The new season is just over 3 weeks away and it is looking increasingly like the strength of the Premier League has declined for the first time that I can remember. The current champions Manure have sold their best player and Tevez was allowed to go too and they have replaced them with Owen & Valencia. That is a serious drop in strength in anyone's book. The 2 players that have gone were the ones that rescued them time and again last season when things weren't going their way. They will find it very difficult to defend their title with their current squad when you also consider the age of players like Scholes & Giggs. Their manager has tried to buy some star players but he has been either outbid or turned down on each occasion and the money he got for the diver looks like it won't get spent yet.

Liverpool have added Johnson to their squad but he is good going forward and a little dodgy at the back in my opinion. They haven't signed anyone else and both Alonso & Mascherano are trying to get a move away from the club. If they lose even 1 of them it will seriously weaken their squad and their 2 star players are both injury prone. Gerrard spends a lot of time on the treatment table when he isn't diving or punching people in the head because he doesn't like their choice of music. Torres has had his fair share of injuries too and I think Liverpool missed their chance to win the league last season.

Last season's third placed team Chelsea have added their Russian left back/midfielder to their squad and also they got Sturridge from Man City but I can't see that improving the overall quality of their squad. They are very dependant on Lampard and an injury for him could spell disaster for them. When they are in trouble he's the man to get them out of jail and their squad is a bit like Manure's in that it is ageing also. They have got a top class new manager and that might well be an advantage to them so long as he can get control of the dressing room.

That brings me nicely to Arsenal and we have a squad that can challenge this season if we can keep our players fit and(fingers crossed) get 1 or 2 more in. Cesc and Arshavin are going to be our most important players this season and hopefully Vermaelen will add the much needed steel and leadership that we are lacking at the back. I honestly feel that if the team can get off to a good start and keep the confidence to play football our way we can have areal impact but we cannot afford to take it easy against the lesser teams like we did on several occasions last season. All of this could change for all four teams of course if they bring more players in but that looks to be more and more difficult by the day with the new tax rates in England.

The team most likely to break into the top four in my opinion is Everton but Man City would see themselves as obvious candidates and Aston Villa & The Spuds probably think they have a chance too. Villa blew their chance last season and they have lost Barry and Laursen now and if Young follows Barry out of the club they will struggle to challenge. Everton did well to reach the FA Cup final and with Yakubu & Saha available they should be stronger than last season(especially when Arteta returns from his injury). You can count The Spuds out as something is bound to go wrong for them as always & it's difficult to predict exactly what will happen at City. Hughes will find it hard to control the dressing room and their club captain can't be too happy as he has more or less been told he will be sold if Terry signs.

So there we have my ideas on our main challengers as they stand at the moment but that can all change at 5 to midnight on August 31st with some last minute signings. With regard to Arsenal it is vital that we start well as we have 3 difficult away trips in our first 4 games and we miss a game due to CL committments. If we don't hit the ground running we could be in a tight situation from the very start.

In Arsenal news it appears that the rumoured injury to Eduardo came from a quote from the manager which was misinterpreted. He said that while Nasri is out for 2 months that Eduardo should be back in that time. What he meant was that Eduardo will be available for that time and that's good news. It has also been announced that he will play in next Monday's game against Szombathelyi H which is live on the club site at 6pm. There are rumours linking Milan with a bid for Bendtner but that's a non runner with Adebayor gone already. Chamakh is rumoured to be about to sign for Sunderland and from what I saw he is no better than the strikers we have already. We are in line for a fine from UEFA after one of our fans hit a Manure fan with a plastic bottle in the CL semi final against them at The Emirates.

