By Sir Hardly Anyone
So far this transfer window the grand net spend or profit of the bigger clubs are
- Arsenal – nothing
- Chelsea – £49.1m net spend – Christian Pulisic who was immediately loaned out.
- Liverpool – £17m net profit
- Man City – £15m net profit
- Man U – nothing
- Tottenham – £11m profit.
So actually not a lot of activity at all. But the Telegraph is clearly feeling it has some inside information as it is saying that Arsenal are preparing to sign Belgium international Yannick Carrasco as an alternative to Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic. He is a winger, he’s 25 and his is with Dalian Yifang, and apparently rather anxious to leave
It seems that he is also being seen as a replacement for Perisic at Inter should Arsenal go for that player rather than Carrasco. But Inter are not that keen on letting Perisic out on a loan deal and want a signed and sealed transfer deal now, but Arsenal’s owner has laid down the law in terms of spending any more – having upped his initial transfer limit of £50m to £70m last summer. So no deal there.
Thus given Arsenal’s constraints and the fact that Chinese clubs are never seemingly short of money, Carrasco on loan it is.
But then there is another problem because wages in China can be very high, to entice players out there at all, and what some of these players are doing is thinking that if they are worth £x in China then surely they are worth the same in England because everyone knows English food is as repetitive as Chinese.
Worse, some stories are saying that the Chinese club don’t want Carrasco to go unless they can get someone else in – which seems unlikely as the transfer window is about to ping shut tomorrow. They have apparently tried to get our old chum Olivier Giroud who is clearly not happy not playing for Chelsea.
But in another twist it seems the transfer market in China does indeed remain open until the end of February, so while Premier League clubs can’t buy anyone after tomorrow, they can certainly go on offloading unwanted talent for another month – if the players can be persuaded to go to China.
Meanwhile (and this may have already happened while I was not looking) we are still apparently signing Denis Suárez from Barcelona on another loan deal with the option to make that move permanent at the end of this season. He is 25 and plays centre of attack or on the wing. Apparently he was expected to be spotted at an airport, although I am still waiting on that one.
Meanwhile here’s a funny story…
“‘Class!’ – The Arsenal fans going wild as talks open over £9.5m Hector Bellerin replacement.”
Arsenal have enquired about signing Napoli defender Kevin Malcuit, according to reports in France. Malcuit, 27, is currently on the books of Napoli and is seen as the man to fill the void left by the injured Hector Bellerin, being a right-back who likes to get forward and help support the attack.”
Which opens up the question, what will happen to the player after Bellerin recovers and returns next season? Is he a Lichsteiner replacement, will he be a back up across the back line? Where does Maitland-Niles go? Did you go wild as the Foot Lond man expected? Perhaps not.
Meanwhile the Excess goes with “Five deals that could be done before deadline day” in its regular Arsenal transfer news blast. Actually only three are incoming and they are all fairly widely debated, and two are outgoing – Ramsey and Elneny. So was that why Elneny got half a game last night? I thought he played ok, actually.
“Arsenal have agreed a loan deal for Inter Milan winger” says Ivan Perisic, ignoring all the details above.
‘Sack him now’ – Angry Arsenal fans have had it with Unai Emery after latest transfer development and yes that is a development not a rumour.
This headline comes from
But the doom and gloom will not continue for ever we are told because the Metro announces that Unai Emery reveals transfer promise made to him by Arsenal board The promise is that he will have money come the summer. So that’s ok.
Any more? Well yes, always there are more…
Yannick Carrasco’s agent drops hint Arsenal move is in trouble (
Arsenal eye late swoop to sign Senegal star, player has demanded move. (
“These Arsenal fans are saying the same thing as PSG star Yacine Adli closes in on transfer” (
“Arsenal could strike gold after transfer green light for ace they snubbed this month – opinion.” And that comes from the Transfer Tavern who tell us that Carriasco ticks all the boxes.
This is the first transfer window in a while where I haven’t been mentioned as a transfer target for Arsenal!! Oh well, time and tide wait for no man!!
The transfer window closes on 28th Feb for the Chinese league says skysports.
Is there still the possibility of Almiron transferring to Arsenal FC from his MLS club side Atlanta tomorrow before this January widow is closed? Or there was never a plan on the table at Arsenal to sign Almiron this Jan or during the next summer widow in the first place? Which if that is the case, it has made such a possible transfer happening to Arsenal this winter window a none started. Or, as Arsenal have been banned by the club’s owner, Stan Kroenke from signing new players on the permanent deals this winter window but can sign but on pure loan deals until the next summer window when the club is allowed by him to sign new players on permanent deals has left Arsenal with no choise but to turn away from making any attempt to sign Almiron this Jan since his club will not agree to loan him to Arsenal but to sign him on a permanent deal or loan him to the club with the option to make his signing permanent after his loan deal to the club has expired. Making loan deals permanent later in loan deals could come with risks taken for the loaned club. Therefore, Arsenal should not sign any player on loan this Jan with the option to make the deal permanent later next summer inserted in the laon deal. How can Arsenal know if the player will impress in games for club during his loan deal at the club before they sign him? Or he will remain healthy and not be seriously injured to have him sidelined months during his loan deal at the club? We’ll know tomorrow before the deadline day closes who Arsenal have signed or if they haven’t sign any player.
