Saliba is staying

Almunia
As good as Celtic are, I’m not Postecoglu would be wise to try and bring in a lot of their players. It’d be very shirt termist, and taking on Dundee Utd’s back four may not be the best preparation for facing the likes of VVD and Super Bill Saliba.

‘Shirt’ could equal ‘short’ or ‘shit’ given we’re talking about Spurs.

KP,
No doubting the gap in standard but there is always the odd diamond to be found. Not that long ago that VVD himself was wearing the hoops. Tierney is quality,injuries aside. Palace took a gamble on Edouard and believe me Kyogo is twice the player. I’m not saying he’s top 6 material,but there are a whole range of premiership clubs who would be instantly improved by him. He’s the only one that I would imagine Postecoglu would attempt to go back for. In truth he had hinted that he was resigned to losing Kyogo one way or the other anyway.

Kyogo is a wide/attacking midfielder right? I guess he’d replace someone like Perisic if he joined.

Spurs seem to me to be on a real knife edge (and not in a potentially positive way) which is pleasing. I almost want Kane to stay among the debris of their squad (along with Son who could also be past his best). HK’s about to be in the last year of his contract iirc. If no one meets Spurs’s valuation it could become fraught and derail the start of their season. If you think back to where we and they were on the eve of their CL final loss to Liverpool, it’s remarkable how our and their fortunes have changed.

Postecoglu strikes me as a reasonably good egg. So I’m bracketing him in the benign group of their former managers along with Poch, Nuno and AVB. Every other one of them except Bill Nicholson and GG can go and fuck themselves of course.

I nevertheless think Ange faces a big step up and has a massive job on his hands.

I know Spurs aren’t your biggest bete noire in the PL, but I have to confess I have almost as big a fascination with them as I do Arsenal. For different reasons of course.

Couple of interesting tidbits in the “news” today

(1) it’s about time someone in the know spoke publicly about the Saliba/Arteta beef, as maybe this official confirmation will temper some of the “blinders” rhetoric coming from within his loyalist base…I guess we’re rather lucky that this once acrimonious situation didn’t have more serious consequences, minus the leverage it gave his camp at the bargaining table…hopefully this re-upping wasn’t the first phase of a sign and trade scheme, but considering his wage demands that would seem highly unlikely

(2) there’s already some concerns being expressed about the sloth-like manner in which we conduct our business…some are even going so far as to strongly suggest that if we continue to dither with our ongoing Rice’s negotiations we just might get Mudryk’ed again…even though I’m not 100% sold on the notion, I do believe we’re a better team with him than without him, so long as that doesn’t close the door on getting at least 1 more seminal player during this window…fact remains if we were to get clowned again in the 11th hour of another negotiations that could have some serious long-term ramifications

(3) finally, and most unusual, there was some suggestion that we might actually be interested in bringing Auba back, now that it appears as if Barca are out of the mix and he’s not sure about heading to Saudi Arabia…I just can’t see this ever happening, no matter the circumstances, but I thought it was interesting enough to make note of…Cheers

Tony-I was quite surprised that you never commented on my brush with Tommy Chong, especially in light of my buddy’s sound engineering gig…this sort of situation, minus the whole “surprise” scenario, wasn’t that uncommon as I had already met several notable “famous” Canadians at his abode, whom you may or may not be familiar with, like Neil Peart, Kim Mitchell and Gord Downie…obviously these encounters were considerably less eventful, although still very interesting nonetheless…Cheers

Christy Dignam R.I.P.
Only just heard. Deeply saddened. Hero of mine.

Hi Almunia
I’m sorry. In my ignorance I didn’t know him nor Aslan but from what I’ve read he sounded like an incredibly brave person.

I see too that one of the best American story tellers of recent times, Cormac McCarthy, has also died. His story ‘The Road’ (also made into a film starting Viggo Mortensen) was so powerful that it moved me to tears thinking that my son and I could possibly be in the same awful future nightmare as the father and son in the book. Haunting doesn’t begin to describe it – I think I’m still affected by the story.

