Chelsea lost their collective minds dropping £70m on a Bilbao keeper of great potential. Lunacy.
Is that the going rate for someone who might be good these days? Unreal sums.
Arsenal hasn’t done much in the way of anything. There was a bit of a ridiculous carry-on going off on Twitter, where people were tracking Vida coming to London or some shite like that. It amounted to nothing because he’s clearly not elite levels if he’s slumming it in Turkey at 29.
I was a little sad to see 22-year-old centre back Çağlar Söyüncü go to Leicester. I thought we’d be taking more chances on interesting youth with a couple of seasons under the belt. The midlanders have a very good scouting setup over there, so maybe we’ll see him at a later date if he makes it work with them.
Sooooo… it looks like Ramsey is signing.
Bit of a dim move to release his images on Getty, twitter folk are all over that shit. It looks like Arsenal are planning to make a big deal of him putting pen to paper for the big weekend game. Ramsey reading his own negative press whilst hawking some club merchandise. Wonderful. I like the BTS of the gif making. Real classy.
Anyway, a lot of Gooners deleting their tweets of the last 24 hours. Jezza Wilson reckons £225k a week, which is a lot of cash, but about market rate for a guy who should probably be our captain this season.
A nice way to cap off a shite week… what would be nicer is a tasty little deal for Dembele who probably doesn’t want to sit on the bench for the fancier Malcolm this season. Amirite? Damn right I’m right.
James, who writes for the blog sometimes, is dropping in with an EXCLUSIVE (kind of) behind the scenes look at Arsenal’s fancy performance centre. I am VERY excited to read what he has to share. The club has made HUGE strides over the last few years, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to seeing how our fitness is handled now we have a manager who is hopefully more into the data side of things.
Darren Burgess has dropped a beast of an interview with Fox Sports. Here’s a snippet.
‘Darren, what do you think of Unai Emery?’
‘NO COLLUSION’
Just political jokes fellas… here’s a real snippet.
‘It’s been a huge change, maybe not as dramatic for me because I’ve only been there for a year but it’s certainly been different in a number of ways. Firstly, we’ve got a whole new coaching team considering Unai has brought in five new assistants all with different skill sets but also in the medical and performance departments as well, so yeah it’s been a real summer of change and very different with differing philosophies on training and how to work and how to prepare. It’s been a real challenge to learn a new way of doing things especially for me having just learnt Arsene’s way and now being in the process of learning Unai’s way of doing things. A lot of people have commented on how different it feels, even visually around the place there’s been change. But it’s been good so far, pre-season has finished so now all roads lead to Manchester City and that first game.’
Right, short post today, see you a bit later for the write up about Darren’s team that James hasn’t even told me about.
x
Wolves, Fulham, Everton, West Ham just put penny pinching arsenal and it’s 70M budget to shame,
I mean combining to sign something like 40 players this summer in what was a deadline trolley dash, utter madness with some ridiculous amount of money about
Point is all things considered Emery really has his work cut out in whipping the boys into a fearsome and competitive team in reaching top4 which is very much a possibility
Check…. 56 minutes since marko last made a comment on le grove..
I’d rather we sold welbeck and kept Perez. We can’t even be sure if Perez was any good but we know that Danny wasn’t so we had nothing to lose…”
Dunno what you’ve been watching but Welbeck is a much more better player than Perez, I mean much more.
Check…. 56 minutes since marko last made a comment on le grove..
What a shocker that is, must be a new record
United’s Cb options are as bad & in my opinion worse than ours tbh.
Bailly, Smalling, Lindelof, Jones and Rojo are better than Sokratis, Mustafi Holding and Mavropanos.
Shows the problem facing arsenal goes deeper than any manager,when in a summer of 2018,the 4th richest club in England is branding
£70M as a budget then something is wrong
Check…. 56 minutes since marko last made a comment on le grove..
Hey aren’t you obsessed with Gambon what gives
R.S.P.C.
“Lindoff 40m
Bailey ,30m
Jones 20 m
Smalling 15m”
Not sure i’d want to have any of those at arsenal tbh. Bailey maybe? Still No for me.
Weird how none them have really kicked on under Mou. Think Valencia is the only player in that whole backline that has shown any sort of consistency under him.
“Shows the problem facing arsenal goes deeper than any manager,when in a summer of 2018,the 4th richest club in England is branding
£70M as a budget then something is wrong”
Too many average players on fat contracts.
