So the great new dawn is upon us. We have rid ourselves of Arsene Wenger and his gang of incompetents, and replaced them with high class people that can bring us the success we deserve.
It’s absolutely fantastic. The players are drinking water, smiling,training hard, young players are involved and the manager is hands on on the training ground. These things never happened before , now did they?
That there have been major changes in personnel is undeniable. That they are all top people in their fields of expertise appears to be the case, they are certainly experienced with good track records. Its more people with more individual responsibility and a coach with much less. Modern football? Or should I not say that because “modern football” is frowned upon by the “we want our Arsenal back” hoards. But I digress.
The point is almost every fan is happy, us included, the future looks bright. But what has actually changed other than our perceptions?
We have spent about £70m up until now, I suspect there will be outgoing and our net spend will be considerably less. So are we spending more? Is the new regime spending the money Arsene refused to? Seems not ?
Have we dipped into the £250m in the bank that should be spent on making the team as good as it can be? Seems not ? Perhaps that’s not for spending then, or not anywhere like that figure?
Are we competing for the likes of Marhez ,with City, or are we still buying from the second shelf ? It seems we are not and we still are ! So what’s the big change?
Have we tied Aaron Ramsey down to a new deal, or is it dragging on? Dithering?
Now here is the rub, the moment many readers start shifting uncomfortably on their seat, searching for an answer that doesn’t destroy all their hard earned narratives.
If you are happy with all things Arsenal now, you have a certain Stan Kroenke to thank.
Without spending any more of the clubs money, and of its reserves ,or dipping into his own pocket for a single silver dollar, he has given everyone what they wanted ? Without being a football man or spending time at the club he has granted the wishes of the permanently malcontent.
His useless puppet (Ivan) is now the dogs bollocks. We are Kroenke FC , being driven by Ivan, and he is the very image of a none football man.
So if everything is rosy in the garden, and I hope it is, then we should be very much KROENKE IN ? He has come through big time and perhaps all the hate was for nowt?
Positively Arsenal 
Gazidis to Milan, that would be an odd one in all circumstances I can think of.
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Ed
Saw JET play a few games for Bristol City a while back. I thought that was just about his level, but the fans didn’t really take to him and he was on the bench more often than not.
It’s going to be difficult for him to get back into regular league football now.
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JET had the talent to be a big star, but sadly he just is too inconsistent, he is the scorer of wonderful goals and not a wonderful goalscorer
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maybe JET should have took Wenger’s advice and become a central defender, AW wanted to convert him into a ball playing CB, but JET would have none of it
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Eds
I can’t recall from previous seasons but I think there is one difference this pre-season, most likely not commented upon by our dear and sincere Experts: the extra closed session friendlies in a truncated World Cup summer.
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FOOTBALL MUST WIN THIS ONE
by Craig Draycott | Jul 21, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Following on from our reporting of the behaviour, bullying, and manoeuvring for a transfer from Morgan Ferrier’s agent/intermediary/representative earlier this week.
Boreham Wood can now give another most unwelcome update on a situation that has unfortunately deteriorated further. However, it’s also vitally important that our supporters and everyone involved in football at this level, now fully understand a situation that shows no signs of going away.
On February 7, 2018, the player Morgan Ferrier, along with his agent and our football club, entered into a 16-month agreement with BWFC after signing from Dagenham.
This signing and contract was initiated by Morgan and his then agent Leon Anderson, who contacted our football club in early February – thus making Morgan the biggest transfer purchase and the highest paid player in our club’s history.
Morgan’s then agent Leon Anderson in all his dealings with us was diligent, honest, respectful, and always had his client’s best interests at heart.
Morgan’s contract was detailed, well written, and contained a considerable weekly wage, very beneficial appearance monies, and a very good goal related bonus. It also had conditions set into it that included clauses that if met could trigger a transfer for Morgan and for complete clarity, we have set the wording out below:
“A release clause applies whereby Boreham Wood FC agrees to allow the player to speak to another club with a view to discussing a transfer. This would be subject to the following conditions:
– Boreham Wood receive a formal written offer from the buying club
– A transfer fee of no less than £35,000 (thirty-five thousand) will be payable
– Both clubs will agree a sell-on fee and/or additional terms
“In the event that the above conditions in this release clause are satisfied, Boreham Wood shall immediately notify the player, and, if he wishes to transfer to such other club, Boreham Wood shall be required to (and shall) agree to the transfer of the player’s registration without delay and shall do everything necessary to effect such transfer of the player.”
