One of the biggest advantages of missing out on European football when you are a well-funded team is that you get a week between games whilst teams in European competition do not. Players are fresher, better coached, and less mentally fatigued.
Arsenal didn’t make Europe last season, one of the big advantages we hoped for is that our brand new young squad would get all of the above advantages, and hopefully, play some of the bigger more established teams after tiring European exploits.
Gooners, go to the fancy cupboard, pull out a bottle of the expensive stuff, and find the nice glasses. We’re celebrating the biggest win of the last decade… neigh, the biggest win of the CENTURY.
William Saliba took his DECISION to French national TV and he… is STAYING.
Oh my god, I honestly don’t know what I’d have done if had decided to quit, regardless, we can ALL rest a little easier knowing that the Twitter this summer is going to be a little easier.
So what did the BIG man say?
‘I belong to Arsenal, I still have two years left’
‘I will be back with Arsenal. I have played zero matches and I still want to show them my true face and have the chance to play for these fans and this great club.
I leave England for a few years and Liam Gallagher in #1? What is going on? Did he sing ‘You can’t always get what you want?’? No? Was that the Stones?
Well, that’s how I am feeling right now.
The winds of Ornstein seem to be blowing very hard in the direction of Arsenal making moves on Gabriel Jesus.
@via Arsenal.com
Well good afternoon my darlings, here we are, another week has passed, AND I HAVE NO SIGNINGS to talk about.
The Sau Paulo President has gone on record to confirm that Arsenal took Marquinhos off them and paid a fee rather than take the player for a free when his deal expired in July. The rationale was that Edu wants to create a flow of players to Arsenal from Brazil and good relationships mean more players come our way.
… I’m gonna say it, this seems very odd. It’s the playing equivalent of getting two yellow cards in the same passage of play. It might be legal, but it seems very weird.
My WORD Bukayo IS looking absolutely exceptional modelling for Queens brand Aimé Leon Dore. What I love about this brand is it is perfectly attainable for frumpy men in their late 30s that have creative hobby and enough money to spend $400 on a slightly altered hat. Bigger picture here… this brand is a cultural phenom, the fact they are using Bukayo in their work speaks to his growing profile off the pitch.
Back to Arsenal…
You can ALWAYS tell how Arsenal are going to play after about 2 minutes of a game. Can the same be said about a transfer window? Borussia Dortmund has made 7 signings and spent €60m… Arsenal? We’ve signed one player from Sau Paulo and we’re being sued by Wolves.
Spurs are making big-name signings, incredible to see them making moves, bringing in a 33-year-old from Inter Milan on a 2 year deal for £180k a week. What I love about these brand name moves is they mostly tank, but without fail, there is always a loyal army of people ready to call the move intelligent. The last two big moves of post-32-year-old players I can remember were Willian, who was fresh off the back of a very strong season at Chelsea… he tanked. But there were a lot of people saying he was a great signing. Then there was Cristiano last summer, who people were celebrating as a cherry-on-top title charge of a signing. He scored goals, but his declining ability to press cost United big time, and they had to drop out of the Champions League.
I’m struggling to think of many older players that drop into the Premier League from other territories that really bang? Thiago Silva is probably about the only one that is really registering? Even Lio Messi dropped a level when he moved away from a club specifically built around him. For that matter, Gini W moved there as well and didn’t really do much last season.
Spurs clearly going for the ‘blow it all on the last two seasons of a fit Harry Kane and Son’ strategy. I’m here for it. I hope it’s costly, painful, and lacking in fruit.
Another club that might be running into difficulties appears to be Liverpool. A top 3 side in the world, no doubt, but reality is this seasone they blew the fine margins in the two competitions that truly matter. Sadio Mane is moving to Germany because he has one year left on his deal and word on the rumour mill is that Mo Salah is being offered just a 15% raise on his current deal and he might exit next summer for free. Why does that matter? Well, one of their best players is leaving, and the other won’t committ. That is disruptive in any system. What makes it even better is they aren’t getting Coutinho money in to help keep the train moving when they’ve gone.
There are some fun stories about ‘nearly’ signings going around. Noa Lang, the exciting Dutch winger plying his trade at Brugge reckons we moved for him. That would indicate quite strongly that we are looking for additional output from wide positions, Lang managed 15 assists and 9 goals, he’s only 22 years old, would come at a decent price.
The biggest story about who we will be signing this summer still seems to be Gabriel Jesus, I think the Athletic say he’s the best pressing forward in the world. I understand that he is top talent, I understand that he’s won big things, I am just really worried that this move is one that you need a graph to prove out. I had people in the comments on this site saying he was actually really good in the air… listen, he scored 9 goals in 22 games as a centre forward for City this season, 4 of those came in one game, prior to that, he was trailing Lacazette for numbers. The season prior, he made 38 appearances as a centre forward and scored 12 goals.
What are the basics here?
He’s played a lot of a games as a centre forward
He hasn’t got a prolific scoring record at 25 and he regularly underperforms his xG
He’s exiting the best creative system in the world and coming to a very junior one
City has been trying to replace him for two season with: A BIG TALL STRIKER
Still, the summer is early, there are options on the market, let’s see where this goes and how we try and address our weaknesses.
Ok, before I go, Johnny Cochrane has pulled together a special piece of Patreon exclusive content. He’s talking about the top 25 Arsenal players of all time. He covers off 5. Jump in and enjoy.
