by Tony Attwood
There are some truly frightening stories around at the moment, the most awful of which is the notion that England are preparing to bid for the world cup finals again. Not content with having throw millions of pounds of taxpayers money at Fifa last time around, and clearly aware that Fifa remains as corrupt as ever, and having had the ignominy of a vote of no confidence in them by the House of Commons, the FA really are setting themselves up once more.
And the most awful thing about it is that mugs like me who pay our taxes, are going to have to watch it all go down a drain of corruption yet again. 2030 is the tournament they are thinking of throwing money at.
Moving on Jack Wilshere has posted on one of those social media things saying, “There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.”
Well yes, up to a point. When your contract runs out at the end of the month (as his does) you do have to decide. Are you signing the deal with Arsenal or moving on?
Anyway, one bloggetta knows what’s going on. “Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is due to hold talks with Unai Emery this week regarding his future at the club,” according to Read Arsenal. I’d like Jack to stay, just because he can do some very exciting things and is Arsenal through and through, but the club hasn’t asked my opinion.
Elsewhere events at Sporting Lisbon have taken an interesting turn as 19 players have been suspended. They have also had a band of men, their faces covered in hoods, forcing their way into the training ground and attacking some of the players. What annoyed them was the Sporting had lost their last game of the season and so finished third, and thus outside of the Champions League. Their chairman accused Benfica players of offering gifts to referees.
And then if all that were not enough to give you something to think about how about this one:
Arsenal fans order Unai Emery to revive transfer interest in Aleksandr Golovin.
They add that, “The 22-year-old was heavily linked with a move to north London last summer with Arsene Wenger admitting he was a fan of the CSKA star ahead of the Europa League quarter final clash back in March.”
Anyway it was just a little bunch of tweets that caused the headline, after the first half of the first match in the world cup. And each of those seemed to ignore the fact that Arsenal in some quarters have been said to have too many forwards and maybe ought to be getting rid of Lacazette. As I have said before I really do hope that we keep Laca and Auba, both because two on the pitch at once would worry any defence, and because one of them is going to be injured at some time, and we need that level of cover.
Of course some headlines are really so misleading they are positively annoying, like “Arsenal agree new deal for highly-rated midfielder.” Well maybe you can squeeze reality into that headline, but it is quite a push when the player is Maitland-Niles. It would have been better to say he’s “signed a new contract”
Last thing today: 18 minutes to go and the score is Russia 3 Saudi Arabia 0 and the commentator says, “It looks like all three points are going to Russia.” Yes I guess it does.
- Are our fixtures bent against us and Palace enter a time warp for a couple of minutes.
- Who’s going where, and what the Jack the Ripper crew are making of Chelsea.
- Where next for Arsene Wenger?
After they’ve signed Lichsteiner early this summer, who are the rest of the players that are currently inline for signings by Arsenal to conclude their signings this summer? Papastathopoulos, Fellaini, Terreira and possibly Golovin?: I still remember when Monsieur Arsene Wenger, the former Gunners boss wanted to sign Golovin 2 seasons ago, but the anti- Wenger brigade descended heavily on him saying, if he signs Golovin for Arsenal, the signing will turnout to become a washout transfer signing for Arsenal. But now, the Gooners are reported to have ordered Unai Emeri, the new Gunners boss to urgently signed Golovin for Arsenal according to media reports. B
Having seen that Arsenal will open their 2018/19 Premier League campaign with a big game at home against Man City, the reigning PL champions and immediately followed that big game with another big game away to Chelsea, I think these 2 games with which the Gunners will begin their first 2 PL games of the new season will go a long way to tell us if Arsenal will become the PL champions or not next season. If Arsenal beat these 2 giants club sides, the Gunners will strongly positioned themselves to collect all the available 18 points in the first 6 PL games that they’ll play in the new season and thereby give us huge hope of a PL Title win campaign.
Arsenal should try as much as they can to conclude all their remaining 4 signings of this summer window with the minimum delays. One of which will of course be on the free if Fellaini didn’t recommit to Man U or decides to go elsewhere. But if Arsenal sign 5 new players this summer one out the 5 which they’ve already signed, will the squad not become over blotted as there are only 3 vacant positions available for grabs in the last 25 list that saw BFG and Cazorla off the 25 and Koscielny who is temporarily off the list?
Will Arsenal sign Golovin from CSKA Moskiva this summer? Sure, Arsenal will need a 3rd striker for option and cover in their next 25 man list who can score goals regularly and also gives assist to score on a regular basis for the club during the campaign. But does Golovin fit this bill for Arsenal? I think he could. But if he has a remarkable campaign for Russia in the ongoing World Cup, his sign on transfer fee will likely go up. And Arsenal may not have much money left in their transfer kitty that can pay to sign him on the high side after they might have signed Terreira. Save, if they sell a player. But honestly, I don’t want to see Arsenal sell any of their current senior Gunner this summer but just one Gunner in the current 23 who hasn’t been doing very well for Arsenal in terms of regular goals scoring for the club since he has joined it.
If after making 5 new signings this summer, a striker, a DM, a MF and 2 defenders which are very necessary. WOW! Arsenal can rationalize their first team squad by sending some of them out on loans and sell just only one to raise money if needs be to enable them do the Golovin signing.
Tony , you ‘ll just never know , but the WC may end up in England earlier , if Qatar is found to be ‘not conducive ‘ enough for football to be played there. Even in winter or worse in the summer . Donald Trump may have a big bearing on events there.
What would happen if the European leagues don’t want to change their regular league fixture ways , and refuse to accommodate FIFA and Qatar and not want to play in winter?