Disclaimer: Despite the headlines this blog is not your usual piece of transfer bollocks. You have been warned.
Markets
It may be news to young football fans but the modern transfer market is barely 13 years old when the transfer window was first introduced to English football by FIFA in 2003/04. Yes, the concept of a football transfer existed in England for more than 100 years when the Football Association (FA) introduced player registration sometime after 1885. But for most of the intervening years there was really no “free” market for the services of a footballer. It is a historical fact that sometime after the Football League was formed in 1888, the owners decided that restrictions had to be placed on the ability of richer clubs to lure players from other clubs to prevent the league being dominated by a handful of clubs. From the start of the 1893–94 season onwards, once a player was registered with a Football League club, they could not be registered with any other club, even in subsequent seasons, without the permission of the club he was registered with.
The transfer system remained unchanged until the Bosman ruling in 1995. The case for ending Football League-type restrictions on player transfers was brought to court by Jean-Marc Bosman, a former Belgian footballer who in 1990 was registered with Belgian club RFC Liège. His contract had expired and he was looking to move to French team Dunkerque, but Dunkerque refused to pay the transfer fee of £500,000 that Liège were asking for. Bosman was left in limbo and his wages were cut by 75% due to him not playing. After a lengthy legal battle, he won his case when the European Court of Justice ruled that players should legally be free to move when their contract expired.
The point of the preceding historical overview is to remind my readers that the existence of a transfer market and the window is a very recent phenomenon with little in the way of repetitive historical data on which to establish some trading rules. Complicating things even further is the current transfer market does not function year-round. Trading is artificially restricted to the transfer window; i.e. two months in summer and one month in winter. No wonder there are such huge distortions in the demand and supply mechanism and ultimately in prices.
Despite the relative youth of the transfer market, it is important for us Arsenal fans and others to understand its driving forces to avoid being manipulated by the various market participants as well as to better understand the moves made by Arsene and the club. In my last blog I shared with you the role of Greed and Despair as the two primary emotional drivers in the stock market which are equally evident during the transfer window. I emphasized that in in both markets the full-time professionals will consistently exploit and profit from these emotions.
Why the stock market as a frame of reference? Because it is the oldest and biggest market place in the world where the public (individuals, speculators, investors, and institutions) compete to make money. Stock trading of some sort has been around since the middle of the 16th century. But the modern stock exchange was first officially formed in London in 1773, 19 years before the New York Stock Exchange which eventually became the pre-eminent stock market by the 19th century paralleling the rise of New York as the centre of world commerce and finance. Despite repetitive bubbles and crashes, malfeasance and scandals, stock markets continue to exist and grow in size. At the close of 2012, the size of the world stock market (total market capitalization) was about US$55 trillion. By country, the largest market was the United States (about 34%), followed by Japan (about 6%) and the United Kingdom (about 6%).
Irrational Behavior
Due to their long history as well as the money at stake, stock markets have been studied to death by academics and professionals aiming to identify trends and behaviours which are repetitive and predictable. One such repetitive feature that is absolutely comparable to the transfer market is the irrational behaviour by many of the participants. Many of you may recall in the late nineties the mantra of “irrational exuberance” by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan to describe the behaviour of investors running up stock prices during the dot.com bubble which eventually went splat.
It seems to me the very definition of irrational behaviour is Manchester United’s who sold Pogba to Juventus for £500k and four years later repurchased him for an eye watering £89.25m according to TransferMkt.com. As the highest valued transfer ever by United, it is reasonable to assume that during his five year contract he will be earning top wages at United, at least comparable with the £300k per week reportedly earned by Rooney. Added to this expensive acquisition are the transfers of Mkhitarayan (£35.7m) and Bailly (£32.3m) with wages to match. Ibrahimovic was acquire on a free but nobody doubts that he is earning top whack given his celebrity status worldwide.
Meanwhile their noisy neighbours City refuse to be outdone, splashing lavishly on Stones (£47.3m), Sane (£42.5m), Gabriel Jesus (£27.2m), Gündogan (£22.9m), Bravo (£15.3m), Nolito (£15.3m) and a few more in single digits. It is commonly known that City pay top-top wages in the league and apparently out of favour players like Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Eliaquim Mangala are difficult to move on because interested clubs cannot match their contractual compensation. This is a prime example of a club obligated to pay premium salaries of once big signings now surplus to requirements.
