Сегодня футбольный клуб "Арсенал" подтвердил даты проведения двух товарищеских матчей, которые состоятся в июле этого года в Австрии.

"Арсенал" - "Штурм" Грац
21 июля 2010 года, среда
21:00 (время московское)

Стадион "UPC-Arena", Грац, Австрия

"Арсенал" - "Нойзидль 1919"
27 июля 2010 года, вторник
21:00 (время московское)

Стадион " Sportzentrum Neusiedl ", Нойзидль-ам-Зее, Австрия

Защитник "Арсенала" Сол Кэмпбелл заявил, что ждёт назначения на пост главного тренера "Селтика" Нила Леннона, чтобы определиться по поводу своего будущего на "Эмирейтс".

35-летний футболист добавил, что главный тренер "Арсенала" Арсен Венгер предложил ему продлить соглашение на 1 год, однако по слухам игрок желает получить контракт на 2 года, который готовы предложить ему в Глазго.

Переезд Кэмпбэлла в шотладскую Премьер Лигу зависит от того, займет ли Нил Леннон место главного тренера "Селтика" на постоянной основе (прим. ред на данный момент Леннон является и.о. главного тренера).Сам защитник утверждает, что предпочел бы остаться в "Арсенале".

Ветеран "Арсенала" сказал шотландскому изданию британской газеты The Sun: "Я жду как разрешится ситуация с назначения Нила в Селтике".

"Когда мы в последний раз говорили, он дал понять, что ждёт меня в команде, если станет тренером. Я хотел бы совершить поездку в Глазго и осмотреться, понять, что происходит. Я оставлю право выбора за собой, не буду торопиться с принятием решения".

Он добавил: "Я счастлив подождать и дать Нилу шанс, я проявлю должное уважение по отношению к "Арсеналу" и "Селтику".

Агент голкипера Киевского "Динамо" Александра Шовковского Шандор Варга рассказал, что английский Арсенал присматривается к 10 голкиперам, и один среди них - Шовковский.

"Из Арсенала у меня спрашивали, будет ли Саша играть с Норвегией, хотели поехать его посмотреть", — говорит Варга.

"Последние 2—3 года у "Канониров" проблема с вратарем. До конца лета они точно купят кипера. Но смотрят не только Сашу, а около 10 вратарей. Возраст Шовковского — 35 лет — позволяет ему отыграть в Англии лет пять. Динамо, в случае предложения, должно его отпустить. Но переговоров еще нет".

Руководство "Арсенала" положило глаз на голкипера "Вест Хэма" и сборной Англии Роберта Грина, сообщает sportbox.ru со ссылкой на Daily Mirror.

"Пушкари" намерены выложить за вратаря 6 миллионов евро.

В минувшем чемпионате Англии Грин провёл за "молотобойцев" все 38 матчей, в которых пропустил 66 мячей.

В настоящее время футболист находится в ЮАР, где в расположении национальной команды готовится к чемпионату мира.

Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Tiraud insists there has been no approach for Yoann Gourcuff after reports linked the midfielder with Arsenal.

Gourcuff, who will represent France at the World Cup in South Africa when it gets under way next Friday, has been rumoured as a potential replacement for Cesc Fabregas at the Emirates should the Spaniard move back to Barcelona.

Tiraud, however, has denied receiving any offers for the 23-year-old, and refused to comment further on the speculation.

"I'm not going to comment on anything from the English newspapers," Tiraud said in L'Equipe.

"Today, I have received no offer for Gourcuff or anybody else for that matter. We know what the English tabloids are like.

"Fabregas was going to Barcelona, everything was done, and I just saw (Arsenal boss Arsene) Wenger say that Fabregas will stay in London. I will not be drawn into this game."

Barcelona president Joan Laporta is still hopeful of persuading Arsenal to part with Cesc Fabregas despite having a 35million offer for the Spain international rejected this week.

The 23-year-old is under contract to Arsenal until the summer of 2015 but last month expressed his desire to head back to the Nou Camp at a promotional event in the Catalan capital. Barca are keen to make that wish become reality, and on Tuesday submitted a written offer to Arsenal that Laporta has said was worth 35million euros.

