It's been a few days since we dramatically clinched our place in the sun. In fact I had the use of both eyes when I caught the breaking news that Stoke had given Pullis the boot, thereby curing any lasting hangover and putting a remarkable spring in my step. Thugball is dead, or perhaps coming to America where those in the know suspect Pullis to crawl out from under a rock to transform a football team into playing passable rugby.
There's not many people who get under my skin, and less football managers. In fact I can count two, Redknapp and Pullis. At least Harry is just about personality (OK I'll come clean, also the fact Spurs are the ONLY team he hasn't got relegated while in charge, I mean WTF) Pullis's crimes against football go far deeper. His malodious personality aside, the way he shaped a football team to become thugs make nothing to hold their play against if one believes in the beautiful game. Now Chavski have proven you can win while playing terrible unattractive football, but they also show you don't have to kick, elbow, punch and step on insteps to win. The Naughty Forty don't do as much damage as their club players do on the pitch.
I've not wanted anyone to be relegated as much in forever, and honestly thought Stoke were proud of their football, manager and they way they played. Having run into some Stoke NF troglodytes on a train further reinforced this view. "We're going to break more legs than you" in the style of our "we're going to score more goals than you" is just one such nice ditty we were serenaded by.
The Stoke chairman's words; that he realized the style of play and the implications to the image of the club and the damage this has done to the club was stated. That moving forward they would have to move away from this and step one was bringing in a new manager to spearhead this change. Make no mistake, this impacts them right in the wallet. They needed to change, but honestly at this point the damage has been done. It will be a brave man to take over at Stoke and introduce tiki taka. Please God don't let it be Stevie Bold as a few daily rags suggest. Whoever it is, I fervently hope they at least try play football and that the cost of playing Stoke next term doesn't amount to weeks of sidelined players and the potential career ending broken leg (again).
Transfer news is sparse, same old stories running across 4.7 Bazzilion blogs and newspapers and I'm reading them all. I had been made aware that the perception of blogs have crossed from a personal shout out to mainstream journalism. Unfortunately few post sources or when given, have them linked to fantasy factories from Italy and Spain by and large. Still, gives me something to do while I eat the cornflakes.
After sifting through all this the last few days the only consensus I can allude to is that Arsenal want AW to buy big this year as much as the fans do. This seems likely. We have just dumped a ton of youth players and I suspect the dead wood to follow. This gives us money for the wages of these 2 or 3 superstars we are about to sign. Right? Well we shall see but first up is our interest in this young lad, Yaya Sanogo.
He told SkySports.
“Arsenal could be a great club for me, I scored nine goals this season with Auxerre and they think I can improve my level in England. I am pleased to be following in the footsteps of Abou Diaby who came through from Auxerre. There are many teams interested in me, but Arsenal is my choice.”
Lets cross all our fingers and toes his injury record improve as it's frighteningly like Diaby's and most report that the deal is about done. With lots of reported interest for Podolski, Vermaelen and Sagna one hopes the purported Higuain, Jovetic and Piszczek deals materialize and that if we do sell, we replace with better. If Vermaelen to Barca gets us back Cesc, I'd snap their grimy paws off. I expect though we still have a few surprises in store. A few mutterings of game changers I shall have to see to believe, but given the draconian way we have started to tackle the wage bill you never know. I never saw Bergkamp coming either... and on that note I'm off to the land of nod till bleary eyed I shall rise to greet the new day and hopefully some concrete news on our signings new and wonderful.
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