Now when Arsenal were going to Finland (in 2013) to play a game for the first time in history, it bought up memories of 17-year-old boys visit to London 1970.

The young boy in question was quite a talented midfield player, being part of the Finnish Youth team that took part in the UEFA  championships 1969 in Scotland. Then he was given the opportunity to train with Arsenal in December  1970 – which was unbelievable at that time. He was probably the first and to date the only Finnish player  to train with Arsenal at Highbury.  

So, he arrived at Highbury and Mr. Bertie Mee took him to train at the indoor pitch with the reserves  including a certain Charlie George. He still clearly remembers how he played at the same side as Charlie –  even scoring some goals.

Unfortunately the happy training ended as he broke his leg when running down to help the defence, breaking his leg in two different places and ended up in hospital for 1 month. 

He was very well taken care of by the nice nurses in the hospital and was also visited by many Arsenal first  team players:

The boy was able to  fly home to Finland at the end of January 1971, to start his rehabilitation. He was encouraged by both Mr.  Bertie Mee, Mr. Steve Burtenshaw and was even given encouragement by the whole team. 

Back home he followed the Arsenal team’s progress, which of course was superb. In a letter 31^st March,  1971 Steve wrote “how exited everyone is playing Stoke in a replay after drawing 2-2 in last Saturdays semi-final”. The team was magnificent beating Spurs at the lane and then fighting back in the cupfinal to  beat Liverpool with that exquisite strike by Charlie. Yeaah – Arsenal won the double!  

The boy was able to continue playing in the Finnish league during the 70’s but due to more bad luck with  injuries – breaking the other leg in 1972 and again 1978 – and could not break into any national team  anymore. He did his A-badges and coached in the Finnish first division and third division before ending the  active football life concentration on family and work. He had two more surgeries later on which left him  with 5 screws in his left leg, which is no problem – he can walk and talk….  

Now, the ‘boy’ is 60 (at the time of writing) and he has been an Arsenal supporter for 42 years and will remain so until the end! 

When living in Australia, on the way back home, he made a stopover in London 1990, threw the bags into the Paddington hotel and to took his son with him and went straight on to Highbury. Now there were 2 Arsenal supporters in the same family. When working around Africa, during 20 years, he has taken the  Gunners with him to 15 different countries – supporting and arguing with other team’s supporters  wherever he goes.  

I wish we can win something again – and I’m sure we will when having our magnificent legacy and the  wisdom of our management especially Mr. Wenger. My other wish is to meet our Captain Frank McLintock  and hopefully even Mr. Wenger someday. If not – then no worries – I will be there on the terrace in  Helsinki 10^th August!  

Jan-Henrik Janér – the boy. 

It shows how little notice I have taken in the transfer window that I thought it had closed last night. It does’nt. 11pm tonight.

In the past, I have gone as far as booking transfer deadline day off work. This year have been a complete non-event with no top team yet to make a serious signing.

Some fans will blame the artist formally known as FFP, but the reality is Premier League clubs have spent too much in recent years, overpaid for a lot of average players, given them huge wages, and last summer saw record spending. Every club has had to tighten its belt this January.

Moving forward, I would not be too surprised if this year becomes the new blue print – clubs spending 100% of their budgets in the summer to give themselves the best chance of competing over the course of the season.

Some fans will moan about the PSR restrictions. They use “net spend” tables to show they are being unfairly treated and the rules are broken. But when clubs like Everton were spending 94.5% (2020-21) of their turnover on wages, it is clear that big transfer fees are only part of the problem. Fans really do need to educate themselves before moaning.

The big Arsenal news is that Lino Sousa has joined Aston Villa.

This has led to the usual accusations of Mikel Arteta that he is not giving youth a chance.

Sousa, like Folarin Balogun, was refusing to sign a new contract with the club. So why should we give him game time if his deal is running out at the end of this season? I do get that some will argue that had he played more minutes, he would have signed, but he has barely turned 19.

As a teenager, if you do not want to sign a 4 or 5 year deal with The Arsenal, then the door is open for you to leave. We have still yet to sell a youngster that has proved us wrong (the Serge Gnabry position is very unique).

Ultimately, if Arteta felt Sousa was good enough, he would have got game time. We are not a charity and we have to get out of this “give youth a chance” whilst also demanding that we sign superstars to compete for the league.

Giving Sousa or Ethan Nwaneri 5 minutes here or there will do nothing for their development. They are best off playing 90 minutes in the PL2, and then going out on loan to show they are ready.

Look at the journey of Conor Bradley who scored last night for Liverpool.

Bradley is a year older than Sousa. Last season, at the age of 19, he went out on loan to Bolton Wanderers were he proved that he was ready. This season he has broken into Liverpool’s first team squad and has now played 9 games.

Sousa would have taken a similar journey for Arsenal had he decided to sign the contract offered to him. He would have been loaned out next season (when he was 19), and then 2025/26 would have been the year we looked to integrate him into the first team. He would have been just 20, like Bradley.

Instead, he opted to join Aston Villa who will loan him out to Plymouth Argyle.

I have no issue with him deciding to play for a mid-table Premier League club in the hope it might fast track his career by a year. If he has the desire to play first team PL football and is happy to take that step down, then so be it. In 6-months, following his loan deal, he might be ready to start regular for Villa. But that does not mean he would have been ready to start for Arsenal.

No fee has yet been mentioned, although a deal starting at £4m rising to £12m has been mentioned (not sure if this is just a Twitter rumour).

We need to keep doing this with our youngsters if we decide they will not make it at The arsenal. These £4-5million a youth team player soon adds up.

Another to depart is Bradley Ibrahim to Hertha Berlin. Not a player I know much about but like Sousa his contract was coming to an end at the end of this season.

What is interesting about both Ibrahim and Sousa is neither are Hale End academy products. Both joined the club in 2022 from QPR and WBA respectively, signing their first 2 year professional contracts with us. They decided not to extend those deals.

Maybe this is a message to the club – you poach another teams 16/17-year-olds, they will be less loyal and not feel like they need to sign that new longer-term contract at 19/20.

Last nights results did not go for us with both title rivals winning. Tottenham also won to jump above Villa in the race for 4th.

I have said it before and I will say it again, finishing 3rd behind Liverpool and Manchester City should not be seen as a failure.

Both clubs have been building their current squads for nearly a decade. We are 3-4 years into the build. And they both outspend us on wages by £80m a year – that is the equivalent of 7 new £200k a week players. You can perhaps then understand why Arteta is talking about his squad perhaps not being as deep as those above us.

The only way we close that wage gap (and in turn the gap on the pitch) is to consistently finish top 4 and continue to invest what we earn sensibly.

Enjoy deadline day.

Keenos