Morning all.
I quite like the fact Arsenal.com have our entire pre-season schedule listed. Here it is, just in case your interested.
Wednesday, July 7 – Men’s first team return to London Colney
Saturday, July 10 – Copa America final
Sunday, July 11 – Euro 2020 final
Monday, July 12 – We travel to Scotland for our training camp
Tuesday, July 13 – Hibernian v Arsenal (friendly match)
Saturday, July 17 – Rangers v Arsenal (friendly match)
Saturday, July 17 – We return to London
Wednesday, July 21 – We fly to Orlando, USA
Friday, July 23 – Olympic Games begin
Sunday, July 25 – Arsenal v Inter Milan (Florida Cup)
Wednesday, July 28 – Arsenal v Everton/Millonarios (Florida Cup)
Wednesday, July 28 – We return to London
Sunday, August 1 – The Mind Series, Arsenal v Chelsea
Sunday, August 8 – The Mind Series, Tottenham v Arsenal
Sunday, August 8 – Olympic Games end
Friday, August 13 – New Premier League season begins
Even though the Euros final isn’t until the 11th July, one of Bernd Leno and Bukayo Saka will be out of the competition come 7pm on Tuesday evening. Maybe a little later should the tie go to extra time. Then there’s the Olympic Games and Gabriel Magalhaes will be involved with Brazil so he’ll be late returning to Premier League action. Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t selected though so hopefully he’ll be ready for what could be a big season for him.
I’m still trying to get my head around Arsenal playing the Toots in the final pre-season friendly just a week before the season kicks off. Or playing Chelsea the week before. Bonkers.
The Ben White saga seems to be coming to an end. Sky Sports, other sports outlets are available, reported yesterday afternoon that Arsenal were in advanced talks with Brighton and agreeing personal terms with the player wouldn’t be an issue.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B952t4mw2yE
Kieran Tierney will soon get those gloves off him when winter arrives! I know YouTube can make you or I look good if someone is prepared to hang around with a camera long enough but there must be a reason Arsenal are chasing him this summer and are prepared to pay big money for him. Versatile, happy with the ball at his feet and brings the ball out of defence at speed. He seems to look forwards for a pass too. Hallelujah! Tierney on the left, White on the right – it could be interesting.
Konstantinos Mavropanos has gone though. Out on loan again to begin with but it seems his days of being an Arsenal player are dwindling fast.
Eduardo Camavinga, one of the brightest upcoming footballers in the world of football, well, so the Internet says, is being linked to Arsenal. The 18 year old midfielder could be part of a deal in which Arsenal will include players who Rennes are interested in. That’s according to The Express who suggest those players are William Saliba, Eddie Nketiah, Matteo Guendouzi and Bernd Leno. If this story is true, I can see Rennes pushing for Saliba and for what it’s worth, I reckon Arsenal would let him go. Same with Guendouzi.
According to respected journalist Fabrizio Romano, Albert Sambi Lokonga of Anderlecht remains hopeful of joining Arsenal this summer and talks between the club and the player’s agent are ongoing.
Finally, Arsenal FC opens its doors to the public today as part of a mass Covid vaccination drive in north London. The event at the Emirates Stadium is being held for four days until Monday and is for anyone over 18 who has not yet had a first dose of the vaccine. Tours of the stadium are on offer at the same time.
Slots can be booked in advance or walk-in appointments are available. Organisers said they hoped to get “even more people down there than were at Spurs’ stadium”.
The event, called Gunner Get Jabbed, has been organised by Islington Council in partnership with the Islington GP Federation and the Premier League football club.
Excellent.
See you in the comments.
Scott in regards to earlier would you pay top dollar for a player that is not wanted by his club and knowing his club are rebuilding and desperate to clear out players I would not
Don’t see the need to compare numbers with Spurs . It should not be a competition , just get everyone they can.
Apparently we might have another friendly in between the Chelsea and Tottenham games, an Emirates Cup has been mooted…
Ok I’m off on my Boris bike.
Geoff I take your point about prices being related to our desire to ship players out . I agree that our marketing is appaling . We live in a bubble where The Arsenal sells papers and invites clicks , also it feeds twitter like no other club . All of this is picked up by radio and TV talking heads and the effect gets worse by the day .
I can remember when the club was less media friendly and nobody knew what was happening until the announcement . When Petit and Bergkamp were announced the photo appeared in the papers to the complete shock of the media , the fans , everybody.
