Read later that a few players were asymptomatic as well. A cancellation fee may have to be paid though. Rumours that Inter may withdraw due to Covid and Delta variant concerns in Florida. Also a cancellation fee would be imposed. If that happens, an MLS side could be substituted but only for one game as the MLS season is ongoing now.
Not a good start at all financially.

No Ivan wasn't popular as chief exec. Do hope though he recovers from the cancer.

I genuinely don’t understand how it’s gonna work. I mean football aside most people are going to catch this thing over the next few weeks, all of us. Only a matter of time even if you are careful

So out of 25 players say plus 10-15 staff for a match day ? Surely they are going to have issues separating people affected by this and many league matches could be at risk.

I would keep an eye on links to the Brazilian keeper Neto we’ve been linked with him before and he would be cheap as Barcelona are desperate to shift funds from their wage bill, plus crucially he’s a Kia Joorabachian client. Lump a few quid on this and thank me later

Personally I think a homegrown keeper would make sense

Heading to America in the middle of a global pandemic to play a couple of friendlies was not exactly the smartest plan.

Is that right? There have been 5.5 million confirmed cases in the UK so far, most of whom have ‘recovered’.

It’s a scary leap to think that in a few weeks 10 times that number will succumb. Currently about 7,000 a day are new cases. I sincerely hope that you are wrong.

Links today with James Maddison again, this time suggesting Arsenal will offer Nelson and AMN in the deal. These sort of swap deals rarely come off mainly because it nearly always is based on one side getting rid of a player they don’t want.
Maddison at £60m when you could have Aouar for £20-25m doesn’t seem the best idea.

More speculation today about an Arsenal move for Chelsea's Tammy Abraham. Initial loan with £40m obligation to buy.

Can't see it myself, just like I cant see the logic of the interest in Sheff Utd's Aaron Ramsdale, not at £20m+ anyway.

Nevertheless, these links persist.

I really can’t see another way it will unfold. We are what getting around 30 to 50 thousand new infections a day ? Seems to be increasing an increasing.

I’ve lost a relative to it and also known people had it who are now perfectly fine so the introduction of the vaccine will help massively but they were saying around 40% of hospitalisations currently have had 2 jabs anyway ?

If you have had 2 jabs and have had it the chances of getting again are reduced so it may get better eventually but in the meantime I don’t really understand how premier league games are likely to be unaffected if you have 3/4 players from the 2 teams involved in the game sidelined by covid

Really odd link and it seems to have substance behind it.

The only way it makes sense is if they know one of our senior strikers is leaving. Even with Nketiah going you still have 4 solid striker options which seems plenty.

Who’s going ?

Morning Soc
These bizarre links continue to persist as you say.
What with Ramsdale and Abrahams. No thanks to both.
The only way i can see Abrahams having any chance of happening is if we sold Lacazette and Eddie which would just leave us with Aubameyang and Balogun..... Oh my days i forgot all about Martinellii!! who could also play up front.
Just brainless to bring in Abrahams when you havent sold Lacazette and or Eddie.
I certainly wouldnt want another Chelsea cast off albeit a younger version coming in to block the pathway of Martinelli and Balogun.
Does Balogun sign that contract if he thinks someone like Abrahams is being brought in???
ffs lets give game time to Martinelli and Balogun rather than bringing in someone externally.
Their celings are much higher than Tammy Abrahams.

Surely two strikers have to be leaving to even comprehend this Abrahams foolishness?
Even if 2 left Aubameyang , Martinelli and Balogun should be enough for a season with no European football??

If they also sell Willian they may need Martinelli to cover wide left a bit more.

For what it’s worth I don’t think Abraham’s is a bad option up front to perform a squad role.

Up front Aubameyang, Abraham’s, Balogun

Wide Saka, Martinelli, Pépé

Sell Nketiah and Lacazette to generate 37 million quid to sign a midfielder

It’s not around 30 to 50 thousand infections a day. It’s around 7,000.

I can’t see how we are going to go from 5.5 million people to pretty well everybody in a few weeks.

And yes it is seriously scary. And I am taking every possible reasonable precaution.

It’s not 7000 is it ? 294k in the last 7 days

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases

Hi ltg,

It's around 40-50k testing positive a day at the moment.

Hospitalisations are still relatively low but even if you have had both jabs and don't get hospitalised you could still end up with a moderate to nasty flu-like illness and who know about the possible long covid issues even to those who are symptomless or have relatively mild symptoms.

I’m wrong about Covid numbers. I read the 7 day average of 47,438 as being the total figure across the 7 days, as opposed to it being a figure per day.

I have to say that despite lots of scrutiny I do find the various Covid stats obscure and conflicting to say the least.

Even allowing for say 50,000 per day it seems improbable that we would go from 5.5 million to everybody in just a few weeks.

Hi to you too. You are absolutely right about that. Scares me somewhat, especially the (many) unknown bits.

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