KP-Cormac’s No Country For Old Men, The Road and All the Pretty Horses were all stellar literary works…the first two were likewise two of the best book-to-screen adaptations…No Country had an incredible cast and is still acknowledged as one of the finest of it’s age…as for The Road, I was always concerned that they couldn’t do the book justice, as I felt that Hollywood would never sign off on the morose aesthetics such an undertaking required….boy was I fucking wrong, as this was a post-apocalyptic masterclass…like you, KP, I couldn’t help but well up when I watched this film with both my son and daughter, even though I had already watched it beforehand

KP,
Aslan are huge over here,lots of great hits but this is probably their most famous
https://youtu.be/QHeiVDSdoCM

I read ‘The Road’,it’s on the curriculum over here. Pretty dark stuff. There is a similar film starring Casey Affleck called ‘light of my life’ ( I think), even more disturbing if you have a daughter. Powerful but leaves a scar for a while on the aul paternal instinct.
Unlike films,which change every few months,my top 5 books have remained virtually unaltered for decades. To this day I’ve never read anything that has impacted on me as deeply as 1984. But if you’re looking for a good read in Malaga you could do a lot worse than Brian Moore’s “Lies of Silence” ( He too passed a few years ago). Given your career history you’ll appreciate the tensions in the North at that time,yet the story captures a complex situation and portrays it simply through a few well crafted characters.
I’m not a great summer reader myself,don’t like lounging in the heat trying to read through sun glasses. Much prefer dark winter evenings with a book. Same with drinking,you’ll always find me in a dark corner,shaded from the crowd!

@Bob
“I would have thought winning the title was intrinsically worthwhile not just as a way of getting in Pot 2!”

Winning the title comes with many accolades and a trophy and is a prime aspiration. But another side benefit of it is you are in Pot 1 NOT Pot 2. Since we didn’t win the title we were placed in pots according to our UEFA Club coefficient which is not great (23rd place) because we missed out on Europe 2 seasons ago. If Juve would not have been deducted the points we would be in Pot 3 and if a few matches of Seria A teams would have had different results we would have also ended up in pot 3 even with the Juve point deduction thus we could have ended up in a group of death with a slim chance to progress.

Almunia-great tune…it reminds me of a couple different artists, each of whom didn’t travel well but were incredibly popular in their country’s of origin, like Tom Cochrane and Ryan Adams(not Bryan)…my condolences, as he clearly had a significant impact on your life

TRVL,
Yes he was one of the good ones as they say.
I had forgotten that McCarthy had written No Country for old men, probably because I never read it. Saw the film and thoroughly enjoyed it. The title is actually a line from a W.B.Yeats poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. All these literary greats seem intertwined in some ways if you look hard enough.

I was listening to a podcast today where JJ Redick, a former player and present day well-respected pundit, was speaking of his admiration for the manner in which the Nuggets rose to NBA greatness…he spoke of how they didn’t go the “super team ” route, like many others have attempted with mixed results, and the fact that they created a more family-like environment by allowing their relatively unproven coach to develop a culture of his own…of course, it was easy to see the potential comparisons to our club and it’s manager, especially if you don’t give a flying fuck about nuance or context, as many of the underlying dynamics within a sport that relies heavily on 2 or 3 players are discernably different than those in the footballing world

it’s interesting though as there’s been a lot of copycat maneuverings from within Kroenke’s sporting empire…McVay(Rams head coach) and Bednar(Avalanche coach) were right out of the David Dein hand guide of out of the box hiring practices, whereas their dogged perseverance involving Malone(Nuggets) seems to have played a decisive role when it looked like Arteta might not have survived his second year in charge, as they not only stayed the course, they embarked on a period of unprecendented investment…I guess for the average observer it would be difficult to argue with whatever has informed them as they’ve been on the podium celebrating a championship in 3 of the 4 major sporting leagues each of the last 3 years…that said, I’m still not convinced that Arteta has what it takes to lift a franchise, but if Kroenke continues to invest heavily in the club and our not-so-dynamic duo actually make the right recruitment decisions, big “if”, maybe just maybe we’ll finally get over the proverbial hump

