Afternoon all.
I know this is a football website but my thoughts are with the family of Rob Burrow. The ex Leeds rugby player was diagnosed with MND back in 2019, just two years after he retired from the game. Despite his illness, perhaps in spite of his illness, he and his old teammate Kevin Sinfield, went on to raise over £15 million for charity.
I’ve seen for myself how cruel MND is and what it does to someone and it’s horrid and it’s cruel. MND and Dementia/Alzheimer’s are in my opinion two of the worst, probably the worst diagnosis a human being can be given because there is no hope whereas with many if not most other diseases, there’s hope, even if it’s small. Yet Rob Burrow didn’t give up, he fought hard for the sake of others.
Kevin Campbell is struggling with his health too. He’s “very unwell” and in hospital according to reports and Ray Parlour sent him a message on Twitter:
I hear my ex-team-mate Kevin Campbell is struggling at the moment. All the football family are right behind you, Kev. I know you’re a strong character, mate. Stay positive. I’m sure everyone is on your side trying to help you.
I’m sure every Arsenal fan and football fans everywhere wish him well. I certainly do.
The world doesn’t stop though, although sometimes one might wish it did…..
England play Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight but Bukayo Saka will miss the game. Aaron Ramsdale and Declan Rice could be involved though, certainly the latter. According to Gareth Southgate, Saka should return on Friday. Germany play Ukraine later today too and if fit, Kai Havertz and Oleksandr Zinchenko are likely come up against each other.
I can’t get overly excited about the Euros as international football for me is more about waiting to see if any of our players suffer any kind of injury, all the time hoping, praying even, that they don’t.
You can tell it’s transfer silly season, or in this case, managerial silly season as Mourinho has been given another managerial position in football at Fenerbahce. Thank goodness he’s staying out of England though. Same with Conte who is expected to be appointed manager of Napoli.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are in the process of tying Mikel Arteta down to a new contract. I’m sure he’ll sign a new deal too, why wouldn’t he after coming so close to winning the Premier League last season. Hopefully, we’ll go into the new season with a deeper, stronger squad which will better every other club in the League. Maybe we’ll go even further in the Champions League too although I think we face a few tough fixtures right from the off.
There’s an interesting article in The Athletic which discusses Real Madrid President Florentino Perez and his desire to “kill” the Champions League by replacing it with a European Super League. Why? Back in 2021 when he tried to launch a Super League, he said:
We are doing this to save football at this critical moment. If we continue with the Champions League, there is less and less interest and then it’s over.
The new format which starts in 2024 is absurd. In 2024 we are all dead.
Well, I’m not a fan of the new Champions League format, as the article says, it seems bloated, convoluted, unwieldy, all the things that a European competition should not be. It looks like a forlorn, misguided attempt to go with the flow when what European football really needed was for UEFA to do the impossible by stemming and reversing the tide.
A Super League isn’t the answer either as all that will do is make the big clubs bigger and richer and the gap between them and the rest will become wider. But that’s what Perez still hopes for.
As the article ends it probably sums up the views of Perez rather well.
“To fix a problem, you have to first recognise that you have a problem,” Perez said in 2021 before making clear his belief that European football’s problem was not dubious ownership models, the spread of multi-club networks, a bulging fixture calendar or a chronic financial and competitive imbalance across the continent. The only problem he was interested in was the one that could be solved by “top-level games year-round, with the best players competing”.
Perez doesn’t necessarily mean “top-level games” between the best teams of the day. He wants the most marketable matches. If he feels short-changed by a Champions League campaign in which Madrid faced Napoli, Braga, Union Berlin, RB Leipzig, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Dortmund, you suspect he would be happier to have faced Juventus and Liverpool (who didn’t qualify), Manchester United (who were knocked out in the group stage) and Barcelona (who were knocked out in the quarter-final). Provided his team still won of course.
The new Champions League format might be bonkers but a European Super League, well, that would be absurd.
Catch up in the comments.
Reposting this from Arsenal.com
Ahead of the official Premier League announcement of all men’s players who will be out of contract at their current clubs on June 30, we are taking this opportunity to thank those players leaving us at the end of the month.
We are saying goodbye to the following men’s players and scholars, and have also included the three women’s players we have previously announced will also be departing.
