This blog was written 24 hours before Arsenal’s loss to Stoke. Everything football and media-wise from that game reinforces my findings and conclusions.
Positivistas: This is not a blog about me per se but am using my experience to explain to our audience the meaning of a contrarian world view and how it applies to the football club we so love and support. After all so much is written and said about this club on a daily basis which, to me at least, is confusing and contradictory and makes absolutely no sense. Hopefully this essay may be helpful in providing a rational and logical perspective.
A contrarian according to the Webster on-line dictionary is defined as:
“One who takes a contrary view or action, especially an investor who makes decisions that contradict prevailing wisdom, as in buying securities that are unpopular at the time.”
Contrarian investors are usually successfully because they buy stocks when they are cheap due to their unpopularity and profit from them when their value rises over time.
Contrarians Rely on the Unbiased Data
As a self-described contrarian I will therefore typically disagree with or proceed against current opinion or established practice. But contrarians do not disagree simply to be disagreeable. Any successful contrarian investor, will base their opinions and findings entirely on the unbiased data, meaning it is subject to robust statistical analysis and not stitched up to suit a particular viewpoint.
Thus, for example, in my last blog I did not prescribe either an attack or defense oriented approach this season after analyzing 21 years of data demonstrating a widening gap in Goals-Against between Arsenal and the winning teams in the premier league. The data was clearly suggesting a more balanced approach where the club not only aims to score more goals but also concentrate on conceding less.
It may interest you how I arrived at this outlook. Twenty years ago I became one of the increasing millions of Americans whose employer no longer offer standard pensions, the alternative was a defined savings plans, in my case it being the very popular 401(k) retirement plan. Initially I was one of those passive investors who followed the conventional rules proclaimed by brokers, investment advisers and the mainstream media, i.e. always fully invested in the market regardless of highs and lows. Despite repeated evidence that the stock market is a dangerous place for uninformed amateurs I was like a lamb to the slaughter buying high and sell low.
My “Damascene” moment was the 2008-2009 crisis when, like almost all my American cohorts, my retirement nest-egg was almost totally wiped out by the stock market crash. I then learnt, like millions, how the big investment houses and banks such as Goldman, Merrill-Lynch, Deutsche, Barclays, etc., engineered the bubble arm-in-arm with the mainstream media, conveniently bailing out before the shit-hit-the-fan.
Public Sentiment Is A Contrarian Indicator
It is well known among all academic studies that when it comes to market performance public sentiment is a contrarian indicator. The public is inclined to buy on good news when prices are high and sell on bad news when prices are low; clearly a losing proposition.
Contrarians partially attribute this to Freud’s theory that unconsciously we human beings are often motivated by our primal instincts of fear and despair. Thus, for example, I was one of millions in 2007 who feared missing out on the rising market, refusing to sell when the market was topping out. Similarly, when the market hit rock bottom in 2009-2010 and the Feds were pumping trillions in the market most of us missed the monumental increase in stock prices out of despair that the market would ever recover again.
Similarly, how many times have Arsenal fans acted irrationally based on fear sown by the mainstream media that the club is on the edge of disaster because of a run of bad results. Despite 21 years of history showing Arsene Wenger is the most knowledgeable, most accomplished and most consistent manager in the league, fans have been frequently stirred and motivated to drive their greatest ever manager out of the club. At the very moment they are acting most irrationally the club is usually digging itself out of a hole. Last year was no exception. While the mainstream media was rushing to wager bets as to how soon Arsene Wenger would get his pink-slip, between April and May the club won 10 out of 11 matches to not only move from 8th to 5th in the league but to also secure its 3rd FA cup title in four years.
Mainstream Media Can Never Be Neutral
Much related and connected to public sentiment is the role of the mainstream media which is often the purveyors of public opinion. Contrary to conventional wisdom that the media has a neutral, unbiased interest in reporting facts, when it comes to money and investing they have a commercial interest in propagating fear and despair. Fear sells. It generates newspaper sales, listeners/viewers in radio/television and clicks on-line.
No commercially-oriented media company benefits from the boring up and down behavior of the market. To the contrary, if a media company is commercially dependent on investment banks, brokers, mutual funds etc., it is in their objective interest to hype a rise and fall of the market. At the very least, there are commissions to be made by market insiders when stocks are heavily traded.
Oftentimes a media representative, like a broker, may be professionally aware that the market is set for a fall, but because his or her commission is tied to generating new sales, he/she continue to induce more lemmings to invest, leading them like little lambs to the slaughter. No wonder so many of us were fully invested in worthless mortgage-related stocks during the last crash.
No Interest In Boring Arsenal
Similarly no commercial media house has an interest in “boring, boring” Arsenal. Just in terms of sheer numbers, supporters of the football club are clearly a fertile market for media exploitation. For example, from the reports I have read, Arsenal has the biggest online presence among football clubs worldwide. Since Wenger transformed the club into one of the biggest in England, there are now huge expectations by fans season after season. Correspondingly among these fans is chronic anxiety that the club may be falling behind its better financed rivals, not only to the traditional commercial giant Manchester United but the nouveau rich externally financed clubs, Chelsea and City.
It is no surprise that not a day passes without an alarming story in the mainstream media portending disaster at Arsenal football Club. Take for example, this week’s headlines from a Google search:
Liverpool join Arsenal in race for Jean Michael Seri: Reds in talks with Nice – Daily Express
Liverpool on brink of signing Arsenal target Jean Michael Seri – Daily Star
Liverpool Set to Sign Ligue 1 Midfield Star Seri Ahead of Arsenal, Tottenham – Sports Illustrated
It begs the question has Arsenal ever publicly disclosed an interest in signing Seri? Does the club ever get into a bidding war for any player? Any informed fan should have the answer to both questions.
Public Sentiment Is Against Arsenal
What of the current predictions by the media for Arsenal this season? As evident below is all doom and gloom:
- 6th Place – Guardian (Writers predictions)
- 6th Place – BBC (Writers predictions)
- 4th Place – ESPN (Writers predictions)
One wonders what are the factual bases for these predictions. We have had 21 years of Arsenal averaging 3rd position in the premier league and never falling out of the top-4 except last season. This new campaign the club has kept all of its top players from the previous season and furthermore strengthened the squad with: (1) the second highest goal-scorer from the French league, and (2) a left-back who made the Budesliga best XI for the last season.
The fundamental data is therefore indicating the current squad is deeper and better qualitatively than it was last year and, arguably, better than it has ever been since 2005. It seems to me a clear case of the mainstream media once again discounting the facts and data and simply emphasizing current negative public sentiment. What a surprise!
Contrarians are usually in a small minority, at least initially. I am therefore amongst a precious few who will confidently wager on a title challenge. In fact I will go further and predict Arsenal will most certainly regain its top-3 position. Only a total injury disaster will prevent this achievement and, if they are allowed to get away with it, undue referee bias.
For the sake of irony, I will conclude with the following disclosure: Information in this essay is not investment advice. Please consult a financial professional to help make decisions suitable to your particular situation and risk tolerance. That should take care of the bleeding football “experts” writing blogs, tweeting and doing podcasts.
Postscript:
Arsenal this season may well suffer from undue referee bias and another penalty embargo but vs Stoke they were statistically dominant despite being denied two penalties and a good goal ruled offside. The following summary was obtained from Whoscored.com:
| Stoke | Key Metric | Arsenal |
| 11 | Shots | 18 |
| 4 | Shots on target | 6 |
| 63% | Pass Success % | 88% |
| 64% | Aerial Duel Success | 36% |
| 7 | Dribbles won | 13 |
| 19 | Tackles | 16 |
| 23% | Possession | 77% |
I rest my case.
Positively Arsenal 
In the era of the £200M trannsfer clubs will be begging (paying comission to agents) for talents like Ox and Ramsey to run down their contracts.
They’d be crazy not to be doing that.