Become a Patreon below and enjoy the work. Johnny made actual slides. Your contribution is worth it for that alone.
Well good morning to you ALL this morning.
Some fairly mature news dripped out yesterday, Benny Blanco has pulled out of England duties so he can deal with the injury that plagued his game for the back chunk of the season.
The England man had a very strong start to his Arsenal career but he really lost his way after his England call-up. There were stories that he’d be carrying an injury during the United game when he looked out of sorts and that ended up playing out as a wider problem. He managed to survive a season under Bielsa, a whole season under Brighton, but we broke him in the end.
I know I’ve spoken about it a lot, but Mikel Arteta really does need to focus on rotation next year, I’m quite concerned that he’s let Shad Forsythe exit the building. The American really did lead the club in a much more positive direction when he joined the club, he’s one of the best in the world at what he does, and I worry that Mikel Arteta will use the exit to bring in a 14-year-old Spanish kid that he can put under his control.
So Liverpool’s season ended with 2 domestic cup wins. An incredible achievement. My first ever Cup Final experience was Arsenal vs Sheffield Wednesday when we won the cup double in 1993. Klopp and his team of heroes stand tall with the heroes of that era that set the standard we now see today.
It’s tough for Liverpool, they are getting bantered off the internet today, people have been keeping receipts, waiting for their moment to strike.
… and it’s been brutal.
My man is starving https://t.co/z27gs5cesw
— ksi (@KSI) May 28, 2022
Michael Owen was insistent that Liverpool were still the best team in Europe despite not being able to win a cup final in open player or score a goal in 5 hours worth of finals.
When it comes down to it, sport is won in the margins, you can be legendary or a fraud on the flip of a coin. Right now, everyone is poking holes at Klopp complaining about Madrid’s keeper being too good. All the psychoanalysts peddling ‘hugs, kisses, and planning’ being the difference in the FA Cup are struggling to work out how a 10-a-day manager accused of being too casual at Bayern and lacking tactical rigor could roll into Saint-Denis and shithouse a supposedly much better Liverpool side.
Liverpool go from QUADRUPLE LEGENDS to the team that blew the easy run to the Champions League final.
They go from indestructible heroes to looking like a group that might be about to look decline in the face.
The average age of their starting 11 is about 29. Injuries have been kind to them. It is going to be very difficult for them to replace with the quality they need.
Sadio Mane is already signaling he wants out. Mo Salah still hasn’t signed a deal. The best sporting director on the planet has quit, likely because he knows Klopp wants to control the rebuilt now he’s king.
The dip might not come next season, but I’ve no doubt the Arsenal team are looking at where our squad is now, hoping that when Liverpool drop, we are there to move on them.
What I did hate last night was the disgraceful treatment of English fans. The behaviour merchants are out in force, but there is simply far too much evidence from actual media people with cameras to put this one on the fans. The French police are brutal, they don’t even save it just for the English, they aren’t good to French away fans in general. But the idea that you can have a ticket, turn up to the ground on time, and be told to just fuck off, then get pepper-sprayed should be a scandal of the highest order. It was absolutely horrendous to hear that gangs were picking off fans after and stealing their phones and money. If that happened in England, it would be a global news story, but when it happens in France, it gets brushed under the carpet until the next big event when they do the same thing again.
Dortmund has signed 6 players already.
Why are they so good at getting players in the door early?
Drives me up the wall.
Arsenal needs to shift players this summer regardless of the clear bank of cash that has been made available.
I would have put Ainsley there, but for me, he should be offered the chance to be our right back again next season. He has the mobility, the power, the technique… he just lacks the right attitude sometimes. He also needs to be given the opportunity to be right back after he refused. Part of good leadership is to always give people a way back if they change.
Benfica is apparently in for Bernd Leno but they are swerving at the £8.5m fee we’re looking for. That is a keeper that cost us £25m, has been a German international and is definitely Premier League standard. Edu really needs to start shifting bodies for actual money this season. The Mavropanos fee was pitiful considering the talent as was agreeing to sell Guendouzi before we saw how good he’d be at Marseille.
Every penny counts, let’s not have a summer of giving away players for nothing.
Still, at least there’s a structure in place at Arsenal and our recruitment, in the main, is about 1000x better than it has been. Everything is mapped to a footballing philosophy and a profile.
United? They hired in Ralf Rangnick, who tanked on the coaching side, but the fear was he’d be allowed to rebuild them… and rebuilding clubs is what he’s good at. Well, he’s out the door. He came in, saw that it was a shitshow, said as much, and that’s that. He’d prefer to manage Austria. United, by far the most reactionary club in the world, has said goodbye.
Like, what are they thinking? I swear their biggest issue has been catering to the Twitter accounts with the little numbers and the Paul Pogba avatars. Who picks up the recruitment? Are they putting it on Ten Haag? Are they bringing Marc Overmars out of his scandalous cancellation? Or are they just going to expensively wing it again?
Whatever their plan is… it doesn’t seem like it’s in place as of now, so that is another challenge they’ll have to overcome.
Bigger issue for them is what they do with Cristiano and Fernandes who don’t really seem like ideal candidates to play the sort of football Ten Haag has been known for.
ANYWAY, why don’t you jump into some content below and sign up for Patreon because we are doing some EXCLUSIVE Patreon content tomorrow about transfers and things.
Should be cracker. Thank you to those that have signed up already. You are all amazingly generous. x