Morning all.
Alexis Claude-Maurice is a man in demand with a massive eleven clubs chasing his signature this summer. Reports suggest we’re one of them along with Borussia Monchengladbach, RB Leipzig, Lyon, Lille, Monaco, Marseille, Sevilla, Brighton, Newcastle United and West Ham all want him this summer. The French under 21 international is valued around £7 million, were supposed to have offered double that amount and yet Lorient have turned us down. Why not too, especially if so many clubs genuinely want him and no doubt the highest bidder, just like at Black Type Bet promotionnal offer, will always win the biggest prize. But the player himself will have the final say and rightly so in this case. Why should he be expected to up sticks and go somewhere he doesn’t want to go? If he wants a move to Arsenal and we as a club want him, we could very well see him in an Arsenal shirt next season. We’ve already agreed personal terms with the player. Or that’s what’s being written but I doubt it’s true.
Here’s a taste of what might be.
Joe Willock must be feeling quite proud now as he’s the only one of the three brothers in the Premier League. Chris, Matty and himself all came through the Arsenal youth system. Matty was the first to leave after being released from the club at just fifteen years old. Man Utd snapped him up and he must have thought all his Christmases had come at once but just a few days ago, his contract came to an end and he’s now at League One club Gillingham. Chris left Arsenal for Benfica two years ago where he’s playing for their B team but Joe remains in north London and could be about to break into the Arsenal first team. He’s the youngest of the three too and right now it looks like the club kept the best of the threm. So far he’s shown great promise and as long as the club don’t see him as being a cash machine, this coming season could be a big one for the England under 21 player.
With another season of Europa League football ahead, I’m hoping Unai Emery puts faith in many of the clubs younger players. Mix in with a few wise heads and let them play in the cups. Certainly Europe and the old League Cup. Nelson, Saka, Willock, Smith Rowe, Amaechi, Bielik, Medley, Osei-Tutu, Ballard – all need to be pushing for start next season. One or two might even be hoping the Premier League is ready for them or they’re ready for it. With a tight transfer budget, they might need to be and it’s the only way Unai Emery will find out what they’re made of. Excelling at under 23 level or on loan at a Championship club is very different to playing against a Premier League side which allows players little time on the ball, or dishes out a bit of the rough stuff. The only one way to find out if they’re ready or not is by giving them the chance. I know, it’s been said before, but in amongst those listed above and others I’ve missed, could be the a top notch player or two. Maybe more, maybe none but I’m quietly confident it won’t be the latter.
Have a good Sunday guys…
Happy Fathers Day everyone who is one.
I opened my cards from the 3 children that I know of and must say that the words were wonderfull, I could not control myself and ended up sobbing as I realised there was no money in them ………..bastards !
Thanks Rico for the post .
LCM….You crack me up.
Seems Ospina is staying at Napoli and we get £ 4.8 million . That’s someone’s wages paid then.
£4.8M !…………that means we are £200K short of breaking even in this TW if we listen to the rumour that we have only £45M and that Arsenal are going to post a £50M loss !……………………so if we can get £200K for Mustafi we will be able to buy free agents !………………………yes, I know getting £200K for Mustafi is being deluded !
I didn’t think we’d get that much for Ospina..
rico…in todays market, Ospina is worth £4.8M.
We must push for £60-£70mil for Aubameyang
£10mil for Mikatarian
£25mil for Xhaka
and £2:50 for Mustafi. 🙂
Thats a total, together with our reported £45mil of £146.8mil plus £2:50
That should get us the 3/4 players needed?????
I wouldn’t pay that much Vcc. 😂
In theory we could make a lot of money by selling players but in practice, who’d want them for the kind of money we’d expect to get, or for the wages they’re on?
Something has to give.. or someone.
I see the ‘people’ who said we’d agreed terms with Carrasco are now saying we’ve missed out on him.
What a joke these idiots are.
How is it that Tottenham can talk in terms of £45m for Keiran Trippier and nobody thinks anything of that fee, yet Arsenal are expected to sell our players on the cheap?
If Milan want Torrieira, why not quote them £60m
If some mob in China want Aubameyang that’s fine, just cough up £80m and he’s yours…
We’ve gotta stop underselling our players…
Rico 1.14pm, that’ll teach ya to stop reading and believing John Cross…. 😀
Trawling through News- Now doesn’t do anyone any good but somehow despite all the reservations , you can’t help doing it.
Hi VCC,
Thanks for your good wishes, and hopefully next season we can meet up — don’t tell the Pasta King — for a pint and a game at the Ems! Terry tells me Le Coq always goes to the gents when its his round, so he always goes too, to make sure he doesn’t do a runner!! 🤪
Kev, I think the wages he’s on make a difference, and he’s English. Trippier probably earns half of what most of ours do.
😂 Kev, I think it was football London, although the two sites look identical.
NN is magnetic Potter… lol
Trippier is on £40k a week, contracted until 2022, English and 26 years old.
There’s the difference imo. As much as we might detest the club, they have been really smart with their contract management.
Gazidis and Wenger on the other hand, totally mismanaged ours. Which is why we’re in the mess we are now imo.
The USA are going to take some beating in this WC…
Yeah, maybe Rico, but I don’t think that Torrieira is on mega wages, not that I want him to go that is, but need to be tougher when selling.
I did read that Koscielny has an £11m price tag on his head – and why not?
Why should we let our players go cheaply?
I heard the Phillipe Auclair on Arseblog talking about the possibility of Aubameyang going to China and when Andrew Mangan said £70m Auclair immediately said more, so why not, ask for £100m, if they really want him they’ll pay it?
The thing is, we don’t want to sell either Aubameyang or Torrieira, so their salary isn’t an issue, therefore if some club wants them they’ll just have to pay a premium.
With Ozil and Mkhitarayan it’s different, but I think we’ll go into next season with both of them still in our squad, same with Xhaka and Mustafi.
I hope he stays too Kev but if not, I’d put him up around the £80-100m mark if I was the club.
It’s a bad habit the club got into with both sales and signings imo. Look at Fabregas- £30m odd was an insult.
Can you imagine Daniel Levy allowing a player of the quality of Fabregas leaving for such a price or Liverpool or Man Utd or anyone. We’ve been taken as mugs, but I’m hopeful that the new regime will change that…
Said the same earlier, Wenger and Gazidis really cocked things up when it came to contracts. Especially their own…
Good point Rico,
Wenger in particular suddenly became ruthlessly efficient when it came to his own contract !.Funny that
I’m seriously underwhelmed with the players we are linked to.Mostly teenage French players with no top flight experience.
We already have a promising crop of youngsters,but how many will get a chance ?
As regards transfers,I’d rather we concentrate on 1or 2 quality players (centre back and winger) 1 or 2 for the future maybe depending if we can raise any money from our overpaid,overheard lot.
Less than 8 weeks until the season starts,so get a move on please.
Morning all.
Limey, they say charity begins at home. Gazidis and Wenger took that to the extreme…
I was underwhelmed with carrasco too but I like the sound of this Maurice guy, and the young defender…
That’s meant to be overpaid and overhere.
allex kev, spot on. Our club have a history of underselling our players, but the Wenger/Gazedis era have been the worse.
I’m with Limey regarding 2 top quality players, and a couple of potential ones, and promote 3/4 from our academy.
Surely,
Medley….Willock….Nketiah….Nelson….Smith-Rowe….Bielik….Amaech
are as good, if not better than,
Mustafi….Mihkatarian….Xhaka….Jenkinson….Elneny….Ozil….Iwobi?????????
I know who I would have in my team.
I think our transfer window all comes down to who Emery sees as being ready to step up. Will Chambers or Bielik be considered for midfield, Nelson and Saka as our wingers, our two full backs coming through. So many questions hanging over so many players I think.