A host of ex players have being having their say about Arsenal in the press. Firstly that little creep Ashley Tweedy has said that he hopes that Man City finish ahead of us in the league and he thinks they can do it if their players gel. My opinion of him couldn't get any lower but anything he says doesn't surprise me. Another player I am glad to see the back of is Adebayor and he has decided it's time for him to have his say on his exit from the club. He blames the fans and the manager and says he loved the club and never wanted to leave. He says he never wanted to leave last summer and he couldn't understand the abuse from the fans while they love Cesc despite the fact that clubs bid for him all the time. What he doesn't realise is that all of us fans know what he was up to last summer and even though clubs have made approaches for Cesc he has never entertained any of them and he always came out and stated his loyalty to Arsenal. He also always shows his committment to the club on the pitch and the same could not be said of Adebayor last season. He claims that the boss sold him against his wishes to raise money which will make City fans very happy I'm sure to know he didn't want to join them. I think the boss decided that we would never get such a big offer for him again and it was best to sell now as a result considering his lack of effort and committment and his failure to understand the offside rule. I saw Henry on Sky last night and he welcomed Ibrahimovic to Barcelona and said he hoped they would sign Alonso too as he is a top class player. When he was asked about Cesc he made sure he said that he is Arsenal's captain and that Arsenal need to hold on to him. He managed not to say that he would like to see him at Barcelona which showed what we still mean to him. He said that we shouldn't be talking about top 4 finishes but about winning the league and I hope our manager was listening. Finally for today don't forget to sign up to the Fantasy Football which is linked on yesterday's blog.

Here's a clip of Henry at his best. When you see how good he was for us you realise what we are missing.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from UB40 for the former King who still has us in his heart and our current King who we all love.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

First things first today and for some reason unknown to me I have been getting an awful lot of page loads recently. I set my record for my most page loads ever yesterday and I haven't changed a thing that I know of. Maybe it's just people looking for some Arsenal news in the off season or maybe my little mixture of Arsenal news and my own opinions is catching on at last. I'm not too bothered either way but it does feel good to know I'm reaching a bigger audience. If there's anyone reading this that's wants to ask a question or post a comment please feel free to do so at any time as I will answer anything asked of me or any comment left here unless it's offensive and then I'll deal with that in a completely different way. You may have noticed that I rarely if ever curse here even though I have a very good command of virtually expletive in the English language when playing football in particular. I'll try to keep up whatever it is I'm doing and if my standards drop please feel free to tell me.

Anyway that's enough about me and now it's time for some Arsenal news. The club site finally announced yesterday afternoon that Adebayor had left us to join Man City for(you've guessed it) an undisclosed fee. You really would not want to be relying on the club site for the latest and most up to date news at any time as the transfer was heralded for a week and finalised on Saturday or Sunday. The club site gives his stats during his time at Arsenal and he managed 62 goals from 142 games for us. It's not a bad return but it's just a pity that he ruined it all by his actions of last summer and last season(the second half of it in particular). It will be interesting to see what sort of a welcome he will be given when City come to The Emirates on April 24th. It will also be interesting to see how the travelling Arsenal fans react to him up there on September 12th. The club site spouted all the usual good luck and thank you messages to him and the manager thanked him for always giving everything when he was on the pitch. I can't help but think that that must have stuck in his throat just a little. If you want to see photos of his career at Arsenal then the club site is the place for you.

The boss said yet again that we are in no hurry to sign anyone but that the money from the transfer is in his kitty. He said he will wait until we can identify the right players and we have internal players who can step up. He also said that we are keeping an eye on Chamakh of Bordeaux and if we went for a striker he would be one of the possibilities. I still think that most of us fans would like Hangeland and a defensive midfielder to be brought in with that money.

The youngsters played Lincoln in a friendly last night and managed a 3-2 win with Sunu, Emmanuel-Thomas & Ayling scoring. The first team are in their Austrian training camp at the moment and when they're not training they are probably spending their time yodelling and such like. They have a match tonight against SC Columbia at 5.30pm and it can be seen live on Arsenal TV Online. I'm sure that the whole squad haven't returned yet and it probably won't be anywher near our strongest team but it should be a little closer to the real thing.

