A boring couple of weeks since I have nothing to watch in internationals, so what do I do? I open a discussion about the changing scenarios of football transfers. Real Madrid are pursuing Trent from 2 years now and they would finally get him in a couple of months for FREE! There was a year long tussle between the PSG management and Kylian Mbappe and the club had to let go of the best player on the planet for a fee of ZERO EUROS. Erling Haaland transfer to Man City from Dortmund was a fair one but he recently extended his stay at Manchester TILL 2034! On a salary of half a million GBP per week. That’s bonkers but if you don’t tie up your best player, you will eventually end up in the situation which PSG suffered with Mbappe and Liverpool are going to suffer with Mo Salah.
Lets wrap our head around this a bit with an Arsenal player. William Saliba’s contract is set to expire in 2027, 2 years and some change. Real Madrid has been interested in him from some time. A club as big as Madrid has a great pull and if you ask anyone, they would feel privileged to play for them. But, that shouldn’t be on the cost of the club that invested time, money, games, medicos in your development. Saliba can ask the club to pay an exorbitant wages, which we will do eventually or he can run his contract down, and the club who should, in a fair deal pay 100m to us, will wait and give a part of that 100m to the Saliba. That’s win-win for the destination club and the player. The club in loss would be Arsenal. That’s exactly what is happening with Liverpool.
Ok, they mismanaged the contractual situation but I don’t believe that Liverpool didn’t sit on a table with either of Trent or Salah and I would also not believe that they didn’t offer a very good contract. Players know they can force the club to pay them huge sum per week or they walk out free and earn even more somewhere else.
Mbappe had set the trend. PSG is a very powerful club with no need of any money. PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi tried his best to sell him, keep him, play him, bench him but he didn’t succeed. Mbappe knew he is too big to be benched, and he ran his contract down on purpose. I am not saying he might have bumped into Madrid’s president on a morning walk and might have a word or two.
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How to deal with this?
I have no fucking clue! Chelsea’s attempt to tie up players on a 10 years deal looks the best option (although they are doing it for a different reason) but it comes with another problem – a player who is not performing, or is injured, or don’t want to move will visit the club every Friday for his check and play Fortnite for the rest of the week. Remember Mesut Ozil?
I was against these 10 years deal but if Haaland played for Arsenal and after the Mbappe incident, I would have cheered that deal. There’s no other way, not one I can think of.
You got any? Comment section is open for discussion.
Hi Ambarish
This has been an issue since the Bosman ruling 30 odd years ago – the problem with putting players on long term highly paid contracts is you can’t then move them on without paying them off. We paid Auba’s contract off he then signed for Barca who sold him 6 months later for best part of £10 million.
The only way to deal with it is to have seriously good right wing mother fuckers running the club who understand football – no sentimentality a player (unless they are fringe / squad players) gets to 2 years and they’re sold they refuse to sign for another club they’re not only benched but dropped from the team and not allowed to train with the main squad.
Our problem is its not only Saliba whose contracts up in 2 years – its Gabriel, Saka and Martinelli as well.
We could theoretically end up losing both of our CB’s and both of our wide players (3 of whom are in the list of our very best players) in a very short space of time.
Interesting piece Ambarish as transfers are our biggest fear with our club after the MA fiasco buying his pets he can control or pander to their whims as with Rice playing 8 when he should be building the team around him as a DM.
Marc
That’s interesting about your ticket not being snapped up. The ST holder I met on the Thai Airways flight who said the singing is less before the game at home games was also telling. Could be fans outside LIR are becoming more disgruntled. I hope that is the case and MA is on borrowed time, but fear as long as we maintain Champions League, KSE will be happy with the income from 2nd or 3rd and the CL income.
I feel KSE is just in it for the super league, and biding their time, so long as they stay in profit
However, if we lost the players you mentioned in the last post and MA continues on his ‘pets r Mikel’ trend, then I imagine all hell will break loose with fans baying for Arteta’s blood, as they did Wenger in the end.
Younger managers in the PL are showing MA for the fraud he is who would jump at the chance to manage our club.
Nuno Esprito is one of the more experienced PL managers who is proving his worth at Forest, putting together a team of players on a tight budget, instead of collecting the odd star and second hand cast offs.
It’s going to be an interesting summer I think, especially if our CBs and wingers don’t add years to their contracts.
Fulham looked out of sorts today, so we should get the 3 points at home midweek, shouldn’t we?
RM are in. Strange state at the moment scraping another home win against a lower table side.
That seems to me their MO at the moment playing to the adage of “it’s ok we’ll score more than their opponents” and leaking goals.
I see PSG beating RM and Barca, but not us as we need players who can score regularly unlike pretenders who need 3 guilt edge chances to score we have now.
We are in the “dare to dream” mindset in the CL and only having nightmares.
