By Sir Hardly Anyone
There has been a major shift in the transfer rumours this past week. Suddenly we have stopped seeing the wild and wacky tales of signing a reserve keeper from Leeds when we’ve already got too many of our own. Likewise reports about Bellerin’s transfer request and his new house in Barcelona have all but vanished.
And this is odd for it is not at all like last summer where the new tales just kept on coming right up to the final day of the window, and then some. So what’s happened? Have Arsenal really found their focus? Have their got their team ready? Has Wenger stopped dithering?
Well, for the last question, the answer is no, because he never dithered – it was all makebelieve from the media.
In fact the change hasn’t been with Arsenal but with the Commentariat itself. Seeing their newspaper and TV audiences haemorrhaging last summer the main stream media empires that run the national papers started to set up bloggettas of their own – and not just one each, but in some cases a dozen such sites, each recycling the wild and unsubstantiated rumours of each other, each quoting the other as the source.
Thus it can now look as if player X is certainly coming to Arsenal or Bellerin is leaving because suddenly 50 different sites are all talking about the same issue. But in fact these sites are owned by just five national newspapers and are simply circulating the same old same old. The aim being to keep the stories running and make a spot of cash out of the vast number of adverts that each site runs.
So we are now down to a little group of stories hyped over and over by hundreds of sites, owned by just a handful of organisations. And this is what they invented in the last few days.
1: Dalbert.
Arsenal have made a big offer for Nice left-back Dalbert although quite why is hard to say. Indeed even some of the bloggettas owned by rival papers are saying this is nonsense. He played 33 games for Nice last season.
2: Virgil van Dijk
On the other hand “Southampton star Virgil van Dijk a prime target for Arsenal this summer.” Allegedly. He’s a centre back and we have a defensive crisis apparently (because of our players being in the summer international tournaments at various levels.) OK that crisis will only last two games and we actually do have enough players but still it is a CRISIS, and if there is a CRISIS then it must be at Arsenal.
“With Arsenal’s backline as fragile as Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League campaign, it appears that Arsene Wenger may be looking at reinforcements for his injury prone defence.” And the analysis that we get more injuries than anyone else? Sorry, I couldn’t find that.
3: Thomas Lemar
Apparently he is “pushing for Arsenal move” and Monaco will sell for £53m – or maybe that is £45m. These numbers are so confusing.
Indeed “Arsene Wenger is convinced Thomas Lemar wants to join Arsenal this summer and is ready to sanction “a third bid for” the player according to the Metro. And a THIRD BID means it must be SERIOUS.
But wait, what is this? An “Insider” says Arsenal will have to pay €60m to sign exciting 21-year-old attacker, but then when we do the sums that is indeed the same as the £53m – just another case of one newspaper having a load of little bloggy things and running the same story through all of them.
4: Brozovic
Yes, the Inter Milan star Marcelo Brozovic is ‘next on Arsene Wenger’s wish list’ and this according to ESPN. But don’t get too overwhelmed as the club is doing its slow-slow-slow thing and “weighing up a move for the Croatian midfielder” in order “revamp” the squad. A squad, which as we finally agreed yesterday, was still two men over the allowed 25.
And here is one I liked: “Arsenal scouts allegedly watched him in international action on numerous occasions during last season.” The new verb: to allegedly watch. What ever happened to the law against split infinitives? Inter are said to be prepared to listen to offers for the 24-year-old.
Wenger is a long-term admirer of Brozovic and had “scouts watch the Croatian international in action on several occasions last season.” But on 7 December last year, Brozović extended his contract with Inter Milan until 2021, with the new deal including a significant wage rise. So it all seems a trifle odd.
He’s 24 and played 23 times for the club in the league last season.
5: Marcus Asensio
Arsenal and Liverpool are interested in signing Real Madrid playmaker Marco Asensio, according to, oh, reports from… all the other bloggettas owned by the same newspapers. He played 23 times in the league for the Madmen last season and cup games took this total up to 38 with ten goals.
Arsenal and Liverpool have allegedly both watched him and are prepared to go into battle for him, which might be interesting to see. But he is 21 and has never played outside Spain – which in the past has been a danger sign.
6: Arsene Wenger makes huge Kylian Mbappe transfer revelation as £120m decision
And here’s a nice little quote from a bloggetta: “Wenger – speaking to Football.London during Arsenal’s tour of Australia, has now admitted that he has been trying to persuade the teenager to make the move to the Emirates.”
Did the boss actually give an interview to a little bloggy thing? Did he “admit” what he previously hid? No of course not. He gave a press conference, and the Daily Mirror’s man was there, and he just ran what Mr W said, which was
“Nobody can say they are not interested in a player of that calibre. He is such an immense quality at 18 years of age. All clubs are interested in him. He is a player who when he gets up in the morning can choose what he wants to do, where he wants to go.”
“There are not many players who have that kind of luck. He’s 18 years of age and all of Europe has the red carpet out for him.”
Apparently Monaco, who we must remember did beat PSG last season to the title with an average league attendance of 9,499 – the lowest in the top division in France – want to keep him. That crowd figure was below the average league attendance for League One in England last season. Lower than Milton Keynes Dons. Just a little above Millwall.
Monaco have offered the player a 900% pay rise to stay on at the Stade Louis II and play home games in front of under 10,000.
Most of us would agree that the blog posting of transfer ‘reports’ comes into the category of Fake News and at best is hocus pocus.
Many of us resolve not to take a blind bit of notice of this nonsense — and yet — there is something that draws fans to the reports because ……… well there may be something that is correct unlikely though that might be.
Of course it is nearly all rubbish, but in idle moments it can seem to be a good idea to suspend common sense to have a look see, and then feel self irritated to have been so gormless to have done so.
