Reports in the Mirror and Telegraph this evening say that Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been told he’s been put on the transfer list by the club.
Despite the fact he started both the semi-final and the final of the FA Cup, and is a player that Mikel Arteta rates, financial considerations mean the club will listen to offers for him.
His Academy status means any sale will be essentially profit, and teams like Brighton and Everton are said to be interested in the 22 year who could fetch as much as £20m.
From an Arsenal point of view, the £5m spent on signing Cedric Soares on loan before making him a permanent member of the squad with a four year contract at the age of 28, means there’s cover. The Portuguese international turns 29 at the end of this month, but until then remains 28 because that’s how it works.
Maitland-Niles made his 100th Arsenal appearance in the 2-1 win over Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday, and his versatility should be seen as useful for the Gunners in seasons to come, but the need to raise funds is driving this decision which is a real shame.
Maybe we should just flip Soares to whoever is willing to pay us a fee which gives us a profit. We know he’s an average player who is not going to get any better than he already is, while AMN has potential to grow and his best years ahead of him.
Perhaps it all depends on what plans Head of Football Kia Joorabchian Raul Sanllehi has for rebuilding the squad.
Wut?
Wut that actual fuck is this news
Ohh dear me. Idiotic from the board.
There are literally 9 other players I would drive to the airport myself before AMN
On the face of it, this seems like a crazy decision! I get the need for money but there were many others I would have sold before AMN. Even a loan (for a decent fee) would be better than losing him.
Maitland Niles does not need a loan, he’s already proved he’s good enough to play for Arsenal with his performances against wolves, Man City and Chelsea.
Arsenal should be looking to sell Miki, who’s on loan in Italy, Elneny who’s on loan in Turkey.
Arsenal should also be looking to sell Guenduozi and Torriera .
they’re unsellable due to wages, hence loans.
Mkhi already got ‘sold’ for free which gets his wages off the books
I agree with you. But the thing is, the ones we would like to sell no one wants to buy.
Yeah, that’s the trade-off. Players with value on the transfer market tend to be the ones we don’t really want to lose!
Other clubs are able to shed deadwood for big bucks, why shouldn’t we be able to?? There are so many other players that should be worth decent money right now.
Selling AMN makes zero sense. Every one of the most successful teams has an AMN type player that is a jack of all trades, then master of one just when you need it most. See FA semi final and final.
One step forward, 5 steps back. That’s what it feels like right now.
Definitely agree. Look at how Liverpool managed to sell Jordon Ibe (15 mil) and Dom Solanke (19 mil). We just need to know how to sell those deadwood players.
Sanllehi & Co are losing it.
20 million isn’t good value.
When your squad is only future and deadwood, you’re going to end up having to sell your future and be stuck with the deadwood.
Will be sorry to see him go, if he does.
Depends what we are planning to do with the money I suppose.
Signing Aubameyang up will be a good start. Will be interesting to see what we actually end up with in the end.
Arteta seems to know what he is doing. Less sure about the others …
The ‘others’ know exactly what they’re doing: lining their ps and their buddies pockets at the expense of the club. This is what happens when a footballing naïf like Stan Kroenke gets rinsed by a cartoon villain like Raul.
Can we stop with the “wuts” please?
Wut
Blogs covering the new kit launch :
And these new kits will retail for around £50 – a mere drop in the ocean compared to the signing of Cedric Soares where we paid £5m for an injured player who was on a free at the end of the season.
Blogs is forgetting that we signed Cedric on loan prior to the pandemic when we had real injury concerns at the fullback position. The unexpected break allowed players like Tierney or even Hector to improve their fitness.
It still didn’t make sense then though…
We’ve needed a back up RB since Debuchy left.
Hector Bellerin’s injury problems are partly down to us overplaying him, and bringing him back from injury too soon because for a time he was the only specialist RB at the club!
How soon we forget: Stephan Lichtsteiner ?
It’s entirely possible that we pulled the trigger early and paid a minimal fee to Southampton because he had another suitor waiting to nab him on a free at the end of the season. We wanted to ensure we signed him hence the fee to buy an injured player.
