By Sir Hardly Anyone
The season is still running, the transfer window is still securely shuttered and bolted, but the list of players joining Arsenal has already reached 56. One wonders if, just as the Stone Age came to an end because primitive man ran out of stones, so the Age of the Transfer Rumour will finally collapse because the “outlets” (now officially renamed “drainpipes”) will simply run out of players to rumourmonger.
Here’s the list of transfer rumours we have noticed so far, and there will certainly be more to come… As always the New and Updated reports are noted in the left hand column.
One thing we are seeing this year is a lot more recycling of stories with the first version blaming the tale on an unheard of Spanish “outlet” and from there going to a newspaper and thence to a blog. Now the blogs seem to be passing the stories back to the newspaper, thus making a perfect circle of nonsense.
As for the bloggettas, they have a new tactic aimed at undermining player confidence, as witness from this morning’s performance by FootballFanCast.
At 6.36 BST it published a new piece with the headline: ‘Failed to convince’, ‘Has to go’ – Arsenal fans hated 22-year-old’s performance
Then exactly 30 minutes later it published a new article: “‘Beyond the realms of useless’, ‘Finished’ – Arsenal fans destroy 6ft star after Sunday defeat.”
One was about Calum Chambers and the other about Rob Holding and it is fairly clear what effect this could have on the two players and indeed players thinking of joining Arsenal, and youngsters wondering whether to stay at the club or themselves ask to move away from such “fans”. They quote 10 Twitterers in one piece and six in another. So if we take it that all 16 are real Arsenal supporters and there is no duplication going on here, and that these guys go to home matches then that represents 0.028% of the Arsenal crowd. If one were seeking to suggest these were representative of all supporters then I guess that number would be several orders of magnitude lower.
Of course there is nothing wrong with doing samples; that is what happens in politics, but although their samples are smaller still they are samples based on knowledge of the people, their lives and how they voted before. And even these, with a mass of sophistication in the selection and analysis can be very wrong – as in the last General Election in the UK.
So what is the point of such commentary? Probably just to get a couple of posts out, and get a few people to click on adverts to generate some cash for the company publishing the pieces. In other words players and the club are being knocked, with the potential consequences of that, in order to generate a few pounds.
That seems to be football these days.
Anyway, here’s the list of players the sites tell us Arsenal are buying, and at the end a list of ten people who are supposedly under consideration to be the new manager.
| No. | Player | From | Source | Information |
| 1 | Yacine Adli | PSG | Sport Review. Talk Sport says the deal is certainly on for a mere £250,000. Mirror says it is for sure. | Barcelona Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Juventus want him. He’s a wonderkid. |
| 2 | Marco Asensio | Real Madrid | Guardian | Liverpool will pay up to £131m, Chelsea also keen. |
| 3 | Álvaro Odriozola Arzallus | Real Sociedad | Football London | Mainly right back can also play on the wing |
| 4 | Leon Bailey | Bayer Leverkusen | Talk Sprout; Football London | Cost £100m, he’s a winger or a midfielder who gives assists. Chelsea more likely |
| 5 | Jack Butland | Stoke | The Sun, 101 Great Goals | Liverpool also after this keeper |
| 6 | Karim Benzema | Real Mad | EPR Scouts, Football Transfer Tavern, Diario Gol, | Deal agreed £35m. No €60 million, |
| 7 | Emre Can | Liverpool | Fourth Official | Liverpool won’t give him an extension |
| 8 | Jasper Cillessen | Barcelona | Mundo Deportivo, Daily Cannon | A keeper. |
| 9 | Doucoured | Watford | Football London | Play next to Ramsey to bring “much needed brawn and steel to a weak midfield.” |
| Update | Ousmane Dembele | Barcelona (joined from Dortmund for £96m) | Express, Don Balon, Arsenal News, Gunnersphere, Telefoot | Swap deal with Bellerin even though we don’t need any more forwards and he is injury prone, but is a friend of Aub’s. Says he’s not moving |
| 11 | Kerem Demirbay | Hoffenheim | TalkSport. Liga Financial, Star, AFC Fever | Midfielder, AFC price agreed, Liverpool want him. Price agreed |
| 12 | Leander Dendoncker | Anderlecht | Fourth Official | Defensive midfield, creative midfield… |
