Well the season be over (for good and bad) and now we’re headed off to the beach to be baked by the sun-hot speculation of the transfer- market arrivals, whilst surfing the waves whilst wondering who will barrel-over and depart.
The fixtures for the new season will be released on the 18 of June at 10am (WET). The Mighty Cannon is back in action on the 23rd of July against AC Milan, kick off 12.30pm western European time, we then play Newcastle and the Spuds in the following days.
The Charity shield between Palace and Liverpool is on the 9th of August.
Take care of yourselves and have a great summer. Its odd that we don’t wish each other any kind of happiness/greatness in any other season?
COYG!
Positively Arsenal 
its absolutely laughable to see some of the negative reaction to the news that Arsenal are about to sign Kepa as back up keeper for £5M, and Norgaard as a squad midfielder for £10M, what the hell do these whingers expect, Kepa is actually still the world record fee paid for a goalie, and is just after having a great season for Bournemouth in the EPL, if he wasn’t coming from Chelsea these same whingers would be proclaiming it a great bit of business. Norgaard is captain of Brentford and is may I say for the older gooners a real John Hollins signing.
The whingers are also upset at the reports that we might be signing England international winger Noni Madueke from Chelsea too, as a back up to Saka, again would that not be a great calibre of understudy.
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Ed, I wasn’t aware of that. As at the time we didn’t have a youth side just “the stiffs” as they were known. I saw him play for the reserves and always thought, although he wasn’t a local lad was someone we picked up and Obviously this was backed up in my mind because of his lack of games for the first team.
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just a little bit for Mills and Ian and any other long time gooners
I was talking to an old Arsenal mate in recent days, he has a family connection to Liam Brady, and he told me the story again of how when Liam was leaving Juventus in the summer of 82, after winning 2 league titles in his 2 years with them, in fact he scored the winning goal of their second title win, he was very very close to coming back to England, 3 clubs went in for him, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd.
Terry Neil was still Arsenal manager at that time, Bob Paisley was Liverpool manager, and Ron Atkinson was Man Utd manager. Brady felt he had two easy options, return to Arsenal where he was still a hero, move to Liverpool who were the dominant team, not only in England but europe. But it was Atkinson’s Man Utd that he nearly signed for, Brady had been a utd fan as a kid, and Utd were doing everything they could to bring back the glory days, lots of signings etc.
Brady was actually very disappointed in Arsenal’s offer, it seems he felt they were actually taking it as a sure thing that if he came back to England he would automatically pick them, and their contract offer was by far the poorest of the 3 options, utd’s offer made Arsenal’s look like an insult.
Brady’s wife Sarah was the one who suggested to Liam that he should stay in Italy, as they loved the life style, and he was loving his football too. So he signed for Sampadoria for two years, then inter for two years but it all went sour at Ascoli, not the football as he was a big fans favorite, but the club was a mess and there was rows over unpaid wages and other promises broken. So Liam decided it was time to head back to England.
George Graham was Arsenal manager at the time, and although Liam did not fit his squad building profile at the time of younger eager players, he was still interested in brining Liam back, but again Arsenal were not offering the contract, or even close to it, what West Ham gave him, also he had the feeling Arsenal were messing him about as they suggested to him that they’d sign him in the summer, this was in March and Arsenal did not want his signing to distract from the upcoming Littlewoods Cup Final v Liverpool in early April, so Brady signed for the hammers.
of course Liam finally came back to Arsenal in 96 as head of the academy.
one final thing my old mate had to say on Liam Brady at Arsenal, he always got the impression from Liam that he would not have left Arsenal in 1980 if Arsenal had been actually serious about challenging for league titles. He felt they were only a few players short of being able to win leagues and european cups, but that no real effort was made to build it. Arsenal at that time could beat anyone on their day, as they oft showed, for example Liverpool in that epic cup semi final run of games, and Juventus in the CWC, but that Terry Neil was not a league winning manager, and the transfer policy of the club was not ambitious, it was always one star in one star out.
