He’s spoken very well recently I think. It’s clear when he speaks he’s a football man and to have him conducting business is an advantage. The behind the scenes videos of him showing the new players round London colney are very telling.

I thought he was another Sanellhi type but seems far from it. That period seems mental now, execs detached from the manager signing players he has to put up with and doesn’t want. I have to say I do have a decent amount of sympathy for Emery now really. Never stood a chance.

Wonder who the dortmund player was.

Seems Aaron Ramsey's contract has been terminated. I'd take him back in a heartbeat. He's 'only' 31. If he wanted to come back and be willing to work on a reduced salary and come off the bench, play in cup ties where we need the starters to have a break in midfield, I'd do it gladly. He's one of my favorites and I was sad to see him go.

https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/11095/12476234/transfer-centre-live-ramseys-juve-contract-terminated-ronaldo-latest

I've seen a few people online say they've had that invite.

I can't wait for it. There will be some cringe moments where other fans will laugh at us - just as there was in the City and Spurs documentaries but my gut feeling is Arteta is going to come across really well. Passionate, clear, respected, visionary and a leader. All his faults will come down to his inexperience in the job.

I understand the sentiment. An excellent player who I really liked but he should have achieved much much more in his career which was wrecked by injuries. I wouldn’t have him back unless it was in a coaching capacity.

Didn’t work out at all for him at Rangers. He is our past, not our present nor future.

Also thank goodness we didn’t offer him a mental deal to keep him. We definitely could have done with him but another 250k contract problem that we would have had to pay off.

In the end he prioritised money over his career. Made a fortune because he left Arsenal on a free and sat on the bench instead. He would probably be our team captain if he had stayed. Read he might end up at forest which would be weird but about his level.

Hey ltg, I completely agree with you he is not who we would build our future on, but if he came at cutrate, bargain basement price in terms of wages (we wouldn't have to pay a transfer fee), you're saying you wouldnt' take the chance with him off the bench?

I also think he'd be great for the young players in training and the dressing room.

Understood. This is for both you and ltg. If he came at very reduced wages, pretty much, I mean very, very low, why not? Any specific reason other than money? Do you think he's simply not good enough?

I wouldn’t take a chance with him on the pitch. It would mean that he would be playing instead of a member of the enlarged and motivated squad that are going in Arteta’s direction. Totally the wrong message to give. Shades of Willian really.

This line up

Arsenal: Turner, Cédric, Walters (Awe 46), Holding, Tavares (Souza 76), Elneny, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles (Patino 85), Marquinhos, Nelson (Sagoe Jr 90), Nketiah.

lost 1-2 in the behind doors friendly today against Brentford.

New all or nothing trailer. Have to say I love this pep talk. Arteta does have something about him.

https://youtu.be/13dSuAfhEds

I’ve provided one link but over the last few days I must have seen dozens of reports all saying the same. Perhaps our interest in Tielemans isn’t as hot as some have suggested? Or there again, maybe it’s clickbait?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standa ... html%3Famp

No doubt he has something about him. It is simply natural leadership.

When I was watching it I didn't realise that was the team talk just before a game, I thought it was a training day. That is an intense team talk!

Looks like Leno to Fulham is very close for £8m. The fee seems low, the mitigation is only 1 year left on his deal and his wages at £100k per week puts Leno in the top 12 most highly paid GK in the world!

People may say look at the money that was paid for other players with 1 year left on their deal (Jesus, Sterling), but these are players playing at their peak and going to rich and successful clubs.

I wish we did get more but it is also good to see the start of players moving out the door. Torreira has a deal with Valencia agreed, clubs haggling over the price. I think we'll give Mari away for free. Bellerin will probably find a way back to Betis late in the window, Tavares will probably get the loan to Atalanta, Marquinos may also get a loan. Then finally it is sorting out the sales of AMN and Nelson and maybe another loan for Balogun unless we keep him around for the first half of the year for Europa?

At the end of the day, Ramsey couldn’t even make himself a regular in Glasgow Rangers’ team. Let me say Rangers and Celtic are huge clubs in terms of support, history and stuff like that. But the standard of Scottish football is so low I reckon a mid table Premier League team might top the table up there.

Rangers have lost one of their star players Aribo this summer. Who swooped for him? One of England’s top six? No chance. Bloody Southampton.

That's very good, Arteta clearly isn't the sort of manager to let his team take the blame and I really like that. Admired the same quality in Wenger. I much prefer it to coaches like Tuchel and Mourinho who routinely throws their team under the bus, or Conte who leaves good players out of their pre-season tour because he wants to sell them. I don't think that's how you create an environment where players thrive.

One thing that is very clear: No matter if you believe Arteta is the right manager for Arsenal or not, it's obvious the squad is behind him and wants to play for him. Zinchenko and Jesus had nothing but praise for him when being interviewed, and I don't think they were just being polite or saying what was expected of them.

Here's another approach at how you do a pep talk, slightly different: https://youtu.be/rQyEJpPSLdQ

This is why I think we need that extra body in midfield. I've no doubt that many of these players can 'do a job' if lined up with 10 of the first choice 11 but after Partey and Xhaka we're lacking quality and experience in the defensive/central midfield positions.

Not to forget, Pépé. He just isn't good enough.

Reports say Bellerin is willing to give up the rest of his Arsenal salary (€6m) in order to move to Betis on a free….where he’d take a pay cut. I suppose it’s better than us paying him off to leave.

Willian!! Hahaha...ltg, you are SAVAGE!! Surely, not that bad.

