Tag Archives: sports

Declan Rice to captain England on 50th cap as Ashley Cole inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame

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Morning!

Declan Rice will captain England tonight on the day of his 50th cap. Having played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, you would have thought Gareth Southgate would have given him the match off. Win his 50th cap another day.

Southgate has seen Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdraw through “injury”. You would have thought by now he would realise that if he wants his best players to be available, he should do deals with clubs and manage their playing time.

Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Rice, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins all played the full 90 on Saturday. I wonder how many Southgate will pick tonight.

In terms of other Arsenal news, Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame yesterday.

I actually have no issue with Cole and what happened with Chelsea.

Yes, at the time I was fuming. He joined a direct rival and the stories about he nearly crashed his car after only being offered £55,000 a week felt crass. But as I grew up and matured, I realised Arsenal, and David Dein, were in the wrong.

Cole had agreed a £60,000 a week contract with the Arsenal hierarchy. He was happy to sign on the dotted line. Then when the offer came through it was for £55k a week. It was an underhand move by Dein, alienating a boyhood fan, academy graduate and future captain.

Whenever I see people saying “Arsenal would be in a much better position if Dein had remained involved in the club”, I think about the Cole situation and how his decision forced a potential Arsenal legend out of the club.

It was also Dein, remember, who encouraged other board members to sell their shares to Stan Kroenke, before he sold his own to Alisher Usmanov which created the ownership split and led to our decade long stagnation. It is not a surprise how far Arsenal have moved forward on and off the pitch since Kroenke became 100% owner.

I might never consider Ashley Cole an Arsenal legend, but he is our best ever left-back.

The big transfer rumour is that we are looking to “match Chelsea'” and bid £60m for Ousmane Diomande.

Whilst Diomande is clearly a bright young talent, I can not see us spending £60m on a central defender unless either Gabriel or William Saliba leave. This very much feels like a story inserted by an agent to generate interest in his client.

Likewise, I also can not see us triggering the £103m release clause for Diomande’s teammate Viktor Gyokeres.

£103m is a huge fee for someone who turns 26 soon, and has only had a decent 18 months in the Championship and 1 good season in Portugal.

I have issue paying top dollar for top players (as the Declan Rice deal proves). But this would be a huge chunk of our summer spending on someone who would not be guaranteed a start.

I expect us to spend around £160m this summer, depending on sales.

£27m is already committed to David Raya, and another £10-ish million will need to be spent on an Aaron Ramsdale replacement. That wil lleave us with around £130m left to make additional improvemnts.

We need a central midfielder and a striker. That is not up for debate. We also potentially need another winger.

Our first option is to buy a truly top striker that will be guaranteed to start ahead of Gabriel Jesus, and then Jesus is the back up striker and the cover to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I do not feel Gyokeres is that man.

The alternative is to buy someone who can compete with Jesus, and potentially grow into a superstar in the future. To further add to the squad, we then go out and buy another winger so that Jesus can continue to be utilised primarily up top.

Whilst Gyokeres could be this “alternative option to Jesus”, his proposed transfer fee would mean we would then not have enough in the pot to buy another winger.

If we are spending around £130m, I would rather Arsenal trigger the release clauses of Benjamin Sesko, Nico Williams and Martin Zubimendi (total – £138m), then spend £103m on Gyokeres and only have £30m left to try and recruit a midfielder.

Remember to grab your Bayern Munich tickets if you have not already done so!

Keenos

The curious case of Tomiyasu’s 2-year deal

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Yesterday it was announced that Takehiro Tomiyasu would be following Ben White in signing a new contract. But everything was not as clear cut as the White deal.

Tomiyasu had signed on until 2026, representing a 2 year deal, or a year extension on his current ones. This led to a lot of scratched heads.

My first thought was “has he actually signed a new deal, or is this Arsenal triggering a one-year extension clause”. As it turns out, this was a completely new deal which Tomiyasu was happy to agree.

As time went on, it transpired that the new 2-year deal included a further year option for Arsenal, so in essence it was a new 3-year contract. This is still extremely short for a 25-year-old to agree to.

After more reflection, I came up with two reasons why this deal happened.

The first is it shows where Arsenal are as a club right now. Players want to sign on that dotted line. They want to be involved in the Mikel Arteta journey. So even though the length of the contract was not favourable, Tomiyasu would rather give another 1-2 years to The Arsenal then turn down the deal, leave in the summer and join someone like Aston Villa or Newcastle.

The second is Tomiyasu himself.

On signing his contract, Tomi said: “I am so happy to extend my contract because Arsenal is the best club in the world. It’s a dream to play for this club, so I’m happy.

“When I’m on the pitch I feel the love and energy from the supporters. We are connected a lot so I want to give them something back. I am playing for Arsenal, and this means I’m playing for the Arsenal supporters. That’s why I dedicate my life to this club and the supporters.

“I want to give them something back. The connection between players and supporters is a different level and that makes it more special.”

The first part of his statement shows that he has bought into Arteta’s project and where Arsenal are right now. The second shows that he feels that he owes the club and fans something following his injury issues.

Since joining the club in 2021, he has suffered 4 major injuries that have led him to miss over 40 games for The Arsenal. He clearly feels some sort of guilt over that, and wants to repay the club and fans for sticking by him.

The new deal means that he probably gets another 2-years at the club to show that he can stay fit. And we know that if he keeps fit he can be a big part of our future. If he does not stay fit, Arsenal have not invested too much into him, will trigger the extension in 2026 and sell him.

At 25-years-old, Tomiyasu is also not in “last contract” terrority.

I imagine the money he will be in will be in and around £100k a week. Not many clubs in England or Europe would pay him (or others) that. And if he leaves at 27, he will still be young enough to get another 5-year deal elsewhere.

In the past, we have seen clubs – including Arsenal – offer 5-year deals to players with Tomiyasu’s injury record. And in that 5-years we rarely see them play and are stuck with them until their contract runs down. At least with this deal with can release for free after 2 more seasons, or extend that deal and try and get a fee for him.

It is not very often that you see a player agree to less favourable terms. The 2-year deal is completely in Arsenal’s favour. But this just shows that Tomi wants to be part of Arsenal’s future and repay the fans for their support.

Other news for yesterday is that the Munich away tickets have been announced.

We should get around 3,700, so I am not sure why the club are starting them at 50+ credits. What is odd is that they then advertise all the way down to 10+. They usually advertise down to where they think they will sell out so not sure why they start at 50+ if they predict it will go to 10+.

There can not be more than 3,000 with 30+, and this is further highlighted that once it goes down in 10s below 40+.

The last bit of news is that some places are linking us to a move for Juventus’s Adrien Rabiot. It is a deal I can not see happening.

Whilst his contract does run out at the end of the year, he will certainly not be “free” as his mum will demand inflated wages, a huge signing on fee and a big wad of cash for herself.

Rabiot turns 29 in April and I feel he is a wasted talent – he has never fulfilled his potential.

There has always been a feeling that one-day it might click for him. But at his old age now, those times are running out. He does have the physical and technical ability to play deep into his late 30s at a high level, but I think the time for us sniffing around someone like Rabiot it gone.

Better to buy someone younger, hungrier, who does not have a troublesome history.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos

Arsenal youth keeper actually 20 years old (and not the reported 15)

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Morning! We are 8 days into our 19-day break from football. Times like this does make me wonder what those who do not like our great game do with their time? Life is so boring without it.

Due to the lack of senior football, Arsenal.com are using the time to highlight the academy and women teams, so there is a real lack of real Arsenal news floating about.

As expected, the game against Aston Villa has been moved to Sunday afternoon.

Hats off to all those who had worked out that this game would be moved, and as a result the Munich away leg would have to take place on the Wednesday. These guys got some great deals on flights by booking for a Wednesday game before UEFA had officially announced it. I am still not too upset about £230 flying via Frankfurt. Although it does bite that return flights direct to Munich are just £61 the next week!

I was surprised to read yesterday how few players we had on international duty – just 12:

Aaron Ramsdale
Bukayo Saka
David Raya
Declan Rice
Jakub Kiwior
Jorginho
Kai Havertz
Karl Hein
Leandro Trossard
Martin Odegaard
Oleksandr Zinchenko
William Saliba

Just 7 of the 12 are first team regulars following Gabriel Magalhaes withdrawal. That means the likes of Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Cedric Soares, Gabriel, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah are still at London Colney. Gabriel Martinelli and Jurrien Timber also remain at home whilst they return from injury.

To have 11 senior players training in the middle of the March international break must be a positive for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal. By the time we add in a few of the U21s, the boss will be able to run fairly normal training sessions.

One of those who has joined the senior team for training is goalkeeper Ovie Ejeheri.

I am not sure where the story has come from, but it has been reported that Ejeheri is only 15, which is clearly not true.

It shows how many Twitter accounts just copy and paste news without checking for themselves first. A quick Google of his name brings up his Arsenal.com profile which Ejeheri was born in 2003. In April he turns 21!

The Greenwich born keeper spent the first half of last season on-loan at National League South side Chelmsford City, keeping 12 clean sheets in 25 games. For the second half of the season he joined Finnish club SJK, with Ejeheri keeping nine clean sheets in 14 Veikkausliiga games.

Arsenal have quite a few young goalkeepers on the books right now including:

Karl Hein – Current 3rd choice, 21 years old
James Hilson – Current 4th choice, 1st choice U21, 23 years old
Ovie Ejeheri – 2nd choice U21, 20 years old
Arthur Okonkwo – Performing well on loan to Wrexham, 22 years old
Hubert Graczyk – Polish youth international on loan at Slough Town, 21 years old
Noah Cooper – Frist choice U18, 18 years old
Alexei Rojas – Essex born Columbian, signed from Chelsea, 18 years old
Brian Okonkwo – Arthur’s younger brother, recently joined Cheshunt on loan, 18 years old

With Aaron Ramsdale set to leave in the summer, it will be interesting if Arteta believes that Karl Hein is ready to step up as 2nd choice, and if so who from Hilson, Ejehri and Okonkwo will become 3rd choice.

My first thought is that we will probably sign an experienced number 2 to cover David Raya, with Hein remaining as number 3 for a couple more seasons.

James Hilson will probably be moved on, with Ejeheri stepping up to be 1st choice U21 keeper, backed up by Graczyk.

Okonwko (Arthur), will probably be sold on. His performances for Wrexham will probably see him fetch a fee in the region of £5m from a Championship side.

Cooper, Rojas and Okonkwo (Brian), will still all be eligiblefor the U18s next season. One will probably leave on loan to a National League side. We have history of sending the best U18 keeper out on loan so that they can gain some senior experience, so expect Noah Cooper to join someone like St Alban’s City.

It still baffles me why many are saying Ejeheri is 15. Is it a joke (and is then actually tinged with racism that footballers with African heritage look older than they are?), or is it just people not doing their own research?

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Keenos