July is a training month.
Arsenal are training in Austria, Spurs are training in South Africa, Manchester United are training in Macao, Chelsea are training in the USA, and I’m training in Cricklewood.
Liverpool, Fulham & Portsmouth are training in Hong Kong.
The humidity in Hong Kong is so high that referee Mark Clattenburg allowed the teams a five-minute water break midway through Fulham-Portsmouth. Benjani scored the only goal when the ball broke to him off a defender’s leg.
Fulham have a lot of new players, so it’s impossible to say what they might be like on August 12 at the Emirates.
There are still 37 days left in the transfer window.
A LOT CAN STILL HAPPEN !
Arsenal could sign three players.
Man United want to buy Carlos Tevez for £30 million and West Ham claim that fee and so does Kia Joorabchian.
And Tevez will not be playing for any team any time soon if Kia pursues his case against West Ham in the High Court.
And poor Tevez has been treated like a piece of meat. Taken out of Argentina, plonked down at Corinthians in Brazil, then shipped to England, where he doesn’t speak the language, to help Joorabchian take over at West Ham, but that takeover doesn’t happen.
His mate Mascherano is moved on to Liverpool at Xmas and then Tevez buckled down down, put the team on his back, and saved West Ham from relegation, a rescue they scarcely deserved.
FIFA refused to rule, as I expected, since Blatter is a mate of Kia’s. FIFA merely recommended that the case be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
What a shambles ! The whole affair is a dirty stain on British sport and an impediment to a fresh start to the football season.
Kia is an Arsenal fan who has a box at the Emirates. He offered the duo to Arsenal but Wenger was not interested in privately-owned players.
The Independent have sent Sam Wallace to Denver to interview Paul Andrews, who is Stan Kroenke’s right hand man.
Andrews, 41, sounds like the kind of dynamic executive we need in English sport.
Make up your own mind after clicking on Rich, reclusive and relentless: the man who would be king of Arsenal