The Summer Circus

Experience has taught me to keep away (well – as much as you can) from the goings on of the summer break, and in particular the rumour mill surrounding the summer transfer window. There’s just something about what happens during the summer that drives my blood pressure so high that managing my sanity and stress levels becomes more of a priority than during the football season. Perhaps it’s the media shit stirring that goes on and the totally misplaced tabloid nonsense about the supposed imminent collapse of the Arsenal with players exiting every summer.

I intentionally avoid reading some of the back pages during the summer, and it’s only after the traditional day out at Barnet that some sense of normalcy starts grabbing the news agenda. But even then, editors still seem to struggle to fill their pages with copy and any whiff of any rumour is easily turned to a non-story – with statements like “it has been reported” and “it is believed” or “sources inside the club say”….which is effectively Fleet street code for “we don’t have a frigging clue, but we’ll print the male bovine faecal matter anyway”.

I think the story that most caught my attention though, is off the pitch and in the back corridors of power. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before one of Kroenke or Usmanov starts a pissing contest around Ashburton Grove to mark their territory. Clearly, the board decided that they don’t want to play with Alisher, and provided some standard issue explanation about self sustainability, when Usmanov tried to call their bluff with a rights issue proposal.

The long and short of it is that Wenger still has to scrimp and save to bolster the squad, and I suspect it will be a while before he adds to the signing of Thomas Vermaelen. Frankly speaking, I’m not too bothered at the moment and I’m looking forward to the Emirates cup. It’ll be a nice weekend out though I admit Rangers, Athletico Madrid and PSG are unknown quantities for me.

I have a good feeling about this season and I’m already counting 21 days to go before that evening kick off at Goodison park. When we last played Everton in the first game of the season in 07-08, we had a pretty good season – you’d think that was good karma.