Sadly so. None of it good at all.

Makes the concept of freedom day and crowded events seem even more bizarre.

Sorry everybody is an exaggeration I’d say a lot. I have kids of school age and it’s only a matter of time till one of them brings this into our house.

I know several people now who have had double jabs but have had it, said it’s not too bad essentially a cold in most cases. However someone else I know vocally opposed the vaccine for her and her daughters and is now bed ridden with covid.

Stay safe, believe in the vaccine and take precautions I’d say LTG. My initial comment was more along the lines that If the match day squads and staff account for about 100 odd people per game then for the next 6 months or so I don’t understand how we will be able to avoid several absences if 1 in 8 people in the UK has this thing.

Spot on. Vaccinations done a while ago. All reasonable precautions ongoing.

Seems to me that (other than vaccinations) the situation hasn’t changed since the beginning of last year. All that changes is the number of people who intermingle.

We are now being linked to Jordan Henderson.

This is great we are literally signing every player in the league. This one would make a bit of sense if your are selling Xhaka.

Lot of Covid-related doom and gloom at the moment but we should understand that the pretty alarming case numbers are heavily weighted towards the youth, young adults, the vulnerable and the un-vaxed.

The statistic that should be of most interest to those of us hereabouts who are of a certain age is that if you're double-jabbed and don't have existing health issues, you have very little to fear.

I also know a few fully jabbed-up people ('seniors', one and all) who have contracted Covid recently. One, who got it for the second time, had no symptoms at all, another had symptoms which she thought were hay fever while the others reported cold-like to mild-flu reactions. None were particularly spooked by the experience.

I have one friend in her late '50s who has a heart condition. She is an ex-nurse indeed she ran a Care Home but she won't take the vax. There are no cultural or religious reasons; she just doesn't want to be jabbed. To be fair, she lives her life very carefully but her views make no sense whatever. Her circle of friends have given up trying to convince her. It is her choice but we all fear the worst.

Liverpool sell Grujic for £10.5m and Awoniyi for £6.5m. £17m for a pair that a lot of Liverpool fans won't have even heard of and we're scrapping around to get £15m for Xhaka.

We must find ways of selling better. We've lacked that blockbuster sale that most of the other big clubs have and we lack the ability to sell fringe players for good money

No Thanks. 2 years left on his deal, 31 years old, this is the time Liverpool are (rightly) considering selling as they'll look to get the maximum price for a player who is likely to only decline from here.

A mate of mine has it and is isolating at the moment, just said it’s a very light cold and currently in his back garden jacuzzi listening to music with a cold drink. Doesn’t sound the worst thing I have to say.

I think a problem with this rotten thing is the fact it isn’t an issue for some people leading to complacency and conspiracy nonsense etc

Now we have the vaccine just a case of being sensible for another 12 months.

Personally I’m desperate for a *%^@*** holiday but can’t deal with the aggro for the time being. When normality resumes I’m desperate to get out to Florida and sit by the water with a cold modelo

Not sure, Liverpool usually offer a degree of pragmatism if the player has been a good servant. 2 year contract might make sense if they offered a logical fee like 5-8 I’ve always been impressed by his professionalism.

I doubt Henderson would want just a 2 year deal with us when that is effectively what he currently has at Liverpool and can play Champions League. No chance Henderson leaves for £5-8m in my opinion. Club captain, premier league and champions league winner with 2 years left on his contract - they'll want £30m because it would cost £30m to replace him. If Arsenal were in a similar position and could only get £5-8m for a similar player you'd want us to just keep him until he's 33 and let him go for free. Selling for £5-8m wouldn't make sense.
Liverpool are very good sellers, they got £20m for Solanke and £23m for Brewster as well as the ones I posted earlier which included a player who they signed for £400k, never even got a work permit for Liverpool and they sold him to Berlin for £6.5m. They'd do us no favours in the fee if we really did want him.

Depressing and kind of scary.

Just back from playing at my tennis club. One player there who ‘follows’ Arsenal and knows that I do says to me “So Arsenal have signed some more players then”.

He follows this up with “two more black ones”.

I say “is that a problem?” and he replies “Well no, but….”

I say “What do you mean but?” and he replies “Well it would be nice to have a mix.”

Good grief!!!

Racism alive and well in Sussex.

Here's a good stat for you. In terms of premier league goals per 90 minutes played last year Pépé had a better scoring rate than Bruno Fernandes and Son.

He finished last year strongly, I think we should want him to hit 10 goals and 10 assists this year, first choice wingers should be Pépé and Saka. If he can get 30 starts he should be aiming for those figures.

Suggest you find a better class of tennis club LTG.

Very sad LTG and exactly why Racism will never ever go away.
What an absolute c***.

Have to remember that there were no summer tour games last year due to Covid. So this year's summer tour games had to have been quickly put together over 8-9 months. Guessing of course.

