- Ezri Konsa signs for Arsenal for £50m
- Clubs are spending fortunes which they don’t have in order to make more losse
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal have so far brought in six new players, and according to the media (who may or may not be right) are also looking to sign James Scanlon an attacking midfielder and Habeeb Ogunneye a right back both from Manchester United
So far we have bought in Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle United, Piero Hincapié a defender from Bayer Leverkusen, Christos Tzolis who plays on the wing and comes from Club Brugge, Elijah Upson from Tottenham Hotspur, and Illan Meslier a goalkeeper from Leeds United plus as recently noted Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa, who as we reported can also play right back. This looks to me like a rather well-planned set of purchases from a club utterly determined to keep the title, and with this level of back up players, do a double – taking into account the fact that Arsenal played 63 games last season, and the fact that a lot of these players will undoubtedly get injured playing internationals as well.
Looking at this summer’s transfers it does seem that there is a little group of clubs like Arsenal who are finding that if the club come knocking the players say yes, while once we get down to the clubs that come maybe sixth or below, players are less likely to agree to a move. What is interesting in that regard is that of last season’s top four, Manchester City now seem to be in some turmoil, both with their new manager and with the 110+ charges, Manchester United seem not to have the amount of money we always felt they had in the past, and Aston Villa are certainly uncertain of whether they are a big time club or still on the way up. (It is also being said that Villa are ready to sell Emiliano Martínez.)
Meanwhile the vice presidents of Fifa seem to be turning against their boss by the score. The latest is Sandor Csanyi, who said the “unexpected dismissal” of Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, was the “final straw”.
I am not sure how many vice presidents are left and how many the organisation is required to have, but at this rate I am expecting a phone call any day now.
However in totally different news, as you may have noticed Manchester City is STILL waiting for a verdict on its 110 breaches of the financial rules. The hearting concluded in 2024 and the excuse from the League is that the enquiry is of “unprecedented scope” doesn’t really seem to carry much weight when one considers the resources of ManC and the ability of the League to pull in any and every legal expert it wants. Murder trials don’t last this long.
Two explanations are circulating in the football world for this long, long delay. One is that someone somewhere is deliberately hiding something and the other is that the investigators are not up to the job. And if that is so, how could it be that they were appointed only to have others run rings around them.
The ManC case has been running for getting on for four years during which time ManC have been spending money and winning trophies without much hindrance, buying and selling players as they wish.
And the problem is that some of the Associated Party Transaction rules, have been declared to be unlawful. The League is, I think, appealing against that ruling on the grounds that the purpose of the rules had been supported by an arbitration panel. So as far as I can see there is now an appeal against that judgement by a new commission…. And so it goes on and on to eternity Even Daniel Levy (of whom you will have heard) complained that the whole thing had gone on “for far too long”. And for once I agree with him.
The only thing that seriously has gone against ManC is that they were speaking of having a result in their favour within a month of the original hearings ending. That “within a month” has now moved on to a year and a half, and there is still no end in sight.
But there is another factor, and that is the case of Newcastle who have been forced to sell player after player under Premier League instructions to meet with the regulations. ManC don’t seem to have to sell anyone if they don’t want to.
And all this time the Premier League promotes itself as the best league in the world – and yet there is a court case within it which suggests the results are warped beyond measure because one club has found a way around the financial rules, by being funded by an oil rich country. Which leads to this problem: the rest of Europe is getting used to the fact that there is something “fishy” about the Premier League. Day by day as this case rumbles on, the League’s reputation sinks further and further. Attention is turning elsewhere in a search for a league where the title is not won year after year by just one of two clubs.
Not Scotland, not Germany, not France, not Spain, not the Netherlands… and with ManC being able to get away with their financial model, not England either.
