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.
Marc-I totally agree…in fact, it should be considered an embarassing outcome if France can’t find a way to win, considering their far more experienced lineup…France’s real problem is their glaring lack of creativity in their midfield
Spain deserve it more simply for being the only consistently positive upper crust side…bye-bye Deschump
“Arsenal may have to sell before they can land Riccardo Calafiori – with some leading lights at the Emirates questioning whether the Bologna man is worth the £45m he will cost”
“Gunners are expected to splash the cash this summer, but their overhaul has been put on pause as there is a desire to offload players before welcoming new arrivals”
“North London club have made an “opening offer” for Bentley. It is suggested that the offer was “well below” the West Midlands outfit’s valuation of Bentley. It has been revealed that the offer was worth just £50,000.This makes it look like we’re poor and we don’t have money”
So either this is simply a smokescreen to justify our snail-like movement in this window or our absentee landlord and his Bond villian son are getting fed up with MA’s chequebook managerial ways, which have led to a bloated roster, a whole host of devalued players and no silverware of any note to speak of
TRVL
I think you have hit the nail on the head. Nobody wants our cast offs because of the wage deal the players are on – both Eddie and Reiss are on super star wages – much higher than any of the lessor teams can afford. If loan deals happen with AFC paying part of the wage then El B with have less money to play with.
You’ll like this one Marc.
Your new friend Keir Starmer is off to Washington (one of my old stomping grounds) for a NATO conference and will hold a bilateral meeting with Biden.
He’s bought Joe a gift – a personalised Arsenal jersey. Means he’s bound to come second in November!
KP—-god willing Biden will come to whatever senses he has left and step down during the convention in August or I fear your prediction could be spot on…I’ve been praying that Michelle Obama could somehow be convinced into running, but I fear that she’s not a fan of any such proposition…if that’s the case, there’s a handful of coin toss candidates, none of whom have the kind of national face/name recognition that’s typically required to rally the requisite amount of voters they’ll need to defeat Trump’s still rapid base
If you ever want to understand why some people will never be fans of football just watch Rodrigo De Paul’s performance against Canada last evening…he represents everything that’s wrong with the game, especially when you don’t have credible enough officiating to root such fradulent behaviour…now before you accuse me of laying it on a little thick, due to my seemingly obvious Canadian bias, think again, as I knew full-well that Argentina was going to eliminate my country of origin regardless of De Paul’s embarassing antics…for me Canada’s appearance in the semis was nothing more than an incredibly fortuitous opportunity for our relatively green squad to get some crucial experience before co-hosting the WC in 2026…that said, this fucker was flopping around on the pitch like a fish out of water, which seems to be his MO nowadays, as his level of play has vastly dropped off
this is by far the most enjoyable English performance…would have rather they scored from open play, instead of from a questionable penalty, but they’ve dominated the play and have been far more creative in the final third…minus Simon’s strike from distance, it’s been boys to men thus far
sadly it’s back to scared football after a nervous halftime chat by both managers
wish I could say I’m surprised that Southgate reverted back to his usual tactical self…why would you opt-out from a tactical approach that had you in such a dominate position, especially before you had scored a second tally…what a gutless fuck…he’s like MA’s big game tactical doppleganger
Saka got stymied by a fractional offside call, but late-game sub Watkins looks to have put England into the final with an exeptional strike from a difficult angle
the 3 Lions are heading to Berlin for the first final on foreign soil
I’ll give Southgate a modicum of credit for putting Watkins and Palmer on the pitch when he could have just kept Kane out there and tried to just hold on for extra time…we all know who wouldn’t have done likewise…maybe someone slipped a viagra into Gareth’s drink
The pressure on Michelle is overwhelming – she is better than her other half. She will swim over Trump.
