Away Day Headaches

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Yesterday I thought I would sort out my train tickets for Leeds United and Southampton.

Normally train tickets go on sale 3 months before a game, and as long as you buy around 2 months ahead you can take advantage of Advanced ticket prices. This can save a home and awya footbal lfan like myself hundreds over the course of the season.

But when I was searching the journeys on National Rail I was not met with positive news. Train tickets were still no on sale.

For Leeds, National Rail was showing tickets released up to and including the first week of October.

Further investigation showed that due to the ongoing train strikes across the network, many train companies are not putting out their timetable 3 months ahead of schedule. Some are releasing train times (and ticket costs) just a week ahead of schedule.

A pal of mine, needing to go up North for a meeting next week, is still waiting for the timetable to be announced so that he can purchase the train tickets.

And you can bet that the Advanced tickets will not be available due to how close it is to departure date – even though he was unable to buy earlier.

Away travel can already be a headache.

We have to wait before Sky / BT Sports decide what fixutres they want to move before we can purchase our tickets. This can often lead us to miss out on the Advanced tickets.

And when the TV companies do make this decision, they do not care about the match going fans.

Games will be re-arranged to Sunday’s when engineering works are scheduled (and therefore replacement bus services). Or to late Saturday kick-offs with no chances of trains home.

The move of the Sunday 4pm KO to 4:30 showed that the TV companies (nor Premier League who agreed the deal) actually care about match going fans. All the stuff post Super League was just PR.

It might only seem like half an hour, but for some games (Liverpool away, I am looking at you) that half an hour can be the difference between getting the last train home and there being no train home.

The change was made for the TV audiences. so that they can watch post-reaction and interviews from the 2pm KO ahead of the next game. Those of us at the game really do not care what Graeme Souness has to say.

In recent years, we have also had a few games moved at very, very late notice making pre-bought train tickets redundant.

And I am one of the luck ones.

Being a former away scheme member, I know I am gauranteed a ticket for every away day meaning that I can buy ahead of time.

For those on less credits, they take a huge risk buying train tickets with no gaurantee of a match ticket. This drives the cost up even more.

Sometimes organising an away day feels like a military exercise.

And the lack of advanced timetables is now just further adding to our headaches.

I sometimes wonder why I still do it – and I have already cut back from going every game home and away since Covid.

Life is easy for fans who just roll over in bed, turn their lap top on, watch the game and then go back to sleep.

Keenos

Callum Hudson-Odoi, Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Pepe and More

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Callum Hudson-Odoi

It was 3 and a half years ago that Callum Hudson-Odoi was subject of a huge bid from Bayern Munich.

CHO was one of the hottest properties in Europe and, following Munich’s very public pursuit, he handed in a transfer request.

Munich returned in the summer of 2019 with more bids but eventually CHO signed a new mamouth contract reportedly in excess of £100k a week.

The figures being floated about were huge considering that in the summer of 2019, CHO was 18-years-old and had started just 4 Premier League games.

Despite the next season Chelsea having a transfer embargo, CHO failed to make the impact that either Reece James or Mason Mount did – just 7 Premier League starts and 852 minutes played.

Since then his career has stuttered.

Thomas Tuchel clearly does not fancy him, having tried and failed to convert him into a right wing back. Whilst a run of injuries have also affected his progress.

Still just 21-years-old, Arsenal have recently been linked with move for him. Is it one that we should make?

I have two concerns about us recruiting CHO.

The first is the nature of the deal – Chelsea seem to prefer a loan deal.

Whilst cover and competition for Bukayo Saka is something we need to get in before the end of the season, a loan for CHO would merely be short term cover.

He fails to live up to his early hype, we have a player that is not good enough. He does fulfil that potential then all we have succeeded in doing is being a finishing school for Chelsea players.

Secondly, those injuries – and specifically the Achilles problems – are a cause of concern.

He reptured his Achilles back in 2019 which kept him on the sidelines for 6 months. Then back end of last season more problems arose which led him to miss another 14 games.

Have those problems robbed him of his explosive pace? Is he still the same player as he was those years ago?

Or will he end up another Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain? A clearly talented player that will forever be returning from his latest injury.

I would not want a loan deal, and I would not want us to be tying up big money in a player with such a poor injury record.

We have worked hard to get rid of a lot of players in recent transfer windows. To then give a 5-year deal to someone with such a questionable record would be poor management.

For me, Callum Hudson-Odoi should be someone we should avoid.

Moises Caicedo

The second player we have been linked with this summer is Brighton’s Moises Caicedo.

Caicedo was signed by the South-coast team 18 months ago. He spent the last season on loan in Belgium.

Just 20-years-old, the Ecuadorian is rated highly – he already has 23 caps for his country.

Brighton clearly see Caicedo as a big part of the forthcoming season following the sale of Yves Bissouma this summer. He has started both Premier League games this season.

A very tidy, all action central midfielder, he would be a brilliant long-term replacement for Thomas Partey. but there are plenty of obstacles.

The first is Brighton.

Will they let Caicedo go having already sold Bissouma? And we have seen with Ben white and Marc Cucurella that they are happy holding out for top dollar for players.

And Arsenal are probably not in a position to risk paying dop dollar on such a raw diamond.

We are in no rush to replace Partey, who is just 29. And if we did replace him tomorrow it would be with someone who is already at the top of their game, not a youngster with heaps of potentialy.

With Mohamed Elneny agreeing a one year extension, it does kick the can down the road in terms of buying cover (and a future replacement) for Partey.

Could Arsenal potentailly get Caicedo a bit cheaper if we agreed to leave him on loan at Brighton for the rest of the season – not too disimilar to the original William Saliba deal.

We will then be securing one of the brightest young midfielders in world football, whilst Brighton would be able to keep hold of the youngster for another season.

Then in a years time Caicedo would join up with Arsenal to play second fiddle to Partey.

If we are then looking at his development path, after a year with Brighton and a year as cover, he would then be 22 (soon to be 23) and ready to play week in week out for a top club.

By the time summer 2024 comes around, Partey will be 31-years-old and with a year left on his contract. We would then increase Caicedo’s playing time whilst reducing Partey’s. We would also not worry about the Ghanian’s contract expiring in 2025 as his replacement will already be with the club.

A slight concern is that he has also been linked to Manchester United this week – that makes me think his agents are making noise to try and manufacture a move for him.

Do not be surprised to see Arsenal splash some cash on Caicedo this summer, but him not join until next.

Nicolas Pepe

It looks like Pepe’s nightmare time with Arsenal could be coming to a close – on a temporary basis at least.

His agent was pictured in Nice at the weekend – who recently signed Kasper Schmeichel – and he is apparently open to a move back to France.

A loan deal seems most likely at the moment – and Arsenal will be hoping that if he puts in some good performances we might get a decent transfer fee for him next summer (despite having just a year left on his contract).

Whatever happens, I wish Pepe well.

His big career move has not worked out for a variety of reasons, but he has never complained or caused issues.

Charlie Patino

At the time of writing we were still waiting for the results of Charlie Patino’s scan following his ankle issue on Tuesday.

It was a bit of a horror one as he lost his footing and his angle ended up at an angle it should not have.

He played on following the issue and the only hope is that this was due to it not being bar rather than negligence.

If he was allowed to play on by Blackpool despite suffering a bad injury, questions need to be asked.

Hopefully he is back playing soon as he could be a big player for us,

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos

https://twitter.com/KOMerchants/status/1558026802769149952

If the transfer window shut now, are you happy with the Arsenal squad?

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Question for the morning: If the transfer window shut now, are you happy with the Arsenal squad?

When that was asked yesterday in the WhatasApp group, the answer was surprinsgly unanimous – YES!

Some still wanted Youri Tielemans in to replace Granit Xhaka (although they would admit to an irrational hatred towards Xhaka). Whilst others – including myself – said we would not mind a winger, but it was not a disaster if we did not get one.

A couple wanted a right back, but conceded that this would be a luxury and they had no idea about the mad potential of Brooke Norton-Cuffy.

It helps to be happy with the squad when you are one of only two Premier League sides to have a 100% record. But it does feel like we have quality in the first XI and strength in depth.

We have started with the same XI against Leicester City and Crystal Palace, with the players yet to start making up a pretty decent “2nd string” (yes, I know some will start once fit. But it just shows we have that depth that we won two games comfortably without them)

Turner
Cedric Tomiyasu Holding Tierney
Elneny
Lokonga Vieira
Pepe Nketiah SmithRowe

Some might say the defence looks weak as it has a right back playing at centre back, but lets remember we have 3 top class central defenders. None of whom are in the bove XI.

The above does highlight the need for a winger – Nicolas Pepe just is not the answer. Although again if the window shut now I would not be upset him covering Bukayo Saka.

Another key factor right now is the registration of players.

With Pablo Mari and Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson both going out on loan in the last week, Arsenal have no real squad size concerns.

I will probably expand on this another day in a second State of the Squad post, but as it stands we have:

  • 27 players in the senior squad
    • Of which 4 do not need to be registered due to being U21
    • That leaves us with 2 “open slots” if we did decide to sign anyone
  • Of the 23 senior players we have:
    • 15 are non-home grown
    • 8 are home grown
    • That leaves us with 2 non-home grown slots

So in summary, if we decided to sign two new players, it would not matter where they are from as we have space for them.

That does not mean we will go out and sign anyone we want – we need to keep an eye on those U21’s who will become “senior” in the future.

We will not want to be in a situation like last summer where we have too many senior players and it means some end up not being registered.

Three of the four U21 players (Saka, Saliba, Martinelli) will require to be registered next season. So we will need to make sure there are open slots for them to be promoted to – there promotion will leave us with one senior player too many (requiring us to sell to buy)

Although this will be offset with the likes of Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson unlikely to be here in 12 months time.

Those 6 departures will bring next seasons squad to 19 senior players (once the U21 have been promoted). This then opens up the space for new transfers next summer.

This is the sort of stuff Edu and his team will be staying on top of. It is not just about where the Arsenal squad is now, but also what it looks like in 12 months, in 36 months, and so on.

Anyone, I have digressed a bit too much.

So are you happy with the Arsenal squad right now? Join the conversation on Twitter:

Keenos