Gyokeres 'used as pawn' in Berta 'master plan' to sign Isak for Martinelli plus cash

Arsenal are taking so long to sign Viktor Gyokeres because he is the ‘pawn’ in an Andrea Berta transfer ‘master plan’ to bring in Alexander Isak.

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Arsenal striker

Dear MC,

All this panic nonsense about us potentially missing out on Gyokeres and him going to United got me thinking. Is that really going to be a problem? I genuinely think there is a master plan at play and he has actually been used as a pawn. Or a stalking horse. We have a serious guy in Berta working hard behind the scenes and I have no doubt he’s well aware of what’s recently been going on at Newcastle.

Ekitike is by the look of things going to Liverpool. That was because Isak was unobtainable. But was he? He has reportedly been sent home by Howe, which often happens when the head has been turned. So why might that be? Coincidentally it happened when the Gyorkeres deal looked like collapsing. Have we been subject to 4D chess here?

So, a long way to say it, but I think Isak (massive Henry fan) could become an Arsenal player after all. Now what it would take to secure that is unclear, but could someone like Martinelli be going in the opposite direction? That might suit all involved.

I’m sure I’m inviting mockery here, but what is football if we can’t dream? I’m loving what we’re doing this summer, Madueke included. I have trust in our manager and this is so much better than when we weren’t included in any decent discussions about players or winning the league. We are at the table now, and that is awesome.

Finally, and with something of a tone change, I normally try to avoid his nonsense as I’m a positive chap but I take exception to something Stewie keeps plugging away with. The ashtray comment has been niggling at me and I wasn’t sure why. Mostly I think it’s because Havertz is well liked by every Arsenal fan I know, as well as by a highly respected football journalist friend of mine (admittedly, he is a United fan). He mostly just comes across as tone deaf with that one. But I think the reason it bothers me most is that an ashtray is essentially a disgusting object, worthy of nothing more than crushing a burning cigarette against it when discarding it. Is that fair to describe a human being as such? Recently there has been far right rhetoric describing migrants as ‘rats’. This is a fascist trope and was levelled by a well known and infamous organisation to an ethnic minority group in order to legitimise hatred (and murder).

By all means call someone names, I am not a prude, but is it necessary to call someone something so demeaning and subhuman as an ashtray? Especially a top level footballer who is well liked by his actual fans?

Anyway, I can’t wait for the next season. Regardless of who we sign (or don’t), I for one am excited.

JazGooner

Why Arteta WILL be fired without a trophy

Guys, this is getting old. There is NO manager in the WORLD of a TOP TEAM that has kept his job for 6+ trophyless years. The closest was Klopp (4-5 years), and the only manager given more time was Arsene (7 years ,2005-14) who had a load of earlier trophies to buy him some time & patience.

THAT is the reason Arteta will be fired. Because since 1993, there is no manager who has performed abysmally (trophy wise) from start to finish and still held a job, like Arteta has. Either like Klopp he wins the CL or EPL, or he is out.

Ange got fired after winning Europa, Ten Hag won 2 in 2 and got fired, LVG was fired the next day, Ancelotti got the double and was fired. Tuchel won the UCL and was fired. Mancini & Pellegrini won a few trophies before being fired. Even Mourinho was fired multiple times after winning cups and leagues. But no one was given 5-6 trophyless years. Not even close.

Yet you are asking why Mikel Arteta must go if he doesn’t win the league or CL this season. Are you guys just stupid or are you in denial ? This is not up for debate, he will be gone by Christmas if Arsenal are out of the league equation, and gone by Feb/March if they are out of the league + cups. There is no alternative, there is no option. This is not me wishing something, this is exactly what will happen. He has already been given more time than he deserves. This season is curtains for him or he becomes a champion. There is no third route. This is a results business & Arteta is severely lacking.

And Soei, Dutch Arsenal Fan, stop bringing up historic data from 1993 onwards to show why Arsenal are not a top club mate. We know Arsenal aren’t a top team, you don’t need to prove that to us. The problem is your manager & fans think its the best team in the world, but with nothing to back that up. So yeah, this season is do or die for him.

Also, lastly, Pep or Klopp would have won the league with Arteta’s Arsenal. It’s that simple.

– Aman

Does Arteta need to win the league? Maybe the question should instead be what is Arsenal’s idea of success?

I will start by stating that I don’t think Arsenal will ever win the league with Arteta. I think there’s a narrow mindedness there, and a mental fragility which he has passed to the squad. He tried to do the whole Mourinho us vs them thing; only Mourinho did that while actually casting an honest eye at – and fixing – the weaknesses of his squad. With Arteta the impression is that he actually believes it – he thinks, despite evidence, that they are the best so he misses their flaws. It breeds a fragile woe-is-me mentality rather than the strong, defiant Mourinho version.

