Arsenal Transfer Latest, Fixtures And New Away Kit

Yesterday was a busy day for Arsenal news with the continued transfer rumours involving Peter Cech in particular and others too. Added to that the Premier League fixtures for next season were released and we got a sneaky look at what appears to be the new away shirt for next season. Just to finish things off we were also treated to a very wealthy Nigerian businessman claiming he intends to buy the club in the not too distant future.

First things first though and despite all of the speculation Cech is still a Chelsea player. He's no longer their first choice keeper though and it looks like he wants to go elsewhere to continue his career. Of course Arsenal aren't the only team chasing a keeper of Cech's undoubted talent and he has his choice of clubs to join.

The story goes that his family are happy in London and he wants to stay there which gives Arsenal the upper hand. Jose Mourinho doesn't want to sell him to a rival though and apparently he wants Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to go in the opposite direction for the deal to go through. I would be shocked if Arsenal even considered that option and they would be better off without Cech if it's a deal breaker.

If the bookies are to be believed Cech is as good as an Arsenal player already as they have stopped taking bets, but we've seen that far too often before without the deal happening. I'll be delighted if Arsenal do sign Cech, but he should only be the first of three or four players the squad needs to have added to it this season. 

The launch of the new home kit went very well this week and now the supposed new away kit has been leaked for all to see. It's a nice looking gold colour and I must say I have some very fond memories of the last time Arsenal had a gold coloured away kit. Have a look for yourselves and see what you think.

In other news Jack Wilshere was given a £40,000 fine by the FA for telling the truth about Spurs, but he didn't receive a ban. I wonder if he might have been banned for a few games if he hadn't scored two goals and put in a man of the match performance for England on Sunday. He'll have to be careful about his conduct in future and keep his opinions on Spurs to himself.

The Nigerian businessman who has his eye on Arsenal is said to be worth £11.5 billion and says he will have the time and resources to mount a bid once he has completed his oil refinery. He goes by the name of Aliko Dangote and apparently he showed an interest in buying a fair chunk of the club a few years ago, but baulked at the price. He's supposedly been an Arsenal fan since the 80s and he says he wants to stop the policy of producing players and selling them on.

Maybe he hasn't kept a close eye on the club recently, but the last time I checked Arsenal were keeping their best players and investing heavily in world class players to improve the team. Anyway he won't be buying too much of the club if Silent Stan decides to keep a hold of his shares and he's not the first person to try to prise them from him. I can't say I'm overly impressed with the current owners, but I would also say that it's better the devil you know and who knows where a new owner might bring the club in either direction.

Finally for today the Premier League fixtures for next season have been released and Arsenal will open their account at home to West Ham on the weekend beginning on Saturday August 8th. It's only just over seven weeks away and there's an awful lot of toing and froing in the transfer market to go through before that game. Some other notable fixtures are a game at home to Liverpool in the third round of games, a trip to Chelsea in mid September, a game at home to United in early October, the first North London derby at home in early November with City at home just before Christmas.

With so many of those games at home in the first half of the season it means Arsenal will have some tough away games in the second half. If they're to win the league none of that makes too much difference though, but a good start would certainly be so much better than last season. The league season will end at home to Villa in May and hopefully that's a sign after last season finished on such a high against them.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.