According to this site Emery has told Wellbeck he can leave
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCosiyKVQ ... _polymer=1

Can't believe Arsenal have to sell before being able to buy this Croatian bloke, even though we have spent 70 million already, surely money could be found for him, we get millions alone from TV rights.

11 chapters. *%^@ me I’m not sure if I can spare that part of my life on this.

I tried the old fast forward to the last one and see if you can gauge the context of what was being said but it didn’t work.

I think our wages may affect our ability to accrue a transfer budget of size. Other teams like Everton and Liverpool seem to be spending more on players than us. Does seem odd we can’t stretch another 25 million though for this guy and we still desperately need a wide player too.

Missed a lot of the pre season stuff as I’m overseas but the consensus of opinion seems to be that we have looked decent but seem to have problems in central defence with a lack of height and Sokratis not impressing. He was a bit of a strange signing and was more about working to a budget than sorting an issue out properly.

I think if the Ramsey and Welbeck situations get sorted and they are sold we may see a trolley dash for a couple of signings at the last minute

https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/04/arsenal- ... z-7797484/

4 million for Perez what a joke. Wengers legacy continues

Hi Lom,
Saw it Lom. Good detailed perspective.

Judging by the price we're allegedly getting for Perez, the combined fees we'll get for Ramsey and Welbeck will probably fund a last minute trolley dash round the 'out of date' aisle in Asda.

https://player.arsenal.com/matches/first

This is the Arsenal Player on Arsenal.com just sign in with whatever membership you've got and it'll work perfectly.

Starting XI: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Chambers, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Torreira, Nelson, Iwobi, Lacazette, Nketiah

Subs: Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mavrapanos, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Özil, Guendouzi, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang

Go Eddie...............

Or go on expenses paid business trips

Liking the lack of long goal kicks and the way we come out of defence. Though I was worried a few times they'd lose possession it is a lot better than the side to side passes of Emery's predecessor.

Doesn't show it but Özil enjoying the game methinks.

Yes it was very noticeable that Leno didn't kick downfield once, he passed the ball every time, wonder if Czech will do the same.
All in all thought our preseason games were a success,didn't lose over 90 minutes, didn't concede any silly goals,played against some good teams ( on paper) Matteo showed us how good he is,Smith Rowe didn't let us down.scored a great goal too, Aubameyang and Lacazette are looking good,and lastly the players are playing for each other.
Oh and our new number 11 looks the business.

No -one could accuse you of sitting on the fence

I gave six chapters a go over the morning coffee .

A very good well researched article , the unfortunate downside would be ...... by including the comments of EVERY person who made a comment on the subject ;

Lom moved it from an entertaining novel to the realms of a tome on inorganic chemistry .

No mention of the Reichstag burning down I found a bit strange .

There’s only 260 chapters in the New Testament and that provides the moral compass and ethos for all humanity and covers the meaning of life. Maybe if the article went to that length we might have worked out why the Germans are pissed because Özil never tracks back or puts his foot in.

I just caught the highlights from the Lazio game. Very encouraging, shots taken on goal, fast paced forward movement, good showing from the younger players, less of the boring pass pass pass, players pressing and a seemingly better camaraderie. It is pre-season, so I will keep my excitement in perspective. Onwards to the City game, which will be a most telling one. At least we are assured of less boring pass pass pass to nowhere.

I have repaired the broken YouTube embedding for the forum.

To post a YouTube video, you only need to paste in the very last part of the URL after the ' = ' sign.

Eg: To post this link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1asAq8TiTE

you just enter in this end part : i1asAq8TiTE

Paste it in a message, then highlight it and click the YouTube tag.

YouTube stopped allowing Flash embedding a while back which broke this.

I have adjusted the size of the video posted also - I made it a bit larger than before.

Trust me, the I could have had 5 times as many quotes! (and there have been much more since I wrote it) Part of the idea was to illustrate how widespread and vast the issue became in Germany. I mean if an English footballer had a photo taken at a charity event in Berlin with, say, our new Rwandan sponsor (similar in style to Erdogan), would it really be discussed in parliament, the leading story in every sports paper for months and a platform for every anit-immigration public figure to come out and talk about it?
Its also a case of hinting at the relentlessness of it. And the disapproving father aspect of it. Its all really insidious, and for politicians and even the German FA to keep throwing him under a bus as a lamb to the neo-fascist slaughter, i think a lot of people involved in the issue should be utterly ashamed.

The range of comments coming out of everyone from that club willing to talk (bar Boateng) mean that whatever softening towards them Bernard had managed to generate via his info about their good deeds in years gone by, I have now reverted back to despising them as a club. Its clearly a concerted and cooridinated keeping the pressure on Özil and denying all conversation about the wider issue basically to defend the fact that almost every Bayern player was utterly awful at the world cup, and to protect that evil sod Hoeness

I know you are being tongue in cheek, but the whole point is that its only partly about Özil. I'm sure you agree that the whole affair and the way it was handled and escalated in Germany is deeply worrying. In the last 8 years they've gone from celebrating being an emerging possible rainbow nation to allowing xenophobia and anti-minority attitudes to become part of mainstream conversation. If you trace back the growing criticism of Özil for Germany even before this all blew up, he's been more criticised while actually being more productive, and it was already starting to take on a racial element - in the main stream.

It is also a wider reflection of pan -european attitudes which are making the kind of conversations that had seem banished to the lunatic fringe become every day normal across the continent.

I'd advice you to move to Sweden lomekian, a "rainbow nation" perfectly suited to your needs, you'll find your Utopia there. Btw, Erdo is a fascist.

Lomekian, I realise you loathe and despise them but I see your views on Bayern as childish nonsense. Hatred is not a healthy sentiment and I feel your attitude towards that club should concern you.

He probably supports sankt pauli Bernard, nuff said

I’ve covered this in detail here already but I pointed out like yourself the issues with misogyny in Germany are on the rise. Fuelled by anti immigrant sentiment being pushed globally by trump (Tommy Robinson is now appearing on Fox News) and hatred caused by the German far right. Germany has had its issue with many crimes committed on New Year’s Eve 2016 by hundreds refugees assaulting women in Cologne and other places with over 400 hundred women estimated to be affected that has affected people’s lack of tolerance understandably.

Özil has been treated poorly by Germany undoubtedly. He was decent in the World Cup and his previous performances and history should give him a degree of understanding from most Germans and the comments made by the Bayern hierarchy are atrocious.

That said I feel Özil was exceptionally stupid plastering pictures of himself with Erdogan all over his social media. Erdogan is a controversial figure with a history of perverting democracy and all sorts. Millions of Turks despise him and there was a failed coup not that long ago. If an English player with Turkish ancestry was doing the same thing and plastering twitter pictures of him and Erdogan with “my president” noted I bet this would also be an issue in the UK too. Please remember Özil was born in Gelsenkirken not Istanbul.

So all in all I think Özil has been treated badly but has been a little silly and that his 3 page statement and claims of widespread racism are all very “Ozilish”

There you go, didn’t need 11 chapters

A few thoughts on yesterday's game.

I thought we were quite fluid attacking-wise but our defence still remains a concern.

I actually think,in the absence of Kos, that Chambers is now our best centreback but it seems like Emery will start with Sok and Mustafi. Not a pairing that inspires confidence.

Chambers may never be worldclass but he's certainly a more rounded player since his loan spell and could develop into a very competent centreback.

The fullback areas lack genuine defensive quality as well, especially positionally, making our centre of defence even more concerning as they are likely to be very exposed because of that. Torriera may be the key to reducing that exposure if he can repeat his World Cup form in the PL

Guendouzi looks a huge talent (perhaps in the Cesc category of teen talents) but clearly its a big ask to expect him to start games in the PL just yet. That said he is so confident and his passes between the lines are exquisite. I wouldn't mind seeing Torreira, Guendouzi and Xhaka in a midfield three.

Iwobi is such a frustrating player. So much of his approach work is fantastic, especially the dribbling, but his final ball and finishing are well below par.

Overall, we look a side that could well score plenty of goals but could be vulnerable defensively against the better sides.

Finally, we really could do with a "game-changer" type of signing if we really want to make big steps forward. It doesn't look like we have the funds to do that unless something crazy happens in the final few days of the transfer window.

It was Gundogan, not Özil, who put the "My President" on the shirt. Also, I don't think Özil put the pictures out. He really should have declined the invitation to meet with Erdogan, unless of course he is a supporter. But he has unquestionably been scapegoated.

Hoeness is a prick.

If it was Gundogan who made the my president comment fair enough but Özil did plaster the pictures on social media because it was all over my feed and when I saw them I thought Hmmmn. He turned up at an event specifically to meet him and brought a signed Mesut Özil arsenal shirt. It’s just a Daft thing to do considering the guys reputation let’s be honest.

Yes hoeness and many others are pricks and have been dicks about it.

If Özil posted the photos, it definitely puts a different slant on it. I'm not on social media apart from LinkedIn.

It really was a poor judgement call and the reactions from some after the world cup were pathetic. A sorry affair all round.

Don't laugh too hard at Spurs. Ours are also slightly inflated.

Two of our Wembley victories were from our ill-fated spell using it as our Champs league home ground.

Don't forget if you decline an invitation to meet Erdogan it will have repercussions for your relatives in Turkey, anyhow Özil has tats and a dog, that's haram. Quite a mess.

I have a signed photo of my dad presenting an enormous birthday cake to Mugabe. It dates from before Mugabe went totally mental, but nonetheless ... I'll let others cast the first stone here.

Decaf, you sure he wasn't feeding the crocs with Idi?

I loved watching Adriano who was totally unplayable when he was fully committed. One of my favorites at the time. It's sad what happened to him. I've heard people question the mental strength of Brazilian players at pubs I've been to. A lot of players grow up poor. Brazil, as beautiful as the country is, takes poverty to another level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV3LzAFuCEw

City dominating Chelsea in the Community Shield and purring like a well oiled machine - that opening league game is going to be an almighty challenge.

Fortunately, as supporters of Arsenal FC are well aware, a decent performance in the Community Shield is the kiss of death for the season ahead.

See that Emery was in the crowd today for the charity shield.

Like that, I always found it reassuring when George was at random games watching potential opponents that were coming up. Wenger never did it because despite his love of football he never believed understanding the opposition was part of his job because he was an absolute canoe full of moose meat

We appear to be letting Calum Chambers go on loan to Fulham for the season.

Seems weird given that we are not exactly stacked with quality CBs. In my opinion, he's probably the best we've currently got available.

Would have thought Holding was the one to loan out, if anyone.

I'd like to see us bring in a quality CB and not that Croation guy Vida.

You are obviously passionate about the whole deal which is to be admired . If someone was doing a university paper on the subject your article would be first cab off the rank for material

.... for your Joe Average Arsenal supporter perhaps a little long winded .....

but given the rise of cell phone texting , Twitter , Facebook , Linkedon every bloke and their dog feels they need to say something even if there is nothing to be said .

People shuffling around the supermarket clutching their cell phones peering at the screen every five seconds like it's some *&&^%$ life support system .

...sigh .... If only we could return to the the late 1950s , prosperity , no debt , full employment , no mass immigration ,
most consumeables made in NZ , great music , cars , cheap housing , affordable land ....no TV , cell phones , computers ...everyone out playing sport , kids playing hopscotch , marbles , knucklebones , reading books

....... halcyon days

Sergio ...?