Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

What should we Gooners make of the world today?  Yesterday Arsenal showed some promise, but some familiar frailties too.

The papers have dutifully filled their pages, but not with anything new.  Some bloke called Fabregas wants to go and may be replaced by some bloke called Mata.  But some other club may hijack the deal.  Meanwhile Arsenal are poised to sign Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Chris Samba and Scott Dann.  But not today.

The Sundays get the best football material during the season but lose out on breaking anything new on transfer gossip.  Some have wrestled a highly non-committal Harry Redknapp quote into a North London blood feud, but Harry’s more likely to be wondering what time to light the barbie.

Presumably today we will see Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen and Gibbs at the back and they will show us a bit more nous and composure.  Which doesn’t mean that the likes of Jagielka and Enrique wouldn’t be welcome additions.

Most impressive pre-season displays so far have been Frimpong and Gervinho.  Frimpong looks like he’s going to make up for his lost season.  But he’s still young and there is every chance of him and Song disappearing to play for their African national sides at the same time.  What happened to that Biglia rumour that flashed around the web last week?

Gervinho seems to have great pace and passing ability.  I like the way that he and Arshavin keep swapping sides.  His assist for Van Persie yesterday was inch perfect.  More of the same please!

Apparently Arsene Wenger has told Paul Lambert that Henri Lansbury is staying at Arsenal this season.  It would be good to see him on the pitch today.

Enough already, time to make sure lunch appears before the Grand Prix starts and plan when to reveal the existence of the second Arsenal game of the weekend.  ‘But it’s not even August yet!’

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, where did our summers go?  Time was you got to July and it got warmer, you went on your holidays, came back and started looking forward to the new season.  Now we get a nice spring then it goes all grey and cold – and the football season starts the day I go on holiday.

So what can we expect out of this gloomy looking week?  A new defender or two?

Well the talk today is, more typically, of two teenage strikers: Romelu Lukaku from Anderlecht and Joel Campbell from Costa Rica.  The second of these stories seems to have more legs than the first.

All well and good, got to have an eye on the future, but the big money is needed on a central defender and someone like Jose Enrique to replace Clichy.

Meanwhile, still nobody wants to buy Bendtner or Denilson and talk now is of loan deals.  Bendtner to Everton and Denilson to countless Brazilian clubs apparently.

A year ago I blogged a joke piece about Fabregas’ family claiming he’d been kidnapped. Far-fetched exaggeration I thought. But no, just a year too early!

Has there ever been a transfer saga like this one? Is there another club other than Barcelona and its hangers on that behaves this way or are they uniquely arrogant?

What do they think gives them the right to behave this way time after time, screwing up another club’s transfer window planning. Because that is exactly what it does.

Meanwhile, various media pundits continue to link Arsenal to various forwards or attacking midfielders. Not to mention teenagers. I’m not saying we should have an eye on the future but I won’t be the only Gooner going into the new season nervously if Carl Jenkinson is our only defensive recruit.

Even the media seem to have got bored with the Samba/Cahill story now. One story that does seem to have legs still is Enrique’s desire to replace Clichy. Most of the quotes are attributed to a frustrated Alan Pardew who would like Enrique to make his mind up between a new contract or departure.

I’m quite attracted to the idea of him coming to Arsenal. I mean, can Armand Traore really have improved that much in his time out on loan?

Anyway, a bit more football today which I will have to try and keep tabs on via the old iPhone. Didn’t work out the other day but I’ll give it a go.

Have a good weekend folks, wonder what imaginative stories the Sundays will come up with?

So Gael Clichy departs to Manchester City for a decent price and a fair bit of dignity.  He hasn’t engaged in the media games like some and good luck to him.

£7million for a player in the last year of his contract.  Mixed feelings about Gael Clichy. He’s good player and always put the effort in.  He played a blinder in the first season after Ashley Cole departed but then seemed to stall.

So who should take his place?  Gibbs is a good prospect but only that at the moment I think.  Not really ready.  Some have talked of switching Thomas Vermaelen out to fullback, but I’m not sure that does the job either.  It would rather depend on us finding another two central defenders and we haven’t landed one yet!

The two names consistently shooting through the rumour mill are Enrique and Baines. Baines would be my first choice, but Enrique is a good option too.