Time of year for predictions in this week-end press review. Very few look back in May and say whether people were right or wrong. And that’s what makes football journalism a lot easier than quite a few other sectors.
The Mirror says Arsenal must keep van Persie fit if they are to have any chance of challenging for the title. Stop him receiving too many reds and yellows, as well, more like. The Sunday Times says Eduardo has to bang them in.
The Mirror says: “They [Arsenal] are not strong enough to compete with the top three but we would be shocked if they didn’t finish at least fourth.”
THIS SEASON: Our prediction – 4th. Our bet – To win the FA Cup (8/1, BlueSq). The NoW, and Kenny Dalglish has Arsenal fifth.
But Wenger at 8/1 to lose his job, fourth riskiest manager (William Hill), in the Sunday Express is worthy of note.
John Richardson’s sports column in the Sunday Express says Wenger is waiting to sign a three year contract before appointing a director of football.
The Observer points out there have been 13 (should that be 15?) Arsenal deals in the close season: six in, nine out, with a £13.1m net gain.
Just for the record, they are: Harvard Nordveit (FK Haugesund, £2m), Gilles Sunu (Chateauroux, nom), Kyle Bartley (Bolton, nom), Bacary Sagna (Auxerre, £8m), Eduardo Da Silva (Dinamo Zagreb, £8m), Lukasz Fabianski (Legia Warsaw, £2m) – around £20m
OUTs are Arturo Lupoli (Fiorentina, free), Fabrice Muamba (Birmingham, £4m), Matthew Connolly (Colchester, loan), Freddie Ljungberg (West Ham, £3m), Jose Antonio Reyes (Atletico Madrid, £8m), Jeremie Aliadiere (Middlesbrough, £2m), Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £16.1m), Mart Poom (Watford, free). The paper says Vito Mannone went to Gretna on loan, but there are doubts about that one. That makes around £31.1m – rising to around £36.5m – along with an undisclosed saving on wages.
Looking at the double page spread on summer sales can be quite scary reading. Arsenal are top (most earned from), or bottom (least invested), depending on which way you look at it, of the transfer spending window, to date. Man U would top the market at £37.2m without the undisclosed Tevez purchase.Tottenham have spend the second highest, taking into account sales, at £40.6m. Liverpool come in at £28.4m. Man City £25m and Portsmouth £22m are other high spenders. Everton are the only other club coming out with a net gain, so far (£.5m).
The Sunday Times points out Man U now have a strike force of Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs, Nani, Anderson, Saha, Solskjaer and Tevez. And Liverpool have added Torres, Babel and Voronin.
The Diarra to Arsenal story appears in the SoS – but it hasn’t moved forward since appearing two or three weeks ago. In fact it moved backwards last week when assistant manager Steve Clarke said Chelsea didn’t want to sell him to a rival.
Sister paper – The Express quotes Clarke: “Lassana got into the team last season and did well playing nine or 10 matches consecutively. For a young player at a club like Chelsea, that is a significant involvement. If he does not think he is getting a fair chance, then I would need to disagree with him.
“You would not want anyone to go to your local rivals. We want to keep him.”
One Sunday red-top says Valencia put in a £10m bid for Gilberto Silva, after the Emirates Cup – knocked back by Arsenal. But the paper says they’ll come knocking again.
The People has Birmingham boss Steve Bruce switching attentions to Mathieu Flamini after scrapping his bid to sign Hossam Ghaly from Tottenham.
Apart from that – very little. Calm before the storm, or that’s it for pre-season? Former, I think, and hope.
Before closing, Patrick Barclay has an article in the Sunday Times, well worth a read, highlighting the moral corruption of the Premiership, from the Tevez affair, the Shinawatra Man City buy-out, ” Abramovich‘s obscene profiteering”; The Glazer‘s “raising ticket prices several times the rate of inflation to self service their self-incurred debts.”
PS: ANR had a correspondent at the Ajax game who should be filing today.