No sooner had I posted yesterday, than the announcement that Sokratis had landed as our brand spanking new defender.
What a day.
The 29-year-old has come in from Dortmund for £16m. He’ll bring leadership, fear, and prison yard bully-boy tactics to the dressing room. He’s so scary, he already has Aubameyang calling him Papa online. Total and utter dominance of other men is quite the skill.
I’d still quite like to see another young centre-back coming in. Someone with a touch more experience than Holding and Chambers. I’m not sure where the deal for Soyoncu has gone, but you’d imagine after the retirement of Per Mertesacker and the horrible injury of Koscielny, it’ll be something that’s top of mind.
I was also mulling over the new deals for Chambers and Xhaka. I know there’s a lot of love in the fanbase for both, but I’ve always been under the impression that they’re lacking in the pace department. Odd deals, but I guess you just have to trust in the new process.
The deal for Torreira has yet to happen, but I guess with Uraguay still firmly in the World Cup, it’ll be at least another week.
Mesut Ozil has finally picked up the number 10 of Jack Wilshere, which means he’s certainly playing an important role next season.
The other deal that’s still on the table is the Aaron Ramsey one. We’re pushing into ‘OH GOD NO PLEEEEASE SIGN DA TING’… you’d have to imagine there’s a deadline on this. No way we can let him head into the last year of his deal. According to rumour, he’s been rejecting deals like bad swipes on Tinder. As I mentioned before, his agent will be pushing for Ozil like money, because why not? He’s the best performer at the club. However, you can see it from the clubs perspective. You can’t level out that sort of money on a player who goes missing with injury… that said, you have Mesut who goes missing in big games and on random holidays when the going gets tough.
Tough times.
At least we know he’ll be floated out the back door if he doesn’t decide to stay on. We’re in a ruthless regime now. Though I do wonder what you do if he says he doesn’t want to leave? Do you threaten him with U23 football all year? That’d be mean. Let’s see where this goes, I don’t like the ‘he’s waiting to see what the squad looks like’ banter.
England is up a bit later this afternoon. We saw Belgium beat Japan after going 2-0 down. A lot of talk of Belgium being frauds, but the boys stepped up in the end and kept the flicker of the golden generation dream World Cup win alive. I love how the internet has rallied against people calling out Lukaku for lacking intelligence. It’s amusing to now watch it go the other way, people clamouring to be the first to congratulate him on intelligently passing the ball 3 yards into space. It was a lovely dummy for the final goal yesterday, but the genius post-rationalization commenatary is a bit much.
I also have to say, regardless of the ‘I need to be offended’ brigade online, the idea that it’s now a bit racist to comment on a player’s physical stature or attributes is next level. Sport, literally the one living in the world where being a genetic freak is exactly what lands you big dollars, is largely down to your power and pace. You think Per Mertesacker is making £90k a week if he’s 5ft5? You think Aaron Ramsey is anywhere near the Premier League without the engine he has?
I appreciate there are levels to this, and it’s certainly nuanced, but I think we lose our damn minds sometimes.
Right, England up in 4 hours, see you in the comments!
x
Samesong
Whereabouts Captain Mainwaring?
Whereabouts Captain Mainwaring?
Na not as old as you mate. I’m in London u?
Redtruth
Always count on you to deflate the whole thing.
Samesong
The fact you don’t get it worrys me.
Let me put it another way.
If England played damn awful football and had a three legged donkey playing up front, who had a knack of scoring the occasional penalty, we’d still jump around in celebration and take joy in “overestimating our teams worth.
Now do you get it.
Samesong
Southcoast.
Costa del Worthing.
Graham
Why are you addressing me with all this? I haven’t been slating England.
I think your explaining yourself to the wrong person.
I only asked TT what he would say if England won as he said Sweden were the better team.
You been on the sauce?
potholes in the road in England ? no need to mention it, it’s a given, there are potholes in all the third world country…
Enjoy England while things are good.
It’s Back to the grind soon.?
And putting right years of mismanagment.
I’m hopeful.?
Has Ospina been sold yet?
Who’s overestimating England ?
I read and see hope not expectation.
the lads trained with unai for the first time today. I don’t know if he had a word with anyone individually, but he spoke to them as a unit, introducing his assistants..
rumour is we are after Andre Gomes of Barcelona
Samesong
Apologies.
