By Rowley Birkin MBE
Before we begin, allow me if I may to introduce a new element in the annals of Untold. The “Bonkers notion of the Week”.
This appears on the ESPN website and reads thus
Perhaps Wenger sees Lacazette playing behind Giroud — especially if Alexis Sanchez does end up leaving the club — but the WSW game raised some question marks about whether the players themselves can do it.
The notion that one can decide if two players can play in a new formation in just one game is so bizarre it really makes one wonder how these writers make it through the door of the bar and up to the counter. This is why we have practice matches and why players train. It is not all about getting fit guys!
But of course it is what the media does now – an hour in one game, and the player, the manager and the tactics are measured forever. Of course the first practice match raised some questions. If it didn’t what would be the point of having practice matches???????
The runner-up bonkisity today is that Arsene Wenger, for reasons unknown, “doesn’t want” Reine-Adelaide at the club any longer and has already held discussions with at least one club – Ligue 1 side Nice being the club rumoured… Because, you see, nothing makes sense anymore.”
“Enough” I hear you scream. Here then is the table: the 28 players now being tipped to leave Arsenal. Actually you have to feel sorry for Alexis going to nine different clubs at once.
| No | Player | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Akpom | His loan to Brighton was not a success after a long injury spell so it seems the club are looking to try another loan to regain his pre-injury sparkle | |
| 2a | Alexis | Man C | Guardiola making £50m offer his summer priority. £50m. Talk Sprout says it is done. Mirror says he is finalising. |
| 2b | Alexis | Chelsea | Will play out contract and go on a free to Chelsea. |
| 2c | Alexis | Man U | Has already agreed deal |
| Update | Alexis | Nowhere | Mr Wenger has said “he is staying”. Or in some reports – he stays until we get Lemar |
| 2e | Alexis | Real Mad | Mentioned in lots of places. |
| 2f | Alexis | ??? | Arsenal had enough; anyone can have him for £80m |
| NEW | Alexis | PSG | The club has met with Alexis’ agent. Yep its PSG (Express) |
| NEW | Alexis | Bayern | Evening Standard says this is the deal. Elsewhere Bayern have “given up on Sanchez” |
| NEW | Alexis | Alexis to decide | Mertesacker has said that Alexis should be allowed to decide where he plays despite his contract. |
| 3 | Takuma Asano | Stuggart | He’s staying put as there is no work permit yet. |
| 4 | Krystian Bielik | Birmingham | City keen to extend loan for another year. Norwich keen. Also Nottm Forest. Could go to Leeds – but he has gone on the Ozzie tour so if he goes out it presumably will only be on loan. And we might need him for the first couple of weeks. |
| Update | Bellerin | Barcelona | Barce will sign him; no, he is happy to stay. No Barce are getting him on a cut price deal (details of which are unclear). He’s bought a house in Barcelona. Latest: he has asked for a transfer and Arsenal has refused. Latest, Barcelona have given up and are looking elsewhere. No he has already gone |
| Update | Campbell | Fenerbahce | Currently in talks to sign. No its Greece. But no, sadly he was injured playing for his country and will be out until the end of the year. |
| Update | Chambers | Newcastle | Or it could be Everton. There seems some uncertainty. Palace made a bid of £20m (Mirror) no £16m (Telegraph). TalkSp says it happens this week to Palace |
| 8 | Crowley | Willem II | News reports say this transfer is going through and that he is about to be presented to reporters. |
| 9 | Francis Coquelin | Valencia | This story has been going on and on and on and… |
| Update | Debuchy | Newcastle | Being made available on a free. No he’s off to Nice. |
| Update | Gibbs | Newcastle Watford, WBA | Hasn’t gone on the summer tour suggesting he is leaving. Watford don’t like the price so the suggestion is, AFC have cut it in half. Mail is reporting Newcastle interest. TalkSport says WBA this week. |
| Update | Olivier Giroud | Marseille | He wants to play more games. Marseille to make an offer right at the close of the window to force Arsenal to deal. |
| 12b | Giroud | West Ham | They really want him as they need more pace! |
| 12c | Giroud | No move | Wenger wants to keep him hence the new contract signed earlier |
