By Sir Hardly Anyone
Figures compiled by the Guardian newspaper show that thus far the Premier League is outspending its four main rivals in terms of new players, but not but quite as much as has happened in the past.
Here are the figures in pounds…
- Premier League: £286.4m
- Bundesliga: £232.50m
- Serie A: £228.5m
- La Liga: £211m
- Ligue 1: £179.7m
And the player details in descending fee order…
| Player | From | To | Fee |
| Naby Keïta | RB Leipzig | Liverpool | £52.8m |
| Thomas Lemar | Monaco | Atlético Madrid | £52.7m |
| Fred | Shakhtar Donetsk | Manchester United | £43.7m |
| Vinícius Júnior | Flamengo | Real Madrid | £40.2m |
| Fabinho | Monaco | Liverpool | £40m |
| Douglas Costa | Bayern Munich | Juventus | £35.2m |
| Lucas Torreira | Sampdoria | Arsenal | £26.4m |
| Simone Verdi | Bologna | Napoli | £22m |
| Paulinho | Vasco da Gama | Bayer Leverkusen | £21.9m |
| Geoffrey Kondogbia | Inter | Valencia | £21.9m |
HITC have gone a bit over the top with “Arsenal are reportedly on the brink of signing Lucas Torreira – and some Tottenham Hotspur fans are envious.”
Well that is good to know.
At the moment the Guardian also have us seriously wanting to secure Mario Götze, who, they helpfully add, “scored the winning goal for Germany in Brazil four years ago”. He is with Borussia Dortmund and the club are said to be wanting £18m or a bit more for the midfielder. Everton and Wet Ham (that was a misprint but I thought it amusing in my childish way so left it in) also want him.
The Guardian are also telling us that Arsenal have had a bid of £18m turned down by Chelsea for David Luiz who is with Germany in Russia at the moment. The Canon however tells us that Arsenal have put in a second bid for David Luiz after their first bid of €20m got nowhere.
There is a lovely bit of bonkersness from the Transfer Tavern as usual when they say “…there’s one thing that Luiz – who is rated at £22.5 million by Transfer Markt – has that most at Arsenal don’t: winning experience.”
Shall we do the list of Cup Final wins?
| Club | Wins | First final won | Last final won | Runners-up | Last final lost | Total final appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 13 | 1930 | 2017 | 7 | 2001 | 20 |
| Man Utd | 12 | 1909 | 2016 | 8 | 2018 | 20 |
| Chelsea | 8 | 1970 | 2018 | 5 | 2017 | 13 |
| Tottenham | 8 | 1901 | 1991 | 1 | 1987 | 9 |
Or maybe that one is a bit unfair so what about the last five seasons
| Club | League | Lowest | FA Cup | Lge Cup | Europe | Total |
| Man C | 2 | 4th | 3 | 5 | ||
| Chelsea | 2 | 10th | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Arsenal | 6th | 3 | 3 | |||
| Man U | 7th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Liverpool | 8th | 0 | 0 | |||
| Tottenham | 6th | 0 |
What I like about that five year chart is that although coming sixth was seen as clearly not good enough and a reason to hound the manager, only one of the teams in the top six has actually done better than that in terms of their worst position in the last five year: Manchester Sovereign Wealth Fund who have only come as low as 4th.
Meanwhile Just Arsenal have gone back a step with this one…
“Many so-called know-it-all’s keep telling us that Torreira is a “done deal” but according to SKY there are still lots of other negotiations going on, and one of them is for the Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri.
“Chelsea are supposedly keen but with the uncertainty surrounding Antonio Conte (and Abramovich!) we are sure to be favourites to secure his signature.”
(That I would emphasise is the Nice midfielder, not the nice midfielder. Just to be clear.)
Elsewhere the Reading Chronicle carry a letter from Lee Herron who is coming to Arsenal to be head of academy football operations. this summer.
And meanwhile the Cannon tells us that “Yassin Fortune has signed for FC Sion, bringing to an end to his time at the club.” I think that one was expected. They also report that Louise Quinn and Katie McCabe, have signed new deals to keep them at the club. That article was the third most read piece on New Snow (as it is known around the upper reaches of the central Rutland mountain range) although I suspect it was the headline “Official: Great news as Arsenal get another 2 to sign” that got most readers on their site.