Should have been addressing my patriotic rant to @TT.
Your lack of quotation marks in your 13:40 post confused me.
The fact that five Spuds players represented the country last night didn’t concern me one bit.
Some may disagree.
COME ON ENGLAND!
Gonesterous
I read that Aubameyang has set new club records for agility and certain physical attributes.
That’s how you impress the new boss on the first day
CA
yah read about that. apparently he jumped the furthest in a long Jump. something like 7 meters which is insane.
Your Comment Here
gonsterous
Should prove useful when he wants to beat the offside trap.
graham
he’s gonna need a long run up for that…
on other news a 92 y old shot dead her 72 year old son cause he wanted to put her in a home.. the lady must be mentally ill…
gonsterous
There are over 10,000 homicides by firearm every year in the US. Americans love to shoot each other.
I don’t give a fuck what anyone says, if anyone is talking us down after yesterday they can can fuck off. Cunts. That was 28 years of pain right there. I feel elated for everyone who was able to lose their fucking minds in the pubs and parties around the country. Good on them. I would have done the same. The opposition didn’t matter. That was all about 1990, 1998 and 2006. And if no one can back off for a minute to give us a day in the sun then they are small d1cked cunt fucks who don’t deserve… Read more »
jamie
never heard a mother shoot her son before. any way, they are a statistic now…
“There are over 10,000 homicides by firearm every year in the US. Americans love to shoot each other.” Not to mention the suicide stats. Shocking. The only thing mentally ill about it all is the arguments for guns. Of course the answer to gun crime is more guns. Arm everyone. If anyone had guns there would be no crime as the bad guys with guns would be shot by the good guys with guns. All these school shootings wouldn’t happen because the teachers and/or students would shoot the shooter. That’s the crux of the argument. And it’s the epitome of… Read more »
Ronaldo to Juve for 88m. Who will they sell to fund that?
it’s like that Italian vieri said, England haven’t done anything of note in the world cup for the last 40 years, why get excited now ??
Lol british pot holes ain’t nothing compared to shit you see in China Uncovered man holes (5+m deep left exposed without signs or warnings on busy pedestrian walkways. I leant on a lamp post whilst waiting for the traffic lights to change once and the whole damn thing swayed. A LAMP POST SWAYING next to you at a busy junction is scary as fuck. Also lots of the pavement here sinks naturally because they don’t bed in proper and even aggregate as a foundation first most of the time. Trust me England is pretty fucking good in most ways… You… Read more »
Also after watching as much chinese football as I have England are starting to look pretty good
I’m used to league 1 Standard here. The national team lost to fucking Syria in WC qualifiers. HOW DOES A COUNTRY WITH 1/4 OF THE WORLDS POPULATION LOSE TO A SMALL COUNTRY DEVASTATED BY CIVIL FUCKING WAR????
China please…
TBMob you forgot 1996!!!
China
no one cares about sports in China. they are all busy trying to migrate to some place better…
Not many places in the world better than Shanghai or Hong Kong
People care about sports but they don’t have a childhood to get good at them
Nzonzi to Andres Gomes back to Nzonzi. Can we just get a deal done for any one of them. Don’t care about what some say about each of them. What matters is whoever we sign does a good job for us
China
yah, nice place to live when you have a 9-5 job. too much poverty in that country though.
apparently banega is off the table now.. guy doesn’t want to leave Seville
In extra time, I was calling for Welbeck to come on to add a little vitality to the team. Then I remembered there were probably penalties coming.
By the way, why wasn’t Vardy in the penalty line-up? Did he ask out?
Of the England players, I would happily take the following at Arsenal:
Pickford, Maguire, Walker, Trippier , Rashford, Sterling and Kane. Stones had a game but he would be too typical of a fragile Arsenal CB.
Monreal wanted apparently. A very under the radar player when he first arrived but one of Wenger’s best signings. Not mouthy or flashy. Just a hardworking consistent player who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
Man of the season for me last season.
We’ve been linked with so many midfielders it wouldn’t be a shock to hear that we’re preparing for Ramsey’s departure.
