Well goooooood morning!
We’ll kick to the day off to a FLYER. The Telegraph is reporting that Arsenal and Spurs are rolling with swaps, frees and loans this summer.
Who could have guessed!
That means the transfer window has been perfectly plated for Raul to work that RolloDex and show us the true meaning of contacts scouting.
There are also some potential shockers on the horizon… David Luiz… might… be gone? Arsenal apparently has a clause in his deal where they can opt for an extension. So far, they have chosen not to extend it, no doubt thinking about his massive pay packet, and his ageing legs. This deal is an example of Arsenal spending bad money when there were better options. For one year, we’re looking at £20m+. We could have purchased someone like Diallo from Dortmund for £23m, but instead opted to buy a 32-year-old on much higher wages. Now we’re letting him go for free? How did Arsenal win there? We spent so much time last summer trying to get a big fee for Koscielny, he went on strike, then we signed his replacement for a load of cash but didn’t think to make sure we could sell him? Kia wins, again. If Luiz leaves, he’ll get another fat fee from his next club.
This might sting Arteta, he seemed to connect with the player. Luiz has been a real leader at the club during a messy time. He’s a behind the scenes banter machine, he’s been towering on the pitch at times, and he seems very bought into the vision. Key thing: He’s a legend. He’s a good learning instrument for the young players. He’s a winner.
However, when you look at the stark reality of where we are as a club, his salary is one that you could forfeit. He’s 3 good young players worth of cash. The club has to make tough decisions this summer, and this would, unfortunately, be one of the easier ones… which tells you a lot about how highly regarded Pablo Mari must be.
Also worth remembering Arsenal will have Saliba in their defence next season, another great young talent.
“He is a fantastic player. He’s a young player but with a lot of maturity in his play. Also in his life. He’s a player with a good feeling & spirit. It will be hard for us without him. But I think its a fantastic opportunity for Arsenal”
SPORT, the Spanish paper, has gone into Arsenal overdrive today. They firstly say that Auba has asked to leave Arsenal. I have no idea where they think he’s going, but he wants out of the club.
Secondly, they are going hard at the Coutinho rumours, insisting that Mikel thinks he can light up our frontline. Hard to know which part of this is journalism, versus hopeful pushes from Kia. Barca have set a June 30th deadline. I’d imagine Arsenal think they can land the player on a loan. Barcelona want to sell him. I am not sure anyone is coming armed with the cash they want. If I’m honest, with the huge outlay we’d have to send their way, I’d be more interested in bringing Dembele to Arsenal and reigniting that sexy partnership with Auba.
My big hope for this summer of doing contacts scouting… is that the KSE group are paying attention to agents fees. Claiming poverty, but dropping massive numbers on middlemen would seem absolutely absurd. Let’s see where we go. I’m sure there will be more scrutiny, there has to be, we’re not in a position to be blowing unnecessary cash on people that offer no value, but we’ll see.
Right, see you in the comments. x
1st
Top 4
4th?
Tr4phy
Well done groovy
Been a long time since I made the top 4
FIRST
Top marks, Pedro, for dishing out loud known content on the regular.
2nd
3rd
4th place is not a trophy ya bitches!
lockdown*
(loud known kinda works though…)
We’re not buying Coutinho or Dembele. We can do better than a crock and a has been. lets give our youngsters from the under 23 chances to supplement the first team. The signings we need are in midfield DM CM AM. SWAP LOAN OR GET ANY player from europe in those positions.
Does David Luiz leaving mean we’re more likely to be stuck with either Sok or Mustafi for another season?
(great post as always)
I guess the Luiz fiasco was Wengers fault too.
Still binned?
So keeping Luiz for a year on big wages with no resale value is stupid, but loaning Courtinho on even bigger wages plus a loan fee for a year with no resale obviously isn’t? Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Can someone answer me a question.
If we’re not extending Luiz’s contract because of his high wages why can another club afford to pay a huge agent / signing on fee and match his demands for mega wages when everyone’s broke?
Marko
Long time no hear!
For one year, we’re looking at £20m+. We could have purchased Diallo from Dortmund for £23m First off it was Akanji secondly Diallo went for 30 million to PSG without factoring in his wages. Luiz will end up being nothing more than an expensive loan but if we get European football (if football returns) it’ll be worth it. All for not renewing if we don’t renew and sell Holding, Sokratis and Mustafi we’ll be signing another CB which is what’s needed cause you know the rest of them are shite. The hope is for me with everything that has gone… Read more »
Right now is the time for scouts to shine. (Them and youth team coaches.)
