by Sir Hardly Anyone
The Stephan Lichtsteiner deal is all done and dusted and by and large there is agreement that the Sokratis Papastathopoulos signing will be announced in July once the club have reached agreement with him on how his name is going to appear on his shirt.
And then there is also said to be the fact that Arsenal are most definitively, certainly and completely signing Bernd Leno from Bayern Leverkusen; that is until we get to the ones that say no he is not coming to Arsenal at all and those who say that with Sokratis coming they have run out of letters.
Yep it is the usual mixed up confusion. (A song by Bob Dylan as you will know if you read Untold Dylan)
But now it seems all is not as we might have been led to believe! However I get ahead of myself. Let’s take it from the top.
1: David Luiz
David Luiz was in the Chelsea team of the 2016-17 season, but the last season only played ten games and according to le10sport, Arsenal now really do want him as a centre back. He can also play defensive midfield and he is 31, which is in keeping with our apparent desire to sign the older type of man that Mr Wenger didn’t like so much.
2: Xaka extension
The story flourishes; the magical move from most unwanted to golden boy. Here are just two of the particles of chitchat concerning the now highly esteemed, but last week greatly unwanted, midfielder.
“Xhaka is one of the more misunderstood players at the club and a lot of Arsenal fans have a very mixed opinion of him. But the confidence that Emery has in him should be an indicator of the regard he is held in at the club.” (Arsenal Fever).
“Xhaka suffered (and still often does) from acute underappreciation. Fans just did not understand what the big deal was. And to be fair, when you bring a £30m+ price tag, they expect the world. To us Gooners, that is a lot of money.” (Pain in the Arsenal).
3: We didn’t know we were interested
Dean Henderson is a goal keeper at Manchester United. We didn’t know Arsenal were interested and by the time we found out he had “snubbed” Arsenal and was going to continue to play in the north.
One way you can always tell if a transfer story is made up is if it uses the word snubbed.
4: Lucas Torreira.
Hardly new news, and so old it is beyond old news but yes Arsenal “are set to wrap up” the signing of “Sampdoria ace Lucas Torreira.” The Star says it will happen on Wednesday. Shall we come back to the story then and see if it really happens? [Only if you remember, Sir H. – Tony]
5: Leno Oh No
He is off to Liverpool not Arsenal (according to the Daily Star). But no he is going to Roma (according to the Express). Either way he is not coming to Arsenal. We’ve probably been dithering.
6: Aldi is not a car nor is he an Arsenal player
Arsenal have suffer an “unexpected turnaround” regarding the superduper wonderkid Adli who will not sign for us but instead will sign for PSG. That is according to Sports Lens. Arsenal of course never said he was signing for us anyway.
7: Jean Michael Seri.
There’s a shortage of stories around as you can see because The Sport Review now announces that “Arsenal manager Unai Emery is keeping an eye on Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri.” Hardly new news but apparently it is still ongoing.
8: Sir Jack Wilshere
The great Arsenal supporter is seriously considering going to Crystal Palace and West Ham (although not both at once) according to the Star. Wolverhampton are pulling out of the “race” (according to the Birmingham Mail). Moyes at WHU says he is going to build his team around Jack, according to the Sun, who also say Wham are offering our Jack £30,000 a week to play in the state funded stadium more than Arsenal – probably because taxpayers paid for the place. Everton and Newcastle are also interested (according to the Metro).
9: Cech is on the way out.
La Gazzetta dello Sport says that “6 feel 4 inch colossus stopper” [oh for goodness sake] will be “surplus to requirements at the Emirates” and so could tag along to meet his former manager Carlo Ancelotti at Napoli. This is said to be a shock loan deal by This is futbol. So please act shocked.
10: Stewart Robson is an even bigger arse than we thought
The man who thought it was clever to use his position on Arsenal TV to criticise the club endlessly without supplying any sort of evidence did a farewell (that is farewell to work) interview on ESPN in which he said, “I don’t want them to lose quite as much as I did before.”
He then made childish remarks about not being invited to Mr Wenger’s last game, that he is banned from the stadium (which he seems to imply makes Arsenal a little club) and that the club hold grudges, which they shouldn’t because he was player of the year twice.
I suspect his banning from the stadium is a public order matter as the police fear a rising up of elderly gentlemen attempting to punch the humbug in the face if he ever returned (if only the old timers could just remember where their fists are).
- Gambling on football matches: is there really a way to make it pay? Let’s try with England.
