Did Arsenal really hijack Eze deal & Jamie Murray blasts US Open 'exhibition'

0:02Gabby:This is a Global Player original podcast. Well, the drama of this summer's transfer window has been relentless. On Wednesday this week, it looked like Spurs had agreed personal terms with both Crystal Palace and Eberrecha Eze. But then by Wednesday night, Arsenal had agreed the deal in principle. But did Arsenal really hijack Eze? Were they forced into action by an injury to striker Kai Havertz? or have spurs allowed themselves to be strung along by their North London rivals and later. Obviously, it is like a bit of an exhibition format. It's nice to play with someone, obviously, to get to know someone else.

0:38You shouldn't be saying that, but that's OK. What? It's OK.

0:41Gabby:What? What did I say? A Freudian slip, perhaps, from Jack Draper on the reimagined mixed doubles competition at this year's US Open. Luckily, his playing partner, Jessica Fagula, was on hand to correct him, and she definitely did that. But the controversial changes which gave us 50 minutes of Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz paired together for a shot at the one million dollar prize money has certainly, I'd say, polarised opinion around the world. Yeah. Lots of people wanted to watch those kind of combinations. But for double specialists like our guest today, multiple Grand Slam champion Jamie Murray, the glorified exhibition is no longer worthy of Grand Slam status.

1:22Welcome to the Sports Agents.

1:32Gabby:The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman There's it to Mateta, back to Ibera, there's it! Oh, what a goal! Glorious football from Crystal Palace. They lead by five goals to nil. It's breathtaking, absolutely breathtaking.

1:56Clive Palmer, host of the Arsenal Vision podcast, has unsurprisingly made time to come on today to talk about what could be one of the all-time swoops, a transfer that looked like it was definitely going in one direction and suddenly took a big U-turn. Arsenal have agreed a£67.5 million deal for Eberici Eze. From an Arsenal fan's point of view, hugely excited to get this play. but how exciting to kind of steal him from under the noses of Spurs fans. It's very hard for me to talk about that without smiling too much, but I think we all love this player. I mean, there's not many things in the modern online world that unite you.

2:39And if this is one signing that's completely united a fan base, which may have been known for division in the past, so it has been such a happy place to be. Because generally everyone likes him. and a player that reminds you why we all like sport. You can do things that are quite creative, imaginative and make sure you want to go and sit in that seat again. And that's what it is really. And it's a very happy day, not just because of the Schadenfreude with Spurs fans, because I'm a mature person, Gaby. But it's more for the football.

3:13Gabby:Look at the giggle in there at one point. It does add to the happiness slightly. But seriously, football-wise, is we all wanted one more sign, despite having a really good window. We wanted this one more signing, and we'd all chosen this one. It's sort of whatever the positive of a perfect storm is, this is it. One, the player's ability, and he is a joy to watch. I think if you're a neutral, he is a joy to watch as well. The fact that he was at the Arsenal Academy as a kid, the fact that, yes, you've beaten Spurs to him when they thought they had him, And then there is, Amy Lawrence has written a great article on The Athletic as well.

3:53Gabby:You know, he's a late developer. And the last late developer that you signed from Palace was Ian Wright. So there are so many things that play into this, Clive. Yes, thanks for reminding me about Ian Wright. 185 goals later, we had a great time with him, right? So anything close to that would be really, really nice. So I do think it shows a level of different behaviour, shall we say, from the club. So from a buying perspective, when we last spoke, we just spoke about Edu leaving, remember? And basically, we've now got Andrea Berta on board since March. And in January, when we had issues, we froze a little bit in the market.

4:34We didn't behave appropriately. That caused a little bit of division, shall we say, as we moved towards the Champions League semi-final and faded away in the league. But this time, we have an issue with an injury and we've reacted immediately. How bad is this injury to Kai Havertz? Because there's some kind of slightly cynical kind of notes around saying, well, perhaps this isn't as bad as all that. Is it just being used as an excuse? What do you know? What do I know? I think maximum it looks like it's weeks, maybe three months maximum. You know, that's what I'm hearing at this point, at time of recording, as you pros say.

5:09But I will say that it shows, if there is an injury there, it does show how serious Arsenal are, that they really are all in, and they're not hesitating. Well, there's another angle. You could say that we were sitting there watching Spurs do the negotiation. We walk in and say, okay, we've got the player's availability. He wants us. We'll match those terms. So it's whichever path you want to go down. But in the end, I'm just really pleased we've been decisive. And it's not just to get one over Spurs. We really want this player. And you look at us, we've got great defense. We feel he's quite solid.

