By Tony Attwood
Arsenal is a club with a turnover of around half a billion pounds: the second highest for a football club in England. Only Manchester United gets more – and of course this is one reason why the media talk all the time about the centre forwards the club ought to sign (despite the fact that this season, even with all the injuries they are still the third highest scoring team in the league).
But even though journalists don’t work for clubs (and since clubs tend to pay more than newspapers, one can only imagine that is because these journalists are not good enough at any particular footballing task to get a job with a club) they keep on giving advice, mostly based on a work experience within a club of zero.
So they note that Thomas Partey and Jorginho have contracts that run out at the end of the season without knowing what discussions or arrangements have already happened with those players’ agents. Then they throw in Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli whose contracts end after that. No discussions yet? Shock, panic.
But the trouble is that if the club acts now the club might be signing a player for an extension who is going to go on a long run of injuries, or who totally loses his form.
If Matinelli were to leave the club really would be criticised, but Arsenal get no credit now for seeing the potential in the player and taking a gamble on him, while ManU let him slip through their fingers. Indeed losing the player at the end of the contract as he signs elsewhere, makes the club look hopeless.
“Why didn’t you tie him down to a new contract before?” is the cry, and the answer “Because he refused to sign no matter what” seems rather paltry, although it is often true, because a player leaving at the end of a contract can be guaranteed a much bigger signing on fee from his new club.
It is for reasons like this that optional extra years are added to contracts, since it helps keep a player at the club while avoiding the danger of having a player who has lost form or is constantly injured.
But in reality, whatever the club does is open to criticism from journalists, because speculation about players is journalism without research. Sign a player for four years and he turns out to be one of the most brilliant players we’ve seen in the last decade, and the club can be criticised for not making the contract longer. Sign the player for five years and his form slips away as injuries mount, and the club is criticised for lumbering the team with players who are costing a fortune and never play. The journo doesn’t even have to leave the pub.
As for the contracts, they are always compromises. The player wants more money, a longer contract, but also a chance to leave if he falls out of favour at the club. The club want to pay less, have a shorter contract but with the guarantee of renewal or extension, and a player who can be sold if he no longer fits in.
Meanwhile at the gate are the predators – the big clubs for whom money is no option (such as Real Madrid) who seemingly can buy anyone and pay anything, and even risk having a player who they never play having paid a fortune for him, because they have the money and the guaranteed income not just from the crowd, but because most of the world want to watch Real Madrid on TV.
But just to make this even more complicated is the issue of who can play with whom. As Mikel Arteta said, “When we look at a central defender, we look at partnerships,” and this is a notion that bloggers and journalists rarely take on.
But whatever happens, journalists will generally adopt their standard stand-by article accusing clubs of not acting fast enough when they lose a player or fail to bring in a fancied player. The implication is always, if the journalist were in there, he’d get it done. And the reason the journalist isn’t in there doing the deals and earning much more than he/she gets as a journo is because it is all a fantasy in the scribbler’s mind.
But at least at the moment it is Liverpool who are getting the stick for “dallying” over Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, all of whom are out of contract this summer.
The club knows that being accused of dithering is the natural state of football journalism, and mostly it is gibberish. The club is dealing with the player and his agent – sometimes on a daily basis, while the journalist with no engagement with either player or agent, is writing the occasional copy, as the editor demands.
But what journalist is also doing is deliberately upsetting the fans, and hence trying to generate more readership. The problem in reality is that it is a lot easier to get a deal wrong rather than right. Renew a player on another four-year contract and he gets a serious injury two weeks later or loses his form totally during the summer, and the management are called to account by the media, even though none of that was their fault.
The fact is that if we read that “talks are not yet underway” that can sound like the club being slow, but it can also be the agent deliberately slowing things down to see what other offers come in. Renewing contracts and buying in new players is not totally a matter for the club to dictate.
I would think that most journalists know that what is actualy happening is found in the details below the headline and not in the headline.
I recall reading that years ago a book written by a well known footballer of the time.
contained the chapter ” What the averidge football club director knows about football”.
The page was left blank.
The same can be said of today’s football journalists.
In a way I feel sorry for them. They need to know what is happening in the clubs so they can write about it. The clubs can’t say what is happening while deals are in process.
Its a no win situation. Result: invention replaces information.
Making things up doesn’t seem to cause these “journalists” any difficulty. Also, it only takes one person’s imagination to provide a basis for others to repeat the content, using the phrase “according to reports”.
So Arsenal is “eyeing”, being “linked with”, “keeping tabs on”, or “monitoring” dozens of players, most of whom will end up being “highjacked” by Chelsea or Spurs or Liverpool, or Man Utd, or deciding to “snub” Arsenal.
Apsrt from the shite content, the appallingly low standard of literacy displayed is quite striking.
Charles , I used to get the quote you’ve mentioned above from my wife’s uncle fairly often, it’s Len Shackletons biography “Shack” and I was supposed to be impressed with another quote ” he was too intelligent to play for England .
Off topic; that same relative in some sort of accusatory way is wont to say ” Of course you ONLY support Arsenal whereas he would lend his support to any North Eastern club after his beloved Sunderland whilst not understanding I wouldn’t choose tiny Totts , State Aid Utd or the Shedmen of Brompton cemetery in a million years . So what is your view on these matters ? 😉🤔😉
John , my friend , I couldn’t agree more .