Players queuing up to leave Arsenal. Alexis, Bellerin and Giroud out as Holding and Monreal stay.

By Sir Hardly Anyone

As we saw yesterday in Transfer Index No 9, 46 players are said to be joining and 14 leaving the club this summer.  So far it is one truth revealed in each group – we’ve brought in one on a free, and let a youngster go to Southampton.

But now it seems the signing of one player early on has mad e the media redouble its efforts of rampant negativity.  An early signing after all goes completely against the grain for them, and they absolutely have to show that Arsenal players are leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving.

The original plan in case this happened was to say that Xhaka was an early signing and look how useless he was, but his performance in the cup final put paid to that one, so now we are back to players leaving s because Arsenal are hopeless at all management tactics, they are too slow, not offering enough money, such a poor team, etc.  No mention of the fact that players tend to resist Arsenal because of the club’s treatment via the media once they are at the club, nor that they are also concerned about the anti-Arsenal activities, which although present, are often exaggerated, particularly by the bloggettas.

You can see the extent of what is going on through headlines such as “Holding an example of a ‘big’ Arsenal signing – Wenger” from Sportskeeda.  This links to an interesting clip from an interview (which of course you have to wait for, for quite a while as the adverts run through) in which Mr Wenger discusses the meaning of the “big” transfer from a philosophical point of view, comparing the impact of a £2m transfer with a £40m transfer.  But the implication of the headline of course is, “this is what you are going to get.”

Actually I wouldn’t mind more transfers like Holding – I thought he was a sensation when called upon, and a brilliant example of how to do good business in the transfer window.  But elsewhere it will be used as an example of incompetence because he didn’t cost enough.

In fact one could write quite an interesting piece about the incompetence of every other PL club in not challenging Arsenal to get Holding’s signature.  Why did Arsenal see how good he could be when no one else did?

But perhaps best not to ask that.  And so the negativity is everywhere.  The bloggetta “Pain in the Arsenal” has the story that “Arsenal have been crippled by the mismanagement of players’ contracts. It has been an issue that has repeatedly seen them lose their more established stars as a result of relinquishing any semblance of power or control at the negotiating table.”

The Daily Cannon takes up the same theme, and of course may be written by the same people – such a thing is not unknown.   They have the story, “Arsenal to miss out on another top Premier League talent to Chelsea.”

You’ll notice “another” in the headline – in this case Romelu Lukaku who Mr Wenger once called “quite impressive” which I took to be damning praise.  The story also includes a statement from Mr Wenger saying he hasn’t analysed the player’s figures to know if he is as quite impressive as he looks.   The implication is that Mr Wenger can’t even be arsed to look at the figures, although of course he could well have watched the player enough to know that he doesn’t really offer an improvement.  Or maybe the player is not going to Chelsea at all – which is certainly a possibility given that only 3% of transfer rumours last summer were accurate.

But the big effort of the moment is going into Arsenal players leaving, and this is seen as evidence of Arsenal’s hopeless mismanagement.  Which if you remember is what the transfer window delivered last year when every single member of the first team squad had rumours about him leaving.

The argument is, let’s ignore the great work of the team towards the end of the season, the fact that we were the only club to beat Chelsea twice in the season, the winning of the FA Cup three times in four seasons (something Tottenham are happy to celebrate that they have not done) and any other good pointers that could be identified, and instead let’s live in a fantasy world.

The evidence that the fantasy world is real is presented in the form that some players have left in the past: Cole, Fabregas, van Persie, Vermaelen,  Henry, Brady… the list is enormous.  But now a player leaving is absolute perfect evidence of the hopelessness of the Wenger regime before it even starts.

And so this is what is needed for the bloggettas and the journalists who feed them on the national press: they desperately urgently need one, or preferably two, players to leave, so that they can resume the full-on assault on the manager and the club, with the aim of leaving the club in PR ruins, thus ensuring Arsenal slip down the league to mid-table obscurity.

“Arsenal Could Miss Out On 25-Goal Striker To West Ham Despite Agreeing Terms” is the headline from Football-Talk.  Of course we don’t know if terms were agreed, nor if Arsenal were actually interested, but it was talked up in the papers and so MUST BE TRUE.

