Cesc, Toure & Return Of The Pat

A win in Hannover last night and from the bits I have seen, a relatively decent workout for the players. Credit must be given to Cesc Fabregas for not only scoring the only goal of the game but for also cutting short his holiday to return to training earlier than he had to. Too little credit is given at times to the dedication that players put in to achieve the peak of their games. Onwards to The Emirates Cup this weekend and a full rotation of the squad can be expected, the only reason which I can think that Wenger played with fewer than necessary substitutes.

So long, farewell, gonna get along without you now

Alas poor Kolo, I knew him well. Actually that’s a bit of lie since I did not know him at all but as author I claim as much right to artistic licence as the rest and there has been some of that this morning in the back pages. More of that later though.

Toure has gone, so much for his brother’s recent observations that Kolo would not take the step down to join Manchester City. Whichever way you look at it, a good servant to the club has left, a link to the past severed. Having been a sterling performer for Arsenal, Toure Senior has been sold when the currency offered by Manchester City was too much to reject. he will rightly be missed, his performances over seasons past surely earn him the right to considerable respect in our rememberances. Whether he is in decline or not remains to be seen. Perhaps a new challenge sought will reinvigorate him. May be not and perchance Wenger has spotted something that may yet become apparent. Some handwringing is taking place but the future is found by looking forwards not down to navels.

Some are demanding Hangeland, other names will no doubt be thrown into the ring in the coming days. Whatever the case, the demands for confirmation regarding the amount of money that Arsene has to spend will go unheeded. A public affirmation that the transfer fees for Adebayor and Toure are there to be spent is tantamount to telling a club with whom Arsenal wish to conduct business the combination to the corporate safe. It simply is not going to happen and is futile requesting such information. One aspect of this silence will no doubt be continued ill-informed speculation about the state of the club’s finances, more sabre rattling from R&W to suit their own position rather than pursuit of the truth.

Whichever way you look at it, £16m for Toure is good business. He could have left in the next season or two for nothing so financially speaking, Arsenal are a lot better off. From a playing perspective, that answer cannot be given until the season starts. Pre-season is a useful guide but ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby as the song goes. There is an inherent risk in this policy since Wenger has only to look at the past two seasons to see the impact that a good and an indifferent start to a campaign has.

Undoubtedly any transfer activity that allows some of the pre-season to get to know the squad is beneficial. The pre-season tour to Austria was always going to leave a lull in any activity that was not concluded before the squad departed and there is nothing wrong with a little patience to see where the leaves from other transfers fall.

Going back to my roots, yeah

Amazing how a little hysterical observation from Ian Wright Wright Wright becomes fact. Sort of like Science Fiction only without the Science and a little too much fiction. An unlikely scenario emerged with Wright telling his Talkshite listener that Patrick Vieira was returning to Arsenal on a pay-as-you-play deal. Credibility, if that is the right word, was given to the story in this morning’s The Sun where the initial transfer talk was hyped up alongside another piece telling us how Arsenal had never replaced the Frenchman. The current trio of Song, Diaby and Denilson were all dismissed as not being up to the task. The piece justified the transfer talk indicating the quietness of the market or the truth in the story. You decide which one you want to believe for I know my choice…Curiously enough both articles were penned by the same hack who, I am sure, was under no pressure whatsoever from his editor to justify the original piece. That Wenger has no history of re-signing players or offering deals to 33 year old midfielders whom he previously believed to be in decline is the fundamental flaw in the whole story which eluded them.

’til Tomorrow.

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