And finally, the Sport Review tell us “Arsenal close in on £50m triple transfer swoop – report”
Those three are revealed in the bit below the headline…
“Arsenal are closing in on the signings of Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, say reports”
Hmmm. I think we already had that one.
- FFP is still out there but just dozing in the corner while football deals with anyone with money.
- Funny ol game: crazy Fifa bid, clubs breaking up, fans order new manager, Jack ponders
- Are our fixtures bent against us and Palace enter a time warp for a couple of minutes.
Having already signed the experienced CB Lichtsteiner this summer, but will Arsenal still sign 2 more experienced centrebacks in David Luis and Papastathopoulos this summer to bring the number of experienced centreback signed by the club this summer window to 3 in numbers? I think they will succeed to sign David Luis if close to his asking price is met. Moreover, there is no known problem encountered between Arsenal and Chelsea when it comes to players from the 2 clubs going in the opposite direction in transfer since Cash Cole crossed over from the Ems to the Bridge. I think this transfer will likely go though.
And I think it will be great if Arsenal conclude the signing of Terreira to replace the departed Santi Cazorla. But the DM Francis Coquelin who was the only DM Arsenal had has not been replaced since he left the club
And I think Arsenal will need an upgrade in this position by signing a top quality holding midfielder during this summer window
I think a 3rd striker signing is imperative for Arsenal to do this summer for active productive option and cover during next season’s campaign.
My projected Arsenal 25 man first team squad list for the first half of next season’s campaign are:
GOALKEEPERS:
Cech, Ospina & Macey. (3)
SPECiALIST DEFENDERS:
Chambers Holding, Mustafi, Monreal, AMN, Lichtsteiner, David Luis? & Papastathopoulos? (8)
SPECIALIST WING BACKS:
Bellerin & Kolasinac. (2)
ADAPTED HOLDING MIDFIELDERS/BOX TO BOX:
Xhaka & ElNeny. (2). One specialist DM signing is required this summer to bring the number to 3
DEEP LYING/PLAY MAKER MIDFIELDERS:
Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Mkhitayang, Nelson (promoted)? &Torreiaree (6). But one experienced general purpose midfielder signing is still required this summer for the squad to bring the number to 7. (Fellaini?):
SPECIALIST STRIkERS:
Aubameyang, Lacazette & Welbeck (3). But still, one top quality striker signing this summer for productive option and cover is still required for the squad. Golovin?
These will be: 3+8+2+2+6+3=24 man first team squad at Arsenal but if they sign David Luis, Terreira and Papastathopoulos this summer. There is still one position left that can be filled with a signing. And if Arsenal sell a senior striker this summer but not Auba’ and Laca’, I think there will be vacancy of 2 positions to accommodate 2 more signings of a general purpose experienced midfielder and a top quality 3rd striker which will bring the total number in the senior team squad for the hfirst half of next season to 25 Gunners. Hopefully, Jack Wilshere will stay and Nelson will gain promotion to the first team squad next season..
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Sam Lichtsteiner is a RB. Why is AMN in Defenders, he’s a Midfielder, developing at Full back, which is common, Diallo, CB developing at LB.
Mikhitaryan isn’t a deep lying playmaker, nor is Ozil, Ramsey is an Advanced Playmaker. Nelson is AMC/L/R annd I can’t exactly call Welbeck a specialist, not even in failure.
If we keep Monreal and Cech on we are stupid, because we need to recoup some of what they are worth and would be better off intergrating another LB this season.
Cech stated he wants to play every game, and doesn’t like the Cup/League GK situation, whey to show you are competent and deserving, publicly question the managers decision, rack up a handful of GK errors which lead to goals scored and games lost, prove you arent’t a team player, and be getting on.
We payed around £10m, he’s worth £5m – £6m around that mark, with Ospina commanding a similar fee in my humble opinion. that’s half the quoted Butland fee, so would I pay £15m for Butland, yes. It gives opportunity to Macey, and likely promotes Ilev, over Martinez or Huddard. What point in around 8 GK on the boks, if we aren’t going to give opportunities, we have too many, neither of the 1st team selection have filled me with confidence.
You aren’t using th HG U21 rules, because given that over the next three years the development players will intergrate, with senior personnel, getting on, not using it, is farcical.