Well, I didn’t see a day like today happening.
Chel$ea lose 0-4 (to drop their goal difference to +17), and we jump into 4th on the basis of goals for. CPalace manage a tie with Southampton, but they pick up 4 yellows (Zaha getting 2 yellows) and inflict 2 treatments on Southampton. Liverpool!!! only get a draw from Leicester. Liverpool!!! committed 14 fouls for 1 card, and Leicester get 3 cards from 6 fouls. More unbiased officiating from the PGMO eh? Mind you, Southampton got 2 yellows from 11 fouls, and CPalace got 4 yellow from 8 fouls. But no day is perfect, the Spuds squeaked out a win against Watford. But the officiating again, the Spuds committed 7 fouls for 0 cards, and Watford committed 8 fouls for 4 cards?
You would almost think that today’s games were sponsored by the number 2 (as in 2 fouls for 1 card to undesirable teams).
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OT: Standings
People still making up transfer stories. Latest from Arsenal, was _maybe_ 2 loans. There must be 10 “sure thing” news stories about players coming into Arsenal.
Looking at the relegation zone, Huddersfield in 20th. In their remaining 14 games, they have 5 games against Top-6 opponents. Their last game of the season is against Southampton, who are in 17th (and play later today (home to CPalace). Ignoring the Southampton game, I will guess that Huddersfield have a chance at 5 draws (StateAid, Brighton, Newcastle, CPalace, Watford) and 1 win (Bournemouth). I will guess all the draws are 0-0 and the win is 1-0. That would give them 19 points (tied with Cardiff now) and a GD of -27 (1 below Cardiff). And that ignores 7 losses on the goal difference.
Fulham have 4 Top-6 games remaining (we are finished against them). Cardiff have 4 Top-6 games remaining (we are done against them). Southampton have 4 Top-6 games remaining (including us). The only other team I would think might get into relegation is Burnley, who have 5 Top-6 games remaining (including us).
It does not look good for Huddersfield.
The relegation zone is commonly at 40 points. If we go with the status quo, we could have 7 teams finish the season below 40 points:
Predicted point totals on status quo:
Huddersfield 18
Fulham 28
Cardiff 31
Burnley 37
Southampton 37
CPalace 37
Newcastle 39
Can we relegate all of them? 🙂
The problem of course, is the recent evolution of a Top-4 into a Top-6. These top teams are sucking all the points out of the system, leaving the ROTP with little to work with.
What did Everton announce the other day? That they were planning to win the league soon? They are just barely half of the league leaders in points now. Seems unlikely. Unless they have pictures of some PGMO executive doing something illegal, I really don’t think so.
It is good for a club to win games in the PL and continue with winning them on the consistent basis if the club is to get a top four place finish or win the title before the season ends or at the end of the season. Chelsea losing 4 nil at away to Bournemouth this night in the PL is a scandalous lose by a club of Chelsea caliber I would think. Well, that scandalous lose by them has seen Arsenal leapfrogged them in the table to 4th in the table but just, as Chelsea who Arsenal have seen displaced themselves from 4th to go down to 5th are having the same 47 points with the same goals difference with Arsenal who have seen themselves being pushed up to 4th in the table tonight as a result of the Chelsea lose but on head to head. For, Arsenal haven lost 2-3 at Stamford Bridge to Chelsea early on in the season in the 1st leg match, had hit Chelsea 2 nil at the Ems in the 2nd leg match 2 weeks ago to claim a one goal goals-difference aggregate on them. But Tottenham Hs who are now 3rd with 54 points in the table after beating Watford tonight doesn’t look will yield any ground to Arsenal to finish above them in table this season as they are looking could even overhaul Man City who are 2nd and possibly Liverpool too to beat them to the title surprisingly if they should continue to win with 12 matches left to play. But would they continueto win? Hmmm. Any top performances in the remaining 12 matches in the PL by Arsenal that can see them get a top four place finish this season and top the Totts in the table can still happen I believe.
But can Arsenal sustain the 4th position in the table that Chelsea have on a plate make them to get this night with a famous win on Man City at the Etihad on Sunday next week? A famous win that will surpass the Santi Cazorla’s inspired Arsenal 0-2 famous win on the then Pellegrini’s Man City team some seasons back. The Gunners should on Sunday at the Etihad in the PL raise the level of their game far far above the level they’ve ever raised it to before and beat Man City.
Arsenal paid a combine total of £17 million to release AW and some staff last season and the media is pointing to this as the reason why Arsenal has no money for transfer in this window. £17 million is the reason really? Here I am thinking it could be because of the PL wage rules or waiting for the next window which would provide more choices.
Again it’s AW fault even when the man had left.