Category Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal to sign forgotten man

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He became the forgotten man during all the speculation about who to replace Arsene Wenger.

All the talk was about Allegri or Arteta, Enrique or Rodgers, Lowe or Ancelotti, but the name we ended up going for was one which, before news began to break yesterday morning, had been forgotten about.

By now you will have remembered about the man who is to become the next Arsenal manager. Unai Emery.

I really do not know why he exams forgotten about this summer. He has been on many of our short lists to replace Wenger for some time, but he had barely got a mention until this week started.

Emery first made my list way back in 2014, before I was even trying to blog. Arsenal without a trophy in 8 years, the man from the Basque Country had only recently joined Sevilla.

With the financial restraints Arsenal were under at the time, the young manager looked an excellent option. Memory went to his 3 consecutive top three finishes in La Liga with Valencia.

A fabulous achievement on a tiny budget whilst having to continually sell his top players – the likes of Juan Mata and David Silva.

Success for Arsenal followed that season with the FA Cup, leading Arsene Wenger to sign a new deal.

At Sevilla success also beckoned, as Emery led his side to the first of what would be an historic 3 UEFA Cups in a row.

In March 2016, the discussion about who to replace Arsene Wenger reared its head in my consciousness again. And once again Emery made my short list:

November of the same year, I revisited my list.

“He joined PSG this summer, which might mean replacing Arsene Wenger next summer might be too soon. But he is certainly one to keep an eye on.”

18 months after those comments, and we have secured the man who at the beginning of 2017, was in my top 3 for the Jon.

But then I have not spoke about him in 2018. He was certainly forgotten.

People will point to relative failures in France with PSG. Monaco winning the league in his first year.

And in the Champions League he never took the big spending French side to the later stages of the Champions League.

But can parallels be drawn with Pep Guardiola?

He failed to win the Premier League with Manchester City. And despite spending £400m, has only taken them as far as the Champions League Quarter Finals.

At PSG, he was knocked out by Barcelona and Real Madrid. And his failure in his first season in France saw Monaco hit an incredible 95 points, losing just 3 games, drawing 5.

https://twitter.com/_adamkeys/status/998646914815086592?s=21

Unai Emery took Valencia to 3 consecutive 3rd place finishes in La Liga, whilst selling his top players every year

He won 3 Europa Leagues in a row with Sevilla, despite huge financial constraints

5 trophies in 2 years at PSG

Great appointment by Arsenal. Even if most of us had forgotten about him.

I leave you with a tweet from 2016

https://twitter.com/keenosafc/status/733029527744610305?s=21

Keenos

Ivan Gazidis opts for plastic surgery for return to red light district

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If you haven’t seen The Deuce, I highly recommend it. The American drama, set in 1970s New York, focuses on prostitution and the eventual legalisation of porn in the city – and although James Franco is in it, thankfully he doesn’t play one of his familiar frat boy roles. I liken our beloved Arsenal to its rather exotic heroine, Candy.

Candy’s looks – once bodacious; now ill-favoured – have seen her confined to working the Premier League’s darker alleys, yearning for a sniff of the continental luxury she once took for granted. Slowly fading into the city’s orifices, she’s come to a juncture in her life.

Does she undergo a light makeover and ply the backstreets in the same old manner, or does she transform herself, via copious plastic surgery, into something new, vibrant, and, dare I say it, sexy. It’s worth a ponder as she pricks at a sweaty-palmed Ivan Gazidis voodoo doll in a grubby New York motel room.

At first, it seemed we were littered with lower-risk light makeover options and so we pursued these familiar souteneurs with a proven ability to rule. Was it the familiar curls of Ancelotti and Allegri, or lack thereof in the case of Monaco’s Jardim, we craved? It seemed when Arsene’s departure was announced, we shook our money-maker at the roadside but were distressed to find we weren’t quite so irresistible as we once were. Enrique, Simeone, Jardim, they all hesitated. Allegri’s flirtation – our first choice – proved to be more extortion than seduction.

Then emerged a ghoulish banshee with eyeshadow like the rock band Kiss. A figure of unparalleled disinterest and infinitely less seduction. Brendan Rodgers. Fans are rightly calling to unite behind the next manager regardless of the selection but even a toadstool oozing hallucinogenic spores couldn’t awaken the faintest of stirs in 42nd street’s most deplorable with that name. Luckily, the menacing threat of Brendan 2.0 drifts day by day –  7/1, 12/1, now 16 – and a breath of optimism can be taken once more.

Cue the influx of the more mysterious procurers as the Club became more open in its search – Željko Buvač and Rui Faria, the long-term servants of Klopp and Mourinho, both leaving their posts. They were too fresh. Tuchel, the king of the younger bunch, went to Paris despite admitting being attracted by our mating call – another one missed.

But emerge from the ashes, our former-captain and Spanish stallion Mikel Arteta. Mikel Arteta who’s never managed a football team but has learnt and received compliments from the very best. In truth, it’s not a choice many wholeheartedly called for when ‘Arsene’s decision’ was announced. However, as developments unfold, the more obvious a selection he becomes.

