- Hilarious cover up by media of media’s lack of insight
- Are Arsenal getting value for money in the tra
By Sir Hardly Anyone
It is, as a wise man once said, a funny ol’ game. With Arsenal repeatedly tipped everywhere to be buying a centre forward we still have no sign of one and instead, Arsenal have signed three goalkeepers and a left wing back. If anyone predicted that I must have missed it. Sorry about that. I’ll try harder to keep up.
So where (other than in a dustbin) does this leave all the people who have been predicting the arrival of virtually everyone other than a goalkeeper? Well, actually it leaves them still writing predictions and just moving on as if nothing much happened and without a word of apology.
And for the rest of us, what should we make of this? Are the bloggers and journalists right and Arteta a man utterly out of control buying goalkeeper after goalkeeper – a man deliberately wrecking the future of Arsenal? Or could it actually be that all the bloggers and all the journalists got this completely wrong?
For let us not forget headlines like 10 transfer targets Arsenal are considering in 2024 (One Football). Of course there is still time left – 31 days in fact until the window “slams shut” as they say, so may all those players that have been talked about will finally arrive. Or will they suggest that Arsenal really did want a centre forward but were just too slow so bought a wing back instead? Or maybe bought the wrong man by mistake – after all such a story would be no wilder than the predictions that have been made.
The New York Times however has done quite a hefty piece on the new signing arguing now that “Arsenal have followed 22-year-old Calafiori for months,” and I must have missed their reporting of that before the event. Sorry if that is the case.
But they say, “since the end of last season, Arsenal have been Calafiori’s priority. He wanted to move to London and the Premier League, and be part of this exciting young team. Above everything else, he wanted to play for Mikel Arteta.”
And yet it seems despite this apparently being so obvious to the NY Times, the media hardly realised this! There they have been with headlines about all these centre forwards Arsenal need but now with this deal for a defender we find that “The Arsenal manager has been the driving force behind this deal. Arsenal’s scouting department had tracked Calafiori’s dramatic progress at Bologna but it was Arteta who insisted on pressing ahead with the transfer.”
So not a knee-jerk reaction at all, but a long-term plan which amazingly none of the media knew anything about despite all their daily pieces about who Arsenal are scouting and the NY Times having the story months ago but not telling us!
The price we are told could rise to £42million. The player can play left back or centre back and this flexibility is obviously part of the attraction (think Ben White for example). And let’s be fair, not everyone was saying that Arsenal should sign a centre forward who could knock in 20 goals. 90 min even did a piece on which left back Arsenal should sign. There was Alejandro Grimaldo of Bayer Leverkusen for example.
And there were plenty of other players nominated for this position in the Arsenal team such as Ferdi Kadioglu (Fenerbahce), Miguel Gutierrez (Girona), Rayan Ait-Nouri (Wolverhampton Wands), Jorrel Hato (Ajax). Maybe they just didn’t want to come.
So Zinchenko, Tomiyasu and Kiwior won’t be asked to play there any more – unless the new man is injured (not again surely). And rather positively the NYT tells us that “Calafiori’s commitment to join Arsenal never wavered.” The only problem is that Bologna are going to have to give half the fee to Basel – which along with the performance in the Euros has made the price rise.
There is one other thing that the NYT picked up: Calafiroi’s manager until now has been Thiago Motta who played with Arteta at Barcelona. Just as Kiwior played at Spezia Calcio in Serie B where Motta was the coach – but has since risen up the rankings and played 30 of the 38 games for his club last season.
So now, after all this waiting and the signing of three goalkeeprs (Raya, Nygaard and Setford) Arsenal have finally signed an outfield player. Not the centre forward that everyone seemed to crave, but a full back. But what is interesting is that the club still hasn’t signed any of its main targets as outlined by Give me sport two months ago including Guehi, Hato, Luiz, Tchouameni, Quinten Timber, Zubimendi, Williams, Neto, Gimenez, Osimhen,and Toney.
But then, it’s a funny ol game.
Boring and predictable. We have heard this all before. Can’t you write about something else?
Well, Andrew, I think we work from a different philosophy from you. Our view is that people who find what Untold is about rather boring and repetitive, stop readingl, because, well… they find what we write about boring and repetitive.
And yet you, for reasons that of course I don’t know, come back and come back, and complain, knowing full well (as by now you must) that this is the style and approach that we use.
Reading your comment I was struck by the thought that it would be a bit like me writing to the Daily Mirror or Football.London about their football coverage, complaining that they are always coming up transfer tales that never happen. I don’t write, because that is their thing – that is what they do.
Untold is dedicated to covering the bits and pieces that others don’t cover, and pointing out that the coverage of football elsewhere deliberately avoids focussing on certain issues. Since few other places point that out, this is what we continue to write about during the close season.
I am sorry that hasn’t become clear to you, and really I can’t think how to make it any clearer. Sorry.
Andrew Banks , I find your response both boring and predictable. Take up shove ha’penny , or retire to a monastery but please don’t offend my minces with any repetition of your ill thought out comments.
I went to see a comedian once. She was vary funny and everyone seemed to enjoy it. But there was one guy who endlessly heckled her. He obviously didn’t like her and didn’t want to be there. But rather than leave and let everyone else enjoy the night he insisted on endlessly moaning and groaning and spoiling it for everyone else.
At the break we were all wondering why on earth he was there? Why he would go to see someone he obviously didn’t like? But most oddly, why he didn’t just leave never to return, once he realised it wasn’t for him?
We all came to the conclusion he was just an ignorant prat.
I cant think for one moment why I’ve been reminded of that particular night.
Niram it’s comments like that that makes me wish I could give you an uptick on this site… Bravo!
I read a report that a certain Arsene Wenger mentioned Calafiori to Arteta over a year ago saying that he reminded him of Manu Petit . Although he has been playing as a left back ,the two men were photographed together at the end of the season so, I can’t help wondering if this is the signing that gets the long term partner for Rice.
I wish the complainant would take a leaf out of Untold Arsenal ‘s motto , and write something untold on here . How about the legend , Jamie O’Hara being the voice of reason for all things Spurs ? We could do with a laugh or two !
To me, Arsenal s a shitty club….. they repeat imbecile mistake every year… 11:59 of transfer window closing seconds they will be rushing to buy a striker
Arsenal would win a major league in the year 2090
I think oone of the things that makes me want to keep running this blog is comments like this. While most people with a certain historical understanding can see a rise in the standard of play and achievement over the past five seasons, rising to the best defence in the league and the best goal difference in the league and second best goals scored total, last season, we can get comments like this. It really makes me think that some of a general views about football are correct.