Huge Arsenal bid for Hoilett? - toilet-paper news

You can't believe what you read nowadays and that goes for broadsheets as well as red tops. And local papers that take stories from broadsheets. Check out The Jarrow & Hebburn Gazette, which runs a daily transfer news column. Nothing wrong with that, but best to get the facts right.

Blackburn's Junior Hoilett is a free agent this summer, according to The Metro and everything else I've read and heard, so it's not going to break the bank to get him. There may be a nominal fee payable to Blackburn for development costs because of the player's age, but that will be it.

Therefore, it makes the notion that we will have to offload Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Sebastien Squillaci and Johan Djourou to free up cash to sign Hoilett all the more ludicrous. Although it's supposedly in The Times, it's Hoilett toilet-paper news to me!

Arsenal's worst-kept secret revealed

Arsenal's worst-kept secret is now public knowledge: Manuel Almunia is leaving on a free transfer. The official Arsenal FC website has revealed the news, and so the next question is: will there be many takers? I can't imagine 'the Spanish waiter' (as some people call him) getting a Premier League club, and my guess is he'll have to drop down a division if he stays in England or moves to one of Europe's top leagues (Spain, Italy and Germany, in case you're wondering).

The biggest mystery to me is why Lucasz Fabianski hasn't joined Almunia on the Arsenal scrapheap, if his contract has also expired. Anyway, also leaving with our best wishes are Gavin Hoyte and George Brislen-Hall amongst others. Those two will get clubs easily enough, but might have to drop down two divisions. Striker Rhys Murphy, goalkeeper Sean McDermott, versatile defender/midfielder James Campbell and winger Jeffrey Monakana are also looking for a new club.

Meanwhile, talking of players on the move, Ryo Miyaichi could be returning to Bolton next season. The Bolton News are running with that story and who are we to disagree? Bolton should be a good bet for an immediate return to the Premier League and it will be good for Ryo to get experience of being top of the league, albeit in a lower division. Then again, if he's been playing with injuries caused by Premier-League tackling, he can expect a lot worse in the Championship. Not that he'll worry about that. You can't question Ryo's bravery, judging by what I've seen.

Much less likely to happen are two transfer moves involving Arsenal that are being reported in The Week. Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue could be on the way in, while Johan Djourou is on his way to Juventus apparently. Can't see either deal happing, personally, but I'm getting sick of people undervaluing Djourou. He had a dodgy season, I won't deny that, but he's had a lot more solid games for Arsenal than Philippe Senderos did when he was with us and he's far more versatile than Big Phil. I can't see Djourou leaving this summer, but if he does go I'll be disappointed as it's always good to have utility players. Especially when your squad is as paper-thin as Arsenal's!

Finally, the bookies have got us as 20/1 outsiders to sign free agent Didier Drogba. I'd love to see 'The Scourge of Arsenal' at Arsenal, but it's not going to happen. The ex-Chelsea striker will be off to China to join former Gunner Nicolas Anelka at Shanghai Shenhua

Cesc/Lorient/Hill-Wood/Ryo all on Arsenal's news radar

Taking a look at the news today, London 24 are running a story about Cesc Fabregas, who has a bit to say about Robin van Persie. It is not particularly interesting unless you read between the lines. I did and I have reached the following conclusions: 1) Cesc is an Arsenal fan, and 2) he think it may be a while before Robin lifts a trophy. However, we cannot complain because it is all said so diplomatically.

Meanhwhile, the Bleacher Report is saying that our relationship with Lorient is ideal. We’ll see when Joel Campbell gets back! Four goals in 25 games doesn’t sound that promising for a striker! Meanwhile, it’s true that Francis Coquelin seems to have benefited from the experience he got there, but the jury’s still out on Gilles Sunu.

The best story I’ve read in a while appears on Gooner Talk. Whatever your view on Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood, you have to read this. And try not sing Kanye West’s ‘Golddigger’  to the chairman next time you see him! If the article is completely true, it just verifies what I’ve thought for some time: the current board are more into feathering their nest than anything else. Until we get David Dein back the wait for trophies may well continue. I don’t want to say too much more in case I get bumped off! Yes, you could say it makes for grim reading!

That’s enough talk about the board for now. So what about the players.  Our players, I mean. For a change there is an excellent report of Ryo Miyaichi on The Marble Halls. It confirms what I’ve said before, Ryo has got a long way to go if he wants to make it at Arsenal.

Benayoun won't come back to Arsenal, even on the cheap

Good news on the Yossi Benayoun front. Chelsea have told us he is available if we want to sign him. We can get him for £1 million, according to Setanta.

If we do indeed want to sign him, we will have to offer the 32-year-old a two-year deal. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to do so. 

The player has proved popular amongst the Arsenal fans, who appreciate the Israeli international's work rate. He certainly will be missed.