Be careful of what you wish for.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fins
Unless i’ve missed it in other posts, you don’t seem to be addressing possibility/ likelihood Ox leaves on a free next year.
It’s surely central to any debate and decision.
Blaming the agent or suggesting it’ll be the fault of fans still doesn’t address that main point for me.
Do you believe that if the fans stop being daft with this sort of talk and worse, Ox is almost sure to sign on; or that regardless of whether he does or not we should just keep quiet and enjoy this year with him and see what happens?
I like optimism and would be better off if I possessed more of it, but if there’s a debate to be had or more importantly a decision for those with the knowledge of the situation, surely its power has natural limits.
LikeLike
#TheOx: Slept on it. That he should be shoved thru the door is the most wrong-headed football idea around at AFC. It would damage the club profoundly. Allowing one of the best homegrown talents to easily leave the club at 24 y.o. when he is entering into his peak years would as Fins alluded also be financially disastrous. Transfermkt says his market value is less than £20 million but in this hyper inflated market a replacement would cost AFC no less than £40-50 million. He only started 16 EPL games last year (13 off the bench) during an injury blighted season. Mainly ecause of injuries in the past six years he has a maximum 17 EPL starts. Yet last year his summary stat is 2 goals, 7 assists, 1 MOTM with 84% passing success. This is a dude whose potential is way off the charts.
The only serious advocates of this nonsense is the circle jerk of podcasters who are a total bunch of amateurs with absolutely no experience in football manageemnt. They have a narrative that Wenger is past it and no alternate facts and data is allowed to pierce their closed little minds. Don’t fall for it. Instead let us show The Ox some love.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rich
What about the possibility that Ramsey wil leave in two years time.
You’d get a better price for him now then next year.
FLOG HIM!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rich,
I have never on these pages blamed an agent for anything. I have been writing about the Ox contract haggle since last summer because the agents’ actions and apparently successful PR briefings and manipulations were and are so easily predictable that even an idiot like me could accurately predict that the same blaggers who were once calling for the Ox to be ‘Unleashed’ would this summer be calling him to be sold following a season long PR campaign by blaggers and hacks and other such buisiness partners of the agents.
And here we are!
Blimey.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So we are all agreed then?
Tie up the Ox, and flog him. And if the club can’t tie down the best British footballer before he reaches his last year then they might as well flog him too. Ox out. Ramsey out.
I’m starting to get the hang of this, er, logic.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Fins has been absolutely consistent on The Ox and his AFC future since last year. Now it is stick or twist time. No AFC supporter can play middle of the road on this issue. Ox-in or Ox-out?
LikeLiked by 1 person
very execellent article: you nailed it and I couldn’t agree more!
LikeLike
yeah shotts lets not make it easy for ox to go, its not like leaving on a bosman is easy, lets develop him for another year so whoever pays him the most next summer benefits even more.
I’ve never before seen a player of the age of 24, with over 250 career games, still being talked about as potential, Jesus even goalies with those sort of stats are expected to be at the level.
the ox has been shown love by the fan base, and the club are reported to have offered him £125K a week, journos seem to have been briefed by his agent that Ox will not sign no matter what we offer. if he was a case in isolation then maybe we could take the risk of him leaving on a free. But he is one of 4 who are in first team squad that are free agents next summer. There is also the problem that come January all 4 would be free to agree a deal with foreign clubs, now that would be some scenario, 4 first team players with half a season to play, all with deals agreed for big pay day moves in the summer. We could very well see a Steve McManaman type fall in performance as avoiding injury became the main concern.
We seen it ourselves when Hleb had transfer talks with Milan and Barca and his performances went to pot.
Of course all 4 could sign new deals with AFC today, next week, next month, next summer, but the longer the deals go unsigned the bigger the chances are they leave on a Bosman.
