No surprises in the draft really, the Raptors were quieter than a mouse pissing on cotton but the Knicks provided the entertainment with yet another bad trade which showcased the weak, inept mind that Isaiah Thomas possesses. Oden went first, Durant second and then the Hawks surprised many but more on that later.  Check out all the picks here. Here’s what caught my eye:

Portland gets: Steve Francis, Channing Frye

New York gets: Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau and Fred Jones

So you unload Steve Francis for a bigger headcase in Zach Randolph? That doesn’t make sense at all. But wait, you also get Dan Dickau, umm ok? There’s more: Knicks also get Fred “rejected by the the Raptors and Portland in one season” Jones if thats worth anything but here’s the kicker: YOU GIVE UP CHANNING FRYE. The only Knick that had legitimate star potential has been traded away, the guy that outplays Chris Bosh everytime they meet is deemed dispensable by Isaiah Thomas? Knick fans can’t be happy with this move, they give up two talented players for one plus some garbage to even out salaries. I guess it doesn’t matter as long as Spike Lee likes it.

The next big deal:

Boston gets: Ray Allen, 35th pick in the draft.

Seattle gets: Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak and Boston’s No. 5 draft pick, Jeff Green.

I say Boston gave up a litte too much in parting with Szczerbiak AND West for Ray Allen but if Boston has one thing it’s youth and now they have less of it and more experience. Will this result in them winning more games than last year, probably, Pierce has somebody to pass the ball to out of the double team. Since the Knicks made the Atlantic weaker, the Celtics were obliged to make it a little stronger. I wonder what this makes one of my favorite fellow bloggers think.

Philadelphia did not trade a single one of their three picks and drafted three times to make a young team even younger. This just in, the Sixers cannot watch R rated movies alone, its a pity because I hear Hostel 2 has more gore and blood than a Bruce Bowen elbow.

Do you value Chad Ford’s opinion? If yes, click here.

Yi Jianlian. Who? Yi Jianlian was drafted by Milwaukee and already his agents are saying that he doesn’t want to play in Milwaukee. This sucks for him because I hear the Chinatown in Milwaukee puts San Francisco to shame. Seriously, where does this kid get the balls to actually demand where he gets to play? He must’ve been dominating the Guangdong Southern Tigers to make demands this early on in his NBA “career”. I don’t want to wish bad on anyone but he sounds like he deserves an early ACL tear.

Did anybody catch Stephen Ass Smith on ESPN? Everytime he opens his mouth his mother wishes she hadn’t put that coat hanger away. Somebody hand this production back to EJ, Kenny, Charles and TNT before people switch to the radio. Question to Mark Jackson: Can you be any more monotonous and boring? This guy could be talking about a threesome with the Olsen twins and make it sound deathly boring.

It is 10:41PM EST and the Raptors have still not traded Jose Calderon. As Doug Smith’s lame article points out, “It’s OK no to trade Calderon but it’s also OK if they do”. Note to Doug: Tell us something we don’t know……

…..

It’s all over. Kobe, KG, Marion all stay put for now with the only big name on the move being Jesus Shuttleworth. Thank God Philly had the decency to trade one of their picks. Here’s another deal that went down:

Charlotte gets: Jason Richardson, 36th pick

Golden State gets: 8th pick which turned out to be Brandan Wright

Michael Jordan must like Jason Richardson, is he expecting him to be the Bobcats superstar? If so, he hasn’t learned anything from his Wiz experiment. This is one of those picks you don’t mind trading as long as you get a bonafide NBA player back and Richardson is that. More than anything this sounds like a desperation attempt at giving Okafor some recognizable help; a shot in the dark trade that can’t be too good or too bad for either team.

The Hawks who need a point guard worse than the Knicks need a GM passed up on Mike Conley Jr. and went with Al Horford. That’s after passing on Chris Paul last year, where do the Hawks think they’re going to get their PG? Free agency? They’ll live to regret this one.

Jared Jordan was picked by the Clippers, no he’s not MJ’s son, he can’t be. I will download the torrent of the NBA Draft and cut out all the clips of Stephen A. Smith yelling, screaming and making a fool of himself and put it on YouTube. Watch for it. This just in, SAS just called the Knicks the biggest winners of the draft on ESPN Sportscenter. This man is on crack cocaine.

THE BIGGEST WINNER(S) OF THE NIGHT:

The Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Sonics. Not just because they picked 1 and 2 but because of the two trades made, Portland brings in Channing Frye to help out Oden and gets rid of Zach da Gangsta. If Steve Francis plays 70% to his potential, they’re in business. Seattle gets Delonte West, Wally Z and Jeff Green, if they can resign Rashard Lewis, things won’t be this good since the Payton/Kemp days.