Almunia-there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s an intimate connection between the first line of that poem and Cormac’s titular choice…funny enough, I had an old Irish Writers print that sat on an easel in my office when I was at grad school…for some reason, I decided to properly frame it afterwards and mount it in my reading room/home office…when my daughter was younger she always intrigued by the faces that adorned it, which makes some sense as it was a rather ecelctic bunch of memorable mugs (Wilde, Beckett, Joyce, Shaw and of course Yeats)…to this day if you asked her to describe her father she would say that I’m a Yeats doppleganger, but only because of that particular picture…I don’t totally see it, but isn’t that always the case, just like when you don’t recognize your own recorded voice…have a good one

she was always

I would suspect that if we reach an agreement with the Hammers the rumour mill surrounding Partey’s pending departure will heat up considerably…I’m certainly not a big proponent of this maneuver as he’s far and away our best available DM…if we’re serious about our intentions on multiple fronts he’s the kind of top-class depth piece that any “big” club would covet…I would much rather we find a way to ship Jorginho and/or Elneny, although I doubt the latter will be going anywhere soon unless we’re willing to eat some of his wages

even if we get Caicedo, having 3 viable options in deeper-lying positions would send a clear message that things have significantly changed here…after all, Caicedo has shown the ability to play a variety of positions, so when we wanted to start Rice and Partey up the middle, he could play out wide right…then when we deployed both Rice and Caicedo in the midfield, while Partey rested his oft-injured body, they could run the same Rice/Soucek positional switcheroo scheme inside Arteta’s preferred formation…of course this will matter not if we don’t pursue Caicedo and instead take the half-measure approach of treating Rice as a like-for-like Xhaka replacement, sell Partey and then rely too heavily on a Jorginho/Elneny tandem

I must admit it’s still really disconcerting to me that we haven’t sanctioned the Xhaka deal, under the guise that we must secure a viable replacement first, as that shows just how little confidence we have in both our ability to make big moves and those players we presently employ, like ESR, who could easily fill that departure…I surely hope that my concerns about his potential return to the fold prove to be unfounded, but this weasel and his managerial bestie have teased us in a very similar fashion before, so until it’s official I’ll remain a justifiable skeptic

furthermore, for all the Xhaka lovers who hang their collective hats on the notion that 3 managers running have continued to select this player, please keep in mind that they also benched, heavily criticized and/or tried to move on from him at some point, only to realize that no one was willing to pay anywhere near our proposed valuation…not to mention we’ve been an absolute shit show when it comes to the DM position for the better part of two decades, which was on full display when Wenger somehow opted for a slightly cheaper Xhaka over the once dominant Kante

Morning all
Less haste, more speed is my doctrine of this week and is paying dividends. I’ve lost all interest in this TW simply because of the way we do business. At the moment I’m intrenched in studio boards and how good the Alan Heath Avantis is for writing and production studios.

Anyway, I use Roon at home for my music around the house and in my elite Room. It cost £1k and worth every penny. I have 4TB on an internal SSD and Tidal & Qobuz, which fires music to where ever I have Sonos speakers and my control room.

https://blog.roonlabs.com/introducing-muse:-precision-audio-control-on-the-go/?utm_source=commsbridge&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=roon&utm_content=muse

KP
I’ll design you a system for Spain for your home at a budget you’d be happy with Roon & Sonos or other wifi/bluetooth speakers. If you wait, you can have speakers from the studios after a year or 2 for a music room/man cave.

Enjoy Malaga with the fam. Are you going to do any pre season at the famed training camp, KP?

TRVL
Plenty in the ARC app to keep your hungry mind playing with EQ combinations.

If that is too easy, have a look at the writing studio desk I’m looking at and seriously considering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exWd-OY2C2M

Thanks for posting that clip Almunia. I really enjoyed it. A powerful voice but soulful too. And the video accompaniment with the Buster Keston clips…

Keaton

Maybe we should try a favourite writers’ 5-a-side team? Or a five a side team of Arsenal players who’d make the best novelists.

Hi Tony
I think you’re right that the TW is a massive distraction and a game for journalists.

Malaga is all about beer, books (day and night time if I can find a quiet spot) and WAG time. I’ve never been in and around the city that much so I might do some walks, galleries and a few tapas bars too. Then it seems like half of our friends from Catalunya are coming to Wales for August.

The sound suite seems to be coming on. 🎶

Just done some back reading about Moore and lies of silence. I’ll give it a go. Cheers mate.

