All Quiet On The Transfer Front, Gibbs And Top 50 Players

When the politician is on the hustings at election time, they rouse their audience with fiery rhetoric until election day. Thereafter, they subdue their words, lowering expectations during terms in office until election time looms on the horizon and they raise the temperature once more.

For the erstwhile football hack, the temperature has been raised too soon. England Under-21s continue their charge through tournament land whilst the Confederations Cup barely registers on the attention scale in the back pages. Players are on holiday, likewise the managers. The summer’s major activity has already taken place, away from these shores, Madrid’s spending spree on Kaka and Ronaldo occurring in a relatively short space of time. The boom has gone temporarily bust. Some light relief with the Carlos Tevez saga and David Villa’s flirtations with Madrid and Barcelona, combined with United’s inability to blow their £80m windfall in one swoop leaves it all quiet in transfer land.

Not even Arsenal reaching the upper echelons of the seven figure transfer fee can provoke some movement so we are left with a quiet Sunday where even the attempts at stirring activity are tired. News of the World prodding for a £50m bid by Chelsea for Fernando Torres is met with a lame £25m bid for Adebayor by Star on Sunday hacks. They are desperate, so desperate that they cannot even be bothered to pull out their European Football Handbooks and plump for an obscure Moldovan defensive midfielder to nominate as the next big thing. Come on chaps, give us something to laugh about.

Kieran Gibbs is apparently to be offered a new contract. Gibbs has been praised widely for his performances for the young England team, including observations yesterday by Stuart Pearce that he has done enough to merit serious consideration for the England squad for next year’s World Cup, should they qualify. Little doubt that Gibbs has come on leaps and bounds but with Armand Traore returning following his loan spell at Portsmouth, you wonder what Arsene’s intentions for Gibbs will be.

Does he consider that a similar season for the youngster would be equally beneficial or will Gibbs be remaining at The Emirates to continue his learning. He would presumably be a straight pick for both domestic cup competitions, as well as allowing Arsene the option to rest Clichy both domestically and in the Champions League. Personally, I would rather he stayed not simply for those reasons but to put pressure on Clichy for his starting spot. Not that I think Gibbs is ready to claim it just yet but knowing that there is a very capable deputy waiting can do the Frenchman no harm at all.

Emmanuel Eboue does not know anything about a proposed move to Paris St Germain which, with all due respect to the Parisians, is not really in keeping with the possible transfer to Juventus, AC Milan or Internazionale that his Mr20% was so keen to big up in recent days. Eboue probably has a little MP3 player in his pocket for his observations on his future:

My ambition is to stay and play but because of a lack of first-team play, I’m not happy. I want to play.

These words are remarkably similar to those he uttered not more than a week ago. In the modern age, footballers seem to understand that the squad system means that everyone is rested and rotated at some point. Well, everyone else is for when discussing their own situations, every player believes he should play every game. With the possible exception of goalkeepers, this is not going to happen anymore. With the added mobility of the workforce, David O’Leary’s record of 722 appearances is not likely to ever be seriously challenged.

The Times meanwhile has put together a list of the fifty greatest Arsenal players. Hardly surprising that some are unimpressed by the content, such a compilation is always going to provoke arguments as to inclusions and omissions. Personally, I cannot agree with the exclusion of Ray Kennedy nor Pat Jennings. I would put them both ahead of Emmanuel Petit and have rated Martin Keown higher than Kenny Sansom, Paul Merson, Sol Campbell and Steve Bould, with no disrespect to any of those men. Now if they really wanted to be controversial, the inclusion of Gus Caesar may well have ticked that box…

’til Tomorrow.