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Back in London and some more messages were awaiting me in my office. One from Micah Richard’s agent indicating that his client had accepted the clubs contract offer, and one from Man City informing me that the deal was ready to go through. The papers were signed by me and Peter Hill Wood and Richards should now be officially an Arsenal player in the next few hours.

The Daily Telegraph that accompanied these messages on my desk was today packed with transfer rumours and news. Manchester United have pulled off a £25,000,000 deal which sees Werder Bremen’s Miroslav Klose join them one a three year contract. I was surprised that they had coughed up so much money, but my real concern was that the Premiership now had Chelsea’s Adriano and Man United’s Klose to deal with in addition to all the other talent that was already here. If all the news was to be believed however, Steven Gerrard was set to follow David Beckham out of England and into La Liga. Real boss Fabio Capello reportedly admitting that Gerrard was top of his hitlist. The same newspaper was quoting a fee of around £55 million however, and that seemed an unlikely prospect.

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Sky Sports News

Richards Becomes Third Arsenal Signing in 5 Days

Arsenal have clinched a deal to sign in demand teenage centre back Micah Richards from Man City. The gunners beat off interest from Chelsea, Man United and Tottenham to sign the youngster for a reported £12 million. The defender joins Justin Hoyte and Theo Walcott as one of the few Englishmen at the club and will also become the third highest paid player at the club, on a deal worth a cool £56 K p/w. Richards described the move as ‘the best moment of his life’ at a conference yesterday and Tom Wulfric has expressed his delight at his latest signing. “I am delighted that Micah chose us above the other interested clubs and I believe he will be a great player for us. He has a lot of potential and he will be worth every penny.” Richards bolsters a now very impressive looking defence with Eboue, Gallas, Toure, Clichy, Djourou and Senderos already at the club and Juventus left back Giorgio Chiellini on Wulfic’s wanted list. The 18 year old also joins new signings Vincent Enyeama and Gyan Asamoah at the club as Wulfric continues his summer wheeling and dealing. It is thought that Wulfric will look to offload a few players before continuing his pursuit of players however, with Lauren and Freddie Ljungberg looking most likely to leave.
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I am very excited about signing Richards as he has a lot to offer already and has a great future ahead of him, I also feel that he will offer cover for Eboue and the Centre Back partnership of Toure and Gallas, as well as being able to step into midfield if need be.


The 2nd leg of our Champions League third round qualifier against Zurich was a few days off and the returns from injury of several key players was welcome, the season was now underway and a full strength team would be very helpful as it was vital to get a solid start to the season. New signings such as Enyeama, Asamoah and Guardado were also very good news for the club as all had come for small fees and had good potential. Then there was Micah Richards who looked a very good player already and despite the large transfer fee I was confident that he would be worth every penny and offer a great deal to the club in coming years. Team morale was gradually picking up and with so many new signings it was important to blend them in to the club and for them to settle down quickly as the season had already begun. I hoped that the signings wouldn’t disrupt the flow of the team and that we would build on our performance in Zurich to progress to the group stages.

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With no more injuries since the game against Reading, I was able to stick with the eleven that had won us our first three points of the season, but the subs bench, with the seven man sub line up permitted in European competition, looked slightly different. Newboy Micah Richards was named in the squad at the first time of asking and Brazilian Denilson also returned after sitting out the game at Reading.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Lehmann Eboue Toure Gallas Guardado Hleb Gilberto Fabregas Van Persie Baptista Henry</pre>

Subs :

Adebayor
Cardenas
Rosicky
Asamoah
Richards
Denilson
Djourou

As is my usual choice now I went for defensive tactics, looking to hit Zurich on the counter.

