According to manager Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s healthy financial situation was what made the club turn down Barcelona’s offers for captain Cesc Fabregas.

Speaking to The Observer, the Frenchman started by talking about his future, saying how extending his contract with the North London Club would mean staying at Arsenal for the rest of his managerial career. Wenger, 60, added how he had many offers from different clubs but has always been loyal to the Gunners.

Wenger has one year left on his contract with Arsenal and will make a decision on his future although he said he has absolutely no desire to leave the Premiership.

Asked about Cesc Fabregas, the Frenchman said how Arsenal have no need to sell their best players as they are in a healthy financial situation and they want to keep their best players. In a club statement published by the club’s official website last week, the Spaniard said how he is fully committed to Arsenal as he will try to win his fitness battle to feature this Sunday against Liverpool.

On his future, Wenger said:

Quote:

I am at a stage where if I extend my contract it means I will finish my career at club level at Arsenal. If I go for a different challenge – I have been offered many challenges you know – it has to be now. That’s a decision I have to make. But basically, I have no desire to change from here. I have one more year, and we are maybe thinking about extending it. What people do not realise is we can say no to anybody in the world because we are in a healthy financial situation. If we are £300million in debt, we cannot keep our best players. People have to understand that we were strong with the Fabregas case because we are well managed. We could afford to be strong, we can afford to say no to any number, because we just feel we want to keep our best players.

A Chinese government fund (China Investment Corp) supposedly represented by Kenny Huang has, apparently, being selling off share assets to raise exactly the amount of money that Liverpool Insolvency is in debt to the banks: £351.4m.  (That’s not actually the full debt, but it is the debt that RBS and the American bank in league with them want back in any deal involving buying the club).

Does that sound funny?  Try this one. A Chinese spokesman for CIC said that it was quite untrue that CIC were interested in buying the Insolvents.

Or this one

“Huang is backed by one of the wealthiest investment funds in the Far East and is well known in China for his interests in baseball and basketball, last year buying a 15% stake in the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. He was first linked with a buy-out at Liverpool two years ago but believes now is the time to make his move.” (The Guardian)

Or this one

The Chinese businessman seeking to to take over Liverpool categorically denied last night that the Chinese state government was financing the bid in any way, though he insisted that he would table between £400m and £450m to secure the club’s future.” (The Independent)

Or this one

“He was previously reported to be buying a stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team in the United States, but that deal seems to have fallen through.” (The BBC)

Find a story about this guy, and you will find another story denying it.  Here’s one: Huang bypassed the owners of the Insolvents and did a deal with RBS. “By going to RBS you can leverage a large amount of pressure that no one else can on the owners,” an ‘insider’ said to the Guardian. “It is a deal which has no interest in shareholders, meaning there will be no profit for Hicks and Gillett.”

Meanwhile Gillett informed RBS that he is in advanced negotiations with the Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi. Anyway that may just be a misprint for Kolo’s brother.

So maybe it is true, maybe not.  I think not because of this: Huang (according to a dozen papers) wants a deal that has to go through in the next week so the manager will have time to buy players… which is nice and cheery for fans of the Liverpool Reds as Tom Hicks called them when he bought them.  But it doesn’t say much for due diligence.  This is a company whose auditors refused to sign off the last lot of accounts, and whose bankers turfed out their chairman to put in a Chelsea season ticket holder.  It is a club in a dire mess, and the thought of doing due diligence in 10 days is semi-skimmed.

Then there’s a private equity gang called The Rhone Group.  They were sniffing around in the spring, but didn’t go forward then, but word on the street is….  oh who cares.  It is all made up.

Let’s go back to China, where there is a notion that the state’s bankers have just sold exactly the right amount of shares to be able to buy the club.  Supposing they do – then what?  Liverpool is a selling club, bringing in free transfers and low cost buys, and yet the current manager seems to be holding on to the notion that money will come through.  (Oh and do you remember Jamie Redknapp saying on Sky that Liverpool had £35m to spend this summer on transfers?)

So if the Chinese take over, where is the transfer money coming from?  All they are looking to do is to wipe out the bank borrowing.  At the amount being talked about there is no money for paying off other debts, for buying players, for starting work on the new ground….

Now none of this would be complete without Keith Harris who seems to advise people on selling dead-beat clubs and buying the club that is just about to be “very big, very big indeed”.

