Arsene Wenger and Arsenal received a welcome piece of good news in the last few days, as Juventus reportedly informed compatriots Napoli that they will not be paying the release clause for the transfer of Gonzalo Higuain. Both Arsenal and the Italian champions have been heavily linked with the former Real Madrid man, with Wenger desperate for attacking reinforcements.
Danny Welbeck looks likely to face a lengthy period on the sidelines through injury, and Olivier Giroud suffered a frustrating campaign last time around, which included a fourteen match goal scoring drought. Despite finishing in second place in last season’s Premier League table, the Gunners faltered significantly after the Christmas period and once again left large proportions of the Arsenal faithful frustrated over a lack of progression.
Arsenal last claimed the title over a decade ago now and with odds of 6/1 from bookmakers to repeat such a feet, they are again seen as outsiders for success for the upcoming campaign. Although Granit Xhaka’s arrival has been warmly received, a lack of further additions is again proving worrying for fans at the Emirates.
Bolton defender Rob Holding is believed to be closing in on a move to North London after Arsenal made a bid in the region of £2 million for the youngster. However, as most likely he is a name for the future, the need for proven quality throughout the squad has been highlighted once again.
After reportedly turning down a new contract with Leicester City, Riyad Mahrez is 3/1 to sign for Arsenal, with Wenger having already missed out on his team mate Jamie Vardy earlier on in the summer.
The arrival of Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte, as well as the introduction of Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford is only likely to increase the competition at the top end of the Premier League and Wenger will want to avoid panic deals come the end of the transfer window.
Having last reached the Champions League final back in 2006, Wenger’s men are 20/1 outsiders to win the same competition come 2017.
Onto the transfer news, well there isn’t any really. It’s all rubbish in the media which is repeated day after day with little bits added to make it sound more exciting.
I think it’s around six weeks until the transfer window closes so there’s still plenty of time for Arsene Wenger to wake from his slumber and realise that there’s work to be done.
Such a shame he didn’t accept the offer of being the next England manager. Apparently it was his if he wanted it.
Have a good Thursday guys…
Not that I really care, but what ‘work’ has Paul Pogba’s agent done, to actually justify an agents fee of £18 million…?
In any other language it’s a bung…
Which I thought was illegal, but not according to FIFA/UEFA it seems…
The lunatics are running the asylum…
Is that how much his agent will earn Kev?
That’s just wrong isn’t it…..
Big Sam the new England manager, gawd help us….
Good read Rico…
Kev- get with the programme; you know its all about the trickle-down effect… 😉
If Sky make enough from hard pressed Joe-Public, it trickles down to the Owners, and then to the agents and then the players get paid handsomely and then the tea lady and finally the fans I suppose… The fans just have to wait a generation or 2
Can’t take any credit Ts, someone sent it to me for a fiver… 😉
Just a fiver?… Melania Trump’s could do with the email address of the author.. 😛
Pays for fish & chips later… 😉
🙂 ha ha well there is nothing like a Thursday night fish and chips?
Is it Corrie or Eastenders tonight? 😉
Morning all.
Kev, there’s only one entity who ALWAYS wins when it comes to rising transfer fees, and that’s the agents.
They’re poison.
Both I think Ts, and Emmerdale… 🙂
Cod or Haddock Rico?
Rico, morning again.
I’m with BT. I could be persuaded to change though as their service locally is just not up to snuff just lately!
Cracking deal for Juve! 99m profit. I reckon manure thought they’d made a nice little 1m profit when they sold him! Now the Pygmy insists he wants Pogba back and they will pay the fee! Or he’ll have a hissy fit and stamp his feet a bit, fall out with all and sundry and sack the Dr. Just his style that! And manure will pay all the costs. Mendes getting 18.4m on top of the Juve cash merely impoverishes the buying club a little further! Aren’t they still well in debt? It’s not even that Pogba is that good. Still, you get what you pay for! Or not!! And not even CL money or qudos from UEFA! The mind boggles.
Funny there was a time Wenger was an enemy to English football when he fielded all 11 foreigners and now they wanted to make him a manager? The world really is round. Didn’t see the ol’ knob taking it anyway. It’s way below the 8m he makes at le grove.
Forget the transfer (in)activity, everyone else seems to be preparing for next season. Most clubs are fully into pre-season and we are well, just releasing training pics. We’ll be ready indeed!
That’s always a big decision to make Adam, I love both but Haddock just edges it..
Morning Wavy. Seems it’s a countrywide problem with Bt, just seen it on the news. Good though as I thought it was just me…
£100m for Pogba is great business for Juve, that’s for sure. Not bad for Pogba either if £200k a week is correct…
Think it was to do with him being able to turn young players into good ones Marshall. Although that quality seems to have left him these days…
The Mendes factor again….. Jose and Mendes…… Funny that, where ever the poison dwarf goes he always buys from Mendes, I wonder what he gets in rather large brown bags for that one…!
Funny how no-one else see’s it though Wath.
Strange that no-one has been investigated since stroller. It can’t have disappeared altogether.
There’s a dodgy connection between the poison dwarf, that ex Manc CEO who then went to the Chavs (Peter Kenyon) and Mendes… Am sure Ts knows all about it, it’s all about dealing with third party companies who “handle” paperwork documentation etc etc and those 3 have a finger in the pie “Supposedly” of the 3rd party company….!
Of course Ginge, trickle down, how could I not have realised, my bad… ?
And there’s always the Offshore gig too. 🙂
Kev told me about it. 🙂
I don’t think the agent is Mendes it is Raiola. He was the agent for Mkhitaryan too
He’s probably related to Mendes in some way Henry so as not to draw to much attention to their dodgy dealings, it’s piss funny the dwarf is spunking so much of the mancs money and he’s only been there a month…!
How many would have wanted AW to spend £100m to get Pogba?
Not me…………! Decent player but yet another who’s totally over rated and highly over priced..! Make that mega mega over priced.
Me neither, not for that money, but I’d love him at Arsenal.. For much less of course.
Yes, anyone out there, in need of a financial advisor, should write, on the back of a £50 note, to;
Volcano Financial Services Ltd,
Costco House,
55 Percy Circus,
Kings Cross,
London
WC1 1FU
HR- unfortunately Raiola and Mendes work together…
And since Jose manages all of ‘Hosey’s ‘ affairs manure are going to find themselves circumvented…
Franklin’s famous saying come to mind… ”Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Pot as value then is more than two and a half times the price of Ozil! Even given he’s still a bit raw, does his value mean he’s two and a half times better or even potentially better than Ozil? I don’t think so!
This money thing and football is getting completely out of hand. Apart from which, isn’t there some kind of law that deals with international traffiking of human beings foe financial gain. The role of the agent is almost that of a gang master. Get Corbyn on the case I’m sure he has the detective instincts to sniff out the truth and then set up the machinery to seek out and neutralise these human parasites! Or ask the FA/UEFA/FIFA to sort the problem out! We’re bound to get something done to purge these leeches from our glorious game……….or not!
Kev- you did not say it had to be legit £50 note.. 😉
Wavy- Owen Smith will be better suited with his lobbying experience. 😉
Kev’s 3rd party company to rake in a few bob under the table…………… just saying…! 🙂
Jorge brought Falcao to Yanited remember and he also brought in Di Maria and then sold him on…
I blame Glazer Jnr and Ed Woodward for succumbing to super leech after Old Fergie hounded out Raiola
Rico what about your commission on Theoo’s deals in the past? Just asking.. 😛
Ts, I knew you’d have a comment on the dodgy one, have you seen the Kenyon,Mendes,Moreen company stories before…! you can only buy this player through that company etc etc and guess who owns said company via an offshore stake via this one that one and another one… trace it back and yes those 3 pop up..!
Ginge/Wath, I’m thinking of becoming a Super Agent…
This game is in decline and short of becoming a writer or a suit in the City I can’t think of anything else in that wage bracket…
Unless Ginge can get me an interview for MI6… ?
That one’s boring these days Ts…
Kev. Brilliant! 🙂
Wath… as long as the EPL and La Liga are in existence there will be leeches like those 3…
Odd how Athletico is run by Kenyon and Mendez… plus Mendez also holding Valencia at ransom.
Agents are leeches..look at what Dein Jnr did to us?
Interesting how Pere Guardiola only has 2 players on the books.. if I had my way agents would not be allowed to manage more than 5 players…
🙂 Rico…
Football lost any real social relevance years ago. The financial sums involved are simply ridiculous as far as any normal person is concerned. Yes, the agents and players are absolutely raking it in, but with each passing season the game and those directly involved become more and more aloof and separated from the fans. It has become a breeding ground where psychos like Mourinho can find the sort of significance that malignant dwarves like him could never hope to have within the normal realms of life.
This year I think he will use his privileged position as Man Utd’s manager to become even more aggressive and repulsive. He simply won’t be able to resist. Quite what the Glazers will make of it remains to be seen.
Kev… all you need to do is turn up at 64 Vauxhall Cross the 3rd Thursday of the month and give the password when someone touches their left chuffs.. 😉 or drop off at 3 Carlton Gardens and ask for an interview.
Couldn’t agree more Adam. Aren’t the Glazers already heavily in debt?
Ditto that Adam…
Yes Rico, but that isn’t unusual for big businessmen. From what I understand, they are aware where bad publicity is concerned and we know from experience that Mourinho becomes completely out of control as soon as things don’t go exactly the way he wants.
I was thinking more of FFP Adam but forgot, that doesn’t exist really does it…
Well if they don’t like bad publicity, the season ahead could be amusing for us non Utd fans because Jose doesn’t know how to be a decent man.
Pot as = Pogba……Fks sake
If everything goes to plan Ginge, I could be joining you on your next assignment to the Middle East.
Just brushing up on my Arabic as I write, Habib…. ?
You know what Adam, the only way that agents will ever be reined in, is if the club’s show a unified front, but that ain’t gonna happen ax most of those at the clubs, have their snouts in the same trough…
It’s a bit like expecting the EU to sign-off it’s accounts, and that’s never gonna happen…
Sorry, a bit of a time lapse there. I forgot to press the ‘submit’ button and went out to pick black currants! I shall be baying at the moon later!
Adam you are so right. Football has become rarified. What was once Corbyns mates Saturday release valve has now become the indulgence of the public schoolboy turned banker in the City’s pleasure dome built of ice and champagne, dahling! I guess the game will probably grow so fat and corpulent that it will eat itself and Joe public will turn to humbler pastimes like shove ha’penny or even cribbage!
I don’t know, but something stinks in our current societal make up. The root cause of most of evils we are presently suffering stems from mammon and the production of too many control freaks!
Ho hum. I’ll go and freeze my black currants or turn them into jam, (for today or tomorrow!)
Hi Wavy. Send some down and I could make a delicious blackcurrent and apple crumble.
As for the rest I must say that I hope it all does come crashing down around their ears. As the Brexit shows, people are sick to death with the political elite and the same could happen with football. With all the money in the world, the French put on a tournament for multi-millionaires to show the World how great football can be at top International level.
They are still trying to clear the stink.
Wouldn’t be as nice as mine Adam, as I have the apples… 😉
You’ll need to prove to me Rico in the Great HH bake-off. 🙂
West Ham have upped their offer for Bacca….
Deal Adam… 🙂
Chambers could be heading to Watford apparently.. Not sure if a loan or a permanent deal.
Night guys, catch up tomorrow….
It’s a deal. I’ll split the haul and send you both half each, frozen of course. Only proviso, you send me a table spoonful each. I’ll make my own custard,!looking forward to it. Yum, yum.
I’ll do the rhubarb crumble…
Night All
Malaga, do ya want the good news or the bad news, we had a vote in your absence and the Irish coffee’s are on you !
Morning all.
Gazidis justified our penny pinching tacts yesterday. For a club which thinks it does shrewd business we really are a cock up.
With all the negative vibe I still think we’ll get our usual fourth. The club has a way of making that feel like an achievement.
Micko
My Jewish grandfather would turn in his grave
Morning Rico and all
Morning Rico, MG, Marshall and all. I noticed Gazidis’ spiel and thought, “Not again”. Unless it’s all part of some ill-conceived and rather pathetic strategy to make other clubs believe we are essentially out of the market, I think it was a very poor show. Or, perhaps Ivan and his team are so in Wenger’s thrall that they actually believe this bullshit. If Wenger had a go in the market, bought a few serious players and then it didn’t quite work, I imagine the fans would be understanding. But if he doesn’t and things go rather the way of last season, then the unrest from then will be as nothing. If his plan is to divide the fans and encourage problems, he is going exactly the right way about it.
For Gazidis to start quoting Leicester as some sort of model for winning the PL just completely astounds me.
Morning Adam, Mg, Marshall and all…
Beggars belief what crap some of the Arsenal hierarchy come out with!
Rico. I don’t know why Gazidis feels the need to utter such crap when he knows it’s going to piss his own customers off. He is fast becoming Arsenal’s Gerald Ratner.
What a diamond Mr. Gazidis is….paste
Adam, I always thought he was the sensible and ambitious one…
Perhaps he’s just messing with the media… 😉
Hi BT..
New post up now.
I know it’s wrong and I’ll probably get called all sorts, but I really hope we fail this season.
I don’t go to games that much anymore …
I feel sorry for the fans that follow the team home and away, that are served up dire football and listen to bullshit from gazidas and Wenger