Episode 837 - Eze does it

0:00Hi, I'm Max Rushton, the host of The Guardian Football Weekly, alongside me, Barry Glendening, my co-host. Hey, Barry. Hello. Now, although every American found us during the World Cup, for the two that didn't, what can they expect? Found us and fell in love with us, Max. They can expect three episodes each week of occasionally insightful analysis covering the Premier League, Champions League and beyond. Football Weekly is back. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

0:51Hello and welcome to a brand new Arseblog Arsecast right here on Arseblog.com. How are you? Hope you're well. Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. Just to let you know, this episode of the show is a little bit different. We'll have a good conversation with our guest, as always, chew the arsenal fat, talk about all the bits and pieces that are going on. But the final 10 minutes of this show are available as an add-on. Now, you might ask, what have I got to do to get this add-on? And the truth is, every time you make a suggestion, every time you make an offer, for every time you satisfy my demands, I'm going to change my mind.

1:31I'm just going to move the goalposts. Some people might say that's not very sporting, but from what we've learned this week, that is very, very sporting. That is what sporting do. One second the goalposts are here, then they're over there, then they're somewhere else entirely. Then as soon as the goalposts stop moving and you think, aha, there's an add-on to the add-on, which has already been added on to the previous add-on, which was added on to the other add-on. And when you add that to the other add-ons that have already been added on, it's just a fucking add-on clusterfuck. And if Mikel Arteta does not get to add his striker onto the plane leaving for Singapore tomorrow, I suspect he might be a little bit crotchety.

2:10So let's see what today brings. It's been a pretty quiet week all in all. I had been expecting a bit more news, particularly given the way things went at the start of the week. But this is our summer. This is kind of how it's gone. So we might as well just crack on with the show with me to talk about the stuff and the no stuff and what it all means from the Chronicles of Agunar podcast. It is Harry Simiou. Good morning, Harry. Morning, Andrew. How are you doing? I'm good, thank you. How has your summer been? Have you been coping all right with the transfer of madness, the sort of flurry of stuff and then the quietness?

2:46Nobody knows quite what to make of all the quietness. Yeah, it's been a little bit of a strange one, hasn't it? We kind of went into the summer with huge expectations with regards to the business that Arsenal would be doing. Obviously, we are working very, very hard. You can see by the volume of players that we've already signed and those that we're expecting to be announced in the not too distant future. But it's been a little bit up and down, isn't it, in terms of we seem to get like a flurry of news, flurry of announcements. Then it goes quiet for a bit. So, yeah, I've got to be honest, I've struggled with the kind of ups and downs of it.

3:15I just want the football to start now, Andrew. I just want to get back to talking about football rather than transfer speculation. Yeah, I know how you feel. Well, next week, you know, the first games of preseason will be taking place, but it's sort of inextricably linked anyway, isn't it? The football and the transfers and what we expect from Arsenal, what we expect from Arsenal to do. It's Friday morning, right? I have this big fear that we're going to record this and I'm going to put it out. And then in no short time, it's going to be out of date because there will be news about certain players.

3:48And I think, from what I understand as we sit here now, Nani Madweke is done, not announced. Christian Mosquera is also done, not announced. The sort of big elephant in the room, if you like, is the news at the start of the week, oh, it's Victor Jokeres, it's all done, it's all agreed. Then there was the stuff about the add-ons and maybe sporting being a bit difficult. and then there's been like silence on that thing. Does that worry you or do you think this is just like sporting, playing the game a little bit? They know Arsenal want to take Victor Jokorais on the tour to Singapore and Hong Kong.

4:27So they're stretching this out as long as possible to get the best deal possible for them. And it's basically a formality, but it's the selling club just doing the most that they can to get the best deal for themselves. Yeah, I hope Arsenal never deal with sporting ever again, because I can't think of a negotiation that has been this difficult for such a long time. We got to the price that they wanted, but now it's about the add-ons and it's about the structure and all this. And listen, I take some of the reports with a pinch of salt, because it seems like every day we get some report out of Portugal saying one thing, and then maybe our guys here in the UK say something slightly different and have stayed pretty relaxed and calm and chilled about the whole thing.

5:10But it feels like it's been this long, drawn-out process. And, you know, when we get that announcement, is there even going to be a buzz anymore? Because it's dragged out for such a long time. But I think, yeah, look, I think if you're sporting, you know, you're going to do your utmost, aren't you, to get as much money in as you possibly can. You want to get the most favourable terms. I said it on my podcast a few weeks ago, when people were saying, like, this really works to Arsenal's advantage, the fact that Victor Giocares is really pushing and really forcing this thing. I kept saying I get that and of course there are some advantages to that for Arsenal but flip it around the other way and there are advantages to sporting here as well because they know that the player wants to move they know that Arsenal are desperate for him and therefore they're going to do everything within their power to maximize what they get for him so I think sporting to be fair to them as much as I don't want to see us negotiate with them ever again on anything I think they have definitely played a bit of a blinder in terms of these negotiations and And I think they're going to come out of it feeling pretty happy with themselves.

6:10Yeah, it's kind of frustrating when you're on this side of it, isn't it? Because you expect or you want the deal to get done and you want the excitement of a new player, particularly a player of this profile, the striker we've all been hoping for. And we'll talk about that now in a second as well. But, you know, the flip side of that is like if this was Arsenal, we'd be saying, well, we want to see Andrea Berta get the best possible deal for Arsenal. You know, make it difficult for the club who wants to buy essentially our best player. I mean, I think we're in a slightly different position, obviously, because I don't know that our best players are in danger or there are no clubs circling around.

6:46And there's a sort of size difference between the two clubs. But, yeah, it is a slightly frustrating one when you're expecting, oh, it's all done and then nothing. and it is hard not to worry, you know, in the world of transfers that something might go sideways. But what was your take on the decision that Arsenal made when it came to the striker? It ended up being Jokeres. We've heard, you know, about him and Sesko and maybe Eketike and other players, you know, who have been mentioned in passing, but it was really about those two. Did you have a strong preference one way or the other or were you just more concerned with Arsenal getting this deal done and sort of not putting the final touches to the squad, but making sure we had that key component of the squad going into the new season?

7:34I don't think I had a strong preference, but I did have a preference. And my preference was Victor Jocheres. From the very beginning, I looked at Benjamin Sesko and I felt he was a little bit more of a risk. I know that people keep talking about him having this higher ceiling and this potential to go on and be, you know, one of the world's best over the course of the next three or four seasons. But for me, it's very much about the need to get over the line now. And I always felt that Victor Jochores was probably the better equipped to come in and help Arsenal in the short term. And I know we want to build for the future and I know we want to make smart and clever investments.