The “report” says Sky Sports News were claiming that Arsenal, West Ham and Swansea City have all expressed their interest in signing the forward.  But how do they know?  Have you actually seen or heard the Arsenal manager “express an interest” in this player?   It seems unlikely, not least since the prime source of this story is “Football London” which said in a screaming headline, “Revealed: Henry Onyekuru’s Arsenal wage and medical date as Gunners secure £6.8m signing”

As I have said many times, 3% of these tales turn out to be accurate.  But it is amusing when even the bloggettas contradict their own previous stories.

As for the others who are leaving, the Metro decided to jump ship from the bloggettas and a number of Manchester City supporters who have been visiting Untold of late, saying “Arsenal now confident of keeping huge star at club next season”.  

But the bulk of the headlines go the other way.    “Premier League transfer rumours: Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez set to sign for Manchester City” announces the The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, and Squawka has “Man City fans react to the latest claims on Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez”.

In fact so certain is everyone that Alexis is being sold to Manchester City that the Star is now in tune with Arsenal’s follow up actions: “Arsenal contact Lyon over Alexandre Lacazette amid Alexis Sanchez Man City speculation”.  But there is still a bit of hedging going on:  “Arsenal attacker Alexis Sanchez has reportedly agreed to join Manchester City this summer.”  Only reportedly?

The source of that one is a twitter feed from Gerard Romero, a Spanish gent who has so far posted over 91,000 tweets, presumably on the basis that at that level some of them must be right.

As for Bellerin, the speculation is becoming hysterical.  Shoot had the headline “‘I’ll drive him there myself’ – Rumours of deal for £21.25m-rated man spark Arsenal debate” although who is driving and where the quote comes from was not clear.

Still on Bellerin, This is Futbol says, “Arsenal reveal asking price for senior star, formal offer expected next week – report”, although that asking price varies from £25m to £65m depending on which rumour you read.

Some bloggettas do at least make an effort at teasing us, as with “Is defender’s frank admission making a €50m deal likelier for Arsenal?” from Gunnersphere.  Apparently he is missing his family.   Some however do the same old same old over and over and over, as with “Barcelona set sights on £45million Bellerin swoop” in takefootball

No sooner had This is Futbol announced that Arsenal had revealed their asking price (see above) than they came out with (moments later) “Report: Arsenal star agrees personal terms with Euro giants.”  That was fast.

Indeed it has got so bizarre now that Vital Football has “The Daily Bellerin Update” which if it were satirical would be rather droll.

There’s millions more of these, but lest he feels left out Olivier Giroud gets a mention to in Fresh Arsenal.   “Olivier Giroud Issues Warning To Arsene Wenger As Concerns Grow Over His Future”.  “Olivier Giroud casts fresh doubt over long term Arsenal future” says 101 Great Goals, a great lover of capital letters it seems.

But now, you remember that I mentioned the Metro a short while back.  Well, in the time I’ve been writing this they have jumped ship and come up with “Alexis Sanchez to complete Man City transfer ‘in the coming days'”  And are they sacking a journalist for feeding them false information?    Err, well, no.  The second story comes from the same source as the first.

Some however claim to have real inside information that no one else have.  “Arsenal will be offered three players in return for £43m star” says Arsenal Fever.  Turns out that we won’t get money for Bellerin nor three players but will get “one of Rafinha, Denis Suarez or Arda Turan as makeweight in the proposed deal.”

Now in all this you may have noticed that Ozil is not mentioned.  He’s being dealt with by saying he’s rubbish anyway so no one wants him.  For example Turkish-football has the headline, ‘Against Bulgarian Farmers and Fishermen’ – Fans react to Arsenal star Mesut Ozil winning goal…

Of course occasionally someone breaks ranks and claims that there is something positive happening…

“Wenger reveals next position for Nacho Monreal after Kolasinac signing” says Red London while “Arsenal set for meeting over international winger only a day after Kolasinac signing” has popped up in The Transfer Tavern.   This is a story that says that “talks will open with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s representatives this week, in an attempt to secure the England international’s future.”

But the wind is not all blowing Manchester City’s way.  “Manchester City: Why Alexis Sanchez would be a waste of money” comes from Real 101 Sports.

There’s always someone who wants to spoil it for everyone.

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