Morning all.
Who’d have thought eh? Just a few weeks ago, his future at Arsenal looked bleak yet Mikel Arteta bounced back in September. It proves just how quickly football can change. For Arsenal, that change has been positive but a drop in focus, attitude and commitment and in a flash, the club could be right back where it was in August.
The fixture against Brighton showed that there’s a lot of work to be done yet. When a NLD arrives, it’s easy to turn on the style in front of the home fans, especially when Nuno’s tactics were pretty poor but away from home, Arsenal need to up their game in my opinion. Brighton were afforded too much time and space on the ball and definitely far too many shots on goal. I know they didn’t score but that was down to their inabilities much of the time. Arsenal have to be better at cutting out the balls into the box. High and low.
The back pages seem to be filled with the Newcastle Utd takeover. The Mail report that Toots, along with Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool, were dead against the deal going through and tried to block it. There were also reports last night that the other 19 clubs have demanded a meeting to ask the Premier League why the Newcastle takeover was signed off – say the same newspaper. City and Chelsea can’t really complain.
The new owners have already promised to deliver long term success to the club and regardless of what you and I might think about The Saudi group, that’s probably scaring other clubs in the League. A League which right now is about City, Chelsea, Liverpool and which of them will lift the Premier League trophy at the end of May. Once Newcastle are up and running so to speak, they’ll be offering the biggest wages to the best players I’m sure. It’ll be like Chelsea and City all over again, both clubs with ‘questionable’ owners in my opinion.
Once the Premier League welcomed Roman Abramovich, the writing was on the wall I think. English football sold its soul to overseas mega rich individuals or consortiums.
And to think Arsene Wenger was once accused of ruining the England team because he was signing too many overseas players.
The Premier League are ruining the English game because by allowing these multi million/billion ownerships to go through, it means more and more money will be thrown at foreign clubs as the best players from around the world are snapped up. In turn, the value of homegrown players will continue to increase too because the likes of City, Chelsea and now Newcastle will pay over the odds for them. £50m for Ben White will look cheap in a few years time in my opinion.
The fans of clubs like Chelsea, City and Newcastle Utd will cite jealousy at people like me I’m sure but I’m far from jealous. I’d hate for Arsenal to be owned by people like their owners. It’s bad enough having Stan Kroenke as our owner but he looks a saint in comparison.
Give it a few years and the top four will be about City, Chelsea and Newcastle, with the rest fighting it out for that prestigious fourth spot I suspect. How boring will that be?
See you in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
From what I’ve read about the Magpie’s takeover, I reckon we got a season and a half start on them. We are well on the way to the team’s restructuring under Arteta and Edu and Newcastle have yet to start.
They are making all the right noises and are trying to allay some of the fears of the other Premiership clubs. A complete analysis of the playing side to be carried out before the opening of the January window as well as looking at the infrastructure, training facilities, future objectives and, of course, the appointment of a new coaching staff and manager. All this while sitting uncomfortably in nineteenth place in the Premiership. It’s not going to be easy and there won’t be any quick fix.
I’m sure they will be able to sign plenty of over-the-hill players who could possibly help them avoid relegation, but getting the younger more ambitious players will not be so easy without the expectation of European football to dangle before their eyes.
There will be an initial improvement, but come February that could turn into a dead cat bounce.
No need to worry just yet Rico. 😉
Morning Cicero. I thought that too but once they start spending, Arsenal and so many other clubs will struggle to keep up. Makes getting back into Europe this season even more important.
It’ll be interesting to see what a change of manager does at Newcastle because I’m sure it’s coming.
Even so, I’m more cheesed off that we as a country, as United Kingdom are trying hard to break down barriers, to stop racism, homophobia, sexism etc etc, the powers that be are saying it’s ok for these kind of people to own English football clubs.
Having read a fair bit this morning on the Newcastle subject one question stood out to the Newcastle fans , Would they prefer a man to own their club that gave out zero hour contracts or a man that murders foriegn journalists .?
The overly passionate Geordie fans of course are embracing the take over with open arms as the vision of dining at Chelsea and Man cities top table beckons , but in the main with so many ( 16 ) Premier League teams in foriegn ownership only Brentford , Brighton Norwich and Spurs solely British , Is it really any worse ?
This goes much deeper than football though , pressure was inevitably put on to accept this deal . Our government is deeply in hock to Saudi we have multi billion trade deals with them and the acceptance of the purchase of a football club is just widow dressing to clean things a little.
Inevitably the title and European place hand outs will change , there will be one place less for the rest .
It will be interesting to see if some of the lesser financed owners decide to pull out now realising that they can’t compete or whether the 4 remaining start scrambling around the world looking for their own sugar daddies.
I thought we’d “secured our borders”
I’ve obviously got that wrong!
Johnny foreigner’s ridden into town again.
Good question there Potter, Kroenke won’t be able to match the Newcastle owners. They can barely keep up as it is.
Football and politics should remain apart imo.
As did I Wavy, as did I…
Yes Indeed , we voted for Brexit but someone forgot to tell those in charge.
Morning Rico and all
The only way the league officials will listen to clubs and supporters would be for all club to go out on strike and get as many human rights groups to support them as possible. It will also need the support of Newcastle players and fans,
Maybe fans can start of by holding signs up saying league officials support Racism etc but we don’t
Selective Brexit by the look of it.
Morning Geoff. I’m not sure the majority of fans care about who or what their owners are or get up to, not once the trophies start rolling in.
Shame we haven’t got a shortage of Saudis!
Agree Rico a lot of fans don’t care what the club or it’s owners do as long as the trophies come everything else comes second, let’s hope our club never gets such owners.
Or Qataris , or Emiratis ,or Americans for that matter.
xenophobes are us .
As far as owners go Potter, but what about players?
Players are employees whereas the owners are just that.
All football has done is follow the trends of British business since WW2 . Sell off the family silver for gains which eventually run out and then you find yourselves stuck in a bad deal to survive.
I hope not Geoff, nor Potters list. I’d much rather someone like Ek who appears to be a good guy although not that rich in comparison to the likes of others.
I wonder what’ll happen when all these foreign owners decide to quit football.
Afternoon Bi-Focal’s
I think when critiquing our performance against Brighton it’s worth taking into account that if the Seagulls had actually won their previous league game vs Palace that they would have been top of the Premier League and on merit, as it is they’re right in the mix at the top of the table and could possibly even earn themselves a european place this season.
As far as the other Premier League clubs objecting to the Saudi takeover of Newcastle is concerned all I’d say is look in the mirror guys.
Are there anymore human rights in Abu Dhabi as there are in Saudi, does either regime stack up to too much scrutiny and as for the Abramovitch/Putin boys of Fulham Broadway, well tell me about opposition politicians in Russia and how many of them are still alive…
The whole thing is rotten to the core but we all turn a blind eye as we look forward to the next transfer window and how much we’re gonna spend and I’m no different.
If I was the Saudis the first thing I’d do is bring in Graham Potter.
But they didn’t Kev and they weren’t… 😜
The one thing Riyadh-on-Tyne United can do immediately is pay an exorbitant fee and wage to buy the highest profile manager/head coach available once, that is, they’ve sacked Steve Bruce. That sacking will cost them around £8 million, chump change in Saudi terms.
5 minutes drilling lol
As long as they leave our lad alone 😉
Arsenal Women keep up the winning run in the WSL beating Everton 3 – 0. 100% in the league played five, won five, goal difference +17. The Everton ‘ keeper played a blinder, she made four of five very good saves.
During this actual news drought we should congratulate Saka and Partey for their international goals .
And happy birthday Tony Adams and Charlie George.
Potter I’m all in favour of your @7.02 and add my best wishes to your @9.46.
First Jack and now the Ox being touted for return , this suggests that if there’s any truth in it that Xhaka’s timeline for return is a little more protracted than first thought.
As the Acon looms over the horizon we are just 1 more injury to say AMN or Lokonga and we are in major problems .
The deal being mentioned for the Ox is 6 months loan with a permanent deal on the table should it work out . I would not be surprised to see a similar arrangement for Jack and let them share the substitute role between them.
There I was writing about Oxlade-Chamberlain and you’ve beaten me to it. 😆
New post up now