Some very good news today; the best right-back in the league, Bacary Sagna, has signed a new deal with the club. It may seem strange, given that he only joined us last summer, but, considering his performances over the season, he deserves a pay-rise, and thanks to the Webster Clause, clubs will be offering their players new deals with increasing regularity in the future.
Little else has happened today though; Tony Adams has signed a new deal to continue as the assistant manager at Portsmouth, which means he will not be joining us as a defensive coach. For me, Adams would have been a great addition to the coaching staff, and he could really have helped youngsters like Song, Nordveit, Senderos and Djourou to progress, as well as helping the organisation of the first choice back four. This does make the rumoured signing of Lilian Thuram as a player/coach seem more plausible, but we still have no evidence to suggest that this will happen.
One piece of news that I am very pleased to see is a report on how Swiss people view Philippe Senderos. Senderos is a player who attracts a huge amount of criticism whenever he makes a mistake, yet rarely gets credit for his good performances. This season he made a couple of mistakes against Liverpool and people immediately forget his excellent performances when Kolo Toure was away at the African Nations Cup. Admittedly, the Liverpool game was very important, but there is no reason to write him off yet. More experience will only see him coming closer to fulfilling the undoubted potential he has.
Ex-Gunner Freddie Ljungberg has hit out at Arsene Wenger in an interview with the Telegraph today. He complains about having to play when not fully fit and Wenger's strict attitude. This just smacks of bitterness. Freddie has to be careful, he is still held in great affection by most Arsenal fans who remember his brilliant performances before his decline, but if he comes out with more statements like this, he will only alienate himself from the fans. Not that he probably cares that much, but if I was him I'd shut up. He never recovered from his injuries, and Wenger got rid of him. Get over it.
Finally, to end on a positive note, we have a statement by Wenger. He believes that we can win everything next season, and while this might be a little ambitious, I have high hopes that, as long as a few players are brought into the squad this summer, we will end up with some silverware by the end of the season (and the League Cup doesn't count, no-one cares about it). We were so close this time around, and as long as we learn our lessons, the desire that will have given the squad should be enough to see us succeed this time around!
UPDATE: The Freddie quotes may well have been made up. I hope so, as it did seem out of character.
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