By Bulldog Drummond
And so we approach the cup final. Transfermarkt has an interesting table showing the number of players in the squad of each team and the total market value.
| Club | Squad |
|---|---|
| 34 | |
| 29 | |
| 33 | |
| 33 | |
| 23 | |
| 28 |
Not quite sure why the “Foreigners” number pops up here, or indeed their exact definition of a foreigner, but I suspect it might mean non-British. If anyone cares to work it out, I’d be very interested.
So Chelsea’s team has a market value of getting on for a quarter of a billion pounds more than ours. Manchester City at the top with their unchecked spending will undoubtedly go into next season with double the value of our team.
Transfermarkt are the experts in tracking transfers, but some of the values that put on players look a bit out to me. You can see the whole chart here but I wonder, is Martinez only worth £7.2m? And I was reading this week the opinion that Mustafi and Xhaka were our best defensive players (thank goodness the boo-boys didn’t get their way and have them both expelled from the club).
Yet Mustafi is valued at just £13.5m only fractionally more than Calum Chambers. Rob Holding is just £8.55m – is that really right? As for Sokratis, he’s fallen in value over three years from £25.2m to a current valuation of £7.2m.
Anyway, going through the table our top players by Transfermarkt valuation are
- Pierre Emerick Aubameyang: £50.4m
- Alexandre Lacazette: £43.20m
- Nicolas Pepe: £40.5m
- Bukayo Saka: £31.5m
- Bernd Leno: £28.8m
- Hector Bellerin £28.8m
- Dani Ceballos: £28.8m
- Lucas Torreira: £27m
- Kieran Tierney: £25.2m
- Gabriel Martinelli: £22.5m
I’ve gone to 11 as I wanted to include Martinelli who was bought for just £6m. Indeed there are a couple of good deals here, including not least Bukayo Saka and Hector Bellerin who cost nothing.
But really it is the rise and fall of the value of Guendouzi that is of most interest. He was valued in December 2019 at £45m, and his value has fallen because he is now out of favour in the club. Which shows that while the manager’s disciplinary tactics might be valuable at bringing players to order, they come at a price. In this case £17m.
PSG gave Guendouzi to Lorient for nothing, and they gave him a market value in 2018 of £2.25m. We paid over the odds at £7.20m in July of that year, but watching him in the pre-season games it was obvious (and there was an Untold article on this, so this is not all with hindsight) that he was a stunning player.
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I still think he is and it is so sad that Arsenal have not been able to work with him to find a way of keeping him in the squad. Is discipline worth £20m in lost income – and indeed the loss of a great player?
Obviously the club thinks so.
Of course not all of those 11 most expensive players are available. Martinelli is a tragedy – it is predicted that he won’t play again until next year. and of course we have no idea if he will get back the form that we saw from him this season.
We also won’t see Leno, but everyone surely must be happy with Martinez, whose valuation of £7.2m looks ludicrously low.
But let’s move on. Here’s a list of the top five performing clubs in the FA Cup
| Club | Wins | First final won | Last final won | Runners-up | Last final lost | Total final appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 13 | 1930 | 2017 | 7 | 2001 | 20 |
| Manchester United | 12 | 1909 | 2016 | 8 | 2018 | 20 |
| Chelsea | 8 | 1970 | 2018 | 5 | 2017 | 13 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 8 | 1901 | 1991 | 1 | 1987 | 9 |
| Liverpool | 7 | 1965 | 2006 | 7 | 2012 | 14 |
So whatever happens we will keep our record as the most effective FA Cup team in history starting this final with 20 previous finals on the books and 13 wins. (Incidentally the biggest failures in the competition must surely be Leicester who have reached the final four times, and lost each time).
If we take a look at just this century we find in terms of victories…
- Chelsea 6
- Arsenal 6
- Manchester United 2
- Liverpool 2
- Portsmouth 1
- Manchester City 2
- Portsmouth 1
- Wigan Athletic 1
Thus 12 of the 20 finals played this century have resulted in a London team winning.
So in the contemporary race there are two stand out teams, and one of these two will take the lead in this game. We have played each other in the final twice, both times in this century. In 2002 we beat Chelsea 2-0 and in 2017 we beat them 2-1.
A final thought for now. The biggest crowd for a cup final since moving to the “new” Wembley was for Portsmouth v Cardiff City when 89,874 turned up. The second highest was for Arsenal v Chelsea in 2017 when 89,472 were counted through. Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1.
