MADRID MEDIA MACHINE REVS UP MARTIN EXIT TALKS
We’re at that stage of the summer where once again, the most exciting thing to happen is an awesome kit launch video.
The new away 3rd shirt is awesome. It seems to borrow from the lightning bolt kit we dropped in 95 with Bergkamp and Wrighty. It looks purpose built for the athleisure scene but I can’t wait to see it on the pitch too. Adidas are bringing the hits this year, let’s hope we have a team ready to bring trophies to make them worth keeping around.
The transfer market is painfully slow. I don’t think we can really blame at Edu’s sunkissed feet, because outside the tone-deafness of his serial vacationing, the market is dead. Even Michael Zorc, the notoriously elite seller of talent at Dortmund, is saying he has no offers on his desk.
“You have to be realistic about the fact that clubs have no money and have to be very careful about their budgets.”
Unless you are operating in a world where you are flogging super club talent, it’s going to be a struggle. If you can accept that the players we’re trying to sell are average, you have to also be able to accept the idea that skint clubs might not want to take a chance on them… especially as a lot of the flaws are character-driven. The luxury market and the distressed one is all that exists. Clubs don’t want to sell cheap, nor do they want to buy high… or even at a normal level.
How this ends is anyone’s guess.
Roma moving on Tammy Abraham for 40m euros seems wild. The Italian club posted a 200m euro loss last year, they’ve hired Jose Mourinho on 5m a year, spent 54m euros this summer, now they are going to blow more money on a Premier League player? Seems like a risky strategy in a league that is absolutely bleeding out at the minute.
If Arsenal wants the player, I suspect we’ll have him in a red and white shirt by the end of the week. Losing out to Roma because we have a 29 year old that’s fat off mega wages on the last year of his deal really will be depressing. Our forward line is the most dangerous issue we have this season. We have two broken pieces we can’t shift. I am very, very worried about how we move forward this year if we’re immobile and broken upfront.
Another area that is looking a little desperate is our defence. We have 4 right-backs at Arsenal and none of them are right for the system. We have far too many centre backs as well. If Arsenal were going to be cute, they’d move Rob Holding out, slip Cal Chambers in, sell Hector Bellerin, loan Soares, and have Ainsley + <insert new name>.
The top Gooner journos are saying it’s an impossible thought that Rob Holding is sold, but we were also told it was a sell to buy summer. Look at the Bob Holding reality. This is a guy that has been replaced. Ben White is not here to ‘compete’, he’s here to start. Holding doesn’t have the raw elements to his game that White does, namely, speed, dribbling, and passing range. How is he going to land minutes in a season without Europe against a RCB that is very, very robust?
Holding also had his eye on a Euros call-up. Next year, we have a World Cup. He’s a long shot, but it’s a dead idea if he’s sitting on the bench this season. He was close to Newcastle last year, we know he wants to play, I don’t think it’s beyond the pale to think he might jump if given the chance.
Also worth remembering that Cal Chambers was landing big minutes before his injury against Chelsea. He’s very good on the ball and has more of the attributes you might want to slip in for Ben White if there’s an injury. Seems very odd to me that we’d have 4 extremely different centre backs at the club. If there’s an injury, we go from squeezing up the pitch, to that stale, slow ball progression.
Rumours are ramping up in Madrid that Odegaard is going to leave… and Ceballos is going to stay. I have no idea where this #10 move is going to go, but I think it’s clear, the Norwegian is still a priority and Edu is playing chicken with the window. I really, really, hope we’re not stuffed on this move. It is just wildly unacceptable that we’d go into the new season without all the right players in place. Hopefully, Odegaard would mean we could move on other targets, versus potentially blowing all our cash on one signing.
We’ll see though, plenty of work still to be done, painfully close to the opening game of the season.
Before I go, check out the latest pod with accompanying video. It was a spicy show today.
See you in the comments. x