Tag Archives: Kieran Tierney

Arsenal target exciting young talent

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According to reports Arsenal are closing in on deals for Kieran Tierney, Dani Ceballos, William Saliba and Everton Soares.

Whether we get any or all of these deals over the line is not yet clear, but what all 4 targets show is a clear shift in Arsenal’s transfer policy.

When we moved from Highbury to the Emirates, the tagline was “this will enable us to compete for the best in the world”. The following years saw Arsenal sell their best players and replace them with younger, cheaper alternatives.

This lead to an outcry from many fans that we had been lied to.

Arsenal were hamstrung with high repayments and a dip in the London property market caused by the recession. We had the Russians and Arabs at Chelsea and Manchester City changing the landscape of football. Suddenly a player who would have been available for £15million was being singed for £25million (think Shaun Wright Phillips).

Perhaps feeling the pressure from fans, Arsenal changed the policy of focusing mainly on talented young players in 2012.

That season Santi Cazorla (28) Lukas Podolski (27), Nacho Monreal (27) and Olivier Giroud (26) joined the club. Senior, experienced professionals at their peak.

The issue with signing these sort of players is they have very little sell on value. You buy them, give them a 5 year deal, and end up keeping them until they either leave on a free, or leave in the last year of their contract for a nominal sum.

Arsenal spent £52million on the quartet, and have recouped just £19.8million.

The year after we went big, breaking our transfer record on Mesut Ozil. A player at the peak of his powers. Then it was Mathieu Debuchy, Alexis Sanchez, David Ospina, Danny Welbeck and Gabriel Paulista.

3 seasons and the majority of our signings were established senior professionals, rather than exciting young talents.

2015/16 it was Petr Cech and Mohamed Elneny, the next season Lucas Perez, Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi.

Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan followed as we continued to sign players over 25.

Last we saw some change, with Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira joining the club, although we still signed Stephan Lichtsteiner and Sokratis, 2 players who were in their 30’s.

Of the 20 senior signings Arsenal have made since, just 9 are still with the club. Their total cost was nearly £400,000,000, and the 11 that have left raised just £38million.

6 of those players who left did not raise a single penny in incoming transfer fee, with only Olivier Giroud making a profit over £1million. Arsenal made £5million from his sale.

Arsenal are at a deficient of over £360million, and many of the 9 still at the club would generate little in transfer fees.

The policy of chasing senior, experienced players has cost Arsenal a lot of money and is the key cause we are in the situation we find ourselves in today.

Arsenal have an ageing squad, a high wage bill and very few players they can generate to raise further funds.

Compare this to Liverpool who, in recent years, have bought low, sold high, rebuilt and won the Champions League.

Despite moving from Highbury to the Emirates to compete for the best it is clear and obvious to all that trying to sign senior, established stars has done more damage than good at Arsenal.

If we do secure Tierney (22), Ceballos (22), Everton (23) and Saliba (18) it will see the club addressing the ageing squad issue and returning to the policy of buying bright, young talent.

All of these players will develop further at Arsenal and could potentially be sold on for huge profits, allowing the club to reinvest again.

Younger, hungrier players is the order of the day at AFC.

Keenos

A lot has happened in a week at The Arsenal

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A lot has happened in the week I have been off.

Firstly we had Laurent Koscielny going William Gallas on us.

I always liked Koscielny. He seemed to hold himself well and was a good role model, a good captain. He seemed to understand what it means to play for The Arsenal. That is why it came as a shock when he refused to fly out to America on the pre-season tour.

With Arsenal chasing central defenders this summer, it was felt that it was important to keep hold of Koscielny for one more season.

With William Saliba set to sign and be loaned straight back to St Etienne, a second senior central defender would likely be purchased, with Shkodran Mustafi making way. Koscielny would then be kept as experience cover to the new signing, Sokratis and Rob Holding; with Saliba joining Arsenal in a year to replace his senior compatriot.

Koscielny’s actions were disappointing and will have ramifications to Arsenal’s transfer targets this summer.

It is likely that we will now lose the Frenchman and that will result in Mustafi remaining. That will mean less funds raised to buy a top central defender and could see us scrap those plans and going into the new season with Mustafi, Holding and Sokratis as our central defensive options.

Koscielny has tarnished his Arsenal legacy.

We then have the “will they won’t they” signings of Saliba and Kieran Tierney.

Both deals were reportedly very close not to long ago, but both have stalled.

Tottenham have reportedly come in for Saliba, despite a deal being agreed with Arsenal and “in the hands of the lawyers” according to David Ornstein. According to top soccer betting sites, Arsenal are still favourites for the deal

On Ornstein; he is not longer as reliable as he once was with his source within the club having left (reportedly Ivan himself). Recently he has taken to reporting what others like Sky’s Kaveh Solhekol has already broke. Take what he says these days with the same pinch of salt you would others.