8:08But at the same time, when you've put as much work in as Arsenal have over the last few years, you've got to get to that promised land, if you like. You've got to get to that point where you're looking back and going, this was all worth it. And so, yeah, my preference was Victor Jochores. Whereas it became a stronger preference a little bit later on when I realized how much RB Leipzig were after for Benjamin Sesko as well. I thought it was completely unreasonable what they were asking for him. And you mentioned Hugo Ekotike there. He was probably sandwiched in between the two of them for me in terms of preferences, because I look at him and I think he's got a lot of the flair and a lot of the kind of potential that I saw in a young Alexander Isak.

8:49and I know that we can't get Alexander Isak and I know that there's been lots of meltdowns online without Liverpool making that inquiry and all the rest of it. But it feels to me like if you were looking for the next Alexander Isak, if you felt that that profile was the perfect fit for this Arsenal team, Ekotike should be where you're looking. Again, I felt like the price was a little bit inflated. The price that it looks like Liverpool are going to pay feels a little bit much. But in terms of just player preference, I like Ekotike. He probably would have been my second choice. just ahead of Benjamin Sesko.

9:20But I'm pleased with Jokeres. I've got no issues with that. And I just hope that we get it over the line. Yeah, that's it. We want to see him banging goals in for fun, starting next week in Singapore. Hopefully, if they get everything lined up and he can get on the plane with the rest of the squad tomorrow, generally more sort of broadly, are you feeling pretty content with the work Arsenal have done? It is six players, you know, an outlay of coming up on, assuming all these deals get done and announced, of course. You know, you're looking at an outlay of around£200 million so far. You know, the various reporting is that Arsenal have done this business, but they're not, like, closing the door.

9:59It's not like, that's it, we've done our stuff. They're open to maybe doing a little bit more, and we can talk perhaps about a couple of outgoings now in a minute. But generally speaking, are you content that Arsenal have fleshed out this squad in the right way? I think you've used the perfect term there, fleshed it out. I think there's a few areas that, I've got to be honest, if I look at the players that we brought in, my initial reaction to some of those transfers was feeling a little bit underwhelmed. I've got to be honest. Like who? Like, for example, like, let's start with the goalkeeper, right?

10:31So you bring in Kepa Aritha Balaga, and I think we can all agree that for£5 million, that's good business. So you kind of put a tick next to that one. You say good bit of business, you move on from it. But it's not one that's going to get you excited, is it? Sure. And then you get Christian Norgard in, who a lot of people are really, really big on. And I'm not saying that I don't rate Christian Norgard at all. But at that time, it was unclear what our midfield was going to look like. You know, we were in negotiations with Thomas Partey at the time. Obviously, you know, he's left the club and stuff.

11:03but there was a part of me that looked at it and went Zubimendi's coming in who I really like but you know maybe the hype started down a little bit on this one because just like the Giocarest thing we knew about this for ages and it never seemed to reach that conclusion until very recently and I'm looking at it I'm going Zubimendi probably needs a bit of time and had we still kept one of our previous number sixes I felt that might have been a smarter way of just managing that Zubimendi the arrival and transition into English football. You can argue that Norgard can do that because he's a Premier League player and he's been a captain at Premier League club for a while.

11:40But I just looked at that one and I thought, is this Arsenal really levelling up? And I was having this back and forth with people constantly. They were saying, well, he's coming in to replace Jorginho. And I was saying, I get that. But at the same time, the option was either renew Partey or bring in Norgard. So on a purely footballing level, I looked at those two players And I was like, not really sure that this improves us much. But over time, I think I've come to the conclusion that Christian Norgard will be a good addition to the squad. But again, it's not one that massively excites me. Noni Madueke, again, you know, I don't know what your feeling was on this.

12:17The more I look into him, the more I think that I understand why Arsenal went after him. But the price point was certainly an issue for me. And so there's been a few deals this summer where I've looked at them and I'm like, well, they're kind of OK. but you know they kind of need to prove to me not that they need to prove to me but you know what I mean no I know what you mean they need to show that actually they were good bits of business so the striker thing's the exciting one we haven't got that over the line at the time of recording so you know it's difficult to be sort of jumping up and down about that sure I do feel we need one more Andrew I feel like if we got an Eberet Chezze in my outlook on the window would be so different and it's only one player of a potential seven but I think it would make a big difference to how I'm feeling about the squad.

12:58I think we've leveled up, but the question for me is, have we leveled up enough? That's my doubt. I get it. I mean, I think the thing for me, I sort of understand where you're coming from about, you know, those signings. I think I wrote on the blog last week, week before, it's like, decent, but not exciting. So Kepa is decent, but not exciting. Norgard, decent, but not particularly exciting. I don't think anybody really had Madueke high on their want list this summer, But, you know, you can see maybe some logic to it because we need that Bakayo Saka backup. There's talk about potentially him playing on the left a bit as well to give us a bit of tactical variation on that side.

13:39So stick a left-footed winger, stretch teams, particularly if you're playing against a low block. Like this is me trying to talk myself into things and see the, you know, I think we all do it. You know, once you sort of get over that initial like, oh, him? Really? Then you try, if you're open-minded anyway, to see what the plan might be or what the qualities that player could bring to your team are, right? Yeah, that's it. That's how it's been for me. I kind of, when we first heard about Norgar, that was a bit like, I'm not sure about this. but then very quickly after you kind of get over that initial surprise it's not shock it's surprise that he's one that Arsenal have looked at then you kind of have to just sit back and say okay let's let's try and look at the pros and cons of this let's figure it out and ultimately you have to draw a line under that frustration even if that's how you're feeling because they are Arsenal players and they need our support well yes and we need to be behind them yeah and and so it's been a bit of a journey for me on some of those signings the initial and it's not it's not been outraged from me it's not been signing petitions and and all that kind of stuff you haven't been out with your spray paint on the murals no I haven't been out with my can of spray paint I haven't signed any um petitions set up by Karen or anything like none of that there's been none of that from me but there has been that feeling of being a little bit underwhelmed and then I've had to go on a kind of journey to kind of look into the player a bit more understand maybe a bit more about why Arsenal felt this was right and now I'm at the point where I've drawn a line under those things I'm not going of complain about them.

15:10Let's see how they go because Mikel Arteta has proven us wrong time and time again. And I think he deserves for us to kind of just take a step back and not be on our soapboxes. Yeah. For me, the thing is where we've fallen short in the two seasons that we really challenged for the title. I'm sort of discounting last season because I think we're out of that title race for all kinds of reasons that we don't need to go into again. But in the two seasons previous to that, where we fell short was because we were far too reliant on a small group of players. We did not have the redundancy or the depth in key positions.

15:47And I think that is what we're addressing in this window, where if it's Saka, we've now got Madweke on the right. Clearly, there's a bit of a gap there, right, in terms of of talent or, or, you know, I think quality, but Kaiosak is one of the best players in the world. And Nani Maduweke has yet to prove that, right? But he's certainly a, a premier league player. A striker. If you get Jokeres in, you've got Jokeres and Havertz. And then at some point, maybe you get Gabriel Jesus back. When you've got Zubimendi, you've also got Norgard who can play there. You've got Declan Rice who can even play there.

16:28And then you're looking at other midfield positions when you've got Odegaard, Warneri, Marino, Havertz can even play in midfield. Left-hand side, as it stands, we've got Trossard and Martinelli. Maybe there's another addition there if Trossard goes, perhaps. But we've got the players, sort of two players for every position. Even Christian Mosquera is somebody who will come in and take some minutes away from William Saliba. Like, we don't want William Saliba playing EFL third-round games away at, you know, Rotherham or something. right? We don't need him to do that. We should not be asking that of him.

17:04So you bring in another player. So that for me, while I've, I completely understand where you're coming from. And I'm sure there are people out there who, who would love Arsenal to go sign superstar, superstar, superstar, superstar. You can't build a squad that way. So for me, it's been about addressing that issue of depth. And I think if we are going to win the Premier League, and we all hope that we will do that next season. We cannot be in a situation where come February, Mikel Arteta is reliant on a group of 14 players because an injury here or a suspension there and you're basically fucked again.

17:40I think this is where they're trying to learn the lessons of previous seasons. And to add to that as well, aside from some of the sort of factors that you mentioned there, the reliance on a smaller group of players and all that, which I completely agree with, by the way, I think we've lacked a little bit of spontaneity in the final third at times. We've clearly lacked the number nine because, you know, often our buildup is great, but it involves our nine dropping deep or going left or going right. And we end up in a situation where we've carved out an opportunity from a wide area to maybe put the ball into that danger zone and there's no one there.

18:14So we've clearly missed the number nine. We've also missed, I think, dribblers. I don't think we have enough dribblers in this team. Saka can beat a man, of course, and Trossard can beat a man and Martinelli can beat a man for pace. But those players that are going to pick the ball up in a congested area and dance their way in and out of defenders and whether they're the ones that get the shot off in the end or not, they're going to attract attention. They're going to bring people in close to them. And that's why I'm so big on the potential signing of Eze. It's why I'm starting to come around to the Madueke idea because I think he's someone that can bring you that as well.

18:48I think the only real player that I think we've got in the squad that does that really well is Gabi Jesus. I think that's something he brought to the team when he first came in, but injuries have obviously plagued him and it's been a real big problem. And, you know, you don't know if he's going to be back to his best after two ACL injuries. But I think actually, I think what Mikel's done well in this window, and I know a lot of people have not been happy with it, but what I would say he's done well is he seems to have addressed issues that are bigger than just numbers. Like they're sort of skillset issues.

19:20Stylistic. Yeah, stylistic issues. And I think if you got to keep banging on about it, but if you got Eze in as well and you had another dribbler and another player that's a bit more creative, has a bit more guile in and around the penalty box, all of a sudden, I think those low blocks that we keep struggling with, they become far easier to breach. Yeah, we had a question actually from one of our Discord members who said, it comes from Troop, and he says, do you see the signings of fast and direct players in Madweke and Jokka as signaling a shift in tactics or playing style from Arteta, or is it just diversification of our options?

19:56I mean, I think those two things could both be true, right? That I remember very clearly the summer that we signed Jurian Timber and it was Kai Havertz and Declan Rice. And in that preseason, Mikel Arteta was talking about his team becoming less predictable. I don't think we've managed to become less predictable. I think injuries and suspensions and the small group of players has actually made us a bit more predictable, certainly did last season in domestic terms. But that unpredictability is certainly something that I think he looks for and wants, right? So one of the other skill sets maybe we don't have a great deal of and something I don't think as a team we're particularly great on is counterattacking and transitions.

20:47And we've basically got one player with real pace, and that's Martinelli. And I think he's got the ability at times, but maybe the decision-making when he gets into those positions isn't always as good as you would like it to be. But maybe in part, that's because we don't have the players who can support on those transitions and help us break quickly. And you've watched the clips, I'm sure, and people listening to this will have watched the clips of Jokeres, that ability he has to sort of hang on the shoulder of a defender and make that break in behind from just inside the opposition half. Madweke is very, very quick as well.

21:24So those are things that this team has lacked beyond sort of the skill sets that you talk about, the dribbling. Pace matters in football these days, and we haven't had quite enough of it. Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I think also when you want to be an effective team on the transition, you need multiple players to kind of break out the traps when you win the ball back. To essentially pull what remaining defenders the opposition have back apart and to create those gaps and spaces in between. What you can't have is a counter-attack that is reluctant upon one man. And for us, as you mentioned, it probably is often Gabriel Martinelli, whether it's a long ball up to the centre forward, if that's Kai Havertz with the idea of a flick on.

22:09But you know Martinelli is going to be the runner. It becomes predictable. Going back to that word again, you know that the only real pacey outlet that Arsenal have would be Martinelli. So you need to have that variety. And I think you're right. When you look at the players that we've brought in or are close to bringing in, you are looking at a group of players that have very specific skills skills that this arsenal team do not have enough of and they might not be superstars and in terms of what people were hoping for or expecting they might not be the biggest names but as long as they're functional as long as they work in the team and and as long as that you know gives us some benefit and i think it will so i think this is one of those windows where you know you hear josh kronky going into it and talking about us going really big and all the rest of it.

22:52And you start to let your dreams kind of take control of you. And you're hearing about Rodrigo and you're hearing about all these superstars, Isak, et cetera. But I think Arsenal are doing as best as they probably can in this window, given the current circumstances. Yeah. You mentioned that one more, and maybe it's something that happens a bit later in the window. I'm not 100 % sure.

