Daily Bits and Bobs

Cech flys in! £21 million bid going in & Arsenal frontrunners to sign defender…

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Very little in the news today, well apart for Petr Cech is reportedly to be having a medical today. If true, let’s hope he passes it…

Danny Welbeck has been talking to the official site about how Osgood-Schlatter disease held up his early footballing career. Not that’s not a disease which means he was choosing whether to join the Chavs or not, it’s nasty and hits the knees for six..

It’s not always going to be a clean sail through. Getting injured is a massive setback. When you look back at it, it makes you a better and a stronger person today but at the time it’s hard to deal with.

I started growing late so I was a late developer. I got Osgood-Schlatter disease in my knees because my bones were growing quicker than my muscles and it’s hard to get out on the training pitch, then afterwards you’re in agony every single time you play football.

He had a funny old first season with us, a few goals, probably not enough really but one was key and that was at the Old Toilet as without it, we wouldn’t have our 12th FA Cup to boast about. But his work-rate and energy on the pitch cannot be questioned imo, he never gives up during a game and certainly doesn’t shy away from defensive duties. I hope we see more of him this season and more goals come his way. A second season is usually better than the first.

Defensive/holding midfield options seem to be running out as those mentioned here on HH seem to be opting to join other clubs. Kondogbia was the one I really had my heart on but he’s now in Italy. Another favourite, Morgan Schneiderlin is on the move to Utd according to the rumours this morning so that’s that. City are winning the race to sign Pogba and Imbula is off to one of the Milan sides. AC I think.

Makes me believe Arsene Wenger was not interested in any of them despite what the back pages say.

Arturo Vidal is still up for grabs though and there’s a lot of morning talk about Arsenal readying a £21 million offer for the Juventus man who is still involved in the Copa America Cup. Maybe it’s been him all along and the Copa Cup is holding things up..

Then again, there is the Bender boys, perhaps Arsene Wenger remains keen on one, heck, why not both and send Flamini packing?

My fear is that no-one in that position will be signed this summer as has been the case in years gone by. It’s all very well signing Petr Cech but if gaping holes are left ahead of him, what’s the point. I know we have Coquelin but he can’t play every game in a season can he. One injury to him and what are we left with? Actually, I daren’t think about that….

Yes yes there’s loads of time left in the transfer window as it’s only just opened but pre-season isn’t that far away now and any new additions need to be in the door and getting used to their team-mates…

In other transfer gossip, apparently we are after left-back Faouzi Ghoulam. Not only that, we are frontrunners for his signature if we are to believe stuff written over in Italy. He’s an Algerian international left-back. But he was born in France!

Anyway, enough, be patient and fingers crossed all will be fine by the time the season kicks off….

Have a good Friday fine folk…

 

rico

102 thoughts on “Cech flys in! £21 million bid going in & Arsenal frontrunners to sign defender…”

  2. allezkev says:

    Bielik and Hayden as cover for Arteta and Flamini, who are the cover for Coquelin…

    It’s all in the capable hands of Shad…

  4. Drake says:

    Morning all rico we will sign morgan,at this stage we have manu and us both submitted bids,now it up to the player to where he wants to go.manu will struggle to sign players trust me and plz do not let dupey fool you

  5. andrewh1313 says:

    Morning, good summing up rico of our DM buying (or lack of) options. Very disappointed with Schneid going to ManU, especially after bookies odds tumbled 24 hours ago in our favour. Does make you wonder if AW ever had any plans for a DM, maybe wanting to find a midfield place for Wilshire in the team.

  6. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Too hot???? lol. Come here…..and you will know what too hot is Rico.

    Good Morning Lovelies and Hunkies.

    I do not think that DW23 had a sort of funny first season. What many people do not notice is the amount of work that he does off the ball. Unlike some other players DW always worked his arse off to defend and win the ball back. So imo he had a very good first season with us with the highlight being the goal he scored at OT to send us forward in the cup.

    Next season I would like to see an attack of Alexis, Theo and DW23. There is speed and graft in there.

  7. rico says:

    Morning again all..

    Drake, are you sure re Morgan? I’m not…

    Exactly Kev, at is stands, no cover for Coquelin whatsoever….

    Thanks Andrew, I sure hope that’s not the case re Jack.

  10. rico says:

    Devil, I did mention his work rate in the post but ultimately, strikers will be judged on goals and assists imo..

