Kolo departs the Emirates and more Arsenal news

After months of speculation Kolo Toure has now officially left Arsenal to join Manchester City for an undisclosed fee.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/kolo-toure-signs-for-manchester-city

Tour has joined City for a fee reported to be in the region of £15m on a four year contract. As I have mentioned in my previous posts I think the loss of Toure is more than made up for by the fee and hopefully we might now see some movement into the club. Kolo was with the club for seven years, making a total of 326 appearances. He was the last remaining member of the invincible team, (Clichy making a handful of appearances that season.) and departs the Emirates having won two FA Cups, the Premier League and having appeared in a Champions League final. He was a fans favourite throughout his tenure at the Gunners and he leaves with the best wishes of all Arsenal fans. He will be assured of a rousing reception when he comes 'home' to play at the Emirates next season.

In other news we are after some young Brazilian.

http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/zezinho-bid-rejected-video-rees-nets-for-england/

I admit I know absolutely nothing about him so I'll leave it to the excellent Young Guns to summarise his talents.

Supposed Arsenal target Seb Bassong is on the verge of joining Tottenham according to reports

http://www.footballtransfertavern.com/premiership/spurs-set-to-beat-arsenal-to-8million-bassong

One word describes the whole deal..... 'Bothered.' I never thought we were interested in him anyway. Expect to see him go to Portsmouth next season for £4m before returning to White Hart Lane for £10m six months later.

Apparently Tottenham's signing of Peter Crouch means we are in pole position to sign Klass- Jan Huntelaar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1202954/Arsenal-pole-position-sign-17m-Real-Madrid-striker-Klaas-Jan-Huntelaar-Spurs-exit.html?ITO=1490

I think the main stumbling block to this move is nothing to do with Tottenham I think it may be Wenger getting his chequebook out and actually paying the £17m to get him.

Fulham fear a big bid for Brede Hangeland from us

http://www.clubcall.com/fulham/hodgson-braced-star-bid-926196.html

Well I fear sharks and I think there’s about as much chance of us paying £15m for him as there is of me getting eaten by one.

Eboue is set to following Kolo out of the door by signing for Fiorentina.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5459303,00.html

Fingers crossed. As a right back Eboue isn't bad (although he's no Sagna) but he plainly is not a winger. I hope this one goes through as the fee seems far too high for at best, our second choice right back.

We’ve got a game tonight against Hannover see the link for a stream.

http://www.iraqgoals.net/ch4.html

More tomorrow....