Cesc to leave… Nasri to follow?

So rumours are hotting up about Cesc Fabregas and his much mooted move away from the club. Manchester City have thrown their hat in the ring in typical nouveau riche fashion. Mancini said Cesc is his ideal man, they told Arsenal that in no uncertain terms last summer and if the Spaniard is as unhappy as he looks, who’s to say he wouldn’t consider it?

Actually… I think that’s a bit far fetched, though the point is, if he wants to leave and Barcelona don’t have the cash, then someone at Arsenal would have to give him his options. Madrid… or City.

No one else could begin to approach the asking price. I’m hoping that our captain is a man of honour, I hope he keeps the faith for one more year but I’m not putting my money on either situation. I was told he’d probably stay… Though I do wonder how much resolve the board room money junkies would show if Barca waved £45million in their direction.

There is no point in keeping him for another season if he’s unhappy. I predicted last year there would be loads of niggly injuries this year and there was… can we afford to have a half assed captain leading us next year?

Probably not… Though from a PR perspective can Stan Kroenke afford his first summer to be a footballing catastrophe?

That leads nicely onto our next problem.

Samir Nasri.

Now, I don’t really know much about the Frenchman and his personality. I feel he’s a bit flaky from watching him on the pitch. He’s a top player, but sadly for us, he’s not the only good player we have so we haven’t had the chance to bribe him with a captaincy yet.

Putting sentiment for my club aside, if it was me, I’d wait to find out what Cesc was doing before I committed to a long term contract. I’d be mindful that long-term means you give control back to the club and I’d be aware how much money I could make elsewhere next season if I didn’t sign up.

This is where Arsenal have to be Steve Bould.

We have to put deadline on this contract or we have to sell him. The deadline has to be the end of June so we can replace him and give the new guy time to settle in. We can’t afford a Flamini type scenario… which played out in similar, ‘don’t worry about it, I’ll sign up’ fashion.

Talking of French players, Karim Benzema’s agent has refuted speculation the Frenchman will be joining Arsenal. Well, it’s early in the summer, I’m pretty sure RvDV stated he’d never join Spurs last summer, so I’m keeping the faith.

I hope we really did enquire because he’s the sort of player we should be looking at. Shunned by Madrid but clearly massively talented. He’s built for the Premiership and in the right environment, I think he’d thrive.

Lazio and QPR are reportedly interested in landing Chamakh for £9million. If that sort of money is on offer, we should take it and put it towards a decent striker. It hasn’t worked out since a promising start to his career. If he’s not fit enough to last past February, he’s not Arsenal material. The fact we waited 3 years to sign him makes it all the more disappointing.

I read @OptaJoe stat that Arsenal are the only Premiership side not to have scored a goal at home from outside of the box. This wouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has watched us at home this year. To score from long-range, you first need to shoot. We don’t shoot. Wenger has beaten it out of the players. That is a shame and yet another problem that has been obvious this year yet never rectified.

If Arsenal.com floats your boat, website favourite Emmanuel Frimpong is once again featuring on the home page. Can you feel the future seducing you? Are you fantasising about a young Claude Makelele curing all our problems next year? If you are… Wenger has project youthed you (kind of like murking, you know, that feeling you’d get if Rio Ferdinand outsmarted you). Don’t fall for it. Frimpong isn’t going to be ready for at least 4 more years. To think he will is naive and unfair and it’ll only end in, ‘well, he’ll be a better player for it next year.’

Right… I’m done, see you in the comments and in case you’re wondering, Geoff is fine, he weathered the Murcia earthquake and he’s probably grouting tiles as we speak. My thoughts go out to those who lost their lives in yesterdays, mother nature really is a spiteful bitch…no doubt about that.

Posted from my iPhone (oh yes)

P.S. If you have 5 minutes, check out Football and Social Media, the site collates teams facebook fans and followers. We’re top of the league for twitter, almost doubling Liverpool’s total at 630,000, sadly though, we’re only 2nd in the Facebook table. Please take time out laugh at Spurs on both accounts… big club? Do me a favour…

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Filed under: New Review Tagged: Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Frimpong, Flamini, Football, Murcia, Premiership, RvDV, Samir Nasri, social media, Steve Bould