It was a genius marketing technique.

Whilst thousands had notifications on for Arsenal’s Twitter awaiting the announcement of Albert Sambi Lokonga, Arsenal dropped news of a new commercial partner.

The link up was with a company called Socios whose company moto is “Be more than a fan”.

They have spent the last 2 years linking up with sports clubs including Barcelona, PSG, Juvnetus, Atletico Madrid and now Arsenal.

Socios create a cryptocurrency on behalf of their partner team with the idea that you can buy said “tokens” which allow you to “own a share of influence of your team” and “help your team make the right decisions by voting on official polls”.

“That is fantastic” would be the initial thought of many. A partnership which gives fans more of a a say in what their club are doing.

But things are not that simple. And the partnerships are not good news for fans.

The crypto created for the club – in Arsenal’s case called AFC – can only be bought and sold with Socios own cryptocurrency Chiliz.

So before investing in AFC, you first have to buy Chiliz. With cryptocurrency all being about supply and demand, the more people buying Chiliz will result in that price increasing.

On the face of it, these link ups with clubs are just a way to pump the price of Chiliz upwards, which will make huge profits for the creators who probably still own the majority of coins.

Socios’s goal is not to give fans more of a say but to boost the value of Chiliz.

Then we get onto the “influence your club” side of things.

It creates a situation where you have to pay to influence the club. So you have the haves and have nots.

Want a say on what is happening at Arsenal? Buy AFC. Do not have AFC? You have no say.

And what are we going to actually be able to vote on?

You can bet it will not be decisions such as the European Super League.

The subjects of the votes are decided by clubs and tend to be very insignificant – such as what colour the club coach should be.

So you have a fan thinking that by buying AFC they will have influence over the club. But what they end up voting on is the colour of the bus. Is this influence worth paying for?

And then we have the darker side.

Crypto is a volatile investment. It is basically gambling.

Socios link up with Arsenal is encouraging fans to get involved in crypto trading thinking that they will get to influence the club.

The thing with crypto trading – like any sort of share trading – is the price can go up as well as down.

Crypto is notorious for huge fluctuations and for everyone that is making a lot of money, there are people who have lost a lot of money.

Anyone can buy AFC, it is not limited to just Arsenal members or fans.

So you will have the man on the Clapham omnibus buying tokens in the hope they get to influence the club. And on the other side you will have crypto traders, speculators, buying and selling to make profit.

A fan will be reluctant to sell the token of their club they love. It will be heart ruling the head.

So whilst the traders make profit, it will end up with the fans “bag holding” – A bag holder is an informal term used to describe an investor who holds a position in a security that decreases in value until it descends into worthlessness.

When Atletico Madrid won the league, the price of their coin was 190 Chiliz.

Since that point the price has declined steadily and now sits around 40 Chiliz.

What has happened is as Madrid closed in on the title, fans got excited and bought more ATM (Atletico’s token name). This forced the price to increase.

This then allowed the traders to hit their exit points and they sold en masse, securing their profits.

The result is Atletico Madrid fans now hold a lot of crypto in their club which is worth a lot less than what they bought it. And outside influencers made a lot of money.

“That is just crypto trading” is the argument. And I can understand that if we were buying BTC, XRP, ADA, etc.

Most people investing in crypto will do their own research first.

But the Socios link up with Arsenal is basically encouraging people to invest without doing their research.

It is “you get to influence your club” rather than “capital is at risk”.

The only people this deal benefits are Socios and crypto traders. Your basic fan who might invest in the hope of influencing the club will end up losing a lot of money.

Heading away this summer? Or is it a staycation? Whether it will be a day on the beach, by the pool or just in your garden, get a new beach towel #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFChttps://t.co/uLAMX7k7y0 pic.twitter.com/LBInbJNw2y

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) July 20, 2021

Arsenal are reportedly making £2million a year for the deal.

They are selling out the fan base for £2million knowing it could ruin the lives of fans.

Arsenal are hiding behind the “have more influence” tagline, making the deal seem something positive.

If they wanted to have fans have more influence in the club, KSE would not have forced fans to sell them their shares, they would not have closed the Fanshare programme.

This is all about making money, not having an influence. And it will be others making money at Arsenal’s expense.

For more reading on this, check out @UglyGame on Twitter. There is a reason why Socios have blocked him…

If you've seen Arsenal have signed up with Socios and want to know more, here's three things that might be useful:
1. What Socios is in brief (attached)
2. A long read on Socios from a while back
3. How cryptocurrency speculators use Socios to scalp football fans
1/3 pic.twitter.com/LY6aMS5MLb

— Martin Calladine (@uglygame) July 19, 2021

As UglyGame says in the above thread, the Socios deal with Arsenal is nothing more than a cryptocurrency recruitment scheme and it is bad for fans

Keenos

Over the next couple of days Arsenal expect to confirm the signings of both Ben White and Albert Sambi Lokonga (by the time this is published the club would probably have announced at least one of them).