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Ed your absolutely right about the players who we look like we are signing. Certainly on this site ( and indeed the wider ARSENAL blogosphere) we have been criticising the club for lack of depth in the squad.
These players are a definite upgrade on what we have had on the bench for the last few seasons especially when you consider Mikel did not trust many of those who took up those seats.
The players coming in, first team or squad players, certainly looks like an upgrade to me.
The problem is other clubs are managing to move players on and for decent fees something we seem unable to achieve at the moment.
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well Ian a little transfer rumor about outgoings is that Fulham have made an offer for both Reiss Nelson and Zinchenko
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6 Arsenal Women’s players selected for England Women’s squad for the Euros
Leah Williamson(c), Beth Mead, Michelle Agyemang, Chloe Kelly, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Alessia Russo
transfer rumors for the womens team, Arsenal set to sign Liverpool vice captain Taylor Hinds on a free, she is a former arsenal academy player and made her debut for AFC womens first team 8 years ago before leaving for Everton womens team.
Arsenal also want to sign liverpool winger Olivia Smith, but it will take a massive fee and also have to beat off interest from Chelsea womens for the Canadian international
several reports suggest Arsenal will let goalie Manu Zinsberger leave, which would be a relief to many of us who get anxious when we see her in the nets for Arsenal women, and she might be replaced with German goalie Anneke Borbe whose contract is up next week at Wolfsberg
Arsenal have accepted bids from two clubs for young winger Freya Godfrey
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if Arsenal do get the players being most mentioned our squad might be something like this
Raya, Kepa
Timber, White
Saliba, Hato
Gabriel, Kiwior
Lewis-Skelly, Calafiori
Zubimendi, Norgaard
Odegaard, Nwaneri
Rice, Merino
Saka, Madueke
Rodrygo, Trossard, Martinelli
Havertz, Gyokeres
and the injured Jesus and Tomiyasu
that leaves room due to the age of MLS and Nwaneri, places for 3 more senior players, of course that is all reliant on us signing the 7 players or similar listed above and off loading Zinchenko, Hein, Vieira, Nelson, and Lokonga, with out of contract Partey leaving too.
By the way those outgoings and 7 new signings would still leave us the 3 senior players short we were last season. But somehow I’d expect that nearly all fans and media would ignore or not notice if we make all those deals.
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Myles has signed a new 5 year deal
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Ed, When my mate was a youth scout for ARSENAL he took me to Hale end a few times and I met some amazing people. Steve Rowley, Beckham snr and one day while watching the under 7s I found myself standing next to Liam. I almost crapped myself but when I got a chance to chat to him after the games had finished he was a lovely bloke and really down to earth. I made sure I didn’t give it all the your my hero because I was supposed to be a scout as well.
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Ed and Ian; brilliant Liam Brady stories, I loved reading them today. Cheered me up bit to read them.
I did know that Liam was irritated with TN and the club as far as league ambition, but not about the possible return and the contracts, really fascinating, a great post, has your friend got any other Brady anecdotes? Glad he didn’t go to ManUre that might have been as tough to swallow as when Frank went up there?
Ian, top class for showing such dignity, I couldn’t have held back and would have looked a tool!
I met John Hollins ( he was giving out awards at our club at the end of the season) and asked him when it was my time to go up for stupid medal for the whole squads autographs of course he said see me later , but in fairness he came and found me later and had quite a long chat with me and my folks. I was just of ten years old, there’s a photo somewhere. Next time I saw him was in his second season at Arsenal and on the pitch.
Do you both have any similar stories?
It got me thinking back to that period and the time before GG came in and was think of old Vladimir Petrovic, round our way he was a bit of a hero and we were sad to see him leave, I dont think Don liked him too much or didnt think he fit in, which wasnt true but who knows what goes on?.
