Same old, same old.

Basically, nothing of great interest has happened today. The most interesting that I have come across is a piece about reported Arsenal target Clement Chantome by Gunnerblog, who watched PSG play Lyon in the French Cup final yesterday. From the sounds of it, he'd be a decent squad player, but nothing more.

Other than that, we have Wenger confirming on French TV that he thinks Nasri will be signed before the Euros begin. I think we can safely say we saw that one coming, though it's good news nonetheless, and hopefully it will stop some of the moaning that has been coming from some quarters. There is a nice article about Nasri on Footballing World, that I enjoyed reading.

In other news....

Sadly, my six-a-side team, the Heartbreak Kids lost today, which makes it virtually impossible for us to qualify for the knock-out stages of the competition. And this time, we didn't even have the excuse of being incredibly hungover...

We have been linked again to Mario Gomez, of Stuttgart. This just doesn't make any sense to me, and I sincerely doubt there is anything in it, as we have more strikers than we need at the moment. The same article also links us to Blaise Matuidi and Mouhamadou Dabo of St Etienne. These are two names that have been floating around for a while, but I suspect that they've just been picked from the promising young French midfielders bracket and linked with us for no more reason that that.

And finally, more proof that, as we all already knew, Lassana Diarra is a twat. Who is he to talk to Wenger like that? A player who couldn't make the grade at Arsenal or Chelsea, so had to settle for Portsmouth. Twat.

Let's just hope for more exciting news tomorrow.

Should we all be more like Spurs fans? Hleb, More Nasri and Gilberto.

Should we all be more like Spurs fans? In one sense, possibly. I'm not suggesting that we all go out and try to become stupid, ugly, foul-smelling morons, but there is one aspect of the Spurs fan that might help us all out; the eternal optimism. Every year that I can remember, the whole summer has been ful of doom and gloom from Arsenal fans, predicting the clubs imminent decline and demise, whilst the fans of North London's other club seem certain that they are about to displace us and charge up the league table. Now this seems to happen every season without fail. Also, every season without fail, both sets of fans are proved wrong. We keep on up with the big four, Spurs sit in mid-table, but that doesn't stop either set of fans. If we think about things, we have much more reason to be optimistic that the average Spud; we're in the Champions League, we've got a load of great players, and the prospect of more on the horizon, and our best player doesn't want to leave. All they have is Jermaine Jenas. And they're the optimistic ones? Obviously, our moods doesn't have any effect on the clubs themselves, but it might cheer people up a bit if we were just a little more optimistic, if people weren't spending the summer writing of Wenger for not signing hundreds of new players, and instead were just thinking about how we're going to beat Spurs, home and away, again, next season.

In the news today, there's not much we haven't seen, or expected to see, before.

We do, however, have more from Hleb's agent:

"I can officially confirm that a short time ago Alexander decided that he will leave Arsenal and join another club. "Of course Arsenal and Arsene [Wenger] wanted him to stay but they have accepted the player's choice."

So he's definitely off, at least we have the waiting over. He's a good player, but easily replaceable. I look forward to see him struggling to break into the first team of whoever he joins, and then frustrating a new sets of fans with amazing passes that just don't quite come off and a complete refusal to shoot.

No more official news on Samir Nasri's transfer, but as I have said before, that's nothing to worry about. What we do have however, is a few words from our transfer target of last summer, Franck Ribery, who seems to believe Nasri is on his way here:

"It is good for him. It [Arsenal] is a good club with many young people.

"But the English championship is completely different, he will have to adapt in order to impose himself."

Finally, Gilberto has revealed that our players suffer from the same anxieties as the fans, and he wants Wenger to bring in new players to help keep morale up in the squad. I'd tell him what I'd tell anyone us. The signings will come, it's early days yet, and Wenger has never let us down before. At least it proves that none of the players are closet Spuds.

'Till Tomorrow

Jean II Makoun to Arsenal? Clichy, Nasri and Calm Down!

