Eurotrash

Arshavin... what a great name. And not a bad player either. As many have pointed out, he seems like Hleb with a purpose. Still, I'm going to go against the grain a bit here and say I'd rather not have him. Don't get me wrong, the lad looks great, and it would certainly p*ss Barcelona and Chelski off, but do we really need to drop another 10 - 15 million euros on a 'creative attacker' no matter how good he might be. Because I don't really see Arshavin as a great tackler and that is the sort of player we're desperately needing right now. With RvP suddenly playing again.... and Rosicky hopefully coming back as the Bionic Czech to add to the creativeness of Cesc (who outshone Arshavin comprehensively) and Samir 'the new Glenn Helder' Nasri it's not like we're desperately short of creative attackers. I know there were times last season where it looked like we lacked goals from various positions, but lets be realistic here, goal scoring is not currently a huge problem for us.

And while we're talking strikers, I can't really not talk about the Adebayor situation. I should know better than to be trawling the web for news, but nothing bothers me more than seeing stories of us being linked with yet another striker with the claim that they are seen as Wenger's choice of replacement for Adebayor. Benzema, Villa, Crouch, Santa Cruz. None of these players have outrageous haircuts and speak at a hundred miles an our like Ade, and why do I want to know about replacing a player we haven't sold? It is clear to me that there is a lot of engineering going on behind the scenes from the horrible slimy agents of the supposed European footballing giants but so far I haven't heard anything from Adebayor. The thing that I don't understand, is why the British newspapers bother printing this stuff anyway? Surely it is in the interests of their own long term futures to have an interesting league full of the best players to write up stories about. If they encourage more speculation about the best players leaving (see also Cristiano Ronaldo/Real Madrid) then they'll eventually be left trying to sell papers filled with stories about a second rate league. I'd like to see, just for once, the English papers trying to unsettle Barcelona and Real Madrid players.

Meanwhile Eurovision2008 continued this week with Jens Lehmann getting a little bit too hyped up for his own good. Apparently he was prepared to die to make the final. Which, if that were to happen, would surely leave Joachim Low down a goalkeeper for the final. Certainly death in the semi would make it hard for the late Jens to go up and collect his medal should they go all the way and win the thing. While he was amped up, he also had a bit of a pop at Wenger (though when you read the actual quotes from Jens' it doesn't seem any worse than anything else he has said) that he was proving him wrong for letting him go now he had made a major final. What else can I say but I think i'm gonna miss Jens. That mad b*stard certainly keeps it entertaining.

And what of Cesc's performance last night? After all the hype around Arshavin and Ronaldo, the player coming into form and looking to be the difference in this tournament is none other than our own Spanish wonderkid. He completely overshadowed his opposite number in the Russian ranks in the game and based on the inflation rate on players values who perform well in this tournament, what price now for Cesc? Boy.. I can't wait to see him threading those eye of the needle passes through to Crouchy next season.

By Paul Wright

The joy of Cesc

If anyone watched the Spanish demolish the Russian's at Euro 2008 you would of seen The Cesc™ come off the bench (again) and play a blinder. Normally we'd be sweating as the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona would be hovering around like vultures when a player stands out on the radar like that. But unlike want away players such as Hleb and Adebayor (although we don't honestly know what's going on for sure as it's just paper/site talk of rumours and unfounded stories) , I am not worried about other teams (i.e. Real and Barca) saying they want to sign Fabregas. At least Fabregas has come out and said he's staying so that's a start. Also add to that The Cesc™ gave Barcelona officials a bitch slap and a lesson in how to conduct yourself in the proper manner when he said:

“Barca should show us some respect.

“In recent weeks it has come out that Barca are in for at least seven Arsenal players and there’s no need for that.

“These things cause doubts in players’ minds and unsettle us. We do things differently, in secret. If the player wants to go, he’ll go anyway.”

You got to love this guy! So at least one thing Gooners we know one player who will come back from Euro 2008 with his reputation gone through the roof and his price tag hitting the 'God-daamn' price range wont have his head turned to join the likes of Barcelona or Real. Although I'm sure the Spanish papers such as El Pais, El Marca and El Mundo Deportivo will be reporting such fantasy stories as Real or Barcelona to offer (insert ludicrous figure) plus (add a number of players) to tempt Wenger to sell Fabregas, or hell they will probably say a deal has been done already or in the process a bit like the Hleb debacle. Any road up Wenger seriously needs to add quality to the squad and keep WonderBoy™ TheCesc happy because admittedly with Cesc on this sort of form we need to be challenging and winning titles because if we don't I don't think we'll be able to keep hold of him. But for know lets rejoice in having arguably the best young midfielder in the world, I'm sure Messi would argue that fact by f*ck it.

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed next week due to an influx of late line ups which effected the final vote. So hang to your hats and tune in for the big one. Thanks to everyone who have entered a team.

Jump on the comments section and have your shout - see you in there!
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