Arsenal set for deadline day fire sale

It is well known that Arsenal have too many non-home grown players.

At the time of writing, we have 19. We can have no more than 17 to be within Premier League rules.

That leaves Arsenal with 2 choices:

• Sell or loan out unwanted players
• Have unregistered players in the first team squad

The issue with the latter is those unregistered players will still be required to turn up to training every day, despite them having no chance of playing.

And if Arsenal say “we do not want you to turn up for training”, the club would potentially be infringing their contract with the player.

It could actually result in Arsenal playing the unregistered players money to agree not to turn up to training. An unsavoury situation for all.

Arsenal have struggled to sell players throughout the summer for various reasons.

Partly due to the club refusing to “sell cheap”, and partly due to buying clubs being unwilling to offer big wages and high transfer fees for average ageing players.

It is a big game of poker.

Arsenal do not want to buy in extra players until they sell current squad members, as new signings will reduce those squad players value further. Whilst buying clubs know at some point Arsenal might be desperate to sell or loan players, so they can get an Arsenal player cheaper than what the club are currently demanding.

All this could lead Arsenal to a deadline day fire sale.

Take Sokratis.

Arsenal want a transfer fee above £5million. Napoli were interested but have they have gone quiet.

On deadline day, a club might be able to pick up Sokratis for free, if Arsenal still have too many non-home grown players.

Arsenal will be happy to just get him off the books, even if it means not taking a fee for him.

Mesut Ozil is another one to keep an eye on.

He is clearly unwanted by Mikel Arteta. But at £350,000 a week, no club is in for him. No club will want to buy him, no club will want to loan him paying a big chunk of his wages. And Ozil is seemingly in no rush to leave.

On deadline day, a club might be able to pick up Mesut Ozil for on loan paying a small portion of his wages, if Arsenal still have too many non-home grown players.

You can see a club from Turkey coming in on deadline day, maybe offering to pay £50,000 a week to Ozil, with Arsenal covering the rest.

Arsenal would then have a decision to make.

Loan Ozil out, paying him £10million in wages, or keep him, unregistered, training with the team but not playing, and paying him £13million.

It stops becoming about the money Arsenal have to pay in wages, or the missed transfer fees, and becomes an issue of having unregistered players training day in day out.

Similar might happen with the likes of Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac.

Both have their suitors, but the later Lazio or Bayer Leverkuson wait, the cheaper they might get their targets.

Arsenal are reportedly demanding £9m for Kolasinac. That fee drops hugely on deadline day if Arsenal have too many non-home grown players.

And Mustafi is in a similar situation as Sokratis.

With 9 months left on his contract, Arsenal might let him leave on a free transfer on deadline day, just to bring those squad numbers down.

Ideally Arsenal would like to get business done this week, before the October 5^th deadline day. But as we close in on that date, Arsenal are going to have to drop their pants if they want to bring squad numbers in line with Premier League rules.

Keenos

Morning all.

An early one from me today. For some reason I am wide awake at 6:30am. Must be getting old.

Yesterday I went round a few old haunts in London, The Marylebone, Lamb and Flag, White Horse and the Old Coffeehouse.

The frustration on staffs faces as they had to turn customers away because there was “no room” despite the pubs being half empty was palpable.

If we do not reopen pubs properly soon, we are going to lose them.

Watched the Brighton v Man U game in the Lamb and Flag. Not sure why the awarding of Man U’s penalty was “controversial”.

It was a blatant handball and whilst the referee might have blown the final whistle, the rules have for a long time allowed for assistant referees (and now VAR) to indicate an offence after the whistle. The referee can still take action as long as they have not left the field of play.

Those players, fans and media complaining just highlights how few actually know the rules of football.

Chelsea produced an epic comeback to draw 3-3 with WBA, the nature of which poets of the cracks that they drew at WBA conceding 3.

There is no point them spending all that money on attacking players, and then signing a washed up Thiago Silva to solve their defensive issues.

Like Arsenal, Chelsea conceded too many last season. Thiago Silva has been on the decline for some time in France and is certainly not the player he was.

Just because he is rated 85 on FIFA, does not mean he is still a good player.

His singing reminds me of when Man U signed Laurent Blanc many years ago.

Used to be a great centre back. Clearly past his best. Will cost them games.

And onto Arsenal.

Arsenal face Liverpool twice in a week at Anfield.

It is the first time Liverpool have played the same side twice in a four days at Anfield since January 2007.

Liverpool lost those games 3-1 and 6-3 to, ironically, Arsenal. They were knocked out of the FA Cup and League Cup in the process.

Mikel Arteta has already faced Liverpool twice in his short reign as Arsenal manager – winning 2-1 in the league back in July and more recently winning the Charity Shield against them.

Can he make it 3 wins from 3? And then 4 wins from 4? Why not. History does repeat itself.

We beat Spurs yesterday in the Women’s FA Cup.

A victory over that lot is always enjoyable regardless of whether it is first team, youth team or the ladies. I read that makes it 22-0 to Arsenal in the games we have played against the team formally known as Broxbourne Ladies.

Whilst Arsenal have a long and rich history of supporting the women’s game, Tottenham do not.

Spurs have only recently made the “Tottenham ladies” an official part of the club and only turned professional 2 years ago.

The lack of support of Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United and disappointing. And the lack of cricket even more so.

The fact Man City and Chelsea get criticised more for investing in the women’s game sums up the media agenda.

The teams they love fail to get criticised for turning a back on the women’s game whilst teams that actively invest are heavily criticised .

Not much transfer news about this morning. But that’s because it is still early and the twitter ITKs are still in bed waiting for mummy to wake them up.

Enjoy your Sinday

Keenos