There will be no shortage of suitors when it comes to Yossi and I will be very surprised if we do manage to sign the player, even if we do have first refusal on him (which I find extremely unlikely as I can't work out why Chelsea would do us a favour if they can get a better deal elsewhere).

How will Chelsea's win affect Arsenal?

The football world feels a different place now that Chelsea are the Champions League winners. The bitter side of me says, it's just another cup. Under Roberto di Matteo, Chelsea have become a cup team: draw specialists in the league but domestic and European cup winners. Obviously we wanted to be the first London club to lift the trophy. Had we invested more perhaps we would have been. Roman Abramovich has invested one billion pounds since he arrived at Stamford Bridge. How much has we invested in comparison? Yet we shouldn't lose sight of the facts: we finished higher in the league and that's more of an indicator of strength. Cup competitions are about luck to some extent. Chelsea had their fair share.

A lot of fans, as well as the legendary Ian Wright (read more about it on: Insidearsenal), have been sounding off about Ashley Cole's post-match comments. He moved away mainly for money not for trophies, in my opinion. Yeah, he's won trophies since he left. But when he left we could have gone on to bigger and better things. But we didn't. Why? Lack of investment in the squad.

I just can't blame professionals for moving on for more money, especially when we have a board that make their decisions based on profits rather than points. Back in the old days, it was the board who made money out of football clubs rather than the players. The players had to get public transport to go to a match. The wage caps meant they'd have to don their caps to 'Mr Chairman' and risk their knee caps (as many ended up crippled) in the name of club loyalty.

Of course, the lack of loyalty in the game nowadays is upsetting for us fans. We want one-club players, but what about when a player starts to play badly? Then we want him out prompto. Is that loyalty?

Anyway, if players were loyal then we wouldn't have a transfer market would we? I'd miss that! Except, in recent years, we've had to watch while other clubs do most of the business. Apart from that panicky day last summer when we bought five players in the space of 24 hours or less!

Looking at this summer's transfer activity, fellow guests on the Gooner Podcast have mentioned Eden Hazard as a potential target, but I reckon he's likely to seek his 'Garden of Eden' elsewhere, judging by this report on Football Talk. Unless we're the 'mystery club' in the running for his services, that is. Sounds like he'll go to Manchester United.

Going back to Chelsea for a moment, Fernando Torres could be up for grabs. He wants clarification on his future. Their cup team could break up this summer, and if Abramovich brings in another AVB-type manager they could be in trouble. Torres is a player that a lot of fans would like to see at Arsenal. I can't see it myself. If we still had fellow Spain international Cesc Fabregas, maybe. But at least he could chat in Spanish or Scouse-as-a-second language with Mikel Arteta. We can always live in hope!

RVP & Dein controversy @ Arsenal

I'm not sure the Arsenal are doing the right thing in slapping a media ban on Robin van Persie. We're treating the captain of our club like a schoolboy, in my opinion. Silence is very rarely the answer when their are transfer rumours circulating. It's far better to be transparent and nip speculation in the bud. But in this world of Arsenal, we're used to undisclosed transfer fees and contracts of unspecified length. They keep us fans in the dark, hoping we'll never blame the powers-that-be at the the club. Perhaps we'll blame players for wanting out. But that is unlikely with RVP. It's not his fault if the club didn't have the foresight to get him to sign a new deal sooner and now I'll be even less surprised if the Dutch striker leaves this summer.

We need someone like David Dein back at the club. I know, how about the real David Dein! He loves the club and has a great track record of success. But our loss could be Liverpool's gain if this story is to be believed. I think we'll be kicking ourselves if Dein goes elswhere. Especially to another Premier League team. It just seems so wrong.

Hoping Nabay is no Coyne or Pennant if he joins Arsenal

According to Sky Sports, we’re in the running to sign Birmingham City’s Foday Nabay. Last year, the Sierra Leone-born youngster got called up to England’s U16s. That’s no mean feat and can spell one of two things: either this kid is exceptionally gifted; or he’s exceptionally big, strong and well developed for his age. I’ve lost count of how many strong youngsters who have done a lot in the early teens because of their build or size and then have suddenly stopped growing.

I remember a young striker called Peter Coyne, who couldn’t stop scoring for England’s youth team in the 1970s. He was at Manchester United and what could possibly go wrong? Well, after just two first-team games and just one goal, his contract was cancelled. He then slipped into the anonymity of the non-league with Alan Ball’s old club Ashton United, but at least he ended up scoring a lot of goals for Swindon and Crewe later in his career and even had a spell with the LA Aztecs. Still, it was a case of unfulfilled potential.

To some extent it was the same with Jermaine Pennant. I was so excited when we signed him from Notts County. £2m was a record fee for a teenager, but twelve league games in six years at Arsenal was hardly a decent return. Despite his off-the-field problems, Pennant has gone on to have a decent career in the top flight. He should have had senior England caps to add to his U21 appearance though.

Let’s hope, if we do get Nabay he manages to do a lot better than Pennant and Coyne.