One of Arsene Wenger’s best? Internal battles could benefit Arsenal.

Morning all.

Over the weekend, one of greatest players said goodbye to the game once and for all. A career ruined by injury, was fantastic anyway. Not so much for all things won, but for us the Arsenal fans, it was an absolute privilege to see him play in the famous red and white shirt of the club. Tomas Rosicky won’t be remembered in the same breath as the likes of Bergkamp, Henry, Petit, Vieira etc etc because they all won the league with us, but imo, his ability, attitude, skill etc, was right up there with them. Like with Santi Cazorla, when Tomas ticked, Arsenal clicked. Yes, he’s one of my favourites and always will be. It seems like only yesterday when the announcement was made, no, not that he’d signed but he’d left the Czechoslovakia training camp to travel to sort out his move to north London. He was leaving Borussia Dortmund to play for us.

Yesterday I watched the highlights of his farewell match and it didn’t disappoint. A match played in great spirits with a lot of our past players turning out just for Tomas.

After the game, Tomas spoke with Arsenal Media. Here’s a transcript…

on his emotions…
Obviously it’s very emotional. It was great, I have to say, that I could share this moment with all the guys who came to play in the game and be here with me, so I have to say thank you to everyone who came here and made this occasion very special.

on the occasion…
I have to say I enjoyed it. As you could see the rain complicated everything at the start, so it was very difficult for the people to stay here in the stadium for one hour longer, but it seems like they enjoyed it as well like me and the other boys. It was a great day today.

on Jens saving his penalty…
Typical Jens, it’s no surprise!

on his son’s goal…
I was actually expecting Jens to save my son’s shot too! I’m glad he showed his human side as well.

on what it meant…
It was amazing, not only with my friends, but as well for my whole family, my son, my father, my brother was here, my wife and my mother-in-law as well. It was a special day, I enjoyed it, it was great.

on a message for the Arsenal fans…
I hope you will see me again soon. Obviously whenever I can I will come to watch my favourite club on the pitch, and maybe sometimes I can participate as well, so we will see.

One of Arsene Wenger’s greatest signings since The Invincibles?

Farewell Tomas, enjoy your retirement from the game and thank you for saying yes to Arsenal FC back in May 2006.

Perhaps this summer we’ll get some equally as exciting news when the club pull off a couple of cracking signings. The rumour mill won’t go away, of course it won’t, not with agents out their spinning their stories in attempt to make money.

Talking of which, the agent of CSKA central midfielder Alexsandra Golovin says he is in advanced negotiations for the twenty-two year old to move to Arsenal for €25 million. Didn’t we read something very similar this time last year?

Meanwhile, the fight for Sampdoria’s Uruguyan twenty-two year old defensive midfielder goes on. His price tag is around €22 million apparently although if he has a great World Cup as many expect him to, that valuation might increase.

Lastly, Gelson Martins. There appears to be a lot of unrest at his club Sporting Lisbon. Players want out, they want to terminate their contracts with their club. Nasty business I’d say so if Arsenal really are in for him, they might just get him because there’s a good chance apparently that he could end up leaving for free.

When does the transfer window close?