There's very little news of note to report today. Everywhere seems to be rehashing the same transfer deals that have been circulating for the last few days. It's a shame we haven't heard any more about Nasri, but I imagine the club are still negotiating with him and his agent. As I said before, it would be much more worrying if we had his agent coming out with different statements as to the progress of the transfer, which would suggest he was trying to encourage other clubs to bid, and thus drive up his transfer fee and wages. Give it time, if we haven't heard in a week or so, then it might become a little more concerning.

The biggest thing I have come across today is this report from L'Equipe about Jean II Makoun, the Lille defensive midfielder who has been quite heavily linked with the club. For those of you who don't speak French the article says something along the lines of: Jean II Makoun has confirmed he will leave Lille in the summer, there are a number of clubs interested in him, particularly us (who are his preference) and Juventus. Makoun says that he "needs to move to a bigger club, he believes Lille will understand, and it could even be a good thing for them". He may also move to one of the bigger clubs in Ligue 1. From what I've heard, Makoun is a good player, and could possible make a good Flamini replacement, but there doesn't seem to be too much reason to get excited yet.

We've also news from Gael Clichy, who has told the press that we will not make the same mistakes we made this season in our challenge for the title next time around. Clichy was already one of my favourite players at Arsenal, but the way he has committed his future to us this summer, and the positive things he has to say about the club just make me like more and more. Not only is he a better player than Cole, he's also not a whinging, money-grabbing, syphilitic, twat.

There seems to be a lot of people getting very stressed with the lack of solid transfer activity at the club so far this summer. There's no need to panic! Take a couple and deep breaths and remember... The Summer has only just begun, and there's over three months until the transfer window closes, so there is plenty of time for Wenger and the club to sort out all the transfers we need. It should be even easier this summer, as he has already come out and told us the kind of player he wants to buy. It is almost certainly a positive thing that we are taking our time about this; Wenger wants to make sure he gets the best possible players for the best possible prices. There's no point in rushing, or in fans worrying about the lack of action.

That's all for today - but if anyone knows anything more about this Chantome bloke from PSG, other than he's a 20 year old defensive midfielder? If you do, let me know in the comments!

Transfer Roundup and Good News For Mad Germans

Once again today, we have various spurious transfer rumours flying around that link sveral different players to moves to or from Arsenal. There has been a lot of talk about Real Madrid's interest in Hleb, and quotes from his agent back this up:

"For any player in the world, it is always a great honour that a club like Real Madrid is interested in him.

"This confirms the good work that Hleb has carried out in the last years is being recognised by one of the greatest clubs in the world. Nobody can doubt that the interest of Madrid is a privilege for the player."

However, there has been nothing from either club or the player, so it may well just be a case of Hleb's agent trying to drum up interest in his client. While I accept that this is an agent's prerogative, I just wish Hleb would just come out and say something conclusive himself; does he want to leave the club? The only other commenton this issue comes from ex-Gooner Julio Baptista, who said that Hleb would be "good reinforcement" for Madrid.

Another story floating about the internet and papers today is of Milan's interest in Emmanuel Adebayor. This is just your usual load of transfer bollocks - we're not going to sell Adebayor, and he doesn't want to leave.

As per usual at this time of year, we seem to be being linked with pretty much every young player under the sun. As well, as all the Nasri stuff which is still circulating - the transfer seems no nearer conclusion, although I guess the less we hear at this stage the better - we have apparently signed Francis Coquelin, who I know nothing about other than he's a young French player (apparently a defensive midfielder). We have also been relinked with Hatem Ben Arfa here, although there doesn't seem to be any source for the story. The same page also links us to another player I've never heard of, PSGs Clement Chantome. I doubt there's anything in it, but who knows?

There is on piece of news that I was delighted to hear today, and that is that our very own Mad Jens is likely to be Germany's #1 for the Euros this summer! He's had a tough season with us, but is still a quality player. Will I support Germany now? I don't know if I can bring myself to, but I will most definitely be supporting Lehmann! He is a true Arsenal legend, and deserves a good send-off, as I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up retiring this summer.

The Glorious Heart-Break Kids, Nasri Update and GSSRP3

I am back, battered, bruised and a glorious victor. My 6-a-side team just won for the first time in ages, 3-1 against Scope in my university college's tournament. This means that if we win the next 3 games, we should qualify for the knock-out stages!