The club managed to maintain it's dignity, as usual, in the Adebayor transfer but unfortunately Adebayor had to have his say. He claims to have joined City to win trophies and not for the money. He could be right but I doubt it and at the very least he won't be playing in European competition this summer. Another player who was happy to leave last summer has now come out and said he regrets leaving us. Alex Hleb has come out and said that he didn't particularly enjoying winning the Spanish treble with Barcelona last season whilst sitting on the bench and that it was more memorable reaching the Champions league quarter finals with Arsenal. He said our boss was like a father to him and that he was one of the best managers in the world and if he had Barcelona's budget Arsenal would be in the top 3 clubs in the world. At the moment we're a bit away from that but it's good to see the curse of leaving Arsenal striking again. Don't forget that Hleb was talking about how much he wanted Cesc to join him at Barcelona a few months ago and now he says he wishes he never left.

Finally for today the club have opened a new store in Enfield and it's open 7 days a week for all your Arsenal needs.

Here's a clip of Hleb when he enjoyed his football.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Smiths which is for Adebayor who has everything he wants now including money, money and a host of trophies waiting to be won.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

ps Don't forget the fantasy football.

LINK

Oleole League code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal League code  4383-1835

Oleole Head To Head League code  4383-1828

The transfer of Adebayor is finally out of the way and we can now move on to the question of whether we replace him or not and if we do who that replacement will be. Before I address that question it is interesting to hear that Adebayor reckons that money was not a factor in him joining City. Obviously he must have signed for them because he thinks they are a better team than us and he has a better chance of winning a trophy there. You would imagine that a team like Arsenal, who will play in the Champions League for the 11th season in a row this season, would have offered him a better chance of a trophy but in his strange world of his own he can say whatever he wants and seem to believe it too. He said that if he wanted more money he would have left for Milan or Barcelona last summer but I can also remember him saying that he never spoke to any other clubs last summer and that he was loyal to Arsenal. He would want to learn to shut his big mouth pretty soon before City's fans realise what a 2 faced, lazy & lying player they have signed. I wonder how long it will be before they get fed up with his lack of understanding of the offside rule and how it operates.

The candidates to replace Adebayor are being lined up by the press at a rapid rate although the boss has said that he thinks we have enough strength in the squad already. If I was sure that we could get a full season out of Eduardo I might agree with those sentiments but I wouldn't be too hopefull of him staying injury free. My personal choice has been Dzeko for the past few months but Wolfsburg don't want to sell him and they are the German league champions so he will be playing in the Champions league this season. If we can't get him I'm not sure who we should go after but hopefully the boss will have a few targets lined up. At the start of the summer I said I wanted Hangeland, Yaya Toure & Dzeko to join us and Adebayor to leave. Well so far Adebayor has left, Yaya has extended his contract at Barcelona, Hangeland is still stalling over his contract with Fulham and Dzeko looks to be staying with Wolfsburg. We have signed Vermaelen but I would still like Hangeland in and obviously Silvestre out. We could also do without Eboue & Senderos and that would help us to buy the players we need. I would also accept Flamini back from Milan in an instant but again I think it's a non runner.

Besides Dzeko we are again linked with Chamakh of Bordeaux who I have watched a little now but I don't think he's anywhere near as good as Dzeko. Martins of Newcastle is also linked with us again but as I have said previously I don't think he would anything for our squad. A new name for me today is Andre-Pierre Gignac of Toulouse who was the top scorer in France last season and would supposedly cost us anything up to £18 million if the reports are true. It remains to be seen if Adebayor will be replaced but the boss always tries not to do his transfer dealings in public so let's hope he has someone lined up to sign very soon.

