Untold Arsenal: the stories no one else runs » 2008 » May » 20

20/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Gael Clichy, along with Sagna and Diaby have escaped a possible long term injury of the type suffered by Van Persie and Alex Hleb, as France have failed to procure their services for the Euro Finals this summer.

There was a concern that France might inflict international football on Clichy after he was put into the initial squad, but France have decided to inflict more football on Eric Abidal and Patrice Evra instead.  The fact that Sagna and Clichy were the full backs of the year in the EPL doesn’t count a gram in France, thank goodness.

This is great news for Arsenal who will have to play a Champions League qualifier sometime around August 16.  Anyone who has played in the Euro games will be struggling to be fully fit by then – which is something of a horror given the importance of this game.  Certainly anyone from a team  that gets into the semi-finals is more than likely to not make it back by then.

Thus Arsenal might be without Fabregas, Galls, and Van Persie, Senderos and Djourou

But we will have

Sagna, Toure, Song and Clichy across the back four, Hleb or his replacement, Rosicky, Walcott, Eboue, Denilson and Gilberto to pick from in the middle, and Adebayour plus Vela and Bendtner up front: a much stronger team than we might have feared.

Given that the Swiss are likely to go out fairly early on, that should give us some backup in the middle of defence, and there is less concern about goalkeepers who need less recovery time.

20/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Gilles Grimandi has been watching him, everyone says he is incredible, and Nasri himself has said he’s leaving.

The price is around 14 million pounds which is within the realms of Arsenal’s affordability for the right player – and if it is true that Hleb wants to go, then Arsenal will get all of that back for Hleb – and indeed Arsenal can name their own price because Wenger wants Hleb to stay so is under no pressure to release him.   Even better, Hleb’s price has shot up after last season’s wonderful displays.

And this is what the Guardian said about Nasri

“The silken touch, the balletic elegance, the majestic strength. The vision. The trailblazing dribbles that begin with the drop of a shoulder and a graceful dash and conclude with a piercing pass or a scorching shot.”

In short he is Zidane reborn – and he’s a Frenchman of Algerian descent. (At least most people call him Zidane II, except one web site which amusingly compared him to C Ronaldo at Man U.

The rest of last weekend’s stories

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