Day: August 30, 2016

Arsenal Transfer Update

- Roshan

We are waiting for the announcements – Arsene Wenger has confirmed that both Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez have undergone medicals ahead of their prospective moves to Arsenal. Mustafi, a centre-back, and Perez, a striker, will join from Valencia and Deportivo La Coruna respectively for a combined total of approximately £52m. “I think they should go through, both of them,” Wenger said after his side’s 3-1 win at Watford on Saturday. “They had medicals. We have to finish the paperwork and I don’t know exactly when we will announce it but look, I think it could be announced at the beginning of the week.” Striker Perez, 27, who will move to the Emirates from Deportivo La Coruna for a reported fee of £17.1m, will link up with the Gunners’ squad as soon as the deal is finalised. Germany centre-back Mustafi, 24, will join Arsenal from Valencia on a five-year deal, according to Sky in Germany, with a fee which could rise to £35m understood to have been agreed this week. However, he will not link up with Arsenal until after the international break with Germany scheduled to play Finland and Norway on August 31 and September 4 respectively.

Meanwhile Middlesbrough have agreed a season-long loan with Arsenal for defender Calum Chambers, the Independent understands. The 21-year-old had been linked with a number of clubs, including Hull, Roma and Valencia, but it looks like Aitor Karanka’s side have won the race to sign Chambers on a loan basis. Chambers moved to Arsenal in July 2014 after rising through the ranks at Southampton. He made his first competitive debut for the Gunners on 10 August, playing the full 90 minutes of the 2014 FA Community Shield against Premier League champions Manchester City. But Chambers has struggled to cement a place in the side’s starting XI and has spent much of his time on the bench throughout the past two seasons. With Shkodran Mustafi’s deal expected to be confirmed imminently, questions have been raised over Chambers’ place at the club. Neither Arsenal nor Middlesbrough have yet to confirm the transfer but it’s expected the move will be announced within the next 24 hours.

And the shocker is that Arsenal are willing to let England midfielder Jack Wilshere go out on loan to get first-team football. The 24-year-old, whose career has been plagued by injuries, only made three appearances for the Gunners last season after fracturing his left fibula. He played six times for England over the summer – including three games at Euro 2016 – but was not named in Sam Allardyce’s first squad this week. Wilshere, who has 34 caps, has only started 80 Premier League games for Arsenal, making two substitute appearances so far this season. He had a loan spell at Bolton in 2010. He has fallen behind in the pecking order with Ozil, Carzola, Ramsey (who is injured now), Xhaka, Coquelin & Elneny more established above him. Wilshere has less than 48 hours to find a loan club before the transfer deadline.

RIP Gene Wilder

- Roshan

Gene Wilder, who regularly stole the show in such comedic gems as “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Stir Crazy,” died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83. He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1989.

The comic actor, who was twice Oscar nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be a mask for hysteria,” he told Time magazine in 1970. “After seven years of analysis, it just became a habit.” Habit or not, he got a great deal of mileage out of his persona in the 1970s for directors like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, leading to a few less successful stints behind the camera, the best of which was “The Woman in Red,” co-starring then-wife Gilda Radner. Wilder was devastated by Radner’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989 and worked only intermittently after that. He tried his hand briefly at a sitcom in 1994, “Something Wilder,” and won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest role on “Will & Grace.”

In 1971 he stepped into the shoes of Willy Wonka, one of his most beloved and gentle characters. Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was not an immediate hit but became a children’s favorite over the years. The same cannot be said for the 1974 Stanley Donen-directed musical version of “The Little Prince,” in which Wilder appeared as the fox. He had somewhat better luck in Woody Allen’s spoof “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex,” appearing in a hilarious segment in which he played a doctor who falls in love with a sheep named Daisy. He is also known for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). Wilder directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984). His third wife was actress Gilda Radner, with whom he starred in three films. Her death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles[1] and co-founding Gilda’s Club.

After his last contribution to acting in 2003, Wilder turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn’t (2008) and Something to Remember You By (2013). He is survived by his fourth wife Karen Boyer, whom he married in 1991 and his nephew. His sister Corinne, predeceased him in January 2016.