European away’s no more…

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I used to love a European away.

Win, lose or draw, I never had a bad trip and they were often the highlight of the season. The bonds built with friends old and new last a lifetime. But I am done with them.

On Saturday, our Champions League fixtures were announced. Trips to Seville, Eindhoven and Lens. All places I had yet to be following the Arsenal (although I did go to Lens / Lille for England v Wales back in 2016).

I jumped on Sky Scanner and had a little look at Sevilla…

“Wow” I thought “that is expensive”.

I have travelled a little bit this year. Oslo, Bergen, Copenhagen, with Athens and Cairo still to come.

Those trips to Scandanavia cost me around £80 each. The trip to Athens around £120. So I thought I would check the week before for Seville…

£225 cheaper to fly out the week before. It just is not right.

Now I understand that the week we play in Spain is half-term, and that coupled with the football will see an increase in demand. But this is extreme profiteering off football fans.

If I was to book today for Seville, it would cost me £462!!!

Next up I thought I would check Eindhoven. Barley an hours flight away…

£184 to fly to Holland…and the week before?

Not quite as bad as Seville, but still double the cost from one week to the next.

If I had have booked both trips on saturday, I would be paying £474 just on flights.

That is more than I have paid for the return trips to Oslo, Copenhagen, Athens and next years trip to Dubrovnik. I would still have change to go to Malta in 12 months time…

I will mis my European away trips, but with their eyewatering costs, I can no longer justify them.

Throw in the hotels (whose cost will also dramatically increase because The Arsenal are in town), and the match ticket, you are looking at around £1,000 all in for 2 nights in Eindhoven, 2 nights in Sevilla! And I have not even had a drink yet!

The new rules will mean we face 5 random teams at home, 5 random away. But instead of their being a draw in August, so at least we can try and grab a little discount on early flights, there will be 5 different draws.

The first draw will see us schedule the first two games – 1 home and 1 away. After will play those 2 gamesthere will be the 2nd draw for games 3 and 4. Then a 3rd draw for games 5 and 6. And so on.

It is an awful decision by UEFA to change the format and organisation and shows they really do not care about travelling fans.

Now some of you will be saying “well if you can not afford it, do not go”. I can afford it, I just chose not to be turned over.

Now some of you will be saying “well if you can not afford it, do not go”. I can afford it, I just chose not to be turned over.

Instead, I will stick to travelling the world away from football.

In the next 12 months it will be Athens, Cairo, Dubronik, Vienna and Malta. I will continue to meet new people, make brilliant memories. But sadly, for me, those European trips will be no more.

Keenos

47 million reasons Arsenal did not buy another attacker

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I like Brennan Johnson.

Can play left, right on centre, he has blistering pace but also the calmness to do the right thing in the final third.

He was certainly on my list as a winger / striker option. I am sure he would have been on Mikel Arteta and Edu’s as well.

But not for £47million.

Everytime I saw someone say “we need another striker or winger” over the summer, I asked “who?”. They often said the same two names: Victor Osimhen and Ivan Toney.

They ignored the fact that Toney was banned until January following his betting scandal. He was also banned from all football activites until mid-September. This would have included transferring to a new club.

As for Osimhen, there is no doubt he is a talent.

Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham were all chasing a striker this summer. Osimhen has remained at Napoli.

You have to imagine that all 3 clubs (and more!) enquired about him. The fact he has not moved either means that the asking price was ludicrous, or he is happy at Napoli. They have just won Serie A remember!

Another man on my list was Barcelona’s Ansu Fati. He has ended up on loan at Brighton.

Without an option to buy, it will be interesting to watch him this season.

If he acclimatises to the Premier League and begins to fulfil the raw talent he showed prior to his injury, you can certainly see all the top clubs fighting for his signature next summer.

Jeremy Doku also fits in that same mould of exciting young player who can play across the front 3. He cost Manchester City £55m.

PSG spent £80m on some fella called Randal Kolo Muani. I literally have no idea who he is. Meanwhile, Aston Villa spent £55m on Moussa Diaby, whilst Chelsea spent £45m on Cole Palmer.