May I suggest that instead of reporting ‘fake news’ you report what has actually happened regarding transfers that relate to the Premier League.
There are those who are interested in football transfers that take place out with insular England. Reports of these would help give us all a better understanding of football in Europe. Dank u.
Whatever else happens, Sanchez is not going to Man City. If he does, it will be for a very high price – circa £80mn. Why? Because there is a good chance that Man City will receive a transfer ban for the next two windows. Wenger again repeated in the press conference in Australia today that Sanchez will be forced to see out his contract if he doesn’t extend. I think he is taking a calculated risk because he well knows that Sanchez cannot join Man City on a free next season because of the impending transfer ban. So either he will go elsewhere e.g. to Bayern, PSG etc, or will be forced to sign a new contract.
If Man City get really desperate then they will have no choice but to pay over the odds this season because of the impending transfer ban, and Wenger knows this. So if Man City bid circa £80mn for Sanchez, then I don’t mind if he goes because then Arsenal will be able to sign Lemar and some other decent player with that money.
Sam Sayyed
Sounds a credible theory to me, but I do think we could afford Lamar without selling Sanchez.
It seems more likely to me that any windfall from the sale of Sanchez, would be used in the acquisition of Mbappe.
Now I’m worried. If the media have stopped saying that Bellerin is going to Barca then their accuracy historically suggests that he is now much more likely to make the move… I much prefer them saying these things are ‘A done deal’ because then we know there’s only a 3% chance of it happening, now it’s 97%…
Just read that Bayern have signed up James Rodriguez on a 2 year loan. From this, the Mirror has concluded that since Bayern has pulled out of the race having signed James, it gives Man City a free run at Sanchez. Not mentioning that their impending transfer bank actually makes their position very weak for the reasons I enumerated above.
Well, Le Pro has in his Australia press conference yesterday not denied he’s not interested in Mbappe and Lemar signings this summer as he said, “he has looked a him – Lemar”, and at the same time also not denied that Arsenal have made a bid or bids to sign him.
Likewise, though he wasn’t asked if Arsenal have made any bid to sign Mbappe this summer, but going by Le Prof’s presser of yesterday during which he revealed that he’s interested in Mbappe, but whether he’ll make a bid to sign him or not this summer is not made known by him. I think it’s only Le Prof himself and the Arsenal board who’ll provide the huge amount of money necessary to do his signing can say thid. So, that media reports of £87m bid said to have been tabled by Arsenal to sign Mbappe is shrouded in unconfirmed media Arsenal transfer rumours.
But I think the one report which the media has claimed that Arsenal msde two bids to sign Lemar this Summer but were rejected by Monaco and Arsenal are very much ready to make a 3rd and final bid to sing the 21 year old midfielder, cannot be said to be unfounded media Arsenal transfer rumour.
On the media reports of Sanchez inordinate illusion of £400k/w wage demand at Arsenal before he’ll put pen to papers to extend his staying there beyond this summer, Le Prof did not say anything on that alleged Sanchez’s huge wage demand. But only said Sanchez has not told him he wants to leave Arsenal this summer and for that reason, he expects him to stay and as a professional honour his contract at Arsenal to the letter before it’s expired.
None the least, all Arsenals including myself want Sanchez to stay and extends his soon to be expired deal at Arsenal. More so, if his staying this summer will lead to Arsenal win the PL title next season. Which could invariably leads to him extending his staying at Arsenal beyond this summer.
But if Le Prof does allows Sanchez to remain at Arsenal beyond this summer window without having him to extend his stay and will not cash in on a very big cash deal to sell him to a club that’s want him and he too wants to go there, wouldn’t Le Prof be embarking on a huge gamble that could payoff if Arsenal win the PL title next season which will then justifies keeping him? But if the gamble fails to click to consequently results to Arsenal forfeiting the big ammout of £80m which could accrued to their bank account if they had allowed his exit transfer from Arsenal this summer to happen.
Will this singular decision of not to sell Sanchez this summer, and if taken by Le Prof not backfire for not allowing Sanchez to exit the club this summer? Which could result to a stubborn transfer risk decision undertaken by Le Prof.
I notice the “trend” of “fake news” permeates all aspects of life.
With media, every one is supposedly sending out their opinions into the cosmos, yet this is not really true.
It seems more that most are using the vehicle to earn money with advertising and sponsors, and use the same tactics that the “official” media uses, falsehoods, false titles and false content to lure the clicks in.
No wonder they fight against [ADBLOCKERS, the one defence against the intrusive advertising], i shout as a proclamation with fanfare.
Any site i go to that asks me to turn off adblockers, causes me to lose interest in visiting it anyway, so i exit rather in a hurry.
I actually forecast that somewhen in the near future words like truth, honour(not the false war honour(there is never ANY honour in war) but real honour between people), honesty and such words, will all but have disappeared from daily usage.
Oh, love will still exist, but it will have become a placeholder for lust, the urge to own that body, that car, that boat, that tv etc…
There will be resistance though, there allways is, a little pocket of resistance, growing steadily in the values of truth, justice, oh shut, i am not going to say the american way, come on.
Own up, you thought i was didnt you?
Anyway, back to 2017, two days to go to be able to see the magic 🙂 of Arsenal again, it has been a painfull 🙁 withdrawal.
The question shouldnt be who shall we buy, but who shall we sell first of all. Lets say we keep Ozil, Giroud and Alexis, Walcott and the OX. And with the Lacazette there as well, we have 6 players for 4 places already. That’s for Ideal as it makes it good competition for places. But do we really need Lemar ? I would personally take him, but only if we sell Walcott or The Ox first. If we sell Alexis this year we would need an ever bigger signing to fill his gap, only one that could do that for med would be Mbappe, but I dont think that is very likely so lets keep Alexis for another year and hope that he signs a new contract during the season.