Arsenal Football Club

[Keyser Soze]

Rosicky returns as Wenger announces 18-man squad

Dinamo Zagreb

Arsenal

Champions League

Dinamo Zagreb v Arsenal

Champions League Leg 1

Maksimir Stadium

Tue, Aug 8, 2006, 8.05pm

Click here for the Match Menu

By Chris Harris

There were no surprises when Arsène Wenger announced his squad for Tuesday's Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb.

As expected, Tomas Rosicky has been passed fit for the first leg and replaces Mark Randall. Otherwise, the same squad which made the trip to Alkmaar on Friday will travel to Croatia.

Wenger confirmed the list of absentees before boarding a flight for Zagreb on Monday afternoon.

"The players not involved are Jens Lehmann, Freddie Ljungberg, Thierry Henry, Ashley Cole, Gael Clichy, Philippe Senderos, Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott," said Wenger.

"Ashley Cole is not fit to play and I've known for a long time he would not be available for this game. He came back [from the World Cup] late and then he was sick. We do not play with players who are not at a certain level of preparation and Cole is at the moment at the level of Thierry Henry, maybe just a bit behind, so I would not play him.

"Tomas Rosicky will be on the bench. He has not played games so maybe I will play him for 30 minutes coming off the bench. He is physically fit but has not played games."

Lehmann is suspended for Tuesday's game after his red card in the Champions League Final against Barcelona. Manuel Almunia is expected to deputise.

The travelling squad is as follows:

Cesc Fabregas

Kolo Toure

Tomas Rosicky

Jose Antonio Reyes

Robin van Persie

Alexander Hleb

Mathieu Flamini

Alex Song

Pascal Cygan

Gilberto

Johan Djourou

Mart Poom

Manuel Almunia

Emmanuel Adebayor

Emmanuel Eboue

Jeremie Aliadiere

Justin Hoyte

Armand Traore

arsenal.co.uk

[Keyser Soze]

Arsenal ready to complete £13.5m deal for Ribéry

Mike Anstead in Zagreb, Matt Scott and Jon Brodkin

Tuesday August 8, 2006

The Guardian

Arsenal will this week tie up the signing of the Marseille and France midfielder Franck Ribéry in a deal that is expected to cost the Gunners a minimum £13.5m.

Although sources close to the player insisted yesterday that nothing has been finalised, his agent Bruno Heiderscheid declared on Sunday that "a transfer offer for Franck" would be "registered with [Marseille's chairman] Pape Diouf within 24 or 48 hours." That offer is from Arsenal and this morning's edition of France Football, a publication close to Wenger, confirms the move.

Article continues

The arrival at the Emirates Stadium of the France international, who emerged as his nation's most exciting prospect in their run to the World Cup final, will finally see Arsenal's manager Arsène Wenger relent over Ashley Cole's future and authorise his £25m departure to the Premiership champions Chelsea.

"I do not know what will happen with Ashley Cole in the next few days," Wenger said yesterday, "but for me, certainly, the deadline has come now to make a decision one way or the other. This week is the last limit I can expect something to happen. To play the football I love, I need the players who can play the game I love and until now we always managed to do that.

"We have one advantage in that we've never been a prisoner of names. There are many people who have predicted many times that we'll collapse and we've always improved. I have in my squad good enough players no matter who leaves."

But even that may not end Arsenal's summer transfer business. Ribéry's arrival will harden the resolve of Real Madrid to recruit José Antonio Reyes from Arsenal. The Gunners also retain a strong interest in Chelsea's William Gallas.

Madrid had also pursued Ribéry, with the failed presidential candidate Juán Miguel Villar Mir having made a verbal £26m bid to Marseille in the run-up to elections. However, the tycoon's defeat by Juán Ramón Calderón in the Bernabéu ballot led to the withdrawal of that offer. The Spanish club's subsequent interest, reactivated last week, produced a much-reduced offer.

The two clubs may now go head to head once more for the services of Gallas, whose agent was in London yesterday to talk through his situation with the Chelsea board. Seen by Arsenal as the perfect replacement for Sol Campbell and wanted by Real as Fabio Cannavaro's foil, Gallas's future at Stamford Bridge is unclear after he refused to join the Premiership champions on their United States tour.

Arsenal will find it considerably harder to compete with Madrid for Gallas, however. Though the Gunners held the aces in the Ribéry stakes, Chelsea would sooner sell the defender to the Spanish club than to a bitter Premiership rival.

Ribéry believes that joining Wenger is the best move for his career. He has taken soundings from several sources, among them his France team mate and Arsenal's captain Thierry Henry. Most influential, though, was Marseille's former sporting director Henri Bianchéri, who shared a spell at Monaco with Wenger and offered a glowing appraisal of the Highbury manager.