23:17The ASA one is so interesting, isn't it? because he is such a fantastic player and he is somebody who can bring something a little bit different to that area of the pitch. It is also a little bit hard to see exactly where he would fit on a regular basis. And I don't mean to downplay his quality or what he might bring to the team. I've seen people say he can play on the left-hand side. So let's say if Trossard goes, you can play Eze on the left. I would be much more inclined to play Eze centrally. I think he's more effective there. I think the skills he has are better deployed from central positions because he can open up defenses, et cetera.

23:59Do you look at the squad as it stands and see all those options that we mentioned in midfield, Trossard, Martinelli, Weneri, Odegaard, all these guys, and Eze. Is that being greedy? Is there room? is there the potential for somebody to go if you bring in as a you know what I mean that there is like I'm all for depth and I think it's it's it's really important to have depth but I also think you need balance and that maybe in that position in particular if you've got Teclan Rice's 105 million pound signing as your de facto first choice left eight which is where I think if you look at Arsenal, you look at this team, where would be the position you would play as a first?

24:46It's probably there, right? So how does it all pan out or should we worry about that and just let the manager sort it out if and when that happens? Yeah, I'm not too worried about it because I think that we learned our lesson last year with regards to, you know, you can go into a season believing you have a certain level of depth and things can change very, very quickly. And all of a sudden you don't. I think actually the fact that Eze could operate from the left-hand side and give us something very different from the left-hand side, by the way, to what our current options would is one reason to sign him.

25:19But I think that the fact that he can play in a central area, if I'm Arsenal Football Club, that only gives me more justification in the case for spending 60, 65 million on him. I also think the situation with Eze is a really interesting one because people keep talking about his release clause, 67, 68 million pounds, whatever it is in total. It's said to be 60 up front and eight or so in add-ons. I actually think that you can get him for cheaper. I really do believe that. Crystal Palace have obviously been demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League, which is ridiculous. I think that's one of the worst decisions in football history.

25:57I think it's a disgrace. but that's happened and that is going to impact them financially they're going to lose Mark Gay for far less than they could have got for him last summer so that's another financial issue that Crystal Palace are having to deal with and with two years remaining on his contract and being 28 years old or coming up to 28 years old this is the last summer that Crystal Palace can get mega money for Eber Etche Eze because next season he'll be going into the final year and who's going to pay a 68 million pound release clause for a 29 year old when they're available for a free at the end of that campaign so it feels like for me there's an opportunity here so it's a combination of things i think he can help us from the left i think he can help us through the middle i think the price could be the best it's ever going to be in terms of for palace and and that will make them willing to sell but it also i don't think is beyond the realms of what we're capable of doing i just think it's a really good opportunity and i would worry about where he fits in and how we do it later on yeah um you know because Odegaard didn't have a great season last year a little bit more creative influence through the middle wouldn't be a bad thing um you know Declan Rice can't continue to play every single game in every competition I think for me there's there's more upside than than questions over this and and this is a deal that I think would be the difference between Arsenal leveling up a bit and leveling up enough to go on and really make their mark next Yeah, I mean, if you think about that as a squad going into a Premier League campaign, going into a Champions League campaign, the two cup competitions, which, you know, I think there is pressure on Mikel Arteta to win silverware, right?

27:39Maybe cups won't satisfy some people, but they're still silverware. They're still trophies. And I think every competition you're in, you want to try and win it. there comes a point maybe or has come a point in previous seasons where we have had to prioritize one thing over another thing and maybe that's not the ideal i think you know this idea of like a big club takes every game seriously they want to win every competition they want to win the efl cup the fa cup the champions league premier league that's the ideal when you when you set out but realistically do you have a squad that can do that do you have the the depth in order to do that.

28:16And maybe somebody like Eze, yeah, provides that extra quality, that extra depth over the course of whatever, you know, however many games, 65 games maybe next season. That's a lot of football to go around. So, yeah. I mean, is there anyone else out there that you've seen mentioned that could excite you in the same way? Or do you look at the Eze situation, as you said, like an opportunity? I mean, Palace, if they're losing Gehi, if they're losing Eze, those are two very, very, very important players for them. Clearly, they get some money in and if they can recruit well, they could replace them.

28:52But they're kind of cornerstone players for them. And in a summer where, as you say, they've been dealt a really bad hand, I think, by UEFA. Because, listen, if you're going to crack down on those rules, crack down on them for everybody. You know? Exactly, yeah. don't just make an example out of Crystal Palace. And I think it was, was it Drogheda United over here in Ireland as well were expelled, but I can't remember exactly the details of why that was. But it feels like the rules that you wait for implement are not applicable to everybody, which seems fundamentally unfair. It sounds like as long as you've got your paperwork in order, you're fine.

29:31It doesn't matter if there's a sort of conflict of interest. As long as your paperwork's more tight, nobody really cares. and it just feels a little bit silly, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Drawer United expelled from the Conference League due to a multi-club ownership rule. Listen, people will talk about the Red Bull clubs and they'll talk about Man City and they'll talk about the Nottingham Forest clubs. And yeah. Anyway, let's talk a little bit about potential outgoings. There's not a lot going on at this moment in time, even though there are some players who I think really need to be looking elsewhere.

30:09But the one story that was doing the rounds this week was Rhys Nelson and Fulham being interested again in him. A loan deal doesn't sound particularly satisfying. I'm curious as to what you think. I mean, he went there last season, did really well, forced his way into the first team, was playing regularly, then got a really, really bad hamstring injury, which required surgery, and he hasn't played since. He's training in Spain, or they're back from Spain, but he's been in training with Arsenal. Do you understand why Fulham might want to just be cautious about Rhys Nelson and say, listen, we like the player, we know what he's about, we know the character, we're interested in him, but that injury worries us a little bit.

