Almunia Recovered – Wenger/Pardew Verdict Still Out

So yesterday I wrote up some absolutely ridiculous nicknames in an effort to be funny. One could have picked that up by the double asterisk in which I proclaimed an unfounded fear for our lovable goalie Jens Lehmann. Everyone apparently thought I was serious, like I expected commentators and supporters to start using them, and called me all sorts of nasty things like a cunt (the horror) in the comments. It’s like readers thought I was one of those jackasses trying to make “I Shot The Sheriff” Arsenal’s new anthem by using a god-damned website. Not the case. Anyhow, I appreciate the fact that people are actually reading this, regardless of what nasty things you call me, so to those who commented, thanks very much I guess (you silly cocks). You almost made me delete the post but that would just be yellow-bellied.

Let’s talk about the football and the Arsenal!

ESPN seems quite insistent that youngster Freddy Adu, hailed by the American Press as the next coming of Jesus for the MLS, is currently negotiating a trial with Manchester United. The BBC then confirm it. I would love to see a deal like this go through, but I just know in the back of my mind that it won’t work out. At the very least he’ll be exposed to much higher levels of football, hell even training with ManU for awhile could do wonders. He’s still impressionable at such a young age though so maybe this could be the real deal for an American in the Prem in one of the big four. Tim Howard had a spell at United and had lots of game time but was eventually knocked out of goal by Van der Saar, but even that has resulted in a loan to Everton and 11 starting appearances. Anything remotely similar to this would do wonders for Adu.

Meanwhile David Beckham scored a goal against third division team Ecija in the Copa Del Rey. It’s a third division Spanish team, but it’s still nice to see he still has some drive in him. He’s been getting the hell beaten out of him by the media and it would be easy to just concede defeat and retire. MLS rumors continue to swirl in the meantime.

If you are an ATVO subscriber you should check out the recent interview with Kolo Toure. He comes off as quite a funny guy and you can get a glimpse of all sorts of subtleties into the team through him.

Manuel Almunia has recovered from the injury he sustained against Everton midweek. He’ll be on the bench in case he is needed in place for Jens. Mart Poom on the other hand will then miss a narrow chance to see first squad action. He performed admirably after coming on for Almunia at Everton. It’s nice to know even our third string can withstand the heat. I’m not sure what all the talk about signing a new keeper really is all about, maybe Jens is closer to retirement than we know? I hate to think of it.

And finally there have been little-to-no updates yet of the fight of the century… the Wenger/Pardew debacle. As it stands each manager has been charged with misconduct and must reply to the charges by November 23rd. Pardew and West Ham insist that he was just celebrating a goal… Wenger and Arsenal believe Pardew over-reacted directly at Wenger and thus Arsene is not responsible for any wrongdoing. The whole thing is blown way out of proportion. Mr. Arseblogger said it best… ‘a storm in a teacup’. Whatever happens, I hope nothing major comes of it. Meanwhile the coin tossing remains unpunished and somehow not newsworthy.

I am eagerly awaiting our next match with Liverpool on Sunday. We’ve got all this pent up angst and drive from the recent poor performances so it would be great if the team can dominate Liverpool and put the ball in the back of the net. Several times. The game is on at 8am PST so I will actually be able to get some goddamned sleep this weekend.