By Sir Hardly Anyone
When it all happens at once the football media invariably has one response: ignore it all and say Arsenal’s manager is in trouble.
It really is laughable… Prior to yesterday’s match the Daily Mirror – owners of Football.London, ran the headline Mikel Arteta in danger of repeating Unai Emery mistake as pattern emerges at Arsenal.
Meanwhile they could have talked about Stan Kroenke’s huge financial loss, or Tottenham’s Fabio Paratici being implicated in some dodgy doings back in Italy. But no – it was another pathetic attempt to knock Mr Arteta. Will they never give up?
And that’s about it. We actually did explain why and how the defeat happened – Liverpool massively upped their level of fouling and as a result doubled their normal number of yellows while Arsenal got none in that game. That’s the thing it seems that Mr Arteta did not take into account – Liverpool’s dramatic increase in physicality – had he done he would not have reacted to the assault by shouting at Klopp, but would have shouted at his players to remind them that “this is what we talked about – they are going to kick you off the pitch. Each time you are kicked go down – that’s the only way you can tell the ref to look at what is happening.”
Was Mr Arteta ever “in danger” as the Mirror suggests? Would he not have realised what had happened and thus let the progress of the club since the first three matches, melt through his fingers?
No of course not – it was just a dumb headline from a dumb headline writer. They might have done better and taken note of the headline in the New York Times which reads N.F.L. to Settle Lawsuit Over Rams’ Relocation for $790 Million
The Rams are owned by Stanley Kroenke Esq who of course also owns Arsenal, and it seems he has lost the four year court case relating to the club’s move to Los Angeles in 2016. It cost him
Not least because the city of St. Louis spent $17 million on designs and plans for their new stadium, but then the League voted to allow the Rams to go to California.
According to the newspaper, “Rams owner Stanley Kroenke, who in recent weeks tried to narrow the scope of his liability in the case, is expected to reimburse the league for most or all of the settlement.” That’s the three quarters of a billion dollars, which is in addition to the $5.5 billion spent on the move and the new stadium in California.
All of which tells us that Mr Kroenke is a very rich man but is choosing to spend most of his money in America. But with Newcastle now presumably having free reign to spend anything they like, adopting a Manchester City Plus Plus Plus mode of operation, maybe Mr K might spend a spot more on Arsenal.
The stadium, if nothing else, could do with a lick of paint.
Meanwhile to conclude our roundup of dodgy doings currently ignored by most of the British media, most of Europe is today reading about the fact that the Italian police’s financial crimes division is investigating recent player transfers that may have led to the publication of false amounts in the club’s balance sheets at Juventus.
According to the Italian media, six executives of the Turin club are being challenged including president Andrea Agnelli, the vice-president and former player Pavel Nedved, and the former sporting director Fabio Paratici, who now works at Tottenham.
According to the Italian national news agency ANSA investigators are particularly interested in the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 for 100 million euros, and then his move to Manchester United last August for 15 million euros.
Oh dear – this might all be a bit time consuming both for Tottenham and Man U although of course there is no suggestion that anyone has done anything wrong.
Have Arsenal truly recovered from those opening three defeats?
Much like the Pepe transfer, some of these big money moves bear investigating. Coutinho comes to mind.
mike in atlanta
Not sure what you see in the Courtinho deal that bears investigating but I’m wondering if it is anything to do with the basic price paid ?
I did a post recently regarding the relationship between Net spend and trophies over the last 10 years and pointed out how I felt that the Courtinho deal had artificial kept Liverpool’s net spend down from what it should of been.
At the time Transfermarket valued him at £80 Million but he was sold for £140 Million.
Now I know Transfermarket are not infallible of course but to achieve £60 Million above that seems pretty odd to me. 70% + over the odds is remarkable.