    I’d love to be in the kind of temperatures you have, cleaner air and no pollen, that would suit me down to the ground… 🙂

  11. scottfromoz says:

    Rico, you’re right of course, that strikers will be judged that way, but I’ll ask a question…..should they be?
    I mean, in isolation, should strikers be judged on their goals as individuals, or
    should we judge them as a unit.
    Is it better to have a guy who scores 30 with those around him bagging 10 between them, or having a unit that nails 50 between them?
    In that unit, one guy may only score 8-10 and, on paper, is deemed an average striker.
    The work he does might allow the others to shine.

  17. andrewh1313 says:

    rico, on the one hand Wilshire infuriates when he is slow to release the ball and is likely to encourage dangerous tackles and get injured. Although it does draw free kicks of course.

    On the other hand, he has probably been England’s best player in his last three internationals, playing out of his usual position. I always felt his biggest failure was lack of goals for a midfielder, but he has just shown great technique with three stunning strike. I say give the boy a chance, if he can stay injury-free for a whole season, he could star?

  19. Malaga gooner says:

    Jack should not be sold, what ever bid comes in for him.
    Last season our midfield was yet again fucked through injury. We have finally got midfield that has strength in depth.
    Add a quality dm and we have the best midfield in the pl

  20. rico says:

    He’s certainly doing well for England Andrew and as you say, if he can stay fit which there’s no reason why he shouldn’t, he could have a great season but until AW finds his best position, I just hope we don’t see him on the right… Lol

  21. meadsy1982 says:

    i think theres a reason pogba hasnt moved on yet and thats the impending deal for vidal! and i hope so. morgan would be good kondogbia would of been better but the beast of vidal is gonna be going bk to the tough tackling days of viera…… i hope so anyways :-/

  23. potter says:

    I’ve said before the reason Wenger has not bought a defensive midfielder is because he doesn’t want one. He wants a player to sit deep but still be a playmaker. Coquelin took him by surprise he was only ever bought back as a stop gap but his success kept him in the team. I can’t see him splashing out £ 20 odd million to find a player to assist Le Coq in a role he really does not want in his system.

  24. andrewh1313 says:

    Don’t want Ramsey on right either. We are pretty unbalanced aren’t we? Need Walcott or Sanchez on right but then dont want Cazorla or Ozil on left. We have so many CMs and only one of them is a DM. All our players want to play in middle.

  27. rico says:

    Meadsy, you sound confident re Vidal…

    Very unbalanced Andrew, too many ‘midfielders’ who all want to play central…

  28. Wavy says:

    Afternoon all.
    Good rea Rico. Sadly I think Potter has got Wenger’s thinking re DM spot on. I don’t think we’ll see any new players bought in to play with, alongside or even instead of Le Coq. He has enough!!

  30. rico says:

    Thanks Wavy although I’m not so sure… Lol

    I’m remaining hopeful that a midfielder will arrive, perhaps Ivan is hot on the case….

  33. Bob John says:

    Hi all.
    My view of Jack is that he is fully fit for the first time in ages and has got his acceleration back. This should mean he is less likely to be caught in possession. With Le Coq the enforcer or A N Other alongside him he will also have more protection. Looking forward to a big season from him to shut the doubters up.

  37. rico says:

    Don’t think we’ll sell any of our ‘better’ players. Unless Walcott refuses to sign a new deal, I’ll be surprised to see him go….

  39. andrewh1313 says:

    re Vidal:

    “According to Spanish newspaper Marca, Juventus have already completed a deal with an unnamed European club, with the announcement set to be made after the Copa America.”

  40. allezkev says:

    thesetpieces…. A good interview with Amy Lawrence on this site…

    I can’t get the link but it’s on NewsNow

  45. meadsy1982 says:

    we need a cb! i think gabriel can make an impact this season but we need another worldy and am so gutted we dint get jackson i think that could of been a good fit

  51. meadsy1982 says:

    yeah i can see that i just had a feeling that he would of dun a bit of an henry for a few seasons. i would of like gonzalo as well but i think he could of turned out like saldado. im not 100% we need a striker though i think walcott or sanchez should get a seasons crack at it

  54. Hell Raising Devil says:

    good Afternoon Lovelies and Hunkies.

    Meadsy…..what about one of these CBs???? Aurier, Dragovic, Mangala, Savic, Ginter, Kaya, Schaar, Toloi (a good one), Doria (another good one)

    they are all in the age of around 21 to 25. They will definetely learn from us and are good ball players. I like Toloi and Doria a lot, but my favourites are Schaar and Dragovic. Good Commanding ball playing CBs. but Toloi is the one who has the ruthless streak in him, the hard as nails type

  56. Hell Raising Devil says:

    With regards the issue of a 30 goal season forward I would prefer the goals to be split around the team.

