I’m scouring the newspapers for some interesting content and I’m like, don’t write about anything weird Pedro, don’t make the internet think you’re a crank… then I run into the spectacular story that South Korea’s footballing body has had to issue an apology to the WORLD for offering sexual services to foreign refs in the 2010s.
The report alleged that the Korea Football Association (KFA) offered such services to international referees on multiple occasions in 2011 and 2012.
This period included qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics held in the country.
Responding to the allegations, the KFA said: “We deeply apologise for causing concern over various issues involving the association, which emerged from a parliamentary hearing and an unprecedented search and seizure, and from reports about events from more than a decade ago, that even many within the organisation were unaware of.”
Why do I raise this? Don’t be naive. Honestly, sitting there at work, palms out, shrugged shoulders, slightly tilted head, confused look on your face… don’t make me do it. You know why.
We don’t take these things seriously in England. We assume that, as a nation of principle, our players and officials are beyond reproach. It would never happen to us, because things like that simply do not happen to countries like England.
That is despite the HUGE betting scandal that happened in Turkey involving 149 officials or the Negreira case involving Barcelona and €7 million allegedly going to the former vice president of Spain’s technical committee of referees. Or the one-off incident involving a top-level English ref who was going out to afters with random fans, caught doing cocaine, whilst calling top Premier League managers ‘c*nts’ on film. Not to mention that we know PGMOL staff had trips approved to nation states that own professional football clubs.
Now, I am not accusing anyone of anything… all I’m asking is this… is the Premier League beyond reproach? How thorough are background checks that allowed David Coote to do as he pleased unnoticed for many years? Do we look at the professionalism of the operation we have in the Premier League, the way the group acts when it comes to substandard talent, and think that we have the right people in charge to have this sort of thing covered?
Hey, don’t shrug your shoulders at me, I’m just asking the pertinent questions out here. Crazy South Korea story though, ‘hey nerds, I know you’re in town to ref a big game, but the top dog at the football federation has someone he wants you to meet… at a massage parlor.’ Honestly, mad how 1975 that sort of sleaze is… but again, it is a warning that 1) this sort of stuff goes on 2) if you are not aggressive about background checks, and very proactive, you can easily find your league in a situation where the reputation of your own game is in tatters. Better to look under the rocks yourself than assume no one else will.
The team over at SportWitness has been putting in a shift to uncover that there are, in fact, clubs looking at two of our players, and those players are Martinelli and Ethan. It’s Galatasaray for both and Milan for Ethan.
It’s good news that a team actually wants our players; it’s bad news because our rep for being awful sellers means no one wants to offer us proper money.
‘Galatasaray, who wants to sign Martinelli on loan with a purchase option, is working to lower the fee. As for Nwaneri, Arsenal isn’t backing down from its high asking price. The management is open to signing the young player on loan.’
Come on… what are we doing here? They won’t pay €60m for Leão of Milan. No chance this offer is satisfying anyone and I just can’t imagine we’d loan Martinelli for a season. No doubt it’ll be the same story for Milan and Ethan, the money they’ll have will not match the ambition of the fee we want. Same old story, Chelsea will hand £52m over for Jamie Gittens, Arsenal can’t get more than tuppence for a Champions League finalist and a Premier League winner? Disgrazia…
There were surprising rumblings about Myles that hit the airwaves and some confusion as to where the rumours came from. My initial thoughts were the noises must have come from Arsenal because the level of newspaper putting out the gossip was too high for it to be an ITK story that jailbroke Arsenal group chats like a Open AI sandbox. But later in the afternoon, when the story had been denied, The Telegraph laid the smackdown on this being the work of an MLS intermediary.
The question you have to ask is: does that happen without approval of his people? We all love Myles, but my understanding is there are still some maturity issues there, and I think some of the people around him can be less than easy to deal with. If you have an intermediary talking to Chelsea and United, that is the fault of the player, however you cut it, and it’s quite embarrassing. There’s no doubt sensitivity over the signing of Bruno and I do think there’s probably a grain of truth that if a big offer came the way of Berta, they’d entertain it, because they want some cash flow in the business, and I doubt Myles is part of the NO WAY NEVER set of players. This line from The Athletic a bit of a tell for me.
Lewis-Skelly has started regularly for Arsenal in pre-season, and it’s understood that the club are not actively offering the England international out for sale.
Equally, there are expected to be departures for Arsenal between now and the end of the transfer window, and the club are conscious that they may have to be flexible in their plans.
There’s fire beneath the smoke… and it’s not middle aged men setting themselves alight at the training ground screaming the name of a beloved Hale-Ender. One to keep an eye on.
The story I am keeping my other eye on because there is no story right now is what we do about Álvarez. He’s really the only target that we could move on that is a level raiser in totality. Atleti have been clear they want to keep him, but the Argentine’s first day back at training didn’t go that well.
“As Mundo Deportivo has learned, the Argentine striker believes his coach lacked the courage to confront this problem and speak with him, knowing he intended to do so to try and resolve the situation. In fact, Julián didn’t expect his coach to leave for Ibiza when it was public knowledge that he was arriving on Monday and wanted to talk to him.
“He’s also fed up with Gil Marín, the other person who could help him resolve his situation, but who, coincidentally, was also on vacation and couldn’t speak with him. The Argentine player wanted to address his situation through dialogue, but they won’t let him.
“As a result, Julián has already warned those present with him on Monday that his patience had run out and that there would be consequences. ‘Count me out,’ was one of his clearest messages. The other was that he’s going to stand his ground.
“Álvarez, who claims to have had a promise from his club since February to transfer him this summer, has now completely lost his temper and is going all out to force his move to Barça.”
My read on this saga is that Atleti are going to push this to the absolute max. They don’t want to sell to Barca, which leaves a door open for Arsenal. Maybe. Possibly.
The reality Arsenal have to wrestle with is there aren’t many players that can change our fortunes. You can suggest all the options from around Europe you want, but they aren’t better than Premier League Champions, bar a few. The easiest place to upgrade would be Gyokeres because of the clear limitations he has on his game. Álvarez would be the player of choice because he complements the talents of Kai Havertz. If Atleti box Álvarez into a corner, there’s a chance that the players could be swapped out with a bit of cash going the way of the Spanish club to sweeten the deal.
How likely is that? No idea. But it’ll be something Arsenal keep an eye on as the options on the left look increasingly risky, expensive, and limited.
The most important signing of the summer, sadly, looks like it’ll be Ezri Konsa. The England centre back is experienced and also has the secret superpower of being able to double up as a right back. This move is arguably more important than any attacking addition we could make because the options we have right now are very bleak. Ben White can’t do more than 5 games in a row, Jurrien Timber has a very complicated issue that is being solved by trial and error, and Mosquera will have to cover two positions and the jury is still out on his abilities. We need someone who can come in and do the job now and Aston Villa know there aren’t many players on our list of ‘can do the job’ right now, so they’re holding out for a fat fee.
More broadly, I am looking at the squad that Berta is building, and it is starting to look like he’s taking us down the path of Atleti. We’re loading up with players 26 and older and my concern is that the kids coming through are fodder for pure profit motives that’ll age us up, vs act as the succession plan for a future that doesn’t all of a sudden see Arsenal old and broken in 5 years’ time. The salve of older players is they can do things in the now, the issue is, if they don’t deliver, you are stuck with them, because no one has much interest in players of a certain age.
Just one to keep an eye on as we head into the next 3 seasons of Arteta… where will we be left squad-wise? You could say, a team of Champions, but my hope was that Arsenal would keep the sustainable model of football operations going, so there’d never need to be a total reboot that’d lead to steep decline on the pitch. That is looking less likely as we slump from 26+-year-old to 26+-year-old.
Ok, Arsenal will be welcoming Como to the home of football a little later today. Expect to see players like Madueke on the pitch and be sure Mikel has all the players fit and firing ready to go. This is probably a more important game as we’ll have more of the parts available we’re used to seeing. Hopefully we can get those back-up keepers back on the bench.
Ok, finally, please check out the Yildiz scouting report as part of the Members package and sign urself up as a member if you are not one already. I have a tasty offer in the hopper for you as a preseason gift to secure your eyeballs for the upcoming season.
1st!