Tony
I fucking loved that Avantis review. ALL the technical stuff went way over my head but the enthusiasm of those three guys and the little things they did to take the piss out of themselves made it very worthwhile.

KP /Almunia/TRVL
Sorry, I breezed in without feeling the temperature of the room. To be honest I’m not familiar with Christy Dignam or his music, but I can understand the respect he commands.

I’ve really got my head spinning in so many directions grabbing pieces of data as it sifts through and storing as temp files in my brain. As a kid I’d bang the back of my head on the sofa or similar stupidly thinking it would slow or stop it. I learnt to harness it with different ways over the years, but when I’m in a critical inactive period, all bloody hell breaks loose in my cranium.

Unless you’re in first or business it’s like sitting on the runway 50 minutes into ‘we should be taking off soon’ knowing full well it’s BS, and you’ve got John Cleese long legs at angles they shouldn’t be. That’s where I’m at now waiting to finish with Thailand and hello France.

https://www.miraval-studios.com/production-house

This is the ultimate in studios. It is a full production house with a 2:1 studio for film immersive sound tracks and the latest tech in music recording across the room.

Sound techs are really great people – being one I have to say that – but seriously it’s an industry where galaxy brains live in harmony creating the impossible, as in the above link.

Getting there is a torturous path. For me it’s not knowing the time line; that and I’ve never been much or an admirer of patience. 🙂

of*

KP
Sometimes living in paradise can be overload. It’s why we need new pastures.

Enjoy the sun, sea, Sangria and family in whatever order seems fitting.

Nice one Tony
And back at ya…

I’ve got a one word solution for your malaise.

…Herbs…

it appears as if the Havertz rumours won’t be going away anytime soon…if this were a few years back, I would be over the moon, but I’m just not sure how he fits given our present squad and his piss-poor demeanor this past season

during a bit of a deep-dive on the matter I read a quote from a rabid pro-Arteta “journo”, “he’d be expensive and he’s on massive wages, but it has to be said that he’s a talented player who could probably really benefit from Mikel Arteta’s tutelage”…what tutelage is he specifically referencing? name one player who has lifted their respective games to another level based solely on being coached-up

maybe Ode, but he displayed a similar level of play when Real loaned him out to Sociedad, albeit with far less fanfare and surrounded by considerably less talent

certainly not Saka, Marts, ESR, Tierney, Saliba or Partey, as we knew what we had in the first two before his arrival and he certainly hasn’t made life easier on either by providing them with the requisite amount of overlapping help in wide spaces

ESR, Tierney and Partey have all regressed during their time under Arteta, whereas Saliba had to be shipped elsewhere to round out his game

so who the hell is this author talking about? surely not Lokonga or Vieira or Jesus, or Pepe, or Holding or Eddie or even Nelson, who found himself while at Feynoord…as such, this leaves 2 or 3 possible candidates, Xhaka and Zinchenko, the latter of which I would argue had far more to do with playing time, while the former had nowehere to go but up

that said, if we’re planning to make a massive investment in another player who appears to be excess baggage at our crosstown rivals simply on the basis of him taking things to the next level due to the magic training touch of our manager, we should fucking think again

As a postscript to the bizarre life of Bunga-Bunga Berlusconi (I think you’ll especially enjoy the poignancy of this one Almunia).

Full fascist funeral today. Very solemn with litres of botox and plastic filler on display. Berlusconi’s 56 year old daughter leading the grieving and consoling the great man’s latest squeeze – who’s 33.

Let that sink in. His erstwhile missus was 23 years younger than his actual daughter.

Bunga bunga right to the end. At least the partner was 17 years older than some of the young girls he was guilty of procuring back in day.

TRVL
That’s a bit harsh mate. 😊

Tetatutelage involves long hand rubbing sessions and touching the magic labrador’s walnutty scrotum and sausage roll before running out of the tunnel.

I sometimes see the value of Havertz but not on a consistent basis. Good technician (like most top German players) but not the best of finishers. I’d pass on him if it was my call and tell Gnabry to come ‘home’ where I’d gift him his very own personal labrador. Woof!

I think that as the TW wears on, Chelsea will have no option but to hold a fire sale. They can’t really buy too many players now given how bloated their squad is. I still think they haven’t felt the full shitstorm if Boehlynomics.

