She Wore

It has been a Boris Johnson sized u-turn as Granit Xhaka has gone from out the door to signing a new contract in a matter of weeks. With the Swiss midfielder now staying, it is highly unlikely that Arsenal will invest further into central midfield having already purchased Albert Sambi ... read more

The reality is, teams across Europe have no money. Premier League sides have spent a combined £511million so far this summer. Next up is the Bundesliga and Serie A, who have both spent £81million. Ligue 1 clubs have spent £213m and La Liga clubs just £111m combined. Real Madrid and ... read more

In recent years we have moaned about under selling players. Had we sold Granit Xhaka to Roma for just £10million this would have been an awful deal. Whilst Xhaka’s time at Arsenal should be coming to an end; a sale should only be made if it benefits the club. £10million ... read more

I remember the first time I met Danny. It was on the train back from Sunderland away. I don’t remember the year. There were 3 of us on a table, another 2 in the seats behind. And then Danny just plonked down his plastic bag of beer on the table ... read more

Sweet Caroline became the tune of the summer during the Euro’s and I hated it. For me, the song will always be associated with Match Room Boxing. It has been used by Eddie Hearn for as long as I can remember. It is the “last song” before ring walks of ... read more

James Maddison is Arsenal’s number one target this summer. That is something that I am fairly certain of. If either Houssem Aouar or Martin Odergaard was the first choice, a deal would have been done by now. Both Lyon and Real Madrid are happy to cash in terms with the ... read more

Willock Loan Rumours coming out from the North East is that Joe Willock is close returning to Newcastle on loan. With 2 years left on his contract, the deal only makes sense if there is an obligation to buy or Arsenal have an option to extend his contract by a ... read more

£50million for Ben White. Some people are really obsessing about that price. And the biggest noise is actually coming from Manchester where Man U continually bring up Arsenal’s impending new signing to compare to their impending new signing Raphaël Varane. Varane for a reported £35million + add ons  (totalling around ... read more

Ben White is expected to complete his transfer to Arsenal this week ahead of the Mind Series game against Chelsea. The centre back will not be expected to take any part in that tournament having been given an extended break following England’s exploits at the Euro’s. With a later than ... read more

This will be geekish but did anyone else spot the Easter eggs in the Emile Smith Rowe contract announcement? New season.New contract.New number. ✍️ @emilesmithrowe pic.twitter.com/DT13LjBD1B — Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 22, 2021 Firstly we have the new number announcement. Number 10. This announcement was made on the anniversary of Arsenal’s ... read more

Tammy Abraham Will write a bigger blog on Tammy Abraham at some point but a quick few thoughts: Abraham is a good striker and would be an alternative option as 2nd choice He reminds me of Danny Welbeck in that he can play both as a hold up man and ... read more

A few weeks ago we discussed how Arsenal were showing transfer policy shift with Taveres and Lokonga pursuit. The impending signing of Ben White – just 23 – is a continuation of this policy. With Gabriel also just 23 and Kieran Tierney 24, Edu is clearly building a defence for ... read more

It was a genius marketing technique. Whilst thousands had notifications on for Arsenal’s Twitter awaiting the announcement of Albert Sambi Lokonga, Arsenal dropped news of a new commercial partner. The link up was with a company called Socios whose company moto is “Be more than a fan”. They have spent ... read more

Over the next couple of days Arsenal expect to confirm the signings of both Ben White and Albert Sambi Lokonga (by the time this is published the club would probably have announced at least one of them). Those two signings will join Nuno Tavares and take our summer spending to ... read more

Reports are that Manuel Locatelli wants Juventus, but the Old Lady are unwilling to meet Sassuolo’s €40m asking price. Locatelli wants the move to Juventus. Meanwhile Arsenal are reportedly happy to meet the asking price; but Locatelli does not want a move to the Premier League. If a player does ... read more

There is are valid questions to be asked over Arsenal’s signing of Ben White. The first is why are we investing so heavily in a central defender when we had one of the best defences in the league last year. We could have gone into this season with Rob Holding ... read more

I was tempted to title this blog “Arsenal in for cut-price England Euro star” or “Arsenal chase ex-Manchester United keeper”. Both of those headlines would have got me loads of clicks and earned me about 50p. But for years I have criticised those blogs that are there are as the ... read more

Former Arsenal academy prospect Donyell Malen looks set to join Borussia Dortmund. This will trigger the idiots on Twitter who say “Arsenal let go a superstar again” without actually having seem him play either for Arsenal or in Holland. We have seen it before with the revisionism of Serge Gnabry’s ... read more

During the post game interview, Mikel Arteta was very aggressive in his defence of Emile Smith Rowe. Asked if he is determined to keep Smith Rowe despite Aston Villa’s interest, Arteta said: “Without a question, yes. He will stay here, 100 per cent”. When asked about Joe Willock’s future, his ... read more

Imagine if Twitter was around in 2003… In Arsenal’s first pre-season friendly of the season they lost 1-0 to Peterborough, who were playing in the 3rd tier of English football at the time. Next up was a boring 0-0 draw against Barnet. Arsenal gave a trial to Kolo Toure’s younger ... read more

Every season we lose a pre-season friendly I find myself writing the same thing. THE RESULTS DO NOT MATTER. Pre-season is all about slowly increasing your fitness back to a proper match level. The thing with pre-season is you are often at a different stage of your preparation in comparison ... read more

And that’s that then. It did not come home. I have always had a love / hate relationship with England. On one had I am a proud English. I celebrate St George’s Day. I have an England flag tattooed on my leg. If there is an Englishman playing in the ... read more

Yesterday it was announced that Arsenal would be the focus of the next episode of Amazon’s “All or Nothing” series. Arsenal announced the partnership by stating “You asked. We heard you.”  Let’s be honest. Hardly anyone asked. In fact the majority of response to the announcement is negative. So Arsenal ... read more

Which academy has developed the most members England’s Euro 2020 squad? It is a question I can see being added to pub quizzes up and down the country if England go on to win the championships. And the answer might surprise you. Sheffield United. Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Dominic Calvert-Lewin ... read more

Emile Smith Rowe and Joe Willock had fantastic ends to last season. Joe Willock on loan at Newcastle was key to their survival scoring 8 goals in 14 games; whilst Smith Rowe became a key player in Arsenal’s revival in the 2nd half of the season. But we might be ... read more

In recent years, Arsenal have been criticised for letting some talented youngsters go. The real Serge Gnabry story has been written numerous times; those that ignore what actually happened do so because the truth does not suit their agenda. Likewise the criticism of the club for releasing Donyell Malen, Jeff ... read more

Whilst the rules dictate that a club must not contact a player or their representatives without the permission of his current club, this is unworkable in the real world. If a team is looking at signing a player, they need to know said player is interested. Otherwise they could be ... read more

Tapping up happens in football. Whilst the rules dictate that a club must not contact a player or their representatives without the permission of his current club, this is unworkable in the real world. If a team is looking at signing a player, they need to know said player is ... read more

Arsenal’s transfer headache is actually very similar to 12 months ago. Before we sign players, we need to sell. This has nothing to do with money or cash flow. We have the finances to sign who we want. Despite Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi and Mesut Ozil leaving last January, Martin Odergaard ... read more

The value of a player is that which other clubs are willing to pay for him. So when it looks likes a deal is done for Matteo Guendouzi to Marseille for £10million, that is his value. It doesn’t matter if some fan boy moans we are underselling. £10million is his ... read more