Shotta you talk about a crazy transfer market, and its crazy prices, and how much it would cost to replace ox and co this summer, well that would be to imply that the prices will not go up next year, that would be very odd as its never happened before. If we would find it almost impossible to replace them this summer, then how in hell would we manage to replace them next summer when we wouldn’t even have their transfer fees to use. 3 of the 4 cost us around £85M to buy in the first place, and that was before prices went crazy. Will double that replace them, treble maybe, quadruple possibly, are Arsenal going to be in the position to pay those amounts, not forgetting that replacing them with similar standard only leaves us standing still quality wise, so if we want to add more quality players on top, then we are talking the sort of spending spree only oligarch clubs have been able to do so far.
I believe that nearly all those that say sell them now and replace are letting their heads rule their hearts, they look at the transfer market, see the prices rising all the time, and are concerned that if we lose more than one of our star men for free next summer we will not be in a position to upgrade the squad. you see Shotta like you they too think £50M now might not replace Ox, so will £60M or £70M do it next summer, either of which would be a transfer record for the club. so add in Alexis, Ozil and Jack, and would £200M replace them, just to stand still.
That is why some of us say the most sensible decision is sell if big fees are being offered and use that money along with what we have already, now this summer, before the prices go even higher and our valuable assests become worthless to us next summer.
Purely on a football standpoint of course it makes sense to keep them all, its never a good idea to lose a talent. Wenger has said already that it only makes sense to keep them on a football standpoint, and that it certainly does not make sense on a financial standpoint, and only way it ends up not being a bad decision financially is if we get them to sign new contracts.
I must add that we can talk all day long about selling them this summer, but the reality is that even if we want to, we can not force any of them to sign for the highest bidder, if there is a bidder at all. After all Arsenal said only a couple of days ago that we have not received a single bid for Alexis, Ozil or Oxlade-chamberlain this summer.
LikeLike
claims that AFC have released the players wages, very much doubt it
http://dailypost.ng/2017/08/22/arsenal-fc-reveals-players-weekly-wages-full-list/
LikeLike
looks like Jon Toral is joining Hull for £3M
LikeLike
https://www.arsenal.com/news/talent-means-nothing-its-about-hard-work
LikeLike
Yes. Flog him Eddie. Don’t try everything to keep him. Way to go!
LikeLiked by 1 person
wwwb I put that article up here yesterday.
I really like how Per says he intends not to tell the young players they are good very often. the have to get a work ethic, and not believe the hype and think skill alone will get them to the top.
LikeLike
Fins, if we reach that horrible moment with Ramsey next summer then, damn, that will suck. It could be evident by then that we and many other clubs are going to suffer that fate increasingly of players running their contracts down.
It doesn’t have a huge amount of relevance to our situation with Ox at this moment though. Ramsey has less to prove in terms of finding consistency in his game, he is more or less the finished article and this year (or next year?) don’t represent for him a similar stage as this year does for the Ox. Injury free, playing nearly all the time, I believe he- Ox- will have the best year of his career and develop substantially
I respect your total support for the player, likewise if you have a slightly higher opinion of him than me (and mine is high) and believe it is guaranteed at this point he will fulfil all that potential (and it’s not at all unusual for players his age to kick on massively- Kos, Drogba, Giroud, Lampard,too, for me).
But that rotten bind remains. Is it a tolerable option to keep him in the team and provide that platform for him to kick on this year, favouring him over other options who are at present close (that’s my opinion again of course- it’s close, very, between him and Bellerin at rwb; it’s close between him and Kolasinac or Monreal for the lwb spot), while it is very likely he will walk away at the end of it, probably (if talk is true) to Chelsea ?(though Utd and City will very likely want him,too, especially if he has a good year)
It’s a bloody horrible dilemma to me, and if I come down on the side of ‘sell’, even after my emotional response of anger (Chelsea. Fucking Chelsea! At this stage!) has passed, it’s neither fair nor accurate to characterise that as ‘flog’.
If- please no- ramsey puts us in the same spot next year, should I then think we’re prob best to sell, which I doubt, because his situation is different, that wouldn’t be flog either.
Anyway, all this talk could be pointless if something good is happening behind the scenes we are unaware of. My main hopes for now will rest on that.