Wenger hopes that Ribéry will now settle in north London and spend a lengthy spell maturing at the club's new stadium. As a youngster the midfielder slipped through the net of the French scouting system, beginning his senior career with his home-town club of Boulogne-sur-Mer, an amateur team, five years ago. Since then he has played at five other clubs, including a six-month spell at Galatasaray, all of which ensured that Ribéry has never received the sustained level of coaching his raw talents undoubtedly deserve.

His technical ability to carry the ball at speed was on display at the World Cup. Ribery, who only made his international debut in France's narrow tournament-warm-up win against Mexico on May 27, was a surprise inclusion in the squad for Germany. The national team manager Raymond Domenech referred to the selection of the player as his "joker".

Ribéry rewarded that faith with the first goal in France's crucial second-round win against Spain, his pace taking him past the goalkeeper Iker Casillas and providing him an empty net in which to score.

English scouts - Manchester United were the first to make a £9m offer to Marseille shortly before the tournament began - would have recognised this talent from his almost singlehanded destruction of the England Under-21 team last November, when the midfielder's pace proved unmanageable for a strong team of English counterparts.

The departure of the England left-back Cole is likely now to be finalised before the week is out. The defender was left out of the squad that travelled to Zagreb for tonight's Champions League qualifier and could sign for Chelsea in time for Sunday's Community Shield.

guardian

[popmartian]

mit ribery wäre ich sehr zufrieden, macht den abgang von pires um einiges besser. rosicky ist zwar 'ne gute verpflichtung, aber ob er pires auf links ersetzen kann (hat doch eher zentral seine stärken). ribery ist meines wissens ja rechter flügel; ob freddie diese saison nach links auswandern darf?

naja, wir werdens sehen. wird ja ein lustiges "testspiel" heute mit der b-elf...

[Keyser Soze]

naja, wir werdens sehen. wird ja ein lustiges "testspiel" heute mit der b-elf...

1169606[/snapback]

ja und ich hab scho den ganzen tag alles andere als ein gutes gefühl

[popmartian]

ja und ich hab scho den ganzen tag alles andere als ein gutes gefühl 

1170614[/snapback]

ich wär schon über ein 0:0 froh, von mir aus auch 'ne knappe 0:1 niederlage x/ schauen wir mal was wird.

wird das spiel wo übertragen, würd vielleicht ins billys bones gehen oder so? glaub aber nicht da nichts auf der homepage steht...

come on gunners!

You are my Arsenal,

My only Arsenal,

You make me happy,

When skies are grey,

You'll never know just,

How much I love you,

So please don't take my Arsenal away.

okay, ich beruhig' mich wieder...

[Keyser Soze]

na bumm - reyes spielt nicht .. time to say good bye?

Almunia

Eboue - Toure - Djourou - Hoyte

Hleb - Cesc - Gilberto - Rosicky

RvP - Adebayor

außerdem Hoyte statt Flamini

bearbeitet 8. August 2006 von Keyser Soze

[themanwho]

ja und ich hab scho den ganzen tag alles andere als ein gutes gefühl 

1170614[/snapback]

0-1 Fabregas 63., 0-2 Van Persie 64., 0-3 Fabregas 79.

bearbeitet 8. August 2006 von themanwho

[MILANISTA]

Wichtig! CL ohne Arsenal wäre wirklich schade gewesen....

Arsenal beweist jedoch wieder einmal, ähnlich wie die Inter letzte Saison, dass man keinen Spieler des Herkunftslandes in der Startformation benötigt! Schade eigentlich!....

[Joki]

na bumm - reyes spielt nicht .. time to say good bye?

1170727[/snapback]

solltest du es nicht wissen, was ich eh nicht glaube:

hab heute auf eurosport news gelesen das sein agent (sein berater auf deutsch wahrscheinlich) meinte, er bleibe nur bei arsenal, wenn er heute spielt.

will jetzt nicht groß darauf herumreiten, aber:

du meintest einmal das traore/hoyte VOR flamini gesetzt sind, bist dir noch immer sicher oder, warum glaubst du das, ich mein flamini hat ja auhc in der cl statt ca$hl€y gespielt...

[popmartian]

du meintest einmal das traore/hoyte VOR flamini gesetzt sind, bist dir noch immer sicher  oder, warum glaubst du das, ich mein flamini hat ja auhc in der cl statt ca$hl€y gespielt...

