All the news and bits

By: travis | January 22nd, 2009

Good evening all. I’ve been a bit lazy the past two days and uninspired. The Arshavin madness has been driving me a bit insane, and perhaps the saga has reached an end. The Daily Mail is reporting that an agreement has been reached between Zenit and Arsenal for the tune of £15m. A large sum, one might say, but when the likes of Berbatov and Robinho are going for around £30m+, I’ll take what I can get. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen if this is more conjecture, or that the owlish-one may take the field next week. Zenit was being a bit difficult in thinking that anyone would pay up £20m for their Ruskie, and I’m glad Arsenal didn’t jump that high. Again, if the rumors prove true. Other major news outlets are yet to run the story, so stay tuned even further. Fingers crossed we’ve either seen the end of it, or that the lad actually makes the move to London.

Shockingly, there are plenty of other transfer news trickling in, especially in the past few hours. A rumored approach by Atletico Madrid for Emmanuel Eboue was reportedly turned down by Arsenal. There’s nothing surprising about that. While some people are down on Eboue, he’s not going to be sold simply because of the number of injuries that has hit this side. Selling during a time like this would be complete madness. Still, the news comes a bit out of left field as Eboue is one of the last players you’d think to be enquired about.

The other talk of significance is Nico Kranjcar incoming at the end of the season. Apparently he is out of contract at the end of the season and is rumored to move to either Arsenal or Tottenham. Sounds a bit fishy to me — a player in search of higher wages (see Adebayor in summer ‘08) — whose agent is planting stories in order to scare up some more cash from his club. He’s not a bad player though and could be signed if the price is right. The most likely scenario? A team like Tottenham comes in and overpays for him. Although Kranjcar has gone on the record to say he wouldn’t play for his old boss because they already had Luka Modric.

A couple of interesting tidbits from the reserve team’s 2-2 draw against Stoke on Wednesday night – the first being Eduardo playing the full 90 up front, even scoring a goal that was disallowed for offside. It’s another step in the Croazilian’s long journey back to first team action after the horrific ankle break from a year ago. He’s declared himself ready to return:

“I think I am ready for the first team but you would have to ask the boss. It has been a long time since I’ve played 90 minutes and now I feel better knowing that I can play a whole game.”

Eduardo’s return to the first team is imminent, and his creativity and scoring will be a welcome addition.

Jack Wilshere was the other player to make some noise that night, as he scored a lovely goal with the outside of the boot. Words can’t really do it justice, so check it out — along with Eduardo’s disallowed goal — after the jump.