Tierney deal is dragging along. Arsenal had a second bid rejected due to the structure of the deal.

Arsenal have a right to be cautious, with the Scotsman still recovering from a double hernia. £25million upfront would secure the man, but he would be unable to pass a medical. It would be a risk, which is why Arsenal are trying to do a deal where Celtic will get their £25million based on appearances.

I still think Arsenal will get the deal over the line.

You then had the fake bid for Nicolas Pepe.

Arsenal reportedly bid £72million for the Ivorian, an offer which was quickly debunked by many. Whilst I have no doubt Arsenal did not make an offer for the Lille winger, he should certainly be on our radar.

Younger and better than Wilfried Zaha, I would rather Arsenal spent £60million on Pepe than his national team mate.

Yesterday we had the launch of the #WeCareDoYou campaign by many prominent Arsenal groups.

The strongly written letter to Stan Kroenke got the attention it deserved and was picked up by every major media outlet.

With nearly 100,000 Arsenal fans backing the letter, it carries a clear and conscience undertone. We are not happy.

I have a few on Kroenke which anyone that follows me on Twitter will know. The letter is not asking him to pump billions in, nor is it spreading any fake news about him taking money out. It is calling on him to show that he cares, and lead Arsenal back on the right track.

Our identity as a club has ebbed away over the last few years. Some of it due to Kroenke’s leadership, other due to the previous custodians. Much to do with how Ivan Gazidis ran the club.

You can probably track Arsenal’s identity demise back to 2002 when Arsenal changed the badge of marketing and copywrite reasons. Since then the club has been a mess.

Now not everything that has gone wrong is Kroenke’s fault, but as sole owner of Arsenal he now has the final say in where the club is going. And the club needs to get back on course.

It will take a while, you do not turn a cruise liner on a six pence. But the letter is the start, and hopefully Kroenke (and perhaps more importantly Raul Sanllehi) does listen, does take things into account, and does show that he cares.

Finally Arsenal played last night, beating Colorado Rapids 3-0 with Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and James Olayinka getting on the score sheet.

I am not going to pretend to have watched the game, but there is a good write up on Jorge Bird’s Arsenal Youth Blog.

Arsenal’s 1st senior pre-season contained a youthful looking line up. Hopefully with another year in the Europa League we will see many of those players develop.

On Thursday Arsenal face Bayern Munich.

Keenos

Tierney IN, Kolasinac OUT: The mathematics behind the deal

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Arsenal are nearing the completion of a deal that will take Kieran Tierney from Celtic to London.
The reported deal is set to cost Arsenal £20m with a further £5m in add-ons (believed to be connected with Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League).
The deal is a fantastic one for Arsenal which will say them sign 22-year-old Tierney – who many believe to be the best British left back.
If Arsenal complete the deal for the reported price, it will be a feather in the cap for the negotiating team.
Following a first bid of £17.5m rejected, reports were that Celtic would be unwilling to do business for less than £30m. For Arsenal to get the deal done for £20m upfront is a bargain – especially in a market which has just seen Aaron Wan-Bissaka join Manchester United for £50m.
The deal begins to sound even better when you understand the mathematics behind it.
Tierney joining alongside Nacho Monreal signing a 1-year extension will surely mean the end of Saed Kolasinac. The Bosnian has interested Barcelona as back-up to Jordi Alba.
Kolasinac earns £115k a week. His yearly cost is £5.9m a year.
Tierney is expected to sign a 5-year £75k a week deal. With a £20m amortised transfer fee, he will cost £7.9m a year.
So Arsenal will be signing a better, younger full back than they currently have whilst only adding a little under £2m to our yearly expenditure.
When you take into account that Kolasinac would command a transfer fee northwards of £20m, it would leave Arsenal in a position where signing Tierney would not change how much we have to invest this summer. In fact doing a deal on both would likely raise funds for Arsenal, giving us more within our budget to be invested. 
Arsenal’s wage bill is the biggest problem at the moment
Selling Kolasinac and signing Tierney will save the club about £2m a year in wages alone. 
Add Kolasinac to the departing Petr Cech, Stephan Lichsteiner, Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck, that will be nearly £22m a year wiped off the wage bill.
When you add this lowering of the wage bill to the additional money from Emirates and Adidas, a clearer picture is starting materialise on Arsenal’s finances. One that shows that we have a lot more to spend than the £40m that was miss-reported by the main stream media.
Deals for Gabriel Martinelli, William Sabilla and Wilfried Zaha are being negotiated. If these deals go through it will take Arsenal close to £100m in expenditure.
Further transfer could then be financed dependant on yeh sales of Shkodrab Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil; all of whom the club are rumoured to be willing to listen to offers for.
Raul Sanllehi’s remit this summer was a simple one.
Get in control of an upwards spiralling wage bills whilst improving the quality of the squad.
Tierney for Kolasinac does just that.
Keenos
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