Recycled Arshavin Quotes and a Sorry Willie

I thought I recognised the Arshavin quotes about Arsenal needing additional players to win anything and it seems I was right. Arsene Wenger confirmed at today's press conference that Arshavin made these remarks after van Persie got injured. You can bet he feels differently about our chances of winning the league now.

The quotes were recycled. They've been all over the media because lazy hacks who never let the facts get in the way of a good story repeated them vebatim without checking the original source, so it's hard to know where they originated. But I did a bit of digging and it seems like TribalFootball were the ones who did the original recycling. Surprise, surprise!

Arsene Wenger also said in the same press conference that while we are playing two games a week he'll be too busy to negotiate any new contracts, including William Gallas', but that generally the negotiations with Gallas are going well. He also said that while Gallas won't be fit for the Brum and Barca games, he may be fit for the game after that, against Wolves.

So it seems I owe William Gallas an apology, having intimated in an earlier post that his injury was not genuine.

Sorry Willie!

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Recycled Arshavin Quotes and a Sorry Willie

Exclusive - Interview with Terry Bull

Mr Terry Bull, Yesterday (courtesy K2D2vaca)

I keep hearing that getting Barcelona in the Champions League is a Terry Bull draw for Arsenal. But who is Terry Bull, what does he have to do with the Champions League draw, and does he deserve such a bad reputation?

Maybe Terry Bull is the bloke who pulls his balls out of his bag for UEFA? (Although, technically, UEFA don't have bags, and I'm not sure they've got any balls.) Well, I managed to get an exclusive interview with Bull and asked him if he thought he generally got a bad rep in the press.

"Yes, most certainly", said Bull, "Take the Barcelona vs. Arsenal draw, for example. Everyone knows that you've got to beat the best teams to get to the final, so it doesn't really matter who you get drawn against."

Indeed. In fact, from Arsenal's point-of-view, it may be better to draw Barca at this stage because if we beat them, we'll be on a high and it will give us the confidence to take on the big boys; whereas if we lose, that means we don't have to play so many matches.

I think a full strength Arsenal can beat Barca if luck is on our side. I'm not so sure we can do it without William Gallas. I can envisage Thierry Henry tearing Sol Campbell (or Lionel Messi tearing Michael Silvestre) a new posterior.

According to the official Arsenal website, William Gallas has developed a 'mysterious' calf injury. Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, Gallas' contract expires at the end of the season. Talks on signing a new one have apparently stalled (with Arsene Wenger's policy of only giving one-year contracts to players over 32 apparently being a major stumbling block) and Gallas is now free to talk to other clubs.

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Exclusive - Interview with Terry Bull