KP-Cheers…I guess I should have prefaced my comment by stating the positives, like his savvy in-match gamemanship or the fact that the only significant formational tweak he’s made was to play Xhaka in a more advanced position…let’s face it, in many regards Arteta didn’t have to be on the pitch for most matches as all he did was pick the same team, play the same tactics and make the same subs, depending on if we were winning or losing

obviously I’m being a tad facetious, as I know he’s not totally devoid of ideas and from all accounts he does put in the requisite amount of effort on the training pitch, but besides the passing/positional drills that he “borrowed” from Pep, I don’t see his particular stamp on these players…their respective strengths existed before his arrival and/or were honed elsewhere, whereas their individual deficiencies haven’t been weaned away during his numerous years in charge

take for example Saka, he’s always been a top drawer player when it comes to pace, on and off the ball, close control, with his left foot, making runs off the ball, crossing into the back post and the ability to create space in 1 v. 1 scenarios…so if I were in MA’s shoes I would first look to deploy tactics which best highlighted his strengths, which simply hasn’t been the case in the main, as Saka faces as many, if not more, double and triple teams than anyone in the PL…this can only happen if teams don’t believe your willing to employ the requisite amount of dummy or overlapping runs on his side of the pitch

then I would work specifically on those areas where considerable improvements could be made, like keeping defenders honest visa vie his right foot, which is a talent he’s certainly not devoid of, but should be better by this juncture, or by helping him to become a far more proficient striker of the ball, in and around the box, as he’s an average shooter at best…Saka has the potential to be one of the best forwards in world football, but this will never come to fruition if the aforementioned changes aren’t made…in fact, it’s far more likely that injuries will stymie he rise to the top as our current scheme requires him to endure way too much unnecessary contact

so this isn’t an attack on Arteta’s intentions, as I’m sure he would like nothing more than to be the manager of a title winning side, but who doesn’t desire such glorious ends…the bigger question is does he possess the means to achieve such lofty objectives…from what I’ve witnessed thus far it’s a definitive no…in fact, I would suggest that if you gave a more experienced and tactically savvy manager our roster, then likewise gave him the kind of funds at MA’s disposal, especially considering the amount of top 5 or 6 teams presently in disarray, I think we would have finished well within the top 4 last season and been titleholders this year…of course, this is just my personal opinion, so take that for what it’s worth

stymie his…

KP-sorry if that seemed like a rant directed in your general direction…that was definitely not my intention, as we’re typically on the same page when it comes to our present manager

No sweat Vieira. I have Broad shoulders. Any time mate.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jun/14/everton-could-face-multi-million-pound-legal-bill-if-they-lose-ffp-case

An interesting development, with a pleasing symmetry with what’s happening against City at the top of the PL, it looks like our friends at Goodison are in equally deep shit over financial impropriety. A real headache for the City apologists this one.

Imagine the furore if poor destitute Everton go broke as a result of this and nothing happens to City for committing worse breaches. Either way, it’ll add some extra spice to the onfield action when the cases start to be heard. They both deserve the absolute worst.

I don’t know if the fact that the Rice story is starting to take a backseat to a potential Havertz move is simply a telltale sign that the former is almost assuredly heading our way or a clear indication that the latter rumour has legs…I’ve said my piece on Havertz, in that I’ve always rated him up until the time his demeanor and work ethic on the pitch took a decided turn, but ultimately I just want us to remain squarely focused on our most pressing needs first and foremost…I get that there’s a bit of a feeding frenzy when it comes to Chelsea, as everyone knows that they need to undergo a rather dramatic house cleaning, but I certainly don’t think that Havertz is in the same “fire sale” boat as some others, especially considering his present age and the fact that his contract doesn’t expire until the summer of 2025…so instead of wasting our time and efforts once again, especially towards a luxury purchase who according to some doesn’t favour us as a landing spot, let’s get our starting 11 sorted before we go shopping for expensive accessories

presently our priorities should be as follows:

