Kalou to join on free? Giroud linked – AFC

Could Salomon Kalou be the answer to any of Arsenal’s needs? It has been reported that Kalou’s contract will run out at the end of the season and will be available for a free transfer. Arsene Wenger has long been an admirer of the Ivorian and fits the profile of an Arsenal buy in terms of the costs involved for his acquisition.

In the grand scheme of things Kalou would be a good purchase as a squad player for Arsenal, he has bags of premiership and international experience and could add something as part of the team but not necessarily as part of the starting XI.

He plays for the Ivory Coast with Gervinho and maybe they could strike up a good relationship on the pitch for Arsenal as they do for their country

The question is if Arsenal has not made moves early enough would Kalou be more tempted to start a new challenge abroad similar to his former Chelsea teammates Anelka and now Drogba. Once you are available on a free there are plenty options to take and it will be down to the individual on what challenge he would like next. He’s at an age where the final payday in the sun is a few years away to take. At 26 he still has plenty to offer whichever club he joins and should not have reached his peak as yet.

The big question to ask though is: has he ever shown the potential to prove he can be a big influence on a team, a big team. Throughout the past few seasons and I guess during his whole Chelsea career he has been a player that has always been on the fringes of the first team. More a small cog that helped keep the team functioning; if he were to move to Arsenal I can only see him playing a similar role at the emirates.

I would take him to Arsenal as a squad player but this would be communicated to him before he signed anything. No point promising him the world and ending up with an unhappy player on a big wage when he is not starting each week. He would need to prove himself with his performances and earn the right to be a starter.

Gunners fans are most likely to be divided on the acquisition of Kalou, given we have not ironed out the future of our Skipper Van Persie there will be questions on whether Kalou is the type of player to keep out captain happy and wanting to stay.

Further news developed last night in the French press that Arsenal has been working on a deal for Oliver Giroud from Montpellier. The deal will involve a fee of £8million and Chamakh. Giroud is an interesting player and having recently won the French Ligue 1 with Montpellier will have the winning mentality which always helps. He has also been capped in the past season for France. There is no guarantee he will be a success at Arsenal. The transition from French football to premiership football is not always an instant success and the better players tend to hit the ground running whereas other players still need some time to acclimatize.

The prospect of paying less for Giroud by using Chamakh as a makeweight may please both parties. Chamakh has in fairness lost his way at Arsenal. The chances of him recapturing his early Arsenal form seems to diminish with each game he plays in the Arsenal colours. He definitely would benefit with a move to another club to rebuild his confidence and reputation.

Montpellier would benefit from having a ready-made replacement for Giroud; on top of that Chamakh has a proven record in Ligue 1 and would hopefully fit in straight away.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. We are in the midst of silly season and so all alleged links should be taken with a pinch of salt until we hear word from the officials involved with the teams.

Enjoy your day people

Almunia, Hoyte out, Wilshere back before next season? AFC

So Arsenal have started their summer clear out. It was announced on the official website yesterday evening that seven players were to be released. Of those seven the most high-profile names released were that of Manuel Almunia and Gavin Hoyte. The other players not offered new contracts were Rhys Murphy, Sean McDermott, George Brislen-Hall, James Campbell and Jeffrey Monankana.

Almunia despite his critics has been at the club for the best part of 8 years, Making over 170 appearances for the club. Biding his time as an understudy to Jens Lehman it is fair to say when his chance came to stake a claim for the no.1 jersey he never quite fulfilled the role to the expectations of the Arsenal faithful.

Not an awful keeper by any means Manuel fell victim to not being the great keeper that was required by a club of Arsenal’s standing at that time. Many pundits and fans alike make the claim that the basis of a great team starts with having a great keeper. A keeper valuable enough to win games for you by presence, organisation, agility and 100% concentration. Almunia never quite ticked all those boxes convincingly and therefore struggled to win over the fans and pundits.

Jens Lehman’s boots proved quite big ones to fill, mistakes did start to creep into his game towards the tail end of his Arsenal career and it was at this point where Arsene Wenger decided to promote within rather than sign a high-profile replacement.

It’s a shame Almunia never took his chance as first choice and despite putting in 8 years on the books his Arsenal career fizzled out to what seems like a swift exit out of the back door. A keeper that will always be remembered for not doing enough to save THAT shot in the champions league final there is no doubt he will look back himself with regret at what could have been.

Gavin Hoyte the other (sort of) high-profile player released by Arsenal seemed to have been around for an eternity. News of Gavin’s release is less of a surprise since last week he already said his goodbyes to Arsenal via Twitter. His profile was probably raised more by the fact his brother played for the Arsenal. It was claimed at one point he was a better prospect than his brother when coming through the youth set up so a big career was probably foreseen. I believe at one point he was even made captain of the reserve team however throughout his young career injuries have gotten the better of him. When given the chance to shine out on loan he hadn’t really grasped the opportunities with both hands. Still only 21 he still has plenty chance to carve out a decent career for himself though it may seem more likely in the lower leagues.

Rhys Murphy career definitely has been defined by all his injuries, I believe if it wasn’t for that he may have been given more opportunities in carling cup squads and such like. The injuries however restricted his chances and development. He made a couple of loan moves to Brentford and Preston North End and at one point seemed close to signing for Glasgow Rangers. Nothing concrete materialized but again Rhys is another player that if he can overcome the injuries could carve out a decent career and fulfil the early promise he showed when part of our FA youth cup winning team from 2009.

Best wishes go to Almunia, Hoyte, Murphy and the other players released in their future choices.

We were also hit with the news about Jack Wilshere’s knee. Although the knee surgery received in the Swedish clinic was a success it is rumoured recovery will be 2-3 months. Strictly a rumour as word on the official site is Jack will be on course for a summer return. I suppose we will have to wait and see as Arsenal has a history of getting return dates slightly wrong. We really need Jack back next season and I have my fingers crossed this will be the last of the injuries that require an extended period of time out.

Now that the futures of the end of contract personnel has been decided next on the agenda will be which players that are still under contract will be moving on. How much money was freed up from the release of these players yesterday? Not a great deal I presume. Almunia would have been on a decent wage whilst the other players being on the fringes of the first team squad would never really warrant bumper contracts at that stage of their careers.

Every penny counts with Arsenal and I’m sure they have already planned where the money saved on the release of these players will go. Let’s hope it goes more towards players that will be part of the team next season rather than a bargain purchase that doesn’t quite work out like Park.

Enjoy your day people.

2 days since final can I turn tv back on now? – AFC

It certainly was a weekend to avoid the news; every channel showing images of Mr Terry front and centre soaking up all the attention. I admit I turned over after the final whistle so missed the glorious moment Terry was stripped down to kit (with shin pads and all) to claim glory for a game he didn’t take part in. sums up his character all round.

Only thing I regret missing out on was the live shots at all the spurs pubs after the final kick, the disappointment on all their faces are priceless moments. I’m sure there must have been a few kids crying, adults too. Spurs champions league adventure was over before it had even started.

One thing that did raise a question to me was where did all these so-called fans love for Chelsea come from? I suppose I am old school when it comes to supporting your club, you support your local team. Times have changed though and fan bases reach out ever so further than a borough in a city. It is essential for club growth to reach out all over the world.

As a kid you tend to gravitate towards the more successful teams, that’s why many gentlemen from my generation were Liverpool fans. They were the team then and so had a high fan base. When the premiership kicked in it more or less turned into the Manchester United show. From then every kid loved united. Arsenals emergence under Wenger led to an increase in awareness which in turn led to many new gooners.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not like nobody supported anyone unless they were successful I just found it interesting that growing up I would see so many people proudly wearing the shirts of the teams they supported. In London for every one Chelsea shirt you saw you would see twenty arsenal or spurs or Liverpool or man united shirts.

Chelsea fans were few and far between. It was only after the introduction of Mr Abramovich and some success that the Chelsea fan base grew and grew, only then I started to see little kids donning Chelsea shirts. Fair play to them they were winning things and so winning the hearts of the next generation.

As I mentioned earlier football reaches a lot further than these shores and I am happy than I have come in contact with many Arsenal fans from across the world that share my love for the club. Overseas support may have been looked down on in the past but media has evolved so much to the point you could follow your club from anywhere in the world.

Gone are the days when I would go on holiday and the only way I could follow what was going on back home with the Arsenal was to receive a day old sun newspaper from the hotel.

I welcome all new Arsenal fans from any part of the world my only problem is Arsenal need to get back to where they were and start attracting the next generation of fans again. We need to look to putting silverware back in the cabinet and enhancing our global support. We are a club enriched with so much history and not just the past ten years like Chelsea. I’ve noticed a few Man city shirts on kids in the park lately. I hope their fate is similar to that of the Blackburn fans that emerged in the mid 90’s.

Reputation as a successful club not only appeals to your average fans but to future football stars. If a young talented footballer supports the club he is at it only helps consolidate his potential to stay at that club. If you love your club you do not move on (mitigating circumstances permitting).

I remember seeing an article from an interview from Romelu Lukaku and he stated that Chelsea was the club he always wanted to play for and how he idolised them as a kid. Now that’s a straight up lie! Like he has ever known of Mark Stein, Frank Sinclair or Gordon Durie without clicking on Google.

Let’s see if he will last at his dream club Chelsea for the rest of his career, somehow I don’t think so..

I feel dirty about mentioning Chelsea so much in my blogs past couple days. I apologize to all gooners. 100% focus on Arsenal from now on

Enjoy your day.

Someone won champions league, Spurs cry

So Chelsea did it. I mean gunners fans across the land were divided on the perfect possible outcome last night. On one side of the scale there were those who wanted a Chelsea victory. This would in effect relegate spurs to playing Europa league football having finished 4^th in the league, an amazing opportunity to laugh at our North London chokers. On the other side of the scale there were those who wanted a Bayern victory. A chance for Chelsea to implode and the possibility of them putting all their eggs into one basket then dropping that basket. A defeat would have meant super disappointment and no champion’s league football next year.

I personally swayed towards a Bayern victory; as much as I dislike Tottenham they would only be qualifying for the champion’s league not winning it. I never support another English club to be successful in the champion’s league. It didn’t matter if it was Man Utd, Everton or Reading I do not wish them success. On this occasion it just happened to be Chelsea.

In the general scheme of things either outcome would be bittersweet to gunners fans however not enough to make us distraught. We will leave the crying to all the spurs fans.

I did always stand behind my assumption that karma would bite Chelsea in the arse. I mean any club that employs John Terry would suffer the consequences of his actions. Maybe karma will be throwing its all into his upcoming court case.

Weirdest thing is this has been one of the poorest Chelsea teams in years. At one point in the season things were looking so bad for them it seems dark days were ahead.

The same could be said about Arsenals start of the season yet we turned things around for a respectable finish taking into account our troubles.

Difference is we didn’t have silverware to show for it. The silverware will come, if Chelsea can win with that team why can’t we?

I suppose that question can be answered a lot easier once we get our house in order which means contracts need to be finalised and resolved as soon as possible.

Despite the talks with Skipper Van Persie this week nothing was concluded for us fans to sit back this summer and enjoy the Euros. The fact that nothing will be announced until after the Euros does allow the doubt to creep in. A sense of déjà vu is upon us, we get this every year and so we know the warning signs when we see them.

The papers have full license to link Robin with every club on the planet which will only serve to antagonise the fans. Although robin hasn’t confirmed he’s staying he hasn’t confirmed he’s going either.

