The other reason might be because it’s almost identical to previous years. Man United have got their business out of the way early, concluding their regular four or five year cycle where they buy immensely promising young players – generally English – but that’s not to say they won’t make a few last ditch efforts at Samir Nasri, Luka Modric and/or Wesley Sneijder. The Modric example is another nod towards the perennial transfer loop: Tottenham failing to meet their high targets (and supporter’s standards) and sweating their way through the summer as the vultures start thinking of making their swoop for their biggest stars while Levy and Redknapp sit on a sun lounger, avoid looking at the newspapers and eat tropical Soleros.
Speaking of Spurs, the all-too-familiar feelings continue what with them being linked to every player on the planet at some point or another during the close season. High profile targets have included Bojan Krcic of Barcelona and even Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United’s treatment room. Thus far, however, they’ve only signed Brad Friedel of SAGA holidays.
‘SAGA’. The Fabregas ‘saga’ – if you can even call it a saga anymore, it’s more like a box-set of the Wire, in that everybody talks about it but you can’t bring yourself to put that much time aside to watch it anymore – looks to be finally coming to a conclusion, with Barcelona trying to convince Arsenal that they’ve somehow discovered a spare £8m lying around where Yaya Toure’s shirt used to be kept at the training ground to meet their asking price. £35m seems to be the final price, even though Arsene Wenger could quite easily point to the Andy Carroll signing in January this year as proof enough that the fee should be inflated further. This could end one of two ways: Barcelona could up their bid, or they sit and piss themselves at Liverpool for three days. Either way, Fabregas has made it abundantly clear that he wants to re-join the Catalan club; presumably he has that message template saved as a draft on his phone as he sends it out every seven to ten minutes. The extra £8m might be just to cover his phone bill.
 |
| Fabregas was told to go away and get a proper haircut before returning to his boyhood club |
The question now is who Wenger will spend Arsenal’s new found wealth on, especially with even more wonga expected after the sale of Gael Clichy to Manchester City in what seems like a sideways move for all involved. This would be City’s fourth purchase at left back since all the oil money came in – one can only presume Roberto Mancini will finally deploy that 8-1-1 formation he’s threatened since gliding to these shores a couple of years ago. Wenger, in keeping with his stubborn management style, is planning on replacing his outgoing left back and two attacking midfielders with two centre backs and a winger; Chris ‘Caravan’ Samba, Gary ‘Not Tim’ Cahill and Juan ‘What’s the’ Mata. That’ll keep the Arsenal fans who paid an extra 6.9% on their season ticket happy, I’m sure.
Liverpool have already signed Jordan Henderson who, according to a thinly-veiled quote from Harry Redknapp, isn’t fit to lace Luka Modric’s boots. Henderson looks a decent footballer while Modric has had to counter claims he is unable to tie his own shoes (no, he hasn’t really). ‘Arry has a point though – Henderson hadn’t even played 70 senior games for Sunderland when he put pen to paper and it’s probably worth suggesting that had he not gained an England cap against France last year the fee would have been a hell of a lot less. With the amount of money flying into the North-East’s two biggest clubs for their best and brightest talents at the moment they could do up the town centre and get a new Debanhams, all for the price of two players with as many international caps. Just sayin’.
One man who seems reluctant to rock West Ham’s sinking ship is Scott Parker. I’m all for loyalty in football, but this is a player who, at 30 years of age, found himself to be a key member of England’s international set up while unsuccessfully trying to pretty much single-handedly keep his current employers in the Premiership. He has got to push through a move if he harbours hopes of being part of the England team that fails to get out of the group at Euro 2012. As for Rob Green and Matthew Upson, well, don’t call us, we’ll call you. But it still goes with the territory of the transfer window that a relegated club’s best player is looking to be on the move.
Now Carlos Tevez wants to get out of Manchester City and go to a Spanish or Italian club to be closer to his children in Argentina, which suggests he doesn’t actually know where Spain or Italy is. With all that money, perhaps City could accommodate their best player’s family in Manchester? Ship their entire school over as well. Why not? Just don’t let Mancini deploy the art and music block as a centre back.
But again – this has been coming for nearly a year now. It’s not an exclusive, or a shock. It’s just the same repeated sequel over and over again. This is even more depressing when you see the tiny amount of coverage the newspapers are giving things like the Women’s World Cup, in which England have a strong chance of making progress in and possibly even winning. It’s hard to imagine any Arsenal fans wanting to read about Fabregas anymore, let alone fans of any other club, and the same goes for the Gary Cahill, Modric, Nasri and Tevez stories. Wake me up when August is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment