Tag Archives: Spurs

Julian Draxler, Spurs and Gabriel

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Julian Draxler

PSG are reportedly accepting bids for German international Julian Draxler.

With the Thomas Lemar deal now seemingly dead, or dying, Arsenal need to look elsewhere for reinforcements in the final third of the field.

Up front, we are set. In Alexandre Lacazette, Danny Welbeck ,Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez, we have options, even after Lucas Perez departs. But behind that, we are struggling.

Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are both world class performers, there is no debate. But who is competing with them for attacking midfield spots?

The only other player we have who is a natural number 10 is Alex Iwobi.

We can also play Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla behind the striker, but none of these are ideal. We then have Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott who have done the job – badly – in pre-season.

Add in the contract situation of Sanchez and Ozil and you can see why Thomas Lemar was so aggressively target this summer.

I love Julian Draxler. I first spoke about his potential way back in October 2013 add my opinion on him has not changed.

If he is available for as little as £32m (in current prices), Arsenal need to ensure they are at the front of the queue.

Spurs

The gift that keeps giving. Some people say I blog about them too much, question why I am bothered, even say I am deflecting away from Arsenal’s problems, but when your nearest rivals are such a joke, it is impossible not to take notice.

Firstly we have the debacle over their temporary move to Wembley. They spent ages negotiating with Brent Council to allow them to use the stadium at its full capacity – 90,000 – only for the council to restrict ticket sales for major games to those that know the club.

For this weekends game against Chelsea, you could only buy a ticket if you had an interaction with the club since July 1st. Now what interaction means is unclear? Is it own a membership? Or is it bought a DVD from the club shop.

What is known is that they have only sold 70,000 tickets. This once more raises the question as to why they are building a 60,000+ stadium?

This is a side, remember, who had an attendance low of 24,712 against Gillingham in the League Cup last year. 26,463 was their low in 2015/16. They have a history of fans not showing up to games.

Of course, Spurs fans will come on this blog (they are drawn to it likes flies to a light) saying it is only the League Cup. Well Arsenal got hammered in the press back in 2011 for having only 46,539 turn up to a League Cup game against Shrewsbury. Whilst this is 15,000 below capacity, it is still more than 20,000 than Spurs got against Gillingham.

Stupid Spurs fans will say but Arsenal have a bigger stadium, so will get bigger attendances. This rationale would be correct if both sides sold out. But Spurs had 10,000 unsold tickets v Gillingham. So if they had a 60,000 seater stadium, the amount of tickets would not rise, just the amount of unsold.

I look forward to Burnley turning up to North West London. Tickets are on general sale. 20,000 Burnley fans in the home end. Hopefully Spurs get put in their place.

The second part of this mini blog is over the press love in with them. We all know the press love Spurs and gloss over their lack of success. It is because they are not a big club.

In one of today’s paper, the headline is;

SHREWD LEVY DUE A BREAK

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy Sure gets a lot of stick for having one of the most successful business models in football.

Well if the barometer of a successful football side is trophies, then the Spurs model clearly is not a success. 1 League Cup in 18 years. No FA Cup in 26 years. No league title in 56 years. I know Levy was not at Spurs for this entire period, but ENIC bought Spurs in 2001. 1 League Cup in that time is not a success.

It later go’s on to call Spurs One of the best sides in the Premier League. Under Daniel Levy’s stewardship, their every Premier League finish is 7th. They have finished below 8th 6 times in the 16 years of Enic. This against top 4 four times. A good two seasons does not make them one of the best in the league.

It seems Levy is being praised for turning a profit, selling his best players. And not for winning things. Well done Spurs for winning the best run club that never wins stuff trophy. It can go in the cabinet alongside your Put the Pressure On and finish Above Arsenal Once Cups.

Gabriel

Thanks for the memories. It never quite worked out. You never really adapted to English football. You still can not speak a word of English. Good luck in the future. Enjoy your 2 FA Cup winners medals. It is more than what other players win in their career. It is more than Harry Kane and Dele Alli.

You did not work out, but you were certainly not a flop. Hopefully we see you stick one on Diego Costa in La Liga in the new year.

Keenos

Alexis Sanchez, Thomas Lemar, Chelsea, Spurs & more

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Alexis Sanchez

Is anyone else getting a little bored of it all the Alexis Sanchez stuff now?

At the weekend, he flew to France with his girlfriend, his agent and his lawyer. Then social media exploded that he was there to speak with PSG. A few hours later, someone mentioned he was there to get his visa. Or maybe his girlfriends visa. Or maybe his girlfriend had a modelling shoot?

All the ITK’s who bore the hell out of me seemed to know exactly why he was there, what flight he was on, and what colour underwear he was wearing. It is all a little boring lads. Give it up. You do not know what is happening. Stop pretending you do.

