Cesc is leaving according to Vermaelen, or maybe he didn’t quite say that… « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
By Walter Broeckx – our man in Belgium
So here we have it again with the Cesc DNA and move to Barceloanus.
And this time it would have been Vermaelen who has said something. But has he really said something? I will try to find out. I’m not going to say that I am going to prove it because in fact you cannot prove that someone has not said something. But I will try to see if there could be anything in this quote.
The news came out on Tuesday 7 September. Suddenly all kind of sites mentioned that Vermaelen had said something about Cesc and his DNA.
When I tried to look at the various reports no one actually is saying where they get it from. On no serious news site there is any mention of a full interview with Vermaelen. One could expect that if a player has a long interview with a serious newspaper that he would have said more than just those few sentences.
And that this newspaper or media would publish the full interview, with the quotes in it. But nothing of that kind. No, just claims that “he had said it”.
I have taken a look at the articles and web sites and only on one site I can see someone who has said where they got the news from. On the site Goal.com they tell in their article: “He is quoted as saying by talkSPORT:” and then they go on with the article.
So I went to this site talksport and this is the article. Please don’t go to that site and give them hits to check it. I have just copied it from their site:
“Thomas Vermaelen admits that Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has Barcelona ‘in his DNA’ and says the Gunners skipper was ‘determined’ to move to the Spanish giants during the summer.
blah blah blah……...
But defender Vermaelen, who joined the Gunners last summer, revealed that Fabregas had made no secret of his desire to rejoin his boyhood club.
“Cesc carries Barcelona in the heart, in his DNA,” said Vermaelen. “Therefore it is impossible for him to forget about them.
“He was determined to go to Barça last summer, he more or less confessed it in the dressing room. But that is passed history.
“Now is 100 per cent ready to put his all in to a great season with Arsenal.”
Nowhere in this article (can you call a make up an article?) is there anywhere a possible link to where and when Vermaelen would have said it. Let us say for example: “When talking to the Belgium newspaper “X” Vermaelen said and then the quote. So I could check this newspaper but I can’t check it as there is no such thing in the article.
But another most interesting thing about this is the fact that it came out on Tuesday 7 September. Because at that day Thomas Vermaelen was in Turkey with the Belgium national team. So he was nowhere near England and he was in the Belgian team where he only was talking about the Belgium team as they have their own troubles.
As I have total access to the Belgium media I would have thought that if Vermaelen by any chance would have talked about Arsenal, which he has not, as far as I have seen him on TV and press conferences and on interviews after the game, I would have seen it. And also the media would have reported it. Vermaelen is a big news story in Belgium.
But I can assure you that the media in Belgium have said nothing about anything that Vermaelen has or would have said about Cesc. So this “rumour” came not from the Belgium media and the Belgium press. And remember Vermaelen was in Belgium since the start of last week and has only been in touch with the Belgium media who haven’t reported anything about Thomas saying anything about Cesc.
But one site starts the rumour and the other reprints it and gives it credibility by repeating it. But so far no one has said when Vermaelen would have said it. And without this I cannot believe those things.
Another thing is that Vermaelen is not a stupid guy. People who have met him, people who have worked with him have said that he is a smart young man with both feet on the ground. He was made captain of Ajax and was praised for the way he was someone who could build up the team. He was known as someone who was bringing peace when there was some internal troubles. And all this with not jumping on the table and shouting but with calm talks with his team mates.
Yes, there could be a possibility that Vermaelen took his phone, dialled the number of talksport and said: “hey do you know what I think Cesc has Barelona DNA. Just write it down, will you?” With the way I know Vermaelen and the way we all have seen him in his first year at Arsenal I think it is fair to say that this scenario is not likely to happen. Vermaelen is not the man to attract attention on his person as some players like to do. He just isn’t that type of person.
My conclusion is: Thomas hasn’t said anything. If you look at the words in the rubbish article it just is a mix of old quotes (from Xavi) and they just have put another name (Vermaelen) in the article to make it sound as if it is something new.
So let us just forget about this rubbish media and press hyenas who have to fill their pages with non existing news and who just make things up. Let us not fall in their traps. It’s just another way on trying do disrupt Arsenal and us, the fans and to make us feel uncomfortable.