Morning all.
On 5 August 2021, Manchester City announced that they had signed Grealish on a six-year contract that would run until 2027. It was reported by numerous outlets that the transfer fee paid to Aston Villa was for the amount of £100 million, which at the time constituted the most expensive transfer of an English player ever, as well as the highest fee ever paid by a British club. At the time of signing, Grealish was 25 years old, one month away from turning 26.
‘What a fantastic signing’ was the general consensus in the world of internet football at the time. I couldn’t be bothered to copy and paste some of the gushing comments about City, Grealish and a potential match made in heaven which were written about this deal.
Fast forward a couple of years. If Arsenal secure the signing of Declan Rice, who is 24 years old until January 2024, has been West Ham’s Captain for a few years, has, I think it’s fair to say, been just as important for the Hammers as Grealish was for Aston Villa, yet is already considered to be an overpriced signing at £105 million.
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up could you? A few years ago, Arsenal lacked ambition yet now, the club is paying over the odds for players. No, football allowed foreign ownership and welcomed big money exchanges for players. Clubs like West Ham are right to demand a top fee for their captain and just because Arsenal have been poor at selling players over the years, it doesn’t mean every club has to be. Brighton are no different, nor Chelsea who have allegedly ripped us off for Kai Havertz. This isn’t a wing and a prayer Nicolas Pepe ‘unwanted’ signing by the manager, this is a player who Mikel Arteta clearly wanted because he believes he can get the best out of him.
Mikel Arteta on signing Kai Havertz:
Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play. We welcome Kai and his family to Arsenal Football Club and we are all excited to start working with him when we start pre-season training soon.
Kia Havertz:
It’s super exciting for me personally. I’m so glad to join this amazing club. This club has such a big history, and I hope we we can achieve lots of things, and I’m just looking forward to meeting all the players, the staff, and yeah, it’s going to be exciting. I think the family mentality that the team has on the pitch is one of the reasons why it so hard to play against Arsenal. I guess they have it off the pitch as well. So the team mentality in the squad is very, very high and you can feel that. Obviously there’s so many talented players and there’s big room to achieve big things as well.
As for the transfer fees, well I don’t know about you but I’ve no idea how much the club can spend this summer and quite frankly, I don’t care. If Havertz scores goals and sets others up to do the same then no one will be talking about his transfer fee in a few months time. If Rice, should he sign, does for Arsenal what he’s been doing for West Ham for a few years now, who’ll care that he cost £105 million? We’re talking about two Premier League ready players who are yet to reach their peak, not some overseas player who might need a season to settle. A player who might not ever settle.
Throw in the widely reported £40 odd million we’re supposed to be paying Ajax for Jurrien Timber and Arsenal will have spent £200 million this summer. Yes, it’s one heck of a lot of money, too much in my opinion but that opinion is based on real life and not the overpriced and overhyped world of football transfer fees.
When Gary Neville suggested Declan Rice was worth £60 million, did he think about what his old club has paid for players over the years? There’s a Chelsea supporting presenter on Sky Sports who has already got involved with the fees Arsenal are paying this summer, yet if he stopped and thought for one second, he’d remain neutral because it’s his club which kicked off the overinflated transfer fees in the first place. £100 million for Lukaku, a player who Chelsea signed, let go and then resigned for around four times the original transfer fee. Then loaned him out because he wasn’t doing very well. He’s just one very expensive signing who has been little short of a ‘flop’.
Five years ago, ten years ago, Arsenal fans were crying out for the club owners to show ambition. The club was ridiculed in the back pages and on both Sky and BT Sports for not doing enough during a transfer window to address the frailties within the squad. Now, Arsenal are paying over the odds in an effort to make the team/squad stronger.
Arsenal as a club can seldom win regardless of what it does but who cares?
Catch up in the comments…
Well said. I agree totally. Just as well we’re used to it.
The anti Arsenal agenda is everywhere. The trajectory we’re on, means we’re in with a shout at the league and maybe the CL in a few more years and boy, will it taste sweet when we lift one or both of those trophies.
Morning Rico and all.
At last, we have signed a new player early and by the sounds of it 2 more within a week. Much better than this waiting to the last minute and signing anyone who was left over.
Good morning Rico, I’ll be happy to be proved wrong, but I think we have overpaid for Rice. Reading through various publications there seems to be conflicting opinions as to his actual best area of competence. Defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder, number 10 and even centre back. His goals and assists stats are somewhat underwhelming and one comment that seeing him “flying into tackles” worries me that he will take over from Xhaka as the referee’s red card magnet.