5:40We can be seen as quite functional to the outside world with our set pieces and etc etc but we know we need a little bit of start at the top end of the pitch and it can't just be an over-reliance on Bakayi, Zakir and Martin Odegaard because we've seen what happens when that happens.

5:55Gabby:So where does he fit in for you within the Arsenal system and given that a lot of people see how drilled Arsenal are and the style of football that maybe they've played in this reliance on set pieces recently. Do you think he will be allowed his freedom? I think so. I think from a starting position off the left and inside left, like Trossard plays for us really, he's not quite a touchline winger. And so I see him playing that role. But I think what we do want is that freedom to travel and move. As most of the games now you're watching were sort of low block games, we call them, you know, attack versus defence because we squeezed teams back in the first week of the Premier League there's been a lot of transition games I think teams are trying to move quicker into attack rather than slow attacks Eze can do both he can do the transition game but he can also do when you've got packed defences he's really happy in crowd scenes to move the ball manipulate the ball and I think he's a really good signing for the modern game I think he's excellent really good he's also not bad on a dead ball situation is he and you know you're going to have a few if you know if he's on the pitch at the same time as Declan Rice, Odegaard.

7:07I mean, there's quite a bit of competition there, isn't there? And that word competition is something that we've not really had, really. We've had a really good 14, maybe. We suffer injuries and Arsenal fans are not slow to the excuses. You know, I know, I'm one of them. And we've had injuries, we have red cards, etc. But this time we really do have competition. We do have depth. He just fit us so much. And there's a story there, isn't there? there's a story behind it and we all like that story and it helps us a bit of romance all right it really does you know when i was thinking about early in the summer i think where's he going to play tactically where's he going to where's he going to stand and i thought you know what i don't care anymore because because if he gets into our team it's about how he influences our play and influences the people in the stands and watching around the world and i i think sometimes you have to look beyond the profile the perfect profile for how we used to play and bring somebody in with the gravitas to say we're going to play this way.

8:05Gabby:So do you think, Clive, whilst the Havertz injury has been cited as a reason, do you think more the reason is that you nicked a lucky set-piece goal at Old Trafford, clung on, defended deep and were under the pump and that's changed the philosophy? That's a loaded question there, Mark. I think we just go to show you actually to win at Old Trafford at any time is a great day normally, but people weren't overly happy with it. Not just the performance, but how we felt afterwards. United got more praise than Arsenal, bizarrely Clive, didn't they? Yeah. Really. I watched United pre-season, they have changed their intensity and they're working for the manager a lot more and they seem to have a plan.

8:48And you can see this is a big day for United. And we stole the win, right? But we showed a side of ourselves, the resilient side, which is there. But we all now need to show the other side, you know, so people look at us and they trust us. I don't think we're trusted in the title race they know we're quite good but do we trust Arsenal to deliver? do we trust them when it gets hot?

9:08Gabby:if you go back to the start of the summer the Zubomendi transfer was a year in the making I'm bled to believe the discussions were really last summer and he looked at one stage like he was going to Liverpool and then he pulled out of that and again whilst people are saying Arsenal just swooped in last minute and got Ezzet there have been discussions over the course of the summer here, haven't they? And I'm not saying other clubs don't plan, and I'm sure they definitely do. But Arsenal seem to... Arsenal's transfer operation appears very smooth at the moment and well thought out. It does. And it comes down to the fact that Andrea Berta's arrived and he's brought in a lot of experience and institutional knowledge from other places.

9:53We're the sort of club that likes to promote from within, but in this one, I'm so glad he went outside. and he's operating a different way. Now, what he does from a buying perspective, we've learned. He gets lots of targets on the table, and he chooses the ones that he really wants. What we need to define from him now is our selling strategy because we're sitting there with a lot of money spent and not a lot of money going out the door. That selling strategy and that selling identity that we don't have a strong one. You know, Liverpool are very good at this. Chelsea are a different case, but they're very good at this.

10:24We don't. So now we're going to see what Berta does with sales, his contacts, his network, and how he rebalances the balance sheet. And I think that's the next step for him. Three consecutive second-place finishes in the Premier League. A semi-final last season in the Champions League.

10:38Gabby:Just trying to take the smile off your face, Clive. Yeah. You have to win something this season, don't you? Yeah. I feel we have to win something. Because everyone's telling us we have to win something. But I tell him he wants to win something more than anybody. And that's the players and the manager in the club. Every interview you do with them is about making sure we want to win something. We want to win trophies together. Otherwise, we'll be forgotten. If there's a problem in the camp, if there's a measure, are people re-signing contracts? And all of our key people are re-signing contracts, which means they still believe in what the manager is saying.