Considering AFC make something like a quarter of their revenue off matchday receipts and that’s guaranteed to be damaged now, combined with how much money we’ve spent on players lately, I think it’s safe to say we’re not ready to splash the cash. It’s bigtime belt tightening time.
Kia out. Cagigao in.
Yeah dunno Marc one day I wasn’t able to comment then it turned into a week then it turned into a couple months. Seems like a few haven’t been around for a while too presumably because there’s fuck all to talk about. Be interesting to know somes opinions on the the whole decrease there a while back it genuinely left a bad taste in my mouth regarding some of the squad at Arsenal if I’m honest especially given some of the things other clubs and players have agreed to in other leagues. Feel like it should act as a wake… Read more »
Marko
Agree no way we can go into next season with Saliba and Mari as our only CB options – even if Mavropanos comes back off loan and is seen as ready for first team backup we’d be dangerously light in the position with Chambers out till the turn of the year.
Marko
People have short memories and outside of seeing a universal clause inserted into all contracts allowing a huge wage reduction under force majeure conditions I can’t see much happening.
Worth noting that we’re about to be going into a period where haggling and deferred payments and loans will be common and given that Raul quite handedly did some deals like that last summer I’m a little bit hopeful that we can still do some business this summer. Certain big players at big clubs will still be expensive and command fees upfront cause like us they’ll be desperate for some cash but I see no reason why we can’t negotiate lower or deferred deals/loans for players at smaller clubs for example David at Genk this Brazilian kid Veron or Boadu… Read more »
Yes, welcome back Marko
Marc I was thinking of something across the board as in look at a scenario where there’s a science to determining the transfer value of a player, get agent fees regulated and capped, have a cap on how much a club can charge on season tickets and on wages well that’s a tough one honestly cause I don’t think a salary cap will be introduced unfortunately and maybe it shouldn’t be but certainly going forward they need to be putting in a clause for the unpredictable.
Watch Ozil fight against that clause too
All things considered though as bad as things have been it shouldn’t be an excuse for the Kroenkes to not help out the club in it’s time of need. Their other sporting ventures aren’t going to be affected too much given you know America and it’s feelings on money compared to people’s lives and I read somewhere that Kroenke and Walmart have been one of the few people who have done pretty well during this period. Making money while others are losing it
Marko Well I’d like to see a simple plan of clubs don’t pay agents – their clients ie the players do out of the players salary. Trying to set a system as to what a player is worth – just can’t see it would work. This new system says “Vieira” is worth £3.5 million his club say he’s worth more – he’s moves for £3.5 million and 6 months later the selling club says “we told you he was a £30 million player. Players are commodities and therefore a transfer is worth what someone is willing to pay. A simple… Read more »
Marc, FIFA announced they were challenging the system last September.
Lowering commission rates, trying to force transparency etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/sports/soccer/fifa-transfer-rules.html
Pedro
Well let’s hope that
a) they do it
b) they do a good job of it and don’t make things worse!
Un
What do you do mate?
“In one case, the Italian-Dutch agent Mino Raiola reportedly earned more than 40 million euros after he was paid by all three parties in midfielder Paul Pogba’s world-record transfer from Juventus to Manchester United in 2016.”
You’ve got to hand it to the guy talk about playing both ends against the middle and then getting the middle who was a supermodel to give him a blowjob.
Trying to set a system as to what a player is worth – just can’t see it would work.
There is already one there’s data behind sites/companies like CIS and how they determine the value of a player and the problem is a lot of clubs use it has a kind of reference or minimum for asking for more money. And that’s the problem I think
That media report also states Luiz is ‘keen to stay’
You can easily see how he fits into Arteta’s style.
He is Premier proven and even if the plan is for Mari and Saliba as the central defensive pairing there is always injuries and suspensions. As has been said he is also a big character in the dressing room and young players need this. Hope a deal can be reached for him to stay on a bit longer, but without commuting to a ridiculous long term deal.
If we managed to get all out trash centerbacks off the wage bill we could getan Upamecano and we won’t be needing a Luiz. If he wants to stay he should get on the coaching staff rather than play cause we can’t afford him as he bring nor resale value..
Un
You’re a fucking traffic warden aren’t you?
we got to do what we have to do.
If it means selling to save $$ then ok,,, but have a plan to replace him
Saliba and Mari/Mustafi?
