When you look through the Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United squads you see that they are full of players in their late twenties or early thirties, they are at the stage that we were in after the 2004 season

Good afternoon to all you out there,

How you holding up with the prospect of no Arsenal? Well I am not doing great about it to be honest, I am already fed up and we are not even close until the boys set back on the pitch again.

Mixed news going around regarding Emmanuel Adebayor, it appears that he is in line to start for Togo, even though he hasn’t kicked a first team ball in anger since he limped out against Tottenham on the 8th February 2009. Depending on what state his hamstring is in a first team match might be something that can benefit us as apposed to being a hindrance.

Togo coach Jean Thissen seems pretty clear that Adebayor isn’t just there for being a pretty face, although I be a little concerned if Mr Thissen would call up a player for that purpose.

Thissen said:

“Adebayor hasn’t joined up with us in Lome for nothing,” said the Belgian. “He is here to play against Cameroon. He is the main man with the national team, my captain, and the nation can count on him. He is a wonderful player who has always given his best for the country, so he will be a boost to the squad as this is a huge match for Togo.”

I suppose you have to look at it from the International managers view, they do not give two hoots about what happens to a players club, they look after themselves and picking your best team and winning games is the only way to look after yourself as a football manager at any level.

The domestic vs International row will continue to go on unless there are some radical changes made to the structure of football at present.

However Adebayor has come out and has ruined the tabloids ‘Wenger and Adebayor rift’ story but telling everyone that there is actually no problem whatsoever.

Adebayor said:

“I am surprised that this issue has taken this dimension in the media in England because it is not an issue at all, My boss Arsene Wenger gave me the permission to come here to play for my country and if I didn’t have his blessing I wouldn’t be here.

“I will play for my country on Saturday and I am certain that I will not be in trouble when I return to England.”

Its ok though, because the media are doing their very best to go around through our squad and sell them off to different clubs.

Next up is a £35 million bid from AC Milan in the summer. Oh sorry, I forgot the ‘according to reports in Italy’ part.

Carlo Ancelotti is not only thinking about or considering he is actually lining it up which is wonderful news. AC Milan must have some serious cash to throw around with that kind of bid. I suppose getting Flamini on free and Senderos on loan shows they have a busting war chest.

The Media ping pong game continues as Adebayor’s agent claims that his client will be staying put at Arsenal.

Vicenzo Morabito said:

“He is an Arsenal player and extended his contract with the club last summer. Since then there has been no new contact with Milan,” he told calciomercato.it. The negotiations last summer never came to fruition and everything is over on that front.

“Wenger relies heavily on the player. The opportunity for him to move to Milan was last summer, but in the end, Milan signed Ronaldinho instead. Adebayor was very close to Milan at that point.”

Interesting last part of the quote. So if Milan had decided that they wanted Adebayor instead, was a deal already tied up?

Adebayor was a big talking point in an article that Squid Boy wrote yesterday called If 4-2-3-1 is our future, who should be ‘The One’ ?. If you missed it yesterday then click the name, its well worth a read.

Emmanuel Adebayor has been critised more than usual this season, which is quite often considering that he got a fair bit of stick even during a very personal successful season last season.

It is true that he has not reached the dizzy heights of last season when he was running top defenders ragged, many are suggesting that he is not at his best because of his new contract yet those same people dismiss Cesc’s form pre injury as Denilson’s fault.

I believe that the reason why Adebayor, Cesc, Gallas, Toure and Clichy’s form was down to a young team who were finding their feet. We havehad a team who were getting used to each other and adjusting to a new way of playing. Do not forget that this is the first full season at the club for Denilson, Song, Nasri and Walcott. Stick a legend like Bergkamp in a team full of players who are developing and you will not see the best of him.

The difference in this latter part of the season is that those young players have found their feet and they know what they can produce, it is no longer new for those players to play infront of huge pressure that surrounds the Emirates stadium. They appear at ease with themselves now.

I now look at our options and strength in depth and cannot see past us winning major trophies, if not this season then next season.

In the summer when Flamini and Hleb left the club I still thought we could win the league because of our first team, behind that we had a load of promising kids. Injuries took many key first teamers away from us for large parts of the season and that was the end of our league ambitions, but long term this has done the squad the world of good.

Had Rosicky (as originally planned), Cesc, Eduardo, Diaby, Walcott and Silvestre *ahem* stayed fit then the likes of Song, Vela, Ramsey, Denilson and perhaps even Nasri would not be at the stage that they current are at.

We no longer have a very good team with a few decent substitutes, we have a deep squad full of players on the up which is a very important factor.

When you look through the Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United squads you see that they are full of players in their late twenties or early thirties, they are at the stage that we were in after the 2004 season. The likes of Giggs, Scholes, Neville, Van der Sar and Ferdinand cannot go on forever and the same goes for Chelsea and Liverpool. Those teams will have to do some rebuilding of their very own as Manchester United had to do during Chelsea’s successful period.

I wouldn’t take any other squad in England ahead of our very own. Call me red tinted or AKB but it is my view.

Robin Van Persie has spoken about his previous desire to join Glasgow Rangers.

Van the man said:

“There was some interest from Rangers when I was at Feyenoord,” Van Persie said. “The problem for me was they didn’t come in and make an offer. I was quite interested because I really wanted to leave my club.

“My European debut was against Rangers at Ibrox and that was a fantastic moment. When I heard about their interest, I sat by the phone hoping it would ring.

“I was in a difficult situation at my club and desperate to leave. Advocaat told me he needed to sell some players before he could buy. That’s why it dragged on and did not happen.”

Would the press dare? Surely they wouldn’t try the ‘Van Persie wants Rangers move’ story. It would be funny though. Lets wait and see.

Right thats about yer’lot, see you in the comments section.

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