LikeLike
shotta where have I said not to try everything to keep him, either we are making headway in contract talks or we are not. His agent is briefing that Ox will not sign a new contract no matter what we offer. So do we ignore this, and say ah he will change his mind.
I’d love to see Ox sign a new five year deal with us, but all the noises from his side is that he is looking to leave. His side is claiming its all about game time and a central midfield role. Well game time might be sorted and that is a big might(and I doubt it will be in one set position) but I don’t see him getting a Central Midfield role, do you, considering he is here 7 years and he has probably not played 10 games in CM in that time.
Shotta if Kos and Alexis are fit to start on Sunday, would you have Ox in the starting 11, and if so where.
Personally I’d probably have him in at RWB with Bellerin dropping to the subs as I’m all for picking the player who is in better form and in the two games so far and preseason too, Ox has been better than Hector. But that is the point, there is so little in it, yet we talk about Ox as if he is a world beater, and not a guy who is not sure of a starting place every week.
Team v Liverpool
Cech
Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Ox Xhaka Ramsey Kolasinac
Ozil Lacazette Alexis
subs Ospina, Bellerin, Per, Elneny, Walcott, Welbeck, Giroud
Iwobi, Chambers, Holding and Wilshere the others in contention for inclusion in squad.
LikeLike
eduardo792
Respect to that
Just love the guy
We have some good people
With this super debate going on here(I must say that we all have our own minds contrary to popular belief) we can argue but it is normally very positive, not personal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eddies prediction for Sunday:
Cech
Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Ox Xhaka Ramsey Kolasinac
Ozil Lacazette Alexis
if thats so,and they dig in and fight like in the FAC, those points are ours. look at the bench too. A strong side. Yet many running to the toilet in fear already of Anfield.
I see that Parasite TV has now an open agenda against AW. (yawn). Poor fellows who believe what they hear.
Mesuts King of the stats at the moment. But I thought he doesnt turn up for games?
LikeLike
Rich: Your comment was directed at Fins but let me intervene for a moment. The main tie that binds a player to a club these days is his contract. We should have learnt from our bitter experience with Cesc and RVP that emotional ties to the club mean more to fans and relatively little to players. They will move for more money and for promises of glory even if it means betraying promises they made to Papa Wenger. Now players and their agents are taking the risk of running out their contract as they know there is a bigger payday in signing on fees and hefty salaries if the new club doesn’t have the burden of a transfer fee. Wenger said it; clubs have to play the game a much differently by risking the loss of transfer fees to get one more year out of a player with the hope of re-signing him at the end of the contract. That is the current situation with Ox and possibly with Ramsey.
Eddie: If the Boss decides it is important to start the Ox I have no option than to support him knowing what is at stake.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WwwB @2.06pm–I’ll second that!
LikeLike
Rich you wrote about my total support for the player.
That is a misreading. I can be vague so to clarify:
My total support if for the club. I don’t understand where the projection that i have been supporting the player comes from considering that I started a thread on the Ox’s contract haggle and PR campaign (which appears to be working!) as a problem this time last year
If sensible people think it’s sensible to flog the Ox for relative peanuts (Kyle ‘no red card’ Walker 50 Big Ones yer ‘avin a larf….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), then yes it is eminently logical and reasonable to try and sell Ramsey considering that the player and agent have let his contract run down to the last two seasons. If there are any offers hehe. If he’s already agreed with one of the big european giants to join them in two years, well, flog him anyway
Flog ’em!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I accept that which comes with supporting a non-petro club.
Therefore consequently I support a non-petro non-laundering football club. Even if it was once funded by blood diamonds. There are degrees and scales.
I support a football club that sacks managers for taking bungs.
That doesn’t hire specialists in signing players signed up to special agents.