Champions League Third Round Qualifier 2nd Leg Aggregate Score : ( 2 - 0 )
Emirates Stadium, Arsenal

Arsenal V Zurich

Like the 1st leg, there was little to report in the first half hour or so of this match, a couple of half chances came and went but no incident stood out. Yellow cards were awarded to Gruter, Lombardi and Gavric before Fabregas also picked up a booking for a rash challenge. Zurich continued to show little desire to attack despite being two goals down from the first leg, and their helps were dealt a serious blow in the 34th minute when Sascha Lombardi was given a second yellow for tripping Henry. One defender less Zurich switched to a 4-4-1 that really showed little attacking impetus and I sat back feeling that one goal would now kill the tie off.

At half time the message to the players was clear, Keep going you’re doing well, and push forward a bit more for that killer goal. The two wingers Van Persie and Hleb were told to make even more attacking runs and Gilberto to drop back into a more defensive role, so as to allow the rest of the midfield more creative attacking freedom in Zurich’s half of the field. I felt that with the tie in a healthy position I could afford to rest the tiring Thierry Henry and replaced him with promising African loanee Gyan Asamoah. I also took off Cesc Fabregas for just turned 16 year old Colombian Sherman Cardenas. The midfield was pretty much under control and creating chances through slick passing was not a problem at the moment, so creative hub needed to be replaced with attacking flair and I felt Cardenas could give us the cutting edge and finish the game.

Although we were now a man to the good and Zurich were in away territory, they came shooting out of the blocks after half time and straight from kick off launched an assault on our defence. It seemed that some of the players were still really in the dressing room and their lack of focus led to a shock goal from Erich Gruter. 1-0 down on the night and all of a sudden we did not look so secure, having conceded an away goal. Thankfully this served as a wake up call however and moments later substitute Sherman Cardenas started to threaten the Zurich defence in his first game for the club. Not overawed by the tough swiss opposition the Colombian played an instumental part in our equaliser moments later as he sliced through the Zurich defence before playing a precision through ball to an on running Baptista. The Brazilian was tripped as he prepared to shoot and a penalty was awarded. Not content with his role so far Cardenas took advantage of my failure to create a list of penalty takers, he stepped up confidently to slot home the penalty. In doing so he became the first scorer at the Emirates in a competitive fixture and put us two goals ahead on aggregate again.

The momentum was now with us, and minutes later Julio Baptista found a way through the defence complete the turnaround and finish Zurich off. I was now sure we were in the Champions League proper, and relieved at having made it without too much going wrong. Failure to qualify would have loomed over me for the rest of the season. I was only on a one year deal, and a lack of European football would be a big factor in the boards decision whether or not to extend my deal in a few months.


The tie was now effectively over, Zurich didn’t look like they had it in them to launch a comeback, and the game petered out gradually as the final whistle approached. The drama was not at an end though, six minutes from time William Gallas’ temper got the better of him when he brought down Alexander Alphonse. Already booked, Gallas was given his marching orders and more critically, would now be suspended for a while. This was an unfortunate blip on a good evening but when the final whistle blew I had no added critisism for Gallas, he wasn’t given a warning or anything, but next time I would not be so lenient. Overall a very pleasing result though, and it was the tireless effort of Gilberto Silva that earned man of the match.

(Aggregate)

Arsenal 2 (4)
Cardenas (pen) 47
Baptista 55
Gallas s/o 86

Zurich 1 (1)
Gruter 46
Lomabardi s/o 32

Man of the Match : Gilberto Silva (Arsenal)

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The transfer deadline is now only one week away, and I hope to have sorted out a deal for Giorgio Chiellini by then but I have yet to even agree a fee with Juventus, so negotiations are going to have to step up a gear if I am to sign him for the start of September.

Chiellini’s teammate Claudio Marchisio is now also on my wanted list, the promising Italian midfielder is worth around one and a half million, and is the sort of central player I have been looking for. I have a budget of £6 million remaining and I would estimate that most of it will be used on those two Juve players (should I manage to buy them).

I may be able to recoup some of my transfer budget for January however, the interest in Cameroonian full back Lauren is at an all time high and finally a proper bid has been made for him. A faxed offer of £2,200,000 came through from Bordeux today which I immediately accepted. It is now up to Lauren and the French club to sort out a deal.

