Tag Archives: She Wore

Mesut Ozil to follow Ramsey out of The Arsenal?

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The not so secret  big news broke yesterday that Aaron Ramsey is departing at the end of the season for Juventus.

Ramsey is reportedly getting a bumper wage of anything from £250,000-400,000 a week depending on who you wish to believe and if that’s before or after tax. Either way its a shedoad of money. That not only sets him up royally for life it also sets his kids and grandkids up, so fair play to him for that.

Ramsey’s agents have played a blinder. The final contract from The Arsenal was taken off the table a few months ago after over 18moths of negioations. It was very clear that Ramsey had no intentions of signing the contract, despite having “agreed” it.  I dont really blame him when you look at what Mesut Ozil is getting. The rumoured £200k deal is a lot less than he has ended up getting at Juventus.

For Juventus it’s a no-brainer, they are getting a great player for a max of £20m a season including his wages, its like they signed a £60m player paying him £200k a week, something The Arsenal will have to be looking to do this summer if we want to challenge higher up the table next season. There was no way in the world we could’ve matched the money Juventus are paying out.

Emery clearly has a way of playing in his mind and the type of players he needs. Some thought it would often be a choice of Ramsey or Ozil as the false number 10 this season, but often Emery has dropped both even when fully fit.

It seems the decision to either get Ramsey on a wage that wouldn’t slaughter our already too high wage bill or let him go was taken. I wouldn’t be shocked to see more stories about Ozil leaving to a number of sides in the gutter press and click bait junkies from now until the end of the season.

The sad truth is we need to lower the wage bill to rebuild and Ozil is not worth his huge £350k wages. He has recently crossed a barrier meaning he has missed more games than he has played at The Arsenal.

Right now I wouldn’t give Ozil a monkey a week and all the flat whites he can drink, let alone almost the price of a nice 2 bed flat in Islington per week.

If Emery does not fancy Ozil, we need to get shot and use his wages elsewhere. The £18.2m a year tied up in him could finance a deal for a £50m signing; paying £157k a week. Our outgoings would be the same but emery would be able to recruit someone more suitable to his system.

The rules on increased wages is a burden to us right now. We are miles ahead of the FFP rules and will be further in front come the new commercial deals this summer – which will increase club income by over £40million a year.

We have plenty of cash in the bank and this is before the Champions League places are sorted for next season. But the rule stating that wage costs can only increase by £7m a year will hinder Emery’s plans.

Arsenal are able to get around this rule if they show where additional income came from – and we did in 2017/18 increase the wage bill by £24million. However, the club’s latest financial figures showed the club’s revenue was down more than £40m to £388.2m for the year ending May 31, 2018.

For this season, revenue is likely to remain the same or show another slight drop. It would have been hard for the club to justify a wage increase above £7m this season taking into account the lack of player sales.

With Petr Cech hanging up his hat and Ramsey leaving, Arsenal will also release Danny Welbeck and Stephan Lichsteiner this summer. That will free up around £400,000 in weekly wages – or £20m a year. You add the £7m we can increase under FFP and we are talking about over £500,000 in freed up wages.

That should be more than enough to purchase the central defender, left back, winger and central midfielder (Ramsey replacement) we need.

If we can get all or part of Ozils wages off the books then it really does open things up for Emery to get in more of his players and hopefully a few fit defenders.

As for Ramsey I guess if you call him a legend or not is up to you. A bit like labelling a player “world class” it is subjective. There is no set criteria.

He came back from a very bad leg break, he scored 2 FA Cup winning goals, has been a model pro and father on and off the pitch. Him going over to the Cardiff fans recently shows he’s not forgotten his roots and he is clearly a proud Welshmen.

Will he be missed and still loved as much as when Brady moved to Juventus? Probably not. But fair play to him he is moving abroad and to one of the games greatest ever clubs.

If we play Juventus I would certainly afford him a clap onto and off the pitch, whilst hoping he has a stinker for 90mins.

Hopefully next season when we are in the Champions League, Matteo Guendouzi does to Ramsey what Cesc Fabregas did to Patrick Vieira in 2005.

Ramsey has had 11 years playing for The Arsenal, something we would all sell our Nan’s to do. A lot more have done a lot less for the club and got more credit. I am very sure he will do his best, when picked for the rest of the season. In a game of ego’s and selfish players,  he has kept his head down during his career, not courted limelight or controversy, and is one of life’s gentlemen.

Good luck Ramsey.

Gav

Points or places? What should Emery’s barometer of success

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Arsenal have 50 points from 26 games. We are on course to get 73 points in Unai Emery’s first season.

This will be an improvement on the 63 points that we got in Arsene Wenger’s final season – where we amassed 63 points and finished 6th. But it would be a little off what we got in 2016/17 where we finished 5th with 75 points.

In 2015/16 we finished 2nd with 71 points. This got me thinking.

If we got 70 points this season and finished 4th, would this be considered a good first season for Unai Emery?

It would return us to the Champions League for the first time in 3 seasons, fulfilling what most people feel is our minimum requirement – a top 4 finish.

However, 70 points would be our 3rd lowest points total in 11 seasons.

So what if we repeat the 2016/17 season, get 75 points and finish 5th. Would this be considered a good first season under Emery?

Despite not getting a top 4 finish, it would see us gain 12 points more than the previous season, and would be our 2nd highest points total in 11 years.

In 2016/17, Arsenal’s 75 points become the highest total for a team ever finishing 5th. In the last 13 seasons, the average points needed to finish 4th have been 71.

