Morning all.
The players and staff left north London for Budapest yesterday with both Jurrien Timber and Ben White on the plane. Regardless of whether players are fit or not, or even if they expect to be in the match day squad, they are all there, together as one. Rumoured has it, Jurrien Timber is fit. Maybe he’s been fit for a while now but Mikel Arteta didn’t risk him. Arteta will hold his pre match press conference later today so we might find out more but I doubt it, he’s not likely to spill any beans which might change PSG’s plans.
Just over a year ago, the 24th of May to be precise,
Mikel Arteta and his players had seen high hopes of winning the champions league dashed by PSG and for the third season running, had ended the league campaign in second place. Meanwhile, in the José Alvalade Stadium,
This season, the women finished second in the league and were knocked out of the Champions League at the semifinal stage, yes, the same stage as the men last season. I’m not sure many people fancied Renee Slegers side last year, just as many people won’t fancy the men’s chances tomorrow night either. However….
I’m praying that tomorrow ends with roles reversed.
Ebe Eze has been talking to Sky Sports:
Talking about winning the Premier League and the critics, Eze said:
You go through ups and downs and loads of noise in the media. But, at the end, all that matters is who won. And it doesn’t matter how you won, it doesn’t matter what you did to win. To do it how we’ve done it, for me, is also quite special because we’ve blocked out so much noise, so much attention around us. Style of play is very subjective. There are so many different opinions about it but ultimately, when you are winning games, that’s all that matters.
On tomorrow’s game:
We are just another group of people that have the opportunity to win the Champions League and I pray that we take it. When we do, it will be a special moment for sure. Confident? Yeah for sure. I feel like we’ve achieved something that means so much to us and the joy, the confidence, the power that comes with that is special. So I’m sure we’ll be bringing that on the day as well.
The players have to be confident tomorrow night, not cocky or arrogant but confident. Play with confidence, belief and most importantly, freedom. We all know how good PSG are but Arsenal, fresh from winning the Premier League, have every reason to believe they can beat the French club.
A bit of transfer news which comes from David Ornstein and that’s a number of clubs have made enquiries to sign Gabriel Jesus and Arsenal are valuing him around £20m. Hopefully there’s a club out there who will stump us the money. He’s not going to get much playing time at Arsenal next season, not even on the wings in my opinion so for his sake, I hope he gets the move.
In other news which I’m sure everyone knows about by now but Anthony Gordon is on the brink of signing for Barcelona. Whilst I don’t give a toot about the player, I’m just relieved he’s not heading to Arsenal as was suggested just a few weeks ago.
Catch up later.
Good morning Rico, the calm before the storm. Well written thanks.
I read this morning that Barcelona are sniffing around Hincapie, signing him to a permanent contract is a priority.
Morning Cicero, thanks.
I think Hincapie is under an an obligation to buy loan contract so Barca can take a long run off a short pier..
Morning Champions, morning Rico, love that picture of the squad.
When you have a trophy winning team you’ll often find other clubs interested in your players and in particular your good players who aren’t guaranteed starters. That’s fine, nobody is leaving unless Arteta decides, Mosquera might be a tricky one to retain if he doesn’t get many starts next season?
As long as Hincapie can keep his shorts on he’ll remain a Gooner, he’ll have a big job next year helping our Ecuadorean twins settle in.
As much as I don’t like Sky Sports, their coverage of the build up to the CL final is very good.
Morning Kev.
Mosquera is young, I’m pretty sure he’s feeling pretty good after his first season. Can’t see him wanting to move away any time soon. Plus, imo, he’ll play more next season.
Love Eze’s view on his/our best Nld. Not the first despite his hat trick but the second because of what it meant for the team.
Morning Rico and all, looking forward to this weekend’s match, I can’t remember where I read but the story claim Arteta could except a low offer of $5 million pound for Jesus just to get him off the books, but me personally I think it will be more around the $20 mill mark as Rico stated earlier, The best think about this transfer is we only need 2 or 3 players at the most, maybe another striker to help Gyokeres out
Hi Geoff, I just hope Jesus leaves regardless of for how much. His wages are high. But, I do appreciate all he did when he first signed it’s just now he’s not our future.
Afternoon Rico/everyone,
Looking forward to next season I see 1 or 2 high quality signings as well as Hincape,maybe Morgan Rogers and another one.
The £20m quoted for Jesus would be great,someone on here said he might end up in Italy,AC Milan might suit him?
Yeah I’m glad we swerved Anthony Gordon,the price to Arsenal or any Premier league club would have been a lot higher no doubt.
I can’t get nervous about tomorrow,maybe nearer the time.
As said confidence and belief are needed.
It is exciting though,COYG