Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
This is what he had to say today: “Although it would have been a very attractive challenge to play for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga once again, I have decided against taking this step due to personal reasons, I am sorry, particularly to disappoint the people responsible at Borussia Dortmund, who have tried very professionally to convince me to move and gave me sufficient time for consideration.”
Ofcourse the Germany coach Joachim Low and team manager Oliver Bierhoff backed Lehmann’s choice. Even Wenger stated today that he is happy Lehmann is staying and that he will be included in the next match against Birmingham. He said: “Lehmann will be on the bench, the indication I can give is that I am happy if he stays because he is an important player in the squad, like Gilberto also. We have such a young squad that these players have a big weight in the dressing room and a big input in the team. I am happy if they stay.”
Although am happy he is staying, but I find his decision a bit odd, he knows Almunia is number one now and it would take more than a couple of bad performances by Almunia to make Lehmann first choice again, what is he depending on, that Almunia is injured?? On the second hand, his national team manager already informed him only players who play regularly with their clubs will be considered to represent Germany in Euro 2008!
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January 12th, 2008
When the transfer window opened Real Madrid offered Manchester United 60 millions euros for Cristiano Ronaldo, but Manchester told Real not to bother by making any offers below 100 million euros which is around £73.9 million. And even then they still might not sell the player.
Personally I think Real Madrid will eventually cave and pay whatever Manchester requests, the player is talented and Real Madrid want his badly, and it will be one of the most additions to the squad in Calderon’s history. But the real question now is who will Real Madrid sell and will this sale disrupt the harmony of the squad.
I wont be surprised if Real Madrid was successful in buying Berbatov from Tottenham and Ronaldo from Manchester United by the end of the transfer window. But at the same time, I expect the sale of at least 2 to 3 players, one of those will be a critical player who played well in the first half of this season. Lets see what happens, but I will be surprised if Real Madrid made no purchases this January.
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January 4th, 2008
The latest reports state that Ronaldo who moved from Real Madrid in January of this year to AC Milan will be leaving in June. The player made a good show by the end of last season. But in this season he was injured until 25th of November where he played a nice game against Cagliari. We all thought the player is finally back and will feature heavily in the next games, but unfortunately he injured his calf while warming up for the Benfica game in the Champions League.
AC Milan most likely wont renew his contact by next summer, but the player is wanted, he has some offers from USA, United Arab Emirates and Japan!! Beckham is trying to convince him to join him in LA Galaxy and the Red Bull New York is also interested. I believe that the real money is in a deal with a club in UAE, those clubs will splash loads of cash just to get him to play here. I expect Al-Ain might be the one who would offer such a deal. Japan clubs also interested although I really doubt him going there.
Ofcourse going to any of those places simply means his career is simply over and he is only going to those countries to retire. Me myself as a Real Madrid fan would love to see him play here in UAE, but it is more likely he will join his buddy in LA Galaxy.
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December 13th, 2007
What Arsenal fans were afraid of happened, Arsenal unbeaten streak comes to an end. Arsenal still top of table with one point more than Manchester United. Today Arsenal lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough ofcourse the absence of Fabregas, Hleb, Van Persie, and other players was a main reason for this defeat.
Although Arsenal was not beaten in earlier matches while those same players were absent, but even then they were still effected and were lucky to draw with Newcastle.
I really get frustrated from watching Adebayor, its like a gamble every match. He reminds me of Recoba in Inter Milan, he has this same illness were he will be unbelievably fantastic one match but then he will stay unproductive for the next 5 to 10 matches. Am not saying Adebayor did not save us in some matches, but why the risk?!?!
Wenger should allow Gilberto to transfer or retire, to give chance to Diarra. And am still in my opinion that Eduardo is not first team standard. Wenger relies on Fabregas and Hleb and Van Persie too much.
I wish wenger does buy new players during the winter transfer window. This is not panic buy or anything, I have been saying this from the start, we need between two and four new players, one of them should be a new goalkeeper.
We at least need a midfielder and a striker. I know how wenger thinks, and although I trust his judgment, But I don’t think he is going to make a big purchase. If he does buy a player it wont be somebody famous, maybe it would be a good player, but not famous, so he wont disrupt the harmony in the squad.
Bottom line, we need new quality players to continue the season in the right way.
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December 9th, 2007
Jens Lehman supposedly gave the middle finger gesture to Germany’s fans during the match against Cyprus where they won 4-0 against them. The fans where chanting for Robert Enke to replace Lehman on the pitch. Now if he really did it or that he was only scratching his face, i don’t know, but the German media is sure that it was a rude gesture and they wont back down.
Of-course he denied these accusations, and of-course the president of the GFA stood beside him and gave his support stating “I will stand up for him here, He knows there’s no reason to make gestures that could hurt fans. I know he respects the fans”.
Jens Lehman already have enough controversies, since he was dropped from first choice in the start of the season in Arsenal and was replaced by Manuel Almunia, he criticized both Almunia and Wenger several times and announced that he is leaving Arsenal in January.
I like Lehman, he was part of the team in Arsenal who spent a full season with no defeats, remember that ?, so i really hate to see him go from arsenal, at least not like this. But since his flare-up with Oliver Kahn we know what kind of personality he has. So i don’t dismiss that he actually might have done that gesture, and if it was found that it was deliberate, i think we have seen the last of Lehman on both German National team and Arsenal.
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November 19th, 2007
He tried to be subtle but failed, Inter Milan’s Ibrahimovic showed his ambitions to join Real Madrid one day, but kept saying he is happy in Inter Milan, and that he wont leave because of the crowd violence in italy and so on, he even semi-attacked fabio cannavaro for leaving italy to play in spain. What do you exactly want ?!
First you say you wish you play for Real Madrid and that they are the best “They’re one of the biggest clubs in the world and everyone in the world wants to play for them.“, and then you drool over joining them “Nobody knows the future. I have a long contract with Inter Milan, but in football, you never know what’s around the corner.“, then you go back to say “I have no fear when playing in Italy because there is a lot of protection. All the players have long and important contracts and are not responsible for what is happening. Unlike (Fabio) Cannavaro, I think I’m lucky to play in Italy where I’m very happy at the moment“.
This is just a rescue call for Real Madrid telling them to please come and take me from this place. I think that Ibrahimovic shouldve never said what he said, and just focus on his football, its not as if he is exceeding expectations this season. And even if he was he just shouldn’t talk to the media in this way.
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November 16th, 2007
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