The transfer window is finally picking up some speed. We have made an enquiry for a Italian defender, gave green light to Lokonga’s departure and made our no. 1 goal keeper a permanent and we are going to get some free money.
Most exciting of them all is our pursuit of Riccardo Calafiori. Mikel has approved the transfer, the club has present their long term proposal to the player and he is open to join. But there are couple of complications! Bologna wants a hefty 43m GBP (50m euros). Riccardo is on the younger side (22years of age) and that’s a lot of money for a defender who will sit behind Gabriel and Saliba. He has played only one season of top flight football at Bologna, before which he was at Basel for couple of season. You get a very mature, proven defender for that amount. The other complication is that the player had, in the past, shown interest to join West Ham or Chelsea in the future, and the later is interested in the player as well. I mean, Chelsea are interested in every player being sold in the whole world, but they get what they want even after the Russian left. Mudryk is the case in point.
The positives about the players is that he is on the younger side. He joins a pack who has matured in last 2 seasons and he will learn and adapt like Gabriel and Saliba did. He had a very good season at Bologna, helping them qualify for Champions League after 60 years and was one of the best players in the league. He has played really well in the ongoing Euros and played all the games in group stages. Playing in the Italian team at the Euros level is a confirmation in itself that player is good enough.
Verdict? I think it’s only about the money. I feel we would be paying more for a CB defender who have Gabriel and Saliba ahead of him in pecking order; but, then we had shelled 50 odd millions for a CB earlier who plays at the right back, so yeah.
Sambi never looked promising enough to break into the team. He did get a few games to prove himself and even played couple of good games but that isn’t enough for a team that is fighting and going to fight for the title. He had to leave, Sevilla was interested for which the player gave a green light and the clubs are negotiating on the fees. If Sevilla has a bag full of 15m, take that and run.
This one isn’t particularly exciting, not anymore. Everyone knew David Raya’s loan move would be made permanent, and we have done that finally. We have activated the buy option and Brentford are going to receive 27m GBP.
The club hasn’t announced it yet officially but it’s a done deal. Raya has proved his worth, he kept the most clean sheets in the league even when it was the Ramsdale who played the initial few games for the club. This is just going to make life difficult for the Englishman.
Remember we sold Omari Hutchinson coule years back to Chelsea? Well, they are selling him to Ipswich Town for 22m and we had a sell-on clause in that deal. We would get about 4m from there.
Frankly, I have no idea how Chelsea can sell a player who played half a game for them in 2022-23 season and was on loan for the previous one. On the other hand, we will get half that money for Tavares and Lokonga if we are lucky.
Right, so 27m outgoing for 4m incoming as things stand. If we win the race for Riccardo, we would have to go on a sell spree because we still need to address the midfield and the striker situation. A RB back up as well.
Short one today, let me know in the comments what you think about these.
Germany trying their best to not win this…
I guess Toni Kross is gettng a free pass today, as he should have received, at bare minimum, 4 yellow cards…I don’t have any skin in this game, so it hardly matters to me, but if Spain losses it will undoubtedly be a major talking point
Ambarish—Havertz can be the man so long as he’s afforded 20 Grade A chances to score each and every goal…if he wasn’t so wrapped up with his own self-serving narrative he could have passed up that chip and slid a simple pass to a wide open teammate for an easy tally
Unai SImon is a bang average Keeper, so what does that say about our “like a new signing” Raya, who’s sitting behind him
that Yamal has a horrible attitude for a kid of 16 getting a shot to perform at the highest of levels…that seems to be par for the course nowadays though…he literally pushed Olmo out of the way after he scored then went on his own towards the crowd when the rest of the team gathered around the actual goal scorer
Oh Lord, now fucking Merino will somehow be our starting Striker next season
TRVL
Yep, Tony should have been sent off for 3 times minimum in the game.
Ambarish—especially in a match that had over a dozen yellows and a late-game red….Spain might be without a lot of players for the upcoming semis due to both yellow card accumulations and a few key injuries
Portugal v France – A good game to finish Friday night.
missing NOT without
Ambarish
You lightweight it’s a good game to start the night!
Can someone get Deschamps to drop Saliba – I don’t like it when he looks like the best defender in the world when playing for France.
Madrid are watching.
Haha, Marc we run 5 and half hours late 😀 I still agree with you, just started my weekend after a year.
