Tag Archives: Football

“Next Bukayo Saka” departs Arsenal

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It was only a couple of years ago that Amario Cozier-Duberry was labelled “the next Saka” by some fans, and being tipped to follow Bukayo into Arsenal’s first team

The 19-year-old now finds himself without a club after Arsenal announced his departure.

Cozier-Duberry highlights just how big the jump is from youth football to senior, and whilst there was a contract on the table from Arsenal, he has decided to progress his career elsewhere.

Considered by many as the best of his generation, Cozier-Duberry’s progress has stalled over the last 12 months and has been overtaken by the likes of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.

His departure will lead to some fans complaining that “Arteta never gave him a chance”, but you have to remember Mikel and his team see these kids day in day out. And when you are in a title race you can not really give minutes to a kid to develop.

The situation reminds me a lot of when Henri Lansbury was cast aside.

Lansbury never really got his chance at Arsenal, despite generating a lot of hype as he came up through the youth system. Just as he got on the brink of the first team squad, and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere burst onto the scene. Suddenly there was no opportunity for Lansbury as Arsenal had a generational talent on their hands playing in the same position.

In Cozier-Duberry and Nwaneri, we have two players of similar attributes, playing at a similar level. But Nwaneri being 2-years younger is the differenc emaker when we decide which one we will focus developing.

The Cozier-Duberry departure comes on the same day a former Arsenal “wonderkid” also departs his club.

At lot was expected of Omari Hutchinson. Then 2 summers ago he decided to turn down a new contract and join Chelsea. He was apparently unhappy that we were proposing to loan him out rather than have him as part of Arteta’s first team plans.

What followed was a year of sitting in Chelsea academy, before joining Ipswich Town on loan. He basically lost a year of his career by moving to West London.

His performances with Ipswich were good enough for the Tractor Boys to spend £22m on him, but not at the level that Chelsea tried to keep him and progress him to their first team.

Everytime a good young player leaves a club, the likes of Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho are mentioned. But for every one of these that go on to be a global superstar (sort of!), there are hundreds of others that just drop down the league.

Whilst I wish Cozier-Duberry all the luck with his career, he is more likely to be playing for Bristol Rovers in 3 years than Bayern Munich.

And the same goes for Chido Obi Martin.

The club have also announced that Reuell Walters is also departing.

Arsenal have an abundance of full backs, so this one came as no surprise and highlights just how far we have moved forward under Arteta.

Two seasons ago I was talking about how Walters could be a good understudy for Takehiro Tomiyasu at right back. These days Tomiyasu is our 3rd choice right back and Walters would need at least 3 players ahead of him injured to get a sniff.

Enjoy your lunch!

Keenos


Remembering the A to Z of transfer speculation

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Rodrygo, Jules Kounde, Andriy Lunin, Archie Grey and Semih Kilicsoy. That is just a list of some of then players Arsenal have been linked with this morning.

I remember back in the day we used to do an A to Z of transfer speculation.

In the mid 00s, it was fairly easy to manage as social media and clickbait blogs (beyond Goal.com) were not really a thing. the majority of the speculation came from newspapers.

Despite less sources, we would still get close to 200 names linked with us over the summer.

These days we do not bother with the A to Z of transfer speculation. There are just too many “news outlets” that rely on transfer speculation to generate their advertising revenue.

Were we to do it, and take into account every source, we would probably get above 500 players on the list. It would be a full time job – and I struggle to write the blog these days along with my full time job, let alone also go through every link on NewsNow.

It has been a quiet start for all clubs in terms of transfers. Although this has to be expected with a major summer tournament ongoing.

PSR also means that teams are less likely to do deals before 1 July – any deal up until 30 June needs to go into a clubs 2023/24 season accounts and signing a new player early can create a breach.

The only sniff we have had of deals so far is the transfer merry-go-round that some clubs are trying to instigate to ensure their books balance for 2023/24.

Aston Villa have balanced their books by doing deals with both Chelsea and Everton – Ian Maatsen and Lewis Dobin in, Omari Kellyman and Tim Iroegbunam out.

These deals bring instant income to all clubs that allows them to keep within PSR, whilst in turn kicks debt down the road in amoritised transfer fees. These sort of deals are a poor way to run a football club and there is only so long you can operate in this manner until it catches up to you.

I will be laughing at the tears when Everton or Aston Villa go into administration. I am sure their fans will find a way to blame Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United.

As for The Arsenal, we continue to operate sensibly, in the right manner. We continue to grow on and off the pitch with new, better players coming in as income rises. We really are a well run club these days.

I am off for a BBQ and to try and enjoy some sunshine in Essex. Have a great Saturday!

Keenos

Nygaard, Garcia, Ramsdale and More…

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It’s Friday! Well done for getting through another working week Another 5 days closer to retirement!

Yesterday we had some actual transfer news. Sort of.

The club announced Danish keeper Lucas Nygaard would be joining the academy. I know nothing about the 18-year-old, and anyone who claims they have seen him play is a liar.

We have a log history of signing young goalkeepers from foreign shores, but to date none have ever progressed to become a first team regular. So excuse me if I am not exactly excited about his arrival (and nor should I be. He is a kid!)

Staying with goalkeepers, we have been heavily linked with Espanyol’s Joan Garcia.

The 23-year-old played a key role last season as his club won promotion back to La Liga, making 21 club appearances.

A quick Google of his name shows that in the last 24 hours he has also “signed” for Real Madrid, Liverpool and Tottenham. This one feels like an agent using big clubs to get his clients name in the press.

At the same time as the Garcia story, speculation is rising around the departure of Aaron Ramsdale.

Newcastle United seems to be the club he is being linked with the most, although they are also reportedly very close to signing Burnley’s James Trafford.

I did laugh at one article which stated “Newcastle value Ramsdale at £15m”. If this was the other way round, social media would be filled with crying Geordies complaining about the “Red Cartel”, PSR and that Arsenal are a disgrace for trying to by someone for less than they vlue him at.

Of course, the transfer fee mooted in media speculation is often wrong and can differ widely depending on the outlet. I am not sure why so many get their knickers in a twist.

Ramsdale’s book value is currently £8m, so anything above that will be profit for The Arsenal. I would expect any fee for the Englishman to both cover his remaining book value, and the cash needed to pay for his replacement.

The fee being floated for Joan Garcia is £21million, so I would expect Ramsdale to go for around £30m if that will be the cost of his replacement.

One last bit of Arsenal news surrounds Omari Hutchinson.

The former graduate joined Chelsea two years ago. He preferred to move to West London for “first team football” rather than sign a new deal with Arsenal and go out on-loan.

Hutchinson then proceeded to rot in Chelsea’s reserves for a year before going out on loan to Ipswich Town. The move to Chelsea basically cost him a year of his career.

The 20-year-old is now being linked with a permanent move to Ipswich in a deal that could be worth as much as £22m. Unconfirmed rumours are we will get 50% of any transfer fee.

Today it is a case of getting work completed as quickly as possible before heading to the pub. Pre-season starts this weekend with my annual BBQ.

Keenos