Arsenal Category
Arsenal football club news, Arsenal transfers
Aaron Ramsey leaves Arsenal for £400k-a-week at Juventus
Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey will earn £400,000 a week for four years at Juventus. The 28-year-old will become the highest paid British footballer ever.
Arsenal will get nothing.
But someone will earn 3.7m euros (£3.2m). Juventus says those are the “costs” of the deal.
Says Ramsey to Arsenal fans: “You welcomed me as a teenager and have been there through all the highs and lows I’ve encountered during my time at the club. It is with a heavy heart that I leave after 11 incredible years. Thank you.”
He said “heavy heart” not “heavy wallet”.
PS: Ozil on £350,000-a-week doesn’t look so pricey now.
Manchester United balls: David de Gea wants £500,000-a-week; or less
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, 28, is “insisting” (BBC) the club pay him £350,000-a-week if they want him to sign a new deal. The BBC says this would make him the club’s second highest earner “behind behind [sic] £400,000-a-week Alexis Sanchez, 30.”
Sanchez is criminally overpaid. De Gea wants something close to parity with the Chilean. Will one error of judgement by United lead to disharmony in the ranks?
The BBC links to a story in the Mirror. But the Mirror doesn’t really know what Sanchez earns. So far it’s provided the following figures for Sanchez’s United wage – the taxman may be interested:
£2m a month – Feb 9 2019
£400,000 a week – Sept 22 2018
£390,000 per week – May 11 2018
£25.5m a year – Jan 22 2018
£500,000 per week – Feb 8, 2018
£400,000-a-week – Jan 29 2018
In other transfer gossip, Manchester United fancy Lyon midfielder Tanguy Ndombele and Norwich City defender Ben Godfrey, 21. Both should cost less than Sanchez or De Gea.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 10th, February 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Arsenal balls: Emery’s transfer budget
Arsenal have a strange squad of players, a composite blend of the over-paid, over-hyped and under-performing. But worry not. New blood is on the way. The Sun says Arsenal are looking to recruit at least five new faces for next season. And they have a whopping £40m to get them. The transfer budget will go up should Arsenal qualify for the Champions League either by finishing in the top four or winning the Europa League. Can they do it? Can a club that paid over £30m for the lumpen Mustafi and let Aaron Ramsey leave for free do something right? If they do, then Emery will have £60m for spend on new faces – what Manchester City invest in a reserve full back.
The Sun, however, doesn’t tell readers who that figure was arrived at. why wold Arsenal go public with their budget? And why does the Mail tell its readers: “Emery’s Transfer budget is only £45m.” And in the Mail Arsenal needs “at least three players” to “join the elite”.
All utter tosh, of course. Arsenal are the elite:
Arsenal do have the money. They also have an absentee owner uninterested in seeing his team win on the field.
Posted: 5th, February 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, News, Sports | Comment
Arsenal Balls: 4 years since last away win over Big 6 team; greedy Stan Kroenke to blame; Emery needs 10 new players
It is now four years and 21 matches since Arsenal last won away from home against a big-six rival — a 2-0 win against Manchester City in January 2015. Under Stan Kroenke’s ownership, Arsenal have dropped and dropped. Kroenke is the greedy, absentee owner the club never deserved. He puts no stock in the team winning on the pitch. There is no reflective glory. Arsenal fans would wager and win the bet that Kroenke doesn’t even know who Unai Emery is. It’s all just about dividends and cash. Kroenke doesn’t support Arsenal; Arsenal supports him and his avarice.
Arsenal’s way form against their so-called Premier League title rivals is dire. These are the points won in games away to the big six since that City victory:
Team
Man City Games 23, points 31
Liverpool 21, 24
Man Utd 21, 23
C Palace 24, 20
Southampton 24, 16
West Ham 24, 16
Chelsea 18, 16
Tottenham 19, 15
Leicester City 26, 14
West Brom 21, 12
Swansea City 20, 12
Burnley 19, 9
Everton 25, 8
Bournemouth 22, 8
Arsenal 21, 7
Newcastle 19, 5
Stoke City 19, 5
Watford 20, 4
Aston Villa 10, 3
Sunderland 15, 2
Huddersfield 10,2
Spotter: The Times
Posted: 4th, February 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Media Balls: Arenal robbed; Aguero cheats; Manchester City go full bizarro world
Handball it was, then. The third goal scored by Sergio Aguero as his Manchester City beat Arsenal 3-1 in the Premier League went in off his forearm. The ball was travelling away from the Arsenal goal when Aguero tapped it in with his arm. What say the players and clubs?
