Well good morning party people!
So, yesterday we saw the first elimination of Poland and Russia in Euro 2012, and I have to say I’m surprised that the Russian’s went out. With so many great players and Andre Arshavin on top form (Obviously playing in a Russian shirt suits the mercurial maestro better than an Arsenal shirt), Russia where everyone’s pick to qualify for the next stages. However, we now get to see everyone’s favourite team Greece (not) get eliminated against either Germany, or Holland, or Portugal, or Denmark. I have to say I’m not a fan of the Greek team; their football is boring and I’m happy that they’ll be going out in the next round – I’m sure Angela Merkel will be very pleased to see that in some way she can get her revenge on the Greeks, even if it is through sport and not austerity.
Tonight we’ll find out if Germany or Holland or Portugal or Denmark go through to the next round and I still believe that Holland will scrape through. I don’t know why I think that, I just have this little niggly feeling. Their camp is all of the place at the moment, but they still have some world class players that can get them out of trouble, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to the pressure tonight.
On to all things Arsenal, and we have a few little tit bits coming out from the French camp about a couple of players we’ve been linked with since what feels like forever. Oliver Giroud is being understandably cagey about his future, and told assorted media so, saying “It’s nice that people talk about me but I can’t talk about my future right now.” – I like the sound of this guy. He doesn’t seem to want to be in the limelight much and appears quite humble. Compare that to the attention seeking whore that is Eden Hazard and it is quite refreshing. The only thing we need to see now is the announcement on the Arsenal website. Come on Arsene, let’s wrap this one up soon so we can all get on with our lives, and look for the next set of areas we need to strengthen in. Which appears to be defensive midfield if the quotes from Rennes midfield enforcer M’Villa are to believed.
The man Yann was quoted in some sections of the press having said “I like Arsenal and I like the Premier League but I don’t know what is happening with the clubs, though. But I would be interested in the Premier League – and Arsenal.” sounds very familiar and is similar to the noises made by Nasri and Gervhino before they were officially announced as Arsenal players. I was beginning to think this move probably wouldn’t happen as each day moves on, but these quite wi no doubt increase the speculation, and a player wouldn’t make comments like this unless a) he was getting closer to a move, or perhaps more cynically b) he was looking for an improved contract from his current club. I don’t think Rennes can match some of the big European clubs financial muscle, so it will probably be the former of the two scenarios that we see played out.
What I think has helped Arsenal’s situation is the injury M’Villa sustained that has kept him out of the first two games. I’m not sure if he’s due back into the French first eleven for the game on Tuesday, but the less game time he gets in these Euro’s, the less that clubs like City, Madrid, United or Chelski have of sniffing around him. Hopefully a deal can be done, we hear of Robin’s desire to stay and we can start this season with a bit more stability than the steaming turd that was last years transfer torture.
Not really a lot else happening today so I’ll leave it there and ‘catch ya on tha flip side’ as these young kids would say – if we had a time machine to travel back to the mid eighties.
Adios.
