By Tony Attwood
On 13 August Amitai Winehouse published an article in the Telegraph about the comparative strengths of various squads. It includes this paragraph on Arsenal…
However, fitness troubles tend to befall the north London side with more regularity than any other team in the Premier League, with Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere all currently unavailable due to injury. David Ospina’s apparent departure would also leave Arsenal struggling for experience if Cech was injured.
Now I must admit I was taken aback. Ospina leaving? That surely would be odd. Wojciech Szczesny is with AS Roma while Emiliano Martinez is not only with but has played in a victory for Wolverhampton Wanderers. They beat Newport County 2-1.
So goodness knows where the Telegraph got this one from. But just in case I had fallen asleep under a spell from a dubious wizard and a few months had passed by I thought I had better check. What I found was
David Ospina hints at Everton interest but wants Arsenal stay
But that was Sky Sprout on 15 July saying “David Ospina says he wants to stay at Arsenal following the arrival of Petr Cech, but has hinted that he has offers to leave.”
Arsenal transfer news: David Ospina could be allowed to leave…
That was the Daily Mirror but that was on 18 June 2015, nearly two months ago. But the reason was just so pathetically odd I doubt anyone believed it at the time:
Arsenal could let David Ospina leave, in a move that would help convince Petr Cech he will be the Gunners’ new no.1 next season.
In fact the Mirror repeated this rubbish on 27 June…
Arsenal transfers: David Ospina heading for Emirates exit …
Indeed there was even an amount of moral reprobation from the Daily Express when it said that Arsenal star David Ospina CONFIRMS he will make way… under which headline they proclaimed that “ARSENAL keeper David Ospina admits he is in talks over a move to …The Colombia international is set to leave the Gunners…”
CONFIRMS eh? What will they think of next.
And goodness, another “set to”. After which is was all about where he was going. Everton and Marseille were listed, and yes I can see how the two could be confused. In both places the natives speak with impenetrable accents.
“However, fitness troubles tend to befall the north London side with more regularity than any other team in the Premier League, with Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere all currently unavailable due to injury.”
But now think back to Coquelin’s arrival. He was on loan at Charlton and recalled, and as far as I know, all loanees have recall clauses in their contract. So that makes it worth thinking: who are the backups and who could come back from loan? Try this for size…
Our backup team for the Telegraph is:
Giroud
Welbeck Rosicky Oxlade Chamberlain
Wilshere Arteta
Gibbs, Gabriel, Chambers, Debuchy
Ospina
And what they don’t mention is that beyond that is our loanee list
Szczesny, Jenkinson, Sanogo, Gnabry, Maitland Niles, Hayden, Martinez, Akpom, Crowley, Toral
Now since we are likely to play our backup players in the league cup this season that looks like quite a dominant league cup team. We might win that competition too.
Either way, it certainly is quite a squad.
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think A Winehouse should learn the sad lesson of another A Winehouse and lay off things that alter your perception
I thought premier league rules stipulated loanees could only be recalled in transfer windows? And I’m also fairly certain recall clauses are not included in paid loans.
Its hard to read a lot of your articles recently as there is 2 advertisements from ‘Footballfancast’covering half the writing.
I think if you find yourself believing everything you read in these papers regarding transfers, especially articles from the metro, torygraph, express, star, daily wail (I can’t understand why anyone would want to read the last three, but hey, each to their own) then you need your head examined.
@Chris,
You are not alone. Most irritating. 😉
Chris 10.14, me too
This article “Ospina confirms …..” Is now featured as a top story in Arsenal NewsNow.
Irony or what?
Chris
Agreed. I get the Premier League tables intruding into the comments section, which today is a bonus.
Agreed re Football Fancast. Also keep getting the betting sites countdown screen covering ads as are frequently disparaged in the editorial – which seems quite dissonant to me?
@Mandy Dodd – August 13, 2015 at 7:17 pm – very true !
How to Avoid Stress, According to Experts-
http://www.ba-bamail.com/content.aspx?emailid=16804&memberid=763708
1: Take Time For Yourself
2: Declutter
3: Take Supplements
4: Turn to Others
5: Proactive Stress Combat – Diet, Sleep and Exercise
6: Distraction – Make the unpleasant pleasant
7: Pamper yourself with a massage
8: Positive body language
9: Laughter
10: Chocolate
11: Perspective
12. Self-compassion
13. Breathing
Number seven works for me – always a happy ending !
chris
August 13, 2015 at 10:14 pm
Me too!
The league table has lost its anchor & drops to the left. Issue on both Firefox & IE.
As I understand it the loan system is as follows;
Coquelin wasn’t on a season loan, he was on a short term loan and although I think it was month by month which had a natural break for his return, it could be that short loans can have return clauses. However season loans cannot have return clauses for outfield players (although GKs can be recalled at any time).
Ditto Menace and Chris, league table is over the comments.
what’s up with Welbeck though?
every couple of weeks we get a message that he will be back in two weeks… that’s been going on for like five months already…