This time, with no crowd, we will have the lowest ever attendance, beating the 1875/6 replay in which Wanderers beat Old Etonians 3-0 at Kennington Oval. 1,500 showed up for that one.
I find it somewhat hard to believe that De Gea is worth the same as Leno & Martinezt put together. I take either of them over old butter fingers any day of the week…….and Matt Macey would be a close call too!
I totaly agree with you Tony as Guendouzi is concernd. We have real talent here. I realy hope something can still be worked out. How sad will it be if we see in future a Guendouzi in other coulers playing fantastic football with the knowledge that he once belong to us….
Well, let me reiterate all what I have said before on the UA website and JustArsenalnews. Which of course are, I’ve said after last season’s campaign in the PL has ended and Arsenal finally finished 8th in the table that Arsenal are looking to be seriously in need to do 2 major reinforcements signing for their first team squad to upgrade the quality standing of the squad for next season’s campaign in the PL after they’ve missed on the PL top-four place finish by doing 2 top rated new players major signing of: 1, a top rated over 20 top League goals scorer per season striker to replace would be a very long absentee Martinelli, and partner the new striker signing with Aubameyang in the Arsenal central attack profile. Which if employed could guarantee for Arsenal the scoring of a minimum of 45 goals scored by the duo strikers partnership striking in the PL next season’s campaign. But this is premised on if Auba extend his deal at Arsenal to remain at the club but not leave during the next summer transfer window. And 2, Arsenal will also need to do a top rated specialist midfield enforcer signing next summer window and use him to replace Torreria who I think should be shipped out in the next summer window. For, he has looked unconvincing in the PL for Arsenal last season as if he has saidm he can’t do this job as required by Arsenal. All these my perceiving should be done by Arsenal this summer if the club is to successfully challenge for the Premier League title win next season’s campaign.
But not withstanding, Ozil’s unrelenting continuously been absent for Arsenal in the play maker position in the Arsenal midfield at the snap of the finger should necessitate Arsenal to do a new top rated midfield creator player signing during the next summer window even if Ozil refuse to leave the club on transfer to another club, Arsenal MUST go ahead to sign a new top rated play maker player. For, Ozil has proved overtime to be not trustworthy or reliable for Arsenal in matches as he has only been making number of cameo appearances for the club in the PL.
So, by my own reckoning for Arsenal as far as next summer transfer window concerned them, the club will have to do 3 major signings next summer window to properly reinforced. But has club enough money to undertake these 3 major signings that I’ve said above that the club should sign this summer? Well, they can raise some money if the club so desires to sign them by offload Guendouzi, Torreria and a very few other Gunners.
Football at the elite level (EPL, Serie A, La Liga, The EUFA competitions and the World Cup) get their revenue from TV Deals, and Advertising deals.
TV companies get their revenue thru Advertising.
Football is pretty much a non-stop game for two 45 minute halves.
The US TV companies are finally seeing these football competitions as big money makers.
The trouble is they need more time for advertising.
The US are particularly interested in the World cup. They view America as the ideal venue.
So, when FIFA deigned to give world cups to Russia and Qatar, the US were upset. So much so that the US Justice department went after FIFA.
The result was Blatter had to leave town, and several FIFA delegates from the Americas were indicted. I believe FIFA were shaken an worried that other members might be indicted.
So, since their public spanking by the US Justice department, FIFA have made several changes to our game.
One is to give the US (and Mexico and Canada) a World Cup.
Since Mexico and Canada are sharing, they have forced (sorry persuaded) FIFA to increase the number of teams that get thru.
I believe that the TV companies have pressured FIFA to make changes to the game.
FIFA have sold the changes to the public as improvements, but the intention is the introduction of breaks in the play.
VAR was the first. Inceasing the number of substitutions to 5 is another. The water break is another (this being an attempt to go to 4 quarters instead of two halves).
To make the 4 quarters look sensible, they will be 15 minutes each.
Waiting in the wings is the “Time Clock”. Once people start complaining about all the stoppages, the answer will be the clock. Once the clock exists, then you can have as many stoppages as the TV companies want, because you just stop the clock when play stops, then restart the clock and carry on.
Football will become an American TV sport. The next step is to go to a Super League, played, naturally, in America.
OR AM I JUST DREAMING?
Can anyone suggest how to stop the cookie message that pops up like a devil wanting to steal your soul!!
🙂
I imagine that the “value” of this Arsenal team may have risen noticeably after today’s result. Another great performance. We have beaten all of the “Top Four” this season.