It is widely known that contrarians will constantly outperform the prevailing market sentiment during market extremes. In our case during the transfer window Arsene Wenger consistently exploits and profits from the irrational behavior of City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs et al. This is despite thousands of mainstream media articles, blogs and tweets that Arsenal is being left behind. Arsene refuses to buy high and sell low. He waits until the opportunity develops to get superior value at relatively lower market prices than his competitors. Once the timing is right, usually towards the end of the window, he moves in for the kill (Cazorla, Alexis and now Lucas Perez come to mind).
Herzfeld and Drach (“H and D”) in High-Return, Low-Risk Investment explains that the reason for this irrational behaviour goes much deeper than people reacting to extremes (e.g. when Arsenal go on a bad run) or to the media brainwashing us to believe that transfers are the key to success (when there is ample evidence to the contrary). I will briefly touch on these underlying reasons in the hope that it may help us cope with the repetitive nonsense that prevails during the transfer window.
1. Psychological Gratification
People like to be liked. Being with the crowd is much easier psychologically than being against If everyone is doing the same thing, there is a feeling of camaraderie. (I experience this on Twitter everyday. If the big accounts are slagging Wenger for “dithering” in the transfer market then it is par for the course for the vast majority while those of us who decry the nonsense and point to Wenger’s consistent 20-year success in the window are treated as lepers). This bonding however reduces clear recognition of the risks inherent in the crowd’s behaviour, leading to major losses when crowds ignore reality. Crowd followers are lemmings. Buying and selling players in the transfer market is not a team sport; there are winners and losers with millions at stake.
2. Short-Term Illusion
When a dramatic price event occurs and becomes the centre of attention, seemingly logical reason to justify the price change accompany the sensationalism. The reasoning baits the trap. Usually a major price move has occurred before the sensationalism , the move itself created the sensationalism. The end result is monies are attracted (through supply/demand) to aggravate the price change. If the price move is up, the sensationalism will attract buyers (demand) and push prices higher. If the price move is down, the sensationalism will attract sellers (supply) and push prices lower. H and D note that anyone with experience with the investing public knows that those who get involved with after-the-fact sensationalism tend to repeat their behaviour even though they repeatedly lose (Man United I am looking at you).
Translate the above to the transfer market: The tendency at the beginning of the window is to push prices higher. The big monied teams like PSG, Barca, and Madrid usually storm out of the blocks in their greed to get the best asset on the market. The media and blogs sensationally justify the high prices as the going “market rate” with no reference to quality (e.g. see most of the recent blogs by the Sage of Dublin). There is the usual round of sensational media reports in England and from Europe justifying higher prices and United, City, Chelsea are lured in to pay hand-over-fist for less than top-top quality players. In a year or two many of these high priced transfers prove to be a bust. Meanwhile a measured long-term player like Arsenal will wait until the end of the window to pick up usually young, promising talent on the cheap at reasonable prices whom it can develop as world class players. Fabregas, Van Persie are examples and it is likely Bellerin and Gnabry will follow this route. Just as an aside, in my opinion, if Diaby did not suffer that horrific assault on his ankles in that last game of his first year he would have been a great-great player in the class of Fabregas and Van Persie.
3. Justified sensationalism
H and D note that automatically ignoring (or taking positions directly opposite) prevailing sensationalism can be a mistake. There are positions when the sensationalism is correct, the price movement is justified and the price direction is very likely to continue. Thus in 2007-2008 when the run on Lehman Brothers became apparent and Bear Sterns was being shut down and investors began to bail from firms holding dodgy mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. It would have been right to go with the flow. The important thing is to use common sense to differentiate between justified and unjustified sensationalism. The easiest example in the last ten years of unjustified sensationalism has been the yearly pre-season prognostications by the vast majority of pundits in the commercial media that Arsenal will fall out of the top-four because it failed to spend like its big rivals. They consistently fail to educate the public that Arsenal is a self-sustaining club that could never match United or the sugar-daddy clubs in spending, it would simply go bankrupt. Similarly they consistently under report the role of Arsene Wenger as a genius of a manager who despite lesser resources has consistently outperformed his big spending rivals.
Playing a Blinder
I am going to take the unusual role of saying the club has recognized an element of justifiable sensationalism among the fans this summer and responded by playing this transfer window brilliantly. They, I am sure, are keenly aware of the desire of the supporters to see the club actually compete for the title, knowing full well that finishing 10 points behind Leicester last year has left embers of discontent that can be easily become a conflagration in the hands of the usual pyromaniacs. The early acquisition of Xhaka and Holding as well as the bid for Vardy was a signal of serious intent. As Wenger said early in the window we need to score some more goals and defend even better. As I write the acquisition of Mustafi and Lucas Perez is all but finalized.