As everyone can see – and we emphasise we do this for openness and clarity – the conditions are not tricky, they are all very, very simple and all very, very easy to understand and to comply with. They were all openly discussed before signing, and agreed by the player, the club, and by his agent.
About a month ago, following the correct club to club procedures, a deal was agreed with a Football League club. The fee was agreed, as was the sell on fee and the add ons, and we agreed to sell Morgan Ferrier to Tranmere Rovers Football Club.
As an agreement was reached with Tranmere – Morgan was given permission to speak with Micky Mellon and Tranmere Rovers Football Club. But after Morgan spoke with the said club – he came and spoke to the Boreham Wood Chairman and told him he that did not want to go. Morgan stated that he wanted to stay with BWFC but would like more responsibility within the dressing room because he felt it would improve his game.
That was the situation right up until last Sunday – World Cup Final day… When our manager Luke Garrard received an aggressive call from a new intermediary/agent/representative who purported to represent Morgan…
At this point, the agent made very clear to Luke that he would seek to get Morgan out of his contract in any way he could, if we didn’t comply with his demands of a £35k transfer and a 20% sell on. And in his words – if we did not comply, he would “open up a can of worms” to the football authorities about our football club, about our manager, and about our chairman, who he labelled as “bent.”
That threat as you can imagine cannot go unchallenged and is now being addressed through the high courts, and is in the hands of the club’s trusted solicitors. As you can imagine, as a club, whenever these type of football bullies present themselves, we simply have to stand up to them. And with the help of the football authorities we will stand our ground and see this through to the end…
IN SUMMARY
1) We signed Morgan Ferrier in good faith when he was with his previous agent Leon Anderson, who initially contacted us. We paid a record transfer fee of 18k plus vat to Dagenham, but the transfer only came about because the Daggers were having financial difficulties and as such, we signed the player on February 7, 2018.
2) We then paid a further £5k plus vat to Dagenham, which was a bonus clause written into the transfer – should we of got to Wembley in the Promotion final in May of 2018.
3) We had in good faith put Morgan Ferrier on an agreed and signed, well paid, 16 month contract… And, there were some very simple, very clear, and very easy to understand clauses within the contract – these were a transfer fee, and a to be agreed sell on fee and to be agreed add on clauses.
These conditions were agreed by all parties, they were written into Morgan’s contract with both his/his agent’s and The FA Registrations Department’s agreement and these conditions are:
That if any buying club matches or betters a £35k fee and if a buying club also matches our sell on fee and add on expectations – then Morgan would be given permission to talk to any buying club to see if he wants to be transferred, and that’s exactly what happened with Tranmere Rovers.
Events since Morgan changed representation just a week ago:
A) Simon Bass from AFC Wimbledon contacted Luke Garrard last Sunday and told him that AFC Wimbledon would be making a bid for Morgan.
B) Luke then text Mr Bass with the Tranmere Rovers’ deal and told him if they matched that – they could talk to the player.
C) Luke Garrard then received phone calls last Sunday afternoon from Morgan Ferrier’s new agent – stating that he had replaced the previous agent Leon Anderson and had the contract in front of him (by picture on his phone) and if we did not release Morgan for £35k plus a 20% sell on, then he would “open up a can of worms” about our club and stated to Luke that both himself and the BWFC Chairman were “bent.
D) On the Monday – AFC Wimbledon and Eric Samuelson emailed the BWFC Chairman with an official 35k offer, with a 25% sell on – which was considerably less than the Tranmere Rovers offer, and that was respectfully declined.
