At 4pm I saw Arsene on Sky Sports News saying Hleb isn’t going.
“I find all the talk about the players completely disrespectful,” he said, rather grimly. “When it comes directly from the club, enough is enough, we shall report them directly to FIFA from now on.
“If Inter are interested in Alexander Hleb, they should call us. We have heard nothing. I don’t know why we always have to respond to these situations.
“Apart from Mathieu Flamini, all our players are under contract. You never hear me talking about players who are under contract somewhere else. If I want to buy someone, I call the chairman and I ask him if he is for sale.”
That interview would have been recorded around 2.pm, probably.
But at 4.45pm I had a phone call saying (1) Hleb has gone to Inter Milan and (2) a fee has been agreed and (3) he will rent out his house in Hampstead, as the property market has taken a dive.
So I don’t know what to believe now. I’m putting this is up because I trust my source.
Looks as if Alex Hleb has done 4 years in the Bundlesliga, 3 years in the Premier League & now he’s off to Serie A.
I wish him well. I was a fan of Hleb’s from day one. But he is not what Arsenal need right now.
And we have to live in the real world of mercenary footballers.
You are screaming : How much did we get for him?
Dunno. I’m telling you everything I know, which may be 100% kosher – or not. We shall see.
Hleb’s price will come out in the Italian media very soon if this newsflash is right.
Slaven Bilic says Nico Kranjcar is the right man for Arsenal.
Good player : vision, skill, a powerful 23-year old who can whack a ball from 25 yards. Arsenal have needed that for years and years.
I’m reminded of the words Stan Kroenke used when his executives had a meeting, kicking around ideas for next season’s NBA basketball team. It was a meeting in which Stan did not say a lot.
He listened to the ideas being kicked around, the arguments back and forward, and his executive posse gradually came out in favour of Allan Iverson.
The meeting ended when Stan said three little words.
He said, “Go get him !”
Yes, Iversen is a red-hot basketball player.
And he is tiny. He is only six feet tall !