Anyway, back to more Arsenal-related things, according to J. Sanderson over at Young Guns, Samir Nasri's agent has confirmed that he is in contract negotiations with the club, but is holding out for more money, claiming that other teams are in the running too. To me, it just sounds like an agent trying to boost his client's (and thus his own) paycheck. Hopefully we'll here confirmation that the transfer is complete in the next few days.

and now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary

Part 3:

What lessons have we learnt from the past seasons? What problems are there at the club and how can they be addressed? Obviously, a 20 year old guy with absolutely no information from inside the club that everyone else has, limited football skills and no coaching/management experience knows what's best for the club. To me, the main problems at the moment seem to be:

• Centre-back pairing.

• Lack of depth in midfield and defence.

We know that Wenger plans to buy a tall, powerful defender in the summer, which should help in defence – we often have problems dealing with high balls into the box, as both Gallas and Toure are 6'0” or less, and an experienced player over 6'2” should see this problem solved, whilst also giving valuable advice and guidance to the likes of Philip Senderos and Johan Djourou, who are both tall and strong players, but maybe don't quite have the experience yet to be first team regulars.

The most pressing problem, which was especially notable towards the end of the season is the lack of depth to our midfield and defence. With Flamini and possibly Hleb leaving, we not only need to replace them, but also bring in another couple of players. Whether this should be done through buying new players or promoting some of our youngsters I don't know, as I haven't seen enough of the likes of Merida, Randall and Gibbs to tell if they are ready yet. As we seem to be on the verge of signing Samir Nasri, we either won't need to buy a replacement for Hleb, or we will be one midfielder better off. Even if Flamini didn't leave, we would still have needed another central midfielder; effectively, for us, him and Cesc (with occasional help from Gilberto) were doing the same job as Anderson, Scholes, Carrick, Hargreaves and Fletcher at Man Utd, Ballack, Lampard, Mikel, Makelele and Essien at Chelsea or Lucas, Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso at Liverpool. Again, I don't know if Denilson or Diaby would be able to fill this role next season, but I hope so. We really need more than four or five top-class players, who we would be happy to see in the line up against any of the big teams to compete throughout the season. This year, especially with the injuries to Rosicky, we have too often had to play not great players (Eboue!) in important matches. A versatile defender to provide cover across the back four would be very welcome too, as would a genuine winger (though it looks like Theo Walcott could be just this). One position we don't need to strengthen is striker, as next year we will have Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner, Van Persie, Walcott and Vela.

I hope that we will not have to actually buy in too many players during the summer, that our youngsters will be ready for the step up to the first team, but I don;t know whether this is the case. If not, it would be foolish not to bring in a couple of faces to remedy what was our biggest weakness last season. I don't necessarily want to see big name players aged around 22-26, but rather a couple of older heads, maybe 28-30, who will be good first team players but who will a) cost less and b) be a bit past it in a couple of years, and so not prevent our youngsters getting a game when they're a couple of years older.

Nasri, Robinho and other Rubbish

Good Afternoon Gooners!

A lot of exciting news today, according to l'Equipe, the deal for Nasri is going to be finalised in the next couple of days. From all I have seen and heard, he is a great player, and would be an excellent addition to the squad. I don't know how accurate the Zidane comparisons are, but if there's any truth in it, and we do sign the guy, this could be a huge deal for the club.

Also, In Marca, we have been linked with a deal for Robinho, who we all know is a player Wenger has long admired. If it's true, fantastic, but the story also links him to Spurs, which is just ridiculous, so I doubt there's much in it. Admittedly I can't speak Spanish at all, but I can make out the words Robinho, London, agent, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, and that his contract release is 150m Euros. I reckon it's just another player angling for a new contract.

In other news, Lyon president Aulas has said he wants Ben Arfa to stay in France, so us singing him looks very unlikely. Juventus have been linked with a £5 million deal for Big Phil, Real Madrid are linked with Hleb, and Van Persie thinks he'll be fit to play for Holland in the Euros, which means he'll come back injured and we won't see him play till December. Probably.

