Tag Archives: Premier League

Dubai return, Injuries, Ivan Toney and more

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Dubai return

I am not a fan of the winter break. It feels pointless. But it also came at a good time for The Arsenal.

We felt like a club under pressure. Struggling for positive results with a missfiring forward line. Spending 10 days in Dubai has been an opportunity for players to unwind – both physically and mentally.

Tomorrow we need to get behind the lads. They would have shaken the negativity off, so it will be important that we the fans do not pile it straight back on.

A big enough win tomorrow (8 goals!) and we go second…

Injuries

With the team out in Dubai, we have not had the usual thursday pre-match Mikel Arteta press conference. That means we have no idea if any of our walking wounded will be back fit.

The lads out long-term – Jurrien Timber, Fabio Vieira and Thomas Partey – will almost certainly not be back.

Some were hopeful that Timber would return in February, but with the type of injury he had this was always optimistic. I would be surprised if we see him until April.

Fabio Vieira and Thomas Partey were both out in Dubai training, but the Crystal Palace game will come a little early whilst they continue to rebuild their fitness. With another 10-day break before our next game, expect both to be held back.

Olexsandr Zinchenko is currently 50/50 to start against Palace. The expectation earlier in the week was that he would be back, but the Evening Standard are now reporting that he might not be fit enough.

It is better news for Gabriel Jesus. The Brazilian has looked fit, sharp and ready in Dubai. Expect him to be straight back in the first XI tomorrow.

Ivan Toney

I have always been concerned about Ivan Toney’s attitude.

Those Snapchats from a couple of years ago where he abused Brentford never sat well to me. Then you had the gambling ban. And more recent the interview where he openly discussed leaving the West London club.

Btrentford recruited Toney from League One. They supported him during the gambling issues and his ban. He has shown them so little respect and clerarly believes he is destined for bigger things than them.

Compare Toney to Ollie Watkins (who Toney replaced at Brentford). Watkins gets his head down, scores goals, and is never in the press for the wrong reasons. There is a reason why Watkins has now become an England squad regular, whilst Gareth southgate was always reluctant to pick Toney.

I am not sure that I would want someone with Toney’s attitude at the club, despite the goals he might score.

Tottenham transfers

Spurs fans are all a little giddy right now after news broke that they will (potentially) be signing 18-year-old Norwegian forward Antonio Nusa.

“Ange has transformed us”
“Paratici doing bits”
“Levy backing Ange”
“So exciting to be a Spurs fan right now”
“We are back as a serious club”
“Ange success rewarded”

Let’s get a few things right.

They have signed a Romanian central defender that no-one had heard of 6 months ago.
They have signed (on loan) a past-it forward who was dumped by Chelsea, and has now been dumped by RB Leipzig
They are potentially going to sign an 18-year-old forward with 5 goals in 52 games that no one had heard of yesterday morning

This will not be the first transfer window Tottenham have “won”. Infact, by my math they have won more transfer windows than league titles.

As for Spurs being back and brilliant Ange, Tottenham are 5th, behind “found out Mikel Arteta” and “struggling Arsenal”.

Give it 18 months and the tactically inept Australian will be at Fulham.

Jordan Henderson

Joke of a man.

Went to Saudi Arabia for the money, pretended he was going to “achieve something special and build a club and build the league”, and then within 6-months he is out of there.

Everyone knew that the Saudi Pro League was a huge sports washing experiment, and all those players that took the money to promote the nation in a positive light are complicit in the Human Rights atrocities that are carried out at the demands of their pay masters.

One reason I chuckle when football wear rainbow laces or take the knee is because you know the majority of them can be bought. They will all go to Saudi Arabia for £500k a week, despite the “Kingdoms” stance on slavery and sexuality.

Henderson was one of the most prominent voices during the “we will promote any cause” era of the Premier League. He then showed his true self by going to Saudi for the money.

He should never play for England again.

Keenos

Arsenal unlikely to sign anyone in January

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This has probably been the quietest January transfer window in recent memory.

Just 7 teams have signed new players so far this window, with just 5 of those teams making a permanent signing.

Less than £30m has been spent by Premier League clubs this window, with 84% spent by Tottenham on just a single player that no-one had heard of.

No top club has yet to dip their foot into the market, and it is highly unlikely that anyone will.

So why is spending so low this winter?

Teams overspent in the summer

Last summer, more money was spent across the globe on football players than any in history. More than £6.5bn was spent on new recruits, with the Premier League and Saudi Pro League leading the way.

The Premier League alone account for £2.36bn of this spending, and it was not just driven by the big boys – 10 clubs spent more than £100m, including the likes of Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and West Ham.

