Transfer Machinations and How Ready Will Arsenal Be?

0:00Elliot:Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Hey, Chicagoland. The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette.

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1:16It's Rice. What a goal! Declan Rice with an absolute rocket with a free kick. Arsenal League 1-0. He's cut inside. Saka! Sublime finish. He's back with a bang with Fukuyo Saka 1-0. Unbelievable skill. Look, I don't know what you're making of this summer, but if all we've learned this summer is that Arsenal can be good at penalty shootouts now, that might be enough. This is the Arsenal Vision Podcast. My name's Elliot Smith. If all we've done this summer is perfect penalty shootouts, that could be enough to get us that one step further this upcoming season. And Christos Solis, you are in line for taking a penalty.

1:54I will also say that the game against Como had a nice side effect of making me less angry that Nani didn't take a penalty in Budapest because now I feel like maybe that was the correct decision. So that's all good. You know, a fun day out, some fun things, some things to work on. Not much going on in the transfer rumor mill. So, you know, we can focus on the football, which is what everybody wants. Nobody actually wants transfers. They want football. Or do I have that backwards? I don't know. App is live. Voting is up. Kepa Ritha Balaga running away with the stocks falling this summer. So kudos to him.

2:29He's like several hundred votes ahead of the next closest person. Would love it if you'd check out the apps and the Android version that has full Patreon login should be up and running. Tim and I did a full power rankings episode. Tim did some phenomenal research and kudos to you, Tim, on all of our quote unquote rivals, the teams that are competing to finish behind us. And so we did the power rankings of all of the teams that are competing to finish behind Arsenal. And it was fun. So I'd love for you to check that out. We'll have our season prediction episodes next week. Clive's favorite. I'm sure he's probably already figuring that out, running the numbers, double-checking them.

3:05So lots of good stuff coming. And more than anything, just want to say thanks for being here. You know, with new season ahead, it means it's almost time for new music. And that means there's going to be a lot of unhappy listeners. So before that happens, let me just tell you, We absolutely love you, and we really appreciate you being here. Please don't leave just because the music changed. So now that the housekeeping's done, I can say hello, Clive. Hello, hello. And hello, Tim. Hello there. All right, look, lots to get to. I want to start with what I think is sort of the story around Arsenal that has people chatting a little bit before we get into the game and some of the performances, and there's a lot of interesting stuff there.

3:39But it's the Miles Lewis-Skelly thing. He got a huge ovation when he was announced at the start of the game. he scored the goal I thought he looked pretty bright um he gave the heart symbol to everyone at the Emirates after he scored you know Clive I think there are two types of well three types of rumors right in transfer world one is the rumor is right the facts are right everybody knows the accurate information and there's really no subterfuge whatsoever um you know like when Manchester City just sell to Johnny Reinders for however much money they want to a club and just you know off offload their their trash for as much money as they want that that's easy there's the type of rumors where some random itk has just made some shit up and it was never true and then there's that gray area in between where there's some truth to something but not everybody's on the same page about what that is and nobody's super sure of it and the miles thing maybe fits that middle zone he was linked i will say linked is maybe too strong there were rumors that he had been offered to chelsea maybe had previously been offered to united those rumors didn't go down well as you can imagine, very popular academy kid who was critical to the way our season ended, a player I'd love to see stay at Arsenal.

4:49But I'm curious what you made of Miles' day at the Emirates. It felt like a day where he was center stage. We could talk about what Mikel said in a moment.

4:58Elliot:Yeah, he was center stage. And when his name was announced, my watch got set off, right? He got the loudest cheer. And yeah, there's an emotional side to this and there's a business side to this and we have to be have to be adult about this right so the emotional side we want all the academy kids to stay and play and play in the first team and then just add to our depth we're all comfortable with that and there'll be nobody that doesn't want to see that but there's a business side to this as well and let's just focus on the maybe the business strategy behind this right and this needs a little bit of thinking through and it's not about agreeing whether he stays or not.

5:39Elliot:It's about thinking, well, why Miles? Think that through. That's what I did anyway. Why Miles? Obviously, the new squad cost ratio rules are coming in, and we spent a lot of money last year. It didn't sell well. Shock, Arsenal don't sell well. And eventually, there was going to be a price to pay with that. And I think we all knew somebody that we like would end up going or potentially could end up going. If you want flexibility in the market late in the window, which we all agree, this window is not complete. no team is complete no team is ready world cuts come along the last two weeks this window is going to be like nothing we've seen before and so to achieve you what you want to achieve or you can potentially part of your strategy wherever you think that strategy is reactive or proactive doesn't really matter you need to find out what options are out there for players that you may need to sell what concerns me that this is something that probably happens all the time but it doesn't really leak out and that tells me that we're not operating like we used to operate we're operating the clumsy way and this is really really bad for pr and then this is there's a flip side to this coin right there's so many angles please stop me or interrupt me if you think i'm going on no but you just go you just go the flip side to this coin right so when we bought bruno kimmeres everyone goes oh what a player what a player what a player there's always a cost for someone coming in right so everyone wants his player but what's the potential cost well nor guard goes out we're going to be better we'll think it's really a bit deeper right last year we played four midfielders in this position lower in the in the team with zubmendi rice nor guard and it ended up being lewis skelly right so four for two right so that fourth midfielder did not play any minutes so think about it from a squad efficiency point of view think about returning players and positional changes of those players so Eze now is developing if look at the world cup he's developing into a interior midfielder rather than an exterior midfielder we know he can do it but he's developing into an interior midfielder Mikhail Marino's back in the room world cup finalist right so um and he's 30 years of age who can play in the interior so what you do if you're thinking strategy is you look at your four midfielders and the fourth role was non-existent minute wise last year it's what you do is you take that player out the one that's got the best fiscal value for you and you use that fourth midfielder between two or three players and they think about the minutes of Odegaard the minutes of Marino the minutes of Eze they could sweep that roll up you get your profit and you use that money to allow you to do your to-do list on that to-do list by the way new contract for the manager higher wages new contract for declan rice higher wages new contract for you and timber higher wages right kimurra has come in he hasn't come in on a bargain right so you have to think about our to-do list what we need to achieve and think about how we're going to achieve it now the the peripheral players on the edge of the squad like nelson and vieira and jesus they're not bringing in money the biggest offer we have for martin only for 35 million pound okay six billion quid so there's a bit of profit there something's going to happen you choose where it's going to go but something's going to happen and something needs to happen because regulation is king and this is where we need to sober up and think about the fact we have a very last squad a couple people in overcoats last season when the squad was all fit we need to make sales it's critical the anger for me is the way we're operating i don't want to see clumsy reaches into the market where everyone knows what we're about that looks bad and we become talk sport fodder for two three days and we open ourselves up to criticism and we're in a pr war to crush something down to settle things down that's not arsenal that's rubbish right so whether you agree with this player being sold the player that that's player preference that's what you like why don't you sell him why don't you sell him we'll have that discussion but the way arsenal operate is indicative of their values that they operate within and that stuff is important to me because that's something that's sustainable over time right so regardless of the players involved the people working in the club etc so that's the bit where I have a concern.

10:12Elliot:And that's the bit where we've seen organizational change since last summer where I felt we operate quite well. And now it's about judging what the new team are doing. And that was always my position with this. And that's so far, two weeks ago, we're doing okay, but there's work to do. Is that okay? Yeah. I think that makes sense. Just to be clear, because I think people will be reading between the lines and I'd prefer that you just say it outright. would you sell miles um it's not about selling miles it's not about what i want to do it's about recognizing what we have to do as a club right right so i'd rather see all the other players go that need to go at really good prices but what if they don't what if we don't get the offers what do we have to do then it's about being realistic and i started this conversation off by saying everybody wants these players to stay the academy kids and everyone wants them to play in the first team.

