Morning all.
Such a shame Alli isn’t playing tomorrow but a shame Arry Kane is. Son too for that matter purely because they both like a tumble in the box. VAR and Michael Oliver will be waiting. Waiting to make amends for the cockup against Bournemouth. Simple solution, don’t give them the opportunity to do so. Either that or make sure we out score them so it matters not what tricks they get up to.
If Kane scores tomorrow, he’ll become the highest scorer in a North London Derby ever. Who cares? No, me neither, not if we win.
Anyway, other than the news of Stan Kroenke investing a few of his million dollars into the squad which a) too complicated for me to grasp and b) I’ve no idea how much we’re talking about, much of the rest hitting the back pages is speculation over who will stay, go or sign during this summers transfer window. The Mirror report that Shkodran Mustafi is in line for a new contract offer which doesn’t really come as a great surprise to me. He’s been doing alright since Mikel Arteta arrived. He has the odd rush of blood but there’s no other player in our squad who’s as strong in the air as him. Oh, and we’re skint…
Of course, any offer of a new signing could just be Arsenal being smart. Mustafi has just one year of his contract left. Transfer fees this summer are expected to be lower so any amount we’d get for our German would be a pittance. Tie him down to a contract extension and then next summer, perhaps review his situation. Yes, my business head is firmly on, although I’ve never had a business. Lol. Common sense then.
Also, Arsenal already have William Saliba joining the squad next season so he’ll need a couple of old heads around him. Players who know the club, Arteta and English football. A steady playing partner because without a full pre-season, any new signing is not going to have long to get used to his new teammates or Mikel Arteta’s coaching style.
See, I knew I’d convince you that keeping Mustafi makes sense.
Mikel Arteta has been talking about tomorrow’s game:
“You could sense the days before the game that the energy was rising, the expectations and how much it means for the people to defend the badge and the shirt that we are representing.”
“I was involved in some really good ones. There was a lot of goals, a lot of excitement and the result changed hands a lot of times.”
“The players need to understand how much it means to people, those kind of derbies and if we are winning or go on to win then we will make a lot of people happy.”
A little factoid ahead of tomorrow’s match. Mikel Arteta has played in nine NLD’s. He’s won five, drawn two and lost two.
See you in the comments guys…
I saw two really competent referees recently, one did Southampton (a) the other Sheffield Utd (a), two refs I wasn’t familiar with, who seemed younger and more in tune with the game.
Our problem is we have the same effing referees too often, Atkinson (7), Dean (5), Taylor, Tierney, Attwell, Kavanagh (4), after that it’s only twice, why? Why Atkinson with 7 and Oliver 2 or Mason 1, it doesn’t sound right to me. It’s like if you play a team twice in the league and then get them in the League Cup and FACup, it’s too much, it effects everyone’s attitude, you carry gripes with you and referees are the same.
Riley is to blame, he’s always to blame, the core of our problems always point back to him, I don’t think he is honest, he certainly isn’t impartial and I just don’t think he is very good at the job, he was a poor referee and he’s an equally poor administrator.
Morning Rico
Thanks for the post Rico, I think that the KSE ‘investment’ isn’t an investment it’s moving the debt to so that the interest we pay is a lot less and we don’t have to keep a reported £36m in reserve, meaning that money can be used elsewhere, to keep the club afloat during this period for example.
We still have the debt.
Maybe Harry Kane’s tongue is too heavy for his head and he falls forward with the slightest touch from behind , I agree VAR was supposed to clarify decisions not back up doubts the ref may have ie. Yellow card for Nkietiah! Up the GUNNERS for sunday .
RIP Jackie Charlton.
Ha ha Bb.
Kev, does that mean we simply have an extra £36m on top of any sales etc?
I read Arseblog yesterday but I was still left baffled. Lol
It’s a bridging loan at a lower rate of interest , releasing us from some contractual restrictions from the little I can see. Until we as a club start to get an income it’s there to keep things running , not cash to be splashed to run another club in exchange for a player or two .
NLD this weekend , normally the ante would be upped and locally the streets would get a kind of vibrancy but at present it seems like just another game. That’s probably because we are not so easily mixing with people from the other side of the blanket . The pubs are open but the number going is not particularly high and people really have other things on their minds.
We all know the divers in the league and so do the refs but they seem to have those that they allow and those they don’t . For example Saha goes down at Palace gets waived on but Rashford and it’s straight to the spot . We know that Spurs are not shy at collapsing in the box , so will the ref but will he see through it or not ? That’s the question .
G’day all.
Yes RIP Jack Charlton. He played for a club I despised (Leeds United) but I believe he was hard but honest and played by the rules prevalent at the time. Well okay he bent the rules a bit, 😉 but not like the cheating b******s in the game today.
I’m not sure Rico, I don’t know if the £30/£36m is for transfers or just for just running costs?
At the moment Arsenal are running on fresh air except for TV/media payments and loans that are guaranteed by KSE.
There is also amortisation to consider, money that we owe clubs on instalments for the transfer of players we bought, like Saliba etc, we’ll also receive some from player sales I guess but we’ve not sold too many for big money although we might be owed a bit from Everton on the Walcott and Iwobi transfers?
Unless KSE and going to take out some loans that we can use for transfers (or we deal in Bosmans or swaps) I can’t see us spending loads.
We might also have to accept the sale of some players we don’t really want to lose to be able to bring in the new players that Arteta wants.