Sergio Aguero: “I thought it came off my chest but now I see on TV it was handball.” Hats off to Aguero for that utter twaddle.
The Sun: “The ball was diverted into the net by Aguero’s elbow”.
Arsenal FC: “Sterling beats his marker and crosses to Aguero, who looks to have scored with his arm… Despite our protests, the goal stands.”
Manchester City FC: “Sterling ran into the box and with no challenge, continued on before sliding another fine cross into the middle that Leno pushed onto the upper half of the sliding-in Aguero’s body and the ball trickled over the line.”
Ha. The upper half of his body – you know, where your arms and hands are. Or what Aguero calls “my chest”.
The City website adds: “It was a bizarre way to complete yet another Aguero hat-trick, but nobody was complaining!”
Well, aside from the Arsenal players and fans who had seen their team cheated, no-one was complaining at all.
Posted: 4th, February 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Manchester City, Sports | Comment
Transfer balls: Newcastle sign Almiron from, er, Arsenal
Transfer Balls looks at dire football reporting. So news that Miguel Almiron has joined Newcastle United is interesting. On October 7 2018, the Daily Star told its readers:
Arsenal news: Miguel Almiron set for Emirates move after £11m Atlanta United deal agreed
Nothing was agreed. But the Star’s URL hammered home its scoop:
The Daily Mirror had much the same news:
Such are the facts.
Posted: 31st, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Arsenal Transfer Balls: Nkunku in; Perisic stalemate; Carrasco waits
Arsenal are still in the chase for PSG’s Christopher Nkunku. Having signed Denis Surez on a loan deal with an option to buy at the season’s end, the Gunners seem determined to buy a field a team of small, slight midfielders. Suarez, Knunku and Torreira add up in terms of weight and height to one Patrick Vieira.
In other news, moves to recruit the rather brilliant Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan have come to nought. The Italians want £35m for the Croatian now. Arsenal want to give them a set of Gunnersaurus shinpads and some gum until June when the bank will releases some funds. Inter won’t wait. Perisic has handed in a transfer request. Inter says he’s been “misled”. The deal looks dead unless someone blinks.
Yannick Carrasco could still arrive, however. Arsenal want him. Carrasco wants them. But the Belgian’s current club, Dalian Yifang, want more money than Arsenal are offering. See a theme developing?
Arsenal sign Denis Suarez
Arsenal have signed Denis Suarez from Barcelona. The Spaniard will play for Arsenal until the end of the season. Before he decamped for London, Suarez signed a one-year extension on his Barcelona contract, which was due to expire in summer 2020. This means he won’t be able to able to leave on a free in June – and if Arsenal want him they’ll have to pay a transfer fee. The deal gives Arsenal first option to buy Suarez. What do Arsenal get for their money? A technically proficient, small-ish midfielder. With a bit of luck, he’ll be the new Santi Cazorla. With less luck, he’ll be the new Denilson.
Arsenal Transfer Round-Up: Gueye, Nkunku, Peresic, Tielemans and Peresic all in; Elneny out
Arsenal like Everton’s Idrissa Gueye. So do Manchester City. The Senegal player can either join the current champions and play in the Champions League for loadsa money, or aim to be a bit better than Elneny – the Gunners are keen to offload the Egyptian – and snatch the chance to work with Gunnersaurus. No contest. See you in London, Idrissa. Paris Saint-Germain also want him. But that club is more desperate than an adolescent on a foreign exchange trip, and they employ a mascot in the shape of a lynx. It’s called Germain. Why? Well, according to the people that invented this ambulatory plushy:
Our BAM Mascot team fabricated a Lynx mascot costume for the PSG club. We believe that mascots should represent the characteristics of your team. So why did PSG select a Lynx? In mythology, a Lynx is known for it’s supernatural abilities and strength, and in modern times, a Lynx is seen as a powerful hunter with excellent eyesight, attributes that translate to sports abilities – good vision, winning instinct, competitiveness.
In more modern time Lynx is the name of a cheap perfume for men marketed as an aid to scoring. It’s very Paris. In other countries Lynx is known as Axe, which given the nature of managerial appointments at PSG is also very apposite.
If PSG get Gueye, Arsenal could get the French club’s midfielder Christopher Nkunku. Or they could go for Monaco’s 21-year-old Youri Tielemans. And there’s Yannick Carrasco, the Belgian who wants to leave Chinese club Dalian Yifang. Arsenal could opt for him if they fail in a bid for Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic. Lots of maybes, then. Although one thing is certain: Arsenal aren’t getting anew central defender. Maybe Gunnersaurus will finally get a go?
Transfer balls: Denis Suarez in; Perisic agrees Manchester United but wants Arsenal
Arsenal fans have had a few weeks to find out who Denis Suarez is and what he does. And now the Barcelona substitute is on his way to the club. He’ll join Arsenal for the rest of the season for a fee of €2.5million (Standard). So good is Suarez that Barca wanted a permanent transfer but Arsenal insisted on a loan move. Really Betis and Sevilla, where Suarez was out on loan when Unai Emery was in charge, were happy to pay around £20m for the midfielder. But he only wanted to play in the Premier League. So that’s that.
The odd bit is that Suarez, who is out of contract in 2020, will join Arsenal after signing a new deal to remain for longer at Barcelona. The Spaniards will only let him leave if he stays.
One other on his way into the Gunners is Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic. The Indy says inviting in the talented Croatia is a huge mistake. But too late! Eurosport says a deal has been “agreed”. Perisic, says the broadcaster, will earn around €3m for the rest of the season at Arsenal and then after a hefty purchase price in June – a fee of around €30m is mooted – another €6m a season for the next three years. A dead cert then. Just as it was in 2017, when the Express announced: “Ivan Perisic agrees £6.2m-a-year deal with Manchester United.” And: “Man Utd agree £40m transfer fee with Inter Milan for Ivan Perisic.” He remained at Inter.
Posted: 29th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
It cost Arsenal £17m to get shot of Arsene Wenger
It took more than placards and hashtags to defenestrate Arsene Wenger from Arsenal. Sky says it took £17.1m. Not that he got the lot. The Times says the £17m was paid to Wenger and his staff on condition of them leaving pronto.
Wenger had a year left on his contract when he sacked after 22 years in charge – and a decade at the helm of a club resting on its laurels. Of Wenger’s key staff, Steve Bould remained as assistant manager. You may wonder what the stalwart defender of George Graham’s fabled Arenal back four, one of the key exponents of ‘If in doubt, kick it out’ defending, is coaching the current feeble backline. Maybe in his head Bouldy was beating two players, shimmying past the ‘keeper and scoring for fun, and seeks to live out his dream in the unlikely shape of the insufferable and wholly useless Shkodran Mustafi. Arsenal fans will settle for the practicality of defenders taking out a man and ball in no-nonsense challenges and flicking it on at near post corners routines.
What Bouldy earns is not revealed. But the club’s latest accounts show that revenue dropped from £422.8 million to £388.2 million. And that Ivan Gazidis – aka Ivan The Terrible – got a pay rise before she legged it to AC Milan.
Posted: 29th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Money, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: sex, Joe Willock and The Sun’s Ashley Cole rerun
When back in December the Sun told us about Arsenal players allegedly inhaling nitrous oxide – “hippy crack” – we were assured that the “images will horrify Arsenal fans and enrage no-nonsense Spanish team coach Unai Emery”. Fast forward to January and club’s teenage prospect Joe Willock is the subject of an alleged huff ‘n’ tell. And the Sun once more tells us: “His antics will horrify Arsenal fans and enrage the team’s no-nonsense Spanish coach Unai Emery.”