Southgate, Deschamps, Martinez = murders row of boring as fuck managers
somehow Deschamps can make the French side even more boring without the bang average Rabiot off the pitch
Bruno Fernandes was a revelation when he first arrived at United, but since that time his play has got progressively worse
those two French midfielders at Real, who received plenty of hype while at Monaco, are totally overrated, unless you’re a fan of sideways passing negative football…it’s quite a sad statement when Kante is your most advanced midifielder
on NOT off the pitch
finally a football match has broken out here…unfortunately many of the wrong players have been given the best chances
“Southgate, Deschamps, Martinez = murders row of boring as fuck managers”
Absolutely bang on – how can so many really good players be made to look so ordinary.
Marc—if that was a match where the first to score 3 goals wins, it might not have finished before the semis…let’s hope that the Swiss and Turkey both score first so that the English and Dutch are forced to open things up
TRVL
If that was a match with first to score 3 goals they wouldn’t have finished before the 2028 Euro’s kicked off.
(1) congrats to Saka for his late-game heroics and for the way in which he exercised his past demons from the spot…it’s clear that in order for Saka to be most effective you have to either find a way to punish teams for continually double-teaming him out wide and/or devise ways in which you can provide him with considerably more 1 v. 1 opportunities…this will require a considerable amount of tactical flexibility, which certainly isn’t MA’s forte
(2) still a very overpromise/underdeliver tactical performance by Southgate, which surely can’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s had to endure their last handful of matches…I can’t help but reiterate the fact that he reminds me of Arteta, especially when it comes his incessant need to talk a big game in the build-up, yet when the day finally arrives his balls have considerably shrivelled…the greater the stakes, the more shrivelled the balls
strangely enough, the football has been so dire under Gareth that I can actually envision a scenario where, even if they win it all, he gets summarily axed…of course, the headlines will suggest that it was his idea not theirs, like when Wenger was ousted, but their attempt to deceive will almost assuredly backfire…Southgate will get his bag, at some high profile address, then proceed to bore the living shit out of everyone involved until they pay him gobs of money to get him the fuck out….whereas, the curse, that generally accompanies the firing of a manager immediately following a long sought-after championship, will see England fail to repeat this accomplishment for another half-century or more
(3) much as I had wished, both the Swiss and Turkey scored first, so at least there was a sense of urgency injected into both of today’s affairs…here’s hoping that Spain pot a goal or two early on so as to force Deschamps into growing a fucking pair, otherwise he might finally be put out to pasture…thank fucking God, is what all the highly skilled French players will say in unison
(4) just watched Uruguay defeat Brazil in a penalty shootout…what a choppy, disjointed affair…under Bielsa’s direction Uruaguay actually committed 28 fouls in that match, which seems akin to watching a Smash Up Derby involving F1 vehicles…not a good watch…hopefully the semis will buck this shitty trend
Elvis Costello has re-written one of his songs ‘ I dont want to go to Arsenal’.
Our summer of discontent continues with news of ESR’s pending exit, rumours swirling about the possibility of signing the likes of Yaser Asprilla, the Watford winger with a 9M MV, and the 30 year old Wolve’s Keeper, Daniel Bentley, who with his 2M MV and pedestrian CV seems like a counteruntuitive hire from a title-winning depth perspective, and talk about how MA might shoehorn Calafiori out wide left, even though that’s not why he’s on everyone’s radar
first things first, it appears as if ESR might finally be on his way out, for good this time…looks like he will land at Craven Cottage, one of my favourite venues in Europe, if the rumours are to be believed…if so, good for him, as he was never going to be a regular contributor so long as MA is at the helm…hopefully he will figure things out and find a way to stay on the pitch, albeit I’m of the mind that a lot of his issues were much more MA-related than injury-based, as we were led to believe…I guess only time will tell…I kind of worry that Marts will be the next victim of MA’s campaign against a more direct brand of football…if only ESR was given the plethora of chances that MA afforded his bang average besties, as I think he might have really excelled alongside Ode and Rice, especially if we ever employed a Striker with goals in his boots
as for Asprilla and Bentley. the former is a young Columbian who has performed well in the Championship, but I very much doubt he’s the kind of piece this project requires…as per usual there’s plenty of online articles preaching his brilliance and unlimited ceiling, yet his MV would strongly suggets otherwise…nowadays 20 is the new 22 or even 23, especially when it comes to forwards, so it’s giving me coin toss Vieira-like vibes, which is far from encouraging…regarding the latter, what can I say but I’m very underwhelmed by the possibility…I know he has historical ties to our supposed Keeper whisperer, but I’m of the belief that this has far more to do with the fact that Raya and Arteta are so fragile that neither can stand the possibility of having a real competitor sitting on the bench again…if so, that’s some gutless and short-sighted shit, which could be our undoing should Raya struggle mightily or go down for any length of time
