Well, I took a week off from this excruciating heat and my hometown didn’t disappoint. For all the urbanization and industries, there is still some forest left and the breezes are better than the so called recycled, smell-nice air conditioners. We will survive but what about the next generation(s)?!
So, a lot has happened since I went missing. Man City has lifted the Premier League and will probably finish with 10+ points more than us. Newcastle has made it to the Champions League and the almighty Liverpool will most likely play in Europa. For Arsenal, we lost a golden chance to lift the trophy. Saka signed a much needed contract extension in the range of 15m / year, Martinelli, Zinchenko and Saliba were ruled out for the rest of this season due to injuries but are expected to join back before pre-season. There is a good possibility that Xhaka will leave this summer and The Athletic guys are linking us to Rice, Caicedo, Mason Mount and Gündoğan.
First thing first, after leading the table for almost all of this season, the season was ours to lose and we did exactly that. We threw away 2-0 lead against Liverpool and West Ham. We let Southampton score 3 against us at home and settled with one point. City beat us, which was expected, but these 3 draws proved very costly. Adding insult to the injury, we lost our last 2 games against Brighton at home and Forest away. It didn’t matter but the game against Forest was a prime example of brain fart from Arteta.
In a good news, Saka signed a 4-year contract extension that runs till 2027. He will be paid somewhere around 15million / year. Frankly, I don’t get the criticism of putting him into this salary bracket. He has been splendid for us whole season, had few rough games at the end but you can’t really blame the kid when he is being played every game and kicked and pushed throughout. My belief is that, if you buy a high profile player like Antony at United, pay a fee of 80m and then offer him another 300k/week, it’s not sustainable. We must understand that we are saving the need to find this 80m to buy a player of Saka’s calibre. This is also different to what we offered to Ozil. Ozil was past his prime, everyone knew he is only going to get regressed and it led to a situation where no one was happy. Saka’s case is different, so was Martinelli and if Saliba signs, I won’t mind if we offer him a 200k/week wage. These group of players are young, they can be the best player in their positions and winning ‘with’ them is more important than encashing them now and then bringing someone else hoping they turn out to be equally good.
We have some injury concerns, Zinchenko is out, Saliba’s back injury is taking time, Martinelli picked up a knock and is ruled out for the rest of this season. Not that it matters now, but hopefully they will all be back by next season.
It came out as a surprize to me when various media outlets linked Xhaka with Bayer Leverkusen. He is getting a 4 – year contract, and is almost a done deal. I don’t mind it, I have been asking for an upgrade to his position from god knows when, and if it’s ending in a happy way for both the parties, it’s a good thing. I must also applaud Xhaka for his service this season, he has made a lot of us eat a humble pie with his performance in lots of games. We mustn’t discredit him, he was part of a team that stayed at the top for more than 30 weeks against the likes of Manchester City.
So, whom are we getting? There’s been a lot of rumours, Rice, Caicedo, Mason Mount, Gundogan but I will keep this part for the next articles. Wrapping up for now, hope you are having a good week. If not, there’s a thing called mid-week beer and Wednesday qualifies for that.
Cheers!
https://youtu.be/9nUuOz4pdl0
Tony and Others
I give you Foxton Locks. Amazing piece of engineering.
