It is an absolute farce that we are facing the possibility of Mkhitaryan not being able to play the Europa league final because UEFA (or whoever) cannot guarantee his safety!
That should have been the single reason not to award the final to Azerbaijan. Whether it applies to 1 potential player or 1000 it shouldn’t matter. How can uefa reward countries like this?

Also uefa have justified only giving 6000 tickets to arsenal and Chelsea because it would not be responsible to allocate any more given the difficulty and distance the fans have to travel! Unbelievable

Rich, UEFA is assisting Mhiki in obtaining a visa. Whether this comes about is left to be seen.

Hi B,
Or you can thumb your way across or stow away on a freight train.

For all 3 posts, you have my condolences.

Nice. Azerbaijan sounds more Iranian than Russian. Cute little buffer country with Baku right on the Caspian Sea. Quite a mix of languages, people. Idyllic...hmmm.

Respect Bern.

Serious respect, actually.

As they should. But just don’t give major sporting events to countries that ban other nations entering their country. Russia and Qatar should never have been awarded the World Cup either- but then a big brown paper bag goes a long way with fifa and uefa

Oh by the way, as to that 6K limited allocation to fans...whether Uefa chose that allocation prior to who the winners were, can only be speculated. Given that, Uefa hierarchy thought having less hoardes of English hooligans trampling through Baku is more desirable. Yet, would same allocation applied had teams been Spanish, Italian and/or French? Would Uefa felt safer dealing with bombarding Italian Ultras or vibrant Catalans maybe? Be interesting to see if said fan ticket allocation would be closer to 15-20K had this been different countries in the final.
Just a thought.

No Uefa shouldn't allow countries as hosts given human rights violations or or other discriminatory practices. But, yes a bribe of questionable denomination goes a long way.

Raoila has been banned from any transfer dealings for 3 months. He’s Mkhitaryan ‘s agent. He’s also pogba and De Ligt agent as well. They either sack Raiola or they won’t be going anywhere this summer

It's not a black & white issue. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict for a hundred years and there was armed hostilities between the two in the last decade. That's not to say that there are not question marks over its governing in terms of human rights and suppression of journalists. But Azerbaijan is not a globally ostracised country and neither is it as oppressive as say Qatar or Saudi Arabia. You could rule out a huge amount of countries on the basis of questionable treatment of citizens or potentially corrupt governments, including most of South America. Politics and sport is not a great mix.

I agree that what Trump calls 'the fake news' do bang on a bit. I'm sure the people who warned against Hitler in the 1930s got boring and repetitive too. Wht the Mueller report is so important is that Trump unless checked is going to do a massive amount of damage. His middle Eastern policy is mad. He tore up Obama's accord with Iran and now is threatening war because they are doing what they had agreed not to under the accord.

Cheers Dec. Azerbaijan is considered quite safe for visitors. Therefore, no, it's not as oppressive as Quatar or Saudi Arabia. The anti-Armenian sentiment or Armenophobia, due to an ethnic territorial conflict over the Nagorno-Karabahk region in southwestern Azerbaijan. The war in that region was from 1988-1994. Being also over 96% of the Azerbaijan population is basically Muslim. There's no place for political influence in sports, but unfortunately it works itself in.

Danny Welbeck in full training. If Mkhitaryan can’t play in the final would you have Welbeck on the bench as a plan b for 15 mins if required?

Cagigao is rumoured to be promoted to head of recruitment. He’s the scout credited with the spotting or recommending the Cazorla, Bellerin, Sanchez and Fabregas transfers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ement.html

He is still an Arsenal hero for me

Love him or hate him what he did in moving to Man U was the correct decision for him. He won them the EPL - he has his medal.

Like Fabergas I think he probably got sick of the Wenger promises and decided that 4th place medals do not exist and he wanted something to say I won things when I played.

Apparently Mkh is on 175K per week and we were hoping to offload him - but not possible if he keeps the agent.

Plus according to this Bailly from Man U may be available at 30mil. I suppose with Ramsay going and Wellbeck we need to keep our medical staff busy so lets look at an injury prone player. I hope it is all BS.

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... m-16261239

Uninterested with the final day with a very, very small interest in the title race.

It might be a thriller. Pressure will be on City after their unforgivable Spuds catastrophe, Im hoping they @$&* it up.

"do bang on a bit " is a pretty limp wristed gay boy take on things ... how about just straight out lying , fabricating a continuous load of cr&&%p .

If you delved a little deeper , you'd find the major problem isn't Trump but those two warmongering ghouls Pompeo and Bolton .

Agreed his middle Eastern policy is mad but Obama destroying Libya and that little ferret faced f*&%$ Bush smashing Iraq were far worse .

"The Mueller report so important " ...... for what ...?

Wow. So Trump isnt to blame if those he appoints are criminal insane when not merely incompetent and corrupt? People buying into the whole "lying NYT, deep state conspiracy, antivax, climate hoax, I'd rather trust my gut than science, apple pie" fable ... it beats me.

I hope City win it. The reaction if Liverpool do will be verging on unbearable. I'm going to want Liverpool to win the Champions League, but only because of who they'll play in the final. To want Liverpool to win both trophies is beyond me.

and I'm guessing you are talking Trump at his word ( ) about what the Mueller report actually says. Even the redacted version is pretty damning. Trump clearly didn't read it ( no pictures).

I detest City. Even setting aside their unforgivable negligence in letting Spurs into the ECL final, anything that undermines their worrying march to dominance (barring Spurs) is good in my book.

I've never minded City. Way preferable to their local rivals.

Looks like Emery also never learns:

19Leno
12Lichtsteiner
20Mustafi
27Mavropanos
18Monreal
29Guendouzi
4Elneny
7Mkhitaryan
59Willock
17Iwobi
14Aubameyang

Substitutes
1Cech
6Koscielny
9Lacazette
15Maitland-Niles
31Kolasinac
34Xhaka
49Nketiah

At least Willock plays but to have this central defence and DM is tragic for us.

The final is over a fortnight away what harm would it have done to give Aubameyang a chance to win the golden boot and us fifth at least and maybe also a possible fourth however unlikely..............................

I'm with you there Bernard. The media is full of ex-Liverpool players who are unbearable to listen to. Naturally, I hope they the CL, but a double up with the PL. Sweet Jesus, that's a nightmare.

That horse has bolted though. Football is now a competition involving less than a dozen clubs across Europe. Ajax performed a minor miracle this season and will now lose half the team. For all the talk of it being a fantastic title race, a league season where two clubs are close to getting 100 points is not a good thing.

Aubameyang is starting you doughnut !

I’m alright with the team personally, give minutes to Xhaka and Lacazette in the second half

Numbnut I didn't say he wasn't. If you think he is going to get the same service today as he got on Thursday then you really are a *%^@.

Ok - so how many goals do we need today to make it into 4th place then ?

The players are probably on their last legs and need to be changed up.

You can’t make a gourmet meal out of a bunch of turd anyway, hopefully they will get 3 points but Everton won’t beat spurs 9 nil

21.

If our defence is up to its usual standard

Serviceless Aubameyang hits the bar

Tottenham have scored.

Crikey. Man U losing at home to Cardiff

Brightonwere ahead ... for 30 secs

City doing it two years in a row too. And 199 league goals now in that period. That why I'm less averse to Liverpool and even united. Anyway City are totally dominant now in the Brighton game.

Some pretty rough play going on.