By Myles Palmer
I was told on Tuesday morning that Deportivo la Coruna had offered £12.5 million for Kanu.
I’m absolutely amazed that this story has not broken yet. (Maybe it is not true? We shall soon see.)
Two other snippets : Patrick Vieira will issue a statement next week saying he loves all things Arsenal.
And Wenger has a £12 million bid on the table for Spurs right back Steve Carr, who is a close friend of Sol Campbell. Carr, you will recall, was the only Spurs player to say that Sol did the right thing by leaving Spurs!
I don’t usually do much transfer spec on ANR, but I did hit three bullseyes with Jeffers, van Bronckhorst and Campbell, and I think Kanu might go.
Why?
Around this time last year I was at Shenley with Arsene one afternoon and he answered all the topical questions from the tabloid boys.
He was in a good mood and said as much as he could about Edu, and so on.
But when the subject of Kanu going to the Olympics came up he became visibly furious. His face changed. His voice changed. He was absolutely livid.
Because one of Kanu’s most vital jobs was to play in the Champions League games that Bergkamp could not get to.
And the idea that Kanu wanted to vanish to Australia for a month,missing two or three Champions League games while Arsenal continued to pay his massive salary, and play as an overage player in an Under-23 tournament, clearly infuriated the manager.
Arsene said he would do everything he could to stop Kanu going to the Olympics – and he did. And he was right.He may have said : if you go, don’t come back!
After that, Kanu started 11 of Arsenal’s 13 Champions League games before the game in Valencia, but only scored against Sparta Prague and Bayern.
Basically, Kanu flopped.He was not the same player as he had been the year before.His mind was elsewhere. He only scored five goals all season, compared to 17 the season before.
In Valencia, after Wenger got special dispensation for Kanu to join Nigeria from Spain for World Cup qualifier, I had expected him to start the game. But he was on the bench in Valencia.That was a signal.That told me a lot.
Even so, I still expected Kanu to start in the FA Cup Final against Liverpool.But was on the bench. That was another signal.
My motto : watch what managers do, not what they say. Wenger did not start Ian Wright in the 1998 FA Cup Final, as he was not 100% match fit, and he did not bring him on as a sub. And Wright left that summer.
Kanu is much younger than Wright and has a lot of football left in him. He would do well in the Spanish League.And no fans I know would hugely regret his departure now, after such a dismal effort in 2000-2001.
But his agent says he wants to stay and win something with Arsenal. I wonder.
Selling Kanu would finance the purchase of Steve Carr, if Spurs would sell Carr to Arsenal, which seems highly unlikely.
David Buchler might be lynched if he did that. But I have not entirely ruled it out. As they always say, you never say never in football.Too many surprising deals have happened in recent years.
Hoddle could then sign the wingback he took to Chelsea and Southampton : Dan Petrescu.
11th July 2001.