Miki is having a better season than Ramsey in Roma. I think arteta could have used him. We have zero creation from midfield. Ramsey is the only one that helps with that issue and he’s been injured a lot this season as well, sooo... Brexit won’t affect HG will it? But if the FA expands that will be tough. I think they will have a hard time pushing that through. We shouldn’t be anticipating things like that though imo. That’s what got us fcuked to begin with AW thinking FFP was going to be “real”.
There is no easy way to slice and dice it but losing all 3 at once seems to have been an issue. Our midfield was better last year.
The thing that is potentially changing big time is all the Euros will need work permits So who knows what the criteria will be. My guess is that everyone already working here in the EPL will have not much trouble with the home office.
If they change the quota, the work permits for current players probably won’t be an issue, but teams will still have to start selling foreign players. The FA could kill the cash cow. Will they, probably not, but it looks like some in the FA see Brexit as an opportunity to push an agenda they have had for a while.
Well the thing is, neither the FA or the EPL will be in charge of work permit regulations. Unless there is a fast track created for euros, they will have to apply under the same rules as ROW Unless they are already here and working in which case, with high quality representation they will have a good chance of obtaining a work visa, assuming Home Office does not want to cause a high profile shit fight. But in other industries home office have been complete arseholes to people who have lived in the UK 10-20 years
ESPNFC reporting the Mari deal has fallen through and the player is back in Brazil. Allegedly Flamengo balked at the final terms. You'd think that would have been resolved before paying for the flight and medical.
From what I read, we were trying to do a loan with an option to buy. We brought him in for a medical because we thought the terms were agreed. Last minute Flamengo decided they wanted us to buy now instead of the summer. So for now the deal is off because we aren't going to do any permanent deals with window without selling someone from the current roster.
Again, penny wise and pound foolish. If the player is considered good enough for a position of need don't scupper the deal over semantics that shouldn't bother a team of supposedly contending status.
Maybe I'm just nit picking words here, but didn't we beg clubs to take on Miki's wages over the summer? I wouldn't call that losing him. We wanted him off the books.
Yes There were valid reasons to move on each of the 3. My argument is simply that the loss of all 3 at once from the squad cost us too much experience / quality in hindsight. I supported getting rid of all of them. But I think in hindsight the players left behind didn't have the quality and our midfield options are overall weaker. Of course Miki was on huge money and Ramsey had pulled an Ozil and we needed the Iwobi money so our hands were a bit tied via years of mismanagement.
The only mistake with Ramsey was not getting any transfer fee for him. He's played 15 games total because of injuries. Sound familiar?
Just to be 100% clear, I agreed with selling all of them, in each individual case. What I am saying, is selling 3 midfielders with a combined 129 first team appearances in 18/19 was maybe a shock to the squad and significantly weakened us. Of course, thanks to mismanagement, in each case we had not much choice. Ramsy 40 Iwobi 51 Mkhi 38
That's why it was the right call not to enter into a stupid contract with an aging player. The mistake was always locked in by Wumger who should have sold him 2 years previously when he refused to reup
ESPNFC reporting that news outlets in Ukraine have Arsenal agreeing to terms with Shaktar over the acquisition of CB Mykola Matviyenko.
I’ve seen it suggested that Wenger was opposed to the contract. It smelled to me more like a management decision. They had just lost Sanchez and were afraid to further alienate the fan base. With the exception of not selling Sanchez to City, Wenger never showed much hesitation about parting with aging players. Some one or two years to early, but when players hit 29 or 30 with few exceptions, you knew they were about to move on.
Ramsey (when healthy) scored goals from the midfield. I think that is something this squad has really been missing. Ozil, Guendouzi and Xhaka have 0 goals this year, Torreira has two - one in the PL and one in the League Cup. Anyone know if the Ukrainian CB can fill in at fullback? Mari seemed like a pure CB, not that there is anything wrong with that, but having some versatility would be nice the next time every fullback is hurt.
It's kind of lost in the sands of time but Santi was quite a big deal in those days and IIRC had been snapped up by sugar daddy Malaga? But then sugar daddy ran out of money and so we nipped in and grabbed him? Normally Santi was way out of our league but we got him on the rebound
Haven't seen him play. Apparently he made an impression when Arteta was still at ManCity in both legs of Champs League group play last fall.