E) Then yesterday (Friday) while staying at the club’s training camp down in Barnstaple, Morgan Ferrier sent an email to our manager Luke Garrard, to all of the football authorities including the PFA, and to our club secretary – serving our football club with 14 days’ notice and informing us that we are somehow in breach of contract.
F) When we spoke to Morgan face to face yesterday (Friday), he denied writing the email, and stated that it was written out for him in its entirety by his intermediary/agent/representative and he was simply told to send it from his email address.
G) We obviously wish to make it clear that as a well-established football club playing at National League level – that we have paid Morgan on time, each and every month throughout his employ and this summer – no breach.
H) We wish to make it clear, that we have paid his previous club Dagenham the whole £23k plus Vat in full since we signed Morgan Ferrier on February 7, 2018 – no breach.
I) We wish to make it clear that all of Morgan’s wages and bonuses have all been paid on time, in full, and nothing is outstanding, and all tax and NI contributions are up to date – no breach.
J) We wish to make it clear that all of Morgan’s insurance, medical, nutritional and coaching needs have also been more than met – no breach.
K) We wish to make it clear that all transfer negotiations with all or any club or any interest shown at all – has been reported back to Morgan directly – no breach.
L) We wish to make it clear that this situation has been instigated by an agent/intermediary – and because we won’t curtail to this new representative’s demands to release Morgan for £35k and a 20% sell on, that this 14 day notice has been served on us and it’s clear this disruption will not go away as it’s all part of this intermediary’s strategy.
M) We wish to make clear, that we will not succumb to this 25-year-old agent’s threats… Where he has stated that he will “open up a can of worms” against our football club, our manager, and our chairman – who he has labelled as “bent.” We have done nothing wrong, the contract is watertight, the clauses are clear and this scaremongering will not succeed.
N) We wish to make it clear, that we feel absolutely compelled to take this young agent and perhaps the company he works for all the way to the high court, to the FA, to the National League committee, to the PFA and beyond – as we want to emphasise the need for these type of people to be regulated.
We absolutely apologise to the football world for airing our dirty washing in public. But we believe that there is the need to bring this type of behaviour into the public domain. As it is important and it’s high time that all non-league clubs began standing up to this agent/intermediary intimidation.
It’s now time that these unscrupulous people – as it’s not all agents – are taken to task. As they need to be regulated and this intimidation must be reported – we need to stop these intermediaries/representatives behaving in such a shoddy way and we need to get this problem highlighted. And put onto every non-league management committee’s agenda this season to sort out the problem…
In closing, after so much preparation and hard work, our whole pre-season and the whole bonding and training camp down in Barnstaple has simply been ruined – it has cost our chairman and football club tens of thousands of pounds and has been completely disrupted. Disrupted by a young 25-year-old agent who has not yet represented Morgan for even one week.
How sad is it, that for our club, our young manager, our hard-working dressing room, our very honest staff, and our loyal supporters have all been treated so badly?
We will keep updating you, we will keep working with the football authorities and we will seek our day and remuneration through the high courts – as this is a situation that football clubs at our level simply cannot afford to lose.
FOOTBALL MUST WIN THIS ONE.
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I caught a clip of Mark Ogden, the plonker, spouting forth how Chamberlain had progressed under Klopp.
Senior football correspondent?
Senior Gibberish merchant would be more accurate.
I’d posted the videos of Arsene’s last great team this summer, for reference before the new season begins, and these show the contributions that Chamberlain made to the 3 FA cups in 4 years (as well as highlighting the poverty of those Experts who still try to run down that great team and squad: Exhibit A = WC winner Giroud…).
If Klopp was doing a good job he’d have asked his £40M signing to not gamble his dodgy knee with such poor tackling technique (he’s no Rosicky!) and taught him a stabbing type technique exposing or risking his feet and not his knees if he was going to ask him to press so hard.
You can’t “press” for that first 45 mins like Klopp’s teams do before they run out of gas if your body can’t cope with it. God forbid any of these nasty little hacks being critical of a coach who spent 75M on a CB or 6OM on this keeper (he’s no Oblak!), after all these athletes are just fancy mules eh?
That Lacazette finish was too good for Mike Riley eh?
