One Pure Thought

Of the reports on Solskjaer's testimonial only The Sunday Times is worth reading. The others, from The Sunday Mail and The Guardian are predictably less about the game, or celebrating Solskjear's career, and more about spreading negativity. The Times report also has a brief bit of speculation on Ronaldo:

The future of United star Cristiano Ronaldo remains in doubt after Real Madrid boss Bernd Schuster maintained that his club were still pursuing a bid, believed to be around £68m, for the player. “We don’t have any doubts that the club is working hard to get a solution to this matter,” Schuster said yesterday. “It will obviously not be easy for him to come to Madrid but put the question to any coach and all of them would say they’d love to have a player like Ronaldo.” The Portuguese is understood to still hold out hope for such a move and it could trigger off a transfer chain that sees Robinho depart Madrid for Chelsea and United using the proceeds of a sale to up their bid for Spurs’ Dimitar Berbatov.

Following on from my post earlier in the week on the difference in coverage that Arsenal receive compared to us, comes this absolutely stupid column by Rob Shepard in The News of the World. Adebayor celebrated for doubling his wages:

Emmanuel Adebayor is poised to end the brinksmanship at Arsenal, sign a new deal and so end all talk of a move to Barcelona.

What a welcome contrast to some of the shenanigans that have rumbled on since the final ball of last season was kicked.

As if you need reminding, the Cristiano Ronaldo saga rumbles on and the ‘transfer’ of Gareth Barry has descended into the realms of farce.

Meanwhile, Manchester United and Tottenham are rowing over tap-up allegations.

He will more than double his current deal and comfortably slot in among the club’s highest earner at around £80,000 a week.

Huge dough, of course, but far less than the £120,000 Barcelona were supposedly prepared to offer.

The important word here would appear to be "supposedly".
Rather the safety of Arsenal than the risk of a move - he goes on to explicitly say this:

Had Adebayor pushed it, he could have ended up at the Nou Camp, probably sharing a dressing room with his old pal Thierry Henry for another season.

Perhaps he might have explained how a player as experienced as the French striker still struggles to come to terms with the unique culture and the demands of life at Barca.

And why Alexander Hleb might discover that the wages in Spain may be greater but why the pressure outweighs even that of London's harrowing traffic congestion.

Is this a position that Arsenal fans could be happy with? Rather than test himself, rather than see if he can handle the pressure, he will stay in his comfort zone at Arsenal. And this to be seen as something to be praised?
Imagine a situation where we tag an extra £20,000 or £30,000 onto Ronaldo's salary and he stays and someone writes an article praising Ronaldo for staying. I'm sure you can't imagine that, because you know that he would be absolutely slated for blackmailing us and we would be slated for giving into him.
But Arsenal? They are on a higher plain...