Morning all.
Celtic were crowned Champions of the Scottish Premier League yesterday as football came to an end for all clubs north of the border. I’m not surprised because unlike here in England where lockdown restrictions have slowly begun to ease, Scotland has remained in full lockdown mode. I know, who gives a toot about Scottish football I hear you mutter, well, the fans do but it’s safety first up there and I wish it’d be the same here in England. Not everyone feels the same as me though, in fact I’m probably in a minority now. We’ve seen what Germany can do so there’s no reason English football can’t follow suit. June 12th is the restart date floating around. But of course, if the Coronavirus ‘R’ rate shoots up rapidly, that could all change. We don’t want that to happen.
Sky Sports – Chief executive Richard Masters says the Premier League remains hopeful the 2020/21 season will begin in August or September – and will be played in full – following the conclusion of the current campaign.
There will come a point when next season becomes difficult to schedule. We are not at that point yet. The June return and July finish leaves time for a break for other competitions to be completed and start the season towards the end of August or very early September.
Obviously what we want to do is ensure the season is completed in a way which preserves other competitions, but also preserves our ability to start and deliver 38 match rounds next season in a proper calendar.
Given we are trying to get the season away in a slightly truncated situation, we may look at some interesting scheduling options. Nothing we can confirm yet, but we’ve got to make it work for everybody.
In other words, English football will return and then end in a flash with fixtures crammed into a short period of time. Arsenal have ten League fixtures to play and at least one, hopefully a few more FA Cup matches too.
For now, or at least until the Covid-19 test results begin to come in later today, only small groups of players are permitted to train together. Stage One as it’s officially called. As long as all the results are clear, I’d imagine the level of training will go up a gear and contact will be allowed. At least there’s a plan and by this time next month, English football should be up and running again.
Today’s rumour as far as strikers go is this chap. Serhou Guirassy. He’s French, 6’ 2” and 24 years old. YouTube makes him look like the next Adebayor, or Kanu even. The Mail suggests we are in for him and his agent reckons he’s set his eyes on a PL move. The clue is in there isn’t it?
Anyway, just in case there is a whiff of truth to this one, enjoy…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HhI5PNwhHG4
£10 million and he could be ours The Mail says…
Stay safe guys…
Don’t know how you keep this going Rico , must be a labour of love or either you started digging and can’t get out.
As for Guirassy his career so far has been blighted by injury . He has played 83 games in 5 seasons and scored 23 goals . His time in the Bundesliga produced 8 goals from 42 appearences but back in France for a relegated Amiens he scored 7 in 25 games.
Looks a typical Arsenal signing , cheap ish with an injury history and if 10 million is correct , a gamble on goals against a future sale or just fading away .
Shades of Sanogo to my mind.
Hi Rico and All, Hope we don’t go for him with his injuries, lack of defence qualities and looses concentration that’s all we need.
I’ve also heard Guirassy being described as Sanogo Mk2 so that’s not very promising.
But that’s just some fans’ view and that doesn’t make it right, to me – and I only watched half of the vid after turning down the volume on that awful soundtrack – he looks a bit of a Giroud type, big, strong and not without some technique but at the same time painfully lacking in pace, a bit like Sanogo then!
No, I jest, he could be just the type of plan B type of striker we need for the Premier League, you know, put it in the mixer and fight for the ball against the likes of Burnley or Watford or anyone…
Personally I’d rather see Arsenal leave the £10m in the bank and go with what we have, but surely there has to be a better option in Brazil if Arteta actually decides that he needs more experience up front?
Labour of love Potter, but I must admit, it disappears by the day.
I thought Sanogo too, his goal return is hardly prolific. Let Bournemouth have him I say.
Hi Geoff.
I’d rather the Dennis guy whose survive already forgotten IF we are looking outside the club but ditto Kev, let’s build for the future with those we have.
A waste of £10 million. Still he would probably give the medical staff badly needed practice, if nothing else 😕
BBC sport:
There were six positive tests for coronavirus across three Premier League clubs on Sunday and Monday, as the top flight prepares to resume in June.
The unnamed players or staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for seven days.
A total of 748 players and staff from 19 clubs were tested. The remaining club did their tests on Tuesday so will be included in Saturday’s results.
Squads are starting non-contact training from Tuesday.
The Premier League has been suspended since 13 March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 92 fixtures remaining.
The league had previously identified 12 June for matches to possibly start again, but there is now an expectation this will need to be pushed back.
“The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency,” it said in a statement.
“No specific details as to clubs or individuals will be provided by the league and results will be made public in this way after each round of testing.”
Morning all.
There isn’t really much for any of us to say atm, unfortunately 🙂
Hope you’re all safe and well.
Restrictions are slowly being eased here, finally.
With the (relatively) extremely low losses we’ve incurred in Oz, the time is right.
‘morning all.
One player and two staff at Watford and assistant manager at Burnley are among six reported cases of Covid-19.
