I’m gonna be straight here, if you call Arsene Wenger ‘daddy’, ‘papa’, or ‘father’ it’s straight up weird. What is it with grown men doing stuff like that? Do their friends see? What do they say? What would your partner say if they saw the tweet?
‘Frank, did you call a man who is not your father, ‘father’ on the internet?’
I wouldn’t like that question if it were true. It’s so very, very odd. Almost as odd as 30 year old Arsenal fans notstalgia-jerking about the good old days of Olivier Giroud like that was some sort of joyous period for Arsenal fans.
I was there.
It was not.
ANYWAY, let’s get right into the mixer.
NFTs for art, largely speaking, are speculative assets that propped up by extrememly rich people connected to some sort of larger shill. They talk of it being a decentralised utopia, when in fact, 80% of the market is owned by 9% of accounts.
I’ve worked in industries where a large part of my job is to see into the future, so I want these things to be credible, but it’s very hard to envisage a world in which it is mainstream to show off really expensive gifs that you personally own. I was actually with someone the other day that told me he had an NFT that 1) Was made by a fancy artist 2) Had a hard connection to a one-off special event 3) Meant something in culture. Do you know how they showed me it on their phone? They showed me the signed physical picture they had on their desk. Why? Because it’s more impressive than a gif on your phone.
Reality is catching up to them. Just as the Robinhood next-gen influencers have stopped stockpicking because stocks don’t always go up, people like John Terry and Michael Owen are now looking at handslaps and unhappy investors in their shitty NFT shills. Generally, you know something is broken when very stupid people start making their way into them. 1 in 3 collections are failing. Jack Dorsey’s original tweet sold for $2.9m dollars, it’s owner put it up for sale for $48m, it sold for under $10k within a year. Football fans seem to roundly reject anything blockchain shaped because they sense they are get-rich-quick schemes.
Overarching point here is that a lot of smart people went along with something that felt kind of nuts because… they didn’t want to be seen as old or dated. Why? Because some of us remember a time when the internet was written off as a fad, then it came at people hard and ruined a lot of reputations. We also remember a time when social media was palmed off as a trend, versus a new dynamic way to communicate, create, and trade (that would never go away). There were even people that were part of the clamshell phone mafia who couldn’t see a world in which and iPhone might succeed.
… so back to NFTs. The reasons plenty have sat on their hands on this one is because no one wants to be the NFT naysayer, only to end up like Steve Ballmer who said Steve Jobs should be ousted for his iPhone adventure.
There are similar ‘keep quiet’ groupthinks that go on in football.
Arsenal fans used to end any criticisms of Wenger with ‘Arsene Knows’, because his batshit crazy ideas generally tended to work. RWB to striker? Why not. Pires with talent levels of Zidane? Sure. Go unbeaten? Ok. Betting against Arsene was a fools game.
Antonio Conte has this power, people just put their head down and charge at the idea he’s going to be right, but if you look at what he’s doing at Spurs, it feels a little bit like being convinced that a baseball capped beaver playing a tamborine that was produced by a freelancer on a day rate is worth $400k.
If Arsenal’s summer looked like Ivan Perisic, Fraser Forster, Djed Spence, and Richarlison… I think there would be riots on the street. But no one will say it because Conte has had the magic touch in the past.
The Brazilian striker, who is priced at 60m Euros undoubtably has a lot of very interesting features as a player. He’s powerful, he has Brazil international levels of technique, and on his day he can be unplayable. But the man scored one more goal than Eddie last season in 14.6 more 90 minutes than our guy. It’s quite nuts that we’re seeing money going like that on a player that was very, very off his game this season.
Am I rejecting the next iPhone here or am I rejecting John Terry’s vision of a WEB3 future? We’ll see.
You know what else is interesting? Arsenal fans are very, very mean to young players. Unless they bang right away, we write them off like they are yesterday’s news. Nuno Tavares started the season for Arsenal very well. So well in fact we thought he could own the left-back position.
I stole this comparison from @M1_RAG3 off Twitter, because it’s striking. Nuno, on paper, has a lot of very fine attributes. Now, we know that data without the eye test is not the way to judge a player… but what data does allow you to do is understand there is potential there.
Nuno is like a badly tuned car at the moment. His body is too powerful and fast for his control system. But if you could teach him more calmness in vital moments and you could hone his decision-making, there’s no doubt there’s a player in there.
That is backed up by the fact Marseille and Atalanta are in for him this summer. Two clubs that know their way around young talent. What this comes back to for me is that we sometimes need to be gentler with younger talent. The Premier League is the hardest on the planet, not many come ready-made for the fight, but that doesn’t always mean it’s over for the player.