In my opinion Lucas could be the final piece of the puzzle; an experienced, aggressive, speedy forward who can score goals and assist. The last time Wenger brought such a predator was in 2007 with the acquisition of Eduardo from Shakhtar Donetsk who was then described as a “striker with lightning speed and a poacher’s instinct in front of goal.” Dudu only scored 12 goals from 22 starts in his first season at the Arsenal, eight of them in the PL, but he was starting to flourish amid the hustle and bustle of English football until Martin “Tiny” Taylor’s challenge left him with a broken leg and dislocated ankle. Up to that point in time, together with Adebayor leading the line, we were on a title-winning run, 5 points atop the table. If Lucas, in his first season, can in anyway duplicate Eduardo’s performances, he together with Walcott, Sanchez and Giroud being fed by Ozil and Xakha, could help us score the goals badly needed during the harsh winter months, when title challenges are made or broken. If he does, we could be in with a shout by the beginning of May.
In closing, I thought Arsene and Ivan would have executed their transfer strategy down to the wire. Instead our summer business is done and dusted by August 29th. Too bad for Sky, BT, ESPN and the BBC, the sensationalists. Leave it to our friend Mel to express my sentiments in his inimitable style:
Positively Arsenal 
Bloody hell Shotts – a formidable piece on the history of madness in modern football.
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That Mel bloke is a card !
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Ha, Ha, Ha Andy Nic. That should have been the title. Only on PA will readers get the truth about the transfer market. Like all markets it is entirely man-made and designed to make money. The media and our bloggers will have a completely different narrative which is mostly based on stirring emotions rather than facts.
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there used to be a short period near the end of the season, usually with 8-10 left, where transfers could not be done, other than that they could be done where and when needed. And before the bosman ruling there was a transfer tribunal to set fees of players out of contract, by and large the panel ignored “the going rate” and set a lower fee than the player was worth, sometimes even lower than the buying club had offered. Arsenal both benefited and suffered from the tribunals decisions. Frank Stapleton was the subject of a £2M bid by Liverpool, but the panel set his transfer fee to Man Utd at under £1M. Whilst Arsenal signed Steve Bould for £390K when Everton had bid £500K. One trick used was that the buying club would give the lad a low wage, as this would be one of the criteria the panel would use to determine his value, and once the decision was made, he would get a new contract mid season bringing his wage way up. The FA’s tribunal panel used to have Club chairmen on it, often from well down the leagues, and it was felt that either these men were out of touch with top flight prices, or that they were keeping prices down as they thought this would keep transfer fees in general low.
There was also a clause in where a player out of contract was entitled to a free transfer if his club had not offered him a new deal, not sure if the new deal had to be same wages or better wages than he was on, but which ever one it was, if not offered by a certain date, the player was entitled to a free transfer, this is how Arsenal signed Ian Allinson for free. by the way we beat off competition from the mighty Fulham to snap him up for free – probably Terry Neill’s best ever deal.
There was also a ruling on the fees that could be paid for out of contract players when they moved from one country to another, we suffered badly in the Liam Brady deal when he went to Juventus, he was easily a £2M or £3M player at that time, and we got, if memory serves, £600K, as this was the maximum allowed for inter league transfers under the rule.
On the setting up of the transfer window, some believe that it was set up to counter the Bosman ruling, as in it was designed to raise the transfer prices, to compensate for money lost on players who run down their contracts, also in its very nature, it means a player with one year left on his contract and who is refusing to sign a new one, could be left all year with no football, and only the one month of January to sort out a deal if he wanted to play. Especially effective in international championship seasons.
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I see the media are up to their usual bullshit, our new German gave an interview to Sky Germany, in it he said Wenger was a big reason for him joining AFC, and that he had only heard good things about the club from Mesut Ozil, also he had not spoken to Per yet, as he has not seen him lately, so what are the headlines that the british media are running with
“Ozil talks Mustafi into joining Arsenal”
the inference is as clear as day, in a week where our boss was blasted for not signing players, to being doubly blasted for signing players, now they want us to believe that Ozil is doing the persuading when it comes to new signings. But I suppose what can we expect from the media, when so many fans and bloggers attack our club, we can’t blame the media for following suit.
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Right on point buddy, to me Arsen Wenger is the best football manager the game has ever seen. He deserves an award from FIFA on how to run a successful club, whose football is appetising and its books squeaky clean.
Wengerball!!!!!