We signed him on loan when he was injured and he actually made his debut after the fullbacks were back fit…
He had a very minor injury and then got reinjured when training resumed. Just saying it’s not as dumb as blogs is trying to make it out to be. If he dislikes a player these days he goes on about how much they cost
Evening Cedric
One thing that’s becoming really obvious is how little people respect the opinions of the coach.
He pointed out the lack of specialist fullbacks after what 5-6 games in charge? And he praised Cedric as someone he followed even at City.
None of that fits the narrative though so it’s gets ignored on here
Agree. Mari is very similar. At the end of the day I assume Arteta has a say given he seems much more willing to push than Emery. If Arteta wants him then I’m ok with it.
Ffs, How many times he was forced to play Sokratis a at RB?
And I believe the loan deal was reported as saving Southampton £5 million. That’s a different thing entirely than saying the loan cost us £5 million.
Yes indeed, the loan fee was nothing like £5m, wages etc are factored into the total, which all players get, because that’s how it works.
blogs has been putting a lot of negative spin on things recently. getting depressing reading these days.
spot on!
@Atom, give it time, real soon, stats showing how Guendouzi is the reason we don’t have funds for transfer would start making the rounds
Agree with you, the loan might have made sense. Signing him on a permanent didn’t.
But bringing in an injured Soares didn’t exactly alleviate the injury situation did it?
Selling AMN would be a bad decision, but I don’t get the hate for Soares. I doubt you find a decent quality PL experienced player who can cover RB and LB for that price.
The loan fee was 1 million for six months*, the rest was wages, after which it was a free signing with (obviously) wages. This banging on about 5 million is a bit tiresome.
There’s clearly a lot of Kia bs going around, but I do think it’s important to separate out the defensible decisions from the putrid ones.
I would be very sorry to see AMN go.
As would I.
And 20m for a 22yo Englishman with 100 Arsenal appearances is an absolute joke. There are surely so many other ways to raise 20m than this.
The only way it makes sense is if Ainsley himself has stated his desire to start every week, not be a backup rb. That I can understand.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in a top 6 team and the National squad in 2 years.
Yet another super talented lad we’re just casting aside, while some fat agent’s driftwood ends up on our beach.
I bet Kia and Raul are feeding each other olives and laughing heartily while reading all of our futile and desperate comments. It’s just so fucking discouraging. It’s been almost all bad news since we won the cup. KROENKE OUT, RAUL OUT, KIA TAKE A FUCKING HIKE
Dude, chill. Look I know it’s fashionable to hate on the decision makers and I’m uncomfortable about the Kia relationship but let’s look at the following points: 1) Arteta said tough decisions need to be made. Ainsley will command a good fee. 2 months ago none of us would have been complaining about this possible transfer 2)Arteta is now involved in the decision making. You have to think this has his blessing 3) Last year was not the flop Arseblog or anyone else makes it out to be. Pepe has been excellent of late and is still young. Yes, we… Read more »
Thank you. Well said. People seem to take everything written on the site as gospel, as if blogs is an integral part of the Arsenal decision making team. Don’t get me wrong, he has his insights and like the rest of us, makes some calculated guesses, but whenever he dislikes a player or staff or even a musician (lol), we get people immediately giving them stick.
We scraped into 8th place in the Premier League. Winning the cup was wonderful, I loved it, but it was like a last minute Hail Mary to save the season and get European football for next.
In Premier League terms, it was our worst season over in 25 years. How can that not be a flop?
have to agree with Blogs on this. Our ‘frog’ is definitely boiling slowly, with this creeping decline. And – whilst I certainly believe Mik is the man we need right now – he is only one voice (and none of us on here know just how strong that voice is in decision-making). The other voices have, just this week, made two decisions that, on the face of it, reek of knee-jerk reactions and/or insidious agendas: the 55 lay-offs… tackling the 20% of the problem in an effort to solve the 80%! AMN – (1) there has been a marked recent… Read more »
I dare you to be reasonable one more time…
calling our worst season in decades a flop is hardly a conspiracy theory. What you have achieved for yourself is the normalisation of arsenal’s current standing as a club. Which actually maybe just puts you out front in the stages of grief we’re all going through for this once great club.
I totally agree that we could be making a mistake on the lad. But our memories have grown very short. It was only a month ago that this news would have been greeted with a shrug and a croissant. Even he seemed like he wanted to move on.