30:52Let's take him on loan, and if he can prove to us that he's going to be a guy who can stay fit for most of a season, then this is a situation we can revisit. it does it give Arsenal the opportunity let's say to say okay we'd prefer to sell but let's make this a loan deal with an obligation if he meets certain targets yeah I think I completely understand where Fulham are coming from on this and as you say it all comes down to kind of supply and demand doesn't it at the end of the day like if there's three four clubs waiting in the wings to sign Rhys Nelson you've got a bit of power as the seller and you can say look well we prefer a sale and x club are offering that kind of deal whereas you guys are only interested in the loan but from what it sounds like there isn't a load of clubs lining up for Rhys Nelson and it's a shame because I think he's a really really talented young man I think he's been really unlucky with injuries along the way I think he's probably had less opportunities over the years at Arsenal than his talent probably deserved but again fitness has been an issue quite regularly we'll always have that Bournemouth moment won't we when it comes to Rhys Nelson I know it didn't amount to much in the end but just an incredible moment look I think if I'm Fulham I do exactly that I try and get him on loan and and maybe yeah there's a deal that can be done six 12 months down the line and if that's the case and Arsenal still make their money then great but I think it's almost a little bit ridiculous actually at the moment if you're Arsenal football club to be really kind of stamping your feet down and saying nope There's no way we let him go out on loan because there isn't a number of clubs lining up.

32:31And so you also have to think about the player as well, I think. And I know that as fans, sometimes we don't really do that. We go, no, what's in our best interest? Reece Nelson just wants to play football. He's been at Arsenal for a long time. He sounds like a great guy. He sounds like, you know, he's got a really good relationship with everybody involved. Let him go and play football. And hold this out if you want until later on in the window. Try and establish what other options there are out there. Try and find a way of making it a permanent deal. But if that's not to materialize, then sorry.

33:03But you can't be too fussy. You just got to let him go and play football. And you stand to earn that money maybe 12 months down the line. It's kind of crazy. He made his debut under Arsene Wenger. He's been at the club since he was a kid and has come through Haaland. I'm sure you remember that when he was breaking through, There was similar, listen, it happens every year or every sort of generation. There's like, oh, you want to see this guy in the academy. He's going to be the next big thing. And it doesn't always come to pass, right? We've seen players hyped up and they haven't been able to deliver.

33:38And it's not their fault necessarily. But I think what someone like Rhys Nelson demonstrates is just how difficult it is to make that step from academy to first team to first team regular. you know which puts into perspective for example what miles lewis skelly has done and ethan runary has done to an extent that having made his debut in 2017 his career has been punctuated by injuries i think he only made he's only made something like 35 starts for the club in in all those years eight years he has had time out on loan and like you say there is not a list not a line of clubs out the door banging on the door to sign Rhys Nelson.

34:20So you have to cut your cloth accordingly, don't you? I mean, are there others where you think Arsenal need to, I don't know, how proactive can you be with selling? You know, buying you can really, really, really push. Selling is a different thing because there's got to be somebody interested in your players. And we can sit here and we can talk about Fabio Vieira and we can talk about Albert Sambi-Lokonga and we can talk about Karl Hayne And we can talk about Alexander Zinchenko, like unless you're sort of selling them like your lemonade stand outside the front door, you know, you've got it. There's got to be people who are interested in these players for you to be able to sell them properly, right?

35:00Yeah, exactly that. And, you know, people always talk about, you know, what we should be demanding for certain players. And when we hear that comparison made between ourselves and Chelsea quite a bit, right? There's Chelsea, this club that go out and they pay big money for young players. They bring them in through the door and their model seems to be working from a business perspective in the sense that, you know, aside from selling hotels and women's teams and all the rest of it, they're able to generate interest in some of these players because people from afar are looking at those players and going, maybe that environment's not right for them.

35:31But I can see that player thriving in my environment, in my system, at my club. And so that interest is there. Other than telling the player's agent and telling the player that you don't have a future here, and then them going out and proactively sort of putting themselves in the shop window, hoping to generate some interest, there's not much you can do. We obsess over prices. Like I heard some people yesterday going, no, we've got to sell Reece Nelson, and we've got to sell him for 15 million pounds. if the top whack somebody's willing to offer is five million pounds your valuation means nothing it means nothing because something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it it's not about making fantasy valuations up in your head so I think you're absolutely right it's difficult to force these things it's difficult to push these things if I look at it from the other point of view if I'm a club potentially trying to buy one of these players that you've mentioned I might well wait until the end of the window thinking that at that point I'm more likely to get a much better deal.

36:30And that's why I've over the years got frustrated when we've heard this whole, we have to sell to buy thing. You have to be in a position to buy regardless because the sales often come later. And we have to be realistic about that. If you want Zinchenko and your AC Milan, for example, they've been rumored, you're not going to come in now in the middle of July. You're going to come in at the end of August when Arsenal really want him to move on. The player really wants to move on and you stand to get the best possible deal. That's just how business works. Sure. Is the sort of counterpoint to that?

37:01Maybe if you're the player, you don't want to be sitting around doing all the training and not playing the games and the season starts. And listen, maybe it's the life of a footballer. They're much more open to this kind of thing than we might expect. But if you're the player, you want to get to your new club before preseason. You want to settle in. You want to give the best account of yourself. You don't want to waste four or five weeks of the new season, whatever it might be, before the window closes. Maybe not that long, but you know what I mean. But ideally, if you're Zinchenko or Lokongo or Vieira and you realize it's not happening for me here, I want to be in my new place as quickly as possible.

37:46I suppose the onus then is on your representatives, your agents to go out and try and make that happen for you, you know, distinct from whatever business dynamics are in place between two football clubs. Yeah, exactly that. You know, I think players, you know, they don't want to be in that situation ideally. But I think, as you say, it's part of being a footballer. Like there are going to be periods in your career where you feel like you're in limbo a little bit. You know, you're watching a team prepare for a new season. You're watching them prepare tactically, getting up to speed physically. But you know full well that you might not play a part in that beyond the end of the transfer window.

38:24I think that's just something you've got to manage. And as you say, if your representatives are out there doing what they should be doing, and there's conversations ongoing between Arsenal and a potential buyer, and those conversations aren't moving forward, then I can understand why as a footballer you'll feel that frustration and you'll be maybe pushing and trying to plea with people to get that deal over the line and get it moving. But if that interest doesn't exist, there's not really much you can do. And I think, you know, Zinchenko is one of those players, right? Just to mention him as an example.

38:56If we sell him and we get a decent price for him, I'll be fine with that. But I'm also fine with keeping him. And I feel like that a little bit about Fabio Vieira as well. You know, if you get a decent deal, great. If you don't and he's part of the squad and he plays in the EFL Cup or is a bat, I haven't got a problem with that. There's only a couple really for me this summer. And Lokonga is definitely one of them that I look at and I say, you have to move on. You absolutely have to move on. Some of the others, I'm kind of on the fence about it. Now, I think from a club perspective, you probably want to get some of those players off the wage bill.