Arsenal players had been given the weekend off. Granit Xhaka posted a picture of himself on a balcony over looking a body of water. It certainly was not the River Lea.

As for Sanchez. I am at the point where I really do not care if he stays of go’s. We have lost better players. We will sign better players. It is Arsenal FC, not Alexis FC.

Thomas Lemar

I am as equally bored by the Thomas Lemar saga.

As predicted, the ITK’s claiming it was a “done deal” have been exposed as liars. They have basically made up that they knew what was going on to build a 14,000 twitter following, before launching a blog. Well done lads. Great way to lose any credibility before you have even started.

I will never understand why a chap living in a bedsit pretends to know what is going on at Arsenal. It is dull, and it just draws transfers out further.

The bigger joke is the people who follow these muppets. Asking questions about players or contract situation.

THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING.

Like with Alexis Sanchez, I am now bored with Thomas Lemar. If the deal is deal, let’s move on to the next one.

Chelsea

You have to laugh at Chelsea. The club and the fans. Yes they have won 2 league titles in 3 years – something which we should all be jealous of, but the attitude of their nouveau riche fan base, the majority of which have only followed the club for a little over a decade, is hilarious.

At the final whistle, chants of “spend some f**king money” went up. So entitled a fan base that they are demanding Roman Abramovich, a man who has spent the good part of £1bn of his own money on players, spend some more.

And then we have questions aimed at Antonio Conte about his “lack” of transfer activity.

This season, Chelsea have already spent £130m. They have signed a new striker, a new midfielder and a new centre back. They have spent the cash.

It is not like the season Arsenal bought Petr Cech and no outfield players. They have spent, and spent big.

They are the type of spoilt fans that complain when their mum brings home Ben and Jerry’s ice cream but they wanted Haagen Daz. A joke of a fan base.

Although maybe it is this “always demand more” mentality that leads to 2 titles in 3 years.

Spurs

The other side of the coin is Spurs. They have yet to spend a penny, yet there have been no articles of them being in crisis.

In fact it is completely the opposite.

Their fans and the media are almost accepting that Spurs are not going to sign anyone. “We are doing it the right way” they keep claiming.

If the right way means no league titles in 56 years, then that is laughable.

Top 4 now a trophy?

In the last week, I have seen fans of both Spurs and Liverpool boast about their sides success in the last 12 months.

A Liverpool fan, when saying that his club should sign Alexis Sanchez, defended his reasoning that The Chilean would want to join them by calling the club “upwardly mobile”.

If 1 League Cup in 11 years is what thy now define as success and being upwardly mobile, then have a weird barometer of success.

Of course, what he meant was that they had qualified for the Champions League for the second time in 8 seasons.

Arsenal won the FA Cup last season. Liverpool finished 4th, 1 point ahead of the Gunners.

You don’t win a trophy for finishing 4th. You do if you win the FA Cup.

We have also had similar comments from Spurs fans on the blog. Boasting about how successful they were last season. Saying that they are a bigger draw then Arsenal. Laughing about their rivals having Thursday night football. Spurs are in the Champions League. Arsenal are not.

But Arsenal won a trophy last season. Spurs nothing. So who really should be laughing?

Suddenly to Liverpool and Spurs fans, top 4 is more important than a trophy.

Keenos

Spurs are a DECADE behind Arsenal

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The year was 2007. Arsenal had been in their shiny new stadium for 2 seasons. Chelsea had been firing millions from their tanks in West London for a few years.

Arsenal, under Arsene Wenger, had managed to get together a group of young players who, in the 2007/08 season, would be so close to clinching the league title.

The young squad included the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alex Song, Matthieu Flamini, Gael Clichy, Abou Diaby, Theo Walcott, and Philippe Senderos.

Add in the experience of Kolo Toure, Alex Hleb and Tomas Rosicky, Arsenal went so close to winning the league, but the season derailed after Eduardo had his leg broken against Birmingham, a game in which Arsenal lost 3 points to a last minute penalty. They finished 3rd.

But the media were full of praise for The Arsenal. Despite having a lower transfer budget, and much lower wages, than the likes of Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool, they had managed to build a bright young squad which would be capable of competing for major honours for years to come. As long as they kept the squad together.

In the summer of 2008, Arsenal lost Hleb to Barcelona and Flamini to AC Milan. Not disastrous as they signed the young French superstar Samir Nasri.

A year later the wheels begun to come off.

In 2009 it had already been 4 years without a trophy, and there was a new big hitter in town.

Manchester City were set to have their first full summer transfer window under the oilmen from the Middle East. And they were throwing about the cash.