"It's a price that we consider to be his market value. Arsenal have rejected it. Now the sporting director (Txiki Begiristain) must decide what should be the next step," Laporta was quoted as saying by Spanish daily AS.

"We are in negotiations and we'll see how they turn out. At times, these operations are resolved at one speed, and others at another.

"We have to do everything we can to convince them (Arsenal) that the best thing for all is to reach an agreement."

The outgoing Barca president remains optimistic the Primera Division champions will be able to secure the services of the Arsenal skipper, but admits it may not be easy persuading the Gunners to let their prize asset leave.

"The club have full confidence that Arsenal will end up understanding the situation," Laporta was quoted as saying on his club's website.

2009-10 player ratings: Goalkeepers
It's the end of another season and although football is a team game, I feel some player ratings are necessary to highlight the obvious deficiencies in this team.

Full details of how the rating system (out of ten) works are here, but essentially, 6 is average, 8 is excellent and anything below 5 is pretty abysmal.

Manuel Almunia: 6 (8.5)

Sometimes using clean sheet statistics can be somewhat crude. For a keeper can have a brilliant game - like say Marcus Hahnemann did when Wolves came to play us - and not get a clean sheet, and yet Fabianski was credited with one in the home game against Man City without really doing anything.

But the point I want to make here is two-fold: first, Almunia made 19 clean sheets in 2008-9 compared to just thirteen in the season which has just finished. But more pertinently, those 19 clean sheets were as well as conceding a series of wonder goals which were just downright unfortunate. So in a sense it is a double whammy - not only have Arsenal conceded more goals this season, not only did Almunia keep far fewer clean sheets, but couple that with the fact that it wasn't as if the goals he c0nceded were of the highest caliber and it all points to a goalkeeper who isn't quite good enough.

I think what Almunia has shown with his patchy form over the last two years is that he is good enough to be a back-up keeper but he has been promoted above his station. Whether he would want to go back to bench-warming is something I can only speculate about. But what I can declare unequivocally, is that Manuel Almunia should not be Arsenal no.1 next season.

Lukasz Fabianski 5 (6)

In a sense I think Fabianski has been a little hard done by. Very few keepers could have coped with the aerial bombardment Sam Allardcye' team of thugs put in for 90 minutes without dropping one cross.

But that only happened because of the perception (and reality) that Fabianski can't deal with crosses. And that is the big problem with Fabianski. He's a good shot-stopper and he's made a couple of gaffes but aside from crosses he isn't a dreadful keeper. That still isn't enough though, because the opposition can just exploit his weakness ruthlessly.

Frankly, I can't see Arsenal making any money from selling Fabianski this summer and supposedly he is always excellent in training. It makes sense to loan him out and give him a chance to rebuild his confidence. That said, I can't see a long-term future for him at Arsenal.

Vito Mannone 7 (6.5)

Mannone put in probably the one stand-out outstanding performance by an Arsenal goalkeeper this season against Fulham. On a larger scale it highlights the problem: none of the goalkeepers have consistently won us matches or even kept us in them.

Mannone's future is bright: as well as having an important role in the UN security council (Vito, geddit?) he has shown himself to be a competent keeper. He made a mistake against West Ham but that is only natural amongst young keepers. My only doubt is that he has never played particularly inspiringly for the reserves but that may just be my perception. But he's a young keeper who needs to go out on loan and play forty games and develop his game. It is testament to the paucity of goalkeeping options at Arsenal that he has been forced to play.

Wojciech Szczesny 7.5 (N/A)

He put in an excellent performance in the Carling Cup against Liverpool. From what I've heard he did very well on loan at Brentford and has enormous potential. But he's just turned 20. He's not ready for first-team football at Arsenal and that's the bottom line.

Conclusion: There is far more hope for Szczesny and Mannone than Fabianski or Almunia. But despite my protestations this time last year, goalkeeper is the one position we really must invest in.