39:30I'd imagine someone like, you know, Zinchenko is probably on a pretty big contract given he came from Man City. But I don't disrespect these players because especially in Zinchenko's case, and you can make this point with Gabby Jesus as well, who I know a lot of people are thinking in the next 12 months, we probably need to move on as well. But you're looking at those guys and you're looking at them and you're saying, yes, okay, we've had to be ruthless and move past them and develop the team beyond them. But they were a big part of the leveling up process at Arsenal when they first arrived. So I'm okay.

40:00I'm pretty relaxed about the sales and outgoing. I think it's more the club looking to raise money and save money than it is about the dynamic of the squad. There is the squad limit thing to take into account as well, though. I just had a quick look at the Arsenal website. There's 25 first-team players listed. You have a 25-man first-team squad next season, and we're sitting here hoping sooner rather than later that three new players are going to be announced. So there is that element, too, you know, where if you are a Vieira or a Laconga or, you know, in that bracket, if it doesn't get sorted, you're in complete limbo, you know.

40:35So, again, this is where the agents have got to come into play and get their work done. I'm frantically refreshing all the time as we're talking, but no announcements have been made yet. You'll be happy to hear. They're going to wait until the second we're finished recording. The minute you press publish is when the announcement. This is going to be the most out-of-date podcast that's ever fucking been made. An interesting little story this morning. Arsenal signing a 17-year-old striker from Salford City called Will Wright. Liverpool were interested, but Arsenal appear to have won the race. I saw James Gunnerblog reporting that on The Athletic.

41:13£200 ,000 fee for an academy player, which is, you know, substantial. and there's talk, and there has been talk for a number of years, that Per Mertesacker has got some budget to make signings at academy level. I think this is quite interesting because there does appear to be a little bit of a gap, doesn't there? Because we've had Wuneri and Myles Lewis-Galley break through. There's all this talk about Max Dowman, which I understand, but give the kid a break. He's still only 15. You know, you need to be realistic about his development, right? But there's sort of like a gap in talent, quality, potential, whatever way you want to put it at academy level, you know?

42:00Players emerge and there's a young defender as well, isn't there, who's really catching the eye at the moment. but beyond that looking externally to bolster the academy and maybe to raise the level of the academy is is an interesting little development yeah i think it's a really interesting way of of i think creating revenue as well you know if you spot these players at the right time and you go and make a 200 000 pound investment for example and then you end up you know a few years down the line selling them for three or four million quid. That's big money. That's a big sort of return in your investment.

42:36You'll get the odd one that completely blows up and either has a massive role to play in your first team or becomes a really kind of valuable asset. And I think Arsenal probably realized over the years that they probably don't do that as well as some other clubs. We've got some great success stories in Lewis Skelly and Warneri and Saka players that have come all the way, but you're not going to get that many of those. And, you know, I'm lucky enough to commentate on a lot of the academy games. And, and so I've watched a lot of these players quite regularly. And what I will say, and, and I sort of had this opinion, but it was kind of backed up in a conversation I had with, with Jeremy Ali Adier, where he said that the gap between academy football and the Premier League has never been bigger.

43:20It's never been bigger. And you're in this weird space as a football club now, where you're kind of in two minds what to do with these players either they're really really good and they get fast-tracked into the first team setup or you need to find a way of getting them to play adult football essentially and whether that's loaning them to the championship league one league two but he said that and he's absolutely right the amount of players that go out on loan to lower league teams and just completely disappear and get swallowed up by the football league whether that's you know they're successful in that level but they stay in that level or they just completely go off the radar.

43:56It's very hard to know how to manage the development of a player. So I don't envy Per Mertesacker. I think he's got the hardest job probably at Arsenal Football Club. But it's definitely something we need to make better use of. It's interesting that we're spending money to bring players in. And hopefully, you know, over the coming years, we reap the rewards from that. Yeah. I mean, there's an appointment to be made as well, isn't there, at the under-21 level because Mehmet Ali left to join Brentford. I think he's the assistant manager at Brentford now under Keith Andrews. So they've advertised, which suggests maybe there isn't an obvious internal candidate.

44:33So that could be quite interesting to see who comes in and takes up the reins there. Because that role in particular is sort of the gateway, if you like, isn't it, to first team football? like whatever about under 16s, 18s, but under 21s, if you start really making a name for yourself at that level in that team, that's when the first team manager says, yeah, we need that guy. So it's a very important role. It is a very important role. And it's a very difficult role, I think, as well, because sort of, as I say, covering a lot of the games last season, a lot of the Premier League two games, like you're doing your research before the game, you're studying, you're looking into the teams and you're looking at Arsenal and you're going, And we're Arsenal Football Club, like, why aren't we sitting right at the top of the table?

45:18And you're looking at other really big football clubs, really successful clubs, and you're going, well, why aren't they at the top? Well, the point is that if players are good enough, they'll normally be fast-tracked through. And normally, you'll be without your best players at that level. And so results are not the be-all and end-all. And I know it seems like they should be because we've got this Premier League 2 format and everybody looks at the table. But it's about development. Development is the priority. And often you'll turn up to an under 21s game and the team will be made up of 17, 18 year olds that have been pushed up from the under 18s because a load of the under 21s are being used in the first team squad as substitutes.

45:56Or they're on loan somewhere. Or they're on loan somewhere. Exactly that. So it's very, very difficult, I think, to make too many judgments on A, that role. So the manager of that team is, you know, based on results. You can't do it. You have to look at the bigger picture. And only, I think, when you have a real strong and internal understanding of what's going on, can you judge whether they're doing a great job. Mehmet Ali was doing a great job, but the results maybe didn't necessarily show that. And that's where you have to factor in all the other points we've just made. Yeah, yeah. We'll be curious to see if a few of the younger players make it out onto the tour and who's involved there and how much they're involved in these games.

46:34Because, as I said, there is a big group of first team players available to Mikel Arteta. Unlike last summer, for example, when there was European championships and stuff on. So a lot of players were on extended holidays. So the squad was bolstered by these young players. We'll do a couple of questions just to sort of round us out here. What about this one from John Larkin? He said, our two main signings from last summer, Ricardo Calafiori and Mikel Moreno, on paper, could struggle to get minutes this year. 12 months on from those transfers. Do you wish we bought elsewhere? wear last summer or how do you reflect on them after looking at where the squad is heading this season?