11:08Elliot:That's what everybody wants emotionally. There's a business side to this. And you tell me the options that we could have to make this all add up. You've triggered a few thoughts in my mind. First of all, last night was basically a showcase of players that absolutely have to leave, like that have no role to play at Arsenal. Like Gabriel Jesus is a player I have immense soft spot for. People know that for years. The game has left him. You know, it really has. It does not look like he has much football left in him. Certainly not at our level. Fabio Vieira has to go, right? Kepa Aretha Blaga, if you can move him, you move him, but I don't think he's going to play much this season on the basis of the summer.

11:42Those players obviously have to go. I think, to your point, Clive, people can accept maybe you have to take the, quote, pure profit, there's that phrase, pure profit on miles, if you're bringing in a Vinny Jr. What they can't accept is if you're doing that, then you get an Illuminati on deadline day, or a Rashford loan or something. The other thing, ironically, Clive, you've triggered for me to realize is we have to get Declan Rice a new contract, so on and so forth. Well, now that everybody knows what we were going to give Vinny Jr., Declan Rice's people have a right to go in and say, how's 500 grand a week sound?

12:15Because you had that money lined up for Vinny. He didn't show up, so we know that money's available. So good luck to Arsenal figuring that one out. But Tim, I might as well get your thoughts on this as well. I think all of us obviously would prefer to see the Hale-End kids have a big, long career at Arsenal. And I think we have gone completely mental in forgetting what 19 years old is and development of a central midfielder. For a winger, that can actually be prime for some young players. But for midfielders and defenders like Marley Salmon, it's still a child. Like I said, if you've got big transfer plans and you're going to make a splash and you're going to bring in something exciting and someone you love has to go to make that happen, I think fans can tolerate that.

12:52They're probably going to be less excited about that happening when it doesn't look like there's necessarily a plan to execute on that. yeah I mean for me I wouldn't sell miles because I think he'd be really I think he's going to be a really valuable member of the squad I'd be I said this in the live show in Dublin I think there's a hot take that Zubimendi is maybe the person you move if you have to make a sale you kind of don't want to because if it's one or the other yeah well yeah because like if he doesn't play as much next season that will be viewed as a continuation of a decline from where he was and how valuable will he be you know you could make an argument he's more valuable this summer um that that's i'm not saying that's firmly what i think go and sell zubemendi but i think there's a world in which that makes more sense perhaps than um selling miles because to your point it actually looks like we've got a bit of a pipeline going in terms of bruno gomares has come in he's gonna be 29 in November that's a couple of year signing if we get Konza I'll come on to that in a minute I really think that's going to happen I think it's going to happen soon um he's 28 as well and Marley Salmon sitting there so you've got like you can say to Miles and Marley Salmon yeah we have signed guys in your position but they're 28 and 29 years old like you've got particularly like and and like you said like Miles is 19 if he was 22 or 23 yeah okay you perhaps think I can't wait forever we've got fabio vieira and reese nelson are 26 right and i think we forget that there was a question on the ask cast extra last week about would you sell fabio vieira for 5 million and have like a um you know a significant salon clause and it's like what salon clause like he's 26 like yeah this is what's ridiculous about those two it's like your your next contract is your last big contract and I get it like no one volunteers for a pay cut but at the same time you've probably tanked your prime contract by like messing around and not leaving um so there's there's loads of that going on but the way I view it Elliot is I think there might be a bit of a bomber to come um the way we're moving here so when we did the power rankings episode I spoke about Aston Villa and I talked about how Aston Villa have got lots of business they want to do, but they have to sell someone to do it, a bit like us.

15:22And do you remember I said they didn't go to the price for Emerson Royale from Flamengo? Not a big price, not a big player wouldn't go to it because they need a winger. Well, what happens yesterday? They're linked with Aaron Wan-Bissaka. An hour later, they're linked to Jonathan David. An hour later, I mentioned they were linked with Joao Palinha. It now sounds like that's moving. so what are Villa doing Villa are getting moving they're doing stuff now what does that tell you that tells you to me that like Juve pulled out on Emi Martinez no one's gone for Watkins I think Villa are gonna Villa and Arsenal are gonna compromise on a price for Konza and now so what are Arsenal doing all of a sudden there's stories about you know Miles has been offered to who do you think is telling everyone about gabriel martinelli's offer from galatasaray do you think his agent's saying that because i don't think he wants to go so why would his why would his agent say hey everyone we've got a really low ball offer from galatasaray like where do you think that story is coming from so i think that arsenal and villa are getting moving on the Konza deal and Arsenal are looking at it and going we have to we have to move someone because we're probably going to meet Villa in the middle on Konza we still want to go after a winger we don't really know who that is yeah if anyone and the fact that we're getting some of these stories about you know these significant players who play significant minutes that says to me that dominoes are beginning to fall and I think you're seeing that across the league now yeah and by the wait like before we get too hung up on the idea that well the club have to sell if they're gonna buy liverpool fucked it they lost muhammad salah trent alexander arnold and conate for free all three of them for free i mean functionally for free and they still bought izak ekatike they're in for 130 140 million barkle they bought 100 million verts they bought uh karakas and frimpock i'm not saying they bought the right guys but it hasn't dented them so like let's not let's not forget the financial might that is available here.

17:31The other thing I'll say is, when you want to title...

17:33Elliot:They sold£250 million worth of players last season. Yeah, alright. They sold Mane, they sold Diaz. Mane, Diaz. They sold Firmino, they sold Fabinho to Saudi. The issue with this is this is the crux of this, right? There's a way of working situation here. But Arsenal Football Club do not have a selling identity. We do not have a selling strategy. We have not sold well for many, many years. and now the chickens are coming home to roost they are they really are and it's always the players that you like that want to fix the best prices right so if an offer comes in one of your players that you don't want to sell then you have to be ready to flex and change your strategy to how you want to move your squad right so there are easy sales are harder more complex sales you know squad words building wise and you have to replace somebody if you get the wrong player that goes out the door right so i'm trying to look at my business point of view emotionally we all want the same things business wise there's a price to pay for the activity we have last year spending 250 net last summer we're already at about 121 30 at the moment and we've sold nor guard and trossard yes elliot you tell me mate no you're right that's fair i i mean i'm i'm wrong there and and like here's what i would say when you win a title you're always gonna have great affection for everybody who was on that ride with you.

18:55But like, you have to be willing to keep turning over the squad and refreshing it. I think one thing Pep Guardiola was great at is winning title with players and then letting them go. You know, I mean, we bought Jesus and Zinchenko who were important players at Manchester City. Jesus was one of the most called upon players for Pep in their title seasons, played in the critical moments, and he sold them to a rival. He was willing to turn the squad over. He was willing to refresh. And I'm not saying that's worked always because they haven't won every single title, but they won plenty of them. And granted, their financial situation is different but it's the point that you have to be thankful and appreciative of the players that help you win things but willing to till the soil um to keep refreshing the squad we've done that a bit by the way i mean bruno gimreis is a major signing that people are just i think overlooking because they want that shiny forward but he's a very important and very expensive signing um very expensive i want to read you some yeah i want to read you some quotes from michael let me read you the the miles lewis skelly quotes first so he says quote what he likes about Miles.

19:53He had a really good preseason. We asked him to play in a different position because he played more as a number six. We obviously lacked midfielders from international duty, and I think he had a really consistent preseason. What I thought was interesting is he talked about also that he's sort of an emotional player, which was an interesting comment. When he was asked about the rumors of him going, he said, I don't want to comment on speculation. he's a sensitive player he's emotional which here we go here's the exact quote about Miles Lewis Skelly's speculation quote it's a very emotional player I remember when he did all the gestures on the pitch so I'm not going to talk about any speculation if there is a speculation about our player it's a good sign that means that we attract attention and they're doing a good job so I thought that was interesting not unequivocal is it it's not he's our player he had an opportunity to be unequivocal and he wasn't yeah yeah i mean it's an interesting one i think that is a bit of a rorschach test for what you're taking into the quotes uh in terms of what you'll take out of them i think we're sitting here in our