Chambers as back up?
I imagine Sokratis will leave this summer
I said “an” Upamecano. Ligue Une has many players like him we could go for instead of throwing money at David fuckin Luiz just because he;s a great guy providing banter for the kids.
Un
We’re coming for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1tDpkpnzT8
Un
You a builder / subbie?
There are a lot of assumptions being made about Arsenal’s ability to fund a reasonable transfer budget. Arsenal’s situation is now entirely different from what it was during Wenger and Gazidis era. Kroenke OWNS the club and despite all the comments last season about the lack of transfer budget we spent over £140 million albeit with an instalment plan in case of Pepe and a loan back in case of Saliba. One clear message which has come across from the Kroenke family in last 12 months specifically from Josh is that Arsenal’s wage bill is too high and the focus… Read more »
I know you should laugh at someone being hit but he is a Spud and an especially stupid Spud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PryatJo-rQ8
You really don’t want to taunt Millwall Supporters.
Un
Fuckin hell you in IT – that’s worse than being a Traffic Walden.
Just a reminder Jordi Osei-tutu is playing as a Winger now at Bochum and scoring, I don’t know where his future with arsenal lies, but he seems to be doing well over there
Un
Fuck it I’ll go all in – you’re a copper!
I’m running out of occupations that are completely fucking useless.
Hang got it – you’re an MP.
In what world does Luiz think he’ll get another 200k a week deal somewhere else? Take 70k a week at Arsenal for a year and do your coaching badges at the same time. No-brainer.
I thought signing Luiz was a Bad idea. I still think we could do better but he is better than all our other options as it stands bar Saliba who is not proven. Even if Mari was good I don’t want to go in to a premier league season without Centerbacks who haven’t played in the league before. The news from ornstein says Mustafi, Sokratis and Holding are being sold and that would only leave Luiz and Chambers who have played in the league before. And Chambers is returning from Injury. So I would want him to stay another year… Read more »
There are a lot of assumptions being made about Arsenal’s ability to fund a reasonable transfer budget.
I’m not assuming nothing but during this pandemic I read Stan’s personal worth increased by about 300 million. There’s absolutely nothing to suggest that we should suffer silently while he does nothing. I think they know this too
Jamie
I asked a similar thing earlier – if we can’t afford his wages why is it an automatic that someone else can afford the wages as well as the signing on fee etc.
Chambers was injured in January – we really can’t expect to see him back until Jan next year. As with most ACL’s he’ll come back, tweak something be out for a few weeks etc etc.
“Yes I’m an MP
Or I was”
So you finally done the honorable thing thing and stood down Mr Cummings?
SID It’s too soon to joke about Cops in Minneapolis. We need that Cop to ho to jail first.
go to jail *
I’d keep luiz one more year IF he agrees a reduced wage, Like Jamie said 70k pw one year extension.
If not ship him, Mustafi, Big Sok, and MAYBE Holding (Depending on form in the next 10 games.
Should raise an additional £20=25m
If theres no new CB coming in i’d roll with Luiz, Saliba, Mari and Holding for next season with chambers playing a backup role for the 2nd half of the season
Vintage
Does anyone know how Mavropanos is doing on loan – could he be an option for backup?
Can I buy the copper who stood on Un’s head a drink?
Marc and Un
Thanks for the banter it really cheered me up on a bad day.
Dave
Nothing to serious I hope?
Un
How is yours worse, you are still alive aren’t you?
Does anyone else think it wa# a stupid idea to get luiz,, pay 8 m for one season plus maybe 6 m in years
Around 14 m… mutherfucking stupid.
Lumping all on one player.
The yank is leading us down a slippery road which we ain’t coming back from….
Fuck Dein.
Fuck Kroenke
RSPC The salary doesn’t bother me – £125k per week is not some sort of abomination in football and we’ve got far worse players earning money that isn’t that far short of what he’s on. What I don’t understand is every report that was about when we signed him said it was a 2 year deal with an option for a third – all the stories since have pointed to him looking to finish his playing career with us and then do his coaching badges and join the coaching staff. All of a sudden it was a one year deal… Read more »
There are 7 or 8 website’s who all report that Luiz’s contract expires in 2021.
This story appeared a couple of days ago – this is looking more and more like click bait to me.
Marc
Still two much money on a player over 31 …
who is a defender..
I’m liking the reports that the yoot are trading with the big boys..
