Pre-Plymouth thoughts, Arsene on transfers and money.
Good morning Gooners out there in goonerland, I hope we are all in the mood I am. You know sometimes before a game you get a feeling for the outcome, whether positive or not. Today I am fully confident that our boys will turn up and serve notice to the rest of the FA cup pretenders.
Even more than just this game I think we will go all the way and win the whole thing, we will go all the way to Wembley. So I am predicting a good win today with a minimum 3 goal difference.
Yesterday Arsene’s press conference was revealing, among other things he poured cold water on the Arteta rumours, say that there has been no bid for the player. Also not coming to the Emirates Stadium is Shay Given as Arsene confirmed that he is not in the market for a goalkeeper.
When questioned about Andrei Arshavin the response was a bit more ambiguous “no progress” which seems to indicate that there is some kind of negotiation going on to which progress has not been made.
Arsene also cleared up the Kolo Toure situation, confirming that Kolo did in fact handed in a transfer request, which he subsequently withdrawn after some discussion. There was a disagreement between Gallas and Toure, which led to the transfer request.
On the subject of funds the manager was very determined to point out that Arsenal would only do business the Arsenal way in fact the correct way and not just throw money at the teams problems. he said,
<blockquote>But we will try to use it wisely and well if we can. We live in a naturally healthy situation – we do not depend on one person, we do not depend on the banks because we make our profit. We respect our balanced budget, so I believe that we will not be in trouble.
What we need to focus on is continually developing and not live in dreamland where we are linked with players of £30 to £40 million because that is not realistic.
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This is not to see that Wenger does not see the need to buy, as he said before he is in the market for 2 midfielders. I feel that Wenger is also looking for another defender as he admitted that this should have already been done.
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It’s not a question of Kolo Toure or William Gallas. It is that the two together are a bit short in the air. We needed to add some size centrally.
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We all wait with baited breath to see who — if anyone — Arsene is going to bring in this transfer window. In the meantime enjoy the beginning to a FA cup trophy run.
My prediction for today’s game… Arsenal 5 — 0 Plymouth Argyle