The manager too…
Vcc, I’m with you there. Add commitment and attitude to those you list and we’ll improve. I really want to some pace on our wings next season, and from midfield.
Amaechi, Nelson, Saka will bring that to the team. Will Emery put faith in them though. And the fans, will they be patient?
I love what Ajax are doing.
L’Equipe are reporting we’ve agreed a deal for William Saliba.
I’m glad we missed out on Carrasco, if true. Totally underwhelmed with him.
Give Nelson a run.
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico, seems as if we’re closing in on Saliba, for some reason the Arsenal Academy doesn’t develop defenders like they used to, hence the need to bring them in…
As VCC listed them, we have a clutch of really talented kids, let’s see what Emery can do with them next season, if he can’t develop them then maybe he isn’t our man, but in fairness he did a great job developing young players at Seville and with Freddie on board I’m quite optimistic about 3/4 youngsters coming through next season.
Morning Kev. We’ve got defenders haven’t we, just haven’t seen enough of them so far.
I’m with Vcc, play these young players in pre season, add extra fixtures for them if needed because as said before, under 23s and loan deals is very different to facing the bigger clubs. To be fair, those who played in Europa last season did pretty well.
Agree re Freddie Kev, smart decision I reckon.
Under 21 competition, ACON’s etc this summer isn’t going to help our pre season though.
Yes rico, our manager is in the spotlight this summer.
Close season used to be for friendlies, allowing the manager to see how the youth/fringe players could perform.
Why not get these youngsters playing in some friendlies?
I was hoping we would get our transfers done early this summer. I suppose UE has his hands tied somewhat, not knowing who he can ship out.
I’ve no strong opinions one way or the other with the Carrasco thing, going on what Adam told me, and he’s my La Liga contact, Carrasco was a very dangerous player for Atletico Madrid and Adam has a good eye for a footballer so I trusted his opinion.
I guess it’s all come down to finance and do we want to saddle ourselves with another flake on mega wages and going by what I’ve been hearing about Carrasco recently, he may fall into the expensive flake category, so see ya later Yannick…
The mere fact that Carrasco opted for China sends out warnings to me.
I agree with VCC about the kids Rico, and with so much football still going on and so many of our players still involved, I reckon we’ll see a lot of them on our USA tour.
Torrieira, Bielik, Guendouzi, Elneny, Nelson all still playing.
Not sure about Aubameyang and the ACoN?
Wall to wall football and exhausted footballers – as long as the sponsors are happy I guess!
The schedule is ridiculous Kev. Ok for those clubs with deep squads but that’s the few rather than the norm.
I hope we do see a lot in the US, it’ll do them good.
Morning all. Yes Kev, he was dangerous but was generally a sub alongside Alderwiereld for Athletico. He had a decent WC and then just faded away, obviously got blown out by Simeone and went to play in China where I gather he has been underwhelming. I really cannot see the attraction in him for Arsenal.
The club has a history of rescuing lost souls ,Overmars , Pires , Bergkamp and Kanu from the top of my head , some worked some didn’t Suker and I suppose Baptista and Arshavin could be ones that didn’t.
For the bank of England club we have never really been at the top table of transfer fees although we have spent other teams have always spent more and always seemed to get more for their rejects .The only top transfer fee that we recieved was for Anelka and we spent that cash on London Colney as opposed to the team.
Then we have always had players that were gambles , Svard , Vela , Asano etc but now thanks to Anelka we are growing our own gambles and how we handle them will define their prospects of actually breaking through and making it.
Great comment, Potter.
Morning all.
Our favourite time of year-transfer time 🙂
The Guardian has reported that David Ospina has signed for Napoli for £3.5m…
It was 4.8 euros two days ago . Well that’s the exchange rate for you.
Morning all.
And we’ve missed out on Shubert (spelling) as he’s off to Schalke. I don’t think I’ll be able to control my disappointment… lol
New post up now