By Tony Attwood
The current prediction is that the Tiny Totts are going to be the big spenders in January. Or Man U. Or Man C. Or QPR. Or indeed Arsenal. Of course it depends which paper you read. I’ll come back to Arsenal in a mo, but first…
QPR certainly have the desperation, as if they go down, they are going into the Conference because they won’t pay the fine the Football League is levying on them for FFP – and then they will face a long legal battle to try and get themselves back into the league without paying the fines.
Such stuff may result in a shrug of the shoulders for you or me, but it has the opposite effect for players thinking of transferring. Would you go to a club that is facing ejection from the league?
It is indeed an interesting way to run a club. Of course the same could be true with Leicester but we just don’t know for sure yet. Their fans are eternally certain that there is nothing amiss vis a vis FFP, and I never claim to get each of these predictions right – maybe Leicester is where I get my FFP comeuppance.
Tottenham look like they will spend because the chairman alternates between a) blaming the manager and b) blaming the players. At the moment we are in b) mode so more players are needed, with all those young men bought with Bale money now leaving for half what was paid.
If anyone can be found to take them on at the salaries they are commanding that is.
And that last sentence sums up the transfer point. Get the transfer wrong, and the player will be inclined to stay and not play, knowing that the club will either reduce his transfer fee to nothing, or let the contract run out, when it is nothing. Or if he prefers, the player can simply say “Webster” (the Court of Arbitration in Sport ruling of 2008 that says that no player contract more than three years old can be enforced by the club). Either way, his salary will be enhanced next time round if his new club doesn’t have a transfer fee to pay.
Tottenham would like to bid farewell to “troubled” Emmanuel Adebayor, who the Telegraph reckon is on £9,000,000 a year salary. They also say Andros Townsend, Vlad Chiriches and Paulinho are being given the shove.
As for us, well you certainly don’t need me to mention what the press say all the time: “a defensive midfielder and a spare centre-half.” But I said it anyway.
The Sunday Mirror has us after Croatia international and Dinamo Zagreb midfielder Marcelo Brozovic for £5m. He is 21, or maybe 22 (the Mirror quotes both ages in different paragraphs of the same article. Pesky things, ages.) The Mirror also said in their “three things Arsenal fans need to know” (so good of them to tell us what we need to know) that he’s experienced, but not a defensive midfielder and “Arsenal face stiff competition”.
Which is a set up for “Arsenal let wonder-kid slip through their fingers”. Two articles for the price of one.
Man City and Chelsea are boxed in by FFP, so can’t really buy much unless they sell quite a lot. – which is why the suggestion in the Express that Chelsea are buying Strootman for £30m seems unlikely.
And indeed this is where the big salary problem comes in. The people they might sell a high earning player to (PSG, Monaco, Barcelona) have problems. Barcelona can’t buy anyone until that appeal of their’s hits the CAS, which it isn’t doing, and PSG and Monaco are up against FFP. Indeed Uefa has been looking at Liverpool over FFP (although again this is something strongly denied by many of the club’s supporters, as with Leicester), and I reckon they too are going to have to do some unloading first.
But it is said the Liverpool could loan Balotelli back to Inter Milan – although really they need to sell him, to start getting some space within the confines of FFP.
Also lurking around at the foot of all the transfer talk is the suggestions that Man City will continue the loan deal of Lampard. This is seen as a crucial development, because if Uefa let this pass without comment then the door is open for every club to set up associated clubs, transfer players there, and then loan them across. FFP by-passed in one movement.
But some say it looks like Arsenal have at last lined up their first signing for the January transfer window as the Express is reporting that Arsenal have outbid Real Madrid in “the race to sign the Cruzeiro midfielder Lucas Silva.”
Elsewhere it is said that the cost is £12m. Other rumours say he is going to Chelsea and Real Mad (although not both at one presumably) but some say he wants Arsenal because of Arsenal’s reputation of playing young talented players rather than loaning them out again (in the Chelsea style).
The other rumours out there seem so unlikely however it is a miracle that they ever become rumours. Take Marseille striker Andre-Pierre Gignac who has “turned down” Arsenal to go to Milan. He will be out of contract, in the summer and Marseille don’t want to keep him, and he is 29. Does it sound likely? We have more than enough strikers as it is – with some talent in the youth team, so why buy a 29 year old reject?
More possible is Asier Illarramendi of Real Mad who Real Mad might want to unload and who plays defensive midfield. Could be.
But sorry, no out and out defenders on the horizon at the moment. I think the people from the Star and Express are not doing their job properly. They really should give us a couple of defenders a day, surely.
offtopic:
See someone draw Alexis free hand.
Video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2870834/Watch-Arsenal-fan-draw-awesome-picture-Alexis-Sanchez-filmed-time-lapse-video.html
Scroll down til you see vid.
Tony – Re the Totts above, I had two separate conversations with Tottenham season ticket holders over the weekend. They both, independently, stated that a “delegation of senior players” had gone to Levy wanting rid of Pocchetino because they didn’t like his high intensity pressing tactics (presumably he was working them harder than they would have wished). Levy apparently said that he couldn’t afford to lose another manager so they would have to like it or lump it (or words to that effect).
I also heard the “real” reason why Adebayor had to return to Togo – although I don’t want to put Tony at risk of a libel case so had better not repeat the quite extraordinary story! Sorry…
As for FFP, I see that three Championship clubs have been hit with a transfer embargo. Some real teeth being shown here.
With respect to Tottenham, has the arson investigation found out if the sheet metal works fire was deliberately set, and if so, by whom?
Would Lucas Silva get a work permit? We don’t want another Campbell/Wellington saga.
Great CL draw – we got AS Monaco.
The Chavs got PSG. Looking forward to the games. Oil v Oil somethings gotta slip!!!
@Menace
‘Oil v Oil somethings gotta slip!!!’
Or crude v refined I would suggest.
Crude Extruded Sludge vs. Asphyxiant Non-Atmospheric Methane
Hang on, that’d be the UAE vs. Qatar Peninsular Derby game above.
Gazprom vs. Qatar is a different ball game I think. Lots of gas but if you’re looking foor substr=tance fair to say “there’s nothing there!”
(which is hy the Gazprom-upon-Fulham fans desperatley cling on to the freehold of their pitch. The less the 24/7 Footy hack-dwarves have to say about that story, the better. Right? Oh look, it’s Usmanov down his local, what a story! Never mind the Fizman-Kronke handover whoch we shall never mention. Ever…)
Media speculation is all complete bull.
Any Arsenal supporter would welcome a top quality CH; Chambers was meant to be cover for the big 2 but has been forced into too many starts at FB, which could put back his development.
So experienced cover in that position is almost vital (short term either Monreal or Debuchy are more than adequate), Kos seems to be having a longer term problem.
In my view no DMF is required, Arteta is excellent and Flamini (if the Newc game is anything to go by) is very sound.
I looked around Google News about the Archway Sheet Metal Works Fire, and the only newer article seems to be some pictures from HITC of the now burned business. Maybe some of you living in the UK know of more information?
Gord. Check where Levy was the night of the fire! 🙂
“Man City and Chelsea are boxed in by FFP, so can’t really buy much unless they sell quite a lot. – which is why the suggestion in the Express that Chelsea are buying Strootman for £30m seems unlikely.”
City are in trouble with FFP, Chelsea are not. The Blues have a ton of money to spend due to the way the FFP accounting is amortized, and the way sold players are accounted.
OT: Another wordpress attack in the wild
From Ars Technica
> The code causes pages to download the malicious payload from hxxp://soaksoak.ru/xteas/code. Judging from some of the reader comments, some administrators were surprised to find that the sites they oversee were infected. Sucuri’s free site check scanner will detect sites that are actively compromised. Disinfection involves removing malicious code added to a script located at wp-includes/template-loader.php. WordPress admins who use the Slider Revolution plugin should also ensure it’s up to date.
I used Google to search for Untold Arsenal, and UA has not been flagged as infected.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/some-100000-or-more-wordpress-sites-infected-by-mysterious-malware/
There is more information in the comments at Ars.
We won’t sign anyone come January. Jenkinson’s return is the most likely transfer to happen – he can play in the middle of the defence and would be that one more body we need for rotation.
QPR, Burnley and Leicester are being investigated by the football league for similar offences to that Nottm, Forest, Leeds and Blackburn have been fined for. If guilty sanctions include:
1-no new players can be registered unless they have 24 or fewer players
2- Can trade only on a ‘one in – one out’ basis.
3- Not permitted to pay transfer fees
FFP is alive and kicking. Shame they can’t do Chelsea for the £1billion debt transferred to Fordstam.
Josif, I believe you cannot end a long term loan prematurely. Wenger has said categorically that a defender will be coming in January
@Quincy, it’s just my opinion. We don’t know what is written in the loan deal between us and West Ham. I made an assumption based on following:
1) Arsene Wenger doesn’t like January transfer window (he’d like that window to be cancelled) – ever since Arshavin’s big purchase had only a short-term effect, Wenger has used January transfer window for loans (Henry, Kallstrom) and emergency purchase of Nacho Monreal after Gibbs’ injury against Liverpool in 2013,
2) signing a new player in January would reduce our transfer budget for the summer and we have made two exception purchases in the last two summer transfer windows (Özil and Alexis),
3) signing a new player in January is a tricky thing as it requires some time for a new player to gel with his team-mates.
Given the circumstances, ending Jenkinson’s loan deal would be the most economical move as the player wouldn’t need time to settle and he wouldn’t harm our transfer budget.
Not to mention that he would be like a new signing. 😛 🙂
Well, no, season long loans may not be cut short, I’m fairly sure that’s a rule. Like I said, Wenger has clearly stated that because of Koscielny’s tendonitis we will need to bring in another defender. Jankinson is as much a fullback as Debuchy, so if Wenger doesn’t see the latter as a solution, I doubt he would consider recalling Jenkinson even if it was possible.
I’m not sure why people are so allergic to us bringing someone in in January. Is some sort of odd reaction to the criticism we received for going into the season one defender short, or a reaction to the usual gutter journalism about transfers?
The Chavs could spend the extra money they believe they’ll earn from winning the PL.
This was posted on arseblog;
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In The FA rulebook:
“A Player on long term loan may not be recalled except for a goalkeeper or where the Player is to be transferred permanently by the Club holding his registered contract. A Player other than a goalkeeper so recalled cannot be permitted to play for the Club holding his registration after such recall until the end of the Season.”
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