- So far this is a transfer window unlike any other.
- Arsenal sign top Spanish player as they commit to more women’s games at home
By Tony Attwood
“Chelsea set to land transfer windfall amid £119m payment.” That line on Football London was repeated on the site and copied elsewhere, and undoubtedly brought in lots of readership for the site which specialises in such tales.
And the good news for Football London is that (one might say a little surprisingly, but that would be churlish) it was completely true. What’s is all very good, except for one tiny detail.
The headline implies (but to be fair does not say) that this is something unique to Chelsea.
But it is not just Chelsea – all clubs get paid money for players used in the Euros. How much they get primarily depends on the number of players, but also takes into account how far each player’s team goes in the competition. So just how much compensation the clubs have received is not known until the competition reaches the final.
But the fact is that there was no reason to single out the Chelsea amount other than the usual ulterior motives of boosting Chelsea’s image (which of course I could not possibly speculate upon) and the club itself putting out a press release on the fact and the journalists just copying it and publishing it. I have no evidence on that either, but something made the website which is supposedly about all London clubs, pick out Chelsea.
However what we can say is that Chelsea are not alone – most certainly not, as 19 of the Premier League clubs for next season will get something from the player fund. Only Ipswich Town with no players in the tourney will miss out and not make a penny out of this summer’s games.
Here are the player totals for each of the 19 clubs with players there – and for Arsenal I’ve given the list of nine players.
- Leandro Trossard (Belgium)
- Aaron Ramsdale, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka (all England),
- William Saliba (France),
- Kai Havertz (Germany),
- Jorginho (Italy),
- Jakub Kiwior (Poland),
- Kieran Tierney (Scotland)
- David Raya (Spain),
- Oleksandr Zinchenko (Ukraine).
And here’s the list club by club for the number of players called up for the Euros
- Manchester City: 14 players
- Arsenal: 11 players
- Liverpool: 10 players
- Chelsea: 8 players
- Manchester Utd: 8 players
- Brentford: 7 players
- Brighton: 6 players
- Crystal Palace: 5 players
- Aston Villa: 4 players
- Leicester City: 4 players
- Newcastle United: 4 players
- Tottenham Hotspur: 4 players
- West Ham United: 4 players
- Wolverhampton Wanderers: 3 players
- Everton: 3 players
- Fulham: 3 players
- AFC Bournemouth: 3 players
- Nottingham Forest: 2 players
- Southampton: 1 player
So why did FoLo pick on Chelsea given that they were only fourth in the chart (equal with Manchester United and not even the highest London team (which is relevant for since the site is “Football London”, that could have been an excuse).
One possible reason is they reckon Chelsea are more newsworthy at the moment. Another is that the author is a Chelsea fan (I don’t know that is true, but it is possible). Another is that FoLo think that the site looks for positive news about Chelsea, but tends only to run negative stories about Arsenal.
I’ve not been so nerdish as to undertake a count of such things but it certainly does seem that FoLo likes to knock Arsenal when it can but tends to be more pro-Chelsea in its commentary. But beyond that I suspect the answer is simply that Chelsea FC put out the statement as part of their campaign to suggest to the media that they have no issues in meeting financial fair play and similar targets after their splurges of recent years.
My suspicion is that the press release hit FoLo’s desk and they ran it and that was that. And that made me wonder what else could hit which could suddenly turn up as a news item when in fact it isn’t.
After a quick look around I found in The Fishy (a beautifully eccentric statistical site for fans of Grimsby Town) a league table based on the last 100 games of Premier League clubs that have been in the league for the last 100 consecutive games (which is around two and a half seasons)…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 100 | 75 | 16 | 9 | 260 | 85 | +175 | 241 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 100 | 69 | 12 | 19 | 223 | 100 | +123 | 219 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 100 | 62 | 24 | 14 | 212 | 102 | +110 | 210 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 100 | 50 | 23 | 27 | 181 | 127 | +54 | 173 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 100 | 52 | 16 | 32 | 197 | 147 | +50 | 172 |
| 6 | Man Utd | 100 | 51 | 19 | 30 | 148 | 134 | +14 | 172 |
| 7 | Aston Villa | 100 | 46 | 20 | 34 | 160 | 138 | +22 | 158 |
| 8 | Chelsea | 100 | 40 | 28 | 32 | 158 | 137 | +21 | 148 |
| 9 | Brighton | 100 | 38 | 28 | 34 | 156 | 144 | +12 | 142 |
| 10 | Brentford | 100 | 34 | 26 | 40 | 145 | 148 | -3 | 128 |
| 11 | Crystal Palace | 100 | 32 | 30 | 38 | 128 | 133 | -5 | 126 |
| 12 | West Ham | 100 | 34 | 22 | 44 | 137 | 163 | -26 | 124 |
| 13 | Wolverhampton W | 100 | 33 | 18 | 49 | 107 | 154 | -47 | 117 |
| 14 | Everton | 100 | 28 | 24 | 48 | 100 | 150 | -50 | 108 |
As we can see Arsenal are 22 points behind Manchester City, which is not bad considering that the 100 games includes the end of the 2021/22 season which included a run of one win and four defeats in five matches in March and April, and just two wins in eight at the end of the 2022/23 season. Last season saw a great improvement in stopping such dips which was one of the major steps forward.
