don't have much else today. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of Arshavin in training soon. Cheers.

Arshavin Signing For Arsenal, Rosicky Back in Training

Hello all. It's 1 am here which means 6 am in London but I've only just checked the news and seen that Zenit St Petersburg and Arsenal have agreed a fee for Andrei Arshavin. Zenit officials confirmed that an agreement had been reached on a transfer fee and all that remains is working out personal terms.

"The fundamental understanding over the transfer of the player is achieved between the clubs," read the statement. "At the moment the basic obstacle in realisation of the transaction is Andrei Arshavin's personal requirements."

So there is no word on what the agreed fee is, but it does seem as if the deal will be done very shortly. The good news from all this, besides the fact that we're getting a player who could help us hopefully score more goals, is the news that Arsenal are still actually capable of signing players! It looked for a while as if this would go the same way as the Xabi Alonso deal, arguing over a couple of million and eventually getting no deal done at all. Thankfully though everything should be worked out with Arshavin very soon and he should be an Arsenal player in the next few days. He's certainly been begging to come so it shouldn't be so hard to agree to personal terms.

"The player will travel to London this week to finalise terms, even though Gunners boss Arsene Wenger entertained Arshavin at Arsenal's training ground before Christmas, when much of the detail was agreed." - The Herald Sun

While Arshavin wasn't exactly the signing a lot of us had hoped for, he will help the squad, especially while Cesc is out. It won't help our central midfield or our defense, but you can't win without scoring goals and that is what he can certainly help with.

In other news, there are reports unconfirmed by the club that Tomas Rosicky is back in training, which is the first time in months. If he gets back and we get the Arshavin deal done we'll have a plethora of similar players to play on the left side of midfield. I think Nasri or Arshy will play in the middle though while Cesc is out and maybe another one of em could play on the right until Theo is back and healthy.

And in other transfer news, Micah Richards, who was linked with us yesterday, says he is "flattered" by the interest in him from Arsenal.

"It's always flattering being linked with a club like Arsenal, and they have one of the best managers in the world in Arsene Wenger."

As I said, I think Richards would be a perfect signing for us. He hasn't been outstanding this year, but with the turmoil going on at Manchester City it isn't a surprise really. He could be a great defender for us for years to come, and I'd love to see us get that done.

I'll get back to you guys in the morning if there is any more news on the Arshy deal. For now, take solace in the fact that he will almost certainly be an Arsenal player in the next few days.

Cheers. Hopefully we'll be seeing pictures like this one soon. Yeah I'm terrible at photo editing.

Micah Richards Would Be A Great Signing, FA Cup Replay

'Ello all. Just got home from eating a burrito at Moe's. Delicious. Celtics play in 10 minutes and my bed is calling my name for a nap, so it should be a good day. We played Cardiff earlier today, and played to a 0-0 draw. My thoughts on that in a minute. Just a quick thought before that though. I've been reading through my Official History of Arsenal book that I just got, and I've really realized how much legendary Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman did for the club and the game itself. Arsenal hadn't won a trophy in almost 50 years of existence before he led the club to three FA Cups and several championships in the 1930's, and really changed the whole way the game is played. He got the tube station at Gillespie Road renamed Arsenal Station, and made Arsenal the biggest club in the world at that time. He is the real reason Arsenal is what it is today, and I think every Arsenal fan should be thankful for that man coming to our beloved club. He died at age 55 this month seventy-five years ago. Cheers you to Mr. Chapman.


Enough history though, and on to today's match. Sure they are a division lower than us, but I don't think 0-0 is such a bad result for us. For one, it's much better than a loss. Second, we kept a clean sheet, and defense has certainly been our weakest point this season. So while our attacking wasn't what we'd like it to be, it does give us a home replay and extends our unbeaten streak. We had a lot of young players in like Kieran Gibbs, and also some shite players like Alex Song. Obviously a win would be prefferred, but it could have been like Portsmouth, who were knocked out 2-0 by Swansea City. I feel bad for Tony Adams. He hasn't had a great start as manager there but I don't think it's all his fault. They have lost several players, including Diarra and Defoe, but I don't think the fans will be very forgiving after Harry Redknapp led them to the FA Cup last year.

In other news, the News of the World reports that Arsenal are going to make a 7 million pound bid for Man City's Micah Richards. If this was true I would be jumping for joy. 7 million for an English youth international with a big future ahead of him? It'd be a dream come true. We all know Richards is an Arsenal fan, and even though he hasn't been in the best form this season, I think a lot of that can be attributed to the way Man City has been run this year. They have had horrible team chemistry, with a lot of players coming in and leaving. He was great last year with Richard Dunne, and I think he's the type of player that could work well with any of Kolo, Gallas, or Djourou. If he is really available for that little amount then we should be signing him today. It'd be a much better use of cash than Andrei Arshavin.

Speaking of Arshavin, there is no news about his situation, so we haven't signed him but the deal apparently isn't dead either. Still crossing my fingers we use the money somewhere else.

Ok, short post today but I'm going to watch the Celtics game. Let's go C's. Cheers.

Arsenal to Sign a Powerful Defender

Well thank Christ for that. Arsene Wenger had a question and answer session with the shareholders today and said he's looking to add two players, a creative player and a powerful defender. He said our defensive problems were not from set pieces or from open play but only from long balls through the middle, which Gallas and Toure seem not to be able to deal with. I personally disagree with him as I've seen more than a few goals come from open play that were very, very shoddy defending against. And as for set pieces just think of the Derby match as an example. That was absolutely terrible defending off of that free kick, and it was Derby!

So the defenders we have been linked with are the usual suspects, Raul Albiol of Valencia (who are shit this year, check the Spanish table) and Micah Richards of Manchester City. I've always been a fan of Richards and I think his play belies his young age. Unfortunately he is English which means his price will be 5 million more than it should be. Albiol is another good player but he'd also probably be at least 10 million pounds and I really don't think Wenger is going to pay that much for one defender. I guess it comes down to how much his "creative playmaker" ends up costing so we'll be able to see how much he has left. You can see pictures of Wenger meeting with the shareholders here.

I've heard from several sources that David Villa is close to signing for Real Madrid. I never had all that much hope of him being brought into Arsenal but it was worth dreaming about. Wenger hasn't mentioned signing a striker though anyway so I guess he feels that Adebayor, Bendtner, hopefully a fully recovered Eduardo and Rvp and Theo can do it.

Yet again Real Madrid is trying to tap up Cesc Fabregas, with Ramon Calderon, the club's president, actually telling Cesc to just request a transfer from Arsenal so he could join the Spanish twats. However, Cesc has again put these rumors to rest and said he is happy at Arsenal.

"I am young and happy at Arsenal. I regard them as one of the biggest clubs and (Arsene) Wenger is like a father to me on the pitch."

It's getting really annoying with this whole situation because this is the third straight summer that they have tried to take Cesc from us by tapping him up essentially and nothing is ever done about it because they do it through the newspapers and Spanish media will print anything just to blow bubbles up Madrid and Barca's arses. It seems that Cesc's future is very much tied to Arsene Wenger though, and if he were ever to leave Cesc would surely leave Arsenal as well.

Petr Cech lets us know how much of a cunt he is by saying that nobody will remember that we played good football ten years from now.

Freddie Ljungberg has been asked by West Ham to tear up his contract after only one year there. He makes 75,000 quid a week which is a ridiculous salary for a player well past his prime. It's sad to see him going through all the injuries and stuff though so I wish him the best. If I was him I'd take the 3 million and go play in Spain or Italy. That'd be a new place for him to try out his skills and he could still make good money. Plus those leagues generally aren't as physical. But good luck Freddie.
So that's about it today. Tomorrow we may start looking forward to the Sunderland match at the weekend or we may have our Youth Squad and Reserve overview from YoungGuns ready. We shall see. Cheers all! And last Arsenal.com is having a countdown of the 50 greatest Arsenal players of all time. You can click here to vote.