1171205[/snapback]

traore spielt bei uns, na da hab ich was verpasst

flamini war in der champions league nur gesetzt weil cole UND sein "back-up" clichy verletzt waren! hoyte war keine alternative da er ja vorige saison an sunderland (glaub ich ??) verliehen war!

danach wurde cygan ein paar spiele auf der linken seite versucht, selbst das scheiterte! also sprang flamini ein!

anyway, 0:3. damit hätte ich nicht gerechnet, cesc beginnt die neue saison wie er schon die vorige beendet hat: göttlich!

mit reyes abgang könnte ich leben, tut nicht so sehr weh wie vom abgang des judas. reyes hat in wahrheit nicht viel gerissen in den paar jahren wo er bei uns war, und ob jetzt der durchbruch gelingt? wenn real brav zahlt darf er ruhig gehen; wenn ribery kommt ist mir das umso mehr schnuppe...

[MILANISTA]

Blöd nur, dass Ribery ein "Rechter" ist! Und Reyes bekanntlich links aufläuft!....

[Keyser Soze]

pah also zagreb war gestern wirklich um klassen schlechter als ich gefürchtet hab, gut das man zumindest mal 3 tore geschossen hat - und zwar alle eigentlich komplett gleich, im abschluss - es wären zwar mehr drinnen gewesen aber der aufstieg ist damit wohl sicher

das reyes geht hätt ich mir allerdings nicht gedacht, wohl nach jahren der laut spanischen medien "fixen transfers" von arsenal spielern schon dermaßen immun dagegen .. wie mit dem jungen mit dem wolf ..

[popmartian]

Blöd nur, dass Ribery ein "Rechter" ist! Und Reyes bekanntlich links aufläuft!....

1171863[/snapback]

schon, natürlich. allerdings spielt wohl rosicky links (zumindest gg. zagreb) und freddie kann auch links spielen...

[Keyser Soze]

schon, natürlich. allerdings spielt wohl rosicky links (zumindest gg. zagreb) und freddie kann auch links spielen...

1172313[/snapback]

letzterer ist nun übrigens auch teamkapitän schwedens...

[popmartian]

letzterer ist nun übrigens auch teamkapitän schwedens...

1172320[/snapback]

wirklich? just von mellberg übernommen, sehr fein die beiden sind ja nicht die dicksten kumpel (haben sich ja bei den letzten zwei WM turniere im training immer sehr lieb gehabt)

ahja, neues über ca$hley:

Chelsea break off from Cole talks

Chelsea have broken off negotiations with Arsenal over the transfer of England left-back Ashley Cole.

The Premiership champions posted a statement on their website on Wednesday claiming to have made "a very substantial offer" for the 25-year-old.

But Chelsea's statement added that "no agreement can be reached in the current circumstances" with Arsenal.

It has been reported that Arsenal want £25m for Cole, with Chelsea offering much less for the defender.

On Tuesday Blues manager Jose Mourinho told Arsenal an agreement on a transfer had to be made within two days.

And now Mourinho seems to be ready to stick to that and pursue other left-backs, with the transfer deadline now three weeks away.

The full statement from Stamford Bridge read: "Chelsea FC has been in discussions with Arsenal Football Club for some time over the possible transfer of Ashley Cole.

"Chelsea has made a very substantial offer for the player.

"Although discussions have continued, Arsenal's valuation of the player does not match Chelsea's and therefore no agreement can be reached in the current circumstances."

The saga of Cole's transfer to Chelsea started when the player was fined, along with Blues manager Mourinho, for in June 2005 for meeting in a London hotel without Arsenal's knowledge.

Cole's relationship with the Gunners became strained and in promotional material for his new book the defender criticised the club for making him a "scapegoat" over the tapping-up affair.

Then this week Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said he wanted the saga resolved within a week.

"I do not know what will happen with Ashley Cole in the next few days, but for me certainly the deadline has come now to make a decision one way or the other," Wenger told BBC London on Monday.

"This week is the last limit I can expect something to happen."

Mourinho followed up by saying: "It is in their hands and we have to wait. If we have no solution about him in a couple of days, we turn the corner and we see other faces."

Chelsea currently have just one recognised left-back in their squad, in the shape of Wayne Bridge, although William Gallas can play there assuming he resolved his own dispute with the west London club.

But it seems Cole could now start the season with Arsenal, however reluctantly.

The left-back, who played in last season's Champions League final and was an ever-present at the World Cup for his country, was left out of Arsenal's squad for Tuesday's match against Dinamo Zagreb.

Wenger insisted that was due to a lack of match fitness, rather than to avoid the player being cup-tied.

bearbeitet 9. August 2006 von popmartian