The fallout from the December story has been softer than an autumn leaf dropping from a woodland tree. So will the Willock ‘The Pillock’ story travel better? It has a chance because it features “French model Eglantine Flore Aguilar”. You may recall her from her time with former Arsenal player Ashley Cole? Yeah – like the quote, she too is a repeat. Says La Eggplant: “He certainly moved quickly. One minute he was messaging me on Instagram, the next he was buying me tickets to London. His conversation was very boring, possibly because he’s so young. The sex was also really weird. He wanted to try all different positions in the shortest possible time. I didn’t enjoy it.”
The unmarried lad’s a nippy utility player. And:
The paper’s typo and repetition will surely horrify Sun fans and enrage the team’s no-nonsense editor.
Posted: 28th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Key Posts, News, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Arsenal Transfer Balls: Perisic, Nkunku and Suarez in; Sokratis lives
Arsenal need a winger. No great news there. The team are narrower than a Guardian columnist’s politics. But who will the wide man be? The Sun says it’s Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Malcom, 21. He only joined the Spanish club from Bordeaux in July 2018, agreeing a five-year contract for a transfer fee of around €41million.
Scouted heavily by Liverpool and Spurs before he opted for Barca, Malcolm was described as a player with “no inflated ego, no excuses – just a burning desire to win at all cost”. He sounds a dream. But his time at Barcelona has been stop-start. And now Barcelona are very keen to offload him. Earlier this month, Chelsea rejected Barcelona’s bid of Malcom plus cash for Willian.
So it’s Malcom to Arsenal, then. Or maybe Arsenal will get Inter Milan’s Croatia attacker Ivan Perisic, 29? Arsenal want Perisic on loan with a £35m option to buy. He’s a cracking player. The BBC says he’s open to leaving the San Siro. Adding: “It is understood Inter would be prepared to do business for between £35m-£40m.” Maybe Arenal will entice Inter into a deal by lobbing them Mesut Ozil and subsiding some of the German’s gargantuan wages?
Also heading to the Gunners – maybe – are Barcelona’s Denis Suarez and Christopher Nkunku of Paris St-German.
As for a defender, well, Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papadopoulos are all injured. But now matter: Carl Jenkinson is available. The best form of defence at Arsenal is to attack.
Posted: 27th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: Thierry Henry is available after Monaco let him go
Monaco have suspended their former player and the one-time Arsenal great Thierry Henry after just 20 games in charge. Reports from France are that he’ll be replaced by Leonardo Jardim – the coach Monaco fired three months ago.
Henry will doubtless end up back on the Sky Sports pundits sofa, sat alongside Gary Neville, another ex-player who flopped as a manager. Like Henry, Neville lasted just three months at Valencia. Neville has not worked as a coach since. Will there now be calls for Henry to manage Arsenal as there were when Arsene Wenger was finally being shuffled out the door? Nope. Henry was a better manager before he took the a managerial job.
Note: In 2016 Arsenal offered Henry the job of coaching their under-18 side. Arsene Wenger made it condition that Henry would have to give up working as a TV pundit. He could not be both critic and performer. “I would like to thank Andries Jonker for offering me the chance to coach the U18’s @arsenal, which I was honoured to accept,” Henry wrote on Twitter. “However I respect Arsène Wenger’s decision and I want to wish their manager Kwame Ampadu, the boys and everyone at the club all the best for the forthcoming season.” Would Arsenal now welcome him back?
Arsenal Transfer Balls: Suarez and Rodriguez in; Ramsey out; Ozil shoots
You’d suppose Denis Suarez was lightning fast given how long Arsenal have been chasing him without landing a finger on the Spaniard’s shirt. The chase continues because Barcelona want Arsenal to buy their man at the season’s end. Arsenal would prefer to take the Suarez on loan and wait and see.
The Gunners are also keen on James Rodriguez, the Real Madrid player who wants to cut short his two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich. Absurd, no, that a player can be on loan for two seasons. Why no just sell him? Rodriguez joined Bayern because the German missed out on Alexis Sanchez, who opted to learn the piano at Old Trafford.
Rodriguez costs Bayern €15m a year – €5m to Real and €10m to the player. At the end of two years, Bayern have an option to buy him for another €35m. They don’t want to. And Real don’t need him. The Colombia forward signed a six-year deal at the Bernabeu in 2014.
Should the Gunners get both players, they will allow Aaron Ramsey, 28, to join Juventus this month for a peppercorn transfer fee.
One player not longer heading to the Emirates is Manchester United. Old Trafford have blocked any loan deal. Also not playing for Arsenal is goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who is to join Reading on loan.
In other news, Arsenal went paintballing. The Mail says: “He cannot get a look in for recent games but German midfielder Mesut Ozil was brought back in from the cold.” Or as the Sun puts it: “PAINTBAWL – Mesut Ozil can’t even get in Unai Emery’s paintball team… let alone Arsenal starting XI.”
Such are the facts.
Arsenal: Mislintat out; Overmars to bring Ajax talent to The Emirates
Finally some transfer news from Arsenal: head of recruitment Sven Mislintat will leave the club. He’s not leaving in the transfer window, which would be fitting. He’s leaving in February. The German arrived at Arsenal in December, 2017, at the behest of then chief executive Ivan Gazidis, aka ‘Ivan the Terrible’. Arsenal says Mislintat has “done a truly outstanding job in helping us recruit players who are making a big impact now and will do so even more in the future”. If he’s that good, why is he leaving?
“It’s been an amazing experience to work at a great club like Arsenal in what has been a big time of change,” says Mislintat. “I am excited about what the future holds for the club and am looking forward to new challenges for myself.”
During Mislinat’s tenure, Arsenal signed Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. All three not only delighted the Arsenal store manger who charges £2 a letter for players’ names on replica kits but also Borussia Dortmund, the club where all three used to play and – yep – Mislintat was head scout. You might suppose his job was to get them and once he’d got them, he was spent. You might also suppose that in looking to replace Mislintat with Ajax’s Marc Overmars, the Gunners are more than a bit interested in some of the Dutch club’s talent.
Arsenal: Ian Wright serenades the post-Chelsea glow under a Red Moon
A Red Moon soars into the night skies. But not only God is a Gooner. Bathed in the glow of Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday evening, Ian Wright shared a video on Instagram of giving full throat to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Wrighty. So good they named him thrice.
Arsenal balls: the Bellerin knee ‘horror’
In today’s 2-0 win for a hard-working Arsenal side over a limited Chelsea, Gunners defender Hector Bellerin was injured. Something happened to his knee. There was no blood. No broken bones. No flesh let on the turf. But to the Sun it was a “horror injury”. How bad was it? Well, the paper wants you to look, oozing: “BELL TOLLS – Watch moment Bellerin suffers horror leg injury before being carried off in tears during Arsenal’s win over Chelsea.” Ghoulish? Yep. But anyone hoping for gore will be sadly disappointed.
After watching a short video of Bellerin falling over – the film topped by an advert for Ibis Hotels (check out those brand values, lads) – readers are told Bellerin was stretchered off “after appearing to suffer a horror leg injury”. Adding: “Replays seemed to show a ligament next to his left knee SNAP.” They did? Maybe. Maybe not. The paper then opines: “Gunners boss Unai Emery will be hoping Bellerin’s injury is not too serious.” He can hope all he likes; the Sun has spoken: it was a “horror injury”. If Emery doesn’t believe us he can watch the video.
The Metro gives us a second opinion: “Hector Bellerin suffered a suspected cruciate knee ligament injury during Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Chelsea.” Suspected by whom?
The Standard doesn’t hear the knee go “SNAP”. Bellerin “went down without contact from a Chelsea player, appearing to twist his knee.” He twisted his knee. Painful. But a “horror injury”?
The Express thunders: “ARSENAL star Hector Bellerin faces nine months on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury against Chelsea.” That all? The diagnosis is rooted in the opinion of a US physio watching the game on the telly.
As for facts… “It is his knee,” Arsenal manager Unai Emery confirmed after the game. “The first prediction is it is an important [bad] injury. I hope no, but it is not positive, our first impression.” More to follow…
Posted: 19th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Transfer Balls: Liverpool £61m for Felix; Martial stays at Manchester United; Everton in for Chelsea striker; Higuain jets in for Spurs
A round-up of today’s transfer rumours and other fluff and nonsense in the Press. Let’s kick off with Liverpool, who’ve bid £61m bid for Portugal Under-21 attacking midfielder Joao Felix, 19. Correio da Manha says Benfica, his current club, think the teenager is worth more. Someone arguably worth less is Philippe Coutinho. The Liverpool Echo in a no-news special says Liverpool won’t be resigning the Brazil midfielder, 26, they flogged to Barcelona for a whopping £142m just 12 months ago. Many other clubs also won’t be buying Coutinho.
