Well good morning to you all.
The Athletic is running a story that David Luiz cost us £24m for a year, and they confirmed his salary of £200k a week, a story we gave you in December.
I hope that people now start to see why I have deep concerns about how Arsenal are being run at the moment.
Think about this.
We wouldn’t let Laurent Koscielny leave on a free.
He went on strike to move.
We eventually squeezed a £5m fee.
Key takeaway: Arsenal won’t be messed around, this is a new era of deal-making.
Arsenal knew Laurent wanted to move a long way in advance. The club was going to need to sign a centre back with a good left foot. Arsenal has elite analysts and scouts. Those scouts apparently had a name on the list from Dortmund that we could have landed for a good price (who is apparently still interesting Arsenal).
Instead, we raid Chelsea for David Luiz. We up his salary from £125k a week to £200k a week. We drop a massive agent fee of £6m. We give the player a ONE year deal, with an option for two.
£24m for a single season.
There’s no way to paint that sort of deal in a positive light. It is massively inefficient, it is shortsighted, and it was clearly driven by an agent because no footballing man worth his salt would sanction expenditure like that based on rigorous analysis of the market.
I was told that the deal would end up at about £40m at the time, which people guffawed at, but The Athletic correlates the story by stating that ‘intermediaries’ are due another round of fees if we go in for another year.
The interesting part about The Athletic piece is it appears to be a leak from the old school part of Arsenal. Raul bypassing the board to make decisions was a big part of why Sir Chips left, according to Amy Lawrence. Whatever you think of our powerless board, you have to say, that is a huge red flag. Also, remember, Sven Mislintat left because of the contacts approach. Say what you will about his signings, at least they were grounded in more than a whisper in the ear.
Also, I am pretty certain you’re all going to wince when you get the breakdown of the fee for Pepe. Those fees were so large, the Italian clubs had to say no.
This is why the two system leadership setup is a very bad idea. You need a proper sporting CEO that oversees the deals and makes sure that every signing is made for the benefit of the club. Arsenal should also have a board in place to scrutinise the financial aspects of the deals put to them. We should have business people who understand the financial aspects and footballing people to ask whether the move makes sense for the future of the club. Think about the genius of what Raul has managed to do. He’s convinced Josh K to not hire a CEO, he’s managed to sell co-leadership with a junior partner as his sidekick, and he’s managed to minimize board scrutiny to the point where the chairman has quit the club.
The big question is this: What the fuck is Josh Kroenke up to? Parachuting in to tell the fans to get excited, but being tentatively involved is a dereliction of duty. He’s like a Prince being shoved around by his more worldly courtiers.
Anyway, this summer, you have the same agent that on occasion shares a box with Edu and Raul, pushing Coutinho and Willian our way. We were ever so close to landing Willian, I’m not sure if it’s happening now, but again, what will the agent fee look like? If Raul sold Luiz as a bargain, it’s probably not going to be hard to convince Josh K that Willian and Coutinho are smart signings… seems it’s about as simple as sending a Youtube Video title WELCOME TO ARSENAL COUTINHO MAD SKILLZ AND GOALS.
Still, I’m glad a story like this is out from someone credible. Hopefully, it’ll wake the fans up to the sort of decision making going on at Arsenal. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll make the club shape up and play it smarter this summer. Or, maybe, the current climate will put a kibosh on decadent fees as KSE moves hard to buckle up the finances.
The absolutely mad thing about all of this is a longterm career at Arsenal would be much easier to achieve if the club just did things properly. Spend money wisely, bring in elite youth, make the wage bill lean, buy low and sell high. Literally replicate the Liverpool model. A Football CEO / Sporting Director with Champions League medals will command far higher salaries than those without them. I just don’t get why you’d throw bad money at super-agents and denigrate your reputation.
The club is Raul’s now, let’s hope that Arteta can deliver despite him and that one day KSE will wake-up and take Arsenal seriously.
Anyway, onwards. x
Marko
We paid £1 million loan fee plus his wages.
andy1886 “So if our Director of Football does not involve himself in signing of players or wage negotiations (not even approve them even if someone else does the negotiating) what EXACTLY does he do for his money??” Emirates stroller is a good man…he got that very wrong Huss Fahmy’s job is to negotiate the fine print of the letter and make it cast-iron. He does all the lawyerly work of the contract. His job is not to negotiate the broader aspects of the contract – that’s done by Raul and Edu – they agree a fee with the agent….and the… Read more »
If the Cedric Soares deal cost us only a dozen pancakes, it would have been a dozen pancakes that we didn’t have to spend.
