A second Martinelli, selling a “flop”, Arsenal’s huge error: the big Gunnerstories

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Journalists and bloggers do have a hard time of it, lacking technical and detailed knowledge but at the same time trying to make a story out of a snippet, in order to draw in readers.

Take for example the headline “Edu ‘finds another Martinelli’ for Arsenal after being given work permit bonus” from the Daily Star, with the tale that we are going to buy Brenner, from Sao Paulo.

Apparently there is a release clause of £45m in his contract which runs out in 2022, but we are told the club will take half that to help them out of debt.

And what of this “work permit” business? Well you may recall Untold’s little piece

• New restrictions on transfers will apply from January transfer window onwards

which focused on exactly that point: what happens now we have left the European Union. The fact that the player has an Italian passport (the “work permit bonus”) is utterly irrelevant because there is no difference now between a player from Italy and one from Ituangisa, an imaginary country situated on the dark side of the moon, which suits my purpose for this example.

Instead we have a 15 point system in place, but no one yet knows what that means – which is not surprising since we are dealing here with a) the FA and b) the UK government.  And besides which the government has not yet given the ok to the deal, although they have given it a name (GoBES) and names as sooooooooo important these days.

So ,”It is believed that Brenner owns an Italian passport, meaning that he will not require to obtain a work permit to move to the Premier League,” (Daily Star) is gibberish.  Everyone from outside of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man will need a work permit.  Irish citizens may not, but that depends on the UK government getting its way or not.

Thus a mark of 10 out of 10 for uninformed gibberish.

Arsenal flop has been linked with a shock move to Barcelona is the headline from Give Me Sport, expressing surprise that Barcelona are targeting Mustafi whom they call “Arsenal flop,” adding that “The German defender has been nothing short of a disaster during his four-year stint at the club.”

So let’s just consider that.  He played 37 games in 2016/17 and 38 games in 2017/18 under Mr Wenger.  So if he was a disaster then presumably Mr Wenger was as well, for playing him.   He played 40 games in 2018/19 under Mr Emery, who presumably was a disaster too, for playing him.  In 2019/20 he played 27 games for Mr Emery and then Mr Arteta, with another four this season for Mr Arteta since recovering from injury, making Mr Arteta a disaster also.  Isn’t it unfortunate for Arsenal that we keep on having these disasters as managers!

Blimey, we’d better buy another manager quickly.

The fact is the disaster is the opinion of the journalists and bloggers who have ceaselessly knocked Mustafi.  Clearly Barcelona who are apparently bidding for him are not total mugs although the journalists and bloggers are now trying to make out they are.  What the Mustafi situation tells other players thinking of coming to Arsenal is that no matter what sort of player they are, the crowd and their journo/blogging allies can make life utter hell for you.  Which is why we find it so hard to bring in top players.  

• Thomas Partey gives Arsenal boost over injury return 

So proclaims the Metro who say he is ‘confident’ he will return quickly from his injury, according to reports.  The Physioroom.com website however says he is currently being assessed and has no return date set.  You can of course choose who you want to believe

• ‘Who in God’s name sanctioned that?’ Sky pundit stunned by £20m Arsenal transfer decision 

This one is from HITC who tell us that “Alan McInally has revealed that he remains baffled as to how and why Arsenal let Emiliano Martinez leave North London this past summer.”

So as ever, it is down to Untold to explain it.   Martinez having put in an excellent show when Leno was injured asked Arsenal who was going to be number 1 this season, and the club said Leno, with Martinez playing in cup matches only.  So Martinez said he would like to leave and if the club did not transfer him now, he would see out his contract and then walk.  That would mean Arsenal would get no transfer fee for him, having also got this situation with Ozil.  So Arsenal chose the better financial option and took the £20m.