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Thanks for that bit of historical info Eddy. Clearly the owners were the ones manipulating the transfer market in the good old days. Now the the pendulum has swung in favor of the players and their agents.
I am still amazed when I read bloggers and their lemmings write claptrap that Wenger and the club are out of touch with the transfer market. Almost all other clubs are being taken to the cleaners except AFC. Out of touch, yeah. You’re right!
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Fantastic piece although I’m still catching up with the match report.
Yes the so called panic buys are getting earlier and earlier and the press are still claiming they have the list of everyone’s wanted list, when someone is being watched and where they are on that list all rubbish of course inthe name of making a living.
While we know that the media darling arry Redknapp, (who never ever made a panic buy just shrewd wheeler deeler signings) bankrupt every club he was at Arsene on the other hand has steered the club through a financial minefield obtaining sucess unparrelled at the club since the 30’s.
The start to the season for us and the financial big three means winning the league will be extremely difficult, a loss at chelski could possibly see us eight points behind and while normally this can be picked up chasing one club chasing three with a very difficult November could be insurmountable. This would again give the media and those who need the league to fill a void in their lives ammunition to accuse the club of not wanting to win but that is all ifs and buts and on here whatever happens we will ennjoy the ride.
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Damn You Shotta, using your brain and all.
What kind of PASSUM ATE fan are you?
It’s all papering over da cracks, innit?
This really really good squad is a fruit tile exercise.
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Atta boy, Shötts! You’re as hot as our German with the umlaut. I admit to improving my knowledge base on all things accounting, finance and statistics just reading your posts.
Though I couldn’t find time to comment on the pre- and post match articles, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Normal service has resumed alright on and off the field, as someone rightly commented. My daughter’s been ill so I’ve scarcely had time to comment, though I’ve avidly gobbled up every article and liked as many comments as I could possibly muster in between tepid sponging her.
I look forward to reading more informative articles in this break from club football. After all, that’s what stands this blog, us, apart from the rest. We know how to do just that.
Victoria Concordia Crescit!
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The fan base and media are still building up for A. N. Other ‘superstar’ signing on Wednesday.
The same fan base the refuses to accept that we have a single one in the club already, and more in the process of becoming stars.
Our squad oozes with talent and ability. If they stay reasonably fit and healthy, and show half as much desire to become champions as Arsene Wenger clearly believes they can deliver, our season will be exceptionally good.
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For the record:
Granite Xhaka £30m
Takuma Asano £800k – a punt for the future.
Rob Holding £2m (we should feel dirty about that theft!)
Kelechi Mwakali £3m – He is Nigeria U17 captain.
Skodran Mustafi £35m
Lucas Perez £20m – he looks like a better Vardy.
Approx 90m.
Rock solid business, and not a sugardaddy in sight.
I bet the wages bill might have even been reduced – if only in the short-term to allow for new contract deals for Ozil, Alexis, Ramsey, Wilshere and anyone else the club want’s to keep for the long term.
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Good article Shotta. Just a query; didn’t our George Eastham have more than a bit to do with loosening up the transfer market?
iDibs hope your daughter is OK now.. . or at least feeling much better.
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What a fantastic read, an author engaging grey matter, using examples away from football to explain so well some of the madness within the game….this just won’t do, especially when writing about Arsenal….Arsenal fans need to read divisive hype, bluff and bluster, half truths, non truths and the made up….or so the media seem to believe.
Agree, the club have played a blinder this season. They have bought in youngsters, experienced players, an impressive left of field signing in Perez, and , have spent rather a lot of money, but appear to have spent well. Apparently the manager is reactive and incapable of planning if you believe some.
So the theory we don’t spend is blown out of the water.
We only buy technical midgets…..according to some, yet there are some very strong guys in this increasingly balanced team.
No we cannot go head to head with some, Ivan explained that very well if the transcript of his words is read rather than the hype. But cunning and surgical strikes as we have seen this summer give us the best chance of upsetting the odds from time to time, that song with a fine track record of developing our own.
At the risk of sounding impatient, Just wish Wenger would end speculation and sign on for a bit longer so he can take this impressive looking squad forward.
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Eastham v Newcastle United 1964 – a case that dragged English football, and the relationship between clubs and their players, into the 20th century Gf ( as I suspect you remember a lot better than me)
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4,157 views in less than two hours Shotts – best mention it to your agent !
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“when so many fans and bloggers attack our club, we can’t blame the media for following suit.”
Historically it was probably the other way around.
Constant bashing of Arsenal eventually ended in own fans & blogs to follow the stream so much that it is now strange to see anything positive said about the club.
