No Suarez for Arsenal, but Ozil seems like a very good buy

Following on from my post in July about Arsenal bidding for Liverpool striker Luis Suarez - which didn't work out - Arsenal did finally spend some serious money on a true superstar, the totally awesome Mesut Ozil, in the final hour of the final day of the summer transfer window. Phew!

Here are a couple of great-to-read newspaper articles regarding the transfer:

The Guardian - Mesut Ozil can breathe new life into Arsenal's Emirates era

The Telegraph - Arsenal and United land Mesut Ozil and Marouane Fellaini late on transfer deadline day

The Arsenal and Luis Suarez transfer saga gets serious

Being a life-long Arsenal fan has never been easy, but it has also never been boring. And it is currently more interesting than ever, now that the club is at last able to compete financially for big-name transfers.

All summer so far Arsenal have been linked with the possible signings of a host of superstars, such as Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain, Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and my favourite, Liverpool's Luis Suarez. So far though, no such signings have actually happened (as is normal for Arsenal, unfortunately).

However.....

While looking through the latest Arsenal transfer rumours just now, I spotted this little gem that seems to be from a reliable source, claiming that Arsenal have now lodged a £40 million + £1 bid for Suarez. Incredible! Hope it works!!

English football has gone mad!

Here's an excellent article by Jim White in today's Yahoo.co.uk, which I totally agree with:

At the time of writing, the plans for the Stoke Sentinel’s Tony Pulis 16-page souvenir supplement were still up in the air.

But doubtless the production will be straight forward, without frill or artifice, getting to the point with minimum fuss, a route one publication.

Arsenal fans may disagree, but we’ll miss Pulis. In his tracksuit and cap he was the manager who most resembled a touchline dad, ranting and shouting his way through a Premier League season. In press conferences he always stood up, perhaps to convey a message of urgency and momentum. Either that, or he suffered from some vicious piles.

And now he has gone, the Premier League managerial landscape has altered irrevocably. With Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes also taking their leave from long-held sinecures, Arsene Wenger is now the only manager in the country’s top division who was appointed before 2010. Indeed, all the other 91 clubs in league football have changed their manager since Arsenal last won a trophy, in 2005. What an incredible statistic that is of a business that has lost all faith in stability.

After Wenger, the second longest serving top flight boss is now Alan Pardew, who has been at St James’s Park for 2 years and 157 days. Though if the rumours of his imminent departure swirling around Newcastle turn out to be true, at the start of the season the runner up to Wenger will be Sam Allardyce, who is just about to clock up two seasons at the Boleyn Ground. When the three clubs without managers have found their next man, 12 of our top clubs will be under the control of a boss who has been in situ for less than a year. So much for continuity. So much for longevity. So much for creating a footballing legacy.

Thierry Henry wants to leave Barcelona! (Allegedly)

My all-time favourite football player, and one of the greatest former Arsenal players ever, Thierry Henry, reportedly wants to leave Barcelona (for whom he left Arsenal last year - see my previous post about that here) and come back to play in the English Premier League, preferably based in London.

See this article in today's News of the World tabloid Sunday newspaper for full details of the story.

If Thierry really is going to leave Barcelona, it's clearly going to be too much to hope that he will return to Arsenal given the views of the club manager (Arsene Wenger) on the subject, which just makes me even sadder now after the initial sadness of seeing him leave the club in the first place. I have been an Arsenal fan virtually all my life, and a fan of Arsene Wenger since his arrival 11 and a half years ago, but since last year I have become increasingly of the opinion that Wenger should quit!

A controversial opinion perhaps, but I feel that despite his previous great success at the club he has seriously lost the plot now. He has failed to win any trophies for the past three seasons (including the current almost complete season - Arsenal are, realistically speaking, out of the race for the Premier League title now despite winning yesterday), he increasingly blames poor refereeing decisions for causing defeats (see here for a recent example) rather than accepting that his own tactical errors are actually to blame, he has an apparent almost pathological non-English player bias (see here for details) which is quite embarassing to me at least (being, as I am, English, and with Arsenal being an English club), he still insists on selecting Philip Senderos who is without doubt the worst defender ever to play for the Arsenal first team (although he was only a substitute yesterday, thank goodness), and he let Thierry Henry leave only to possibly now let him return to a rival Premier League club. Good grief!

Note: I will of course fully retract the above satatement if Thierry does return to Arsenal and/or Wenger wins at least the "Double" next season if, as I suspect will be the case, he doesn't quit. Lol! :-)

Thierry Henry is leaving Arsenal Football Club!

Having been a fan of Arsenal for over 30 years, it came as a great surprise to me to learn yesterday of the sudden decision to allow the club's captain and greatest ever goal-scorer, Thierry Henry, to leave so that he can join arch-European rivals Barcelona. The main reason this news surprised me was that only last year Thierry pledged the rest of his career to Arsenal. An interesting new definition of the word "pledge", that's for sure.

It's particularly sad news for me (and all other Arsenal fans I'm sure), because Thierry has truly graced the sport here in England with his amazing footballing skills and gentlemanly conduct for eight seasons now. He has been a joy to watch, and is one of the greatest players ever, of that there can be no doubt. I am so sorry to see him go. I would just like to say a huge thank you to Thierry for all the wonderful memories he has left me with. I wish him and his family all the very best with the new venture.

I hope the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, knows what he is doing. It seems to me to be a very risky decision to let Thierry leave. But I'll keep faith with the boss, for now anyway...