By Tony Attwood
So with all that boring old business about there being a limit on Arsenal’s transfers safely revealed to be a load of old tosh, and Kroenke Jnr confirming what Untold has been saying all summer, that there is no £45m limit on Arsenal’s spending this transfer window it seems we can get on with business.
As we know, the media haven’t got much of a clue about anything Arsenal these days, especially given their desire only to publish the negative – along with having nominated well over 80 players that they are sure we are going to sign (we’ll be publishing a new update of that list of rumours shortly).
And it seems that one of the deals is now done: William Saliba who has made just 16 first team appearances in defence for St Etienne. And so cue the insane articles… as for example with the Metro running “Why William Saliba chose to sign for Arsenal instead of Tottenham” which then totally failing to tell us why throughout the whole piece. What scamps these journalist fellows are!
Here is the lad’s playing record…
| Years | Club | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Saint-Étienne II | 3 | |
| 2018/19 | Saint-Étienne | 16 | |
| Internationals | |||
| 2017 | France U16 | 7 | 1 |
| 2017/18 | France U17 | 6 | 2 |
| 2018 | France U18 | 5 | 1 |
| 2018– | France U19 | 3 | |
| 2019– | France U20 | 1 | |
And here’s a jolly piece of news: he was initially coached by the father of Kylian Mbappe.
Of course not everyone agrees it is done – the Hard Tackle website this morning is still pumping out the line that “Tottenham [is] looking to hijack £25 million Arsenal move for European defender”. And that of course is just par for the course. Also this morning Gunnersphere is running “£350k a week flop’s resurrection” while Fox has “Arsenal staring into $78m abyss”.
But to look on the bright side, it really does seem that the St-Étienne centre-back William Saliba has agreed to join. And a lot of “outlets” have agreed Tottenham attempted to persuade the lad to go to New White Hart Lane (Newhal) but he took one look at their trophy record (and the state of the local streets which Tottenham are refusing to pay for cleaning) and said “no way”.
The deal it seems was done last night, and he will cost €30m (£27m) plus a bit for add-ons (whatever they are) and will be loaned back to St Etienne for the 2019-20 season. Mr Emery added, “We are talking with patience and with calm because we really want to sign players who can help us with a big performance, and also because we think in the team we have very good players, and we also need to take the best player in some positions.”
So what are the scribblers who all summer have been pushing the £45m price limit now saying, given that it seems they were completely wrong in every regard?
Well, many of them have of course been hedging their bets by still saying on the one hand, we only have £45m and it is an absolute disgrace, while also running stories about Arsenal signing the likes of Zaha for prices which under their bonkers view of reality would be impossible.
Some of course don’t accept reality, and so carry on their own sweet way. The wild and whacky Express is running it like this…
“Arsenal boss Unai Emery identifies Wilfried Zaha alternative due to budget issues”, while at the same time also giving us the headline…
Arsenal set to complete second signing before the weekend… Tottenham to miss out.
And the man in question according to the Excess is Dani Ceballos at Real Mad.
Meanwhile the Daily Mirror is not letting go of the position that has kept its “outlet” Football.London in gibberish all summer. For them the transfers are unlikely, as their piece soon after the Emery and Kroenke interviews put a damper on everything saying, “Gunners boss Emery is making big demands as he looks to shake up his squad despite Arsenal director Josh Kroenke warning the club will struggle to bring in top signings.”
Mind you, it must be very hard for a media drainpipe like the Mirror to keep up with all the news, what with having all its reporters down the Toppled Bollard all day long. (Or at least that is what Sir Hardly Anyone suggested in his last report. I can’t possibly comment).
And indeed maybe some of the bloggettas have had a change of mood as Gunersphere says, “Who cares what he thinks?’ – Some Arsenal fans slam ex-player as he wades in to Koscielny rift.” The player in question (the “he” in “what he thinks”) is Olivier Giroud, who was, it seems, foolish enough to be trapped into talking to a journalist.
Even the Star is in on the act, telling us of the “three deals Arsenal can expect to get done this summer”. Mind you they haven’t quite caught up with the change in direction of some of their fellow scribblers as they are still running the line that “ARSENAL may have a feeble transfer kitty but they could still see three new players arrive at The Emirates this summer.”
Here’s their explanation…
“Reports suggest he (the manager) will only be given £40m to spend without taking into account any potential sales, which is becoming an increasingly low sum for a top-six Premier League outfit in this ever-inflating market.
“However, it is not all doom and gloom for Emery, as it looks like he will still welcome three new signings to the Emirates before the English window shuts on August 8.
“The first of those potential arrivals is Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos, 22, who is available on loan this summer.
“It is believed Zinedine Zidane is not prepared to let the Spain Under-21 starlet depart the Bernabeu for good, but the Los Blancos boss does not have a place for him in his squad this season.
“Yet Starsport understand Arsenal are confident of beating their north-London nemesis to the player, and a deal could even be completed before the weekend.”
So now we know. Except they got the wrong player.
why are you fraustrating arsenal
Please you can get Saliba Williams now to start with first team, because arsenal has defensive problem. What of Everton Soares position now, has been signed if not when.
Thanx for the insight
That is the real fact sir, some of us lenjoy being entertain with fake news. To be honest lets consider the rate at which some their articles are released.