He said the Insolvents were worth more than the £350m debt – which is a bit strange since he doesn’t represent Liverpool but represents another buyer.  Maybe he knows a man who…

So when we get to a list of six possible bids for Liverpool, and start looking in depth, they seem to start slipping and sliding away.  I am not sure there actually are six bids, or five, nor even four, not three, and two of the remaining two look a bit funny.

Of course if the Chinese do buy Liverpool they will have to submit themselves to a fit and proper persons’ test.  Which raises a question: is the People’s Republic of China a fit and proper person?  I spent a few weeks there a couple of years back, and was amazed and impressed, but I never actually got to ask the President of the Republic one or two questions that were on my mind about his fitness for running a football club.

It is an important point since new all spanky clean and shiny new are now in force.  You are supposed to be able to see the beneficial owners on the club’s web site.

Now the Chinese have a reputation for being inscrutable, so maybe they are already working in preparation for the moment they have to declare themselves owners. If so, their trial run comes with the Leeds United web site which says…

“LUFC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leeds City Holdings Limited (‘LCH’).

“LCH has five shareholders, four of these hold 27.15% collectively with no one of these holding more than 10% of the issued shares.

“FSF Limited (a company incorporated in Nevis) holds 102,000,000 or 72.85% of the issued shares.

“Chateau Fiduciaire SA (‘the trustee’) is the legal owner of the shares in FSF Limited. The trustee is a fully regulated Swiss Fiduciary providing professional trust and corporate services to clients worldwide.

“FSF Limited has 10,000 shares that are held on behalf of 3 separate and independent discretionary trusts (‘the trusts’). Two of the trusts hold 3,333 shares each and the other holds 3,334. The trustee is the duly appointed trustee of the trusts and manages them independently. The class of beneficiaries in each trust are entirely discretionary, they are not identical and can only be identified by the potential nature of any benefit.

“FSF Limited was incorporated purely for the purpose of the trusts’ investments in LCH. These are not the trusts’ only interests. The trusts have no other interest in any football club.”

OK that’s clear then. It wasn’t Ken Bates after all.  And good to know that the Fit and Proper Person’s Test means something in Gibberish, because it sure don’t mean nothing in English.  Good tough fighting work from the football league there, properly arranged to give us poor fans a clue as to what is going on.

So if RBS decides to turn down Huang’s proposal, or if it turns out he runs a rather nice little restaurant in Market Harborough and not a basketball team after all, RBS still it has the option of calling in the loan in October. It would then be classed as “distressed debt” and that, as they say, would be more or less that.

Kop Football (Holdings) would be directly owned by RBS and run as a part of the bank which is itself owned by taxpayers in the UK.  In other words it would be nationalised just as RBS is.  With the owners not able to provide any more guarantees they would be thrown off the board.  The bank would then deal with the matter directly.

That means that citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will own the club.  We will all have to be vetted as fit and proper persons – and I am rather worried about the bloke at the end of our street.

Still, a bit of power could be fun, and I shall be there exercising my rights to have an opinion over a football club I partly own.

Fancy buying an apartment on some land just close  to Everton’s ground, anyone?

I’m chomping at the bit to see the new Premiership season kick off. With the World Cup over in South Africa a well organised event, but a, well, shit tournament, it’ll be tantamount to the euphoric joy one experiences during the throes of sexual ecstasy when the real business of football kicks off – without those awkward moments where you have to dispose of the condom and endure ‘pillow chat’.

Yet, certain things are painfully inevitable. We all know they’re going to happen.

The following list is one I’ve devised; it incorporates the things I’m certain we can expect from Premiership 2010/2011.
At some point, Didier Drogba will power his way through 2 burly central defenders without breaking sweat, only to fall over in agony when mildly brushed against by someone half his size in the penalty area.
Arsenal will win 1-0 having missed somewhere in the region of 234,614 simple chances.
A Barcelona player will demand justice for Arsenal’s Spanish ‘hostage’.
The Spuds will royally fuck up their European quest for glory.
Ashley Cole will be outed as a flaming homosexual and full-on scene raver.
Alex Ferguson will look like a vagabond with an alcohol problem in interviews.
Arsene Wenger will not see something everyone else did.
Joleon Lescott will continue to be shit.
Steven Gerrard will either kill a hooker or get caught having sex with Peter Crouch.
Somebody casually walking to the touchline will out-do Jamie Carragher for pace.
Nicklas Bendtner will miss an open goal.
Darren Fletcher will continue hacking opposing players to pieces, and will only receive a caution from the Ref once he’s emptied a full magazine of rounds from a Kanashlikov into someone.
A blatant penalty will not be given to the visitors at Old Trafford unless Darren Fletcher does the previously stated.
Blackpool will be relegated.

