Raphinha on picking Chelsea: I think they [Arsenal] has an exciting wingers in Saka & Martinelli which i don't see myself competing or starting over them, I want to make it to the world cup so i picked them bc i would get much game time playing for the 2nd best club in London.

Really? Is this true?

3rd bid made for Martinez. Man U are linked and would be a genuine threat given Ten Hag was his last boss, but Man U have just had a bid accepted for a left back. But maybe they can give Martinez more assurances on game time whereas for us he might be 1st choice back up in 2-3 positions

Wasn’t the picture of him being hugged and greeted by Edu taken when he arrived for his medical? Apart from the football fitness stuff, the medical will also include a full blood count. That will cover everything that can possibly be checked by a blood test. As soon as that’s done, it will inevitably take a while before the results are known which I’ve little doubt will coincide with the social media stuff being prepared which Darren mentioned.

It’s possibly about a one in a million (perhaps more) chance, but if the blood test found he had something like early stage leukaemia, there’s no chance Arsenal would go through with the signing. It is still too early to say it’s definitely done. It will be confirmed on Arsenal.com once the social media stuff has been done AND the outcome of the medical, including the blood test results, are known.

Extremely or massively likely - yes. Definitely done? Not quite.

Blatantly made up quote. He’s not even signed yet

Uh oh

News breaking that Gabriel Jesus move has fell through because club doctors diagnosed Human papillomavirus infection (HPV). He will now have to go back to city.

This just isn’t our week. Not sure what happens now.

Top Gun having a joke one assumes.

He is not a left back though. Who knows what type of formation Man Utd will employ next season? Ajax were very attack-focused but quite exposed at the back. It remains to be seen whether or not Ten Hag will set Man U up the same way. I'd say one of his main priorities will be to find a centre-back partnership that works.

I read a piece on spending to stand still. It is relevant to spurs and Chelsea and to some extent Liverpool. Spurs have two loan players they need to spend £75m to make the deals permanent this year or the next. Chelsea have lost two CB for free and Liverpool have had to double the money they received for Mané to try to replicate what he gives them.

Save for Lacazette we’re in a position to hopefully just push on from last year without having to take any backwards or sideways steps/spend

I presume you are having us on, because all I get when I google is variants "Jesus healed me of the clap"

If this is anything to go by, more the highest bidder and player choice obviously.

https://theathletic.com/news/raphinha-c ... WdbbuZc1q/

serious unfortunately.

Isn’t it highly infectious ? If he used the toilet or facilities he could have passed this to Edu or other staff. Our bad luck is incredible

Few of us told by an ex share holder earlier. It’s not public. Media hasn’t caught on yet as the City PR team are working out how to dress it up.

I’m hoping that this is not true. Fingers crossed.

If it is true then it won’t be a secret for very long.

It is true unfortunately

Need to keep searching on Google for “Jesus has caught HPV”

He's winding you up ltg.

Not !

Ok
Top of list are:

"Jesus healed me of HPV"
(in our case, the worry is that the opposite would happen)

Then
"HPV Vaccine Decision-Making and Acceptance"
"Jesus Christ: His Person, His Message, His Credentials by HPV Nunn"

And of course

"Why Didn't Pence Do the Christian Thing?"

Even throwing 'Arsenal' into the mix doesn't help. Trump would be pleased to know that UVC light is part of the arsenal of treatments to prevent nosocomial infections.

And it keeps going....


https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 09067.html

I didn’t say the results would bring anything yet. I can only find this amongst other nonsense

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/8504938 ... he-genital

£87.25 seems a bit steep!

Does seem overpriced you can split the cost into 3 instalments though it says

I imagine most everyone has seen the Arsenal All or Nothing trailer recently.

This may tempt some forumites (not sure that it cures warts, however):

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/9547838 ... =related-6

I had no idea these existed.

"If you build it, they will come."

Was waiting for that chip to fall and it did.

Kelly has this to also contend with.

Keep in mind, Kelly is still facing another federal case out of Illinois, plus a state trial in Minnesota.

Must admit I haven’t yet. Any good?

My father was a boxing fan. Some of the best moments as very small boy I had was watching fights on tv with my dad. He was animated, yelling at the tv, cheering, jeering, and my brothers and I ate it up. He was a huge fan of Ali. I thought he was always a fan of Ali but my mother admitted that both he and her were cheering big for Patterson when they fought. My dad was a Deacon at our church. Ali was a moslem, Patterson a Christian. Simple as that for my dad. My mom thought Patterson was handsome, that's the extent of it. Just like she thought Ingemar Johansson was. She chose her favorite boxers by their beauty...lol.

I liked Ali because he was iconic. He may or may not be the greatest heavyweight fighter ever but he is the greatest heavyweight, boxer in general, if that makes any sense.

