Fabregas Gets Number 10

Luis Aragones have "awarded" Cesc Fabregas with the shirt number 10 for Euro 2008 representing Spain.
His form at Arsenal last season has delighted many, and this performance definitely caught his Spanish manager's eye. He thus give the jersey number 10 to Fabregas, which the number is normally given to the team's creative spark, meaning Fabregas is in the eyes of Aragones the most creative player in the Spanish side. Another change that has been made to Fabregas shirt is that instead of showing the name "Cesc", it now shows the name "Fabregas", just like his Arsenal one. Cesc have claimed that he wanted to get number 4 just like in the Arsenal squad, but it got taken by Marchena, and he decided to change in the first place is because his old number 18 also got taken. Now let's see the all-new Cesc Fabregas Spanish shirt:

Yes, it's obvious that it was edited. This was the best I could do, but it won't be long before we could see the "official" one. All I have to say is that, Fabregas deserves this, and no doubt about it, Fabregas has now matured into a world-class playmaker. I will bet on him performing outstandingly in the Euro 2008 tournament, and maybe, just maybe, Spain can win it.
Another player who has changed number in the Spanish national team is David Villa. He gets Raul's old number, 7. I can somehow sense that Raul and Villa have some similarities, and it will be exciting to see how Villa performs under the legendary Raul's number, although I feel that Raul really deserved a call-up.
While Spain has already appointed their number 10, Italy is stll finding a suitable candidate. There are many candidates, but Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi, Antonio Cassano, and Del Piero are all prime candidates. Legendary Italian players such as Roberto Baggio, Gianni Rivera, Omar Sivori, and even Francesco Totti have don on that number 10 jersey.
From what I think, De Rossi will get that number. Trust me, I just have a strange feeling ;)

Roberto Mancini's Successor

This story has been talked about for months already, and there are many gossips as to who would replace Mancini at Inter Milan next season, but I feel that the smoke would be clear soon.
There were so many managers linked to the Inter manager seat, but the favourite remains Jose Mourinho, who was sacked last season and succeeded by Avram Grant (whom ironically, was also sacked). He would definitely love to get back to management, even Mancini's own agent has admitted, it is Mourinho who would be taking over. And to further prove this, Mourinho has said that he is excited at football management again, so there would be no mistakes this time. Finally, Frank Lampard can testify this, as the Inter chairman has said that Mourinho would come to Inter, and he would sign Frank Lampard, possibly Ricardo Carvalho too.

This time, it really seems true. Moruinho WILL be going to Inter.

Arsenal Joins Chase for Veloso

Today I'm going to introduce to you guys another player that Arsene Wenger is chasing this season, Miguel Veloso.
Just who is this guy? He is actually a Portugese midfielder who plays best as a defensive midfielder, and Wenger is looking to sign him as a replacement for Flamini. He is expected to take over Flamini's role as a holding midfielder, and he does seem competent in achieving what Flamini excelled at this season. Now like always, here's some facts about Miguel Veloso which you may find interesting:
Full Name: Miguel Luis Pinto Veloso
Position: D C, M C
Age: 22
Team: Sporting CP
Nationality: Portugal
Other Nationalities: None
International Caps: 5 caps/ 0 goals
Height: 1,80 m
Weight: 79 kg
A defensive midfielder who can also play as a centre-back, this kid is a perfect combination of speed, technique, and defence. When comparing Veloso and Flamini, I would have to say Flmini is better as a holding midfielder. But what he loses out to Veloso is technique; Veloso can play a little bit of a holding role but his technical abilities is an extra trait that will be useful in his career in the future. He is also relatively faster than Flamini, which all these stats more than make up for his holding "ability" loss to Flamini. But I just have to tell you guys, he is not to be underestimated as a holding midfielder ;)
The only real obstacle in getting him at the Emirates is the price Sporting CP has put up for him. They have put up a price tag of 16 million, and Arsenal have strong competitions from clubs such as Chelsea and Man Utd to get his signature. Man Utd had not been talking about him for a long time already, but Chelsea looks as determined. I just hope he would come, and he and Fabregas can dominate the center of the park as well as how Fab and Fla did.

RVP Advises the Prof.

Robin van Persie, who has missed out much of the premiership campaign this season has recently warned Arsene Wenger that he must pay more in terms of salary.
He said the reason why Arsenal lost Flamini, and possibly Hleb in the near future is because Wenger doesn't want to pay them such high wages, and that he should really pay more to keep hold of the team together, if not one by one the Arsenal players would leave the club for a higher salary elsewhere.
There's no doubt about this, and one of the points he makes really caught my eye. He says that if Arsenal offered the same salary as the team chasing the player offered, the player would most probably like to stay at Arsenal. In my opinion this is indeed true, as Arsenal have a worldwide reputation and the only thing that make them lose their players are salaries. Get rid of this dirty habit Wenger, it will do us Gooners and yourself good.

Arsenal Crossbar Challenge

I think it was film at the start of the season. You could see from this video team chemistry was high and the atmosphere was great. Excellent video.

The In's and Out's

It is the time of the year, the long-awaited 2-month long transfer window. There will be players going in and out of each team, and I'm going to go through Arsenal's possible In's and Out's.

Possible Out's:

Aliaksandr Hleb
This player has been grumbling the past few months about him having a certain clause in his contract that he can leave. And guess what? He says he would love to go to Inter Milan and that he WILL go there.
It will be sad if he really decides to leave, but I feel that he won't be staying at the Emirates stadium next season. He, together with Fabregas and Flamini, formed a midfield triangle feared by other teams. To rebuild that triangle would be really difficult, but as long as Arsene Wenger signs the players I mention below (Possible In's), I'm sure he can rebuild another midfield partnership more lethal than the current one ;)

Phillipe Senderos
This player's transfer story is completely different with Hleb's. The difference is, Senderos himself doesn't want to leave Arsenal, it's Arsene Wenger who wants him out. Arsene Wenger has mentioned that he would most probably be facing the exit door, unless he can make a really good impact for his country hosting the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament.
What Senderos needs is perhaps more time. I admit, I wasn't impress with him this season. Last season he was okay but this season I would have to say, for every match he plays for Arsenal, Arsenal gets a result they don't want. Weird huh?
I think it's not a wise decision to sell him now. Perhaps give him one more season? Arsene Wenger has been training this kid for years as possibly the future captain of Arsenal for his known leadership, and yet because of a horrific season Wenger decides to throw all that training down that drain.
And a funny story I just heard is, that Phillipe Senderos is "mentally shattered" recently. Haha.

Emmanuel Adebayor
For this player, I'm really scared. I'm really afraid that Arsenal may lose him, because he's being specualted for a move to San Siro (and many other clubs). This Togo striker who idolises Kanu is really good, and it would be a major upset if he leaves the Emirates. Please don't! I believe we can still cope without Senderos and Hleb, but not without Adebayor! I don't want him to go, because Arsenal seriously needs him.

Possible In's:

Samir Nasri
I have explained in my previous post about Samir Nasri and how good he is, so I won't go much about him. Anyway, to summarize all, Arsene Wenger should sign this excellent wonderkid for 11.25 million pounds as a replacement for Hleb. Short and sweet :)

Hatem Ben Arfa
Another French wonderkid from Lyon, he is as good as Samir Nasri (although I don't know who is better). Goal.com once daringly mentioned that reports have claimed that Arsene Wenger have signed Ben Arfa for 20 million pounds. In the end it wasn't true. Crap. Anyway, if he were to spend 20 million pounds on Ben Arfa, it would be well spend, seeing as there are so many competitions from other clubs such as Man United and Chelsea.
For some reason I feel that Ben Arfa should be a higher priority than Nasri. Reason being that Ben Arfa is a natural left-winger, so he can easily cover for Hleb's position (Rosicky can then play on the right) without any need for "adjustments". I am afraid Nasri may not be able to adjust to his new position so quickly, and what we Gooners all want is silverware as soon as possible. But anyway, I don't mind who is coming but the best would be Arsene Wenger signing both!

Already Out's:

Mathieu Flamini
The news that most of us already know, Mathieu Fla-money has signed for AC Milan and will moved for a free transfer under the bosman ruling. Mathieu Flamini had actually asked for a contract form Arsene Wenger with a very high pay every week. The boss then feels that Arsenal will not "be like Chelsea" and will not give in to high pay from players in order to repay the debt we owe after building the Emirates Stadium.
For this matter, I actually feel that we could really have prevented this. From what I think, Arsene Wenger should have just offered him a contract that he wanted. I know it's a little costly, but if we can somehow win the league with Flamini, then the money would have been well spent. Even if we did not win the league, we would have earn the loss back if we put up a good title challenge. Remember a few years ago, when French legend Thierry Henry requested a very high-wage contract? And what did Arsene Wenger do? He gave it to him. Few years later, he was sold and Arsenal did better in the league. And furthermore, why did Wenger decided to renew his contract so late in the season? He should have done it when he knew the midfield triangle of Fab-Fla-Hleb was working well. Bad decision from the Professor, I'll be really damned if we don't do well next season because of Flamini's exit. More specifically, Arsene Wenger's mistake.

