I’m hitting you with a DOUBLE today because that’s just how free content can and sometimes WILL roll.
The reason is, I forgot to talk about the most boring transfer saga since we nearly tried to sign Higuain. Or Suarez. Or Alonso.
It’s been reported that we’ve bid for Wilfried Zaha. £40m + Chambers.
That’s a pretty sweet deal, but I would say somewhat derisory if you are Palace and you expect £100m.
I think the move has been made to look even more pitiful because we are cutting up the monies like we’re trying to pay off 5 years worth of credit cards at 23 years old with one helpful manageable payment.
Here’s what we don’t know…
What is the truth of this bid?
Is it for real?
Or are we back in the, ‘meh, we tried’ phase of transfers?
The numbers from Swiss Ramble are bleak.
Our wage bill is hideous. Our revenue is regressing. We’re having to sell players to pad the numbers. We only just stopped paying Wenger. Things are not moving positively.
It’s quite staggering the largesse that has gone on to allow that… Ivan Gazidis looks like and 80s corporate raider when you see the money he was extracting from the club towards the end.
But we are where we are… this is Arsenal, it needs to be reset in a big way and it’s questionable whether we’re going to do that buying in 27-year-olds that have limited resale value.
The very notion of Zaha is short termist and we’ve seen time and time again that short-termism on less than elite players is not a smart way of climbing back into the big time when the 4th best team in the league just bought the best young midfielder in the world.
Arsenal need to think about the future, we need to start being strategic and we need to move away from buying second-tier players and giving them monster deals we can’t escape a year later.
My point being, even if the Zaha bid is real, is it moving the needle? Is it doing anything to prove that we’re serious about Champions League? Not for me.
Right, that’s me done.
P.S. Look at how cute my niece is in her new Arsenal shirt.
Dissenter I mean to be fair we had an incompetent geriatric fuck and a bald headed charlatan doing him a massive favour in ‘catching us up’. Like saying an F1 driver did a great job overtaking a driver refusing to get out of 2nd on a straight because that driver thinks 2nd has as much qualideeeee as 6th on the straight it just needs to mentally unlock itself. That’s one of those things that pisses me off, knowing that shiny headed spud was watching on in delight at the cluster fuck Wenger was creating and knew he could overtake us… Read more »
Tottenham have Levy. Proactive/forward thinking/ dynamic/clever/ passionate/shrewd/a Spud through and through.
Arsenal have Kroenke.
Enough said.
Graham
Please give examples of Levy doing all those things you say.
I’ll give you he managed to milk a few transfer fees but that’s about it.
I mean Thauvin and Pepe’s numbers blow his out of the water.
Well obviously but they’re not available for about 30 million and besides that average? Come on really. Come on
WE, fair enough, your concerns are legit to be fair, now that you stated them. Your previous message came across as you didn’t rate him.
Marc, Spuds didn’t luck out. It took them years to get Poch, as it takes years to get a system going. They always had a plan, knew what they wanted to do, and are finally doing it. Compare and contrast.
I also meant addidas not Nike. Will try Nd find the news and link in. Maybe it’s a whole container of rubbish. Remember I said I didn’t read. Just saw headline.
Marc
Are you for real?
Levy has the good of HIS CLUB at heart and shows all the traits mentioned.
How do you think Spuds were able to play catch up and, to all intents and purposes, pull ahead so easily?
Levy knows what he’s doing and has done for sometime.
Just accept the facts.
Spurs are cunts but that stat about them conceding 44 less goals than Arsenal over three seasons is just a horrible stat.
They are doing something right over there even if it hasn’t got them the big trophy which is unlikely anyway.
Arsenal are going about it the wrong way.
Teams all over the place that have the best defences usually are the ones that give themselves the best chance of progressing or onto bigger success.
Levy must be doing something right.
He tried to buy Spurs in 1998 from Alan Sugar.
Well shrewd cookie
But yeah he was trolling when he said Napoli have “overtaken” Arsenal for the signature of Tierney.
I thought his every word was to be taken seriously? Or is that just when it comes to Arsenal’s budget
There is no doubt they have assembled a much better overall squad than Arsenal over several seasons a much better balanced squad but as CA implied not that difficult was it with the Wenger and Gazidis show going on.
Incompetent geriatric fuck… no idea who you’re talking about
David Gloomstein strikes me as enjoying giving us bad news too much. I think he is way off on Tierney. That’s a report that’s come through weak European sources.
