The Return

All sorts of things happening since the Ade escape. His brainless, balls-less whining about how the fans basically boo-ed him from the Emirates; Kolo's departure; Eboue throwing his boots, shirt, socks, jock strap into the crowd in Hannover, etc etc. Now, lo and behold, just when we thought we'd seen it all, there's news that Paddy Vieira could come back on a cable TV, pay-per-view basis. If Soccernet has it, then it must be at least 90% accurate...right? Anyway, if it all cocks up, we can blame Ian Wright.

Now, let's just think about Vieira for a bit before we get to the other transfer business. Really - who would you rather come on the pitch when you need some one to smack Song in the bollocks? Need someone to stand right behind Cesc and tell him: "Go ahead boy, I've got you covered", or need someone to take care of Joey Barton? Ooops. Forgot, that twat's going to be in a...lower division next season. What a coup that would be. To have Vieira on the bench, or ready to pop into the first team for the odd Champions League qualifier. Nice. And, best thing is: for free! Let's just see it as us sending him off on loan for three years went he went through a bad patch, made a real good profit from the loan spell, and now have him back for a year or so at little cost. Let's just hope this happens.

As well for other business, then. Toure's gone. God bless his soul, but we more or less expected it. Again, on the positive side of things, let's just see Vermaelen as direct replacement. For a £6 million profit on that bit of business, I say that'd be cool. Considering we got Kolo for £150,000, I'd say even cooler! And let's be honest - only the idiot moneybags at Citeh would even consider paying that kind of wage and transfer fee for a defender who really, at 28, has had 2 mediocre years, and at best has one good year left. So I wouldn't begrudge Kolo his decision. Thanks for the memories, dude.

So we evened out with Kolo-Vermaelen. But we're still left with big question marks over Silvestre (who at best, should start for Carling Cup games) and Gallas (who at best, has one good year left). Of course, we have Djourou and a still-hanging-around Senderos. Still not convincing, if you know what I mean - all we need is a case of bad shaver burn, and we'll have issues with adequate cover.

Then there's the issue of Eboue going as well. I'm not sure of the implications, actually. First, was he ever a right-sided defender or midfielder? If the latter, well, he was crap there, so no loss. All we'd need to do is pray for good health for Rosicky (yes, pray...hard!), Theo, Nasri (ooops. Got leg broken by team mate during meaningless training session)...who else? But never mind. It's probably in defence that we might be a little bit more stretched.

All in all, if he goes (and City doesn't decide to also buy Silvestre and Song for £30 million), and then I think what we'd need would be: (a) another defender who could also play on the right, and (b) another versatile midfielder to mitigate against the expected injuries suffered tying shoe laces on the training ground.

This weekend, we've got slightly-less-than-totally-meaningless pre-season games against Atletico Madrid and Rangers. Should be interesting to see if Bent Nick and Eduardo can keep up the scoring. Then after that's the draw for Champions League qualifying. Wouldn't have minded the off-chance of a draw against FC Zurich perhaps, but that doesn't seem so likely now that they screwed up their home tie.

Oh yes - one final thing. That one goal we got against Hannover. Thing of beauty wasn't it? Bent Nick's little clip, RVP's cheeky reverse pass, and Cesc's finish. Oh yeah, baby, that's what I like:

Woo hoo!!

Absolutely no better time to get back into the swing of writing than now, to celebrate the sight of Ade in baby blue. What’s really odd, about the picture though – is seeing him go from Flying Emirates to Etihad. Talk about loyalty…

But.

There was no better way to get the crap of last season off our backs than to see him go.

There was no better way to get down to the business of preparing for the new season than to see him go.

So now let’s down to it. We’ve got RVP on a new contract. Ramsey, Wilshere, and Gibbs. Eduardo’s fit, Rosicky too. Who knows about Diaby, but once we get him in shape, we should really be good to go. All in all, I’d say, the only piece of deadwood we should safely see float away with the rest of brown stuff that floats is one Mikael Silvestre. Mohawk Billy, if he puts his mind to it should have one good season left.

I’m not even going to go into the whole business of Ade apparently asking for a “loyalty” business, but for those wanting a good laugh (now that he’s clearly in blue), just go google it.

As far as Le Boss is concerned, he’s said that we’re “not on the verge of signing anybody but I'm able to spend the money if we find the right players. “We're not in a hurry because we have a big squad.” Righto. But qualification: big if nobody else turns out to be made of glass.

Funny though, that he’s made specific reference to that Chamakh: ''If we need to add something we will. Chamakh is one of the players we've followed and if we need to go for a striker he's a possibility. We're keeping an eye on him.” Knowing the man, I’d say we’re pretty close to signing him them. He’s never been the sort to whisper transfer sweet nothings, so I’d place a little wager that we’ll sign him, and hopefully spend the rest of the £25 million on a good defensive midfielder.

So there’s. Let’s all get a little of bubbly out, and say ta ta. Thanks for the few good memories, but really, there’s no better sign of the twat that you really are that you’d rather sign for the people running the team in blue than putting in a good day’s work at the Emirates.

I’m gonna enjoy watching you play crap in light blue.