Tag Archives: Football

Declan Rice to captain England on 50th cap as Ashley Cole inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame

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Morning!

Declan Rice will captain England tonight on the day of his 50th cap. Having played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, you would have thought Gareth Southgate would have given him the match off. Win his 50th cap another day.

Southgate has seen Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdraw through “injury”. You would have thought by now he would realise that if he wants his best players to be available, he should do deals with clubs and manage their playing time.

Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Rice, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins all played the full 90 on Saturday. I wonder how many Southgate will pick tonight.

In terms of other Arsenal news, Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame yesterday.

I actually have no issue with Cole and what happened with Chelsea.

Yes, at the time I was fuming. He joined a direct rival and the stories about he nearly crashed his car after only being offered £55,000 a week felt crass. But as I grew up and matured, I realised Arsenal, and David Dein, were in the wrong.

Cole had agreed a £60,000 a week contract with the Arsenal hierarchy. He was happy to sign on the dotted line. Then when the offer came through it was for £55k a week. It was an underhand move by Dein, alienating a boyhood fan, academy graduate and future captain.

Whenever I see people saying “Arsenal would be in a much better position if Dein had remained involved in the club”, I think about the Cole situation and how his decision forced a potential Arsenal legend out of the club.

It was also Dein, remember, who encouraged other board members to sell their shares to Stan Kroenke, before he sold his own to Alisher Usmanov which created the ownership split and led to our decade long stagnation. It is not a surprise how far Arsenal have moved forward on and off the pitch since Kroenke became 100% owner.

I might never consider Ashley Cole an Arsenal legend, but he is our best ever left-back.

The big transfer rumour is that we are looking to “match Chelsea'” and bid £60m for Ousmane Diomande.

Whilst Diomande is clearly a bright young talent, I can not see us spending £60m on a central defender unless either Gabriel or William Saliba leave. This very much feels like a story inserted by an agent to generate interest in his client.

Likewise, I also can not see us triggering the £103m release clause for Diomande’s teammate Viktor Gyokeres.

£103m is a huge fee for someone who turns 26 soon, and has only had a decent 18 months in the Championship and 1 good season in Portugal.

I have issue paying top dollar for top players (as the Declan Rice deal proves). But this would be a huge chunk of our summer spending on someone who would not be guaranteed a start.

I expect us to spend around £160m this summer, depending on sales.

£27m is already committed to David Raya, and another £10-ish million will need to be spent on an Aaron Ramsdale replacement. That wil lleave us with around £130m left to make additional improvemnts.

We need a central midfielder and a striker. That is not up for debate. We also potentially need another winger.

Our first option is to buy a truly top striker that will be guaranteed to start ahead of Gabriel Jesus, and then Jesus is the back up striker and the cover to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I do not feel Gyokeres is that man.

The alternative is to buy someone who can compete with Jesus, and potentially grow into a superstar in the future. To further add to the squad, we then go out and buy another winger so that Jesus can continue to be utilised primarily up top.

Whilst Gyokeres could be this “alternative option to Jesus”, his proposed transfer fee would mean we would then not have enough in the pot to buy another winger.

If we are spending around £130m, I would rather Arsenal trigger the release clauses of Benjamin Sesko, Nico Williams and Martin Zubimendi (total – £138m), then spend £103m on Gyokeres and only have £30m left to try and recruit a midfielder.

Remember to grab your Bayern Munich tickets if you have not already done so!

Keenos

Fans need to stop blaming PSR for owners running clubs poorly

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Another day, another team hit with charges for breaking the Premier League Profit & Sustainability Rules.

Fans of clubs breaking the rules act the victim, but the rules are needed. PSR protects the future of clubs, and since their introduction (under FFP), we have seen a dramatic drop in clubs going into administration.

Those Everton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City fans complaining should actually drive their anger towards those in-charge of their clubs for running them so poorly. The rules are their, they all signed up to them, and the losses they made would have put their existence in danger had it not been for the rules.

Everton have been one of the worst run clubs in the league since Farhad Moshiri took over. He acted like a Russian Oligarch but he didn’t have those Ruble’s.

So keen to impress when he first bought the club (and show Arsenal what we were missing out in), he quickly made Everton one of the highest spending teams in the league. But it was recruitment without thought and almost all the big money signings flopped.

As Everton tumbled down the table, they could not finance the huge wages and, with the Moshiri money drying up, lost £373m from 2018-21. They tried to blame Covid but in reality the issue was they were spending uncontrollably.

Covid or PSR is not the reason Everton are financially screwed. It is all because they are poorly run. Their fans should be grateful for PSR as the rules curtailed their uncontrolled spending. If it was not for PSR, I am sure Everton would have entered administration.

Nottingham Forest are another club that are poorly run.

Since gaining promotion back to the Premier League in 2022, they have signed 47 players.

Forest fans will point to out that they lost of a lot of players when gaining promotion to the Premier League. This just highlights how poor they were run.

Their promotion was secured by having a squad of loan players and others on short-term contracts. The management of the club were not looking long-term.

And since returning to the Premier League, the transfer philosophy has been the same – 12 of the 47 players have been loan deals, and many others (Lingard, Shelvey) came in on huge money and short term deals.

Compare the way Nottingham Forest have acted on promotion to the likes of Brighton and Brentford. The later two have solid recruitment plans in place and are not looking to fast-track themselves based on overspending in the short-term.

And this is my biggest issue about fans who criticise PSR.

Forest and Everton fans make claims such as “PSR exists to protect the top 6”. This is simply not true.

The real beneficiaries of PSR are all clubs who are run well, and spend within their means. Aston Villa, West Ham, Brentford, Brighton and others. All of these are very well run clubs who have had some level of success in recent years (with 3 of the 4 having European football as a reward).

PSR also exists to give an advantage to someone like Luton Town who, upon promotion, have kept a tight reign on their finances. Why should Nottingham Forest gain an advantage over those teams around them purely because they have an owner who is happy putting the future of the club at risk?

Leicester City were once one of the best run clubs in England.

They recruited well, buying players from across Europe that no-one else was looking at, and were rewarded in 2016 with the league title. But since the death of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and the impact of Covid on the King Power International Group, they have struggled financially.

For those that do not know, King Power International Group are a Thai travel retail group whose main business is operated duty free shops. When Covid hit, air travel dramatically dropped which hit the company hard.

Leicester’s biggest issue is that after winning the league, Leicester dramatically increased their spending with an expectation that they would remain a top 8 team, and continue to reap the rewards of European football and finishing in that position.

From 2019/20 – 2021/22, Leicester lost £191m, including a huge £92.5m in 2021/22. They have still not yet published their 2022/23 accounts (when they finished 18th in the Premier League).

It is quite clear that they were spending too much and were in an unsustainable situation. I expect their 2022/23 loss to be north of £100m. Again, their fans will blame PSR but it is not the rules’ fault that they were making huge losses.

One thing I find hilarious is fans blaming PSR for their clubs not spending.,

I see West Ham fans saying PSR is the reason they are not spending big. But 2-years ago that blame was on their owners. Literally nothing has changed in that time, they have just decided to direct their anger elsewhere.

West Ham do not spend as much as someone like Arsenal because they are not as big. They do not have our revenues. And they have owners that run a tight ship to ensure their is a club for the future.

Another to pipe up is Newcastle United.

After one season finishing top 4, their fans got arrogant and thought they have made it. They have since tumbled to 10th and are pointing the fingers at the Premier League.

Restrictions on spending is not why Newcastle have struggled this season.

Since coming under new ownership and under the guise of Eddie Howe, Newcastle have spent in excess of £300m on new players. The problem is not that they have not spent a lot of money, but they have bought some very average players.

They have over £150m spent on Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes, Tino Livramento, Chris Wood and Matt Target. These are all mid-table Premier League players. None would get a look in at a “Big 6” club.

Their fans will claim that “they have bought poorly but they should be allowed to spend to get out of the trouble they created”. And this is how poorly run clubs behave – instead of trying to improve how you spend, you just continue spending poorly in the hope you get it right.

As for Manchester City, certain fans do not seem to get their head around the fact that Everton and Nottingham Forest have plead guilty to their charges, whilst Manchester City are appealing them. That is why City have not yet been handed a punishment.

Think in the real world. You are caught speeding once. You accept you are speeding, pay your fine and take the points.

I have been caught speeding 115 times, but I have challenged each and every single charge. I have not pled guilty and am appealing my punishment.

You do not have a case to be heard as you have pled guilty, I am awaiting my day in court as I have appealed. I am still going through the process, whilst your process is over.

It is not unfair that I have not yet been punished and you have, despite less charges. You pled guilty, I did not. It really is this simple.