That was testing it’s own players for EPO as far back as 2004 etc.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fins at 2:25pm
Your sarcasm is hidden in plain sight. But I have absolutely no problem having a civilized debate with my friends at PA. I accept I may be wrong and am open to an alternate point of view. Obviously am not persuaded otherwise. But I have no problem with directing your sarc at these absolute morons who are doing these podcasts. There absolute certitude that Wenger doesn’t know what he is doing put them in the category of stupid people who don’t even know they are stupid.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sarcasm Shotts.
I’m going to repeat what I wrote a year ago:
It is far more important for AFC to get the Ox to resign when compared with Sanchez. I wrote that a year ago, and you all know that Sanchez was a favourite of mine before AFC even signed him. Because of what it means going forwards (Sancehz will be older so it doesn’t matter he’s already given his best years to the club unlike others…). For the Ox, for Ramsey, & most importantly:
for the Arsenal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
quote shotta
“Eddie: If the Boss decides it is important to start the Ox I have no option than to support him knowing what is at stake.”
I don’t know any of us on here who do not support each and all players in the Arsenal kit. I often in the days leading up to a game put up the team I’d pick, sometimes i put up the team I think Wenger will pick, they are seldom the same 11, but I have never and will never be down on a player cos he is not who I would have picked. Like everyone else I rate some players higher than others, but I will not hate on Jack if he takes Ramsey’s place, I will not hate on Coquelin if he takes Xhaka’s place, I will not hate on Welbeck if he keeps Alexis out of the team or Giroud.
On the other side of the same coin, no matter how much I rate a player it will not stop me being critical of their performance if I feel it warrants it. Only the other day a player I rate highly – Monreal – was called a dick by me for putting the ball out of play for a stoke player pretending to be injured. Its a bug bear of mine, and no matter which of our players done it, i would have said the same thing. It don’t mean as soon as play started again I was not fully behind him and the rest of the team.
If they are in the Arsenal kit I will support them. Same way no matter how much I rate or like a player at Arsenal, once he leaves Arsenal, be it his choice or the clubs, he means less to me, as he is some other clubs player now. And depending on how the player leaves the club and behaves towards the club after leaving will also impinge on my feelings towards them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m among the misty eyed romantic mob who just want the Ox to stay. I don’t want him to leave us having invested in him, and seen him develop, and become one of longest serving players. At 24 years old this is when we get the pay off, and he certainly seems to have made the wing back slot his own.
What certainly does not attract me or weigh in my thinking is the prospect of AFC pocketing a few £ million for him, and then losing him for nothing in a years time.
If he is absolutely determined to leave Arsenal then we’ll hold him to his contract.
A couple of years ago the chance of a few million, as it was with Cesc and RvP, would probably have been a factor for me but now I could not give a f***. We’ve got far too much money, loads and loads and loads of it. I don’t care.
LikeLiked by 3 people
ah we now have far too much money to care, but we can’t afford to replace ox this summer as prices are so high. but if he walks for free next summer we will have loads and loads and loads of money to replace him. I like how £35M or more is now a few million. Jeez we must have billions to spend if £35M is considered a few million.
shotta we all would prefer if ox wants to stay, Arsenal want him to stay, a double his pay contract offer should be ample evidence of that. Just as him not signing yet and his agent feeding stories that he will not sign any contract AFC put in front of him, suggests we are on a loser here. till he signs a new deal nothing will change that notion.
LikeLike
And that’s the point eddy – if we had £35 million then we would want a player that cost £60 million and whoever was selling would demand £60 million.
And if by chance we managed to screw someone for £60 million for AOC the price tag on his replacement would be £80 million.
And on and on and on – until the PL pitches over the canyon’s edge.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I agree with Eddy.
LikeLike
ah right shotta, so when we let ox go for free, clubs will let us have the targets we want for free, sounds about right.
LikeLike
Phil SenderosVerified account @Philsend4 44m44 minutes ago
Thank you @Arsenal for letting me use the facilities to get ready for my new challenge @HoustonDynamo Hard work starts now!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bielik in talks with a number of clubs about a season loan, Leeds currently favorites.
leeds, aston villa and celtic have held talks with Chuba Akpom
LikeLike
et tu “Ramsey out” George?
