Joe Cole Exclusive

Good Afternoon, I've heard some news this morning that could either leave me extremely happy with my credibility in tact, or extremely disappointed with my credibility somewhat diminished, along with a punch in the bollocks to my source.

Without sounding like a transfer rumour website or an article in The News Of The World, I've heard a rather interesting story over Joe Cole's future. It has been well publicised that Joe Cole will be leaving Chelsea when his contract is up at the end of June. A host of clubs have been heavily linked with him, including us, Spurs, United, City and even Real Madrid. One of my more recent blogs commented upon this Joe Cole story, and although I would love to sign Joe Cole, I believed the chances to be very small, my favourites to sign him were Spurs. I now emphasis the word 'were', because the story I have now heard has made me believe otherwise.

My source is a friend of a friend of Joe Cole's and they are adamant that Joe Cole has signed a deal in principle to join Arsenal after the World Cup. Now I know what your thinking, because I normally hate these sort of rumours, the rumours like 'my daughter goes to school with Cristiano Ronaldo's nephew, and he said Ronaldo will sign for Blackpool next season'. Whilst rather humorous, they are ridiculous. Now I'm not telling you to believe me, because you are free to think what ever you want to think, but I am telling you to watch this space over the next few weeks and remember where you heard it first. I've read quite a few Joe Cole exclusive stories, all claiming Joe Cole has signed for Arsenal, Spurs, Real, Liverpool, United and even West Ham, so I'm not expecting anyone to believe this source, we shall just wait and see what happens.

My confidence is also supported by the bookies making Arsenal clear favourites to sign Joe, Sky Bet has us at 4/11 to sign Joe Cole by the end of the summer. If those odds get any shorter they will stop taking bets. Now if the bookies have got us at such clear favourites then I don't know what else to believe, you will never find a poor bookie, so they know what they are talking about.

I have been told Joe has already agreed a deal to join the club, everything has been agreed and that the only thing left to be organised is the medical, which could take place after the World Cup has finished. However I am quite a sceptical person, and until Wenger announces the fact Joe has signed I will still be a little resigned to believing it 100%. Put it this way however I'm very confident that he will sign, but lets just wait for Wenger to give us the confirmation. I would like to give a shout out to my source, who shall remain anonymous, unless this deal turns out to go tits up or to be a load of rubbish, then I shall give you his name, telephone number and bank details.

Thanks for reading, and remember where you heard it first!

Take a step into my dream world

Nothing really to talk about today, unless you want to spend the rest of the day talking about Rob Greens howler last night. It just had to be the goalkeeper Arsenal are linked with didn't it. Personally I don't know why Joe Hart wasn't picked to start, he has been the in form keeper this season, everyone keeps throwing around this whole 'well he ain't experienced enough'. Well how do you expect him to gain experience if you don't play him. My favourite goalkeeper Iker Casillas has been a Spain and Real Madrid regular since he was 18 or 19, if you ask me Joe Hart is more than ready.

Anyway this is an Arsenal Blog, so I want to come off the England topic for today and let you enter my dream world. I've been thinking a lot about who I would like Arsene to sign and I have a team in my head that realistically speaking could be an Arsenal starting line up next season. I did say dream world, but I did take into account that we aren't going to spend £900m on players. So below is the Arsenal team I would like to see next year.

GK- Hart
LB- Clichy
RB- Sagna
CB- Vermalean
CB- Hangelaand
LAM- Nasri
RAM- Gourcuff
DM- Song
CM- Fabregas
CM- Y. Toure
CF- Van Persie


I look at that team and think wow. I would be so happy with that team, and in my opinion it is do-able. I mean of course if is purely speculation but to buy Hart, Hangelaand, Toure and Gourcuff wouldn't cost a ridiculous amount of money. Hart would cost about £10-£12m, Hangelaand about the same. Yaya Toure would be the most complicated to sign because as you can see he lines up along side Fabregas, so I doubt Barca would do business with us if we didn't allow them to sign Fab. Gourcuff would probably be the most expensive, about £25m would capture him, but I've said before it would be money well spent.

Now I've let you enter my dream world its time to take a step back out in to reality, and expect Wenger to sign a few players from this Slovenia and Algeria match I'm currently watching.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

World Cup Predictions

Watching the football on ITV has made me want to write a blog about Arsenal's representatives at the World Cup. Ten gunners have been included in their respective national squads, none of whom however are representing England.

As per usual out French contingent is very strong with Abou Diaby, William Gallas, Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy all included. It could well have been five players included but the omission of Samir Nasri put a stop to that. With three of our first choice defence included in the French team, I cant see France being the most solid team at the tournament, but I predict they will meet England in the Quarter Finals and beat us but lose to the Brazilians in the Semi Finals.

Alex Song will be participating in his first world cup for Cameroon and will come up against The Big Dane Nicklas Bendtner. It will be tough for both Cameroon and Denmark with Japan and the small problem of Robin Van Persie's Holland in their group. So we will have 3 players playing against each other in the same group. I'm afraid I see the competition ending very quickly for both Alex and Nicklas, I just cant see them getting out of the group stages. Holland look good as always but they are just like England, I would love for Holland to win it if England don't but I predict they will fall at the Quarter Final stage to Brazil.

Our little Mexican Carlos Vela will be in action against his French team mates, so that should prove to be an interesting game. I back Mexico to get out of the group along with France but they could face a very difficult game against Argentina in the second round and I think that could be just one game to many for Carlos Vela's side. Emanuel Eboue will be in action for Ivory Coast and will face Portugal, Brazil and North Korea in the group of death of this years World Cup. I think Ivory Coast will have their work cut out this year and will do well to even get out of their group.

