“I expected Robin’s departure,” Sagna, 29, told French newspaper L’Equipe. “But Alex, that was a surprise. He’s 24 and had three years on his contract.
As I’m sure we are all aware at this stage Bacary Sagna has been speaking to the journos in his native France. The papers on this side of Europe have of course been blowing things all out of proportion declaring Bac so unhappy with the clubs transfer policy that he is preparing to give up a career in football to become a cheesemonger in his homeland, or maybe not. Various quotes have appeared in the various rags and for the full context of the interview perhaps people should check out the article with a French translation but I will take the above quote and have a further look at it.

In the week or so leading up to the departure of Song to Barcelona various sites and blogs were reporting on how the Cameroonian had been causing trouble in the training ground and been angling for a move from the club once his agent had heard whispers of interest from the Catalan club. While thankfully we didn’t have to listen to endless tales of DNA this time the men from Spain got their man. What’s odd to me is Bac’s quote that the move of Alex was a surprise to him. I don’t know about the rest of the Gooners in the world but in my workplace people talk to each other about not just things immediately related to whatever work task is currently before them. People discuss the weather, tv, music, film, their plans for the weekend and various other bits & bobs. I imagine that professional footballers are much the same so it seems somewhat surprising that the players in the squad didn’t know of the potential of Alex leaving the club. Given the rumours of training ground bust ups and attitude problems of the player you would think that the lads around the training ground would have been glad to see the back of him.

It puts a slightly different spin on things, I know that stories are put out into the media to paint and portray certain players in certain lights but Sagna’s views are markedly different to what we have heard in other places. Some people have questioned the timing of the interview as Sagna is entering into the penultimate season of his contract with the club, with the club not having yet entered into negotiations with the player, perhaps as a result of the 2 separate leg breaks that Sagna has suffered in the past 12 months, but I’m not sure that is the case. Sometimes players just give honest answers to questions that they are asked. When interviews are held in England or at the club the PR men can filter the questions that the player has to answer, however when a player is at home talking to their native newspaper the club has no such involvement and I think this is what we have seen in this instance. I for one welcome it and I hope it continues.

I have this evening watched my country put in what is questionably their worst performance in years against Kazakhstan and barely scrape a win while fielding perhaps 7 players who should actually be in the first team. One of the players that missed out has already taken to twitter to voice his displeasure at not featuring. Hopefully this forces the manager into a rethink of his playing squad and maybe interviews of the likes of Sagna could do the same for our club, people have been crying our for a change from our club maybe the senior players can make it happen.

Only one more game to go until the boredom that is international football is over and we can get to the most important matters in life. Keep Calm And Be Patient Gooners

I realise that this post seems to have a bit of ADD but I promise my posts will become more focused once the season kicks off proper i.e once all this international bollox is over and done with.

till the next time
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