Well GOOD morning to you all.
I was thinking about that Laurent Kos contract issue yesterday, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was very clever.
You give an older player a 3-year deal, which is good news to the player. The clubs assumption, generously, is that they will be relevant-ish for the first two years, but then less so in the players 34th year, but they are still kept on life support with a performance related bump so it’s not offensive. Maybe the total value of the deal is front-loaded to make it more interesting to sign.
Arsenal make the final year of the deal an unpleasant place to be if the player is not playing. That gives two options: The player leaves, freeing the wage bill. The player stays and DOES NOT mail it in for the final year. The player stays and doesn’t play but doesn’t cost at lot.
Daniel Levey of Spurs has a different way of making the final year tough. He gives players a bit of premium in their contract offers. So, say you have a young Harry Kane, you give him more than he’s worth at a young age and you give him a loooong deal. Then his special sauce is putting an optional extra year in the deal, so if it gets to that danger zone where they look like they could be off, he activates the additional year. The hope is also that the player becomes more valuable than the deal as it chugs along.
You’ll remember comically that Arsenal did this with defensive superstar, Johann Djourou.
So whilst I don’t agree that we should be keeping Laurent this summer, I do like the idea of being a little smarter with contracts so we don’t have to suffer the indignity of having 60% of our squad waiting out their deals.
In more positive news, Arsenal has kicked into gear with the Keiran Tierney deal. We’re finally going to cough up the £25m needed for him. That’s super exciting, he has all the ingredients Emery desires from a left back and he’ll be a nice counter to Bellerin on the right. The Celtic fans are naturally gutted, they feel like they’ve been pillaged by an English club again, and hopefully that’s 100% true.
There are STRONG rumours from France that we’re in the race for Pepe this summer. The £80m man is looking for an intermediary club for him before he moves to a big club and that intermediary is Arsenal.
Utter tosh people. If you think we’ve been pissing around in the shame mud all summer trying to work out Zaha when we’ve been carrying £80m of gold for Pepe, you are a madman.
Though Pepe has a lot going for him, namely age and fanciness because he’s foreign, we do not have that sort of cash… and Luis Campos is not going to let his star man leave for £40m while Spurs drop £80m on a similarly valuable player.
I’d imagine the noise is that PSG haven’t moved yet and the panic is setting in with his team that he won’t move this summer.
Zaha really would be lovely. Someone that’s powerful, direct, skilful and a total bully would be a very steep upgrade on what we have at the minute. It’s just a shame there’s nothing in our mixer worth swapping. Either because the player wouldn’t go, or the player we’d swap is clearly not good enough.
It’s also worth noting that whilst we sit there and concern ourselves is the lack of wingers at the club, there are bigger issues we’re facing down.
We lost all of our leadership. Petr Cech may not have been the biggest name at the club last year, but he took over from Per Mertesacker as a big voice in the dressing room. He’s gone.
We lost Aaron. I cannot overstate what an issue that’s going to be this year. We lost his energy, his passion to move the ball forward, the threat in front of goal and obviously the deep understanding of what it meant to be an Arsenal player.
We have 1 centre back that wants to be at Arsenal next season. That really is a problem. Can someone please get Lewis Dunk on the blower right now? Whoever we bring in needs to be organised and a natural born killer when it comes to leadership. We simply cannot go into the season with Mustafi throwing himself into imaginary challenges like a lunatic every game.
I don’t know how we’re going to plug all these gaps this season. From the outside looking in, it seems like we’re in a very nightmarish place. There’s no fixed vision of where we’re moving as a club, because the person tasked with that blueprint only just landed.
Interesting looking at the Chelsea model. Bringing in a young coach, take the transfer ban on the chin, refocus the club for a year, then spend the savings surplus next season when you know which young players are going to be good for anything.
We look like we have a self-imposed transfer ban, and to be honest, it’s looking more and more like the gaps in our armour are going to have to be filled by the kids. Chelsea is like the person dieting because they’ve been slung in a Spanish prison, we’re dieting because we’re on a self-imposed Crouch End juice cleanse.
