Author Archives: keenosafc

Arsenal quietly doing transfer business whilst others make noise

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And that is how transfers happen.

Whilst many of you were moaning about the lack of transfer business from Arsenal barely a week into the window, or complaining how slow Arsenal do deals compared to Liverpool, Edu and his team were quietly working away.

The impending (at the time of writing) transfer of Fabio Vieira does show everyone up as know-nothings.

All them twitter accounts, bloggers and bloggers that spend their minutes, hours and days linking us with players (then moaning we had not signed them). Well where was your source when it came to Vieira?

“Negotiations FC” I have some some label us due to the press constantly saying we were in negotiations with one player or another. “just pay the asking price” some cried.

Well Arsenal have managed to negotiate Vieira’s initial price tag down from his €50m release clause to €35m.

By negotiating transfers, it leaves us an additional €15m in the pot in comparison to if we just signed the player for his release clause.

Now I am not going to pretend to know anything about Vieira.

All I know about him is he isn’t a big black lad from Senegal. Nor did he once play for Fleetwood Town. But he is a 22-year-old midfielder (according to Wikipedia) who fits in with the sort of player Edu and Mikel Arteta have been focusing on.

If you were still confused about what “the process” was and what our transfer strategy is then maybe it is time to stop spouting rubbish?

We move quietly. We move quickly. We move forward together.

Keenos

Awful England and Torreira Woes

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Morning all and happy Thursday.

I see that the usual suspects are still complaining about our “lack” of transfer business.

The majority of those complaining have “TV” in their Twitter handle or a YouTube channel in their bio. I guess they need to “create” content somehow. And with their very limited knowledge on football, complaining about transfer and spreading transfer gossip is the easiest way they can earn a couple of quid.

The fall-out to England’s dismal Nations League continues and the consensus seems to be that it is all Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale’s fault.

If you lose 4-0 at home to Hungary, it is not really one players fault. It is the entire team and management.

The finger pointing at Ramsdale in particular just seems churlish.

England failed to score from open play in any of the 4 fixtures.

Against Hungary we has 2 shots on target – both from John Stones.

Harry Kane – the greatest striker to ever grace the game – has had 4 shots on target in 4 games. Raheem Sterling just the one. Harry Maguire seemed to forget how to defend and Southgate continued to play right backs at left back. It was rank football from an exhausted team.

So lets not just blame a single player just because he plays for a team you do not like. It was everyone’s fault. Manager included.

Back to transfers and we have a very frustrated player in Lucas Torreira.

He went to Fiorentina and had a good season – starting 25 Serie A games as the Italian side had their highest finish in 6 seasons.

Despite having and option to buy of just £15m, Fiorentina have decided to not make the transfer permanent.

Torreira’s recent quotes would indicate that he has been lied to by the Fiorentina hierarchy, meaning if this was a ploy by them to drive down his price they have probably only ended up alienating.

I do feel for Torreira.

His big move to Arsenal did not work out as he failed to settle in London. He then had an average loan spell at Atletico Madrid. It looked like he had found a home back in Italy, but then Fiorentina pull the deal.

I hope he finds a new home next season – even if it is a temporary one again.

He is clearly a good player and a good person. I wish him well.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos

Arsenal right to stay well clear of Bissouma

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And just like that, these pointless post-season international friendlies are over.

At the time of writing I am on the Jubilee line home. I am 6 beers in and have no idea what the England score is. Not do I care. All I know is it is over now.

What a horribly pointless tournament.

Every international manager ended up playing massively changed XIs as they realised players had just run out of steam. Time to get rid of the tournament.

In other news Tottenham look set to sign Yves Bissouma.

I was always uncomfortable with our links to him.

As far as I know the fella has not yet been cleared of some horrendous charges.

Brighton have clearly been pimping him around England in the hope of cashing in.

The scary thing about football at times is there is always a club willing to take a player on regardless of what he has allegedly done. This is an example of that.

Bissouma is still facing some really crazy charges – yet Spurs are paying £25m on him.

It might not end up in tears; but I am just glad Arsenal showed little interest.

It is that time of year where I have to remind people to ignore Twitter ITK’s.

In the last week, I have seen some fella with 50k+ followers claim that Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal is “nearly done”, that Gabriel Jesus to Chelsea is “nearly done” and the Gabriel Jesus to Tottenham is “nearly done”.

Questions need to be asked about these middle-aged fellas that spend their days in their bedroom shouting at a camera in the hope teenage boys follow them.

We won the cricket. I’m in Canning Town. I think. It’s still light outside. Might go for a beer.

Enjoy your Wednesday

Keenos