One young player that exited for non-footballing reasons is Matteo G. The Frenchman burned too many bridges at the club, particularly with the players, which is something people don’t tend to factor. Regardless of the childish antics, he had a great season with Marseille… but he’s obviously still quite burned by his exit because this is what he had to say about Bill Saliba.
“William now has Marseille in his heart, and I’m sure that he’ll come back to Marseille next season. So I’m going to keep pushing so that he stays with us.”
There are a few strands to this. Firstly, it’s a bit cheeky to put words in the mouth of someone if they can damage relations for the player. Secondly, in what world does Matteo think Saliba is going to turn down the riches and prestige of the Premier League to play with him and Kolasinac next season? Honestly, he should stay focused on his business.
Also to reference back to Arsenal fans writing off players early. Sambi Lokonga is one of them. I see people angry that we sold Matteo (because they don’t understand culture) because Sambi has failed. Give him time, put him next to the right midfielder, and watch him blossom.
Finally, let’s talk about strikers.
They are expensive.
Spurs are droppoing £55m for a forward that scored 11 goals last season.
Liverpool is about to drop £100m on a Benfica forward with 2 seasons of experience.
Haaland is joining City for a combined cost of about £250m.
Some Arsenal fans thought the club lacked ambition for NOT spending £75m on Alex Isak who scored two goals in 2022 and just 6 all season.
This move that we make is going to be very consequential and very expensive. The big question is how are we going to divide the money. Do we buy a Jesus and a cheaper striker like Scamacca that comes with higher risks. Or is Gabriel Jesus the man?
What is startling is that these huge fees clubs are paying seem to be going on players that have a high risk of failure. But, the one thing they all seem to have in common at the upper end of the market is height, technique, and goals. If the best tacticians on the planet think you need all of those elements, I do think it would be regressive if the tallest player in our forward line was ESR at the start of next season. We need to have lots of ways to score goals. It would make very little sense to me for us to over invest in long ball specialists if we don’t have someone that can hold the ball up and occupy defenders.
So let’s see where it goes.
Actually, one last point before we go. It’s quite interesting that anyone in the real world right now is looking at massive inflation, crushed portfolios, the tanking of crypto, and a beastly white-collar recession heading into dry land… but no one has thought about if this could affect football owners. When you are not funded by a royal family or an oligarch… do these outside factors impact the dollars? Stan K is a real estate mogul, things are teetering there, cost of capital is going up, it’s hard to build, office space is being rethought, will the headwinds impact how he’s thinking about investment at Arseanl?
Idle speculation, but our reality is we’re run by people that are affected by the actual economy, so worth thinking about.
I don’t get the nationalism tbh either China.
I would hate to see Mbappe shredding our defence for a decade in the PL and I am dreading Haaland inevitably bullying us for the next 10+ years.
Would much prefer them fucking off to Spain.
Still wake up in the occasional cold sweat with a Ronaldo 40 yard FK slipping through the Waiter’s fingertips on his near post.
If the superstar players are not playing in our jersey, I don’t wanna see them ripping us a new one… Not excited at the idea of facing Haaland and Nunez next season.
(Nunez isn’t a superstar yet obviously but the expectations are that he will become one soontm.)
Thank fuck this sleepy Nations League plague will be over by tomorrow and we can hopefully crack on with signings.
Imagine being a player and putting in over 50 performances in a long and tiring season only to be asked to play in a Friendly international league while you should be on a beach somewhere.
Raptora
Yup I forgot about his old man.
Raporta
Funnily enough I was reading about the Haaland Father and Son team this morning.
In February 2017, in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Haaland stated that “The dream is to win the Premier League with Leeds.”
His Dad, Alfie, was playing for Leeds and he was born there. Later Alfie played for City
Apologies WengerEagle, I hadn’t seen your 14:59
Marquinhos on dot com.
We have gone from being a mini French team to a mini Brazilian team within what 15 years ?
FB,
Yeah, I read that too. City might not be his absolute favorite team but he probably had a soft spot for them growing up.
Anyways, I agree that most time footballers just straight out lie when they say they’re joining their favorite team and how big of fans they were in their childhood years.
It’s very nice to see proof that they were/are actually fans of the team – like in Saliba’s case wearing our shirts in his younger years.
When other teams are announcing Haaland and Nunez, we have signed Marquinhos.
No offence to the kid, but someone needs to tell Mikel and Edu that even ‘present’ is important!!
Sid
And Ozil’s?
Tielemans has said he wants to move to win more trophies.
So he won’t be joining us
TR7,
Quite funny since Brazil had incredible generation when we were basically a French colony, while France has been booming in the last 6 years and we’ve decided to turn to Brazil.
Of course, if we are trying to predict another Brazilian golden generation and domination, we might be doing the right thing. Tough to say at the moment.
Apparently fixtures have been leaked and we are away to Brighton opening day, home to Leicester, away to wolves home to Newcastle
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/18870224/premier-league-fixtures-leaked-online-man-utd-arsenal-chelsea/
Hopefully the lad isn’t another Wellington Silva.
“Tielemans has said he wants to move to win more trophies.
So he won’t be joining us”
Is there an Emirates cup this year…?
You can be happy about selling Guendouzi but if you are happy about selling him for £9m then that’s a different story.
He was easily a £25m asset.
Firmino has an anti Arsenal clause in his contract.
Thast fixture list is brutal
We may start the season 4/12 points from the first four games
There’s still time to make the necessary squad adjustments
Next season is about a LARGE squad to deal with the unprecedented disruptions from a world cup in Nov/Dec and the FIVE subs per game rule.
We need a BLOATED squad, damn it
EPL transfer values for players tend to be higher than other leagues regardless and this has been the case for a long time.
Would Guendouzi’s ridicuous transfer value on transfermarkt when he was at Arsenal playing regularly be the same if he was a regular at Marseille at that time instead? The answer is no because EPL players transfer values are hyperinflated compared to other leagues.
The only exceptions are if you get an absolute obvious worldie playing in other leagues.
You take transfermarkt transfer value of players with a pinch of salt.
Everyone should know that.
Ah the “leaked” EPL fixture list.
Wouldn’t be the same without it.
Like clockwork around the same time each summer.
Liverpool are not going to give Salah that contract extension he is seeking for 400k weekly to match KDB’s salary at city.
Salah will be allowed to run down his contract and will get a 600k weekly wages playing for some Saudi/Datari club.
It’s shame that one of the best players in ht epremier league era won’t get compensated to match his status but such is the business of sports. They won’t pay a 31/32 year old those type of wages.
You Murican Ishola?
Never heard an Englishman called the PL the EPL.
I liked Guendouzi’s potential at Arsenal but fvck was he that transfer value that transfermarkt put on him at the time he was playing every week at Arsenal.
Conclusion = transfermarkt is bollox.
Some English call it the EPL like me.
I like to be thorough and complete Weagle in naming of leagues lol
Salah will get paid Dissenter.
Zero chance they let both Mane and Salah leave. Salah is just turning 30 which in the modern game and these freakishly dedicated pros compared to yesteryear is not at all old.
Its why I find the age cap of players over 25 to be so absurd as if 26/27 in the modern game isn’t still young.
Ishola
Reminds me of Pro Evo on the PS2 haha.
Fake jerseys and team names and pretty sure the PL was referred to as the EPL.
I think people who refer to it as just the Premier League do it at times to remind everyone it’s the best league in the world.
The Premier League. Numero Uno. Creme da la creme.
Whereas stating it as the English Premier League is only indicating that it is the highest league in England.
Not really.
I called the other leagues La Liga, Serie A (There is also a Brazil Serie A for example), Bundesliga (Is an Austrian Bundesliga) and Ligue 1.
More convenience than any overarching feeling of superiority.
WengerEagle the Salah story is a slap in the face for all those who genuinely and naively believe football is all about playing with your mates and staying loyal to the club. Salah is at the one of the top clubs who only last year were on for a quadruple but he wants to leave, why ? Because he wants more money. Don’t for one minute believe that Saka or any of the other youngsters feel any differently.
For those of you whom prescribe to our current organizational model, please enlighten me with your insights regarding how our present tactical and recruitment approach imbues you with such confidence about our footballing future….just so you don’t waste your time or mine please don’t speak to the fact that we’re building a predominantly youth-oriented team that will grow together and win things in 3, 4 or 5 years, as that’s totally counter-intuitive in the modern era…similarly, don’t say that it makes sense to spend a considerable sum on second tier players now so that we can somehow go after those… Read more »
The difference Weagle is that there are leagues called Premier League in other countries such as the jocks just up the road.
You gave the example of Braziian Serie A.
Well you would have to signify to someone what league you are refering to if you just called it Serie A wouldn’t you. Which one they would say Italian or Brazilian?
The actual EPL acronym is quite widely used actually if not someone saying the English Premier League.