Before I go, I’m not sure who this seasons celeb right back is going to be, but how about Dani Alves? He dresses real nice and he is a WINNER. Would shift some shirts as well. Make it happen, Edu.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments x
1st
2nd
3rd
Tr4phy
Clean sweep grooveman.
6th 😁
We’ve lost all our leadership?
What good did their “leadership” do for us last season?
Dani Alves?
I’d rather Danny Dyer.
You do not, and I mean, do not come from Barca via Juventus while winning 400 trophies to us…that’s the equivalent of super business class on those £30,000 private pods to Ryan air from Magaluf to Manchester.
Pepe has no sauce. Zaha is not worth the effort. If palace don’t want £40m plus two or three of our players, move along. He’s 27 and already tanked at United.
Our last genuine leader was Paddy and that was 2005!
Tierney better be saucy. £25m for a Scottish based player is heavy heavy money.
Any of the deadwood gone yet?
Pedro
“We have 1 centre back that wants to be at Arsenal next season”
That makes no sense –
Sok – Happy as far as I know
Holding – Coming back from injury but happy as far as I know
Mustafi – Won’t fuck off
You’ll remember comically that Arsenal did this with defensive superstar, Johann Djourou.
That was a cock up. Not quite the option of another year that you alluded to one of those obligation when he made a certain number of appearences but point stands.
Dunno if it’s us but Everton Soares has said he can’t play Wednesday against Bahia because there’s a quote “offer on the table” from an unnamed club. He could be a very shrewd signing. Worries about his ability to settle in the premier league notwithstanding
No to Alves. Didn’t we learn from the Lichtsteiner signing. Also bemoaning losing leadership? What fucking leadership has this club had since the days of Vieira and Adams. Even Thierry Cesc and RVP were no great leaders at the club. Influential sure
I don’t know who is directing the F1 on Sky but they are fucking useless – keeps cutting away from a major piece of the action.
Jesus, is F1 still going?
A shame we didn’t bin Lacazette this summer. Haller for 40 million would have been a great replacement and we would have money left over to play with
Dick Law continues to shed light on his dealings; ‘Chelsea were loaning Michy Batshuayi to Dortmund and Aubameyang was coming to us. It was the three-way deal. ‘Dortmund said if we don’t get the player from Chelsea, then Aubameyang doesn’t leave and, of course, if we didn’t get Aubameyang, we weren’t going to let Giroud go. ‘In football, we don’t end up talking to our counterparts on a personal basis very much, but we were at such loggerheads during that three-way move that I called Marina [Granovskaia] and said everything was going to live or die on the three of… Read more »
Marko
Alves is a freak of nature. He’s still good for the top of the premier league but cannot play too many games.
I’d pass on Alves too but he just won player of the tournament at the Copa America, nothing like Lichtsteiner who was well past it.
He’s too old to be facing top PL wingers week in week out though, never been strong defensively even in his prime.
I’d have sold Laca and Auba. Both limited and at 30 Auba is only going down.
£100m for those two and we would have been in a much better position.
Forget the shared golden boot…Auba is a miss machine.
Haller is class, West Ham are being linked to some seriously talented CF’s this summer between him and Maxi Gomez.
That was Dick Law’s finest hour and that Chelsea CEO is a proper manager. She has the balls of 5 men
I mean his finest hour would have been signing him when he was at St Etienne but I suppose it wasn’t his fault that one. Dick Law’s finest hour was when he left Arsenal.
Everton Soares is also wanted by Everton, if you believe Richarlison.
Richalison publicly stated that he was courting him all through the Copa America for Everton.
He also said he was trying to convince Neres too.
GOH
Why not sell them both for £60 million while you’re at it.
Well we can’t compete with Everton for Everton now can we?
Facilitating a three way transfer under a very tight deadline was an amazing teat.
It doesn’t excuse the other fairings though.
*Other failings
Haller would have provided a different alternative to Aubameyang. Someone who can hold the ball up and get others involved plus a decent aerial threat coupled with goals.
Have a feeling Lacazette will get a new deal with an increase in wages. Don’t think that’s smart. If Aubameyang is sold in the next 12-18 months, we’ll have Lacazette as our #1 CF. Not sure we’ll be in CL contention with him as the #9.