There does appear to be some poor recollection of the Lemar situation. Our bid was nowhere near £92 m- that was what Monaco wanted and it was going to be funded by a Sanchez sale for £60m. It was a monumental cocktail-up by Wenger and Gazidis at the end of the transfer window . We destroyed value and it has come back to haunt us
Marc with a c
Rubbish he got in back room saints staff who told him poch real deal.
Can’t resent them success when the clubs been handled brilliantly .
Joe was born in uk
Is now a yank citizen.
If he sells
Arab money will come in.
Or even a cock-up!
Who said that Marko?
Ornstein is just for tittle tattle talk in the summer when there is no footie on.
People like a bit of tittle tattle to pass the time when there are no matches to talk about.
You shouldn’t take him so seriously.
People like Arseblog shouldn’t take him so seriously either when he invites him onto his podcast and hangs onto his every word.
Doesn’t mean he trolls continuously though does it. Just enough to give him the extra exposure he likes.
Arsenal are like the kid at a school prom asking a girl for a dancevan they all say no..
The club are in grave danger of totally alienating the fans, it’s part way there with the club level fans who the club really want with the boxes people.
The plebs in the stand are just suckers for what some old Elton boys tell you.
Chips is a right upper class snob. They want pleb money but not your views.
So moan but it will change fuck all.
You shouldn’t take him so seriously
Except if he says there’s no money for transfers and we bid 90 million for Lemar.
Bellerin as captain is the rumour
Tierney supposedly a done deal too.
This might be the summer Ornstein loses his hallo and all those silly memes in reply to his tweets stop.
Evening, Bit of a pessimistic post Pedro. Going for Zaha is better than our normal pursuit of players. If we get him and according to the player whose a boyhood arsenal fan, he wants to play for us, europa league and all. And he’s a massive improvement on what we have. Maybe the financials are down but Adidas are helping with that. Also the wage bill has just lost about 350k with departing players. And wengers salary is gone as well. We signed an up and coming Brazilian, Tierney will be tied up soon by the looks of things. And… Read more »
I don’t need Ornstein’s word on it Marko to think that Arsenal had no intention to buy Lemar and it was just a token bid.
As Pedro says “We tried” stuff going on again.
Does he irritate you Marko Ornstein? Shouldn’t do. BBC standards dropped a long time ago.
Which one out of Zaha and Fekir (given that the 30 m rumors have some truth to it) would you choose?
The disappointment of the was when I clicked the headline “Arsenal star askes club for a free transfer”… Really hoped that Ozil had found some Turkish club (but no.. Had to read that Kos wants one last big contract in France)
Receding Hairline
“Bellerin as captain is the rumour”
Well it would be good to have a permament captain but not Bellerin.
More preferable than Xhaka but still not Bellerin.
This is a player that has not even reached his so-called potential at Arsenal so why have him as captain. Also a bit immature as captain material at this time.
Very short though on candidates.
Sokratis is a bit of a loose cannon to be thought of as well.
Team devoid of an obvious captain.
I don’t need Ornstein’s word on it Marko to think that Arsenal had no intention to buy Lemar and it was just a token bid. Makes sense. Player confirmed it club confirmed it but we no intention to buy the player. Difference between that bid and what’s happening with Zaha and the notion that they’re both spin or a convenient we tried bid is one we’re grossly underbidding on while the other we bid 92 million euros. That’s 92 million euros a year before he went for 70 million euros. Some token bid that. A significant risk really. But you’ve… Read more »
FFS – what is it with the English and penalties?
England women 1-2 down on 82 mins, get a VAR penalty and bottle it. Missed 3 out of 3 pens in the tournament. Just like the men. Mental midgets.
I remember when Sandro Ramirez joined Everton and someone here lauded them for doing good business. Those were the days
Poor penalty.
I’m happy to see Phil Neville humbled
He behaved like a Twat with the stupid “spygate” nonsense he tried generating.
Didn’t work out for him did it Receding. Still though just a loss of 5 million euros. Could be worse I could be the guy who said both Varane and Ramos are woeful defenders. That’s embarrassing that one right there
Yeah not sure bel is captain materiAL WOULD PREFER HOLDING IN THE LONGER RUN.
SORRY CAPS…
Ah yes Marko it was you who thought Ramirez would be a hit right? That would put your saliba predictions under risk. Not to mention Keita dropping off a clip form wise since you over sold him on here.
Explain to me how Two world class defenders consistently concede forty plus goals three seasons in a row in a league their team dominates 80% of matches. I won’t wait.
Yep I thought Sandro at 5 million euros after scoring like 17 goals for Malaga would have been a decent upgrade on Welbeck. Unbelievable really wasn’t it.