After the match at Barnet on Saturday the boss spoke about how he had feared for the career of Rosicky and how he was delighted to have him back. He also said that he thinks the financial situation in football will get decidedly worse in the next year as the realities of the worldwide recession kick in. He said we have lost players before and we have always coped and that it is more important to have the committment of players like Cesc & RVP than to have kept Adebayor. We have managed to get quite a few players contracts extended over the last month and that should create some stability at the club. However with all the money from the sale of Adebayor available to him I feel the boss has to spend all of it on top quality players to signal that we have ambition as we are currently making a profit on transfer dealings this summer. We need to lay down a marker to show the fans and other teams we are genuine contenders and not just a feeder club to clubs with more money than us or it is pointless extending contracts of players who will be sold if the right bid comes in. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of Gignac and what he can do.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Sham 69. What have we got in our squad and do we need more?

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Finally Adebayor has joined Man City and I no longer have to call him "the 25". In what turned out to be yet another protracted deal he has signed for them and the boss has more or less €25 million burning a hole in his pocket. I'm sure that will add a few million to the price of any player we are chasing but I really feel we need to reinvest the money immediately. With the new season now less than 4 weeks away any prospective signing would take a little while to gel with the players we have already and the boss did say he wanted to do his dealings early in the transfer window. All the usual names are being mentioned again today but I'll talk about some of them tomorrow.

We played our first pre season friendly against Barnet yesterday and only Vermaelen played the full 90 minutes as the boss changed 10 players at half time. The biggest talking point was obviously the return of Rosicky and appearently he put in a good shift. The goals came from Arshavin & Barazite.  I didn't manage to catch the game myself as I had a very busy day yesterday but hopefully I'll manage to catch a few of the pre season games before the real football returns on August 15th. That's it from today's very short blog.

Here's the highlights from yesterday.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Denis Brown

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

At last we have a match today and it gives us something to talk about other than transfer speculation. The squad for our annual curtain raiser against Barnet was announced yesterday and it included Rosicky but not Eduardo. I am looking forward to seeing Rosicky playing again after his absence of 18 months. I hope that Eduardo has been left out of the squad because he is not quite back to full fitness because we need him for this season. If his injury is preventing him from playing I will be very worried indeed. I'll be searching for a link this afternoon just to see those Arsenal jerseys running around the pitch. There's no point in previewing the game but with the players we have in the squad I would expect us to win quite well. We have 8 players in the squad who will feature heavily in the first team this season and that should be too much for Barnet.

In news on the 25 it appears that the deal to join City has either gone through or has been stalled as Chelsea have put in a late bid and are willing to match the wages City are offering. It all depends what paper and/or web site you are reading and frankly it's getting a little boring at this stage. With us about to sell the 25 the rumours about who we will sign to replace him are mounting. We have been rumoured to be chasing Huntelaar of Real Madrid, Demba Ba of Hoffenheim, Chamakh of Bordeaux & Goran Pandev of Lazio. There is a school of thought that the boss will not buy a striker but if Eduardo finds it difficult to play a lot of games we could be stretched.

We have appearently signed yet another 16 year old youngster called Sead Harjovic from Grasshoppers of Zurich. It looks like we're determined to retain the FA Youth Cup and FA Academy Premier League as the youngsters are signing almost daily at this stage. I suppose it all helps towards our future but won't somebody think of our present for a change. We want and need a central midfielder a la Flamini to release Cesc to do what he does best. Imagine Cesc playing Arshavin, Theo, Rvp & Eduardo in behind defences and that's what will happen again when he gets the workhorse he needs. I would also love us to sign Hangeland from Fulham and there is a rumour that we have offered them Senderos plus some csh for him. I hope it's true.

It looks like our Ladies will have the start to their season delayed as most of their players will be playing at the European Championships until September 10th which will mean the season's start will be delayed from August 16th until probably September 13th. That's about it for today except for the usual link to the Fantasy Football and the codes to join the leagues.

Oleole code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal code  4383-1835

Oleole Head To Head code  4383-1828

All are welcome.

Here's a little bit of what Bendtner can do

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Cure. We are getting to play football at last today.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Another day has gone by and still the 25 hasn't joined ManCity. The latest news is that he is taking time to consider how the move will go down in Africa before he decides whether to leave or not. He must know that he's not wanted at Arsenal any more and City are offering him a fortune to join them. As a career move it obviously is a step down for him as City haven't won anything of note in so long that I can't even remember when they did win something. They haven't even qualified for Europe this season and they have never qualified for the Champions league.