20:58Elliot:shirts right sitting in our nylon right we've got our merch in our wardrobes tucked away we have a vantage point so there's not many people don't want to see a 90 year old storming through the midfield at the burn about and think that's great that gives me a connection to the club I just want to throw that to one side for this discussion because there is a business side to this which is a changing picture and we have got the way we won the league last year was by spending and debt from squad and that allowed us to manage the second worst injuries in the league we're looking at health and we'll talk about that a little bit later looking at health and how we protect players and we have a number of players that are sitting there with contracts up in 2028 that need to be addressed senior players Havers Odegaard Timber Rice Senior players Do you think any of them Want a pay cut?

21:50Elliot:Right Then that's Whenever I want to use Forward and left winger I'm just looking at The to-do list And I'm asking myself Is this doable Without some pain? That's where I am Yeah I mean You have to sell First of all You have to sell Because you don't want To beat Chelsea You don't want to have 45 players And they're all miserable And no one knows If they're going to play And they're going to their agents And saying What's the plan for me? That doesn't work. You know, somewhere between my old idea that you basically need 14 players and you have to have a first 11 and the ridiculous notion that you should have three in every position, there's a happy medium.

22:23You have to have the right numbers. And, you know, that means sometimes having to make some hard choices. on transfers. Mikel said, quote, there is more that we want to do. Every time we have an opportunity to improve the squad and bring more quality and depth to the squad, we need to do that. We are actively trying to do so. The thing with the market is that it doesn't just depend on you. And we are very clear on that. But the approach, the will and the desire of the club, that's unquestionable. And we're going to try to do that. But we cannot promise that we're going to do it because again, it doesn't only depend on us.

22:58And, you know, I mean, And Clive, this is just the reality. We know we wanted Morgan Rodgers. I think a lot of people would agree not going to$117 million was correct. I think there's a discussion to be had about whether we got a bit cute or moved quickly enough to make Morgan Rodgers happen. But when you think Vinny's available, you have to go for him. But now I'm left with this feeling. I would rather we not buy a forward than panic buy a forward that isn't any better than what we have because down the road, maybe someone like Kruppi becomes available and you can get that player. So for me, it's really just Alvarez.

23:31That's really the name that's left for me. I don't want an Njai. I don't want us to go after that caliber of player. So how are you thinking about this? Mikel is saying pretty unequivocally, we want to do it, but it depends on other clubs that we're trying to do business with. And that makes it sound like he's aware that there's some challenges around whether we can execute on a strategy.

23:50Elliot:Yeah, I think I listened to your podcast this week. I thought he was really, really good. Fair play to both of you. I think one of the things that Tim said was really, I agree, we've already messaged off, the last two weeks are going to change everything for us. Maybe even the last week. So whatever circumstance and environment you think there is today, it's going to change very, very, very quickly and rapidly. Where people have, it's not just us who've got to pay the piper. Other teams have some serious selling to do. They're posturing right now, when the stuff hits the stuff, the fan, they will uh they will soon have to change their position so we are in a real position of brinkmanship at the moment i i don't know how it's going to go earlier i have to be honest with you i am i confident we're going to come out of this the right side i'll be honest with you i'm not as confident as i have been in the past but that's not my that's not my job my job is to hope that we get the right team on the pitch the right squad on the pitch because the day last season i felt the league was won before the season almost started with our business we did in the summer and we need to have i want to have that same feeling again one thing i will say i learned a lesson once about the feelings of online fans versus fans in the ground and i remember it online about granite shaka actually i thought oh granite shaka was getting a lot of stick online and i thought oh everyone hates him i went to the ground and he shaka was playing he came up for warm-up and he got a standard innovation and i realized there can be a difference between online and in the stadium.

25:18Elliot:What I will say to you on my little experience this week, Miles Lewis-Gelly is extremely popular online and is extremely popular in the stadium. So whatever emotions that have been triggered, this is serious. If I mention this to my son, he goes off his head about it, that we can't be doing this. There's a lot of emotion around people that have grown up at the club since they're eight years of age, how they're treated. It's really, this is not a small topic. is indicative of also as an operation and um and he's just the poster boy of it maybe we have to man up and get more resilient about losing people we like i don't know i'm not sure i am on it i'm trying to look at all sides but i will say that do not underplay how people feel live watching and online it's it's pretty unanimous yeah yeah uh tim before we kind of shift gears to the the football a bit i mean i i want to get your tickets i think we're gonna talk about football no one told me about this pivot well look it is summer if there is ever a time when you're allowed to just be obsessed with trans like when i bump into someone in october november who still wants to talk about transfers they're like an alien to me but if you're not thinking about transfers on august 13th and then something's wrong everyone's got loads to do so yeah yeah exactly there's a lot of business that'll still happen and i agree with you clive i was even saying earlier this summer This could be one of those summers like an Ozil summer where some giant clubs have some giant moves that happen late in the window and those dominoes fall.

26:50And there's a market opportunity. We love that expression. You know, I mean, I think someone still leaves Madrid, for example. Is it someone we'd want? I don't know. But like there's players that are going to leave PSG, Madrid. We should be all over that, I'm afraid. Yeah. All right. Well, there you go. But so I will just ask you. I mean, I think CONSA happens. That is something I think happens. And I think we should do it. and we don't need to relitigate it because we've gone through it before. Do you believe that attacking signing is still out there for us and maybe hasn't revealed itself yet?

27:19There's a lot of internet focus on Barcala and Alvarez, but the world of players is bigger than that. So do you want to plant your flag there? Yeah, I do. I don't know. I'm reading the tea leaves a little bit here, but the way the market moves, the market behaves and all of that, this feels like a tremor to me. like why are like so i i'm assuming that we're the ones putting the martinelli stories out there right that that's my assumption i might be wrong about that i just can't see anywhere else it would come from why is that like why why are we potentially making everyone aware that we're definitely trying to sell this player if you remember maybe three weeks ago hand of arsenal did one of those updates and just kind of almost buried the lead in there and just said Martinelli is up for sale um which I think we've understood for the last couple of summers like oh Arsenal would be open to an offer but it feels like it's moved from open to an you know open to an offer to you know I reckon Andrea Berta's selling him like sending Istanbul brochures to him um right now and like um it's it's really nice you know the the phosphorus what and and by the way what it is an amazing city as well um martinelli still has great hair otherwise that'd be another thing you could sell yeah it's like oh look you can you can you can get a boat from one side of the city to the other it's really really nice um so like so like why are we doing that you know and and I'm assuming we are going to it looks like you know Gabriel Jesus to Napoli Fabio Vieira might go somewhere Rhys Nelson will get his wages off the books so like it just I definitely think they're trying to make the money to go a bit higher on Konza but it just feels like there's something else brewing to me and like I don't know just experiencing this whole like transfer thing there's like little bits of news that come out that don't feel like they make sense and then 48 hours david ornstein dropped something and you go ah that's that's why all of that was happening and it's it's just a prediction i just i i feel it in my waters who it could possibly be i don't know but like like i said like endrick at real madrid i whether for us i'm not sure that's one to keep an eye on that kid is a serious serious talent and if he shakes loose at real madrid i think a lot of clubs can he play off the left i mean does he fit our build not really not really no he's he's probably more in your alvarez mold i'd say um but potentially more gettable obviously he's younger and we're in a bit of a win now phase but you know like so i think i think something's going to happen with him whether it's whether it's for us i don't know i i quite like that but i yeah i I feel something in my waters here earlier.

30:23Clive? I'm just worried.

30:25Elliot:I'm worried that Villa might get Hendrick because they seem to be that place that... Finally, we can get Ali Watkins there. Yeah. But they're going for Jonathan Davids. Should have gone for him two Januaries ago. Yeah, that's a fair point. They were linked with Jonathan Davids. So, yeah. Same type of player, isn't he? Same type of second striker player, similar profile. Yeah, the cake is not baked, one of my lines. The cake is not baked. Yeah. How the cake is being baked, i have concerns about but you know what delete them concerns because we've got a new sporting director where he's now forced to not just buy seven or eight but he's got self five or six and what does that look like and i have to be comfortable that he has ways of working that may not be comfortable sitting with me right so um but who what do i get you know if we get the numbers right and we get the squad construct right and we haven't got too many people with under 500 minutes getting paid big money unusable then that's that's his job that's his job to make sure that wherever we spend we're getting effective use of those resources and that's what he's got to do and it's not just about buying positionally it's about making sure that your highly paid players are being used and have roles versatility and also you create financial room to for your to-do list that's the big pressure he's under right now maybe that's why we're seeing some clumsy reaches into the market yeah my instinct based on nothing is that we probably have a bit of a surprise exit or at least an exit of a player that has been more closely associated with the first team not the sort of viera nelson group that we do get concert and that i think we probably find an attacking player before this window is over i i think it's gonna happen whether it's one that we unanimously like that remains to be seen but i i think we'll do it um if it's pedro netto you're gonna have to find a new podcast host i'm absolutely not having it if we dip into those bins again for pedro netto i'm not pulling punch look i i hide my opinion sometimes for fear of backlash i'm not pulling punches if it's pedro netto i do mate i'm no no No, unequivocally, no So you don't want Pedro Neto With Romero Pedro Neto for miles, yeah, straight swap Now, João Pedro You could interest me I don't think they want to move him, but that's another story Jadon Sancho's a free agent I think, still You're about to see the best of me I keep promising we're going to talk about football And we keep not talking about football So we actually should talk about football We got to see Bruno Guimaraes play, which was exciting He was really good Let's talk about brands.

33:07I'll get to the football later. Let's talk about brands. I'm going to keep telling you we're going to talk about football, and I'm going to keep not talking about football. We are going to talk about brands, and the first brand we're going to talk about is Saley. Saley is an app that you put on your phone that lets you use your phone globally with something called an eSIM. Remember the days of having to take a tool and pop a piece of your phone out, and then you'd put a new chip in the phone, and you had to make sure you didn't lose the old chip because that one was your main phone number? what a nonsense way to do it but like that's all you could do well now there's something called eSIM you don't have to pop anything out of your phone you just get this app and you say I want to have a phone number in this area this area this area it's cheaper when you travel it protects your phone because it's from those great people at NordVPN it has ad blockers so your data plan isn't chewed up by ads it is a great way to travel the world use your phone use it safely use it cost effectively and when you use code Arsenal Vision you save 15 % and I've just checked I ran the numbers, that is 15 % off of the plan.

34:03Use code Arsenal Vision. Go to the Saley app. Use code Arsenal Vision. That's the Saley app, S-A-I-L-Y app, and get yours now. And now I can tell you about Shopify. Shopify is great because I know from experience, I have used it. If you want to start an online business and hear your first cha-ching, this is the way to do it. Shopify allows you to create an online business that features your products in a professional way that handles the aspects of e-commerce that you may not be as comfortable with and that allows you to reach your people, the people that want your products, where they are, not just on your website, but places like Instagram shop and TikTok shop and Facebook shop and things like that.

34:50Right? So you are going to grow your business. You are going to have a better checkout experience, which I think is a really critical part of this because that's when people have to put their trust in you, their confidence in you, and it's going to be give them all the different payment options. Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, things like that. It makes it easy. You can grow your business because it handles the setup and checkout. So do it now. With Shopify, nothing stands between you and your idea and a real business. So go make one. Go make it one. If you're ready to stop putting off your business and start hearing cha-ching, then you're ready for Shopify.

35:21Start your free trial at shopify.com slash arsenalvision today. You heard that right. a free trial at shopify.com slash arsenal vision. That's shopify.com slash arsenal vision. And Nord VPN. Nord VPN is the way you use the internet safely and securely. If you are a football supporter, and I have to presume you are if you're listening to this podcast, then you sometimes are on dodgy websites. And if you're on a dodgy website, you're probably getting dodgy stuff on your computer or your iPad or your Android tablet or whatever it is. Nord protects it. It's an app, you put it on your device, you say where you want to browse, and you can browse there, and you get the threat protection, which is awesome and quite important.

