Let’s keep our emotions aside for a bit.
ESR was injured half of his career with us, and we still managed to get Fulham to the line for £35m. That’s a very handsome fee if you are trying to offload a player who is not able to make into the playing XI and has been side-lined due to injuries. On top of that, Edu has managed to put a sell-on clause in that deal! Still sad to see our boy go though.
We made another £4m when we sold Mika Biereth to Sturm Graz earlier in the window. We have seen players whom we thought ‘very highly’ leave for free. 4m for a U23 player is a good business.
Nuno Tavares was a prospect when we got him for 8 odd million in 2021, he was used for some games but then we sent him on loan in last 2 seasons. His Marseille loan was an average one and the previous one at Forrest can be considered a disaster. Edu has shipped him to Lazio on loan for 6m with an obligation to buy if certain criteria are met, and have inserted a sell-on clause in case Lazio encashes him in future.
Lokonga couldn’t cut it at Arsenal. His loan spells were average at best. He is joining Sevilla on a season long loan with an ‘option’ to buy for £10m. If Sevilla decides to trigger that, we will reserve a whooping 25% on his future sell. I’m sure Edu managed that because Sevilla didn’t accept an ‘obligation’ but it’s still a decent deal for us.
Now, lets talk about Eddie Nketiah and what’s happening with our aim to sell him. Merseille agreed with Eddie on personal terms and the player prefer that move mainly because of De Zerbi and we have recently dumping our gross to OM. They came up with a £17m offer which the club and Edu deemed insufficient. They even had an improved offer if we go by the rumours but it still falls short of the £30m we are asking for Nketiah. Edu feels that’s the right price for a player having more than 100 appearances for one of the biggest clubs in the world and one who is side-lined because ‘we’ are just too good for him. We often talk about how the striker market is saturated and why it’s so difficult to get a prolific goal scorer. Nketiah will do well with any team if he plays consistently. I would not be wrong to say that he will make any of the bottom half Premier League teams better. We can’t ask the club and Edu to stick to our valuation of a player and then complain the buyers try to negotiate a much lesser deal than that.
We stick to our valuation, we put a sell-on clause if we think a player can do much better in coming years and we let the clubs know about that. It can go both ways, the buyer club gives up and agrees or they move on. We win sometimes (ESR, Lokonga, Tavares), we lose sometimes (Eddie, transfer window still has time). Sticking to our ask is what matters.
Btw, the reason why Edu is able to do it is, that, we are a much better team and the ‘players’ we are selling may not be good enough for us, but they certainly are more than capable of playing in a Fulham or OM side. We have seen him let go of Auba, who Barcelona sold for 12m to Chelsea a season letter, we have seen Guendouzi go for free when we could have made 30m off him, and we have seen some more bad transfers from our end. Edu is trying to put an end to it, and that’s a good thing for the club. If we sell well, we buy well.
Right, that’s me done. See you in the comments.
TRVL
The question there is “what’s in the mix”? Challenging for top 4 is a very different thing to being almost 20 points clear of 4th.
I think this season is going to be much tougher than the last 2 and our record against the top 6 or so is going to be nigh on impossible to repeat.
Rumours yesterday that we were ready to deal on Nketiah at £25 million – that’s a massive drop from the £45 we were reported to want. Our negotiating team really are fucking useless – Eddie was never worth £45 million and with the salary we put him on we were always going to have to take a hit on the fee but to demand £45 and then drop to £25 million makes you look weak, any other team approaching us for a player will take the view “make them sweat a little and they’ll bottle it”.
The only upside is if we do sell Eddie we’ve got to bring in a replacement.
Marc—I think we’ll once again battle for a top 2-3 spot, maybe even win it all, but only if others shit the bed…there’s several teams who should be better this year than last, like United, Chelsea and the Spurs, but I still don’t see them as title contenders…I’m not sure about Newcastle and Villa, as the former hasn’t done anything of real consequence this off-season, at least not yet, whereas the latter lost a few key contributors and I’m still not sold on their backline…in my estimation, it’s between City, Pool and ourselves again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from that 2nd tier, maybe the Spurs, entered the top 3 mix
it’s difficult to tell what impact, if any, managerial changes will have on either Pool or Chelsea…I’m far more familiar with Slot, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, especially considering what Klopp left in the cupboards…it looks like they’re going to run it back, as they retained the services of all their veteran starters from last season…I would suspect that next summer will be the official ushering in of the Slot era…Chelsea, on the other hand, is still a bit of a messy bitch, even though I think they’re rife with talent, if only someone could ever figure out their best 11, especially on the backend…this is what seperates us from the pack, as I think we’re the only ones who can compete with City from a defensive standpoint…if only MA cared half as much about the top of the pitch as he does about our end of the pitch, we just might have something here…that said, it’s been a weird off-season, as only United and Spurs have made a concerted effort to redress their most glaring deficiencies, which certainly doesn’t excuse MA for his shameful inactivity
as for Eddie, it’s clear that we misread the room when it came to his evaluation…now it looks as if we’ll have to settle for a loan deal with an obligation to buy in order to get anything near the 30M mark…I guess the only potential silver lining in that equation could come if Eddie struggles to produce and we come out of this mismanaged situation 30M richer…I do wonder though how that delayed payment might impact our ability to replace him with someone of consequence, as I’m worried that MA might once again opt for a less than adequate option
valuation
TRVL/Marc
It will depend on incoming players over the next 18 days. So far, nothing on the horizon that’s gathered weight from the many click bait stories.
If we don’t buy quality for 8 & 9 I see us crapping for a CL place. We will be right side centric again. Then the usual croc suspects will spend time on the treatment table as past mistakes are repeated again this season.
I think Emery might be up there as they have bought well and Emery is a winner; just look at his CV.
We need an 8 & 9 to win the PL. That’s my humble opinion.
Beating Lyon to retain the Emirate’s cup may well be the crowning glory silverware for our season before it starts.
We’ll see next weekend how were are going to perform and the next 5 games after.
apparently we’re contemplating a loan agreement for Kingsley Coman, who’s coming off a horrible season which saw him miss 21 games, due to a multitude of injuries, and who only potted 3 goals in 17 appearances…now if this were a few years back, I might think differently, but to do so on the heels of such an underwhelming season reeks like another massive MA overreach…top sides typically don’t take on season-long loans in the summer, especially for players on massive wages, 240+ per week, who are out of form and injury-prone…if this were to happen it should be viewed as the actions of an utterly desperate manager who can’t seem to convince anyone of consequence to drink his particular brand of Kool-Aid…not to mention, how does this sort of move possibly fit into MA’s “all-in” philosophical approach, as the priorities of the two parties involved could be at odds, should the player in question struggle for minutes or if he’s gifted minutes ahead of other more worthy in-house options…just more potential amateur hour late window nonsense by a manager who can’t seem to attract high end readymade talent without paying through the nose and/or offering up short-sighted, ill-advised assurances…now if Munich wants to eat half his salary, I would have a bit of a rethink, but we all know that’s never going to happen
TRVL
The alternative to that scenario is that we’re short of money / have issues with FFP rules which if correct beggars the question “why the fuck have we just spent £40 odd million on another defender”?
Marc
There are a lot of splinters at AFC. Out of favour players get them in the arse sitting on the bench and El B in his fingers from scratching his head.
Norg
I work in the Timber industry and have done in various guises for 25 plus years and would say to the average person I’ve had more splinters than you’ve had hot dinners but I don’t get close to the number of one of Arteta’s rejects.
the only thing worse than reaching for Kingsley, especially on his present wages and with anything more than an option to buy, is if we were to pursue another underwhelming Chelsea flop like Sterling…I can just see it now, shitloads of club-manufactured nonsense about their familiarity and about how MA might be the only one who could unlock this now erratic and overpaid forward…no fucking thanks…for the love of God, can we take Chelsea’s contact info out of our fucking rolodex
this summer is reminding me of the one when Wenger failed to understand the gravity of the situation and only purchased Cech, then LC pipped us for the title…it appears that we might be falling into the same false bravado trap that has plagued us in the past…fuck it would be nice if just once we learned from our past mistakes…clearly self-awareness isn’t one of our organizational strong suits…what a fucking shame
And another youngster exits to pastures new. How does Chelsea (and City) sell their surplus youngsters for a handsome fee and we get peanuts – could it be our sales team are monkeys.
“Sources say Coman, 28, is keen on making the move to Arsenal this summer but would seek assurances over his playing time at the Emirates”
it’s certainly no surprise that Coman would require assurances, but who in their right mind would allow a functional outsider to hijack their selection process…I’ll tell you who, a desperate man who hands out assurances like he’s fucking Oprah, except to Emi of course
Hi Marc
Splinters are bastards aren’t they?
I had one that got right under my finger nail the other day after nonchalantly brushing my digit against some 2×4. It hurt like hell and I was struggling to get it out for a few days. It’s an even bigger problem when age diminishes your short sight.
Anyhoo, I eventually relented and asked a typically reluctant Ms Kroenkephobe to get it out with tweezers. I’m usually OK at withstanding pain but christ it hurt for a while.
Gardening is also a guaranteed way to accumulate splinters. I usually keep a safety pin tacked onto my shorts and dig them and stray thorns out straightaway.
Ambarish – any chance of an article on managing splinters?!? Might be a good alternative to transfer speculation?
Marc – what is your top 5 of woods by the way (hard and/or soft)? Here’s mine.
5 Mahogany
4 Willow (howzat)
3 Beech
2 whatever iced lolly sticks are made of
1…drum roll… Balsa!
I know, I’m a real lightweight! Glider for Kroenkephobe.
KP
Oak? Lives for ages.
Rumours are that Marseilles have pulled the plug on the deal for Eddie.
KP
You could construct Kon – Tiki II.
KP
(1) nothing beats the smell of wet or burning cedar
(2) big fan of Scandinavian furniture, so I have several teak pieces throughout my home
(3) from a pure aesthetic standpoint, either a Monterey Cypress or an Acacia tree
Cheers
there’s a lot of media pundits who seem to be under the impression that we need to sell some more pieces before making any big money buys…not sure if that’s a real thing or not, but it certainly wouldn’t be a shocking revelation considering our manager’s druken sailor spending habits…when Kroenke loosens the purse strings he expects fucking results, like with the Rams, Avalanche and Nuggets…unfortunately our little project manager is the only one to not deliver the goods…this is why I was so pissed by the fucking Havertz deal and all those other half-measure/ill-suited acquisitions in the years prior
New post!