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that, as Obama was a great man who’s time in office was greatly hampered by deeply-rooted racial issues and the rise of hardline partisan politics, but I agree that Michelle would win in a landslide…the momentum her candidacy would generate, especially so close to election day, could have a massive impact on voter turnout…I don’t think she can be goaded into the job, which worries me greatly, as I don’t think any other option has the juice required to motivate the electorate
sounds like Merino has informed Sociedad that he wants to leave this summer…he only has one year left on his contract, which makes him an attractive option for bargain bin shoppers( a bit tongue in cheek)…after all, we’re talking about someone who’s not even our first choice MD target at his present club, as he’s the MD partner of Zumbimendi, who btw already told MA to kick rocks…as such, he’s hardly an inspiring acquisition, minus the fact that he headed in a crucial goal at the Euros in his usual late match substitute role for Spain…recency bias aside, his passing accuracy numbers are at best pedestrian, which simply doesn’t make sense in our pass-heavy system, regardless if he’s playing in front of Rice or as a deeper-lying pivot…I could be wrong, but this seems like another Havertz-like settling acquisition, which doesn’t help us whatsoever when it comes to adding someone who can unlock defences and/or clinically finish…who knows, maybe his good fortune at the Euros will help lift his game to another level, but as of right now the juice isn’t worth the squeeze
I think we’re having the wool pulled over our eyes with all this Merino talk. 🐑🐑🐑
Edu is bound to get fleeced….
KP—-I think Barca, like us, wants Zubimendi and they saw how MA went gaga over Havertz when fake rumours appeared about their supposed interest, so they fed their media sources stories about their interest in Merino in the hopes that MA would fall for it again…lo and behold, 2 days after the first article I read about Barca’s interest, stories started to appear about MA’s love of Merino…today I actually saw an article in a pro-Arteta “rag” which stated that Merino was somehow one of the best midfielders in all of Europe, even though no one knew him from squat beforehand, unless you were a Newcastle fan…he’s only on the national side because of his connection to their current manager, who was a longtime coach of their “junior” national program…he’s just a late-game cover piece because he’s so familiar with the coach’s preferred tactics
btw excellent wool-related puns… sorry about not acknowledging that before my mini rant
Hi Vieira
Nice one. I see Zirkzee is off to Manure to become their understudy big forward to that spotty Danish kid (an ersatz Harland if ever there was one).
Oh, and old horse-face Van Nistelrooy back as a coach, presumably to mis-manage their now duo of big lads up top. I wonder how ten Hag will pan out if results don’t improve this autumn.
KP-I would imagine that ten Hag has quite a bit of leverage nowadays due to the manner in which they treated him at season’s end then, after an exhaustive search, decided to run it back…he finagled a substantial raise, plus some more input on personnel decisions, as United would have suffered a PR fucking nightmare of epic proportions if he had rebuffed their renewed interest
I read in the Mirror that ‘Arry Kane’ said he would swap everything he’s done in his career for a win tonight.
Then I asked myself what has the king Spud done/won? All I could think of, as I was I was choking on my morning coffee laughing, was a golden boot and runners up medals maybe.
Our England talisman has won nothing of note in his career playing for a loser club.
I thought that just about sums up Southgate and England football.
Let’s hope we can pull a miracle off tonight but too late for me at 2am ko.
I have only watched some of England’s first half against Xhaka united, but read Spain are the form team.
We have the players, as Arsenal does, it’s the managers that let us down repeatedly.
I hope Southgate gets it right this time……
Anyone have thoughts about the game? I think Spain wins 3:1.
Which probably means with my predictions always going south that England will win……..
Ambarish
Looks like I have to keep adding my details to post even when saved.
Ambarish
Sorry it seems to be ok now. When I looked at earlier comments the details would disappear. Now it looks ok, Thanks.
Tony
Let me put it this way – I’ll be watching more in hope than expectation tonight.
Saka bypassed spinning top Cucurela with a neat pass which Stones could not properly cross.
Saka showing spinning top Cucurela is just a cucumber to be sliced
Sorry Walker, not Stones
Tentative football both sides
looks like Southgate reached out to our little Spanish Skipper to pick his brain, tactically-speaking, which is why the football is so dire…even he realizes how much MA despises his own national side, after all they ghosted him for the entirety of his career
talk about a fortuitous situation for England, as no side is better without Rodri in it
it’s kind of funny that even the Spanish coach chose Zubimendi over our supposed first choice midfield option, Merino
Nico’s a far better option than the now 17 year old wunderkind on the other side of the pitch, at least for the foreseeable future…Shaw made that kid look rather pedestrian for the first 45