Morning socrates.

I would have been astonished if Arsenal had said words to the effect ‘we sacked that thieving git Sanllehi because he is as bent as a two bob note.’ It simply doesn’t happen.

My first impression when the news broke was that the internal inquiry into the Pepé transfer had revealed something the powers that be didn't like, and hence he was sacked. As several posters has pointed out, the fact that the official statement from the club was complimentary towards Raul doesn't necessarily mean anything, as that is par for the course.

However, there was another statement released by Raul where he once again stressed the split was amicable and heaped praise on the club on those who run it. And watching the interview with Vinai on arsenal.com, he starts the thing off with praising Raul, saying he was lucky to have him as a colleague and friend, and that Raul's fantastic work (his words) is one of the reasons he's optimistic about Arsenal's future.

I don't know, but it all seems a little too much if they're only trying to keep up appearances. The official statement would've been enough for that, I think. Maybe too much is being read into all of this, and it really is mostly about streamlining our leadership structure? If this move means Arteta gets more of a say I'm all for it, because in Arteta I think we might have an exceptional manager talent.

Can anyone please tell me the process for blocking someone on here? I’ve tried the ‘foe’ option, but that doesn’t appear to work.
Thanks

Ignore - just realized it only works if you’re signed in.

For God’s sake, did you even watch the 2017 final? Holding had a fine game but Mertesacker bossed it. Martin Keown calls it the Mertesacker final for a very good reason. Moreover I think Keown knows a bit more about central defending than AOC.

Not just Keown, I think it’s widely known as the Mertesacker final. Per had pretty much retired, he’d perhaps player a handful of games all season and hadn’t played for a number of months. My view is that as good as the defence was that day it was guided my Mertesacker

Aubameyang tweeted tonight “.....and then a sand timer emoji”

Fabrizio Romano, quite a reliable journalist also tweeted that Aubameyang WILL sign his new deal soon

Any prizes for guessing who you’ll block? Imagine a smiley put here.

Sevilla were outplayed and should have been down by at least 4 or 5 goals. But its better to be lucky than good.
Their keeper should be man of the match.

Didn't realise Coquelin has been sold by Valencia. Wonder if Arteta fancy any of the Valencia players. We got Cazorla in a similar situation when Villareal was in financial trouble. Kondogbia or Soler perhaps?

There has been a trend recently of lots of big clubs needing to get rid of their high earners who are pushing 30 and who aren't quite delivering against the clubs outlay. It seems the last 6 months more than any time I've noticed. I'd be surprised if it isn't some belt tightening after covid stripped a lot of teams of huge match day revenue and some TV money. A lot of teams now pushing their 'star' players out of the door. I think it is going to be a really interesting transfer window

Reports are Messi wants out of Barca, now! C'mon Arsenal, stop mucking about and make an offer. What's his buyout clause again? We'll pass the hat.

Selling our gaff.

Estate agent had an offer below the asking price on Friday which we promptly rejected. Estate agent then comes back to us today with another offer but this time 18 grand lower than the one they had on Friday.

2 things really. 1) I’m really not sure if they get how this is supposed to work But the people involved must have been employed by Arsenal at some point to conduct transfer negotiations during the Wenger period.

2) for this level of excellence they get 1% of the sale price. Name me a bigger racket

Is your estate agent named Raul Sanllehi?

Can you imagine it ! It would be great fun for a couple of seasons watching him strut his stuff for us.

Wonder if Barca would entertain a swap deal for Kolasinac

No if he was he would be getting the bidder to offer 20% more than the asking price and giving it all to his mate

the deal is part of a new focus on domestic recruitment with English clubs set to lose the ability to sign European talents between 16-18 when the country leaves the EU on 31 December.

Somehow this Sanllehi-Pepe debacle smells like money laundering.

This is also going to be an interesting development. We’ve just signed a 19 year old midfielder released from Huddersfield, this from arseblog



.

Offs is there anything this political disaster doesn’t wreck.

This is also going to be an interesting development. We’ve just signed a 19 year old midfielder released from Huddersfield, this from arseblog

I don’t mind it, there was a loophole for the uk somehow anyway that meant we offer pro contracts when eu teams couldn’t, and it never seems right offering kids big money to move far away from home.

Any idea what the kid’s name is Ash?

He's called Tim Akinola Bernard.

Would have meant we would never have seen Anelka, Fabregas or Bellerin grace our hallowed turf.