Trying to walk it back already. Like I said glad these guys are making the decisions and not you. We’ve needed/need a RB for years and given the lack of cover in that area the fitness of Bellerin and the general abject performances from AMN it was smart to even bring in someone short term in January.
Stroller, I don’t want to diminish Fahmy’s role, but Raul make the strategic decisions and Fahmy the tactical ones. Fahmy maybe in charge of the legal negotiation, but the Director of Football operations is the one who decide the overall package and the direction of the negotiation. Fahmy just operates within the guidelines given to him by Raul. If Raul says offer them more money, Fahmy will just offer more money. However if Raul say don’t offer more than £10 millions per year as salary, Fahmy is unlikely to offer Özil level of remuneration on his own. Executives negotiate their… Read more »
Dis “””Are you telling me that Arteta could not have coaxed a back-up RB performance out of AMN for 3.5 months?”””” Clearly not. Like he could not cope with the other x 7 center backs he inherited, He wanted a bespoke left sided one from Brazil. (Just a sheer coincidence they both happen to be from the same stable as Kia and Edu) Maybe , if we didn’t waste so money on mediocrity – we would not need to be laying off lowly paid scouts. Maybe even employ more of them to produce more of our own players. just a… Read more »
Marc
“We paid £1 million loan fee plus his wages”
1 million plus his wages…plus the bonuses owed him by Southampton. That could easily be 5 million.
The player was declared injured with ligament knee damage on January 21st … then we came swooping in for him a week later.
We paid £1 million loan fee plus his wages.
What no no no that makes no sense I heard he cost 5 million not including wages and Luiz cost 24 million and Denis Suarez cost 45 billion in agent fees alone. Meanwhile back in the day we were able to get Julio Baptista and Kalstrom for 5 and 6 pound respectfully. Come back Arsene all is forgiven
TUGN
“””””So we sign a defender who couldn’t make it in a team that conceded 9 against Leicester. How shit does he have to be to not make Southampton’s team.””””
that actually made laugh out very loudly.
Thank you.
“plus the bonuses owed him by Southampton.”
Yes I hear that Southampton pay huge bonuses for being a handful of points about the relegation zone.
My God the fee must have been 20 gazillion!
Marc “Trying to walk it back already. Like I said glad these guys are making the decisions and not you. We’ve needed/need a RB for years and given the lack of cover in that area the fitness of Bellerin and the general abject performances from AMN it was smart to even bring in someone short term in January.” Walk back wha? Even if we paid 1 pound sterling, it is one pound sterling too much. I just explained to you how the 5 million fee is very easily plausible One million loan fee [for a 3.5 month duration of availability]… Read more »
1 million plus his wages…plus the bonuses owed him by Southampton. That could easily be 5 million.
You’re something you know that. First off you pulled 5 million out of your arse like it was gospel and now you’re doing cartwheels to try to justify it. Why the fuck would Arsenal pay bonuses owed to him by Southampton? You’re not making a lick of sense
Walk back wha?
Even if we paid 1 pound sterling, it is one pound sterling too much.
One RB in the whole squad injured and a replacement simply not good and you don’t think we needed a RB. We even had Sokratis playing RB this season.
I just explained to you how the 5 million fee is very easily plausible
One million loan fee [for a 3.5 month duration of availability] + player wages [65k weekly] + bonuses owed him by Southampton.
That’s easily 5 million
Yep the math is sound on this one
Dissenter
Arsenal were a business with a turnover of almost £400 million – for fucks sake get a grip talking about ” it is one pound sterling too much.”
Bonuses are usually due at the end of the contract, mostly … hot all the time. *1,000,000 loan fee for a “6 month loan” [more like 3.5 months since he was injured till at least end of February] *Wages at £3,380,000 yearly for 6 month loan; about 1.43 million [calculated for 22 weeks till June 30th] *Bonuses due at end of 4 year contract, possibly including loyalty bonus [we geed to take over the bonuses] xxxxxxx *Agent fees xxxxx *VAT The total package could easily have been 5 million for a needless transfer; Bellerin was back and AMN could have… Read more »
Marko
I didn’t pull the 5 million of of my arse, unless those tabloid links I posted reside in my colon.
We didn’t have to spend a dime on Soares; he was crocked and unavailable. WE also has cover with AMN, regardlsss of what you think about him.
