On Saturday I sort of said my piece on Yannick Carrasco, so now whilst we wait for the process to evolve and for other journos to start talking about it, I feel like it’ll be a bit of an old story by the time we may or may not find ourselves in for the Belgium international.
My wife used to love a certain type of Cadbury’s Swiss chocolate gateaux when we were at Uni. She’d buy it all the time. It was her ‘thing’. Every week she’d buy this cake from the corner shop where her house was and we’d feast. But after about three months of it all of the time she started to get it less and less and then one day didn’t bother any more. She said she’d ‘overdosed’ on it and as a result it wasn’t a treat any more.
That’s what football transfers are like these days. We get titbits of information drop fed to us so that when the exciting part comes and the player is officially announced, we just feel a little more numb to the enjoyment of it, than back in the day.
Remember those days when you wouldn’t know until the last minute? I love those days. That’s where you’d be jumping up and down with joy because your club pulled a Sol Campbell out of nowhere. Sadly those days are long gone and a week before the club has even announced a signing we’ve already got people with their ‘all you need to know’ hot takes on the incoming player, their playing style, about a billion videos on them and even what their temperament is like.
So what do you naturally do as a fan? Move on to the next one. I can’t believe I’m already doing it but with the Carrasco rumours hitting up I’m already thinking to myself “yeah, but how close are we to Tierney?” and I’ll be totally honest, it does feel a little dirty. I have become one of the masses prone to gobbling up any old sh*te just because I want to lose myself in the escapism that is transfer windows. I want to wash away the bad taste of the season just gone by and start to project the glorious future that awaits, despite the clear lack of direction the club’s ownership shows us, because all I want is good things for The Arsenal.
But I’m tempering my expectation for next season because let’s face it, we probably are going to have a season or two of where we are now before it feels like we’re heading in the right direction. We had a management that were effectively sleeping at the wheel for two to three seasons and now we have to take our car to the mechanic to get it fixed up. And it’s not just a few dents that this metaphorical automobile has in it. We need a whole new engine and one heck of a body job done.
But I think more of us expect this to be honest. More of us are accepting of where we are so this summer becomes about getting ‘slight upgrades’ rather than players that will totally change our fortunes. I’m starting to realise that more and more which is why I’m kind of ok with the Fraser rumours doing the rounds. Don’t get me wrong, not at £40million, but if you ask me if he is an Iwobi or Mkhitaryan upgrade I probably say ‘yes’ after the season they had. So if we can just go for slight upgrades that get us moving in the right direction then I’m all for it. No time for football snobbery because as much as we like to tell people how big we are as a club (and we are), we’re simply not able to shop like a big club right now. So let’s just get the small incremental improvements and see where we get to.
Right, I think I’ll leave it there for another day, so I’ll tip my hat to you and wander on in to the City for another day.
Laters folks.
Leave a Reply