The international break has not been kind to the Gunners. While it’s true that they haven’t had any more scoreless draws lately, they’ve unfortunately picked up three injuries, an official FA complaint, and have a crucial player possibly looking to leave the club.
The whole thing started Saturday, when three different players picked up injuries that may cause them to lose time for their club. The biggest loss was probably Robin van Persie, who picked up a groin injury (and a goal) for the Netherlands against Scotland. Also injured Saturday was striker Nikolas Bendtner (injured twenty minutes into Denmark’s clash with Malta). Today comes news out of France that attacking midfielder Abou Diaby, who’s been a crucial piece of Arsene Wenger’s team, suffered a hip injury while in training for France’s fixture with Lithuania tomorrow.
Injuries have plagued Arsenal this season; Emmanuel Adebayor said as much today: ““If Manchester United had to do without Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs, Berbatov and Nani, they would not have the same team as they have now – they would not be winning every game.” And while you may not think the Arsenal players injured were on par with the players he compares them to, you can’t discount the fact that missing Cesc Fabregas, Eduardo, Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Theo Walcott, and Eduardo for lengthy periods of time this season probably made competing difficult. To compound the issue, Arsenal kicks off the semifinals of the Champions League against Villareal next week; any lengthy injury to these players will probably mean they’ll miss the first leg.
Meanwhile, one of those injured players has stayed interesting in spite of his lengthy recovery. Today, the FA received the official complaint from Hull City regarding the spitting incident that occurred during their FA Cup tie against Arsenal a couple weeks ago. You may remember that Hull claimed injured midfielder and Spanish national Cesc Fabregas was accused of spitting at/towards/near Hull City assistant manager Brian Horton. Fabregas (of course) denies that anything like this ever happened; should the FA not agree with him, it’s possible he’d be suspended.
Fabregas hasn’t limited his profile to he said-he said stories about expectorant, though. Probably of more concern to most Arsenal fans was how the midfielder spent his weekend. In a predictable-yet-somehow-still-surprising admission, Fabregas says that he’s spoken with former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon about a possible transfer to the Bernabéu back in 2007. Fabregas says he doesn’t want to leave, of course, and Ramon Calderon no longer really has pull at the club after stepping down as President earlier this season; still, Real Madrid presidential candidate Fiorentina Perez is rumored to be highly interested in making Fabregas the crown jewel of his election crown, and his boyhood club Barcelona is also rumored to be interested in bringing Cesc back to the Camp Nou.
See, who says the international break isn’t fun?
For me at this point, when Cesc finally does leave is when I’ll finally start worrying about the stories of his departure. Its gotten so drawn out that I’m over hearing about him going to Madrid or Barca.
Not that I know what his thoughts are on the matter, but I’d venture to say he’ll probably stay for another year, maybe two and try to win the league. If Wenger leaves for some reason though, he’s gone.
Cesc will move only if Barcelona comes up with an offer. His mind is set to play for his native club rather join real madrid.Only loyal player I would see in arsenal is cesc.He will stay till professor is with us and all these rumours are common for any gunner out there every season.
Jayanth
http://camobscura.wordpress.com
It’s always the same thing with these Spanish clubs and the media. Float names out there and see if that unsettles someone. That league is 3 BILLION Euros in debt in total. I’d be SHOCKED if a major transfer takes place this summer, and I’m not kidding. Villa and Silva, yes, they will probably go. But I’d be stunned if a 40 million pound transfer happens, truly, between ANY clubs. Cesc isn’t going anywhere, neither is Wenger.
According to the Guardian’s podcast, Cesc was spotted in an all white tracksuit at some point this weekend, and when asked about it he joked that all white “looked good on him”; I can’t find any reference to that story anywhere, though, so it’s hard to tell if that’s a legit story or not.