One player who could be finally on his way to the Premier League is Juventus and Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain. Chelsea want to sign the 31-year-old before week’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham, says the Sun. That’s the same paper that told us Higuain played for Arsenal. That story remains live on the paper’s website. Chelsea fans shouldn’t buy those Higuain replica shirts just yet.
In the sunny uplands of Manchester United, Anthony Martial, 23, is all set to agreeing a new five-year contract, says Sky Sports. And Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (aka Fergie Mark 2) wants to leave his rooms at the Lowry Hotel in Salford and find a permanent address in Manchester.
Everton have £40m for Chelsea and Belgium forward Michy Batshuayi. Everton are determined to catch the so-called Big 6. That means gaining ground on Arsenal, a club seemingly determined to return to a state of mid-80s torpor. News is that James Rodriguez, 27, will remain at Bayern Munich for the rest of season. The Express says Arsenal have as much chance of signing him as they have of keeping a clean sheet.
And finally Barcelona have had enough fo Malcom, 21. ESPN says that any club offering the £35.2m they paid Bordeaux for the player last July can have him. Spurs are interested.
Posted: 19th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Chelsea, Liverpool, manchester united, Sports, Spurs | Comment
Jose Mourinho rewrites Chelsea history; Petr Cech and me
News that Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech is to retire at the season’s end is exciting the mouth of Jose Mourinho, who managed the goalkeeper when they were both at Chelsea. Talking to beIN Sports about life at Manchester United before he was sacked and more, thoughts turn to Cech.
“When I arrived in Chelsea, he was a kid, only 20 years old. The goalkeeper was Carlo Cudicini – the season before he was elected the player of the season – and the first game of the season was Chelsea against Manchester United and I decided to leave out our player of the season before, and play a kid that nobody would know how to even say his name because Petr Cech was quite difficult to say. After that everything was about him. My influence was zero.”
Really?
On 2 June 2004, Mourinho moved to Chelsea on a three-year contract. Chelsea bid for Cech (born 20 May 1982) on 7 January 2004 – when Claudio Ranieri was Chelsea manager. Real Madrid and Inter Milan were also interested in him thanks to, as the BBC put it, “some stirring performances for his club and country over the past 18 months”. Cech was in goal for the Czech Republic team that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2004. Chelsea got their man in February for £7 million. Cech signed a five-year contract, to commence in July 2004. He was 22. Cech competed for a first-team place at Stamford Bridge with Cudicini, Marco Ambrosio, Jurgen Macho and Neil Sullivan.
The Chelsea player of the season the year before Cech arrived was Gianfranco Zola.
Mourinho did not decide to leave out Cudicini. The Italian was injured. Sky Sports reported:
Czech Republic international Petr Cech was satisfied to keep a clean sheet on his competitive Chelsea debut. Cech was given the nod by Jose Mourinho to start Sunday’s Premiership meeting with Manchester United and he repaid his manager by shutting out the opposition. The summer signing had relatively little to do between the posts and is hoping to retain his spot ahead of Carlo Cudicini.
But after all that Mourinho says his influence was “zero”. Claudio Ranieri is away.
Posted: 18th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Transfer News: Arsenal lose Ramsey for nothing; player gets £300,000 a week at Juventus
And so it came to pass that Arsenal failed in their desperate bid to secure a transfer fee for Aaron Ramsey. The 28-year-old Welshman has signed a pre-contract agreement to join Juventus in the summer. Ramsey, who was seeking parity with Arsenal’s absurdly overpaid Mesut Ozil – £350,000-a-week – has signed a four-year contract with the perennial Italian champions worth £300,000 a week.
Any transfer fee Arsenal were hoping to get has gone instead into Ramsey’s pockets. The Gunners are now faced with the prospect of paying a player who no longer has his heart in the club £140,000-a-week until May, and picking him over Ozil, who they are trying to offload but can’t.