I won’t wait.
Run along then until the next stupid thing pops into your head. Ramos and Varane that kind of commentary is right up there with Neymargate
Marko
I’m not the only one that thinks Arsenal were playing games with the Lemar bid.
There were other posters on here that thought it was just PR on Arsenal’s behalf.
I’m afraid you are not going to convince everyone on here that Arsenal had serious intentions to go out and actually buy that player for 90m however much you want to.
As you said thank god it was a PR stunt bid as he hasn’t turned out golden. Oh sorry you didn’t say that lol.
I can honestly see this lot getting few if any targets, and starting the season very short. As it stands, the likes of Leicester, Wolves, Everton and maybe others have better balanced teams, let alone those who we finished below.
Many to blame, Wenger Gazidis Raul, Emery, the players, the useless backroom staff, but it will always be Kroenke who didn’t do anything as active as fiddling while Rome burned. Looks like he is doing it again.
Surprise surprise you can’t explain the goals against column then. You would rather defer to pundits and talk sport rather than what your eyes tell you. Gotcha.
Yea same way you just deduced that Saliba is the next big thing in football based on 2 minute clip off YouTube. I am now certain you haven’t watched a single 90 minute game he played in to actual rate him.
You are probably one of those guys who believe everything they read and defend it like it was their own thought.
Look at this from a different angle, Fekir or zyiech who are both being linked to us at the 30 million mark. Well According to the newspapers, because there always reliable. But we’re trying to get Zaha for 40 million plus, and get rid of players who are deadwood and we all want shot of. Zaha hits the ground running, no acclimatizing to the league, knows how his new team mates work and used to the pace of the league and his opponents in it. Zaha actually makes a lot of sense, as long as we’re in the 40-50 million… Read more »
Ah fuck me, I have taken to punching myself in the nutz every morning to erase the pain of reading the bullshit transfer news. That new kit is tops really looks great!! Ah fuck the highlight of the summer is the fucking kit….. FUCKkkkkkkkk
Yes we bid for lemar
No it wasn’t 90 million because no one has collaborated that. The Monaco VP was always going to play along with that price in the media because he was planning to fleece someone else with the same player later.
Turned out the player was nothing special and I remember some fans, myself ,acting like he was the difference between us and relegation
The great Mike Ashley toon sell off has begun, lacelles would be a good shout for 25 million?
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11755580/ayoze-perez-leicester-agree-30m-fee-for-newcastle-striker
Leicester using that prospective Maguire money seemingly, 30m fee agreed for Ayoze Perez as per Sky.
Being quoted 40m for Tielemans to be made permanent too.
Bit steep for Ayoze Perez, good player who seems to be finally producing but thought he had a clause for 25 mil
Wengereagle,
If Leicester are selling maguire, I can think of a lovely German international replacement we could send there way!
RH
“Yes we bid for lemarNo it wasn’t 90 million because no one has collaborated that. The Monaco VP was always going to play along with that price in the media because he was planning to fleece someone else with the same player later.”
Yes he is a weasel that Monaco vice-president so anything he says can’t be taken at face value and not just the price tag.
He said Arsenal put in a “huge” bid for Lemar lol.
Yeah right. Got ya. Sure.
I know circumstances are everything but how nuts is it that Newcastle are bringing in 30m for Perez and Liverpool brought in Firmino, Mane and Salah each for virtually the same fee within the last few years?
Hard to get used to these stupid fees for average players.
grabs
I think that they’d embrace Hitler himself more warmly than Mustafi.
Whilst here on my holidays,
I booked a tour of the emirates and went today with the family.
25 quid per adult and 16 for kids but you do get to go to the arsenal museum after for free.
They were ripping out the seats in certain sections. And replacing with new ones.
Speaking to one of the tour guides today he said there upping the capacity to beat the toilet bowl at spurs and more seats were being installed around club level?
Anyone else here about this?
I think that they’d embrace Hitler himself more warmly than Mustafi.
We can throw in xhaka as a bonus!
How did Napoli signing Manolas for 36m slip under the radar?
Hadn’t heard a peep about it on here.
No it wasn’t 90 million because no one has collaborated that. The Monaco VP was always going to play along with that price in the media
Tough to convince Receding of anything it seems. Except that Ramos and Varane are woeful that just takes a glance at the goals against column to convince him. Genius that he is
Marko sniping at everyone this time of the season, fucking loves a transfer window to get his PlayStation scouting aired. Go on lad, what’s Saliba’s card look like?