Shows the problem facing arsenal goes deeper than any manager,when in a summer of 2018,the 4th richest club in England is branding
£70M as a budget then something is wrong
Maybe it’s because the previous incompetent manager pissed away so much money in recent years that the club is struggling to sell off the crap he accumulated. It was always going to take more than a couple months and a single transfer window to fix the club and rid itself of Arsene Wenger’s mistakes
LINP
”I am most disappointed that the club let Chamber to go on loan and didn’t sign any replacement. ”
Replacement for an average squad player??
“I’ll tell you what happens. It is reported that the club will have to pay yearly 12.5 million to cover for the interest of the 550 m loan.”
Source?
Victorious
“Shows the problem facing arsenal goes deeper than any manager,when in a summer of 2018,the 4th richest club in England is branding
£70M as a budget then something is wrong”
Shows how bad Wenger was at talent valuation
For those losing their minds, let’s have a quick recap shall we? We got a bunch of transfers in early. Two experienced defenders, probably a new starting keeper, an ankle biting defensive midfielder and a potential star of the future. They have all had a chance to settle in. This is so unlike previous years that it’s a shock to the system. I can understand why everyone is losing their minds over some average player like Vida because we’re used to desperate last day activity. By the way, NO-ONE with that Mark Hately thtowback haircut should wear an Arsenal shirt.… Read more »
We could still sign Yaya Toure.
Bailey is literally the only Cb in there that i’d take over our options Marko. And he doesn’t even improve us that much. Prime Kos shits over him for example.
Difference b/w him & Mustafi is like that of Chambers to Holding really.
Haha
China
Lucas was sold to stop the block
Until they prove otherwise, we all know how atrocious our defensive options are. The fact that I can sit here & compare them to United’s who btw cost like double of ours, should tell you how average they’ve been.
Btw, Holding should have been sent on loan over Chambers but I’ll give the manager then benefit of the doubt on that one.
@BacaryisGod
Agree 100%
Apart from Liverpool we have had the most productive window of the top 6 and our lack of extra funds stems from our inability to sell.
Blame for that rests on the previous regime, last 5 years have been money down the drain.
BacaryisGod Agree 100% – so many on here so negative. Very much a reflection of todays instant fix society, doesn’t matter we did a deal a month ago what about one right now. The other thing to take on board is the £70 million spend , now if we bring in a bit more on sales over the next couple of weeks, let’s say it works out to a £60 million net – without CL money, now if we can get back into the CL you could add another £40 million to that plus the new shirt deal which looks… Read more »
I complete agree, the club has taken positive steps forward and done the best it could given the reality of our situation.
Easy everyone – 3 positive comments in a row.
Just read through all the comments. What a bunch of whining babies. So what if Soyuncu signed with Leicester. Not one person was talking about him on here until the rumours started circulating this summer. He may turn out to a steal for Licester but if he’s got that potential why weren’t the other top 20 European clubs in for him? We have a group of attacking players that will terrify most Premier League clubs. Aubameyang, Lacazette, Mkhitaryan, Ozil and Ramsey have bucketloads of goals and assists among them. Defence and Midfield are not stellar but there’s more of a… Read more »
As bad as our back 4 is, AMN & Lichtsteiner could well turn out to be a upgrade on Bellerin and Nacho. Especially AMN. He’s a relatively unknown player and could provide the width on the left wing. He’s fast, strong and skillful enough to dominate the LW alone. It will allow Auba to play as an inside forward/strike partner to Laca. Licht on the other hand is an underrated baller. He plays the role almost like a MF. His left peg is better than Bellerin’s right and his passes infield are neat and crisp. Granted, one pre season game… Read more »
Anti arsenal blog. Trying to out-do each other negatively
Bac
Hard to comment on midfield until we see how se set up for a few games but there’s potential. 4-3-3 with Torreira, Ramsey and Xhaka (replaced by Guendozi after a couple of months!!) looks fairly solid. 4-2-3-1 Ramsey and Torreira as the 2 all depends on how quickly Torreira settles and how disciplined Ramsey is going to be under Emery.
Honeymoon period over
Cesc
I thought
It was positive
Ain’t so sure now
RSPC
Honeymoon period over? Haven’t even had a ball kicked in anger and it’s time to sharpen knives already.
Are you a such a miserable bastard in other aspects of your life?
Am off to get some negative comments on Mou on a man utd blog. I’d be back
Ramsey will play furthest amongst the MF.