35:54as I mentioned. I also like that the next time you're trying to watch a video or a subscription service that you pay money for and it says not available here, it is available here. And it should be. And that's how it works. So go ahead and get NordVPN. And the way you get it is you go to nordvpn.com slash arsenalvision. You are going to get a huge four-month bonus on top of your discounted plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Four-month bonus. nordvpn.com slash arsenalvision. that's nordvpn.com slash arsenalvision nordvpn.com slash arsenalvision is that enough of that? Indeed. Nailed it. Clive, it was a fun game and it was a good chance to see some players come back.

36:38Mikel Marino is back. Bruno Guimaraes played. I want to start though with a youngster another youngster and we can call him a youngster. Ethan Winery. I thought he was great. I think he's having a great summer Clive. I think going into this summer People would have thought Ethan's on the chopping block, and Miles is now our central midfielder of the future. And here we are. We've spent half the podcast talking about whether Miles will be here. We haven't talked about Ethan at all. Mikel was, I think, pretty unequivocal in his praise of Ethan, of how the challenges at Marseille helped him grow as a person, to understand what he has to do.

37:11I think physically he's developed, which happens at that age, just not to me. So what do you make of Ethan Winery's trajectory? I think he is a bright spot from our preseason.

37:22Elliot:yeah i think so and by him playing deeper i think he's shown another you know another side of him right there's been big improvements for me in ethan and max off the ball have been big improvements in both of them and that's a key thing when you play for michael arteta's team that's a key the reason why solace will be playing at the weekend without a doubt because he can do it on and off the ball don't even look at that direction it's just done and so ethan's done really well when he came in he was just a dribble merchant dribble get shifted left shot you know a little pass here and there heavy foot shot top corner post his stamp now he's working he's popping it being more metronomical in his play and working both ways it's a massive development for him you know and it's the same for max really massive development off the ball miles is a player that likes the game in front of him a lot and where he can go and get it where you're playing in the six you get bypassed in big spaces could be not compact he's having to run backwards and do big long runs which is not really his game but it's a development opportunity for him and i think development of these those three in particular to be more rounded first team players rather than just talented footballers has been really good what's going to happen to them what's going to happened to even elliot don't know right a week ago we're looking at leipzig looking at him at a 40 million quitter of euros and potential buyback it's all going to come out it's all going to come out you know and i do think that arteta was more equivocal in his praise for him than maybe he was miles that may be just being clever because he knew the questions were going to come his way and so he said shouldn't be a barometer what's going to happen what's going to happen is what happens in the marketplace and what happens regarding the offers that we get but as a player he's far more rounded than he was when he was scoring these 10 goals as a surprise player as a 17 year old this is a player that becomes very very usable really quickly you know and it's about his next step key for both him and miles is they play miles's minutes last year was not great he's minutes last year and particularly 2026 have not been great not been a lot of competitive adult football and so we have a decision to make you know where they are in the market but as a footballer i really like him i really like him he's growing becoming more of a runner which is also important you know improving physically and so yeah good good job maybe the player of the pre-season maybe the player of the pre-season and funny because you're seeing him start to do all the things you need him to do to work in that spot and maybe max is going through the same little moment of being a little too individualistic not always knowing when to release it he got beat for the goal.

40:10I mean, Julian and Max as a right-hand side, not necessarily what you want in a defensive situation, but Max doesn't get close enough to Julian and the, what's his name, Batarina is able to get between them and smash it into the goal because Kepa, you know, obviously doesn't exist. But like, like it was, you know, it's a learning moment for Max's trajectory and Ethan's maybe making that jump. And Mikel was asked and he said, he's been really good. Probably what happened on the field on his loan in Marseille wasn't what was expected. There was a lot of noise and change around the club, but he looks different.