I believe we wouldn’t have cared because we thought AMN did not bother to apply himself for whatever reason, not because we thought he was technically poor.
Since then he has shown plenty passion for the cause and have demonstrated how valuable he can be for the team; that’s why it hurts to see Arsenal considering to sell like this. If he were bringing in crazy money, ala Coutinho for Liverpool, that would be one thing. But no, we are appearing to do this to make ends meet.
I understand why, but it still hurts.
I hear you brother. But if we desperately need to raise funds for a CB and a CM that we really, really need, then a player whose positions are covered could well be a good place to start. Although we speak of versatility, he’s only ever really trusted to play RWB or LWB.
We can’t demand transfers and not be prepared to make a few too.
It’s true that it’s a give-and-take process, but the many of the moves we’ve taken over the recent years seem shortsighted. Let’s hope if we do decide to cash in on an experienced, but still very young, English player that we get decent money out of it.
This.
Me too
Bit mad really, done all the time letting him develop and going through the wringer in that spell when the crowd were taking out their general team frustrations on him and now he’s starting to show what he can do it’s out the door..
Couldn’t have said it better myself. As far as I can see we are replacing an Arsenal kid whose been here since he was 7 with a mid-table cast-off, And that’s is just the tip of the shitberg.
The kid needs to play. If we are to be more than a top 8 team, he doesn’t fit. So why not sell why we still can? Another contract extension and we won’t sell at all.
Should at least include a buyback clause
What the fuckety fuck!! Is Kia running the show and club executives have lost all ball including Mikel ?
Why would Kia give a damn if Arsenal sell or keep Maitland-Niles?
Cedric came in, largely to replace AMN. Cedric’s agent is…
Kia is a shit car as well
…because he occupies space of a player that Kia will sell us in the future
Our squad management is an absolute joke. A lot of eople hae a proble with the Kroenkes. I’m not a fan of them but you can’t say they haven’t invested over the last years. Problem is the club has made a lot of really bad decisons and have thrown a lot of money out of the window, so our main problem fpr me are Raul and Edu and not the Kroenkes. With the money we’ve spent over the last 2-3 seasons, a club with good leadership would have been able to build a squad that’s able to compete. Shambles, absolute… Read more »
Errr no
We’ve thrown 30-50 mio out of the window with Ramsey, about 20 with Welbz, 10 with Miki, who we’re now trying to offload for free after rejecting a 10 mio offer in the winter. We’ve spent around 20 mio for 1 year of Luiz, and got a premier legue record for conceded pens for that. We spent 5 mio for a loan of Cedric for 6 months in which he hasn’t played a single game when we could have got him for free now. And we still spent 50 mio for Laca, 60 for Auba, 70 for Pepe, 30 for… Read more »
Yeah that’s around £400m of spending, loss and wastage to finish 8th and below Wolves. I hate the Kroenkes but they are not to blame for that… at all. £400m invested in a Europa League team should get you top 4 minimum and a title challenge at best.
Add the Europa League title to that.
The prices we paid are market rates for those players so I don’t see any issue there. However, agreed on the poor returns for the player sales, which is something we need to correct. And not to mention Gnabry and Szeshny. But you could argue that a few months ago we could never have got £20M for AMN. Just a few decent first team performances on the way to the Cup and he’s gained millions in valuation. And though I like him as a player, I doubt he’s ever going to command a bigger fee. So not a bad idea… Read more »
Really weird that you’re getting down voted. For all those people, do you see AMN starting anywhere for a top 4 club? And if not, why keep a bench player worth 30 million?
I don’t know if Edu and Raul are at the same level of culpability. Edu hasn’t been here so long and it’s not clear he’s behind this craziness. It does, perhaps, show him as somewhat weak and inexperienced however.
Either he’s involved in these decisions, that wouldn’t necessarily speak for him, or he’s not involved in them, then I’d rather save his wages than those of 55 people.
While I don’t disagree that our senior management and squad planning over the last 4 years has been petty terrible.
I must disagree with the fact that Kroenke has invested in the club. He hasn’t put a penny into it. Everything that is spent is self generated.