Arsenal’s beancounters can focus on the fact that between them Mesut Özil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan cost the club a combined £530,000 a week. This means Arsenal can only recruit players on loan until the season’s end.
What a mess.
Arsenal Transfer Balls: Carrasco and James Rodriguez in; Ozil and Mislintat out
Today’s round-up of Arsenal transfer news has no update on Aaron Ramsey’s departure to Juventus but does note that Mesut Ozil could also be bound for Italy. Rumours are that Unai Emery wants shot of the German and Inter Milan will take him if Arsenal pick up a chunk of that £350,000-a-week wage bill.
Arsenal need to get rid of Ozil in order to pay for Belgium winger Yannick Carrasco’s return to Europe from Chinese club Dalian Yifang.
Arsenal also rather like Colombia and Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez. He wants to cut short his two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich. With just six-months left to run, Rodriguez could cost Arsenal a mere £3m in wages – roughly what Ozil earns in two months.
It really is all change at Arsenal. Emery is part of a charge to revolutionise the club post Wenger. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis left; two club stalwarts, Ramsey and Ozil, are being shunted out; the club’s technical director / chief scout, Sven Mislintat, is set to leave; Petr Cech announced his retirement; and Danny Welbeck’s unlikely to get a new deal. Arsenal’s new director of football, Raul Sanllehi, and the managing director, Vinai Venkatesham, are catalysts for change. Former midfielder Edu, a coordinator for Brazil’s national team, could be on his way in.
Arsenal balls: Petr Cech retires
Farewell, Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech. He’s due to retire at the end of the season. “Having played 15 years in the Premier League and won every single trophy possible, I feel like I have achieved everything I set out to achieve,” says the former Chelsea ‘keeper.
“I will continue to work hard at Arsenal to hopefully win one more trophy this season… I am looking forward to seeing what life holds for me off the pitch.”
This is good news for the Gunners. Cech has been no more than a decent goalkeeper at Arsenal. His best days were behind him when he signed from Chelsea in June 2015. At his best he was formidable.
Cech’s career nearly ended in October 2006 when he required surgery for a skull fracture after a collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt. The injury caused him to miss three months playing. He returned to the field wearing that now familiar scrum cap. As Giles Smith quipped in the Times, the cap contain a “lightweight electronics and incorporates a personal organiser and an entertainment system, enabling the.. custodian to access crucial match-play data in real time and also, during bored moments, book cinema tickets or download and listen to the latest Beyonce album.”
We can expect to see him sat on the BBC pundit sofas dwarfing lesser ex-players soon…
Posted: 15th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, Sports | Comment
Arsenal balls: Ozil and the Hookah
The Mail has a pop at Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil. The paper says the player “was recently pictured on holiday in a hookah lounge as the Gunners lost to West Ham”. Arsenal lost 1-0 to West Ham on Saturday in the 12:30 kick off. The image reproduced by the Mail is of Ozil at Istanbul venue Lulu Hookah Lounge.
Ozil is seen posing for a photo with a well wisher. The image was posted on an Instagram page belonging to @paletzengin on January 13. The same image can be seen on Palet Zengin’s Facebook page on the 12th at 11pm.
Istanbul is three hours ahead of London time. So was Ozil “chilling” at the same time as Arsenal were suffering defeat at West Ham? If he was, the paper provides no proof.
Posted: 14th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports | Comment
Arsenal Transfer Balls: Ramsey agrees to disagree with Juventus
The Sun told us that today Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey was taking his Juventus medical. He’d already agreed to join the Italian side in June on a free transfer. The BBC, Sky Sports and Guardian agreed. Ramsey to Juventus was a done deal. And so to today’s news – the day of the Ramsey’s MoT – and the Sun tells readers that nothing has been agreed. Cancel the knee tapper:
The pick of today’s transfer balls being the inverted commas around his “medical today”. It was the Sun that told us: “The Wales international has already agreed a five-year deal to move to Juventus in the summer once his current contract expires, and will undergo a medical at the club today.”
The Standard told us that no deal had been done:
So what is it? Has Ramsey signed a deal or not? He can’t have agreed to join for nothing in June, be keeping his options open and heading to a club other than Juventus in January?
Posted: 13th, January 2019 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
