It emerged yesterday that Stan Kroenke has increased his stake in the club yet again. His stake now stands at 28.58% and he is getting closer to the stage where he has to make an offer to other shareholders to buy their shares. That limit is set at 30% and he doesn't have very far to go now. He is a fairly media shy man but his personal wealth is estimated to be $3.5 million which he has acquired from his property development company. This figure might be a little out of date as the value of property worldwide has decreased over the last few years but I'm sure he is still worth a pretty penny. He is listed in the Forbes 400 list of the 400 richest Americans and he is joint 105 th on that list at the moment. He has interests in various Sports franchises in America and he is married to Anne Walton whose family own Wal-Mart and are worth an absolute family. He will be 62 years old later this month and that's not too much else that can be said about him. The club weren't interested in him originally but when Usmanov showed up they turned to him fairly quickly as he was by far the lesswe of 2 evils.

In transfer news Cesc is again being linked with both Madrid & Barcelona with Barcelona's president in particular making statements about Cesc being his best option in the current market. I was under the illusion that players under contract could not be approached but obviously the rules don't apply to Barcelona. When will UEFA clamp down on the likes of Barcelona trying to unsettle players through the press? We all know that Platini would prefer to spend his time inventing ways to stop English teams winning the Champions league and signing top class players. It would appear that he has been helped in this task by Alistar Darling who seems to have scared off a lot of top earning foreign players by raising the tax rate to 50% for anyone earning over £150,000 a year. Has anyone else noticed the lack of top class players coming into the Premiership in this transfer window? Another thing that struck me is that Manure don't seem to be able to sign anyone of note. It looks like Madrid have told all clubs that they will beat any offer Manure make for 1 of their players this summer and it will be interesting to see if they can get any good players to replace the ones that left.

Carlos Vela seems to have recovered from his injury scare and he will be available for Mexico's last group match in the Gold Cup. Their last match ended 1-1 with Panama with crowd trouble and a stream of red cards & fights. The latest Arsenal player to say that we will have learned from last season is Aaron Ramsey and I hope they are all right. The Ladies fixtures for next season have been announced and they start off with a home game against Chelsea. That's more or less it for today except to say that I have a barbeque planned for later in the day and it looks like there might be a deluge. Thankfully we will have plenty of beer and food. I was also hoping to go to Oxegen on Sunday to see The Specials but circumstances did not allow it. It now transpires that I have a very good chance of getting 2 VIP passes and if that's the case I will be there for sure.

Here's a clip of Kolo in action for us as I can't remember linking him before.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Simple Minds which is for our possible future sole owner.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Don't forget to sign up to the fantasy football.

LINK

Here's the codes

Oleole League - 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal League - 4383-1835

Oleole Head to Head League(limited to 20 teams) - 4383-1828(10 teams still needed).

And finally don't forget Lady Arse's league which is on her blog today.

LINK 

On The Ball - 4383-1777

The list of fixtures to be televised live by Sky & ESPN up until the end of November has been published and Arsenal will be playing live on the TV 6 times in that period. Out of those 6 games we are away from home in 5 of them and the only home game is against The Spuds. The away games are against Everton, Manure, Fulham, West Ham & Wolves and it's fairly obvious from the choices made that the TV executives see us as a soft target away from home and they are hoping for an upset or 2. As I said a few days ago we have a tough start with 3 of our first 4 games away from home against tough opposition because our 2nd league match of the season, against Bolton, was cancelled due to our Champions league committments.

Our 1st game against Everton on Saturday August 15th has been put back to 5.15 pm and it will be live on ESPN. I just hope that the Strand hotel in Bray has subscribed to ESPN by then and I can join the other members of the supporters club in cheering on Arsenal with the aid of a drink or 2. The good news about so many games being televised away from home is that we will have the majority of our home games at the traditional kick off time of 3pm Saturday afternoon. As a result I will have to look into the possibility of getting over to watch my beloved Gunners on either Saturday September 19th against Wigan or Saturday October 17th against Birmingham. I purposely didn't go to Oxegen this weekend(well on Sunday anyway) to see The Specials as I have promised to make a trip to The Emirates as soon as possible to meet a few fellow Gooners and have a Shandy or 2 whilst watching our team. Missing The Specials is making me sick at the moment but I'll recover. It's made a little tougher by the fact that my 18 year old son left for the festival this morning with his mates for a great weekend. I shared a few drinks(including my litre of Sambuka) with them until the small hours last Friday night and they were all trying to talk me into buying a day pass for Sunday. To say I'm sorely tempted to join them is an understatement and I might still crack. The only thing to keep me on the straight and narrow is the thought of 60,000 people at The Emirates and the bars outside before and afterwards. It's a tough life having to make choices like that.

