Morning all.
Day five of the international break and I’m bored already. We do it all again in October too. A ten month domestic season could really do without the additional and often meaningless fixtures. Looking at England alone, they play Scotland next week in a friendly but as every England fan knows, when these two countries meet, there’s no such thing as a friendly. If football clubs can travel far and wide to play Champions League and Europa League football, why can’t international teams do the same? Leave their respective clubs on a Sunday night, play their match on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then head back in time to be fit for the weekend’s club fixture. In October, the Australian team fly out to England to play one match which is a friendly but what’s the point in making such a lengthy all round trip just to play in a fixture which means absolutely nothing? Six days later, Australia are scheduled to play New Zealand. Is that any good for a footballers body? No, especially for those who play their club football in a European country.
Arsenal have Martinelli, Jesus and Gabriel jetting off around South America during this break, that’s at least 11 hours in the air each way, the faffing around at the airport either side of the journey, probably nowhere near as bad as it would be for you or I but it’s still a faff and then after match one, off they go again to Peru for another fixture. Admittedly, both are World Cup qualifying fixtures but even so, by the time they get back to England, I doubt they’ll feel at their best. As said a couple of days ago, we can only hope that none of our players pick up an injury. Tomiyasu, a player who I think it’s fair to say, struggles to stay injury free throughout a season, has gone off with Japan to play two friendly fixtures. The first in Germany, the second in Japan in Tuesday at 1.20 UK time. Thank goodness we aren’t playing until Sunday eh, especially as we’re away to Everton.
The media seem to getting stuck into Manchester Utd at the moment. The takeover fiasco is causing a stir, the Mason Greenwood situation which ended with him leaving, Erik ten Hag’s constant moaning about every decision going against his team and now of course, Anthony has hit the headlines after suggestions that he’s been involved in domestic violence as a result of which, he’s been dropped by Brazil. What Utd do next with him will be interesting to see as they’ve set a bar with Greenwood who was never convicted. The Brazilian Football Confederation released a statement which read:
As a result of the facts that have come to light, and which need to be investigated, and in order to safeguard the supposed victim, the player, and the Brazilian national team the CBF have withdrawn [him] from the squad.
Perhaps the rules are different in Brazil and it’s deemed ok to release this news to the public whereas here, the details would have been kept confidential until he’s charged, if he’s ever charged of course. Brazil have responded swiftly, will Man Utd do the same I wonder and will Rachel Riley have to bin yet another Man Utd shirt….
Thankfully, at least from the outside anyway, the only real problems Arsenal seem to have is moving on Nicolas Pepe and Cedric Soares. I think both are waiting in hope for the club to rip up their contracts so they can leave for free. Especially Pepe. The Mirror report that Besiktas are keen on the player but they now face competition from league rivals Trabzonspor. I’m still hoping a half decent offer comes in from a Saudi club and he says yes but time is running out as the transfer window for the Saudi league shuts today. Turkish clubs have until the 17th of this month.
Back at Arsenal, the women got their Champions League qualifying campaign off to a good start with a 3-0 victory over Linkoping, the club both Stina Blackstenius and Lina Hurtig were signed from. Their next fixture will be tougher no doubt as they play Paris FC, a game they must win in order to reach round 2 of qualifying.
Finally, Arsenal have four nominees for the 2022/23 Ballon d’Or. Katie McCabe and Amanda Ilestedt (PSG and Arsenal) for the women, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka for the men. Aaron Ramsdale has also received recognition by being nominated for the Yashin Trophy, which has been awarded to the best goalkeeper since its creation in 2019.
Their chances are slim to none I reckon. Not all the time they play for Arsenal…
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
I seldom feel anything but disdain for Manchester United but just for once I think they have got it right in the Anthony case. The player has not been charged, he has not appeared in court and yet there has been a pile on from all sorts of campaigners demanding that his club suspend him and in many cases even sack him.
Whatever happened to the time honoured adage “Innocent until proven guilty”.
Morning Cicero. I feel the same, it’s ridiculous that these allegations are made public before an investigation has be3n concluded. It’s seriously damaging.
Look at the booing Partey has received and yet he wasn’t even confirmed as ‘that player’.
Arsenal have16 players away , Everton 7 not taking junior internationals into account under 21’s and the like.
At the moment Man utd are under a lot of pressure , every day another scandal comes to light . I heard that another one is bubbling under regarding their Ladies team . Can’t find anything on News Now though but I wonder if this has anything to do with the Glazer’s selling up and the news is creeping out to affect the price.
Like you I can’t see our players getting the awards , none are high profile enough . Someone from Paris , Madrid or Barcelona will get the pot.
As for the girls I can’t really comment only having watched one game but if that is any guide Spain’s number 6 should get it . She was head and shoulders better than anyone else on the pitch in that final.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sam Kerr get it. Her name must have been mentioned every day during the World Cup.
I’m bored of the Spanish women’s national team saga, talk about being blown out of all proportion. And now the manager has be4n sacked..
I am talking purely on the pitch , the rest of the rubbish that has gone round it is boring to say the least..However that is the way things work nowadays , it is no longer enough to rectify a problem it has to be high profile and has to be seen to be done and heaven help you if you are not virtue signalling . The worlds gone soft .
Football just isn’t what it used to be…..
Life isn’t what it used to be
Amen to that…
Afternoon Rico and all, I am like you Rico bored with these international matches, there are far too many,
Hi Geoff, not long to go. Lol
Looks like Trabzonspor have got Pepe for their sins and will get the princely sum of nothing apart from saving his wages for a year.
Sanllehi bought in Pepe , Ceballos , Luiz , Martinelli , Saliba and Tierney .
2 out of six , although I am still gutted about Tierney but I do wonder if Pepe had received the same bedding in as Martinelli and Saliba would things have turned out differently.. He obviously has talent and was dangerous cutting in rather like Saka does , , but didn’t have the work ethic to get back . That could have been taught and maybe we would have not lost so much on yet another give away that because we don’t want him it seems that no-one wants to put cash up either but are willing to take a punt if he’s free. ,
Just one of a few who have been cast aside for one reason or the other. It’s just annoying that we don’t get much, if any money for them. Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette and now Pepe.
Sokratis , AMN , Cedric too many get away for nothing.
Pepe on his way to Trazbononspor
I wonder if Pepe could not cope with the pressure put on him due to the amount we paid and what we expected for that amount of money.
Hopefully he can take the next step and prove how good he is.
Pepe has joined Trabonspor on a free transfer. Only Cedric to go now.
And so the last but one piece of wood that is no more, leaves the club.
Was his signing a reaction to the ‘We care, do you?’ campaign at that time?
I doubt that we’ll ever really know the full extent of what it cost the club to rid us of his mopey presence just as we never really knew the truth about Willian?
The club doesn’t like to publicise how it’s been ‘turned-over’ by another agent but the grapevine will know, but it’s not only Arsenal (we just care the most about the Gunners) because many EPL clubs have had to take financial hits on overpaid underachieving ‘stars’ this summer.
I’m still surprised he didn’t end up in Saudi. Pleased he got a move though, he’s too good a player not to be playing.
Some signings just don’t work out..
I think he will find that the Turkish league is some what more competitive than the Saudi dad’s army league.
Life on the Black Sea coast will be better than sweating it out in the desert.
I was talking finances though. Lol
Football wise, Turkey of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUm3rxCDKc
Can’t help wondering if we missed a trick here
Potter watching that youtube clip make you wonder what happened between him and Arteta to be frozen out like he was.
New post up..