Morning all.
Ollie Watkins is the hero this morning as his late strike saw England defeat the Netherlands 2-1. Palmer’s pace was excellent, Watkins finish, superb. The Netherlands had gone ahead early in the game before Kane equalised from the penalty spot. Just how VAR thought the ‘challenge’ deserved a second look I don’t know and why the referee decided to overturn his original decision beggars belief.
I don’t care, fans won’t care either and nor will anyone in the England camp but I thought the decision was worse than the clear handball during the Spain v Germany game. If the ‘challenge’ on Kane was a penalty, the challenge on Rice before the Netherlands scored should surely have penalised.
I read this player review of Kane on Sky Sport:
- This was probably Kane’s best performance of Euro 2024 – yet he’s still way off his best. He made the most of Dumfries’ tackle to win a soft penalty and was nerveless from the spot to quickly level after Simons’ goal. But he was virtually immobile in the second half as balls bounced off him, while he often lacked the stamina to get into the box when England’s wide players crossed from the byline. Watkins’ run behind Netherlands’ defence for the winner only highlighted Kane’s lack of movement.
I must have been watching a different game because other than scoring from the spot, I thought he was England’s worst player on the pitch. It’s sad to see older players hanging on in the game when it’s clear to see their better days are far behind them. Just like Ronaldo though, it’s hardly their fault if a manager can’t see what’s clear to many others. Great managers make big decisions.
Gareth Southgate has become a hero overnight because his ‘inspired’ changes gave England victory. I’ll leave that there…
Spain on Sunday will present a very different challenge for England as they’ve been the best performing side so far but Germany gave them a run for their money so there’s hope.
Back at Arsenal, Nuno Tavares is closing in on a move to Lazio, according to the Italian club’s sporting director Angelo Fabiani who yesterday said:
Tavares is a player who interests Lazio a lot. There have been talks between the two clubs for an agreement that was reached yesterday. Before completing the operation, however, many components must be agreed upon and an agreement must be found with the agents. I am more than confident, but for superstitious reasons I will not say that he is already a Lazio player.
The deal is a loan apparently with a £7 million purchase obligation included in the agreement.
Eddie Nketiah is being tracked by French outfit Marseille, according to reports in Foot Mercato.
The Athletic’s James McNicholas has reported that Arsenal are after a central midfielder this summer and Mikel Merino is one player of interest. He suggests that Mikel Arteta is an admirer of Merino’s talent and physicality. Merino has spent time in England before with Newcastle but that was seven years ago and he didn’t stay long despite signing up to a five year contract. From there he returned to Spain with Real Sociedad. This time next year, the 28 year old’s contract will expire so his club will I suspect, be eager to cash in on him now.
Catch up in the comments…
In 1993, at Wembley, Ronald Koeman got away with a clear foul on David Platt that would have seen him sent off. He stayed on and scored the penalty that Knocked England out of the 1994 WC and got the England manager the sack.
What goes around, comes around.
The irony is that Koeman is now the Dutch manager.
Morning Rico, good post.
To me Southgate is still a lucky manager, but as Napoleon said ‘give me lucky generals’ etc.
Against Spain maybe luck won’t be enough?
Considering how many players Arsenal are looking to move on and the fees we are hoping to get it’s rather ironic that the one player I thought we’d lose a lot of value on looks to be moving on and we’re getting a decent fee for.
If the Tavares deal goes through then Arsenal will pretty much get back what we paid for him whilst retaining a 20% sell-on clause. Good work by the negotiating team.
Also Eddie moving to Marseilles would be very handy as he won’t be around to cause us any consternation in the Prem next season.
A lower fee plus sell-on clauses might be the way to go on that one due to his wages.
I don’t really know anything about Mikel Merino except for the impressive headed goal he scored but if he’s the guy we’ve wanted and maybe he always was and Zubimendi was a diversion, then you’ve gotta back Arteta?
David Ornstein claims that some of Arsenal cheifs need convincing about Calafiori signing, I hope if true this is not the start of the board not trusting Arteta judgement,
I didn’t get to see the England match, but according to a report on news now Kane goal should not of stood as Saka should have been picked up by VAR for handball,
But then he doesn’t name those that need convincing , Chances are that it’s tactic to free up whatever seems to be holding things up .
If we go with Merino I cant see us buying a forward , if he is to play alongside Odegaard and Rice with the 5 forwards we already have unless Jesus leaves I can’t see where another one would fit.
I don’t think that we’ll actually be signing a striker this summer, after all we did score 91 goals last season.
But if Watkins was available I might think again , not just on last night but he reminds me of Wrighty with his presence and movement in the box.
https://dailycannon.com/2024/07/ljungberg-son-signs-arsenal/
I’d take Watkins in a heartbeat
Watkins is an Arsenal supporter. So yes even I would take him in a heartbeat.
Good afternoon everyone.
Good post Rico.
Great business with regards Tavarez especially the sell on percentage.
Hmm Atkinson not as good a batsman as he is a bowler, caught a slip first ball in test cricket.
Afternoon guys..
If Watkins is available, I’d love us to sign him. He’s an Arsenal fan too, or at least he was. Might be the best way to stop him scoring against us. 😜
Reuell Walters has signed for Luton Town after leaving Arsenal at the end of his contract this summer.
Smart move by him imo.
The way the Test match is going I feel sorry for anyone with tickets for tomorrow,forget Saturday.
…..and Jimmy takes his second wicket. 55-5 Anderson now has two wickets for ten runs in nine overs. Not bad for a bloke his ave in his final test match.
I’ll miss Jimmy…
Watkins is a pipe dream. They hate us. They laughably think they are competing with us. They could beat us twice next season and still they won’t be our competition.
sounds like Lokonga is going to Seville on loan, with medical being booked, Seville will pay all lokonga’s wages. which is good news for all.
Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Arsenal are in negotiations for 18 year old Ajax goalkeeper Tommy Setford. He is England qualified and has played in all age groups from U16 up to U 20s.
Cedric Soares rumoured to be joining Ajax, a great move for him despite Arsenal fans having such a low regard for him.
Ajax, the Dutch ‘ManU’ are in the midst of a huge decline post-Ten Hag and disastrous few months under a German Director of Football whose tenure they’re still recovering from. It’s interesting to see how many of our ex-players go onto having good careers after leaving Arsenal, regardless of what we thought of them. Mkhitarayan had a great career in Italy, Kolasinac likewise in France, Lacazette in France, etc.
Nigel I’d take Watkins but Villa aren’t selling to us, they see us as contemporaries, a rival they can match and overtake. Villa are a big big club but their fans are delusional, they haven’t been at Arsenal’s level on a regular basis since Pongo Wareing was their centre forward (1930’s) despite a brief period of success in the 1980’s. Butthag doesn’t stop them seeing Arsenal as a realistic target to aim at.
Watkins will be 29 next season, we should have signed him from Brentford when we had the chance.
Sliding doors I guess…
Rico, I also will miss Jimmy…
I’ve only been to Lords once, my son surprised me with tickets vs India a few years back. England eventually lost that post-Covid Test but the day I spent at Lords was memorable as I saw Joe Root complete 100 and saw Jimmy take 5 wickets…
My school was less than a mile from Lords and we used to have nets there after school had finished for the day . Used to get to watch Middlesex for an hour playing county cricket too . However never got to a test match.
Potter, was your school in Marlborough Hill by any chance?
Yes, named after Quintin Hogg. Attended from 1960 to 1965
Changed it’s name though last time I looked
Read this comment and had to say this to Potter. Quintin Grammar School was my school as well from more or less the same time .I did one year at Kynaston Secondary Modern then went to Quintin,Mr Hogg The Headmaster and two years later they combined as a Comprehensive and now no longer there it is a technical College. I remember a Potter in my year,small world.
Now to think Aaron Ramsdale or David Raya will win a Euro Final Winners medal must be quite amazing.
How are you Rico?
Got my years wrong first went in 1958 , long long time ago.
They say on Wiki that there is a yearly reunion , don’t think I will be going . I was interviewed by headmaster Worsnop who apparently left in 1958 , so I must have been there aged 11 . I remember getting a maths question wrong at the interview and my Dad kicking me under the table , but when I told the headmaster that I played both football and Cricket for Saint Pancras I got in.
So if Cicero knows it and was there too , we could form an old boys club. BTW Potter isa pseudonym.
Potter we were there at the same time and the yearly reunion is for Kynaston Boys as I still have a friend,same age who went to Kynaston and it still happens.. I played for the school football team every year until I left and the Sports ground was miles away at Chiswick which at the time belonged to The Polythecnic Quintin Hogg was Lord Hailsham’s father(I think).Hart was the football captain and there were Bushkell and CF Hodgeson .I played L W
Potter/Kelsey, I started when the Quintin School consisted of three sites. The Regents Street Polytechnic, Science labs in Little Titchfield Street and The Pulteney School at the end of Berwick Street, not more than a two minute walk from the Windmill Theatre. The school moved to the new site in Marlborough Hill and I left 1959.
I spent most Saturday mornings, in term, at Chiswick but not at the sports field. I was in the Rowing club which had the boathouse just above Chiswick bridge. The one still used by Oxford after the University Boat race.
I too was interviewed by Dr. Worsnop. I had been recommended by an aunt who worked with the Head Master when the school was evacuated during the war, I think it may have been evacuated to Minehead in Somerset.
A small world isn’t it.
Cicero, I have found someone on here older than me .George Elliott The Primary School near boundary Road is no longer there
Well that shows how we are so erudite , I remember playing against Chris Loucaides and the name Hart rings bells . I was in Studd house and Mr Way(Woodwork ) and Neddy Websdale (Geography ) were the masters that took the school teams and the gym was Mr Skull I think.
All boys then but I believe it is now co-ed.
Still talking about this you can tell that we are all bored .
When I started at Quintin Mr. Robinson (Old Robo) was the deputy head with his office at the Pulteney site, he was a character right out of a Dickensian novel. If you were hauled up in front of him there was never any doubt of the outcome, it was a beating with a very flexible cane. He had a very obvious squint, one eye looked straight ahead the other off to one side. If he had something to say to you, it was never anything good, he never looked directly at you but spoke while staring over your head. I will always remember his scathing put down, “First rate people do first rate work”, and then with a sneer, “third rate people do third rate work”. He retired at the end of the last term before we moved to St.John’s Wood.
I have to say that going to school in London’s Soho in the mid to late fifties was an education in it’s self. 😉
I got a job before I went to sixth form , and then my form master said that education was like baking a cake . It takes time to bake and rise and if you take it out too soon it stays uncooked and if I left too soon I was only half baked .
Now I know that he was right .
Mr Way took woodwork and if you made something wrong he chucked it at you.Skull was the chemistry teacher and would pin you up against the corridor wall and stick his knee in your groin .Cox took art and the German teacher couldn’t speak German but when I started in58/9 Mr Holt was the headmaster.I remember all the teachers facially but not their names.Happy days.
I thought I was reading a script from Whack-O! for a minute. 😂
Morning guys.
I’ll be glad when tomorrow’s final is over as we might have a bit of transfer business to talk about.
Back to semi normal :- What on Earth goes on behind closed doors with Arsenal’s goalkeeper department? The churn just isn’t normal.
Rewind to Arteta getting the Arsenal job, and him bringing in Inaki Cana as his goalkeeping coach. Bernd Leno was the No.1 back then, arguably the Player of the Season during 2019/20 – in part, down to how bad everyone else was during an eighth-placed finish in the league – only for Emiliano Martinez to step in during an injury and help Arteta to his first trophy as manager, winning the FA Cup that season.
The story has become a Sliding Doors moment and meme. Martinez wanted first-team football after starring for the Gunners and went to Aston Villa. In response, Arsenal signed little-known Alex Runarsson as Leno’s deputy, on Cana’s recommendation, despite league-low stats at Dijon in France.
And that’s when the peculiarity really began. Leno regressed to a shadow of his former self, conceding own goals to Everton and handling outside his area against Wolves. Martinez, meanwhile, became world-class and won Lionel Messi a Copa America and World Cup. Runarsson, reflecting those dreadful metrics, was so bad that Arsenal signed ex-Brighton star, Mat Ryan on loan in January.
The following summer, Arteta acted. Aaron Ramsdale arrived from back-to-back relegations, beginning spectacularly before cooling into consistency. At last, a long-term No.1, with Leno leaving for Fulham in the summer of 2022, to be replaced by Matt Turner. The saga was over.
Except it wasn’t: it was just beginning. 2023 saw yet another goalkeeper signed, as Cana’s original protege David Raya replaced Aaron Ramsdale between the sticks, the England international relegated to the bench for a year. Turner left for Nottingham Forest.
It’s been a slog. It’s been extremely odd. Arteta is bold in the transfer market and usually gets things spot on: almost every signing has been a success in one way or another, improving the floor or the ceiling of the squad. Except in goal. Each goalkeeper has the life expectancy of a double-0 agent, while keepers that Arsenal have got rid of – in Leno and Martinez – have gone on to become two of the best in the league since leaving.
All, the while, Arsenal have lost academy custodian Arthur Okonkwo for nothing, after he spent last year on loan at Wrexham and looked like a future star. Third-choice Karl Hein, meanwhile, has also run his contract down.
It can’t go on. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to, as per The Athletic.
Arsenal have made Raya’s transfer permanent. Joan Garcia of Espanyol is being lined up for the backup spot – and he’s a stylistic parallel to Raya, as a commanding presence claiming crosses and similar ability with his feet. They’re now looking at bringing in an experienced third-choice, in Daniel Bentley from Wolves.
Hein has been retained with a view to a loan, with Okonkwo’s younger brother, Brian, signing a new deal lately. Ajax’s teenager Tommy Setford is on the radar, while Danish keeping prospect Lucas Nygaard has signed, too. All of a sudden, Arsenal have gone from a controversial debate between “two No.1s” and a confusing future for both, to a potential conveyor belt of talent between the sticks.
It all stems back to Cana, who apparently used to show clips of some unknown Blackburn Rovers teenager to bemused senior keepers and ask them to replicate his idiosyncrasies. Now, they’re reunited, with that Rovers rookie the undisputed Arsenal No.1, following a Golden Glove in the Premier League.
From 4-4-2
Rico , Jimmy Edwards was a pussy cat.
BTW :- Kelsey , Wasn’t the gym teacher Killer Clarke ? and Mansell the chemistry teacher with the Bunsen burner tube .
Discipline in schools was certainly different in our day .
Yes Clarke was the gym teacher and Mansell the chemistry teacher but this Cana connection with Brentford and northern Spain with Arteta is all very weird .Has Cana left as his contract was up on June 30th.Now we are linked with the young Wolves keeper Dan Bentley also formerly with Brentford , having bid £500K which was initially rejected .
Yeah, Killer Clarke was the P E master. My first physics master was Dr. Dawson. I don’t remember him after the school moved. There was another teacher “Spud” Tate. But I can’t recall his subject.
At speech day Dawson had the most impressive gown, it had a fur collar. Wouldn’t be allowed now of course. 😉
I thought Cana was out of contract at June 30th and this kid from Wolves,Dan Bentley is ex Brentford and our initial bid of £500K has been rejected . A lot of coincidences with Cana,Arteta and northern Spain.
Looks like Cana is not going anywhere soon . How many teams that are capable of matching Ramsdale’s wages and Arsenal’s demands for him actually require a goalkeeper ,So it’s possible that he might end up staying and possibly going on loan and not necessarily in England .
Much depends on tomorrow . If England do well and Southgate gets renewed would going abroad harm his international prospects ?
Cana has contacts throughout Spain and possibly a swap with Espanol for Garcia on a mutual loan arrangement might be on the cards . A full season in La Liga gives Ramsdale games and Espanol might figure that a season with Cana might improve their 23 year old keeper.
Thinking out of the box I know but not out of the realms of possibility.
Ha ha Potter, I loved that programme.
I should explain I used to comment on here about 15 years ago and on two other sites, two closed down as the owners suddenly died,and one is now charging to comment and the other site barely exist all on WordPress(5 years between us, the old men that we are) I have been Marbellaron as I lived there 14 years and then Kelsey named after our great Welsh keeper . it is so strange that three of us all went to the same school and there can’t be more than 5 years between us,us being old men. Well done Rico for keeping this site going as I know research and admin is time consuming. I wonder what happened to all the other regular faces.
Rice and Saka need a long rest yet the squad are off to The States in a few days and still waiting for big signings to arrive .
My daughter still is a senior English teacher to PL players and I hear a lot about what’s going on there .MA is a strong disciplarian and for reasons I can’t reveal for confidential reasons ESR has no future at the club unless things have changed in the last few weeks and Timber she has told me is a real gentleman and for some reason is learning Spanish.
HH has only been going 14 years Kelsey. We met on LG and then Avenell Road I think, before I left to form this one. It’s a shame LG has gone to paid viewing but I can understand why Pedro went that way, especially if he puts in a lot of work but at the end of the day, we can only write about our opinion. Unless of course there’s inside knowledge which I don’t have and if I did, wouldn’t share it publicly without consent.
Julian Alvarez wants out of City apparently. Might Mikel be tempted I wonder.
Villa in talks for Onana, that’ll please fans who don’t want him at Arsenal.. 😂
Why not Argentinian speaks Spanish , should fit in . But would City sell to us ?
Maybe not now we’re a threat to them but you never know with Pep and Mikel…
New post up.
Rico, Pedro has a much younger audience and his father Geoff isn’t involved anymore .Well i as only a year out
I was I meant