Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

How much is a Premier League medal worth?

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£25 million.

That is how much Alexis Sanchez is willing to “sacrifice” by joining Manchester City in January rather than the summer, according to reports this morning.

Were Sanchez to move on a free transfer at the end of the season, as history dictates, he and his agent will demand a huge chunk of his transfer value.

Arsenal created the situation of players getting “paid” the transfer fee when Sol Campbell joined from Spurs in 2001.

Instead of paying a huge transfer fee, Arsenal put together a four year package worth £20 million – including signing on fee, bonuses and salary – which back then made one of the highest paid players in world football.

It was reported at the time that his “basic” wage was £60,000, and that Arsenal would pay an additional £30,000 a week over the 4 year period as a signing on fee. This was big money 17 years ago.

This kind of set a precedent in players leaving on a Bosman. They would be paid more due to a lack of transfer fee, with that extra money coming in signing on fees to avoid breaking squad wage structures.

Fast forward to Demba Ba. He left Newcastle for Chelsea when the London side activated his £7 million release clause. His agents estimated that his true value was closer to £20 million.

With Chelsea then getting him “on the cheap” the agents demanded an increased signing on fee from Chelsea.

Ba pocketed £3 million, his agents £2.5 million.

Just last week, we saw Ross Barkley move to Everton for a cut price £15 million. Today it was announced that his agents were paid £7 million for the transfer.

So there is massive precedent of players on a free transfer, or going for a lot less than their “value” pocketed a big chunk of cash as a signing on fee.

Reports are that Alexis Sanchez (or his people) was demanding £25 million to complete a free transfer in the summer. And that he is willing to “sacrifice” that £25 million to join city in January.

Now the story could be written that Sanchez is so desperate to get out of Arsenal that he is willing to sacrifice a big pay day in the summer. Whilst this does have some legs, we are talking about 5 months time. The reality is that it is unlikely that he will want to lose out on £25 million just because he is a bit unhappy.

The truth is that he wants to win a Premier League medal. And that by joining Manchester City in January, he is guaranteed winning one. So he is willing to sacrifice £25 million to win that medal.

A Premier League medal for Alexis Sanchez will be a hollow success.

Manchester City have the league already won. They are 15 points ahead of Manchester United in 2nd place after 22 games. They need just another 11 wins to secure the title. And that is if Manchester United win every game. City probably only actually need to win another 8 games to secure the title.

Sanchez joining now is a player coming late to the race. The hard work has been done. At the end of the season, even if he scores 10 goals and contributes to a couple of wins, City would have won the league regardless of his signing.

He might end up with a medal, but it will be a meaningless one.

Interestingly, in Sanchez’s 10 year career in Europe, he only has one league title to show for it. It probably shows why desperate he is to win medals, however hollow they are.

So Sanchez is desperate for a Premier League medal, despite it being hollow. And he is willing to sacrifice £25 million for what would be a hollow victory.

£25 million to win a Premier League medal.

As a final thought, if Sanchez does join Manchester City this week, he will still get a huge signing on fee. So he is not really sacrificing anything.

Keenos

Alex Iwobi – Silly Boy

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Silly boy.

Had Arsenal won on Sunday, had Alex Iwobi been playing well recently, it would have been a complete non-story. But Arsenal did not win, and Alex Iwobi has been rank awful all season.

Some people will point to the fact he is just 21 years old, and all of us have had a beer on a work night. Hell, in my younger days, I would occasionally go out until 5am on a Tuesday morning, head straight into work pissed, and battle through the day. But then I was not paid £50,000 a week to do so (not even £50k a year).

And whilst I would do this, I would still perform over the year – One of the top billers in my company. So not much would be said if I came in drunk or hungover from the night before.

Had I not been performing, not far exceeding my minimum standard, I would have been pulled aside, warned that my behaviour was affecting my performance, and disciplined accordingly.

Staying out until 2.30am on a Saturday morning was just poor judgement by Alex Iwobi.

Yes, it happened often back 20-30 years ago, but Paul Merson in his book mentioned that in the modern era of smart phones, the likes of the Tuesday club and doing cocaine in the back of a black cab would not have happened.