Just kidding of course Marko, I know his 20/21 card isn’t out…
Unless Tierney wants a taste of the Italian life, Napoli is nowhere as diverse as London. They might have a decent football team but the city has had better days…
It should be no contest as far as quality of life goes.
Well done to the Lionesses… it was 11 vs. 12 tonight, you showed class and heart in any case.
Leeds
Very dubious at the prospect of a Glasgow youth uprooting for Italy. In fact I’d be amazed/impressed if he took that choice. He’s Arsenal bound imo
Up for grabs yes they are puting a whole new row in the middle tier in front of the current front row of the middle tier giving us 6000 new seats they are already all sold everyone who was at the front of the middle tier were offered to move forward to the new seats
Receding makes a good point actually.
Looks like we were all barking up the wrong tree.
A late bid for a player usually signifies a “low ball” bid. Arsenal were not just late on the Lemar bid, they were double late. Arsenal in late, late low ball bid offer for Lemar shocker.
And as Receding points out it is so in the interests of Monaco for them to state that the late bids for Lemar were “huge” so as to make sure he goes for a decent enough sum in the later window.
New capacity season after this one will be 60600
6000?
I thought it was more like 780 new seats?
Cesc at club level yes but next season they will fill in other parts
They reduced the capacity a while back due to safety and security and will be putting those seats back too so 60600 capacity begining 2020 season
It was good to see the club engage with supporter groups toward the end of the season to designate a zone of the stadium as a supporter area so to speak where flags etc would be allowed. It was right at the end of the season but hopefully that carries into the new season. We really need to either designate the North Bank or the Clock End as a vocal support stand and make appropriate allowances for the supporters in those sections in collaboration with the supporter groups. The win against Spurs at home this season was an absolutely thunderous… Read more »
Mr Serge
Sorry, are you saying an additional 6000 capacity or 600?
You said 6000 in your original but was that just an accidental extra 0?
6000 would be a heck of a lot.
6000 was a mistake it’s more like 2000 with the seats they are putting back and club level expansion
780 this season at club level and the rest next season
Cesc I am sure the stadium can be expanded to 75000 they said with filling in the top tier and other parts of the ground but due to transport links we are restricted to under 61000
Mr Serge
Still hefty though.
I really wish we’d considered ambiance and fan participation in the design. I’m a big fan of the design Spurs used in terms of a gigantic solid wall like stand on one end of their stadium.
It’s a beautiful stadium but you want it to feel threatening to the opposition and act as a propellant to our own players.
The problem with the north bank now the middle tier is club level so its only the lower tier that have the louder supporters. The way that they reallocated the fans from Highbury was not thought out. a lot of the tourists sit around the sides as well and they don’t know the songs so now there are only pockets off supporters that sing and a lot of the time we can’t hear each other, we see the away fans opposite jumping up and down but you can’t really gear them from the north bank. Then when you watch it… Read more »
Bellerin as captain is a fucking hideous rumour. A player who is very young, is not a leader, is only a 7.5/10, is not vocal on the pitch, would be better off being sold if anyone will be willing to offer over 45m. Why him as captain? Might as well just put a blindfold on, walk into the club canteen at 12:30 and declare the first loser you stumble into as the next captain. In all seriousness tho, there are a lot of these silly rumors and ‘done deals’ which aren’t true at all. According to many saliba and tierney… Read more »
Arsenal make contact with Fekir but depends on offloading Ozil.
The media really are just winding Arsenal fans up now.
That’s a huge criticism right now, there isn’t really a stand out captain.
Napoli is an absolute dive of a city. Been through it before and it’s the very definition of shit
It’s located next to some fabulous little towns, as well as mount vesuvius and Pompeii tho, so still cool if you live outside
But yeah the city proper is awful
Yeah cesc there are literally no good candidates for captain
Thus we have 5 shit ones!
Bidding half of a players market value just so that you can pretend we were trying is straight out of the wenger playbook to dupe gullible fans. we aren’t planning to actually spend more than 45m after all and that we’ve decided to massively low ball vastly more expensive players to make a fake statement to fans that we do have money and are trying, so that when we fail to get anyone at all apart from martinelli, tierney and another cheap random, that they can be like damn we did try trust me blad. It might be believable if… Read more »
I’m calling it now, our first team next season will be the same as last season apart from no more than 2 changes
Watching Brazil vs Argentina. The game is quite physical. The two teams don’t like each other.
Alves still has some magics left. Created a nice goal.
Anyone else watching Brazil-Argentina?
Fuck me Otamendi is absolute gash.
