Morning all.
In FA Cup week, Manchester City and Liverpool progressed through to the quarter-final with ease but both Chelsea and Manchester Utd needed very late goals to secure their place in the next round. Newcastle Utd needed penalties to see off Blackburn whilst Wolves defeated Brighton. Coventry saw off Maidstone Utd and Leicester City beat Bournemouth.
I’m not fussed about who won which game of course but with City, Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle still in the competition, it’s more football for them which has to be a good thing for us. More footballing minutes means more tired bodies.
Meanwhile, the Arsenal players are currently going through a period of nine days without a game. After the Porto game on the 12th of March our scheduled next game against Chelsea will be postponed for the FA Cup which means Arsenal won’t then play again until after the international break. That fixture takes place in the last day of the month at The Etihad.
Arsenal.com
Jurrien Timber is back on the grass and he’s trying with the rest of the squad which is fantastic to see. It’s likely to be a while yet before we see him back in the squad but at least now there’s a really good chance that day will be this season. Thomas Partey too as he’s been training again so maybe he will make the squad on Monday night. Still no sign of Oleksandr Zinchenko or Takehiro Tomiyasu in the training photographs though.
There’s an article in The Athletic written by James McNicholas which relates to the £200million-worth of talent who, had things gone differently last year, might be wearing the red and white of Arsenal instead of the blue of Chelsea. Mykhailo Mudryk and Moises Caicedo are the players referred to but then you’ve probably already realised that.
Arsenal wanted both players, by all accounts, negotiations with their respective clubs took place and yet neither ended up in north London. Mudryk, who had been vocal on social media about his desire to join Arsenal, is reported to have been left ‘devastated’ when his move didn’t happen. Arsenal went back to Brighton for a deal but not Caicedo, Leandro Trossard and to say that deal has worked out well would be an understatement. Meanwhile, Mudryk has struggled to find any kind of form at Chelsea and that’s unlikely to change if he’s unhappy.
Instead of signing Caicedo, who has also found life at Chelsea difficult, Arsenal spent less money more wisely by signing Declan Rice. Man City wanted him too but it was Arsenal for him all the way. The story goes that he made that clear to West Ham. Something perhaps Mudryk and/or his agent should have done at Shakhtar Donetsk. After all, players have a choice when it comes to their career. They don’t have to say yes….
Type his name into Google and you’ll see that Mudryk is still being linked to Arsenal. Perhaps that ship has long sailed though but in football, weird things can happen and if Chelsea have a player they don’t rate on their books, they don’t seem to mind who they sell him to. There was a time when selling players to a rival club seldom happened but last summer, a number of Premier League players moved to different Premier League clubs. Arsenal themselves have not only brought players from other Premier League clubs but have sold to them too. Leno, Martinez, Iwobi, Willock, Chambers and of course, those who followed the money on offer in Manchester. In my lifetime though, the one which will always sting is Ashley Cole to Chelsea. Still, that’s a long time ago now.
Arsenal weren’t afraid to pay Chelsea money for Kai Havertz last summer and should the same club look to cash in on Mudryk, there’s a part of me which wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal went in for him again. Just because things aren’t going well for him in West London, it doesn’t mean his career is doomed. He’s young, he can and no doubt will, get better but just sometimes a club and player don’t gel. At Chelsea he’s just a number amongst many, at Arsenal, he’d be one of the family. I use the family analogy because that’s exactly how many footballers have described their time at the club.
Catch up in the comments.
Gallas ,Luiz , Benayoun , Cech ,Diarra , Willian in Premier league time , Nketiah as a youth , John Hollins and George Graham back in the day . I am sure there are more but that’s all I can remember.
How many have worked out ? Stroller and possibly Cech .
They have had Baldwin , Cole and Giroud from us , the latter two being successful for them.
Heading to that part of Fulham has not always been a good move for us , not sure that going for Mudryk is a good plan .