    I am not going to put numbers against individual players but numbers on the position, irrelevant of who plays there………

    GK 0
    RB 3, CB3, CB3, LB2
    DM3,
    RW 19, RCM7, LCM6, LW19
    CF 20

    So these are the goals which need to be scored by the position irrelevant of who plays there. For example if Ollie scores 11 from CF and Theo got 9 from that would be 20 from CF position. If Theo got 10 from the right and Danny got 9 that would be 19 from the right flank. I hope I communicated it clearly.

    In that situation no one stands out but it is the collectiveness of the team.

  57. Hell Raising Devil says:

    with regards DM I am not talking about Coquelin only, but also Arteta who usually weighs in.

    With Coquelin I think that in 3 years time we will be printing shirts with I WAS THERE WHEN LE COQ SCORED. lol

  58. Micko says:

    There’s a reason strikers generally get paid more than their team mates……it’ll come to me in a minute !

  60. frednerk says:

    The Coq proved he was up to the standard of a defensive mid,
    over a long period of games last season.
    Wenger has to find a balance with our midfield players,
    The Coq has to be first name down,
    wenger has said..he could be called a £40million player.
    Maybe thats the reason most of the top D/Mids are being matched-up.
    Maybe you know the answer Rico.
    Chicken or the Egg

  62. rico says:

    On a serious note, Coquelin has been really good but after him, what do we have? Flamini- not for me, Arteta, well sorry if this offends but he’s far too slow….

  65. Micko says:

    Fred, that reminds me of the old joke.
    Its the morning after the night before, the chicken rolls over in the bed with a big grin on his face and lights up a fag, the egg looks at him with a big frown and says guess we all the the answer to that one then !

  66. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Although he is getting slow I feel that Arteta can still do a job at the club. He can rotate with Coquelin so that the latter can be given a breather. Even if we bought another DM/B2B midfielder in the mould of Vidal. He can come in with around 20 minutes left, especially if we have a good advantage over the opponents. Plus I have heard (if my memory is correct) that he is taking coaching badges and is also doing some coaching with the kids and the latter love him a lot.

    Aw esteemes him highly. He is a good organizer and is also a thinker of good football. So I expect him to be given another year as a player after this season and then he will become a coach under AW. Or will he???? Maybe AW’s successor???

  70. allezkev says:

    We’ve all kind of accepted that Sneiderlin is going to ManUre, based of the usual drivel from the usual tosspots in the Press…

    But as far as I know, Southampton have not agreed to a fee, and Morgan hadn’t been spotted in Manchester, on his way to a medical…

    So, as long as MS is a Southampton player, Arsenal are very much in with a chance of signing him…

    And why should anyone think that MS joining ManUre is a better move for him, than him joining Arsenal?

  71. frednerk says:

    Micko like the joke mate,
    But I couldn’t really give a cluck.

    Rico..That’s why I think wenger has to balance our Mids
    if he won’t sign a defensive minded Mid

  73. rico says:

    Blame Sky Sports for me Kev, you know they always get it right. I can recall their breaking news about us signing Woodgate…. Lol

  75. rico says:

    Friday night so I’m out of here, catch up tomorrow folks…

    Have a good night whatever you are up to..

    Night all..

  81. rogerbij says:

    Metro also says Juventus has agreed to sell us Vidal. Tomorrow it will also say that I have signed for Arsenal [with disclaimer].

  84. meadsy1982 says:

    ffs ive only just reallised we aint starting off at the top of the table ffs wtf!!!! bournemouth to get relegated

  85. Micko says:

    They all pale into insignificance compared to Vladimir Petrovic !

    Meadsy, sneeze and you’ll miss it !

    Looking forward to tomorrow’s merry-go-round already, nite Gooners.

  87. Wavy says:

    Dodgy penalty in the 85th minute, then they win the shoot out…..did FIFA have any input? Did they bribe the ref? Who would have predicted any other outcome? France have been ‘done’!

    Blatter be praised.

  95. rico says:

    Think it’s been open a couple of weeks now, Sky Sports announced it was open. Odd though as I thought July 1st was the official date…

  100. rico says:

    Don’t work too hard Joe…

    Isn’t it just Scott but I guess all will be revealed by the time 1st Sept arrives…. lol

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