Back in the mid-00s, finishing outside of the top 4 would have been considered as a failure of a season, however we now have a situation where there are 6 sides all chasing the top 4 places.

In recent years Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have all failed to make top 4. It is no longer really the “given” that it was for a decade or so previous.

Top 4 should be the minimum target of all 6 teams, but 6 into 4 does not go. So is finishing outside of the top 4 really a failure?

Ultimately it comes down to what points you get.

In 2016/17, Arsenal finished 5th with that 75 point total. We were just 1 point off 4th, 3 points off Manchester City in 3rd.

A year later we were 6th with just 63 points. 12 points off 4th place, 14 off of 6th place. Arsene Wenger was not sacked due to finishing 6th, he was sacked due to how far behind 4th we were.

So this leads me to the simple question.

What would show the better progression under Emery at Arsenal?

Finishing 4th with 70 points; or finishing 5th with 75 points?

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1094881469917483009

The Champions League do not care about points. There is not a minimum points to get in. It is just finish 4th, whether that be one 60 points or 100 points. The flip side is would finishing 4th with 70 points should that much progression? Maybe from last season but certainly not from the decade before.

Ultimately, it will come down to getting into the Champions League. That in turn will free up finances to move on in 2019/20.

Although finishing 5th with 75 points would not represent a huge failure, just like it did not in 2016/17.

Something to think about this Tuesday morning.

Keenos

Only fans of The Arsenal could moan when we win….

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Saturday we WON and we WON AWAY, something we rarely did last season and had not done in the league since November this. Yet still too many on the social media and some blogs are using it as a stick to beat Unai Emery with.
Now I have the upmost respect to all match going fans, both home, away and the nut nuts who travel to Easten Europen war zones, I tip my hat to you all.
But there seems to be an element that say they are fans of The Arsenal that just can’t stop having a moan up on social media whilst sitting at home watching on a stream.
When chatting to mates who went oop north and seeing their social media; everyone seems happy, if slightly hungover. Very little moaning from the fans that do the miles.
No one is saying we were world beaters against Huddersfield, but a good day out with mates and a win will always trump a good day out and seeing us play well, “entertaining” and lose.
Yes saturdays performance wasn’t a 10/10,  but with 3 of our best defenders out right now and Emery wanting to build from the back we may struggle. With Granit Xhaka out we may struggle. With both Ramsey and Ozil out we may struggle. And with the 2nd highest goalscorer in the league this season out, we may struggle. We struggled, but we won, job done.
That lot up the road were praised for winning games when they had an injury crisis of 3 players. We were without 7.
As a supporter of a certain age I’m kinda used to seeing struggle. I grew up on the football over the 70s and 80s. When we won nothing.
I’m used to seeing us grind out results. I can hand on heart say I’ve enjoyed seeing us get a result we didn’t deserve more than when we turned up and battered sides in the 1st half. That 90th minute winner after a tough game.
Another point is Saturdays starting lineup had 2 London boys who came through the youth ranks in the starting, line up. We also had another 2 sitting in the bench.
Local lads playing might be a mute point to some, but I’m a big lover of seeing them come good.
From my early days watching a young Adams, Rocky, Merson, Thomas, Super Kev etc to Cole and Jack under Wenger. We have a great crop of youngsters right now, who Emery is backing and giving game time too,
I do find the stick the likes of Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles get on social media very odd. We should be backing our local lads, not going out of our way to abuse and criticise them.
Every right minded fan knew that Emery had a tough job this season.
When he came most most agreed that his minimum target would be to return us to challenging for top 4.
Prior to the Manchester City v Chelsea game, we were 1 point off Manchester United in 4th. We have 5 points more than we did at the same stage last season and should be on course to get over 70 points.
This season made harder by the fact he couldn’t buy this Jan due the rules on increasing the wage bill. It’s been made double hard by the sheer number of players that have had fluke injuries. But yet we are sitting on the coat tails of 3rd and 4th, and have an easier run in then those above.
People are criticising Emery even though he is fulfilling their pre-season expectations.
We all want to see improvement, but only the deluded would think that a squad that spluttered to 6th place last season and got smashed away from home in the Prem would be title challangers in 2 transfer windows. Emery is building a new way of playing, he’s building a new squad and he’s not shy in bringing in the youth.
The damage left by Wenger/Ivan may take 3 years to fix. This summer we could see up to 10 first team squad members leave. Yet some want to give the manager stick after just 26 Prem games, I honestly don’t know what planet there on.
my only theory is that as they didn’t have Emery on their “wanted” list; they now go out of their way to criticise him to prove they were right in not wanting him.
People moaning about % of the ball, Xg Goals, how many more corners they had, how many passes etc. The only stat that matters is who scored the most goals.Theres even the fools that can’t see an improvement on last season. 
I wanted Wenger out for years before he went, I wanted him out as I couldn’t see an improvement, we all watched us slowely spiral downwards. The downward spiral has been stopped, we are heading back up and at the pace to which we went down. If that’s not good enough for some then I feel for you I really do, but I’m sorry we are not gonig to win the Prem this season.
We also have to accept that there are 6 top teams chasing 4 Champions League places. It isn’t as easy as it was in the 00s.
If only those who seem hell bent on moaning at Emery win, lose or draw put more time into moaning about ticket prices, games moved for TV, the cost of trains to and from games and often lack of trains, then we would as fans be a lot better off.
Ignore the moaners – UNAI EMERY’S RED AND WHITE ARMY….
Gav