By Sir Hardly Anyone
These are the days when working as a blogger or football journalist start to get a bit tough. News is so thin that most of it has to be made up (which come to think of it is life as normal) and many bloggers and journos are now reduced to plodding through Untold’s list of 128 players said to be heading for Arsenal, and rehashing them as if each is a new deal.
Take for example the heading “Could Arsenal be about to upset fans at Liverpool by pulling off an eleventh hour swoop for Bayern Munich star Thiago Alcântara?” Well maybe Liverpool fans might be a bit upset, but then he’s been on our list of 128 players for a little while, so let’s not be too excited, although All Arsenal Rumours have been rather chatty about the idea of late.
As for “Arsenal’s €30m bid for Gabriel Magalhaes accepted by Lille – report” which comes in Sport Review we have had that for some time too. So in response to “Arsenal are keen on signing Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille, according to reports in France” we can only say, “well, yes, we know.”
The salary cap plan
But it is not all excitement and transfers these days, as the headline “EFL clubs ask Premier League peers for strike support”
This is all to do with the notion of the League clubs imposing a salary cap in order to try and stop more and more clubs just borrowing insane sums in desperate attempts to reach the Premier League – even though the last few seasons have shown that a one-off burst of spending simply isn’t going to cut it.
Meanwhile some Football League clubs – and players – are asking for Premier League players to support them if the plan does go through and some players come out on strike. At the moment we are told that the EFL clubs and PFA trade union have decided to hold talks over the salary cap.
There are some problems however. The most obvious is that secondary action – which means getting people employed elsewhere to strike alongside you – is illegal. So if EFL clubs want the Premier League players to support them by coming out on strike – that would be illegal.
Man C’s big expenditure to get the League Cup
Meanwhile there is a growing sense of entitlement to be noted among the fans of Manchester City. Having seen off the incompetent Uefa who simply couldn’t get their case together in time, it seems that some Manchester C fans are now turning on Guardiola, with tweets like “He can’t even defeat Lyon” trending on Twitter.
There are multiple demands for him to be sacked, and a bit of internal turmoil with arguments about plastic supporters, who they are and what they are.
But the interesting thing is that Mr G has spent quite a bit of money with Manchester City. Players purchased for big sums include, since 2016/17
- Rodri Hernandez (70 million euros)
- Joao Cancelo (65 million euros)
- Riyad Mahrez (67.8 million euros)
- Aymeric Laporte (65 million euros)
- Benjamin Mendy (57.5 million euros)
- Kyle Walker (51 million euros)
- Bernardo Silva (50 million euros)
- Ederson (40 million euros)
- Danilo (30 million euros)
- John Stones (55.6 million euros)
- Leroy Sane (50 million euros)
- Gabriel Jesus (32 million euros)
- Ilkay Gundogan (27 million euros)
The view of many Manchester City supporters who wrote to Untold after the CAS accepted the Manchester City appeal that the case was out of time and therefore could not be upheld, was that their spending had been perfectly reasonable and was vindicated by CAS. I have never been sure that view was right, but it seems to be a belief at Manchester City. If so we can expect them to continue to spend at that level and receive sponsorship as they did before. Which means it will be interesting to see if Uefa have indeed given them a licence to spend in that way, or they will attempt to reign them back in once more.
Warning
Meanwhile in other news there is what sounds like a dramatic warning from the Mirror under the headline “Raul Sanllehi’s warning to Arsenal board before ‘walking away’ from club”. He apparently has said that “player recruitment this summer will be greatly hampered by the decision to axe several highly though of members of staff.” We shall see.
Transfers
The Guardian is doing its usual helpful table of transfers which show for us the players in as
- Pablo Marí, Defender — from Flamengo: £14m
- Cédric Soares, Defender from Southampton: free
- Willian, Winger — from Chelsea: free
So far we have loaned out Dinos Mavropanos to Stuttgart, Zech Medley to Gillingham and Trae Coyle also to Gillingham
But let’s end with some nice news for a change…
Philippe Senderos has been appointed Director of Sporting Operation with Servette FC. They are based in Geneva and play in the Swiss Super League, having fallen to the third tier as recently as 2015/16.
He speaks seven languages (French, German, Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Farsi – an Iranian language), and started his sports management training while still playing.
He will now be responsible for the club’s sporting operations and will oversee, with support from the technical committee, the continued development of the Servette’s strategy.
He came to Arsenal from Servette and played 64 league games for us, before going to Fulham, Valencia, Aston Villa, Grasshoppers, Rangers, Houston Dynamo and finally Chiasso in 2019. He played 57 times for the Swiss national team.
- How does the league table part way through a season predict the final position
- Excellent newspaper article proves ref bias and points to media complicity in hiding it
- Arsenal’s policy of constant revolution might be working…
- The man whom Sepp Blatter called a megalomaniac
Hmmm. From a football fan perspective like that of myself. I am in total support of the EFL bosses plan to take the necessary action needed that is long over due. But have now decided to start putting their plan into action to explore the possibility of introducing players wage cap in the EFL divisions. And see to it that their action taken on the unacceptable and unsustainable wages paying in the EFL tp players playing there who are currently being paid is absolutely successful in putting an end to the over bolted players’ wage structure in EFL that is burdensome to a large degree effect for the EFL club sides to cope with it and continue to endure implementing in their in their finances sweating horribly. Which is now seriously looking to be getting to a breaking point. But Save, if the necessary drastic action is taken now to arrest the ugly situation from continuing to milking the EFL finances to prevail.
Therefore, I implore the Premier League football clubs bosses too to join their hands with those of their counterparts in the EFL. And put their heads together to reach a common ground in finding a lasting solution that cut across board which when applied will curb the excesses that are currently prevailing in over high wage payments to the players in both Premier League and English Football League that are continuously being demanded for by the professional footballers who are playing in these Leagues of the PL and EFL.
Nevertheless, but on a different subject question if I may ask it, which is when are Arsenal going to announce to us Gooners that Aubameyang has put his pen to papers in the Emirates Stadium to officially extend his current contract deal at the club that is said to have on it a full season left to run? am I too eager? But i can’t wait much longer. So, Aubameyang and Arsenal FC should kindly stop keeping me waiting from hearing the good news.
Furthermore, I beg to ask what’s the problem with Gabriel Maglhaes as he is looking to be delaying his choice to choose accepting coming to the North London giants club side Arsenal, over the Italian club side Napoli this summer? This his delaying is coming after Lille his current club side have accepted Arsenal’s £22m bidding transfer fee to Lille to sign him this summer. Maglhaes, please stop this your indecision in choosing whether is Arsenal or Napoli you should sign for this summer window to continuing with plying your football trade there. Look, if there be any one or some people who are ill advising you to go to Napoli, just say capital NO to him, her or them in your reply by saying is Arsenal you will sign for this summer to play for them and join your fellow Brazilian country men: David Luiz, Willian and Martinelli who are at the club playing and become the number four Brazilian player at the club. Besides this, if you link up with Edu, the club’s technical director, who after you’ve linked up with him at the club this summer, will use his vast connections in Brazil football to have you called up and be selected to play for the Seleco so that you will realise your dream to one day start playing for the Seleco. Maglhaes, don’t make the mistakes about it in your choice. For, Arsenal is the club for you to choose and go to this simmer. Go there and stop delaying it. The club will welcome you in their open arms. But please make sure you play your football for the club to the required high level Arsenal standard consistently which is a requirement at the club.
What obstacles in this summer players transfer market window has Raul Sanllehi, the erstwhile Arsenal FC head of football matters boss setup as stumbling block to hinder Arsenal in their players transfer negotiations this summer window, that gives him confidence and beliefs to be warning Arsenal board before he left the club after he was sacked by Arsenal that new players recruitment this summer by the club will be greatly hampered because of the sacking of some the club’s members of staff which Arsenal FC recently did when the club declared 55 jobs of their staff members redundant? But apparently with Raul Sanllehi now seemingly looking to be the 56 members of staff at Arsenal whose jobs have been declared redundant by the club in their ongoing club staffing rationalization exercise being carried out to eliminate the overbearing and unecessary costs running and financial wastetages discovered to have been occurring in the club finances, but now charged towards ensuring effective cost efficient running of the club. Hmmm.
Sir Hardly Anyone,
I have been a Manchester City fan since the late 1970s and to this day I still suffer from ‘cityitis’. I get anxious prior to every match; a feeling still often expressed on MCFC podcasts. I almost put £20 on Lyon to win the match played last Saturday – they took four points off us last year in the group stages of the Champions League – so that result didn’t surprise me. Does that seem like a ‘growing sense of entitlement’?
I’m enjoying Pep’s football and I hope Manchester City can get him to extend his contract.
According to Forbes, the Etihad Airline deal is in its final year. Who will be advertising on Manchester City’s shirt next, for how long, and how much will it be for?
Don’t forget in addition to the League Cup we also managed to finish second, so that’s more ‘financial doping’ for being involved in UEFA’s Champions League competition. Based on the previous two seasons this one was disappointing, but considering most of the seasons I have witnessed it was still pretty damned good.
Regards,
Tim