By Sir Hardly Anyone
This summer Manchester City have bought two players for a fee and sold nine players for a fee. As a result, they have a profit on transfers this summer of £74m. It is something that is marvelled at in the newspaper article “how slick Man City mastered the transfer market.”
On the face of it, there is nothing to argue with there – the facts are the facts – but it is also interesting, although not mentioned in the article that the club remains part of a worldwide group of clubs that have first access to each other’s players, as and when needed. Of course, fees would be paid if a player moves between two of the clubs in the 11 football clubs worldwide which make up the City Group of clubs (one of which to be fair is called a “partner club” so is seemingly not a full member) but they may not be the sort of fees that would be seen if the player went outside the group.
Of course, the Kroenke family own a number of clubs as well, but they are across different sports – only one club other than Arsenal is engaged in football.
Having owning a wide range of clubs can be helpful of course for each in its own geographic area can bring in players of interest, and if they make it, sell them on to clubs outside the group, with a buy-back clause that can be exercised by any member of the group (a helpful ploy when seeking to move a player up the ladder).
To say that Arsenal’s Brazilian connection in any way rivals Manchester City’s global operation of clubs would be a fantasy, but it is interesting how matters have developed of late with Marquinhos, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, Willian and Gabriel Martinelli coming our way since the summer of 2019.
Of course they have come from different routes, but the factor linking them seems to be Edu,who obviously knows a thing or three about Brazillian football. And I would imagine that having Edu and a number of compatriots who are not just Brazilian but from the same part of Brazil, already at the club, will make subsequent negotiations easier.
Mind you we were also helped by Manchester United who took Martinelli on trial and turned him down – as indeed did Barcelona. Which perhaps says something about Man U, bankrupt Barca and Arsenal – especially when one looks at where each of the three is now.
Meanwhile, the media always need something negative to talk about in relation to Arsenal so now it is the alleged problem the club has with what the sales department.
Indeed it was just one month ago to the day that the Daily Mirror ran the piece 5 Arsenal players Edu is struggling to sell to raise transfer funds
The article says, “the Gunners do not have an endless pit of money to delve into this summer; meaning it’s crucial that Edu finds a way to get some fringe players off the books in the coming weeks.” I suppose the “coming weeks” means the next month but our biggest sale remains Mattéo Guendouzi for £9m.
In fact, nine players have gone out on loan, two have left on a free transfer and two others have gone for a fee (Mavrapanos for £3m and Daniel Ballard for £2m). Leno we are told is about to move to Fulham for maybe around £9m. Swanson went to Portsmouth and there is mention of a fee being paid, but it has not been disclosed which means it is probably nothing, but will arise if the player makes a success of his professional career.
So that leaves the likes of Nelson, Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Maitland-Niles, Torreira and Nicolas Pepe as being touted for sale by the media, although loans could be possible too – as long as that doesn’t leave us short of cover for Europa and League Cup games.
However, Arsenal’s position is nowhere near that of Chelsea who the Mail tell us have “£180m of unwanted talent draining £700,000-A-WEEK out of Stamford Bridge but they can’t find a single buyer.”
This of course is not only bad for Chelsea who would like some cash, but also because it damages the reputation of the club when it comes to being an attractive employer for young players.
The Telegraph suggest there are six players who Chelsea urgently want to move on: Michy Batshuayi, Ross Barkley, Kenedy, Timo Werner, Malang Sarr and Kepa Arrizabalaga. Thus far they have not been able to sell anyone. Rather like Leicester who also seem to be stuck on zero sales. along with Palace, Southampton, and West Ham. Newcastle’s list of sales is just one, for £1m.
So the problem remains: the normal level of transfers has, throughout much of the league, ground very much to a halt.
One way you could present it is :
Now that Arsenal have made their moves, there is no market left and all clubs are left fuming while contemplating the desolate situation : no more quality players available. After all these years the statistics company Arsenal bought is finally showing its value in enabling Arsenal to cherry pick the top of the crop while the deadwood press is left with fantasy transfers to talk about (more then 100 so far this summer). Even City could not stop 2 of its stars from leaving for Arsenal.
Thus the transfer market has ground to a halt and clubs are desperately trying to devise a new strategy.
Is this not another way to look at the situation ?
Guess that old trick of starting an attempt at a buying frenzy by using Arsenal’s name no longer applies ! Arsenal don’t play that game no more . Well in fact we never played it at all !
Will be fun to see how the agents and the clubs start trying to dump the deadwood off their books !