Check out all the 2007 NBA Draft Trades at ESPN.

I’m just waiting for the Wenger to Real Madrid stories to start popping out of Spain and that blasted El Mundo Deportivo, try reading the front page through Google Translator, its messed up. See Real Madrid sacked Fabio Capello despite the man guiding them to the La Liga title (apparently the finish was too close) and the only natural option would be to of course target another man who is allegedly discontent at Arsenal. I give it 24 hours from this posting until that this story surfaces. See I’m not lying in this posting because as The Daily Show says, if I put a question mark in front of a sentence, I can pretty much say anything. Like, Henry is a lying bastard? or Mr. Dein gangbanged the board?, you get the point.

We’re targeting Obafemi Martins at £13 million which wounds a bit excessive given we just sold Henry for a paltry £16 million but I’m one of those who sometimes tends to have blind faith in Wenger even when he didn’t dispose of testicular cancer Jeremy Aliadiere two years ago. For those of us that think Anelka is a better signing raise your hand and for those of you who think Anelka is an immature punk, you can f**k off. It’s been eight long years since he was at Arsenal, if anybody things he’s the same punk that he might’ve been before, they need to look in the mirror and see how they’ve changed over that long a period of time. He’s a better fit for Arsenal given his finesse and strength and also a closer replacement for Henry than either Tevez or Martins can be. Then there’s also Ryan Babel who apparently can choose when he wants to join Arsenal.

Matthieu Flamini is leaving Arsenal. Who f*****g cares? All I remember from the guy last year is his goal at Stamford Bridge, aside from that I just remember him running looking like he hadn’t showered in months. The Frenchman’s been fairly solid for us over the years stepping up whenever a hole needed to be plugged (sexual innuendo alert) but it’s pretty obvious that we have better players than him and he has become as dispensable as a twice-used Kleenex.

Argentina is my favorite international club so I would like to see a Tevez signing even though I think it’s not the greatest fit. So it crossed my mind if it’s actually possible to sign two strikers instead of picking one. Tevez is the pitbull type of forward that can create something out of nothing, something Adebayor never seems to be able to do. I’m looking at Adebayor as a part that stands to be upgraded and not just accepted. There’s something to be said for this train of thought.

One final thought: it doesn’t matter what reason Henry gave for leaving or whether it was genuine or what someone thought of it, he’s gone now and there’s no point flogging a dead horse. I’m over Henry, really, I am.

Yeah, the offseason is slow and to top it all off we don’t have a pick in the draft. I don’t care how many Jose Calderon trade rumours are out there, he’s not going anywhere. So naturally the only thought that comes to mind is to wonder who the best white players in the league really are. Usually this list consisted of Toni Kukoc and Arvydas Sabonis but thanks to the continued injection of European players and the development of basketball in rural neighborhoods like Orange County, the list has grown. So here’s some of the top white guys in the NBA:

Dirk Nowitzki: Follows the prototypical white guy forumula: tall and white. Most white guys prolong their NBA careers by a) being a banger or b) being a great shooter. Dirk’s obviously the latter but he can also take it to the rim with force and can use his size to his advantage, something fellow whitey centers (like Shawn Bradley) could never do. That high arching jumper of his is damn near impossible to stop because you end up touching his elbow or it looks like you’ve touched his elbow and whistle-happy Steve Javie is not going to miss it. No sir he’s not.

Manu Ginobili: Argentine import that looks like you could guard him but blows by you at will and can pull up for deep threes and leave you wondering what the hell to do to guard him? The answer: force him to go right. There are stretches in the game where he’s unstoppable to the point where the coach will use up all his timeouts just to give his defender a breather. Arguably the best foreign player to play in the NBA after Nowtizki, if he figures out how to drive to his right, he’ll be an MVP candidate. But then again, he plays with Tim Duncan so the last time he saw a double-team was in South America.

Steve Nash: Most white guys make up for their lack of talents by height, not Steven Nash, he’s NBA short and still manages to dominate games through meticulous fast-break runs, perfect pick ‘n rolls and a deadly jumper. It’s abnormal how good he’s become over the last five years. Canadians used to roll their eyes at him when local media used to showcase him as one of the few Canuck NBA players (along with Rick Fox) on Sunday afternoon halftime shows. It must be said that the the man is highly erratic at times and a horrible defender. But despite that he managed to win (steal?) 2 MVPs. As cousin Shahid once said, you can’t hand out the MVP award to a player who is below average in 50% of the game.

