LA LIGA AWARDS PRIVILEGE

BALON D'OR AWARD DRIVES PEOPLE WILD

I’m not really a fan of the Ballon d’Or award. There’s a bias for La Liga that has led to some pretty shocking omissions over the last 20 years. The Messi/Ronaldo era was so utterly boring the entire trophy lost its appeal.

That said, giving the award to a player I do not love was a smart move. Rodri took the award after a towering season for one of the best teams ever assembled. He won major trophies for Spain and his club. He was an immovable object, so outrageously good he made #6 players fashionable again.

The reaction has been wild.

Vini Jr didn’t show up for the awards.

The Spanish media is up in arms.

Ex-players are calling it a disgrace.

The La Liga entitlement for a player who scored 24 goals and 11 assists last season has been incredible.

Amos Murphy, a City fan, posted this:

Players with more G/A in the league than Vini Jr (21) last season:

Harry Kane - 44 Kylian Mbappe - 43 Cole Palmer - 33 Ollie Watkins - 32 Erling Haaland - 32 Artem Dovbyk - 32 Lois Openda - 31 Serhou Guirassy - 30 Lautaro Martinez - 30 Alexander Sorloth - 29 Mo Salah - 28 Deniz Undav - 28 Phil Foden - 27 Robert Lewandowksi - 27 Marcus Thuram - 27 Hueng-Min Son - 27 Jude Bellingham - 25 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - 25 Ermedin Demirovic - 25 Alejandro Grimaldo - 25 Bukayo Saka - 25 Alexander Isak - 23 Jonathan David - 23 Oliver Giroud - 23 Victor Boniface - 23 Florian Wirtz - 23 Jarrod Bowen - 22 Marvin Ducksch - 22 Paulo Dybala - 22 Alexandre Lacazette - 22 Dominic Solanke - 22 “Robbed”

Let’s be clear here—the Premier League, pound for pound, is stronger, richer, more intense, and far more difficult to be elite in. La Liga ruined the competition by not evenly distributing money, creating a few winners and a lot of losers.

Why does that matter?

Every game is tough in the Premier League. For a team like Madrid, maybe they have 8 games a season worth getting out of bed for. The competition is dreadfully skewed between 4 solvent clubs, with the rest struggling to survive.

To do what Rodri did last season was outrageous—to do what Haaland did the season before, not get awarded, but still show up to the ceremony, shows a level of class lacking from the Madrid players.

There’s an English tax at these international awards, and you don’t need to look much further than Mo Salah not winning it to confirm that.

Apologies for propping up Rodri.

Back to Arsenal news.

It seems the news on Timber and Gabriel is pretty positive. Both players exiting the pitch as a precaution or because they were gassed is preferable to a long-term injury. Calafiori is thought to be out for weeks rather than months. That’s a real positive, though it’s nagging at me that we invested so much in a player with a horrible knee history. Serie A allows you to hide from injuries; the Premier League does not. Robustness should be the key ingredient we look for in our fullbacks.

Worth doubling back on Zinchenko and his absence from the pitch at the weekend. The Ukrainian appears to have moved into the Ramsdale zone. I’d imagine this is partly due to some shaky performances, but also because he gets injured so regularly the club can’t rely on him. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go on loan in January if MLS continues to be preferred.

I’m also interested to see who starts in the Preston game tomorrow. Will there be a "punishment 11"? Is that an immature way to look at it? Kiwior needs minutes. Sterling, Zinchenko, Gabriel, MLS, and Ethan all need to get some life in their legs.

Someone I don’t want to see getting minutes is Saka. He was hobbling at the awards ceremony yesterday. That’s a worry. These players getting battered by the double whammy of international football and the English domestic schedule is horrible to watch. I honestly can’t believe we have to sit through another two weeks of international play at the end of November. It’s obscene they can do this after a big international tournament, then ask the very best players to partake in a FIFA club tournament next summer.

That said, Arteta rolling out the big guns for a tournament we’ll most certainly exit in the quarter-finals isn’t the brightest idea he seems insistent on executing. You’ve gotta help yourself when you can. Saka against Bolton was silly.

Ten Haag’s reign of terror at United is finally over. Remember the folks in the LG comments section who were loving on him for ‘getting an identity at United’ quicker than Arteta? WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

United investing in another year of his deal, buying players he liked, and wasting a preseason on someone who was finished last November was a strategic error—but moving fast on Amorim could be the first smart move they’ve made in a long time. The question is whether they can give him the players he needs or if they’ll continue to overinvest in players Twitter likes.

Once they get it right, they’ll be a threat. They have more money than anyone, a big brand name, and could do some damage with the technical hires they have now. Dan Ashworth is very good, and so is Wilcox. The banter years might be over, and that’s a real shame for all of us. A damn shame.

Bryan Mbuemo is attracting a lot of interest. Newcastle is reportedly chasing him this January, but PSR is limiting their options. The winger feels quite like an Arsenal player. Great in duels, aggressive, fast, not very fashionable, but with some decent output. As a back-up, how wrong could we go with a move like that? He’s scored 8 goals in 9 appearances so far this season. We have a good relationship with Brentford (I assume), so why not?

Just throwing things out there…

Right, that’s me done for today. Jump on the latest podcasts—I did an aftermath special with Jacob yesterday. x