Clubs maximised their spending last summer. Very few (if any) kept their powder dry to make a transfer or 2 in January. Most do not have a pot to piss in until TV and sponsorship money comes in at the end of this season.

Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR)

In recent days, PSR has become the most used word in football following Nottingham Forest and Everton’s charges for breaching the rules.

These rules are in place to protect clubs from overspending to get out of trouble (or gain success), and then hitting financial issues if they can not spend their way out of trouble.

Whilst fans of some clubs are claiming that PSR is stopping their club spending, it is actually the way their club has been run for the last 3 or 4 years that is restricting them.

I have read West Ham United fans saying PSR is the reason they have not spent this winter – the same fans who blame their owners every window. Which is it? Likewise, Everton have lost nearly half a billion pounds in recent years, but apparently it is PSR stopping them buy.

Whilst I do understand that PSR is having an impact, the main reason clubs are not signing anyone (yet) is because they spent all their money in the summer. What PSR is doing is stopping them spend money they do not have.

Foreign clubs are broke

Nearly half of the total global spend in 2023 was spent by the Premier League and Saudi Pro League. Whilst the global total was up, spending in the top 5 leagues excluding the Premier League was down from the previous record year (2019).

The above graphic highlights why teams in Spain and Italy are pushing for a European Super League. Due to their own leagues being run in such a poor (and corrupt) manner, they no longer generate anywhere near close to what they did back 5 or 6 years ago. As a result, their clubs recieve less income and they have less to spend on transfer.

Bottle neck of transfers

Transfers are often like a line of dominoes; when one piece topples, a myriad follow in a ripple effect. The issue is right now, with money so tight, no pieces are falling.

Lets say Arsenal spend £80m on Ivan Toney. That then gives £80 to Brentford to spend on maybe 4 or 5 players, which in turn gives those clubs £15-20m to spend on players.

A couple of those clubs then spend that £20m on some Manchester United fringe players, which gives them a funds boost and they can then make a single big purchase, which triggers the next load of dominoes to fall.

The problem is the big clubs do not have the big funds to make the dominoes fall.

Lower clubs can also start the chain by purchasing players from bigger clubs.

So lets use Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah as an example. You might get Everton spend £40m on Smith Rowe and West Ham spend £30m on Nketiah. That then gives Arsenal £70m in incoming funds, which we can then use on Toney, and it triggers the scenario above.

But clubs like West Ham, Everton, Wolves, Brentford and more do not have the funds (this window) to buy the fringe players which could trigger the domino effect.

And there is also little income coming in from abroad that could kick start deals – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and more are broke. They are not looking to buy players from the Premier League, they are only looking to sell.

There is a standstill in the market right now, and whilst it might only take one transfer to pump life into it, I just can not see where that transfer is coming from.

Lack of available quality players

From Arsenal’s point of view, I feel there is a lack of available players that we would actually want to buy.

Before Christmas, there was speculation that we would be in the market for a new left back. But that player would need to be better than Olexsandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jurrien Timber. That sort of of player is often not available in January.

That would leave Arsenal buying someone who is not as good as those mentioned. We would be recruiting someone for the sake of getting an additional body in.

As for a striker, Ivan Toney has spoken recently on potentially leaving Brentford, but I imagine most clubs will want to see how he returns to top flight football following 8 months off.

The likes of Dusan Vlahovic and Victor Osimhen are also on our radar, but these are probably summer targets – Osimhen specifically would not be available to play until mid-February, and players notoriously return from the African Cup of Nations unfit.

The reality is, January transfers very rarely win you the league, so we would be better off not taking money out of our summer budget unless a primary target does come onto the market.

I see a lot of chatter amongst Arsenal fans stating that by not making moves we are throwing away the league title. I am not sure that is true.

The truth is no team is making moves in January, and this is due to a combination of a lack of funds, being unable to sell players to generate funds, and a lack of available quality players.

Personally, I would rather wait for the summer and sign a top striker, rather than overpay now for someone who is mid.

Stay warm.

Keenos

Top 4 challengers misfire – Arsenal now need get back on track

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Morning! How was everyones weekend with no football? For me, I spent most of the time watching the snooker. Ronnie O’Sullivan – what a sportsman.

There was only half the Premier League games on this weekend due to the winter break, and none at 3pm Saturday. The Premier League got their wish of every game being televised.

I am part of the problem as I watched every single live games (in between the snooker).

Manchester City injuries

Whilst other majors continually point to their injuries as to their poor form (Postecoglou, Howe), very little has been made from Pep Guardiola or the media about Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland missing so many games.

Alongside Mo Salah, they are the 3 best players in the Premier League. I doubt any other team would have survived without players of the quality of de Bruyne and Haaland out for so long.

Of course, part of that is due to how much they spend one wages.

In their place they can call up a World Cup winning striker (Julian Alvarez) and a £100m midfielder (Jack Grealish).

A lot is made about how much Mikel Arteta has spent since he came in, but that is dwarfed by the investment of Manchester City over the last decade building the squad they currently have.

“Net spend since Arteta came in” does not take into account the signings of the likes of de Bruyne, Rodri, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and Ederson. Nearly £300m worth of starting talent that these pundits act like they do not just because they were signed out of the chosen time frame.

I also had to laugh at the weekend when I saw one armchair pundit say “this is the difference between Arsenal and Manchester City. They bring de Bruyne off the bench whilst we have Reiss, Nketiah and ESR. Arteta and the spineless director need to be buying world class game changes”.

It ignored that fact that KdB was only on gthe bench due to coming back from injury, that no other team in world football had a player of his quality on the bench, and that he earns in excess of £300k a week.

In 2022/23, Manchester City spent over £100m more on wages than Arsenal. It is the equivalent of having an additional 9 players earning £200k a week! For that you would expect them to have a deeper squad, more world class game changers on the bench.

The recruitment is not the issue at Arsenal. It is the finances. We need to close the gap on both Manchester City and Liverpool, and we only do that by consistently finishing in the Champions League.

If we take Manchester City out of it and compare to Liverpool, you can see the differenct in the squads when you look at the front 3.

Both starting 3 are fairly comparable – Salah, Nunez, Diaz v Saka, Jesus Martinelli. But Liverpool than have two quality replacements in Diego Jota and Cody Gakpo. Both are a similar level to Martinelli. Meanwhile we have Leandro Trossard (who is the level below), and then ESR and Nelson (who are levels below the Liverpool 5).

We only close the gap in terms of squad depth by getting that additional £80m a year in Champions League revenue, and investing it in better players than what we have.

Strikers misfiring

It was intersting over the weekend watching two lads who we were heavilly linked with 2 years ago – Dominic Calvert Lewin and Alexander Isak, but opted for Gabriel Jesus.

One accusation labelled at Jesus is he is not a clinical striker, and due to that we need to be looking elsewhere. Had we signed DCL or Isak, the same claims wouldbe made.

Both are decent strikers, but both miss a lot of chances.

Were Isak more clinical, Newcastle would have easily beaten Manchester City. The Swede reminds me of Emmanuel Adebayor that he has it all (physicality, speed, technique), but his performances are inconsistent and his finishing unreliable.

DCL is similar, missing a host of chances against Aston Villa as they drew 0-0.

Whilst both of these would improve our squad depth, I do not think either is better than what we have. And that is the headache for Edu and his team right now – there is a lack of top strikers in Europe and very few have proven on a consistent basis that they are clinical.

Sunday League performance

The irony of Manchester United playing on a Sunday was not lost on me during the game as both sides put on a performance that would not have been out of place on Hackney Marshes.

A 2-2 performance where neither team played with any structure, the defending was all over the place, and the teams just lumped in forward to their strikers in the hope of some individual magic. It was a Sunday League performance.

Ange Postecoglou is not a tactical genius in his “gung-ho” methods. His teams play with very little structure because he has the inability to coach teams in a more structured way. He is no different to the Sunday League manager who is not really a manager, and just there to do the subs. And Erik ten Hag is no better.

It was a dull 2-2 draw where both managers showed they are poor coaches.

And what about The Arsenal…

Not much happening still.

Emails went out last week reminding us of the importantance of either going to games or selling on the Ticket Exchange.

We now have to go to 17 games (or have posted them on TX) to retain our season ticket. I think it is a brilliant policy. You use it or lose it.

There will be cases where fans are unable to make that many games and unable to sell on TX, and the club will take into account individual circumstances. But ultimately if someone is only going to 10 games a season, and can not be bothered to sell on TX, then they should not have a season ticket.

Good to see that Jack Wilshere bought in David Seaman for a few coaching sessions. I always think it is benificial for legends to come in on an ad-hoc basis. Whilst they might not be the best coaches, just coming in and speaking to the players can have a huge impact, especially for youth players.

All in all, a good weekend for Arsenal as Aston Villa and Tottenham both dropped points (playing away from home). We now need to get back to winning ways next Saturday at home to Crystal Palace.

A victory will return us to 3rd in the table. Not bad for a team in crisis (see Newcastle for an actual team in crisis!)

UTA.

Keenos