Arteta has commented that he has some tactical innovations that he has not yet been able to introduce due to the restrictions of the present squad. perhaps that’s where Rice comes in.
Hi Rico, hope all is well.
Declan Rice is our biggest signing since Sol Campbell arrived at Arsenal over 20 years ago.
His arrival along with Havertz are huge statements of intent. Have to hand it to Arteta, Edu and Josh, great business done early.
Yes the fees being paid are huge but there needs to be some perspective applied. Just a couple of examples…Man City paid £50m in 2015 for Raheem Sterling & in 2016 Man United paid £90+m for Paul Pogba…what would those fees be now?
Morning Cicero, Geoff, all.
Imo, all players, or at least majority are overpriced. But only time will tell if he and any new signing proves to be worth every penny.
Good post Rico, you’ve definitely got your mojo back… 😉
‘The pundits’ what a waste of oxygen they are, how dishonest they are, how can they not see the hypocrisy in their comments, but they of course know how hypocritical they are!
They’re comment are derived from personal disappointment borne from their own clubs’ failure to compete with the financial behemoth that is City. Arsenal’s much derided ‘process’ has exposed the largesse of the pundits own favourites, it’s exposed how poorly run their favourites are and how they’ve wasted so much money, therefore they attack Arsenal with snide remarks – but I love it.
It all means that Arsenal are relevant again, we’re back in the conversation, we’re contenders and probably the only contenders after City.
So suck it up David James, Jamie O’Hara, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand and all the other ex-players who weren’t talented enough to stay inside the game and took the easy way out into the media…
The word here is that Arteta and Pep bid the same to let West Ham know there was no war and when Pep pulled out the bid was as good as it was going to be .
As for the media damned either way.
Ha ha Kev, thanks. I don’t think I ever really had one though. 😂
Hi Pete, that’s how I see it too.
If that’s true about City and Rice, they did us a favour then.
Afternoon rico, all. Although we look like overpaying, if we didn’t get him, our biggest rival would. And that is a scary thought considering the squad they have already. So probably worth it.
C’mon Kev, when did Rico ever lose her mojo? 😉
Maybe we did offer/pay too much for Rice, but on the positive side he is English, and we know he can play in the premier league and now we can forget about how much we paid for Pepe.
Arteta managed to stop Xhaka’s stupid tackles, so if Rice has that in his game hopefully Arteta can do the same and help Rice.
Afternoon Andrew, plus, can you imagine the reports about how we’ve been rejected or beaten to a signing yet again.
This is brilliant news if true.
Fabrizio Romano
@FabrizioRomano
·
Follow
Understand Arsenal now increasingly confident to keep 2007 born gem Ethan Nwaneri at the club — new deal almost agreed despite top clubs interest. 🚨⚪️🔴 #AFC
Club sources confirm plan to get it done soon, talks advancing and progressing well waiting to have it signed.
Just like that…. Fingers up to Chelsea and City who were trying to take him…
Arsenal teenager Nwaneri commits future to club’
Arsenal teenager Ethan Nwaneri has committed his future to the club, according to The Athletic.
The report claims the 16-year-old has signed scholarship forms with Arsenal and agreed to a professional deal for when he turns 17 in March 2024. His schoolboy registration was due to expire on June 30.
Aged 15 years and 181 days, Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history when he came on against Brentford in September to beat the record held by Harvey Elliott.
The England youth international, who is an Arsenal fan and was raised a short distance from the Emirates Stadium, reportedly turned down more lucrative financial offers from elsewhere to stay at the Gunners, with his desire always to continue his career there.
Arteta and his team are trying to bring our Arsenal back. This is quite encouraging. Two exceptional signings already! I could never have asked for more at this point. Don’t even care about the overvaluation for now, but deals are getting done on time. Quite exciting to know that Arsenal is stocked with an English core of players capable of taking the club where it belongs.
Cicero, Rico never lost it, I was just keeping her on her toes… 😄
I’m sure that Nwaneri and his family can see how ambitious the club is now and maybe he’s been assured of being fast-tracked through the U21’s and into the senior squad?
According to a Jeorge Bird there’s going to be a lot of departures from the reserves which should open up more opportunities for our really talented group of 16 & 17 year olds who are coming through and need to be pushed into U21 and U23 football rather than having them blocked off by 19/20 & 21 year olds who are never going to make it?
Just as Arteta has raised the level in the senior squad, Mertesaker and his coaches need to raise the level in the academy.
I just wondering out of curiosity, what would happen if the soccer officials around the world all agreed that any player brought from say 2030 onwards, have to be paid the full amount in cash and no add on aloud or payments made over years.
New post up now