And that’s the way it should be. I don’t want a sugar daddy. I just want my club to invest what we’ve earned. And we’re doing that. We must just do it better.
That’s how Liverpool do it and how it should be done
Except Liverpool haven’t sacked anybody AFTER taking money off their players with the promise (or was it just a cleverly worded “suggestion”?) that that would ensure that it wouldn’t happen.
Arsenal is being run by people who live in a moral cesspit. After 53 years supporting the club I now find myself questioning whether I even want to continue supporting whatever it is that these scumbags are turning my club into.
To be honest, Liverpool was first to try to get federal money in the covid crisis, which imo is equally bad to what we’re doing right now. It’s down to their fans that the club made a u-turn on that decision. Maybe we should organize to tell them that this decision isn’t compatible with our club values and that they’re in the wrong place here, if they think otherwise.
F
This is all pre-planned no doubt to soften the blow
How about we sell some of the ageing driftwood who are earning millions a year to sit on the sofa first? Instead of an Arsenal kid who has played a massive part in our trophy success. I’m lost for words
Who would pony up good money for the aging driftwood?
If we sold kolasinac(10m), sokratis(5m), mavropanos(5mil), Mustafi (10m) and ozil (10m) we would have buyers and could generate 40m and free up a nice wage budget. Rather that than sell Maitland Niles. Also if ceballos doesn’t resign we could use AMN in his real position.
Why are you selling your car for £10,000? Why don’t you just sell your toaster (£2k), coffee mug (£5k) and third-favourite dressing gown (£3k) instead?
If only it were so easy. Kola and Mustafi are on big wages which makes them far less attractive targets (and Mustafi is injured). We could offer to pay half Ozil’s wages for the remaining year on is contract (thus saving us £9M) but it would still be a huge salary for another club to take up and who would want to, given his decline? The only simple sale on your list would be Mavropanos.
No!!!!!!
Look at the passion on his face in that picture at Wembley. We owe him a big thank you for getting us through the semi for the job he did on Mahrez. What a way to repay his recent performances.
Nervous for Emi now..
I love the kid and I just want him to be first-choice somewhere
This seems like the whole wenger era all over again. sell our best players because they are sell-able and try to make do with new potentially good players that might not make it. There s enough deadwood to sell and we can learn a thing or two from liverpool when it comes to shifting these players
This is the complete opposite of the Wenger era. A guy like Kia wouldn’t have set a foot in our directors box with Arsene at the helm. People wouldn’t lose their jobs with Arsene at the helm. Our scouting wouldn’ be completely dismantled with Arsene at the helm. And we would always try to keep talents from our academy with Arsene at the helm. Would kill to have him in Raul’s role.
We’re becoming a proper football club again!!
No longer are we keeping players years beyond their usefulness, and again dealing with the agents of best players in the world, this is a major step forward!!
”No longer are we keeping players years beyond their usefulness”. We’re about to buy a player who turns 32 on sunday and give him a 3 year deal with big fat wages thanks to that wunderful agent. What a step forward this is!
Yes, and he’s a proven winner and performer! 3 times Chelsea player of the year in a team that’s won premier and champions league titles.
Take your blinkers off because he’s a clear improvement on what we have, and cheap! The same could be said for Coutinho, both are cheap in the current market and should immediately improve our team.
Or maybe you think that our 3rd choice right back/ 7th choice midfielder will suddenly become a world class player despite 100 matches displaying the opposite?
Just the 2 perfomances form AMN in the cup were better than anything I’ve seen from Coutinho in his time at Bayern. He was good about 5 years ago. There’s a reason Bayern didn’t bought him and Barcelona would do anything to get rid of him.
Willian WAS a top player for chelsea over his time there. But if you really think he can do the job Arteta is expecting from a winger in his mid 30’s, you’re definitely an optimistic fella.
Personally want to keep AMN and think selling him is potentially a huge mistake. But you’re doing Coutinho and Willian a disservice. Coutinho’s numbers for Bayern aren’t out of this world but they completely destroy our current midfielders for goals and assists. Given our current AM options I can see why Arteta and co would think he’d improve us. Willian has also been excellent for Chelsea this season, so much so that they wanted to extend his contract but we’ve given him a better offer. While the sums banded around sound expensive, players with their (prem) experience and quality aren’t… Read more »
I said nothing against Willian’s quality. He was a top player, without a question. Will he be one for the next 3 years? I have big doubts.