I don’t think Everton Soares is going to Everton or Arsenal. He’s destined for the very top.
He’ll probably sign an pre-contract agreement with PSG soon
I’m just speculating of course.
I mean the only thing that matters is who’s cheaper Everton or Neres and then go for him. I don’t think we should worry about Everton and Richarlison imagine not being able to compete for a player with Everton FC
I don’t know Marko, I’d say he’s fairly attached to the name wouldn’t you.
Couldn’t Chambers play as a cb until Holding is back ? He doesn’t seem to factor into options there amongst the comments? I’d have him above Mustafi.
I mean I wouldn’t complain about either of them as you’d imagine that they will cost considerably less than either Zaha or Pepe and have arguably a higher ceiling.
Pedro, we are still suffering from the Wenger hangover! We have useless players brought by Wenger, who have no sell-on value, but still chewing up wages. For example, the 35m we spent on Mustafi could have been spent on two quality young defenders. No club will take Mustafi or Mo Elneny for anything close to 10m.
Maxi Gomez has joined Valencia Eagle, 14m with Santi Mina going the other way.
Don’t know what is it about lacazette that gets fans so heated up,We had to spend 50+ million on Auba because he wasn’t pulling his weight, Auba has outscored him since coming here. He is 28, he isn’t elite.
Emery got the gig on knowledge of the yoot.
So throw all the yoot in.
Sink or swim….
You will only know if you’ve followed through if you fart.
Leno
Bel
Hold
Maravonoupous
Tiernay
Wilcox
Torr
Matte
Nelson
Pea
Laca
Toli
Chambers point a good one.
Agree Lacazette is a nice player to have but he’s not a world class CF and he’s not getting any better at 28.
His goal return has really been pretty mediocre.
Best not to touch any of our strikers at this rate and with Raul and co overseeing that as beyond them its,
Iwobi
Ozil
Mikhitaryan
Monreal
Good luck getting 10 goals out of any of that lot
Probably take us about a year or two to get any replacement if we sold off any of our strikers
Vettel just ran into Ver from the back!!!
Toli
It’s not so much is Chambers a better option than Mustafi it’s is a card board cut out of Mustafi a better option than Mustafi.
Personally I say yes.
Eagle he has this infuriating habit of delaying shots, does all the good work then takes ages adjusting himself for the shot, doesn’t have a strikers instinct of being where the ball will drop, good in general build up play better than Auba but last season he started countless counter attacks by picking the wrong pass, I have seen much better players leave Arsenal, I wouldn’t notice lacazette leaving.
I wonder why people still main about having a lowly paid player like Iwobi around the team.
He shouldn’t be getting so many games but is a damn good back up who also an academy product.
Batistuta
How much do you think we get for him?
For all you whining, you are not ready to have Arsenal take ANY risk at all.
‘The Sunday Times claimed that the signing of Denis Suarez caused friction between Sven Mislintat and other members of Arsenal’s transfer team. Mislintat preferred that Arsenal promote a player or two from the youth team instead of opting to loan Suarez with option to buy.’
Batistuta no one is saying sell and keep the money, many wingers can comfortably give you a return of 13 goals a season.
Not that I believe anyone will offer above 45m for lacazette, the 80m thing is fantasy. We might actually need to sell lower than we bought.
We keep lacazette here till he is 30 then what?
I’ve always believed that one of the strikers ought to ave been sold early in the summer. I’ve said so all season.
We ought to have sacrificed one to fix the midfield and the central defense.
The keyword in that report being Team. It was a transfer team,he could just shrug it off and say I told you so later. No need to run to Stuttgart.
Harry Maguire to Utd for 80m (60+20)
Lewis Dunk. to replace him for 45m
Forget about Wilf Zaha unless you’re willing to pay 65-70m
Lemina is our answer for right back. He’s got pedigree in that position so can fill in till Zoolander is fit, and then he can ‘compete’ with the rest of the midfielders for the box to box role.
Compete my arse, the lad from Southampton is a shoo-in for a first team spot in our midfield, and likely he knows it.
It’s been discussed Pedro. No quotes no nothing and it states that Mislintat wanted him to use Willock and Saka on the right flank instead both of who aren’t RW players. Stinks of click bait. But he’s had priors with managers old diamond eye.
Receeding and Dissenter
I actually don’t have any loyalty to any Arsenal player to be honest, Fabregas did a number on me back in the day.
My point is that i don’t trust those running the club to get an adequate replacement if we sold off any of them, not the lot that have taken almost all summer negotiating a deal for players from mid-table clubs in France and Scotland or took a broken player on in January, that’s actually my point
Pedro ‘Mislintat preferred that Arsenal promote a player or two from the youth team instead of opting to loan Suarez with option to buy.’’ The decision to promote players from the academy is primarily the academy academy director [and coaches] in conjunction with the head coach. That’s not Mislintat ‘s job as head coach. He must have had a telling off from everyone else on the team. If he left because of that then he has no business trying to operate as a technical director. Do you think technical directors win every argument in a transfer team? It’s not isn’t… Read more »
The daily infatuation with our kids continues. One day it’s going to dawn on people that they’re mostly shite but until that day we’ll have to hear about how great they are I suppose
Batistuta your distrust for the present regime is well noted.
What is also well noted is your vagueness when pressed on how better to deal with the mess at hand considering the lack of funds and players on contracts above their output waiting to “outlast the manager”
As for your glee at the Tierney bid, it is still heavily tied up in bonuses if reports are to be believed, we just went away to restructure it, no one has offered them the demanded 25m upfront.
People moan all day [not Batistuta specifically] then ask them which risk do we take
Hmmm. .. sell Iwobi. … he’s a low wage player whose contribution matches his wages. He should be solely a back-up.
Sell Ozil…they know fully well it’s almost impossible to move on the semi-retired footballer.
Sell Myhki… who else will pay his salary?
I’d say the club were expecting something to come from Atletico this summer honestly. No way you could predict that they’d spend about 150-160 million on Felix and Morata. I think the lad is going to struggle initially and I have no idea why they signed Morata for 50 million. He’s got to be the most expensive back up striker in history at this stage
bring Jack wilshere back and make him captain?? had a outstanding season at West ham.
*Mislintat’s job as head scout
“The more I hear about Sven the more it sounds like he was interested in doing everyone’s job but his own.“
Not sure how you arrive at that. Hardly been a smooth operation since his departure has it? Last summer shits on this one to date and that’s saying something.
Receding
I’d skip trying to pigeonhole anyone else on here mate, you’re literally just known for being Emery’s first line of defence. Stop courting the backhand you keep getting delivered
Maguire 80m (60m upfront) ..Lewis Dunk 45m as replacement. Even Brighton are shifting players for fantastic profit. Because they are in demand.
I’m still waiting for the suitors banging on our doors to take our players , world cup winner Mustafi I’m looking at you.
Oga Charles I no get your time this Sunday, swerve.
Old man Federer putting a tennis clinic on Djokovic in that 2nd set.
HAM wins today’s race.
Receeding It doesn’t bother you at all that the new guys who were meant to usher in a new more modern era for Arsenal a year after are taking forever to strengthen the squad, this after being here for a whole year? Pray tell what bonuses have we been tied up preparing for a whole month since after the first bid? Why don’t other football clubs have this same issues when buying players and please don’t say lack of funds because I’m sure the management knew very well how much we had before making any bids. As for making suggestions… Read more »
“We lost his energy, his passion to move the ball forward…”
Ramsey? Move the ball forward?
Absolutely would love Pepe over Zaha. If Pepe eventually moves, it will be for under 60m though. But straight choice between Pepe and Zaha and I am taking the former. Younger more end product, same pace, same dribble ability, resale value, X factor. Many things in favour
RH Yeah re Lacazette I’m with you. He’s too ponderous and lacks that classic nose for goal that Auba possess even though he’s a better footballer than Auba for my money. Also lacks pace and his short stature makes that stand out as a real flaw to his game. We’re all only guessing where we are it when it comes to the summer budget but if selling Lacazette is a necessary evil I wouldn’t have a problem with it so long as we came through to next season better balanced going forward and with a proper understudy CF to Auba,… Read more »
Leclerc has overtaking Vettel as the Ferrari’s main driver now
Last summer shits on this one to date and that’s saying something. I mean it depends on which side of the aisle you’re on. In hindsight last summer wasn’t that great either. No significant departures 70 million spent and let’s be honest with ourselves here only the goalkeeping issue was addressed. Fast forward to this summer and we’re having the exact same squad issues (no wingers, Defence, Midfield and full back positions in need of strengthening) no significant departures and apparently on less of a budget. The notion that Sven, the man responsible for Lichtsteiner and whose major departure last… Read more »
Lol!
Boris Becker just liked my Tweet about my nickname bennydevito coming from Danny Devito whilst commenting on the final! 🤣
Marko
At least there was some sort of movement when Sven was here, wasn’t perfect mind you especially with the departures but goodness gracious those in charge now seem even more clueless. Bids they know would get rejected instantly, taking ages to tie up deals e.t.c.
Look, while i acknowledge the amount of work to be done to get us competing again is ridiculously much, those in charge aren’t helping themselves by wasting so much time
Griezmann confirmed to Barcelona after a bit of fuckery on Atleti’s part claiming the transfer had not happened.
Intrigued to see where he plays along the frontline with Messi at RF and Suarez as CF considering he too is a lefty and not a winger.
The Sven story is only being picked up and pushed by people with an anti Emery agenda.
When you look at what is being suggested it shows you just how desperate some are to beat Emery with any stick they can make up.
Hamilton has won six times the British GP. A record!
That is exactly the head scout job to tell the head coach that the player he wants is not as good as one freely available in the academy. Head coaches will always prioritise experienced players over untested players. Unless the player is so talented it is a no brainer, otherwise in most case the risk is not worth the potential reward. The first phase of Wenger reign was based on making those tough calls. Anelka was languishing in the PSG reserve and within 1 year he was replacing the icon Ian Wright. Viera, Henry were rotting in Italian reserve. Even… Read more »
Eagle not Nketiah indeed, I’m not even convinced he will end up in the championship. More league 1 level.
Batistuta yes they are fantastically paid to do their jobs so let them do it,stop asking them to hurry up and pay 25m because you are irritated by the deal. Nor should you be hurrying them along on other targets either, when the window closes we can all draw our conclusions. We still need to perform on the pitch even if we win the window.
By all means continue complaining though, before someone calls me an Emery defender.
Federer toying with Djoker. Unfortunately lost the first set in tie breaker but he is on a roll since then.
Bati
Are you saying Sven was actually involved in the negotiations for Torreira, Leno, Sok and Guendozi last summer? Rather than him identifying the players and putting them to the transfer committee.
At least there was some sort of movement when Sven was here, wasn’t perfect mind you So you just want signings for the sake of it. Tierney taking too long we should have just nabbed Targett and be done with it. Taking too long on picking a winger why not just get in Ryan Fraser who’s sitting on his arse all summer. I get where you’re at it is looking like we won’t be winners in another transfer window yet again (shocking I know) but I’m not sure I’d agree with the scattergun approach you’re alluding to as in just… Read more »
Oh the ol famous let’s wait till the window closes before we can make any pronouncements on what’s been a poor summer this far, almost like the old Judge me in May i thought we’d retired with Wenger.
Oh and Receeding
We all know what’s going to happen on the pitch this season if we dont get a move on like other clubs are doing but do you though.
Looks suspiciously like Rafa and Federer’s SF so far eh TR7?
The curse of the 2nd set victor to strike again.
“That is exactly the head scout job to tell the head coach that the player he wants is not as good as one freely available in the academy.” Completely wrong the head scout is there is identify new players – if someone else is suggesting a player he should prepare a report on him, if the player isn’t good enough he should be recommending alternatives not getting involved with other peoples job. Hasn’t Pedro already said on here that one of the frustrations with Sven was he was rarely in London? Then how the fuck did he know so much… Read more »
RH
Yeah, even Afobe and Akpom looked to have a little more about them and look where they ended up.
Whether or not you agree with how long it is taking the club have decided that Tierney is who they want. The idea that they should move on because the selling club isn’t initially inclined to sell straight away is silly. It’s that kind of approach that gets you another Kolasinac or Andre Santos
Marko Are we meant to have just single options for the positions we want to strengthen? Nothing scatter gun about moving on to plan B if A doesn’t work out, it’s what well run organizations do, only time it’ll probably be understandable to haggle with wages and ish is when you’re buying the real top tier players not players from Celtic and St Etienne. Can’t say it’s all Tierney or nothing, i mean come on man, there are about a half dozen getable LBs that are maybe affordable I’m sure you can name of the too of your head. Same… Read more »
Let’s be real here for a minute, it’s hard to see us making any more than 2-3 signings max at this point and that takes us where exactly considering we’re already a player down from last season’s sorry bunch?
Bati
Just how quickly should we give up on a target?
3 minutes or should we wait 4?
Pedro
He’s have been right. Abysmal move. Symptomatic of this current arsenal manager and transfer team.
He’s have been
Oh the ol famous let’s wait till the window closes before we can make any pronouncements on what’s been a poor summer this far, almost like the old Judge me in May i thought we’d retired with Wenger.
Again not making excuses here but that cunt failed every single transfer window he had at Arsenal manager and the new set up is year two (year one if you want to count it with Edu on and Ivan leaving) so it’s not really the same thing. They should be afforded time whereas Arsene’s time should have been up years ago
He’d have been
Would Love an Alves to challenge Bellerin at the RB position. We really need a voice, a leader , a winner in our squad and you dont do better than Dani Alves. He is no LICHTSTEINER. He just won the Copa America captaining Brazil. And he was one of their best throughout the tourney. Also he broke the record for the most team trophies for an individual. Tierney finally joining . Pepe links have been denied by the ever-reliable Orny so i dont think theres anything there . Why would you bid 80m for Pepe when youve been chasing Zaha… Read more »
Yes Batistuta one actually has to wait for the end of an event to pass judgement. Shocker I know. Even when Wenger said judge me in may, may judged him.
When the window ends we can all lament if need be, unless of course you are more interested in I told you so. I do agree it feels like there is no plan but that’s just a feeling, we don’t know for sure because there is no way we can.
Marc
How long does it take to negotiate a deal for a player? 2/3 minutes
Or
How long does it take a well run club to negotiate a deal for a player who’s been on holiday all summer? 2/3 hours tops?
Alves better off at. City. He won’t be able to handle the defensive load when playing for us. Think he’ll end up at Spurs though. Pochettino is a big fan of his
“Oga Charles I no get your time this Sunday, swerve“
Weird, considering you chirped up on the last post to have a pop. Now I respond and you’ve no time for it today?
Give up you fraud.
Again not making excuses here but that cunt failed every single transfer window he had at Arsenal manager
Marko clearly wasn’t watching arsenal back in the late 90s early 2000s was he?
If you’re going to spout off marko, try to keep it relatively factual. Wenger brought in a large portion of the premier league’s all time top 50. What a doughnut
‘That is exactly the head scout job to tell the head coach that the player he wants is not as good as one freely available in the academy’
He can suggest it but he doesn’t have the authority to do jack. The sake way he can recommend to the team chef what to serve for pre-match lunch.
The fact that he supposedly left over this shows him up as a little child.
Hope he makes Stuttgart great again.
Bati
That all depends how hard you negotiate – I mean it’s fucking easy to walk in and pay over the odds but getting a deal that you think is worth it might take a bit longer.
Receeding
So let me get you straight, we are all meant to relax all summer, eat our baggles and wait for the window to end before we admit that it was a failure, then at that point we’ll all be asked to support the boys as there’s nothing that can be done at that point.
Anyone sure Wenger and Gazidis are not still out and about somewhere at Arsenal HQ
Nice article but dont over praise Chelsea. They had 40 players out on loan that they can run the rule over. So the transfer ban doesn’t really handicap them.