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my mate used to tell me who Brady rated in the Academy, and when they signed a young lad from other clubs, for example he told me about us signing Armand Traore about 3 months before it was made official, the lad had joined and was training full time but the deal couldn’t be made official till his deal with other club ran out, all to do with compo etc. Brady at times was disgusted by the attitude of the young English lads, how so few of them ever done extra training sessions to improve their skills etc. The foreign lads would all work on, after training, whatever weakness the coaches had told them they had, but most of the English lads would expect that these things would be worked on in squad sessions. Brady was disappointed that the standard of players from Ireland dropped, and was furious when Arsenal’s deal with the Dublin Schoolboy league was scuppered for no good reason other than some in the FAI being supporters of other English clubs, and there was a bit of push back too from Dublin based league of ireland clubs who were afraid they’d miss out on a revenue stream if Arsenal snapped up any lads from the schoolboy league before they had got to the league of ireland clubs. Brady could not understand how Arsenal’s attempts to raise the skill level of Irish players could be seen by anyone as detrimental to the game in Ireland.
Used to get some rumors about who Wenger wanted to sign, for example I knew we were getting Mertesacker a couple of days before deal completed and that we were in for Arteta. Also remember the Koscielny signing was only announced after he had already done 2 days full training at Arsenal. So its not new that it takes Arsenal an age to announce deals.
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So with Kepa, Zumbimendi and Norgaard all seemingly done, we are now said to be very long way down the road with a deal for Valencia CB Christian Mosquera, he actually turns 21 tomorrow, now wouldn’t that be some day to sign for the Arsenal.
many reports this evening that Arsenal are also in serious talks with Crystal Palace for Eze, I wouldn’t be against that in any way, he was a schoolboy at Arsenal and his release clause is a total package of £68M, which is 3 payments of £20M and £8M in possible add on’s. That sounds very good, he turns 27 on Sunday, can play left wing and attacking midfield. I’d rather him than Rodrygo from Real Madrid
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If we do sign Christian Mosquera I really hope its not as a replacement for Kiwior, I do believe we need to be adding not just replacing
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arsenal now said to have chelsea’s nicholas jackson on our shortlist of striker options
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The last time we were said to be looking at Jackson Chelsea said he wasn’t for sale and he could play alongside Delap on occasions so I would be surprised at that one.
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I would like Eze because our Captain had a poor season by his standards and it would put pressure on him and give Mikel a real option. We all know Mikel won’t play Nwaneri unless he absolutely has to.
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will any of the players we had out on loan last season be part of the first team squad this coming season, and will be get any reasonable fee for any player we sell this summer. I think we might sell Martinelli for a big fee to help with the financial rules, as he came in young and for a low fee it would be seen as big profit to sell him. I have said it before, the failure of Arteta to develop Martinelli into a real top class attacker raised many question marks over his coaching ability
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Maybe Vieira could possibly come back although with all the players it depends on what offers come in.
Like you say Ed, Martinelli is the only player that would command a decent fee that we would consider selling and I’m not sure we want to sell him.
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It does all depend on players coming in. If we were able to secure three forward players then Havertz could go.
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Partey will officially leave the club tomorrow. I thought he had a good last season at the club but overall not a good signing.
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204 games (this includes major friendlies) 9 goals and 5 assists.
Expenditure on him was a minimum of 121 million not including bonuses etc.
That looks like pretty poor business to me.
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Fabio reporting personal terms agreed with Christian Mosquera. Fee to be agreed hopefully this week in the region of 20 million Euros.
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chelsea signing pedro from brighton for £50M
arsenal said to interested in two of chelsea’s forwards, Jackson and Madueke
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I didn’t think there was many miles in the rumours linking us with chelsea players after the Delap signing, but the Pedro signing certainly puts a different light on it. Seems like I was wrong again. I am getting quite good at it now, maybe I’m in the know.
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well it seems tomorrow is Partey’s last day as an Arsenal player, and I will say I won’t miss him, no not for the off field rumors or claims, I am just talking football here, I really never got the hype over him, for me he was for the most part just another big lump of a midfielder, who scored a few thunderous goals, but always felt he was a little slow, injury prone, and done some silly things, like his head fart late booking v Madrid that seen him miss first psg game. I really do scratch my bald head when I see some call him Arsenal’s best player, or even best midfielder. Have I really missed something here. I can’t help but get the feeling that those that for me over rate him, have it all down to the old big black DM nonsense. Can any of you recall even one game where he was really outstanding.
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its expected that Arsenal will be announcing some incoming transfers this week, starting tomorrow, the 1st July is the start of the new financial year for football clubs, Kepa and Zubimendi are two deals said to be complete, and Brentford today revealed that Norgaard’s move to Arsenal is almost complete too.
Lots of reports today that talks between Arsenal and Eze took place over the weekend, with Arteta said to have been involved directly in these discussions with the player and his agents, so something might be close there too,
a few Chelsea linked journos say that Arsenal are in talks for Noni Madueke and that he would be our choice as a back up for Saka.
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Arsenal U21 team have been drawn to play Exeter City, Cardiff City and Newport County in the group stages of this season’s Vertu Trophy(formerly the EFL Cup)
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Yea, Partey is over.
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U21’s will be getting a few air miles in there, what a crap draw.
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Kepa officially signs, Zubamendi tomorrow apparently
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Norgaard Thursday, Eze Friday, Cristhian Mosquera Saturday……chill on Sunday
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Chloe Kelly today!
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Yeah, good news about Chloe. Really she was one that got away, shame she couldn’t of stayed her whole career.
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Sad and shocking about Jota. Really sad to lose such a fine player.
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Obviously this takes ARSENAL fans back to the horrible day when we found out about Jose Antonio. Really sad news whoever you support.
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Marcel Washington has completed his move from Chelsea to Arsenal, the 17 year old left back is set to sign a pro deal, he spent most of the second half of last season on trial with Arsenal, playing 8 times for the U21’s and 2 games for the U18’s, he trained on many occasions with the first team too.
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21 year old goalie Remy Mitchell who left Arsenal for Swansea in 2022 and has since played for Haringey and Aylesbury was pictured training with the Arsenal U18’s this week, its not known yet if he is just being allowed do fitness work here or if the club might be giving him another chance with the reserves.
Talking of the academy U21 boss Mehmet Ali is leaving to join up with Keith Andrews the new boss at Brentford.
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there are some suggestions that Dan Casey and Michal Rosiak have turned down contracts offers at Arseanl. Casey was the U18’s top scorer last season, he is mainly a midfielder, but despite his great form for the U18’s he didn’t get a look in at U21 level. Rosiak is a midfielder who also often is used at right back and is a bit of a freekick expert.
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I know he’s now injury prone, and its been frustrating over the last couple of seasons, but personally Im sorry to see Tomi go (even if its probably better for the squad etc), I really like him and when on form he brought a lot to the party. He really shut down Ronaldo, on a visit from ManUre some years ago. Good luck Tomi where ever you roam, and thanks for being a Gooner.
COYG!
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George’s Favourite Partey officially charged with Rape
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Its criminal how everyone has known for three years that Partey was up for this and is only getting charged now. It does show however that it’s dangerous to turn down an ARSENAL contract.
On a serious note you can see why there is a blindfold on the statue outside the old Bailey as British Justice is happy to turn a blind eye if you are Rich, Famous or Royal.
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Really sad news about the emperor (now he really was one of George’s favourites). He was universally liked among the fanbase and could of been a top, top player if it wasn’t for injuries.
It should bring back into question Jesus’s position at the club except Mikel is banging his wife
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Gabriel Heinze has joined the club to replace Carlos Cuesta.
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the worst kept secret in football finally sees Partey charged, its amazing that Arsenal offered him a new contract this summer
Tomiyasu was a good player for us when available but sadly he was far too often unavailable and its the right thing to do for him to leave, but once again we are losing another player for free.
Gabriel Heinze was a tough cunt as a footballer and he had a bit of a fall out at man Utd when he tried to force a move to liverpool so he is not afraid to do what he believes is the right thing. he ended up at real madrid as utd would not sell him to liverpool. He has not set the managerial world alight but has been reasonable enough.
He is a close friend of Arteta’s, and indeed Mikel tried to get him to join our staff last year, and if I’m not mistaken Arsene Wenger tried to bring Heinze into our coaching line up when he retired from playing.