Good morning Rico, a nice chatty post today, thank you.
I think Chelsea did us a favour by gazumping us over Mudryk, he’s been pretty poor so far and I don’t think he would have been any better with us. Dodged a bullet there in my opinion, no chance that Arteta will go back in for him.
I wouldn’t be surprised though if Arsenal went for Mudryk if he became available. Maybe a loan swap with Ramsdale if the rumours of them being interested in our keeper are true.
Morning Cicero.
Havertz was struggling too but it didn’t stop Arsenal from going for him and I have to say, he’s improved as time has gone on imo.
Morning Rico and all.
I am not sure about Mudryk, but maybe he realized he made a mistake by joining Chelsea and is playing the way he his, so he can get out of there as quickly as possible.
The Arsenal player that annoyed me the most by leaving us for another premier league club has to be Van Persie going to Man U
Forgot Havertz , how could I do such a thing ?
Hi Geoff, if reports are to be believed, he never wanted to go there…
Ha ha Potter, how indeed….
Arsenal published their finacial accounts for 2023/24 recently and revealed a loss of circa £52 million. However, “impairment write downs” on certain player registrations, Pepe for one, amounted to £18.1 million. When those costs are taken into account we made a pre-tax loss of £34 million. That is down from a loss of £45 million for the previous season. So to avoid any Profit and Sustainability Rules issues we have only £20.6 million to play with in order to keep within the £105 million loss over three seasons limit.
Football revenues from last season rose to £464 million, up from £369.1 million for the previous season. Projected earnings for the current season should be boosted by our participation in the Champions League, but we need to progress farther in order to maximise those revenues.
The ironic thing is a £12 Jourginho is playing better than either Caicedo or Mudryk 🙂
Caicedo is a more reckless version of Guendouzi, another dodged bullet.
We’re lucky in some respects though because if we sell Nketiah and Nelson, a big if I know, but whatever we get for them is profit. Same with ESR, not that I’d like to see any of them go but that’s from my heart not my head.
Guendouzi…really rated that lad. Potential to be world class…but his attitude stinks.
Compare the squad profile now to 4 years ago. A lot of those players were toxic: Ozil; PEA; Lacazette; Mustafi; Kolasinac; Guendouzi; Pepe; Mainsley; Luiz; Martinez; Bellerin; Xhaka. Emery didn’t stand a chance
I doubt Mik will bring in another player that will rock the boat. That’s the big question mark against Toney.
Agree re Emery Pete, right man, wrong time..
Good Morning Rico and Co.
There has been quite a lot of chitter chatter surrounding the subject of a certain Master Mudryk, who, imho, has looked thoroughly miserable since he joined Chelsea.
It seems fairly obvious to me that that’s not where he wanted to go but he unfortunately allowed his club and his agent to manipulate him.
I have mixed feeling about him, firstly I really wanted Arsenal to sign him and was gutted when Chelsea gazumped us. But I was delighted when we signed Trossard as he was a player who I’d wanted to see at Arsenal for a few years prior to his arrival.
Mudryk I feel would have thrived under the stewardship of Arteta and with his pal Zinchenko to help him and I kinda think that he probably still could. But I just wonder if Arsenal have moved on from him now from just a year ago?
It’s been suggested that some kind of deal involving Ramsdale going in the opposite direction could be agreed but I suspect that Chelsea would want some kind a cash adjustment in their favour and Arsenal would probably be unwilling.
Personally I’m a tad put off by all his tattoos, I mean he looks like a gangster from El Salvador…
Cicero, I hope I say this correctly, if your sums and information are correct, then we had better find some money from some wear and quickly. Like other have said we will need to off load some fringe players for good money while letting Alneny go will help.
let’s pray for a big sponsor to come aboard.
Morning Kev, I think I started the Ramsdale/Mudryk swap rumour early yesterday morning.. It seemed like a good idea at the time. 😜
New post up