A final thought on this is when fans point out clubs net spend. It is not obvious that the more you generate in income, the more you can spend (and the less reliant you are on having to make a profit in transfer windows?)

The best run clubs do not rely on having to sell players to fund their next batch of transfers. That is done through the difference between revenue and expenditure. Poorly run clubs need to sell to buy because they are not making enough revenue outside of players sales to buy new players organically.

Fans need to upskill themselves in how process works, and stop blaming the Premier League and “Big 6” for their owners running their clubs into the ground.

Enjoy your Friday.

Keenos

The curious case of Tomiyasu’s 2-year deal

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Yesterday it was announced that Takehiro Tomiyasu would be following Ben White in signing a new contract. But everything was not as clear cut as the White deal.

Tomiyasu had signed on until 2026, representing a 2 year deal, or a year extension on his current ones. This led to a lot of scratched heads.

My first thought was “has he actually signed a new deal, or is this Arsenal triggering a one-year extension clause”. As it turns out, this was a completely new deal which Tomiyasu was happy to agree.

As time went on, it transpired that the new 2-year deal included a further year option for Arsenal, so in essence it was a new 3-year contract. This is still extremely short for a 25-year-old to agree to.

After more reflection, I came up with two reasons why this deal happened.

The first is it shows where Arsenal are as a club right now. Players want to sign on that dotted line. They want to be involved in the Mikel Arteta journey. So even though the length of the contract was not favourable, Tomiyasu would rather give another 1-2 years to The Arsenal then turn down the deal, leave in the summer and join someone like Aston Villa or Newcastle.

The second is Tomiyasu himself.

On signing his contract, Tomi said: “I am so happy to extend my contract because Arsenal is the best club in the world. It’s a dream to play for this club, so I’m happy.

“When I’m on the pitch I feel the love and energy from the supporters. We are connected a lot so I want to give them something back. I am playing for Arsenal, and this means I’m playing for the Arsenal supporters. That’s why I dedicate my life to this club and the supporters.

“I want to give them something back. The connection between players and supporters is a different level and that makes it more special.”

The first part of his statement shows that he has bought into Arteta’s project and where Arsenal are right now. The second shows that he feels that he owes the club and fans something following his injury issues.

Since joining the club in 2021, he has suffered 4 major injuries that have led him to miss over 40 games for The Arsenal. He clearly feels some sort of guilt over that, and wants to repay the club and fans for sticking by him.

The new deal means that he probably gets another 2-years at the club to show that he can stay fit. And we know that if he keeps fit he can be a big part of our future. If he does not stay fit, Arsenal have not invested too much into him, will trigger the extension in 2026 and sell him.

At 25-years-old, Tomiyasu is also not in “last contract” terrority.

I imagine the money he will be in will be in and around £100k a week. Not many clubs in England or Europe would pay him (or others) that. And if he leaves at 27, he will still be young enough to get another 5-year deal elsewhere.

In the past, we have seen clubs – including Arsenal – offer 5-year deals to players with Tomiyasu’s injury record. And in that 5-years we rarely see them play and are stuck with them until their contract runs down. At least with this deal with can release for free after 2 more seasons, or extend that deal and try and get a fee for him.

It is not very often that you see a player agree to less favourable terms. The 2-year deal is completely in Arsenal’s favour. But this just shows that Tomi wants to be part of Arsenal’s future and repay the fans for their support.

Other news for yesterday is that the Munich away tickets have been announced.

We should get around 3,700, so I am not sure why the club are starting them at 50+ credits. What is odd is that they then advertise all the way down to 10+. They usually advertise down to where they think they will sell out so not sure why they start at 50+ if they predict it will go to 10+.

There can not be more than 3,000 with 30+, and this is further highlighted that once it goes down in 10s below 40+.

The last bit of news is that some places are linking us to a move for Juventus’s Adrien Rabiot. It is a deal I can not see happening.

Whilst his contract does run out at the end of the year, he will certainly not be “free” as his mum will demand inflated wages, a huge signing on fee and a big wad of cash for herself.

Rabiot turns 29 in April and I feel he is a wasted talent – he has never fulfilled his potential.

There has always been a feeling that one-day it might click for him. But at his old age now, those times are running out. He does have the physical and technical ability to play deep into his late 30s at a high level, but I think the time for us sniffing around someone like Rabiot it gone.

Better to buy someone younger, hungrier, who does not have a troublesome history.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos