- Arsenal 1 AFC Bournemouth 1: Arsenal win on penalties
- It really had to happen: clubs are suing Fifa over abuse of
By Tony Attwood
It is of course the issue of which players Arsenal are about to sign and those who are about to leave that occupies the media – and with a negative spin added to the story wherever possible. Thus we see the Mirror is running: “Emile Smith Rowe denied farewell Arsenal appearance as £35m transfer agreed.”
This comes from the fact that the player has travelled to the USA with Arsenal, but with Fulham continuing to push for a transfer of the player and seemingly upping their bid, Arsenal took the normal step of removing the player from the team for the opening match of the USA series. (Can you imagine what the Mirror would have made of the story if Smith Rowe had played and been injured, thus stopping the transfer?!)
As it is the Mirror does have something more positive to say, when they add “Smith Rowe, 23, is close to joining Fulham in a £35million transfer. That will be the most Fulham have paid for a player and would also match Arsenal’s biggest sale, which is currently Alex Oxlade Chamberlain’s move to Liverpool seven years ago.”
The fact that Crystal Palace have also been showing an interest may be helping to push Fulham along a bit, and I suspect Smith Rowe himself would be grateful of a move to a team which, although not too likely to win anything, would be very likely to make him a first team choice, as long as he can stay fit.
Skyis also fairly confident that 22 year old defender Riccardo Calafiori is about to join Arsenal from Bologna for a fee of £33.6m, plus add ons and what is now the usual sell-on clause.
Calafiori also made it known that he prefers to play for Arsenal, picking them over a host of other bidders. What is complicating matters at the moment is the fact that Basel and Bologna seem to have a disagreement about who gets what as and when the player is sold. Calafiori played for Basel in 2022/23 and then transferred Bologan in the summer of 2023.
It is being suggested that Basel are claiming half of whatever Arsenal pay – and of course as ever that is determined not by the straight fee but how much of the add-ons are actually part of the fee. The legal consultants are of course standing by ready to make a fortune.
Elsewhere the New York Times tells us that Arsenal are “poaching” the statistical analyst Darren Rogerson from Manchester City. Now I suspect “poaching” is completely the wrong word here as that is defined by Oxford Languages as llegally hunt or catch (game or fish) on land that is not one’s own or in contravention of official protection.”
The Cambridge dictionary however says poaching means the catching or killing of animals without permission on someone else’s land which is not really what is happening at all, since an organisation as legally orientated as Manchester City and the City Group will surely not have allowed Darren Rogerson into their club without him signing a contract that makes it quite clear what he can and can’t do. Even the cleaners have such contracts at that club.
However although Manchester City’s owners are known not to like it, English law does have a part to play. Employment contracts can be tailored to the situation, area of work, age of individual etc, but cannot stop a person looking for another job and moving. A contract of a limited amount of time allows the employer to restrict moving, but it cannot prohibit it totally, and of course allows the employee to move freely at the end.
But what the employee cannot do is take secrets obtained from one employer and give them to a new employer for their advantage. So Mr Rogerson cannot take his inside knowledge of how Manchester C works and offer that to Arsenal. But he can take his knowledge of how an elite squad can be developed and offer that to Arsenal, and that is what might be happening here.
And this is very much in keeping with Arsenal’s approach at the moment – they are spending a huge amount bringing in people with incredibly specific jobs in relation to how the players and the team play and develop – and Darren Rogerson fits into this pattern of recruitment.
Arsenal already have Ben Chadwick as head of analysis, who himself also came to the club from Manchester City, so once again it looks as if what Arteta learned from Guardiola is being put to good use.
Overall this looks like a continuing revolution – rather as under Arsene Wenger the whole approach to and use of psychologists was developed, and an extension of the way in which the performance of players such as Declan Rice has been evolved for the benefit of the whole team in more recent times.
Great article as usual, it’s always a refreshing joy to read, always truthful.
I said ESR value was £35m and they all doubted me on JA and the Mirror for suggesting he would go for that high amount 4 weeks ago.
I also said Nketiah will go for £40 million after add-ons and Ramsdale £50m after add-ons.
I know for a fact that this is what Arteta values them at, and he is happy to keep them for another year if they don’t go for what he is asking. That’s how I know.
Unlucky Palace with ESR, you snooze you loose, you could have done a swap deal earlier in the month, when it was on.
Also Viera is the player to watch this year for most goal contributions and Timber will be the most versatile with most of his games at Defensive Midfield. Nwaneri and Skelly will shine in cameo appearance this year as also players to watch.
Watch next concerning Arsenal selling players, as Fulham and Palace battle it out for another certain Arsenal player, can you guess who that is?
As I said 4 weeks ago in June. You heard it from me Just Arsenal first and the Mirror and now on untold Arsenal my favourite site.
The Mirror hates Arsenal and publishes article after article with a negative connotation. Take this from a couple of days ago:
“Arsenal have made just one signing so far this summer, with Mikel Arteta growing impatient over his side’s lack of business as he looks to finally end their Premier League title drought.”
—-How do they know he’s growing impatient? Have they seen him pacing his office, biting his nails, shouting at the kids?
“Arsenal’s wait for a new signing continues to drag on, with Mikel Arteta growing publicly frustrated”.
“The Gunners have only brought in goalkeeper David Raya this summer, with that move having long been expected. They are continuing to push for a deal for Riccardo Calafiori, though there remains several stumbling blocks to an agreement.”
——So, yes there may be several stumbling blocks but as you point out Tony, not of our making so hardly our fault but as usual the inference and tone is that it is Arsenal who are causing it to drag on.
And of course no context is given as some others around us have done similar or less business, but again the inference is that this is typical of Arsenal and everyone else just gets it done.
1) Nygaard
2) Raya
3) Setford
I make that 3 transfers already
Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
The site that always drops the ball.
Even Wikipedia have left the facts . In their mistaken opinion Arsenal are based in Holloway.
Bearing that in mind
The shedenders reside by the Fulham Rd next to the Brompton cemetery..
The Armitage Shanks arena is by the N17 High Street.
See; funny beer pumps .
I only go on some of the sites mentioned because they allow you to comment on their articles, the ones that don’t I don’t bother opening because as you said there are a lot of anti Arsenal sites.
Their was a well known site that mainly write about the Arsenal youth team that let you comment and the writer Jeorge is a good factual writer, but his bloggers are mainly Arteta haters.
I mentioned that it was a bad idea that the disloyal Obi (Arsenal academy striker) would have been better off waiting until he was 17 before making the terrible decision to join mid table United.
Their was 3 bloggers that kept saying he is not disloyal, I don’t know what I am talking about and that he has made the right decision to join Manu because they have a better youth policy and that they are going to do better than Arsenal and there manager is better than Arsenal etc.etc.
Then when I called them either plastic fans or secret closet Manu supporters, they arranged a tag team to argue the fact that Obi made the right decision. This went on for 3 days, from supposedly Arsenal fans saying that Manu was a better team for Obi, and that he made the right choice. I just started to make fun of them and how dumb they looked for an plastic Arsenal fan that should be loyal to their Arsenal team. I was shocked that Arsenal fans would say that it is a good idea and the right choice for our best young players to join Manu.
Is it just me or are their other Arsenal fans that thinks Obi should have waited and gave his loyalty to Arsenal to wait until he was at least 17 with contract offers on the table. What’s the point in time and effort in training these youngsters who do not pay for the training, for them to become disloyal and join another club, a mid table club like united who are going backwards. It makes no sense, and the warp mind of the plastic fan is beyond reason agreeing Obi should leave Arsenal for mid table United. So it’s not just Arsenal haters in the media, it’s also Arteta haters in the Arsenal plastic fan community that hate Arteta more than they love Arsenal.
daveg
I know exactly what you mean.
As Tony points out in his next article:
“……. and as far as I can see it is this incredible attention to detail in the specifics of the game that has taken Arsenal from (56 Points) a goal difference of +8 in 2019/20, to (89 Points) a goal difference of +62 last season.
