Defensive woes

Hello,
Not much happening, so just a quick round-up for you.
Today sees us facing Nagoya Grampus as part of our pre-season tour. The only thing I know about the club itself, is that Arsene Wenger was their manager for two seasons (1995-1996, if you're interested), before joining the Gunners. Nagoya now has Dragan Stoikovic pulling the strings, who is a former player. A lot of warm words were spoken by both managers before the game, but I just can be bothered which. The usual chit-chat.
However, there's a much more practical side concerning this game, namely, defensive shortage. You may well be aware that Vermaelen has a severe (and chronical, it seems) back problem, which prevented him from joining the Club during our Asia tour and will, eventually, keep him out for three months. But it's not the end of the story. After yesterday's training both Szczesny and Koscielny limped out, nursing a back and ankle problem respectively. While both injures are supposed to be short-term, we are walking on thin ice already, with Sagna deputising as an emergency centre-back. If that wasn't bad enough, there are reports of Monreal being injured too (though he's off the tour).

Light at the end of the tunnel

Good morning,
Sorry for my three-day absence. Acclimatisation seems to have finally got to me, restricting me to become a passive onlooker.
Anyway, I'll start with the good news. Wheels of signings finally started turning, with Arsenal agreeing terms (both personal and with the club) to buy Bernard, a young Brazilian midfielder from Atletico Mineiro. According to the ESPN, Arsenal paid around £19 million to wrap up the deal. I haven't heard of the guy before, but with several prominent clubs sneaking around, we seem to have found someone of real value. Fingers crossed it's not made up by the reporters, and we'll see some confirmation soon. What's interesting, is that news of the deal started spreading shortly after Arsene said we were nowhere near signing anyone. He may have bluffed, of course. We all know, how he likes to keep things quiet when it comes to transfers.

A pinch of salt

Hi,
Quite a bit has happened during my forced absence from the Internet. Got to tell you, never have I encountered a wifi connection so appaling in roughly 10 years of my travels. Things are really looking bad for Greece. Anyway, I'll try to keep my overview short, for the benefit of those already familiar with the news.
Yaya Sanogo has finally joined the Club after a lot of talk. If I recall correctly, the transfer happened on the 1st of July. The French international was handed the 22nd number, but has yet to make an appearance as a proud owner of the T-Shirt. Here's hoping he'll have a good pre-season under his belt, though I think he'll be restricted mainly to Capital Cup appearances in the forthcoming campaign.
However, our "out" department seems to have a lot more on their hands, than the "in" one, with Mannone, Denilson, Djourou and Coquelin all leaving, either permamently or on loan, with the futures of Gervinho, Bendther, Chamakh and Park all hanging in the balance.

Merry-go-round all over again

Morning all,
Some bits and pieces to go on today.
More stories emerged yesterday linking us with Fellaini again. Sky Sports reports we've activated the release clause in the Belgian's contract, which can see us pay up to 25 million pounds in hard cash. Looking at the bright side (of the story, not the transfer), the second-largerst broker company in Britain (Landbrokes) thinks the odds of this happening are high - 2,1:1. On the not-so-bright side, there's been no confirmation from both clubs, nor was this even run as a fully-fledged article in the paper itself. Quite frankly, all of this doesn't stand up to much scrutiny.
In other news, Djourou and Bendther are still strongly linked with a move away and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Djourou had a decent spell at Hannover-96 and is likely to leave Arsenal to play some regular football. With our three centre-halves fighting for the place, he knows he's down the pecking order. At some point (last season, I think) the manager tried using the Swiss as a right-back stand-in for the injured Sagna, seeing as Jenkinson wasn't ready, and it was a failure for Johan. A complete and utter failure. I still think it is wrong to judge him on that period (many players don't fare well when played out of position, like Ramsey), but the manager seems to be thinking along different lines. Having only featured twice this season, Djourou is most likely to leave for good this summer. All that's left for us, is to get maximum out of selling him.

Some more talk

Morning,
Not much going on in terms of transfers. So much so, that newspapers started making things up again. They never really stopped, by they still manage to fascinate me by posting entirely unconvincing stories, like the one linking us with Matuidi. The story (more like a short message) was run in the Telegraph and said that "according to the reporters" Arsenal are interested in signing the French international. It is as though the fact, that we do have money, means we're going to buy every single footballer (regardless of his availability).
Onto more positive (and reliable) news, some of our players spoke up, the first being Santi Cazorla. Nothing groundbreaking, he's just again highlighted the importance of our run-in and the need to carry the positive attitude it created into the new season. Also, though he wasn't the first one here (see Giroud), Santi expressed his confidence in us challenging for the title, even with the players we have. Seems a bit far-fetched, but here you go.