Tag Archives: SheWore

Goodbye Bacary Sagna

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With the news breaking yesterday that Tomas Rosicky is due to stay at Arsenal after signing a new 2 year contract the realisation has now set in that this year will be Bacary Sagna’s last year at the club.

I have always been a big fan of the Frenchman. Even during his dark times when his form took a massive dip in the middle of last season I backed him. One of the most consistent right backs in the league, even when he was out of form, he was still a class act.

On top of that, he always kept his head down, worked hard, and looked honoured to play for Arsenal. With the fact that he could cover 4th choice centre back, I was firmly in the ‘offer him a good deal’ camp, with his contract due to finish this summer. In my opinion, he is still good enough to be 1st choice right back next season, and 1 more year will enable ourselves to make a judgement on Carl Jenkinson and Hector Bellerin. He would have also saved us money investing in a new 4th choice centre back.

Unfortunately, I knew deep down that this was unlikely. At best, Arsenal would offer the 31 (in February) year old a 2 year deal. Taking into consideration his form and fitness over the last 18 months, we would have been crazy to tie up more money then 2 years than that. He is also currently on £60,000 a week. He would not have got a pay rise.

It is likely he will end up in France. With either PSG on Monaco. Both clubs will offer him higher wages (£100k pw expected) and a 4 year deal. The deal he signs this summer will be his last one. either stay at Arsenal for 2 years on £60,000 a week (and thereafter sign 1 year deals) or return home to France, nearly double his money, and double his contract length.

There is no bad feeling towards Sagna. He needs to do what is best. Staying at Arsenal for the next 2 years would earn him circa £6,000,000. By returning to PSG (just 125 km from his and his wifes birth town) or Monaco, he could potentially be signing a contract worth £20,000,000. It is not greedy. It is the difference between retiring happy and retiring very happy.

I also think that Arsenal would be crazy to try to match the deals that will be on the table from PSG and Monaco. To tie up £20,000,000 who has suffered with form and injury for the next few years would be crazy. We already moan that we have too much money tied up in players. Whilst offer the next 18 months, it might have looked like a good deal, in 24 months time, we would all be complaining about the waste of wages which bench warmer Sagna would be.

The recent deal which has seen Jermaine Defoe move to Toronto is a perfect example of the situation Sagna is in. Defoe is the same age as Bacary Sagna, and has just joined the MLS side on a four year contract, rising to £90,000 a week. That is the type of retirement money that Sagna is looking for.

Between now and the summer, we will be linked with many a right back. In November, I listed five possible replacements. Personally, my favourites are still Mattia De Sciglio of AC Milan and Everton’s Seamus Coleman.

Bacary Sagna will leave this summer, and I will wish him well and thank him for the memories.

Keenos

SheWore blog is back from Thailand, what a 3 weeks for The Arsenal

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So what a last 3 weeks we have had. The blog has been quiet since before January due to me being away in Thailand (and Jordan, Cambodia & Laos) for 3 weeks – Koh Phangan for New Years Eve, epic. A brilliant time and anyone reading who ever fancies going, give me a shout and I will happily point you in the right direction.

Anyway, Arsenal. What has happened since I went away? The boring 0-0 v Chelsea (the only game I did not watch) was followed up by 3 Premier League victories in a row. None of the performances were great, but is it not the sign of a Championship winning side who can win when playing poorly?

Top of the league into the New Year is something we all would have taken. For a long time, Arsenal fans have not spoke about winning the league, but about competing for it. And we are certainly doing that this year. The strength of Manchester City’s squad and ability to win games comfortable 3/4-0 does scare me, but as long as we keep winning, who knows what can happen.

Out of the current top 8, we have 3 at home, 4 away, so there will be more dropped points. Chelsea have 5 home, 2 away, and Manchester City have 6 away games. Taking into account their poor away form, this could be their downfall.

As a famous commentator once said “It’s up for grabs now” and this year, the title certainly is. A couple of signings by any club (more later) could be the difference.

Then we have the FA Cup tie against Tottenham. I watched this in the Tottenham Supporters bar in Chiang Mai. And fair play to them. They were accommodating and we had some good banter. All were old lads from North London and Hertfordshire, and my guess is they could recognise in myself and my mates other real fans. there was no hint of trouble, and we all got on well! It was certainly an experience I can never forget.

And the performance of that game was exceptional. Whilst we never set the world alight in the league, we completely outplayed a strong Spurs side. Gnabry was exceptional, and we should not worry about Walcott being out as this kid is special. Yes, he is nowhere near as good as Walcott yet, but he is easily the best teenage winger in the Premier League.

Walcott being injured is a kick in the teeth. He had returned from injury in sparkling form, scoring 5 goals in 6 games, showing that last year (21 goals in all competitions) was not a fluke. I do not understand why people still hate on him, when his talent is clear in the statistics:

2011/12 – 8 goals, 10 assists
2012/13 – 14 goals, 11 assists
2013/14 – 5 goals, 4 assists

9 goals/assists in just 13 games this season. Yes, he might not be Aguero, Rooney or Suarez, but he is certainly up there with the likes of Eden Hazard when it comes to effectiveness of a wide forward, and fair superior than Willian, Navas, Welbeck and Nasri. The boy is good. And as for the thumbs up against Spurs. That is a picture that will live long in the memory of Arsenal fans.

With Walcott’s injury, it does allow for others to step up. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is back from injury (could be on the bench for Aston Villa) and Gnabry showed his ability against Spurs. If one of these takes the position as theirs for the rest of the season, they could both make a run to be on the plane to Rio

As a final point about Theo Walcott, the comparisons people were making with Andros Townsend earlier this season have been blown out of the water. For those who rated Townsend as better, and called for him to go to the World Cup, well hang your heads in shame. Townsend’s hype was based on 1 goal for England. He is no more than an average player. In the last 3 Premier League games, Theo Walcott has scored 3 goals. In Andros Townsend’s entire Premier League career, he also has 3 goals. Argument over.

Whilst I am on about the FA Cup, it is a disgrace that it has been moved to a Friday night for TV reasons. I feel for the long suffering Coventry fans who have already been exiled from their own city and have been playing over 30 miles away in Northampton. They have now had a potentially brilliant day out ruined by TV executives. London on a Friday night means they will all have to take a day off work and the last train back is 23:30 from London Euston. Whilst they should make this, it is not right.

A lot of people on twitter use the hashtag #AMF. I usually cringe at this ‘Against Modern Football’ line, but in this case I fully agree. I would love Arsenal to do the right thing and offer to use their share of the TV money to put on free coaches for the Coventry fans. But this won’t happen. BT Sport are now in the same pot as Sky TV and ITV as ruining football. It is time the FA/Premier League stood up to the TV companies and said “Let’s be sensible”.

Finally, the transfer window is now in full swing, with a grand total of 0 deals currently done. As I described here, big deals in January are tough, especially in a World Cup year. Will Diego Costa really give up his World Cup place to start in a new country? Would Julian Draxler risk losing form by moving to England when Germany have so many similar player’s itching for a spot on the plane to Brazil? We certainly need to buy. A decent signing could see us push to the league title. However, who is about? We have already been lined to nearly 50 players since December 1st. As always, my advice, ignore the speculation  until the player signs.

Have a good day everyone, and it’s good to be back

Keenos
 

Arsenal most followed Premier League club – Full stats revealed

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At the weekend, Arsenal passed 3,000,000 followers on Twitter, making them the first Premier League club to pass through the milestone. This surprised me when I see Mesut Ozil has over 4,000,000 and Justin Bieber has 46,000,000. I thought I would explore how many followers the rest of the Premier League have;

Premier League – 3,014,009
Arsenal – 3,005,680
Chelsea – 2,970,819
Liverpool – 2,086,130
Manchester United – 1,296,966*
Manchester City – 1,275,000*
Tottenham – 689,142
Newcastle – 304,220
Everton – 267,676
West Ham United – 228,383
Aston Villa – 221,244
Fulham – 177,848
Sunderland – 176,191
Swansea City – 171,814
Southampton – 156,853
Norwich City – 155,216
Stoke City – 148,038
West Browmich Albion – 104,770
Cardiff City – 79,997
Crystal Palace – 67,720
Hull City – 59,577

Now a lot can be made from the above data. You could argue that it is a cross-section of society and therefore indicates the level of support of each club throughout the world. But it would be ludicrous to claim that Manchester United have less supporters throughout the world than those above them – their amount of followers was surprisingly low.

What it does show is, Manchester United apart – Arsenal still have a strong world-wide supporters base, still above the nouveau clubs Chelsea and Manchester City. Although Chelsea have shown the amount of fans you can gain through success. Are they now supported more throughout the world than Liverpool? Perhaps.

What is certainly shows is Arsenal’s online presence. For a long time, it has been a belief of mine that Arsenal have the strongest online presence in the UK. We have the most and best blogs & podcasts. We eat up social media. It is why media outlets write so much about us, as they know writing about Arsenal will get more online hits then any other club.

And how does Europe compare?

Barcelona (English) – 10,438,412
Real Madrid (Spanish) – 9,318,902
Barcelona (Spanish) – 5,604,562
Barcelona (Catalan) – 3,898,654
Galatasaray – 3,238,592
Arsenal – 3,005,680
Chelsea – 2,970,819
Real Madrid (English) – 2,734,033
Fenerbache – 2,490,906
Liverpool – 2,086,130
AC Milan – 1,560,114
Manchester United – 1,296,966
Paris Saint-Germain – 900,593
Juventus – 836,397
Olympique Marseille – 774,761
Bayern Munich – 714,642
Borussia Dortmund – 611,246
Atletico de Madrid – 518,833
Inter Milan – 403,667
Valencia – 322,284
Ajax – 277,414
Celtic – 189,556
Olympique Lyonnais – 187,281
FC Porto – 134,317
Benfica – 132,109

A few things jump out. Firstly the popularity of Barcelona & Real Madrid. This clearly shows them as the two biggest clubs in the world. But also shows a fascination with both clubs outside of Spain. The fact that Barcelona’s English account is has the most followers shows the fascination with them outside of Spain, and in the UK itself. Real Madrid’s English account also being high shows the unhealthy fascination with Spanish football and El Classico within the UK.

The second thing was how high Galatasaray and Fenerbache were. this perhaps shows why the ‘Arab Spring’ spread so fast throughout Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook. Twitters popularity in the ‘middle east’ and surrounding area is interesting – and not really for a football blog – but the popularity in Turkey is likely to also be the reason why Mesut Ozil has 3,000,000 followers.

Lastly is the lack of followers both German clubs and other Central European sides have. Which shows more how little Twitter has taken off in Central Europe.

A lot of opinions can be made about Twitter, including size of football following, Twitter throughout the world, and popularity of social media throughout the world. Or you can just say this was boring and pointless.

Either way, I found it interesting

Keenos

*Manchester United also have an Official Indonesian account (93,747), Spanish (31,891) & Malaysian (9,551)
*Manchester City have an additional 9 foreign language accounts totaling 33,202
*All at time of writing, Noon on Sunday 3rd November