But despite that incredible improvement over the last 5 seasons this is JUST ARSENALS and their posters take on those same 5 seasons.
FIVE YEARS ON AND ARTETA IS MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES
By Admin Pat – 16 April 2024, 14:59
“Well lovely Arsenal people, I’m still gutted. The standards to win this league demand perfection. If you have a lead on City you best hold on to it, or they will take it and not give it back. I read the articles and comments on this wonderful platform. People want an “explanation” why we didn’t win. It’s pretty simple, and I said it. We didn’t want it enough, we didn’t look like we cared. We crumbled at the opportunity to take control of the title.”
Honestly, it is simply mind boggling.
If you can be asked, this is the full article with the absolutely ridiculous comments:
https://www.justarsenal.com/five-years-on-and-arteta-is-still-making-the-same-mistakes/364631
The sad thing is, there is alot more of this type of **** out there.
Nitram,
You’re right, it is bs on those sites.
What’s worse is that their are simple minded plastic Arsenal fans that follow that BS and agree with it.
The plastic fans are normally a bit simple minded and it is very hard to reason with them that they should not be agreeing that our best academy players should leave Arsenal for another team. The plastic fans are the pretend fans that you can recognise in their bloggs when they show no true loyalty to Arsenal and try and justify their disloyal comments.
. It makes me wonder if they are closet fans of another team, or just simple minded disloyal or that they just hate Arteta. There are some Very false representations of the Arsenal brand websites out there and I try to avoid their click bate of deceiving news titles knowing that they carry a plastic fan base agreeing with their BS.
Yes we sometimes can moan at our team, but I would never support another team above Arsenal and by those fans agreeing the Obi is better off at mid table United, they are what we call your typical Plastic Fan.
daveg
“Yes we sometimes can moan at our team, but I would never support another team above Arsenal and by those fans agreeing the Obi is better off at mid table United, they are what we call your typical Plastic Fan.”
Absolutely right.
Of course Arsenal are not perfect, and the manager does make mistakes, as do the players. But there is a big difference between suggesting Arteta could of made this change a bit earlier, or this player had a poor match, to the kind of endless negativity we read in the media and in certain bloggs.
Plastic. Disloyal. Fair weather. These are all terms that could be applied to some of these people.
As for these people suggesting one of our players should leave us, and would be better off somewhere else, I, like you, find this disloyal at beast, but in reality I think it is shameful.
It’s one reason why I have had a problem with Ian Wright, because there were times back in the austerity years when he did the very same, suggesting at different times that Henry and Theo would be better off elsewhere.
It’s quite hard to find all the negative stuff he used to say but I did find this which proves I wasn’t the only one who noticed it:
“Ian wright is now a hypocritical twat…. he was awesome as a player for the gunners but has become nothing but an ignorant big mouthed nob since retiring….
look at what he has said about Thierry Henry this year… ” he should leave and go to barcelona”… today on arsenal.com he backtracks and says TH should listen to Barcelona and then stay…. idiot.
Also his son SWP…. ” he should join Chelsea for footballing reasons”… he knew arsenal were after him and would have given him a regular starting place… this season at Chelsea he can’t even get on when the team need 2 goals… oh no… the “special one” decides to put a defender on for an attacker… special indeed… like the special classes at school
I loved Ian wright… but no more…. he is a gobshite” https://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=7129&page=1679
To me, it’s during the difficult times you find out who your friends really are. True love and loyalty is not just about the good days.
It’s why I love this blogg and a great majority of it’s posters.
Analytical. Realistic. Positive. Loyal.
Oh, and we are all in love with The Arsenal!!
Apparently one of the hold ups with transfers is the amount the players agent gets paid by the buying or selling club.. Why footballers don’t pay their agents for arranging fees out of their considerable wages baffles me This is one part of football that absolutely bamboozles me. Other professions like acting & writing have their agents whom they pay out of their royalties or fees. The film studio & publishers don’t pay the agents of actors or writers they contract to work or write for them. So why have football clubs got round to paying footballer’s agents? Is it simply because of the billions sloshing around professional football?