Well, it seems like we have managed to tie down WIlliam Saliba till 2027 for now. Ornstein broke the news about the agreement and it’s going to be a 4 year deal. Saliba has moved on from the one of the best talents to one of the best defenders in the world, and it was very important to not let him go.
So, Edu and the club has managed to tie down Ramsdale, Saka, Martinelli, Gabriel and Saliba, and we are sure Odegaard is not going anywhere too. That’s 6 of the important players from our playing XI. Good job from whoever is involved. We don’t let go the best of our players.
Criticize Edu and Mikel for everything but they have managed to keep the important players. You may argue that we are paying over the odds for likes of 21-year olds, but I am looking to win things even if it means we overpay.
Rice will cost us a whooping 80m+ and will demand a salary of 200k+/week at minimum. He plays for a mid-table team who was fighting a relegation battle for the whole season. Do you expect the likes of Saka and Martinelli, who are probably the best in their places in premier league satisfied with anything less than that? It’s not like we are paying huge money for the has-beens and retiring people (like Willian?).
Credit where it’s due. We have 4 years of no worries in 6 places. We have the RB and LB sorted already. Jesus came in last season and we tied down Nketiah too. It’s the midfield which is a worry, but if we are bringing players, we would have a very stable team, where you don’t have to think for at least next 2 years (that’s when these players have 2 years left on the contract and you decide whether to cash out or offer them some more money).
We are in good place. Hopefully we will sort out the midfield this season, pick ourselves up for the fights at two fronts and win something. I’m going to very specific with my demand as a fan – win Premier League and have a good run in Champions League and I will be happy.
It’s not too much of a ask when we stayed on top of the table for like 90% of the season. It’s not too much when it wasn’t City who won it from us, but we gave it to them. It’s not much when Arteta is in his 4th full season, having spent in the north of half a billion and have a team of his own.
Short one today, hope you are having a nice weekend!
The difference between last night and 99? Other fans may have hated Manure but they were respected for what they achieved. City just feel plastic and an ersatz version of a real club. No soul, save for a few thousand old geezers from the inner rectum of Manchester.
The similarity? Arsenal could have stopped both of them (and added to their own legacy in the process).
TRVL😊
The great global bake off! Tony and you as Cheech and Chong instead of those two a-holes that present the show in Britain.
Hi Bob
I read that too about the lawyer in the case – it’s the start of City’s legal team attempting to muddy the waters. Defending their own corruption by baselessly suggesting that it’s a rigged game. Breathtaking. Taken straight out of the Trumpian/Bojovian playbook. Pep has also been whining about the timetable… Imagine a kid caught with an ounce of draw asking for their hearing to be changed so they can go on holiday. Same rules…
But if he’s like many entitled Gooners (you know people like that pompous fucking idiot Emstroller) he’ll seek to protect and go lightly on the establishment, ie where the moolah lies, rather than worry about the truth and justice.
There are some serious, heavyweight cunts involved in PL football since its commodification. Another reason why the lower leagues are more appealing these days.
Right, time for my daily caustic soda enema.
Tony
Do we have to call you ‘Antoine’ after the move? 🇨🇵
The fact that its the PL pursuing the FFP issue makes sense with the rumours about Arsenal, Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool and the Spuddies pushing the agenda as much to stop Newcastle as reign in City.
Kroenke
Agree as much as I hated ManU under Fergie what they did was self generated. The issue with them was the ref tampering something that we won’t find out the full details of until he dies.
Stories about what he used to do will then begin to leak out.
Kroenke, good luck with the caustic soda….
One of my all time favourites ‘Up in Smoke’ – still remember so many classic lines from my stoner days: “I’m annihilated..’ “I can see clearly now……”(Johnny Nash) ‘I wonder what Great Dane tastes like….” ‘I wasn’t looking at his neck” Stacey Keech, brilliant as the cop.
Off to play Rounders, pray for my achilles please!
Bob
You talk about your stoner days as though they were a thing of the past… Surely your intake has increased given some of your outlandish and egregious opinions about modern day Arsenal. 😊
Rounders (in Clissold Park?) sounds cool. I much preferred playing tennis there back in the day compared to those courts in Highbury Park where there was always a far higher quotient of wankers.