(1) midfield-first and foremost a Xhaka upgrade
-second order of business is another midfielder

if we’re planning to play Rice in a more advanced position, then our 2nd midfielder acquisition must have defensive qualities and be groomed as Partey’s eventual replacement…if we’re planning on selling Partey then we need to invest heavily in that position with someone the likes of Caicedo…personally I would opt for a Rice/Caicedo/Partey trio, but that’s likely wishful thinking

(2) getting our backline sorted

if the season were to start today here are our projected starters and cover pieces:

White(RB) showed some fairly signifcant improvements, much to my surprise, but not his natural position…better suited as a RCB in a back 3
Saliba(CB) looks like our starting CB for the foreseeable future(sorted)
Gabs(CB) hopeful that he will continue to progress, which seems only logical if his above partner is on the pitch(sorted)
Zinchenko(LB) has an intriguing up-side but injured too often and a little too inconsistent for my liking…that said, not totally disturbed by the notion of him as our starter so long as there’s a viable option sitting in behind

Tomi-personally I would see him off but with his present injury he’s here until at least the winter window…I like him but he’s not available enough to trust moving forward
Holding-simply needs to go…just can’t handle the pressure that comes with this particular job…other than that I have nothing bad to say about this gem of a lad
Kiwor-has potential to be a viable cover piece so long as we can find him some velcro kicks
Tierney-looks as if he’s on the outs, but I would rather he stayed…he’s better defensively than Zinch but injured about as much…maybe it would be best if we had both considering all the variables involved, but I can see why we might sell if a sizeable offer was forthcoming, as he makes little sense in that more tucked in role
Nuno-if I fashioned myself a good Coach I would keep this kid as he’s got some skills you simply can’t teach…unfortunately he needs some serious coaching-up and the 2nd half of his loan certainly didn’t help matters
Cedric-adios, please and thanks
Marquinhos-I would imagine he’s destined to be sent on loan for at least one more season

as such, we must decide if we believe in our wide-side backers…if not, we might need a RB and a LB, if Tierney is exit stage left…if MA sticks with White and Zinchenko, we might only need some cover on the left so long as Tomi can return by the beginning of September…if Holding is on his way out we will definitely need another CB…probably best to get someone who can play both inside and out, to give us some positional coverage flexibility

(3) Forwards-right now we appear to have Saka, Marts, Jesus, Tross, Nelson, Eddie and Balo at our disposal(maybe even ESR and Vieira, albeit the latter makes way more sense in the midfield)
if I felt that we would have the finances to make the a big move up front and deal with our more pressing needs I would moved this into the 2 hole, but I don’t want anymore half measures like in the winter window…with this in mind, we should keep Balo and maybe deploy him at times out wide, as he appears to have the requisite pace and dribbling that position requires…now if we could find a way to rid ourselves of Eddie’s short-sighted contract, I would suggest that we gave minutes to Jesus, Tross and Balo up top, then purchased a proper cover piece for Marts…that way we could properly evaluate our Striker position next season, then if we fel that an overhaul of sorts was in order that would invariably become priority number one next summer

best case scenario
Rice-in large part because it appears to be a forgone conclusion, which isn’t to suggest I don’t rate him, I just don’t like the potential price tag
(the whole thing is like a surprise party that someone mistakenly told you about weeks before)
Caicedo-tenacious, skilled and proven PL performer, who could likewise provide us with some top drawer coverage in a couple key positions(like buying 2 players in 1)
RCB-time to go gem hunting, so do your job Edu
LB-needs to be a player who will not only push Zinchenko, but who can likewise supply some defensive coverage late in matches
Marts cover piece-a more youthful prospect with speed to burn

Cheers

WHU have rejected Arsenal’s 80 million quid offer for Rice. My advice? Make a slightly higher offer, and if they refuse that, drop it and tell Rice to stay put if he really wants to come to Arsenal when his contract runs out next year. Indeed, offer him a shopping signing on bonus for being patient.

Shopping? Whopping!

KP-“One source has described the way in which Arsenal’s offer was structured as “embarrassing”.

now that’s the Arsenal I know…it was probably more like 60M spread over 12 years and a dog we valued at another 20M because we declared that it’s mere presence would guarantee them substantially more “wins”

TRVL

More like the offers £80 million but reduces to £250 if Arteta bottles the end of next season.

Funny how West Ham didn’t go for that?