Mehmet Ali has officially been appointed as assistant head coach at Brentford, I really think Arsenal should be doing all they can to get Santi Cazorla to come in and take charge of our U21’s.
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Statement from Arsenal regarding Thomas Partey being charged today: “The player’s contract ended on June 30. Due to ongoing legal proceedings the club is unable to comment on the case.”
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Convenient!
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well from the club statement it is clear that no comment will be made on the Partey by Arteta in any of his press conferences, it will be refer to the club statement. And its very likely that any trial of Partey will still be the best part of a year away if not more, and no one knows what the outcome will be, and AFC will just hope that by the end of it enough time will have passed that the media will not ask Arteta any questions, if he is still here.
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I will not be surprised if when Nwaneri signs a new contract with AFC that he is loaned out for the season, maybe to Brentford or any one of a number of the mid table clubs, Fulham or Bournemouth or West Ham would all suit well too, but with Mehmet Ali now at Brentford they might be the front runners, also I put them as main choice cos I was told that in Arsenal’s negotiations for Norgaard that Nwaneri’s name was mentioned, not sure which side brought it up.
Arsenal offered any one of Vieira, Lokonka and Nelson to Brentford as part of the deal, they also offered these guys to Crystal Palace and Sporting in our negotiations for Eze and Gyokeres, we also offered Vieira to Porto but have baulked at our asking price. All 3 players also offered to Fulham, who have been offered the chance to sign Zinchenko too.
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Now just a little bit on our squad as it stands
Last season Arsenal filled 22 of the 25 allowed senior places in our squad. We also loaned out Hein, Lokonga, Vieira and Nelson.
Since then the 4 guys have returned from their loan spells, but with Lokonga stating that he does not think Arsenal want to keep him, and reports that Hein wants to stay as a first choice somewhere, and us having signed Kepa, he won’t want to be 3rd choice here. Nelson and Vieira don’t look to have futures here either.
Anyway, we had 22 senior players last season, since then Neto and Sterling have finished their loan deals with us so have left, and Partey, Jorginho and Tierney have all left after their contracts expired. Yesterday we announced that Tomiyasu had left by mutual agreement, so that is 6 senior players gone, and not a single pound sterling brought in for any of them.
So doing the maths, 22 – 6 = 16, of last season’s senior players remain.
Kepa has officially signed, and Zubimendi and Norgaard signings are awaiting confirmation (reports suggest only reason not already official was the untimely death of Jota). If we take it as read that these 3 have signed then that is 19 senior players. 23 if we include the 4 returning loan players for now. So at the very minimum we need to sign 2 senior players to fill the 25 man quota. That 2 and a senior replacement for each and every senior player who leaves this summer, permanent or loan.
To sum up, AFC will have to sign a lot, a hell of a lot of players this summer by the looks of it, if we are not to once again go the season short of numbers.
Just to point out Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri are U21 players so are not and should not be numbered as members of the 25 seniors allowed, U21 players are there to give squads that few extra numbers needed for the busy long seasons now. Same would apply if we sign the likes of Hato from Ajax or Mosquera from Valencia, both still classed as U21 for the coming season.
I said last week when we were linked to Mosquera that he should be signed as another option, the back up for Saliba, not as a way for us to sell Kiwior and just replace one for one, this lack of numbers is what has killed us the last 3 seasons, its time the club and Arteta learned a lesson and got the numbers as well as the quality right.
I think we will sign Gyokeres as the CF signing, and if today’s reports are to be believed, and Ornstein is one of them reporting it, Madueke is a serious option for us, and we want him as a back up for Saka, I don’t get why so many gooners online are opposed to this signing, we have been crying out for proper cover for Saka for an age.
Rodrygo looks to be on the way out at Real Madrid, so maybe he will be our marque left wing signing, can’t say I know enough about him to judge, he is clearly very talented, but in his two games v AFC in the CL last season he did not impress, but then who from RM did.
I really hope we sign Eze.
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don’t like the latest transfer rumor
Arsenal willing to sell Ethan Nwaneri to Chelsea for £10M plus Noni Madueke
5 year contract agreed with Madueke
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