Hi Kiwi - yes a lot has changed since we saw our first Arsenal match. Overall it is good that the skillful guys are more protected than before - imagine how many more goals Pele would have scored if freed from the hatchet men, who I also enjoyed greatly - Hunter, Bremner, Smith, Chopper Harris, but Storey remains one of my favourites - cold-eyed like Lauren but with a better record - prison that is.

Williams played in an era when football was a lower priority for me, so didn't see him much. Not sure, but I think Bernard rates him.

Enjoy this from Joe and the ladies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dghT8X2kD30

I do agree about those players you mention - all genuine icons of the clubs they represented and true giants. Sometimes see Billy at Bluewater Shopping Centr, where he is always approached by Hammers fans for a chat, which he is happy to do. I would add Elliott Bradbrook and the Immortal Danny Harris to the list - both turned down Bernabeu to stay at Princes Park, the Home of Football.

Difference between now and then is that the whole of the top-level of the game is marinaded in money - everyone is on the gravy train, so I have to back the players getting their share.

Errr....it was 1985 and the pitch was rock hard due to sub-zero weather conditions.

Steve Williams did play but he wasn't Captain. The score was indeed 1-0 to York.

2 out of 5 facts correct, so 40% right - not bad for you KP.

We might be trying to get someone else and this is deflection to either drive the price down make people look away from the real target.

you looked it up you poser ...no way your memory recalled that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw3CemSTctA

footballers and gravy train ... should a Lacazette or Özil be getting twenty times more a week wandering around producing f***ck all than the guy who repairs your ruptured water pipe not in my book . Danny Harris ? you mean Chopper ...

Have this to get on with ...... I never liked him , trying to sound like Eddie Cochrane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewev8c-zNl8

Me and my brother went to that game at York. From memory Keith Houchen scored their winner with a penalty. I’m sure he scored for Coventry in their 1987 cup final win against Tottenham so I forgave him for it.

Or I’ve read that Barca are Raphinha’s preferred choice and even Chelsea might be interested and ahead of us. If we suspect we’ll get outbid by those two we make our pursuit quite load to force them to come to the table or not. If they don’t Raphinha knows they aren’t interested in him, if they do and he chooses them then we can move on to other targets rather than sitting around waiting for CL clubs to do their bidding and trying to pick up what’s left.

Very good track - I love that guitar sound. As you say Cochraneish, which can't be bad.

I remember it quite well actually KP, in particular the way the ball bounced like a golf ball hitting concrete. The only thing I had to look up was who was Captain - Kenny Samson.

Thanks for the link though, painful as it was to watch it all again. It was pretty obvious that our lot just didn't fancy it. Unfortunately, York did.

How much! Has the prospect of distorting the squad, and has shades of Özil and Aubameyang about it.

Three times as much as he got at Man City, and a mega transfer fee too. Not great optics.

Eh?

Not my recollection, and I was at that game. Bone dry, freezing cold, and like a skating rink.

EDIT I see from other replies that Kiwi’s erroneous memory has been commented upon.

They ain’t cheap strikers

He’s leaving a champions league title winning club to join us ! It had to be attractive

Btw I did something similar once and asked a new company to increase my salary by a third to join them. They obliged. Don’t ask don’t get is my motto !!!

Is he a striker though? Is it worth upsetting the balance of pay?

For him personally absolutely

He’s better than what we had last season and impressed in several games toward the end for city. He doesn’t look a transformational signing aka world class but he does move the needle.the alternative seems spending 85 million on Abraham or The Napoli bloke who will also ask for the same money. Filthy business, wish I was a footballer

Not quite the same. Increasing your salary by a third is a 33.33% raise. If Jesus is going up from £90k to £280k a week, as LTG implied as a ball park figure that’s over three times more than he got at City. It actually represents a pay increase for him of 311.11%, not 33.33%z

Assuming it is true and going to happen. I'm worried about Jesus coming with a huge wage package. We have been burnt 3 times already with this scenario.

And echo those who worry about the balance of pay in the club.

Leeds want close to £65M for Raphinha it seems. So Arsenal do want both Jesus and Raphinha.
Plot thickens.

I am getting increasingly concerned about our play being too one dimensional. The best sides often have a clear balance between players of different types. If we get these players, it looks a bit ‘all the same’. One could say peak Barcelona were an exception. Yet we don’t have players comparable to Messi, Iniesta and Xavi. Even they had Busquets in midfield.

Norton-Cuffy playing for the Eng U19's now, just provided an assist. His athletic and physical profile means he adapted to men's football really well at Lincoln. We were linked with this Djed Spence guy but I can see why the club might wait for Cédric's deal to end and promote Norton-Cuffy instead. White and Saliba can both cover RB as well

I've read that Jesus wage is more like £220k per week. Partey is our current top earner at £200k per week. Then we drop down to Pépé at £140k and a whole host of players around the £100k mark, some of which are likely to leave like Leno and Bellerin.

Clearly setting the bar up at £200k ish is going to mean our very best players (Like Saka) will use that as a benchmark for any new deals. But I don't think giving Jesus £220k per week at 25 is in the same ballpark as the £350k per week contracts handed out to Özil and Aubameyang who were more than likley going to decline due to their age (a similar argument could be made for Willian as well)

Have to say I'm impressed with the job Edu has done since he came on. The squad overhaul we've done in the last few years was well handled, and the way we're building our new squad is really exciting - there is a vision abehind the signings we're making, and it comes across very well in the interviews I've seen with him. It's nice to see the club acting with clear direction, and everyone seems to be on the same page about what that direction is.

There continues to be really strong links to Jesus, Raphinha and Martinez. If I was to guess, I'd say those three are our remaining signings this window, and after that I would only expect us to look at selling some players who are surplus to requirement (Pépé, Torreira and Bellerin being the main ones).

I would also try to sell Holding - good player and an excellent pro, but he's not a player who should be starting too many games, and with Gabriel, White, Saliba and Martinez, and Tomiyasu being very comfortable at CB we don't really need Holding. 26 years old, English and signed long term, we could be looking at a decent fee for him.

Of the players linked to us, Tielemans is looking the most unlikely at this point. The links have gone a bit cold, and with Martinez being able to play DM and Vieira being viewed as a potential no 8, perhaps Edu and Arteta are content with the options we have in central midfield.

A champions league title winning club. Really! Are you 100% sure.

A friend sent me this story about Mané and his charity work.

https://huddleup.substack.com/p/sadio-m ... us-athlete

This was a great story and I have a lot of respect for him after reading this.

me too

was he handing an oblique criticism of Aubameyang when he mentioned cars and watches?

And about 200 other footballers

Viera announced

There appear to be growing links between Martinez and Manchester United too, with ten Hag giving them the advantage. If we do get him, it’s an interesting buy. Top Gun mentioned him being short, at 5 ft 9 ins, for a Premier League central defender. I know Martinez can cover other positions but I do see Top Gun’s point.

Should he go to Manchester United and our only forwards next season are Jesus, Nketiah and Balogun, I wouldn’t expect us to expose his lack of height when they play us. But there are plenty of Premier League sides where that may not be the case.

If we do get Martinez, it’s an interesting idea to sell Holding. I fully accept what you say about him being a good professional but not quite the standard to be a regular starter for us. Also with him being English and at his peak (27th birthday is approaching, in September) we should get more than a decent fee for him. If we do get Martinez and sell Holding, I won’t be delighted or livid. I won’t even be pleased or sad. I’ll just wait and see how well the decision works out.

One for the conspiracy theorists but two of Gabriel Jesus’s closest friends have just followed Arsenal on Instagram. Arsenal Twitter remains undefeated in its detective work.

Hi Gaz, was announced a few days back.
Did you just come down from the mountain after a 10-day trek?

All those years with Paddy. Now his namesake. And still his name gets spelled wrongly. Up there with Wiltshire.

Christopher Nkunku extends his contract with RB Leipzig until June 2026, deal now signed and sealed. Release clause of 60m euros, quite a low release clause and I suspect if he does anything like he did last year for goals and assists someone will be triggering that clause pretty soon

Hi Both,

I was wary when seeing Martinez was only 5ft 9" but (and I know stats aren't everything) there are stats that shows he wins more headers per game and a higher percentage of headers per game than Pau Torres (another CB linked with moves to the prem) who is 6ft 2.
By all accounts Martinez is an incredibly combative player and I've seen people liken his aerial ability to other shorter CB like Ayala and Cannavaro. Must have a very good leap and timing.

However, if there is any league where your height is exposed it is the Prem.

Martinez is also a very dependable left back - from what I've seen he'd be technically the most adept defender we have at the club as his ability on the ball is more akin to a midfielder

Worth noting that Martinelli and Saliba count as home grown players for the quota. Prem teams can have no more than 17 'foreign' players which is sometimes the easier way of looking at the home grown quota.

Martinelli and Saliba were both registered at Arsenal for 3 years before their 21st birthday so they count - in the same way Bellerin does.

Home grown:
Ramsdale
Holding
White
Saliba
Emile Smith Rowe
Saka
Nketiah
Martinelli
That is a good group of home grown players who are all young enough and should be with us for a number of years

It seems like not enough is being made of Chelsea buying Lukaku for £100m and 1 season later sending him on loan for £8m fee. I've long felt that teams who regularly spend huge amounts on players get away without the grilling when large numbers of those high price signings fail, but when we've done the same on a much smaller selection of high price players it is remembered more because we do it less frequently.

In a similar note not much said about Spurs buying Gil for £23m+Lamella and shipping him out on loan when he was nowhere near good enough. Ndombele at £60m is another under the radar flop.....and Lo Celso, Spurs paid a £14m loan fee and then a further £28m to make it permanent and he's out on loan.

Spurs have bought pretty poorly in the past 4 years or so, they're still being propped up by Son and Kane. Kulusevsi and Romerso look good loans/buys but they still need to pay the £75m to make those deals permanent.

When a new player comes there’s a tendency to over focus on the salary being reported. They all get paid a fortune these days no point analysing it.

Gabriel Jesus is an exciting signing for Arsenal his form towards the end of the season was impressive. There’s no doubt he will improve us. He’s a better option than any of the strikers we had at the club last year. When’s signing a new striker not been exciting?

I'd stick with Holding. He hasn't let us down and at 5'9" Martinez is too short. Martinet can play CM as well I have read