Forthcoming games, the touring party, and what happens after we leave the EU?

By Tony Attwood

We have, to the best of my knowledge, four tour matches coming up…

• 26 July Atlético Madrid (National Stadium, Singapore) 
• 28 July Paris Saint-Germain (National Stadium, Singapore) 
• 1 August Chelsea (Aviva Stadium, Dublin) 
• 4 August Sevilla (Friends Arena, Stockholm) 

That’s not the most of any club, as Liverpool and Man U play six such games, but four is around about average.

I think we can judge the touring party by those who played against Crawley.  One or two might leave in the interim and we should have some world cup men back.

There was also a second run around today, this one against Brentford, with a similar squad as before, and once again plenty of swapping over of players.

The club is expecting to take with them on the plane for the Far East, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny.  When Welbeck, Monreal, Lichtsteiner, Xhaka, Campbell, and Ospina join, or if they will all join the group, we don’t know.

So roughly speaking this is the gang going to the games via the main plane

In goal:

Cech, Emiliano Martinez,and Leno.   If Cech leaves the club as widely rumoured then we’ll see who we have in mind as the third keeeper. 

In the defence:

Konstantinos Mavropanos, Sead Kolasinac, Rob Holding,  Shkodran Mustafi, Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Sokratis

In the midfield 

Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Aaron Ramsey, Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe, Matteo Guendouzi, Mo Elneny.

In attack, 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eddie Nketiah,  Lucas Perez, Alex Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi.

If any of these players in the lists above are left behind without any sign of a serious injury then I think it is fair to say they are the ones being sold.  One young player who was always on the fringe of the list Kelechi Nwakali, has joined Porto on loan.

But as we open this season, let us not forget that during the course of this season the UK will leave the EU, and there appears to be a possibility that the UK will leave without a deal.  Since I can’t even get the players who are coming and going and their ages right, I certainly don’t have a clue as to what sort of arrangements there will be in regard to the leaving, whether there will be a military coup, or whether the government will just say to hell with it, and let each town and village sort things out for themselves.

However if there is a leaving without a deal will it make any odds?

The government has said that EU citizens working in the UK can continue to do so, and I would imagine that since the Foreign Office (mad bunch of frogs that they are) having given control of issuing visas to non-EU citizens who want to play in England, there should not be any sudden departure of players.  Just a continuance of general incompetence.

It might on the other hand be somewhat harder to get players in, in one year’s time.

But a departure without agreements could have some unexpected consequences.  For example, UK citizens use EU satellites for their navigation systems, and the EU would want paying for these.  Access to the satnav data could easily be turned off (that’s why the EU sent up its own satellites rather than using the American system – they obviously foresaw the possibility of a Trump presidency).  Indeed we already have seen the hacking of satnav systems (details were given in New Scientist a few months back), so it can readily be done.

That would have serious consequences for me, since I can get lost driving out of my village, let alone finding my way to away games.

And that is just me getting to games.  Away games – especially like the ones Arsenal are preparing for this week, all depend on flight licenses which apparently not be available without renegotiation.

There has been talk that the planes would not longer be able to fly, because our deal with Europe will cease.  British owned companies would not be able to fly over Europe until they had restructured and become at least 50% European owned.

There would also apparently be no traffic rights and the end of what the Financial Times called in an article “third country restrictions” 

Now the FT also mentioned the response of British ministers which they said has been to dismiss this concept as “scaremongering”. But as the FT says, “The paper notes there are no World Trade Organisation fallback options for aviation and makes clear that old bilateral agreements between member states and the UK” will not be revived automatically.   

Of course that might be scaremongering, and everything might be fine.  The government says everything will be fine and no deal is unlikely.  I suppose if that is not right one just has to trust Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg and I am sure they will see our football teams ok.

 

• Arsenal v Crawley Town; the team for our 2nd game reveals for sure who is leaving.
• Arsenal in the Checkatrade. How it works is subject to Rule! error. Or so they say.
• 12 transfer updates, four new names. The 108 players rumoured to be coming to Arsenal.