Gingers4Limpar

Happy Thursday, all. It’s so close to the weekend! But even that seems a little uninspiring without any Arsenal football to look forward to…most of the latest news is surrounding Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad announcement, and the divorce of Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool FC. Surprisingly little has been said of the talks held at Arsene Wenger’s home yesterday between Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, and Robin Van Persie, presumably about his future at the club. In fact, a few papers are saying that because an agreement wasn’t announced (AFTER ONE, REPEAT, ONE DAY OF TALKS) it surely means that he won’t be back with the club.

Many are speculating that a solution won’t be reached until after the Euros, which is a fair hypothesis, but to jump all the way to he’s leaving because a deal wasn’t reached/announced today, is going out on an awfully, awfully thin branch in this writer’s opinion. While the longer this goes, the more frustrating it will be, and the more nervous I’ll get, I feel confident as of now that Robin will be with us next year. Beyond that may be a different story, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, eh?

Theo, Ox In Hodgson’s Euro Squad

As I mentioned before, The England squad for Euro 2012 was officially announced yesterday and the two Arsenal players that are in it, are Theo Walcott (Expected) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Relatively less expected). Unsurprisingly, all the talk has been about the latter’s inclusion, as the promising youngster will potentially make his first ever England appearance in the world’s second most significant international tournament. The Ox is absolutely delighted with being selected and is looking forward to “learning from all the experienced players” at the tournament. I sincerely hope he means those on the other countries’ squads, and not the likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard…

Roy Hodgson hailed the youngster as an exciting player and cited the home leg of the Milan Champions League tie as a game that convinced him of the Arsenal man’s ability. As an American, I don’t care too much about the England squad or how they do at this summer’s tournament. But I wouldn’t at all mind Theo and the Ox roaring through the tournament and using it as a springboard to some excellent from next season. I’ll be hoping for that, and that they both make it through without and injuries, wounds, or those infamous “niggles.”

Anyway, that’ll be all for today. If you just can’t wait for more Arsenal news, go ahead and give me a follow on Twitter @DPtoGo. Either way, until next time, cheers.

Oh, and one more thing – a bit of a P.S., if you will – any time you get frustrated with the RVP hoopla, just remember: at least we aren’t Liverpool.

Following Sunday’s somewhat calamitous yet ultimately successful 3-2 away win at West Brom, we may hope that people cease talking of the “curse” of away match screenings at the Wengerdome – a superstition that largely rests with the 4-4 away draw at Newcastle the season prior (although other capitulations also embedded the idea).

A small group of G4L’s good friends visited the screening on St. Totteringham’s Day, an event I was sadly obliged to miss. But thankfully, courtesy of Arsenal.com, we can now re-live the glorious moment with this merry brigade. Very amusingly, they were caught on camera not once, not twice, but THRICE in the gallery published on the club site.

If you’ll excuse the self-indulgent nature of this post, here are my three pals caught in action. Hopefully arsenal.com won’t mind me re-publishing their photographic property:

Click on any of the photos to enlarge.

Big applause to Ian Fulton for making this discovery.