Beep, beep, beep… what’s that you hear? It’s Arsenal doing a 3-point turn on Holloway Road to head the other way on the AMN and Martinez exit plans.
Beautiful prose, I know.
I’m not quite sure the u-turn came yesterday. Ex-Chelsea boss Sarri has said on numerous occasions (before he’s sacked) that professional execs never make decisions based on one game. Whatever the process is/was, I’m pleased that the club is planning to keep two players that have turned their careers at Arsenal around with great performances.
There’s an argument that we should be using their low sample rate of games-time to our advantage by capitalising on their newfound prominence… then there’s the flip side of that argument that would say that you need to reward improving players. If you set a player a challenge to be consistent and they deliver, probably doesn’t look good to the rest of the squad when you bin them off to Wolves.
Also…
If AMN fails this season, he’ll sell for the same or more next year.
If Martinez turns into a flap monster, he’ll still return a fee larger than £10m next season.
Both players are young, they are fairly cheap, and I think they are well-liked by the squad. If both maintain their form, they will be worth considerably more by the end of this season which gives Arsenal an entirely different problem to deal with.
Edu’s focus should be on the players we know aren’t going to cut it at Arsenal. Which, apparently, is exactly what’s going on.
Sokratis has apparently sealed a 4.5m euro move to Napoli. That’s a £90k a week player off the wage bill. I like the player’s attitude, but it’s clear he’s not part of the plans. On we go.
The Torreira rumours are spicing up, the story is Fiorentina are making him a priority. They’ll give us £8m now, with a promise of a further £18m next summer. Not bad for a talent ill-suited to the rigours of the Premier League.
Kolasinac is also reportedly getting closer to a deal to go back to Schalke. He’s dealing with the reality that he’ll never land a £120k a week deal in Germany, he’s asking for assurance on becoming their captain, and he’s apparently 3 meetings deep with their execs. It’ll happen because players need security and having one year on year deal right now is NOT cool.
Valencia, a team with 4 runner beans to spend this window, has expressed an interest in Matteo. I doubt that is going anywhere, but at least it has the Frenchman in the media. He really needs to be fetching Arsenal a decent swap deal or at least £30m. Where is PSG? Leonardo, this man can ‘Frenchify‘ the hell out of that FAILURE squad you have. Follow him right away on Instagram to confirm you have read this.
Diego Simeone is looking for GOALS this summer after his side scored less than Granada last season. Alex Lacazette is the dream ticket. The story in SPORT suggests the Argentine is keen to keep Partey, but maybe that part isd there to soften the blow for the fans when we do a swap deal with them? Wait and see… but from where I’m sitting, Atleti are fucked financially, they know they’ll have to swap players to have a summer (they can only spend 25% of what they take in transfer fees, which will be a pittance this year), so the goal might be to make it look like Partey was forced from them.
Rob Holding is interesting Newcastle. Cal Chambers is interesting Fulham. Balogun will likely still head out to Brentford for a decent fee. Sam Greenwood left, hopefully with a stonking sell-on clause.
Next, we need to crack into our own transfer plans. Auoar and Partey would be the dream ticket. I’m not sure we’d need to do much outside that to contend the top 4. I think that’s where the club will focus their energy, so let’s pray to the footballing gods we can ship out the players that need to leave and make some magic happen in a short space of time.
The international break will hopefully be transfer bedlam. Club managers will be idle, the owners will have a clearer picture of where the world is going, deals will have to start moving because settled squads are generally happier.
That’s all I have today… NO… untrue. I also have a very exciting podcast for you to listen to. We basically talk Community Shield, the state of the squad, then we go deep on transfers. ENJOY AND 5* rate it you FIENDS. Thank you. x
Find it on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play
If we can get Ozil off the wage bill that’ll be a massive boost – not going to get too excited about it yet.
Arteta might do a U turn and decided he wants to keep him!
Arteta might do a U turn and decided he wants to keep him!
Go full Wenger
The fuck? Apparently it’s 15m a year tax free o he’ll make quite a lot more than he’s doing now. Don’t know what the Saudis are smoking but they need to keep doing it. No brainer for Ozil, unless they want him to actually play football, he’s probably not keen on that part.
Yeah what’s the ping like in Saudi Arabia for fortnite? Very important
Does stealing a living as a retired footballer fall under the theft laws down there btw? Asking for a friend who wants to keep his hands.
Pedro
Dont get me wrong, I like Aoaur. A Lot.
But Henry was a different beast and at his peak was top 3 in the world. Should have even won a Baland’or.
If Aoaur becomes half as good as Henry , I’ll be happy.
Good question Freddie, would like to see his face when they offer him a plate of goats eyes – he’ll think that they’re taking the piss.
Ozil will never leave. He will stay until the last second. That is the type of loyal Arsenal player he is….
Roma in for Kola, fee of 5-6m apparently.
Pitiful fees for all our overpaid oldies, this is the main reason our rebuild is so slow. But they’ll add up in the end and so important getting them off the wage bill. That’s 10m or so combined for Sok and Kola and another 10m off the wage bill a year.
If Ozil and his 18m a year also leaves it’s Christmas time at the Emirates.
I saw a demonstration on the street of London supporting the Uighur Muslims in China. It looks like Ozil’s campaign for the Uighur Muslims is being noticed.
Guns
I would have said the same but if that offer is true he’s almost doubling his salary. That’s a lot of gigabytes for his fortnite rig.
Covid with supporter less stadiums is definitely going to equate to less in transfer fees for our outgoings.
It’s shit all around.
Nelson
Last week tonight did a piece on the Uighurs a couple of weeks back, terrible treatment of them by China no doubt.
John Oliver isn’t best pals with a dictator with plenty of innocent blood on his hands though so the hypocrisy isn’t on the same level as with Ozil.
If this is true, Arteta and Edu need to meet with this team, and tell him to FUCK OFF.
He is not wanted, let alone even going to be training with the first team.
Lets see then…
We cannot go into this season with Ozil. He is the albatross around the neck
Santi CaZORla tearing it up in Qatar, Xavi on the touch.
Cmmon Mesut Saudi has to be epic as a Royal.
https://twitter.com/Mont2i/status/1300314040015650816?s=20
Freddie
If we can get £5 – £6 million for Kolas I’ll be thrilled.
We clear Kola, Sokratis and Ozil off the wage bill thats huge.
“Yeah what’s the ping like in Saudi Arabia for fortnite? Very important“
You’re definitely a warzone player
Guendouzi will be another Gnabry that Arsenal fans will be crying about in 2-3 years
Kolasinac is 27, should be at the peak of his career, but he plays like one of those retired footballers participating one of those senior five-a-side tournaments.
Underachiever IMO.
If ozil leaves on a free we save 18m. If kola and sok both leave and generate a combined 10m were on 28m + 200k a week in wages saved from kola and sok.
Sell Bellerin or guen on top and you have yourself the money for a serious midfielder…
One can dream
May be Kolasinac is 37, where is Gentlebris when you need him
Doing a bit of development of the site.
Question: Do you think having a ‘FLAG’ button and a ‘RECCOMEND’ button would be beneficial for the comments?
Paulinho, I hear that he’s a nervous wreck of a player. Not about the big stage.
Pedro – Doesn’t surprise me. He’s far too timid mentally but for someone who has the physical attributes he has. We’ve seen in flashes he can be electric down the left-hand side, but all too often he goes into his shell for no apparent reason.
‘:Do you think having a ‘FLAG’ button and a ‘RECCOMEND’ button would be beneficial for the comments?’
Absolutely NO. Love the comment section as it is. With flags and recommend button, people will argue less about the content of posts and more about how people are reacting to it. Imagine Pierre making a valid point about Nketiah and still the entire LG downvoting it
“Question: Do you think having a ‘FLAG’ button and a ‘RECCOMEND’ button would be beneficial for the comments?“
How would that manifest? Like an up/down vote system?
Would the layout of the comments change because one is “recommended” more than another etc?
Or is it more a question of showing who agrees/disagrees?
TR7 – Agree, all that ‘like’ stuff promotes dull group-think.
Pedro
Not a big fan of a like system per se, because I think it limits replies and discourse. Plus it does as TR7 suggests and becomes a focus in some juvenile cases.
Think a report feature would be good more for flagging shit for your eyes, and I’d suggest a “reply” function that embeds the original comment you’re referencing if you wish to engage about something from a page ago or whatever.
Wouldn’t change things much though, rate the comment layout
The only thing that probably can be worked upon is a proper ‘search’ function wherein people can find out previous comments made by themselves or others but again that can also be used for trolling or ‘ I told you so’ type of thing. Must be a tad difficult technically to implement the feature.
Guendouzi will be another Gnabry that Arsenal fans will be crying about in 2-3 years
It’s funny that someone with the handle “underrated Coq” says this.
Coquelin Ramsey and the likes were much better than the tripe they were replaced with
Mkhi out. Contract terminated.
More exits please
Pedro
I would agree some facility for responding to older posts but otherwise it it ain’t broken………
China 1 When it came to sales we were always proper nice boys, not looking to haggle too much and easily low balled for our prime talent. I get your point but when Dein was at Arsenal we sold brilliantly . Huge fees for Anelka , Overmars and Petit. We actually sold a declining Vieira and Henry for more than we bought them for . But after Dein left we got soft and RVP was sold far too cheap. ‘ Our Wenger’ lost his mojo in the transfer market big time once Dein was not there to help him and… Read more »
Coquelin was ok but nothing special. Ramsey wasn’t replaced by anyone with the wages he was demanding. Al too often he would lose possession – whilst we should ideally have been looking to upgrade sadly we didn’t. It was nevertheless the right decision although we should have engineered an earlier exit to get a fee.
The NYT has a FLAG that sits on the bottom left of each comment. Thought it’d make it easier for people to highlight grim comments that happen when I’m not around. Loud and clear on the LIKE function. I was thinking that it’d just act as a way for posters to champions a comment. It wouldn’t impact the linear flow or bring comments to the top. I thought about the search function on the comments… but I honestly hate it when you come on the site and someone is having a battle and you have to sift through cut and… Read more »
Luteo, doubt it. He’s a bad egg, no top manager would tolerate his behaviour. We all know what he’s good at. Serge was bombed out and no one expected he’d be a world-beater.
Amen to that Pedro – too many sad people on here quoting old comments as if it mattered that much. Don’t want to make it any easier for them.
You said back in 2015 ……… so why do not hold that opinion now?
Lol
The disastrous Wenger / Gazidis handling of the Sanchez exit , coupled with the Ozil deal and the Ramsey bungle cost us a fortune. Swapping someone we could have sold to Citeh for £70 m for Mkhitaryan who we have eventually had to let go for nothing is the reason we are in the disastrous financial situation we are now.
And some on here criticise the competence of Edu !
Henry – welcome to CG’s world.
He can’t wait to see the back of Edu and points the incompetence finger to everyone currently at the club. What he cannot get to grips with is that his beloved Wenger was the root of the current problem aided and abetted by Gazidis . But Wenger and Wenger alone was the chief culprit in making appallingly bad transfer decisions and we’re still paying for them now
HR “””Give Edu a chance CG you sound more like a S***s fan every day””” I do not give people who are patently useless a chance. I could tell after 15 mins and in his first press conference , Emery was a clown. I could tell after 15 weeks ,that Raul was a Wrong- Un. Its called foresight. And off course, I was right on both occasions. And I will be right on this pillock too. Its not just me , that thinks Edu is out of his depth . Tony Adams does to. So I am in exalted company.… Read more »
MARKO
“As per reports in Turkey, Mesut Ozil has interest from Saudi Arabia. I understand a Qatari club have also made an approach, but both offers are for him to leave #AFC this summer — which he currently has no intention of doing.Apparently they’re willing to pay him his full wage. What a fucking sponge”
He’s lucky fans aren’t allowed back in the stadium.
Fans like Marc will definitely boo him out.
I can phrase two things at least about Auba ;
He is a true and honest professional
Always seems to be in good spirit ..
A legend in the making ..
With Micki gone that’s what, £200k a week off the books? Great start, Ozil gone would be the cherry on top.
So Arsenal FC Website has confirmed that Mkhitaryan has left the club and
joined Roma.
My guess is that now this has been confirmed either Aubameyang and/or
Gabriel will be confirmed tomorrow.
Rate Mkhi for that, he tried his best when here and then when he wasn’t in the plans he looked for a continuation elsewhere over sitting on his arse with a greater income.
Great model to some.
Did somebody say Ozil has a somewhat legit offer? Oh man.. that would be Epic… Couple that with one or 2 more High quality signings. in the midfield .. and I would be a happy, happy camper.
CG
Tony Adams was a great player but as a pundit and communicator of everything Arsenal, he’s not so good.
Henry+Root/Northbanker
100% spot on.
Don’t think theres any question from moment Wenger chose NOT to sell Sanchez to Ramsay’s leaving on a free with Ozil’s mega contract wedged in the middle are some of it not the clubs darkest financially speaking.
Miki was a bit of a pawn in this, not to mention giving us Yo Pierre can’t fault his spirit. Just need Ozil to become a prince and everything will be in it’s right place.
Midwest Gun
Do you seriously believe that Ozil is likely to accept an offer from Saudi Arabia.
This is for a champagne footballer even worse than going to some outback in Siberia.
If the offer came from UAE or Qatar perhaps he might accept the deal.
Ozil is one weird dude, everyone knows he’s not wanted and most of the football people who are pundits can see through his BS- he’s just being a dick around the club.
Doesn’t he have any self-pride?
Why not go to a place where you’ll be adored and still earn the same wages?
He can have a clause that the Saudi club will provide a gulf-stream to transport him to his London home twice monthly.
Luteo, doubt it. He’s a bad egg, no top manager would tolerate his behaviour. We all know what he’s good at. Serge was bombed out and no one expected he’d be a world-beater.
Pedro I agree with you, the remark on Guen was a quote I was responding to.
Emirates
Ozil is a self-avowed devout moslem, going to Saudi Arabia may not be as bad as you put it.
Besides better players than Ozil have played in Saudi Arabia and the gulf states.
Sorry Luteo!
Do you seriously believe that Ozil is likely to accept an offer from Saudi Arabia
________________
ES… yep I do , actually… If he wants to play. He didn’t look like he was keen on sitting in the stands with an Umbrella shade for the rest of his career. Money was the big holdup. if that’s not the issue then .. I could see it.
Obviously, he would probably prefer Turkey.. which in my mind is basically Siberia of football too.
Graham
“””””CG Tony Adams was a great player but as a pundit and communicator of everything Arsenal, he’s not so good””””
I think he is an excellent pundit.
Says exactly what he thinks. Take it or Leave.No agenda.
Certainly better than the ghastly and unfortunatley ubiquitous Alex Scott.
zzzzz
Great podcast. Alex definitely your best guest. Agree with alot of what he says.
Dissenter
Ozil will be seen as a dick wherever he plays.
Supporters in Saudi are not stupid.
They know what Ozil is all about.
Word travels fast.
Merse /Adams/Keown could have been triplets.🧐👀🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕
Also martinez has earned the no 1 spot for the upcoming season and I think he’ll get it.
Some twitter accounts reporting that Gabriel has a dodgy knee. And that is reason for the delay.
The only thing missing from this blog is the ability to see posters’ comment history.
Should be fairly easy to implement, assuming the back-end/database has been built properly.
Other than that, it’s top tier.
Mkhitaryan signs for Roma.
£180.000 of wage bill.
Jamie
There’d be a few on here who’d get constantly pulled to shreds if you could check what they’d said previously!
I hate talking about money on here – since Stan came we never stop – but I gotta ask: how much has Ozil cost the Club in transfer fees, wages, medical expenses?
Must be close to £150 million
Divide that by time played, and he’s probably earned more in a minute than most of us earn in a week.
Agree about Mhiki at least he’s not one of those players content with sitting on his arse and not playing
eb
Add in the VAT and it’s at least £1,000,000,000.
I gotta ask: how much has Ozil cost the Club in transfer fees, wages, medical expenses?
Medical expenses? Fuck all outside of a few packs of lemsip a season
Sounds like Saudia Arabia not only league interested with Qatar in as well.
Regardless Ozil being one of the highest profile muslim players behind maybe Salah could make it just the destination for him. Could offer just the platform he seems to desire after his exit from German National side at surely the highest offer he’ll have to see out career.
Don’t tell me Inter Miami are offering that kind of deal.
The site has been crashing under the weight of traffic a lot recently, not sure people pinging it for 2017 database searches would be helpful
Christ can you imagine if we managed to clear Ozil, Miki, Sok and Kolas off the wage bill this TW?
That’d be over £35 million a year – crazy we’re paying out so much on 4 players who don’t contribute on the pitch when we were losing £20 plus million a year before COVID.
David Ornstein : Gabriel Magalhães has signed for Arsenal & is currently in quarantine, it’s just a matter of the club announcing it.
Pedro
” not sure people pinging it for 2017 database searches would be helpful”
Worried we’d find your posts eulogising Emery?
‘UNAI EMERY IS MY GOD’ is a part of my past I want to forget.
“Some twitter accounts reporting that Gabriel has a dodgy knee.”
Here goes CG on another rant about a new signing not being good enough / injured!
Pedro
Mate that’s why you’re supposed to drink Peroni and not Oat Milk!
“The site has been crashing under the weight of traffic a lot recently, not sure people pinging it for 2017 database searches would be helpful”
Fair enough. Happy to chip in some money via Patreon or whatever to help cover some of the upgrade/server costs.
Probably waiting for Gabriel’s quarantine to be over before doing all the necessary media
Jamie, that’s very kind of you!
Genuine offer, my guy. I’d happily pony-up a monthly fee too just because.
As said we don’t need access to past comments
It’s boring enough people dredging up history without making it easy for those boremeisters
Here’s to fresh thoughts and proper current analysis.
Paywall this beast Pedro… all further rounds on you.
Marko
You’d be one of those parents who doesn’t let their kids open their Christmas presents until after dinner and then the Queens speech.
If it’s done just announce the fucking thing.
//Come on Ozil, sounds like a great life for a retired footballer, just don’t think too much about their human rights issues and you’ll be fine. //
He will be fine. He is only bothered about Muslim rights anyway.
Marc literally everyone saying it’s done I don’t know why they haven’t announced it I’m just trying to make sense of it
Benrahma 25mn rumours picking up! Is he any good?
Marko
I’m not sure trying to make sense of how Arsenal operate in TW’s in a healthy thing to do.
Marko / Marc – I had heard originally they wanted a double announcement of Gabriel and Auba although given the weeks that have dragged on this seems thin. I agree that the whole thing has been clouded in mystery unnecessarily – the club need to treat the fans with more respect over this type of event than they do
I’m just saying I remember when Tierney, Pepe and Luiz joined last summer they had that video of them signing the contract doing the medical meeting with teammates. Maybe that’s the delay I dunno. But I get the frustrations
Northbanker / Marko
There is one thing that’s different about this season – no fans in the ground.
Maybe I’m being too cynical.
Pedro
But some of your 2017 posts were absolute GOLD!
SPAugust 31, 2020 18:11:49
//Come on Ozil, sounds like a great life for a retired footballer, just don’t think too much about their human rights issues and you’ll be fine. //He will be fine. He is only bothered about Muslim rights anyway
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-star-mesut-ozil-has-paid-for-11-brazilian-children-to-have-life-saving-surgery-10383835.html
“Here goes CG on another rant about a new signing not being good enough / injured!”
‘Bum Knee Gabi’ is the new ‘Crock Jock.’
While you’re updating the site Pedro is the technology here yet for a pay to slap feature? CG is going to make you a millionaire if it is, worth looking into.
Jamie needs to take lessons from that poster with the post graduate degree moniker.
That dude can dredge up archives posts within seconds to street fight on le-grove.
I will put a BOLO [be on the look-out order]on Edu if we sign Saïd Benrahma before fixing our midfield.
CG is a boring troll.
He’s not half as entertaining as Redtruth was.
The only way to get red of him is to ignore.
Dissenter
If we don’t make at least one signing to sort CM Edu’s not going to be able to go near the stadium on match day once the fans are back. His safest bet with be the Toilet Seat – they’ll love him.
Brits talking about Uighurs and Saudia is hypocrisy,
Chagos islands is as bad
Im telling you for free!