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
Weagle
Yes. And Messi is considered by purists to be the better player
As Federer is over Nadal and Djokovic
Unn
Sure but Tennis is an individual sport so titles are far more telling than in team sports. And H2H record.
WE
US open is a hard court tournament too. Rafa has beaten Djoker there.
England cricket World Cup champions!
Lucky, but what the heck.
First nation on the planet to win the Football World Cup, the Rugby World Cup and now the Cricket WC.
Bloody marvellous!
Nadal was carrying injuries for at least six years enabling Federer and Djokovic to gain Grand Slams.
True TR7 but the courts are slower than in Australia. Federer hasn’t won a US Open title since 2008 for this reason.
Nadal has never won the ATP Finals either [Indoor hard court] while Federer has won 6 and Djokovic 5.
Weagle
Yes. As is age difference and physical disadvantages. There was nothing in it today between a nearly 40 year old Federer and a 32 year old Djokovic. The youngest and fittest of the 3 by far.
Lest we forget Nadal was unable to defend his Wimbledon Crown due to injury and had to pull out on a couple of more occasions too.
VAR Penalty for Nigeria
Rt
Still see a bit of spunk on your lip there
You love dem Spanish abs don’t you boy
This handball rule for penalties is so confusing.
I wouldn’t have give that as a penalty but then…
Seem to remember Djokovic beating down on Nadal in the 2011 Wimbledon Final where he was going in as defending champ.
Un na naai
Federer is 37 not 40 lol
Or maybe Djokovic is nearly 35 lol
He’s 38 this year. Next month actually after checking. Even a dunder head like you must admit that what he did today was outstanding for a man of his age??
Only his superior skills allow him to compete with a much younger man
WE
Indoor hard courts are unbelievably fast. Herculean task for any clay court player to adapt himself to. A task too heavy even for Nadal. It will be akin to asking Fed and Djoker to win on a clay court 100 % slower than Roland Garros. Not sure whether Monte Carlo is slower than even Roland Garros.
Anytime I see Chukwueze I just see Wenger’s incompetence ‘
We had this lad brought in by Kanu and messed up big time.
Unn
Are we just going to ignore Federer winning only 1 Slam [Wimbeldon 2012] from 2010-2017?
Was it a physical issue in his late twenties too?
@Dis
How do you find the #22 from Algeria. He was a former Arsenal man. He plays left CM.
Nelson
Bennacer us a good as anything we have currently
My only grouse is that he’s rather short, a bit like Torriera.
*is as good as anything
He is physically stronger than Guen. He has a good free kick too.
Back in Borg’s day the Clay Courts were much slower and the Grass Courts were much quicker than today, which makes his French and Wimbledon titles even more impressive….
Once Djokovic showed up on the scene, Federer’s invincible aura was gone. He’s had to work for everything since then
Federer was untouchable with only the odd loss to Rafa [mostly on clay]
.
Red and the rackets were shitter!!!
Nelson
I think we praised Guendouzi too early
Mystic called it early, he’s over-rated.
The balls are heavier and the racket head much bigger compared to 35 years ago…making it easier to control the flight of the ball.
Bennacer showing his class there. Guendouzi can’t duo that in a million years.
Bennacer almost scores. Hit the cross bar.
Arsenal FC has made too many errors to still be relevant.
We actually had some decent players in out academy and let them all go.
Damn. Algeria wins
Algeria deserved the victory
What a horribly placed wall.
Borg won 6 FO and 5 Wimbledon -so he owned two very contrasting GS and that is when he retired only in the age of 26. He has to be part of GOAT debate too.
GK’s position is wrong. The wall is on the right. The GK should stand a bit on the left side.
Lest minute free kick —- you pack the wall with 7 players.
Make him go over the wall, see if he can’t bring a ball over and down that close to goal.
That wall was a shambles.
Diss are you Nigerian dissent too?
Nelson
Agreed
The goalie would be covering that position. Poor goal keeping- he didn’t organize his wall properly. He wasn’t sighted at all when the ball came.
Leftside
Yes
Red truth
Give Nadal and Djokovic a wooden racket and they’d struggle big time.
Give Federer one and he’d cream them both.
R.S.P.C.ArsenalJuly 14, 2019 19:11:30
England are the arsenal of the cricketBottlers
Cunts
You have to laugh at some of the dumb idiotic cretins on here.
Celtic apparently have rejected our £25m bid for Tierney because they don’t like how we have structured the payments…
Dither, dither and dither and we always end up losing the deal but we never seem to learn.
It goes from bad to worse. Even Scottish clubs are playing hardball with us with impunity.
Josh Kroenke rocking up to the Arsenal camp wearing a Rams T-shirt is about the level.
Vinai, Edu, Raul, Emery dripping in Arsenal gear…in comes Josh with his Rams clobber. The pride..
Come on England!! Didn’t think they’d do it. Awesome!
I have said it many times. Doing biz with Arsenal is akin to hammering your fingernails on a daily basis.
The nickel and diming is rather embarrasing.
I doubt we nickel and dime buying clubs for our players… however if we want a player we will waste the entire window and pre season, over a few million if that.
Its a fucking joke- feels like a team doing business doing the great depression.
Guns SF
Funnily enough, the Great Depression was Arsenal’s heyday, the most successful era of the club. 5 league titles during the 1930s, and known as the Bank of England club due to lavish spending.
I ask again is this the reason we moved to the Emirates?
It’s as if we’ve moved backwards… and we are falling into the abyss.
.
Elmo
Thanks for the history! In that case- we are just flat broke
If we are not careful, our image problem is going to make things really hard in the next few years. ( negotiations, leadership, performance on the pitch, sponsors, etc.)
We need to remain competitive and I am hoping our Defense can hold up… Bellerin and Holding need to remain healthy this season or we are doomed again.
We need Tierney like yesterday
Better late than never I guess… I hope we get it done and sign Tierney.
Leeds- r u in the US?
This is amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNv6fDaCUog
Tierney can wake up and smell the coffee if he thinks he’s going to be beating anyone 4-0 at Arsenal!
I wonder if he is our answer to lack of leadership on the pitch?
Iwobi should watch carefully how Tierney strikes the ball. Today Iwobi hit some weak rollers.
Kid is good
CC
Re: Josh Kroenke.
A chip off the old block.
I hope someone took him to one side to explain to him that’s not how it works.
I know, clutching at straws again.
Do not, I repeat do not bid more money for Tierney or even yield to Celtic’s demand of how the payment should be structured.
Guy is a risk.
A good player maybe but his injuries are a big red light.
Guns Re: “Our image problem” What I don’t get is how can we keep making so many poor decisions without anyone seeing what it is doing to the clubs image? Arsenal have become a joke in this aspect of their operation. Where is our PR department? What are they doing to highlight this shambolic state of affairs? Why aren’t the board and the owners being drilled on this? Yeh, by our frigging PR executives! From our transfer dealings, to our contract negotiations the “image” of Arsenal FC is falling apart at the seams. To say I’m ashamed of my club… Read more »
Off to work now.
Can someone please let me know when anything positive happens at AFC.
Some Celtic fans are demanding that Arsenal should pay £40m for Tierney before they accept. Apparently it’s an affront for them to be accepting anything less. According to them them if we were willing to shell out for Zaha we should be willing to pay the same for their player.
Please, this is getting silly now.
We’ve met their evaluation… either they want a deal or not…
“Off to work now.”
Ozil’s mantra.
“Can someone please let me know when anything positive happens at AFC.”
And you also wants the next winning numbers of the lottery ?
Un na
Why do you pretend to be arsenal fan you muslim cunt?
We’ve met the valuation for Tierney, there’s no way he should be going for anymore. If Celtic want to be difficult then we should move on to other targets.
Pedro… With all due respect you need to start doing something about this, its open season on Muslims on this forum. This aint no faux outrage, your letting peeps getting away with it for a long while now… if your aim is for a diversity of ‘football’ opinion then great, but if you want downright abuse then I’m sure a couple of us can go in hard in reverse. Fix this up otherwise it is going to escalate
Stay classy Jay
Un na
Why do you pretend to be arsenal fan you muslim cunt?
Jay????
Youwhat???
Keep guessing fool
I wouldn’t mind. The discussion yesterday was tennis based so this has come as an almighty surprise.
Lovely stuff though Jay. Real nice for a Monday morning.
C’mon Jay. Leave that stuff out of here.
Anyways, regarding Tierney £25m is a very good offer.No matter how it’s structured.
I think the problem has been the way most media outlets and pundits reacted to our opening £15m offer with screams of “Celtic would be foolish to take less than £40m” and “LOOK AT WHAT WAN-BISSAKA JUST WENT FOR”.
All that talk put batteries in Celtics back and now they feel as if they are getting lowballed despite the fact that deep down without the media hype they would have accepted this offer.
Well I got it wrong
Well done England
Grmino
Want 36m for Everton
Just pay it if you want him.
Don’t pussy foot around
Take Zaha for instance.
Nobody and i mean NOBODY was claiming him to be a £80-£100m player during the last season. We bid £40m and all of a sudden we’ve outrageously and shockingly had the audacity to bid half his value,
How many wingers in the PL have cost that fee? Sterling? NO, Sane? NO. Salah? NO Surely Mane? Again NO.
Basically as much as i like Zaha and think he’d strengthen our left flank, £55m would be my cut off point.
Seeing images of Josh, Raul and Edu yucking it up at a training session just makes my blood boil.
Sure it’s just an image, but its not in any way an encouraging one.
Terri Maaki, expecting any sort of moderation on this blog is laughable.
@Ole : maybe Edu is just another “puppet”, who came just for the love of money ??
(–>> shocking!!)
(lol)
OleGunner
“Seeing images of Josh”
Did you like his Rams T-Shirt?
I suppose we should just be honoured that he even bothered to turn up.
#wecaredoyou
Well said gents.
Highbury,
I wouldn’t be surprised if Edu is ultimately just a puppet.
This regime so far has given us almost zero reason for optimism, and I appreciate they inherited a massive shit show.
Ishola,
Josh in a Rams shirt is just an Ultima troll move.
Like hey guys, ya’ll know where my real priorities are right?
I’m reading too much into this crap, but with how the window has gone I can be nothing but paranoid.
“#wecaredoyou”
Well done. Please read:
See: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7248027/Arsenal-owner-Stan-Kroenke-fresh-pressure-damning-statement-supporters.html
Who needs to hear from Silent Stan when you have fotos? That foto yesterday with his son Josh K and Co was utterly horrific.( Even more excruciatingly than Emerys’ Good Ebening). Look at the state of them all???? They All look like they need a good bath, a good tailor and frankly a good spanking. I never thought I would see the day AFC executives would be wearing Primark clobber in the public arena and think its acceptable or even normal. ARE WE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON TOUR – REPRESENTING THIS GREAT CLUB ACROSS THE GLOBE?? Is this us… Read more »
All in vain but at least views aired.
Now that Kroenke Snr has absolutely no-one to answer to at the club it’s unlikely he will ever be seen in public at an Arsenal event or gathering ever again.
Will see son on occasions akin to parent sending kid to the shops for a loaf on bread on errand.
Kid unhappy that he has been sent on errand trolls shop.
Is Tierney that good ? I mean the commentary about Iwobi learning from Tierney was a bit dim because the level of opposition they face weekly is legions apart. I’m sure you can find you tube videos of Iwobi having quality moments against quality opposition. I’m pretty sure he has some good goals where he hit the ball well. Scotland (national team) is really bad, with or without Tierney. I wish Arsenal could play Kilmarnock 6 times a year. I’m sure Iwobi wishes he could play Kilmarnock 6 times every season. Tierney still needs to make that step-up to England.… Read more »
OleGunner
“Josh in a Rams shirt is just an Ultima troll move.”
Very crass wasn’t it.
“Josh in a Rams shirt is just an Ultima troll move.”
Money doesn’t buy class.
Who didn’t know the Kroenke’s had multiple sporting businesses before they bought Arsenal.
What’s all this psthetic hullabaloo about Josh showing up in a Rams shirt?
The Rams operate in LA and are also in preseason camp very close to where Arsenal are training.
£25m for Tierney is the maximum we should go. If Celtic is demanding more, then we should move on to another target. The reported bid meets their valuation. They just unhappy with the payment structure.
But as I said yesterday, IMO, I think is already done. It’s just media being late to info on the deal including the skys and the ornsteins.
Le Grove part of the signatories to the Kroenke petition. But does it amount to anything meaningful?
What are you going on about Dissenter?
It doesn’t matter if it is in LA.
It is an Arsenal camp in LA. The former over-rides the later as far as fans are concerned.
It was crass and as others have said just highlights this situation with the Kroenkes that Arsenal are some poor distant cousin they care little for.
I am less concerned with the Rams shirt, it is a different sport after all, than the passive ownership, doing absolutely nothing while the ship sinks, hiring, then having to pay off a regime that were wrecking the club, then just taking the money away as the waters are rising. This can only confirm this club are purely a low risk investment vehicle , collateral for other projects, which can exist in mediocrity to achieve some sort of level of these very aims. As deluded, egocentric, and incompetent as Wenger was at the end, I am increasingly getting the feeling… Read more »
I don’t think there has ever been any doubt which sports team are dearest to Kroenkes heart , and it isn’t us
The shirt is a silly throwaway thing, but we all know the score anyway
Arsenal are dropping down the pecking order in both EPL and UEFA Football not because our revenues and bank balances are weak, but because the club’s owner treats the club purely as a business devoid of any real PASSION or AMBITION. The club’s senior management appear to have little flexibility or say in how money is being spent in the transfer market. They are required to work within a very limited budget and our horizon when it comes to buying players is very much now second or even third tier. Every “selling and buying” club on the planet knows by… Read more »
Interesting that Le Grove is a signatory to that letter to Kroenke yet I don’t feel Pedro is anywhere near as critical of Kroenke as many of the others on that list are. Interesting to see how Pedro shapes any critique of Kroenke in his post.
That letter is well phrased, precise and to the point.
Glad to see so many more prominent Arsenal groups and blogs sign off on it including this place.
My main worry is that Kroenke will use it to wipe his ass during his morning dump and move on with his day.
Vintage
Who, this time last year, would have said Wan-Bissaka would go for £50m?
I agree though, £55m for Zaha is realistic.
The thing is with Arsenal they act like a bargain basement team with their transfer dealings and offers.
As for the tennis, can’t wait for the time clock to be introduced at the US Open.
No more GS’s for the control freaks that are Messrs Nadal and Djokovic.
Twelve years too late though.
Ole, do you really think Stan will treat this letter with that much respect?
#WeCareDoYou is trending worldwide as is Stan Kroenke.
In a PR era and hypersensitivity to social media that will definitely be picked up on.
“when the Managing Director and Head of Football speak to invited supporters on July 25th.”
Le Grovers can start submitting your questions to Pedro…
I do like the part about hearing all their guff about ambition but seeing nothing to suggest how exactly they are going to achieve EPL and UCL success.
I mean, hearing that and then seeing them allow Wenger to run the club into the ground for 6 years and then offering up £60 Million last summer and £40 Million this summer during a complete restructure and rebuild of a club that has dropped from UCL to Europa League sort of torpedoes any notion of their super ambition.
Ishola
Maybe Josh should have taken off his shoes as well
Do you realize that the Kroenke’s talked about ‘synergy’ between their sporting organizations when ey were buying up shares.
We would be using Rams facilities had the stadium project in LA been completed.
Get over it. Arsenal is not the only sporting business they have. We are only one in a group of businesses. We are training 8,000 miles from home and who cares 3hat short he shows up in.
You lot get distracted by a lot of BS when there a bigger things going wrong.
Celtic are treating us like the kunts we are. Turning down £25m for a piece of shit left back. You must be kidding me. This chap is worth at best, £5m. This isn’t Roberto Carlos.
Arsenal are being mugged off.
The sooner this club just dies, the better. The humane thing would be for Stan to sell and open a mall.
You mean untold weren’t asked to sign that statement?
Everyone knows that the Fenway group applied baseball moneyball techniques to Liverpool to help it succeed.
They applied Boston Red Sox methods to help Liverpool. No one is complaining now.
There are also many photograph of the Liverpool owner [and his retinue] showing up to Liverpool US summer camps with Red Sox apparel. Liverpool typically train in Boston, same as Arsenal will typically train in LA.
People just like to make up drama.
People are picking up on the Rams shirt because they see it as symbol or symptom of the Kroenke’s lackadaisical ownership. If the Liverpool owner turns up in a Boston I doubt Liverpool fans will care because they know their owner cares about their club and is presiding over an upward trajectory. The Rams shirt to many Arsenal fans is a symbol of years of neglect, allowing a geriatric fuck to run the club into the ground, hands off ownership, zero investment even after their lack of oversight put us into football and financial troubled waters and now trying to… Read more »
Pedro knows as well as the rest of us how toxic stan’s negligence has been but he took a punt on stan not being a terrible owner a while back and we all know he considers it bad form to admit when he’s made an error of judgement and change course. That’s the marketing line of thinking where you lose support by flip flopping.
We all remember gazidis lol.