Ramsey
Torreira xhaka/Guendouzi
Sanmi
Don ‘t forget the “lacking ambition” comments on Spud blogs or the “where are the goals going to come from” on Chelsea blogs.
Time will tell…
At least wait for some time then..
RSPC
Yes time will tell but how much are you going to give before you start making judgements?
I can see it now 3.55pm on Sunday and you’ll be on here “fucking Torreira what a fucking waste of space did you see him run round the cones?”
Well said Bacary, incredible the steps made since this transfer crew started making decisions in winter window and the dominos that followed.
For the record, and i’m not fucking with Kike Marin whose clearly the new Ornstein but if were bidding that kind of record breaking fee for Dembele with Barca, its a goer with Raul here.
Clearly rumor smoke imo, we’d of bagged him otherwise.
Sanmi
If this was The Big Lebowski, you’d be Donny.
Sal
Pure click bait, now maybe spending a season on the bench will change things, maybe PSG will come in with a huge bid before the end of August who knows.
One thing I’m not positive about are the first 2 games. It’s a cruel start.
If we come away with 0pts a lot of fans will have the knives out and that’s not an unrealistic outcome tbh.
It’s going to take more than a few months to fix this mess.
I like the variety in the midfield options, looking forward to seeing Auba, Laca & Mkhi now they’ve had time to fully settle, and interested to see if Sokratis & Lichtsteiner can help mould a tighter defence. also like that we’ve got a bunch of younger, academy players who are going to be in and around the first team.
Unai
We should be able to get a draw at Chelsea, the City game is a baptism of fire though. As I said the other day 5 points from our first 3 matches and I’m more than happy.
Bacary
Thanks for the positive pep talk to gin us up
You cited all the legitimate doubts people have then you just waved pompoms at them.
All we can do now is wait in hope that taking off Wenger’s handbrakes will be enough to propel us.
Marc,
Amazing is it? Every spurs, Chelsea and man utd blog I know is roasting their clubs.. while legrove is praising them.
Spurs fans see us overtaking them. Chelski fans rate our MF and CF better. But Marko thinks we are 10points behind spurs
Marc
Indeed, it was like a shiny lure floating in sharky waters he’d of fit that well into our side.
Sure that could be said for many sides, but those don’t have PEA in them.
Sanmi
If Marko lived a 3 minute walk from the stadium I bet he wouldn’t go to more than a match a season. I get to the stage of just writing off most of the posters on here you couldn’t even call them plastic fans.
I know that some will argue that Arsenal did some good transfer business when you look at our acquisitions particularly when you see how much other clubs have been paying for similar quality players. However, I have to ask about Arsenal’s outgoing transfer business in recent years. It is abundantly clear that some of our unwanted players are grossly overpaid by the club and the outcome is that we are either having to loan them out or sell them for peanuts just to get them off the books. Peres cost us £17 million two years ago and is leaving for… Read more »
Marc
I fear a good pasting is in the cards Sunday unfortunately., Chelsea game will be more representative but they have a more settled squad (even with a new managr), a draw would be ok so I guess I’m expecting 4 from the first 3.
Not accepting average, I just think the next few months are going to be rocky while the new team and system bed in.
Man city team to face us:
Sane Aguero Mahrez
Fernandinho Silva Foden
Danilo stones kompany walker
Ederson
Arsenal:
Auba lacazette ozil
Torreira Ramsey/mkhi, Guendouzi
AMN Sokratis Mustafi Bellerin
Cech.
I see a draw
Ah
Sal
Those other sides are as a rule managed by cunts, supported by cunts and have a squad made up of cunts. Surely Dembele wants to be better than that.
Stroller
Where’s the money gone
In Wenger’s pocket
Unai
‘Chelsea game will be more representative but they have a more settled squad ‘
How’s Chelsea having a more settled squad?
They literally just bought 3 players in 1st Eleven less than 2 weeks to season start, same with a coach.
Best player only had about 90 mins of preseason.
Kante 45 mins.
And they have zero striker. And they barely finished ahead of us last season.
They have a trophy less coach, we have a trophyladen coach and for some reason you think they are better prepared?
Emirates
I think the general consensus is we can either spend time blaming people that aren’t at the club anymore or we can do the best we can to fix the situation.
Someone had seriously been dipping in the club…
Whose had there hand in the till ,?
Marc
Dembele’s no fool he can spot a cunter… but then there is that ever elusive monetary thing that changes everything. Notably when there larger cunt agent gets involved.
