Morning all.
The Arsenal women came close to ending their unbeaten run in the WSL yesterday afternoon. It simply didn’t look like being their day against north London rivals Toots. Chances came and went, certainly in the first half but the woodwork the Toots keeper Tinja-Riikka Korpela, prevented Arsenal from scoring. Had it not been for Korpela, Arsenal would have had the game won by halftime. Around the hour mark, the home team went ahead and Arsenal were facing defeat. Then in the final minutes, up popped Vivianne Miedema with a fantastic header to level the score. They might even have nicked all three points had the referee not learned what ‘playing the advantage’ means during her training. Her officiating overall was far from the best.
From one Finland international footballer, Tinja-Riikka Korpela, to another, Jukka Raitala. His ‘challenge’ on Sead Kolasinac during an international fixture between Finland and Bosnia & Herzegovina, was ghastly. Kolasinac limped off with what’s likely to be a really bad injury, Raitala went off courtesy of a straight red card. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll see him again in Arsenal colours. Kolasinac has been one of the marmite players during his time with the club but when he first arrived, he was great, just as he has been more recently too. To see his career at the club cut short in such a fashion is horrid. I hope he recovers well.
Sky Sports Paper Talk has a few corkers this morning. The Mirror suggest Arsenal’s squad overhaul will continue in January as six players are set to leave. The same paper writes that Mauricio Pochettino wants to return to the Premier League which is exciting for Manchester Utd because the players want Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gone but The Sun disagree as they report that Brendan Rogers is already house-hunting in Cheshire ahead of his potential move to Utd.
Then there’s Nicolas Pepe, a name all over the back pages this morning. Ok, slight exaggeration perhaps but Arsenal are reportedly ready to part ways with the player for a cut-price fee of £25 million. Logic actually suggests there might be more to this story than just a headline because let’s be honest, Premier League football and him hasn’t worked. When Arsenal signed him, I was thrilled because he’d been in great form for Lille. 23 goals in 42 appearances during the season before he moved to England was a pretty good return I thought. Young, quick, can play left, right or central, marvellous. But English football isn’t as easy as playing in a French League where other than one or two clubs, the challenge on a match day isn’t anywhere near as hard as playing against Premier League teams. Compare his stats in France with those for the Ivory Coast and there’s a big difference.
Interestingly, Marcelo Bielsa was his manager at Lille so perhaps he’d be interested in taking him to Leeds, assuming he’s still in his job come January or the summer. This is Pepe’s third season in England so if he was going to make a difference to the Arsenal team, he would have by now. These days though, he struggles to make it into the team and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him move back to France before too long. Arsenal won’t recoup much of the reported £72m paid for him in the first place but that’s football for you. There’s always a chance a player who has looked good in another League can’t adapt to a footballing life in England. Pepe wouldn’t be the first and he sure as heck won’t be the last. So if Mikel Arteta can’t see a way forward with Pepe in his team and he is sold for cut price, let’s not be too hard on the club. After all, it wasn’t Edu or Arteta who brought Pepe to the club in the first place.
See you in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
Two more reports say Balogun is ready to leave Arsenal in pursuit of first team football and Leeds want Nketiah back.
Losing two strikers ahead of the ACN would not be a good thing.
Morning Cicero.
I hadn’t seen that about Balogun, he’s obviously getting impatient IF the stories are true. At least the club hold the cards in January.
Ah, Balogun wants a loan, at least he’s quoted as saying that. Makes sense to me if Arteta isn’t going to play him in the first team but his chance could be just 6/7 weeks away.
Morning Rico and all
Although Balogun has a lot of potential if he wants to leave then let him leave, why keep a unhappy person around when it could bring some of the other players down,
Morning Geoff, he only wants a loan which is natural I think. He wants to test himself at a higher level. He’s only just signed a new contract so he’d have know the plan for him.
Good Morning All; off topic, I don’t know if it has been mentioned here. Something is going on with Stan’s NFL team that may affect Arsenal tremendously. His Rams team when they moved to Los Angeles from St Louis violated the NFL re-location clause. In order to moved Stan indemnified the League against any litigation. Now Stan is walking away from the indemnification because the League doesn’t think it can win the case, and the payment can be 2-3 billion. The rest of the owner are holding Stan responsible for any payments. Imagine if Stan is on the hook, could he possibly sell Arsenal?
I strongly suspect that will be settled out of court Obi.
Rico a loan would be great but this is a distraction that should have been sorted out when he signed a new contract and not now.
Obi From what I can recall Stan is also being sued by the local council and shop keepers as part of the contract to buy one of his USA teams he would not move the club.
Rico is the out of court settlement that they think will be in the billions.
Geoff, I think it might be the same case because the City of St. Louis is suing too. The NFL thinks that the best way to settle that suit will be to give the City an expansion franchise.
I don’t agree Geoff. Often players stay for the first half of the season before going on loan. Injuries, suspensions etc and suddenly he’s in the first team. As proved at the beginning of the season when Covid hit the squad.
Can’t see it happening though Obi. Millions maybe but billions? I doubt it but who knows.
Which ever way it goes it will cost and it may have ramifications for The Arsenal
. I suggested a few weeks ago that us and the Colorado Rapids were becoming Josh’s project and since they got complete control we don’t know how they have moved the deckchairs to protect him.
One thing to accept is that Stan and his lawyers are not stupid and they will have considered all the different outcomes of this lawsuit.
I would think that his danger may well be a kind of class action where all the plaintiffs join their cases together and the various complainents pile in on the precedent of the first decision which will of course go through a series of appeals .
I don’t think that EK and Henry can get too exited just yet.
Potter, it is funny that you mentioned that Stan and his lawyers are not stupid. According to Pro Football Talk, and supposedly anonymous source that gave the story, Stan was excused from the room in order for the rest of the owners discussions, whereby one owner commented he can’t be that callous to pull the indemnification, whereby one commented, “have you seen the way he runs Arsenal”.
The cost for an average NFL franchise is 3.5 billion, if they have to give St. Louis a franchise at a discount, the rest of the owners will hold Stan accountable. So Potter is right, regardless of the settlement the Arsenal could be affected.
Neither do I Potter and in any case, if Arsenal go up for sale, I’d imagine it won’t just be Ek trying to buy Arsenal.
Rico maybe it’s as simple as the team are playing better then anyone guested and know Balogun thinks he can not break into the senior team or he is not going to get the amount of games promised this season.
I know he just signed a new contract but I’m not convinced Arteta rates him just yet and the new contract was just so we don’t loos him for free.
He’s still young though Geoff. His chance will come I’m sure.
After reading what Balogun said, he clearly realised Arteta has plans for him, and that he’s young and it’s a long term thing.
He’s suggested he’d like a loan spell and that’s great-it can help him massively.
Aussies win this hit and giggle cricket thing 🙂
New post up.