'I went to New York to win the championship. I wouldn't have gone if I did not think I could win. I was confident. But Ali beat me at my own game.
He did the same thing to Liston. Williams, another big puncher, Ali knocked him out in short order. Terrell, the great jabber, what happened to him? He got outjabbed. And Patterson, the guy with superspeed hands, couldn't match Ali and just stood around and got punched to pieces.
The right hands Ali hit me with just had no business landing—but they did. They came from nowhere. Many times he was in the wrong position but he hit me anyway. Blatt! and the punch connected. I've never seen anyone who could do that. The knockdown punch was so fast that I never saw it.
He has lots of snap, and when the punches land they dizzy your head; they fuzz up your mind. The first time I went down, I wasn't hurt, but I didn't know what had happened.
Suddenly I became aware of the noise and then I saw Ali standing over me, and I figured I was down. So I wheeled around to look at my corner, to find out the count. I kept thinking, was that a right hand he hit me with? So what did he do but hit me with the same punch again in the seventh round and knock me out. I can't believe it, but that's what he did.
He's smart. The trickiest fighter I've seen. He's had 29 fights and acts like he's had a hundred. He could write the book on boxing, and anyone that fights him should be made to read it first.
I did things to Ali that have never been done before. He missed more punches and landed fewer than with all of those other guys he's been in with. I also cut the ring on him, reduced it so consistently that he chose to stand and fight. He's a safety-first fighter, no matter how foolish he looks. And I made him fight. That could have been my worst mistake, making him fight.
I hurt him to the body, but he's tough. You can tell from the way he's put together that he's got pride. The man's a real fighter. Look at the way he acts out of the ring and you can see that. In the ring the guy doesn't show when he's been hurt. Not even the smallest sign, the way most fighters do. He beat me good, but he didn't beat me bad.
There's just no way to train yourself for what he does: the moves, the speed, the punches and the way he changes style every time you think you got him figured. Wendell Newton, my sparring partner, jumped around and he was awkward, but he wasn't Ali. Ali is something else.
I fought middleweights, even smaller men and they weren't as fast. This guy has a style all of his own. It's far ahead of any fighter's around today, so how could those oldtime fighters, you know, Dempsey, Tunney or any of them keep up? Louis wouldn't have a chance—he was too slow. Marciano couldn't get to him, and he would never get away from Ali's jab.
The only one who would have a good chance was Ezzard Charles, a real fast heavyweight who was smart and was perhaps the best combination puncher of them all.'
- Zora Folley

Do you think they are waiting until 1 July to announce Jesus. There may be something in his current contract about yearly bonuses.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I was reading somewhere he has HPV.

Spurs close to signing Lenglet on loan from Barca and also Richarlison, I’d be intrigued by the fee for Richarlison - I reckon it will be close to £60m. I know a few spurs fans who are not happy with that.

Yes I read that post as well. But then I remembered the admission by that same person on 7 March 2022 -'just ignore everything I say'. The most coherent post he has ever made. I commend that post to you.

I'll wait until after 1 July 2022, then may get a little more worried.

Richarlison having a medical at Spurs, £50m plus £10m in add ons

So that’s
Richarlison £50/60m
Bissouma £25m
Romero £40m loan made permanent
Kulesevski £35m loan made permanent (possibly delayed another year)
Perisic free but big wages no doubt
Foster free

Busy window for spurs. Very much a Conte ‘must win now’ window

They're signing good players, and it looks like a hard fight for 3rd/4th place between us, Tottenham and Chelsea. The difference between us and Tottenham though, is that I don't see much of a future with this team - so much revolves around Son and Kane, and they will probably start to decline in a few years.

It seems much more sensible to me to build a squad with an eye on the future rather than going 'win now' when the best you can do 'now' is 3rd place.

I don’t know about that decline stuff. With the new signings they look to have a bit of strength in depth there now spurs. Certainly with Richarlisom onboard they have options

Kulesevski Was a decent signing and for that money I do wonder if we had a look at him.

Also it is worth pointing out Kane is only 29 next season and his game isn’t based on pace as he’s always been more of a positional target man striker lethal but very good at link up play. There’s no reason he can’t play on a high level for another 4-5 years I’m afraid.

Right now assuming they have signed Richarlison and the other players rich referenced I’m sorry to say I believe they still have the slight edge on us in terms of personnel.

Should we have looked at Richarlison? Would have been an interesting option.

Richarlison and Bissouma are 25. Romero is 24 and Kulusevski is 22. Lenglet is 27. So every single one of them is probably not at their peak yet. We've already seen that Romero and Kulusevski were good signings and on paper, the others look like very good business too. Would we not like to have signed Bissouma and Richarlison this summer?

Both would've been good additions, but I haven't seen anyone claim they aren't good signings for Tottenham too?

Isn't the narrative that Tottenham are buying for instant success and not engaging in effective squad building? So thereby criticising Tottenham's transfer business? I listed the ages of the players above. They all have the potential to be at their current levels for the next 4 or 5 years. Most contracts are for 4 years these days anyway so having a team of 22 year olds doesn't mean you will have them for 7 or 8 years, although it obviously helps in terms of potential sale values.