Top of the morning to y’all.
News filtered in last night that night that Arsenal target
Nuri Sahin was headed to Anfield for financial reasons. It was revealed that
Arsenal were not willing to match Liverpool’s offer to pay 70% of the player’s
wages. Arsenal offered to pay 60% and so for that reason, Liverpool jump into
the driving seat to sign the player. It was also reported that Liverpool were
also going to pay a loan fee in the region of €5million. Earlier in the week,
news sufficed that Arsenal hit a stumbling block as regards to the fee for the
player if Arsenal desired to make the deal permanent at the end of the season
with Madrid holding out for €14million and later compromise was
reached.
This new development leaves a sour taste in the mouth as I wonder
if details for the loan deal had not been sorted before that of the permanent
option was discussed. And if that was the case, when compromise was later
reached, is player wages the last thing to be ironed out when discussing a loan
deal. Am going to pretend like I don’t know anything about player transfers
(which I actually don’t except the ones I do on football manager) but in
negotiating a loan deal, or any deal for the matter, is money not supposed to
be the first thing that would be thrashed out? How much each party is entitled
to and for how long? What bonuses would be included in the deal and by how
much? Like I said I don’t know anything about transfers and for the deal to be
declared as “almost done” only for money to be the stumbling block in the final
minute, its safe to assume that money is the last thing to be discussed when
negotiating a transfer.
This morning I have decided to console myself with an old Aesop
fable: The Fox and The Grapes
Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging on a vine but was unable to though he leapt with all his strength and might. As he walked away frustratingly, he said ‘you are not even ripe yet. I don’t need any sour grapes anyway’.
Basing my reasoning on this wise old tale, we can turn our
backs on Sahin and assume that he was not going to be a good player for us
anyway. He was going to flop and probably break a leg in his first game (not
wishing him any ill-luck).
To team news now and it seems that Laurent Koscielny will
miss the trip to Stoke City but The Ox should be fit. Personally, I wont mind
having Per Mertesacker in the squad for the game because of the high number of long
balls that are sure to be punted into our box. Those cretins. I hope they have
the common sense not to boo Ramsey on Sunday but they are cretins so don’t expect
them to have common sense.
The Stoke City game at the Britannia is one that am glad we
are getting off our backs earlier in the season as its one of those fixtures
that are usually set in the middle of the second half of every season and due
to the physical nature of the opponents it always leaves a physical wear on the
team.
I expect almost the same the same team that filed out
against Sunderland to face Stoke but with The Ox making the bench instead of
Arshavin (cant believe that dude is still at the club). The team has had the
whole week to prepare ahead for this fixture and I expect that the lack of
creative inventiveness and not moving the ball around fast enough that was
pointed to as the cause for not winning against Sunderland would have been addressed
to some extent and I hope to see more chances created there. Giroud would
probably start due to his physical presence in the box and am sure that would
give their defenders something to keep them busy though am not expecting any
miracles from him. He might have bullied defenders in France but playing Stoke
at the Britannia is definitely one test he is yet to take and it will be
interesting to see how he fares on that one (that's assuming he starts).
That's all for now folks, hoping we get all the 3 points on
offer on Sunday to kick out title challenge to life. Be back next week for
another one
God bless the Arsenal. Iree o
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