What we are starting to see is a trend.

Johnson, Doku, Diaby, Palmer. All would have fitted the Arteta mould, but all cost £45m or more. I do not think that is the sort of money that would have been sensible in investing on someone to be back up to Saka and Gabriel Jesus.

You then have the likes of Lois Openda, Nicholas Jackson and Bradley Barcola. All only really have one-year of top flight football in a top European league under their belt. All cost in excess of £30m, and I am not sure any are a drastic improvement on Eddie Nketiah.

In the last two windows, Newcastle United have spent over £80m on Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes. I am not sure either are top quality.

What this all highlights is that there is not many top end forwards on the market right now. And as a result, young players with barely a year experience under their belt are going for top dollar.

The fee of Kai Havertz has been questioned by some. But for £65m, Arsenal are getting a proven Premier League performer with over 300 appearances under his belt for club and country.

Others have spent not much less on forwards who are a lot rawer, a lot less proven.

Would I take Ivan toney in January for £45m? Yes. Would I have taken Brennan Johnson, Jeremy Doku or Cole Palmer for a similar fee this summer? No.

Signing a further forward was clearly not a priority for Edu and the team this summer. A Xhaka upgrade, a creative midfielder and another defensive reinforcement were more essential, and we secured all 3 of them.

Next summer I expect us to move for another forward, but I am not sure who that will be right now. I imagine Edu and his scouting team will be scouring the globe looking for someone unexpected. A bit like Jurrien Timber.

No one was talking about Timber to Arsenal 6 months ago. I think we can all agree he was an excellent acquisition.

I think our forward signing next summer will be in that vein. It will be someone who we are not even talking about right now.

My final thought is take a look through the list of forwards who moved this summer. Look at the fees they went for. And then ask yourself who you would have liked to have seen us sign.

Keenos

Declan Rice becomes instant Arsenal hero

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Does anyone still question the signing of Declan Rice?

It baffled me to begin with that people were actually questioning why we had spent £105million on Rice, but in one game he justified that price tag.

“Why sign Declan Rice when we have Thomas Partey. Spend that money on a striker” was what I read most commonly.

Thomas Partey, as brilliant as he is, can not stay fit. He has had muscle injury after muscle injury and has failed to start more than 30 games across all competitions since joining us.

His injury issues are not a new thing. Atletico Madrid also used to manage his game time – the most games he started in a single season for them was 38 during the 2017/18. Atletico played 59 games that year!

In all of the last 3 seasons, our campaign has come off the rails when Partey picked up an injury. It was clear and obvious we needed to get someone in who could be that defensive beast for 50 games a year. And Declan Rice was that man.

We have seen Rice for West Ham and England dominate a midfield on his own. Bit, strong, quick, excellent reader of the game. He is a one man defensive wrecking machine.

Against Manchester United, he was a defensive rock in front of the defence. Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen barely got a sniff.

Rashford’s goal came from when Rice pressed forward and was caught out high up the pitch trying to close down Aaron Wan-Bissaka near the corner flag.

The press worked, but we quickly lost the ball following a sloppy pass by Kai Havertz. With Rice then out of position, Eriksen got his only bit of space of the game and picked out a great ball to Marcus Rashford who went on to score a trademark goal.

It was not really a lapse of judgement by Rice. The high press worked. But it showed how dominant he was in the middle that the incident led to the only time Eriksen or Bruno were able to get on the ball and get their head up.

Declan Rice was signed for the big moments.

For West Ham, he often came up with late goals. Driving into the oppositions area in the closing stages and snatching an equaliser or winner. His attacking prowess is very underrated.

OK, it was a scuffed volley that took a deflection and some horrendous goalkeeping, but in the one swing of the boot Rice made himself an Arsenal hero.

The biggest players step up in the biggest moments. Declan Rice is one of those that consistently finds another level above anyone else on the pitch when it is needed.

And the scary thing is, under a proper coach, Rice will only get better.

He continues to learn Arteta-ball and has spoken recently about how much he has already grown in such a short period. A few more months being coached by Mikel and there will be no more argument – Rice will be the most all-round midfielder in world football.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Keenos