Apparently it’s been one year since we start the Arsenal Fan’S Show on LoveSport Radio, which is now branded as GunnersTown Radio, with me ol’ pal Dave Seager and Giles Aniyam. It’s been a great year and also great to have Charlie join the show too and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. If you ever fancy listening you can find us on Monday nights from 7-9pm on 558AM or DAB Digital radio when you search for ‘LoveSport’. This summer we’ve got a reduced schedule due to the lack of football but it’s still on Mondays from 8 until 9.
Shameless plug over and done with, what do we have on our collective Arsenal-thinking minds today then?
How about the leaked Arsenal kits that Aubameyang and Lacazette modelling that came out yesterday? I’m not usually a person that cares too much about kits because ultimately I don’t buy them, but if I can see The Arsenal in a classic looking kit like that red one next season, I’d be sorely tempted. The yellow one looks pretty neat too.
We’ve also heard a little from Raul who, having now been in post for seven months has been a little more vocal in an interview on the official site. Actions of course speak louder than words but the Joint-Head-of-Football-Director-type-person spoke well enough and polished enough to make it sound like he’s got an idea in which direction we’re going. Forgive me if I don’t get too excited though; we had ten years of Gazidis and his polished nonsense that ultimately transpired in to nothing in the end, so I’m not getting too excited just yet. If the proof is in the pudding then Gazidis served us up a tramps shoe with sh*t all over and no laces, telling us that it was a Heston Blumenthal special, so until we see some positive impact on the football operations then I think I’ll save my praise.
He did give us insight in to the Ramsey situation and admitted kind of what we already know: Ramsey was ready to sign but it was the club that decided that they needed to pull the plug. Ramsey has really shown his value this side of Christmas but even now I can see why the club made the decision. Let’s imagine that we don’t get Champions League because we don’t win on Wednesday (entirely feasible). That puts us at circa £40million for signings. Now let’s imagine we’ve got an injured Aaron Ramsey on a big sea for the next four years. What does that do to the transfer budget? Knock it down to £20million? Force the club to move on players that W don’t want to move on like Auba or Laca?
Ramsey has been a great servant to the club, he will be sorely missed, but if he picks up injuries like he has throughout his Arsenal career we’d be left with an even bigger wage bill than we already have and players not contributing for their wage.
I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat one more time; for me the big mistake was the Mkhitaryan deal on that kind of money and now, in hindsight, the Özil deal, both of which cost the club circa £28million a year and both of which have probably contributed to our meagre transfer budget this summer. Those deals were done by…guess who…Ivan Gazidis and so it’s clear to me where the real blame lies. Everyone is mopping up that bald pricks mess right now.
The Welbeck situation – in which Raul also elaborated – was an interesting and surprising one though. We’ve assumed this whole time that it’s the club that had held off from a new deal but by the looks of it the driving force for running it down to a Bosman was Welbeck himself. I guess I kind of get it; he didn’t know what kind of place he’d have in the team with Auba and Laca both first choice last summer, he probably still wants to play up front, not happy to be second fiddle and so he thought he’d run his contract down.
He’ll get a decent deal somewhere else in the Premier League and will probably get the chance to play a lot more football if he stays fit and signs for a team lower down the division. But that’s the big thing, the if he stays fit, because his Arsenal career has been blighted with injuries and as a result he’s never really been able to establish himself for any prolonged period of time. He’s going to be 29 in November and so will want one last adventure and I guess he goes with a blessing from all of us. We’ll welcome him back with applause when he returns with another flub next season, until he gets the obligatory goal against us that every former player seems to know in, that is!
And on that cheery prospect I think I’ll say adieu for another day! Catch you all tomorrow and be wonderful.
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