Morning all.
The excite of international football is over. Until March! Thank goodness for that eh. As far as I can gather from post match reports etc, there’s been no injuries to any Arsenal players. Martin Odegaard and his fellow Norwegian teammates will be having next summer off as they failed to qualify for Euros 2024 and Oleksandr Zinchenko and his Ukrainian teammates need to get through the playoffs in order to qualify, as will Jakub Kiwior’s Poland.
The Premier League kicks off again with a potential cracker as Liverpool and Man City go head to head. The game takes place at The Etihad so I guess that makes City slight favourites but that means little really. Liverpool are in good form again this season so they’ll be tough to beat although Jurgen Klopp isn’t happy that his players are in action at lunchtime right after an international break. Another big clash takes place later 8n the afternoon at St James’ Park as Newcastle Utd take on Chelsea. At 5.50pm, it’s a London derby as Arsenal travel to Brentford and then on Sunday, Totts face an in form Aston Villa and Manchester Utd go to Goodison Park. I can se3 Utd getting back to losing ways in that one.
Premier League clubs have had a vote on whether or not Newcastle should be permitted to sign players on loan from clubs who are also controlled by their Saudi owners in January. Thirteen of the twenty clubs voted in favour of a block on loan moves between clubs under the same ownership but thirteen wasn’t enough as it was one short of the two-thirds majority needed for it to be passed. Ruben Neves is reported to be the player Eddie Howe wants to fill the void the ban for Sandro Tonali. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to allow any deal between clubs owned/controlled by the same people because such deals are open to being dealt with very differently than if a player moved to a different club.
The Everton ten point deduction controversy rumbles on with the words of football waiting to see if Everton appeal against the ruling. For what it’s worth, I think they will but bearing in mind lower clubs have faced stiffer penalties in the past, I’m not sure any appeal will be successful. My own local club Reading were docked 16 points deduction within a period of two years for financial breaches and they’ve paid a hefty price for it. Why should a Premier League club be treated any differently? If it’s proved that Chelsea, Man City or even Arsenal have overspent in recent years then they all deserve whatever punishment which comes their way. Fairness is the game is all most football fans ask for I’m sure and that includes sticking to the FFP rules.
The January transfer window will be here before we know and my hope is that any money Arsenal has available to spend in invested in a striker. Thomas Partey and Mo Elneny will be missing for a few weeks because of the ACON, or injury in Partey’s case so defensively, Mikel Arteta’s options in midfield will be Declan Rice and Jorginho. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Ben White too if injuries hit hard.
It’ll be interesting to see if the January transfer window is quieter than those gone by after what’s happened to Everton. Any club’s close to spending limit will no doubt increase the value of their players in an effort to recoup some money but all that is likely to do is lower the chances of their player being sold. Chelsea are reportedly interested in signing Ivan Toney but they’re one of the clubs sports writers suggest could be in trouble. Talking of Chelsea, or rather one of their ex players, Kai Havertz, a player who I strongly suspect a number of Arsenal fans wouldn’t be sorry to see depart in January, has an interview on Arsenal.com. It’s quite interesting as he talks about life growing up, winning the Champions League and settling in at Arsenal. He believes in himself, Mikel Arteta believes in him too so hopefully, he’ll soon have fans believing in him too. I read he played at left back for Germany in their last game. How bonkers is that eh…
Catch up in the comments.
Good afternoon Rico.
Back from the International wilderness eh?
Number one priority must be a striker in January, I read this morning that we are interested in Juventus’ Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic although his club are hoping to sign him up to a new contract before the window opens. I think we were looking at him during the summer but nothing came of the interest due, perhaps, to the £105 million spent on Rice and the £67 million on Havertz. How about a Havertz + cash swap deal?
Afternoon Cicero, yep 😆
I’m sure I read something the other day about a swap deal included Havertz but not for a striker, a midfielder.
Here it is..
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/florian-wirtz-kai-havertz-arsenal-28141016
I think that we can look forward to any number of Havertz swap deals hitting the media . He is the obvious name and every man and his dog thinks we need a goalscorer .
Our game at Brentford originaly due to be played early has been pushed back because our northern friends cant be trusted to behave and we are on the pay extra system . So it’s a stream or Motd.
Good point Potter but I think the only realistic deal we could do would be with a German club.
So the Raya deal is done and dusted , I fully expect Ramsdale to want out and I won’t blame him.
Neither would I. A year ago, he’d been a key part of a team which pushed hard for the title, now it seems he’s been cast aside for a keeper no better than him. Really strange piece of business in my opinion.
Morning Rico and all, I wonder if Arteta is fed up with Ramsdale father complaining, so has taken it out on Ramsdale, or it might just come down to there pay per week, I tried to look it up, but every site has a different amount.
So we are paying £27 million for Raya who is not an upgrade on Ramsdale, this is money that should be better spent elsewhere. A quick glance at the league table, the goals for column in particular, will indicate where we need strengthening.
Looking at the club website, the return to training gallery, there is no sign of our three Brazilians. The good news is that Martin Odegaard took a full part in the days work.
Brazillian boys still flying back I would imagine.
Morning Geoff.
Goalkeepers and Arsenal have always seemed to be a mystery to me. The best we’ve had in recent years imo were Szczesny and Martinez but both were sent packing. I see absolutely nothing in Raya to convince me he’s better than Ramsdale. An absolute waste of money I think.
As for the Arsenal goalkeeping coach, he should have gone a long time ago.
Morning Rico/all
We’ve had some dodgy keepers for sure,my favourites though were David Seaman,going back further Pat Jennings was amazing.
So pleased this pointless break is over,even Havertz scored in the first Germany game. The England games were rubbish,I’m still getting over Declan Rice saying John Terry was his idol,what a shocker !
I make the Brentford game a tough one, a draw in the City- Liverpool game and a win for us,and we go top. Simple ha ha
Jack Kelsey was my boyhood hero, brilliant at catching balls in the air at a time when centre forwards regularly clattered goalkeepers at will. I wonder how today’s ‘keepers would have survived the sort of physical battering so prevalent in those days. Trainers at that time ran onto the pitch carrying a canvas bucket, sponge and not much else to treat injured players. In the 1956 Cup Final Bert Trautmann, the Manchester United ‘keeper broke his neck whilst making a save but played on, after treatment with the “magic” sponge, and collected his winners medal but could barely hold his head straight.
Hi Limey, mad Jen’s wasn’t bad. Just like others though, had an error in him, like the foul to gift Totts a draw at WHL.
jimmy Rimmer was good . McClelland not so much , Furnell spectacularly bad but Lucic , Szczesney and Manniger all deserved better but Seaman was class above . For me Jennings was always one of them , I couldn’t take to him but he was a good keeper . Kelsey was my first and lets not forget Wilson .
We sure have had our ups and downs .
I’d forgotten Jimmy Rimmer,he was good.I read somewhere he won two European Cup medals with Forest and Aston villa,both as an unused substitute.
Jim Furnell was just unlucky. I watched him once, he spread his arms and legs wide to stop a shot the ball hit one of his arms bounced down and through his legs into the net. We called him Jim Funnell after that.
Big Bob, how did I forget him although I can be forgiven after saying “recent times’ 😆
I guess Ramsdale starts tomorrow as Raya is on loan..
We called him Fumbling Jim , he had his own song to the Mighty Quinn,
Come on without ,come on within , you ain’t seen nothing like Fumbling Jim..
Ha ha.
Like the song for Jim how every going on the one’s I can remember seaman and Jen,s in that order, could be a tough match tonight but I think we can still win, I’m going 2 / 1 win
New post up now