Getting rid of Ozil would really free up a huge amount of prospective salary, I’m sure that Arsenal would give him a free transfer, but knowing how his agent operates he’d probably want a pay off to leave, even if his new club picked up his wages in full, it’s why the Mkhitaryan deal was so convoluted with both the player and the agent after some form of pay off I suspect.
Some fans complained that Arsenal could have got £10m from Roma last January for Mkhitaryan but I’m under no illusion that it was simply a case of Roma paying £10m to Arsenal and off Micky went to Italia. No mate there would have been strings attached and it might have ended up with Arsenal losing more than half of the £10m in agent fees and a pay off to the player to be shot of him and still picking up some of his wages.
This way I imagine that it’s a clean break and Roma get him for nothing except wages and Roma have to pay his agent.
When I think of Jack Charlton I don’t think of 1966 and the World Cup and I don’t think of the Republic of Ireland team, no, my mind goes to Wembley 1968 and Big Jack the giraffe fouling Arsenal goalkeeper Jim Furnell and Leeds scoring the only goal of the League Cup Final when it should have been an Arsenal free kick…
Mustafi’s wage is about is about £4.6 million a year, if he signs an extension to his contract it’s unlikely that he will accept a pay cut, so his resale value after the Covid-19 effect has been taken into account will have to increase by at least that amount to make it worth the club’s while retaining him for the extra year.
In view of the fact that we have Saliba joining next season after paying a transfer fee of £27million including-add-ons, as well as a salary package worth £40,000-a-week over five years, keeping Mustafi looks a bit of a non-starter. Financially speaking.
True re Ozil, plus there’s Sokratis, Elneny and probably Kolasinac wages to go. That’s just the start. Lol
Mustafi doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to make big demands. Seldom do we hear him moan about anything really, not even the alleged stuff on social media. He and his family might be really happy and settled here, as Dennis was years ago.
Nice post, Rico.. If (or should I say when?) Kane scores tomorrow, i will scream!!! You’ll hear me, Rico 😂😂
Watching Norwich v West Ham. Antonio hat trick sends Norwich back to the championship….
Hat trick?? Make that 4…. 😄
Massive wins for West Ham and Watford…
It’s tense at the bottom…so glad we’re not down there amongst it!!
There’s talk about us being lined up to play in the community shield, even if we lose to City next week….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8510999/Arsenal-lined-Community-Shield-lose-Man-City-FA-Cup-semi-final.html
Thanks Sue.
I probably will hear, as the crow flies, you’re not that far away… 😂
Yes all I can think of Jack Charlton is like part of what Kev said…………………fouling Jim Furnell………and for that I despised him, it was my first cup final I went to and he ruined it!……………..so you might as well say RiP Adolf Hitler for all I care!…………………where was VAR?…
😁 Rico…
So, the chavs have now conceded 48 goals!!! The most of all the big 6 teams… and do you remember all their fans ripping it out of us for signing David Luiz?! Haha where are they now?!!
And btw how boring is Andy Hinchcliffe’s commentating?! He’s definitely on par with Chris Sutton 😴😴😴
Here you go Kev and L.C .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maoQkoADBVo
Standard Leeds under Revie , got quite physical I seem to remember.
I think the Arsenal boys learned a lesson that day . Not to take their minds off of the football in getting their own back for the injustice of the goal.
Sue < as much fun as it is watching Chelsea ship goals I didnt want Sheff utd to get the points.
Sheffield Utd winning doesn’t help our Europa chances at all.
Potter…it’s imperative we pick up those 3 points tomorrow, whilst we rue those 2 points dropped against Leicester even more now!!
It was probably the first cup final for many Arsenal fans Cocker because our previous cup final before it was 1952, oddly enough I’ve never sat through and watched either of the 1968 or 1969 finals again, I just couldn’t stand it. Too many bad memories…
Regarding Mustafi, that’s a bit of a quandary for Arteta because although he’s one of our most improved players since the re start, how much of that improvement has come from playing in a back three. I mean would anyone really trust Mustafi or Luiz or even Kolasinac in a back four, because I wouldn’t..?
The back three has solved a problem we’ve had for ages with our midfield and defence being vulnerable through the middle, but long term I’d imagine that Arteta will want to play a more progressive back four.
Cheers Potter, they weren’t called ‘dirty Leeds’ for nothing…
And, do you remember the ‘joy’ of Chelsea beating the dirty …kers in the FACUp replay of 1970? The only 90 minutes I’ve ever spent hoping for a chavs victory. Oh how we laughed at full time, how we laughed!
I wonder how long they’ll survive next year? It would make me very happy to see them return to the Championship at the end of the season and not return for at least another 15 years or so!
Yes!………………Leeds were the hated team back then as a young Gooner, still, not as hated as the Spuds!
😆
I too have never watched them games Kev`, but whats new !……………..I never watch us on any highlights unless we win as I really dont see the point of inflicting agony upon myself! hahaha…………………..the only scenario I could see myself watching an Arsenal loss is if it was against any team where the result would have Spuds relegated and the fans running on the pitch at the end to celebrate a loss! hahaha
Sorry Potter, but watching that would only have me hiding and whimpering in the closet under the stairs and I haven`t done that since the wife rushed to the kitchen with that venomous look for the heavy pan and rolling pin last week!
Morning guys. New post up now.