Some fans are quick to take to twitter and directly abuse our skipper. Maybe if they used the few brain cells they have functioning they could use them to consider that maybe Robin isn’t fully decided but the twitter abuse could be the factor that swings it for him to leave.

Twitter is an excellent platform to connect with players of your team and get their thoughts and statements but it also acts as a platform for unwarranted knee jerk reactions from fans to hide behind a computer and abuse.

I suppose if you don’t want the abuse you shouldn’t be on there but at the same time fans need to think about consequences of their tweets.

On a final note Fabianski wants to leave Arsenal, it’s fair to say his career has never taken off whilst at the club. Although promising in his first few appearances he has never been able to recover from some quite high-profile gaffs. Wenger would always stand behind him and try to convince us how amazing a keeper he was in training, we would try to believe him then Fabianski would play his next game and make another gaff making Wenger eat his words.

I think Fabianski moving on is the best thing for him for domestic and international reasons. It doesn’t help that your compatriot is keeping you out for club and country.

Good luck to him wherever he goes, it’s always hard to shake a dodgy keeper tag the best bet is to move on and rebuild your reputation elsewhere.

Enjoy your Sunday people, I know the spurs fans aren’t.

Oxlade-Chamberlain For England – AFC

So the rumours were correct, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has made it into the England squad for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. If it wasn’t for Theo being picked by Sven all those years ago maybe there would be uproar at the inclusion of the 18-year-old Ox . Instead in comparison Chamberlain is a couple of years older, has experience of not only playing in the premiership but also showing enough to stand out in many of the games he has featured. He seems a lot more ready than you would expect most youngsters at similar age and experience.

The Ox has been putting the performances in for the England U-21’s over the past season and I suppose even before he was an Arsenal player. I believe that was one of the major factors in Roy Hodgson selecting him. It appears to me Roy has swayed towards giving chances to those who have performed and stood out at U-21 level this season. At times the Ox has made a mockery of that level with the perceived minimal effort he needed to put in to show how good he was. The likes of Henderson and Butland being included all be it at standby shows Hodgson has really taken this into account.

Admittedly my theory is slightly flawed as Henri Lansbury would be a shoo-in for the squad if it was based on England U-21 form. He has actually been one of the leading players this season and has scored some cracking goals to boot.

One important outcome from the England squad is the inclusion of Theo Walcott. He is in the perfect position to pass on advice and share his experience of the 2006 World cup. He is quite close with Chamberlain and so should help put him at ease. I remember at the 2006 world there were not many arsenal players in the England squad and so a young Walcott was surrounded by all the Chelsea and Man Utd players who based on all the scandals that have come out between now and then were not the best role models to be around.

Luckily Theo wasn’t corrupted by the likes of Terry, Cole et al and is still pretty grounded in his personal life. Now Theo is in best position to keep Chamberlain grounded during the experience.

Experience aside this has to be one of the most negatively perceived England squads in a long time. The royal mess the FA made with the timing of the appointing a new manager did not help matters one bit. Hodgson can do no right in the public’s eye and hopefully this will not filter too much through to the squad. The Terry vs. Ferdinand debate has already dominated the squad selection and it makes you wonder if sides will be taken within the squad. Last thing England needs is a divided squad. France showed how much a mess that can be in South Africa and to an extend England had their own problems themselves within at the World cup.

Let’s hope any negativity does not affect the Arsenal boys.

With Theo and Chamberlain being selected for the Euros it means they will not be involved in the Olympics. A good thing I guess and they will have a bigger gap for recovery and wind down before the new season starts.

Doesn’t mean any other Arsenal players are immune, Gibbs could be considered maybe even Lansbury since Pearce knows him from England U-21. A very long shot but you never know. We will cross that bridge when it comes.

One last thing to consider from the inclusion of Chamberlain into the England squad. There is every chance a clause will be triggered when he makes his international debut. Southampton will be due some form of payment for this achievement.

Let’s hope it doesn’t eat into the new RVP contract budget…

Enjoy your day people