Back to things Arsenal and the majority of our pre season games will be on ATV on line but not on Arsenal TV. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Setanta are broadcasting Arsenal TV and they are almost extinct at this stage. Cliff Bastin and Frank McLintock will both be inducted to The National Football Museum Hall of Fame along with former Arsenal ladies player Marianne Spacey and 5 other greats of football. The induction takes place on Wednesday September 23rd in London. We are reported to be after Ever Banega of Valencia who is a holding midfielder as is Blaise Matuidi of St. Etienne who we are supposedly also interested in yet again. Leeds turned down offers from 2 Premier league clubs for Faian Delph and we are rumoured to be 1 of those clubs. He does fit the profile for a typical Arsenal signing so we can watch to see if things develop. It looks like Juventus have eventually tied up the signing of Felipe Melo from Fiorentina and as I said yesterday I don't think we were ever in the running at that price. That would appear to be it for today.

Here's a clip of what happened the last time we played at home to Wigan which is a game I might be going to this season. You might have to scroll down the page a little to see the highlights but it was an eventful game. In the highlights Arsenal look good but it was awful on the day. You can see Eboue tackling Kolo and getting booed off at the end. I was there and he deserved it in my opinion even though I didn't take part.

LINK

And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths which comes from my intended destination in September or October.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

ps I've just checked out the price for flights to London for the Wigan game and it's €19 return. The bus to Oxegen is €20 and it takes longer. I think I made the right choice.

pps Don't forget to sign up to my Fantasy Premier League(s). All the details are in yesterday's blog.

I don't normally post more than once in a day but I am making an exception today for the sole purpose of plugging my Fantasy Premier Leagues that I have set up. I have 3 leagues available to anybody on Oleole(or anyone else for that matter) and all you have to do is follow the link below and set up a team. When you have a team set up go to leagues and join a league. Then put in the codes I've given you and Hey Presto you can challenge me and loads of others for bragging rights. It doesn't cost a penny and it helps to bring the football season that little bit closer. Any players you choose can be changed as often as you want before the season starts.

LINK

Oleole league code 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league code 4383-1835

Oleole Head to Head league code 4383-1828(this league can take 20 teams only).

There's another league I have set up for friends & family and the codes for it are on my posts from earlier today & yesterday.

I hope to get as many players as possible as the more players in a league the higher the overall ranking of that league.

See You Tomorrow.

At last the club has confirmed that RVP has signed a new long term deal at the club and everybody is feeling very happy about it. I've always thought that RVP wanted to stay as he had stated in the past as long as we made the right signings. The fact that we have only signed Vermaelen so far does not seem to bother him and he obviously thinks that the squad has what it needs to succeed going forward. The player himself said "My heart is with Arsenal and I just can’t picture myself in a different shirt. I just can’t see it now because I love this Club so much. If you look at the last five years, look at the steps I have made every season, if you look at the support the Boss and the whole Club gave me, the fans gave me, my team mates gave me – this is the right decision." I think he is wearing his heart on his sleeve and it's refreshing to hear a player speak about his club like that in the modern game.

Other news coming out of the club is that the board have rejected the rights issue put forward by Jabba the Hutt. I personally think that the further we are from any suggestion made by him the better for Arsenal. The club have said that they feel that the current model of sustainabilty is a sensible one and too many other clubs have chosen the model proposed by Jabba or something similar and ended up in serious financial trouble. It does mean we won't have fortunes to spend on new players in the immediate future but it also means that we are a lot more stable than the majority of clubs. The club also announced 4 more pre season fixtures between July 21st and August 4th to be played in Austria and England. They can be viewed on the club site.

It appears that our chances of signing Melo are all but gone as Juventus seem to be the favourites to tie up the deal in the very near future. As I said previously I don't think we were ever going to spend that sort of money on a player and the statements on Fiorentina's club site about us being near to a deal for the player were probably put there to attempt to force Juventus' hand on the transfer.