They do have owners who are willing to put an absolute fortune into buying new players and they are assembling a strong squad for the coming season. There's every chance that they will be challenging for a Champions league spot and they will surely have a chance in the Cup competitions too. Arsenal are already paying more money than he needs to live a very comfortable life for the rest of his days but City are rumoured to be doubling that amount. The choice is his at this stage and I hope he makes the right one for Arsenal by leaving.

Arshavin has spoken about the impending transfer of the 25 and he said that he trusts the manager's judgement on the matter. What he actually said was "We have Arsene. He knows everything. He knows if we need someone then he will buy." I don't think he could have been any clearer than that.

We are about to make another signing and it's a 15 year old from Cheltenham called Jamie Edge. I seem to remember reading something about this a few months ago and I hope he's going to be a star of the future for us. He's been training with the club this week and he is expected to sign by the weekend. We are also meant to have offered a trial to Veljko Batrovic from Montenegra who is being described as the new "Messi". A host of top European teams are supposed to be tracking him but he is appearently eager to become a member of our academy. The reputation our youth academy has seems to be spreading which can only be good for us(unless of course Platini & Blatter get their way).

Our pre season gets into full flow tomorrow when we make our annual trip to Barnet for our first pre season friendly and it will be great to have something to report on besides transfer speculation even if it is only a meaningless game with only part of our team on show. I hope to get a stream somewhere and see the game for myself and hopefully Rosicky & Eduardo will play a part at some time. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what Rosicky can do.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Manic Street Preachers as the transfer of the 25 seems to be everlasting at this stage.

LINK

Don't forget to join the Fantasy Football.

LINK

Oleole league code 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league code 4383-1835

Oleole head to head code 4383-1828

See You Tomorrow.

It's Thursday morning and besides the stories about the 25 and Melo there doesn't appear to be any Arsenal news at all. Speaking of the 25 it appears he has got his work permit and he had already passed his medical so he only has to agree personal terms and we will be shot of him for good. The boss obviously wanted him out and who can blame him as he had completely lost his work ethic. The season that he scored 30 goals for us we had the likes of Ferdinand saying he was his toughest opponent in the league and he went from that to the player who was picked to lead the line in the Champions League semi finals against Manure and decided not to try. He used to harry defenders and chase for every ball but he gradually stopped doing that and I'm sure the boss must have regretted not selling him last summer.

Usually when a player comes up against his old team he has a great game and scores(at least it seems that way anyway) and we will be meeting the 25 and his new team on September 12th away from home. He's going to have a lot of competition for a place in their line up and it will be interesting to see how he reacts if he's dropped. He has caused trouble wherever he's played and I don't suspect it will be different at City. He didn't exactly set the world alight before he joined us and besides his one exceptional season he hasn't set the world alight with us either. We are supposed to be getting £25 million for him and that's good business in anybody's book. If the money is reinvested in the team it will leave us in a stronger position overall and with a happier squad if the rumours are to be believed. I'm sure Bendtner won't miss him after their little tete a tete at The Spuds in 2008 and I wouldn't be surprised if 1 or 2 others are happy to see the back of him.

It also appears that Melo has finally joined Juventus so the money will get for the 25 will be too late to make a move for him. There were rumours linking us with a £35 million bid for Aguero but I can't see Arsenal paying that sort of money for a player. I am also pretty sure that we won't be spending huge sums on any single player in a market that has been over inflated by Madrid & City. Manure & Chelsea have more or less opted out of the transfer market so far this summer and they are the usual top spenders in England. In a world with so many problems the amount of money that Madrid & City are spending at the moment and the wages they are paying to their new signings are absolutely disgusting but there's not a lot that can be done about it. That's the lot for today.