Still uninspired with all the players w3 are linked with…
Dembele in a swap with Auba,… mmmeh
Laca for partley… Noah
Play the kids
I suspected that David Luiz would storm off in a huff the moment anything goes awry. I was expecting that the moment Arteta benched him, his ego would be so battered he would slinker off.
Hope it’s true that he’s leaving. Lets get a proper young center back to partner Saliba.
Luiz has to stay another season in my opinion.
Next season, Mustafi and Sokratis will probably be allowed to leave. So we could potentially have Saliba, Mari and one of Holding or Chambers as our only available centre backs.
Luiz has been one of our best players since Arteta took over. He has good leadership qualities and his experience in the Premier League and winning league titles will be vital in nurturing our young and inexperienced centre backs next season.
He has to stay.
Looks like either Vinay has grown some balls or his paymaster have been more explicit in their displeasure, rumour is that he put out an internal memo telling everybody that all expenditure are under review. If true, I fully expect to see a massive attempt at culling all the high salary players. Withdraw all extension or pay rise offer, preview any previous loan I suspect that many players will have the shock of their life when they renegotiate their pay package. Aubameyang may be forced to accept a pay cut rather than a pay rise. Outside of PSG, Chelsea and… Read more »
“He has to stay”
Fuck no he shouldn’t. We need to move forward and spend the money we have on the future of the team and not to expensive so called experienced players. I’m in favor of recruiting a young CB to deputise for Mari and Saliba. Luiz should go to Benfica if he still wants to play or go get his coaching badges. It’s time to use money wisely.
izzo
Do think that signing Luiz for around 7m is not using our money wisely?
I’m all for giving young players a chance, but you need a few experienced heads on the pitch and in the changing room, especially in defence. I don’t think Luiz is massively impacting our wage bill either, so if he leaves at the end of next season on a free, it would have been money well spent in my opinion.
Nah I’ve seen a season of Luiz in an Arsenal shirt and I’m not buying into another year of that. use that 7 million to better the team. Use that money help other problem areas like midfield.
We’re not winning the league next season so whats the point in keeping Luiz one extra year for this so called experience? Mari has enough experience from playing in Europe and Brazil. Also Arteta is the one who is coaching them not their teammate who is just as likely to make terrible mistakes in game. The young shall grow if you give them games and an environment to thrive. Bed in the young players and watch them dominate in 2 to 3 years time. I’ll be patient with the youth but not with the likes of Luiz and co.
izzo
“The young shall grow if you give them games and an environment to thrive”
The problem with the young players is the fans. You’ve seen it yourself. Willock, Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Nketiah… as soon as they have a couple of poor performances, they’re quick to destroy them. Do you think the fanbase will have patience in youth? I don’t.
And you say we won’t win the league next season, if that’s the case then get rid of all the over 30s then. Whats the point, let’s get rid of them all!!
All the over 30s are the ones that have been failing us year after year and sucking the club dry. Get rid of them all!!! The younger players have a chance to play in empty stadia now so they will have possibly until early next year before seeing any fan turn on them.
izzo
Completely agree. As soon as any Arsenal player hits 30.. Aubameyang, Ozil, Luiz and co, get rid of them!!
If only we had done the same with Lehmann, Pires, Bergkamp, Parour, Kanu and Keown in 2004. Or in 98 with Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn and Wright. They completely bled the team dry!
izzo
Spot on.
You’re on a roll, don’t stop now.
You read people here bashing Wenger yet all they want to do is replicate the Wenger of the latter years. They want its to buy and stock up on all the players that Chelsea are spitting out.
Hope the Luiz exit stories are true. There’s nothing there about him, he does know how to rub the manager’s back.
“Completely agree. As soon as any Arsenal player hits 30.. Aubameyang, Ozil, Luiz and co, get rid of them!!”
“If only we had done the same with Lehmann, Pires, Bergkamp, Parour, Kanu and Keown in 2004. Or in 98 with Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn and Wright. They completely bled the team dry!”
Overmars cmon!!! You’re better than that. I get your sarcasm but that’s taking it too far. Auba, Ozil and co are pretenders compared to our legends.
Luiz is the better option between, sokratis and mustafinovs.
Sell Holding, Sok, Mustafinovs
Loan Mavro, Chambers(get him game time then sell)
I don’t think a scientific approach to determining transfer fees would work because football is an art, not a science and any stats you build in need to be read subjectively. Objectivity can not exist There was that famous stat of maldini making extremely few tackles because his positioning and approach to defending was so good that he didn’t have to. That’s not good look good compared to a mustafi who makes 5 great sliding challenges per game… but is mustafi Stats were used to pad ozil’s rep for years but we all knew for half of any given season… Read more »
Swap auba for dembele or draxler if psg
Got to get something for him
Get rid of luiz. Too much a spaz and error prone… was not happy with his signing tbh.