Players are presented in alphabetical order:
Mauro Bandeira
Omari Benjamin
Luis Brown
Catalin Cirjan
Noah Cooper
Sabrina D’Angelo
Henry Davies
Ovie Ejeheri
Mohamed Elneny
Taylor Foran
Hubert Graczyk
James Hillson
Henry Jeffcott
Tyreece John-Jules
Alex Kirk
James Lannin-Sweet
Kaylan Marckese
Vivianne Miedema
Arthur Okonkwo
Kamarni Ryan
Cedric Soares
Kido Taylor-Hart
In addition, please note the following players’ contracts also expire on June 30. Discussions are ongoing and once matters are finalised between all parties, we will communicate in due course.
Amario Cozier-Duberry
Karl Hein
Reuell Walters
We thank all the players leaving us for their contributions to the club. You will always be part of the Arsenal family and we wish you all the best of health and happiness in your futures.
Any further developments regarding players extending their contracts, as well as joining/re-joining, or leaving us, will be officially communicated when confirmed.
Good afternoon Rico
What’s wrong with the post? Its not rubbish for sure. And am not being kind or polite. I am saying how I feel.
I dont care about CL. I wanted it only because I knew how much it would have made Pa happy. For me give me the EPL any day any week, any month, any year, any decade. Nothing beats winning the league of your country. The CL is just a bloated elongated FA Cup/Carabao Cup. I would rather turn the EPL into a farmer’s league in which we win all domestic trophies season in season out. You know, wipe the floor with the pundits and their attitude. Make them gobble up humble pie after the other. And then dangle the old saying ‘you can only play what’s in front of you’ in front of them every time they complain that Arsenal keep winning everything.
Would it become tedious and boring??? After all those years suffering no it won’t become that. And we won;t be arrogant like Manure and dippers who think that the world revolves around them. We would just enjoy our moments.
Afternoon Devil. Just getting in there first… lol
We have the same view in CL. The only good thing about it is the money it brings in but even so, if there was no European football, perhaps football would be more equal.
A domestic treble would do for me… 😝
A domestic treble would more than likely do for me too, my heart wouldn’t stand it. .😀
Afternoon Rico and all concerned…
That Rico was a terrible post, one of your worst, I’m so disappointed.
😄
No, actually it was excellent Rico, but you knew that didn’t ya…. 😉
A bit surprised that James Sweet has been released, but not surprised by any of the others…
Fulham reported to be after Eddie as well as Emile, maybe we should offer them Reiss as a job lot?
I can’t think of anything less interesting than what the President of Real Madrid thinks, wants or has planned, all they’ve done is succeed in making La Liga uncompetitive, uninteresting and boring. They created it, nobody is interested in it and you can lay in it.
Seems as if Arsenal are trying to convince Walters to stay?
So you’re suggesting Fulham should buy two (Eddie and Emile) and get one free ((Nelson). I don’t agree with that though. It should be BP30 million each for Eddie and Emile. Nelson should bring in 10million at least.
I am no longer that interested in European football , First we have to get past the oil barons in England and win the domestic competitions , then we have to get past the artificially funded Madrid team that get hand outs from the Spanish royalty .
Lets win the league and cup double and use Europe as a cash cow , build the co-efficient and keep climbing the European ladder and then compete.
🤣 Cicero, let’s hope not…
Hi Kev, ha ha. It’s hard finding something other than transfer rumours or talking about last season. Last season is done, and transfers will arrive when they do… lol
Spot on Potter, that’s it in a nutshell…
No Devil I wasn’t really suggesting anything in all seriousness but I’ve seen Eddie valued at £40m and Emile valued at £25m although I think that we can definitely get more for Emile and maybe more for Eddie, both are England internationals.
Both have been linked to Fulham but Reiss hasn’t been linked with anyone, well not since he was linked to Brighton a year ago. You say £10m for Nelson, well I reckon we can get more than that.
I’m sure we’ll get some developmental fees for a few of the youngsters we’ve released as well.
Tierney’s future still needs to be sorted out as does Lokonga and Tavares.
It should be a busy summer…
Saw some Sesko on YouTube and he looks quite good, a bit raw but a nice first touch, quite pacy for a big man with a lot of room for improvement and maybe Mikel being the man to help him fulfil his potential?
Archie Gray of Leeds looks a promising player, capable of playing both centre-back and right-back.
If any of you have managed to see some of Ethan Nwaneri playing for England U17’s tell me if you can see the similarities that I can see when Ethan takes a shot or fires in a free kick?
Ward Prowse…
Morning all.
New post up
Morning Rico
Nice post. I’ve known people affected by MND, utterly horrible illness, with no respite.
Good luck to Kevin Campbell. I met him and chatted to him a good while back. A very nice guy, approachable, and happy to have a conversation, unlike some ex-pros.
As for being lectured by the president of Real Madrid…I’d rather listen to a class of kids playing recorders!