Bob-complete agreement??? maybe I should have a rethink then LOL
it appears as if the Arsenal PR machine is starting to plant some not so favourable seeds about Saliba, as there’s some suggestion that he and his team are seeking a much larger wage package than what we presently have on offer…now it’s just rumour/conjecture at this point, but that’s how it usually starts, as we’ve seen in the past whenever a fan favourite might be on the outs
it seems weird to me that wages would be a stumbling block considering our propensity to overpay, especially when there’s no transfer fee involved, so I can’t help but think that this present impasse is intimately linked to MA’s maltreatment of this young blue chip defender…it’s likely why there’s been so many rumours about us investing heavily in the CB market and/or us buying a bona fide RB then moving White back inside
even more troubling than the cut-rate fee we would likely get for a player unwilling to re-up his soon expiring contract, is the fact that we could not only lose a potential generational talent, but likewise provide our excuse-laden manager with another built-in excuse for next year, as we have no like-for-like replacement on staff (no matter what his initial cost might infer, White is no Saliba) and anytime you add a new CB there’s usually a transitionary period
if the numbers being bandied about are correct, that Saliba has been offered 120/week, I would be insulted too, as it was clear to everyone, once he wasn’t on the pitch, just how important he was, so why would he take slightly more than our poacher for hire backup Striker…that said, I’m certainly not making light of the enormously ridiculous sums footballers make nowadays, I’m just speaking to the facts
to be frank, this whole back gig always smelled a little fishy, which isn’t to imply that it was fabricated, but in a world where load management exists and no players wants to unnecessarily fuck their chances of getting their bag, anything is fucking possible…I still think if this weren’t his contractual leverage year we might have seen him on the pitch much sooner, even just to test it out knowing full-well that with the season coming to an end there would be plenty of recovery time…furthermore, why would several other big clubs want to offer astronimical wages to a player who just missed two months due to a rather “mysterious” back injury…let’s remember since it happened there was all sorts of managerial chatter about his pending return then all of a sudden it seemed like a foregone conclusion that he was out for the remainder of the season…I hope I’m wrong, as it would suggest some more potentially serious internal problems, but I just feel that there’s much more to this story that has yet to be revealed
KP
The real beauty of Briton and there is so much beauty to be had all over the country. It’s no wonder the wealthy are looking for properties away from cities and urban dwelling areas. It wouldn’t surprise me if in 20 or 30 years the nice areas of Briton will be hiring private security to protect the area and people.
It’s the main concern I have for being semi rural in France with the migrant trails to Calais. Safety will be my prime concern and I’ll make sure that priority is well attended to by location choice.
TRVL
You have me at a disadvantage sir, as the Saliba story was going to be my post and you’ve covered it fully.
My only addition is should we be wrapping Saliba in a long contract equal to Martinelli or Saka’s? This can only be Arteta’s doing as Mikel has something against the lad with his previous dealings.
Saliba is an elite talent in the making, and elite enough to have helped keep us top of the league until he was injured.
Whatever is going on with Saliba the board need to step in and say to Arteta fix it with Saliba – Saliba stays.
I’d rather Arteta left than Saliba. As far as I’m concerned a settled back 4 who can play a back 3 equally well and seamlessly slipping into both during a game. That’s what Saliba brings to us and he’s still to get tp his prime. How many MOTM games was Saliba be toted for?
Nothing here makes sense as per usual coming up to our main TW.
Bob
Convenient memory lapse with Vlahovic, Bob? Arteta embarrassed himself trying to sign Vlahovic who kept telling Arteta he didn’t want to play for him or The Arsenal. It was cringeworthy. We dithered with Benuida and he flipped us the bird and went to Villa.
Artet’a’s transfer activity has been poor. Last summer has proved to be a train wreck as I’ve posted earlier. Zinchenko, Jesus and the in-3-years-time players – maybe. Edu and Arteta have flattered to deceive in the TWs and got rid of players he should have kept, such as Emi and Willock.
The click bait has started and the smoke is blowing in the wind; we just have to find the fires to get to the truth.
Something calm and refreshing to the ears in the meantime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPB-uMNS0to
One of the greats and cool version of Summertime. Great guitar picking.
Alan Parsons was a big influence on me as a writer and producer and engineer: Dark Side of the Moon.
The Alan Parson’s Project after Floyd was the band I most wanted to mix live but they never toured until recent years.
Some bizarre early albums led to more commercialism in their sound and productions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ZRGzx31iQ
Tony
“maybe. Edu and Arteta have flattered to deceive in the TWs”
They got rid of players by buying out their contracts or getting pittance for them. Who did they bring in that was a find and steal with the exception of Martinelly, Ode and perhaps Trossard? That is it for over 4 years? We got imbeciles running our TW business. Watch us loosing Saliba because Arteta decided it is a good time to negotiated his new contract with a year to go. I have to stop because I am so pissed and it is not good for falling asleep.
Good Night.
Found the magic to get all calmed downed. Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUNNRAdizz0&ab_channel=BobMarley-Topic
That is ending of the episode plus credits.
New post!
Kroenke, I think it’s six but I’m not sure what you mean by total.
Discussing Saliba’s future on LG. I think he’ll sign but agents know the clock is in their favour.