By Sir Hardly Anyone
Oh yes oh yes oh dear.
Alexis Sanchez has agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract worth £14million after tax to join Manchester United. And it must be true because it is in the Telegraph. All the clubs are doing now is waiting for Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s agent to get out of the bath and let everyone know if the player will agree to go to Arsenal with all the negative publicity that will bring him.
Alexis rather likes it all, according to the Telegraph because it means the deal is apparently worth over £60m what with the transfer fee, the agent’s fee, the other agent’s fee, the signing on fee, the rights fees the fee’s fees, the fee fie foe fum fee, the feedly dee fee etc.
Quite why Manchester City are saying no we don’t know. Saying they are “not prepared to pay so much for a player who only has six months remaining on his contract” as the Telegraph puts it, seems unlikely since they have as much money as they want. The only issue could be that they think their wage bill will then exceed the permitted limit introduced by the Premier League this season. So could Man U be in a pickle? I suspect so unless they ship out some people.
Chelsea, who apparently according to the Telegraph, almost bought Alexis in the last transfer window, don’t want to bid against Man U.
Oh yes, and apparently the sale of Theo to Everton has also now gone through and Arsenal are “closing in on a move for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who wants to leave Borussia Dortmund.”
And they say that because “Aubameyang is believed to have a verbal agreement to join Arsenal” – which is not quite the same thing given that Arsenal would actually, by the laws of commerce, have to arrange things with Dortmund, and Dortmund are saying they want Giroud as part of the deal and Giroud says… well we don’t know.
They would apparently take Michy Batshuayi as a substitute but he isn’t playing ball either because he wants to go to Sevilla, and anyway they have a nice stadium, one that holds more than Stamford Bridge, and hosts Spain international matches. The Chelsea ground development is being held up by planning objections, and even if those are overcome the development time is now listed as four years from the date of sending the bulldozers in and players are saying they don’t want to play under the Bridge.
According to Ian Wright, in relation to Arsenal’s transfer policy, “Everything that is happening is being forced on them through other people. Mkhitaryan is not a player Arsenal have been after – he’s a player that Arsenal have been handed.”
Well, up to a point Ian. He did figure very strongly in the transfer rumours last summer, and although those turned out to be wrong, these stories must come from somewhere mustn’t they Ian? I mean you should know, you are part of the machine that generates all this stuff.
But Mr Wright was not finished yet, adding
“It’s the same with Aubameyang – a couple of years ago, he was on everyone’s radar but now he’s gone a bit cold. Then all of a sudden, he’s on Arsenal’s radar – it all feels panicky for me.”
98 goals in 143 games Ian. Think on that. You got 128 goals for Arsenal in 221 games. He’s got a better ratio than you.
Meanwhile the Telegraph also tell us that “Cesc Fabregas struggling for Carabao Cup semi-final return leg as Chelsea seek transfer reinforcements” (sorry about the missing verb before the third word, but that is how they speak in Telegraph land).
And of course we have some frantic frantic headlines rolling in. Just look at this…
- Yes it is a real spotted at the airport…
- And there is rebellion
Arsenal squad tell Wenger they never want to play with Alexis Sanchez again
- And yes Arsenal are getting it all wrong even though they have done nothing yet
Arsenal Made Huge Mistakes On Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang And Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Express
- And it is going to cost…
The two demands Henrikh Mkhitaryan has made before he’ll agree to join Arsenal
Mirror;
And those demands are… he wants a pay rise, and his agent needs paying. Wow!
- And there has been chit chat too
What Aubameyang has said to Borussia Dortmund after agreeing terms with Arsenal
He said he has agreed personal terms with Arsenal and has told his employees there is no coming back from the incident which saw him miss the Wolfsburg match.
- So it is all go go go except it isn’t.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan unhappy with Man Utd pushing transfer to Arsenal
That is just in from the Star. Mind you they are on another planet.
Today’s Anniversaries
And elsewhere…
There are some elements of truth in some of the stories though. Theo Walcot has gone to Everton, hasn’t he? When has Arsenal been this active in the January transfer window? Walcot gone. Coquelin gone. Sanchez?? And incoming players??? Whether it is good business or not, time will tell. I can’t blame anyone for the speculations, although I would be quick to say all the fake stories should be condemned. The question that should be asked though is, “How did we get here?” How many points are we behind the 4th placed team in the league? Wenger himself said the team needs strengthening after the weekend loss.There are lessons to be learnt and I hope we do. Even the optimist would agree that Mkhtaryan has been underwhelming and that Aubameyang’s disciplinary record for the past two seasons has not been stellar.We do not seem to have a solution from inside and the names being bandied about come with question marks. And we are 3 days away from the next game.It is time to wake up and smell the coffee. We seem to be rebuilding a team in the middle of the season. That is far better than let the decline take root.
It’ll be good if Jose Mourinho as he puts it, will convince Mr Ed Woodward, the Man Utd CEO to call off the bluffing of agent Mino Raiola, who has been causing disquiet at Old Trafford by his posturing to stall the transfer deal that will see Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Man U swapped for our own Alexis Sanchez to Man U this winter window to thereby stopping agent Raiola becoming a spanner in the works.
How on earth should agent Mino Raiola acting of behalf of his client, Mkhitaryan demanded that Henrikh’s £140k/w wage earning at Man U be impoved on before he can accept to join Arsenal? Is Mkhitaryan Sanchez? Arsenal might have purportedly offered Sanchez a £300k/w wages to extend his staying at the club which he turned diwn to accept Man U’s purported £350k/w wages.
