Well good morning my darlings. It’s Friday and I might be tempted to call it FriYAY in my first meeting of the day. That’s how vibrant I’m feeling.
Some news on website development… I am getting the comment section fixed. Very sorry it’s been so slow. Fear not, it’ll be sorted along with some design changes to make the site a touch more modern. I want to make it operate more like a substack so you can get access to everything in one place… and I can unleash the archive so you can see all the terrible takes I’ve had over the years. Thank you to all the people who mailed in to say nice things… to those who didn’t, I still love you, but the relationship might be broken. Conscious uncoupling could be the answer.
What could we possibly want to talk about today?
Err…. KYLIAN MBAPPE. Arteta was posed a question about him – and he did NOT deny that Arsenal should be in the conversastion.
This is balls out.
I like it.
BIG MAN talk.
BIG CLUB kind of rumors.
I don’t think we’d have the audacity to go anywhere near his salary range and I’m not sure our squad could handle the disruption he’d bring. But why not accept the rumor and the prestige that comes with it? It makes other players pay attention.
Personally, I love Kylian. But I’m not sure we’re a Madrid sort of club that can buy players at the very peak of their game like that. We do better mending the broken or picking off players that are on the rise. Kylian is in space attempting to land on Jupiter. Arsenal would have to deal with a player who complained his face was used to shift season tickets – someone whose body language can be painful to watch – a player who has been spoilt to damaging levels by a club that offered him a proxy billion to stay in the family.
If he does leave PSG, only Madrid could handle him. I think a Premier League club signing him on his current demands would be looking at a 10-point deduction by the end of the season. No one could handle £100m a year. It’s insanity.
Still, nice to be in the mixer, even if it’s nonsense.
The injury news from Mikel was mixed. My topline take is this: We’re probably not going to risk anyone against Burnley, but there’s solid progress elsewhere.
We are scoring loads of goals, so risking Jesus isn’t necessary.
Our midfield is banging, so why risk the extremely fragile Partey?
Zinchenko and Tomi probably don’t need to be called upon. Get some juice in their tanks.
The only player I expect to make an appearance in the next two weeks that no one is talking about is Fabio Vieira. Could he make a jump? Everyone has written him off, but he’s under the wing of Arteta, so who knows what is possible.
Burnley is a weird game. They play great football, but suffer because they have young boys who make mistakes. However, every minnow has a moment. If we take them lightly, it could be a tough afternoon. Nick an early goal, they might make life difficult.
Put it this way: It’s another walloping… or its an unlikely loss.
No in-between for me.
Right, short post from me today… it’s snowing and work is BUSY. See you on the other side.
xxx
P.S. Sign up to Patreon for the LIVE content tomorrow.
Before The Whistle – Arteta flirts with Kylian (Patreon)
With Pedro & @iJohnnyCochrane. Enjoy!https://t.co/gk2prJfmii
— LE GROVE (@LeGrove) February 16, 2024
First
Second
Where’s the competition?
Trophy 🏆
Europa
Who knows if Mbappe would/will come to us or not. It isn’t a straight 100m a year. I doubt he would need/demand 2m a week, and he would bring in a huge amount of additional revenue + massively grow the fan base around the world + make us more likely to win trophies and gain prize money. If RM are low balling him, it leaves a door open. Question might just be how big are Josh’s cojones. It would be a risk, but the Kroenke’s do not seem super risk averse. They are building up their assets quite astutely. Who… Read more »
Adidas and other sponsors could well chip in as well. Adidas would wet themselves to get Mbappe wearing one of their shirts.
Catching up on previous post comments. Genius benkind says: “Alvarez in my books has a bigger legacy than Saka currently.” ALVAREZ.. ….. LEGACY… lol get a dictionary. (I apologise in advance if English is not your first language.) Choosing Foden over Saka wasn’t bad enough for him. He needed to take it to a new level. A lower level. There is no successful manager, director of football or professional scout who would take Foden over Saka. None. If you said you prefer Foden here, I’m sorry to tell you that. I like Foden and Alvarez a lot, but Saka is… Read more »
Pedro has touched on the key point for those who think Mbappe is a possibility. If you pay out £100 mill in extra wages you have under Profit and Sustainability Rules to bring in a similar sum as revenue . Adidas might volunteer some but there is no way it could be structured by Arsenal.. And just imagine what that salary would do to a dressing room.
just because he could be a Henry mk II doesn’t mean we need to put a number 14 shirt on him
it would sell gangbuster but it’s not viable at all
In a dream sequence, Mbappe will lose patience with Real Madrid and make googly eyes at Arsenal. Wake up. Kylian Mbappe will not come to Arsenal in this window. I totally agree with Pedro that it was wonderful of our gaffer to “foster” the process by that statement of his, which adds to the reality that our star players have been buying in by renewing their contracts – a fact that the haters cannot respond to because they are blinded by rage and choose to move the goalposts elsewhere [8th/8th/5th or some other nonsense. We can’t afford him – but… Read more »
Arteta’s message was to other players we will pursue, and to our current players.
Arsenal is in for the biggest players in the world, so you are playing for a giant club right now. Anybody would consider playing our excellent brand of football.
Rice was the biggest player last summer. He chose Arsenal over Bayern and Man City. Arteta has always maintained since he took over, that Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. He is consistent.
There are absolutely teams that could make a 100M /year contract work but unfortunately, we’re a bit shit when it comes to all things commercial. For example, United and Barcelona absolutely have the business machinery to monetize the millions of FIFA players who are Mbappe fanboys despite only watching 5 games of football per year. Obviously, they’re dogshit right now so that’s not happening.
Real is the only realistic option. We need to learn how to make money before we’re in these discussions for real.
Josh should buy Mbappe and hire best marketing guy in sports to replace Vinai. Our marketing team is semi useless anyway.
It’s painful for me, but I have to agree with Nigel on Saka vs Foden and Argentinian Rat Face. Saka is class above. They play in wag better team with much better manager and not being massively overplayed by club and country.
great topic.
good!
ok!
hello!
yes.
why!