Things That Won’t Happen (But I Wish They Would)

By: Abby | June 10th, 2008

The Sun (a well-known source of completely made up news) reports that the shock name on Arsene Wenger’s shopping list is Germany midfielder Torsten Frings. A shock move, because Frings is 31 years old and not at all the normal type of player. In fact, I’m only posting this because it’s one of those moves (like Mario Gomez) that makes me happy just to daydream about.

Only a little gratuitous I’m a big fan of Frings, really. He’s tough and talented and says some fantastic quotes. (A personal favorite: when asked about former Germany manager Jürgen Klinsmann joining Bayern Munich, a club Torsten played at for a year and then decided he didn’t like, he replied “I don’t care. I really don’t care.” He also is enough of a badass to not get made fun of for having the nickname Lollipop and once had a pet raccoon.) And in a team with not very many tough guys, Frings would be a good one to kick some ass. When it looked like he was leaving Bremen last year, I was trying to argue for his signing. He’s used to our sort of passing game, being at the team in the Bundesliga that most approximates it, and is an experienced head not known for the sort of tantrums that some of our other experienced players occasionally pull out. He’d be great at Arsenal, in my opinion.

But, as mentioned in the title, this probably won’t happen. The only source is the Sun, he’s not the kind of player that Wenger normally signs, and last season when he nearly left Bremen (for Juventus) he didn’t. He doesn’t seem entirely thrilled with the thought of leaving Germany, nor did he really enjoy his time at “big club” Bayern Munich. But, you know, we’re not Bayern Munich or Juventus. He might like us. The boy of the hour

However, in things that will likely happen (or not, now that I’ve written about it and jinxed it), in a major turnaround, hot teenage prospect Aaron Ramsey is set to sign for us in a £5 million deal. He’d better be good for that kind of money, but apparently he is. Also, he’s British (Welsh), which means the price is more expensive than it would be otherwise. And, as a cherry on the top, Manchester United had announced the kid’s imminent signing last week. Arsenal flew Ramsey out to Switzerland to meet with Wenger, who’s been commenting on Euro 2008 for French TV. Apparently, that swayed him enough to agree to join us instead of the Mancs. Also, we included no option to loan Ramsey back to Cardiff, which is what they had. While Cardiff City themselves wanted him to come back on loan, it seems that the player himself wanted to get his Premier League career started quicker. And with our way of bringing teenagers into the first team, it made the most sense for him to come to Arsenal. Time will tell whether he’ll be a Fabregas or an Aliadiere, but I wish him the best of luck.