I've seen a lot of Fulham fans raving about Chambers in central mid for them. I was firmly in the camp that he should be sold in the summer for as high a price as possible, but I watched some highlights of him in central midfield in the past 5-6 games and his touch looks better, his passing better, no clumsiness in tackles, covers for his CB well, good range of long passing. Obviously highlights reels can do a lot for a player and Fulham are still woeful but should Chambers get another chance in the summer?

https://www.footyheadlines.com/2018/10/ ... aphic.html

People speculating over potential adidas kits for next year.

I know Puma has given us some poor kits recently so it is easy to like ANY alternative but I have to say if the 3 kits turn out like this from Adidas I'd be pretty happy, they look damn smart for my eye. All concept only but Adidas need to work to something like this

Interesting quotes from Mourinho about Özil. He says to get the best from him you need to show hiim care and love. Jose goes on to say you need to get the balance right, go too soft on him and he won't perform go too hard and he retracts in to himself.

Might be easy to say most players are like that but I don't think so. A lot of players would maintain their own high and consistent level of performance via their own motivation.

Lets see how Emery deals with Özil now that he's back in the squad because it has been very much stick and very little carrot so far. A start v Man U in the cup behind Lacazette and Aubameyang?

What Mourinho said about Özil has been known for a while. He's said to be very "sensitive" and doesn't respond well to criticism. I recall when he was bought it was being said about him.

Changing topics to the title race, I am not convinced Liverpool will be able to win it. They are "only" 4 points ahead of City and I think City will win it. You heard it here first. haha Maybe next season for Liverpool.

Fascinating stuff. Saints want a rematch. Apparently neither side fancied this ref.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.fox8live ... utType=amp

The NFL has had VAR for some time so it's amazing how an erroneous referee decision was made to stand in such an important game.

Arsenal have confirmed Mislintat will leave the club on Feb 8 2019

If Mislintat is a fantastic scout but not a good enough technical director and he wanted the role of technical director and wouldn’t accept the role of leading the scouting network then him leaving has to be the right decision. No point promoting a man to a job he isn’t suited for. It’s a shame because his eye for a player is exactly what we need.

Raul seems to have the contacts of the super agents which initially had me worried as we can’t afford these players but actually many great young players are on the books of the super agents. If Raul can use his contacts to bring us the next up and coming players then great - what I don’t want is us to go after the ‘didnt quite make it at a massive club’ type players.

This from 8 years ago. Not much different now.

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/bl ... ssion=true

on bbc radio that Stan is holding a NFL LONDON game as a host with the rams, part of 4 overall games in 2019 - 2 wembley and 2 at WHL

This will mean officially that Kroenke has contributed more cash for Tottenhams coffers than he has Arsenal.

Simply unbelievable. Laughing stock

If this is a wind up - very good because it annoyed me. If however it is true I am furious that he would spend any money at Spurs. This person has no idea about football and rivalry. He needs to be asked public questions about it. Even the fact he is trying to promote a rival sport is totally unacceptable. If we lost even one future fan to this so called sport then he is responsible for damaging our club & football generally.

From David Ornstein

Bellerín ruptured ACL confirmed in scan today, 6-9 months. Rest of squad were paintballing pre #MUFC. Francis Cagigao tipped by many to succeed Mislintat as HoR with Monchi among names for TD (no timescale). #AFC want 2 loan deals, 1 being Suarez but not close

It was on the radio earlier but this also seems to confirm it ..

https://www.sportinglife.com/nfl/news/n ... sts/156042

Kroenke doesn't have to answer anyone now concerning his ownership of Arsenal. His total shareholding means just that. He doesn't even have to produce public accounts any more (so he can hide it if he's using Arsenal's revenues to pay off the loans he took on to buy his 100% shareholding). So there's surely no chance of him giving an interview about him using Tottenham's new ground to hold NFL games.

I had no idea that Fernabahce is in a relegation battle. Wow. Oh how low the mighty have fallen.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46883617

Cardiff City soccer player Sala missing after plane disappears over English Channel


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-socc ... op+News%29

Yes, sadly Arsenal as we have known it is dead. Long live a new Arsenal, but make no mistake, once the troughs of English football began to fill it was only a matter of time before the pigs came to feed. And boy do they like the taste.

That is a fair summary of what has happened. Happy New Year to you and yours.

I have wondered how it could be rectified. I would have no trouble in enforcing a rule that you could not have any interest in other sports, all foreigners who own clubs will have to front parliamentary committees to face questioning yearly (about anything at all - (human rights, sources of money, business transactions, tax strategies), they must personally invest extra money into the club every year, any increase in value of the club will have a personal capital gains tax levied against the owner yearly with no other losses deductible, no club can be held by a company which is foreign owned, owners must be in the UK for a minimum of 15/21 days in any 2 calendar months and you cannot accumulate the days.

Your pollies would never do it. Still I can dream.

https://arseblog.news/2019/01/report-ba ... is-suarez/

Under Kroenke we're so tight we can't even pull off a €2M loan deal.

I wonder if Mourinho can still get a job at a top 10 club? Or has be gone to the next level club like Ajax, Sevilla, etc?

Look, I don't know enough about Suarez to comment on whether he's really that much of a loss. But as a more general point, is there anything that could happen to Arsenal that you wouldn't try and see in a positive sense?

Relegation? Or would you see that as a chance to rebuild and come back stronger?

The Emirates collapsing after Kroenke had stopped the payments on its insurance policy to save a few bob? Or would you see that as an opportunity to build a new ground that's better and more modern?

Tottenham winning the league? Or would you see that as a motivating kick up the bum for Arsenal to match them?

Bernard, have you run out of prozac or have you finally snapped. I am surprised because you are often the sense of reason or see the postives. I acknowledge I myself have difficult seeing any positives but wow you surprised me today.

I was thinking about the departure of Gazides and Mislintat. I wonder if it is connected with the sale of the rest of the shares by the Russian. Whilst he remained there was probably some degree of having to account for your actions and probably always the hope that maybe some money would become available. But with his departure there is no one in the club above them thatYou want a self sustaining model and then don't have in place the personal to get in the players.

Still I suppose quite a lot of the people from the old North Bank will be heading off to WHL for the NFL.

I think we should offer him an olive branch and offer him a job as a steward in the away end.

Okay Gaz. I'll try to adopt a more Goonie attitude. Mislintat saying he left because the ownership regime told him that Arsenal would have a zero transfer budget for at least the next ten years and as a result there'll be no money to sign any of his recommendations. No problem as it provides an incentive to improve the youth system.

Emery leaves for a bigger club and no manager of any pedigree will take the job because of the ownership regime's lack of ambition for Arsenal to win things. No problem as it offers the chance to find a manager from non-league football who might turn out to be great.

That's better! Feel more optimistic already.

Tim Payton of AST has said he thinks our transfer budget this summer will be around 40 million quid.

That’s not enough to recruit a Ramsey replacement unless it’s a real find.

Your not really making the most of a Mislintat are you with those budgets. Finding obscure talent is obviously important but you probably need a wheeler dealer type with the ears to the ground who can cobble together something decent out of a sows arse

Sarcasm does not become you. However I do share your concerns. If we don't spend some decent money after the departure of Čech, Ramsay and Wellbeck, at the end of the season, I will probably be needing the prozac.

They will need to keep some cash in reserve for repairs. Because, if we spend that amount of money then at the first home game of next season, our fans will pull out the seats and set them alight. That will cost a few bob to repair. False economy really.

A loan move for Denis Suarez surely only means the end Özil. Otherwise, whats the point?

If true then it looks like a good ol' asset strippin is a comin. Mid table here we come and probably why Gazidis abandoned ship.

I've said before that I suspect being the only club that seems to take much notice of FFP and the self-sustaining strategy are being used as an excuse not to spend money. But if we are so poor, why is that?

It makes me wonder if Kroenke is already diverting big sums to paying off the loans he took out to buy all the shares. Because as the 100% owner, not only is he legally entitled to do that. But also he can keep it hidden now he doesn't have to produce publicly available accounts.

Certainly would explain a lot

Will be interesting to see what happens with the crowds as this season progresses. The prices of tickets look prohibitive if you compare them to Fulham who probably spent more than us.

Arsenal have the 3 highest net spend in the PL since 16/17. 4 the highest over the last 5 seasons. We spent €70m last summer and had the Aubameyang purchase last January and Lacazette the summer before.

Liverpool spent a fortune in the last 12 months but Coutinho's sale funded a big chunk of it.

It is understandable for us to hold fire this window.

It doesn't help that Pochettino is doing an incredible job at Tottenham.

So incredible that if you compare his position 5 years on to AW's position after 5 years he has been incredible.

Incredibly awful

People thought we lacked ambition when Kroenke had 66%?, well now he has 100%, we're midtable for decades with the odd fleeting 4th place possible here and there.

Pessimistic?, no, just very likely given the above, lack of investment (austerity now in force) and his track record at his other sports franchises, apart from the LA Rams very recent 'success' which is probably part funded by using his Arsenal 'asset'.

Then again if we were a big club our fans would actually stop giving him money or tear up the stadium, so evidently we are NOT a big club by our own actions (as well as his).

Yes, it will soon be five years in post at Tottenham for Poch and as yet he has won nothing. A big reputation built so far on modest achievement?

They have finished in the top 3 in the league for the past three seasons despite having significantly smaller resources than 5 other sides. It is a fair criticism to point out that they have not won a cup, but Pochettino has done a superb job. There's a reason he is being linked with Man Utd and Real Madrid.