Look in which games Coutinho made 90 of his goals/ assists at Bayern. Against teams fighting relegation, which Bayern regularly destroys, with or without him. In the big games he was as anonymous as Özil in most of them.
Not sure what’s happened to football nowadays where everyone that turns over 30 is totally worthless. Prem, Bundasliga, La Liga and Serie A top goal scorers were all 30+. The runner up for Prem, La Liga and Serie were also all 30+. By all accounts Willian is very professional and has a good injury record, so I think we should calm down a bit with his age. And again, it’s a free transfer so it’s less risk than an expensive gamble. On Coutinho I can’t say I’ve watched him outside of CL games, but he’s looked very good in those.… Read more »
In the CL he made 1 assist in a 7-2 against Sp*rs, 1 assist in a 6-0 over red star and a goal in a 3-1 win over Sp*rs. It’s the same as in the Bundesliga. He wasn’t good when Bayern were completely dominating and would have won easily without him. In tight games, against good defences which ten hard to unlock, he was pretty useless.
And I don’t say that players are finished with 30, but I question the decision to give them long term deals with big wages.
So he plays well against Sp*rs? What’s not to like?
He played well in a team that destroyed them 10-3 over 2 legs. We ain’t such a team unfortunately and he won’t make us one.
In terms of the ability to keep performing at the very top level there is a big drop between 30 and 33. People are actually only “designed” to live 30 to 35 years. Modern science has allowed us to live well beyond those years but bodies still begin to wind down after 30 or so, and everything becomes harder both physically and mentally. I suspect Ozil’s real problem is simply that he has aged beyond a point where he can reliably perform week in and week out and he is possibly struggling with that idea. It’s just life doing its… Read more »
those are the exact teams we had problems breaking down this season though. We had absolutely no creativity against teams in the bottom half who sat 10 behind the ball.
Correct, but Bayern didn’t have any problems with these clubs before he joined so he wasn’t the reason why they beat them. And it’s a diffference to play in a team where nearly anybody is able to create or in one where all the pressure is on you. And if we really want to evolve as a team we’re going to try to be more head to head with the big teams, too. We won’t play this counter style for ever. And when you have to create against big teams with top defenders, it’s way harder than against teams fighting… Read more »
The 2 cup performances were great team performances and were achieved by condensing our final third with bodies. Maitland-Niles job was to use his pace to funnel the opposition wingers towards waiting defenders.
This might be good against better teams who have the ball but doesn’t work against Brighton or Villa, 2 teams we lost to, against them we need goals and creativity.
If you add Willian’s and Countinho’s combined 17 goals and 13 assists to this team we’re knocking on the door of the champions league places again. I’d quite happily sell Maitland-NIles to achieve that
If we had 2020-2021’s versions of Willian and Coutinho perhaps, but the teams they are with now don’t seem too keen to try for one more year with them, and they work with these players every day.
But until then he remains 31, because that’s how it works.
Sarcasm, right?
True !! But a certain Darren Dein comes to mind.
There’s no question of Arsene Wenger / David Dein’s intentions but to paint everything black and white is so wrong.
As for Raul and Kia I’d defer my judgement as I don’t have enough info. Everyone seems to be falling for their confirmation biases depending on which side they’re.
What is he even doing at THEIFA? He must know they’re a bunch of money grubbing scum, maybe he thinks he can influence things there? Just imagine him as our technical director.I doubt he ever will, I think he’s too proud for that, but wow, it would certainly restore some faith from the fans.
best players? settle down its maitland niles
Be sad to see him go but he is a player we could get a reasonable fee for that will allows us to reinvest. No point getting dewy eyed about it. Sounds like we are making the right moves in the transfer market and that needs to be funded.
So negative all the time.
Arseblog? Or Arsenal?
Arsenal, which then leads to Arseblog, because he covers Arsenal.
Because that’s how it works.
I don’t see how Cedric is any better than him? And he’s older, and seems a bit brittle. Very short sighted.
He’s better in the sense that he didn’t want to go on strike rather than play at RB for 5 months, and that he represents £15m profit for a position in which neither would be first choice.
We know how taxing the Thursday/sunday schedule is so squad depth will be key next season. AMN can cover both FB spots and has played further forward, that versatility could be useful and is worth more than 15M IMO.
Dont get the whole strike thing, seems to have proved himself to Arteta hence starting the semi and final.
Good news (FA cup) followed by bad (Sacking of staff) followed by good (Auba) followed by bad (AMN) why can’t we just be happy for a few days?
It’s a damn roller coaster over here. Sheesh.
Argh. The Auba news appears to be good. But this is disheartening. Sounds like his attitude has been good, and he’s played very well the last few matches. Flexible players such as him can be very valuable. If he goes, it better not be for a a trivial amount.
And Sanhelli can F right off. Barcelona’s transfer record in recent years has been a shambles, and apparently he’s brought that policy here.
Selling him and keeping Soares would not only be stupidity, but also outrageous and disgusting.
That’s too bad, I was looking forward to seeing him push Hector and maybe get another shot in the midfield depending on the matchup.
These are pieces we should be keeping. Who have we scouted and identified as a possib- oh wait…
This news is unwelcome 🙁
What a fucking joke!
Disappointing if this turns out to be true. I think AMN has a lot of good attributes, and we may regret losing him. Surely he’ll be worth more than £20 million?
Yes, that is the joke here.
20 million for a 22 year old with 100 appearances for Arsenal
Covid or not, that is an absolute fucking embarrassment to our negotiators.
Considering AMN’s versatility, progress, and attitude–and that he’s English–we ought to be getting Iwobi or AOC money for him. But Covid. Anyway, it’s a mistake to sell him, in my opinion. But I’m sentimental; I’d have kept Iwobi too. Maybe Willian is an upgrade on AMN next year, but after that, AMN would be the more valuable player. (I don’t understand why we’re buying these 30+ year old players; what am I missing? By the time they start meshing, they’re too slow. Arteta retired before he was the age Willian will be at the end of his contract.) Maybe it’ll… Read more »
All you have to do to understand there old player transfer is to see whose pockets a huge chunk of the money falls into when it travels between the selling and buying club. We are a retirement home for a lot of sharp dealers in the transfer game,
What a shame. One of my favorite of the new young crop.
Arsenal wouldn’t sell a player Arteta really wanted to keep.
who told you that? It seems we’re only interested in players who have a certain agent. Everybody else seems to be up for sale.
It’s my opinion…just like your made up post is.
that’s why I said ”it seems” while your comment sounds pretty definite.
He’s such a good player. A real asset, very flexible, hard-working guy… Sure, he’s not a jewel, but we need these types of player throughout the season. I would be sorry to see him go… I hope that we value him property, at least.
Properly*
He is such a good player! According to the reputable site that is Caughtoffside (I know, I know), this decision is not one sanctioned by Arteta. The sooner Sanllehi and Edu go, the better. They are changing the values of this club.
When Wenger left they threw a bucket of values out after him. We’ve been hijacked by an old pals system now. As long as they’re making their millions it doesn’t matter whether there’s any actual benefit to Arsenal.
Versatile young English player with 100 appearances for Arsenal? Surely he’s worth more than £20m? Solanke went for £19m and Ibe for £15m after showing half as much potential as AMN. We need to get better at buying and selling.
I’m all for selling if we have a plan in the market and we need funds, but we should be aiming to get £30m for him.
In the current climate we are unlikely to make a profit from selling any players. There aren’t many clubs that can buy before they sell, and nobody wants to get caught selling their best young players and getting stuck with 35 year old free agents come the new season. We won’t hesitate to sell young players though because we have a small cloud of people involved in all of our transactions who do not work for us but who are making personal profits from any business we do.
Gutted. He’s the type of player that we should be keeping.
This is disappointing if true. I know he changed representatives a couple months back, but he is a really handy player to keep in the squad. Look at his semi-final and final performances for goodness sakes. If his last name ends with -inho I suspect he would be assured a position.
Errm no dont start that nonsense.
What nonsense? Can you explain your point? I think AMN has done well and raised himself to Arteta’s challenge. I think he would be a useful player to have around in the squad. Even though he doesn’t have a set position, he can fill several holes. A player that has that kind of range can be very valuable.
‘If his last name ends with -inho I suspect he would be assured a position.’
Fair play, I was just having a bit of fun there. That was also a comment that if he was Brazilian, he would likely be a Kia client… And we know they tend to be favoured in our current setup.
Within a week all of the happiness from the cup final has been sapped away. Really want Raul and Edu out they are the worst thing that’s happened to the club in a long time.
Christ.
I am fully on board with an angry Arseblog. He cares and his passion shines through his writing. We need to rally together and stop this nonsense.
For fuck’s sake!!!
Please keep AMN – such a useful, versatile, homegrown swiss knife asset who might be just about to kick on and who might be an essential part of the squad for the next decade. One of our own.
Any transfer fee from a potentiel Soares sale would be essentially profit too (though by no means 20m), and we would not have to rely on yet another Sébastien Squillaci’esque defender defending.
Would be absolutely gutted to see AMN leave!
Of course he is ,doesn’t speak spanish and not in Kias stable .Who is surprised? Nothings surprises me anymore. Being one of our own matters for shit .. I understand that rebuild means we need to make some sacrifices , some player we like will need to go but AMN is the wrong choice for so many reasons IMO. Buying unwanted players is easier than selling unwanted players when is Kia going to help on that front?
“Buying unwanted players is easier than selling unwanted players when is Kia going to help on that front?” Well, we might find that out in 2 or 3 years. When the club is full with Kia clients and Raul tells Kia that Player X is surplus to requirements or didn’t meet our expectations, let’s see if Kia can also make such a player leave easily. Obviously Kia can’t help with Özil, Kola or Guendouzi leaving, as they are not his clients. I am against close ties with a single agent, but I could imagine that this would work better in… Read more »
I really hope this doesn’t happen.
This is so dumb
This feels like asset stripping. I can’t see any other big club doing this with a talent like AMN. Sure he will go for a wad of millions and maybe it’ll help us to do business at the other end But the short term banditry on display here is maddening. For me AMN has shown rock solid consistency since Wenger promoted him from the youth team. It’s there for all to see. He is on the verge of great things as a player. I am trying not to be hyperbolic here. I believe that losing AMN will cost dearly in… Read more »
No problems Ainsley , just refuse to leave as others are doing.
From AMN’s perspective, he can look forward to a raise anyway. It’s Arsenal that will be the loser if he goes; the player will be fine.
Good point. We know Arteta wants him to stay, so chances are he will get game time if he digs in. AMN’s career wouldn’t be harmed if he did
Arteta is pretty much untouchable at this point in time, and would have good options open to him if he were turfed out. We need him to stand up to the board’s anti-football decisions where possible. As long as he’s doing well on the pitch, he wields power
AMN is a player made by Arteta before Arteta AMN was frustrated and was not good enough but now he is a man on a mission, big game player and the main marker we have at the moment . If the board allows hime to leave who is going to replace his physical strength, pace and marking big wingers like Mane, , Traore and Mahrez. This news seems sad
That is a hugely important point to make. His ability to deal with top class wingers is a massive advantage for our team
Very true, he’s shown that he can more than handle dangerous players. In fact I’d trust him at this point more than Hector against a Mane or a Sterling. Who’s going to step in, Soares? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Brilliant news, another step in the club becoming functioning once again!!
No longer are we going to keep rank average youngsters ad infinitum on the off chance that they become a superstar when it’s patently clear they’re not good enough!!
Carry on what you’re doing Raul and Mikel you’re restoring my faith in the club again!!
I hope that was sarcasm. AMN was good enough to play the two biggest games of the season, and he performed very well.
John, normally I agree with most of your opinions but not on AMN. I think he is a good player. However, will he ever be a world class player in any one position? Probably not. A sale for a good fee may be justified but it would still seem a bit of a shame, especially if he does go on to become a top box to box midfielder at another club. Mixed feelings on this one
Why do people think he’ll become a top box to box midfielder when he’s 7th choice in a midfield as weak as ours? Do you not think he would play if there was any indication that was true?
