Are Arsenal hunting Foxes? After Vardy there is another lined up. Tally ho!

By Sir Hardly Anyone (in jovial mood and jaunty hat)

A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go
We’ll catch a fox and put him in a box
And then we’ll let him go

Isn’t it curious how quickly the mood can change!  Now we live in a one issue world we can flip from “only team not to buy an outfield player” to “look we’re going to buy everyone” in a trice and a half.

It happened of course because while many still chant “fourth is not a trophy” over and over until they fall off their ballstools, and Lineker and co from Match of the Day endless recite their mantra of “He bought the wrong man” as they see their Leicester organisation pulled thither and yon, others claim that Wenger has finally listened to them (having previously said he was too stubborn and would never change), and Arsenal are now being tipped to buy so many players that its impossible to keep up.

Indeed Lineker is in a bit of a fix having said that Arsenal had “stolen” the wrong scout in bringing Ben Wrigglesworth to Arsenal (Lineker having failed to appreciate exactly which position Arsenal were seeking to fill)and he has now been heard mumbling that Arsenal are buying the wrong player in going for Vardy.

Which is a bit unfortunate since the “reports” today are full of the notion that Arsenal are also buying رياض محرز also known as Mahrez.

If we did get both players that would be three Foxes in boxes.  Tally ho!

A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go
We’ll catch a fox and put him in a box
And then we’ll let him go

As a member of the aristocracy I do of course condone the mindless imposition of fear and pain upon animals up to and including the middle classes, and have always appreciated Leicester’s devotion (at least since 1948 when they changed their shirts to incorporate the fox) to the mindless torture of the animal kingdom.  And so of course they can hardly complain when they get a bit of it back.

For as we reported the other day, Leicester are in a fix, having set up a rather curious out of town PR and marketing operation with no sign on the door but bringing in huge amounts of cash from overseas (I am sure in a most legitimate and proper manner) it seems not fully able to deal with the hurlyburly of champagne quaffing and headline grabbing football.  I did think that maybe following Untold’s revelations they might be fixing the matter, when I saw this on google…


Job Vacancy: Marketing Executive – Leicester City

www.lcfc.com/news/article/job-vacancy-marketing-executive-2318940.aspx

Leicester City Football Club is looking to recruit a forward thinking, creative… 


The problem is when I have clicked on that link I can get information that they are “Forever Fearless” and information about a “Sale” but not much about a marketing executive.  Pesky people these marketing johnnies.

Anyway, “Arsenal buying” and “Leicester selling” is the absolute theme of the day, and so those who want to try and stand out from the marauding mass of bloggettas each with more improbable stories, now are forced to focus on Arsenal losing players.

But these days you can by and large tell when a deal has just been made up, when some idiot on a newspaper thinks that “Twitter reacts to…” is actually a headline worthy of being typed out.   The latest story to get this treatment is that of Hector Bellerin’s imminent departure now running in the Times.  We’ve had him off to Barcelona, and then not, and now he’s off to Manchester City, and “Twitter reacts…” with three one liners saying “hope so” from Man C fans.

There is a lovely assumption in these plaintive cries that if Man C wants, Man C gets.  Which is rather sweet, I think.

Well, may I say this to all my chums at the Airport, you got your stadium for free, and you got a very nice youth stadium to go alongside it, but you don’t yet have the production line of young players that can spot and then bring through Bellerin, Iwobi, Coquelin, Gibbs…

But enough of that.  “What of news?” in I hear you cry.

The oft cited but by and large unpronounceable Mkhitaryan is “keen on joining” and also “Wenger wants deal done for Mahrez”.

Oh yes, and here is another amazing twist as the bloggettas, “sources” and “reports” all suddenly start saying that Giroud will benefit from having another major talent to play alongside.  This actually could well be true, not least because the opposition not knowing who is going to play, and who is going to play where, and who is going to drop back for a rebound while other maraude, means that for defenders, handling Arsenal’s line up becomes increasingly based on guess work.

Mind you all this fevered activity still doesn’t stop the usual snide remarks being handed out.  Here’s one released this morning…

“Wenger’s hands were tied, partially down to his own inability to sign another striker in previous transfer windows”

I don’t think the metaphorical hand tying has ever been linked to a self-induced signature inability before.  Quite an interesting image – trying to sign a piece of paper with both hands tied behind your back.  Ponder on that if you will!

Of course I can’t say at this moment that the Vardy deal will through (not least because of having had a big laugh at the article that told us that Vardy had already signed, but then three short paragraphs later announced that he wasn’t going to sign).   But the transfer world has been so fevered that I have hardly had time to look at what other clubs and their fans are up to.   What, for example of the club formally known as Liverpool!!! but then through a sudden identity crisis became Liverpool?(?)

Liverpool? has given us the most laughs in recent years as they try to sign everyone, sell a vampire for billions and then waste it all on the wrong players.  What now?

Well, Liverpool have “allegedly” decided to sign Kieran Gibbs – but because they have become a laughing stock in some quarters over their failures to sign anyone who can lift them out of mid-table mediocrity, and utter pariahs in other quarters after their owner (a Mr Henry) boasted about telling lies concerning the Suarez contract, no one wants to deal with them.

Now it is alleged they have a new ploy (according to “reports”) involving going directly to Arsenal players themselves and telling them that they have no chance at Arsenal because of the club’s new spending spree, and so they ought to come to Liverpool? where they will be loved, cherished and lied to.  (Actually I don’t think they say the last bit).

This approach is of course illegal, but since nothing in the past has stopped Liverpool? such technicalities are of no interest to them, and besides if anyone asks they will get Mr Henry to say that they never did.

According to a “report” in the Express, Liverpool? are going after Gibbs.  If they are, and they do so without permission, you can expect Arsenal to protest long and hard to the FA.

However there are also tales that Liverpool are set on hijacking the Vardy deal – at least according to the fantasists who work for the Mirror.  Just think of what they can offer Vardy – no Champions League (“so you won’t have to leave the lady wife for all those annoying mid-week games”) a League Title 26 years ago (you don’t want any more medals on the mantle piece do you?), and half built new stand, a European Cup 11 years back (oh, sorry, we’re not in that any more) and an FA Cup ten years ago (but we were the first team ever to play a cup final without a single English player in the lineup).

Hmmm.

Anyway Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan is “considering his options”, according to his agent. Chelsea are hot on the trail, and the tiny totts don’t want to miss out on the fun except that they are spending all their money on the demolition gear that is pulling down their stadium.  It might have to be Troy Deeney instead.

And just to keep everyone on their toes Arsenal are also now looking at Internazionale’s Colombian defender Jeison Murillo.

So any more?

Liverpool and Arsenal set to miss out on Raphael Guerreiro as he agrees personal terms with Borussia Dortmund

However

Man United target Alvaro Morata will be at Arsenal next season – bookies

But

Arsenal’s Alvaro Morata transfer hopes dashed by his girlfriend

And

Arsenal interested in signing Inter Milan’s Jeison Murillo

Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea scouting star dubbed ‘the new Neymar’: He has a £40m buyout.    A CLUTCH of top Premier League sides are scouting Brazilian sensation Gabriel Barbosa ahead of a potential summer swoop.

And there we are once again.

Now where are those foxes lurking?


Editorial note: Untold Arsenal does not like, promote or accept fox hunting except as a metaphorical bit of mindless joshing when referring to fact that Leicester City appear to revel in the fox hunting that has been a part of Leicestershire’s life for many years, and play the Post Horn Gallop (a piece of music almost as tasteless as some of Sir Hardly’s comments) when the teams come onto the pitch.


And elsewhere…

The novel “1984” by George Orwell was published on this day in 1949.  Orwell successfully predicted a society in which all news was manipulated and all the population of the UK was under constant supervision via two way screens.

[A new “And elsewhere” appears on the home page of Untold each day]


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  • The Arsenal Yankee by Danny Karbassiyoon with a foreword by Arsene Wenger.
  • Arsenal: the long sleep 1953 – 1970; a view from the terrace.  By John Sowman with an introduction by Bob Wilson.
  • Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football.  By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews.
  • Making the Arsenal: a novel by Tony Attwood.
  • The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews.

You can find details of all five on our new Arsenal Books page


 

29 Replies to “Are Arsenal hunting Foxes? After Vardy there is another lined up. Tally ho!”

  1. It is now being suggested that Leicester have also offered Vardy £120k a week to stay, and if this is the case, I’d skeptically suggest that this was the point of this whole exercise (especially if he stays).

    From another position, I think that if he is left mulling over his decision for the next 4 weeks, he won’t have a very effective Euro 16 – and could put those Arsenal fans who don’t want him, even more against his signing.

    Apart from that, Leicester “great” Garry Walker, sorry, Lineker, has put his 2 bobs worth in by suggesting that Vardy should stay with the “Champions” and not move to the “perennial also-rans.”

    Today will be an interesting one.

  2. Hmmm. I pray to God to help Arsenal and us to make Vardy to agree to accept to come to Arsenal before he jets off to France.

    I’ve been monitoring that 11:30 am BT set for the England’s national team to depart from the Luton airport and fly France and to hear what Vardy will say concerning his now transfer saga to Arsenal before he too departs along with his England player colleagues to France. And hopefully, It’ll be good news from him to us to hear.

    I don’t know if the Boss is after the signing of one of Mahrez or Mkhitaryan to still strengthen his midfield options, It’ll be marvelous if brings one of the 2 to the Ems to fill the void of not bringing in Morata to Arsenal this summer.

    But I don’t know if the Boss will raid Leicester so soon again if he succeeded in pulling Vardy away from them. But anything can still happen. But if the Boss still want to sign another top quality midfielder, it might be Mkhitaryan he would sign. And I hope he’s versatile able to play in all the 3 midfield positions.

    Then of course after the Boss is done with his striker and mid fielders signings, he’ll switch his attention to the Gunners’ defense-line where a top top CB and a high grade LB signings are compulsory for the Boss to do before the new season is opened.

  3. Lots of stuff about Mahrez, and Mik…….probably all nonsense….but if true, I will dampen things with a word of caution….if one or both of those two really are on the radar….does that suggest someone very big, currently with us could be off?…only so many places in a team for such talented players………how would you get Alexis, Mahrez, Mik, Ozil….and plenty of others into one team?

  4. As usual. I will just see what happens without it getting on my nerve system. 🙂

    Today with Arsenal Belgium we will be used as figurants in a tv series “Spitsbroers 2”. At the end of the first series “Spitsbroers” a series about two brothers who dream of a football career and one gets his dream and the other gets lost a bit there was talk of interest from a London team for the one that made it. Surely not the tiny totts we said.
    And lo and behold… no in the next series… he went to Arsenal. So we bought another player already but that got a bit under the radar it seems. 🙂 😉 Dennis… Moerman is his name 🙂
    But to give a few things away: in the series his career isn’t hitting the heights at Arsenal as they thought.

    Anyway we will go there with our supporters club members and put on our shirts, flags, and all our attributes to make a bit of an Arsenal- Emirates atmosphere tonight. So whatever the outcome… I will enjoy my day.
    And even without TV series recordings: so should you! 😉 🙂

    Arsenal Belgium… world wide famous supporters club in Flanders 🙂 🙂 🙂

  5. I am back on the site after a 2nd thought. I am not Dick Law the Arsenal’s Chief transfer negotiator. But I have a proposal I want to put to the Boss and Mr Law in this Vardy’s transfer saga to Arsenal.

    Let Arsenal put the 120k/week wages on the table to Vardy but with a string attach to the new offer. If it’s true Leicester have offered him 120k/w according to Norman14, Let Arsenal tell Vardy they’ll give him the 120k/w after he has scored 20 Premier League goals for Arsenal in this coming season and they will backdate it to the start of the same coming season.

    Arsenal won’t do better than this, can they?

  6. Mandy..

    also, Santi, Jack, Mo and Granit.

    Then there’s Rambo and Coq as well as Ox and Theo..

    ..and Welbz when he returns.

    For so long we moan about lack of signings, then when they seem to be appearing, we are almost scared for the current squad – interesting times indeed.

  7. Well done Arsene a good bit of business , not one for the future but for now . I’m sure he will be an instant success .

  8. hahhh’ gary tax dodger lineker, hypocrite guy who mock Leicester when they appointed Ranieri in the 1st place. look at the comedy of team who had no CL next season try to compete for top players and how the media try so desperate to make them relevant. if A.Wenger manage to bring R.Mahrez to Arsenal, wonder how the football world react to that. as long as A.Wenger is the manager of Arsenal, i put all my trust in him to make the club better and attract some of the best players. have you ever seen ballon d’or winner gave his winning medal to somebody else, watch this video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3RnxvlOYuk

  9. @ Sir Hardly, many thanks for another fine update.

    I don’t get too excited about new players until they are announced by arsenal.com. Vardy doesn’t look like a typical AW signing, that does not mean it is not happening, but Vardy and Mahrez together seems gross, yet strangely more realistic.

    However, both could be smokescreens!

  10. If Vardy were to sign and had a poor season and didn’t score many goals the media would have a field day castigating Wenger. Could you imagine the headlines….
    ‘Wenger ruins Player of the Year 2016’ etc etc.

  11. If we sign Vardy, his goal count could easily decrease…he wont get to take so many penalties for starters, though he would receive excellent service.
    Also, at Arsenal, unless he learned very quickly to be nice to refs, and not do his “clever” wrapping legs around defenders and tripping himself up in the penalty area, he would be spending a lot of time suspended.
    But, he would have the likes of Ozil, Alexis and Cech on hand, to guide him through moving from a club the refs let away with things…to Arsenal.

  12. Hello guys, this could well be my first time commenting on this site. Although I would say that I have been a lover of most of the Arsenal-supporting and Wenger-defending articles posted here, and for that I must say I am really proud of you guys and what you do here.
    With that said, saw a comment regarding arsenal selling Gibbs, Walcott,Ox and Chambers.Not so sure of what that would mean to the team’s balance even though I would naturally sanction such a masssive sale(if I had any say). However, isn’t there a rule with regards to the number of english players in the entire squad for all individual premier league sides? If there is, then that might just be a difficult task for the manager to achieve or wouldn’t you say?
    I would probably propose a Theo-Chambers sale or maybe an Ox-Gibbs sale if the ‘Mahrez for chamberlain’ deal is a serious one. Although I must also say that am an admirer of the Ox (so much high expectations from the lad) and would feel bad if we lost him to title rivals. But for mahrez it would be an awesome bargain depending on how much is added.

  13. also reading that if two of Vardy, Mkhitaryan and Mahrez come in Campbell and Ox might have to move out. maybe on loans?

  14. This is my assumption:

    Arsenal is no longer a selling club so I think Arsenal won’t sell any of the British core players plus AW honors contracts unless the players want to leave. Ox and Chambers are still young so unlikely to leave, Gibbs might leave if AW get Rodriguez in, and Theo will probably stay another season, if he doesn’t progress he might leave but I believe he has a lot of emotional attachment to Arsenal so I think he will stay and accept being a substitute player and see out his contract.

    I read that Debuchy want to return to Arsenal and fight for his position, so that’s LB covered. I hope AW give Chambers more time as CB for experience, if he does well, then CB is covered also. Plenty of players in mid-field, so I think only a striker to cover for Danny is needed.

  15. I think if we do sign Vardy. Both him and Xhaka will be targeted by the refs.

  16. Be sad to see Leicester losing players like this. Remember Man City doing the same to use.

  17. It begin to feel like another Benzema to Arsenal type speculation again. The media said Vardy suppose to have a medical but didn’t, the excuse was Leicester ask him to hold up for another 24 hours so they can offer him another contract, sound like Vardy’s agent playing games to get a better deal. Now I’m guessing Vardy will stay at Leicester and he will say he never considered leaving blah blah. Then the media to save from embarrassment will pin it on AW for not getting the deal done because he wouldn’t pay X amount for Vardy’s wage and so on. Then the WOBs will use it to bash AW and the cycle continues.

  18. Polo
    If Vardy/his agent is using this to get an even bigger wage hike from LCFC, he will not be a very popular member of the dressing room!!

    Mandy
    I agree about the penalties – the PIGMOB will instead book him (or red card him) for “diving”!!

    By the way I calculate a certain Ollie G has scored 7 goals in 4 games !!
    COYG

  19. SHA, I understand that youth stadium at $iteh airport has a load of talent but because of the $iteh managements ‘Hire and Fire’ attitude towards managers, none of them have been prepared to take the risk of trying a youth players, and certainly not relying on one.

  20. The worry I have polo is if Vardy turns us down we will end up with egg on our faces and the press will have another stick to beat us with..You would think that with us being one of the so called top clubs in Europe and one of the richest with Arsene Wenger in charge we can prise a 29 year old from Leicester.It will not send out a very good message out about our club and it’s ability to attract the very best if we fail.

  21. We don’t even know for sure if Arsene Wenger wants Vardy, the press love to make up these types of stories. Whoever we get we will know when the Club announce it so I don’t even bother with press or what Sky or anyone else has to say. When I hear it from Arsenal then I will believe and not before. We go through this every transfer window so I don’t put myself through this pantomime as it can drive you bloody crazy.

  22. We should stop worrying about what the pundits and rivals say about everything Arsenal does. If Vardy comes, great, if he doesn’tthen Wenger will find other with the characteristics he wants. If i don’t have the football knowledge to say Wenger is wrong, if i don’t have 1% of the experience he has, and if that applies to those clicks wealthy pundits, then why do arsenal fans worry. Let them hate, while we enjoy the marvelous team that makes them so jealous.(excuse my English)

  23. Am I to be worried if I am scared that Vardy would come? And that others would leave?
    It’s been a very long time with me knowing very little about Arsenal related transfer stories. Probably, I shall keep it that way. With high hopes.

  24. Vardy signs; Vardy reneges; Vardy seeks extension of tym;Vardy decides afta Euro16 or not, why shuld we bother ourselves? Am confident AW has his game plan properly nd thoroghly planned out; Vardy will be a fool to throw away a golden chance to join D Arsenal Family nd play for one of d top 5 clubs in d world, maybe he’s unsure of himself to perform in an *rsenal shirt,he probably wants to remain in his small club where he is treated like a royal knoing he has greater artists like Ozil, Alexis, Santi, Rambo et al to contend wit:who knos? Cannnt blame d guy if he’s diffident nd unsure! Am sure Wenger is onto sometin else nd won’t hve sleepless 9ts cos of Vardy!!

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