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Boom! What an excellent report and also some excellent responses. My faith in our supporters has been restored! I was beginning to think there wasn’t many of us left.
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That was a truly excellent piece Shotta thanks again.
It kinda makes me want to invest in Betamax or something.
In terms of AW playing the transfer market, I still think the club fucked up last summer. Not signing at least one other of a striker or midfielder left us very short. I think that created a rod for the mangers back and also ammunition for his detractors. I’ve been very critical of him, mainly because I felt the squad has not been adequately augmented, with us consistently going into campaigns lacking.
But that was then etc…
The squad looks excellent and ready to challenge. I like your Eduardo comparison too.
The fact the media almost simultaneously chose to label the two new arrivals as panic buys tells us all we need to know about their agenda. That and some rotund twat on Sunday Supplement spouting Wenger still hasn’t signed the mythical 25 goals a season striker, cliched bollocks.
Thanks again and… Have a nice day…
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IDibs @ 11:12 am: Glad you acknowledge I have somehow helped in “improving my knowledge base on all things accounting, finance and statistics.” Trust me just writing them have helped me even more than you. It’s been a very, very long time since I left graduate school where one was compelled to engage in such matters academically. However out on the streets where theory meets practise has been the greatest education. My blogs are therefore based primarily on experience, i.e. they are fact driven. What I aim to do is to help educate and inform, something the mainstream media and our bloggers have long ceased to do, especially in football-related matters which btw is the case in politics and economics. Thanks again for your kind words.
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I wonder how many of the 4,157 read past the first paragraph , when they realised it wasn’t the usual transfer bollocks?
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Spoken like a true press ‘baron’ George
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The Northern Echo reporting the loan deal for Calum Chamber to play for Boro is done. If that proves accurate I think it is a great move for the player and he can pick up a season of solid experience under a good manager with Karanka.
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Thanks gf60. She’s feeling better.
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Which makes it all the more solid. I’m gaining second-hand experience from your first-hand knowledge and experience of the subject matter. More of the same, please.
Awesome.
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Anicoll…your 11.56
Sadly Andrew, you are right. 68 years a Gooner. Oh to be 5 again…ideally knowing what I know now!
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This is a good article, thought these media personalities always slaughtering us about not spending the money to get the deal done when they know that prices are pushed up to get maximum profit from the sucker who is willing to pay.
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well done shotta… enjoyed reading that.. actual facts… hmmm. enjoyed it though. LOL
Idibs greetings to your daughter.. tell her we are wishing her well right here on PA
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Fellow Positivistas – Andrew Nic can confirm that I was initially very concerned that a blog so heavy on history and analysis would appeal to any but the few loyalists who support this blog. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Despite my disclaimer that this was not the usual bollocks about transfers the readership/viewership has so far more than doubled anything else I have produced and the responses on twitter have been overwhelming in both quantity and quality. Not a WOB has so far reared their ugly head. I am not going to take all the credit. With the recent signings there is a more positive mood amongst supporters and there is seemingly “justifiable sensationalism” that the club will better complete, much the same as the mood after the Özil signing. That doesn’t mean our fans are no longer subject to Greed and Despair. But lets hope they can better identify and manage it.
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Fantastic piece I must commend thee. Also interesting with this Perez signing is his age, seen quite a few questioning why we didn’t sign someone younger but we actually have quite a few young strikers on the books.
Asano and Akpom are obvious ones but there’s also Yassin Fortune and Donyell Malen who look very good technically and in the case of Malen the club actually did business with Mino Raiola to get him with him being his agent. There’s also Edward Nketiah who has being putting up very good numbers at youth level and looks very much a poacher and perhaps a bit of a darkhorse but Stephen Mavididi looks very impressive to me.
So that’s 6 strikers aged 16-21 and with that would not at all be surprised for at least one to be breaking through into the first team in 2-3 years ala Rashford and Iiheanacho.
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A blog of distinction.Shotta.
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Good stuff Shotta. Would expect nothing less.
You know that other blog you talked to me about. There’s one or two on there who rather than give credit to Arsenal for our signings in this transfer window would paint it as a dereliction of duty to not get a ‘settled squad’ sooner, ie before the season started.
Any mention of this being an entirely new angle to attack the club with is met with accusation of ‘spin’ on my behalf. I’m ridiculed for pointing out that actually Arsenal do very well in the transfer market, despite occasionally making mistakes. Any explanation is met with further accusation and sarcasm. I’m not quite sure how to combat this, but I am near breaking point with those that just won’t see. They even take offense at the idea that the media affects our discourse. ‘No, I am 100% independent in my thinking and you are insulting me by saying that this is not so’
Oh well. At least there’s this oasis to come to. Our squad is going to make it tougher and tougher for any pre match writer to predict our lineup. We have so many options (injury permitting) to change the lineup according to form, and tactics, that it’s going to lead to some very good players not even making the 18 man squad. We’ve spent more than a decade to get to here, and yet Arsenal fans meet this humongous achievement with ridicule. It gets on my nerves at times.
Again I’m just here expressing frustration. Keep at it all positivistas. We deserve the acclaim and the positive vibes.
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Another brilliant piece, Shotta. The WOBs won’t comprehend your article, there are too many long words….
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Chambers on loan to Middlesbrough
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Shard @ 7:40pm – Welcome home bro!
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1886 @1886_blog 9h9 hours ago
I see Lacazette may miss 3 months of football with a knee injury and now, Lyon desperately need a striker. How the tables have turned.
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We can’t afford a 75m bench.
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Shard: I just read the blog of which you speak. All I can say is at least they acknowledge they have been wrong on every prediction about the transfer market unlike us. We at PA, at least this writer, has been careful to base our predictions on historical data which forecasts to almost 100% accuracy that Wenger will move when top quality is available after the big clubs have made their move. It doesn’t matter how frequently they write; if they have no understand of the driving forces behind the market and the role of greed and despair they will get it 100% wrong again.
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Thanks TS. She’ll hear
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Can you imagine being 100% wrong on an investment in the stock market? You lose money to the other side of the trade. It is no team sport. Ask any of us in the US whose retirement is tied to the stock market. Many of us were wiped out in the 2007-08 splat. That is the same for the transfer market. Losers keep losing money til they are wiped out. This is the same issue I have with bloggers who make lost recommendations to Wenger about buying in the xfr market.
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*lousy recommendations*, not lost.
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Sam @samuelJayC 20m20 minutes ago
Arsenal considering loaning out Wilshere for first-team football according to tomorrow’s papers. #afc
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Kaveh Solhekol @SkyKaveh 7h7 hours ago
It’s becoming cheaper to buy clubs than players. According to reports in France, Marseille is being sold for £34m
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Jack Wilshere on loan?
Go on and fuck yourself, and when you get there keep on fucking yourself until you run out of fucking yourself!!! Transfer window rumour cunts I am coming to murder your children.
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I don’t have any problem with Jack having a loan somewhere as long as it is short term and he is guaranteed playing time. He is a creative player but he desperately needs to get back to playing one/two games a week for 90 minutes.
We have a lot of football after the International break, PL, League Cup and CL. I admit I would prefer to see him starting against Southampton at home on 10/9 as it seems sensible to have as many midfield players available with our record on injuries but I presume if he was loaned it would be on a very flexible basis.
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it could be a very good thing to loan out Wilshere, but only on a short term loan or a loan with a 24 hour recall option (in this we would have to loan him to lower league or foreign league, so that we can still have him registered in our 25 man squad), let him get a run of 6-10 games to build up his match fitness and then bring him back ready to fight for his place.
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with the changes to the loan system this year, unlike in previous seasons, their is no loan window for championship and lower leagues after tomorrows window shuts, so any deal will have to be done by tomorrow. under the old system we could have kept him for another few weeks and then loaned him out to a championship team and brought him back when needed like both Coquelin and Ramsey.
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as expected the news of a possible loan move for Wilshere has been met with attacks on Ramsey from the boo boys.
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Arsenal’s Serge Gnabry set to sign for Bayern Munich before loan to Werder Bremen – Sky Germany
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Chambers and Holding in England u21 squad
Full squad as selected:
Goalkeepers:
Angus Gunn (Manchester City), Jordan Pickford (Sunderland), Joe Wildsmith (Sheffield Wednesday).
Defenders:
Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), Brendan Galloway (West Bromwich Albion, loan from Everton), Kortney Hause (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rob Holding (Arsenal), Mason Holgate (Everton), Dominic Iorfa (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Matt Targett (Southampton).
Midfielders:
Lewis Baker (Vitesse Arnhem, loan from Chelsea), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Isaac Hayden (Newcastle United), Will Hughes (Derby County), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), John Swift (Reading), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton).
Forwards:
Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Nathan Redmond (Southampton), Dominic Solanke (Chelsea), Duncan Watmore (Sunderland).
Read more: http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=570579#ixzz4Inqax9TJ
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