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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.