Samir Nasri

I'm sure many of you have already heard of this news. Yes, there is a high chance the Marseille playmaker, Samir Nasri, will be coming to the Emirates Stadium next season for 11.25 million pounds. Arsene Wenger plans to transform him to a wide playmaker (like how he did to Hleb, Rosicky and Pires), most probably taking over Hleb's position. Here's some info about Nasri in case you don't know him:
Full Name: Samir Nasri
Position: AM C
Age: 20
Team: Olympique de Marseille
Nationality: France
Other Nationalities: Algeria
International Caps: 7 caps / 2 goals
Height: 1,77 m
Weight: 75 kg

Just how good is this guy? Well from my opinion he is possibly one of the brightest prospect in football at the moment, and "The Professor" has done it again, adding another French starlet to his army. I'm having doubts about him playing on the flanks though. I'm not too sure if he can adapt well at that position, but I believe we should just trust Wenger, as he has successfully retrain players in new positions (eg. Eboue, van Persie, Pires).

I believe he would be a great signing, although I wonder what will happen to Hatem Ben Arfa (I will explain about him later). Finally Arsene Wenger dares to spend big, and I'm quite sure Nasri would come. Even Frank Ribery has claimed so, so there is no reason why Nasri doesn't want to come in the first place.

My Arsenal Season Wrap-Up

Arsenal's season in a nutshell (imo):

TBH this season really get me supporting Arsenal again. I thought Arsenal was hopeless, I still supported Arsenal even though they didn't win any silverware, but I always wonder: When?

After the first few matches I picked up my local newspaper and you should have seen my reaction on my face when I looked at the table. We were top of the pile, something we have not done for a long time and I believed, where we belonged. You just had to read how the local newspaper put it, they always mention about the beautiful football we played, about Cesc Fabregas's every touch on the ball "golden", and also Flamini and Hleb's brilliance. But what make it the most satisfying was this: We did it without Henry.

I had always thought that selling Henry was the biggest mistake Arsene Wenger was gonna make, but I was wrong. I went to see how Arsenal played and they were just brilliant. One of the most memorable was our first North London derby with Tottenham. That was perhaps our greatest result this season. We were shining. Man Utd was getting some bad luck (at that time), Liverpool was really disappointing, and Chelsea was too busy with the politics in the board room that they faltered. As the season was getting to a close day by day, I just wanted the season to end early.

But alas, we got really bad luck at the end of the season. Eduardo's horror injury, Gallas trying to become the Incredible Hulk, Adebayor with his new haircut (omen), and van Persie's injury proneness. We just couldn't cope with them, and up till now I wonder, how close we were to winning the league. We had a good 6 point lead, and now, we lost the league because of Man Utd having the 4 point lead above us.

Now to look at the positives. We did something no other English club has ever done, beat AC Milan at the San Siro. That performance consisted of all the good things about us this season: The Fab-Fla-Hleb partnership, Walcott's shining future, Adebayor's role at the club, and the season-long consistency of Sagna. And against LFC, Walcott's amazing run was just a joy to behold. Fla-money may be gone, but now who cares? We want players that are committed to football, not money. And for Hleb, if he wants to go then let him be. Don't forget, we got Walcott and possibly Nasri :) We got rid of the sickening 4th placing, and we put up a fight every other club was fearful of. No more 6 point lead to win the premiership, we made it a tough 2 point for United. No more struggle for Champions League football, and best of all, we defined what the legendary Pele proclaimed football was: The Beautiful Game.

Overall: 8.5/10
You just have to be an Arsenal supporter to understand why I gave it 8.5.

End-of-Season EPL videos

Top moments from the EPL this season.

Top moments 07/08

And a very hilarious video from BBC Sports. Best of 2Good2Bad. I'm sure you would enjoy this funny video :)

2good2bad best of
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Nike Live The Cesc Fabregas Show

I just heard from my friend about Cesc Fabregas having his very own show, so I decided to find the show on any video hosting site. Somehow, someway I found it on Google video so I decided to share it with everyone. Enjoy!

2008/2009 Arsenal kit

I found an image to be fairly interesting. Yes, the image above shows the new kit for Arsenal next season. At first impression, I thought that last season's kit would be nicer. But after looking at the new kit time and again, I realise the kit owns. The new home kit for next year will be based on the 1989 kit apparently, the one where Thomas scored the last minute goal to win the title at Anfield. The away kits is also nice, I just can't wait to see the players don on this new jersey.

Introduction

Hello all. This is a new blog made by me, to share my experience as an Arsenal Football Club fan with all you other people out there. This website is perhaps the "eyes" of an Asian fan devoted to Arsenal for 6 years. I know this is a little short, but I am only 14 this year and I expect Arsenal FC to grow together with me. I named this blog "GUNNERockYa" because it sounded cool, and it really symbolized what Arsenal do in real life, rocking every footballing soul in the universe. Hope you enjoy my stories for my love for Arsenal, and sometimes I'm not only going to talk about Arsenal, anything related to "The Beautiful Game" will also be posted here. There will be videos on footy, either related or not related to Arsenal FC.

Peace out,
Dariano