Andrei Kirilenko: Yes, I know the guy cried after Game 2 but in physical speak, he is one of the most gifted athletes (white or any other color) to play in the NBA. AK47 was reduced to a Super Soaker in the playoffs but still remains a man that can take over any given game with his slashing ability and dominating defensive play. It’s too bad Jerry Sloan isn’t trading the guy to the Raptors; if/when he gets his head sewed on straight, he’ll realize that unleashing that DPOY kind of talent isn’t that difficult. He also needs a barber so that he stops looking like the villain from Die Hard movies. This is not related but his wife lets him cheat on her once a year.

Kirk Hinrich: As you can see the list starts to get pretty thin once we classify it by race, but take nothing away from Hinrich. He’s a good shooter of the ball, very good defensive player (long arms) and is competitive and tenacious. The Kansas product is a fundamentally sound point guard that will never become a superstar but does have what it takes to have a long career while playing at a high level. I think any team would gladly have him on board and he’s one of the main reasons of the Bulls’ resurgence. He’s got Mark Price written all over him.

Mehmet Okur: Damn, I don’t believe its already come down to Okur. Mehmet is starting to look like a real NBA player and not the guy that bags your groceries. It all started to happen for the Turk when he got traded to the confines of Jerry Sloan’s structured offense and out of the thuggish atmosphere that is Motown. The Jazz offense is more structured than a Detroit correctional facility and Okur has found in it his niche as a bruiser and as an outside shooter, the latter when coming out of a set-piece is damn near lethal. If he learns a few more lost-post moves, he might be one of those guys that hinges on the outskirts of the All-Star ballot.

At this point I’m searching for names like Mike Miller, Luke Ridnour, Andres Nocioni, Adam Morrison and Andrew Bogut, who are all decent players but nothing to write an entire paragraph about. I’d say Andrea Bargnani might make it to the top three over the next few years and if those Nowitzki comparisons hold true, might even make it to top spot.

This is the first bad move made by Mo Johnston, Kevin Goldthwaite was starting to get comfortable in his role on the left and had a few great games for TFC, and when he finally had a bad one, he was fired. As Mistake by the Lake points out, Mo Johnston got way too trigger happy by sending KG to New York for Todd Dunivant. I was really starting to appreciate Goldthwaite’s efforts on the left side which had yielded a couple TFC goals recently. He was starting to get comfortable playing with Robinson and always did his job on the defensive end (except against New England). It’s way too early but this really looks like a mistake and the first Mo Johnston move that is open to be questioned.

Now the fans might not know about Dunivant but Mo Johnston sure does:

“I’ve been after him since the draft, really, he was our number one choice, and we’re looking forward to showing our fans what Todd can do”

Now I can see the Mo Johnston’s trying to strengthen his backline after several dismal performances but trading away a quality player that had a bad game might not be the best barter. In return we get Todd Dunivant who used to play at the international level for USA and is trying to recover from quadriceps strains. This is one of those deals that we hope only looks bad in the short term but pays dividends in the long run. Johnston sure did send a strong message: Have one bad game and prepare to be traded.

To offset the bad news, there is some good one, Collin Samuel, he of the T & T fame was signed to a three year deal. Last I saw of this guy was in the World Cup when he played the role of a holding striker against Sweden pretty decently in a game they tied 0-0 which also helped Sweden’s demise. Even though we look pretty sured up at the forward position with Cunningham and Dichio, having another quality striker is a nice luxury to have. It’s almost necessary because something must be done to let Cunningham know that if he doesn’t start finishing those chances sooner than later, there’s somebody waiting in the wings.

And reiterating what the Globe and Mail article is saying, tests on Greg Sutton are all negative which hopefully means he should be back in goal soon, Djekanovic’s been suspect at best in goal and needs a lot of practice time before he should be given a start.

That’s it for now, I plan on posting about Toronto FC much more.

Coming off some pretty good games, the job at hand might have seemed to be attainable given the form of the club and the acidic high we’ve been riding. But yesterday we ran into the wall of Quality and were outclassed by a team that right now is just better than us in many aspects. Much like the earlier game against New England, this one had us holding the ball for long periods without any significant attack being launched in the first half. But it’s hard to launch attacks when you’re down early (14th minute), there’s this little thing called psyche which f***s with you with each goal you allow. And when you allow two early ones, part of the body wants to take the rest of the night off.