Nelson
Benching Dybala is practically a war crime when Acuna and Paredes are two of your midfield three.
Argentina couldn’t head the ball in from 2 yards out.
Fuck me according to the Daily Star online and Talksport we’ve bid £50m for Harry Maguire! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Need to hook off Acuna and Martinez here for Dybala and one of Lo Celso/Di Maria.
This Gooner’s response to Crystal Palace being “incensed” at our Zaha approach is actually… spot on. Well said, Ally of London.
https://apple.news/A7u0T1h6TQXCF6jnr-k0H8Q
Surprise that Dani Alves can still play. He always makes himself available and his passing is very good.
Apparently because we annoyed them so much, according to the Sun, Crystal Palace now want £120m for Zaha now.
Leicester is going to be overjoyed at our Maguire bid then aren’t they?!
£120m for Zaha? Madness. Sheer fantasy.
Arsenal interested in Klostermann of Leipzig. Want to convert him from RB to CB. Club is targeting the wrong player to make the switch. Nordi Mukiele is the one.
Phenomenal athleticism and mobility. Played RWB and RCB in a three in France.
Might be another case of signing Vermaelen when Alderweireld, Vertonghen were on the same team. Leipzig have Konaté, Upamecano and Mukiele, but we’re after Klostermann.
Alves faults Messi just outside the box. Smart professional fault.
Harsh on Argentina, the one match this tournament where they actually showed up.
Looks like it’s just not ever going to happen at international level for Messi.
Argentina’s defense is as bad as ours. 2 – 0
Criminal not to give Dybala minutes, as if being similar to Messi is a bad thing ffs.
Martinez has a hot head.
Argentina played very well. They would have won this game on a neutral ground.
Impressed with Messi. He was denied by the post and cross bar.
Anyone noticed Foyth, the defender spurs got on the cheap. Spuds are 1-2 seasons ahead of us. They beat us with smart cheap signings.
I hope Martinelli is the beginning of something new for us.
Alves is a total baller.
They showed clips of him playing in the 2007 Copa America…and he still bossed this game 12 years afterwards as a 36 year old.
That said he should have had his marching orders when he held Messi back…second yellow card.
‘Apparently because we annoyed them so much, according to the Sun, Crystal Palace now want £120m for Zaha now’
Fuck Palace, really absolutely tell them to fuck off.
They can keep their diving prince.
How dare Arsenal for starting a bid at the price they’ve assessed the player.
There’s nothing like a derisory offer in real life. You don’t like the opening bid…you say no …come back with more.
Did we offer 40 million Zimbabwean dollars?
Brazil clearly the better side and deserved winners. Alves still class at 36. He was a key part of Sevilla’s greatest teams 12-13 years ago and still doing the business in 2019. What a player.
Gabriel Jesus is going to be some player.
Anyone watching Haiti and Mexico
Love Haitian team
Fast organized and never quits
A fairly ordinary Brazil side to be honest but still hands down the best side in all of South America- and that’s without their best player in Neymar. Pretty poor generation of talent for Argentina, looks to be nobody coming through. Dybala is already nearly 26 and has got rookie minutes under his belt. Martinez looked ok, cultured touch and can finish but he isn’t physically imposing ,lacks imagination to his game and doesn’t possess anything really spectacular in his locker. Messi may not have been able to win them an international title but he had them extremely competitive throughout… Read more »
Allison is spectacular in goal, a brick wall.
He’s one of the very few keeper’s in the game where you feel on his day that you just aren’t sticking the ball past. Has that aura about him that all of the GK greats have had.
I haven’t been impressed with an Argentina team for absolutely ages
Some of their teams in the late 90s and early 2000s were STACKED
A fair lot of average making its way in these days
‘Fuck me Otamendi is absolute gash.’ Hahaha. Have to say I side with Receding here. Ramos and varane are not exactly woeful but something is not right with their set up. They regularly concede 40; goals no matter the coach but are world class? Our defenders concede that and they are shit? Something doesn’t add up. Also Marcelo, the “best left back in the world by a mile” according to legrove is an atrocious defender. Most teams exploit his side of the field. But kolasnic who is a very fantastic attacker and weapon is called ‘cant defend’ and ‘shit’ here.… Read more »
Isn’t Alves available on a free?
Forget Cahill, bring him in and ask him to hold the fort until Bellerin’s return and then offer him a coaching/scouting job.
I bet he could teach Bellerin a thing or two and Hector would listen too… Alves wold have been the main man when Hector would have been at La Masia…
With Raul’s Barcelona connections not entirely a mad idea…