It’s a shock, because players don’t just leave Arsenal LFC, and especially not for other teams in England. We are the dominant team in England- only winning a double last season was disappointing. (The year before was a quadruple, with the league, both cups, and the UEFA Cup.) The best players in the UK come to us to play. So to lose any players, particularly ones as good as Asante and Sanderson, is a shock.

However, in the long run, this might be a good thing for women’s football in the UK. Arsenal, backed as they are by the men’s club, has steamrolled just about everyone in their path. They’ve been unbeaten in the league for four and a half years. They’ve won ten of the 15 existing league titles. They’ve won the FA Cup nine times, and have held it for the past three years. Especially with the demise/rebirth with less of their stars of Charlton Athletic, no one in England can get close to them. I’m sure that, as good as it is to win, the players want some kind of challenge.

Chelsea seem to be setting themselves up to be that challenge. The wealthy men’s side is increasing their support, they’ve nicked two of our stars, and even taken our reserve-team coach to manage them. Everyone wants to be Arsenal, it seems.

Which means we’ve got to step it up. I’m sure we can do it. We’re just that awesome.

There is no new news on Samir Nasri, but I’m hearing that an official announcement may be soon, especially with Marseille officially signing Hatem Ben Arfa. It was touch and go there for a moment, and if the Ben Arfa transfer had been annulled, it would have been surprising to see Nasri still come to London. It may only take a “few more days” for things to come through. I’ll believe that when I see it on the official site.

I think Nicklas Bendtner has felt left out during the silly season. His father has come out to quash reports that there was talks of his son moving to either Roma or Milan. It’s a bit of a shocker, but the report originated from none other than the Italian media (surprise, surprise) newspaper Corriere dello Sport. So it has pretty much no credibility. I could chatter on for days about these rumors, but I’m a bit tired of them.

So when Stan Kroenke first started getting involved with Arsenal it struck me as a very odd coincidence. Of all the sports billionaires in the US, it’s the one that owns most of the Denver teams that wants to buy/invest into my beloved club. Nothing ever comes out of Denver, and suddenly it wants my English club?

In the very beginning, my father told me that if Stan Kroenke wanted to buy Arsenal, he’d end up doing it. And while recent quotes have him still protesting he won’t, it does seem likely that, in the future, Stan Kroenke will own Arsenal Football Club. He will be taking a place on the Arsenal board, which makes him privy to the “lockdown” agreement that the rest of the board members agreed to, and his joining is a flashing neon sign that he’s favored by the current ownership. Being a “foreigner” myself I’m not as against non-English ownership as many, but there’s a lot of convincing to be done that it’s a good thing.

Being as I haven’t lived in Denver for many years, I’m no expert on Stan Kroenke, but as I lived there for a long time and still have roots there, I know something. And since my mom was in town last weekend, I talked to her a bit about Kroenke.

My mother is a passionate, irreverent sports fan. I like to think that I learned how to be a fan from her, and I certainly learned a lot of important lessons- like how your team will sell your favorite player, that they’re going to probably lose more trophies than they’ll win, and you never, ever change your team. While she mostly still supports the New York teams she grew up with, she’s adopted one Colorado thing- the Denver Nuggets, the basketball team owned by Stan Kroenke.

She didn’t have much to say about him. No one does. She certainly didn’t think he’s an idiot, and thinks that he’s mostly done a good job with them. However, she did have one thing to say that set her off on quite the rant- he won’t fire the coach. She can’t figure out why, with all the money that’s being spent on players and the stars that they have, how their record has been what it is. Coaches get fired for far less, and yet, he’s still there. Kroenke won’t do anything.

Now, here’s where I get into speculation about things I know very little about. Please, if there are people who still live in Colorado (and actually pay attention to the non-football sports, which is something I’ve never done) and know better, set me straight.

The trend in Kroenke teams seems to be that he doesn’t interfere a lot, for better or for worse, in the sporting side. What he does do is raise the profile of teams. The Nuggets now compared to the Nuggets from when I left Denver are completely different- they have players I’ve heard of (including my mother’s beloved Carmelo Anthony, who won a title for the Syracuse Orangemen and therefore will forever have godlike status in my house), a stylish logo and uniforms, and are no longer the laughing stock of the city. The Rapids, his football team (so you can’t say ‘why isn’t he investing in the sport in America?’), have a new stadium, a different stylish logo, and a link with Arsenal. Every time I go home Kroenke-owned teams seem to be everywhere- even the lacrosse team had banners up.

What does that mean for Arsenal? Well, the one thing that Arsenal has is stability in management. In Arsene Wenger they have a long-term manager who, knock on wood, isn’t going anywhere for quite some time. He’s also a manager who doesn’t like to be messed with, who likes to have ultimate control. Kroenke, for better or for worse, seems unlikely to interfere. If the Denver teams are anything to go by, he will give money for players- both the Avalanche and the Nuggets get funded well. Judging by the few things said, Kroenke’s focus will likely be on the unromantic branding aspects- raising the profile of the club in non-English markets, the sort of thing that Manchester United has become so successful at. We’re a big club, but as recent transfer wrangling has shown, there is probably room for us to be bigger (if we want to go in that often-obnoxious direction).

Now, don’t take this to mean I don’t have any reservations about a Kroenke takeover. I definitely have them. Especially when it comes to commitment- he already owns nearly every team in Denver and half of St. Louis’ NFL team. How much can he really spend- and commit to- a team far away from his base that will require lots of time and money. Arsenal are a bigger commitment then the Denver teams- can he make the step up?

On the other hand, if our options are Kroenke and Usmanov, I’ll take Kroenke.

Thoughts?

Which, in my opinion, is totally fair. I’m not clear on what I want to happen, and it isn’t my life that’s being changed. I like Adebayor a whole lot- he’s our top scorer, after all. I’ll miss his goals, his rapid-fire interviews, his perfectly choreographed celebration dances. He’s come on incredibly in the past season, is young, and can probably only get better. At a time when our ability to compete with the free-spending fellow members of the Top Four is being questioned regularly, is selling off our top scorer really the way to tell the world that we can do it just fine? Not to mention that keeping the squad together is supposed to be a priority.

And yet…he’s incredibly frustrating, isn’t he? For every goal he’s scored it seems like he’s missed three. He’s had one great season, but has he got another one that good in him? Arsenal, when we do sell, often sells too late- look at the prices we did get for Vieira and Henry, and compare that to the prices that were offered the season before they left. Not that Adebayor is in that category, really, but the sums being quoted are incredible. And incredibly, the interested clubs seem willing to pay them. With that kind of money, he can probably be replaced (perhaps with Mario Gomez- despite his shocker of a Euro 2008, I watch enough of the Bundesliga to know how good he really is, and the thought of how much better he could get under Wenger excites me).

Adebayor himself has a similar sort of ambivalence. He does seem to love Arsenal- Arsene Wenger is “like a father to him”, but it’s likely that the contracts he’ll be given at either Milan or Barcelona will be astronomical for a young man who’s had one good season. (Milan seem to be particularly desperate for a striker, after all.) Arsenal is a big club, but no English club has the allure that the big names of Italy and Spain still seem to have- see Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Might a move be better for him?

It doesn’t have a clear-cut answer, this question of Adebayor. It will likely be a very hard decision on both sides. Makes me glad I’m not a manager.

Also, David Dein and the Uzbek can really go to hell. Kroenke is far from perfect, but if those are our options…I’m making the same decision as the board.

“I have a good contract, we have a good team there and I’m playing for one of the biggest teams in the world. The most important thing for me is to keep on enjoying my football. I’m staying at Arsenal.”

On the flip side of that, apparently Ade’s mind is still to be made up. Funny enough, the BBC story features none of the uncertainty that is now being raised in this Sky Sports interview. This interview with Sky was completed later on, where Adebayor is reported to saying

“At the moment we are just going to sit down and talk and decide what to do. Nothing has been decided yet. We will decide next week.”

What is going to happen with him? Reading the article from the BBC, it seems like a no-brainer that Ade is staying in London. And with AC Milan and Barcelona are reportedly both lining up transfers for other players (Ronaldinho and Arshavin) they wouldn’t have the €30 million to fork out, a number that has been tossed around in regards to his transfer fee. At first, I thought it was a done deal and that he was staying. But browsing around the net a bit brought up those other articles. I’d really like to see Adebayor stay, but €30 million for a striker who has only proved himself during one season may be too good to turn down. At this point, we can only watch this unfold. Who knows what will happen.

Cesc Fabregas: Scored his first international goal for his home country and showed that he’s a man by beating Buffon to give Spain the win in penalties. When he was subbed in during the quarterfinal, the Spanish attack looked a bit more lively, as his quick distribution helped open up the Italians (only a little bit). If he doesn’t start against Russia, Aragones could be taking a huge risk.

Robin Van Persie: Was this tournament’s “super sub”, as he was only handed a start in one of Holland’s four matches - and that was the dead rubber against Romania. He had two goals, one against the French, the other against Romania that helped the Dutch win their group. It’s a positive sign, as he spent most of last season out with an injury.

Samir Nasri
Philippe Senderos: Three starts for the co-hosts, as Switzerland was bounced in the group stages. They did get some redemption when they beat Portugal in their last match.

Johan Djourou: Didn’t get a chance to play for the Swiss. Zut!

Lukasz Fabianski: Sat on the bench behind Artur Boruc the whole tournament as Poland crashed out in the group stages.

William Gallas: Meh, the French stunk up the joint as Domenech managed to prove that yes, he is really a crazy person.

While it’s a bit early for a wrap up with Spain still alive, it was good to see Van Persie play well for the Dutch. If he manages to stay healthy next season and Adebayor stays, our strike force looks pretty formidable. However, those happen to be pretty large ifs (at least in the case of VP staying healthy).

Way to knock out the Italians (with a little help from Casillas, of course).

It’s painful to watch what has unfolded here. According to the article, Adebayor was asking for wages in the region of £80,000 a week. That’s a bit high, you’ve got to admit, for a player who has proved himself for just one season. Arsenal tends to usually show fiscal sense when it comes to paying its players (see Cashley Cole). Hard to picture next season without Ade, but if you think about the profit they would make off of him in just two years, along with his outrageous demand for wages, I would think the smart move would be to sell him. But this would require bringing in a solid, proven replacement. Not an 18-year-old striker playing in Ligue 2 or something like that. I hope that this post is more wild speculation and that I’m dead wrong. I’d like nothing more than to see Adebayor back at the Emirates next season. But I can’t ignore the signs, even if most everything in the press is fanning the flames of transfer rumors. This just won’t go away, and is being reported more frequently now.

Seems like a day can’t go by without Adebayor being linked somewhere. And according to the Italian press, he wants out. Milan, who have just come out to say he is too expensive, have said that it’s Ade or no one (at least in terms of strikers), go in a corner, and sulk. As much as I’d like to ignore these rumors, their persistence makes me think that something may be up, and that Adebayor may really be on his way out. Whatever the case is, it makes me a bit nervous. Losing him would mean our top two strikers would both be coming off long injury stints.

More transfer news out of Italy - there is interested in Gael Clichy from Juventus and Roma. Roma having just signed John Arne Riise (the own goal specialist) and it would make little sense to sign another left back. As usual, the rumors never die. When it comes to media, they never fail in coming up with a story, no matter how inane and moronic the deal would be.