My life these days is much more prosaic and mundane. It’s the municipal tip this afternoon with Ms Kroenkephobe and a load of old shit from our shed that belonged to other people. I might even be really adventurous and pop into LIDL’s on the way home. Crazy!
Very happy to know Big Bill will be around at least for a few more seasons. And to think he could have just completed his third full year with the club.
If the future goes well, he could end up being talked about in the same breath as Frank McC, TA and Spider… Oh and that guy we got from Spurs who turned out to be rather good.
I knew someone who loved that Johnny Nash tune so much so that he invented his own lyrics
I can see Deirdre now, Lorraine has gone…
I can put my testicles on her face etc.
Stacy Keech was some boy wasn’t he? Ended up doing some serious time in the UK at her majesty’s pleasure for smuggling brown iirc.
The kind of conversations that were a regular feature of life in the 90s.
Hi lads
TRVL
I got the reference – we’ve parleyed on the subject before where I’m happy to report our minor horticultural exploits are not too far off competition level now. Junior enjoys the botany side and is really precise with feeds and daily care of the minerals, ppfd, humidity and temp etc. Doing the gardening side has junior looking into the genetics, but he has no interest in drugs of any description including alcohol. He’s into learning about organic food and growing. We’ll have a green house for tomatoes and other organic veg in France for the restaurant.
I don’t get ‘baked’ it doesn’t work that way with me – I just slow down with a mild buzz even using rosin.
Bob
Thanks for the heads up re the lawyers and City. Won’t the chair be recused being a Gooner?
Cheech & Chong are legends for us more mature gents who lived in the 60s & 70s. The Lampoon movie with Belushi and the American Pie movies all spawned from Porky’s. I’m sure your south America travelling were a recreational education and then some. I imagine you had some party in 89 where ever you were with your radio.
Enjoy the rounders. I’m looking forward to mixing in with the French locals where junior will be some larger than life curiosity for the locals to get their heads round.
KP
Antoine does have a nice ring to it – that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ of historical accent. Not the head lopping off 1700s history, though. Haven’t see the show in the UK you were talking of.
I have to say that I’m finding the thought of living in a 1st world country again somewhat exhilarating or will be.
Enjoy the weekend 🙂
KP
I can see Deirdre now, Lorraine has gone…
I can put my testicles on her face etc.
lmao 🙂
Haven’t see the show in the UK you were talking of.
Tony
Don’t bother mate, it’s fucking dire. A group of petit bourgeois self-aggrandising spunkers baking cakes in a competition – and that’s just the contestants. The presenters are even worse. It’s been the fashion these past few years – turning bullshit hobbies (sewing, antique restoring, dog grooming, gardening, pottery, and spliff rolling… Well, maybe not the last one ) into twee, not-too-serious competition with establishment comedians on hand with gentle ingerlish witticisms. I envy you not being exposed to it.
Right, back to ‘death match philately’ with Michael fucking McIntyre….sorry, slow day.
Life seems meaningless without having to worry about Big Bill any more.
Hi Tony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixty_Million_Frenchmen_Can%27t_Be_Wrong
I read this book on the recommendation of a diplomatic colleague before my posting to Paris in 09. It’s written in a no-holds barred way by two Canadians and I found it really useful. It covers everything from how to act in your local boulangerie to getting the best out of French officialdom. You can dip in and out of it according to what you’re doing there. I found it invaluable. It’s not a tourist guide – it’s an insight into the uniqueness of French people and their culture, taking into account history and the shape of modern French society.
It can be had on Amazon or ebay for pennies these days. I think it would be equally helpful to you as/when you look to get a business foothold in the country and meet people.
KP
Thanks for the link; Mrs T is ordering from Amazon as I write. The French are big on nuances from what I remember. A good mate is towing a couple of Harleys with his Cheyenne with a mate – I know kind fcuks with the easy rider image somewhat. They are driving for a day and then ride for a day or 2 and moving on and soon on. He’s got about 10 properties in the Essex coastal area he rents out.
He’s now looking for somewhere to move to live outside the UK. He said he’ll update me when he gets back to his place in the south east.
At summer is over and the rain season has started here with the temps more manageable at around 35*C from 45*C.
I’ve survived. Great fun Un the sun but mostly drinking cold beers in shade.
Lol lyrics!