Maybe we can get a big chunk for him from Real Madrid if they sell Ronaldo.
I wonder if Kolasinac will get a new lease of life under Emery. Started very well but injuries badly disrupted his season. He needs to put It behind him and view it as a new start… especially if we sell Monreal.
In fact, considering where we finished, that applies to everyone at the club.
“We’ve been linked with so many midfielders it wouldn’t be a shock to hear that we’re preparing for Ramsey’s departure.”
This is a good thing, the club being proactive for once. Ramsey is a decent player but if we can invest the money from his sale to obtain a top younger winger I think it’s better for the club in the long run.
*young winger
Harry Maguire was awesome last night.
Top clubs in Europe will be eyeing him up.
Trippier also excellent and even admitted he fudged up for the goal.
Nice lad.
Southgate best England manager since TV.
A class act.
“Lol british pot holes ain’t nothing compared to shit you see in China”
Wait till you see the ones in my country.
BacaryisGod
Vardy got injured.
Dyer was his replacement.
axed
Amazing how a Winston Churchill rant can create such a reaction.
Where you from?
It’s a pot hole – off!
Graham
I’m from Nigeria but I currently live in Canada.
Leeds
I like Kolasinac, not many do here and it’s understandable given some of his performances.
But as you say he started off like a wrecking ball for us. It was only Oxlade and Kolasinac that had me interested at all as RWB and LWB last season and then Oxlade was sold and Kolasinac just lost it.
I would really like to see him get back to those first games or us under Emery.
Ronaldo to Juventus?
axed
What are the potholes like in Canada?
If they get £88 Million then Madrid will likely go after Neymar, we should offer up £30-40 Million for Vazquez.
“If they get £88 Million then Madrid will likely go after Neymar, we should offer up £30-40 Million for Vazquez.”
More like 60M and Ramsey for Vazquez and Kovacic. They are going to need over 200M to get Neymar.
Great description of our new defender, a prison yard bully.
Arsenal will be unrecognisable from the feeble, soft underbelly we had under soppy Wenger.
So pleased emery has seen what we’ve seen over the years,
We now have a prison daddy at the back and a dog of war in midfield.
Arsenal should restore pride back in the supporters.
Graham
They are a few potholes in Ottawa where I’m based but they are not that bad. Also having schooled in the UK(Coventry) I would say the potholes i saw weren’t that bad.
Having grown up in Nigeria, my definition of what can be classified as a pothole would differ from yours.
https://twitter.com/NaijaFlyingDr/status/916943604798631937
Azed They won’t need to raise the whole amount though, probably half of the fee and given the way Neymar has behaved at PSG, the quality of the league and the fact they have Mbappe I don’t think PSG will mind that much. If we did a complete reshuffle of our midfield and ended up with N’Zonzi, Torreira, Kovacic we would go from a total crap midfield to potentially one of the best. Never going to happen though. Best we can hope for is both Torreira and N’Zonzi which would still be pretty great. Add Vazquez to that and we’ve… Read more »
Is Cesc is vaquez even that good?
Cesc
PSG might not mind, but they are trying to prove they are a big club hence the purchase of Neymar from Barcelona.
I believe they’ll stand their ground and force Madrid to pay more than they paid Barca.
England aren’t world beaters, but its obvious that south gate has got them professional. No taking the Columbian provocation, and the penalties were apparently practiced meticulously.
Its the least england fans expect. Jolly good show old chaps! Haha
Cesc
Where’s the creativity in N’Zonzi, Torreira, Kovacic ?
Sanmi – in Kovacic couse you dont need 3 creative mids on the pitch
Kovacic is the main creative guy there.
Torreira is more creative than people realise – he is actually quite adept going forward due to his previous life as a CF.
If we ended up with all three of them I’d have to say I’d be pretty excited about our midfield.
Should add I don’t see us getting all three though. Small possibility if Rambo doesn’t sign on.
Azed Without doubt the transfer fee would be ridiculous, that is why we should try to get what we can from Madrid because they will need to raise funds. London Vazquez is pretty good and realistic, I would like a Bailey type signing who has the potential to be a star but Vazquez is very good and also hard working, great wing play as well which is what we are totally lacking. Sanmi Kovacic has massive potential to step up in that department if given the starring midfield role. You also have Mkhitaryan out wide as the playmaker and in… Read more »
Should say I don’t think there’s anyway we get Kovacic, but there is a chance we get both Torreira and N’Zonzi.
Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid considering £88m Juventus bid
By Simon Stone
BBC Sport
**********
So Juve is willing to spend 8m more than Real Madrid paid for Ronaldo almost a decade ago? I don’t get this move.
Henry Root
In a 2007 web poll, Furnell was named Plymouth’s best goalkeeper of all time. lol
Henry joker said Ospina was the worst Arsenal keeper since Furnell. lol
Zeus
That’s just transfer fee inflation over the last 10 years – imagine why he would go for if he were the same age as Neymar.
*What he would go for
Sanmi
“Where’s the creativity in N’Zonzi, Torreira, Kovacic ?”
The creativity is in özil and mkhitarayan with Lacazette and Aubameyang to score the goals.
We need a midfield pairing that play as a partnership, that can protect the defence, that are tidy on the ball, that are positionally sound…. Creativity is bottom of the list atm…
Where’s the creativity in N’Zonzi, Torreira, Kovacic?
We’d still have Mhiki and Ramsey and hopefully actual wingers too. That midfield three has big game winning potential
I see Jamie Carragher is having psychiatric therapy to combat his rage issues.
POPPYCOCK!
The only therapy he needed was to sit with his family and parents and admit he made a terrible mistake and that it will never happen again.
He doesn’t need to prove to the public that he is dealing with his issues.
Will England be wearing red against Sweden?
Plymouth have had Shilton, Grobbelaar and McCormick in goal for them but their best recent keeper was Rhys Wilmott. I’d prefer him to Ospina . Never saw Wilmott drop the ball in his own net ( Olympiakos),completely miss a cross under no pressure for a Centre half to head ( McCauley) in or flap at a half-hit shot like Wayne Sleep hailing a taxi( Costa in the Cup Final) or lay down in front of an oncoming forward- Costa for Atletico last season.
Waste of space
Yo g guess what’s happening
Bookies totally writing us off … I think we can do something this year
Graham
I am English not British
What do you consider yourself to be ?
Henry Root “I’d prefer him to Ospina . Never saw Wilmott drop the ball in his own net ( Olympiakos),completely miss a cross under no pressure for a Centre half to head ( McCauley) in or flap at a half-hit shot like Wayne Sleep hailing a taxi( Costa in the Cup Final) ” You obviously haven’t been watching Seaman (Nayim (95), Lineker (91), Gascoigne (91), Hamann ( last International at old Wembley), Giggs (99), Koeman (93) etc) The list of fuck ups is endless lol Lets not forget Seaman conceding twice direct from corners and the mother of all howlers… Read more »
I don’t know how reliable David Amoyal is but he is saying that Arsenal’s main focus this summer is on significant changes to our midfield which means the links to players like N’Zonzi, Gomes etc as well as having Torreira may well have some validity.
I’ve thought our midfield was crap for years, seems like the new lot agree and are finally putting it right. Great stuff.
@Cecs – if you ever listen to Sid Lowe’s podcast, his co-host works for and supports Real Madrid and cannot stand Lucas Vazquez. Says he has zero footballing brain. We might have well kept Walcott if we are going to go for Lucas Vazquez.
Haha good on you poms for having your day in the sun, but you haven’t even won the competition yet and some of you are talking like it’s England’s to lose. They have no chance (my opinion haha, and I’ll gladly eat my pie if they do win it). As an Aussie and an arsenal fan I hate this England team. But I do like Southgate seemingly turning your fortunes around a bit. Haha and don’t get me wrong I love you Brits, just dislike your national team hahaha. Pretty shocking football the other night though. But how is this… Read more »
So West Ham sniffing around Wilshere. Imagine a central midfield of local passion merchants Mark Noble and Jack Wilshere!