11:13But I recognise we have to win something this season, especially after this signing.

11:17Gabby:Is that your dog, Clive? It was, yes. The postman came. Is the dog named after an Arsenal legend? No. It's not. It's called Steve Perryman. No, I'm joking. What is the dog called? His name's Lenny. And we named him after Lenny Kravitz. I don't know why. Just liked him. I love it. Well, you know what? It ain't over till it's over. Oh, my God. You're too slick. You're too smooth. That's not what Mark calls me.

11:52Gabby:And now we have to wait and see, don't we, what Tottenham will do next. Because at the moment, it doesn't look good, does it, for Daniel Levy? You know, and there are reports in the Independent that this deal with Arsenal has actually been on the table and been negotiated for over a week. So it's not just a swoop in at the last moment. But for Spurs, that's very disappointing. I mean, you know, most of the commentators who referenced this last weekend, they were talking about Spurs, weren't they? My thing, yeah, they were. And my thing in all of this is a little bit, again, why wait until this stage?

12:23Gabby:You know, the season is now up and running. Now, I know Ezzer had a release clause that expired at a certain date. So maybe clubs were waiting for the release clause to expire to then see if they could go slightly under what the release clause was to get him out. And sometimes transfer policy as well can be shaped by injuries. And James Madison injured himself in pre-season, but that's still a couple of weeks ago. And he's out, expected to be out for the season. So injuries do change policy as well. I get that. but every window, every season, why leave it so late? Why leave it so late? Because then you are scrambling around and maybe Tottenham have got lots of other plans.

13:00Gabby:I don't know. But what you don't want is your fan base thinking that you are scrambling to get a second choice player in if you miss out on your time. One of my best mates who's a very cynical Spurs fan who is very rarely happy with Spurs said she was as happy as she's ever been the way they played last weekend. She said, I came away feeling, wow, you know, Richarlison played really well. And it was, you know, the atmosphere and the ground was great. And you just feel for them, don't you, that this just feels like something that's going to be quite hard to come back from unless somebody comes in.

13:30Gabby:Well, and those two goals for Richarlison, including a contender for goal of the month, maybe even goal of the season. Now, there were reports that he might have been part of the deal. He would go to Palace as part of the deal with Ezzard going to Tottenham. So if that is the case and he was part of the deal. Does that unsettle him? Then they've got a reintegration to do there, haven't they? I mean, it's just a bit of a mess for them to solve. But listen, we're biased, aren't we? Because we've worked with him. But if one person smooths over those kind of things and takes the panic out of any situation, it's Thomas Frank.

14:04Okay, a reminder, you can now watch every episode of The Sports Agents on YouTube. You can catch up on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts. Please remember to hit subscribe or follow when you do that.

14:13Gabby:So we rarely talk about mixed doubles in sport. In fact, I don't think we've ever done that. What can you say on this podcast? I don't think we've ever done it on this podcast. I'm not sure I've done it that often in sports in general. But this year's US Open, it has been the story. It's raised some big questions about the future of the format. And Jamie Murray joins us after the break. The Sports Agents.

14:36Gabby:The Sports Agents. With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. So we're going to talk mixed doubles now on the pod. And this is with the US Open in mind. because they've just changed. I was going to say they've changed a few things, but quite frankly, Gabby, they've changed everything. They have, because it's no longer a case of being ranked as one of the best mixed doubles pairs in the world. You had to be invited. And the prize money changed dramatically. The winners were receiving a million dollars, which was 800 ,000 more than 2024. And in fact, only two of those invited were actually kind of seasoned professional mixed doubles pairs who'd played together a lot in the past.

15:18And of course, in this country, all eyes were on Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz. In fact, it feels like this kind of pairing has been talked about for the last few months since he agreed and they agreed to play together since Wimbledon. And you can see why that's captured the imagination. And you can understand in a way as well why a tournament like the US Open would want to get more bums on seats for longer and make more money out of the tournament.

15:40Gabby:Well, Jamie Murray joins us to talk about this. He actually has the most mixed doubles, Grand Slam titles out of any active player on tour. and he had three consecutive mixed doubles triumphs at the US Open from 2017 to 2019. First though, Jamie, you've had a bit of a tough summer, haven't you? Yeah, it's not been much fun, but yeah, I had a bout of pneumonia, which kind of put me out of the game for a few weeks. But I'm going to New York tomorrow, which I have about five or six days to kind of prepare there and see how things are. But I feel a lot better than I did kind of a week ago or so. Okay, well, we're here to talk a little bit about, I'd say it's a bit of controversy that has surrounded the US Open mixed doubles format this year.