Tony
I’ll bet that rain comes as a blessing. Is it one if those classic wet seasons where you are that it buckets down for an hour or two at regular time of day before the sun starts beating again?
Be good to know, what you think of the book when it arrives. Possibly the most entertaining bit is about French attitudes to fast food. You’d think they’d hate it but they really go for it because of the ritualistic way it’s bought and eaten. The one thing they do dislike is kids eating impromptu snacks and not all being ready to eat at meal times.
We’ll miss conversations about things like Harleys, rounders and les Francais when the season resumes. By the way, your mates with the HDs aren’t doing too badly. Hopper and Fonda must’ve been in their 20s when easy rider was made. 🏍️🏍️
Late one evening, about 20 years ago now, I received a call from a real close bud, who at the time had a side gig as a sound engineer at a well-known concert/performance hall…he proceeded to convince me, which didn’t take long, I might add, to come over for an old timey late night session…his property sits about 5 minutes from the city proper, but it feels more remote as there’s a tree-lined winding driveway approach
he loves the privacy it provides but ever since a similar house, in a neighbouring county, was robbed at gunpoint, it has left him feeling rather paranoid at times…to make matters worse, we spend most of our time in a large coach house, which has been converted into a massive studio/man cave, that’s situated a good distance from the main house, where we listen to tunes at a level which would be unacceptable inside the city limits, so it would be highly unlikely that you would ever hear anyone entering the property for nefarious purposes
knowing all this, I decide to park up the driveway, making sure to turn off my lights so that there was no obvious signs of my pending arrival…I always travel with a little wooden baseball bat, just in case, which I took out of the trunk and then proceeded up to the back of the coach house in the hopes of scaring the living shit out of him…as I know him incredibly well I was positive that he would enjoy my fucked up antics once the initial shock had warn off
as expected he’s playing one of his old reel-to-reel recordings at an exceedingly high volume…on this particular occasion he’s playing a live performance of the Steve Miller Band, of which I’m very familiar with and which will likewise be forever emblazoned in my brain due to what comes next
I can see him standing in the center of the main room in one if his ghost of Christmas present-like robes with his arms flailing about, putting on what appears to be some sort of half in the bag, Wayne’s World air guitar performance…at no point do I see anyone else, so I’m assuming he’s alone, thereby making him ripe for the picking…I decide it’s best to circle around to the opposite side of the coach house, towards the sliding door entrance, so that I can see his face when my prank lands…I slowly open the door, pull my hat down a bit, so that I’m not easily recognizable at first blush, then jump into the room with my bat cocked and scream like a raving psychopath
it’s at this exact point I realize that not only have I scared the living bejesus out of my good bud, who may or may not have pissed his pants a bit, but I likewise terrified his rather distinguished guest…this was the infamous day in which I met the one and only Tommy Chong, who played a show at my friend’s work venue that evening then accepted an invitation to partake in some late night offerings
tbh this wasn’t the first time they had hung out, as they had done likewise during his last visit, which when he told me I remember getting slightly pissed at him for not reaching out…of course, this time he was trying to not only make amends but also surprise me in the process, not thinking whatsoever that I was going to go full Punk’d on his ass…needless to say it was a very memorable evening for all involved, as he was an incredibly down-to-earth cerebral individual with a rather vast knowledge of a wide array of topics…now that was some bucket list shit
TRVL
Nice story – I think… 😊
Given the Steve Miller band was on the old phonograph, you’d have been well within your rights to shout,
Abra-Abra-cadabra… I wanna, reach out and grab ya!
https://youtu.be/gg4mqNvY53M
Aah… The Titty Twister. I travelled all over northern Mexico looking for it.