Tony
“Another is that FoLo think that the site looks for positive news about Chelsea, but tends only to run negative stories about Arsenal”.
Personally I do not doubt that for one moment. It has been so throughout the media for as long as I can remember and this media negativity has been well documented on here many times, by your good self, specifically with regards to examples in the 30’s I think it was, but also from myself and many others regarding more recent history with such negative tags as ‘Lucky Lucky’ ‘Boring Boring ‘ Arsenal. The notion that Arsenal, or more specifically Pires imported diving into the premiership. ‘Same Old Arsenal, Always Cheating. Whinging Wenger. Wilshere caused his own injuries. Wenger caused the teams injuries. Arsenal are a bunch of Foreign softies. You yourself Tony have highlighted many times the sheer quantity of negative stories that go up on the aforementioned FoLo. One an hour was not unusual. The list of negative media tags attached to Arsenal go on and on.
In recent history we’ve had the over the top criticism of Saka for his penalty miss. Echoes of that resurfacing after the first game of these Euro’s where they made Saka ‘The Face’ of the opening poor performance. Then as I pointed out Rice’s face was the first on our screens when berating our ‘super stars’ for under performing yet again in the last match.
Yet despite all this people still insist it is all in our imagination. we even get the following from a supposed Arsenal supporting blog, Just Arsenal’ :
“I have noticed a common theme throughout Euro 2024. There are Gooners getting increasingly sensitive about any Gunners performance being questioned with media accused of only doing so based on their Arsenal agenda.”
Then then ask:
“Now I don’t know the age of every person who leaves a comment on the internet. I have seen YouTubers pull at this thread, asking how dare anyone ask for Saka to be dropped by England?”
But they are not. We are not. I am not. We are asking why he is being singled out? Being, made the face of the poor performances when he is clearly no worse than anyone
else, including Bellingham and Kane and Folden and Palmer, and in fact he’s been better than most. But, really we know why don’t we? The media’s favourites are Bellingham and Palmer and they are p***** off that Palmers not starting games and they see Saka as the man in his way.
But this is the one.
“Or how can anyone question the form of Declan Rice?”
Well, exactly. How can they? He is easily, without question, our most consistent player in every match and has been throughout the tournament. His stats in the last match were flawless, yet he was rated across the media at an average of 5.5, or in the case of Talksport, 3.Yes Bellingham has provided the ‘glory’ moments and has understandably received the plaudits for them, but he hasn’t played ‘well’. And despite his goal, neither has Kane.
Just Arsenal go on to say:
“I have to believe that. If not, I have to deal with the reality that there are grown adults who think that the BBC, ITV, Talk Sport, etc have travelled to Germany and their coverage of the European Championship is undermined by their apparent obsession with the red half of North London?”
I cant believe a grown adult has listened to MOTD, SKY Sports, Talksport, or read The Sun, Mirror, The Mail etc. and NOT heard the bias! Durham on Talksport had a DAILY article specifically criticising Arsenal!
Which other team has had that?
Honestly, if this guy cannot see/hear the overarching negativity towards Arsenal and their players over the years, and continuing into this tournament, then I question his sanity.
Anyway Tony, moving on from that regarding compensation for playing at the Euros.
Do Clubs get compensation for players at Cupa America?
Whilst I agree with all that both Tony and Nitram say, the alternative would be worse. Accurate reporting and non biased comment would be so dull and leave my blood pressure waning to the point of worry.
Let’s be fair the media can’t stand the London success in the Premier League. Even worse that half the Premier League is made up of teams from London and the south. 7 teams from London and Arsenal are the top of them all.
If, and I so hope it’s the coming season, we overcome the juggernaut of City 115 I’ve no doubt that there will be accusations of bias and wrongdoing. The press have prepared their narrative for the coming season and it doesn’t include success for Arsenal. That only makes it a the sweeter.
Graham Day
You may well have a point regarding the banality and tedium of reality. I just wish they’d find a different target to abuse to lighten the mood.
But more seriously Graham, I do, and always have maintained that the endless media criticism has adversely affected our club over the years.
-Too many fans buy into it and as we have sadly witnessed, this leads to our own fans abusing our own players, manger and club in general.
-Officials can clearly see that we are disliked by the media and that has lead to the belief that poor decisions against Arsenal will always be treated with acceptance, and poor decisions in our favour will lead to ridicule. I do not believe for the most part that referees are ‘cheats’, they just follow the path of least resistance.
-A combination of the two aforementioned has lead to players being disheartened to the point of losing form, and I believe in some cases, even wanting to leave the club.
Of course, all clubs get it in the neck at times. Lots of players too. My argument is that in Arsenals case it is relentless.
Look, it’s just my opinion and I realise it’s largely subjective, despite the examples pointed out in my previous post, but it’s what I believe.
From JustArsenal yesterday – “Another Bologna star turns down Arsenal in favour of a Premier League rival”
I see only two problems with this title.
1) The Bologna star in question is Zirkzee. I’ve not seen anything to indicate that Arsenal are or have ever been interested.
2) The article does not tell us who the previous Bologna star that rejected Arsenal is.