A lot of supporters have a difficult time in this transfer window and say that we have gone backwards and have lost a lot of players and mostly in defence and this was the point where we suffered the most last season. So let us have a look at it in detail and see who has left and what they meant for us in the last season. When I talk in this article about games played I only took the games played in the league.

So let us start by the defenders that have left us:

William Gallas was the most important defender who played 26 games in the league and he scored 3 goals for us. And yes to be fair he had maybe one of his best seasons for Arsenal. He played strongly, defended strongly and he also scored a few goals so we could be satisfied with this. The only negative point is that he got injured in February and this was somewhat the end of his season. So to replace him we need someone who can play a lot of games.

Silvestre also left us this summer and last season he played 12 games in total in the league for Arsenal. And he scored 1 goal. I think it is fair to say he was the most disliked player in Arsenal by most of the fans. His United heritage was lying as a shadow over him and he never could win the hearts of the Arsenal fans. His passing of the ball was not good enough. Defensively he was not that bad but I don’t think there are a lot fans who have thrown away their Arsenal shirt and would never support us again  after it became known that he had left us. I think it will be more the contrary, most fans are relieved that he is gone.

The third one that left us is Sol Campbell who played a total of 11 games and didn’t score for us last season. I admit that he worked his socks off, battled with all what was left inside of him but was he still good enough? He was our 4th or 5th choice centre back and he did what he could and showed his great heart and determination. But he was never the Campbell we knew from the time when he played for us before this spell.

I even wrote an article on him and Silvestre in the last games of the season and pointed out that when they played together we conceded lots of goals and our passing from the back was very poor. We couldn’t bring up the ball to the midfield and therefore lost a lot of balls and couldn’t keep control of the games. We all will  have him in our hearts but do we really, if we take away the sympathy we have for him, think he could be better this season? I really doubt it to be honest.

And finally we lost Senderos. He played no games for us in the league at all. So I think it is fair to say we will not miss him.

So we lost in total four centre backs who played in total 49 games in the league. An average of 12 games per player. And if we try to look at it in a fair way, only one player of those four was really a first team player. And he missed one third of the season because of injury.

The other thing we can ask ourselves if we really can say we lost Senderos in the summer? I think he was lost before that as he didn’t play one single game for us in the last two seasons. How can you count Senderos as a loss as he didn’t play for us at all? So I think we only lost 3 defenders and this means an average of some 16 games for the three of them.

So who do we have in their place?

Let us start by the player who cost us most money so far Koscielny. We will not know how good he really is until the season is over. But as I pointed out he was one of the best defenders in the French Ligue 1 last season. And we have seen him do a great job in the games he played so far and certainly in the Emirates cup against Milan, where he showed a bit of what he can do.

But if we want to make a comparison we can only look at the statistics of last year. And he played 35 games of the 38 games in the league in France. He had a little injury in the other games and it is fair to say that otherwise he would have played all the games. Maybe he could have missed a game because he got a red card in a cup game but I’m not sure on this.

At first sight then he looks like a player that is not injury prone and can stay fit in a season. He also scored 3 goals in the league so this is the same as Gallas. Will he be as good as Gallas? We don’t know but if we look at his statistics it looks that he could be a fitter player than Gallas and could be playing more games if needed than Gallas.

Another new, but not completely new player is Nordtveit. Last year on loan in Germany he played 19 games in the Bundesliga. And the Bundesliga is not an easy competition. It is one of the better leagues in Europe and a tough one.  For a young player Nordtveit played a lot of games for a side that was struggling to stay in the league last season. He was injured for a while but when he was fit he got enough games under his belt. He did rather well if we think of his age. And also in the pre-seasons game he performed on a high level so far.  I think this is a player who can be counted on when the first choice players are injured.

Another player we have as centre back is Djourou. Wenger believed in him at the start of last season. And it was a disappointment that he got his injury and lost the whole season.

So if we take it in total we have 3 new or somewhat new players and they had a total of 54 games and an average of 18 games last season.

We lost 3 defenders all above 30 years old and most of them over the top of their career and now we have three new defenders who are younger and who should be at the start of the best period in their career.

