Morning all.
Next time I book a holiday, it’s definitely going to involve an aeroplane to a location where sunshine is guaranteed! Wind burn is the closest I’m going to get to a sun tan. Lol
Photo from Arsenal.com
£11.99 isn’t too bad a price to watch all four pre-season fixtures in my opinion and yes, I’ve already bought mine although I might miss the live coverage of the Barcelona game.
After Kai Havertz landed, news from Arsenal has gone quiet. Declan Rice remains close to joining the club, as does Jurrien Timber according to both Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein so hopefully this will be the week when they walk through the Arsenal doors.
Romeo Lavia Is another player linked with Arsenal but he’s linked with many other clubs too including Liverpool and I reckon that’s where he’ll end up but if Champions League football is his dream, the Arsenal could be in with a chance of signing him. Hopefully he and Lokonga don’t talk on the phone. Lol
Talking of our Belgian, his future needs sorting out but then so do many others. Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Jorginho, Mo Elneny, Flo Balogun, Fabio Vieira, Austen Trusty and perhaps even Eddie Nketiah. Omar Rekik is another, who at 21, might be the extra central defender we’ll need should Holding leave but then again, I doubt it. Behind them is a whole host of younger players who either need to make a permanent move away from Arsenal or go out on loan.
I’ve nicked this from Sky Sports, an explanation as to how Arsenal as a club can afford to go big in the transfer window this summer.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire says that Arsenal‘s seemingly enhanced willingness to spend is a ‘reward’ for Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal are actually in a very strong position when it comes to spending. The reason for that is they have managed to get their wages under control. Arsenal’s wages are lower than they were in 2018. They are £150m to a £170m less than Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City. That has given them the flexibility to go into the market and buy new players without having to worry too much. Plus, they have got the additional benefits of Champions League matches coming in, premium prices and the minimum I would say prize money of £50m from being participants. So, you factor that all together and they’ve probably still got a bit of leeway in terms of what they can spend over this present window.
When asked if there’s been a strategy change at Arsenal, he added:
Yes. They had a retrenchment. They went through some fallow years when they weren’t qualifying for the Champions League. They have managed to get rid of high earners, the likes of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off that payroll, and that has given them the ability to now go into the market and be very competitive and try to match other clubs. Arsenal used to be known as the Bank of England club. They’ve always been well run financially, and I think this change in terms of spending is a reward for Mikel Arteta in terms of his ability to get them into those Champions League places again, which means so much in terms of enhanced revenue.
To be fair, most of us probably knew much of what’s written beforehand and I think it was said by Ivan Gazidis or Josh Kroenke that Arsenal were a Europa League club paying players Champions League wages, something which had to change. Now it has. We’re a Champions League club paying more “sensible” wages. Even Bukayo Saka is reported to be earning less than £200k a week. As said in the article, there’s now quite a big difference between ourselves and clubs around us. Obviously there are many other clubs paying their players less than Arsenal but that’ll always be the case.
So, by the sounds of it, Arsenal could yet challenge Chelsea for Moises Caicedo and Liverpool for Romeo Lavia and unlike those two clubs, we can offer both Champions League football right now. Plus, the club has done its sorting out, or at least most of it as far as I can see and now the focus in what goes on on the pitch. As suggested yesterday and before, this squad is very young, it’s growing together and after this summer, (hopefully) tweaks to the squad rather than a huge overhaul, will be needed.
I’m off for another blast of sea air, catch up later..
As I said, I can’t wait for this week to end and hopefully Rice and Timber sign, so we then can start moving players like Xhaka and co out.
Rico if you feel like hanging crap on the Aussie cricket team it won’t offend me.
Ha ha Geoff, I couldn’t.
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1675887836610871297?s=20
Arsenal stand to make some profit if Daniel Ballard and Mavropanos move this summer as Edu negotiated sell-on clauses when both defenders joined Sunderland and Stuttgart for what seemed like small fees in previous windows, I think we have a sell-on clause in Guendouzi’s deal with Marseilles and probably half-a-dozen more spread across some of the lesser lights who’ve left in the last 2/3 years. Every little helps…
Xhaka expected to join Bayer Leverkusen in the next few days for £21.5 million. That could mean the Rice deal is finally done.
That’s a good fee for Xhaka.
Cicero, each time you refresh the site, does the cookie consent notification pop up? It is for me and it’s annoying.
It does Rico but not every time. When it does it’s impossible to get rid of it except by closing the page and restarting it.
Ok, thanks Cicero.
Waiting for Arsenal to sign Rice is like watching paint dry, very slow and boring.
And Jurrien Timber.
Well here’s one signing that we’ve be trying for over the last year. 24 year old England international striker Alessia Russo, out of contract at Man U.
Brilliant signing for the women. One of the best players out there imo.
New post up
Great post, opps 😉