47:14I think with Calafiore, I'm kind of trying to reserve my judgment on him. I liked him before he came to Arsenal. I do like my Serie A football, so he was on my radar. I was well aware of him. I really like Calafiore. I felt like he was a little bit unlucky last season with injuries. I thought a lot of the injuries that he got were just injuries that just came about via freak accidents. It wasn't a repeated muscular problem, for example, where you're looking at him and you're going, I don't know that this guy's built for the Premier League. He's had his injuries in the past. He had a very famous knee injury going back a long way.

47:49But I didn't really read into the fact that he was as frequently injured as he was last season because of the nature of those injuries. I think he's got loads to offer. I really, really do. And not just that left back, but a centre back if you need him. And even in more advanced areas of the pitch, we know he loves to get forward and it this applies to every player as good as you think miles lewis skelly is you can't play every single minute of every single game and so they'll get their fair share of game time marino i gotta be honest andrew first half of the season i was looking at that and thinking and i know he missed the first two months but i was looking at that and thinking okay he's not a bad player but could we have done a bit more in this position like was that the best use of funds over the course of the campaign though especially the second half when he had to become a makeshift striker and had to play some really kind of unselfish roles, became a bit of a battering ram up front for us.

48:40I fell in love with the guy. I think he's everything that you need in this team, which is, you know, spirit, determination, togetherness, also talented, clever, streetwise. I think actually the best of Mikel Marino in an Arsenal shirt is yet to come. So I don't think they'll both be starters, but I think if you go back to last season and last summer specifically, I think a lot of us were saying during that window that this was a window whereby we were raising the floor rather than raising the ceiling. That's turned out to be the case with those two, but that doesn't make them bad signings. Yeah.

49:15I mean, we talked about chaos and we talked about unpredictability. Ricardo Calafiori gives you that in pretty unconventional ways. You know, I think I really, really do think there's a player there. Absolutely. The injuries, I get the concerns. and I get the worries. And I'm slightly more on your side where I think he was a bit unlucky his first season in England. One was a slip on a pitch when playing for Italy. The other was a slip playing for us. Whether that speaks to some kind of underlying brittleness, I don't know, but I do. He needs boots. Yeah, he does. Longer studs. That's what he needs.

49:55But I really do think there's a player there. He's so exciting going forward. There's work to do defensively. But I think what people didn't really take into account was that last season he was the second youngest or third youngest player in the squad behind Lewis Skelly and Juan Airy. You know, so there's still loads of time for him to develop. I really like him. And I do think as well, you know, if Zinchenko goes, Tierney has gone. We've got Lewis Skelly and Califuri as our left back options. Brilliant. Love it. They're not going to start every game, either of them. So, you know, this is the depth that I was talking about.

50:33Marino, I think he's a really intelligent player. I think he did a great job in the second half of the season to get goals and to fill in where we needed him. And, you know, the discussion about why we needed him is sort of redundant at this point. I do wonder where the minutes will come from for him a bit. You know, I remember, was it a game against Brentford last season when Rice was, Rice couldn't play. He was either suspended or he was injured. I think we went there. It was away at home to Brentford. I think we won 3-1. Marino played that night. And to me, that was the perfect example of what Mikel Marino should bring to this team.

51:13Experience, bit of quality, solidity. When your big guy like Declan Rice can't play or is absent for whatever reason, he steps into the breach. You go away. You put in a solid professional performance and you win a game with little fuss. and I'm not saying it was all down to him, by the way, but I remember thinking, oh, that is his role in this squad. Like not a starter, not a first team guy, but the depth again that we're talking about. But, you know, if you've got Rice there, if you've got maybe Havertz there who could play a bit in midfield, I wouldn't rule that out at all under Mikel Arteta, playing him there, even though I think between himself and hopefully Jocharez, who I don't think we've signed yet.

51:55Let me check. No, not yet. You know, there's still room for Marino. Even if you bring in an Eze, I think there's still room for Marino in there. But, you know, is he going to start 30, 40 games next season? I don't think so. A.B. Gooner, we touched on this a little earlier. He said, what are your thoughts on the future of KSE and its operating model? I feel even though we're doing well as a club now, it seems multi-club ownership is something that we will need to do to keep up. in addition, given the clubs closing the loophole of assets being sold to themselves. Do you think this is something Arsenal should consider at this point of the squad build to push us over the line?

52:39I don't think, I don't feel we must do it, but I'd like to think that any ownership that's desperate to win would at least consider it. So whatever you think of Chelsea, and I don't think very much of Chelsea at all, by the way, and I'm sure that's reflected across our listenership. were they smart or right to sell their ladies team to themselves or sell the hotels to cover their PSO or stuff or sell all their players to Arsenal to balance the books? Is that something that we should do or is there a moral high ground that you should take as a football club? I will say I don't think Arsenal should get involved in multi-club ownership.

53:19I think multi-club ownership should be outlawed. I think whatever is there at this moment in time should be absolutely dismantled over a period of time. I know you can't do it overnight, but I think it should be 100 % against the rules and whatever loopholes that exist, putting your shares in a blind trust or whatever it is, should be just seen as nonsense because it is nonsense. Ultimately, the people that own these clubs have the influence. And if it impacts on sporting integrity in any way at all, we should get rid of it. And it should not have been allowed in the first place. I completely agree with you on multi-club ownership.

53:54not a fan, don't understand what the motivation for it would be other than to try and get around the system. That's just how I see it. A way of moving money. Yeah, a way of moving money. Exactly that. That's how I see it. On Arsenal and sort of the idea of doing the type of thing Chelsea have been doing, selling women's teams, hotels, car parks, whatever the hell Chelsea have been up to. I get it. Like I've had conversations with people at Arsenal that have said, we're very, very adamant that we're going to do things the right way. You know, we're going to stick to what we believe in, which is to do things the right way.

54:35And I admire that on the one hand. And I think, you know, that morally Arsenal are doing all the right things. But on the other side of it, there is a part of me that thinks if you want to win, given the kind of crazy landscape that football's turned into, there's nothing wrong with sometimes getting your hands a little bit dirty. And if there are rules there and there are loopholes to exploit, it's not the people that are exploiting them that should be looked at. It's the people that left the loopholes there in the first place that need looking at. So I'm not saying that I want Arsenal to do every underhanded thing in the book.

