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!
Tony, I think the better question is ‘How many of these elite players want to play for Arsenal’ rather than ‘How many of those players will want to play for Arteta?’
I don’t think Mudryk had any influence on the decision by Donetsk to sell him to Chelsea over Arsenal and Bloom didn’t want to sell Caceido to us in January( I think with a degree of confidence that Caceido would’ve happily come to Arsenal and he still would).
With respect I think you’re projecting your views of Arteta onto these players. More than it has been for many years, Arsenal is an extremely attractive option for the top players and that is with Arteta or in spite of Arteta depending on your view!
Off to visit my mum for the day up in Market Harborough. Love going to St Pancras, lovely station, 55 mins direct. A lot of sad Leicester fans mind!
Interesting thinking about the press and Arteta dynamics. Try and get my head around that!
Harborough. Nice traditional market town if a bit twee. Some of the old red brick architecture is very pleasing.
Stay well lubricated on the train Bob! That’s what they’ve become these days for many people – mobile, intercity pubs.
I spent my formative years in the cultural armageddon that is nearby Corby. A town of 60K people at the time with no cinema nor bookshop and a disappearing steelworks. A new town which rapidly became an ex town.
If you’ve not already been, get your mum to drive you up to Foxton Locks (near Gartree gaol) which is a terrific feat of engineering. Enjoy.
Bob
Mickey Mudflaps had the final say where he went. Vlahovic was blunt in his wanting Juve over us. Buendia was another. Mikel has created a lot of negative optics for agents to use against Mikel and sway their clients elsewhere. It has nothing to do with my views of Arteta, it’s fact based on history. I wish Arteta was attracting Jude B and others of his quality, but he’s not.
Caicedo, Mac Alister and Mitoma and we’re cooking especially if we keep Partey. Midfield done for the next 5 years. Options there for 6, 8 & 10. Add a 1.90m striker (not Weghoust) who can jump like M Jordan with greater pace and we’re set.
All the above options fit Mikel’s football identity and the BHA boys can fill Arteta in how Brighton press so well as TRVL explained recently.
I’d get rid of Jesus with Zinchenko, they kind of worked, but not well enough to push the needle to winning titles. They were B level City players Arteta wanted to make into Arsenal ‘A’ level starters. In fact Jesus nullifies Trossard, so keep Trossard.
It’s where we need Arteta to be ruthless, as he always talks about at TW time.
Add a decent RB and LB cover for KT and reap Saliba for at least 5 years unless his back is problematical.
As for the press I learnt at an early part of my music career how they worked, where an old Fleet St ex music loving editor was a mentor for several years before his passing. The mechanisms I posted are correct where each paper have in house legal teams checking facts and wheat can and what is too close to the line to be sued if printed.
I think Arteta lives and breathes football and is a clean living family man, so that side of the press is what I’d call “Lineker” proof. Was he ever booked? Lineker’s biggest faux pas was shitting himself during a game. Literally. So, no, I don’t see Arteta front page of the red tops at all, and the internal leaks seem to have stopped. Unanswered questions remain, though, chiefly as to why ESR didn’t get game time – Arteta repeating what he did previously to Martinelli 2 seasons ago.
The club now feeds the press and hope that Mikel is constant in challenging this coming season. Winning gives the club press leverage. Start losing and the club loses its control of the narrative the press. The blogs bar LIR are keeping their coffers full from pro Arteta support, as Pedro does with his worn out formula he uses over and over again.
Whereas we have no formula or agenda other than wanting Arsenal to challenge and win and posting what we see.
At LIR we ask questions and make predictions that are sadly all too correct because Arteta is too easy to read.
Let’s hope our winning prayers get answered for this coming season.
Sorry Bob got distracted by Junior coming home. The London stations are wonders of architecture of the Victorian era. Nice part of the world Leicester and a decent Uni. When ever someone says they are going to see their mum I always think of the Maureen Lipman advert playing the Jewish mother and her poor suffering son, Malcolm. Cough sweets I think was the advert.
Not aimed at you, Bob, just that it triggers that memory of the advert.
with chatter centering around the notion that the Kroenke’s are on board for 4 priority signings, it’s clear that some players I suspected were in the shop window just might be staying put…at first blush I was quite convinced that Tierney, Nelson, ESR, Xhaka, Balo, Holding and maybe even Partey were out the door, but I’m starting to lean towards the notion that, at the very least, both ESR and Nelson will be donning the red and white come next season…if I had to hazard a guess I would say that we will target two backline players, one CB and a RB or LB, a midfielder and a forward, which would likely mean that we won’t be getting both Caicedo and Rice, unless the former is brought in to primarily play as a wingback
of course, all of this depends on a few things, like the re-upping of Saliba, the projected recovery time of Tomi and whether MA will give Balo’s camp some assurances about playing time…from a purely financial perspective, retaining a few players will be viewed by our administrative wing as a savvy move, rightly or wrongly, especially knowing that we will require more depth considering the added demands of the coming season
unfortunately our previous strategy of spreading the wealth, when it comes to our transfer business, hasn’t got it done, unless a revamping of the Wenger Cup model wets your expectational whistle…personally I believe that so long as we can lock up Saliba, I would splash the cash on two seminal midfield pieces, one DM and another more offensively-minded CAM, and purchase the kind of RB who can properly unlock Saka, then I would keep Balo, ESR and Nelson for cover in a variety of positions…let’s face it, with MA’s propensity to stick with his “best” 11, it would be stupid not to spend the vast majority of our transfer bounty on those who would become definitive starters, instead of being slick and trying to get 5 or 6, with most being coin toss propositions like Vieira
Tony, think Mudryk wasunder emotinal blackmail as 20% of transfer was going to Ukraine war effort. It’s a moot point as Chelsea offered more.Vlahovic to Juve not sure if that proves your point and Buendia. not sure ifhe’s atop player! Think you’re over egging the pudding!
TRVL – shock, horror I’m in complete agreement with your post!
Kroenke, funnily enough my sister and family have lived in Foxton for years. Have walked up to the locks many, many times.
I guess they were started in the early 19th century? 13 locks is it in total? All within little more than a few barge lengths apart. Last time I was there I took a short boat trip towards Leicester (I assume). It’s wonderful to stand at the bottom and look upwards.
It’s fascinating to imagine when it was a busy aquatic junction right at the heart of England’s canal network.
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.