"Meet Bakari" and "Hostels are, like, Waaaay Cheaper than the W"

'Allo Astorians,

Apparently, we have signed 24 year old French right back Bakari Sagna from Auxerre. He is rumoured to have cost around 6m GBP (the club never discloses transfer fees) and was recently called up to the French senior squad. Don't know much about him, but the arsenal blogosphere predicts that he will be used as cover across the back (Eboue and Toure are gone during the African Cup of Nations), provide Justin Hoyte some Gatorade Fierce competition at right back and possibly release Eboue up the right wing. Don't think he'll be satisfied to just ride the pine though, as he was voted into the Ligue 1 "Team of the Year" ou en francais, "L'Equipe de L'Anee" Finally, we have a defender with a scary sounding name and Predator-like hair to boot.

Kolo....refreshing! William...princely! Justin...stately.
Emmanuel...can I buy you a drink, lass? BAKARI...I've just pooped myself!

He can only see other players' body heat, which may make it difficult for him to mark Cashley Hole on Dec 15th 2007....um, December 15th? You haven't forgotten already? Our impending victory over Chelsea? at the Grove? (insert more clever segue here)

Shulgun1 (aka Teach aka the Cheat) has suggested we stay in a hostel as hotels in London are ass expensive. I've come up with a couple of thoroughly (read: the internets) researched options London House Hotel and Astor Hyde Park. They're both in the Bayswater area and within minutes of the tube, Notting Hill, Hyde Park, and a bunch of other non-Arse related things that will distract me but will entertain other Arse-torians. Both of these are independently reviewed on Tripadvisor and Hostels.com. Look em up. Tripadvisor even has some pics taken by users, which tend to be more honest than the ones on the hostels' main site. My general impression is that Astor is a bit better for meeting folks and socializing whereas London House is just a shade nicer. Prices will vary, depending on living arrangements, from $170-230 (large private room, shared bathroom) for 5 days though. Pretty awesome. Leaning towards London House myself, as they've had some recent renovations.

Four of us are confirmed to go (theArsenal, Shulgun1, GoodtobeHleb, and Ryan). Another 3 (Teddy, Hubris and Toon) are soft confirms. Most of you still (Ryan included) need to sign up at Arsenal America pronto. And you need to think of cool names so I can stop stealing names from another blog. As soon as I get one more hard confirm we will buy flights, reserve the hostel, and request game tix through the supporters club. Earlier the better. This doesn't mean folks can't join us at a later date it will just make finding game seats near us a difficult and potentially more expensive proposition. However, flyzoom is like the jetBlue of international flights and prices won't change for a while now. They also don't abuse folks who may need to reschedule their flight. In fact they may even run some special, like they did this summer, that'll save late deciders and ungodly extra $150 and make me right angry. One flight a day from JFK though, so seats are very limited.

That'll do for now. Up the Arse!!!