It was a buy-out clause that was triggered. Plenty of teams in europe could have afforded the buy-out clause and would have happily paid it, but Haaland obviously has a say in where he goes and there was the wages the agents fees the father fees.....£50m might be the transfer fee but the add ons etc take it significantly higher and out of the reach of most teams

Yeah, have to admit when I saw £88M (plus all the add ons) I involuntarily said “is that it!!??” as if nearly £90M is some kind of pittance. But relatively it really is. If he was going to a premier league club I get the strong feeling Dortmund would be asking for much more. But yeah, I reckon it sets a helpful benchmark for Rice. You’d hope.

Interesting with Bellingham and all the talk of his carefully managed career he’s gone straight for the final destination, which tbf he looks very much ready for. Like the 15yr old Ødegaard doing the full tour of every club in Europe and then I rolled my eyes as he chose Real Madrid. Thought he should have gone to Ajax at the time. I wonder where Ødegaard would be now if he’d chosen a club like Dortmund. Turning out alright for him safe to say!!

Beckham went to the US when he was 31, Henry also. Colin bell, Rodney marsh, Rooney. The truth is this isn’t a new thing these places are the last cheque they get out of their careers the Saudis are just offering bigger ones at the moment and the main common theme ? They are all the wrong side of 30 and clearly on the wane. For benzema it’s last chance saloon to cash in on his reputation and others too. Ronaldo I mean sorry but we’ll past it (plus it was being suggested he wants to leave now anyway )

I just don’t see many Bellinghams, mbappe or Rices moving to those leagues any time soon. There’s also social and economic reasons they won’t go in their 20s.

Well done The Irons. Bowen - what a fine pro - a semi dead leg and he wins the game. Nice reward for Moyes too.

Well done 'appy 'Ammers and especially for Moyes. Incident with fans at one point throwing objects on the pitch and cutting someone's head in the process, unacceptable.

Still, good win for WH in a dramatic fashion at the end.

Denver Nuggets on the way to a 2-1 lead in the Finals

Well done Hammers!

Not a great performance from Rice.

Certainly didn’t scream a 100 million pound player based on that. I do think even if he came in replicating the perfomances partey put in for most of the season wouldn’t be easy. Honestly one of the best midfielders in Europe for most of the season

Yep - well done you 'appy 'ammers.

OK Dec - sober up, clear yer locker, say yer goodbyes and get yer arse to The Arse.

Lots of chat now about Arsenal making our move for Rice. £90m bid. West Ham chairman has said he's promised Rice that he can go. All the talk is that Rice wants to stay in London and is totally convinced by Arsenal and Arteta. It will be a very exciting signing if we can push it through.

I saw some guys on line speculate how they would spend Arsenal's supposed £200m transfer budget. Forget any sales, you just have £200m to improve the squad.

The consensus was on 2 central midfielders (one of Rice or Caicedo but not being able to afford both), a right sided defender and a right sided attacker/striker.

If you spend £90m on Rice I think you could get a very good right sided defender in the sub £30m range and there are options out there for more budget friendly central midfielders (circa £30-40m) but I think finding the top quality attacker is going to be the hardest position to fill this summer.

Interesting concession. I would say Rice, caicedo and a young but promising right back.

We have 3 main problems really. Lack of power and speed in midfield, lack of a 2nd option up front and depth and cover especially for saka. Really I think choosing this would mean you are only addressing 1 of our problem areas.

I’m not expecting us to sign a new striker but just can’t see us maintaining a title challenge without a new one. Towards the end of last year I was even wondering if it would have been more effective to play Nketiah up there instead of gabby because when Jesus is having a bag game it seems he’s not effective at all.

Pre-season schedule based on reports so far:

July 13th - Arsenal vs Nurnberg
July 19th - MLS All-Stars vs Arsenal
July 22nd - Arsenal vs Manchester United
July 26th - Arsenal vs Barcelona
August 2nd - Arsenal vs Monaco (mid week mini emirates cup)
August 6th - Arsenal vs Manchester City - Community Shield

It is possible that Arteta sees Trossard as a genuine option as a No.9.
In numbers only the squad really only lacks some depth in central midfield and right sided defender on the assumption that Nelson signs a new deal and is the back up right wing.
In terms of quality I think it is 2CM, 1 right sided defender, 1 right winger and 1 physical striker

Since Messi announced he'll be signing for Inter Miami their Instagram followers have gone from 1 million to 5 million

Arsenal official player of the year.
1st Ødegaard
2nd Saka
3rd Martinelli

If he carries on improving, young Martin might challenge Dennis as my favourite ever player, and Dennis took over from the King of Highbury, no mean feat.

I like a relatively difficult pre-season. Only if there is limited play for the ones who are expected to play 40 or more total games a season. I'd like to see the bench players heavily involved in these games as they'll will need to jump into the deep end in case of injury to a starter or subbed in and needed to perform magic right away.