If Wenger brings in one more centre back I think we have gained, if we compare the set up to the last season. And Arsenal and Wenger have said that they are looking for at least one more centre back in this transfer window.  For the moment I think it is a bit balanced. 3 out, 3 in. The thing we don’t know is how those 3 players will react to the season and if they will stay free of injuries.

So on paper I see no reason to panic about the players we have at our disposal. Saying we have lost players in defence is not correct if you ask me. But one more centre back would be welcomed by me and I believe by most of the fans. After all we are Arsenal and injuries have never been far away in recent  seasons.

Yesterday’s match in Poland against Legia Warsaw still has me scratching my head wondering, “What the hell was that?” Some have suggested that yesterday’s 6-5 victory over a team that finished 4th in the Poland encapsulated both the positives and negatives of the current side. We can score a ton of goals, but we also concede a ton. (Highlights on the right).

Of course, it’s impossible to judge a team based on pre-season results against lesser sides, as Arsene has said. However, there is no denying that what we all witnessed yesterday was nothing less than disturbing. And to still be without a 4th center-back, with Anfield a week away, is even more disturbing. A Liverpool side, revitalized by the arrival of Hodgson, could’ve scored 12 goals against our defense yesterday.

All this is further exacerbated by the keeper problems. Perhaps 1-in-10 Arsenal fans have any confidence in Almunia. Even less in Fabianski. We can all agree that Szczesny is a right prospect but not ready for a title challenge. Arsene must’ve been hoping that Fabianski would put the past behind him and put in solid enough performances over the pre-season to quiet criticism of the keeping situation especially as Fulham continued to rebuff his interest in Mark Schwarzer. Instead Fabianski goes out tripping over his own defender’s leg in front of his hometown crowd. He just doesn’t seem to have ever been able to put Porto behind him.

Nasri continues to shine to the point where it almost seems wrong to push him out of that central role when Cesc returns. Gibbs also appears to be getting back to his best. While many seem happy that Gibbs and Wilshere have been called up to the England squad for the most meaningless and inopportune of friendlies, I can honestly say that I’d rather they hadn’t been.



I can’t conclude this post without mentioning the criticism of the official website over the Spahic article. It is without a doubt hypocritical on the club’s part and embarrassing. This is most embarrassing because the article has an Arsenal player, Bacary Sagna, talking about another club’s player. But this isn’t something happening for the first time. It’s been going on all summer long with these ridiculous “Transfer Linked” articles. Since the summer started, I have been unable to understand just exactly what an official website is doing posting things like that. How can we complain about Barca’s players talking about Cesc when we have linked ourselves with 20 players on our own website since May? It’s obviously such bullshit anyway because anyone who knows Wenger knows that he would never let the club put a news article about a player he’s interested in on the website. That would only drive up the price further or, worse, alienate the other club into not dealing with us. So, please Arsenal.com, do us all a favor and remove the entire section and all the articles from the official website.

The Stuttgart defender Serdar Tasi has been linked with a move to Arsenal ever since Arsene Wenger stated that he was still on the lookout for a strong centre-half to add to the Gunners squad, and the 23 year-old is keen for the rumours to become fact!

Sport.co.uk has issued an exclusive report after talking to a “source” close to Tasci, saying that he has had contact with Tottenham, but he would much rather work with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.

The “source close to the player” was reported as saying: “He has a long term contract but if Arsenal made an offer he would consider it. They are a great club wtih a great manager, but there is no contact at the moment. Tottenham have shown interest, but not Arsenal.”

Although there has been no reported contact, perhaps Wenger should look a bit more closely at Tasci now that he has dropped such a big hint?

England coach Fabio Capello has hinted that Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs should be prepared to leave Arsenal on loan if they want to continue their international future.

Wilshere and Gibbs were both named in the England squad to face Hungary later this week despite not being first choice for Arsene Wenger’s first-team. Capello suggested Wilshere is only in the squad on the back of his performances during a spell with Bolton Wanderers last season, and said it is a worry that the countries most promising players aren’t regulars for their clubs.

“Yes it is a worry because players need to play. It is important to play on a regular basis because it is easier to monitor their development. Wilshere played last year at Bolton and now he’s here, the same with Joe Hart. The players need to play”

Wenger has turned down the advances of several Premier League clubs and will consider Wilshere as part of his first-team plans for the new season. However, Capello has told told Jack, Kieran and other members of the England team they should consider leaving their current employers if they’re not first choice and they wish to continue their international futures.