City will have to play their best team in their final CL games, and Brugge are just above them so will go hard too - no dead rubber for them and that CL game is just before we play them in the league

If this is true that’s a pretty mental statistic

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... l-migrant/

Bradley Barcola very good for PSG tonight, they’ve just signed the Georgian lad who plays on the left wing as well. He could be getable in the summer….maybe now

Despite the criticism, I think broadly Havertz has been a very good signing for us.

His goal scoring will never be elite but he's really improved from Chelsea. His PL record is 21 goals from 56 games. Not bad by any stretch.

His all round work rate and team play is outstanding.

Yes I agree and even if we signed a top striker he provides options.

So I get that Liverpool are top of the CL and we’re ‘only’ 3rd but why is there such a difference in the same paper reporting us both going through in the top 8 (us not certain but as good as)? Why does our win show the flaws in the CL format but Liverpool is all about delight to skip a round?
The headline about a flawed format could have just have easily been written after Liverpool’s win last night.

Yet some people still believe we don’t get much more negative press in particular compared to Liverpool.

*again I get Liverpool are having a better season than us ‘this season’ but we were also the bottlers last year despite Liverpool having the 5 point lead with only 8 to play

Agree. This Independent commentary is utterly biased. The only points we've dropped were down to scandalous refereeing in Milan and a solid draw away to Atalanta.

Latest Deloitte money leagues in Europe. We’ve boosted our income hugely recently, mostly down to tv money presumably because of the CL and finishing 2nd twice in the prem…..but we have to do better in the commercial income, we’re massively under selling ourselves here. Everyone above us in the table I can accept having more commercial income - City and PAG cheat to get theirs then you have the 4 biggest clubs in the world - Madrid, Barca, Bayern and Man U. But there is no way our commercial income should be 40m less than spurs and £80m less than Liverpool. We should have partners lining up to be associated with us - especially compared to spurs - just no excuse for this. I know it doesn’t quite work like this but imagine another £80m that could go in to the transfer budget every year!

Look at the commercial revenue for us though.

Where are we going wrong?

Is it linked a lot to oversea fanbase size.

Actually that Deloitte thingy.

Doesn’t that actually highlight the potential of spurs that they are that high in the list without having any success on the pitch at all recently.

I pray not to see the day but if they ever sorted themselves out they could make quite a big jump with the new matchday revenue

Rugby 6 nations are introducing a 20 minute red card to bridge the gap between a yellow card and 10 minute sin bin to a straight red. I do think football should have something similar.

Currently players can be sent off for technical infringement and can equally be let off very dangerous tackles as refs are scared to impact the game so heavily if they’re not sure. I think there is definitely a space for a sin bin style punishment for deliberate fouls that would normallly just get a yellow

So our shirt and stadium sponsorship with Emirates runs out in 2028. So only 3 years to renew that’ll be key to commercial revenue I assume.

Also wonder if it could factor into discussion about ground expansion

Yes, the stadium has boosted their match day income massively, but they will still be paying it off for a while. But they have been smart some could say in making it a multi use stadium so plenty of other ways to get income from it. They also don’t have a sponsor for it. I always feel like our stadium sponsor money should be far far more than it is, everyone can see the name on the shirts and that will always be the biggest deal but our home is literally called the sponsors name. I can’t believe the Kronke’s aren’t looking at trying to do a better deal there. Even if we believe they don’t truly care about the success of the team on the pitch they will definitely care about the commercial income of the club

Maybe the kroenkes can do a deal with Musk and get Tesla to sponsor the ground.

If that happens I’d be tempted to buy one of those Nazi cyber truck things

Not Spurs, certainly. There aren't that many masochists in the world.

There are 26 million Australians - that's a start. The Aussie media reports on Ange and Spurs as if we should all rejoice at every positive Tottenham result. Drives me up the wall, mate.

Dangerous play should always get a red card. End of. It is a really bad idea to have a 20 minute red in rugby given the physical nature of the game. In any contact sport it is up to the players to make sure they are playing safely. I do think stuff like kicking the ball away should not be a red if it is a second yellow. In GAA we have a black card for cynical play so perhaps instead of Rice being sent off for kicking the ball away he would be issued with a black card which would mean we could replace him as the foul was technical in nature as opposed to violent.

Sin bins for 2nd yellows (and even third yellows, if the player commits another after coming back on ) seem a no brainer. Except what do you do if your keeper is sin binned? Are you allowed to make a temporary substitute? If not, I'm sure Declan could do a great job.

One could consider longer sin-bins for denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

With the sin bin I would worry about the potential injuries to players having to restart after a period of relative inactivity. Generally maybe a better punishment for fouling is to give free kicks in the D regardless of where on the pitch the foul was committed. This could help eliminate the cynical, disruptive tactic in central midfield which most teams employ. I would do the same for kicking the ball away.

Indeed, although is it really a surprise? Our national security would be a joke if not so frightening. Astounding too that the information source seems to be Thames Water rather than the government department we pay for!

Yes I think having something for cynical play is a good idea. I saw Timber and Sterling booked last night, bookings that a lot of players get but they were really such accidents where Timber won the ball but was a bit high, and sterling just stepped on a guys foot in the natural place his foot had to be placed as he ran. For those to be classed the same as a cynical and deliberate trip to take down a player on a dangerous break seems silly.

Gary Lineker has always said he wants free kicks to be able to be taken to yourself like hockey. So you'd have to still have a stationary ball and take it from the right place and your opponent would have to be 10 yards away before they can tackle you but you can just start dribbling with it. I think that is probably too far and would throw up a lot of problems but I do think we should be adjusting rules or refereeing games to favour attacking teams more - which is how Rugby and Hockey are reffed.
In term of injuries due to stop start for sin bins I don't think that's a problem, or its one for the clubs to manage, rugby have stationary bikes so the players keep warm. Players manage to do a 15 minute half time break without suddenly a load of pinged hamstrings early in the second half.

Havertz has matched last seasons goal tally in 21 fewer games. He should hit 20-25 goals this season. If we imagine he's a 2nd choice striker behind a top class player where Havertz can play CF to give the guy a rest, play as 2 strikers or play in an attacking midfield position then the squad looks strong.

The issue in current context with sin bins is that main problems with PGMOL/*%^@ refereeing remain unaddressed, meaning that the current referees with current processes would be too *%^@ to implement a rule change with added complexity.

I think with a better PGMOL and better refereeing standards, sin bins would work very well.

It is ridiculous that two minor fouls results in a game being wrecked by a red card.

I think overtly violent conduct should be a red, but current referees can't competently differentiate between mild yellows and clear reds. With competent referees a sin bin for an 'orange card' would be a good reform, with current idiots it would lead Arsenal players being sin binned for mild yellow card tackles.

So far we’ve earned €73m. Getting in the top 8 which is almost but not fully guaranteed will bring us another €10m, then there are bonuses for every round and every win.

The CL money is huge compared to not being in it.

Chido Obi-Martin left us to join Man U, not a peep of first team football despite them being so awful. Ironically if he’d stayed with us he’d have probably made the bench with our current injury crisis and could have easily already made his CL debut

A few days back Mrs Kiwi was being a regular pain in the a**se so if she were to hook up with Socrates on any level I'd have been more than happy .

She has since redeemed herself ....

No Ash .... I have never seen Soc but you know how in those murder mysteries how they can build up a profile of someone .

5 ' 9 " Slightly overweight , balding . battered Derby , well worn overcoat , frayed trouser cuffs , tomato sauce stains down his shirt front , feeds and talks to the pigeons .

Summing up a harmless old ditherer who comes up with a decent thought about Arsenal as often as a visit of Halley's Comet .

You pretty much nailed that one .

It is quite amazing how so many elite Americans imagine America still has the clout it had , in the mid 1950s .when they were " the only big dog in town "

Trump apparently has the attention span of a fruit fly ; so he views everything in the most simplistic terms .

" I'll threaten tariffs on BRICS and they will all line up begging forgiveness "

I think some very rude awakenings are coming Donald's way ; whether he can absorb them ....?????

The inevitable outcry when we fail to sign players this window is going to be tiresome but I’m not sure really given what we know some of the mooted options make sense.

I read the kroenkes want to move a player on before we sign another likely Zinchenko. I assume the likely target is Cunha but he strikes me of a Beardsley than a lineker/shearer type. He’s been playing in midfield this season mostly. He also might cost 60-69 million quid. Is that who we really need ? Feels to me we need the latter. The notion we sign one of these guys and it changes our season seems fanciful and might offer an improvement but aren’t we better keeping our powder dry.

I admire the Arteta / Kroenke approach ..... if there isn't a real quality striker available don't buy . Good idea clear a bit of deadwood .

Buying someone for the sake of buying to appease a few frothing at the mouth fans leaves you open to abuse from those same idiots down the road when that
stop gap proves less than a success . .

Showing my Canadian bias maybe, but what about Jonathan Christian David at Lille? He scores goals at club and international level and, surely anybody with three Christian names must be worth a punt?

Ayden Heaven’s contract is up this summer and Man U as well as Frankfurt are looking to sign him. Arsenal have offered him a new deal but he’s refused to sign it. I suspect that’s why he also hasn’t been involved in any recent squads when the likes of Karucci have been picked.

If the club are almost being held to ransom by young players (for game time as much as money) club have to decide do you give in to those demands and accelerate them to get them to sign a deal or do you say you’ll get your game time once you show commitment to us. I favour the latter approach. Ever since Arteta has turned up there has been a big focus on only buying players who really want to play for us and will buy in to the project. The same should apply to youngsters.

Bizarre really because currently of all the big sides we’ve shown the best pathway. I feel we’ve had more genuine academy players come through than most. Iwobi, Emile Smith Rowe, Saka, Nelson, Nketiah, Nwaneri, MLS…..Dowman soon

My lawyers will be in touch.

Doesn't feel like much is going to happen transfer-wise.

Maybe a last minute loan.

Havertz is an enigma.

His goal scoring record at Arsenal is actually very decent and compares well with most PL strikers yet he misses a lot of big chances and fails to connect properly with lots of half-chances. I would not describe him as clinical.

Put it this way, if I had to bet my house on a striker scoring with a chance in the box I'm not sure he would be very high on the list.

I think the problem the club have in recruiting a striker is that none of the options really tick all the boxes (be it cost, age, profile etc) and none are available in Jan without paying a very large premium.

It's frustrating but paying say £80m for Cunha seems a bit too much.

That's how it seems, Soc. No real media buzz about anyone.

One thing you'd have to say about Havertz - he has a phenomenal engine. He always puts in a shift and is rarely subbed early, if at all. I quite like that he has a belligerent streak as well.

If we go through the list of who we’ve been linked with we have to go somewhere, it’s literally a who’s who of the top strikers who aren’t already playing for a top 8 European side
Isak
Gyökeres
Sesko
Cunha
Osimhen
David

After the likes of Haaland, Kane, Lewandowski, Mbappe these are the best players. Unless you can find a South American gem but that’s an even bigger risk that paying over the odds for one of these guys listed above.

And hardly ever injured….only a bit of flu in 18 months with us I think