Moussa Diaby a twenty year old winger with Bayer Leverkusen, is the latest player to be linked with Arsenal. €10 million is the suggested fee.
French, five foot seven and cheap. Sounds about right. 😕
And people are actually slating Deeney for not wanting to train, as his 5 month old baby has had ‘breathing difficulties’
What on earth is wrong with some people???
I don’t blame Deeney at all, or any other player who refuses to return when someone in their family has an illness.
Morning all.
Nicholas Pepe, Bakayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli, do we really need a winger?
What about the Rwandan kid who plays in Norway who we had on trial and who we are supposedly going to sign, he’s a winger as well? And can Arsenal even afford €10m Cicero? 🤔
I was looking at some rumours last evening and it’s endless, £15m here, £20m there and even a couple at £30m, Sanogo II, all manner of centre backs, half a dozen wingers, several strikers, where on earth are they all gonna fit in, remember social distancing. 😉
You know what fellas, sign Bakayo Saka on a long deal and I’ll be happy…
Interesting that out of the four you mention Cicero, that three out of the four are staff, now why is that? Can’t they social distance as most of them are in families with kids, teenage kids in some cases.
Morning Rico
Morning Kev, a central midfielder and Saka signed up and I’ll be over the moon. We certainly don’t need any wingers in my opinion. If we keep Mari, we don’t need any defenders either in my opinion. Our young fullback on loan in Germany has been doing well lately. According to reports but I’ve not seen him play.
Osei Tutu, I think they’ve been using him as a winger Rico, but it’s all experience I guess.
Even Mavropanos has been keeping fit and getting regular games, his team lost 1-0.
Yeah, I like Mari, I think that that deal is pretty much done, not sure about Soares, I guess that could be decided by the kind of salary he wants.
You just don’t know with transfers Rico, I’m the same as everyone else when we sign some new super star, I think that we’ve signed the player that will transform us, like Pepe for example and there ya go, he’s had a bang average season whilst Martinelli has been sensational. Both came from abroad and faced the same settling in issues.
I’d like to see what more Arteta can get from the current players we’ve already got before we sign another Pepe.
That’s him Kev. Another winger then. 😆
I’m fed up with ‘super stars’ – Arsenal have either picked the wrong ones or we’ve just been unlucky. I’d much rather a Gabriel kind of signing. Work ethic before status.
Morning all.
Rico, In all fairness to Pepe and other players like him, we did see a lot of people on here kind of feeling sorry for the trials and tribulations Denilson went through that we didn’t know about when so quickly to criticise him for years.
Some players settle quickly, some don’t but it’s not necessarily their fault,
Imo.
I don’t think that our media have noticed that the world is going bust and linking everyone with big money purchases is just pie in the sky.
Not 100% sure what your getting at Scott. 🤔
Just the comments about being fed up with signing stars and wanting workers……we don’t really know what we are getting, and some players take a while to settle, if they ever do.
Pepe may end up a dud, hard to say, but hopefully Arteta gets what he can out if the guy.
Ha ha Potter. Trouble is, they are too used to making stories up.
Scott, I was thinking more Ozil than Pepe. Pepe needed a season imo, it’s a tough league as he’s found out.
Yeah Scott, I haven’t a clue what your on about…. 😆
Hi Rico and All due to the virus this season has been stuffed no matter were we finish. So I will judge Arteta at the end of next season, which makes me wonder should we sell Aubameyang or lacazette to raise money and keep most of it for next season transfer market ( mid season ) and try to buy Giroud cheap to give Pepe a bit longer to adjust to the premier league.
Rico with all these reporters writing who we are buying and selling I have one right out of left field.
what is we signed Mertesacker for a six month contract playing of the bench as a player and on field coach for the young players in a similar way Wenger signed Thierry Henry or back to the drawing board.
Kev, is it the accent??
🙂 🙂
Fair enough, Rico……Pepe definitely needs to step up this season and hopefully he will.
Scott, 😄
Just been on News Now and heaven knows why I put myself through that utter garbage but I was drawn to this rumour and the fee, had a look and had to laugh, according to one shitty site Arsenal are ‘in’ for some Portuguese geezer from Benfica, who has a £71m buy out clause…
That’s right we’re gonna spend £71m on some soapy midfielder from Portugal on the back of getting our players, well most of them, to take a pay cut?!
And another honey is a straight swap with Atletico – who else?
Lacazette for Lemar, that’s right the bloke Wenger wanted to spend £90m on, proper genius him!!!
Can you imagine his wages if it came off?
Just what we need when as a club we’re trying to economise…
Kev, everything else aside, Lemar could be and should be world class.
I’ll bet you read my comments in an Aussie accent 🙂
Lemar turned us down once. Even if the rumour is true which I’m convinced it isn’t, I don’t think the squad needs him. His wages would be above what i imagine Arsenal are looking to pay players.
In any case, we need a defence minded midfielder imo.
New post up now.