- Would you believe it? After 2 years of hating Xhaka the media change their minds!
- Some players 1st game after the world cup will be… an international match
Stephan Lichtsteiner is already in at the Ems this summer. And it’s increasingly looking likely Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz and Lucas Torreira could all join him soon at the Emirates Stadium this summer. Those are 4 new players Arsenal would have signed this summer if they conclude the transfer deals for the above last trio players.
I think Arsenal can play David Luiz as CB or DM alongside Xhaka at the Gunners base during the coming summer campaign with Torteira coming into the DM fray too when David Luiz is switched to CB.
But after Arsenal might have concluded all these their preferred 4 incoming transfer deals this summer that means Fellaini is off the Arsenal’s summer incoming transfers, would Arsenal bid for a top quality striker signing this summer? I say this because I have not read of Arsenal making a bid to sign any striker in the media this summer apart of them being linked in the media with Alexandre Golovin of CSKA this summer. But will Arsenal sign him this summer? I don’t know. Even their reported likely signings of David Luiz and Lucas Torreira are looking to be under probability because nothing concrete on these duo transfer to the Gunners can be held on to as Arsenal have not been reported to have submitted a 2nd bid for David Luiz which Chelsea have accepted. And in Torreira’s case, has Arsenal reached agreement with the player and his club to bring him to the Emirates Stadium this summer? Well, I can say.
@Samuel: While the new signing(s) and the pursuit of those being mentioned in blogettas and various sites is certainly a step in the right direction, as it begins to address some of the most pressing and long time issues, do we really need to sign a “top quality striker”? One might think that you consider Aubameyang and Lacazette ‘below par’. I think it’s pretty safe to say that when given opportunity, especially together, they were impressive to watch. Arsenal’s performance last season showed our problems were not in how well we attack, but our response when we lose possession, a nervy defense and an inconsistent keeper. I think you’d be hard pressed to find teams whose goal contribution from the attacking line is as widespread as ours. Stability in defense from the likes of Lichtsteiner and Solaris (hopefully) with Mavropanos gradually coming into the first team, a decent holding midfielder to partner with Xhaka (who I believe in), and long-term replacement for Petr Cech should be fine.
Looking over WorldFootball, we see a headline about Australia being frustrated with VAR.
I think that football is full (overflowing even) with dishonest people. For years, they have gotten away with certain kinds of activities on the field, and they now feel entitled to continue to do so forever.
I didn’t see the incident, just like I have not gone looking for information about other people bitching about VAR. Even without a tilted playing field (EPL), all decisions made by officials on the field are made very quickly. A recent (scientific) paper I mentioned on Untold was looking at incidents unfolding in front of referees in terms of whether the action was happening left to right across their field of vision, or right to left. The went to the trouble of generating video that was in the correct orientation, and new video which was the mirror image. They had to edit all the frames, to remove things like numbers from player’s images, as the mirroring would be obvious.
They then compared whether players were found guilty or not, and how long it took to come to those conclusions. There was a difference between guilt/innocence in terms of left to right versus right to left, and how long it took to come to those conclusions. In addition, they think they were seeing an affect of written language (mother tongue), in that some languages like Hebrew and Arabic are right to left, not left to right.
So scientists can see differences in action and speed with that kind of study, and players/managers think that everything they got away with in the past was actually allowed? Hogwash!
watched the Germany Mexico match. Despite Mexico’s win, Germany still looks pretty good, however, I am curious to see what Germans think of the amount of time added on at the end of the 2nd half. 3 minutes. One of the Mexican players was treated for almost 3 minutes…time wasting and substitutions don’t seem to be taken into consideration. Not giving added on time is just as bad as adding too much. How about stopping the clock when the ball is out of play (official timekeeper), having a 10 second clock when the keeper has the ball and an automatic horn at 70 minutes.
Going Going, Did you see, Ozil was at right back, but was ineffective when he got back. LOL! Low is right, we need more from you son, at least he made it back, where was Kimmich? He’s probably the best developing RB, but you see abundance of pace going forward, you need cover. Sami, where were you, where was everyone, well played Mexico, Germany have to win both their next matches to ensure safe passage.
It’s about when they come alive, they are usually looking to make game 3 the formality, oops. Sane???? this was his type game, entirely. and Reus didn’t start, tut tut!
Messi shouldn’t have had a penalty to take, rules of the game, he plaued incredibly lose, and wasn’t blocked off.
We just signed, Alberto Moreno for £26m. Nah come on, I’m ****ing with you.