Arsenal were having to tighten their belt. The new stadium, alongside the recession, had hit Arsenal big time. They could not pay the top wages. Had to sell to buy. With Man City now in the picture, Arsenal were set to have the 5th highest wages in the league.

The club were not paying enough, nor were they winning anything, and players started to be tempted by success and money elsewhere.

That summer, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor joined the Arab revolution at Manchester City. Doubling their wages. This would open the floodgates as other players realised what they could get elsewhere. That Arsenal were underpaying them.

It took 2 years for the dam to finally break.

2011 was the big one. The wages were still not being paid, 6 years without a trophy. Out went Fabregas back to Barcelona, before Manchester City doubled the wages of Nasri and Clichy.

2012 saw Alex Song join Cesc at Barcelona, before van Persie showed his frustration at lack of success and lack of decent signings. He joined Manchester United where he won the league in his first season.

In the 4 years from 2008 to 2012, Arsenal had sold every one of their Crown Jewels. Everyone wanted away. They chased success. Chased money. Frustrated by Wenger’s socialist wage structure and lack of transfer activity. Angered by a lack of success.

Pretty much every player that Arsenal sold to Man City, Man U and Barcelona in that 4 year period went on to win the league at the side they moved too. Meanwhile Arsenal finished potless year after year until 2014.

The new stadium had hamstrung Arsenal’s development. The club moved to compete had sent the club backwards – at least in the short-mid term.

Roll forward to today. The eve of the 2017/18 season. Down the other end of the Seven Sisters Road, Arsenal’s North London rivals have just had their best season in decades. They finished second.

For the second consecutive season they had put the pressure on. Been so close to a title, but ultimately not won a trophy. They had finally finished above Arsenal.

What was remarkable as they had competed with the big boys without spending big money. They had the lowest wage bill in the top 6. They often turned profits in transfer windows. All whilst financing a new stadium.

It was reminiscent to 2007/08 for The Arsenal.

But now the floodgates are opening. Kyle Walker has done a Kolo Toure. Fed up of where the club is going, he has doubled his money at Manchester City. And now Danny Rose has got a sniff of what he could have.

Spurs have not won a trophy since 2008. The League Cup. Not won an FA Cup since 1991. The league not since 1961. They can not offer their players the wages. They can not offer them the medals.

When you read that Danny Rose is on £60k a week, whilst Jessie Lingard is on £100k a week, you realise how much Spurs under pay their players. It is like Arsenal of 2008. When Wayne Bridge at Chelsea is paid more than Arsenal’s highest paid player, it is only natural to look elsewhere.

At the time of writing, Spurs have yet to buy a single senior player. Despite protests from the owners and manager (similar noises to what Arsenal’s upper structure made) that the stadium is no causing any financial constraints, it clearly is.

Spurs can not pay the likes of Harry Kane what he deserves.

Kane has won the last two Golden Boots. He is the best striker in the Premier League. He is on £120,000 a week.

To put that into perspective, £120,000 a week is what Christian Benteke reportedly earns at Crystal Palace. It is what Bournemouth have given Jermaine Defoe. They scored 30 league goals combined in the Premier League last season. Harry Kane got 29 on his own.

Romelu Lukaku, the man closest to Kane in terms of goal scored over the last two years, signed a £200,000 a week deal with Manchester United.

How much longer will Kane accept being underpaid?

The costs of building a £800,000,000 stadium is stopping the club pay the going rate of wages. Paying the escalating transfers fees.

Walker has already gone, Rose is going. They might be the only two this season. The Adebayor. The Toure of their time. But they will open the flood gates.

Next summer Toby Alderweild will have 1 year left on his contract. He has already leaked to the media that if Spurs take up an option to extend for a year, he will have a £25m release clause.

How long will Lloris sit, winning nothing. Cristian Erickson will surely eventually end up at Barcelona. Dele Alli at Real Madrid. And how long will it be until Harry Kane does a Robin van Persie and realises he must leave to win things?

Like Arsenal 10 years ago, they have no local boys who are die hard fans. Walker was signed from Sheffield United, Rose from Leeds. Erickson, Lloris and Alli were also signed. Whilst Harry Kane might pretend to be one of their own, at heart he grew up an Arsenal fan in an Arsenal family. None of these players have any real loyalty to the club.

Arsenal suffered for 6 years from that “almost” season in 2008 to finally wining the FA Cup in 2014. The difference with Spurs is there manager is not as good as Wenger. And Spurs are not as attractable. Spurs are a smaller club than arsenal and starting from much further behind.

And Spurs troubles are beginning before they have even moved to their new ground. Arsenal lasted a couple of years from 2006-2008 before fully feeling the pinch. Spurs are struggling financially 2 years before they are set to move.

Too weak a squad, not enough depth. It would not surprise me if this season, Spurs finished 7th.

Keenos