Marc…and I nearly missed your pithy comment on the last stream about (right wing) Labour and the economy. A bit odd considering how much of your bidding they’re doing by fucking disabled people and reintroducing austerity. But a simple two word answer is sufficient for Tories claiming erroneously that Labour is not their agent.
Liz Truss.
Surely they’re doing a better job for you than her and that Uncle Tom, Kamikaze Kwarteng?
Or has your reactionary brain become so addled from Daily Mail reading that you forgot what these two ugly Tory cunts did for your mortgage? Starmer and Reeves are almost equally ugly Tory cunts. You should be happy if you can just forget about the fake labels
Ambarish
After El Bastardo tried to wreck Saliba’s career, the latter hardly owes the former any loyalty does he? If Saliba stays, great. He could be the next David O’Leary or Tony Adams.
If he goes, then for fuck’s sake, Berta needs to get a massive fee for him. Either option works for me. We’re no longer in an era where loyalty is regarded as a strength. If anything, it’s seen as a weakness.
Saliba was always on a career trajectory that was destined for Madrid – what should have happened is a competent manager not trying to fuck him over and then winning titles that would have kept him for a couple more years.
We’re now in a position where we’ve got people sniffing round both Gabriel and Saliba – replacing both would be a massive task and it could set us back years.
My personal feeling is Arteta’s signings are generally over priced and average / poor – the exceptions are either the no brainers like Rice (everyone knew he was a good player) or early on in Arteta’s reign when my guess is he still had Man City scouting info to lean on.
Odds that Arteta and Berta are soon falling out?
Ambarish been witnessing Arsenal s players business from the time of Wenger. It’s started going pear shaped from the time David Dein was ousted. He had the guts to sell Anelka when he was at his peak and got a good fee. After that Arsene struggled to let players go and held on and lost fees.
In my mind it’s clear that if we don’t win any trophies this season the this batch of players will get twitchy and it’s the best time to sell them get a good fee a invest back in squad.
Martinelli, Saliba, Gaby M, Ode are prime candidate in my mind. Get a monster offer just be bold and sell. If we win something then extend their contract. If they don’t then sell them. There are plenty of players around the world and you just need a good scouring to get them. Saka, Ethan and MLs are sentimental and so hold on to them. Integrate other academy players. Just be bold.
“Berta emerged as the leading candidate for the role following the departure of Edu in November” vs. “Berta became a serious option after leaving Atlético Madrid in early January”
I don’t think a single honest word has ever been spoken publically since MA’s arrival at our club…it might seem like a minor matter, but when you can’t even provide an honest account of one’s origin story, what are the chances that anything following will contain even a modicum of the truth…it’s quite sad really
all that said, I don’t want to pile on to our new DOF too much until he’s been given a proper chance to dispel all my cynical notions…so here’s hoping that we actually follow our obvious transfer brief for fucking once come the summer!!
Ambarish—we’ve entered the age of player empowerment, especially at the top of the talent food chain, so either you meet their respective demands or they will threaten to run out their contracts and leave on a free…I think it’s important to note that these sort of practices were simply a logical reaction to the previous eras when the unfair practices of ownership dominated the proceedings…if it weren’t for the involvement of those money-grubbing weasels, the agents, this might have been viewed as a well-intentioned reversal of fortunes gig, unfortunately the victims, as per usual, are the fans, who will pay the price regardless of what ultimately transpires
the Mbappe situation, albeit somewhat anomalous, speaks to the potential dangers on these newfound player empowerment practices, as PSG appeared to have no viable remedy…without the players consent, he couldn’t logically be moved and, of course, any claims the player made regarding his future at the club aren’t legally binding…as such, all the contractual tools at the club’s disposal, such as the player’s inability to have “no trade” clauses, unlike other sports, and club-friendly release clauses, provided them with no financial relief…I would suspect that the more players run out their contracts and leave their existing clubs high and dry, the more owners will insist that protectionary measures be baked into the process…as we’re well-aware, especially in this day and age, Billionaires tend to get what they want, so I would think that the situation will be remedied, to their satisfaction, in the next year or two…Cheers
dangers of these
Andrea Berta is here, and Ornstein reporting that he is an admirer of Victor Gyokeres and that the club is showing great interest in him now.
Isak is attainable now. I am all up for Victor.. it would be a good signing.
Ambarish—I don’t have anything personal against Viktor, but I would much prefer Isak, as the former wouldn’t require MA to make the necessary tactical changes, whereas the latter would allow us to counter with pace and provide our wide side players with considerably more space in which to operate…I’m still not convinced that we’re actually that serious about pursuing a top-end Striker and I wouldn’t be shocked whatsoever if we opted for a much cheaper option on the secondary market…presently I’m far more concerned about what will happen with Ethan once Saka returns to action
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/30/english-football-mascots-quiz
Very proud of myself for getting 12 out of 15 in this very challenging quiz. I’ve seen a few of these furry cunts at various grounds over the years including the cuddly Boilerman. Have a go and let us know how you fared. Better than thinking about el Bastardo at least.