55:07One of the things I'm most proud of as an Arsenal fan is that we don't do that stuff and we don't have a reputation for doing that stuff. But at the same time, I do look at it and I think rather than bemoaning the fact that they found the way around it, why don't we just make sure that there is no loopholes and that these things are watertight because they're clearly not and maybe it sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory but i think they're deliberately not watertight sure so if you want to if you want to compete if you want to if you want to succeed if you're desperate to win and you want to get over the line sometimes you you have to want it um to the point where you will not break rules and not do things that are immoral but maybe just get your hands dirty on occasion all right well we'll see what they do.

55:49Final one, and this is a nice easy one. It comes from Senior Grey Dog, and he said, what do you think Arteta's secret weapon will be to catch teams out for the new season? A new formation change here or there? The plethora of new players, and how unpredictable that will make us? Perhaps new formed relationships on the pitch, or will it just be more set pieces? So a nice easy one. What is the secret weapon, Harry, that we're going to use to drive ourselves to the title, having sold some hotels to ourselves? Noni Madweke. It's going to be the secret weapon. Noni Madweke and his bandana are going to be the secret weapon.

56:25I don't know. It's difficult to say, right? Because one thing you've got to give Mikel credit for is he is adaptable. I know that at times we've bemoaned the fact that the team are maybe a little bit too predictable. But I think that's for us because we are Arsenal fans and we watch and we analyse and we scrutinise every single game. I do think that he has shown from season to season that he is more than willing and open to look back at the previous season or the season before or over the course of the last couple of seasons, try and identify issues and then take steps in the transfer market to fix those problems.

57:00You know, we thought that we could do with a kind of more box crashing number eight when we lost Granit Xhaka because we figured out that that was the way to attack. Like we brought Kai Havertz in to try and fix that. And then that wasn't really working and we needed a center forward. So he adapted and he pivoted and he put Kai Havertz up at center forward. I don't think that's what he was signed to be, but he did a pretty good job there. So I think where you got to give Mikel credit is that he's not stubborn. Like, yes, you could level that at him at times, but I think overall he knows and he realizes that you have to keep moving with the time.

57:37Sure. And so, you know, that's why we're making signings like, not only Matt Wrecking. Well, I guess, I mean, for me, it is about this season is all about him using his squad to the full extent possible, you know, not being wedded to, you know, one particular team that has done well. So we pick the same team the next time and then they don't do as well, but you want to give them another chance. You know, I think this is where I need to see if we've got all this depth and all of these options available to us, I think we need to see the manager demonstrate full trust in those players and the options that he has available to him, bearing in mind the vagaries of injuries and form and all of those things, I think there is a way that he can use his squad in a really smart way where for the biggest games and the most difficult games and the most challenging games, we can have our, in inverted commas, best 11 available to us in ways that maybe we didn't in previous seasons.

58:37you know so i agree with that i think if if there is one major criticism i have of him is that he's not rotated effectively enough and if you've got a bigger squad which is what we're building towards then there's not really an excuse um to get that wrong anymore i feel like at times he rotates too much um to the point where when he feels like it's a rotation game he'll rotate six or seven which completely disrupts the team the rhythm the flow and then we end up having to bring the big boys on anyway and actually what was the point in the first place. I think that balance between rotating enough or rotating too much and rotating too little is where Mikel Arteta probably needs to find himself and get a little bit better.

59:20All right. Well, let's hope that's something he can do next season. We better leave it there. Harry, really appreciate your time as always. Thank you very much and we'll chat soon. Thank you for having me, mate. Always a pleasure to talk Arsenal with you.

59:34Hi, I'm Max Rushton, the host of The Guardian Football Weekly. Alongside me, Barry Glendening, my co-host. Hey, Barry. Hello. Now, although every American found us during the World Cup, for the two that didn't, what can they expect? Found us and fell in love with us, Max. They can expect three episodes each week of occasionally insightful analysis covering the Premier League, Champions League and beyond. Football Weekly is back. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is Nick and Jack from The Best One Yet, and we are excited to tell you about Walmart Business. Staying ahead of business trends means moving fast and adapting quickly.

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1:01:09Thank you very much indeed to Harry. You can find his podcast, The Chronicles of Agunar, on YouTube. There's a link to the YouTube channel in the show notes or wherever you get your podcasts. So I think I'm just going to leave it there for now because the sooner I get this out there, the sooner it's going to be out of date, which I don't mind. I don't mind. Listen, if the news is good, if the signings are made or official or announcements are being dropped all over the place, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. And I don't mind the trifling unimportance of this podcast being almost immediately irrelevant.

1:01:44Nevertheless, I want to thank you for being here. As always, we really do appreciate your support and we really do appreciate you listening When we do drop those players, by the way, you can find out a lot more about them by signing up to our Patreon. We have a new player podcast for every new player that we sign. We look at their career. We look at the trajectory of their career, their strengths and weaknesses, and do a good in-depth dive on those players. So we've got some ready to go. It's fair to say. We're just waiting to, you know, get the nod so we can hit publish on those. So if you want to sign up, it's patreon.com forward slash arseblog.

1:02:19That is patreon.com forward slash arseblog. Maybe we'll have one or two of those over the weekend. Who knows? And on Sunday, we will have an Arsecast Extra for you. It's not going to be with James because James will be on his way to Singapore for the preseason tour. I'm going out on Monday. So we'll do an Arsecast Extra. Phil Costa will be standing in for James. Usual format. We'll have that for you on Sunday morning, there or thereabouts. It should be out by about noon on Sunday. so you can join us for that. After which, I'll catch up with James in Singapore at some point and we'll do a podcast from out there, probably after the game against, I think it's AC Milan in midweek.

1:03:01So we'll do it after the AC Milan game and we'll give you the updates from that game and from the tour and all the news and gossip and stuff that's going on around there. So again, thank you so much as always for being with us. Really appreciate it. For now, take it easy and we will catch you on the next one.

1:03:27I'm out.

1:03:49Thank you.

1:04:27The Arsenal Football Club have today announced the signing of Blinkenshop United striker Steve Addon. The Gunners will pay a world record fee of 32 guineas, thrum and sixpence, with a further 17 farthings due in very easily achievable add-ons. Chief Executive Tim Timothy Lewis said, How about you add this on, you fucking cunts? Arsenal have also added 23 shillings to the season ticket price

1:04:58Hi Pod fans, Max here, Barry's here too Hello And now the Premier League is back, Barry Meaning we'll be providing incredibly astute analysis Three times a week wherever you get your podcasts Barry, with the remaining 10 seconds of this advert Can you provide some astute analysis? I think Arsenal are going to win the Premier League And there you are, for more hot takes like that Watch or listen to Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts