Morning all.
Tomorrow is about finals. The final Premier League fixtures of the 2023/24 season, the final time Jurgen Klopp will manage Liverpool and the final time David Moyes will manage a West Ham fixture. It’s also the final opportunity for one club to draw or defeat Manchester City. Wouldn’t it be something special for David Moyes if his team could manage either, especially as it might hand his old mate from his Everton days his first Premier League title. I’m sure the travelling fans of West Ham would love to see their manager leave on a positive note.
For Burnley, Sheffield Utd and barring a miracle, Luton Town, it’s their final Premier League fixture for at least another 14 months.
It’s the final day in Mo Elneny’s Arsenal career too as he’s confirmed he’s leaving on social media:
Gooners, I’m here today to send you a message. To say goodbye, and thank you for everything you’ve done for me. The love, the support, and the kindness. I’m really going to miss you so much, and you will be in my heart forever, and I wanted to say how much I love you, and how much you mean to me. I will never forget the way you support me. I’m going to see you on Sunday, at the Emirates Stadium, to say goodbye face-to-face.
Elneny has been at Arsenal for eight years, playing 161 times according to Wikipedia. Playing time has lessened in recent years, certainly since Mikel Arteta arrived but that’s football and that’s today’s Arsenal. Whichever club he now joins, I wish him well.
Aaron Ramsdale, who has been linked with a departure this summer has been rumoured to on the verge of joining Newcastle Utd. The Telegraph reports that Newcastle are thought to be willing to pay £15m for the England goalkeeper, offering him a five-year deal. However, in what is thought to be a response to the reports, Ramsdale, posted on the social platform X that it was “news to me”. If Arsenal are selling Ramsdale this summer, it should be for a lot more than £15m in my opinion.
The same paper suggests that Arsenal possess a “strong interest” in Benjamin Sesko. They even suggest we’re in “pole position” to seal his signature. £60m is the fee mooted which is a lot for a 20 year old but it’s the selling club’s prerogative to set such a high price. We’re not going to pick up a top top striker for much less. Arsenal certainly aren’t afraid to pay what it takes to get a player signed if it’s a player Mikel Arteta really wants but whether or not Sesko is one of them is something I very much doubt the person writing for The Telegraph knows. Just as they don’t know if Aaron Ramsdale is leaving let alone signing for Newcastle. If modelling the new 2024/25 kit is anything to go by, Ramsdale is going nowhere.
It’s that time of year though and as the days and weeks roll by, rumours about Arsenal signings will only increase and let’s be honest, we love it. Not until David Ornstein puts his name to a rumour is it worth thinking there might be an element of truth to a story though…
Catch up later…
Good morning Rico,
£15 million for a twenty-six year old England international goal keeper is not just a derisive offer, but an insult to a very capable ‘keeper.
Morning Cicero, not sure why your comment went into moderation..
Agreed. Especially if we’re paying nearly double that for Raya.
No worries Rico, technology eh? 😕
Think I’ve sussed it Rico, e-mail address was mis-spelt. All fixed now……I Hope.😉
Ha ha, you can be forgiven Cicero..
Carragher makes sense for once…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13429237/Jamie-Carragher-warns-Man-City-never-escape-shadow-115-FFP-charges-Pep-Guardiolas-men-stand-brink-historic-fourth-consecutive-Premier-League-title.html
Morning Rico and Company…
My feeling exactly on the Ramsdale transfer rumour, he’s on a long contract so why on earth should we sell him on the cheap?
If it was a report on the transfer of the reserve goalkeeper at Liverpool or Man City or even Chelsea then the fantasist writing the total bollocks would at least come up with a believable figure!
Isn’t £15m what we got for Matt Turner last summer?
In an ideal world, and also taking into account the effects of PSR, we would want a bidding war for Aaron and for that matter Eddie and Emile.
Interesting that when one of the big Newcastle names are linked to a transfer out that nobody low-balls their transfer value and yet £100m for Bruno is insane.
Morning Kev.
I’d like to think Arsenal have learned not to sell players, very good players, cheaply. Letting Martinez go for £20 million was a big mistake when we could have got much more or better still, made him our number 1 keeper!
I think that’s one of the flaws of Arsenal and has been for a while. Selling players too cheaply.
We missed a trick with Reuell Walters, left it too late to offer him an improved contract and now we’re losing a very good young defender on a free transfer.
It’s a reputation thing Rico, we were seen as a soft touch in the transfer market, overpaying for Pepe (Liverpool walked away) overpaying for Aubameyang, Sokratis and Lacazette. It takes a long time to change people’s perceptions of your poor management.
I think we sold Martinez because we needed some income to cover our outlay on other signings and also there were I suspect some personality issues with Emi and Mikel. You’re not going to get every transfer right, there’s risks involved but overall I’d say our value for money transfer business has been as good as you’ll see anywhere else.
This is probably the first summer since Arteta arrived when we’ve got some players to sell that actually have transfer value. So let’s see where we are in August?
Was he every likely to get a start though Cicero. History under Arteta suggests not. I’m convinced the young 17 year old whose name escapes me right now, only featured against Brentford because Arteta was getting his own back for the Toney comments.
I know Kev, it’s not a recent thing. We’ve been terrible at selling players for years.
If the Martinez sale was about money then it makes the fee look even more silly. I heard from someone quite reliable, Martinez wanted the number one but Arteta expected him to fight it out with Leno. Having just played a massive part in securing the FA Cup for Arteta, I’d have thought it was obvious out of the two who was better.
£15m for Ramsdale is an absolute joke, we should insist on £30-£40m.
We have got to do better on selling,I saw we are ahead of Man City on net spend over the last 5 years.
Fairly sure we will look to move on the likes of Nketiah (Ipswich rumored to be interested)
Afternoon Rico and all.
As others have said, we always seem to sell our players cheap, as for Ramsdale’s price offered, we all know it way to low but I guess not playing him regular has come into account.
We should have signed him up and sent him out on loan, as we did with Saliba, look how well that turned out.
Looking at the age of our squad we have a few years to bring on good academy graduates so as to be ready to replace squad members who move on for whatever reason.
That doesn’t surprise me Limey, we needed to spend to try and catch up. City have been through their spending sprees and now hopefully, they’ll pay the price.. in court..
Afternoon Geoff.
Ramsdale Cicero? If so, we might yet. I think he’s too young to just sell cheaply. £15 million is hardly likely to get us a new second keeper.
2-48 Cicero, you’re being rather hopeful 😜
Chelsea women are giving Man U a hammering 47 mins. 0 – 5.
Arsenal Women 2 – 0 Brighton half-time.
4-0now! Miedema with the third!
How and why have they dumped her?
Doubtless we’ll read about in the red tops before too long. I blame the manager. Reasons to come or rather speculations to come at a later date, perhaps?
Miedema leaving is bonkers. Maybe it is personal..
Marcus McGuane has just helped Oxford win promotion to the Championship..
West Ham to sign Arsenal’s Luis Brown after trials
According to the respected Jorge Bird’s Arsenal Youth site, West Ham are close to signing Brown from the Gunners.
The 18-year-old defender is set to depart London Colney and start afresh and the player himself has confirmed his exit from the Gunners on Instagram.
De Zerbi is leaving Brighton at the end of this season. That’s a shock. Bayern I wonder or Man Utd…
We have a few academy players out on trials, I think that the academy plans to push through more of the U16’s next season as the coaches believe they’re at a higher level to some of the U21’s and U18’s we currently at the club.
Lets hope the premier league sort out this issue with Man City and any other club found guilty of cheating so next seaon all teams can start of on a level field and if they let City get away with cheating Idon’t know if I would be interested watching next season.
Morning all.
New post up.