Hi Vieira
I fully agree about AI over VG. Vast difference in quality. I assume VG is AI’s perpetual understudy in the Sverige national team.
Equally importantly I don’t like the sound of the word, ‘Gyokeres’ when it comes out of commentators’ mouths. A bit like an aural prelude to that first reaction when you’re vomiting after too many lagers…
Why would all of you want Arteta to sign Isak – he’d only play him as DM or LB!
Marc
El B would play AI in goal – he is 9cms taller than Raya.
Dear gooners been reading a bit about our new DOF and what stuck me apart from the fact that he is not the boss of Arteta but other way round is his inability to speak English.
Why is the important ot stuck with me is this. Arteta and Berta will converse in Spanish and Berta will never give a press conference/interview with English press which means that it’s Arteta all the way as the voice of club. We had Edu who spoke a lot and we will now have Berta who will hardly speak perhaps as clubs voice. Even if he does it will be to the Spanish media. How does that work? What a bizarre power play from Arteta. In this day and age an international clubs DOf doesn’t speak the most spoken language in the world yet manages to get a job in a London club. This has to be the most bizarre and controversial hiring?
Meanwhile myself earning a years salary which would not be even close to Berta weekly wage will have to prove that education was in English and I can speak English when I try to get a Visa. This is even after I spent my entire life talking in English and completing my engineering in English. Worked across globally for 27 years when I apply for my Points based Visa I will have to get a certificate from a UCAS that my study has been in English and that iam proficient.
What bizarre world we live in.
Madhu
Thanks for that. I’d substitute the word bizarre for hugely inequal…and getting worse. Berta might struggle in that case if we’re looking to sign a player steeped in English football culture, like this kid called Dibling at Southampton. Lack of language may not be an a real barrier but the optics are important.
That said, I grew to strongly dislike Pedro when he used Emery’s less than perfect English to criticise him. All that Good Ebening shite. I pulled him up on it and called him a racist. His reply? He couldn’t be a racist because his girlfriend was south American. An utter twat.
Berta looks like a cross between a fruit bat and a Shakespearian villain. If you put him in a black velvet suit with a big doily round his neck, he’d be a 21st century Iago, plotting to bring down Othello.
I’m not surprised though to read that Stubborn el Beelzebub will still be calling the shots. He must have some very compromising photos of the Kroenkes being pissed on by Russian prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. Just like their boyfriend Donald Trump.
KP
You can certainly conjure up some very colourful descriptions of Stan and his admiration of a clown. Matching songs to your description ‘ Look at the fool ‘ Tim Buckley.
“Berta was responsible for some costly misfires, including Joao Felix for £113million, Alvaro Morata for £58m, and Diego Costa’s return for £57m – only for Costa to manage just 12 La Liga goals across three seasons in his second spell at Atletico…He also splashed £63m on Thomas Lemar, and allowed talents like Toby Alderweireld, Diogo Jota and Theo Hernandez to leave for what, in hindsight, were bargain fees”
methinks two peas in a pod…pray to God I’m wrong, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that this man was the DOF for a club which was the functional equivalent of Arsenal in La Liga during the Wenger Cup era and beyond, minus the obvious tactical differences(until MA’s bully-ball approach earlier this season)…the only thing worse than playing the beautiful game, without the necessary backing, and settling for a top 4 finish, is the possibility of playing blunt instrument football and still winning nothing of consequence
Nice one NORG
I’m just not getting a positive vibe about Signore Berta. He’s an underwhelming choice and if the set up is that he’s subordinate to his Royal Stubbornbastardness, then it flies in the face of how that DoF -Manager nexus ought to work. As I said a few weeks ago, I can’t help thinking he’s a BIC pen holder in a flashy suit. A contract guy, not a spotter of footballing talent.
How did you all get on with that mascot quiz by the way?
Jimi (sic) Gower on the bench tonight. In my ignorance, I have to say I’ve never heard of him
Great vision making descriptions KPand very worrying info on Berta’s previous big buys.
Doesn’t install confidence so back to a time will tell worrying period.
We should be too much for Fulham when th the extra test we’ve had being out of the FA cup.
Rest
the break has been so long there should have been a transfer window in between matches
If the same Fulham side who faced Palace in the FA shows up this should be a cake walk for us
I still think it would have been best if Ethan got a shot in the middle of the pitch before Saka returns to the starting lineup, as I’m concerned that he will become an afterthought in short order
It still amazes me that the Traore experiment has failed so miserably considering his size and speed