Tag Archives: She Wore

Risky Runar Runarsson

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Arsenal have taken a risk signing unknown Icelandic keeper Runar Alex Runarsson.

Our friends over at Gunners Town have spoken to the Vice President of the official Arsenal Iceland, Hilmar Guðjónsson about his fellow countryman, and the exclusive makes fairy grim reading.

Hilmar reveals that “Iceland are not blessed with good goal keepers”, which is a concern when Runarsson has just 5 caps, and has not played since 2015.

Runarsson joined Dijon in 2018, but last season lost his place as number 1, starting just 9 Ligue 1 games.

Hilmar goes on to say that Runarsson has a poor shot stop ratio and does not dominate his area.

Arsenal goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana has previously coaches Runarsson at FC Nordsjælland, so you have to feel he has been recommend to the club.

So Runarsson does not arrive with a glowing reputation. Arsenal are clearly taking huge risk signing him.

Arsenal received a reported £17m upfront from Aston Villa for Emi Martinez, and a decision has clearly been made to buy the “cheapest option possible” leaving the majority of that fee to be spent elsewhere on the team.

The club could have gone out and signed David Raya from Brentford for £10m.

Spaniard Raya is an experience Championship goalkeeper and, importantly, home grown. Instead Arsenal went for Runarsson for just £1.5m.

That leaves Arsenal with £15.5m spare from the Martinez deal, rather than £7m.

Arsenal are taking a risk on Bernd Leno staying fit.

Leno is undisputed number 1. He will be between the sticks for every game. Runarsson is being signed to take a seat on the bench.

Arsenal would have looked at Leno and realised he is a fit young man.

Leno has missed just 19 League games in 9 seasons, playing out of 296 out of 315 league games for Arsenal and Leverkusen.

According to Transfermarkt, he has had 2 spells in his career when he missed games.

Back in 2012/13, he missed a handful of games with an elbow injury. More recently he missed games for Arsenal following a dangerous challenge by Neal Mupay against Brighton.

By signing Runarsson, Arsenal are banking on Leno maintaining his excellent injury record.

But what if he gets injured again?

My feeling is Arsenal would request the Premier League to authorise an emergency loan to cover Leno rather than promote Runarsson to number 1.

Premier League rules state that “teams are allowed to sign goalkeepers on emergency loan cover, but this is generally if no senior goalkeepers are available”.

Arsenal would then have to make the case that, despite being 25, Runarsson is not a “senior goal keeper”.

In their favour, they could argue that he has yet to start a Premier League game, and only made 9 starts in France last year.

If the league agree to the loan deal, Arsenal could then scour England for the “best available number 2” to come in on a temporary basis.

If Emi Martinez is playing week in, week out for Aston Villa, there is a high chance that could be Tom Heaton.

Arsenal might have to write off the “additional fees” to secure the England international, whom Villa signed for £8m just last summer.

Fraser Forster from Southampton and Marek Rodak of Fulham would also be options if the time came to it – the later will probably be usurped as number one by Alphonse Areola this season.

The emergency loan would then come into the first team with Runarsson remaining on the bench.

By going cheap to Runarsson, Arsenal are freeing money up to be spent elsewhere, but it is a risk.

Note: Since writing this blog, news has broken that Arsenal might also sign David Raya, with the deal being completed this summer, by Raya allowed to stay on loan at Brentford for the season.

This would only make sense if Arsenal only made a down payment this summer, with the rest of the transfer fee being paid next summer. And Arsenal had a clause in the loan deal allowing Raya to be recalled at any time if Bernd Leno picked up an injury (with the remaining transfer fee payable immediately).

An interesting development.

Keenos

Aubameyang contract kicks off new era for Arsenal

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After what seemed like an eternal wait for Arsenal fans, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finally confirmed his future with the club by signing a three-year contract, which will keep him at Emirates Stadium until 2024. 

Rumours swirled surrounding the future of Aubameyang following his FA Cup Final winning brace in August. The player posted a number of cryptic tweets that featured an hourglass, sending Arsenal supporters into a frenzy when his new deal was announced on Tuesday. 

With his new contract signed, read on below for how Aubameyang’s decision to commit to Arsenal could help the Gunners’ pursuit of players in the transfer market.

Having wrapped up a deal for their talismanic captain, Arsenal’s attention must turn to their top transfer targets before the window closes on 5 October. Manager Mikel Arteta has maintained his interest in midfield duo Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar, who have been the Spaniard’s preferred options for much of the summer. 

After impressing in Lyon’s run to the Champions League semi-finals last season, Aouar could be persuaded to join Arsenal because of the presence of a world-class finisher in Aubameyang. Although the Gunners are playing in the Europa League, this could be an attraction for Aouar. Lyon missed out on European football altogether when Ligue 1 was terminated in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The presence of Aubameyang, who leads by example with an excellent goal-scoring record, could help Aouar integrate quickly into the side should he choose to join. Thanks to their French-speaking connection, Aouar would have the chance to settle seamlessly into an Arsenal side that is crying out for creative talent. 

