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.
we can ill-afford the loss of Gabs with our CL matchup against Real on the horizon
I can’t remember the last time I saw Fulham play without Iwobi in the starting 11…not that it matters
6 years and we still can’t play football against a low block. A lackluster display from us.
Did big Gabs warm up properly especially without first team football or was he on international duty with not enough rest?
First real sprint and he pulls up. Seems strange to me and a big loss for the RM game.
maybe Timber should have been held out of this one considering the minor injury he encountered during the break
Ambarish—it’s difficult to play against the low block if you don’t have a clinical finisher up top or anyone, minus Ethan, who can truly snipe from distance
TRVL
What about Merino?
Yep, that’s why I’m excited about Berta getting Gyokeres to Arsenal.
how fortuitous was that…if it weren’t for the deflection that was going to be a Havertz-like baby shot straight at the Keeper…good on both Timber and Ethan though
Ambarish—be careful what you wish for because Viktor doesn’t change MA’s tactical approach…of course, he’s a better option than either Merino or Havertz
Ponderous usual game by us with a lucky deflected goal that was covered by Leno.
Need a much better 2nd half. Hopefully Saka can light things up for us with Ethan moving to false 9
Fulham is basically useless if they can’t counter with pace and numbers…Silva’s tactics are so dire in the midfield that ESR might walk into the wrong locker room…it’s the battle of the borefests…at least Silva can say that he didn’t pay almost a Billion dollars to produce such drivel
Tony—totally agree regarding Ethan…if you’re not going to allow him to attack defendeers out wide, get him into the middle of the park where he can create chances for himself and others
defenders
TRVL
Par for the course taking Nwaneri off. What a prick Arteta is.
Saka’s back
Saka’s such a class act
just wish we could have Saka come on and Ethan remain on…this team needs every ounce of goalscoring ability on the pitch at all times and there’s no one close to those two…that said, it’s great to see Marts putting in a performance today
Fulham were poor against Forest and even worse against us. Everton won’t roll over as Fulham is tonight.
Martinelli ‘s back heel was the class need for such a dire cross from Merino.
Timber should have come off much earlier, especially with Gabs going down
That just sums Fulham up any other team scores not least RM?
Martinelli motm for me
Just think Martinelli as 9 with Ethan false 9 Saka and Tross on the wings we’d have a very different attacking strength
Tony—if I knew from the onset that Rice was coming here to fulfill his misguided goalscoring dreams I would never have backed such an option…personally I would much rather have Merino play the 8 hole, as he’s way better option in and around the box than Rice
TRVL
Couldn’t agree more 8 is Merino’s best position but below the level we need to win top honours.
That’s what you get with an incompetent myopic manager
Everton will be a tougher opponent at the weekend. Will MA rest players for the RM game?
Thank fuck Fulham missed the open Gail earlier.
Now e have to put up with MA’s diatribe post match
No doubt…if Muniz hadn’t gone full-Havertz on that open header we would have lost 2 points against another offensively-stunted side…cynical managing on the part of Silva…it’s like he circled this fixture as a loser as if they’re a reletgation-threatened side…you can’t do that shit if you’re in a position to make a push for Europe…he’s like MA with a mini-pompadour
goal, we
Another match that goes in the win column but was far from routine and could easily have ended up as a draw.
When we look so toothless up front what does Martinelli have to do to get a run out through the middle?
Great to see Saka back and fantastic for him to get a goal but I have a feeling Madrid are going to tear us a new one in at least one of the legs.
Marc
I felt the same, Marts at 9, and wanted Ethan as false 9 but MA knew better and our attack dropped off with Ethan’s withdrawal.
I blame MA with lack of rotation for the hamstring injuries and now without big Gabs we will suffer as Ancelotti can attack the below level Kiwior.
The RM games could be a repeat of Wenger’s Bayern embarrassment.
Our front 3 should be Saka Marts and Trossard with Ethan as I said above our false 9 helping Ode create and getting into the box as well as shooting outside the box as he has the trickery to find space to shoot.
Won’t happen of course. No update on Big gabs but it’s not looking good and if he had to go off yesterday rushing him back Saturday for the early game surely will just add to Gab’s injury woes.