Remember when I used to post every day? And I’d drop off a quick set of links? Or just stop by to say “international football sucks!” and then leave and no one would comment? Ah the good old days. When bloggers were bloggers and journalists used to sit around and make fun of us for it.
Anyway, news today is that the Premier League is having a whip round for Richard Scudamore. I was going to write a sarcasm laden post about poor Dick but Arseblog beat me to it and did a damn fine job of it as well. It’s pretty gross that the Premier League would even consider such a request. It’s like having a testimonial, except for a guy who offered absolutely nothing of football value or even joy to anyone.
And yes, I know that the Premier League grew into one of the wealthiest leagues in the world and in the twisted logic of corporatism, he’s entitled to a bonus because the league made money. But I suspect the League would have grown regardless of who was in charge and I would want to know, specifically, which measures he took that earned Arsenal enough money that they should part with a quarter million quid as a thank you for such a sparkling job well done.
Isn’t this the guy who oversaw Man City getting away with FFP (alleged) violations (the Premier League has internal FFP rules)? Or sat back and watched as City entered into some kind of third party (alleged) agreement for Carlos Tevez?
And isn’t this the guy who designed the “homegrown” rule? That rule was supposed to produce “50% Englishmen” in the League, by his own words, and has instead seen the flight of English talent to Germany as the participation rates for English Premier League teams plummet?
But taking that money away from club who could use it for internal development is pretty sick. If he wants to stick his hat out and ask for a few bucks, maybe he can ask each of the subscription services I have to pay in order to watch the game to chip in a few million?
And while I know it’s just one week of Ozil salary, Ozil gives me more enjoyment in one week (even an off week) than Scudamore has given me in 19 years.
On the Arsenal transfer front (which is like Christmas, in that the decorations tend to go up way too early) there are rumors that Arsenal are going after Miguel Almiron from Atlanta (in the MLS). He’s a gifted midfielder who is playing the #10 role for Atlanta. He has been a wide player in the past and has a great left foot. But despite two good seasons in MLS, I’m hesitant about this player. The level of defending is very poor in MLS and the tactical nous is far below what we see now in most European teams. That said, he plays on virtually the only MLS team that is doing things right: bringing in young talent and having them play an exciting, tactically aware setup.
Honestly, I’m just going to be excited for any new signings at Arsenal. There are a lot of positions I would prioritize (fullbacks) but I do know that the “we need wide players” narrative is super strong right now with the Arsenal supporters and I can see why: Aubameyang on the left isn’t really optimal. That said, Almiron isn’t really a wide player anymore.
You know who is? Ousmane Dembele. But his asking price is £85m and that is STEEP. Apparently, Liverpool are ready to pony up the dosh, though how exactly they have the money for that move after all of their other big spending the last few years is a mystery. Maybe they will sell Mane for a billion pounds or something.
I haven’t been following his career at Barcelona (I didn’t get those matches despite paying like $1000 a year for subscription services) and that could also be forgiven because he’s made almost no appearances for Barcelona. You’d have to be an ardent La Liga follower to have caught him play over the last two years. But I do know that when he was at Borussia Dortmund, I watched him a lot and he always impressed. So, I’m legitimately curious to see how his career moves forward. If I had endless money, I would take him at Arsenal in a moment. But we all know that Arsenal don’t have endless money, because we keep having to give it all to charity cases like Dick Dudamore.
That’s all for today, be excellent to each other.
Re-posting my comment from your last blog just before you posted this.–
You hint that the poor recruitment over the last years of Wenger’s tenure wasn’t really his fault.
I grant that there is evidence to suggest that a lot of the poor buys (Xhaka, Mustafi, Gabriel, Elneny) were driven more by Gazidis than Wenger. However, even if this is true, you have to remember that such a situation – Gazidis forcing through player purchases – only came about because of Wenger’s pathological refusal to spend money on players, year after year, in a market where player prices kept increasing. Gazidis may have spent money on the wrong players – no surprise, he’s not a football man, he’s a CEO – but at least he was trying to do something.
I mean, remember the insanity of the summer we signed Petr Cech?
Whatever way you slice it, the situation the club finds itself in, is Wenger’s fault.