Am tired of all this delay things I beg
What is your evidence for claiming that the £45m figure is wrong ? A quote from Emery about his fond hopes of signing players is not a cast-iron commitment. And at what point do you account for the players we mnight sell in this transfer window.
The evidence is that of contradiction and non-statement. I can’t find a statement in which the owners actually said there was a limit. The various sites that say that they know who Arsenal are signing are regularly pointing to players whose cost is over £45m. Emery himself has said that he expects to sign three or four players some of whom are very experienced. I know the owners have said Arsenal can’t compete with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United in the transfer league, but even so, I still think £45m was just an invention that has been repeated over and over until it seems to be real. Anyway, there is only a month or so to go, so we shall soon know.
The words “contradiction and non-statement” does not constitute evidence. Off the top of my head, I don’t recall Kroenke “contradicting” the widely reported £45m figure, though I am happy to be corrected. Equally a “non-statement” is hardly evidence for anything – saying nothing could be interpreted as either positive or negative, but it certainly does not amount to evidence of anything.
You should consider taking down your headline. Otherwise you might be accused of the same sloppy journalism which you claim is used by the media in general.
He didn’t say experienced, he said expensive, which is kind of supporting your argument.
Kroenke has also not made any statements refuting
F = (G m_1 m_2) / r^2
Do we take that as meaning that he agrees or disagrees with gravity?
@McGowan While I agree with you in part, that a non statement cannot be taken as fact either positive or negative; I’m trying to understand your logic. Should the onus be on the owners of the club to debunk every false statement made up in the media? That will take a whole team of people given the large number of stories out there. A number of things should have been enough to question the media assertions.
1. Which is it? £45 or £40 million depending on who writes the story
2. Logic of chasing Wilfried Zaha priced or overpriced at £80 million
3. Where did the original story of how much Arsenal had available come from and when?
4. How the rumor may actually help deflect attention from real behind the scenes negotiations
5. It fits in with a media narrative meant to create a divisive atmosphere amongst the fans and cast the club in negative light. This was from the Daily Star “ARSENAL fans have vented their anger after Shkodran Mustafi was handed a starting berth against Bayern Munich but Reiss Nelson was left out once again”. Which fans? How many? And I’m going ‘not even playing the same position’
Fair enough, we’re all entitled to an opinion or two, but I don’t think the stories really add up to Arsenal only having £45 million to spend, or is it £39 million since we got Martinelli?
I’d say he definitely doesn’t accept gravity. After all you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it, you can’t make money out of it, you can’t taste, you can’t see it. Pretty useless stuff if you ask me.
Good on you Tony, for recognizing the formula.
Oh Tony…….how could you say you can’t make money out of it! Money is being made out of nothing -bitcoin. Money can be made out of anything as long as some idiot wants to pay.
As it happens Palace are trying to make money on the sale of Saha, who is probably worth 35 million in todays market (euros that is!!).
I don’t know how you manage to take in all those headlines and stories knowing their pure bs, fair play to you, my default setting is ignore.
I think the Arsenal having only £45m summer transfer kitty story came out in the media as far back as towards the end of last season’s campaign. And no credible official at Arsenal came out to debunk the story since it first came out to allay the fairs of the Gooners who think and believe with £45m transfer kitty to do new player signings this summer by Arsenal, the club may not have a strong incoming signings this summer.
I don’t think the signing of Saliba by Arsenal this summer at reported £27m if at all it’s true it has been done has allayed the suspect of Arsenal fans the club is having a restricted summer transfer budget. Even the UA I think had before now alluded to the £45m Arsenal transfer kitty claims in the media this summer window. And have even advanced several article postings on it.
I think after the petition that was sent to Stan Kroenke by the various Arsenal support groups demanding for the loose of string of the purse by Kroenke, asking him to allow Arsenal have more transfer kitty this summer. The statement made by Josh Kroenke that Arsenal has no transfer signings limit financially this summer is a positive reaction by the Arsenal FC owner through his son Josh in response to the petition sent to his father Kroenke by the Arsenal support groups.
So, let’s wait to see what will happen in regard to Arsenal incoming and outgoing transfers this summer window at the of the window. But Arsenal have already sold one and signed one this summer window in David Ospina-OUT and Gabriele Martinelli-IN.
OT.
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane the 2 Liverpool star players and Alex Iwobi, the Arsenal player have all failed to lead their countries to win the Afcon this year that took place in Egypt. But Riyad Marehz of Man City made sure he led Algeria his country to win the Cup this year. My congratulations to him and Algeria.
Tony, I’ve always considbered that £45m figure as a made up story. It didn’t make sense considering the competitive football climate we’re in, also arsenal doesn’t seem so poor to me.but then I also always wondered why you would brazenly base many articles you wrote some weeks back especially the ones castigating kroenke on that info, which had not been verified or traced to a quote from a reliable source. Please don’t deny you wrote articles based on this as a fact, it would save me time digging up such articles. Could you tell us why you believed it as fact then or did it just tally with your theory on mr kroenke?
McGowan……………please state YOUR proof that AFC only have 40-45m pounds to spend, once you’ve done that you can begin to question Tony’s arguments but until then you are skating on water.