Goalie rumours bonanza

This blog is all about the lack of trust we all should have in the media's football coverage during Silly Season. There's a lot of speculating in the miles and miles of reports of Arsenal's dealings or non-dealings in the market. The club is notorious when it comes to keeping transfers under wraps for as long as possible, and then being the very last to confirm that the deal is concluded.

However, sometimes I indulge in interpretation of stories and "news" items. Most of the rumours are just repetitions of other rumours. But sometimes, new threads emerge.

This week, Manuel Almunia has taken centre stage - or, rather, his rumoured replacement. Last season's first choice goalkeeper has yet to appear in a pre-season friendly. At the same time, all media outlets in the UK and then some are claiming that Arsenal are only a round of haggling away before signing Mark Schwarzer from Fulham.

I've mentioned the Schwarzer rumours before, including the bit that he's offered coaching duties in return for letting a younger goalkeeper take the number 1 spot after only a season or two. Anyway, while Fulham look for a manager, no deal can be made, realistic or not.

Another rumour building up is linked with Fulham's leadership predicament. While Ajax' Martin Jol was considered a candidate for the manager's position there, it was suppsoedly because he wanted to pressure his current club into keeping its stars. One of the stars is goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, the Dutch number 1.

More than two months ago, the Daily Mail used one sentence to state that Arsenal had rejected Stekelenburg. However, after the Metro have spent ink on the goalkeeper, today sees the re-emergence of his status as a target in the News of the World.

Another goalkeeper throwing his own hat in the ring is Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow, the international team-mate of Andrei Arshavin's. In the Daily Star Sunday today, the Russian comes up with a good old "come-and-get-me"-plea to Arsenal as well as Manchester United.

A rivalry between the clubs, also including an Arshavin endorsement, was reported in the Daily Mail as early as February, and Akinfeev was linked with Arsenal last summer as well.

In May, however, the website sport.co.uk reported that Wenger had all but sewn up Akinfeev in the January transfer window, only to make a u-turn in order to give Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski more time to get their acts together...

Meanwhile, the rumour mill is grinding for Almunia as well. While Fabianski seems set to stay with Arsenal whatever happens, the Spaniard has been linked with Osasuna and Atletico Madrid in his homeland.

The Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome...?

After watching the World Cup group stages, I got a feeling that international goalkeepers only need to get linked with Arsenal before playing badly.

Tonight's match saw Denmark's and Stoke City's Thomas Sørensen let in two Japanese free kicks, arguably because of bad positioning. Earlier, purported Arsenal targets like Robert Green, Hugo Lloris and Gianluigi Buffon have made high profile mistakes. Nigeria's Vincent Eneyama was linked after a great opening performance, but after the Arsenal link was made, he started to look shakier... Federico Marchetti didn't look too hot today, either.

Fulham's and Australia's Mark Schwarzer is reportedly close to signing for Arsenal (even though the deal has been reportedly near-concluded for a while now). During the World Cup, some of his errors have caught attention.

Not everything can be blamed on the ball. But not every "target" has looked stupid, either. World Cup keepers Sergio Romero, David James, Joe Hart, Maarten Stekelenburg, Manuel Neuer and Julio Cesar have yet to make mistakes like the ones highlighted above.

I guess the fact that they are ALL linked to Arsenal this summer tells us that no "Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome" is at work. Instead, with every goalie on the planet seemingly on his way to the Emirates, no wonder that a percentage of them make errors in the World Cup.