| 12d | Giroud | Everton | Despite already signing over 50 players this summer, Everton want Giroud as well. “We’ll see who we’ve got when the window closes and pick a team from that” said A Spokesman. |
| 12e | Giroud | Borussia Dortmund | Apparently this is the one that really is true. Honest. |
| Update | Jenkinson | Newcastle | Just promoted, need players, but no real noise concerning his move except from Daily Mail. |
| 14 | Glen Kamara | Released | |
| 15 | Koscielny | Marseille | He’s just had enough |
| 16 | Matt Macey | He didn’t go to Oz, but will be too old to be the 4th keeper in the club next season (the 4th normally being an under 21), unless both the club and he are ready for that change in the process. | |
| Released | Savvas Mourgos | No details but he has been released. | |
| 18 | Ospina | Fenerbahce | Some are just saying “to Turkey” |
| Update | Oxlade Chamb | Liverpool! or Chelsea | They have offered £40m and made it a priority, no its Chelsea; either way the player is angry and wants to go. He’s “stultified” and needs to “flourish”. But Wenger has made it clear he is central to the club’s plan for this coming season. New one is Arsenal will give him to Chelsea and take Nemanja Matic in return |
| 20 | Özil | Real Mad | They realise they should have kept him. Mr Wenger says, he is staying. He’s on the Ozzie tour so seems to be staying. |
| Update | Lucas Perez | PSG, Deportivo La Coruna, Fenerbahce, | He’s an “outcast” according to “reports”. He didn’t go to Oz, but it is said that the proposed deal in Spain has broken down. Mail says Spain is back on for £12m |
| NEW | Reine-Adelaide | Nice | The Short Fuse: Arsene Wenger, for reasons unknown, “doesn’t want” Reine-Adelaide at the club any longer |
| 23 | Sanogo | Released | |
| 24 | Santi Caz | Not so much that he is going but that Arsenal must send him packing – until suddenly he posted pics of himself in the gym and said he was doing double training. Surely those early stories about “never play again” can’t just have been made up can they? | |
| Update | Wojciech Szczesny | Napoli or Juventus | Every newspaper seems to have this one. He doesn’t want to be here. Yes he does, the club doesn’t want him. £10m deal about to be done with Juve. |
| 26 | Nathan Tella | Southampton | Deal done and completed – he was released |
| 27a | Theo Walcott | West Ham | Ray Wilkins says he must leave to protect his career. Daily Star says he is going to West Ham. |
| NEW | Theo | Newcastle | The 4th official says this is the transfer that will happen |
| 27c | Theo | Everton | £30m on the table, so we are told. Suddenly this old story is headlined “Sensational” in “The 4th official” blog |
| New | Jack Wilshere | Sampdoria, Palace | The Metro has this one and they are sure he’s off. Express says £6.2m offer rejected. No its Palace on loan (Mirror) |
So there we have it. Alexis cut into slices as he is one of 27 players leaving. Quite a lot really.
The Index of Indexes
- The In Index: All the players tipped to be joining Arsenal this summer
- The Out Index: All the players tipped to be leaving Arsenal this summer (this page)
- The Purchase Index: All this summer’s player buying by the top 10 clubs of last season
- The Loan Index: The top clubs compared in terms of players loaned out
- The Premier League finances are utterly unsustainable. But will Arsenal survive?
- How Arsenal will line up next season: the 4 key tactics that we now know.
- Two Arsenal deals finally done – but one is utterly bizarre. Some good player news & some awful news.
That’s it then. We will have no players when the season starts….. 😉
Tony,
considering how places on the squad are going to be expensive, letting Reine-Adelaide out on loan under the guidance of Lucien Favre would be, as far as I am concerned, a very good idea. I don’t believe it would harm Arsenal, and it definitely would help Reine-Adelaide get experience, experience and experience under his belt.
Then, I stress, I mean a loan.
As for Bellerin, now the word out is that he is a traitor anyway and why would Barce hire a guy who left them as a teenager ?!? So why was that deal in the works when there was no way he could come back ?!?
By the way, last night on l’equipe21, they were talking about Debuchy at Nice
Come on, with Alexis’ energy he can play for 9 clubs at once, these clubs will have to only lose out when they play each other. 🙂
The Crowley move has been officially confirmed by both clubs. I hope we inserted a good sell on / buy back clause as he is a player with real potential.