Arsenal are also finding it tricky to negotiate for Partey with Atletico Madrid insistent that, unless his £50 million release clause is met, he will not be allowed to leave. The player is said to prefer a move to the Premier League but is yet to force his way through the exit door. 

The message sent by the Arsenal skipper in rejecting Barcelona is that he has complete faith in Arteta and the Spaniard’s ambitious rebuilding process. After all, Arteta has won the FA Cup and had his job title changed from head coach to manager in the space of nine months as Arsenal boss. These are on and off pitch examples respectively that Arteta is prepared to take full responsibility for the club’s fortunes on the road to success. 

This is a factor that must not be underestimated in north London. After the acrimonious events of last winter that dangerously divided the Arsenal fanbase, Arteta has instilled a sense of hope and optimism amongst supporters barely a year into the job. Moreover, he has drilled accountability and discipline into his players that has led to a healthy competitionfor places amongst the squad. 

Although he is the first name on the team-sheet, Aubameyangis at the forefront of this. 

Asked by Arteta to move out to the left wing to accommodateAlexandre Lacazette or Eddie Nketiah, he did not once complain about being shifted out of position. Instead, the Gabon international remained focused on scoring goals, for he knew this is how he would contribute to the team most effectively. 

Arsenal have already beaten off Napoli and Manchester United in the transfer market this summer by signing Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille. Already, signs are showing of Arsenal’s ability to attract top players.

The news that Arsenal’s star striker will remain at the club, having been convinced by his manager’s project, is evidence that the Gunners are embarking on a mission to achieve success. Having Aubameyang along for the ride will only accelerate the process.

Zac Campbell

How do football clubs use factoring to gain instant access to transfer fees?

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Invoice financing, or factoring as it is often referred to, is commonly used by businesses to improve their cash flow. With invoice financing, rather than waiting for an invoice to be settled, a proportion of cash tied up in the invoice can be released by a factoring company as soon as the invoice is issued.

Say a company sells cars on finance. They sell you a BMW 3 Series. It is a £27,000 motor, but you pay a deposit of £5,000 and drive it away same day. You then agree to 48 monthly payments of £269 and a final an optional final payment of £12,088.

The dealership will end up earning receiving £30,000 for you, the buyer. But at this moment in time they only have £5,000 in their pocket. No where near enough for them to replace the car you have just bought from them, which would enable them to make the next sale.

So what the dealership will do is contact a factoring company. They will explain that they have £12,912 in monthly payments set to come from a buyer.

The factoring company will buy the debt off the dealership, minus a small percentage – say 10%.

So the dealership receives £22,500 (£25,000 minus the 10%) from the factoring company, as well as the £5,000 deposit from yourself – £27,500 in total.

As you make your £269 payments to the dealership, they in turn make the same payments to the factoring company. At the end of the finance deal, a final payment is made, or the car is returned to the dealership who then sell it on.

You get a car that you can afford upfront, by agreeing to pay on finance.
The dealership receives £27,500 (a little over the original asking price).
A factoring company makes £2,500.

Whilst the dealership might have “lost out” on £2,500 additional profit, using the factoring company meant that they got the on the road price of the car upfront, rather than waiting for 48 months.

This enables them to buy more cars. And in turn to sell more cars.

Without the factoring company, the dealership would not have the cash to purchase new cars, and continue running their business.

Say Arsenal are demanding £20m upfront for Lucas Torreira. Torino want to pay Arsenal £10m now, £5m next summer and £5m the summer after.

Arsenal can not complete a deal for Thomas Partey with £10m. They need the full £20m. So they enter into negotiations with Torino.

Instead of the deal being for £20m upfront, the two clubs agree that Torino pay £10m upfront, £6m in a year, and another £6m in 2 years. Torino paying an extra £2m to spread the fee over 3 summers.

“But Arsenal are still only receiving £10m this summer” you cry.

No. What Arsenal then do is contact a factoring company.

They inform the factoring company that they are owed £6m next on 31st July 2021 and another £6m on 31st July 2022.

The factoring company then buy the £12m debt for £10m.

Arsenal receive their £20m this summer (£10m from Torino, £10m from the factoring company) and then next summer, Torino pay Arsenal £6m, Arsenal in turn pay £6m to the factoring company.

And the process is repeated in 2022.

So Torino pay an extra £22m total to spread the transfer fee over 3 summer windows
Arsenal still receive 100% of what they wanted, allowing them to go and purchase Thomas Partey.
And the factoring company make a cool £2m.

Everyone is happy!

Ultimately, this means that if Arsenal sell players this summer, with fees paid in instalments, it is unlikely they will have to wait until next summer, or the summer after to access the agreement payments.

They will use a factoring company, which frees the money up straight away, allowing Arsenal to reinvest straight away.

Note: Often the factoring company will also collect the debt direct from the debtor. So Torino would pay the factoring company direct, rather than pay Arsenal who then pay the factoring company

Keenos