Hello out there. Great week gone by for you I hope? Shall I bore you with the trivial tweets about buffet service and what not I lived through over the last three days while I battled cough, catarrh, a headache without end along with… I’ll just move right on then.
The headline’s pretty catchy isn’t it? I’ll summarize it and you can make of it what you want. According to various reports, Sagna and the club are still locked in negotiations over a new deal. The club isn’t offering more than one year on the same 60,000 he’s on while the frenchman wants more I presume.
The club is looking at his age and his injury record over the last year and feel they can get a replacement should he not sign. Personally, I want Sagna to stay, maybe not first team but as a squad member, we can’t keep selling all our experienced players, look at Chelsea and United, their core players are well over 30. I hope they come to a resolution. He’s been fantastic for the club.
The next name doing the rounds is Stefan Jovetic. The interest in David Villa has cooled and the club won’t be chasing that option again. Instead, they see the 23 year old forward who plays for Fiorentina as the man to replace RVP. I’m a fan of his and if we can make it happen, why not.
Still little to write about, the crushing lull before the diluge indeed. However, the club has been involved in the transfer market, but not exactly the kind we’re used to. Loan deals, out of the club, but not involving Sebastien Squillaci, unfortunately.
On the bright side, promising striker Benik Afobe has joined Millwall till the end of the season, coming shortly after his loan spell at Bolton Wanderers was cut short last month.
Along with Thomas Eisfeld and Serge Gnabry, Afobe’s probably the other youngster yet to break into the first team that I admire greatly. Hopefully, he scores a lot while at Millwall.
In some more interesting news, the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Scudamore has warned that clubs will face a points-deduction penalty if they fail to adhere to, basically, UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
Those rules, as would be applied by the Premier League after reportedly being instigated by three of the old Big Four, would require a club to put a cap on its wage bills (Hallo les Bleus Londres et Manchester) as well as cut down on losses with -£105m over three years/seasons the acceptable figure for now.
Now, 13 of the 20 Premier League clubs have voted in favour of this, including Arsenal (obviously. We own this right here league), with six voting against it (including Man. ¢ity obviously but surprisingly not including the chavs, oh well… ) and Reading abstaining from the votes.
What this all means for the Arsenal is, when the FFP regulations come in effect next season (if all plans are in place) or from 2014-15 (inexorably), there will be a lot less clubs to compete with during transfer windows.
On the flip side however, a club being approached for its player(s) could as well still slap some hefty price tag when clubs in the FFP green zone begin to show their interest… and we all know Wenger never does a 20.
‘Good times’ are coming for the club, I’m just ticked off we have to wait that long for restrictions to be placed and the environment made favourable for us when it wouldn’t have hurt us at all if we showed (the financial school ground bullies) we weren’t pushovers once a season.
That said, why would City have a problem with the FFP? Haven’t they got a £400m deal with the lesser Emirates going? Admittedly it’s nothing close to the €200m a season the Emirates will be giving PSG. And that, right there, is why I can’t ever love Gazidis.
It’s a wrap from us today. We’re still sweating on the availability of Aaron Ransey, Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen ahead of our trip to the Stadium of Light this weekend.
We’ll bring you updates on that and a preview of the match tomorrow. For now, remember to follow @goonermemoirs on twitter.
Thank God it’s Friday! And a very happy birthday to Carl Jenkinson.
Thanks for the article. Clear and interesting.
The ‘flip side’ scenario you mention could also play the other way. A club in the FFP red zone may need to offload players on the wage bill. A low transfer price would encourage a move and only a few big but FFP balanced clubs would be able to go for them.
Happy Birthday Jenks.
P.S. I would miss Sagna’s awesome work rate. What an engine on the guy.