“The total package is worth around £5m to Southampton. That will comprise a loan fee, complete salary coverage and possibly other savings such as a loyalty bonus that would have been owed (I don’t know this for certain with Soares but it is not uncommon). According to Ornstein at the time. Key words being “don’t know” “for certain” and “not uncommon” could probably have thrown in assumption somewhere there while he’s at it. My point being if you don’t know something for certain and throw up a generality like not uncommon or common then why the fuck even report something… Read more »
WE also has cover with AMN, regardlsss of what you think about him.
WE didn’t have cover because he’s not a RB and irrespective of what I think of him it’s what people at the club thinks of him that’s important and they clearly agree that he’s shite and importantly not a RB.
Fucking hell talk about desperation – when the fuck did VAT become a thing in transfers?
So:
£1 million loan fee
£1.43 million in wages
£200k VAT on the loan fee (can’t believe I’m even including that when you claim back the VAT you pay out).
So we’re just shy of £2,370,000 short of the magic £5 million but that can’t be true because we would have paid several dozen millions in agent fees.
Marc I love how you love to jump allover Wenger for his mistakes but you are willing to wave off a few millions because it suits whatever point you’re trying to make. Lets assume that you’re right and we only paid one million loan fee plus his wages which comes up to …say 2.5 million. Isn’t that 2.5 million we didn’t need to spend? FYI, 2.5 million is a lot of money for a business entity with a annual budget of only 400 million. We are talking millions here, don’t forget that. If an audit discovers that 2.5 million is… Read more »
Dissenter
“Arteta described the eyebrow-raising details of the deal as a “little issue””
Not quite.
The way I read it , Arteta regarded his injury as a little issue.
Arteta
“The defender was unavailable to make his debut at Burnley having been forced off injured in Southampton’s win over Crystal Palace earlier this month.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta referred to it as a “little issue” and has welcomed the Portuguese player to The Emirates, saying “he fits our structure at the moment”.
“I love how you love to jump allover Wenger for his mistakes ”
Er £35 million Xhaka mistake, £35 million Mustafi mistake and turning down £60 million for Sanchez mistake.
I’ve never jumped over Wenger for signing a player for a million whether on loan or a permanent deal.
You’re getting more and more desperate.
Gone from that’s easily 5 million to could have easily been 5 million. I love how you literally explained away your rationale using X’s by the way. Well that convinced me. 1 million loan fee 1.3 million in wages and let’s just broadly say the rest in bonuses and agent fees Southampton agreed to pay. Got it
@CG
😁 Isn’t it true though. Can’t get into a team who have been battling relegation 2 seasons running. But supposedly good enough for a team with champions League aspirations. We are a joke of a club under old ruggy and his son.
Marc
Did you see that the article mentioned his bonuses that were owed by Southampton?
You’re happy to wage world war 3 with a silly straw-man over the quoted 5 million total package but have buried your head in the sand, ignoring the fact that even 2.5 million is a LOT of money.
“Isn’t that 2.5 million we didn’t need to spend?”
Clearly Arteta thought not as we only had 1 RB who was coming back from an ACL and struggling for form and fitness.
Can’t believe you’re so wound up by something that is such a trivial thing when Mustafi and Xhaka cost us more each year in salary, have been here for years and cost a small fortune.
Oh no someone earnt a bonus – it’s the end of the world!!!!
Marc and Marko
Of course I put xxx’s . I was TRYING desperately to explain to you that the 5 million package is a credible number when you consider that his bonuses are part of it.
We can account for 2.5 million already with loan fee and wages; the bonuses and due agent fees could easily make up the rest.
The 5 million was the number circulated around and it’s damn credible.
Why is that so hard to percolate into your reasoning faculties?
Signing Mari and Soares in one window has exhausted the Spanish quota, lets do other nationalities in the next window
I agree with you about xhaka and mustafi’s wages. But that kind of wastage was under the old regime, Wenger.
Arteta was supposed to come in and it was a fresh new start. But instead he signs kallstrom MK2 and everyone seems happy to let it slide because it’s Arteta. Wenger rightly got castigated for kallstrom signing, so why isn’t Arteta.
“The 5 million was the number circulated around and it’s damn credible.”
Yes by people I wouldn’t trust if they said the sun was shining.
TUGN
“””””Can’t get into a team who have been battling relegation 2 seasons running””””””
And what about Luiz?