Good morning, let me please first comment on the last threaded article posting before I comment on the one that is now threading.
Hitherto, in this part of this world of my country – Nigeria, the old English football division 1 – 4 were initially known and identified on the newspapers and the football forecast papers for pools staking only. And after the stakings which closes on Friday nights and the submitting of the marked coupons and the staked money collection are submitted to the promoters who are Lebanese, one won’t know the outcome of his stakings until Sunday evening when the results in the form of just the team names in coupon numbers form that drew in XXX are written on a board outside the pools staking office. And the confirmation of these results can be seen too in the newspapers as from Monday.
But when the BBC started running commentaries on some selected first division matches, the awareness of the English football began to grow mostly amongst pools stakers and they start to believe the football team names they are seen on the pools coupon are real and not fiction. And the showing of the matches that followed later on TV sets which were shown in recorded form by the TV stations, only then did the pools stakers started to believe the playing of these matches and the results released thereafter are real and not fixed as widely believed by the pools stakers.
Then, later on, when the cable company (ABG) started showing football matches live on TV including the Premier League games, the watching of the PL matches live on TV became very popular and popular not only in the circle of the pools stakers but also become so popular with the TV football watching people who are the majorly in watching and not pools coupon stakers.
If the PL reverts to the indigenous and the exclusive English or the UK citizens only, in managerial management and players recruiting level it was initially in the early days of the playing of the English football at division 1 – 4 levels, what is going to happen to the global appeal status and vast amount of money accrued to the PL which it has now attained?
Firstly, since the singing of Bakayoko by Chelsea could leads to Matic being sold this summer, and since Arsenal are yet to have a true and thorough DM in the rank and file of their senior team squad, no disrespect of Coquelin, I for one would not mind if Arsenal sign the DM Nemanga Matic this summer to beat Man Utd to his signing. But if Matic is still the top quality DM we now him to be. But even if his still is, why would Antonio Conte wants to offload him? But hasn’t he started to offload their Chelsea last season on the field top quality performing striker Diego Costa? So, his wanting to offload Matic may have nothing to do with him lacking top performance for Chelsea on the field last season but for something else. Would Arsenal then want to cash in on the availability of Matic this summer?
Secondly, I didn’t know that a player’s remaining contract at a club can be paid for, plus his transfer fee by the club that wants to sign the player if the two clubs involved agree to that kind of arrangement. Then, if AS Monaco continue to stall in transferring Thomas Lemar to Arsenal as being demanded by Arsenal to have him transferred to them at the reported £45m plus another £5m as add ons in transfer fee, can Arsenal close eye and pay for the sum of the remaining contract deal of Lemar at Monaco if the money isn’t big to speed up this transfer but if Arsenal can afford this extra cost and at no any sell on/buy back clause inserted in the transfer deal by Monaco?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40642635
No matter what Arsenal are the shirt for Europe.
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2017/07/14/gunning-eu-deal-barnier-wooed-arsenal-shirt/
“Wojciceh Szczsney arrives Turin for Jeventus Medical” – Sports.
I must say the Le Prof resolving to ship out Szczsney out of the Emirates Stadium for sales this summer baffled me. For, I wonder, why this shipping out of Szczsney by Le Prof happening since he has a better goalkeeping statistics way ahead of what goalkeeping statistics Osipna posted. In fact, according that goalkeeping comparing al the three Arsenal goalkeepers of Cech, Szczsney and Ospina, Cech only beat Szczsney marginally by one point. Whereas, Szczsney beats Ospina by some twenty points. Then, I ask, why has Le Prof then wants Szczsney out of Arsenal at his preference to keep the less in goalkeeping quality to Szczsney, Ospina? Is it because of the past indiscipline records of Szczsney at Arsenal Le Prof has done this?
Samuel,
maybe you shoul reverse the question. Maybe it is Szczesny who wants out of Arsenal?
When he was at Arsenal some part of the fans turned against him at every opportunity for many years. And then he went to Italy and there he was looked at as one of the best keepers over there. So if I would be in his shoes I would rather stay in a country where the fans and media love him and admire him for his qualities.