as for our Bologna-based defensive pursuits, there has been some chatter regarding the possibility that MA plans to use Calafiori much in the same manner as Pep has deployed Stones, which, in theory, could make more sense than playing him at LB…I get it, I guess, except that likely means we’re splitting up the best CB partnership in the PL simply so our poor man’s Pep can pay homage, once again, to his former boss…at what point will our little project manager finally realize that it’s incredibly difficult to beat the master at his own game and either come up with some ideas of his own or, better still, look towards those who have performed best against Pep and try to emulate the blueprint they’ve provided…I apologize to anyone who might be offended by such a rational notion, so feel free to continue down the same blind allegiance path that has enabled our still wet behind the ears manager to use our club as his personal plaything until just such a time as he’s wooed away by a club that’s actually on his managerial wishlist
rant over…Cheers
TRVL
ESR’s fate was sealed when he admitted taking extra training from Ozil. He did have injury problems but they were addressed some time ago. Saka will be sorry to see him go as they are best mates. When they meet up after ESR has departed they can continue to take the piss out of El B.
‘Defence was not particularly an area which Arsenal will have gone into the summer feeling big changes are going to be needed. Charles Watts shared,“It’s certainly an interesting move from Arsenal. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting the first significant deal of the transfer window to involve a defender…It was always an area that they were looking to strengthen, but I was expecting them to strengthen in the forward areas first”‘
Watt, like myself, can understand why there might be considerable interest in this particular player, especially if he’s deployed in his best position and MA tweaks his tactics accordingly, but that could be a bridge too far for our shoehorn-loving one trick pony of a manager…to further complicate matters, it appears as if we’ve been sniffing around both both Kadioglu and Guehi, which begs the question, why are we exhausting so much energy on the defensive side of things when there are considerably bigger fish to fry…simply put, it would be a crying shame if we overspent in one area, which seemed to be sorted, especially with the return of Timber, then tried to address our more pressing needs on the cheap
I would suspect that MA might be sulking a bit as of late, after all his ego has taken a bit of a beating considering that his supposed first choice hires, Sesko and Zubimendi, both said thanks, but no fucking thanks…all that said, I think it’s important to reiterate that even though I’m rather intrigue by Calafiori, as of yet I haven’t seen anything to suggest that MA knows what the fuck to do with a marauding defender-type…in fact, quite the contrary, considering the dumb-down roles our CBs have been given in the opposition’s half, minus maybe the odd time Sideshow Bob strolled up top
sadly, I can actually imagine a scenario where we brought in a couple defenders, a DM, to free up Rice, rightly or wrongly, and a shit Keeper, then kept our underwhelming Striker trio and only spent a pittance of what was required on some front-side depth…as always, I hope I’m completely off base
Personally I actually hope Arteta does copy Pep’s tactic of having a CB stepping into CM.
Quite simply because it will be obvious that his only trick is to copy what Pep does. If that means losing one of the current CB’s – that will just turn the fans on him even quicker.
Marc-I get your line of thinking, as we’re both on the same page regarding his managerial fraudulency, but I still want things to be left in relatively good order for the next man up…Cheers
OK whomever is fucking with me I’m coming for you – 3 goals in the semi and I’ve managed to walk into the kitchen to check on dinner for all 3 and missed them.
Yamal would be picking splinters from his arse if he played for Arsenal – life on the bench is about as far as he would get under El B but I doubt he would get that far.
NORG
That or playing like David Batty so he kept a place in the team!
Marc-seems like Deschamps decided to put his big boy pants on today…unfortunately his players are a little rusty when it comes to being in a match with actually goals being scored…Morata is like a better version of Havertz, which isn’t necessarily a compliment for either player
TRVL
France are still capable of hurting anyone – I will say this should England end up facing Spain in the final Spain will tear England a new one, it could be embarrassing.
Rodri is such a savvy player that I don’t even think I’ve ever seen him running at full speed, yet he always seems to be at the right place at the right time