Arsenal First Team Stars To Fly To Nigeria

On the heels of the cancellation of its trip to Nigeria in August, the club has announced that four first team stars will be flying to Nigeria to take part in marketing activities with regional partners, Airtel and Malta Guinness.

Sagna, Mertesacker, Podolski and Rosicky have been chosen to fly to Lagos with club officials in two weeks to take part in club events and activities organised by Airtel and Malta Guinness.

Arsenal’s head of global partnerships Vinai Venkatesham said: “We were disappointed to have to postpone the game and intend to visit Nigeria next summer. However we are delighted to be bringing this group of players to Nigeria to take part in events with our regional partners. It will give us a chance to engage with local supporters and reinforce our commitment to the market.”

The players will take part in a busy schedule of events in Lagos. Emmanuel Agu, marketing manager for (Malta) Guinness Nigeria plc commented: "Malta Guinness is the Official Malt Drink of Arsenal in Nigeria and we are looking forward to welcoming the Arsenal players to Lagos.

"We are sure that they will have a most enjoyable visit as they experience the energy and vitality of their Nigerian fans. Over the next few days, we will be announcing how fans of the nation's No 1 malt drink - Malta Guinness - can enjoy not only the goodness of our new lower sugar variant, but also win the opportunity to interact and get involved with their idols at a number of exclusive events during their stay. You can get more information by going to www.facebook.com/maltaguinness."

The players will also be making appearances for mobile network operator Airtel. Deepak Srivastava, chief operating officer and executive director for Airtel Nigeria, said: "Arsenal has a very large supporter base in Nigeria and Airtel is eager to connect these fans with some of their favourite football players.

"Indeed, Airtel is extremely committed to creating opportunities to excite and engage telecommunications consumers just as we are passionate about realising our brand vision of being the most-loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians."

Vermaleen Undergoing Shaolin Training Ahead Of Next Season

Ahead of the next campaign, the club has put out a couple of videos of The Verminator that will make opposing attackers squirm in their boots -hopefully.



 The first team resumed training at London, Colney on Tuesday and the likes of Arshavin and Bendtner were conspicuosly present as well as Van Persie who was spotting greying hair that was not there at the end of the Euros -that's before murder he wrote. I wonder what brought on the grey. Must have had a really stressful vacation.

The full picture gallery can be seen Here.

The team is due to depart on Saturday for the pre-season tour of Asia. Despite reports that the club has informed Van Persie that he is not going to be allowed to leave and that he will be expected to be on the trip, it will be interesting to see the actual reality.

If he does not go with the team, it's as good as saying he's gone and the buzzards in Manchester, Turin and anywhere else they've stayed perched on trees can begin to circle.

His staying back at the club will come with it's own peculiar headache after publicly stating that he disagrees with the club's management on how to move the club forward. He's unlikely to be allowed to continue skippering the team after that. The fans may not be quick to forgive and forget and may get on his back at every given opportunity. Can the best be gotten out of him under these circumstances? It may just be in everyone's best interest to let him move on.

There are conflicting reports this morning on the signing of M'baye Niang, the French teenager with some reporting that Caen rejected our £6m bid and another reporting that terms have been agreed so I guess we'll just have to wait for an official statement from the club. Hope we pipped City to it though. That will be one small victory against their rich ass.

That's your midweek edition in the bag, Gooners. See ya.

Arsene Goes After Paulinho For His Mental Tougness

Arsenal eye £9m move for Brazilian star, Paulinho.

Now that was a decent rumour to wake up to this morning. Been a while since we had a decent one to   whet our appetence for fresh blood to add to Giroud and Podolski. A Brazilian. Wait a minute it isn’t just any Brazilian, it’s a Brazilian STAR.  

I know what you’re thinking, “Denilson is Brazilian too”. I did think it too but I didn’t let that dampen my euphoria. The boys from Brazil are usually fantastic ballers. Was sheer bad luck we got the 1-ina-million who isn’t. Besides this one’s name ends with “nho”. Like Ronaldinho and Robinho.

Uninteresting Times At Arsenal

It's a brand new week and I hope it will be more interesting with all things Arsenal than last week was. Very little came out of Arsenal in the way of news last week so most media resorted to dishing out the mundane, the unremarkable and the humdrum to fill the pages. May this week see us living in interesting times.

Pre-season training resumed last week Monday with most of the first team reporting for duty. Seemed no one told Andre Santos that his pal Benayoun was on loan last term and has had to go back to his owner. He sent the twit below to Benayoun the day before pre-season resumed and got a cocky response from Benayoun.

While this provided comic relief during a mundane spell as regards darling Arsenal FC, I did pause to wonder why there was this gap in communication.

The True Gunners' Debate

I belong to a Blackberry group of Nigerian Arsenal  fans. Some reside in the States, some in the UK but most of us live in different parts of Nigeria.

The debates in the group are usually very heated with pro and anti-Wenger, pro and Anti-Usmanov sentiments usually determining which side members take in whatever topic is up for discussion. No matter which side of the table the members seat, one thing you can't fault is their passion for Arsenal FC. 

I decided to publish the most current debate which started yesterday evening