He played in both games in a back 4 for Chelsea when they got pummelled
4 zero at Bournemouth
6 zero at Manchester City a while back….
Conceding 4 goals in each consecutive half and we spend £20-24 million on him for 25 games ?
And all of them apparently ( Arteta, Kia, Raul, Edu ) want to KEEP HIM!!!!
And Arteta has 7 others center defenders to choose from too!
Marc
“Clearly Arteta thought not as we only had 1 RB who was coming back from an ACL and struggling for form and fitness.”
That’s the cowardly line; Arteta knows best.
I don’t care is it was Arteta, Raul, Edu, Stan Kroenke or baby Jaysus that made the call. It was a one headed wrong call that wasted the club’s money.
Tell me why is this link wrong
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/10860536/arsenal-cedric-soares-loan-free-transfer/
and all the ones that say more are right?
Isn’t that 2.5 million we didn’t need to spend?
Again you’re not getting it to the point where I question whether or not you are stupid. One RB in the whole squad and he was injured and other options to play included playing questionable CB’s in there and a poor player in AMN. Arteta trusted him so little that he actually played Sokratis at RB. When that happens you definitely need to bring in a RB
I mean I understand if the injured player we’d signed on loan was a Ronaldo- esque type of player, I’m all for that. But to twice in the space of how many years sign an injured player on loan who was at best an average player, surely questions need to be asked about how truthful ruggy and his son Josh are ,when they say they want us competing for trophies and that good times are on the way.
Dissenter
“It was a one headed wrong call that wasted the club’s money.”
You don’t know that yet unless you can see out future results.
You’ve picked a subject been shown up and are throwing a hissy fit give it a fucking rest.
Dissenter why the fuck would Arsenal pay bonuses owed by Southampton? To a player they desperately wanted off their books by the way. Because David Ornstein said that he doesn’t know for certain? It’s water tight honestly
@CG
I agree. Especially as (just my opinion) Luiz was only ever a good player at best. Let’s be honest, most of us here were shocked when PSG payed that kind of money for him. 3 great performances a season while then costing his team 12 points the rest of the season because of lapses in concentration do not make a WC player. Again, just my opinion, but it was a bad waste of money and it’s been happening for years.
TYAG
He was injured for a couple of weeks he had not just had his legs amputated.
I get the feeling that those who were supporting the £6 million agent fee for Luiz are looking for a new target since it’s been reported the agent is taking legal action.
Bellerin is recuperating from a knee ligament injury and needs back-up So what do we do? We pay a loan fee of ONE MILLION for an average run of the mill RB who was declared injured by the club with knee ligament damage a week earlier and not expected back till the end of Feb. We even agreed to take up the liability of his owed bonuses to Southampton, per the media reports circulated at the time. What was the desperation about when we had a player that played that position for most of last season? The player is disgruntled… Read more »
How much VAT did we pay when we signed Luiz? Asking for a friend.
I was TRYING desperately to explain to you that the 5 million package is a credible…The 5 million was the number circulated around and it’s damn credible.
Alright you dumb fuck how is it credible when literally the source of the whole figure is saying that he doesn’t know for certain and it’s not uncommon. It’s beyond dumb at this point you’re arguing over about 2.5 million sure but you’re arguing something that is vague and saying that it’s fact.
@Marc
Wasn’t a few weeks was it though. We signed him end of January, buy the time football had stopped in March, it was at least 6 weeks after we’d signed him and he was still a couple of weeks away from starting.
By not buy. Sorry
“We even agreed to take up the liability of his owed bonuses to Southampton, per the media reports circulated at the time.”
Ah so it isn’t a fact now it’s “per the media reports circulated at the time”.
You didn’t answer my earlier question why isn’t The Sun report correct?
That’s the cowardly line; Arteta knows best.I don’t care is it was Arteta, Raul, Edu, Stan Kroenke or baby Jaysus that made the call. It was a one headed wrong call that wasted the club’s money.
You’re an absolute melt. If that’s how you debate and reason things I feel sorry for you
Dis
“””isn’t Arteta supposed to be a man-manager?””””
No. He is the head coach,
No ones knows if he can actually manage.
Because he has never ever done it before.
this thing doing your guys heads in for far too long already
the sooner the footy starts the better
harder and and harder to clutch on something positives in this blog these days
seems like only EmiratesStroller trying to put other sense of perspective but we can’t move on can we as long as this season not yet finished
Dissenter and Valentin If you take a look at Fahmy’s profile at Sky his role was to “negotiate” contracts and not just to “draft” them. Previously he worked for Herbert Smith. This is one of the top Commercial Firms of Solicitors in the City of London. I am fairly sure that is his role at Arsenal as well. Raul’s job is to oversee the football department of the business and obviously he will be involved in recruitment of players. However, at the end of the day the Managing Director and Board will make financial decisions and I am sure that… Read more »
Funny thing is unless I’m mistaken dissenter was the same sort who argued about signing up Kurzawa the journeyman in January for 8 million (being touted) despite the fact that we have two LB’s in the squad while we have one RB
We even agreed to take up the liability of his owed bonuses to Southampton, per the media reports circulated at the time.
That wasn’t proven but ok.
TYAG
I’d guess he aggravated the injury.
If it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out but this “inflation” of costs being thrown about is nonsense.
When did you ever hear anyone include VAT in the cost of a transfer or loan deal until the Luiz / Soares deals started being discussed on here a couple of days ago.
Faux outrage – I’ve got to be angry at something argh!
Marko
Not only do we have 2 LB’s (Tierney and Kolas) but we have Saka who’s been bloody good playing there as well.
Honestly, the VAT thing is tremendous banter.
Its customary for arsenals managers to sign a crock during winter Kallstrom, Denis suarez, Soares.
The earlier Arteta gets over and done with this tradition the better
Im telling you for free!
Marc I dunno I think dissenter is just filling in the disgruntled argumentative stubborn American know it all quota since bamford left.
Marc
You really think I was shown up?
I think you stuck your head in a quick sand and threw up straw men defenses like you tend to do when you’re confronted with reasoned arguments.
At the end of the day, your defense was that Arteta knows best.
Marko
“That’s the cowardly line; Arteta knows best.I don’t care is it was Arteta, Raul, Edu, Stan Kroenke or baby Jaysus that made the call. It was a one headed wrong call that wasted the club’s money.You’re an absolute melt. If that’s how you debate and reason things I feel sorry for you”
He knows he’s made himself look an absolute twat and rather than stop he’s still digging – he’s due to hit Wuhan any time now – watch out China!
Dissenter
What reasoned arguments all I heard was the tantrum of a child?
Jamie
I’m waiting for the next ridiculous line “player x negotiated free parking at the training ground costing the club £500 per year”
After the customary winter crock signing comes the customary downing of tools tradition
Alexis, Ozil….. whos next?
I actually don’t believe manager at Arsenal has much say in who comes in to be honest, or at least not as big a say as before with Wenger. I think in Wenger’s last 8 years at Arsenal the board realised he’d wasted a lot of money and I think this was what started the power grab with gazidi’s and Wenger. I reckon in last 2 years at Arsenal, Wenger had less say in the transfer window. I don’t think Auba was Wenger’s signing, just like we know Pepe wasn’t an Emery signing. I honestly can’t see Arteta being behind… Read more »
Honestly, the VAT thing is tremendous banter. Yeah it kinda flew over my head. That’s going to be a thing from now on. Sure we’re signing Thomas Partey but how much vat is added to his transfer fee. It’s going to be the new norm with Raul running things we’ve gone from a fan base demanding that we sign players and spend money finally to now scrutinizing every deal to the point where we have to know how much we’re paying the agent and how much we’re paying in VAT. Some people are probably going to demand we know how… Read more »
Some things rarely change eh.. Gone a while and pop in to see Dissenter in what can only be described as self-bondage with the amount of tying himself up going on. Cedric was a no brainer. Cheap, competent, PL proven, can play both FB positions where we only had Saka (Tierney injured), and Bellerin back from a 12 month injury playing meh. The David Luiz angle is another pretty bogus narrative from where I sit. Seems a lot like looking for source material in a war against Raul (who I don’t like at all). We lost Kos and wanted a… Read more »
Marc –
£500 a year is £500 too much though, am I right?
You could buy a fat stack of pancakes with £500. Think about it.
CC
Where you been?
Jamie
That £500 could have been given to an agent for no reason whatsoever!
Reasoned arguments…pfftt you haven’t a clue what that means
Emirates
Huss Fahmy does the fine details of the contract- the nitty gritty. I believe that happens after Raul and Edu have agreed a fee already.
He negotiates too, just in another manner.
Marc
Your post at 15:13 made me genuine lol, cheers!