| 13 | Abdoulaye Doucoure | Watford | Hertfordshire Mercury | Goalkeeper. Watford want to keep him. Tots want him |
| 14 | Johnny Evans | WBA | Daily Mirror, Football London | He’s the key man we need. £3m from WBA if they go down |
| 15 | Nabil Fekir | Olympique Lyonnais | Arsenal’s number 1 target; attacking midfield | |
| 16 | Emil Forsberg | RB Leipzig | Sportwitness and Calcio Mercato | A replacement for Alexis Sanchez |
| 17 | Fred | Shakhtar | Gibfootballshow | Arsenal to get him for £30m |
| 18 | Willem Geubbels | Lyon | Football London | 16 years old forward, Barce, Leipzig and Chelsea also want him |
| 19 | Alex Grimaldo | Benfica | Read Arsenal | Left back. Man U, PSG & Monaco fancy him |
| 20 | Goncalo Guedes | PSG | Liga Financial | PSG must sell because of FFP, Arsenal have announced interest |
| 21 | Kai Havertz | Bayer Leverkusen | Metro, Mail, Tribal Football | AFC and Liverpool want him. Midfielder; B,L’s youngest ever player |
| 22 | Dean Henderson | Man U; Shrewsbury | Mirror, Football London | Wants to leave to get 1st team football. He’s a keeper |
| NEW | Ahmed Hegazi | West Brom | Transfer Tavern | Defender |
| 24 | Lorenzo Insigne. | Napoli | CalcioMercato.it. Football fancast | An attacker, aged 26, Italian international |
| 25 | Jakub Jankto | Udinese | Teamtalk | It’s either Arsenal or AC Milan |
| 26 | Jorginho | Napoli | Hot Stepanovs | Faster and smaller than Xhaka |
| Update | Kalidou Koulibaly | Napoli | Daily Mirror, Gunnersphere, Guardian, Corriere Dello Sport, Tribal Football | Centre back; top priority, Chelsea, Man C and Liverpool want him |
| 28 | Alban Lafont | Toulouse | Arsenal Mania, Daily Canon | Goalkeeper, Boyhood supporter of Arsenal. “Set to leave”. But he’s only 19. |
| Update | Thomas Lemar | Monaco | ArsenalNewsHQ; Mirror; TalkSport. Star, Different League | Deal confirmed; has rejected a new contract. All go!!! Or he has “become available” |
| New | Matthias De Ligt, | Ajax | Football London, Mirror | Centre back; Tots and Man C also want him |
| 31 | Leno | Bayer Leverkusen | Football London | A keeper available for just £22m |
| 32 | Lozano | PSV | Sport 360, Arsenal mania | Winger who can cut inside |
| 33 | Harry Maguire | Leicester | Sky Sports | Centre half. Man U also want him. |
| 34 | Malcolm | Bordeaux | FootballBible, Sport Review, Gunnerspheree, Football London | Winger; everyone is interested; he says he goes in the summer. But might go to China. No will play in a 3 man line behind the number 9. |
| 35 | Joao Mario | Inter on loan at WHU | Fourth Official | Midfield, and said to love London |
| 36 | Lautaro Martinez | Racing Club de Avellaneda | Gunnersphere | Striker. Inter have offered €20million |
| NEW | Anthony Martial | Man U | Sun, 4th Official | Signed by United from AC Monaco in 2015, the £75.7m |
| 38 | Max Meyer | Schalke 04. | Football London, Daily Canon, Guardian, Talk Sport, Express. Contract ends this season | Attacking midfield or playmaker. Liverpool battling with Arsenal New Santi Cazorla |
| 39 | Keylor Navas | Real Madrid | Don Ballon, HITC, | A goalkeeper looking for work. He’s 31 |
| NEW | Robert Navarro | Barcelona | Daily Mail | He’s 15 and plans to leave on his 16th birthday |
| 41 | Wilfred Ndidi | Leicester | Mad About PL, Goonertalk, African Football, Sun | Midfielder, Man U want him too |
| NEW | Saul Niguez | At, Madrid | Mirror, Arsenal Station | £130m will get him. Midfielder |
| 43 | Abulkadir Omur | Trabzonspor | Turkish football says Ozil recommends him | Central midfield |
| 44 | Oguzhan Ozyakup | Besiktas | Mail. Football London says Wenger obsessed the transfer | Arsenal to bring back their ex-player at the end of his contract |
| 45 | Pablo Moreno | Barcelona | Mundo Deportivo | He’s 15 and his contract runs out at the end of the season |
| 46 | Jan Oblak | Atletico Mad | FootballBible; Gibfootballshow | Goalkeeper also wanted by Chelsea and Liverpool. 100m euros. |
| 47 | Panagiotis Retsos | Bayer Leverkusen | Goal, 4th official | Greek South African defender |
| 48 | Sokratis Papastathopoulos | Borussia Dortmund | Birmingham Live, Gazzetta dello Sport | Man U, Junventus, Chelsea interested in 29 year old defender |
| Update | Richarlison | Watford | EPL Scouts, 4th Official | Forward, Chels & Tots also; Arsenal miss out & Arsenal to hijack deal, both on same site!!! |
| 50 | Daniele Rugani | Juventus | Whoscored | Defender. Agent confirms |
| 51 | Andre Silva | Milan | Mad about EPL | Attacking midfield “sensation” but failed to show his attributes this year. Wolverhampton also interested. |
| 52 | Chris Smalling | Man U | Daily Canon, Sport 360, Daily Star, Guardian | £25m will get him |
| NEW | Caglar Soyuncu | Freiburg | Football Whispers, Arsenal Station | Central midfield. Liverpool, Man C, Dortmund “in race” |
| 54 | Timo Werner | Leipzig | Arsenal mania, Sun | 21 year old who has scored a multitude of goals |
| Update | Ben Wilmot | Stevenage | Sportsmole, Gunnersphere. The 72 | 18 year old played a dozen or so games. Totts also interested. Price is £2m |
| 55 | Wilfried Zaha | Crystal Palace | Liga Financial | Arsenal making a bid of £25m |
| 56 | Andrija Zivkovic | Benfica | Football Facts, The Record, EatSleepSports ArsenalStation, Telegraph, Giants, Tribal Football, Sport Witness | 21 year old striker. Man U also want him Price is £52m |
New on the manager front is Max Allegri who is coming from Juventus to Arsenal, maybe via a year out. Daily Canon, and Corriere della Sera have this one straight out of the fantasy factory. Sports Mole however has claimedthat Allegri himself says the move is unlikely.
Apparently Arsenal now have a shortlist of managers to replace Mr Wenger which has been provided by Daily Canon
- Lucien Favre
- Thomas Tuchel
- Fabio Capello
- Joachim Low
- Mikel Arteta
- Leonardo Jardim
- Brendan Rodgers
- Carlo Ancelotti
- Paulo Fonseca
- Thierry Henry
One or two names on that list I am not too sure about. But there will be more at some stage, of that I am certain.
Arsenal in Feb 1922. Norris missing, Cup success, relegation threatens, and a monkey
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Arsenal should not be relying on penalty given to them by referees before they can win matches in the Premier League. The last unbeaten Arsenal Gunners team that won the Premier League Title in 2004 was not relying on penalty awarded to them by referres before they won the PL Title that season. Rather, the Gunners of that era relied on their individuals top quality peculiar to them such like able to win duels, track back to defend efficiently, a strong back line backbone that was almost impregnable and unrivalled goals scoring domination ability that made their opponent teams to have no answer to them.
The current Pep Guardiola’s managed team that has just won this season’s PL Title yesterday with 5 games to spare van be said is a team reminiscent to Arsenal team that won the PL Title in 2004 with 4 games to spare.
I can see that the current senior Arsenal team of this season lack special quality players who should be in the team such as players who can win duels, track back to defend efficiently and having incredible strikers/mid-filders/defenders who can score goals regularly to win matches almost unabated without relying on penalties awarded them by referees before they win matches. If Arsenal are given a penalty in a match by the match referee, good and fine. But if the referee flagrantly denied them as referee Anthony Taylor denied Arsenal in our last away match to Newcastle, we don’t cry. For, we’ve already known that the PGMO referees are mostly anti-Arsenal referees mostly in the Premier League games. But that shouldn’t stop Arsenal to go ahead to score match winning goals that will be not disputed but be praised even by the PGMO match officiating officials and the opposition teams.
Now, the majority of Premier League clubs have voted to defer the introducing the VARs into the Premier League matches next season. Why do we think they’ve done this? It’s because the clubs that voted against the introducing the VARs in the PL next season don’t want to see Arsenal win the PL Title. Because they know if the VARs are introduced in the PL next season, Arsenal will likely win the PL Title with the brand of tantalising football they are playing.
Therefore, since Arsenal have now known that the VARs will not be introduced in the PL next season to stop the cheatings the referees have cheating Arsenal with in the PL matches and getting away with them to stop us from winning the Title. Arsenal should prepare themselves adequately well for next season’s campaign in the PL by acquiring the right players with the right physical attributes who can play both the physical and finesse game to counter the PGMO. So that we can win the Title next season just as we’ve seen Man City countered the PGMO this campaign to win the Title.
I thought that Chambers had a good first half, with some good defensive play and some attacking runs…second less so but he is still young. And, I thought Holding, though less offensively effective (hey, he was a CB), was OK in the middle. He and Mustafi might have to improve their communication, though…
I’m not ready to get rid of them, though. The game was not an important one so take it easy, folks!