Ooof high praise indeed.
Myself I often fluctuate between Bergkamp and Henry for favourite ever player depending what mood I’m in. I think Henry was the more ‘unplayable’ and for a time he was the best in the world but there are other (more emotional) reasons to choose Bergkamp. That he joined us in the first place at the time, his elite skill level was something else at the time, the elegance, the silkyness- he oozed class. If I was a professional football player I’d want to be Bergkamp

Last preseason we were flying, a lot of people say preseason is just about fitness and don’t worry about results but if you pay attention to pre season you really can see the teams who are going to fly out of the traps at the start of the season. Get your business done early, gel the team and start quick. 90+ points to win the title you can’t afford a slow start.
I still shudder at those years we were scrambling around doing late business and putting out half naked teams in the first 2-3 games and always playing catch up

Real Madrid are transitioning from the Casemiro, Kroos, Modric midfield (which won 3-4 champions leagues) to a Camavinga, Tchoumeni, Bellingham midfield. Absolute elite levels of squad planning and management

I do think Ødegaard will turn out to be the best attacking midfield player/No10 type we’ve had since Bergkamp

15 goals a 7 assists last year with no penalties. That’s outstanding for a player in his position. I think 1 year cesc got 19 goals and 19 assists or something which is nuts but that would have included pens.

I look at Ødegaard and I think he’s the player we all hoped Özil would be. Shoulders responsibility, grafts and wins matches. Incredible to think we were paying Özil 350k a week.

Bergkamp though ? Wash your mouth out bloke could control a runaway steam train with his first touch. I’ve never seen anything like it. A football player who seemed to know what was going to happen on the pitch 2 minutes before it did.

If the transfer window doesn't officially open till June the 14th then how have Liverpool been able to officially announce Macallister on their website as a new signing???
Or am I missing something??

With regards to the CS, if we are going to lose I only want it to be on PKs and not open play. We need to play them to a stand still in regular time to instill confidence for the regular season.

Miguel Delaney on Rice


“There has been progress with Arsenal, although they are still some way apart from West Ham United as regards how the purchase is made. A fee is almost agreed, but West Ham want the payment to only be over two instalments.”




Strikes me as the type of thing that gets ironed out

Kai Havertz. Yeah silly season is here

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... ing-price/

Boris resigns in disgrace. Literally the worst prime minister of all time. Literally turned everything and I mean everything to *%^@. Dorries his weird blow up fan girl doll too.

These *%^@ have done more damage to our kids future than anyone can comprehend. Piss stains on our reputation

Denver Nuggets on its way to a 3-1 lead in the NBA Final. Best they win it, so Stan gets an addicted rush to winning championships.

https://www.si.com/nfl/rams/news/los-an ... ke-success

Boris is a clown, a joke, a buffoon and a complete idiot!

Worse than that girl that was in for 10 minutes ?

Yes. She was a disaster but he’s responsible for deliberately architecting the decline of the country to further himself at all costs. He’s caused generational damage that will take decades to fix. She pressed the fast forward button that accelerated and exacerbated problems he introduced. Whole thing is a disaster.

Worthless piece of sub human *%^@. Doesn’t give a toss about integrity or the truth and not only a disaster capitalist but a national traitor. Destroyed the global reputation of Britain as a bunch of lemmings following a public schoolboy oaf who’s literally screwing them.

Will now *%^@ off and make a fortune telling stories about his achievements which amount to a grand total of *%^@ all whilst people will struggle as the result of his decisions for years

Would be a lot of money for a 29 year old . Not sure where this would leave benny blanco who is a favourite of mine I have to admit.


https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/tr ... positively

Lots of positive noise over Saliba’s contract. Supposedly he’s going to take the No.2 shirt next year

According to The Athletic and Ornstein, an agreement with Arsenal to keep Saliba on till 2027 hss been reached. A 4 yr contract. Now moving on to the paperwork stage.

Saliba is a Massive coup for us if he’s staying. Really interesting as he’s going to be one of the best centre backs in world football. Feels as big as a new signing that one. Just need to keep him fit.

Also a slap in the face for the weirdos moaning at Arteta for loaning him out previously

'Road To Istanbul: Manchester City’s odyssey from Dickov to brink of immortality.'

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... mmortality

Thanks, Guardian. Yes, Poirot himself would struggle to untangle the mysteries of the Manchester City timeline over the decades: nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, injection of billions, passage of a few years, Champions League trophy. It's a beautiful and mesmerising tale.

I find the lack of build up to the game interesting really. No one really cares. I hadnt even realised it was today. Just apathy really. I think all of Europe will be cheering for inter tonight

Maybe I'm wrong but I assume most gooners and EPL fans are cheering for Inter as most hate City and their dominance and their money.
I'm actually hoping they'll win. Only because I hate Man Utd so much but wouldn't mind if they get it all stripped later on after the fact.

If we had won the title Kroenke and assuming his NBA team the Denver Nuggets will win the title, he would have been the first person to win an EPL title, NBA title, Super Bowl, NHL ice hockey title.

Inter had a very good strategy of Italian style stifling defense especially crowding the playmaker and Mourinho esque cynical defending, niggly fouls, faking injuries, etc till City finally got an opening.