KP-the muxic in question was a live recording from the Fillmore by the pre-Abracadabra Steve Miller, who was far more bluesy during the band’s more formative years in the mid to late 60s
btw sweet Dusk to Dawn vid featuring Chong’s former Corsican brother…how can I ever forget Selma Hayek’s striptease scene…even now it makes me shudder to think
btw many were completely unaware that, like myself, Tommy was Canadian, so he was held in even higher regards in my neck of the woods…during that time period he was touring in a one-man show called The Marijuana-Logues, as an obvious play on the Vagina Monologues…some 2 years later I saw he and Cheech perform at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, where they were the headliners and one of my favourite bands, Kings of Leon, were one of several opening acts, which likewise included the Whigs(check out their best song “Right Hand on my Heart”) Cheers
the music in question…
not sure if I want to extend more treble kudos in United’s general direction, even though I obviously understand why some might choose otherwise…I would go as far to suggest that United enjoyed some advantages that could be considered as, if not more, important than the financial ones City presently enjoys…there have been several teams who have tried and failed to buy their way into a treble winning season, or anything close, whereas there was a time when United seemed to hold some clear recruitment and officiating advantages which could have been deemed even more crucial in the grand scheme of things
now if some hack of a manager was patrolling the Etihad sidelines and he had seemingly every top player in world football at his disposal, then I would have a vastly differing opinion, but this clearly isn’t the case…it appears to me as if the Grealish 100+M acquisiton inflamed matters, likely due to some deeply ingrained prejudicial concerns which were bubbling under the surface, as this really wasn’t an issue of such preeminent importance in years prior, except for those following Wenger’s lead
don’t get me wrong, I understand the frustrations of others, especially those coming from teams/fanbases who’ve never had the proper backing or even a brush with greatness, but it’s a bit disingenuous when it comes from those who don’t fit in that aforementioned narrative…no one of any import said sweet fuck-all, except the agendized Wenger, when the lack of adherence to the FFP rules allowed others to skirt the system and win subsequent titles…in fact, I can never remember a more agregious period of player acquisitions than last year when Chelsea went on an unprecendented buying spree, which didn’t cause near the uproar, likely because things went pear-shaped…as such, it gives the not so ludicrous impression that organizational jealousy might be the driving force
like I’ve said before, when you really look closely at City’s squad it’s never been a who’s who of megastars, minus the odd period when they had a rather ecclectic lineup of internationally well-known players, but even then they didn’t dominate abroad…frankly I don’t want to see them severely punished then have to witness a year or two of champions with asteriks firmly attached to their accomplishments…let’s face it, when you closely examine this year with a commonsensical lense, we had everything squarely within our hands and if we handled our business they could have done nothing to upset our very attainable title run, but we cocked things up and that had nothing whatsoever to do with their financial wherewithal…furthermore, every top team, regardless of root of their respective monied interests, have employed questionnable financal practices, whether it be Real, Barca, PSG, Juve, Milan and even Bayern, and if we get carried away with the punishment we will undoubtedly usher in the Super League era, which would be a crying shame
I just want to state unequivocally that if it were up to me no single individual would ever own more than 49% of any club and that the remaining 51% would be owned by members from within each respective fanbase, but I’m well-aware that this ship has sailed, at least at the highest levels of football….there are a few similar models which have thrived, like at Real or with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, but they’re few and far between
Morning all
Yesterday was one of those days where so much was going on; little actually got done but the groundwork is there more now.
Apologies TRVL I read your baked differently to how you meant it.
KP
It seems we can’t get the French book delivered to the Uk or Thailand from Amazon. Thailand, I understand, but the UK is just bizarre. I’ll write the the publisher and get it sorted.
Fortunately, I have plenty to do this TW in designing studio internals to begin with.
Almunia
Always happy to read your thoughts when you comment them to print. 🙂
I see Berlusconi has passed. I hope they don’t intend to cremate him,it would be an environmental disaster.
On a serious note,that Milan team with the Dutch trio will remain one of my all time favourite teams. Simply brilliant. No wonder the Milan fans loved him as an owner.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/07/mirek-topolanek-czech-naked-photo
Hi Almunia
Nice one. There’d be a burning cloud of plastic and formaldehyde stretching across Europe were he to be cremated.
A hagiography about as classy as the man deserved.
My memory of Bunga Bunga Berlusconi (the erstwhile cruise ship crooner) forced me to dredge up the above story of his dealing with a tumescent czech politician. Italy’s answer to Jimmy Saville and Boris Johnson. He certainly lived la dolce vita.
Maybe that’s where Saliba and his mates got the idea from a few years ago.
KP,
I was only showing a picture of him to my wife a few months ago,we were talking about plastic surgery and celebs. She reckoned he was the worst she’d seen. He must have been afraid to go near a hot bath or sauna. I’d imagine a biography would be jaw dropping all the same. Father Time always wins,but some people push him harder than others!