I was very pleased yesterday to see the site smash through the 100 hits mark, and it's now well on the way to 200! How far can we go today? If we can improve on yesterdays 73 unique visitors ... who knows? Thanks to Chris from Gooner talk to be the first to comment on one of my posts!

I'm just off to play a game of 6-a-side, but I'll be back later to post the third (and final) part of my season summary. Adios...

News Roundup + Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary: Part 1!

Good morning boys and girls.

We'll start with a little of bit of news and gossip today, then the first instalment of my three part season summary.

Lots of exciting transfer rubbish today, we have been linked very heavily with Samir Nasri of Marseille in the last couple of days, in much the same way that we were with Hatem Ben Arfa this time last week. He is a very good player, so it would be good if it's true, but well, the isn't how Arsene normally conducts his transfers.

Other tired hacks wanting easy copy space link us to: Roque Santa Cruz, who is apparently coming in to replace Adebayor, who is Barcelona bound. Bollocks. The usual crowd of Jean Makoun, Lilian Thuram, Kranjcar, and a lot of reports suggesting Alberto Aquilani of Roma is on his way for £23 million. That's another I can't see happening, as far as i recall, he plays in pretty much the same position as Cesc, and so is not a player we need really. Sounds like an agent trying to help with contract negotiations to me.

Interestingly, we have some news coming from Tony Adams at Portsmouth about everyone's favourite gutless mercenary, Lassana Diarra. It seems there may be more to his departure than we imagine. Admittedly the only source is Tribalfootball, but there are direct quotes from Tony. I can't think what this other reason might be, unless either Wenger decided he wasn't going to make it here, or he somehow discovered that he goes under the nickname "Diarra the Ripper" for a reason.* Any other suggestions?

And now, drum roll......

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary!

Part 1:

First things first. This has been a very good season for Arsenal F.C. The way it ended may have been very painful, losing out in the latter stages of both the league and the Champions League, followed by the loss and potential loss of two important players (Flamini and Hleb). However, considering that the majority of (admittedly moronic and ill-informed) pundits and journalists predicted that our season would end only in the ignominy of finishing below Spurs, it can only be regarded as a success. The CL quarter-final second leg against Liverpool seemed to encapsulate the season in about 5 glorious, and then heartbreaking minutes. The squad as a whole performed far better than in either of the two previous seasons, and many players improved dramatically.

In my view, there is only one reason why we were not able to continue the high level of football we played right through until the end of the season. Referees decisions were not to blame (not to say that we were not at the sharp end of quite a few dodgy ones), nor were embarrassing, but ultimately isolated cup defeats to Man Utd and Spurs, and neither was the Birmingham game, with Eduardo's injury and Gallas' antics, that many have pointed out as a turning point. The lack of depth in our squad was the key factor in the loss of form that saw us drop crucial points to Middlesbrough, Wigan and Villa. At that late stage in the season, key players were not performing at anything near their peaks, most obviously for me, Hleb, but due to the fact that we had a few injuries to big players, we were not able to shuffle the squad around and bring in on-form players. At either Man Utd or Chelsea, if a player is not performing, they normally have the squad depth to replace them, even if they have a few players injured. Yes we were unlucky to have players like Van Persie, Eduardo and Rosicky out for large parts of the season, but we never had more than a few injuries at a time. To compete domestically and in Europe these days, you need a bigger first team squad than we (currently) have.

Despite all this, I feel that there are far more positives than negatives to draw from this season. The players have shown a great team spirit, and proved their doubters wrong on many occasions. We recovered from the late 2007 slump that many of our doubters thought would prove the end of the title challenge, we proved that we can cope with teams who try to bully us out of games, as well as showing that we can mix it up a bit if necessary. The team is still a work in progress, but it has come on so much over the last season. Even with the possible departures, it won't take more than a couple of tweaks to see us in the silverware this time next year!

Coming up next: player by player squad summary!

Don't go changin'!

*I have no evidence to suggest that this is Diarra's actual nickname, or that he is a mass murderer of any sort. On the other hand, I have no evidence that he isn't....