Who exactly are you referring to? Iwobi? Can’t argue with that, we did well to get so much for him. Gibbs? He was unremarkable, but a solid back up LB. I’m struggling to think of any recent youth players that we’ve kept around for ages that weren’t any good. Who else in the last 10 years have we “kept around too long”? I can’t think of any.
Walcott, Wilshere, Denilson, Diaby, Senderos, Djourou, Bendtner, all these players kept well beyond there usefulness, spending at least the last several months at the club on the bench and with exception of Walcott left either on free transfers or very, very small transfer fees.
We don’t need to watch another 100 games of Maitland-Niles to know he isn’t top 4 quality, make the call early whilst you can get some money to reinvest in better players
Player recruitment has been outsourced at The Arsenal without competitive tendering! WHY?
Hmmm. Disappointing but not tragic or as sensational as is being made out imo. He can’t get into the midfield (and that’s hardly our strongest area) or full back and, understandably/rightly wants game time. Cedric is a decent enough option and we need to improve midfield. Plus there’s the other youngsters like ESR to come. He’s had a crack and it’s either not quite the right time for him or the team. All in all seems to be the logical step, if the right offer comes. Some tough decisions need to be made in and out. I’ll be sad to… Read more »
So the FA cup was a shopping window and instead of a really talented, home grown, Hale End Arsenal fan we got a soon to be washed up Soares who got a great pay day going into the retirement years. Anyone thinking this is good business should get the sack. So fuck off Raul, Vinai, Edu and Kroenke and take that slimy, slithering agent friend of you’rs with you. I wrote in another post that I’m really questioning my loyalties to Arsenal as it’s only a business now and if something doesn’t change in a really short time I wont… Read more »
Soares is horrible. I’d rather keep Kolasinac. Don’t mix loyalty to current owners/ directors. It was a business before they arrived. What they need to do is make good business decisions. And the Soares deal is simply a poor one.
Selling a player of his calibre (100 top tier app.)
who can play RB RWB RM RW LB LWB LM LW CM
And he is homegrown.
For 20.
Oh
My
God
Apparently Arteta was overruled!
“The Portuguese international turns 29 at the end of this month, but until then remains 28 because that’s how it works”.
This is so boring now?
I’ve never understood where this came from
Is there really such a thing as being on the transfer list?
Presumably everyone is for sale at the right price.
And I can understand telling a player he’s not in your plans if you want to pressure him into accepting an offer, but why would you tell someone they’re leaving *if* someone bids 20 million for them?
Something doesn’t add up.
If I am not mistaken there is such a thing that clubs and players can access. Look it up at thepfa dot com. I am not sure if top clubs like Arsenal would make use of that, it’s rather a tool for smaller clubs without scouting (oops, wait) to see who could be signed. When Arsenal “transfer list” a player it basically means they encourage other clubs to contact the player to negotiate personal terms and if successful, present the club an offer. Normally this is forbidden unless the player entered the last 6 months of contract, however, this is… Read more »
And the hits just keep on coming!
This decision stinks.
Surely a John Cross and Matt Law article should carry a MASSIVE ?????? Warning
Not Matt Law. Sam Wallace. Although the point remains 😉
Apologies… thanks for the correction!
The club flying a kite?
A big mistake indeed
Getting a bit silly with all this anti raul/ kia nonsense now bloggs. maybe wait till the end of the window before spreading negativity. He might want to go, might not be in artetas long term plans, story might not be true.
I do love this blog for its football content, but it does like to pedal a good narrative. From Mustafi to the Kia/Raúl/Kroenke conspiracy. Problem is most people lap it up emotionally without thinking objectively. I’m not saying these guys are great for the club but I am quite sure they are doing what they think is best with Artetas blessing. That doesn’t mean all of the decisions are great or right, or we have to like them, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt for now and assume like us, they want to be successful and that… Read more »
True. That margin is found in the month or more Emery stayed beyond his “sell by” date, with Raul’s backing.
just think about it, we are offering Auba a new contract but we sell AMN and fire all our scouts and staff, are we funding Auba’s new contract with the money saved from these departures? And what about our squad taking a paycut to help out??
just imagine the scenes if they did this and we lost to Chelsea.
what happened to good old classy Arsenal?