I can’t shake the Germany brazil game and his complete idiocy.
The live performance of don’t let the sun go down on me by Elton John and George Michael is one of my favorite music performances ever. Solid 10/10
Unless we’re losing saka as well, I dunno why people want us to get another winger?
If saka stays and we got another winger we’d have Pepe, Nelson, saka, martinelli, + new winger. Meanwhile we’d still have a midfield of xhaka, ozil and whoever else
I beg arsenal just sort out the god awful midfield and anything else is a luxury this summer
No one is talking about bellerin much
Sell him too much risk with him
Cm cam rb all need new starters
Too bad Dani is going back. I like him and he really did well before the closure. Seemed to be finding his groove and feel for the epl…
Yeah guns. Bellerin is still living off the rep he got when he broke into the team about 3 years ago
He’s done extremely little to warrant being a first choice player for us outside of us lacking good alternatives. AMN had actually started to do ok at RB earlier this season and was certainly no worse, but Bellerin seems to have a big rep to walk into the team for some reason
Bellerin is overrated
Amn did not so bad… a better athlete imo
Let’s see if soares can take that spot as he can play both. Still need a starter or back ip depending on who gets the nod.
The thing is Un, everything your Donald tweets should have a fact check attached to it. The man’s a pathological liar.
Hi Marc
Family probs daughter with serious mental issues, not life threatening.
Thanks.
I think the lockdown is going to throw up a lot of psychological problems. A lot of confusion and stress.
Urgent that we get back to real normal as soon as possible.
Guns
Chill bout right back…
Don’t mess with the tutu ….
Overmars “”””I don’t think Luiz is massively impacting our wage bill either, so if he leaves at the end of next season on a free, it would have been money well spent in my opinion””””” To date he has cost Arsenal £20 million. ( thanks Edu) He has only been at the club for 12 ruinous months. And you want to waste more good money after bad? We have 8 center backs!!!! Off course it effects the wage bill- that’s all we ever hear about. Luiz – all in – has cost more than Ozil annual salary. Calamitous club with… Read more »
Athletico madrid ball possesion is 47.7 they are 12th place in la liga ball possesion, behind mighty Eibar, Osasuna and Valencia
Thomas Partey will not improve arsenals ball possesion.
You heard it here 1st!
Xhakalson is not even among top 20 EPL tacklers, Buendia an AM is in 14th place
Just read some comments about the current premiership media and financial situation made by David Kogan who was the Premier League’s chief media rights adviser from 1998 to 2015. In short he expect a lot of upheaval, because the current expectation by clubs that the next TV and commercial deal will bring more money than the current ones will be severely challenged. And some clubs will have to face not only the shirt term pain of the TV rebate for this season, but also the lowering of their revenue for the foreseeable future. Players are going to lower their expectation… Read more »
Arsenal’s top priority at the end of this season has to be to reduce our wage bill. That has been clearly the focus of the Kroenke family as raised on a number of occasions by Josh. Such statements were made even before Corona Virus hit football so it is now far more relevant with loss of football attendances and tv revenues. I believe that transfers were paid for out of sponsorship packages and our cash reserves. Last season’s transfer business seems to confirm this. So it is inevitable that the club are now attempting to offload as many of the… Read more »
FIFA and UEFA tried to introduce a clearing house of transfer with transfers fees and agents payments being transparent and monitored. However powerful clubs and corrupt officials refuse to accept the proposals.
COVID-19 crisis may be the perfect moment to introduce such regulation. Most clubs will want to lower their transfer fees and agents payments. Having the system fixed (agents fees cannot exceed more than X% of a transfer nor be lower than Y amount) will really help in the push back against agents.
Richarlison, the Everton striker, has completed more tackles in the league than Xhaka this season. So has Willian, another attacking player.
Xhaka is pony. Always has been, always will be.
Xhakalson probably not even in the top 50 EPL tacklers, being “arsenals potent tackler” is setting the bar lower than a 90’s rap stars pants
In 2017 Xhakalson still wasnt among top 20 EPL tacklers, Mooy was there and top three were Kante, Gueye, Ndidi which is clear to see even without stats