News Roundup: Gallas Hates Barton

Well in our usual news roundup there were only two major Arsenal headlines today. But before we get to them, let me just say how impressed I was with Theo Walcott Saturday night. Originally I wasn't going to watch the game, but being left with nothing to do that night I turned the England match on. I was deeply disappointed with the England performance, it seems that even with Capello the team is still pretty bad. You know England are in trouble when they struggle to beat such weak opponents. But the one highlight of the evening was Theo's performance. He did fade in the second half but in the first period he was the only England player who actually seemed to care, the only one who put in any energy. As Wrighty7 said on his blog today, Theo should always be first choice. Certainly over Bentley any day.

Now onto the first piece of news. Gallas apparently agrees with me and feels that Joey Barton didn't get a long enough ban by the F.A. Here's what our French captain had to say:

“In my opinion [the ban] is not long enough, especially when you think about his attack on Ousmane Dabo and everything he has done besides.” "I don't understand The Football Association.
"The moment Barton came on to the pitch [against Arsenal] he made a bad challenge on Samir Nasri.
"Samir responded with an act that maybe wasn't especially nice. But bearing in mind the player he did it to, then fair enough."

It sounds like Gallas has joined the already thousands of people who hate Joey Barton. I know I count myself among them and now so does Gallas. I also think it's safe to say that Nasri's among those thousands as well. We all know Gallas is never one to keep quiet. He always speaks his mind, and he's done it again, but this time good for him.

In other news, our chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, believes that Arsenal in the future may be forced to sell the club to a rich billionaire. Here's the full quote:

"If somebody came and made a really huge bid then you cannot recommend shareholders turn it down because we don't like it.
"We want the club to stay in its current ownership and, of course, you have some concern that someone will try to buy the club.
"The directors don't want to sell but we are a public company. It depends on the price."

Obviously none of us want some fat billionaire like Usmanov to come in and buy out the club, but our chairman does have a good point; if someone was to offer us billions and billions then for the sake of the company the board may be forced to sell up. However if this ever does happen I can only hope that we sell the club to someone who won't be a domineering control-maniac like the head of the Abu Dhabi group (a.k.a. new Man City owners). But in order to not get to depressed speculating on a future that hopefully won't ever happen, that's all I've got to say on the matter.

As I've said before the Striker review will be up soon, probably tomorrow, but we'll see. Hopefully you've all read the GK, Defender, and Midfielder reviews, and if you haven't I shamelessly recommend them. It'll whet your appetite for the striker review if nothing else. Until next time,

Fab 4