Even yesterday I saw a film on YouTube (I didn’t watch it) made my Arsenal “fans” who made a compilation of all his errors during his Arsenal career.
So if I would be Szczesny I would probably stay in Italy also.
The fact that Juventus sees Szczesny as the keeper to follow up Buffon next season is saying enough on what a good goalkeeper he is. Something I never doubted and I must say I feel sad that he goes. But I wouldn’t be surprised that the constant negativity surrounding him (and Arsenal) while with us made him willing to leave our club.
A big thanks to our loyal and supportive fans. (sarcastic mode that last one)
When Čech arrived, Szczesny was one of the first to welcome him saying that he was ready to learn from one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. Little did we know that he actually reffered to Buffon.
Szczesny’s career has been a weird one. After the Carling Cup Final 2011, some “fans” wanted his head. He was 21 at the time. As time passed by, Szczesny was getting more and more mature. True, he was dropped at the beggining of our powerful run-in in 2012-13 for Fabianski but after Lukasz picked an injury, Chez returned to the goal and did his job until the end.
Much has been said about Arsenal being 128 days top of the table in 2013-14 but you can rarely find a mention of Chez winning The Golden Glove (actually, he was a joint winner with Petr Čech). For an error-prone goalkeeper in a team that can’t defend, it was amazing feat. (I’ll borough Walter’s sarcastic mode on this one.)
His 2014-15 was probably the season when his destiny at Arsenal was sealed. On the first day of 2015 we lost 2:0 at Southampton and he was more or less at fault for both of their goals. The game was followed with a few awful comments from his own father and – what is very important – Szczesny’s response that was full of loyalty for both Arsene and his team-mates. Find me another player in the world who has reached the same level of loyalty. It went under the radar as the media spent more time counting the cigarettes he had smoken. (Disclaimer: I find every footballer who smokes as irresponsible.)
However, Arsene dropped him for Ospina and it was a masterstroke as Oooooospina had eight clean sheets in just one half-season. Szczesny got his chance in FA Cup but didn’t cover himself with glory, especially during the game against Reading.
Once we got Čech, Szczesny had to find the first team-football elsewhere. He got it in Italy and obviously got attention from Juventus. For some reason, Arsene didn’t find him good enough to stay at Arsenal. There are unconfirmed and rather undefined rumours on Twitter that there was some sort of out-of-the-pitch thing that cost Szczesny his place at Arsenal.
Then again, maybe, just like it happened in the case of Gnabry, it could be just that Arsene has other ideas about the player’s future. Perhaps he thinks Emi Martinez – a huge goalkeeper who has had a few impressive performances – is a bigger potential than Chez just like he thought, say, Iwobi is a bigger talent than Gnabry.
Walter
Couldn’t agree more.
The media, aided and abetted but far too many of our gullible brain dead fans, never gave the guy a moments peace, or an ounce of credit, despite what seemed to me the obvious fact he was a great keeper and actually seemed to really enjoy being at Arsenal, at least to begin with.
He is not, by a long chalk, the first player to feel the wrath of our fickle fans, and he sure as hell wont be the last.
The harm done to our Club by the insidious media and the treacherous fans that follow like sheep in there wake, should never be underestimated.
There are numerous reasons why Szceszny might look elsewhere for playing time:
1)He is behind Cech and Ospina or Cech and Martinez for the moment,
2)Poland are in the WC and it is essential that their first team keeper gets a full season of competitive games before summer 2018,
3)His value has increased significantly since 2015 and he is a valuable commodity for the Arsenal,
4)He may feel betrayed or undervalued by some of the fan base but he is too smart a person to let that decide his fate….it is more the likelihood of winning trophies that has him thinking.
I’m really getting fed up with Sky Sports. They are constantly having a go at Arsenal, and now they have this thing called “The Alexis Conundrum”. They ask people to select what they THINK Arsenal FC should do with him.
Make him stay
Sell Him
Give him a new deal
What’s the point of all this, I ask? Why do they THINK we fucking care a rat’s arse about what they say?
They also had a go at the boys being dressed up in martial arts gear. “This is what football has come to” they said.
Morons!
Mohamed Elneny to Galatasaray
Mohamed Elneny’s Leicester snub