Ah glorious day in sunny London
❤️
The Bard Anyone hanging their hat on Saka and ESR being incorruptible or immune to being tempted by a move to an elite club because they are Hale-Enders is delusional and drunk on Gooner Kool-Aid. It’s why I think that this project yute thing is more likely to fail as you are asking Saka and ESR to sacrifice a few years for something that is anything but a guarantee. The pros are only an ACL injury or broken leg away from all offers being pulled from the table and a footballer’s career is pretty short. Loyalty doesn’t exist in modern… Read more »
Ishola
Don’t think that anyone outside of Scots cares less about the SPL. It ain’t worthy of PL in the name and I am sure that a lot of Celtic and Rangers supporters would welcome a merger with England and to be put into the EPL just like in the NBA you have the Toronto Raptors.
I would love to see Rangers and Celtic in the “Premier League” english one that is because they are both majestic clubs but it is never going to happen. It would have happened by now if it ever was going to. Celtic though would likely never want to join an english league given their historical roots wheras Rangers would run to join the EPL. Celtic most probably the spanner in the works. And Celtic and Rangers are tied together. They hate each other but they need each other. They can never be parted so that means Rangers will never join… Read more »
Yeah Celtic and Rangers in England would be cool and can you imagine fervently passionate fanbases such as Hearts and Hibs in with an actual chance to win a league title again up in Scotland?
One of my best mates in School’s dad was Scottish and a Hibs nutter.
1985 is the last time a team besides Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish League.
Cardiff and Swansea play in the English League, so why not Celtic and Rangers. That said, I wouldn’t want that lot in London every few weeks 🙂
As said Weagle Celtic is the problem in regards both of them joining the EPL because of their historical roots.
The English police would not welcome Rangers and Celtic into the EPL lol. They would cause lots of headaches every other week coming down to England in very large numbers for the matches.
Look at this crowd in the stands. Rangers v Bayern Munich.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfqDjOKaws0
Ishola
I think people who refer to it as just the Premier League do it at times to remind everyone it’s the best league in the world.
The legal name is The FA Premier League Limited. It has never officially been called The English Premier league just like the FA has never officially been known as The English FA.
Latest two players to be linked are nkunku and savic as if
God I hate the transfer rumours
Terraloon
As said to Weagle the acronym EPL is used quite a lot if not actually saying the English Premier League.
I have never seen the acronym FAPL used at all.
English clubs many of them stopped playing Celtic and Rangers in friendly matches at their home grounds.
It was a money spinner for them but seen as not worth the aggravation in the end with the Celtic and Rangers hordes desecending on these English grounds.
We used to play Rangers in a pre season friendly. Always a good game with some spice
Tielemans has said he wants to move to win more trophies.
So he won’t be joining us – definitely won’t be joining the Spuds then.
Tielemans can say what he wants.
I don’t think he’s a top notch player to be expecting to join a club that are eternal winners and expected to win trophies.
But nothing wrong with him aiming high even if it is a bit delusional from him.
If it’s a genuine leak, those opening 3 fixtures are tough but not as hard as the season just gone.
That said, at least there is 8 fixtures in a row with no bullshit international break interrupting the flow after just 3 games.
That’s another small detail in a weird up coming season schedule wise that may have an impact.
How is it even going to work with the November WC?
How many weeks before then will the season be put on hold?
it will stop on the weekend of November 12 and resume on December 26.
Whilst instead of a summer world cup we have the Nations league.
The money men have to be paid i guess…
The season starts a week early and ends a week later this season, to accommodate WC.
Last fixtures are on May 28th.
Looks like the WC final is on Dec 18th. League restarts on Dec 26th. You would think any PL players playing in the final, or even the latter stages, will be given a couple of weeks off after.
So the top teams will have to make full use of those big squads.
Tolisso is an equivalent player of Tielemans and will be a free agent at the end of the month.
Had a bunch of different injuries in recent years but for no transfer sum and very capable, solid qualities it’s worth a punt imo. Could save the money we need for the other positions.
Jesus, Raphinha, Tolisso is better than Jesus and Tielemans.
Marquihos in.
I feel a lot of people are laughing at us now.
Edu and Arteta had better have a plan.
Or we could just get Bissouma and call it a day but at Arsenal nothing is done the easy way. Bissouma’s been asking to come for years now. He’ll give us midfield stability and freedom to our attackers. We’ll need to actually have dangerous players in attack though and someone to stop keeping them on a leash.
Tolisso is already on £115k a week and he has started 23 Bundesliga games since 2017/18.
Would be a disaster of a signing even on a free.