Here's a clip of what Aguero can do.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Steel Pulse which is for the 25 who probably is worth that to us by the time City pay up.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

p.s. Don't forget to sign up to the Fantasy Football.

LINK

Here's the league codes again also.

Oleole League code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal League code  4383-1835

The Oleole head to head has reached it's limit of 20 teams but I can start another league if there are enough interested parties. I have just realised in fact that there are 21 teams in the league but there should be a limit of 20 set. As a result I will set the limit at 38 and we can allplay each other once I think.  I know I set the limit to 20 teams but for some strange reason that limit has been removed.

The news that the 25 has had talks with Man City and appearently a medical too is absolutely everywhere at the moment. It would appear that the deal will go through as soon as he can agree terms with City as Arsenal are more than willing to sell him. The need for a work permit may also be an obstacle as he has missed some games for his country due to his ongoing disputes with the Togolese FA. Mark Hughes has admitted that City are in talks also so all the indications are that he will sign for them very soon. I personally won't be too worried about his departure so long as we replace him with a top class striker as his attitude got worse and worse as the season wore on. My only wish is that he might bring Silvestre with him and do us all a favour. He had a good goalscoring record for us and his 30 goals the season before last was a very impressive haul. However he dirtied his bib with the fans by courting Milan and Barcelona last summer before staying with us after we doubled his pay to £80,000 a week. After a deal like that we hoped that he would repeat his performances of the previous season but we were sadly disappointed as the season wore on. The first time he scored after last summer he kissed his badge and it really stuck in my throat and although he did appear to be playing well early on it soon became appearent that he didn't give a toss about the club or the fans. If the transfer to City falls through I can't see how he can stay with us as it is obvious we don't want him and he wants away from us.

We are of course being linked with Marouane Chamakh of Bordeaux and he is available at a good price as he has only 1 year left on his contract. I don't know too much about him but the fees being bandied about are somewhere between £6 million and £8 million and it sounds like good business to me. It would leave anything up to £20 million available for the boss to buy the central mifielder we need and Gokhan Inler of Udinese is being mentioned yet again. In another story circulating at the moment it appears that Patrick Vieira might be joining The Spuds. I sincerely hope that this story is not true as he was a true Arsenal legend and the thought of him playing in a Spuds shirt would make me feel sick.

The club site has given a hint of the squad that will be making the trip to Barnet on Saturday for our first pre season friendly and it seems that Eduardo & Rosicky will be in line to make their long awaited reappearences in the team. Other first team regulars that should be there on the day are Almunia, Clichy, Gallas, Nasri, Denilson, Arshavin & Vermaelen. Also in line to play on the day are Mannone, Djourou, Wilshere, Traore, Senderos & Silvestre and I'm sure there will be a few youngsters on show too. It's getting close enough now to almost smell it. It may only be a pre season friendly but it's Arsenal playing a football match and it doesn't get any better than that. That's it for today except fot the Fantasy Football details.

LINK

Oleole league code  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league  4383-1835

Oleole Head to Head league  4383-1828 (only 3 teams needed to complete this league as it is limited to 20 teams).

Here's a clip of Chamakh playing for Bordeaux.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from Dodgy which is for the 25 who I'm sure wants to go as far away as Manchester at least.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.

Since yesterday the rumours about the impending transfer of the 25 to Man City have gained a lot of pace and it really looks as if it could actually happen. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to sell him to one of the teams that could well be challenging us for a Champions League place next season but as I said yesterday I can't imagine that the boss would rubber stamp his transfer unless he has a top class replacement lined up. I know we will have Eduardo available for the whole season but we can only hope that he won't suffer any ill effects from his horiffic injury. We also have Bendtner, RVP, Simpson, Vela & Walcott who can play as strikers but at his best the 25 was our top striker. The fact that the further the season progressed the less he tried last season is what has turned the fans against him and I don't know if he can win the fans back.