Sadly in this day of mobile phones and instant cameras there are too many people willing to sell up secrets for a few quid and enough people around to grease their palms.
Just as the governments of the world , leakage is the way to get news out without having to face the audience and it softens any blow that might come.
Geoff, I really can’t work out why you’d even ask that question lol
I said every club gets rid of players their manager doesn’t want, we are no different, and you come up with that???
How???
Morning all.
Morning, thanks for post rico. I hope Tierney isn’t back match-fit for the Rangers game. An ex Celtic star pre-season to nobble? Disaster!
Suddenly the club is an open book and we all know what’s happening?
We can’t buy until we sell, then Arteta has 250 million to throw around.
Leno wants out, then Leno wants to stay.
These are just two rumours that had contradicting rumours on the same day.
Where is the mystery in clubs having players they want gone?
Was it Untold Arsenal that counted the number of players we’ve already been linked to this summer?
Several dozen, I think.
How many will we sign-maybe 4 or 5?
Massive clear out happening-shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
Hang on, it’s already started since Arteta took over and we all knew it had to happen, yet we are surprised???
I love this time of year.
Andrew,
I agree, but could you imagine Tierney sitting it out lol
He would certainly have a scowl on his face Scott!
You can tell him, Andrew hahahahahahah
Looking at the list above we certainly have enough practice games to try some new younger players and hopefully 1 or 2 new players
Good morning Rico and all.
Good round up post and news Rico. I would like to see Camavinga in Arsenal colours. He is good. But 50M for someone in his final year? Nah. Too much. 25M max.
Seems White is nearly done. I just hope we get Madison and DCL. Dreaaaams dreaaaams, dreams dreams dreams …… when I…
I agree with you regarding the spuds and Chelsea friendly. Bonkers.
Andrew you’re right….Tierny shouldn’t be allowed to play against Rangers. But not to save him from them. More because we have to save them from him. The have families you know😂😂😂😂
Good morning Rico.
Ben White looks to be the answer to our right back problem, at least as far as you can believe you tube videos. Both Pepe and Saka can profit from those acute forward passes down the wings and his defending doesn’t look too shabby either.
I confess I wasn’t too keen originally as we already have Calum Chambers who can also play right back, centre back and can fill in as a defensive midfielder, but I admit that White looks to be an up-grade on him.
It has been mooted that both Bellerin and Cedric may be moved on, the signing of White would make that more than likely, leaving Chambers as the back-up.
Latest transfer values on Bellerin and Soares are £22.5 million and £5.4 million respectively, that represents about half the fee Brighton are willing to accept for White. A further advantage is that White is younger than both Bellerin and Soares as well as being English, and so improves our English/foreign ratio.
It looks like William Saliba is again going out on loan, before doing so Arsenal, urgently, need to renew his contract as it expires in just five days’ time on June 30th. At just twenty years old he must be worth more than his quoted transfer value £16.2 million, that’s less than the £20.25 million we paid for him in the first place. I don’t think any club will consider buying Saliba when they can get him for free at the end of the month.
Totally agree re the Vaccine, just get everyone done regardless of where. I don’t though think it’s a case of beating the numbers at Toots, more like just beating the numbers for the good of the country.
Afternoon to all.
Another money making exercise then Kev.
Cicero, is that not just the date when Saliba’s loan deal expires?
Thanks Devil, it’s paper talk don’t forget but even so, if we pay £50m and he is as good as the Internet states, his value will only go up. Could be £50m very well spent in the long run.
Ah, yes it could be Rico, I’ll check it out.
You are absolutely correct Rico, he’s contracted until June 2024. Panic over! 😉
😂 Cicero, or do I call you Pike. Lol
If we do sign White, it makes sense to send Saliba out on loan for another season at a French club ideally.
Corporal Jones more like. 😉
Ah yes, it was Jones wasn’t it.
I can see him going to Rennes.
If Arsenal sell Bellerin and Soares for the money Cicero quoted….a total of £28M then in essence White would cost only £22M.
If Xhaka goes for between £15-18M than we get Sambi Lokonga for a couple of quid.
If One or Both of Auba and Laca are sold (a combined £50M imo) we would get DCL for that amount.
Maybe the only real big money outlay would be on Maddison
They don’t like it up ‘em…
Cicero, how about a season at a fellow PL club for Saliba?
See how he goes against strikers over there….might help decide if he’s good enough.
Scott I agree if we could loan Saliba out to PL club it would give us a much better idea on how he will perform in the PL maybe we could offer Saliba for 12 month on loan and cash to get the Ben white deal done
When we first signed Saliba he was very young, he had difficulties with leaving home and settling in England, then he lost his mother. In the interests of his own wellbeing, a club in his own country would be beneficial.
Having said that Geoff, you’re suggestion of a season on loan at Brighton has merit too.
If Arteta doesn’t fancy him as an Arsenal player, why not just sell him?
Hi Rico.. Nice post – looking forward to all of those games!!
Saliba is in the France squad for the Olympics, so will miss a chunk of pre-season and possibly the start of next season. I agree with your 3.46, it’d save all this sodding about!!
Quite excited about White! It’s a lot of money, but given his age and how well he performed at Leeds (not sure about Brighton 😆) we’ll get our money’s worth!!
Everywhere I look people are moaning.. they want the club to spend and spend big and when they [finally] do, it’s still wrong!! The window will run for a good while yet – plenty of time to get things done and I for one am looking forward to it!
Tierney has just confirmed he’s signed his new contract – happy days!
Excellent news about about Tierney.
Are we at last extracting the digit where contracts are concerned? I hope so!
Rico I don’t think it’s a case of Arteta not liking Saliba, more a case that he was not ready for the first team when we signed him, so he was sent out on loan to learn his trade. With the likely signing of Ben White the urgency to immediately get Saliba integrated in the Arsenal squad is reduced. Also, at the moment his transfer value is low, another season on loan will hopefully raise his worth and combined, we hope, with a reduction of the Covid effect that increase could be considerable.
Keeping him won’t cost much, while another season on loan may see him mature into a very good player. A win win situation for the club.
Sue can we hope ESR will follow suit shortly?
Absolutely, Cicero!!
I don’t think Saliba’s filming of a teammate next to him doing something quite personal helped his chances. But he’s had a hard time, and played about as much for us as Clive Allen!
Ps great news on Tierney, let’s hope he can avoid the injuries going forward. And avoid a few histrionics that did appear towards the end of the season and seemed out of character.
What a lovely interview with Tierney on the official site.
Funniest thing was the stick he took from mates back home after the Tesco bag pictures. They gave him stick, told him he’d changed, moved up in the world, used to only shop at Lidl and Aldi😀😀😀
Is Tesco an upgrade on Lidl and Aldi? We have used both for several years now and consider them far better than Tesco for price, quality and convenience. Maybe things are different in Sturgeon’s Scotland. 😉
Agree Cicero, we have a Lidl close by and use regularly. Quicker on the tills as well. I guess it’s the fact Tesco is dearer, and maybe not so popular north of the boarder.
Don’t get me going in Sturgeon’s Scotland after she banned our cruise from docking last week! A cruise of fully tested and jabbed UK people who could only leave ship on an organised coach tour.
Andrew she probably did you a favour, if you could have landed you would have been besieged by hoards of eastern Europeans dressed like William Wallace trying to flog you fake tartan, shortbread biscuits (baked in Bangladesh) and inferior blended whisky whilst you ears were assaulted by the infernal screeching of bagpipes.
Evening Rico and the House.
Kev our u18s are away to Chelmsford City on July 3rd
Any chance you could pop along to give us a honest report?
Hi Sue, thanks.
Excellent news re Tierney, really pleased for him and he certainly deserves it. Need ESR to do the same now. Doesn’t matter what the club do I guess, not everyone will be happy.. lol
Cicero, I’m not convinced but you could be right. In a way, last season would have been good for him when Luiz was around but I know, he’s had family stuff to deal with.
Evening Rick. I do wish these matches were sometimes televised, or streamed on afc.com.
I understand that Chelmsford may stream it Rico
But you would have to pay for it
Think I’ll swerve that then Rick.. lol
Chelmsford City FC
@OfficialClarets
Squared vs We are pleased to reveal that
@AcademyClarets
will face
@Arsenal
‘s Under-18s in a friendly at the EMG Inspire Stadium on 3rd July.
The Academy’s game against Arsenal Under-18s will offer supporters their first chance to return to the EMG Inspire Stadium since the Vanarama National League South game against Bath City in December.
Due to Covid restrictions, the number of supporters allowed in attendance will still be reduced.
(From the City website, looks like it’ll be too much aggro to get in Rick so I’ll give it a miss)
Morning all
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/06/26/the-model-footballer-agrees-arsenal-deal-more-like-him-please/
I have seen mixed results from Saliba and that’s why I feel 12 months in the PL would be good for all involved