Crikey.
LikeLike
An Ox in the hand is worth two in the bush
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s not sarcasm but it is the next step upon such a path of such sense and sensibility.
Fortunately the club appear to have different plans. I support them.
LikeLike
I must not support the club then, and be easily shepherded That’s a fucking blow to my ego, I can tell you.
LikeLike
Always wear your ego very loosely tied
LikeLiked by 2 people
Grasshopper
LikeLiked by 1 person
is it so hard to state the obvious?
The club have to act as they are doing as the odds are quite high that there will be a similar situation this time next season regarding Ramsey.
If anyone won’t it’ll be Ramsey, so you know what I am hoping for, but, well, we are where we are and we shall all see what happens (that is not a attack on a player, or support of an agent or a smear upon anyone’s support fuck my football boots is that all clear?)
LikeLike
and if alexis, ozil, ox and jack all walk for free next summer and get massive pay days, Ramsey will see that running down a contract is the way to go. As will anyone with a year to go. Rightly fucked then. Letting four stars go for free and more heading the same way. What was that about Arsenal only being about he money.
LikeLike
No “stars” at any other clubs will cotton on to this strategy then to this super duper money making vehicle of “running down yer contract”
Only Arsenal
Leading the way as ever
LikeLike
Gawd knows how we manage to stagger on with these financially naive geriatrics in charge $$$
LikeLiked by 1 person
AW “you can only justify keeping them if you ignore the financials”
LikeLiked by 2 people
well anicol wenger predicted that a couple of weeks ago.
LikeLike
I have been in many negotiations and what I say outside the room is very different to what I would say inside the room. By the same token what I say at the start of negotiations are some times some distance from the final words.
I can’t imagine either side telling the press their end game unless it would benefit them.
The quandary for agents now is do they get their players to sign long contracts on bigger wages so the player earns more and then if there is a sale the player gets a massive cut of the inflated price and big wages when he goes.
Players need to keep in mind that a move to the super rich clubs means zero tolerance and replacement could happen at any time.
We know in the wild when a lion takes over the pride he eats all the cubs that are not his and it’s the same when new managers come in (well they don’t eat them but you get the metaphor)
Oh and by the way hlebs performance did not get worse he was always overated.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Sky reporting that Oxlade-Chamberlain is having a meeting tomorrow with Wenger and Gazidis, hopefully a deal can be agreed
LikeLike
Klopp: “When you want to sign players or extend a contract, they say ‘we want to play UCL’ I think ‘WTF?! It’s your job to help us do that'”
LikeLike
fantastic debate here!
but its like there is general undestanding that ox’s best chance to a regular starting spot is wing back. if that is the case, then why are we still debating about replacing him if he leaves now of for free next season? as far as i know, those positions are more than covered, or what do we intend to do with bellerin and kolasinac? the debate should be whether to risk losing him for free or get whatever we can get now to add to whatever we have to fund the replacement for alexis who is bent on leaving next season. if winning things or making the top 4 is the reason to keep players bent on running down their contract, then alexis is more important than ox because we clearly dont have any player at the moment ready to step in as we have seen from welbs in the first two games.
so my take is sell ox now, keep his money, keep alexis for this season and then replace him next season. give mesut whatever he wants since we are told he loves to stay. by that, we lose a player now and another next season rather than 3 next season. YOU SEE IT IS VERY EASY!
LikeLiked by 1 person
fins and edu, no simple way or trend about the situation. if players like to sign they sign if they dont no matter what you do they wont. if ox is sold or not, that wont change whatever ramsey will do. if he wants to leave, we can only keep him to his contract for two more season or we sell him next season. remember the club have offered alexis and ozil new contracts since last season. so if they walk for free it is because they dont want to stay. so all tje club will do is to either sell or let them go for free. the other option is go bankrupt trying to keep them.
LikeLike
Arsenal Vs. Doncaster in Caraboa Cup(new name for the league cup)
LikeLike