Have you ever wondered about those adults that share videos of kids bullying other kids in the playground online… then do you wonder about the people that retweet and weigh in on the subject matter… then the politicians who respond to the weird adults expecting government intervention?
Aren’t there a lot of pathetic people out there.
… but none more pathetic than me. I destroyed a 30-minute podcast yesterday with Alex. Then risked my job by recording another one with him during the day… then conspired to accidentally push the yet to be identified only button that could delete a whole section of audio (maybe the delete button)
I am ashamed.
One thing that wasn’t destroyed yesterday were the hopes that we’d sign the Flamengo centre back, Pablo ‘great hair’ Mari. The deal is complicated because we want a loan and they don’t, quite a fundamental difference you’d have thought the club would have solved before sending him here on a 14-hour flight, but here we are.
There are also rumours that we’re still interested in signing Matviyenko from Shaktar in some kind of bargain bucket double swoop. I’m struggling with that idea considering how awful our financial situation seems to be.
One thing I have been pondering is why the club seems to be run like no one considers the future. We’ve gone from planning our finances with a view to the year 2156, to not thinking much beyond the weekend.
We exited the Europa League
Continued to spend big
Missed out on Champions League
Continued to spend big
Took our wage bill to £230m+
Now it looks like there will be no Champions League again…
… and we’re so skint, we can’t fork out £8m for a centre back.
This isn’t the future we asked for. We’re a club that generates £400m+ and we can’t muster a deal for a player where we spend £8m over 5 years.
That is pretty bad planning.
What the hell is our summer going to look like?
Our next game is at the weekend, we take on Burnley, who were resurgent until they lost to Norwich in the cup. Huge game for Mikel, he needs to keep the momentum going and we need a win to push ourselves away from the relegation zone.
After that, the team heads out to Dubai for a mini-break. Warm weather, recuperation, and some more time with the backroom team to adapt to the future.
… Giroud to Spurs, he wouldn’t, would he?
Listen to my podcast. Sounds is good, but I had to do the transfer bit on my own.
And if we’re realistic the only thing he needs to do to be better than mustafi is not hand the opposition a free goal in 75% of his matches
Chris, agree with your last post. I just scroll down.
Victorious Giroud a “consumable professional”. I guess you meant consumate. A consumable professional is a phrase I dont want to get my lips around.
All this talk of mustafi being better under arteta I’m not so sure about. Mustafi was always a quality player for 85 minutes and an absolute nightmare for 5. All the way back to when he first signed that was his game
But in defense, 5 mins of trash makes you a trash defender at this level and mustafi still has that
Now that Mustafi is not so badly injured. Can we still sell him before the week runs out?
“All this talk of mustafi being better under arteta I’m not so sure about. Mustafi was always a quality player for 85 minutes and an absolute nightmare for 5. All the way back to when he first signed that was his game” True talk Some forget Mustafi went a good number of games not being on the losing side when he first joined, the brain farts was always the issue. Same thing Xhaka. I think i have made my stand on all this clear, i don’t care for so called perceived improvements, i am waiting for the summer to see… Read more »
Un Na Naii Patience is a virtue seldom in a man! Tierney has not played well. He has been out injured most of the season! Saliba has been also out injured most of the season. According to stats published on Transfermarkt he has hardly had much game time at St Etienne. Luiz may have had some decent results since Arteta arrived, but has hardly set the stadium alight. Pepe may become a great player, but at the moment he hardly represents great value for £72 million and my concern is that he is too one footed. Ceballos at least we… Read more »
See if Pablo Mari is a good signing. Not a small chance that he impresses us.
He reminds me a bit of Jose Fonte. He came to England as a 25 yo, and played over 400 games in the space of 10 years in England. I knew we needed a player with Fonte’s qualities in our team in those 10 years.
Maybe Pablo Mari stays with us for 10 years?!
Let’s see what the guy can offer in the next couple of months and then have a knowledgeable opinion formed re Pablo.
Like Pablo’s attitude in the interview.
Especially this
“At the end of the day, they’re just people like everyone else. Obviously they’re in great form at the moment and they’re among the best players in the world, but we also have a fantastic team with top players.”
Giroud to spurs is great, like the time man u sold us mikel sylvester,
Willock should replace xhakalson, Dozi should replace bug eyes sooner than soonest
Globalgunner
“Just like us to pine for the dregs that Wenger bought us”
So true.
Is Mari a scouting/data-driven or a contacts-driven loan?
To me it looks like neither particularly. More like we’re using Edu to target footballers with EU passports playing in the Brazilian league.
So our Mari is finally here after hours of rodeos in the sky.
Chris “”””CG How about giving a new player a chance before you start slating him? Bizarre concept I know.”””” Totally futile signing. x 8 Center Backs!!!!! He wont ever be as good as Rob Holding. because Holding has proved to be a great EPL defender time and time again. We loose very few games when he plays. This player has proved he cant hack in in the EPL- hence why he is playing his peak years in Brazil. Holding although rusty- is the future not another Spanish Journeyman, Unless the club wants to remain a laughing stock and midtable. We… Read more »
Who really cares if Giroud went to Spuds?
Henry/DB10/PV4/Cesc/RVP etc, I’d be livid. Giroud? No way.
I am one of the few who likes Ceballos’s game. He is perfect when we play a 4 3 3 formation. He has the kind of calmness on the ball and can pick a pass to open up a defense. Willock and Guen are more energetic but are still not mature enough. Bournemouth wasn’t very serious with the FA cup. I am not so sure that Willock and Guen will look as good in a normal EPL game.
I sprained my ankle badly about 60 years ago.It was at least 6 months before it felt right.ok we have moved on medically.
Backs!!!!!He wont ever be as good as Rob Holding.
because Holding has proved to be a great EPL defender time and time again.
Do you have any facts behind this statement.
Or him being English is good enough?
Third time is the charm they say, so you never know.
Well what do you know? Mustafi does have a highlights video on Youtube after all! And it has nearly 2 million views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THIHIY5w3TY
Giroud needs to go to Villas
He will score lots of goals for them because they have players that can provide the service that he needs.
Wasi “””””He wont ever be as good as Rob Holding. because Holding has proved to be a great EPL defender time and time again.Do you have any facts behind this statement. Or him being English is good enough?””””” Looked good enough on the big stage ( Cup Final -WHEN WE USED TO WIN TROPHIES) against League Champions Chelsea and a raging Diego Costa a few seasons ago. Playing with Big Per – the young man was immense. Thats pedigree dear boy. Mari is GARBAGE. Thats why we are buying him, thats why he plays for Flamengo FC and thats because… Read more »
Aussie lol
A video why he must leave LMAO
Words
I think Pablo Mari was the product of scouting, the same type that got us Martinelli.
People forget that United had turned down Martinelli after four trials.
Graham Giroud won the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2014, 2015 and 2017, and totalled 105 goals in 253 games for the club. In January 2018, he transferred to Chelsea where, in his first full season, he became the first player from the club to score 10+ goals in a single European campaign, He was a good servant for the club, socred loads of goals in the EPL and contributed his quota on why we currently hold the record of highest FA cup winners Says alot about you as a ‘supporter’ of the club and less of the ability of… Read more »
Nelson
I am with you. Ceballos is a class act. Given the chance he will prove his worth.
CG
You will be in for a bit of a shock when Mari hits the ground running! He is far from garbage – wait and see.
Daniel Levi is a bit of a c*nt
He is splurging out money on payers now, something he never did to support Poch. They just signed Steven Bergwijn from PSV for some 27 odd million.
Hopefully Mourhino does a number on them and gets sacked with a hefty pay-off.
Now being a TV watcher, reluctant to comment on players, knowing from experience a while back ,how things look different live .Must agree though with comments up the top.I thought Martinez,looked very average the other evening.
Not scared of spuds at all
They’re signing some fatso and making some shocking transfer decisions,plus the fat they have a toxic manager and I can see us putting them back to their place quickly enough
All things been equal we could still finish above them this season and leave them in our wake by next season
Arteta is the best signing we could possibly have made at this present time,its all set up for him to be an absolute hero for the club.
I’m pretty sure Giroud felt a sense of satisfaction when he was winning the EL final for Chelsea in Baku.
The likes of Graham62’s silly comment s would have provided motivation for him. The same people that held Giroud in disdain also held a lesser player [Welbeck] in high esteem.
The likes of Graham62’s silly comment s would have provided motivation for him. The same people that held Giroud in disdain also held a lesser player [Welbeck] in high esteem.”
Spot on Dissenter,we really have some pompous folk following the club, no wonder the more serious clubs openly mock and deride us,shocking fan base we got
Victorious
Steven Bergwijn is not a fatso. He’s a terrific baller bought for a very good price.
Dissenter,
Don’t disagree that Marí and Martinelli were the product of scouting. It’s just that I think that as a tactic for picking up relatively cheap/“undiscovered” players who can play on the PL without a work permit, a main focus of scouting is in Brazil seeking out EU passport holders and using Edu to seal the deal.
Steven Bergwijn is not a fatso. He’s a terrific baller bought for a very good price”
I mean the lad could do no wrong by losing some pounds,he looked exactly that way in the shitty spuds kits
Big difference between banging the goals in the eredivisie and getting them in the EPL
Depay ring a bell?..He will flop badly
CG You are basing your decision on just one match. Even Ceballos was terrific against Burnley but that does that make him a good enough player? FYI Mari won the award for being the best defender in America. Holding is 24 and only has 27/28 starts for Arsenal in the PL. Even Mustafi has been preferred over Holding and he’s been with us for nearly 4 years. Thr only time I can remember Holding was preferred to Mustafi was in the Unai Honeymoon period where he started like 7-8 games in a row before getting injured. Don’t disagree that Marí… Read more »
Why are we trying to sign Cedric Soares from Southampton? And please don’t say its so we move AMN to the midfield because he’s not one
Why are we trying to sign Cedric Soares from Southampton? And please don’t say its so we move AMN to the midfield because he’s not one
Ill take him prem ready. We got too many injury prone players. The more the better!
Same song
Isn’t that too many squaddie type of players? Bellerin is back and AMN is back up
Nelson
I’m with you on this.
Ceballos needs game time.
He has the skills and capabilities to overshadow Ozil.
Welcome Pablo.
What about Matviyenko then? Nothing there or something the club is still working on?
Giroud was always going to be compared to RVP and he was never capable of filling those shoes. In retrospect probably not fair to him, but it’s not a mystery why it happened like that. He was an obvious downgrade. And this was at a time when a large portion of the fan base still had hopes that Wenger would unearth another gem like Thierry for us.
Victorious
I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m not going to lose any sleep over Giroud moving to Spuds, should he go.
That was the jist of my argument based your “abomination” if he went to Spuds post earlier.
Where did I say he wasn’t a solid servant?
Has the site gone down ?
Place seem quiet than usually especially when we’ve announced a new signing.
What’s the motivation behind the Soares signing? Very underwhelming but no one knows what goes on behind the scenes.
When I saw Lee Dixon make his Arsenal debut,I was thinking,is this a Joke,he will never make it.There you go.
Spuds only going for Giroud because Llorente is not available! At least the Spuds will now have one good looking player! They have got to be the ugliest squad going – superficial I know but I ran a poll at work with all the females voting! You have to stick it to the Spuds every time the opportunity arises!
Giroud will become the iconic, bona fide journeyman having made the trips around London , travelling to the 3 clubs!
When he finishes at the toilet bowl he could complete a grand slam joining West Ham!!