Arsenal striker lights up World Cup

Arsenal striker Joel Campbell was hugely instrumental in causing the biggest upset in this year's World Cup so far, as Costa Rica belied their underdog status to emerge victorious against the much-fancied Uruguay.

Despite being a Gunner for the last three years, Campbell is yet to kick a ball in the famous red and white. After this performance, Arsenal fans will be clamouring for his inclusion in the squad. Meanwhile, other clubs will be hoping the Gunners loan him out again.

Campbell is not renowned for his team-play, yet set up Costa Rica's third goal with a sublime pass.

Prior to that, Campbell started Costa Rica's recovery with a cool left foot strike to level the scores at 1-1.

The 21-year-old didn't win a lot of headers, but was menacing on the ground: unleashing a couple of long-distance pile drivers that went narrowly wide.


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Arsenal's Higuain deal hijacked? Ryo not off to Feyenoord, yet!

Don't shoot the messenger. It hasn't happened yet. But Arsenal's protracted signing of Gonzalo Higuain could hit the buffers, in my opinion, if a certain other London club come in and offer him better terms. I don't think Spurs will do that, but Chelsea are certainly capable of it, financially, especially now that they've been outbid by PSG for Cavani. We need to get this Higuain deal done a.s.a.p., but Arsenal don't do 'asap', unless the 's' stands for 'slowly'.

Maybe we're waiting to offload Park, Campbell and Bentdner before we sign Higuain so we can save on wages. Bendtner is inching ever nearer Frankfurt, we hear. He'll probably be loaned out. Surely one of those 'six' interested clubs can put a deal together. Obviously, German clubs are keen to take our players on loan: Djourou's got a German club for next season as has Coquelin. So while Djourou's going to Hamburg for the entire season, 'Coq-au-vin' will be out in Freiburg.

Mannone was quick to get a club, wasn't he? I wish him the best of luck at Sunderland. Not sure they'll do well under di Canio, but I think our ex-keeper will do his bit (if given the chance) to help them stay up. Surely, his exit means Cesar's arrival. It's been much heralded, but the trumpeters are sick of tooting the same tune! Bring Cesar in, Arsenal! Stop faffing around!

Another player we've been linked with and lost, it seems is Tin Jedvaj. With a name like that, he's got to be good...for a laugh. Let's hope Spurs are not getting the last laugh, if they sign him for £6.5m, as has been reported. They've already signed Paulinho, who had a decent Confederations Cup tournament, so might be a good acquisition.

One player who wasn't a good acquisition was Park Ju Young. It looks like Celta Vigo won't be having our former number 9 back, which isn't surprising given he went AWOL at the end of last season. He won't be doing that for 4 weeks, as he's doing some obligatory military service. If only the South Korean Army would pick up the bill for his wages, we'd be in an even better financial position to sign someone.

But no. I have more exits to report . . .

Ryo Miyaichi. Don't worry, folks! I don't believe he's leaving. Not yet, anyway. Wenger's been waxing lyrical about Ryo's attitude pre-season. If he impresses in Japan, I reckon we'll keep him. If he doesn't, that's when I'll take the Feyenoord link seriously. Of course, they want him back, especially as they have a sudden wideman shortage: Boertius has a serious knee injury and Sekou Cisse could be leaving. Nevertheless, Ryo's not their first-choice replacement for the pair. The Dutch side want Liverpool's Oussama Assaidi. The problem is the Reds won't loan Assaidi out, they'd rather do a permanent deal.




And that's where we come in! Well, only if Ryo is up for grabs on loan and right now he's not! He's even been pictured on the official Arsenal.com website with Fabianski. So unless we're flogging the pair, two-for-one, it's as Hall & Oates would sing: 'Say No Go'.

Meanwhile, that very player, Sonogo has a number 22 shirt to go with his ready-made song. His arrival could mean curtains for Joel Campbell, though. The Costa Rican striker is unlikely to rejoin Real Betis, apparently, so the media are linking him with Crystal Palace and West Ham. The question is how will our London rivals get Campbell a work permit if we couldn't manage it? I'll leave the media to ponder that, as clearly they haven't thought it through.

Talking of shirts, Diaby takes the number 24. Finally, a sensible number. Let's hope he plays more sensibly, and manages to string a few decent games together for a change now.

Despite my lack of faith in him, Diaby's staying at Arsenal, of course unlike Emmanuel Frimpong,who could be on his way to Fulham. Then there's Gervinho off to Marseilles and Chamakh to Levante.

And Wenger to PSG. Next year. I don't believe it, personally, but Le10Sport are reporting it, so it must be 'vrai'!

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.

Cough up for Cahill, Arsenal!

I'm getting so sick of Arsenal acting poverty-stricken. We wanted Mark Schwarzer last year, but refused to meet Fulham's valuation. Instead we preferred to start the season with Manuel Almunia between the sticks.

Now it seems we haven't learned at all from last year's mistake, by refusing to offer the going rate for Gary Cahill of Bolton. Okay, he'll be out of contract in a year's time and we can get him for free then. But patience isn't always a virtue. Not if it means another trophyless season, anyway. It would have been nice to get Cahill signed in time for the Manchester United game, but with our club a quick deal is rarely possible.

To make it worse, our boss Arsene Wenger is so smug about it. He's more coy (okay, koi then) than a carp! And now, talking of Far Eastern fish, Le Boss is about to reel in a big South Korean to fill the vacant number 9 shirt, I hear (although I'm not sure we can believe it). Park-Chu Young is expected to join for around £10m, which is good news given that Joel Campbell has been refused a work permit. Whether Young is an adequate replacement for the outgoing Nicklas Bendtner remains to be seen. But then again, the Monaco man might be heading for Lille, which means Eden Hazard could be sold and what's more, Hazard will be sold to us. Or so the story goes.

I'd just love us to buy someone with Premier League experience, but right now it looks as unlikely as ever and the main hopes we have to cling onto are wild transfer rumours and derisory bids for players who might actually strengthen our squad.