Is there a danger Arteta could become another hussy of Gazidis’ desire – a manager who will fit into his profitable system rather than take the reigns hostage and revitalise in the manner that Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp, and Conte all have at individual moments? The past week’s rumours reassure that Arteta may be rather more bolshie than first thought.

It’s clear the Club are pursuing plastic surgery rather than an airbrushing, and rightfully so. That’s been evidenced by the widespread clear out of senior staff who are now plodding their way to the next deuce – Las Vegas for the lucky or Atlanta and Detroit for the rather less so.

We need a young and fiery manager to reanimate not just the team, but the atmosphere that surrounds the Club. The likes of an Henry or Vieira was always fanciful and impractical. Arteta on the other hand, despite being younger than both, seems groomed and suited for the trade. Is it conceivable that he can still meet our uncompromising expectations despite it being his first role in charge? Something tells that Arteta won’t be stripped of his innocence quite so readily in the way that Gary Neville was.

With cautious optimism, we shall unite and see. Whatever happens, at least it won’t be the street’s plainest urchin, Brendan Rodgers.

Tom Kershaw

What Cazorla’s departure means for Ramsey and Wilshere

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Morning all. Let me start by addressing yesterday’s blog where I attempted to explain the truth about transfer budgets, and how it actually works.

The short version was “Arsenal gave £50m to spend in the summer pre-sales, but this is not the transfer budget. This £50m is to be spent on increased wages and amortised transfer fees”. Do read the full version, click here.

I write a lot of rubbish, I write some stuff that I think is good. Often the stuff I think is good and well thought out gets just a few 100 hits. Whilst often the rubbish can get thousands.

Yesterday’s blog was not planned. I was in my garden, on a break from mowing my lawn, rum and lemonade in hand (yes, it was only 9.30am) and explaining for the umpteenth time about how transfer fees are spread across the length of the entire project. I decided instead of continually having to explain it, I’d write a blog.

I was not expecting the blog to take off how it did. Reading the response bought a smile to my face. It felt like a blog that enlightened those who read it. Explained to them how things worked. Added to their knowledge. So a big thanks to everyone that read it and shared it. To have the blog “liked” by Big Dave Ornstein was certainly a highlight.

Leading on from yesterday’s blog, one thing I spoke about was about how an increase in wages comes out of that pot of gold we have available to increase over all costs of the club. And that if you want to control wages, you often have to let players leave to free up further cash for new players.

And that is what has happened today as Santi Cazorla agreed to join Villarreal on a feee transfer.

It is sad to let the happy little Spaniard leave, but he is 34 in December and has had two years injury. He heart might be broken, but the head says we were right not being too aggressive offering him a new contract.

Cazorla was in £90,000 a week. That is £4.6m a year. A lot of money invested in a player who has not played.

You the have another outgoing player who has barely appeared this season. Per Mertesacker. He was on £70,000 a week. Another £3.6m a year.

Combined, the pair earned £8.2m between them last year. They played 365 minutes of Premier League football combined.

The reality is, unlike if Jack Wilshere or Aaron Ramsey left, neither Cazorla or Mertesacker has to be replaced to maintain the status quo. That means the £8.2m in wages, or £160k a week, can be invested back in the squad wherever we feel fit.

That is the wages paid for a world class player without changing our current transfer outgoings.

Then we come to Jack Wilshere. It seems being left out of the World Cup has made him re-think his future at Arsenal. Perhaps he has decided that he wants to be assured of first team football – a guarantee he will never get at a top club. The question for Wilshere is “how far is he will to drop for first team football?”. Is he really going to be happy at Everton, Wolves or Leicester?

If he does leave, that free’s up another £80,000 a week. Now let’s be silly.

Arsenal lose both Wilshere and Cazorla for nothing. For the £170,000 a week (£8.8m a year) we save in wages for both players, we go out and buy the world class central midfielder we need. Is that not a positive?

I love Wilshere, but he is not or every will be world class. If he does leave, it gives us a lot of flexibility to use his salary and Cazorla’s money on that top replacement, and still have plenty in the lot to buy a top defensive midfielder.

And finally Aaron Ramsey.

I honestly think he is playing a game with the club.

With Cazorla gone, it leaves us with 4 senior central midfielders – Ramsey, Wilshere, Elneny, Xhaka.

If Wilshere also leaves, Ramsey will know he can pretty much name his price. The club could not afford to lose Cazorla, Wilshere & Ramsey, leaving us with just Elneny and Xhaka. We would need to go out and buy another 3 central midfielders if that happened. Ramsey is waiting to see how the cards fall before deciding to go all in.

I expect he will stay, and be made captain.

So if Wilshere and Cazorla leave, we replace them with a single top midfielder, and use our current budgeted funds to buy a defensive midfielder, our strength I. The middle of the park would have grown. If we can get someone like Max Meyer on a free, even better:

Xhaka DM Ramsey

Elneny AMN Meyer

Enjoy your Sunday.

Keenos