As a rule looking forward I’d like to see Barca players start coming to the Arsenal.
We’ve seen far too much of the reverse.
Chelsea also have a young keeper – 23 – who might take a bit longer to adjust to the league. I also think Hazard has made it clear he wants out, it only takes your best player to switch off 2% and it can make a big difference.
RSPC
No they haven’t it would show up in the accounts – you are just making yourself look stupid.
RSPC
Is not fool, he’s probably listening to the FALL right now.
Legend
Bit late
But Everton landed Bernard ?????
Sanmi,
Chelsea have a club culture of change, we are experiencing revolution.
I think they have the upper hand at the moment.
I’m more than happy with what’s happened over these past few weeks.
As for Man City.
Bring it on!
Arsenal fans blog should really be like when guys of like minds meet together at a pub to have a drink. We are most likely staying aware from the stress of life, work, and yes, the wify. Then, we talk, we argue, we banter, we gist (sometimes, even gossip), we disagree, we even fight. But at the end, we head home with handshakes, embrace, hugs, and look forward to the next meeting. I always want to escape from the world by visiting this blog for hours. However, lately is more like ladies at the saloon, than guys at the pub.… Read more »
Michael24
No one gave us a chance against City in the semi final a year ago, I gave us no chance in the final against Chelsea a year ago.
No guarantees but as you say bring it on.
I don’t think this blog is negative at all. Most of us think we’re moving in the right direction. Saying something like it will be tough for us to finish in the top 4 is being realistic and managing expectations. Almost everyone agrees that Unai deserves a chance. Some of us even think that not finishing in the top 4 straight away isn’t a big deal as long as we see improvements on the field. Being positive doesn’t mean you have to overrate the Arsenal players and underrate the likes of pool & spuds. We’re moving in the right direction… Read more »
McBright is Wright
Simple solution to that – get yourself a ticket and hit the Tolly!
20/09/2016, Lucas Perez scored two goals in a 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest in the League Cup. At £17m we all thought, yeh, not a bad buy.
Looked sharp, hungry and a good addition to the squad.
What went wrong?
Easy.
Arsene Wenger!
This is why we bought the Lich!!!
I’m going to go for a score draw.
1-1 or 2-2.
I’d take that as a starter.
azed
Thanks for that picture. I just wish Chambers was getting that same advice as well..
There will be accountability on the field this season for sure.
Is it weird thinking that the reason chambers was loaned is because he understood/understands the basics & just needed game-time to show that/push on? (something he wasn’t gonna get here).
While Holding & Mavro were seen as ones that would be better off learning the basics from the experienced heads we brought in?
Lol! Marc, the tolly of all places?
Now thats more like it! I Just laughed out laughed!.. more of that mate, no offence but i love hollywood better.
Frost
“Is it weird thinking that the reason chambers was loaned is because he understood/understands the basics & just needed game-time to show that/push on? (something he wasn’t gonna get here).”
Hmm, it doesn’t add up.
He had a reasonably good loan away at Middlesbrough TWO seasons ago, This would have been his season to push up.
“Is it weird thinking that the reason chambers was loaned is because he understood/understands the basics & just needed game-time to show that/push on? (something he wasn’t gonna get here).”
That’s my believe. Chambers at 23 needs game time so I’m guessing the plan is to let him get another year playing every weekend so he’s ready to displace Papa or Mustafi next season.
If Chambers was almost ready….he would be at the club, not out on loan.
Unbelievably bizarre decision.
The whole Chambers Loan deal , leaves very purplexed, first of all, I would have put Rob Holding out on loan not him and Mustafi looks very iffy indeed, maybe the coach sees something in him we don’t see but I am not convinced. When it comes to Sokritis I just haven’t seen enough of him. What I am mostly looking from this team is some fight and so e heart from this team
Here’s hoping he has a breakout season over there.
Gambon
Not really an “Unbelievable” decision. I see abit of sense in it. All boils down to was he really gonna bench any of Sokra&Musta this season? If the answer to that is No then a loan that prepares him to kind of makes sense.
Holding & Mavro as backups are more or less on his level too so..
Fulham is my side bitch team this year. Really hope chambers has a great loan spell, as it could become a significant boost to the arsenal, whether in the form of a nice chunk of cash if we sell, or as a 24 yr old CB coming into his own for us.
Crap it just hit me that Mustafi is our best defender. Wow.
I actually rate Mavro over Holding. And I’m basing this wealth of knowledge on the 3 games he played for us last season.