If I were Mkhitarysn whose football has declined at Man U after he moved there from Dortmond will accept the offer on the tsble to move to Arsenal now to turn a new leaf in his career at the Emirates Stadium where if he works very hard to improved on his game under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager and gets into his starting XI in the remaining Arsenal’s 15 PL games and other ones in the Carabao and EL Cups games. And starts to performing credibly for Arsenal on regular basis scoring goals and giving assists to help Arsenal make the top four finish this season and win the Carabao and Europa League Cups. Then of course, at the end of this season, he can demand for a pay rise on his £140k/w wages he came to Arsenal with at the end of the season. And sure he will surely be compensated with a rise by Le Boss.
As both Arsenal and Man Utd earnestly want to move on in their transfer deals this window, and if agent Raiola will not for his financial greadiness to get double cuts in Mkhitaryan:s likely payoff by Man U for forcing him to go to Arsenal, which if they pay him off is in order since they had set the precedent by paying off Wayne Rooney when he went to Everton. But Miki’s payoff money cannot be up to that of Rooney’s payoff but far from it because Rooney was a Man U star and legend who scored many many many goals for the club to win both none major and major Titles after playing for the club for more than a decade. Of which Henrikh is far from at Man U. And again for agent Raiola to try to get another cut by instigating Henrikh to demand a wage increase from Arsenal before he’ll accept to join them so that he will get a 2nd agency fee out of the swap deal is unacceptable by any standard. However, I would think agent Raiola deserves to get his agency fee from the swap deal if it happens but only one cut from his client, Henrikh’s move to Arsenal when Man U does pay him off for forcing him to leave the club for Arsenal against his wish. For, I don’t think Arsenal will increase any wages for Miki this window beyond the £140k/w wages he arrived to the club with for Raiola to get any agency fee from. Even, Arsenal may attempt to lower Miki’s wages to £120k/w which is quite a big wages by all standard but save if Miki will match the £140k/w wages he arrived to Arsenal with with a commensurable regular high performance for Arsenal will Arsenal be content to continue paying the £140k/w wages. Let Mr. Ed Woodward go ahead henceforth with to sign Sanchez directly now without any players swapping if both agent Raiola and his client, Miki refused all reasons to cooperate in the process on the table.
The deal is done the pgmol have sanction Mike Dean into trying to bate Arsen Wenger in calling him a cheat and Dean faced no sanction for his terrible error in the West Brom game so is the pgmol a creditable origination
Sam, paragraphs, I read it all, but please, paragraphs.
Alexis agent if working for his own interests rather than those of Alexis would want a transfer, but also a delay would potentially allow a bidding war, which would be even more lucrative, the exception being all the top clubs are broke or on the limit concerning ffp!
However one better is that, stalling means that he can potentially achieve what may or may not be Alexis’s favoured solution, which is a stay in London, if you aren’t happy in London being a foreign national, you’ll hate Manchester mate.
If I am conscientious about a sale, for instance I want to sell my vintage classic car, but don’t really want to, I may accept a lower offer if I think the new owner will love my car as I did, but use a higher offer as leverage to coax the preferred owner to come closer to the valuation I have, even if the other offer was significantly greater than the real term value of the car in the market.
Alternatively I can also use all of these factors to delay a sale, while I attempt to refinance in order to keep my beloved prize possession.
Alexis has not been at his meteoric best, he played like he didn’t give a monkeys the other day. But as I said S’ Americans are botriously tenpestuos and if he actually wanted to stay, this would be his attitude. As he full well knows he can’t just go to a rival, he played for one of footballs too biggest rivals.
If he wanted to leave, I think with 6months remaining he could just ask, saying he wouldn’t perform if he wasn’t allowed to leave. But united are not looking like catching City, may win the CL but again it is unlikely.
Again, playing incredibly well and moving on a Bosnian would be most lucrative, so again why not simply wait?
Henry left because he wanted a trophy and then move, yet he probably should have won us the CL against the team he eventually moved to the season before. Without actually playing at CF and much at all. He knows it.
Hilarious is Longaard joking about Alexis arrival, he does know he doesn’t feature if he does right?
Ozil doesn’t leave, that announcement is good, and surely a contract will Ben forthcoming in that case?
Mikhi is a decent player, but I’m not sure about his consistency or mental strength. We need attitude, and Aubamayang brings that. We need to make them really contemplate the biggest threat and then we need pace off the bench, run them ragged! You’ll see Nelson and Iwobi off the bench winning games or making the scoreline embarassing.
We made the space for Aubamayang, now let’s see about Giroud, it’s a good fit, Dortmund need players not money. He’ll love the country and the style of pay with that give of activity around him, he can talk up Arsenal to Pulusic and Reus and yes their man is talking air, we are in discussions and Wenger doesn’t talk about other teams players.
😀
13 days to go! Alexis, wait, wait, wait! Only fools rush in!
Adebayor, RVP, Hleb, Henry, Vieria, Amelia, Nasri, Vernaelen if you leave under acrimonious circumstances you flop.
Successes: Van Bronchorst, Cole, Cole, Sagna, deserved at stage of career after leg break, Clichy, man he got lucky and it was win win.
The rest left because we had to finance and they got paid more, plus we had to go to another level. Walcott and Coquelin, I thank you.
winner, there are an awful lot more stories that don’t have any element of truth in them. The only one we know of these is the Alexis/Mkhitaryan one ‘may have legs’, but without knowing if the Mkhitaryan bit is obligatory or only an option.