Morning all.
For the first time since 2006, I sat and watched a Champions League Final from start to finish. After it’d finally got underway of course. According to reports on the BBC, a large number of Liverpool fans tried to get into the stadium with fake tickets in hand which caused all sorts of security problems. French police were using pepper spray and tear gas in attempt to control the large number of fans outside the Stade de France. I’m sure there’ll be a inquiry but it won’t be Liverpool fans fault I’m sure. It never is.
It was a final which Liverpool could and probably should have won but Thibaut Courtois was outstanding in the Real Madrid goal. Having already had a Karim Benzema goal ruled out for offside, one sweeping passage of play on the hour mark, ended with Carlo Ancelotti’s team scoring the only goal of the game. A lovely goal it was too, quite reminiscent of Arsenal team at their best.
From being a club which the media were backing to win the quadruple, Liverpool fans have been left with a League and FA Cup victory to celebrate. Of course I’m thrilled because I love seeing Liverpool lose anything and everything but what Jurgen Klopp has done and is continuing to do at the club is little short of magnificent really. Liverpool’s football is the most entertaining of all the English clubs in my opinion. The club has spent a lot of money on players since the German arrived at the club but nothing in comparison to the likes of Man City, Chelsea or even Man Utd. City and Chelsea have paid extortionate amounts of money to buy trophies, whereas Liverpool have bought and sold players wisely. Liverpool really are the blueprint of how to run a football club properly.
Yes, Liverpool have spent big money on individual players. Virgil van Dijk was signed for £75 million in January 2018, Alisson Becker (£66.8 million), Naby Keita (£52 million) and just recently around £50 million for Luis Diaz. However, the sales of Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suaurez to Barcelona for £142 million and £65 million respectively balanced the figures easily.
The people over at CIES Football Observatory have compiled a table which shows how much money clubs in the top five leagues have spent in the last ten years.
Surprised? I am too if the figures above are factual.
Arsenal do spend money but it’s who the club has spent it on which has been the problem in more recent years. However, in comparison to Liverpool especially, Arsenal’s sales department is failing terribly. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi, Joe Willock and Emi Martinez are the only significant transfer deals Arsenal have made over recent years but put all three sales figures together and it’s still around half the amount Liverpool sold Coutinho for. When was the last time Arsenal sold a player for over £50m? I can’t recall any one leaving for such an amount.
I doubt any of us want to see the likes of Bukayo Saka, ESR, Gabriel Martinelli etc etc leave but at some stage, one of the clubs who have an open chequebook, are going to knock on Arsenal’s door asking ‘how much’?
Juventus are reported to be desperate to sign Gabriel this summer. What do Arsenal do if the Italians come in with a big offer? What if PSG off £100m for Martin Odegaard or Newcastle Utd wave a £50m figure at us for Kieran Tierney?
Going back to last summer, the £150m Arsenal spent in the transfer window sent shockwaves through the football world. “Unprecedented” was the word doing the rounds at the time, probably because it was all we heard during the Covid crisis, but Arsenal haven’t spent that kind of money during one transfer window so it was understandable. The signings the club made though were considered to be underwhelming, that’s if you were listening to Sky Sports at the time. Arsenal need to spend a similar amount of money this summer in my opinion, and that’s just to keep up with the rest. How can we though if we are to comply with FFP?
Easy, be more smart in the transfer market. If that means selling one or players you or I might not want to leave then so be it because you can better your bottom dollar that the love they tell us they have for Arsenal right now, will soon be forgotten it a big club comes calling for them with an offer to double their wages.
So yes, if Juventus offer Arsenal big money for Gabriel, take it and move on is my answer.
See you in the comments.
The problem is that the big money at Juventus for Gabriel is likely to look like peanuts over here.What can we demand that they can afford to pay ?
Football in general has been living way beyond it’s means for years fuelled by the artificial input of money from outside the game.
Sure the handful of super clubs can afford these fees but the rest including us are scrambling to keep up .
Even Norwich are to become American owned and even though the fees that they may start to be offering in their world may seem vast they will not do anything more than stoke inflation and they too will be in the market for the ones that either have not made it elsewhere or they will take a gamble on young American or Latino players coming through the MLS system.
For most it’s a race to the bottom , leaving the the super rich to get the plaudits on the back of the ones that they need to be playing against.
Yes Cicero, I read that yesterday evening about Liverpool complaining about the late kick off and the treatment of their fans and then it transpired that it was caused by the Scousers themselves – brass neck or what?
The French police are not the ever patient English police, the Frenchies don’t pussy foot around worrying about offending you or your pronouns, if you act like a twat then you’ll get thumped in La Belle France.
Of course we should emphasise the term Scousers, as they are not English (their description not mine) so their behaviour has nothing to do with the reputation of English fans but the great Scouse nation itself…
That’s my point though Potter, we need to be more like Brighton in the way they ripped us off for White. If Juve really want Gabriel then pay what the market demands. If not, tell them to take a hike.
It’s like selling Fabregas, we bent over backwards to help Barca yet should have told him if he wants to return, Barca need to pay the going rate. So many bad examples of Arsenal selling deals.
Man City have a defence full of £50m and £60m defenders, it’s the going rate, so I don’t think that Arsenal were ripped off for Ben White we just went for a defender of quality and potential as opposed to a David Luiz or a Sokratis or a Lichsteiner.
Good morning all.
At the time, I thought we had paid over the odds for Ben White, but after watching him for a season I believe we got a bargain.
Rico, there is no way we should sell Gabriel to Juventus, or any other club for that matter, regardless of how much is on offer. He and Ben White are building a partnership at the heart of our defence the like of which we haven’t seen since the departure of Adams and Keown.
I read yesterday that we have offered Pepe to PSG, now that is a deal that I approve of even though I suspect that we will have to take a considerable loss on our original “investment”.
I understand what you’re saying Kev but we’ll have to agree to differ. 😂
Same re Gabriel Cicero. I just think that the hay needs making whilst the sun shines sometimes, especially with the owners we have. If we’re to catch up with Liverpool, City, Chelsea and overtake Totts, Utd etc, how long will the Kroenke family financially back the manager?
RIP Lester Piggott…
When Saliba comes back Arsenal will have three CBs probably worth in excess of 50 million euro. That means that a 50 million euro-plus player is likely to spend a good deal of his time on the bench this summer. Surely it is much better to sell one of the 3 CBs and have a much cheaper back-up on the bench. Indeed, I will not be surprised if Arteta intends to use Tomi as a back-up CB (left and right). He would be a sensational ball-playing CB.
Anyway, rebalance the squad by selling one of the high-value CBs (e.g. Gabriel) and use the money to improve the midfield/forward line (Arthur? Osimhen?). I strongly suspect that Arteta/Edu still want Arthur from Juventus. My reading is that Arteta/Edu wanted him PERMANENTLY in January but the Kroenks refused to provide any cash after the big summer spend (except to buy Vlahovic). That is why they tried to get a six-month loan and Juventus told them to piss off. Now they will go back for him.
Partey is another player who won’t be worth much in a few years (particularly if his injury record continues). I’d sell him to Juventus too, if possible.
That’s fine Rico, it’s good to debate to differ but do it properly, we can weigh up all the stats and the levels of performance we can discuss and analyse everything and in the end you’ll see that I was right… 😆
On a serious note and given the financial disparities between the top clubs does anyone honestly think that if things remain the same that Arsenal, especially under KSE, will ever ‘catch up’ with Man City – because I don’t… ☹️
Freddo, I suppose much depends on what Arteta thinks of Ballard, Holding and Rekik. I’m still not convinced Saliba wants to return or even will return.
Ha ha Kev.
No Kev, but I hope the powers that be catchup with City, Newcastle and Chelsea although the latter might now operate in a very different way to the Roman era.
The only thing about Liverpool I admire is the way the club is run. The rest I detest.
Arsenal is in the habit of doing late business which always have negative impact on the season.They are good in identifying the problems but very slow in addressing them
Afternoon Rico and all.
I would sell Tierney with out a blink of a eye, As for Saliba I recon we sell him other wise Arsenal and Arteta would of made a big welcome back article about him by now.
I would like to know what is going on with Eddie it’s gone very quite about him resigning.
Going by news reports in Australia an English commenter said he went out side to see what was going on and that he could taste the capsicum spray and watched the Liverpool fans get sprayed for no reason and also mentioned that the Liverpool team bus was even running late. Other reports say that the French police were worried that the English fans would course trouble and the fake tickets didn’t help.
Either way without being there it’s hard to say what is true or not but one thing for sure it didn’t look good for Soccer/football.
The best thing was Liverpool getting beat.
Anon, shame you’ve no name. Not always imo.
Saliba is a completely unknown quantity, he has never played a minute in the Premiership, to suggest he could replace one of our excellent, and Premiership experienced, centre backs is beyond logic Freddo.
Relying on full backs to stand in for centre backs and vice versa is a recipe for disaster. Arteta tried that mix and match tactic last season and succeeded only in creating confusion in an otherwise settled defensive unit.
Hi Geoff, I know you would.
ps, from football 365, quote “According to reports, William Saliba ‘absolutely wants to remain at Marseille as he does not want to be a ‘spare part’ at Arsenal.”
Just the sort of attitude we do NOT want at Arsenal.
Why doesn’t that surprise me..
The Saliba case is interesting , had he not had the personal tragedy he would have joined up with us and become part of our junior emerging talents . But when you let people find another route to their peace of mind it’s very difficult to call them back later . He is settled there and no doubt happy. i don’t blame him or the club it’s just that things have moved on .
You can’t win them all which is a shame as he seems to be one to hold on to however we paid a lot of money for him and we need to get that back at least if not make a profit.
But didn’t his mum pass away during his first season rather than his second? From what I remember, didn’t Saliba moan about not getting his chance at Arsenal before being loaned out?
I may be wrong but I recon any player who has been loaned out for 2 seasons or more will feel used and unwanted so will loose interest in any club or manager
Why Geoff? It’s better they play football than sit on a bench, especially when young.
I can understand that after 2 years he will be settled there and feel more Marseilles than Arsenal .Maybe there is a lesson that if a young player is loaned for 2years he should move clubs between years.
Well that was the most boring Grand Prix I’ve watched for years. On a track notorious for the difficulty of overtaking allied to wet conditions and some odd ideas by the race directors the race became a dull procession. 😟
They usually do don’t they Potter? Having Saliba and Guendouzi at the same club wasn’t perhaps the best idea either. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Nottingham Forest back in the PL then..
Hardly a chance of Djed Spence moving then
He’s a Middlesbrough player isn’t he, on loan? I expect Forest will try to sign him.
Rico if any club were to buy me then send me straight out on loan for 2 years I would not want to play or wait that long for them, I would feel that the club are only using me to try and make a quick buck
Cicero – Tomiyasu plays CB for Japan. I’ve been trying to work out if it is left CB or right CB, though it probably doesn’t matter much as he’s fairly two-footed and a smart footballer. He’s even played LB for Arsenal with great success. I would love to see a Tomiyasu-Ben White CB combination. Then the team would have two pacey CBs who can dribble into midfield and act as playmakers. I got the feeling that, in the second half of the season, opposing teams were giving Ben White less breathing room and Gabriel more. That wouldn’t happen with Tomiyasu playing beside Ben White. Gabriel is alright on the ball, but he’s definitely no Tomiyasu. Playing Tomiyasu at CB might also stop Tomiyasu getting quite so many injuries.
Surely Geoff, much would depend on age, the long term plan, discussions held with the manager etc etc.
New post up now