You want a young center back to push the two “experienced” center backs- that ought to be Chambers. I have some doubt about the two senior central defenders; Mustafi for being Mustafi and Socrates is yet to kick a ball of competitive football in the premier league.
Mavros and Holding as far behind Chambers , in my opinion.
We’ve all got to trust in Emery.
Give him a chance.
We gave Wenger ten years.
So MU bring in zilch.
I wonder why?
Does it have anything to do with the fact JM is an asshole?
I hope Leicester beat MU tomorrow night.
Just imagine Mourinho reaction.
Yeh gonna watch abit of Fulham this season. Enjoyed their championship run. You don’t see alot of teams playing proper progressive football in the championship & excelling.
They probably couldn’t get a buyer for Chambers.
No way he’s in Emery’s future plans.
Here’s the most common moaning theme on man utd blogs : ‘Sanchez in January instead of Mahrez this summer was a mistake.’
They reckon none of sanchez, martial, lingard and rashford wants to play on the right.
Regarding sokratis, having seen him play, he’s good 1v1. But seriously lacks pace. That could be an issue considering we are playing a highline.
I saw lichtensteiner vs spurs last season, and he dominated the right Wing at wembley
Sanchez is another Mata signing.
Both times I knew they would flop(relatively) and both times United thought they were getting some game-changing player. Great to watch it all unfold.
*United fans
Paulinho
Actually prefer Miki, Sanchez is clearly the better player but he comes with tremendous ego and his ball-hogging harmed our collective more than it helped it.
Can’t picture us right now with Sanchez, would throw off the whole Auba-Laca chemistry.
WE – Agree. Mikhi stays in his lane,while Sanchez is the drunk swerving all over the motorway getting in everyone’s way.
Said it so many times when he was here,but we didn’t improve one jot as a team when he joined. More cohesive team in 13/14.
Paulinho
United really are a bit of a shambles aren’t they? Have a host of players that are really good on paper but it translates into a disjointed mess on the pitch.
Rashford, Martial, Sanchez, Mata, Lingard, Lukaku looks strong from afar but out of that bunch only Lukaku strikes me as a complete player, relatively speaking that is as he’s clearly no Suarez.
Martial has the potential to be but Mourinho looks to have burnt his bridges with him in terms of fulfilling his potential, hard to envisage both being at the club this time next year.
WE – Yeah they are. Thought they did well to finish where they did last season, and Mourinho’s negativity about the squad is merited, even though a lot seem to think they have some great squad and he’s not getting the best out of them. Obviously said a few times I don’t rate Rashford or Mata, but even Martial I think lacks a bit of subtlety at times, and again I think is flawed to the extent where Mourinho is not the only one to blame for his lack of progress. They lack real quality in midfield. Pogba is a… Read more »
Paulinho Yeah some of the blame has to lie at Martial’s door, he’s yet to show he has the temperament for the elite level of football and tends to blow hot and cold which is no good to a club like Manchester United over the course of an entire season. Mourinho has hardly helped him though, seems to be much more patient with Rashford and Lingard even though they both give you the same consistency issues, he’s a sucker for grafters so that might explain it I suppose. Agree on their midfield although Fred comes highly rated, obviously haven’t seen… Read more »
Which is so important as it suffocates the opposition if you have a player like Xavi/Pirlo/Scholes that won’t give you an inch and won’t make that mistake that you’re pinning your hopes on.
WE -Mourino seems caught between wanting to ditch certain players because he knows they are lacking in terms improving the team’s ability to control possession, and being reluctant to because Fellaini for example can pop up and score a header out of nowhere, so he has to take some blame for the stagnation and lack of spark in their play and if he still can’t part with some of them.
Love watching them though, simply because for so many years they were so annoyingly good and disjointedness now is a great contrast to all that.
What is all this about Arsenal trying and failing to sign Mendyl, a LB from Lille, at the last minute?
Not sure if this is true or total bollocks.
We started the Window well. Then Kroenke bought full ownership, and no questions you all can go and fuck yourself in a best American drawl.
The way the window ended. Couglar should have been ours considering a backline shot to pieces due to injury.
#KroenkedoodledooOut
Paulinho
Really enjoyed your calm take about Mourhino’s approach. It’s refreshing to read about United without all the hate-Mourhino-no-matter-what rhetoric.
People blame him for players like Martial and Lindelhoff like the players don’t have a responsibility .