Bank Holiday Ramble
May 28th, 2018 by 'holic
A long day spent toiling in the sun means this shattered body finds himself in the office with seemingly nothing to watch on the multiple channels available. What better time to pretend there is enough news to base a new, and overdue, blog post.
Now that Unai Emery is in place the media have turned their attention to potential transfers. It would appear there is widespread agreement that our priority is fixing the defence. You’ll not lack for support on that front, but there is a short-term approach apparently being applied. Sven Mislintat, having already got Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrykh Makhitaryan with whom he worked in Dortmund, now appears to have moved for one of their lesser lights. Twenty-nine year old central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is rumoured to be the next to depart the yellow wall for North London.
The other strongly reported defensive acquisition could be Juventus’ thirty-four year old right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner who could prove to be a more than capable back-up to the overworked Hector Bellerin as long as his legs haven’t gone. That suggests that the Arsenal see Ainsley Maitland-Niles settling into midfield, and Calum Chambers staying a central defender if the new manager will work on his future development.
The positive about that could be that such signings buy us time to work on the longer term solutions, and leaves a chunk of funds available to spend elsewhere. Hopefully on a proper ‘invisible shield’ in front of that revamped defence.
Aside from the Arsenal speculation this was a good weekend if, like me, you wanted to see Craven Cottage returning as a Premier League destination next season. Congratulations and welcome back to Fulham, always a good day out at a proper old-school stadium and surrounding pubs. The fact that you made John Terry sad was an added bonus.
A few words are probably in order about the Champions League Final. It was no secret beforehand that I didn’t follow the ‘wanting an English club to win it’ nonsense. I wanted Real Madrid to win because they were the better team, and so they proved to be, but the manner of the victory left a sour taste. The Sergio Ramos assaults on Sala and Karius were blatant and deliberate.
The two horrendous mistakes by Karius struck a chord with many Gooners, I’m sure. Manuel Almunia allowing two to go in at his near post in the last thirteen minutes of the 2006 Final was brought back vividly. Thank goodness social media wasn’t as widespread then as today. Some of the vile abuse directed at the hapless goalkeeper speaks volumes about the lack of standards and respect among so many unthinking, perhaps uneducated, keyboard warriors.
To end on a better note I’m sure most here were able to put his playing past to one side when Gareth Bale scored what is arguably the greatest ever Champions League Final goal. It was a strike all football lovers will have savoured. If he is on the move this summer I hope it isn’t to a Premier League rival, although that would be the likeliest option. I’d love to think we were an option, but I doubt we are able to shop at Harrods quite yet.
Apologies to the regular ‘drinkers’ here about the issue with having to fill in your name and email address every time you wish to post. Apparently it is an anti-spamming feature of the latest release of WordPress. Hopefully they will change their mind when issuing the next update.
And so to wind up the bank holiday with a wee night cap. Thank you for popping by. It’s always appreciated.
105 Responses to “Bank Holiday Ramble”
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Thanks for the post Holic.
Fulham are a lovely club and I have many mates who support them who all have a lot of time for Arsenal . I was delighted for them and given the fact that fourteen of the teams in the league could go down next season, I don’t see why Fulham would be one of them.
Huge change going on at our club. Most of the leads we are seeing in the paper are relatively concrete as far as I can tell. What we don’t know is who is on his way out but I’d guess Ospina, Mustafi, Wilshere, Ramsey, Welbeck and a few loans. I’d also ship out Xhaka but who knows how our new coach likes to play ?
Whatever the case it will be a lot more fun than supporting England I can assure you!
Now read your missive. Thoughtful and fair as ever Guvna.
Drinks on the bar for all to toast our new chapter.
Craven Cottage surrounding pubs, you say? I’m in.
Thank you friends. Giving some thought to summer content, although it would appear that there may be lots of comings and goings to comment on.
Excellent.
Several interesting tidbits of information about the upcoming season appear on this Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_Premier_League but the one of interest to some may be the company we keep in a Puma kit, with Burnley, Palace and Newcastle being the only other clubs outfitted by them.
Liverpool have signed a chap called Fabinho. Now that’s the sort of player we should be signing.
Short names, easy to type. 🙂
Is calling the new pairng, if they both arrive, Chas and Dave out of order?
Summer content? As long as you avoid the World Cup, it will all be good. They’ve even given the History channel over to bloody football, where can I watch Hitler documentaries and Storage Wars now? 🙁
A leisurely summer seems quite in order, Guv’nor. Recharge your batteries for the new era.
TTG@2: Xhaka has been given a new shirt number for next season, albeit a higher number than he had last season, but which still suggests he isn’t going anywhere.
Fabinho’s taken; closest Viera/Silva clone. Will Emery be willing to have AMN/Willock grow into Xhaka’s sidekicks?
Great post as usual Holic!
One thing though, Ramos was pushed onto Karius. I agree with the assault on Salah though.
Sign all the defenders Unai! Once we get that back line sorted we should be good to go next season.
I don’t know about everyone else in the bar but my World Cup fever is almost sky high at the moment…
Papa the Greek and Swiss Lichtie? Sounds like we’ve gone from Project Youth to Help the Aged.
I recognise that there’s some logic there and that some hard-headed experience is necessary in the middle of the back four. If these two come in, I’d happily wish a fond farewell to Messrs Mustafi (constant accident waiting to happen defender) and Kolasinac (can shoot but can’t defend, not the ideal composition of essential characteristics for a full back).
Had I known you to be a garden toiler, I would have extended an invite to London E17 where some fine foundation digging was underway yesterday. There’s still a few square yards of opportunity if you’re still up for more fun. Remuneration is liquid, indeed there is a lot of liquidity associated with the project. 🙂
Worth a read to understand the truth about our finances
http://www.onlinegooner.com/article.php?section=exclusive&id=3822#.Ww0eeRbTWEc
this is very confusing
is unai
head coach or
manager or
head manager?
i’d prefer the latter
Head coach, SSY.
ok
TTG@12: Interesting read on the club’s finances. But as we have noted in this bar before, it is always all about the cashflow. Furthermore, the £50 million was a net figure. Those three letters somehow seem to get dropped from press reports with a parsimonious Arsenal line to peddle.
I suspect Dr Feelgood would consider himself to be the head manager, SSY.
i think that’s exactly the kind of management our players need
defeatism & lethargy
OUT!
Ned,
You make a very good point which I alluded to the other day.
Pochettino has a £150 million warchest—IF the Totts sell Rose, Alderweireld and Dembele . Arsenal have ‘only’£ 70million to use in the market- but this could be over £200 million with some potential sales ( Mustafi please!) The Totts get a very easy ride from the media . We get a lot of criticism. Maybe it is because we are significantly more successful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDc32neE40
Don’t believe all this £50m BS, or the magnanimous gesture of Stan to grant us an extra £20m. The two defenders we are supposed to be in talks for, Socrates and Soyuncu will take most of that, plus the £20m odd that a new back-up keeper like Leno would cost. Also, don’t forget that we are supposed to have been in for Fabinho, who would have cost north of £40m.
As it stands,our new Head Coach will have just 3 warm up games with the squad before the season kicks off on Aug 11th.
Athletico Madrid and PSG in Singapore at the end of July,followed by Chelsea on the 4th August.
The only good thing is we have very few of our first team squad playing at the World Cup,so he and his staff will have plenty of time to drill them on the training track once the players return from holidays.
Only 73 days to go.
Those of you who live in the USA have my sympathy if you are exposed to the ESPN idiots like this guy Moreno who can’t understand what Lichtsteiner might bring to Arsenal. I’ve never heard of what Moreno achieved in his career but I’ve seen pronouncements from him, Hislop and Steve Nicol and none seem very intelligent and also to have an edge in terms of criticism of Arsenal.
Lichtsteiner may not be the stellar signing we crave but I think he will add many positive things to the squad
Exactly, TTG.
…..like silvestre, squillaci or gallas
whereisthispapastafellathopulouswhomaybetheanswer
Gallas gets a lot of stick, rightly, but he was
far better than Squillaci or Silvestre.
I don’t want Lichtsteiner, he can’t make the
Juventus team. We do need right back cover
but not 34 year old right back cover with no
PL experience.
Maybe Lichtsteiner is being brought in to coach the defence?
Gallas was quality if not captain material.
For all you Lichtsteiner doubters out there, remember this (courtesy of Wikipedia): “On 7 March 2018, Lichtsteiner made his 250th appearance for Juventus in a 2–1 win over Tottenham at Wembley Stadium, in the second leg of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League, coming off the bench in the second half to help create Gonzalo Higuaín’s goal.”
Helped dump the swamp dwellers out of the CL. My kind of guy.
To be fair to Lichtsteiner, OM, he started 21 Serie A games for Juventus last season and came on as a sub in six more. He has won a lot in his club career and captained his country so he will bring experience and leadership to the club and fill the gap we have for cover as right back/wing back. I assume he is not coming as first-choice right-back and must know what his role will be. Perhaps he knows the secret of how to make Xhaka play as well as he does for Switzerland.
Lichtsteiner is Oleg Luzhny Mark 2.
OM
While I agree with much of what you say about Gallas his meltdown at Birmingham was unforgivable for a captain and had a profoundly negative impact on out title drive that season
Not sure about bringing in mature aged players but if we do then how about the Egyptian goalkeeper El-Hadary – 45 years old and about to play in his first world cup!
Gallas was never anywhere as good for us as he was with the Chavs – we got Gallas and they got Cole which was all in their favour.
UTA.
Lichtsteiner is Oleg Luzhny Mark 2
Complete with string and leather wig?
TTG,
Yes, several things were lost at Birmingham that
dreadful day and one of them was Gallas’s
reputation. I agree with you and with bt8.
Good player, terrible captain.
Ned,
Possibly so, I liked him as a player and agree with
you on his upside.
But, I don’t believe he can cover for say 3
months if Hector is injured,and I don’t think
he will have the legs now for a wing back. He’s
played his whole career in Switzerland, France
and Italy and its asking lot at 34 to adjust to PL
football on limited game time. I just think it’s too
risky.
That Gallas transfer was one of the worst bits of business Wenger ever did. Swapped the best left back in the world for a total pain in the balls and relieved Chelsea of a problem at the same time.
If you piled up all his dreadful signings in a corner, from Bischoff to Mustafi via Park, that pile of shite would still be dwarfed by that deal.
Enough to say, we do not need another captain like Gallas. Lichtsteiner on the other hand might make a good captain if accounts are correct, but for how long at age 34? Xhaka’s personal coach? I’d rather hire Xhaka a personal escort out of town.
No, not that kind of personal escort.
The Wenger era ( Wenger was our previous manager)began with everyone telling him his defence was too old and needed root and branch reform. The skipper was an alcoholic to boot. He eked some very successful years out of them .
I suspect Emery will bring a very good conditioning coach with him and improve the stamina ( and hopefully the predisposition to injuries) of the squad. Lichtsteiner played a lot of games last season and is being signed as a deputy, and possibly a mentor, for Bellerin. We had a very good one last season in Debuchy who played well when I saw him but he fell out with Wenger over a lack of first team football. He harboured ambitions for the French World Cup squad.
One thing we should have is a fresh squad for the start of the season as we will have less than ten players at the World Cup and only Ozil is likely to go deep into the tournament playing regularly ( I doubt Nacho will start for Spain) . A few of our current squad like Ospina and Campbell will be sold anyway Ironically Alexis will start pre- season on time for the first time since before he joined us.
“Stephan Lichtsteiner to sign one year deal”
and it’s for free
feels like a new signing
well, it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItOhA19VGSE
Stephan Lichtsteiner
Henceforth to be known as Stevie Lichs.
To me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrZRURcb1cM
Mavropanos
Lichtsteiner
Papastathopoulos
next Ghoochannejhad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9434BoGkNQ
Just finishing up five nights in a rental house on Highbury Hill Road prior to heading down to the South Downs for our son’s wedding this weekend. Our family members and friends who have stayed with us have become instantly fond of the setting of the old Home Of Football, and were gobsmacked by the appearance of the new Home Of Football when heading down Aubert Park towards Drayton Park Road on the way to Holloway. Instant converts to the Arsenal and Piebury Corner !
It’s interesting to see us winning a battle with Bayern and Dortmund to sign a young midfielder at PSG . That says that we still have pulling power and that Emery was regarded impressively in Paris. It also suggests we intend to build around top quality talents . I think I speak for us all on here when I say that this has always been the Arsenal way even if we acquire some of them from our rivals.
Interestingly would these sort of players join Tottenham ?
On a more negative note we are being linked with ……..Mario Balotelli.
Even if we needed him what is he the answer to ? Must be a nutty story as we are being linked with everybody
He is the answer to “Which striker would you least want to sign this summer?”
Would it be a shock if Lacazette left? Hmmm…
Looks like we signed Adli and Bayern and Real didn’t.
TTG you beat me to the news about the PSG bloke. It must mean something. The draw of Unai seems to be on the up.
Bayonne Jean,
Congratulations on your son’s wedding. Also to your family members for recognising the top quality of Piebury Corner. 😉
steve t will be happy we’re shopping at adli…it’ll give us more width.
congrats, bayonne. mazel tov!
adli reminds me a little of abu diaby crossed with a touch of marouane fellaini. not a bad mix for a 17 year old. but definitely a rough stone needing polishing, perhaps even with an emery cloth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx1YG781C9c
Players only love you when they’re playing, SSY
“Players only love you when they’re playing”
yes, indeed, misteR
mazel tov to you too
oops
as far back as i can remember, i always wanted to be Hyman Roth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnlIKYYoOc
yeah
Bayonne Jean
Very good wishes for your family wedding.
Let’s hope these thunderstorms go away or if they have to go anywhere accumulate over White Hart Lane.
i always wanted to be Hyman Roth
A Jewish Yoda with a hairy chest and dodgy ticker?
ZZ has resigned. Will a certain newly available Mr. A. Wenger rock up at Real Madrid for a couple of years? I wouldn’t bet against it.
He might fluke it, simply because there’s nobody else available, but I would be laughing at them if they appointed Wenger.
Adieu Zidane!
Bonjour Wenger or Pochettino?
poch would be nice. almost lasagne-esque for the scum.
Oligarch with visa problems? Look no farther than Chavski FC.
Well yes, The work on Tottenham’s new £800m stadium was due to be completed this summer …
Wemberley here they come.
Maybe here they come …
Perhaps all ..garchs irrespective of where they’re from should be vetted before they’re allowed to buy into football clubs!
😀
Chav meltdown?
New stadium cancelled. No timescale for review of that decision.
Courtois contract discussions ended without resolution. 12 months left, off on a free next summer or fire sale to Real Madrid/Bindippers in the summer?
The sugar daddy has withdrawn his investor leave application as well – his new Israeli citizenship may mean he simply doesn’t need it or it could be a statement of disengagement.
Interesting times.
so what would that mean for our own petty oligarch? the a.u.finger?
72 more days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F62B6BX0xs
I wouldn’t put it past Levy to do a deal with Poch that he could go to Real but only after he signed a five-year deal so the neighbours could get a boatload of compensation from Perez to help pay for the stadium overruns.
ned, that would be fine, as i think even levy would screw up that much money, and the stadium would go even further over budget (kind of like teams with lots of money get charged lots for players, those change orders suddenly get a lot more expensive).
Also, it looks a smart move on ZZ’s part to walk out at the top. There is going to be a huge rebuilding job at Real next season and the one after. Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Rondaldo and Benzema are all the wrong side of 30. Perez can pretty much whistle and get in whomever he wants, but turning talent into a wining team is a different matter.
I like the way you think, SCG.
cheers, ned. any thinking i do about those scum involves ways of making their lives harder and their professional lives less and less successful.
as always, thanks to you and the monks. some buckfast honey wine on the bar for them, and you, without even a suggestion of the perjorative overlay of “ned culture”…
I’ve been asking myself a question all day. How would I feel if Wenger was offered the job at Real Madrid …and took it? The reason is, and it hurts me to say this that I don’t think it’s a job he can handle at this stage of his life. We’ve seen very intimately the decline in his performance. Once upon a time he would have done the job brilliantly but not now. And I’d hate to see him speared by the world’s media at such a high- profile club with fans who won’t be as forgiving as ours. If I felt he could do it I’d love him to get the job and re- establish his legacy. But I don’t see Banfield or Peyton or Bould fitting in at the Bernabeu . I would like Wenger to finish with a job like managing Japan where expectations are less stratospheric and he would really make a difference. Real is a pressure cooker and I’d hate to see him cooked in that environment.
They’d be absolutely mental to give it to him, so they might just do so.
If you look at it objectively, he’s won nothing they would think matters (a league title) for nearly 15 years, has never won a European trophy, been incapable of getting past the first knockout phase of the CL for about ten years, failed to even get into the CL for the last two, is 68 years old and so on…
But then again..
They might think he could do better with the kind of players he has at Real, and he might do because they are all established and they won’t need any coaching whatsoever from him. A bit like his heyday, when he relied on world class players to effectively manage the side for him. When he had five world class players who were all leaders and didn’t really need a manager, he was great.
I can see how it would make sense for them and I can see how it might just work, but then again they only won the league once in the last six years with the best of these players in their team.
He’s a short term fix, maybe, who they can throw into the fire win or lose after two years maximum.
It will be interesting if he does get it.
cynic, ned points out at 72 they’re probably blowing up the team this summer, because 5 starters are on the wrong side of 30. i don’t see mr. wenger coming in and taking over a team that is in the rebuilding mode…
though i must say, if they do have one more cl win in them, i’d love to see him ride their quality to the title. even if all he does is let them play (as they shouldn’t need a manager at this point, should they?).
Ttg@75: The same thought crossed my mind, but in the terms of what would I think if next year’s Champions League final was Arsene’s Real vs Emery’s Arsenal. Could he do the job if offered. Half of me agrees with you that he has passed his best. Half of me wonders whether that is because he is exhausted rather than spent, and whether a change of scene would refresh and rejuvenate him. I honestly don’t know either way. But like you I would like to see his final years successful, not crucifying him.
To Cynic and SCG’s points, Perez tried to get him before. Has the moment passed for AW? I think probably so. Would he be up for rebuilding as side? I suspect he would relish it. Would he be comfortable doing it when it when it means buying six £200 million players with Perez having the first say on who they are? Not so much.
*considers a cheeky bet on Belgium to win the World Cup*
It’s just possible AW would enjoy rebuilding without
the other hassles he took on at The Arsenal.
He wouldn’t have to buy the players just manage
– he might be able to let go his inner control freak.
And it’s not as if Real will buy squillaci’s and
chamakhs.
That said, I’d rather Real took Poch as it would
discombobulate the spuddettes and that is never
a bad thing. Poch might poach Kane too and then
knock the spuds out of the CL next season. I’m
laughing about that now as I type 🙂
Utter deterioration and demoralization of Spurs narratives coming together nicely.
If next season sees the hens coming to roost for Chelski and the LWCs while we rebuild ourselves as a powerhouse under our new manager, how awesome would that be?
I’ll drink to that!
Let’s see who can’t turn and face the strain now!
Ch ch changes
Lichsteiner wouldn’t be a bad move. Very experienced defender who could advise our present crop. Also good back-up for Bellers and who might not mind that situation, in return for a nice little pension top-up.
Rumours about Balotelli on a free, while annoying, is thankfully just mischevious paper talk.
Afternoon all,
“discombobulate …. deterioration and demoralisation…. ”
all in the last few drinks ….
Someone’s got the thesaurus stuck on “D” is my determination of this discomforting situation.
Gow long will dis-continue, I wonder ?
I blame cba – especially if he’s not here ?
“Lichtsteiner wouldn’t be a bad move.”
I’m not sure Holic would agree ….. Isn’t that a non-alcoholic lager ?
Holic, is this your new Data Protection regime ?
Every time I submit a post, my name and email address are wiped blank.
Player says he needs cannabis to play in the NFL:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/american-football/44021469
On the other hand, I would probably need cannabis to watch American football these days.
“Former NBA champion Matt Barnes told BBC Sport on Thursday that cannabis use is “widespread” in the NBA.”
Come to think of it, those games did seem to be in slow motion. 😉
Sorry Trev. WordPress have coded it that way to protect from spammers, even though they have in Akismet a tool that is superb at not allowing spam to appear.
I think it’s a GDPR thing, because before, it dropped a cookie to remember you and now, because of GDPR, they can’t do that without asking if it’s ok.
It is possible you could set up a form to ask about allowing cookies but no idea how to do it, and you’d probably have to have a registration system for the comments if you did.
bt, matt barnes (even though he is a ucla product) always played like he was stoned. it didn’t help him, much.
Spurs developing disillusionment may be deemed delightful, delicious and downright dangdoodle donger.
Dindeedy deedy bt8.
gives up on long run to ton 🙁
damn you wordpress, damn
you to hell
Will have to come up with more d words to describe theit downfall and demise.
Their downfall, demise and degeneracy.
Shameless lurkers doing what you do. Don’t think we don’t see.
Lurkers can’t be poachers, unless they are.
despicable and deceitful!
ok, ton stolen. Now for lunchtime
drinking 🙂
but a tip of the hat to bt8 first
Damnable, dastardly, downright degenerative lurking demonstrated at the decimal celebration.
Ok, cheers Holic – another price to pay for technological advancement ?
The main challenge with this, “technological advancement” is remembering my name after a few drinks…
Under these circumstances, minimalism rules.
HWSAY?
A Real Madrid preview. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>