With all the boring hum drum of the off season at it's heigth at the moment it's great to see that Fantasy Premier League has started up again for next season. I've set up a number of leagues and they are open to Arsenal fans and anyone else from Oleole also. To sign up just follow the link below, create a team, go to the leagues option, then go to join a league and enter any or all of my leagues using the codes below.

LINK

Oleole league code 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league code 4383-1835

Oleole Head to Head league code 4383-1828(this league can take 20 teams only).

On The Ball code 4383-1777

Feel free to join up and enter the league forums. You can pick a team now but you can make unlimited changes from when you join until the season starts. After that there is 1 free change a week and all other changes in a week cost you points. There is also an option to change as many players as you want(wild card) once during the season at no cost to your points. The game is completely free to play and it is great entertainment and a little addictive. There were 2 million teams in it last season and I'm sure that figure will increase this season.

Here's a little bit of RVP to celebrate his new contract

LINK 

And to finish today's title track from Billy Idol. The players are the flesh and the Fantasy football is back again.

LINK 

See You Tomorrow.

ps Here's the link to Lady Arse's Fantasy Football too. She's a great read on Arsenal every day but I'm sure most people know that already judging by her poularity.

Well the players finally returned to pre season training yesterday and the players I had hoped to see (Rosicky & Eduardo) were both there and took a full part in the training along with everybody else. Obviously Cesc, Theo, Gibbs and Vela weren't there due to ongoing international committments and late returns from international committments. There are only 10 days to go to the traditional curtain raiser at Barnet and then it's on to our training camp and games on the continent and then back to England for the Emirates Cup, back to Spain to play Valencia before the real football starts. Hopefully the time will pass quickly and our new signing will fit in well with the current squad. There are plenty of photos of the players training on my home page if you want to see them.

Ivan Gazidis gave an in depth interview to Arseblog yesterday and if you haven't read it I suggest you give it a read as it's well worth it. He talks about the young squad, the need to compete and win trophies and loads of other things to interest the fans. In other news I haven't got a clue who Arshavin's agent is and I'm not sure he knows either but I do know that he will not be joining Barcelona or anybody else. We only signed him in the last transfer window and he is already a vitally important member of the team. The club would be off their mind to even consider selling him.

When you examine our squad as against the one that started last season we have added Arshavin & Vermaelen and Rosicky & Eduardo look to be back in the fold after a year and a half of injuries each. That's a significant improvement in our attacking abilities but I would still like to see our defensive options increased. On that front it has been reported that Hangeland has refused the contract offer from Fulham. I have said all along that we should pursue him and it appears to me that the time might just be right. I'm not so sure about Melo as I said yesterday I don't think we will spend that much money on a player even if we use other players to sweeten the deal. That's it for today.

After a very successful season for me in "Fantasy Premier League" last season I have decided to run a league or two for fellow Arsenal fans and also for Oleole users. I'll post the codes below and feel free to join up to any or all of them. You can pick a team immediatly but you can make as many changes as you like before August 15th when the season starts. When I joined yesterday afternoon there wre only 3,000 teams entered in the competition but that number will increase incredibly quickly and there were almost 2 million teams entered last season.

The site can be found below

LINK

If you sign up just go to the join a league option and join a private league and put in the codes below to join whatever leagues you want to. The leagues are as follows.

Oleole League - open to anyone on Oleole - code 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal - open to Oleole Arsenal fans - code 4383-1835

Oleole Head To Head - open to the first 20 Oleole members who want to join - code 4383-1828

Also for anyone who wants to join up I have a league for myself, my family and friends called

On The Ball - code 4383-1777.

The more people that sign up the better it will be.

Here's a clip of what we have being missing from Rosicky while he was injured.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Cure which comes from our fascination with Arsenal and any tiny little piece of news available at this time of year.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

To the best of my knowledge the majority of the first team squad were back for pre season training yesterday after their summer holidays. I had hoped that the club site would have some pictures of the day's events for all of us news starved fans but as I write this there is still nothing to see. I can only hope that the pictures will arrive later in the day as I want to see if Eduardo & Rosicky are back in full training. From what I have heard Rosicky is fit and raring to go but I have heard nothing of the situation regarding Eduardo and his re adjustment operation at the end of last season. I hope he's going to be back to full match fitness for the start of the season but I have my doubts.