Then again I’m an old fart. I preferred how it was in the old days. I think it’s unfair on managers to have players foisted on them, to then sack them when it all goes wrong yet the retards who brought the player in, keep their jobs . Let the manager choose his players, if he can financially , then he can’t complain afterwards when it goes tits up and he gets the sack.
Dissenter should go and lie down in a dark room for a bit and take the L.
Marc –
Exactly. Then you add the VAT on top.. nightmare.
Know we’ve had our differences and I still hate you but hope you’re keeping healthy in these times Charles.
Wanker
CC
A most welcome sensible view.
In the next fee weeks or so the PL will publish it’s fees paid to agents by club breakdown. If we’ve suddenly spent £50 million plus on agent fees then I’m pretty sure we’ll all go mental but right now it’s very telling who’s pushing this agenda sorry line.
Champagne
I quite like the self-bondage line.
Glad to see you are well and your excellent wits are still intact.
CC, bang on the money. Welcome back.
Marc are you telling me Raul is authorising the club pay for parking when we could just have a perspective signing dropped off by his mum out front? He must be stopped
CC
Do you think there was a case to be made for AMN to deputize in that position till June and then we get Soares on a Bosman over the summer?
CC is right about Ornstein.
Chris
Just curious, what’s the ‘L’?
Do you think there was a case to be made for AMN to deputize in that position till June and then we get Soares on a Bosman over the summer?
This seems immensely desperate. ‘support please CC’
Santan
When I need support I call out to CG, not to CC.
I’ve merely stated my opinion and argued my case. I don’t care who’s keeping scores. It’s not a popularity contest and the majority is not always right.
Dissenter
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.urbandictionary.com/define.php%3fterm=L&=true
Although you outta know, you’ve taken it enough times here.
Chris
Very well then…sigh
Inter making money moves it seems. Looks like they’re using the Icardi money to get Sandro Tonali and seems like they’re interested in Lacazette replacing Martinez which is absolutely fantastic news for us because we can likely get a decent enough fee for him knowing that they’ll have money from selling Lautaro.
Dissenter
“Do you think there was a case to be made for AMN to deputize in that position till June and then we get Soares on a Bosman over the summer?”
Yes, I do …obviously Arteta has seen something about AMN that he doesn’t particularly like, probably attitude.
Football wise AMN is a decent enough player who can and has played both full back positions and , I have to say, been more than capable despite being asked to play in many different positions on the pitch since he broke into the team.
Sid
Soares I believe is Portuguese, not Spanish.
You heard it here first, for free, and can take to the bank.
Marko
“Marc are you telling me Raul is authorising the club pay for parking when we could just have a perspective signing dropped off by his mum out front? He must be stopped”
You may mock but I’ve just learnt the horrifying truth that around Christmas Arsenal hosted a party for under underprivileged kids and didn’t charge them thousands of pounds each.
I’m disgusted!
Pierre
Didn’t Pedro allude to AMN being the other player alongside Guendozi who have been causing issues behind the scenes the other day?
“When I need support I call out to CG”
If ever there was a cry for help!
Dissenter
Sure, but on the flip side was (even taking your over the top figure of 5 mil) getting Cedric in to potentially help earn us a CL place not worth the money?
Consider other details too, like Saka’s distaste for being a LB and that future extension convo, like AMN being on the naughty step, like Hector potential breaking again, Chambers snapping one week before the window.
Getting fullback cover in winter, where you could get little else for the cash, was uber low-risk imo.
Looks like the Soares is the new Suarez ( the Dennis variety)loan deal for some.
The curse of the original Suarez 40m +1 failed bid.
It’s all Wenger’s fault.
Marc
Though on a smaller scale , the Arteta/AMN scenario seems quite similar as the Emery/Ozil situation .
CC
It also gives us a chance to see how he interacts with the other players etc to see if we should sign him on a free come the summer.
Pierre
We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes but my guess is AMN will be off most likely this summer providing we can find a buyer.
As a side note, it’s good to see many of you on here conversing with one another and chewing the fat. Though somewhat trivial in the wider scope, football returning will be an ideal tonic for the heavier shit staining the place at present. On recent football speculation, I’ll draw my lines on the following: Coutinho = absolute baller, and cannot wrap my head around the ‘been around the block chat’. He’s 27 and drops double digit goals and assists at the height of the game. Would be a properly good addition and fulfil a clear need in our side,… Read more »
CC
The thing with Willian is why buy a wide player when we have Pepe, Saka, Nelson and Martinelli? Plenty of other areas need attention first.