Those two signings will join Nuno Tavares and take our summer spending to close to £80million.

So what else can we expect to happen in the transfer window?

Well we have already seen both Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba leave to Marseille on loan – with the former set to join the French outfit permanently next summer.

With Arsenal still suffering from a bloated squad, there will be more departures in the coming weeks.

Heading away this summer? Or is it a staycation? Whether it will be a day on the beach, by the pool or just in your garden, get a new beach towel #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFChttps://t.co/uLAMX7k7y0 pic.twitter.com/LBInbJNw2y

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) July 20, 2021

Expect Granit Xhaka to Roma to be completed as he returns from holiday following the Euro’s.

As soon as his departure is confirmed, expect Edu to move quickly for a senior central midfield replacement (there are plenty of names out there). That will complete our midfield signings for the summer with the new midfielder coming in alongside Thomas Partey, Lokonga and Mo Elneny.

Also expect a flurry of Hale End departures.

Last week Reiss Nelson was linked with a handful of clubs – Brighton, Crystal Palace, West Ham.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Nelson leave to one of these clubs on loan with an obligation to sign clause for next summer.

A similar deal will probably also happen with Eddie Nketiah.

Nketiah has not really “made it” at Arsenal and with Gabriel Martinelli and Folrian Balogun chomping at the bit, the time is now to sell the senior player and give his match time to those younger lads.

Making it a trio of Hale End boys that will likely leave on loan with an obligation to buy is Joe Willock.

Talk on the Tyne is the Newcastle are close to a deal that would see Willock return on loan for the season with a £17million deal completed next summer.

We will see a lot of these “loan with an obligation to buy” deals this summer as teams do not have the finances due to Covid19.

They kick the debt into 12 months time whilst the selling club can access the funds by selling the transfer fee on to a factoring company.

Arsenal would probably expect to raise around £50m loaning out Willock, Nelson and Nketiah with obligations to buy.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the final Hale End lad on borrowed time.

He was not as impressive as Willock whilst out on loan but will still have plenty of suiters. Expect him to also leave.

Once some of these deals are done over the next 10 days, the focus will return to incoming players.

The central midfield replacement for Xhaka will be followed by some extra creative midfield options.

I still would not be surprised if Arsenal signed both Houssem Auoar and James Maddison.

All that will leave unresolved is Hector Bellerin’s future (where we will sign a like for like replacement) and a decision on whether to keep Alexander Lacazette.

The transfer window does not shut until 31st August. The next two weeks will all be about departures.

Keenos

Reports are that Manuel Locatelli wants Juventus, but the Old Lady are unwilling to meet Sassuolo’s €40m asking price.

Locatelli wants the move to Juventus.

Meanwhile Arsenal are reportedly happy to meet the asking price; but Locatelli does not want a move to the Premier League.

If a player does not want to join Arsenal; we should not force it.

Arsenal should take a step away from Locatelli and move on to other targets.

Were a move to Arsenal be forced through by both clubs and the agents involved, Arsenal would be getting a player that does not really want to be living in London.

That potentially leads to another Lucas Torreira situation who was rumoured to prefer a move to Napoli.

We end up with a demotivated player that suffered from him sickness, doesn’t want to be here and in 2 years time is forcing a move away. Probably to Juventus in a cut price deal.

The way the likes of Italy, France and Germany are currently set up, the 3 big teams (Juve, PSG, Munich) can basically unsettle any player within those leagues to the point where they are pushing the price down.

This is what Juve are doing with Locatelli.

They know the player is desperate to join, so are now using that to push his price down with Sassoulo.

Were Arsenal to drop out of the running, Juventus would probably get the deal they want – a year long loan with an option to buy for a lot less than €40m in a year.

It is a tactic commonly used by Juve to get the players they want without having to pay huge transfer fees.

From Arsenal’s point of view, we are in a no win situation.

Locatelli wants to stay in Italy. We get our man and we have an unhappy player. He joins Juventus for less and it will be “we move to the Emirates and still can not compete”.

He is a fantastic player and just the sort of man we need next to Thomas Partey in the middle of the park. But if Locatelli does not want to join Arsenal, we should move on.

Focus on players who want to ply in the red and white. Not those that see us as a back up option or stepping stone.

Keenos