Morning all.
Short and sweet today, a bit like me….. Quieten down now!
The under 23’s played last night and according to reports, the scouts from Germany were out in full force. Well, the Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund ones. They’re looking at our youth players in a way Arsene Wenger’s used to spy on youngsters across Europe. Looking for another Sancho perhaps. Another Nelson, both who have been doing pretty well in Germany.
Unlucky for them though, our under 23’s didn’t have a particularly good game according to reports so those scouts might have felt as if their trip was wasted. No, they’ll be back I’m sure, and soon. And often. They’ll be planning for the summer transfer window…
Because of the way Arsenal are run, spending hundreds of millions isn’t going to happen. We don’t have a superstar in the squad who’ll make us £150m overnight, in fact only selling Guendouzi, Iwobi, Torriera or Bellerin from the first team would make us a profit and we don’t want to be doing that. Do we? I don’t think so.
We could cut our losses on the likes of Aubameyang, Ozil, Mustafi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Kolasinac perhaps but apart from getting their wages off the books, we’re not going boost our transfer kitty. Not by much anyway but if Monchi does arrive at the end of the season, he’ll do so with a reputation of mak8ng a little money go a long way.
So how else can the club make money to invest in the squad? Sell the youngsters, most of whom didn’t cost us a penny to sign and not vast amounts in wages either. What does the club do if Hoffenheim or another German club offer £35m plus for Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Willock, Saka, AMN’s? Or similar amounts of money for our other upcoming bright youngsters? Keep the best and sell the rest or just take the money?
Or tell these overseas clubs to take a long run off a short pier? Tell them our younger players are not for sale at any cost because they are our future? Send a message to those young men who grew up with Arsenal that they are wanted, needed and believed in?
Wouldn’t you rather see an Arsenal man in Arsenal colours than a player signed from another country? A player who knows little about the club, it’s fans, the meaning of the NLD, or why 1971, 1989, 1991, 1998, 2002 and 2004 were special years for the fans of today…
See you in the comments with your answers….
Are we now Southampton version 2?
Bloody hell lol
Rico, good post and thought provoking, as well as relevant, but how disaooonting it’d be if we did well any of these guns.
Morning all.
Thanks Scott.. as Kev said overnight, it’s what other clubs are doing. Just hope we keep the best
We must, Rico.
If we don’t, we really will sink to a mid-table club.
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico, yes a very thought provoking post, but it’s maybe a glimpse of where we are heading, the days of developing a squad based around players who have come through our academy last happened under George Graham, so this isn’t a new thing. What might be new is selling our best young players to finance the improvement of our squad in other areas.
It wouldn’t happen if David Dein was still around!
Morning all.
Good ‘short and sweet’ Rico!
It seems we have a number of very promising youngsters. The real question is how many can we keep knowing that they will make the grade and become outstanding Premier League footballers? Will it be one or two, half a dozen maybe? Can we afford to wait for them to mature and develop or will the need and greed for more immediate cash see most of them sold for mega bucks? That scenario may please the arsenal money men but it won’t necessarily improve our status as a football club on the field of play. From 2006 we became a ‘selling club’ any player was available ‘at the right price’ or Cesc at his bargain basement price by special negotiation of old mother Wenger, whom he felt he owed the general an easy way out of the club, so he he could return to his alma mater. Didn’t really work out in the end, did it?
I know we can’t keep all the young hopefuls but let’s just hope we keep the best of them. Perhaps they could become the ‘class of 2020’😀
Blue sky and fluffy clouds here today. Another cheerful spring day.
I’m in agreement Scott.
Morning Kev, it’ll be a sad day if we do go down that route. If we sell the likes of Nelson, Willock, Saka, Smith-Rowe etc, then what’s the point really? I know not all will make it, but give me a team with 50% of academy boys over the likes of Ozil, Auba etcec, any day of the week.
Ditto Wavy…
Bringing through your own creates a special bond between players and fans. How manymake it no-one knows but they do get a degree of license over someone that costs 20million pounds
Rico, good one. Much like Arsenal, how are we sure that the contracts of these boys are secured to put us in the driving seat of negotiations. I think Emery and the club hierarchy are under pressure to achieve results and this will reduce the opportunities given to these boys, and this may lead to frustration.
On the other hand, the number of ageing players in Arsenal is a challenge to them to up their game. As is usually the case we keep the very outstanding ones.
Short & sweet, dream on rico, you should be sat in front of our defence, the guard dog at the gates, we wouldn’t leak half the goals lol.
😂 Micko, so far from the truth though, honest. Ask Kav, Adam or Lee… lol
Thanks Daniel. Yep, they’re doing exactly what we’ve criticised Wenger and Gazidis for not doing.
New post up now