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well fins normally we would have more preseason games, when AFC used to have the training camp in Austria they would play some very low standard local sides. The WC has meant that preseason is a little shorter this time around so training ground games make up for it.
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“…As they need to be regulated…”
Eddy this hatred of English football agents/agencies (being articulated as per the quotation above from an English Football Club) is bang out of order.
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Thanks Eds,
It’s all basically the same then.
Possibly some variations in some routines, more running (from the Michael Holding school of pre-season training?), but any such changes would be subtle and not obvious to outside observers.
Considering that the physio staff are all more or less the same as before that would all make some kind of sense…
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And as for the quotes from the managers of football club’s in the second tier of the English football league last season on the influence and power of super agents (please also refer to the Spanish national team fiasco at the WC!), let’s not even go there!
Clearly wanting to see a better things in the game is indicative of people who can no longer have fun with the football?
Eh?
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The highlight of the WC for me was how VARs dismantled Brand Neymar.
Absolutely, comprehensively hilarious.
On every level!
Sure players will continue to tumble around the c.circle etc. but there were no dives in the box in the latter rounds of the tournament, at least none that I saw.
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Fins, behind closed doors games go on all the time. Preseason, during international weeks and something when an injured player is coming back and the right U23 games are not available. I don’t think it’s a big thing and this season is not different however the media and us to an extent are clamering for information about our new manager.
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If you look at the 25 man tour party and the players yet to be included from the world cup, six plus the injured Kos. That’s a total of 32 however because of the length of Kos’s injury I don’t think he will be included in the initial PL squad, if you then take out the five players from the U23s that won’t count in the squad that’s down to 26. That would still include four keepers and so someone will have to be sold or go on loan there and we’re back down to our 25 man squad without any further disruption. Obviously Matt, Jeff and probably Gideon will go on loan and it looks like Chuba and Joal will be sold.
I can’t see much else happening unless Unai decides he doesn’t want someone or someone wants to go but it seems to be all quite on the western front at least u til after the tours.
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odd rumor of the day, Arsenal in advanced talks to sign Swiss goalie Yann Sommer(29)
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Arsenal U23 today beat sparta prague u23’s 9-0
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Another keeper signing and one of relative senior age?
Cech off??, IF this is true?
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Ed
Lord knows how he got it wrong but the guy who said 9-0 has deleted that tweet now.
The very reliable afcfixturenews tweeted later on it was a 1-0 loss.
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By way folks, if any of you in UK are with Virgin media looks like you can watch our friendlies for free instead of having to pay tenner for Premier Sports.
Apparently Virgin giving two months access to channel for free.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/you-can-watch-international-champions-12957930
Doesn’t quite make up for all the shows I’ve missed not having SKY Atlantic but nice nonetheless.
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rich its now being suggested that it was our U18’s that won 9-0 today, and the U23’s lost 1-0
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Cheers Ed
Yann Sommer,eh. Good keeper from what I’ve seen but would be very surprised if that one’s true.
Seems too close to Leno in ability/status.
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Mesut Özil
Verified account @MesutOzil1088
3h3 hours ago
The past couple of weeks have given me time to reflect, and time to think over the events of the last few months. Consequently, I want to share my thoughts and feelings about what has happened.
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Mesut is a victim of good old fashioned racism from elements of the resentment far right.
My advice to him, ditch the German team, don’t talk to the media who blew this up, ditch partners who didn’t stand by him, carry on the excellent charitable causes, and throw everything into Arsenal.
Get the feeling he is going to have a slightly good season
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Resurgent far right ^
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reports that Iwobi has agreed a new contract with Arsenal
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Good news if true
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Cue twitter meltdown, Arsenal fans not happy, blah blah blah urrrghh
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I hope so… Iwobi, sign up with Arsenal and dont let those contrary fans distract you.
We back here in Naija are fully backing youup!