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Talks over a possible deal for Giorgio Chiellini have broken down but I have retained my interest in the defender. I am still very keen to sign him, but it seems I will have to pay a fair amount of cash for him, and now my budget has been slashed by other signings, I am still unsure as to whether or not to start bidding any higher.

With transfer season drawing to a dramatic close, recent sensational rumours flying around about certain players, the Premiership season was just getting into full swing, and up next was Middlesborough in our first league game at the Emirates. I would rather have had this game a few days later and finished off any more deals in the transfer market first but I knew the importance of getting a good result in our first home game of the season and my team, which was already littered with new players, would need 100% focus for the match.

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Before setting off with the team for the match against Boro I gave in to temptation and made yet another bid for Chiellini, this time for £5,000,000. The fee is now getting very high but I feel he will be worth it if I sign him, I believe he has a huge future head of him. Still, it is some way off the amount of money Juventus were asking for before, and so I was still pessimistic about our chances of signing him

Team against Middlesborough :

4-4-2

Lehmann
Eboue
Toure
Gallas
Guardado

Hleb
Gilberto
Fabregas
Van Persie

Baptista
Henry

Subs :

Adebayor
Cardenas
Rosicky
Asamoah
Richards

Exactly the same squad that lined up against Zurich minus Denilson and Djourou travelled to the Emirates to take on Boro in the first home league fixture of the season. I stuck with my counter attacking tactics as well. The option to name an unchanged squad is a luxury that I feel has occurred thanks to my training schedule revamp, and of course luck. There have only been one or two injuries since I changed the training plans, and it has proved helpful, softening the blow of suspensions.

I ‘expected a win’ at kick off and the players seemed in the right mood going out onto the pitch, so I felt optimistic that we could maintain our solid start to the season.



English Premiership 26/8/2006
Emirates Stadium, Arsenal

Arsenal V Middlesborough

It was the perfect start to the game as in form Brazilian beast Julio Baptista opened the scoring after just one minute. Alexandr Hleb stole the ball from Mark Viduka straight from the kick off, and then passed to Henry, who played in Baptista for 1-0. Baptista took on Woodgate before avoiding a tackle from Parnaby to drill it home to give us the lead.

Counter attacking tactics would now be even more useful, as we could sit back and invite Boro forward before breaking at lightning speed down the wings and through the middle with Thierry Henry. This worked fairly well, as Boro started to exert a bit more pressure on our unbending defence. Gallas and Toure proved too hard to break down though and in the thirty third minute Toure went on a run up field, exchanging passes with Hleb before making a cross to the edge of the area where Cesc Fabregas lay in wait. The Spaniard took a touch to take him into the box, and was hauled down by Julio Arca. Yet another penalty and this time Robin Van Persie stepped forward to put us within touching distance of three points. There was a long amount of time left but we had a two goal lead, all we needed to do was stay focused. And the team did so to superb effect. Boro desperately searched for a goal to get them back into the match but none came, and as full time approached their attacking danger petered out. The last fifteen minutes of the game was just one of keep ball, as the opposition half heartedly made clumsy attempts to seize possesion. The whistle blew and it was over, another solid performance a clean sheet to boot. The perfect way to cap off the month.

Arsenal 2
Baptista 1
Van Persie (pen.) 33
Middlesbrough 0


Man of the Match : Robin Van Persie (Arsenal)

retired_abermea1441

Your already 3 pages in and youve only played 4 or 5 games. It must tae you an age to right it!! Great Story you got going though.

retired_dfj003

Yes it does take rather a while, I used to do half an hour or so on it every day before we broke up and that's what you've read so far, but now I've been spending much more time on it and the months have gone by quicker. It's fun to write it though

retired_sonuagni

You should sell Julio FATtista as soon as possible. In fact, sell him now!

NOW dammit!

retired_Brandon Scott

why should he sell him? He plays well in FM unlike in real life
good story Tom kutgw fella. I like your spare style of writing and the way you bring the news reports in-nice one :thup: