Interesting read about Martinelli. Might explain why he is now struggling a bit after a stellar start. https://newsjust24all.com/mikel-arteta- ... R0hua9CDc4

lol

We should have moved our one good player from wide right to left back so we could put our totally inadequate midfielder filling in there back in his midfield spot to replace an even more Inadequate midfield player who was playing there Inadequately instead. Only problem with that ? Probably means playing someone wide right who won’t be adequate!

https://youtu.be/SnmX4f6VBRw

Leno is meant to be up for sale which seems a bit odd.

I did read some reports a couple of weeks ago that he had asked for a transfer.

To sell Martinez and then sell Leno the very next summer seems poor planning, unless they have a pretty darn good replacement lined up.

There's 6 of them up for sale.

https://www.football365.com/news/bernd- ... r-overhaul

Yeah it’s a Kroenke inspired summer warchest PR article

This bit..

But Mikel Arteta still retains the support of Arsenal’s hierarchy and the club are prepared to spend big in an ‘unprecedented’ transfer window

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/10/arsenal- ... to=cbshare

Pretty sure Leno will enjoy cracking on with his career without missing Arsenal fans blaming him every time a goal goes in. Wouldn’t shock me if he wanted out sharpish

Forbes top 50 sports teams for 2021.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... s-24078326

It is a fair piece. I still think Martinelli can be a fine centre forward but there are very few 19 year olds who play the lone striker role anywhere in europe let alone at a big club, and those that do will almost certainly be surrounded by top quality.

20 years ago Martinelli could have broken through as a striker partnership in a classic 'big man/little man' combo. Right now the lone striker is one of the hardest positions for a young player to break in to first team football, mainly because physically they are often up against experienced centre backs and there's 2 of them to 1 of them, and there is a lot more to the lone striker role than running in behind quickly, dribbling and lethal finishing - which are the things that the best young strikers tend to be very good at.

Surely there needs to be a 1 in front of that 6?

A bit surprised to see Liverpool so high, only $100m behind Man U? Surely that can't be right.
Also Liverpool values at $1.3 billion more than Arsenal. It is only really the last 5 years they've overtaken us on the pitch consistently. I understand they have more history, more trophies and more fans but I'm surprised at that valuation in relation to others.

You can look at form tables in the league and put in the start date you want.
In the last 25 games (so take out the first 10 of the season) we're 6th
In the last 20 games we're 4th
In the last 15 games we're 5th
In the last 10 games we're 4th

I'm not putting this up here to show we're on the right track per se, more to show how wildly inconsistent so much of the league and teams have been this season.
It feels like we've only had a decent run of 6 games around the turn of the year the rest has been a lot of up and down so it is hard to think of us as the 4th best team over the last 20 games which is a big sample.

This season more than any has had a very strange set of circumstances - the same for every team of course. It will be very interesting to see what happens assuming fans can fill stadiums next year, do things return to a bit of normality, you'd think the home/away records will after being way off this year

Because we need to be managing him out of the club, not giving him expectations he is to stay.

I'm still a big fan of Martinelli and think all he needs his time. It should also be noted, its not like he's got the best support on the pitch at times. Also, he needs time to build a working relationship with the players who do play well like Saka, Smith Rowe and Tierney. They know his movements and he knowing theirs.

Because of Mo Salah, Liverpool is huge in Moslem countries, especially Arab countries. There are Liverpool shops in the major malls in Dubai.

So it looks as though UEFA will shift the CL Final from Istanbul because of the Covid risks in that city. The obvious choice is Wembley in pretty much Covid-clear UK; this would allow maybe 20,000 fans to attend.

But no. Oh no no noooo. UK is still barring entry to a number of countries which means that some of UEFA's 'guests' and sponsors would have difficulty attending.

Portugal on the other hand has a more relaxed approach to visitors so UEFA can bring in 3,000 high-roller lick-spittle cronies. And their wives. And their nieces. Bollocks to the club fans.

All things considered, I am not in favour of a breakaway elite. However, anyone who believes those UEFA weasels have the best interests of the game at the heart of their decision-making is deluded. They are leeches, just like the Kroenkes and the Glazers.

I once had a count of the exact money I spent to go to our Europa League final against Chelsea in Baku. It came out that I spent £1,143 and a some pence, think it was around 50p, that I wouldn’t have spent had I not gone. I don’t know how many Arsenal and Chelsea fans went to the game, but I assume the ones from London and the Home Counties all spent at least that. I say at least because I didn’t stop overnight and doing so would have cost even more. Well, I didn’t stay overnight but I did, simply in the airport waiting rooms as the flight back was delayed hours on end until some time the following morning.

All for a 4-1 bloody hammering. But my own experiences of that game makes me agree with you about UEFA. The game was between two London clubs. Why couldn’t it have been rearranged for Wembley?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/weaintgotn ... ley-report

Porto of course. And 20K fans, UEFA cronies, dignitaries, their entourage, other hangers-on....naturally.

Arseblog are reporting we are hiring a team to recruit new scouts. Looks like sacking the scouts was a mistake. Who would have guessed it.

Hi Gaz,

Maybe Hodd can throw some light on this.

Hi Zed,

I said when the Superleague was disbanded that Uefa, Sky, BT etc were not celebrating football being saved by the people, they were celebrating the fact that the gravy train was not leaving their station.

How about you convince him to stay

https://www.football365.com/news/arsena ... ns-emerson
If we get £35m for Bellerin I will be amazed and will heartily congratulate whoever brokers that deal. He seems a certainty to leave though. If we can push towards £25m then we should snap anyone's hand off for that.

Hi Soc,
Oh no of course not. ESL really isn't dead at all.

Man City are champions. It is their 7th title in their history.

City and Chelsea now have as many league titles combined as Arsenal with 13. 10 of those 13 have been won with the artificial finances of their rich owners.

https://tbrfootball.com/hes-just-been-a ... last-year/

Nice endorsement for Martinez

The sad thing is that pointing out the money of Chelsea and City labels you a 'sore loser' by almost all. It's in the media's and everyone else's best interest financially, etc, to ignore the money and pretend it has no effect at all.

We know the issue, we now have to stop complaining and come up with a viable plan to counter it.

As I’ve pointed out, Kroenke’s money is comparable to Abramovich’s and the Kroenke family’s wealth ($18.9b) is comparable to Sheikh Mansour’s ($20b). I wonder if that’s what AG’s post regarding the harping on about City and Chelsea’s success under their owners making people look ‘sore losers’ was about?

Look, I accept the logic of Hazuki’s post a while back saying Ann Kroenke’s personal wealth (from memory $8.9b) shouldn’t be considered at all when discussing this issue. But on a relative pauper’s level, me and my wife both have a range of personal and joint accounts. If I wanted to invest in a few cases of extraordinarily expensive fine wine and could only do so if she gave me something from one of her personal accounts, if I gave her solid reasons why it was such a good investment, I’m sure she would. I suspect Stan and Ann Kroenke also have a range of joint and personal accounts, so if he asked her for a bit from one of her personal accounts for Arsenal’s transfer budget, I imagine she might be willing. Although I do accept Stan has enough personal money not to need to ask her for it.

The point is more that just because Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour decide to spend on the clubs they own and Stan Kroenke doesn’t, how much can we moan about how unfair it all is?

We’ve got the 3rd best defence in the league so far this season.

You could say the same about all but 3 of the premier league clubs then. As all but 3 have billionaire owners. Fulham and villa’s owners have comparable wealth to Kronke.
There is a big difference between Arsenal and Chelsea/City. Arsenal established themselves as a top club without the extreme cash injections of a rich owner. City and Chelsea are only where they are because of their owner. In Chelsea’s case it was a ‘reward’ for actually being incredibly badly run they were bordering administration.
Of course all these other billionaires could invest un-earnt riches in their team and if they all did to the same level as City then it probably wouldn’t take long for City to drop back to being a midtable club.
So I think irrespective of what other owners can put in, and there are rules to stop it happening, it is still unfair that these two clubs have such a massive leg up in the competition.

Not really looking forward to the game. I would take a draw right now if offered to me. Would be great to beat them for old times sake but unlikely. If anything we'd do well to keep them under 3 goals.

I stated some weeks back if we can beat Tottenham (and Mourinho) I'd be happy for the duration of the season. For the most part I'm not but beating them, especially before Mourinho left the country will be a nice lasting memory.

Speaking of him, he's now firmly in the 2nd tier of football management. Roma is a decent club but oh how far the mighty have fallen. I have no sympathy for him. He's a brat when all is said and done, with moments of humanity once in a while.

If the squad can go 'once more into the breach', and beat Chelsea, I'd 'loov it, just loov it' if we beat them.

Huddersfield Town won three titles under Chapman before Arsenal had a trophy to their name. Then Arsenal poached him and look at what happened to both clubs, particularly Arsenal. I wonder if part of the reason for Chapman joining Arsenal was the money we offered? I’ve little or no doubt there will be countless other examples similar in principle before owners were billionaires. Bolton Wonderers were once a far bigger club than they are now.

Sorry Rich. I know how strongly you feel about the success of City and Chelsea. But if the main reason behind it is Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich spending their money on their clubs while Kroenke chooses to spend his comparable wealth differently (not on Arsenal), I think to borrow that term again, you’re beginning to sound a ‘sore loser’. If not slightly hypocritical?

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... kel-Arteta

Fantastic if this report is true and accurate, especially regards Willian

This says the exact opposite about Leno, as I’m assuming he’s one of those you’d like to see go. I suspect the main thing to remember about transfer gossip is that the huge majority of it is utter trash, made up to sell papers or get internet hits.

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... dium=email

If he does not want to stay, better that he leaves

But the report implies he insists he’s still happy at Arsenal so will want to stay. My strong advice is don’t believe any transfer gossip you see. The huge majority is garbage made up to sell papers or attract internet hits. That’s all it is. No more, no less. The stuff that’s based on anything tangible is few and far between.

Especially around this time of season ticket renewal requests. It's all PR.

Very good point Darren.

The express has now run 3 or 4 Kroenke puff pieces now.

To be honest I wouldn’t really lose much sleep if any of those players mentioned left especially Xhaka however that seems really wishful thinking and I can’t believe that’s true.

When chelsea wallop us later rather than focus on us watch their midfield 3 and how they distribute the ball. The problem story of our season in my opinion (which had many)

I think we need to get Arteta a couple more midfielders then if he has better players in the midfield but still is making over indulgent and pretentious decisions like the ones seen recently then he can get booted around Christmas