My favourites for the competition will be Spain. Of course our little Spanish magician Cesc Fabregas. Spain have the best individuals as well as the best team and I predict it will be a Brazil v Spain final, and I can see Spain just pipping Brazil to become World Champions. The great thing however about this World Cup is that any number of teams can win it, there are so many great teams with fantastic players, as well as teams that will be looking to cause an upset or two, such as the hosts South Africa.

Winners- Spain
Finalists- Brazil
England- Quarter Finals
Surprise Team- South Africa
Most Disappointing Team- Argentina
Don't Count Out- Germany
Golden Boot Winner- David Villa
Arsenal's Star Player- Robin van Persie

Thanks for reading guys, lets hope this World Cup is everything we hope for and maybe, just maybe we can see an England success.

Sorry guys I'm back

I'm back folks, after a few weeks off the ball I'm back for good now. To be honest not much has happened since I have been away. The biggest news is that we rejected a quite embarrassing reported offer of £29m for Cesc. Other news has been surrounding Theo's omission from the England team, as well as Big Phil's departure from the club, and also potentially Campbell and Gallas also next to walk out the door. I will touch on all of these subjects today, as well as the rumours surrounding Joe Cole's future.

Lets start with the Fabregas topic, now I know its a bit late, but since I didn't get a chance to put my opinion out there I will do now. I'm still a bit in shock over the valuation put on the head of Fabregas by Barca. For a team that has been trying their up most to unsettle and sign Cesc for the last 3 or 4 seasons, the £29m reported offer comes across as a bit of a joke. 5 years left on his contract, one of the top 5 centre midfielders in the world currently, still only 23, they could sell Cesc for that much in another 5 or 6 years, but right now surely that isn't the market valuation for a player of Cesc's quality. Barcelona are one of the clubs that have set the ridiculously high bar for transfer fees. The acquisition of Ibrahimovic from Inter for £40m with Eto'o also going the other way is ridiculous in itself. So if Ibrahimovic is worth at least £50m then so is Fabregas. Its time to play some hard ball with Barca, if they want Cesc so bad, then they have to come out all guns blazing. We are not in financial position where we have to sell, so we shouldn't be bullied into accepting a sub standard bid. If they don't want to or don't have the money to match our valuation then Fabregas should play for Arsenal next season, there's no rush to sell him, another great season from him could raise his value even more. I don't think there is the worry of Cesc not wanting to play for us any more, he is a great professional and I'm sure is smart enough to understand the politics behind the move, after all its inevitable he will be play for the Catalan's one day.

Theo's omission from the England team raised a few eyebrows across the nation, I personally cant remember the last time England have failed to have an Arsenal representative at the World Cup. Arguments can be made from both sides of whether Theo should have gone to the World Cup. Personally I felt we should have taken Theo. Yes, he can be inconsistent, unpredictable and lacking a final ball, but it is precisely those reasons why I would have taken Theo. You never know what is going to happen when Theo has the ball. His pace scares defenders to death, and offers a threat that no other England player possesses. Of course you can argue that Theo has done nothing to warrant a place in the England team, statistically he hasn't, but neither has Shaun Wright Phillips and Aaron Lennon is still questionable to me. I wouldn't have taken Theo as a starter, I would have merely taken him as an impact player, someone to take off the bench when we are in a bit of sticky position. However Mr Capello decided against taking Theo and you can understand why, Theo simply just hasn't progressed at the rate he has needed to.

Speculation surrounding Philip Senderos' future at the club has been going on for a while. I've never been a fan of Big Phil, too lackadaisical and slow. Very prone to make mistakes and another one who has not progressed at the rate he has needed to. It may be harsh but I felt the only reason he was kept at the club was because he was a nice lad and got on very well with everyone. Well Senderos this morning left the club to join Fulham on a free. It may not be the biggest news coming out of the club, but if you look at futures of other players at Centre Back we are left worryingly thin. I have spoke about this before, what would we do if Senderos, Gallas and Campbell left. We would then be left with Vermaelan, Silvestre, Djorou and Bartley. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it. Newspaper reports have linked us with Laurent Koscielny. A French centre back with polish descent from Lorient (no not Leyton Orient, well I hope not anyway), is about as much as I know about him. It is reported that we have a bid turned down for him already, so we shall see in the near future how that pans out. I've never seen the lad play before, so for all I know he could be the greatest centre back in the world, but if we were only to sign him at centre back and we lost both Campbell and Gallas I would not be happy. We must sign an established name to sit at the back. I'm not sure whether Wenger has plans to partner Vermaelan with Djorou at the back, that could be the plan but until I see how that works out I wouldn't be too confident in that pairing. Reports have linked us with Per Mertesacker and Brede Hangelaand, one of those two names would go a long way to giving me an ounce of confidence with our back line. I would expect a lot of activity both in and out defensively this summer.

So Joe Cole will leave Chelsea this season....I can't see us pulling it off but what a great move that would be. Joe Cole is a world class player with Premier League and Champions League experience in abundance. He is exactly the sort of player we need, he is a winner and has experienced winning trophies. Extremely gifted and a real footballer, he would fit in well at Arsenal, but with stiff opposition from Tottenham, Man Utd, Man City and even Real Madrid have been thrown in the hat, a successful move for him seems unlikely. His wages could prove a stumbling block, I'm not sure whether he would want to take a wage cut to come to us. The only thing we could have in our favour would be his desire to stay in London, but with Joe being very well acquainted with Harry just across the road, even though Harry was resigned to defeat in signing him last week, I'm sure Tottenham are favourites to sign him.

Well that about sums it up, I've been away for two weeks, lets hope that things start to hot up in regards to transfers and hopefully sooner rather than later we will see how this Arsenal team will look next season

Thanks for reading, be sure to leave a comment or feedback.