Top of the Morning to y’all
Finally some action in Arsenaldom yesterday as the club announced that it would not
renew the contracts of seven of its players and as such they are free to talk
to other clubs that might be interested in them and the most high profile being
Manuel Almunia and Gavin Hoyte while the others are George Brislen-Hall, Sean
McDermott, Rhys Murphy, James Campbell and Jeffery Monakana. Apart from Almunia,
the others are youth players that have been allowed to run out their contracts
and are not being renewed. They have been educated the Arsenal way but they
just been found not to be worthy enough to continue at the club. It’s a shame
for the youngsters though, to be told you are no longer needed at a club, that
you are not good enough for the squad to be rejected and I truly feel sorry for
them but that's just the game is, it you are not good enough for the job, you
will be axed. They can take solace in the fact that they have received training
at Arsenal and worked with the best youth facilities on offer anywhere in the
world and am sure the education they have received here will stand them in good
stead at some point in their respective careers.
For Almunia, it’s been long coming
as he has deteriorated in ability and confidence over the past few seasons. This
is a person that benched the great Jens Lehman in the 2007/2008 season and
endeared himself into the hearts of many fans across the world with his shot
stopping and penalty saving abilities but his tendency to continually make
avoidable mistakes meant the boss had to look elsewhere. Fabianski might have
been the obvious choice but he was also prone to mistakes and injuries and Szczesny
was given the chance which he took with both hands and Almunia has not tasted
first team football ever since.
He was loaned to West Ham in
December during Rob Green’s long injury lay off and that's all the first team
football he got this season. In all, Almunia
made 175 appearances for Arsenal and kept 70 clean sheets which is a pretty decent
record for any goalkeeper and he would be particularly remembered for his
heroics against Barcelona three seasons ago at the Emirates where the match finished
2-2 before he capitulated at the Camp Nou two weeks later and conceded four
Lionel Messi goals. I also have fond memories of his penalty shootout save
against Roma at the Stade Olimpico in the Champions league. Most fans are glad to see Almunia leave and I am
no different as this will free up some wage bill and also space in the 25 man
squad size for next season as quality replacement can be brought in to fill
those places.
I don’t expect this announcement
to be the end of our house cleaning and that's why this is Part 1 as there are
more deadwood to be cleared from the club in the likes of Squillaci, Vela,
Bendtner, Denilson, Chamakh and Park even though their leaving the club might
be one after the other and not in mass as the first one. Anyway, I still look
forward to see all of them leave though and quality replacements brought in as
quickly as possible so they could blend with the squad before the new season gets
underway in August. One would imagine that by now, Wenger and his team of
coaches would have recognised their targets for next season and would already
be making plans to get them as a repeat of last summer’s frantic final day
shopping would be utterly stupid.
In other news,Jack Wilsher's operation went well and will return to Arsenal to continue his rehabilitation
where he is scheduled to be fit for the start of the new season. This is
wishing the lad a speedy recovery.
That's all for now folks, be back
on Friday for another edition.
God Bless the Arsenal, Iree o
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