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Mwsut Ozil should stay strong and ignore the contrary media… they ove to use popular names to score cheap points
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Mesut ÖzilVerified account @MesutOzil1088
13m13 minutes ago
III / III
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so basically Ozil has retired from International football, until the German FA rid itself of the racist element that runs through it. Well done Mesut
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the racists on twitter within our fan base will be unable to stop themselves revealing their true feelings after Mesut’s comments
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Squawka Football
Verified account @Squawka
28m28 minutes ago
Mesut Özil’s senior Germany career by numbers:
🇩🇪 92 caps
🇩🇪 33 assists
🇩🇪 23 goals
🇩🇪 5 DFB Player of the Year
🇩🇪 1 World Cup
He started 27 out of 28 possible games at major tournaments.
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Totally support his stance. Well done him.
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You tell em Mesut. Some disgraceful behaviour with some of the German officials and media. Scratch the surface of many establishment bodies in Germany and elsewhere, and racism rears its ugly head. Our FA not guilt free either .
Hope he uses performances our team to show Germany what it’s missing
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Matthew MooreVerified account @mattmoorek
1h1 hour ago
Matthew Moore Retweeted Frank Schwabe
A member of the German parliament says the resignation of Mesut Özil shames Germany. Calls for the head of the Football Association, Grindel, and Oliver Bierhoff to be sacked.
Frank Schwabe
Verified account @FrankSchwabe
Der Rücktritt von #Özil ist beschämend für das Land und erbärmlich für den @DFB .Zurücktreten müssen eigentlich #Bierhoff und #Grindel, die sich nicht nur hinter Özil verstecken, sondern auch Ressentiments Vorschub geleistet und einen Spieler zum Freiwild gemacht haben.
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Özil is gallant man. Good on you Mesut….
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” I used to wear the German shirt with such pride and excitement , now I don’t” – Mesut Ozil.
There is another shirt you can , as you always have done, wear with pride and excitement Mesut
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I love Mesut Ozil – he takes no shit and he takes no prisoners. Scratch the surface and the racists can’t help but show themselves (there are many in the AFC fanbase too). I’m glad he called them out – now they can find another punching bag.
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Many of the German officials comments were truly over the top and did not even need to be expressed in public… So clearly they are satisfied with the outcome of their agenda to force him out.
Disgraceful of those officials that seized on the occasion to cause chaos within the team; regardless of whatever problems they had… that was not the time to pile on individuals…
taking cheap shots
Glad he remained in our team
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The trouble is mandy, that there are a lot of racists here too and I have long believed that the OTT criticism of Mesut springs from the same source. And don’t even get me started on the xenophobic attitudes at the root of most of the WOB. UE currently has a free pass as the anti-AW, but woe betide his team struggles and the thin veneer of civilised behaviour with melt away like a snowball in a heatwave.
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Agree Passenal. As well as Ozil in Germany, some of the stick Wenger has been on the end of , and supported by groups in our so called fanbase has its roots in many issues, including xenophobia.
Really don’t like this crazy hard right trickle down shit going on
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mandy, I am very worried about the rise of the far right that is currently going on globally and the failure of many to see it.
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isn’t it odd that new liverpool midfielder Naby Keita’s disciplinary record is not seen as a liability, unlike say Xhaka’s, in fact his multiple reds last season, including 3 in just 7 games, has been talked up as a good thing, “he will bring real bite to the LFC midfield”. some how I don’t see Jon Moss inventing new rules to send this guy off.
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Me too, and a bunch of posturing so called strongmen in power behaving pretty much in the same way with no accountability, most of them pandering to far right of whatever shade.
Just hope , perhaps naively this is a short lived unpleasant cycle temporarily bought about by the Wild West effect of social media, people angry but not sure what they are angry about, so I know, blame the Mexicans, Turks, Eastern Europeans or whoever but we shall see.
But just so glad Ozil called this thing out. Hope Germany’s govt back him
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Keita looks a pretty vicious player to me. We shall see how the refs treat him, but suspicions abound. Hope Torriera is taking advice from Xhaka that Arsenal players aren’t really allowed to tackle with some refs in some games.
Just reading Everton will pay £50m for Richarlison, an OK player as it stands, but apart from not understanding how Everton get around FFP, or at least last season, the game has gone mad.
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mandy the german fa need to back him
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