Thursday Randoms

By: Martin | May 14th, 2009

No posts for a couple of days, I know. It’s mainly been because there hasn’t been that much noteworthy to report. Frankly, there’s still not that much noteworthy to report, but I’m bored at work and you can’t stop me.

First off, Manchester United’s win yesterday puts them a mere point from the title. While our match-up on Saturday won’t mean much to us in terms of league position, it would sure be nice to delay the celebration another week and avoid the indignity of having to watch them celebrate while we’re still on the pitch.

Also, Rosicky is apparently back in training. Which is good news. I suppose. The Czech midfield maestro would have helped us a lot this season, and if he returns to health could be very important to our plans for next season. Frankly, though, what’s the point of him returning to training a week and a half before the season ends? He definitely won’t play, so wouldn’t it just be better to give him 2 more months of rest and rehab, and hope he comes back completely healthy in July? If he manages to reinjure himself in the next week or so, that’s going to be maddening.

There’s also a bunch of transfer rumors floating around. Apparently Carlo Ancelotti is set to announce his departure from AC Milan this week, setting up the widely rumored takeover at Stamford Bridge next season. And supposedly he’s not enamored with Didier Drogba, and wants to sell the diver and replace him with Adebayor. So basically if one unfounded rumored thing happens, and then another unfounded rumored thing happens, then there is an unfounded rumor that Adebayor could go to Chelsea. Not that I’d necessarily mind all that much, but this just seems like media making things up to me.

Xabi Alonso is apparently not coming to Arsenal. I wasn’t aware that this rumor was even out there. This seems like one of those cases of someone denying a rumor that doesn’t exist to possibly start the rumor. Does that ever work? Just in case, I am not involved in a sexual relationship with Anne Hathaway.

In more serious news, we have offered a trial with a look to a permanent move with 16 year-old Argentine goalkeeper Damian Martinez. He is the first-team goalkeeper for Argentina’s Under-17s, so could be pretty decent. Obviously he wouldn’t be a key member of the team for some time, but could see a lot of action in the youth team. This would give us 5 goalies, which seems like quite a bit–if he comes on permanently, it wouldn’t surprise me if Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczesny were sent elsewhere.

In more interesting news, Arsene Wenger is set to meet with Arsenal shareholders today. The media is setting this up as a “grilling” and making it out to be like Wenger is really going to have to answer a lot of tough questions about the future of the team. I’m not buying it. Why? Because these are SHAREHOLDERS, not fans. Look, it’s not that they don’t want the team to succeed, but this is a business investment for them. And right now, the team is very profitable–the new stadium brings in a ton of cash, the team keeps qualifying for the Champions League and getting the attendant media revenue, and Wenger does this without spending a ton of money in the transfer window. I can’t imagine the shareholders aren’t pretty happy with him. Still, though, the idea of being able to grill Wenger is pretty tantalizing. What would you ask him? Some proposed questions here, some of which are pretty good. If I had my chance, I think the 5 questions I’d ask would be:

1. Do you just have one grey suit and red tie, or do you just have a whole closet full of identical grey suits and red ties?
2. Alex Ferguson–he’s really a huge tool, right? He seems like a huge tool.
3. What really happened with Bendtner’s pants-down incident?
4. Does Arshavin sleep in a race car bed?
5. Abou Diaby: What incriminating photos or information does he have on you, and is it really worth pretending that he’s going to be a good player someday?

Feel free to leave your questions in the comments section. United preview coming tomorrow.