My mood is being captured by injuries again. Thomas Tuchel, addicted to the sweet nectar of Arsenal player minutes, put Konsa on for 90, despite the player struggling through the camp. Now, he’s been sent home a week early to join back up with the Arsenal medical team.
Now, I understand Tuchel has no reason to give a shit about Arsenal’s title run, but isn’t that the problem here? How have we jumped out of a grueller of a World Cup, straight into another three-week competition where there is a competing mindset of how to manage player fitness? Arsenal can manage minutes… Tuchel does not need to because he’s trying to win his mini-league in the Nations League.
It’s not just Konsa, we’ve seen early exits from Kai, Fernandes, Dorgu, Alex Scott, and Alex Isak. That’s a lot of top-tier players who might not have needed to sit on the sidelines if their clubs had managed their minutes.
Now imagine the state of the players Arteta will welcome back. Viktor has played three games on the bounce, Saka has loaded up on minutes, and our Brazilians have done a 22,000-mile round trip in the name of a Brazilian FA tour. Quite staggering, you have to say.
This second phase of the season will be the one where you see the consequences of a short summer break for players. Hamstrings will pop, knees will go, and great players will pay the price of the international bodies ramping up the competitions they want the players for. I find it all rather frustrating. The bigger problem when thinking of reform is the players mostly love it. They step out of the intensity of work and have a lovely little tour with their mates, they get to see family, they get to brandish the shirt they love to everyone who truly knows them.
But surely, there’s got to be a sensible cap on this? No one really wins when you gas players. How do we get to something more optimal? There’s one more break that lands in a month, that’ll be 8 days, so shorter, but still annoying that by match day ten, we had to have 4 weeks of international football right after a World Cup.
I am NOT happy. If you’re reading this from an international governing body, thank you for reading, but please, tell your superiors of my fury. Unless your superior is Wenger, then just tell him I said hi, and congrats on the 30-year anniversary. x
When it’s all bad news in the opening paragraph, you deserve some unsourced transfer gossip.
Antonio Nusa is one of those players who always looks a star on international duty, I love watching him, he looks fast, unpredictable, and he has that bang BANG we LOVE. He has been linked with clubs for a while, but didn’t secure an exit out of Bundesliga this summer.
I went hunting around in his Gradient data, and it wasn’t as majestical as I had hoped. This me unlocking the future. I can’t claim him as my own.
He’s Brighton- or Brentford-coded for me. The boy has speed, there’s a bag of tricks, and there’s being number one for under-pressure shooting in a Bundesliga that has Olise in the same category. Overall, he’s ranked 14th for wingers, which is great at 21, but not really what we need to go to the next level, especially if that next level requires a now-like talent.
So, on that note, I will say that even though he is Norwegian, he’s not for me.
That said, when we consider players, surely, SURELY, we have to be saving some of our pennies for the eventual outcome that is near-certain to be happening at Man City. I struggle to imagine a punishment that’ll let their pre-planning for punishment thrive, and I am struggling to imagine a world where their players think it wise to line-up behind a brand that is making their lives and image worse. This from Tony Cascarino when Marseille were downed in 1994.
I only joined Marseille in 1994 because the club had been relegated for match-fixing. As well as being placed in Ligue 2, the club were not allowed to pay for signings, so they brought in free transfers like me. I remember walking into the club offices to sign my contract and Rudi Völler, the great German striker, was walking the other way. He told me he was leaving to join Bayer Leverkusen rather than play in the French second tier, but he also told me it was a great club and I’d love my time there.
There will be a firesale, there has to be, it doesn’t matter if there are relegation release clauses, players will just demand exits. Careers are too short to go down divisions, and deal with being called names when you buy a back of mini muffins from the Tesco Bakery.
Who is leaving? Will Arsenal be there for Semenyo? Can we find a home for Haaland, with his real captain? You have to hope so, you really do. There’s no point in spending £80m on Kroupi in January, if there’s a chance all these Prem-proven WINNERS might be available in the summer. Think of how glorious that market could be? I’d LOVE it. LOVE IT. It’s also great to know that City can’t even be selfish about it by insisting only foreign sales… no one in Europe has the money to pay for the goods. Madrid don’t like transfer fees, Barca are in deep trouble on finanical and scandal fronts, Italian clubs are broke, and I’m not sure many of them are going to want to go to PSG. Great club, no doubt, but I’d imagine a bunch of them like it in the Premier League.
This is a real ‘keep your powder dry’ moment in my opinion… let’s hope the players are doing the work. Elliot Anderson, Marc Guehi, Nico, and Gvardiol have all had international breaks to forget… come to the bosom of Arsenal, and be free.
Ok, my friends, we have a short stretch to Leeds. Real football is back. Pray to the footballing gods for safe returns, then it’s a month of INTENSE FOOTBALL, and a little cup excursion to Fleetwood. x
