Book Review – Queen of Clubs by James Durose-Rayner
Aug 23rd, 2017 by 'holic
You may recall the first two books by the same author, I Am Sam and ITV7, which were reviewed here on release. Researching for the final part of the trilogy unearthed so much material about the Arsenal, particularly in the era in which I was supporting the Gunners home and away every week that the result was a work that had to be split into two parts.
If you read the first two books then you will be familiar with the rather enjoyable fusion of fact and fiction. At this point I should declare an interest as one of the very minor characters. Don’t let that put you off! In fact if you are familiar with Arsenal social media you may well recognise a number of familiar names. A clever touch that and clearly James is a salesman as well as an author.
The main fictional character remains Lee Janes around whom the tales of his business successes, his complicated relationships, and his not-all-fictional colleagues are woven. As ever his work brings him into contact with an interesting Arsenal character. Alan Hudson has contributed a lot to this tale and the revelations about the club at the time, warts and all, make for gripping reading, unless you are Terry Neill!
Janes and wife Emily’s lives have developed in the trilogy and her’s is a prominent role in the fictional tale. Lee’s character has moved on over the trilogy too and he is a less flawed diamond in this tale, but I suspect on an Arsenal blog you are more interested in the real-life goings on at the Arsenal in the seventies.
I don’t want to give too much away Because then you will have an excuse not to buy the books! The main Gunners thread is obviously Huddy’s brief but memorable spell at Highbury, and the deterioration in the relationship between the player and the manager who signed him. Read Alan’s side of a very highly publicised tour of Australia at the end of his first season which ended with him and Malcolm Macdonald being sent home early.
That isn’t the only period covered though and older readers may notice some of the flashbacks to the sixties in the book which supplements and adds to the content in the first two tomes. The tales of who we signed, or nearly signed, will raise a smile or two, I’m sure.
Certainly if you enjoyed the first two books then you really do need to buy these to complete Lee’s remarkable rise, and bone up on the bits of Arsenal that you may or may not have heard in years past. The two parts of Queen of Clubs are fairly weighty. To give you an idea I would typically speed read a book in between thirty minutes and an hour. It took nearly three to digest these.
You will see the Amazon ads in the sidebar of this block (assuming you are not running ad-blocking software) and if you could make your purchase via those I might one day reach the required number of sales to actually get some money back from them. I should have sought James advice as he is clearly a better salesman than I.
Enjoy the books. I certainly did, although I have good reason to be biased.
153 Responses to “Book Review – Queen of Clubs by James Durose-Rayner”
Thirst!
Sounds a very interesting read.
Off to Amazon to order the first volume.
Second to the great Bath. I’ll take that any day of the week.
Does the book contain an instructional piece on how one should conduct oneself in the frightfully obscene transfer market? For a number of years we seem to have been from frightfully out of our depth?
What is does contain is a litany of deals we failed to get over the line for one reason or another. Slim Jim Baxter for example, who bath will nee very familiar with.
We had agreed the fee for Peter Reid but he asked for £1200/week and we sent him back.
Lots of those in the book/s.
Do you recommend starting with I am Sam or jumping straight into the latest volume? It sounds like our inability to get deals over the line is endemic rather than simply dithering by M. Wenger.
(I do indeed remember Slim Jim Baxter, especially his cheeky sitting down on the ball in the ’67 victory over the World Champions at Wembley when the English midfielders stood off himbecaise he had been taunting them with that sweet left foot).
You will forgive me H but I am Sam sounds like something written by Dr
Seuss???
Green eggs and ham? Something new for the Spuds to blame when they totally blow this Wembley campaign.
You will shortly have mail, bath.
Looks an interesting read. I’m currently reading The Secret Footballer: Access All Areas. In it he gives a caustic insider view of each PL club. He loves Wenger though, considers him a genius and says he will build one last great side.
The man’s an idiot ?
This is the third book in a trilogy? But in two books. Doesn’t that make it a quadlogy (or whatever)?
Looks like a must read for me. If only for the Australian tour part, which I observed first hand and have several times mentioned in this blog – especially about the blood running in the bleachers in Sydney. What it was all about onfield would be interesting to know.
Also, ditto bath’s question about reading the tri/quad/logy in sequence.
使振奋 使精神振作 感到振奋
or
高兴起来
Cheer up yourself Yella fella 😉
A short history of the results of Arsenal v Doncaster Rovers, our opponents in the League Cup.
We’ve played them eight times, four times in the old Division 2 between 1901 and 1903 (won 3, lost 1 to the only goal conceded in those four games).
Since then there has been a FA Cup tie in 1953, won 4-0, and a second round League Cup tie in 1987 (when the games were played over two legs), won 4-0 on aggregate, and a fifth round tie in 2005, won 3-1 on penalties after the scores had been level at 1-1 after 90 minutes and 2-2 after 120 mins, Gilberto getting the equalizer at the death.
Chris, my personal view is that you probably don’t need to have read them in order if your focus is on the Arsenal info contained therein.
Given that Star Wars films went to and fro and yet made sense I think the same might apply to these books.
Thanks ‘holic.
I shall be looking at these with interest. The Hudson/ Brady axis was very brief but produced some wonderful football and I imagine some of the stories about Terry might not be too flattering .
Alan Hudson was a contemporary of mine in South London and I had a friend who went to school with him. He was a wonderful footballer whose debut for England against the world champions I saw at Wembley. He ran the game – and ended up with very few caps! I think his life off the field was ‘colourful’. My mate told me of his drinking exploits and they rival Ray Parlour’s!
How different in terms of revelations that era was. So little news crept out of the club. Social media has led to a facile industry that serves to inflame our passions and certainly makes Arsenal transfer windows almost impossible to bear, although that’s just not the fault of the social media!
I will let the dust settle after the window but I feel a sense that we have all been conned by the club. There has been no change at the club and the window looks like being another inadequate one, just like umpteen others. I think I will immerse myself in an era which was no more successful but much more fun!
Arseblog spot on today re Ozil. Must have read my post in the previous drinks.
@16 B’OB
Thanks, went and read it and
completely agreed.
Kos and Sanchez back as expected
according to the team news in the
presser.
Lemar deal is deader than a very
dead thing according to AW.
Some other waffle too.
AW didn’t seem 100% about
starting Alexis but after our
attacking performance at Stoke
I hope he’ll come straight in.
TTG
Don’t despair,still a week to go before window closes,keep the faith.
Barack,
We are in the minority re Mesut,but none so blind as those that cannot see,or more wilfully, don’t want to see.
Usually dont like what Arseblog write except when Tim comes over with his article but this time spot on regarding Mesut. We need a scapegoat and Mesut is willingly the one named and shamed.
Pool will start the same way as they did yday or they do when they play us recently. Are we up for the tempo? do we have the defensive strength to defend and then pass the ball quickly for the counter? Are xhaka and specifically Ramsey defensive enough to track back and not be out of position? for starters can we have Arsene start with proper defenders playing at their natural positions? Anfield hasnt been kind to us recently and if we go unprepared, another rollicking wont be too far away. Now where is the CM and CB?
Now that was a bonkers press conference seems Mustafi maybe on his way too, In which case we would be left with Kos who suffers with re occurring Achilles problems, BFG who’s retiring at the seasons end and two English centrehalfs who for one reason or another are out of contention – All very strange, Maybe Bouldys making a comeback ?
Here’s one for the Monks Ned
Last Saturday,Bradford of League 1, played at home to a crowd of 21,400.
Which was bigger than 3 PL sides in Swansea,Burnley and Bournemouth.
Has this happened before in the history of EPL.??
League games only of course.
I’m curious to see who we play
in midfield against Pool. It’d be
ballsy to stick with Xhaka /
Ramsey.
Looking forward to seeing Alexis,
Ozil and Laca up front.
Of course @ 21, Mustafi “hasn’t bonded” and was really mean and nasty in his early months, had the cheek to shout at midfielders and team-mates when they were out of position during his and the club’s long unbeaten run before Christmas. Probably made the odd suggestion to Wenger also. Has to go. Unbelievable if true but you’re correct, Wenger refused to deny today.
On Sanchez, big change of tone with creeping resignation one could say ; “but we just want to focus as a team and not look too much at the individual conditions of the contracts” (you don’t say ?), “I had to deal many times in my life with big departures, big players. I always focused more on the team and to deal with all the rest. No matter what, Arsenal and the team is important. Of course you want to keep your best players but you always think if it happens you have to find a way to survive at the top level and to find a way to make the team efficient. You don’t focus too much on individual players”. Look, maybe there’s a hooky, rinky dinky deal going on with Sanchez and he stays a few more months with an escape clause at XMas (he won’t be cup tied for latter CL stages) but either way, it’s over with him. On Ox, well, what could he say, he’s off by the looks of things. Gird yourself for the worst Gooners, he’s taken everybody in for 3 months waffling on and pretending he would buy Mbappe (what a fraudulent joke that was). What is going to create anarchy here of course is we are looking at a surplus on net spend. But on the wages side it’s hard to know. The dross was so overpaid and with guys like Gibbs, Campbell, Jenks, Deboosh, even Ospina and Wilshere, refusing to move for actual transfer fees, any savings we’re making from selling players on will be wiped out as guys come back from loan and Ozil gets his big rise. All in all, I do have some admiration for just how sneaky and manipulative Wenger has been in managing the fans and media over the summer. He fooled many into thinking he would relaunch and come back stronger when, in fact, he knows last season holed us below the waterline and we are merely in containment mode as stars look to exit and the long term financial position of the club gets badly compromised here (hence the strategy of zero net spend on transfers ?). In a way he’s doing what he’s always done during Act 2 of his career, playing the businessman. If he lets 2 or 3 stars go for zero next season we’ll sadly know he has lost the plot off as well as on the pitch. Even Stan may take a passing interest then, for once.
Wow!
On another note, Jon Total has just signed permanently for Hull City. Really had very high hopes for him here.
Wish him the best of luck.
Toral, that is. Darned spill chucker.
I did too SG, looked a good
player. Anyway, good luck to
him.
Total Jon would be a good name!
“Total Eclipse” too!
The saddest part of all this is that fans are now openly mocking a Man that’s done so much good for the Club, All the While Gazidis and Kroenke get away almost Scott free.
? ? ? Scgooner!
Another inevitably over-inflated, last-minute.com, period of panic buying is coming up over the next 7 days from Mr. Wenger! That’ll be immediately after Jurgen Klopp’s “Gegenpressing” charges have torn him and his “square-pegs in round-holes” style of coaching and man-management, yet another new one on Sunday afternoon! It’s gonna be compelling watching Alexis’, Ozil’s and Ox’s body language over those 90+ minutes up at Anfield!
The first ever fiscal-deficit, without the usual dividends, is indeed coming up for Stan “the-Money-Man” Kroenke to have to “suck-up” after this transfer window closes, if he does indeed actually back Arsene’s quite deluded claims of “those soon to be out of contract players, won’t be sold this summer, and they’ll just have to honour their current contracts no matter what happens”. And that hit on Kroenke’s pocket, will be further compounded if the still large and over-paid surplus-to-requirements bunch of bench-sitting Squadies continue to remain and are reluctant to leave the opulent and un-demanding Socialist gravy-train surroundings of London Colney. You can’t really blame ’em can ya?! Don’t you think so too, Le Prof? After all, you created that environment and persona for them all?!
If it does all start to go quite “Pete Tong” very quickly Arsene, and that’s after you just got a spanking new two year extension in your contract against the advice of many who actually do wish you well, please can you start to now take heed with humility both on and off the pitch, as to exactly what is starting to happen. You may not even get the chance to complete that whole two years that you’ve just been given with that perennial £150+ million War-Chest we always hear about season after season to protect you; because this time, that “money in the bank” may well be completely wiped-out in one svelte swoop by a Neymer-esque transfer-fee feck-up in your COO activities, and that’s without a Neymar or even a Sanchez or Ozil as an asset to show for it?! I can’t see the Owner nor the Board being too happy about that for all that long, and especially when your one and only saving-grave for your many years, Champions League Football, now looks like it’s gone under you, and is even more further off this season than it was last season with now at least 6 teams being arguably better than the one you’ve assembled and been tasked and entrusted with to try to compete for the title this term, nevermind even think about getting back into the Champions League! Hmmm. The toughest challenges towards your contemporary and “re-invented” Head-Coaching & Man-Management credentials, have well and truly now come! ? Yikes!!! ?
UTAAD&AN!
AFCOF!
Fuck me.
Quite fancy us to nick the 3 points
at Liverpool myself and am looking
forward to the game. But each to
their own of course.
Looking forwards, backwards and sideways!
Dapper DanC
The sad thing is the season hasn’t really started yet and we are already having same old tune playing from those loudspeakers!
God is sounds so familiar :O !
UTA!
ATG,
The big difference this season is that we may not have that luxury that always comes with Arsene Wenger at the end of every season when we can say that “no matter what happens, we’ve still got plenty of money in the bank to spend”. That’ll pretty much all be wiped out with a big loss of our players’-asset value, unless Sanchez, Ozil and Ox sign new deals, or they are sold this summer and are replaced with equivalent new quality that is ideally cheaper. However, just how much of a discount will their “one year left in their contract” prices be? That’s gonna be a painful hit for Arsene, Gazidas and Kroenke. Additionally, there’s no Champions League windfall to add-in this year towards the War-Chest. So what’ll be left come the end of this Transfer window and the next by next summer, when at least three valuable freebies go whilst several invaluables just won’t leave for less money, is any one’s guess?! It’ll be alot less than £150 million I’ll take a guess at?! If no player sales or salary-assisting loans are secured this summer for the expensive surplus to requirements, we’ll have alot of “Winston Bogarde’s” in and around London Colney till their contracts also run down towards freebies too! Compelling stuff for Arsene to have to deal with both on and off the pitch. And his fiscal and monetary credentials are now also going to be under examination too, just as much as his footballing ones! Strewth mate!!! ?
When most fans were protesting last season for Wenger to leave/retire/resign, heck do whatever. Other fans were getting mad for anyone to even suggest that it was time for a change. Hmmm.. two games in and it feels like were are already half way through the season. Funny shit, This team is good enough to win the League, the manager is most definitely not good enough to win it. Keep counting with me. 14 years, no league title. Why not give him a five year contract and be done with this two years installments nonsense. What a joke of a manager always making excuses.
@33
Ah….but not onwards and upwards
then?
it appears ‘holic has incentivised the drinks
with a radical new paid by the word system
a bold move by the master tactician
but remember ‘hol
when yer writing the cheques
music is the space between the notes
.
.
pints o’ heavy all round
“ommmmm”
Harsh CBA, I invented a second paragraph especially for you. Completely broke my stride, mid Joycean flow. Took me ages to start spewing bile again. COYG.
?
Who did we draw in the CL group stage? Oh, right…
CL group stage?
Maribor tottenham Qarabag Apoel…wild bunch
@37,
Not with this COO!
CBA,
Where’s my cheque ya nutter? ??
Excellent article from Tim Stillman this week looking at the Ramsey or Ozil conundrum. We need more of this quality of debate from other blogs and less of the ‘ Wenger is an old cunt’ garbage.
I await positive news from the transfer market after today’s presser. One could query why we are the only club who can’t persuade Monaco to sell their players or Lemar really is seen as the foundation of their team.
It was tough to see the first CL for almost twenty years without us take place today. United must have bribed UEFA to get that draw but the Totts are going to have to play incredibly well to get through that group so we could meet them in the Europey League after all.
Big week for the club which will tell us a lot about not only our prospects but whether Arsene has really got a plan. Someone at the club really needs to have one
Wasn’t the plan to mooch around Monaco with Ivan in June and … that was it wasn’t it?
Clive@22: On Jan 26, 1993 (a Tuesday), the Premiership fixture between Wimbledon and Everton drew a crowd of 3,039. The same evening, in Division 1, Notts County v Tranmere Rovers and Grimsby Town v Swindon drew crowds of 5,642 and 5,207, respectively.
If you are really going to build your team around the likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain in the next few years, shouldn’t you be picking him in the position best suited to him rather than adding him to a team in any old position just so he’s in it?
What a pile of horse feathers.
Sell.
Nutshell, TTG.
I do suspect that Sanchez and AOC are history and probably this summer despite the PR consequences.
The critical question is with whom we will replace them. Better to do that with some extra cash in our pocket this summer, even with the inflated prices and sellers’ market than when we have major holes to fill without any extra cash.
Random fact on league attendances, of the 10 highest attendances at Football League games, half involved Arsenal: v Man U in 1948 (att: 83,260); v Chelsea in 1935 (82,905); v Man City 1935 (79,491); v Chelsea 1937 (75,952); and v Man City 1937 (74,918). All away games.
Clive@22: The previous weekend, (Aug 12) Leeds v Preston North End in the Championship drew a bigger crowd than any of these Premiership games: Watford v Liverpool, Palace v Huddersfield, Southampton v Swansea, WBA v Bournemouth and Brighton v Man City.
many thnks for the info Ned.
What was of more interest to me was that a club like Bradford,with no disrespect to them,could pull a crowd of 21,000 in League 1.
I can only think Of Sheff Wed when they were in that division,who regularly had big attendances who are comparable.
Kudos to them,they must be doing something right.
I note that a few of the inmates from the asylum have been given a day out at the seaside,they must have found their way to a beach side cafe with free wifi.
According to reports,there has been a marked increase in customers dropping off knives to be sharpened at their local hardware stores.
The customers were all wearing some item of apparel that featured a logo in red with a cannon on it.
?
Arsene Wenger circa Season 2017-2018….
AOC is gone. It seems he’s had his head turned by the chavs.
The lad reportedly turned down 180 grand a week to extend his contract. If true, then he should be sold with alacrity.
Especially if the chavs offer £40m as is being touted.
If we are that desperate to keep AOC it is surprising but we’ve got to either keep him or sell him tomorrow. If we end up doing a Monaco and sell Sanchez , Ox and Mustafi this window we had better have replacements lined up. I can’t believe Sanchez will go now and I don’t rate Mustafi so I hope we are looking at Van Dijk or the equivalent. As for Ox I wouldn’t mind seeing Nelson step up.He’s very talented and although we mustn’t push him too quickly it sends out a message to young talent about where they can play. Ox will spend a lot of the season injured even at a club who train people properly and there comes a time when you have to say enough is enough . But it’s not usually with a week of the window to go.
And Ox won’t play for Chelsea in centre midfield. He probably just wants a change of manager….every season.
wow you people are serious
and i mean Elliott Gould serious
Sell Ox if he wants more cash than Feo and give Alexis whatever he wants to stay on. Ozil will then re-sign at a reasonable price with add-ons in order to stay beyond this last year of his current deal in order to be playmaker to an exciting Alexis, Lacazza and A-nother “quality-signing” up-front such as Riyad Mahrez if the Lemar deal is indeed “dead” as Arsene Wenger says. Also sell Welbeck and Wilshere too if you want but if you can’t get them out, put ’em out on loan. They’ll take it as they’ll want regular playing time in order to have a guaranteed chance of getting into the England squad for the World Cup in Russia next summer. All the English lads will be wanting regular football, including Ox, and in their preferred positions rather than some manufactured or mongrelised ones Whatever else you do Arsene, you must get that Central Defender that you should have bought some years back straight out of Celtic (that’s Virgil Van Dijk) when he wanted to leave Scotland. How the hell did you let him go to Southampton? It was a no-brainer then and it’s still a no-brainer now. ?
Play either Elneny and/or Le Coq as your proper deep-sitting DMs at all times from now onwards, and with strict instructions to “just stay the fuck put there in front of the back 3/4 at all times”. If they don’t listen to you, get ’em off the park pronto, drop ’em for the next match and discipline ’em hard and proper! No more pussyfooting about! Your £35 million Xhaka-man is not a deep-sitting or holding DM, so stop trying to fob yourself and us off with that. He’s currently just a poor-man’s Andrea Pirilo, but he may become a rich-man’s one if he somehow gets some proper mobility and guile in those legs and body of his.
Do all of this Arsene and then maybe, just maybe, you won’t continue to come across already this term to so many of us as if you’re someone on the verge of totally losing the plot, and that you’ve turned yourself into some has-been parody ? character of your former great ?? self.
Oh and one final thing, keep Mustafi! You can’t afford to lose any of your proven winners and no-nonsense “fuck-off-ya-cunt” defenders and characters in the dressing room and in your match-day squads. Wise & Man-up Arsene! Wise and Man the fuck-up for fuck’s sake if you don’t want the fanbase to become ever so quickly what it was for much is last season. No one at all who loves our Club, wants that to happen to you! ?
UTAAD&AN!
AFCOF!
If you need further evidence of AW’s declining faculties, offering Ox £180k a week will be hard to beat! If he can get that they’ll all be demanding the same, or more.
Agree re Mustafi, Dapper D, he was a World Cup winner with the world’s best team ffs. AW/Bouldie should look deeper for the talent the guy obviously has and employ it properly as his former managers must have done.
What a fucking mess with just days to go. It’s going to be a long season.
another long season…
Let’s hope it ends with silverware
again.
The good news is the transfer
window may end earlier next
season so the over-reaction to
every press rumour can be got
over with before the season starts.
? ??? The window’ll never end early next season if the rest of Europe doesn’t follow suit too. They’re not going to! Brexit isn’t going to work there either buddy!
The EPL big players’ heads will still always be turned by the Spanish, German, Italian and French money-bags big boys who’ll still be able to come a callin’ till the end of August from their UK pretenders! So you can put that one to bed too! ?
Deary me 🙁
The glass isn’t even half-empty is it.
Fuck the rest of Europe 🙂
Fuck the press 🙂
I may not agree with some of the decisions made
but let’s just make them and go for it. If it fails, it
fails. One thing about football in its current state
is that we can just try again as the rich will just get richer.
That may be morally bankrupt but that’s football for you.
If Stan isn’t happy he can sell, and there’ll be no shortage
of corrupt rich blokes ready to buy. Standing on the outside
pissing in after any defeat or perceived transfer failure is just
sound and fury. As that great philosopher Heaven 17 once
sang “the strong are sometimes wrong but the weak are
never free”.
Or as the immortal Procol Harum put it:
Psychiatrists and Lawyers destroying mankind
Drivin’ ’em crazy and stealing ’em blind
Bankers and Brokers ruling the world
Storing the silver and hoarding the gold
Ain’t no use in preachers preaching
When they don’t know what they’re teaching
The weakest man be strong as Samson
When you’re being held to ransom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOmjp7TlER8
A cracker Chris.
Not much changed in 40 odd years has it.
We’re better at pretending to be nice perhaps.
Gary Brooker gets my vote as the best singer of his generation, Matt. And it was some generation! One of my favourite songs of all time too.
Clive@55: You are right about Sheffield Wednesday. Its League One game against Bristol City on 7 May 2005 drew 28,798. In the Premiership that day, Blackburn v Fulham, Palace v Southampton, Norwich v Birmingham and Portsmouth v Bolton all played to smaller crowds.
Incidentally, Bradford pulled 20,000+ for their first home game this season, too.
I was only 10 then and as I remember
(vaguely) Seasons in the Sun and
Space Oddity (blushes) were my
favourite songs at the time so I’ll take
your word for it.
”Tis a good song !
Chris, for you:
Gary Brooker singing Whiter Shade of Pale with Danish National Concert Orchestra and choir in 2006:
https://youtu.be/075YC2aPuEA
Still had it.
Away on holiday in France with crap Wifi so only just catching up. 6 days left in the window and it’s a right old mess. I can’t honestly believe that we will get to 1st September with several players with not only 9 months left on their contracts, but also with no hint of an inclination that they have any intention of signing a new one? Again it just smacks of major mismanagement to me. These should have been sorted months ago and out focus should now be about securing those final signings that actually take us forward?
The situation just seems totally ridiculous to me.
Ned, please help me out here? How many players do we have in the final year of their contracts???
happy holibobs steve
?
où est la bibliothèque?
Thanks for #73 Ned. Wow, you’re right, he’s still got it. I hadn’t seen that version before and it’s fantastic. Several others from the same concert also, including my other favourite PH track A Salty Dog. Top quality video.
Here’s the original symphonic version of Salty with the Edmonton Symphony, from a ‘Live, with the Edmonton Symphony’ album c1972 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmYnRDbTfPc
I knew Brooker for a while during one of his ‘retirements’. He owned a marina near where I lived in Sydney. I hired him for a couple of gigs performing solo with piano accompanied by original PH tapes. He wasn’t a happy man at that time, but apparently emerged recuperated and invigorated … witness your Danish concert.
ah yes
the edmonton symphony orchestra
saw them at the stoke newington proms
their re-imagining of ‘Gertcha’
TRIUMPHANT !
SSY
I think several of us are serious because we gave the club a serious amount of money hoping that they wouldn’t make another Horlick of the window. We never learn!
Steve T is spot on as ever. This is developing as a major cock-up . Surely there must be a silver lining????
‘horlick of the window’
?
what a terrific line
.
*genuflects*
Fracking Hell! Squillions of Squids in the bank and on the pitch down the Fracker?! ?
Alexis Sanchez will leave – ‘speculation’.
Ox has already refused to sign the contract on the table – ‘speculation’.
Mustafi is going to be sold – ‘speculation’.
All the speculation caused by putting 2 and 2 together – trying to read between the lines of what Wenger said at the presser yesterday.
It is amazing that so much negativity is in the air in the drinks purely based on speculation and nothing concrete. I also wonder why everyone who always wanted Wenger to spend and not behave as if it is his own money are now concocting financial loss figures of 150mill(wonder how that has been calculated anyway) if we let Alexis, Mesut and Ox go on a free transfer next summer. Frankly the club have made very good profits in recent history and if they were to take a few losses by prioritizing the sporting side then so be it. As a fan – what bothers me more is the happenings on the pitch than on the balance sheet. Also if one goes by the earnings Man Utd made by winning the Europa League last season indicates that the coffers would be filled again if we do well in that competition. So if we are keeping the three without them signing new contracts then so be it. Since there are no effective replacements especially in the case of Alexis and Ozil it makes even more sense to keep them for this season. The case for Ox is different and that is why his story is the one gaining more prominence and his contract is the one that is being dealt with more urgently. Out of those three, the Ox is the only one who can be replaced by someone like a Mahrez readily available in the market and if he doesn’t sign an extension, that transfer could very well happen.
All of this is not to say that our transfer window has been great – far from it. The most gaping hole in the squad remains the central midfield. I do not share the pessimism a lot of drinkers have for the Xhaka-Ramsey duo. Tim Stillman did a very good analysis of how Ramsey bombs forward in second halves of games under instruction. If we do have the lead games however I don’t think he would be doing that. The same midfield combo with a back three system paid rich dividends towards the end of last season – most notably in the FA Cup semis and finals against City & Chelsea respectively. It is the back up to this duo that is weak. Elneny whilst being energetic and earnest is a limited player and doesn’t bring the attacking threat that Ramsey does. Coquelin has never dove-tailed well either with Xhaka or Ramsey. So in case of either Xhaka or Ramsey unavailable we are going to be short in midfield. We need to sign a player who can challenge those two for a starting spot. As much as I would like for Wilshere to play a part in this season and Santi – I am not too hopeful of either.
So in a nutshell if we get that central midfielder and hold on to Alexis, Ozil and OX for this season (or replace Ox) – it would make us a far better squad than last season with three good additions. If we fail to do so then our squad would be weaker in obvious areas and thereby meaning a transfer window badly dealt with. I would wait until the end of the window to judge though.
Here you go Steve T:
Contracts expire June 2018
Matt Macey
Per Mertesacker
Mesut Ozil
Keiran Gibbs
Joel Campbell
Alexis Sanchez
Jack Wilshere
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Santi Cazorla
Contracts expire June 2019:
Mathieu Debuchy
Theo Walcott
David Ospina
Danny Welbeck
Chuba Akpom
Petr Cech
Nacho Monreal
Oliver Giroud
Aaron Ramsey
Designer, in fact the 150 mill is an under-estimate of the loss/depreciation. If we hadn’t been losing to WBA, Watford, Palace and the like, nor getting hammered 10-2 by Bayern at the critical time last season 15-18 months out from expiry, all three long term contracts would have been renewed and one would value Sanchez at 120 mill, Ozil at 70 mill and Ox at 50 mill. Let’s call that 240 mill on the balance sheet you think doesn’t matter very much (try telling that to Leeds or Portsmouth fans). I admire the zen-like serenity you, Goonersince54 and others display here as we head into probably the club’s most important week for twenty odd years. These few days are the timeline when we either retain key players or we become a club where top players leave and new ones won’t join. It’s quite terrifying to this Gooner and I will also need to be persuaded that if Sanchez is still here it isn’t simply to grumble around the place until the turn of the year. I think Wenger is cornered here, under pressure and could therefore sanction some mad stuff over the next few days. That means mad buys as well as disappointing departures by the way. Not glass half empty, the glass is in fact already broken and incapable of water-retention. We’re dooooooomed.
@83,
So you’re actually now trying to compare Man Utd’s financial situation and travails to AFC’s under Monsier Wenger??? Is this what they mean when they say that “sycophancy has no bounds”? ?
Ok, let’s see where this goes?!
Tell me mate; just how much did that same Man Utd that you’ve referenced pay for the services of a Mr. Romelu Lukaku from an up-and-coming-Everton that’s very competently coached and man-managed by a certain Meneer Ronald Koeman?
Just how much was Barcelona willing to pay Liverpool for Phillipe Coutinho, nevermind what Man City is now allegedly “speculating” on paying AFC for a near out of contract World Class striker (yet again after Robin Van Persie) called Alexis Sanchez?
How much is a “defender” called Virgil Van Dijk apparently worth as of the now to any club that may want his services from Southampton? He’s a defender remember, and not some multi-scoring and multi-assisting striker that’s already proven within the English Premier League like a certain Mr Alexis Sanchez?
How much are Barcelona about to pay for Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund to try to replace the £198+ million World-Clalss Striker called Neymar that went to PSG?
How much are Chelsea allegedly willing to pay for a certain Alex Oxalade Chamberlain?
I’ll leave you to try to “speculate” on a figure of your own for a soon to be out of contract Mesut Ozil that was bought for over £42?!
Now, add up all of the numbers you get, one is freely permitted to speculate on such things in this drinking place, and then try to put it all towards any new “replacements” that you think your Demagogue will be able to convince to come to join him in less than 7 days to try to build a team which he can somehow find a way to coach to get him to challenge back towards his and the Owner’s “Holy-grail” called the UEFA Champions League? Or shall we just wait for him to panic sign more “average” players at a premium, and also once again proceed to throw their re-sale value down the toilet as he yet again stunts or destroys their base talent and subsequent careers (e.g. Debuchy, Gnabry, Joel Campbell, Callum Chambers, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxalade Chamberlain, etc)?! “desi-gner” gooner you call yourself eh?! Might is be “del-uded” gooner more like?!
Just in from the “Big-Bucks” Europa League for you: Bate Borosov, Cologne of another former player that was “Wengered” by Arsene’s coaching and man-management (i.e. Lucas Podolski) and Red Star Belgrade! ? ?
Arsenal Football Club Only Forever! Not Arsene Wenger Forever!
Up The Arse All Day & All Night!
I say sell the OX he’s not Sanchez nor Ozil and if he thinks he can hold the club to ransom then it’s even more of a reason to off load him and cash in. Let’s face it he better than a squad player and I do rate him, however if Wenger is trying to please him and build his team around him then something is definitely not right at the club. If he’s being picky let him go and sign Marez!
@ 86 all what you said and then some more. So we are actually thinking of selling Mustafa and cant get rid of the so called deadwoods in the club How do you sell a player after just one year in the club but cant sell players that have had their chances and still cant do shit but you give them a bigger/better contract.. Who are we going to replace him with in the next six days? we should have bought Marhez months ago and sold the Ox. When even he is trying to hold the club to a ransom then you know we got bigger problems.
Belgraaaaade!
It’s gonna get Bate in Belgrade.
Better get the Cologne on for that trip! ?
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11004791/arsenal-to-tell-alex-oxlade-chamberlain-if-he-can-leave-after-he-turns-down-new-deal
Well I suppose he wants more money or purely he wants out!
Get rid off dead wood and him too!
Nice schedule for the EUROPA LEAGUE:
September 14th: Europa League matchday one
September 17th: Chelsea (A)
September 28th: Europa League matchday two
October 1st: Brighton (H)
October 19th: Europa League matchday three
October 22nd: Everton (A)
November 2nd: Europa Legue matchday four
November 3rd: Manchester City (A)
November 23rd: Europa League matchday five
November 26th: Burnley (A)
December 7th: Europa League matchday six
December 10th: Southampton (A)
Pass the Old Spice fella!
Or does that Matchday 2 followed by the Brighton OctoberFest at home call for a more manly scent? Brute – “The Mark of Man”! ?
Totally agree with designer at drinks 83. The Wenger baiters seem happy to swallow any amount of negative speculation which the media churn out every second of the day, and oh boy, don’t they just love to stick it to the Arsenal. I’ll be glad when the transfer window is closed and will get behind the team, club, and manager, as I always have. I just wish all supporters will do the same but know that no matter who we sign or sell, it will not be seen as good enough and AW will be blamed. What bugs me is that if AW had left the club in the summer, I would always be supportive of his successor and would not be harking back the whole time. Instead, I can see we are going to have two more years of constant whinging every time we get a disappointing result.
.
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/dick-gregory-quotes
.
some folks know about it, some don’t
some will learn to shout it, some won’t
but sooner or later baby, here’s a ditty
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgSgIbveiQI
Stu, I have to pick you up on the media thing. I think Wenger has got an incredibly easy ride in 2017. Never really admonished in the press for the mass deception and spoofing over his contract (“I’ll tell you in March”, “it’s not impacting the team”, etc, etc). Even recently, they have swallowed hook, line and sinker this narrative that somewhow it is a show of strength by Wenger if he forces players to run contracts down to zero. It’s true by Feb/March each year they do a fair bit of “same old, same old” but I’m constantly amazed at how fairly talented writers fail to dig a bit deeper during the rest of each year when, frankly, the writing is on the bleedin wall. Ironically it’s the Merses, Smudger Smiths and even Sheeear-errrrrs and Savages who have better insight but aren’t always very articulate about expressing it. Anyway, I’ll desist now and see where we are in a week’s time. COYG.
Bonjour CBA.
Desi and others. It has got nothing to do with beer my anti Wenger or disloyal in anyway shape or form. The club has pleaded poverty for several years now. We apparently were in a position where we HAD to sell players according to the manager. We have a squad that isn’t close enough to being good enough. Last season should tell you that. So wouldn’t the best way to strengthen the squad be to reinvest the £150 million plus that we would get for those who want our or who won’t sign a new contract? I struggle with the concept that a club with some of the best business model plans ever seen, where FFP will be our saviour, will just kiss goodbye to such a vast sum of money? If you think that’s the way forward then we will just agree to disagree.
For me, the greatest incompetence is the fact that 2 games in and with 5 days of the window remaining that we are still having the debate. This should have all been sorted by Christmas last year at the latest. Contract negotiations should have started long before then.
See the list posted by Ned at 84. I would sincerely hope that decisions are being made round about now with regards to players with contracts expiring in 2 years time. We really do not want to be faced with another shambles like we have right now.
One doubts that it will now reach two years of “constant whinging” at this rate of fiscal implosion?!
Moreover, those so-called “Wenger Baiters” would probably support, just as some say that they would without ever “harking back all of the time”, any other “new” Head-Coach & Man-Manager. As a matter of fact, isn’t that what those “Wenger Baiters” wanted, and still want even now? What is the still incumbent doing to make life alot easier for himself and his charges? ?
Ousmane Dembele – £97million to Barcelona! Bargain! ?
Scgooner@85 – I agree to the values you mentioned of the three players – had their contracts been renewed but I was questioning the 150 million figure in the present context when their contracts have not been renewed. All of those three are in the last year of their contracts and therefore our bargaining power is far less than someone like Barcelona who had 5 years to run on Neymar’s contract. Under this context the best offer we might get for Ox will be around 35million, for Ozil around 45million and Alexis around 60 million (unless a desperate buyer comes in very late in the window and bids 70million). The only clubs who will make those offers right now are our direct rivals in the league and we would definitely not be selling our best players to them. The only other clubs who can cough up that sort of money are PSG who are in for Mbappe after Neymar and not Alexis, Bayern who have already ruled out signing Alexis, Barca and Madrid. Barca and Madrid won’t be in for Alexis or Mesut for obvious reasons. So the few clubs who can bring us the supposed figure of 150million are ones who either don’t want these players or those whom we can’t sell these players because hanging on to them for one more year would be a better option than to strengthen direct rivals and weaken ourselves with players of inferior quality in the case of Mesut and Alexis.
The moment one thinks of selling any of these players to clubs beyond the ones mentioned above, the valuation of 150 million seems far fetched and that is what I was alluding to.
As to your point about us having failed to renew during last season and the corresponding wretched run of defeats, I partially agree with you. I think we should have renewed before the last season even began. At that time both players wanted a salary of 250thousand per week. I myself and many in this forum felt it was too high at the time,but now in hindsight (which is always a great thing but of no help) that number now seems a pittance. If anything this transfer window has just been absurd in terms of the very high numbers and comparisons with one or two summers ago don’t make any sense as a result.
Cent.
Bonjour.
@99,
You who’s to blame for their resale value running down to the now bargain basement prices you can also “speculate”‘on? And for two “proven” world class players too?! Please tell some us who is responsible for that, if you don’t mind, Maestro? ??
@100,
Le “Coq” Monsieur!
Dapper DanC@86,
If you had read my original post with a little bit more attention, you would have realized that I was never comparing Arsenal and Man United’s ‘financial situation’. All I wrote was that doing well in the Europa league could compensate for some of the losses we might incur incase Alexis, Ozil and Ox leave for free next summer.
Therefore the time you wasted in quoting United’s and Barcelona’s business was precisely that – Wasted.
As for the figure of 150 million that you are trumpeting – its just wishful thinking. It is a best case scenario assumption which never happens in the real world. It could happen for one player – but three players is very rare. We are in the last week of the transfer window and we have yet to receive a tabled offer for either of the three players. There might be an offer for the Ox from Chelsea soon but nothing else apart from that. This very fact should tell you that its not as simple as saying let’s just sell these three, get 150 mill and buy another three. As I mentioned in my reply to Scgooner, the probable clubs who could do that sort of business are so few and the different permutations with each one of them makes it even more difficult in the present scenario.
As for you calling me a sycophant and deluded – I thought that escalated quickly. I had just posted a rational assessment of our transfer window including the shortcomings. There was nothing about the manager in my post. But I guess its your hatred for Wenger that is making you so negative and skewed in your outlook. As I mentioned earlier, you didn’t even read my post carefully and went on and on about United’s business. And since you are going on and on about the manager, I hope you aren’t deluded enough to think that it’s Wenger alone who does every single thing regarding transfers and contracts whilst Dick and Ivan go looking for Catalysts. But actually your posts are symptomatic of what football discussions have become thanks to the media. The transfer window is now bigger than the actual game of football. So many people like yourself get their knickers in a twist at the wildest of rumors. I just wish you well…
another one for Reiss
Desi. Check out Ned above. We have 9 players on our books whose contracts expire in 9 months. A further 9 that can walk away for nothing in June 2019. It’s a total shambles that everyone on the board and in anyway involved should be ashamed of.
The focus right now is on AOC, Sanchez and Ozil. Add Jack to that list as well. Really is that the focus shouldn’t be on any of them because the situation should have been resolved last year. Because it wasn’t it’s now taking centre stage when quite simply our focus should be elsewhere.
It’s a mess.
“desi-gner” gooner,
I think that Steve T has highlighted some of it already but let me chip in with my “opinion” as you were addressing me.
On the contrary, Maestro! I’ve been reading all of your “obfuscating opinions” quite closely, in-between my theatre cases, and they still appear to be just that – “obfuscating opinions”. So, and this is with all due respect, you really do seem quite un-informed as to what is currently ongoing with Arsenal’s transfer debacle. As I referred to in one of my earlier posts, “del-uded” might actually be too sober of an ascription, and “fantastical” might actually be better of an adjective to use.
Let’s go back to some basic “Supply and Demand” Economics 101 shall we, as this is what ALL of the “Pro-Wenger Brigade” love to wax-lyrical and on about with regards to him and his Leadership of “our club’s” playing staff over the past 13+ years. It is something that Wenger has been rightfully revered for – i.e. a Fiscal and Monetary Guru – for over a decade, and whilst some of us “other” fans have become increasingly fed-up with him about it and his sacrifice of everything for it in order to balance the books.
Now, you may not be fully aware of how the football transfer market worked before the current two fixed-window system with post-Bosman behaviours and Super-Agents amok?! What do you think is a player’s approximate asset value at any one time during the term of their contract? Is their asset value higher at the start of a contract of less at the end of it? And let’s focus on those players that are proven to be “quality players” that other teams would like to have?! Why do nearly all of the professional football clubs in the world, never mind those “big buck’s” boys that you’re solely obsessed with, never allow any of their players (especially their superstars and their Worldies) to run down their contracts to less then two years before they start talks about renewing or extending them? Why do you think that even these “Super-Rich” clubs do that? And moreover, why are they so active in doing it even after just a few months never mind a year when the player’s had a good season?
Now with respect to Arsenal FC, why was that not done with those three quality players on their books, and all the others mentioned by NBN? And yes, their collective “minimum” CURRENT value of £150 million quid” (yes I’ve said it again), is me being “quite generous” to Arsene so as not to not completely destroy his demagoguery to guys like you who support him the hilt; even after he’s permitted so much money which isn’t his, to be as good as flushed down the toilet!
Regarding bringing-in those now lost Champions League big bucks by winning the Europa League like Man United did – ???? Sorry! Or, are you really being serious about this too?
@106 http://i.imgur.com/29XYmgE.gif
Of all the players listed by NBN@84, how many would any major club push the boat out to retain at the end of their contracts?
My take is as follows:
June 2018
Matt Macey – Still unproven and has to battle his way past Ryan Huddart (better prospect IMO) and Emi Martinez.
Per Mertesacker – Retiring at the end of the season
Mesut Ozil – Definitely worth keeping (may want to leave mind)
Keiran Gibbs – On his way out now
Joel Campbell – Clearly can’t cut the mustard
Alexis Sanchez – Worth keeping
Jack Wilshere – Jury is still out. Can he stay fit for a full season?
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Seems to be halfway out the door, squad player presently
Santi Cazorla – Will he ever be the same again? Besides, will be 34 in December 2018
June 2019
Mathieu Debuchy – Goner
Theo Walcott – Not touching this at all
David Ospina – At best back up to a new keeper, not sure extending is a priority
Danny Welbeck – No great loss if he leaves
Chuba Akpom – On his way out
Petr Cech – On his last legs, don’t see an extension in his future
Nacho Monreal – Will be 33 at the end of his contract
Oliver Giroud – See Nacho above
Aaron Ramsey – Definitely worth keeping
From the way I see it, the club would have no problem letting most of these contracts run their courses and rightly so.
Outside Ozil, Sanchez and Ramsey, how many listed above would be at their peak or have the potential to be world beaters in a year or two (Ox is too inconsistent to make it at the very top IMO – may be wrong though)? The rest of the guys on the list are average to crap truth be told so why bother renewing their contracts?
Sell Ox and get the best out of Sanchez and Ozil in their final year is the way to go for me but then, what do I know?
UTA
why were we chasing Lemar all these while. we knew all along that Monaco were ether going to ask for our heads or not sell at all. But we kept going with bids that we knew they were going to reject. Personally I really don’t understand all the hype anyways. We could have gone for either Draxler/Moura/Mahrez. I bet if the Ox saw any of these coming in, he wont be asking for 180plus quid/week. He is not even worth 120 quid a week. what the hell is going on?. Why do we allow players hold us to ransom? its just crazy. Sell his ass off and get someone in. 5 more days Wenger. Do your damn job.. You already secured your contract after holding the club to a fucking Ransom.
It’s about time, indeed it’s long overdue time, that we sorted out this squad. Get rid of those who don’t want to be there and those we don’t want while doing our best to refill the resultant vacancies. I share the frustrations expressed in many of the drinks above about the apparent inefficiency of the club’s dealings, the apparent sentimentality and indecision of the manager and the lack of commitment of some of our squad. It does seem a bit of a shambles. I hope that someone within the club with some authority can take the initiative and in the depressingly short time remaining sort the fucking club out.
Solid.
Out of the 18 names supplied by The Monks you have graded only 3 as worth keeping. There are a few maybes but only 3 definite. That raises two issues. If there are only 3 then why the hell have we not sorted out the contracts? It should be a surprise to no one at the club that they are about to take n out? 3??? Get them sorted. Bored with the excuses.
The second point is this. If we only definitely want to retain 3 then that says that there are 15 on that list who have either reached the end of the line or are just simply not good enough??? 15??? That’s before you add the rest of the mediocrity that still claim a wage and are just too expensive to off load.
No need to worry though. There are still 5 days left of the window and the season will only be 3 games old by the end of the weekend. Nothing like a bit of planning???
But I don’t expect it to happen. I expect several departures, few or no incomers and an attempt to make do and mend.
One further bit of news, Dot Con are reporting that yet another NBT, Jon Toral has left the club to sign a permanent deal with Hull City. We paid Jon a wage for 6 years and his claim to fame was a reasonable period on loan at Birmingham. Well done Jon and all the very best with your new challenge.
PS. There isn’t space in the car for Joel Campbell is there? I had no idea we still paid his wages. Perhaps we could go halves on the petrol?
Dapper DanC – if you think that the club wasn’t negotiating new contracts with these players since at least a year ago- then boy you really are super deluded. If the club wasn’t negotiating contract renewals with players – how on earth did Giroud and Koscielny renew theirs in the second half of last season?? The reason some players like Alexis and Mesut do not renew with Arsenal unlike your favorite super rich clubs is because unlike those clubs we have a salary structure wherein we couldn’t just throw a 150,000 raise per week in a wink. That is even more elementary than supply-demand economics. I also wish you were more informed about this stuff but nevermind.
Also since you think transfers are that easy – why did even a super rich club like Barcelona- made even richer by the sale of Neymar take so bloody long to get the Ousmane Dembele deal through?? Have they already signed Coutinho? Oh wait I thought it was as easy as buying candies from the ‘economics’ supermarket that you seem to frequent so often.
And finally in a hypothetical scenario – let’s assume that the club had actually sold all three of these players and got the 150 million. Who are the three players that you would have bought to replace them with by spending those 150 million? Who are the three players who would have made the starting eleven better than what it is with Alexis and Ozil? Who are the three players you would have bought for that money that would have made the squad better than it was last season and consequently would have bridged the gap between 4th and 1st in the league (bearing in mind the strengthening of squads by direct rivals)?
Don’t worry I don’t want you looking for answers. It is quite obvious that in the present market there simply aren’t any replacements for Alexis and Ozil. None that we can afford (I hope you don’t start naming Neymar and Mbappe). Ox can be replaced and that is what might eventually happen although we might end up spending more than what we get out of selling Ox.
To conclude – I would go back to my original point which you completely missed in your Barca-United love fest. It makes more sense to keep Mesut and Alexis for this year and risk them going for free next year. Yes we might lose some money but on the pitch we will be stronger this year and much more likely to qualify for the Champions League (via League position or europa league) which would offset the economic loss to a certain extent. If we sell those two, we would most definitely end up with young prospects(like Lemar) who would be unaccustomed to the premier league and take at least half a season to get going. Now when the league has become ultra competitive, we can almost kiss the top 4 spot goodbye if we sell those two and bring in talented promising youngsters. Much rather secure a Champions League spot and then play with youngsters next season albeit after a few losses. I know I would much rather see a starting eleven having Alexis and Ozil rather than Lemar and Seri. As for the other players in the list by Ned, Solid Gooner has already answered that in his drink @108.
But we still need a central midfielder who can challenge Ramsey and Xhaka for a starting spot. We also might need a right back if we are planning to play a back four for any considerable length of time. The failure to sign a central midfielder would leave an obvious weakness in the side.
When do we hit the panic button Bath? At what stage to we start to panic buy, and just add to the list of those that need to be sold next season?
‘desi’gner gooner,
You’ll have to excuse me if I won’t bother composing another “seemingly” utterly-lost-on-you rejoinder in response to your latest, but our exchanges have become rather tiresome and tedious to me and probably to others in the bar who appear to have “got-it”, even if you haven’t (or just don’t want to).
Please now permit me to resume my patients’ duties of a late evening, and I have a rectal examination to undertake shortly which now seems far more appealing now than it did a few minutes ago after reading more of your fiction. Godspeed to you in your pursuit of excellence Maestro! ?
Thing you most don’t want to be thinking during your rectal exam (as a patient).
“That’s not a finger, is it”
Let’s face we suck at transfers and have done so for many years now.
Unfortunately times have changed and I don’t think Wenger has with time. I have a suspicion that he still thinks he can pull out a gem out of a hat when it comes to transfers. He loves to run the show by himself perhaps he doesn’t realise it isn’t happening any more.
It all comes down to a fact that all of this now is of his own making, the way he stalled his own contract was rather pathetic. We kept getting it doesn’t affect the squad you will find out soon etc. It did affect the players it affected the whole club our shape off and on the pitch spoke volumes.
We all knew Alexis and Ozil will be tough to negotiate especially if we failed to play top flight football and we wouldn’t be surprised if those two left in the summer. Yes we took a tough stance especially on Sanchez which I thought was a really good thing by the club…However…….
So far we spent 24 million squid (less if Jon Toral has left) and if Wenger says he’s happy with this summer signings and we can challenge for trophies he’s fabricating his own beliefs. Surely he knows this squad is missing decent players and at this moment in time it’s not only that. It’s how we conduct ourselves as club we are as much to blame for player cost inflation as any other club. We need to deal with and cough up the money where it’s due. We need to move forward because it’s not going to get any better any time soon.
In terms of contracts expiring at the end of this season and next, we are in the weakest position of all the top Premiership teams. Only Man Utd is close:
Club Contract Expires June 2018/June 2019
Liverpool 1/9
Tottenham 1/2
Man City 2/5
Chelsea 5/9
Man U 9/8
Arsenal 9/9
Some others:
Barcelona 2(but including Messi)/7
PSG 3/9
Bayern Munich 7/4
Juventus 7/2
So it looks if the offer is right Kroenke will make the final call!
https://www.arsenal.com/news/i-deeply-feel-alexis-loves-be-here
Here we go again…..
Desi if you honestly think the club and manager are showing enough dynamism, nous, dexterity and creativity in and around this transfer window, well then it’s impossible to discuss it with you further. It’s high risk, smart arse, last minute, shambolic nonsense. AFC collapsed mid season last year meaning guys wouldn’t renew and many new top targets won’t join. The manager should have got his head out of the sand and his arse months ago and got busy, like Koeman and Mou did ( note the former just let go with Lukaku and Barkley, fine players though they both are). But no, he probably thought winning another of those damned, irrelevant FA Cups would fix everything. My Arse it did and now my Arse looks rightly fu*ked. The excellent info mining in here by SG, prompted by Steve T, on contract expires over the next 2 years has me even more freaked out than I already was ! We’re the next bloody Leeds ! COYG.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/08/25/arsenal-manager-arsenewenger-says-clubs-hold-aces-era-contract/
Enough said!
Anyway a drink on the bar for anyone of your choice.
Come Sunday I will be cheering on the boys as for the shape of this club I think hibernation is in order!
Steve T@111
No excuses.
Of Ozil, Sanchez and Ramsey, it would genuinely astound me if the club hasn’t tried tying down Ozil and Sanchez to new contracts sooner than now. Not that I’m ITK or anything of the sort but it would boggle the mind to think that negotiations didn’t start sometime last year. It’s worth noting that when it comes to the biggest names in a club, negotiations are always a little more tricky.
Given our history and inability to compete at the highest level in the recent past (players and trophies alike), it shouldn’t come as a surprise if those so called big names are somewhat reticent to commit to the club.
Sanchez for instance has never stayed more than 4 years at any one club and expecting him to do so at a club that supposedly doesn’t match his aspirations would be hard for any team at all.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rambo signs an extension before January.
On the others, you will agree that they are not the most sought after players in football today. That points an unwavering finger at our recruitment policy which has been a steaming pile of crap for a while.
The manner in which transfer dealings and contract negotiations have been handled leaves a lot to be desired. A total overhaul in that department is long over due. On that we agree.
Having said that, it would be wise to take the hits NOW and let go of ALL who have no business wearing the cannon on their chests. Yes we have blundered and lost our way as a club but this is the best time to sell what you can or just let those contracts run out and take it from there.
Have a great time on your holidays.
UTA
Sc Gooner
Just to reassure you. We are not the next Leeds because we are able to garner massive amounts of revenue from the machine that is the Premier League.
But I just cannot fathom how Wenger has let so many issues build up as he has. To me he has diminished in stature from the time we left Highbury and he is mismanaging tge club now whereas years ago he was smarter than anyone else. He certainly isn’t smarter now.
The big revelation from that table of clubs with players whose contracts are running down is that Tottenham have only 3 in the next two years. Their star players are tied down to cheaper contracts on long- term deals and though they pay significantly less than the other big clubs and they are building a stadium they are suffering none of the angst we did when we built our new stadium. They have a better financial model than us, a better team than us and a better future than us.And I hate them like poison.
Boy how that hurts to write but it’s true. We have an out of touch complacent Board , a desperately inappropriate owner and a manager who can’t let go and is tarnishing his legacy, a wonderful legacy at that daily. I so wish he had David Dein at his side as he did until around the time we moved stadium. Gazidis is a useless cypher full of slick sounding bollocks that is not borne out in reality.He. Outshot platitudes about change but cannot affect that change in the slightest degree,
These are sad times and I do worry for our future, beginning at Anfield on Sunday.
Went and got drunk on a Friday
night in Japan. Stumble blearily
back into the bar and find the
Torygraph liars being cited as
some kind of source of wisdom.
Deary, deary me….. 2 pints of
Old Pessimism please guvna.
Roll on the pre match preview
and a 2-1 win for The Arse
please GH.
Lively discussions! Beyond the actual game itself — and the players I love — I myself can no longer get interested enough to bother to form an opinion about the rest. I guess it’s a combination of the world we live in and I suddenly finding myself at forty to be a different person than who I thought I was… 🙂
My son has now started to be able to sit through the whole match with me on front of the TV. I love his enthusiasm when we score, and have to console him when we lose.
Traveling so will have to catch this one recorded after I return to Boston. Given current Liverpool’s high press and defensive concerns from set-pieces I hope we play organized pragmatic football and use the best aerial striker in the PL — probably in Europe now — from the beginning. A win there will lift everyone.
Matt@126
I agree completely with the scoreline prediction. It seems we play our best football with our backs to the wall.
How much sake can get a 100kg fella drunk? Asking for a friend.
A lot of interesting perspectives pitched in this drinks round, leaving me somewhat confused – or ‘Wengered’ as I like to describe it after observing our one-time maestro manager’s declining powers in recent years.
The way I look at it there’s no guarantee any kind of planning could have taken in every facet of change that’s come over football in recent years, but some seem to be reacting to it quicker than others. When I judge AW’s record in comparison to the resurrection of Liverpool under Klopp and the intelligent team-building going on down the Lane under Pochettino, I don’t see AW up with the pace.
The thought of a permanent NL power shift in particular should be nauseating to any true gooner.
…or even a semi-permanent NL power shift for that matter.
well, depends on age and
experience a bit SG.
At the top of your form I think
3 pints is doable. In your 50s
I think 2 pints would leave you
hammered and suffering the next
day. Course, they usually sell it
in small bottles for a good reason.
The resurrection of Liverpool Chris?
I’ll be klopped if I believe that 🙂
And I’ll be totally maureened if
Manure win the league. Still, best
not be a conte about my opinions,
pep talk over.
Dapper DanC@116, I fully expected you to run out of your illogical Barcelona- United comparisons so no worries. Hopefully you will come back a bit more positive after your rectal situation has improved. Get well soon.
Scgooner@121, I never said that the club are having a creative, dexterous and dynamic transfer window. What I have consistently argued is that holding on to Alexis and Ozil at the risk of losing them for free next year is our best bet on the pitch. Yes we should not have been in this situation but since we are I was putting forth what I think is our best way forward. But since all Arsenal discussions now have become so colored in pro or anti Wenger – everything gets seen through that prism. So when I write a simple post which states that our squad would have improved after this window if we hold on to Alexis & Ozil, replace Ox, add a central midfielder – it is somehow read as an endorsement of the club’s economic model and overall transfer strategy. And by the way winning the FA Cup is never irrelevant. I wonder what’s the point of watching football for people who can’t find joy in winning the FA Cup?!! Anyway to each their own.
Doctor Faustus @127, the thought of playing Giroud and Lacazette together upfront did cross my mind but we never seem to play well when we are outnumbered in midfield. It will be interesting to see which way the manager goes. Playing Giroud as the lone striker never seems to help our attacking cohesion especially if Alexis also starts alongside Giroud.
TTG@125
Exactly right in the 1st paragraph.
Desi@134
Yes, I wondered about OG too.
Laca, Alexis and OG would be
very bold but we risk being
overrun in midfield. My guess
is a more conservative 11.
Ttg@125: Excellent point about the neighbours’ foresight. Apart from the three referred to above @119 (Vorm, Vertonghen and Dembele), all the squad is signed until at least at the season after the new stadium is expected to open. Rose, Dier and Wanyama are under contract to June 2021 and Lloris, Kane and Alli until June 2022. All of which smacks of sensible planning and effective execution.
? osaka M
Ned,
Thankyou again for this info. Boy does that contrast with our chaotic situation. Given the quality of Kane, Alli, Dier and Alderweild I had expected much more pressure on them publicly to keep their top stars but when did you last hear a story like that even from the pack of sensationalist jackals who follow football nowadays?
Having said that , we have made our bed, worst of all is to maintain a stance and then lose all this talent with no time to replace it. That would make a cynic think we were strengthening the balance sheet as a priority at the expense of the team .
There are some pretty decent teams in the Europa League, even before the CL groupies parachute in — AC Milan (the bookies’ favourite), Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal, Everton, Lyon, Marseille and Lazio. Can’t be complacent if we do want to win it.
Ttg: fyi, Alderweireld’s contract, like Lamela’s, Son’s, Walker’s and Eriksen’s runs to June 2020.
The weird thing is that as much of an apple pie bed as we have made of things, with a bit of luck, particularly on the injuries front, the squad is still good enough to win silverware.
Another potential twist to the Spurs contract situation could be what happens to the Premiership’s TV rights money after the current deal expires in 2019. Will there be another silly-money rise in what Sky (or perhaps Amazon) is willing to pay, or will the silly-money have topped out? If it is the former, Spurs will be staring down the wrong end of the barrel of some potentially hugely expensive contract renewals for 2020 onwards.
I have no problem with players who only want to spend 3/4 seasons at a club. If some want to move on and head elsewhere then fine. But my point is a simple one. If that’s the case then surely we should know that way in advance? Surely again, this should form part of our planning? We are now effectively being held to ransom.
I read somewhere on line a direct quote from AW saying that hecwantvAOC to stay and to build a team around him? If that is true then why was his contract not sorted a year ago? Also, why play him as a wing back?
If we have been in negotiations with a player for over a year and a deal is not signed then surely there is a clue there????
The point about TV money is very valid Ned. I do think that if the ridiculous sums keep pouring in then you will start to see a lot more shorter contracts and players leaving for free. The money is obscene. It won’t take players and agents long to work out that if average players are going for £50 million then that’s potentially money that could have ended up in their pockets?
If Sanchez wants £400k a week then pay him. If AOC wants £200k a week then pay him. We have left it far too late you hold any of the aces. Then, sell them next year for a substantial fee if they want out.
Disagree with the wages, Steve, especially regarding Ox.
He’s being flim-flammed about his future importance to this club and he knows it.
Looks like we’re going to be selling Mustafi as well, which doesn’t actually bother me as he’s very average and we massively overpaid for him in the first place.
If we get our money back on him and sell OX for the same fee, that’s £70m to panic spend in January 🙂
Devon Stu @94,
Completely agree. Constant negativity is so tiresome. Let’s smash the bin dippers, then hopefully people will cheer up a bit.
And if Ox thinks he’s going to be happier elsewhere, then best of luck to him. Especially if he goes there!
Cynic. My point is that we shouldn’t be In a position where we should not allow players with some serious value to walk away for free. The problem we find ourselves in now is all of our own making. For me they either sign a new contract or are sold. It’s that simple. The fact that we are in such a position of uncertainty at this stage of the season is simply bizarre. This should all have been sorted 9 months ago.
Agree with you on the sell if they won’t sign thing but our major problem really is that for the last two contract renewals, our manager has left it to beyond the last minute to sign on, and such is his power at the club, everything else is almost (almost) secondary to that.
It ain’t going to improve either, because for the next 18 months our board is going to go through the same dance.
‘desi’gner gooner @133
Not at all Maestro – only logical things emanate from here! ? Just boredom at the level of your delusion which is clearly intractable!
Thank you! My patient did quite enjoy his rectal examinaton, and thankfully, his prostate is nice and smooth like a baby’s bottom! Or is it smooth like Arsene’s ‘desi’gner gooner? ?
??? @147.
It’s all of Arsene Wenger’s making not “ours”!
SteveT@143: If all the superstars have short contracts and leave on frees will that be the end of transfers, and then what will Skye do for window excitement?
The sad thing is that the agents’ earnings won’t be diminished as they will make it up from their cut of higher player wages.
As much as we may hate to admit it, the Lillywhite Cunts won’t have a problem with meeting any of their superstars’ long contracted wages commitments should the currently exorbitant Premiership TV money ever diminish to come in. A reduction which is highly unlikely when the talk of a European Super-league is still being bandied about, and certainly more so now in the offing with all the financial-doping that’s come in from the Arabs and Chinese). The Spuds’ new stadium capacity increase, with almost certainly a concomitant increase in season ticket prices, will leverage sufficient financing as needed. Mauricio Pochettino at the helm isn’t a bad lure too. They’ll add a few more Squids to their Cunty-Coffers for the wages of ugly cunts like Harry Kane! Wankers! ?
I’m in two minds. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>