Gonsterous in general yeah, though that’s changed ridiculously fast
Regardless of the wider country, living standards on the east coast cities (about 50% of the population) are often comparable to first world countries and in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Dalian etc, in some cases better
Graham Southgate was a level headed player at Crystal Palace and seemed to be very respected by the club and players alike. When I was periodically in the UK I had a house opposite Chris Armstrong in Bromley, Kent, so often went to the Arsenal games there in the 90s. Obviously all changed when Chris went to the Spuds, which was funny because Chris was a staunch Arsenal fan. Spuds was not where he wanted to be. Thought Southgate did OK as a rookie manager with no real resources in his 3 years managing Middlesborough where he was lucky to… Read more »
my opinion and I may be wrong but I don’t see Harry Kane as world class. he’s not going to be the difference maker when England come up against a good opposition with a good defense. he’s better than vardy that’s for sure but take into consideration, that vardy was playing championship football 3 years ago…
For the uninitiated like me 🙂
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5917761/Unai-Emery-introduces-Arsenal-squad-assistant-manager-Juan-Carlos-Carcedo.html
UNAI EMERY’S BACKROOM STAFF
Juan Carlos Carcedo (First-team assistant head coach)
Steve Bould (First-team assistant head coach)
Pablo Villanueva (First-team coach)
Julen Masach (Strength and conditioning coach)
Darren Burgess (Director of high performance)
Javi Garcia (Goalkeeping coach)
Sal Bibbo (Goalkeeping coach)
Victor Manas (Data/video analyst)
Be very interesting t see what Bouldy brings to the team coaching, especially defensively.
I agree Gonsterous and is why I said possible exclusion. He does somehow seem to get the ball in the net at alarming regularity at all levels, though.
He just gets the job done without any real flair of other worldly stars.
Thank God for that media sting on big fat Sam. Can you imagine him stinking the tournament out, with his shite brand of football…..probably with Andy Carroll leading the line. We would be home by now.
“Will we beat Russia if they beat Belgium with the support of Putin, I believe we can.However, I can’t see us getting past Belgium should they beat Russia and Putin even though Martinez is doing his tactical best to sabotage the team.”
Sorry I should have said Croatia. I can’t see Belgium beating Brazil.
I’d say we have a 40% chance of beating Croatia if we beat Sweden.
Kane hasn’t really scored any goal from open play in this world cup. it’s been all penalties and 1 lucky deflection. compare that to Cavani and you can see why I don’t rate kane as world class.
I thought emery was going to be head coach. what is a managers job if there’s another head coach ? pick the 11 that plays ? I’m a bit confused atm…
Finding it hard to get behind England 100% due to the Tottenham connection.
The teams England have beaten so far and are due to play are no better than championship level.
We all know that when it comes to the crunch Tottenham will bottle it, which will probably be in the semis v croatia or Russia.
Pierre
don’t worry, don’t have to support England
they’ll be out soon enough..
Let’s hope france beat uraguay.. Can’t stand watching saurez anymore.
All teams try to influence referees(yes even England) but the antics of saurez, Neymar and the Colombians have put a stain on the world cup.
If you give these players and teams an inch they will take a mile… They can smell weak officials and are masters at exploiting situations to gain an advantage and whilst the authorities do nothing about it they will continue unabated.
Gary Neville: “A lot of them are still very young. Eric Dier said he’d never been in a situation like that in his life – but he has now. That is a big learning.”
Spuds players have never felt the joy of being the winner in a big K/O game. Poor spuddies have not won anything of note under the holy Poch the Messiah himself! Of course it is a new feeling for them.
Pierre
7.40
Finding it hard to get behind england due to the Tottenham connection….
Ffs man
I’m a club before country person but even I’m behind the team, this manager is superb to the players treating them like they are adults keeping tevxamp relaxed…
So what if the captain is a Spurs man.
And yet you could never see any of wengers faults in the last ten years….
Don’t bee stupid man..
Poor spuddies are absolutely delighted and ecstatic about their trop4y. When we were getting the coveted trop4y part of our fans formed the WOB. Unhappy with it, even when we notched 3 FA Cups in 4 years. Shows the difference between the two clubs.
Spuddies are happy because they think that they are punching above their weight. And they are right.
Ronaldo to juve rumours intensifying as we speak.
Akilan,
You think it could happen? I think no.
I reckon we sell auba and laca to fund Kane transfer
Hahahaha that was only for reactions! Don’t call me out on that :p
How come jenkinson is still at the club….
goober
I’m triggered…