16:24Which camp are you in? Are you in this is a great revolution for the sport and every major should be doing this? Or is this unfair on those seasoned doubles players? Well, I think a few things. First and foremost, the Grand Slams are the pinnacle of our sport. and everyone is there based on entry and ranking and hard work through the year to earn their spot on the draw. And obviously this became like an invitational tournament basically. And it was more of an exhibition in my eyes. I think maybe a lot of people's eyes, but I think just more the fact that it was so closed off and it was invite only was frustrating for a lot of players.

17:12and then also the fact that, you know, obviously they pumped a lot of money into it, which, you know, is great for those guys that get the opportunity to play, but they're also the ones that are making a fortune, you know, the rest of the year in the singles and stuff. And the prize money gap in Grand Slams between singles and doubles is like, it's more than 90, 90, 10. So, you know, it's already sort of skewed, you know, massive in terms. Yeah. So I think what people sometimes don't realize is like, you know if you're watching the golf for example and the guy's got a putt from four feet for you know a million dollars and then you turn the channel and the guy's got a putt from four feet for twenty thousand dollars what are you going to watch like what's more interesting and it's the same for the players playing right like you know the reason that the guys and the girls well the girls play a lot of the top girls still play the doubles because they can but a reason that the a lot of the guys don't play the doubles is obviously the physical demands of the singles is so much but But, you know, why would you risk yourself for$30 ,000,$50 ,000 when the next day you're playing for, you know, a million dollars or a million and a half or whatever?

18:21Like, I would be the same if I was in their situation. So it was frustrating. I mean, I think the event, I imagine, was probably a success. I don't know what the TV numbers were, obviously. You know, they had a lot of fans in the stadium watching. So, you know, that was cool. But, you know, that's expected. They contrived or they created a situation where they managed to get all the best, well, not all the best players, but a lot of the superstars of the sport on the court together, men and women. And that's obviously going to be appealing to people to come and check out.

18:54Gabby:I suppose, Jamie, what is, I have no idea on viewing figures or even ticket numbers for this, but actually, I can't think of a mixed doubles at the US Open that's been talked about as much in the last 20 years, which probably shows that maybe it's done what they wanted it to do. but at the same time maybe that throws us i don't know you tell me it throws a spotlight on doubles and where that is at within the sport and maybe what needs to be done there is there a positive there do you think i mean people definitely talking about it that's for sure i don't know if that you know that was a positive or not honestly i i really don't know um you know i think it just shows that you know the way they created the event you know they put it in the qualifying week like so effectively the grand slams are now three week tournament the week before the singles starts like and they changed and we should say as well james people that don't know they changed the format and the way you know the scoring and so these matches were quite quick weren't they yeah it was it was a fast forward format so you know be essentially like going to the world cup and watching like 15 minute halves basically it's kind of be like be like that so you know some of the sets were like 15-16 minutes long um which you know i mean whatever i think the scoring format was was ridiculous especially in terms of a grand slam but again to get the top player participation they needed to make it short and sweet because they don't the players wouldn't be interested in playing for three four nights or playing for hours on end before the singles has even started so they needed to put it far away from the singles beginning the singles term beginning they needed to make it as short as possible and they needed to ramp up the money massively in order to get all these stars of the game playing which they did and they turned out and you know by all accounts for people in the stadium i'm sure they enjoyed seeing you know some of the all the great players on the court together at one time like why would you not enjoy that um but it's just so contrived the word exhibition you've mentioned exactly yeah jack draper mentioned it you know it did feel a bit like you know those old kind of nights at the albert hall you know when they it just felt a bit like that i don't think the players really cared that much you know like for them it's like okay like go out be part of a fun event but you know whatever win or lose i mean they're all getting you know they're all getting good prize money just to turn up right um whether you want to call that appearance fees or not that's that's different but and you know i was happy for the the doubles team that won like they were the only doubles team that was invited to play that jamie that jamie is a massive for irani and vavasori of italy that's a massive two fingers to the organizers is that in some ways i mean they said they would they felt like they were playing for all the double specialists who were forced to miss out and described it as a profound injustice so that is a big bang to the to the organizers you know they had a lot of support from the doubles community that's for sure um you know i don't know if that was like a bummer for the tournament organizers or not like i don't know if they really i i like i'm not i don't mean to say this in a bad way i don't necessarily know if they cared like who won the tournament for them the success was the fact that they got all these guys and girls on the court the best players in the world they got a lot of people coming to watch in the in the stadium that wouldn't normally be there during um during that first week and you know again i don't know the tv numbers but hopefully that was successful for them and you know they would again the tournament would have made themselves some some decent money off the off the back of that i'm sure are you worried that this will become the norm that wimbledon could do this i would worry more that Australia could do it yeah I mean I don't I mean Australia for the last few years they've already been you know if you go there during the qualifying week like they're putting all sorts of events on in the evenings you know you've got you know charity events Novak Djokovic and friends you know this is because they're trying to extend it further and further because again it makes more money for the tournament right I could see them doing it Wimbledon maybe less so I think they're just they're way more traditional and in that sense um yeah i'd be surprised if wimbledon did it personally but you never know i mean the thing is tennis missed a trick i think over the last you know five ten years maybe longer of getting the men and women on the court together because it's it's a sport that you know it's it's kind of unique and that men and women can compete together on the same court under the same circumstances same set of the same situation Like, you know, they never really kind of made an effort to sort of showcase that as a positive to our sport.