Almunia said yesterday that we need to be focussed from the start of the season as our poor start last season proved very costly overall. Obviously he had been reading my blog where I pointed out the need to make a good start in the league as we have a difficult beginning to the season with 3 hard away trips in our first 4 league games. There's not a lot of other Arsenal news out there today but to me the main news is that Vela has got injured in his first game for Mexico in the Gold Cup. I can't believe that a summer tournament has been scheudled to begin as players are making their way back to their clubs for pre season training but that's FIFA for you. I do believe that Vela has been hampered in his progress at Arsenal by his international committments and I'm sure this latest tournament and injury(although it may not be bad) are not helping the situation.

Derby are appearently interested in taking Mark Randall on a season long loan and, as I have said with various other players in the past, I think the experience can only benefit him. Arshavin was voted into 2nd place in the poll for player of the season which I'm sure means RVP will win the award on the club site. He only joined us at the very end of January but it is my genuine belief that Arshavin was the main reason we qualified for the Champions league. There has been a little more talk concerning Melo, Eboue, Senderos, the 25 & Flamini but I don't think any of it will come to anything. Former Arsenal player Edu has rejoined Corinthians of Brazil and I hope he can stay injury free for the rest of his career as he has had a bad time with injury since he left us. Dave O'Leary was spouting off about becoming assistant manager to our current boss but it's absolute nonsense and he won't get anywhere near the club. There are also reports that the top 4 will earn even more TV money as the contract for the Arab world has changed hands with the winner paying more than the previous holders of the contract. That's about it for today except for the usual links.

Here's a clip of a super goal for us from Edu.

LINK 

And to finish today's title track from The Smiths which is for the club who have not shared the latest on pre season training with us yet.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

It's Monday morning and the majority of the players should be back to start their pre season training this morning. There are a few obvious exceptions with Cesc, Theo & Kieran Gibbs all having just finished tournaments in the last week they will have a little while longer off and Vela is playing in the Gold Cup in the states which has just kicked off so we won't see him for a few weeks at least. I'm sure there will be a host of photos on the club site later today or tomorrow at the latest and I'll put a few of them in my photos. After that there's just 12 days to the first pre season friendly which is at Barnet as usual and then the countdown to the real thing will begin.

There are a lot of rumours out there about players coming to the club and going from the club. The rumours about Melo persist and the latest player rumoured to be offered to Fiorentina in part exchange is Senderos after Eboue was linked yesterday. I'm still not sure that we would be willing to offer €25 million for any player as it seems to go against what the boss stands for. There was also a story yesterday that the 25 would be off to Milan with us getting €20 million and Flamini as well. While I would love this to be true I don't think it's going to happen. I know the boss would be happy to see the back of the 25 but after the season he had is he worth that amount of money? As for Flamini he was fantastic for us in his last season but he never really showed that form before or after that and I wonder will he be able to recapture that form if he comes back to us.

With the new season just 40 days away now I've been looking at the league fixtures for next season and it would appear that we have a fairly tough start to our season. In our first 4 games we have trips to Everton, Manure & Man City with a home game against Portsmouth in there as well. If we are going to be contenders in the league we will get an idea early on as those 3 away games are going to be tough. We will also miss a game due to our Champions League qualifiers and if we don't hit the ground running we could be in a tight spot by mid September. It is crucial that we get any new players in as soon as possible and we don't have any more of the last minute transfer deals that we have had recently. A settled squad will have a much better chance of getting the good start that is essential for the confidence of the squad as a whole. So it's up to the boss and Gazidis to sort things out as soon as possible. That's the lot for today.

Here's a clip of Carlos Vela in action for us seeming as he is playing in the Gold Cup at the moment.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Bob Marley & The Wailers which is for the players who are coming back to work today.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

It's Sunday morning and normal service has returned with another early post from me. In a strange twist we are reported to be in negotiations with Fiorentina for Felipe Melo who only extended his contract with them earlier this week. At the time they told the press that there was a get out clause in his contract which was set at €25 million and we are supposedly rumoured to be offering a fee plus Eboue which is approaching their valuation. I don't know what value they have put on Eboue but I would imagine it is a minimum of €10 million if Melo is worth €25 million. I wouldn't be at all worried if Eboue left as I think he is a bit of a headless chicken. However I would wonder who we would have as back up to Sagna but I suppose Kolo can do that job if he stays.

We are also rumoured to be interested in Blaise Matuidi of St. Etienne who has stated his desire to leave the French club. Another player we have appearently shown an interest in previously, Eden Hazard of Lille, has also let it be known that he would like to join us too. Elsewhere it has been reported that the 25 has decided to stay at The Emirates which may come as a surprise to the boss who seems prepared to sell him. The boss did say during the week that he will only be buying more players if anyone leaves but I don't think he would announce that he is in the market for players as he likes to play his cards close to his chest. It will be interesting to see how the situation with the 25 develops.

There isn't an awful lot else to talk about today and the club still haven't announced the contract extension for RVP. I think I'll have to give a little run down on the fixture list for the new season during the coming week as news seems very thin on the ground. Hopefully there will be a transfer or two to talk about as well. That's it for today.

Here's one fan's mini tribute to Jack Wilshere.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from New Model Army which is for all of the players who are trying to let Arsenal know that they are available.

LINK 

See You Tomorrow.

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm only managing to get to my blog now after a very late night last night. Numerous beers were followed by a bottle of Sambuka(I did share it with others) and a lot of good music and chat until the very small hours. For now though it's back to all things Arsenal and the good news is that Kieran Gibbs & RVP have both signed new long term contracts with the club to add to the new contracts signed by Ramsey & Wilshere. It's great to see the younger players who have so much potential signing long term contracts with the club and it augers well for the future. The RVP contract has not been announced on the club site yet but it does look to be done and dusted. I'm delighted if that is the case but as I said earlier in the week I'm not 100% sure how he fits into our line up when we have a full squad. I'm not saying I don't rate him but I don't quite know what position is his best one.

The only other Arsenal news I can find that is worth reporting is that we will play Valencia at the Mestalla on Saturday August 8th which will probably be our last friendly before the season starts. If that is the case I would imagine that the team that starts the game will give us an idea of what formation and line up will be foremost in the manager's mind for this coming season. That's only 5 weeks from today and the time seems to be flying at the moment so it's something to really look forward to. That's the lot for today.

Here's another look at our 4-4 draw at Anfield as it was such a great game.

LINK

And here's today's title track from The Smiths. I've used this song as there is so little Arsenal news and I think I need a nap to catch up after last night.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

The weekend is almost upon us again and the Arsenal news is a little thin on the ground yet again. The good news is obviously that young Jack Wilshere has signed a new long term contract at the club after he signed his first professional contract last January. He holds the record for being the youngest player to appear for Arsenal in the league and he is a fantastic prospect for the future. I wouldn't be surprised to see him getting loaned out to a team who play good football in the Championship next season. I'm sure the experience would do him a world of good.

I read elsewhere that Cesc was asked by some participants in a summer camp he is running about his lack of desire to join Barcelona. He replied that he wanted to join them but that he has a contract at Arsenal and that it is necessary to respect it. He also told another kid that he is the captain at Arsenal and he will remain there. You can see the article for yourself and make up your own mind about what he said. The boss is also quoted on French radio as saying that he doesn't intend bringing in more players unless anyone leaves. He also said that he expects the 25 to stay but that it is up to him. He also said he was interested in Benzema but he didn't think Lyon would sell him. When asked about Marouane Chamakh he said he would be interested in him only if we sold someone. Again here's the article and you can judge his comments for yourself.

Finally for today I saw a piece by a good friend of mine about money spent since the beginning of the Premiership on transfers and it's interesting to see where we stand overall in the table. It's quite amazing to see Sunderland & Middlesborough ahead of us in the Nett spending but it is also interesting to see that only Chelsea & Manure have received more from sales of players than us. We have spent a lot on transfers but we have managed to recoup a lot of that money in sales of the likes of Anelka where we made massive profits. I'll show you the table and you can make your own judgements. 

Here is the Spending Leage from the start of the Premier League....

I'll leave it there for today but I do have to thank Carly for the above information and I know she is happy with me reproducing it here.

Here's a clip of one fans top 10 goals from Arsenal from 1998 to 2007.

LINK

And to finish here's today's title track from Depeche Mode which is all about the lovely lucre that has been spent by Premier League teams.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.