First day back. For some + Wenger confirms Chamakh bid
July 9, 2012
It’s the first day pre-season training today for all those players who weren’t involved in Euro 2012. And presumably the players not involved in the U-19 European Championship. And the players not involved in the Olympics. And the players who aren’t still carrying injuries from the end of last season. And the players not involved in contractual disputes with the club. And the players not in the process of being sold.
So basically it’s the first day of pre-season training today for Carl Jenkinson. Have a great day, old son.
Hard to believe we’ve got our first pre-season friendlies lined up for next weekend against Anderlecht and Southampton in the Marcus Liebherr cup. Not that I’m complaining. I need to see players in Arsenal shirts kicking a football. I’m craving it. Doesn’t matter if I don’t recognise half of them and the ones I do are still carrying a bit of holiday weight.
Not that the last sentence is any way linked to this sentence but Andre Santos was causing a few LOLZ on Twitter last night after tweeting this to Yossi Benayoun:
back on track, see you tomorrow Pal. Hope you’re well
Clearly no one told Andre that his pal won’t be joining us for pre-season as his loan deal hasn’t been renewed. Still, I’m surprised with the current ultra paranoid mood amongst some of the Arsenal fraternity that nobody assumed that Santos just meant that he would see Yossi at training tomorrow…because he’s jumped ship for Chelsea. ‘They can’t leave fast enough!! The club’s going to the wall!!! We’re doomed! Doomed I tells ya!!’
While there won’t be a full complement of players to work with today should be an interesting one at London Colney as Steve Bould and Neil Banfield provide the first significant change of personnel at the training ground in around a decade and a half. I’m sure there’ll be some fascinating times ahead as new routines begin, roles become organically defined and relationships bed in. Let’s hope that all goes smoothly.
Bould will no doubt be keen to get a look at the defence and despite the absentees he’ll still be able to work with Santos, Vermaelen, Jenkinson, Djourou, Ignasi Miquel and to a lesser extent Bacary Sagna who’s running again. Enough there to cobble together a back four and get those George Graham era defensive drills in action.
Arsene Wenger meanwhile will have one eye on events off of the pitch as he attempts to deal with the aftermath of the Robin Van Persie announcement, the players he’s still looking to bring in and those he’s trying to ship out.
On that front there’s more positive news regarding Marouane Chamakh as The Times are reporting that Wenger has confirmed that he received an offer from Fiorentina:
Fiorentina requested information on his availability and made an offer
No word on whether he plans to accept that offer or whether Chamakh has any interest in going there but positive nonetheless. And I’m sure it won’t have escaped the rumour mongers’ attention that Fiorentina is the current home of the recently linked Stevan Jovetić so expect stories of a swap deal to gain pace over the next few days.
Finally there’s plenty of speculation that Arsenal are about to trial the talents of 17 year old French striker M’Baye Niang who currently plies his trade at Caen. Understandably his coach Patrice Garande is not too happy about the rumour keen as he is to see Niang develop his talent where he is. Must be frustrating seeing your most talented players getting gobbled up by the bigger fish. A timely reminder of how fortunate we are to at least be somewhere near the top of that food chain.
If You Liked This...
- A Farewell to Andre, the bumless chaps of the Arsenal squad
- Santos and Terry’s defensive masterclass + Jack back on Monday + Bumper finances
- FA make a mockery of their own rulebook + Wolves preview
- Van Persie running out of options as FFP bites + Yossi decision will show us how ambitious we plan to be
- Angry about RVP? You need help!
Comments
8 Responses to “First day back. For some + Wenger confirms Chamakh bid”
Leave a Reply
we will b there abouts guy come on u gooners yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Hahaha great opening. Gotta love the Jenks.
Santos cracking out some dry Brazillian banter!!!? Was he realistically Eboue’s replacement!?!? Someone keep an eye on those giant cat suits…
Niang is certainly worth a look, as we did last year/year before. Jovetic would be a dreamboat move but feels a bit too much like a downgrade for the purples. Last year didn’t we make a deadline day bid for him? Injury prone cos he turned pro at 10, but a class act nevertheless. We still have the ingredients of a great young team, if we can sprinkle with some world class dust and rebuild for a new generation…… If…….. buh.
I hope Bould is allowed to exert some of his influence upon our defensive strategy – I’ve heard rumours that Wenger is a bit of a control freak and No.2 is mostly a glorified drinks distribution unit. We’ve got good defeners in our back like, epsecially out CB’s but our record last year was a joke and we should all be embarrassed about it, small changes and we’d leak far less.
all i heard was – sagna is back running.
@Ak47 – But how long before his leg falls off again?
@Zinc – Bould is a massive reason to be excited. In fact any kind of backroom shake-up is only a good thing. RE. BUILD. Though the Wenger Napoleonic complex is something that’s rumbled away for a while now – wasn’t Keown drafted in for a similar post, and subsequently booted for having an opinion?? A real shame that one, Keown seems an eloquent enough man. Bould has been part of the set-up for some time, knows his Wengerball, hope he can really kick us on.
Would a DMC that actually protects the back four/covers rampaging full backs be key to stopping leaks??
Perhaps santos has some inside info on yossi?
Well the general consensus is that a true defensive midfielder would help with our defensive issues as Song had abandoned that part of his game for big chunks of the previous season and I generally agree. Obviously M’Vila is rumoured – but I doubt he’ll be an instant fix, young and inexperienced as he is but I’m fine with that, he looks promising.
pls,ivan Gazidis sign mvilla is good defensive midfielder and u will give him conditon before u sign him to put his hand on agreement book that rubish is doing with france national team to not try to do it with arsenal team because if u do it ,u will tell the club lawyer to sign the club penalty to him and read it and sign and not forget to sign some player from athletico bilbao team. THANKS