Morning all, and what a fresh Sunday morning it is.

Few bits of Arsenal news flying about this morning.

The majority of which comes from the Arsene Wenger book tour.

Apparently there are a few snippets where he discusses rejecting a return for both Cesc Fàbregas and Robin van Persie.

We were heavily linked with Cesc before he joined Chesea. The Spaniard has 4 good years in West London so he certainly could have contributed something.

As for van Persie, we knew he was pretty much shot when he joined Man U. He basically had one good season under Alex Ferguson.

There is talk this morning that William Saliba could join a Championship side on loan.

Saliba and Mikel Arteta have come in for some criticism from those dark corners on twitter where negative nancies spend their day fluffing each other.

The French central defender is still just 19. Last season his development was disrupted by injury and Covid19. There are also reports that he was struggling following the death of his mother.

Arsenal recognise that he is not yet ready for the Premier League, and are looking to get him game time in England to continue his development.

Saliba does not turn 20 until March.

It is a lesson to Arsenal fans to not overhype young players (a lesson we will never learn!)

Let him go out on loan and continue his development. He will come back a stronger player with a season in the Championship.

Also the bigger picture is that we are currently integrating Gabriel into the first team. In a years time we can then do the same with Saliba.

Not much more transfer news with the domestic window having 5 days to run. Will any Premier League side take a punt on Sokratis, Saed Kolasinac, Sokratis or Shkodran Mustafi?

Last little bit of Arsenal news is the twitter rumour that Houssem Aouar’s brother blocked a move after demanding a £20m agent fee.

Not sure how true this is.

Aouar is on just £25,000 a week at Lyon. He would have expected to at least treble that at Arsenal.

Bit of other news.

I see 20,000 fans were at New Zealand v Australia in the rugby. Another 20,000 will be at the Eifel Grand Prix today in Germany. And 30,000 people watched Ukraine v Germany.

Let’s get fans back in grounds.

Enjoy your day.

Keenos

Morning all.

Stuck the heating on last night for the first time since summer. Random bit of knowledge no one asked for.

Sitting watching BBC News watching Mr Motivator telling everyone they are “Flawsome”; someone who embraces their flaws but is still awesome.

In football you can not really be flawsome.

You need to work on your flaws to continue to improve, not just embrace them whilst still thinking you are awesome.

Mr Motivator was on TV due to him being awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours.

Also getting an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours is Marcus Rashford for services to vulnerable children in the UK during COVID-19.

It is a much deserved award for Rashford. He has actually contributed to society with his actions, rather than footballers in the past who have got some just for scoring a few penalties and deflected goals.

News about Arsenal is fairly thin on the ground during the international break.

England play Belgium tomorrow and we might get to see Bukayo Saka and Ainsley Maryland-Niles again.

Both lads performed well against Wales and their versatility gives them an outside shot to make next years Euros.

Yesterday it was leaked that Sky and BT, with the agreement of the Premier League, where going to charge £14.99 for games that were not scheduled as part of your normal subscription.

I am conflicted on this.

On the face of it, £14.99 is a lot of money. But then we’re fans expecting Sky and BT to add an extra 250 games for free?

Likewise clubs were always going to look to try and recoup some of the missing money from fans not being on the ground, and take advantage of more fans sitting at home.

Ultimately it is the consumers choice.

You can’t choose to pay for the extra games, or you can choose not too. To watch them on an illegal stream or listen to them on the radio. Or wait till MOTD.

If games were not originally scheduled for TV, they would have been your options anyway.

It will also not affect Arsenal that much.

We average around 25 games on BT and Sky a season. That would leave just 13 games not normally on TV.

Total cost to watch the remaining Arsenal games will be less than £200. That is a lot less than your season ticket.

Ultimately it is the consumers choice whether they buy the extra games. Just like it is the consumers choice whether they subscribe to Sky Sports or BT Sports in the first place.

There are millions in the UK who do not subscribe to Sky because they find it overpriced. That is there choice. Like buying the new games will also be an individuals choice.

My advice. Get a few people round the house, split the cost with your mates, and we are talking about £3-4 a game per person. Like the boxing.

But £14.99 still feels steep.

Music has shown that by providing a a high quality streaming service for a reasonable cost, consumers will shun free, illegal services.

Football needs to follow this and realise that a lower, more reasonable price will lead to more fans paying, and in turn higher revenues.

To finish, you can not demand your clubs signs the best players available, but not have the income to go with it.

Like kit deals.

Adidas pay Arsenal £60m a year. That leads them to bring out 3 kits a year at £60 a kit. We complaining about the kits and cost, but celebrate the record kit deals.

Premier League clubs need to replace match day revenue to finance their big spending summer.

Enjoy your Saturdays

Keenos