Or maybe have "Bertie" on the back. No reflection on Queen Victoria of course.

A mix of what per se. Thing is a few players are mixed race. Doesn't matter at all really what they are.

I fear that you are right. Quite astonishing and the person is so far removed from a stereotypical ignorant hooligan. Quite casual and unthinking prejudice. At least they now know what I thought about that. Probably won’t change a thing though.

Don't think anything was mentioned as to how many players or staff were impacted. Makes sense to cancel tour as precautionary. Need fit and healthy players for season start up.

Make mine a hot model.

Told we need to increase our 3rd offer to 32 million for ramsdale.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... s-rejected

Seems crazy money and you can’t make head or tail of the logic involved.

They are either selling Leno or we are giving them fringe players in exchange or at a reduced rate to offset the cost. If people are questioning the white fee they won’t get this. Plus he’s another revoting Englishman

Even more nuts when you consider that we had Martinez.

There are a few prem clubs interested in Maitland-Niles, this is where we really need to play them off against each other and get a big fee. Every other club would be putting a £40m price tag on the kid. Played for England, only 23 and can play multiple positions. There are not many full England internationals at that age who would be valued at less.
The only way to really generate good funds from sales is to sell to fellow prem clubs, the rest of europe are looking at loans with options to buy or are scrapping around with silly low bids.

I would love to know the thinking behind Arteta and Edu even contemplating spending that sort of money on a bang average keeper like this.
What on earth do they see in this guy???
I really do question their sanity if they would be prepared to spend even 20 million on Ramsdale.
Just winds me up thinking of it.
Just beggars belief.

Can’t see us paying that money. Surely 25 at most.

He is highly thought of by Bournemouth fans though and was their player of the season when he was there. He’s also at the moment the most likely successor for Pickford in the England team and only 23 which is very young for a keeper. How bad can he be.

James gunnerblog said they like that “he’s quite good with his feet” is he? Prem experience. And I suppose young and homegrown completes the square equalling £30M+ apparently.

What’s somewhat ironic is Leno was literally touted as a ball playing keeper especially compared to Čech. Remember Leverkusen trolling Čech on Twitter after one of his dodgy displays with the ball at his feet? I think that’s seen an area of weakness for Leno that could be improved on in the market.

Read an article we are having trouble selling Lacazette. Even in the low 20s. He's 28 so its pretty much now or never. I like him though. I like him probably a wee bit more than the average gooner. Now, I don't know if he can fit into Arteta's set up but as a player, I like him.

I don’t think Leno is anything like as bad distributing the ball as some do. If some think it’s a weakness, for me it’s a weakness that just isn’t there. That isn’t me saying he’s at a Neuer level. Just that to call it a weakness is not only an exaggeration, it’s grossly over the top.

Look, I’ve no idea what Ramsdale is really like. I’ve said a few times that the only games I watch these days are those involving Arsenal. Unless a player does something eye catching against us, either good or bad, I’m unlikely to notice him. But however good, bad or indifferent Ramsdale is, I think the criticism of Leno’s distribution is basically unfair.

I'll let Rich (or another brave soul) say if this has any chance of coming to fruition...

https://ninetyminutesonline.com/arsenal ... y-abraham/
Arsenal should sign Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham

Lacazette is 30

For the life of me I can never understand why people put together these "Welcome To Arsenal" clips until a player has actually signed for us.

Couldn’t agree more Tom. From what I have seen, Abraham joining Arsenal is a damn site less certain than how it looks for White, and I’m a long way from being certain it’ll definitely happen with White either.

True, but pretty much everything about being a football fan is baffling and pointless, and posting those videos is harmless enough.

I don't think it's actual fans doing those clips though, but channels dedicated to compilation videos. They probably just put a team name in the title to generate clicks.

Your dealing with a different generation now. Kids seem to watch more you tube than television these days. Just look at AFTV as an example 1.3 million subscribers ! That’s mental.

People setting up channels to create content blah blah blah. It’s a whole new era

I have a lot of hope for Britains future from what I’ve seen of our younger generation from having children and their mates. More technology centric, many have a great work ethic despite being young, and they seem entirely removed from the horrendous outdated disgusting rhetoric that LTG encountered yesterday and still exists in older generations. Really hope the politicians don’t inhibit these kids futures.

That's exactly right.

Link for the day that I'm least likely to click on:

Trevor Sinclair tears into Arsenal's transfer policy amid Aaron Ramsdale pursuit [Mail Online, link not provided, call me a killjoy]

If it was finger-on-the-pulsers like Danny Mills or Simon Jordan, maybe I'd be interested. That bicycle-kick goal all those years ago was pretty good, though.

Dick Advocat was manager of Zenit St. Petersburg. He was told he could not sign any black players. He said if Pele was here and we could sign him would you say no. The supporters said no. Quite amazing how stupid some people are.

Largely true, but then there is this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nOtNpAvwGo