Alex Iwobi is on £50,000 a week, he is a professional footballer. He might only be 21, but he is not a normal 21 year old. He is not a student falling out of the Hippodrome in Colchester at 4am. He is paid a lot of money to be at peak physical fitness. This means diet, sleep and watching what you consume.

He might not have been drinking, he might not have been doing drugs, but he needs to be aware of who he is associating with. The excuse of “it was my mate smoking weed, I just inhaled second hand smoke” is not a valid excuse in the eyes of doping control.

Iwobi fails a drug test, he could be facing a year long ban, all because his mate was smoking a little bit of the herbs.

All young footballers get paid too much too early.

Just last week, Chuba Akpom admitted drink driving after crashing £60,000 Range Rover while ‘drunk on vodka cranberry’.

Akpom, who is now 22 years old, has achieved nothing in football. He could go on to achieve nothing, yet Arsenal have made him a millionaire. This is not just an Arsenal problem, but an English football problem. It is why the national team struggle.

Young players becoming millionaires before they have contributed anything meaningful in their career.

Alex Iwobi is at a cross roads in. He is underperforming massively. He is in danger of going down the Emmanuel Frimpong route. Too much partying and social media.

Personally, I would punish him by sending him on loan for the remainder of the season. Somewhere backwards like Hull, Norwich or Bolton. Make him realise he is lucky to be at Arsenal. And see if he comes back more grown up.

Next season Alex Iwobi has to be declared as part of Arsenal’s 25 man squad. This means he takes up a space. The club will evaluate as to whether he is good enough to take up a space. On current performances, he doesn’t. His behaviour only makes things worse.

In a year which could see Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez leave, Iwobi should be standing up and putting in performances – like Cesc Fabregas did in Patrick Vieira’s last year – which makes the management think we have a replacement already. Instead he is misbehaving and underperforming.

His Arsenal career is hanging by a thread.

Keenos

3rd round defeat the final nail in Wenger’s battered coffin

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We’ve never finished outside the top 4 under Wenger

We’ve never finished below Spurs under Wenger

We’ve never been knocked out of the FA Cup 3rd round under Wenger

And in 8 months, we have now finished outside the top 4, we have now finished below Spurs, and we have now been knocked out of the FA Cup 3rd round.

We should have won yesterday. The team Arsene Wenger put out was good enough. It was a team of internationals and bright young talented. But we lost. And we deserved to lose.

The team, on paper, was good enough. But you have to look beyond paper.

Our cup team has struggled past Doncaster and Norwich in the League Cup. It lost away to a then-bottom-of-the-League Cologne. It drew 0-0 in the most boring game of the season against Red Star Belgrade. The 2nd team should be good enough to dispose of these but they clearly are not.

The senior pros are letting down their young counterparts badly.

Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck, Mohamed Elneny, Alex Iwobi, Per Mertesacker. These are experienced internationals, yet have been amongst the worst players on the pitch against Nottingham Forest, and the other cup games.

I feel for the likes of Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Naitland-Miles and Joe (or Chris?) Willock. Even Rob Holding. They have been badly supported by their international team mates, and their manager.

The line up did not disappoint me yesterday. It was as expected. But the bench did.

Against Sutton last year, we had Our bench vs sutton last year we had the likes of Debuchy, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Sanchez & Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench.

When I saw the bench for yesterday I said to a pal “it reminds me of Sheffield Wednesday”. The lack of top class options. That if we went one behind, would we have the fire power on the bench to get us back into the game.

It proved that we did not. And Wenger has to shoulder that blame.

Some will highlight that we are still in the League Cup – but what team will Wenger put out mid-week v Chelsea? – and that we are in the next round of the Europe League. But that doesn’t get away from the fact that yesterday was not good enough.

It isn’t that we finished outside the top 4, it isn’t that we finished below Spurs. Nor is it yesterday as to the single reason why Wenger needs to go.

Arsenal have come stale and predictable. Each poor result exaggerated.

Wenger needs to go so that we can get our sanity back. Our hope back. Our enjoyment of the game.

2018 needs to be his last year in Islington

Keenos