WengerEagle There is nothing haphazard about what you term ‘project yute’. It is well-though out, carefully designed and proceeding pretty much as laid out. So it is bizarre of you to presume that richerClubs tempting players (like Saka, ESR) with huge wages is an unknown pitfall. In fact my belief is that the opposite is the case: onward selling of players will be an integral part of the project. The reality is that Arsenal has no intention of competing at the top level with Clubs like City for players like Haaland – and quite rightly so. When it comes to… Read more »
englandsworst
even you must surely see the pitfalls of your rather nonsensical take…so according to you, we will be little more than a selling club who’s best chance of competing for anything of consequence will only come if everything works perfectly for us and all of our competitors collectively shit the bed…can you not comprehend the contradictory nature of your assessment??? maybe not, in that you have so severely tempered your expectations for our club that you clearly yearn for a day when the Wenger Cup reemerges with a new namesake
Omg the back and fourth with some of the posters on here reminds me of the playground as a kid let it go lads ffs
No thanks to Tolisso he hardly plays Ramsey is less injury prone than this guy
Mr.Serge
how ironic that you of all people would take such a holier than thou stance to the back-and-forth, as I remember very succinctly how you first introduced yourself to me and that was some grade A schoolyard childlike banter….maybe you should get off the porch before you tire too much from swinging your fists in the air(lol)
btw I do concur with your Tolisso assessment…even though I respect his skills, far too often they aren’t on display due to his injury woes…the last thing this team needs is more treatment table concerns
How fantastic would have been if Nkunku was playing for us…
People are laughing at us because we signed a Brazilian kid on the cheap?
I know that’s not true.
It might be cynical Arsenal “fans” to even be thinking like that.
raptora
now that would be a real show on intent, which unfortunately isn’t our MO
Nigel
We paid for the kind of player that should be dying to join us on a free actually.
And to add, someone who doesn’t help us in the immediate, and probably never will. We’ve had too many of these typof signings and they often never work out
there’s only one outstanding candidate left on the market i can see – osimhen. he is going to cost 80-100m but, given the craziness of the market right now, that’s the going rate. he ticks all the boxes for what we need i think and he has been consistently in top performers across europe for three seasons in a row now. imho, it’s time for KSE to step in and make that deal happen as a top quality striker would i think be a gamechanger for this team. if we aren’t prepared to do that then i would go for… Read more »
Andy.
Have you seen Patrik Schick?
And btw I think we could have gotten both Osimhen and Chukwueze after the U17 world cup but as usual, we fucked it up.
Osimhen is not an “outstanding candidate”
His finishing is worse than Giroud, his build up play is worse than Giroud’s and he’s not even that good in the air.
Andy,
How much of Osimhen have you actually seen
I’ve watched him play for Nigeria from the age grade level till now. There’s nothing outstanding about him.
Jesus for 50 million with one year left on his deal is a much better deal than Osimhen.
@Thorough
actually yes – schick’s numbers are insane. i’m surprised there isn’t more interest in him. would defo be a good alternative and likely a good bit cheaper than osimhen and better than toney/mitrovic.
@Dissenter
I haven’t watched osimhen much myself so happy to bow to your judgement on that but his numbers are outstanding and he is still very young. one of the very small handful who is consistently in top rank of npg/90 across major european leagues over past three seasons.
also, if you compare his all around stats to abraham, who would likely cost similar money now, he looks significantly better to me. i have watched abraham quite a lot and i’m not super impressed.
Osimhen
Abraham
@Dissenter
As i said, i think jesus is a fantastic all around forward, but not sure he is what we need down the middle. If we can bring him in as an option across all three forward positions for ~50m i am all for that. he is quality, as the stats also show:
ANDY.
Dissenter must be watching a different Osimhen I can guarantee you. I’ve watched this boy since his days in the U17 and he’s insane. Finishing poorer than Giroud? Someone is having a laugh.
And btw I’m Nigerian so I know what I’m talking about.
actually yes – schick’s numbers are insane. i’m surprised there isn’t more interest in him
Stickt just signed a new contract until 2027
Pedro you have no idea what you talking about regarding nft. Blockchain is the future of gaming finances stock market music etc . Also I think you know this and just shilling for money just like all corporate media.
Rollen
True, but in fairness to Pedro, he’s right the football NFT’s were a scam, just like the bubble, Ponzi, hyped bullshit of Bored Apes, Dorsey’s tweet etc
As you say, NFT’s have a huge role going forwards but the scams are being cleansed as we speak.
People talking about a terrible opening few games? 5 winnable games, guys, cmon we’re not Nottingham Forrest lol
Not saying they’re going to be easy at all but all extremely winnable. We should be finishing above all of those teams, why shouldn’t we be able to expect a win against them?
Any less than 9 points from the opening 4 games would be an underachievement imo
If we’re getting 7 or less points from those 4 games then fuck this season already
Scamacca supposedly being bid for by psg is surely bs
Mbappe on his mega deal, Messi, neymar, icardi, where does he fit into that?