On the first goal the Rev got a little lucky after the ball bounced off Goldthwaite and straight to Dorman, don’t blame Goldilocks though, nothing he could do. Marvell Wynne got beaten by Pat Noonan on a seemingly harmless cross for the second and the third goal, well the third goal doesn’t really matter. But what does matter is to figure out when we start getting on Jeff Cunningham’s ass for missing golden opportunities, he should’ve scored on a one-on-one against the goalie after Noonan scored but, and pardon my language, he shot like a bitch and straight to the goalie. Now I like the guy and think he’s a great addition to the team but c’mon man, score some f*****g goals.

Sometimes our midfield defense gets exposed too easily, as good as they’ve been offensively of late, they get torn apart by teams of quality (as somewhat expected?) way too easily. New England could’ve scored at least three more goals if it weren’t for them just stupidly bumbling the ball in the final third. When the opposition uses the width of the field and spawns East-West attacks we become very vulnerable to crosses and often lose our man on defense allowing them an opportunity. This must be rectified because quality teams live off chances like these and we must either a) tighten up the midfield to prevent long side-runs and b) be aware of the forwards as they make their runs looking for a cross. Sounds pretty simple but it’s something that has been lacking and needs to be improved.

Generally speaking, we looked like we didn’t have a clue of what to do on either end and looked like the TFC of old (I realize how stupid that sounds).  But I don’t think we need to be too critical of the players, they’ll watch the game tape and hopefully Mo Johnston can outline where they need to improve in both their general and counter-attack defense.

It’s a good thing Greg Sutton’s back (hopefully not injured) , Srdjan Djekanovic’s been decent but he gets caught out of position a little too much and his body angles/weight never seems to be proper when defending against a shot. He needs a little more time in practice which is what he’ll get since Canada was robbed (video) in the Gold Cup by a paid off ref.

Anyways, bad night to be a TFC fan.

Those freaking Spanish gypsies

Looks like it really happened, reports out of Spain say its a four year deal with a 16 million pound transfer fee. No confirmation yet from the English side but they have Barcelona club officials quoted as saying its pretty much a done deal with some t’s to be crossed. The fee is extremely low and blood is coming out of my head after scratching it for the past hour - Henry’s contract over the next four years at Barcelona will be around 16 million, thats 4 years and 4 million. So in a way, Arsenal just sold Henry for nothing. I didn’t mind selling him but not in pesos, I was thinking bidding would start at 30 million. I just can’t understand it.

Anyways, search for closure now. Henry spent the best years of his career at Arsenal, he’s still an awesome player but probably in decline and coming of injuries. I’d rather have him here than at Barcelona but maybe this is one of those things that might be a blessing in disguise. It’s time to find us a new striker. My biggest worry is that other players like Rosicky, Fabregas and Adebayor might see this as a really bad sign and want out of the situation.

The writing was on the wall for quite some time but it still comes as a little surprise, he had pretty much said he’d retire as a Gunner but I guess your word doesn’t mean much in this business unless its in writing. Arsene Wenger’s got to feel like shit right now seeing how he’s the one who developed Henry into the player he is today, sad day for the Boss but if there’s a manager that’ll know what to do it’s him. We just need to give him some time and the club needs to give him some money so he can make something happen on the market. You can’t replace a player like Henry overnight, it will probably take years before we get another player of his caliber. He’s the type of player you tell your grandkids about and I’m just happy that he spent the prime of his career with Arsenal.

The new stadium has been a curse of sorts on us, nothing has gone right since it was built.

The only guy that pisses me off more than Eto’o is Patrick Vieria, since when did he become Henry’s official spokesperson and why doesn’t somebody just tell him to shut the f**k up and get a hobby. Actually wait, why doesn’t Henry tell him to put a sock in his mouth and let him do his own talking. Sounds to me Vieria’s still bitter about not being offered enough money by Arsenal a couple years back. Honestly, who the hell is he to tell Wenger to ‘Show Henry you’re serious’. Eat a dick pal.

That little twat Samuel Eto’o must be celebrating with his gypsy friends like there’s no tomorrow. It’s not an automatic start for Henry though, he’ll be competing with Eto’o for the lone striker role. You know I’ll be cheering for Real Madrid and Sevilla next season in La Liga. With Messi, Eto’o, Henry, Ronaldinho they’ve just taken over the role of Galactico’s of Spain from Real. Here’s hoping they reek next year.

One final thought: I want Nicolas Anelka back.

Another boring day of the off-season and I’m off to the UEFA Champions League website to check out when the next event of any significance is and turns out its on June 29th. Thats when the draw to figure out who Arsenal play in the qualifying round of the tournament happens. The first qualifying round will be on 17/18 and 24/25 of July, the second qualifying round takes place on 31 July/1 August and 7/8 August. It’s pretty amazing how short the summer is.

I was checking out the UEFA club coefficients and Arsenal are ranked fifth in Europe behind AC Milan, Barcelona, Liverpool and Inter Milan. Now the process of calculating club coefficients might not be the best indicator of how good your club is but it does bring some joy to my heart that despite the pathetic season we’ve had including the early exit from Europe that we’re still considered a top five European club. I’ve taken the liberty to sort the teams who’ve qualified for the qualification round in the Champions League by coefficient.

Chelsea caught a break and got a top 8 seed which means that since they’ve qualified directly for the group stages, they’ll get a pretty easy draw.

Pics from some photoshoot held on June 19th which will see Swiss watch brand Ebel become Arsenal’s official timing partner (whatever the hell that means). Ebel will be “time referencing” critical moments of Arsenal matches and displaying them on giant screens at the Emirates stadium. The corporate world is weird.

Here’s hoping Giselle Bundchen can convince Henry to stay, TH14 looks pretty cozy in the pics, maybe this will finally warm his heart and he can drop all that bullshit about him leaving to go play with Samuel “I live offsides” Eto’o. That guy is really pissing me off, all he talks about his wanting to play with Henry. Check out this pic, he would kiss Henry if it were upto him:

God bless the ArseBlog and GunnerBlog who are on top of every little detail, definitely the best source for Arsenal news and info on the net. Apparently Freddie Ljungberg will be coming back to fight for a place in the first team, unless he magically develops some serious pace over the summer, he can expect to be fighting with Denilson for playing time. Seriously though, as much as I like Freddie he’s just not the player he used to be and we’re probably better of either bringing another player or using that time to develop one of the youngsters.

Anyways, here are those pics. She’s not that hot really.

This post has moved here.

I say Jeff Cunningham new exactly what he was doing when he shot the ball into the net after getting called for offsides. Craig Forrest swears by his mother Cunningham never heard the whistle but I say that he did. See all you have to look at is the way he shot the ball into the net. His final shot was half-hearted and filled with disgust, disappointment and distress. It was a stupid thing to do especially after you’ve just been cautioned for the exact same thing. But it was all forgotten when he scored in injury time to turn a 3-0 laugher into a 4-0 comedy.

But leaving that aside whats not to like about this afternoon. The offense taking both early opportunities to bury Dallas early was the perfect remedy after the New York disappointment, Danny Dichio should’ve scored the first goal but the Dallas goalie absolutely denied him twice from point-blank range, we got a little lucky and the ball fell to Maurice Edu who skied it into the top of the net. But the bulk of the credit for the goal should be given to Kevin Goldthwaite, his run down the left was what made the goal, and his fake that sent the Dallas defender to the ground in the fetal position was what allowed the pass to be made. The second goal saw Dichio carry a Dallas defender on his back while heading the ball in off a beautiful freekick by Carl Robinson. Absolutely brutal Dallas defending but it got more brutal for the Carl Robinson goal. There were three defenders around Carl Robinson when he headed the ball home off a Goldthwaite cross, all three were comparing their manicures as Robinson blasted in a header no goalie could save. Due justice for Robinson who has come close too often this season.

The man that’s been most impressive has been Kevin Goldthwaite, he plays like a 10 year pro and is as steady as they come. He doesn’t get much ink compared to the others on the team but he’s been one of the core reasons of our recent success. The left back position is for him to keep for the rest of the season and hopefully beyond. He’s been a quarterback of sorts on the left hand side and is a big reason why we’ve scored at least twice in four of seven games. Andy Boyens’ name wasn’t called out much which is a good thing considering his recent misfortunes on the defensive end. Marvell Wynne makes at least one run a game where you say to yourself, man this guy can be a great offensive back, he had one of those runs again today and followed it up with a strong defensive game where he dispossessed Dallas forwards on a couple key occasions.

Ronnie O’Brien is a feisty little nut, I guess he really doesn’t like the Dallas players and they really don’t like him. He was getting into it with Dallas players on every chance he got and rightfully so, they were playing him physical and he responded by being equally physical. The man had a bad back and took a couple nasty tumbles which would’ve sent anybody in his condition to the bench but to his credit he stayed in the game and had a big impact in midfield, which is where the game was won for us. The only time Dallas took some control of the game was at the start of the second half where they came out with some intention but the heat and the third goal took out any fervor they might’ve had.

Carlos Ruiz is a punk who has the potential to be a cancer. Ronnie O’Brien keeps talking about Dallas’ stench ridden clubhouse and you don’t have to look further than Ruiz to figure out why that might be the case. His disregard for the referees and showing them up when a call doesn’t go his way hurts both him and his team. The hell with him.