Why would Wenger refuse to buy players year on year when he knew the premier league is a perpetual arms race to get as much quality on the field?
Wenger was opposed to buying players who didn’t improve the squad and were going to block the progress of the young players already on the club’s books.
I think the issue is more nuanced than what you present and blaming Wenger is the wrong take.
Excuse me, but this is the guy who (abetted by Gazidis, admittedly) sat on a fortune of as much cash as the rest of the league had combined, refused to spend it, and then saw it lose most of its value in a couple of seasons. For what, so as not to hurt the likes of Wilshere , sanogi etc? That worked out well didn’t it?
Wenger was definitely culpable for the institutional dysfunction at the club when it came to squad-building. He said clearly and unequivocally that “no-one signs without me okaying it”, but a section of the fanbase loves to pretend it was all Gazidis.
He also gets off the hook too easily for us missing out on the new generation of French talent. Despite the universal love and admiration for him, a lot of those young guys no longer saw Arsenal as a top destination for their development. That’s what happens when you practice self-imposed austerity for too long, the game moves on without you.
Hard to say on Almiron. Not only does he mostly play through the middle, where we are already clogged up, but it would be a big leap up. Wouldn’t support this unless he was a really good deal.
Wouldn’t support Dembele at all. He’s barely played for Barca between injuries and competition, and would be a big risk for the kind of money he’d be likely to command.
I’m a bit biased being an American, but I’d really like to see us go after Pulisic. He’s a proven wide player on a top team in a top league. And getting the player who is perhaps both the best American and most widely recognized American would be a boon for Arsenal marketing in the US.
Dembele is by far better than Pulisic. If we have the possibility to bring him in we have to take it. Top-5 talents born between 1995 to 2000? Perfect fit for our squad short-term and long-term.
I just don’t believe there’s any real chance of him arriving at Arsenal. If he does decide to leave Barcelona he’d probably have his pick of half a dozen teams better positioned to net him big trophies than Arsenal.
It would be great if he did sign for Arsenal, but I just don’t see why he’d pick Arsenal and I don’t believe Arsenal would pay the money/wages necessary to sign him.
I’d love to be wrong 🙂
Dembele has been a starter for the first 7 games and had important cameos against Real Madrid and has 4 goals to his name in the league. He was also a starter in the CL against Inter. I don’t know where you’re getting that he’s not playing. He’s has been an akward fit for Barca, as his first touch and close control are not great and there have been disciplinary problems but on the other hand he has provided Barca with something they didn’t have. He has also been prefered to Malcom.
Pulisic on the other hand hesn’t been very good for a good year now. This season he has barely played nad not looked that good to be honest in a resurgent team. He’s dribbling into a lot of blind alleys.
…this!
besides, your argument is delegitimized when you consider that henry wasn’t playing when he was at juventus. vieira wasn’t playing when he was at milan. bergkamp wasn’t playing when he was at inter. cesc wasn’t playing when he was at barca. those guys all came to arsenal and balled out. besides, dembele is still so young and playing behind the greatest player in history.
lastly, dembele has a history playing at a high level with pierre and, to a lesser extent, mkhitaryan; that’s not to mention the fact that he played ahead of pulisic.
Between being a PL club (corollary: having loads of cash rolling in year after year from TV alone) and having sold Coutinho for a criminal amount of money less than a year ago, Liverpool surely have the money for at least that signing, maybe none others in the same window.
The recent Shaqiri, Allison, Keita, Fabinho, Salah, Ox and VVD buys must have cost over £200m in transfer fees alone, I just can’t see how they can afford Dembele even with the TV deal and Coutinho money. Liverpool aren’t like City
Tim… What do you think about Nicholas Pepe as a wide option? Better than Dembele?
I believe in free markets and the principle of supply and demand. Is it obscene that Cristiano Ronaldo makes a gazillion dollars a year? Maybe, morally, but he’s uniquely talented (extremely low supply) and millions of people are willing to pay to see him play (extremely high demand). So his wages are more or less warranted by free market economics.
When I read what Richard Scudmore makes, I think to myself “Is what he does/did that unique? Were that many people in demand of his services?” No and no. It’s the perfect example of a person who is getting obscene compensation for a job that literally hundreds, if not thousands of executive level persons (I include myself in there) would be able to perform and get similar results. And that people would suggest he get a “gift” means somehow the market has gone askew. Perhaps I’m out to lunch thinking that free market economics should apply to football.
