Poll results, and general tittle-tattle.

Hi all, sorry about the lengthy absence, I've had several exams not to revise for. I have several left as well, so there may be another week long break coming up.

So the results of the poll are in, and thank you to everyone who voted. There aren't too many surprises, apart from the people who seem to want Cesc Fabregas to leave this summer... 'Who would you most like to see leave the club this summer' kicked off the poll, and we had a tie for first place. It seems 28% of you would like Mikael Silvestre to leave, and the same amount of you would like Emmanuel Adebayor to leave. There were also votes for Diaby, Fabregas (which I shall ignore), Fabianski, Arshavin (again which I will ignore), and Eboue. So it would appear a bad attitude means as much to you people as an incredible lack of ability. I personally would have voted for Silvestre, but I can understand the people who went for Adebayor. In my opinion, the Silvestre signing was just an embarrassment, and kind of said a lot about what was going to happen the coming season. He is just absolutely, incredibly bad, but I'm not going to go into it again, because I can feel my blood pressure increasing. Word is that Silvestre was about to sign for another (worse) team, when Wenger heard he was available, and brought him in. That to me sounds like a hurried and panicked transfer. Apparently we spent £750,000 on him, and rumour is he's attracting interest in the MLS (poor saps, they don't know what they're getting themselves into). I reckon we could make a slight profit there. We could fool the MLS into believing he's worth at least a million, after all they're american, what do they know about football?

Adebayor on the other hand does have talent, it is obvious, no matter how much you are starting to dislike the guy. As I stated in a previous article, Adebayor used to be the hardest working striker in the premiership when he was rubbish, but now he has the attitude of someone who thinks he's made it big. There has been some whimpering coming from his corner, stating that he thinks he has worked as hard as he could this year, and that it's not his fault people are interested in him. We all know what he does however when team's are courting him, and it hasn't been forgiven yet. It is also plain to see that he hasn't been working as hard on the pitch as he used to. Football fans aren't that hard to please, as long as they see a player chase down everything on the pitch they can, they're going to appreciate the player. As it is, Adebayor has got better, got paid more, and stopped working. Perhaps, for the sake of the work ethos of the front line in general it would be best if he left. Abou Diaby is another person I would like to see leave. He's 23 now and older than a lot of more established players in our squad. Despite this, his inconsistency is perhaps that of a 12 year old, as is his willingness to get stuck in. His lack of commitment into tackles and aerial battles does not justify Wenger including him in physical games. Nor does Diaby have any vision, or any idea when is the best time to release the ball. I think it's time Wenger raised his hands and admitted defeat. Now i've said that, Diaby is likely to have an incredible season next term. If he stays, let's hope he does.

On to 'who do you actually think is going to leave this summer?'. Run-away winner with an incredible 50% of the vote is surprise, surprise Adebayor. We've talked enough about him though, apart from to say that Milan, and Chelsea have made noises about signing him. I'm not convinced he will leave however, I think it's more likely Senderos will leave, and he occupies second place with 25%. He clearly isn't happy at being an Arsenal player any longer, and he personally believes he's more suited to the Italian game. Unfortunately Milan appear not to be making his loan permanent. Wenger will find another club for Senderos to go to though, le Boss won't want a player in the team who doesn't want to be there. There were also votes for Silvestre, Arshavin (ignoring) and Gibbs. That last one is very strange....

'Who would you least like to see leave this summer?' was the next question, and it was a hard fought battle between two players. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise these two were Cesc and Arshavin. Arshavin just edged it with 30% as opposed to Cesc's 20%. The rest were Gallas, van Persie, Walcott and somehow Adebayor. In contrast to all the people who voted for him in the above two questions, it does appear there are still some fans of him.

It seems people are undecided as to which position needs filling the most. Centre back, and defensive mid ended up equal on 37% each, with the rest of the votes going to right-back and striker. I too can't decide which one needs filling the most. Hopefully players will get bought for both positions this summer, but I'm not so sure about the defensive mid. That would mean Wenger admitting Denilson and Song aren't ready yet, and he's too stubborn for that. As much as we need a player there, Wenger may stick to his principles over logic. Right back is a strange one, recently Sport.co.uk have linked us with Maicon, although from reading that article they appear to have just made the story up. Striker I can understand if Adebayor leaves. If he doesn't, we won't get another Striker, we already have van Persie, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela and Walcott.

So on to the final question, which was 'which realistic signing would you most like to see at the Grove?'. 36% of the vote went for Yaya Toure, 27% Gareth Barry, 18% Xabi Alonso, and 9% each of Lorik Cana, and Mamadou Sakho. I hate to say it, but I find it highly unlikely that Yaya Toure will come to Arsenal. Wenger could have had him on a free several years ago, when the younger Toure came on trial, but he did not make the grade. As we have discussed our boss has pride in abundance, and is very stubborn. If he does make on offer for Yaya, it's not going to be big enough. Wenger is not going to splash large quantities of cash for a player he could have had for nothing, it's simply not going to happen. I would love Xabi Alonso in an Arsenal shirt, but again who honestly thinks it will happen?

Since this poll was made two weeks ago, one of those targets (Gareth Barry) has decided that the size of his wallet is more important than his integrity, and as jumped ships to Man City, however there have been the appearance to two other players. It would appear Thomas Vermaelen is now all but an Arsenal player. Rumours have it that the bid has been accepted, and now they're in the stage of discussing personal terms, with Vermaelen seemingly keen on becoming an Arsenal plaer. However, they seem to be taking a lot of time in this stage. If it were me in advanced contract talks with Arsenal, I would shout 'I don't care, they can pay me with flat pack Ikea furniture, just make me an Arsenal player!'. Evidently, it doesn't work that way for Vermaelen, but let's just hope it happens quickly, we don't want to have another Nasri saga on our hands. Another player who has been linked to us a lot recently is Luc Castaignos for either £4million of 4 million Euros depending on what source you believe. I don't know if any of you have ever seen him play, but he is dynamite. A striker who reminds me a lot of van Persie, except, quicker, and more clinical. This guy is going to be absolutely massive, and 4 million of whatever currency is great value, but it is understandable if Wenger just wants to see what's available to him for the first team, before spending on a 16 year old. Interestingly, in all the articles I've read (an example of which is this one) no one has actually said Arsenal have made an offer for the young dutchman, just that his agent has said he would be 'open to a switch to Arsenal'. I think there are a lot of players who would be. I'm sure Giuseppe Sole of Woking FC would be open to a switch to Arsenal, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Lastly, Mamadou Sakho's Mr 20% has been chatting to the press. He says his client his highly likely to leave Paris St-Germain this year with Arsenal the likely destination. That's great, as 9% of the voters show. However if we read on, his agent states that:

'Arsenal are interested, but the club are too cheap at the moment....Arsenal are a good club, but Manchester United is a better club.'

Oh great. Let's hope that's just the opinion of the agent, not the player. The thing about Manchester being a better a club that is. Not the thing about us being cheap. Everyone knows we are cheap.

Well that's all for now. Must get back to not revising.
Have a good weekend Gooners.