23:51And, you know, in a way, this was a way of doing that. I don't know if that was necessarily their intention, but I think it's a positive in that sense.

24:03Gabby:when you um just out of interest when you are at grand slams as a as a double specialist how are you how does it feel you are treated within within the sport where where does doubles in the main see you're laughing a little bit when you are at the ground whether that's men's doubles or mixed doubles where do you feel like you sit within the sport i don't know in terms of like let's say just treatment of the events i would say it's you know there's a there's a hierarchy right like there's you know the top you know the very top singles players who will get you know priority on practice extra credentials for guests family all that stuff you know we would be we would obviously be below that I don't like turn up at the tournaments and feel like I sort of you know get treated rubbish or anything like that but you know there's definitely a hierarchy in place and like I'm I'm okay with that I mean at times like there'll be situations come up in a year where it's sort of it's it's annoying you know access to like extra tickets sometimes like you know that can be frustrating but um it's kind of life you know it's kind of how things go and you know obviously the tournaments want to look after their their marquee players as best they can they want to keep them coming back to the the the tournaments year after year and that's kind of the way it is.

25:28Gabby:Just a final thing before we let you go and speaking of things that is sometimes entertaining? No, I was going to say difficult to make sense of, really. Where are you at as a Manchester United fan at the moment, Jamie? Good question. I mean, I was upbeat after watching the last match. I know they didn't score, I know they lost and stuff, but I thought it was better than anything that I saw last year or potentially you know the seasons before that with with ten hag i know ruben is kind of like you know he's obviously talks a good game but at some point like you're gonna have to win some matches right like it's manchester united you're managing so let's see but i think the two guys that they've they've signed is is good news and you know they still need a goalkeeper they still need midfielders like but yeah i think this season's got to be it's got to be better than last season yeah but but i i said she may be a little bit like me which is for as much as there were positives on sunday and that puts a smile on your face, they're still in the back of your mind thinking you could easily go to Fulham and lose 3-0 on Sunday.

26:32Yeah, that's a tough match. And I was actually fortunate to go to the last couple of times they played at Fulham. And they were by far the second best team in that game, both times. Yeah. And they scored in the last minute, like Garnaccio scored. But the thing is, there's so many good teams now in the league and everyone's well coached and they know what they're doing. and, you know, we just kind of didn't really know what we were doing for a few years. But, you know, here's hoping. The thing that kind of bugs me that I'll say about it is like, you know, managers these days, it's like, it just seems to me that it's so, they come in, they've got their squad, no one seems to do any like training or like improving of players.

27:16Like, it's just like, oh, I need to go buy this guy. I need to go buy that guy. We had this conversation on Tuesday, didn't we? Exactly. coach you know coach coach like that's what you're there to do like make these guys play in a different formation or teach them to play a slightly different position or whatever like i i just don't understand that like that that frustrates me a lot that does yeah i think it's a premier league peccadillo or problem as opposed to you know lower down you have to don't you don't have the money to go and do that this is a this is a i would say it's a problem it's an it's a kind of anathema that coaches aren't seemingly coaching anymore i mean maybe i understand in the sense of like it's so short-term football right like and those guys know if you know the owners are desperate to keep them in the premier league and if it doesn't look like they're gonna stay up or there's a chance of you know relegation battle like they'll kick the coach and and bring in someone new to try change things like so i understand if it's like well i don't have six months to you know teach this guy to play in a number six and look like rodri at man city or whatever you know it's just like let's just buy somebody in who's ready made for what i need like i get that but i just it bugs me it does it does bug me that because i'm just like well can't you coach these guys like to play a three four three formation at man united like they're footballers like what's the what's the big difference between four two three one and three you know it's just It's like, come on, guys.