By Sir Hardly Anyone
During the last transfer window approximately 450 different players were touted to be coming to Arsenal in January. Since only 25 could be registered in the team – and that only if the current 23 were all shunted out – it seemed a little unlikely. And interestingly, until the move towards his transfer was actually happening there was no mention of Mo Elneny. That story was mentioned, Arsenal gave discrete nods, and it went through.
From which we can learn that if it is mentioned as a transfer rumour, it won’t happen. If the story emerges from around Arsenal, and stabilizes for a day, it will happen.
Now in any other line of business, a bunch of grapefruits who were so useless at their work that they got 450 ideas wrong, and missed the one that was right, would all bugger off to the salt mines to do penance.
But no, do you know what they now do?
Well, dearly beloved, I shall tell you.
One or two try and tell us the transfer window is actually still open. “Done Deal: Lethal Striker signs for Arsenal after Transfer Window shuts down” says Faceofffootball with the news that
Young striker Donyell Malen has signed his first professional contract with Arsenal football club until 2018.
Otherwise the bloggettas tell us that the players who are at Arsenal actually want to leave. And do you know, the poor saps who believed all the tales about transfers that were never going to happen, now believe these stories!
Arsenal star unhappy with boss Arsene Wenger
is one story from “Arsenal Station.” They say, “According to a report in the Express newspaper, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is unhappy with Arsene Wenger and is contemplating his position at the club.”
Meanwhile the ever wretched Squawaka tells us about the player who is about to demand a transfer in the summer because he is so angry with Wenger.
David Ospina is believed to be fed up at Arsenal and will look to leave the club in the summer.
Elsewhere we have
Arsenal News: Shock double exit, star furious at Wenger
Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky are debating retirement at the end of the season, according to Football Insider. The pair have barely featured in recent years after being hampered by injuries. Both Arteta and Rosicky are out of contract in the summer and the Gunners will not be offering them new deals.
Serge Gnabry set for exit
proclaims MyArsenalBlog. Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry is widely expected to be farmed out on loan in the next few weeks, according to the latest reports, with English Championship his most likely destination.
Are you surprised? It is believed that the likes of Fulham, Charlton and Bolton are all keen on recruiting the German footballer this month, with the emergency loan window having opened today and only closing on 24 March.
Not to be outdone the Daily Star has
Arsenal shell-shocked as midfield pair consider unexpected retirement
But we’ve already had that one…
ARSENAL midfield pair Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta are considering retirement. The Gunners duo have been hampered by persistent injury problems and are weighing up their respective futures.
DEAL CLOSE: ARSENAL SET TO SEAL TRANSFER AGREEMENT THIS MONTH
That comes from FootballInsider247 and is another Gnabry story. The emergency transfer window is about to open, and he’s going on loan. Well, well.
And then…
Real Madrid Target Reportedly Signed a New 5-Year Contract with Gunners, Will Earn £180k-a-week
That comes from those old turnips, By far the greatest team, and tells us that Alexis is signing has signed or will sign a new contract.
Looking back, when Untold started campaigning against the notion that transfers meant anything, and that transfer deadline day was as interesting and worthy of newspaper coverage as a shriveled bunch of grapes hanging on a clothes line in the suburbs Mexico City, there was general disregard for our position. Some even said we were a bunch of drongos who knew nothing. We were just ignored.
But Untold’s tracing the wild and insane stories and focussing on the bloggettas – the little sites with their five line stories – did seem to have some sort an effect.
For a start, almost all the bloggettas stopped fixing their sites so that readers were suckered into clicking on an advert (thus earning the site owner money) rather than the “story”. That technique is now being used on the sites that advertise at the foot of newspaper articles with stories about how to lose weight, models who have become ugly, and how to pass a driving test without learning to drive.
And the press started to change too. The Daily Mail wrote very negatively about the endless hype of transfer deadline day, while even Sky Sports seemed to learn you can’t wring blood from a dried up walnut… and their audience figures proved it.
The Telegraph started to focus on transfers that DIDN’T happen… with tales such as “11 Premier League players left stewing at their clubs after the window closed” and amazingly some even turned their attention away from Arsenal being the only club not to …. [fill in your phrase of choice]. So we also had “Why was Klopp so quiet during the window?” and “United were crying out for some new blood, why didn’t they sign anyone?”
The Guardian reviewing Arsenal’s position didn’t even do the “Arsenal fans will be horrified at yet another transfer window passing without a proper signing” but instead said,
A drama-free, shock-free window. Arsène Wenger wanted cover in central midfield, a player with the capacity to play the defensive role and he got Mohamed Elneny, who looks like a smart signing. He did not want anyone else, and so he did not get anyone else. End of story. The return of injured players pleases the manager more.
Goodness. That is almost measured.
Mind you some of the end-of-window stuff had the mark of desperation, with “Saints make late loan bid for the Ox” (the Sun – you really have to laugh, or cry), and the Telegraph quickly followed with “As reported by our man Daniel Johnson at the weekend, fans at the Emirates are slowly showing signs of increasing frustration with the Ox’s performances.”
So, more mind reading. What a pity they couldn’t see into a future that included a day trip to Bournemouth.
At the very end though there was some desperation. “Manchester United are being heavily linked with a loan move for Debuchy” was one press headline, and apparently Arsenal were about to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. But didn’t.
Debuchy was then off to Aston Villa. Kieran Gibbs was off to Newcastle United. But ooops no they weren’t.
Kelechi Nwakali and Samuel Chukwueze apparently signed for Arsenal. But did they? No mention of them on Arsenal.com
Arsenal were certain to buy Dynamo Kiev forward Andriy Yarmolenko, according to the Daily Star but I don’t think we did.
Edinson Cavani, the Paris St-Germain striker, has got his bags packed and is ready to quit the Ligue 1 champions and runaway leaders for Arsenal on deadline day.
So: rumour mongers minus 450, Arsenal plus one. I wonder if anyone will remember that when the build up to the summer transfer market starts…. next week.
You might also enjoy…
- Arsène Wenger to write the Foreword for the next Untold Arsenal book
- Bob Wilson writes for Untold Arsenal: that most unforgettable of days
Anniversaries
- 10 February 2010: Despite the previous games being a draw with Villa and two successive defeats to Chelsea and Man U, Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0 and start run of six successive wins.
- 10 February 2015: A 2-1 home win over Leicester signalled the start of Arsenal’s revival with eight straight wins. Before the match Arsenal were sixth. Two matches later they were third, and six matches after that second.
Insult of the day
He be as good a gentleman as the devil is. (Henry V)
One deal that went through without much fuss was our so called “poaching of Leicester City Head of Technical Scouting, Ben Wigglesworth. Except that today’s dailies are quoting Gary Lineker saying that we signed the wrong coach as Head of Recruitment Steve Walsh was responsible for signing better players.
These job titles make it difficult to know who is who and what they do, so lets hope we did infact get the right man.
Correction:Ben Wrigglesworth
Serge,
In case when a signing turns out right they all claim the credit of course. In case of a signing turning bad they will all point fingers at anyone else 🙂 That’s how it always goes… everywhere…
Who is Lineker and what does he know about recruiting scouting staff?
He works for walkers he has a brain of a pea Robert
sorry, OT, but as predicted on here, report suggesting we have Atkinson this weekend
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-vs-leicester-city-gunners-bogey-man-martin-atkinson-to-officiate-top-of-the-table-clash-a3175856.html
cannot verify this, but a poster on PA saying Asian markets believe a high possibility of an Arsenal player being sent off in that game…..think Wenger needs to be very careful over playing Flam after the widespread AAA/MSM outcry that he got away with something at Bournmouth
Need to hit them early in this game,like we did to Utd
We DO indeed have Atkinson – it’s been on the PIGMOB site since Monday!
Surely, if a referee is linked to an Asian betting ring, then he should be replaced by PIGMOB. Or is their reputation so shot that they just don’t give a shit any more?
Looks like our one loan keeper agrees with you re. the media
from his facebook yesterday
“Gotta love the media. Reporting on 3 completely diiferent stories regarding my future in a space of 24 hours, saying there’s been a “change of heart” , ” U-turn” and “turnaround”. The only U-turn there’s ever been is in your rubish reporting skills.
#rubishatyourjob
From Rome, with love ?❤
Wojciech.”
Guess there is no proof he is linked to anyone, but doubt if the PGMOB care about much as long as it fits their agenda or that of who they answer to.
I have a very uneasy feeling about this game, seems I am not the only one
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/webb-of-lies.html
Ihope Arsene drums it into them not to do anything naive. But must be hard for the players, I would guess they by now associate Atkinson with getting done
Still, if there is a conspiracy, Arsenal make easy victims, the club….if not the manager appear to keep quiet, and if it goes wrong, they know the media and a part of the fanbase will just blame Wenger. One of the reasons I have such contempt for the AAA
I don’t need an Asian betting side to inform me the possibility of an Arsenal player being sent off. We will have to beat at least 12 man next Sunday.
It is rather interesting that the PGMO in the period where Arsenal have a win % of around 60% they come up for a match like that with a ref of whom we have a win % of around 15%.
But hey no, nothing is wrong with referees in the PL of course… nothing at all…
If Gnabry, Chamberlain and Flamini leave and if Arteta, Rosicky retires, you know what would be the impact for Arsenal? Absolutely nothing at all
Maybe the fans are to blame as well Mandy.
We got well over 100k signatures on the Dean petition, enough to take it to parliament – but we have done nothing with it.
It would help if someone with clout (Usmonov?) would get involved, but his agenda doesn’t appear to include fighting for the club or supporters.
Norman, think the fans can certainly make their voice heard this weekend…but not sure what you can actually do, even backed up by such a petition.
Still, we have not had Dean since, though have a feeling he is being saved for WHL.
Arsenal once had a man who would not have stood for this, unfortunately, the board sacked him. David Dein. Was he flawed…yes, but he would not have stood for what we witness week in week out? would be interesting to see if there was a correlation in deterioration in our refereeing when he left, though there would have been other factors, like Citys money, and Riley being made PGMOL head.
I really hope they had good reason to sack Dein, a huge gamble, it is widely reported Wenger offered his resignation as a result of this treatment of his friend, but DD managed to talk him out of it. And to think…at least on the surface, he was sacked for trying to bring in foreign investors….couldnt make it up!
Just read that FIF article again, hope it is BS, if not, pretty terrifying.
Oh please, Dein and Usmanov, Batman and Robin to come flying to our aid? Don’t make me laugh. Can we please just grow up and move on from these puerile attachments to people of whom we know nothing only that they have a live of money and stop imputing our sentimentality on them. They really couldn’t give a flying one.
Internal politics saw Dein ousted and financial gain bought in a man more interested in American real estate than sporting achievement. There is no surprise that people think about what might have been had things gone differently
Mandy – FIF is always terrifying. Hopefully some publicity ahead of time will keep Atkinson on the straight and narrow. And at least it is on Sky and not BT…
But I wouldn’t say UA or FIF counts as publicity. Is there anyway of getting a story into the mainstream media?
Dean for WHL? They wouldn’t, would they? Talking of absent referees, don’t think we have seen Oliver for a long time – perhaps not since our Cup win at OT last season. Is he being punished?
Dein cannot help us now, but I am sure he would have something to say about what goes on…something to say at high levels, which, and I am only speculating of course, the evidence suggests that our Execs are not challenging now. Maybe at the very top, they see Tap 4 as sufficient reward so as not to rock the boat…who knows.
And I am not referring to Wenger here, he is clearly exasperated at the refereeing and general treatment we get.
Pete, would not bet on any publicity affecting Atkinson or the PGMOL, the media keep very quiet on these things, and our fans…well some of them are all to quick to blame Wenger. If FIF is correct, some of the media are making a bit of extra pocket money out of this season.
Dean…they certainly would.
Havent seen much of Oliver, or, and I stand to be corrected, Marriner, after his excellent performance at Newcastle
If the pattern of this upcoming game demands it, we could see something that leaves us in no doubt what is going on. But if we play like City, Atkinson will not need to lift a finger, however, I dont think they will.
If we play like against Utd, even Atkinson wont be able to do much
Mandy
I agree 100% – we need to come out of the blocks quickly on Sunday, like the Man U game.
So this would mean Walcott starting (as he did vs United when he played really well) – and using his speed and movement against Huth and Morgan.
Ollie could then come on in 2nd half to provide extra hold-up play.
Coquelin should definitely start (instead of Flam), as should Campbell who will provide his normal tracking and tackling back.
Would also stick with Gabriel/Kos partnership as Vardy is a speedster
COYG
I would stick with Gab and Kos as well, tho Gab is still learning his way, he can at times put in some…relatively speaking of course…rash challenges…he doesnt want to do that in this game with Atkinson as ref. Also agree on Coq, Flamini would worry me as well, not for his ability, but on the refereeing front
On another note, good luck Diaby!
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/former-arsenal-midfielder-abou-diaby-set-to-make-first-competitive-appearance-in-17-months-a3177246.html