Rumor has it Fulham got him at basement bargain price from here. This transfer should re-labled 'Steal Of The Century'

Hi Rich,

£8m is outrageously low for a keeper of Leno's quality, especially when our new back-up keeper is looking decidely shaky.

Instead of haggling over a couple of mill Fulham should have snapped our hands-off and thanked their lucky stars that they were able to recruit a keeper of his quality so cheaply. He might just keep them up.

What is all this constant noise from France about Marseille feeling optimistic about signing Saliba.

Even if we were prepared to sell I very much doubt Marseille could afford the fee it would take and they must know that.

Bizarre.

That’s all fair enough but a free transfer for a former Spanish international that’s nuts. There should at least be a nominal fee.

I think we’ve reached a pivotal point where player salary considerations have exceeded transfer values. For Arsenal to contemplate cancelling his contract because is cheaper than the fee we would get.

It’s a ridiculous fee and also he’s a far better keeper than should be playing for Fulham anyway

If we’re honest though he may have screwed up himself here. 2 years back there was a load of press reports saying he had told the club he didn’t want a new contract and wanted to leave almost like he wasn’t progressing his career. Then we sign Ramsdale and he’s displaced in the first team and now he’s ended up at Fulham.

I’m happy with Ramsdale but like I mentioned previously our new back up keeper screams “oh no we’ve got to play Rhys Wilmot again!” So don’t be shocked if we dip back into the transfer market to fix a problem caused by our Americans because I find it hard to believe that’s the man Edu and Arteta wanted.

Sligo Rovers beat Motherwell away. Ok it's pre season for Motherwell and the League of Ireland has improved drasticly but all the same. Scottish football is poor.

Sounds about right. From the little that I have seen our new back up keeper looks to be several classes below Leno.

If we’re going to get peanuts then we might as well keep him.

Not a great result for Motherwell. Then again, they haven't quite been at their best since Willie Pettigrew left for Dundee United.

I know this is an Arsenal forum but I have been trying to track Palace's transfer business as well. Paddy is trying. One of the topics I've seen is whether to cash out Zaha or not. But not sure how much he can be sold for if so. The latest is a eredivisie midfielder Sangare, who is a Vieira type of center mid.

I hoping Vieira has a good summer and

Commercial update

We’ll take money off any old *%^@ ! Especially these 2 no marks. If Putin had an energy drink we’d take his money too!

https://www.arsenal.com/arsenal-prime-h ... es-stadium

This fluorescent coloured piss will probably be on sale in the ground next season along with other shocking food and beverage options we have done endorsement deals with so our fans can be treated to things like Camden piss and meat pies baked in the late 80s with less than 5% meat

You don’t fancy the blue raspberry then?

PS Probably of an equal quality to the advertising blurb. It’s ‘complement’, not ‘compliment’.

RIP Terry Neil

True arsenal man. Fond memories of drinking in his sports bar in Holborn many a time too.

Sad news

Not a beer drinker so can’t comment on the quality of Camden Ales. But clicked on your link and saw the ex-player and manager Terry Neill has died. Not the best player or manager, but sad to see him go.

Mentioned years ago here that when he was manager I’d written a critical letter to him. He considered it perceptive enough to bother getting my then home number from the directory of enquiries, as I’d given my address in the letter. I wasn’t ex-directory in those days. He phoned me at home to invite me to meet him at his office at Highbury. I went obviously.

There’s now thirteen players I’ve seen in competitive games for Arsenal’s first team who I’m aware have died.

Wait, what? That’s a crazy story. What was the gist of your letter? What did you talk about when you met him?

From memory it was after Liam Brady had already gone and Manchester United were looking to sign him from wherever he was playing in Italy at the time (I assume Juventus or Sampdoria). I said Arsenal should be looking to bring him back.

He said words to the effect that he got loads of mindless, offensive letters from fans, but mine was polite and well thought through.

One thing I do remember him asking me when I met him was which player apart from Brady I’d like him to sign. I said Steve Williams. Neill’s reaction was words to the effect of ‘no, a nasty bit of work’. The reason he gave was that Southampton used to invite local school teams to play their first team in a kick around. Obviously the first team took it ultra easy, apart from Steve who alone did everything he could to stop the school teams from scoring or anything like that.

From memory I suggested that probably meant Steve Williams had a winning mentality, but Terry disagreed. Gladly, his successor Don Howe clearly didn’t share Terry’s view as he signed Steve.

Report that 1 of 3 rape charges against the 'unnamed' EPL player has been dropped. I find the english legal system around allegations and arrest difficult to comprehend. In Queensland you would not 'arrest' until you have sufficient evidence, not merely an allegation. I assume this came about when changes were made to the english legal system like the extra warning on the right to silence.

Great story.

I seem to remember back in the early, early Steve Gleiber forum (mark-1) days, a gal posted quite regularly for a while, who supposedly worked at Terry Neil's pub. She (if it even was a gal!) caused quite a stir, with everybody acting on their best "on-line" behavior!

Was it Fish Bar? She died in 2016 and knew Terry Neill.

the police don’t arrest then release pending further enquiries surely not ?

In the UK the police arrest and question then the CPS decide if they have enough evidence to charge the accused. If they don’t feel there’s enough evidence to proceed with a realistic chance of conviction they won’t.

In the case of the alleged player the reason the charge was dropped was because of jurisdiction that it is alleged to have happened outside the UK. Really needs Spanish police intervention. I’d also add the muck that is appearing on the internet this evening about it would be very difficult to be considered actual evidence by CPS if it was in the uk I reckon.