I mean, this literally is “free market economics” applying to football. In the corporate world, if some random dude is CEO presiding over a period of growth, he gets a big fat pay-off when leaves. I mean honestly, CEOs get big fat pay-offs when then leave in ignominy, so when they’re successful, its even worse.
Still not quite as cringe-worthy as the Rooney/England melodrama. The clubs themselves are being asked to pay this money and they can say no. Many of them will say no. Also it’s not Scudamore asking for this money, the idea was from some bloke at Chelsea. Still it’s rather tone deaf and I understand the reactions.
Scudamore and the PR-savvy Premier League have had enought time to refute the story since it broke. They haven’t. Probably because the plan was hatched during “a meeting of top-flight clubs at the Premier League’s headquarters”.
In this case it’s difficult to say whether the buck does indeed stop with Buck.
The Premier League must be super pleased with themselves for securing that last tv deal that propelled nearly every club into the Deloitte Europe top 20 Rich List. Scudamore coming back to the clubs on his way out the door to ask for a “little taste” is pure mafioso protection racket. Arsenal should hand him a fat-looking envelope with nothing in it but a free ticket to our away game against Vorskla in Ukraine.
When Dembele has played well for Barca, Suarez always seems to be involved with his clever movements. His relationship with Auba that season at Dortmund was pretty magical though. Neither has hit the same heights since they went separate ways. Can Mislintat repeat the trick and find a player with similar characteristics to play with Auba (assuming Dembele is out of our self-sustaining reach)? Nicolas Pepe or Cristian Pavon would make good gambles.
We’re not generating enough shots and chances for either of our strikers. Think Laca’s okay with the current set-up but if we find that player it could really unleash Auba. He beat Lewandowski to top scorer with 31 goals that season and Dembele’s 10 assists to him was the best assist/scorer combo.
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Ok I just returned from a brief hiatus and I think the previous blog was funny because it sounded like the writer was hung up on Wenger. So let’s analyze the team, we didn’t have our 1st choice left back and we played Aubameyang on the left, so that meant our left side was practically under manned taking Sead’s handicaps into consideration.
I mentioned on ACLF last season that I would have loved to see Wolves Ruben Neves at Arsenal. This merits a mention here but with Mino Raiola as agent, we probably don’t do deals with him,only Manchester United can bear his shenanigans.
Then we had Iwobi on the right when he traditionally loves to play from the left so he can cut in and pass because he’s not much of a shooter yet. So we were unbalanced and Emery should take the blame for playing the team in an unbalanced state.
Slating Torreira is alright but in my opinion as you are entitled to your opinion, you’re making the same error as Wenger did when he passed up the decision to buy Kante from Leicester City. The guy is yet to settle down fully and he has shown the tenacity required to play football, I don’t think there are stats to record that aspect of his game, and among other things that is crucial to our midfield.
We are constrained by our squad right now and we cannot play the effective way because of injuries and a lack of wingers, maybe we can convince Aaron Ramsey to go to Chelsea while we take Victor Moses as a stop gap right winger for us at the moment, he would help Bellerin and he can beef up our squad right now, plus the fact that he’s good at playing right wing back, kind of like Yossi Bennayoun all over again.
Then we can have Iwobi on the left and someone else man’s the right wing.
I am not making the same mistake. I absolutely love Kante. I think having a Kante-type would put Arsenal in contention for the title. I also wrote an article this year that predicted Torreira would be a Kante-type, that was at the time when everyone else was saying that he’d be more like Cazorla. I desperately WANT Torreira to be Kante. My problem isn’t with the player, I’ve also stated about a million times that he just needs to settle down. My problem is specifically with the narrative that he’s already there, that he’s the muscle in the midfield, and that he’s made Arsenal better defensively. He absolutely hasn’t done any of those things (YET). I’m not slating Torreira. I’m slating the NARRATIVE. If and when he settles, gets that extra step, and learns to read the speed of the Premier League better, he will THEN be the player I see him becoming. He’s not there yet is all that I’m saying.
VAR confirmed for the PL, starting next season.