By Sir Hardly Anyone
After yesterday’s look at which youth players are now training with the first team, looking to be the next Bellerin or Iwobi, it is interesting that Mourinho has started to “defend” his own record with youngsters. Speaking about the fact that he simply could not find ways to bring young players through he said, “Some of them are big names, they are today Champions League winners or in the Euros, playing for national teams and 49 is a lot. So once more, one lie repeated many times, sometimes it looks like it’s true but it will be always a lie.”
The Telegraph does not take kindly to this, responding that
The 49 players that Jose Mourinho promoted from academies, and why his list does not stand up to scrutiny
Of the 49 players cited at Benfica, Uniao de Leiria, Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, almost half of them – 23 – made just one appearance under Mourinho with another 10 playing only two games for the Portuguese. Most were packed off on loan or sold no sooner had they being handed their debuts. Just 14 of the players listed made more than five appearances under Mourinho, who bristled at suggestions he does not give enough opportunity to youngsters.
Which makes an interesting change from the normal hero worship fawning over Mourinho and Man U which most media sources dish out day after day after day after…
Meanwhile one of the names missing from yesterday’s preview of the youth players looking to be promoted to the first team squad at Arsenal was Jon Toral who was so superb at Birmingham last season. The story is that he has another loan deal – this one with Granada (that’s the Spanish club, not the old TV company from Manchester).
So onto today’s transfer inventions.
1: Arsenal make move for experienced Borussia Dortmund defender
Arsenal have (allegedly) made contact with Borussia Dortmund over a move for central defender Neven Subotic, according to the Daily Star. Apparently he has recently “hinted” that he wants to leave and “Arsenal are now keen to swoop in for the 27-year-old as they look to bolster their defensive options.” His problem is that he is on the beach too much. Really?
2: Robin Van Persie set for shock Arsenal return?
How bizarre do you want your bizarre to be? Or how desperate do you want to portray Arsenal as?
According to the Dutch journalist Rep Ports
Earlier this week, Fenerbahce president Azil Yildirim said: “Van Persie? We’re waiting for buyers, if he wants to be sold.”
3: Arsenal to offer Morata £££££££
According to Talksprout, Arsenal will give Alvaro Morata loadsofmoney if he will only sign.
This is the story that has been bouncing around since April. Morata rejoins Real Madrid from Juventus after activating the £23m buy-back clause, and then sell him on to Chelsea and PSG probably both at the same time, but also raise the prospect of Arsenal at £144,000-a-week salary.
4: Bayern Munich making bid for Koscielny whose contract ends in one year.
This Evening Standard story then took a twist with others saying that Koscielny’s contract doesn’t end in one year and that Bayern made a mistake. So you have your choice of analyses here
a) Bayern made a mistake but were stupid enough to let their interest be known before checking
b) The contract does end in a year but Kos is going to re-sign
c) The contract doesn’t end in a year but Bayern knew that all the time and there was no bid, it was all made up. Surely not.
5. Wojciech Szczesny to return to Roma on loan
Gazza Mercato is now called an outlet by the bloggettas, which is rather odd. Anyway, Szcz had a successful loan last season, wanted to stay, but Arsenal were playing silly buggers over the deal, but have now reached agreement. That at least is what the outlet namers are saying.
“It is rumoured that Roma could make the deal permanent next summer.” So there we are.
6. Worrying for Arsenal that the top clubs keep sniffing around
Footlatest is indeed click bait with Sky Bet funding it, but if you can avoid being sucked into the adverts you might see the headline noted above.
and if that were not enough trying this
Tempting players to the Emirates is one thing, but retaining them is something else, with major teams from La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga all linked with Arsenal stars. Barcelona have long been associated with interest in re-signing full-back Hector Bellerin, while Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are apparently set to compete for centre-back Laurent Koscielny. Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez is also in doubt, with Juventus enquiring as to his availability.
Although the two defenders are questionable in terms of current quality, the transfer rumours should come as some concern to the Gunners. If the European heavyweights attempt to raid the Arsenal squad, it will be difficult to reject their advances, potentially crippling efforts to upgrade and improve.
I leave you to make of that what you want. “Questionable in terms of current quality”???
7: Dan Crowley to Oxford for the season
This one is a done deal. Apparently.
8: Stefan O’Connor on trial at MVV Maastricht.
I think that means having a run out with the football club, rather than having been arrested.
9. Tyrell Robinson to go to West Ham
No more news on that one as yet. Either you read it hear first (or perhaps second) or I shall blame someone else. [This is exactly the sort of honesty that other outlets reporting transfers utterly lack and what makes Untold so different – Tony]
10: Arsenal now plan to pay Everton £38m for Romelu Lukaku.
“Which of the two will be on penalties remains to be seen, but as any manager will tell you, it’s a nice problem to have.” That passes for wit in the Guardian which made the story up.
11. Arsenal have indicated they are prepared to pay the €40 million (£34.2 million and dropping fast as the pound goes into meltdown) fee that will trigger talks with Lyon to sign their striker Alexandre Lacazette.
What exactly does “indicated” mean in this context, especially when followed by this….
However, no bid has been lodged yet for the 25-year-old France international who has once more rejected the chance to join West Ham United.
Here is the broader picture (or fantasy, depending on your point of view) from the Telegraph.
West Ham returned to Lyon again this week having failed with a series of bids to persuade Lacazette to join them earlier this summer. But having missed out on their second choice, Michy Batshuayi, who has joined Chelsea for £33 million, and with Crystal Palace hoping to seal a move for their third choice, Christian Benteke, for £31.5 million, West Ham made one final effort for Lacazette.
Later on they add however
Arsenal have yet to follow through their interest in Lacazette and it would appear Wenger is assessing other options. Paris St-Germain have also not given up hope of signing Lacazette, although it remains unlikely he will play for another French club, while Atlético Madrid have a long-standing interest and, having signed Fernando Torres on a one-year deal, and with their main target Diego Costa expected to stay at Chelsea, could make a move if they sell Argentine striker Luciano Vietto to Porto.
- Arsenal addition to the first team will be chosen from this shortlist revealed today.
- The EC takes on Barcelona (yet again), this time with Real Madrid. Is there no end to their criminal behaviour?
- Some Arsenal fans still don’t get it but the at least the press have done a U turn on Giroud.
Untold Arsenal has published five books on Arsenal – all are available as paperback and three are now available on Kindle. The books are
- 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
In case you were wondering, Jon Toral makes 12, and we think that Toral and Crowley are true, with Szczczczcz being likely.
And since we are carrying on with rumours , innuendos and jokes , here’s a few –
Joke 1 : A friend just told me that there is a new slimming product in town. It is called Brexit. It’ll help you lose a lot of pounds.
Joke 2 : EU has some free space now, exactly 1 GB.
Joke 3 : The English language will have only 3 vowels now: a, i ,o having exited e u .
Joke 4 : Since the Pound has lost so much value yesterday, they are considering naming it Ounce.
Then when it gets better they will rename it Bounce .
( And very much , much later – Trounce ?)
Didn’t seeToral ( or Jenkinson or Santi Cazorla) in the photos of yesterday’s training.
Santi??? Where are you?? He has gone under the radar. That’s what you get when you are not that big 😉
Good ones Brickfields. Pound for pound your jokes are better than mine!
Jose! Someone needs to remind him that some managers never get sacked. Winning is fuck all if you get sacked.
Arsenal Arsenal, where art thou
Come forth and shine your light
For the time is right, now.
We want to be thrilled
with skill and determination
lots of goals for and against none
throughout the coming season
until we reach the top again
in a way that only Arsenal can.
That’s my wish for the coming season. 🙂
“press turn on Mourinho” I’m not too sure about that. Yesterday, on the Sky Sports app, i counted 11 articles dedicated to Mourinho (and that’s out of about 20 in total). Not one of them had any negative things to say (in fact quite the opposite). He has already seemingly out of the blue, taken a pop at Wenger, stating; “There are some managers, the last time they won a title was 10 years ago. For me, it was one year”. Such a disgusting, insidious little man. You can tell his hatred for Wenger, stems purely from jealousy.
Jammy J–youre right, it is some kind of jealousy.But what is it hes actually jealous of? Wengers dignity?
Certainly Mourinho is very insecure,and feels threatened by Arsène and likes to fan the flames so he can try to exploit potential positions.No wonder hes the AAA’s favourite.
To do so,must mean that hes insecure about his “new” teams ability on the field?
Poor Matta, he’ll be off soon.But maybe the Manure players turn on Jose too…
Unfortunately the press love Mourinho,even though he’s a fraud who changes his views regularly to suit his situation.The AAA and WOBs love him too because his crassness against Wenger suits their agendas as these people care not whether any of it is true,as long as it meets their aims to belittle AFC at every opportunity.
Wenger is simply not in Mourinho’s class. When I read the script of his interview on Brexit, I felt for the umpteenth time, this guy is Prime-Ministerial!
on Mou:
“It is pointless being angry for long at a dog barking, after all, that is what they do”.
Lanz
That is surely a very serious insult to AW, “Prime-Ministerial” indeed. Paah. 🙂
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11833/10457980/lionel-messi-gets-21-month-sentence-for-tax-evasion-but-set-to-avoid-prison
@ Kenneth – I believe it’s a number of things that are the root of Mourinhos jealousy. His class, the way he revolutionized the English game, the way he kept Arsenal competitive for so many years, with practically zero net-spend, the way that the board at Arsenal clearly trust him implicitly, the way he can transform and improve a player so drastically and the beautiful football he is able to produce.
These are all things that Mourinho severely lacks and in reality; these attributes/achievements are so much more impressive than everything Mourinho is known for; spending obscene amounts of money and winning by playing extremely negative football.
If anyone wants to throw-up a little, you should read this article; http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/10425795/jose-mourinho-hits-right-note-with-assembled-media-on-manchester-united-bow
Mourinho and Manchester United; it’s the perfect storm and the media love-in, is absolutely nauseating. I was genuinely over the moon when he left the PL and we no longer had to endure his pathetic, spiteful antics and the media fawning over his every word. Now with him at the helm at Man U, it’s going to be so much worse than before. I really can’t wait…
Jammy J-(@4.26pm) All your points are spot on mate-you got straight to the roots of it all!
This is how I see the future:
At the start of 2018/19 season, Arsene Wenger WILL be the Manager of Arsenal. Jose Mourinho WON’T be manager of Manchester United!