We have been linked with Neven Subotic of Borussia Dortmund who is a 6' 4" centre back that appearently a host of other clubs are after as well. With Hangeland still not having signed a new contract at Fulham he would still be my first choice but I have a funny feeling that we won't be signing another centre back despite the fact that I think we need one. The player that we probably need most is a holding midfielder and with that in mind the name of Flamini has come up again. I was sorry to see him go and I for one would welcome him back but I don't think that we will be bringing him back from Milan. At this stage it's obvious that we won't be signing Melo and Matuidi doesn't look to be much more experienced than Song so I can't see what options there are available to us. However I still hope that the boss has an ace up the sleeve and he will pleasently surprise us all with the signing of a world class holding midfielder.

The kick off time for our opening game, which will be screened live on ESPN has now been set for 5.30pm instead of the originally stated 5.15pm. As I said before I hope The Strand in Bray will have the new channel sorted as I intend having a beer or 2 there whilst watching the match with my fello Wicklow Gunners.

Also yesterday I read that former Arsenal striker John Hartson has been diagnosed with testicular cancer which has also spread to his brain. At only 34 he has a hard fight ahead of him and I sincerely hope that he manages to overcome this terrible disease and make a full recovery for his and his family's sake. I'm sure all other Arsenal fans will join with me in wishing him all the best and he will be in our thoughts. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of Flamini when he was an Arsenal player.

LINK 

And to finish here's today's title track from Steel Pulse which is for our former player Mathieu Flamini.

LINK

Finally for today here's the link for my fantasy football and yhe codes to enter into my leagues.

Oleole League code 4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal League code  4383-1835

Oleole Head To Head League code  4383-1828(I only need 5 more teams to complete this league).

See You Tomorrow.

I suppose I should start by apologising for the lack of a blog yesterday but there were exceptional circumstances. I had hoped to get some passes to see The Specials at Oxegen but it didn't seem to have worked out until about 2 yesterday afternoon and then I got a call to say my name was on the VIP list and I could brinf a guest. I had put time and effort into preparing a blog but that was all forgotten in an instant and my good lady wife and I made our way there as quickly as humanly possible. I have been a fan of The Specials for more years can I care to remember and they were all I could have wished for and more. There may have been a biblical style deluge just as they took the stage but we couldn't have cared less as we danced and sang our way through a great performance. I am due a few days off from work and I took one today to recover and bask in the afterglow of a fabolous day and night.

As this is an Arsenal blog I will get back to some Arsenal news and it has been reported that the club are in talks with Man City as they want to sign the 25. I would imagine that we will only sell if the boss has another player lined up to take his place. He said at the start of the summer that he would sign some experience to compliment the players he already has but the only player we have signed so far is Vermaelen. I would ideally like us to sign Dzeko if the 25 goes but it appears that Wolfsburg won't sell. There are no other new names linked with us today that I can see but all the usual names are mentioned again. At least it appears that things might be getting a little bit interesting as we have our first pre season friendly on Saturday and the majority of the first team squad are now back at training with only Cesc, Theo, Gibbs & Vela to return.

It's now a little less than 5 weeks to the start of the new season and things are also hotting up in the land of Fantasy Football with the leagues I have set up getting fuller by the day. Here are the details for anyone who wants to join. Just follow the link below, set up a team, go to leagues & then join a league and enter the codes for any private league you want to join. Feel free to enter and all are welcome.

LINK 

Oleole league  4383-1847

Oleole Arsenal league  4383-1835

Oleole Head To Head league  4383-1828 (limited to 20 teams & 15 have joined already).

The club site has announced the result of the player of the season for last season and RVP has won the award. It didn't come as a surprise to me as there were no other contenders for the award really as the runners up had all been announced. In my opinion no one player really stood out for us as Cesc had the season before but RVP probably deserved the award and I hope it can inspire him to even better things next season. That's the lot for today.

Here's a clip of RVP at his best.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Specials at Oxegen yesterday. It fits in nicely with the current situation with the 25.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.