But that’s still enough to get them second or third every season. Second or third secures Champions League and grows the brand. There’s a very real prospect that that’s all the owners want. So maybe that should be the definition of success for Arsenal?

I think the only flaw with this is that Arteta is spending astronomical sums to maintain status quo. The only two higher net spending PL teams in the last 5 years are Chelsea and United, a couple of joke clubs with higher manager turnover and who are shopping in Aldi rather than Waitrose with their transfers.

So is Arteta even successful in this regard? Technically he’s achieving and the board seems happy with top 4, so I suppose yes. But I think it’s plain that he is a talented but limited manager and the same (or better) results could be achieved with far less spend with someone else at the reigns.

I will say that I’m not an Arsenal fan and I’m fine with them remaining perpetual also-rans, even if it means I have to watch their dour anti-football. But he should have been sacked long ago for his handling of the Partey situation rather than anything on field.

Seamus

It’s the fans

Soei.

It’s the fans, mate.

Maybe not you personally.

But it’s the vast majority of Arsenal’s fans, especially the terminally online lot.

They’ve been telling us for 3 or 4 years how this team is going to win big. They’ve not.

How such and such a player is world class. (Saka – a winger with fewer assists than Andy Robertson, a full back. Saliba, who looks good most of the time but goes to pieces against decent teams).

How it’s only injuries and ref decisions that have stopped them doing so. Despite both of those things being well within their gift to sort out ie build a bigger squad, and stop being petulant, ill disciplined twats.

And how Arteta is a coaching genius who would be cleaning up if he had Pep’s money. Despite the fact he’s actually managed to make Arsenal less easy on the eye with every passing year, and chooses to spend most of his cash on defenders.

And how they definitely, DEFINITELY haven’t bottled it during the run in for 3 of the last 4 seasons (everyone forgets the one where they finished 5th in 2022 having been top 4 all season long)

A fanbase that is insufferable, inappropriately hubristic, way too emotional, and frankly crackers.

To paraphrase Reagan “it’s the fans, stupid”

Andy H, Swansea.

Soei, Dutch Arsenal has gotten his premise quite wrong. In fact, all that vitriol is aimed at Arteta because he’s a ghastly, arrogant, self-serving c***.

Chris C, Toon Army DC

READ MORE: Arsenal transfer: Gyokeres hijack by clown car Man Utd amid stunning Liverpool deal would be disaster

Dither Mersey? Or proper planning from ‘pool?

I saw Lewis, Busby Way get a little stick in the comments but as a Liverpool supporter I do feel he has a valid point. Slot took a pretty settled team and managed to put his own spin on tactics and got us over the line for #20.

And now with all the additions there are going to be valid questions about how quickly this team now gels together and if the lack of historic cohesion does impact the chase. Slot didn’t have this challenge last year so it will be interesting to see how he handles it.

With all that being said, Liverpool are very much in a transition period albeit one that is expected to still be competitive. The VVD and Salah contracts were all about keeping the leadership core together through the transition as Slot works on the next great team.

This is how proper teams do it. They plan years ahead. After winning a title it may have been easy to push this team one more year with a couple of modest updates but instead we’ve used our momentum to bring new bodies in.

FWIW, while I recognize the risk of bringing in all these players and the cohesion issues it could cause, I do feel that considering the quality of the players, how early they have been brought in and what I saw from Slot last summer, that there is an strong chance we kick on and get better quicker.

Mark LFC (and no, I’m not getting carried away by a closed door Friendly)

PS-argh

A well worn argument came back into the mailbox over the weekend, that PSR protects the big 6 and stops other clubs from competing. What is never said by these protesters is that PSR rules also restricts the big 6. You want Aston Villa to be able to spend what they want. Fine, but that means the rest can too. Are you under the impression Villa would win a no holds barred spend-a-thon with the big 6?

If City didn’t need to inflate revenue to spend they would just spend, and probably spend much more. Without PSR Newcastle would likely have dropped several hundred million on new players in the last month alone. Chelsea have spent £600m more than Villa in the last 3 years within the rules, they’d be insane without restrictions.

The idea that ditching PSR would thus enable clubs like Villa to start competing for Premier League titles is sort of ridiculous. Your owner’s pockets may be deep, but some clubs have bottomless pits to draw money from. How long do think it will take for your guys to concede that fight and look to sell a club which would then be unable to sustain itself without the magical money tree?

I do think adjustments to PSR could be made though. It is awful that clubs are incentivised to sell their academy graduates and there can be steps taken to combat this. Obviously creating first team players is the aim of club academies however selling those who are good but not quite good enough also makes up the bedrock of how the academies are funded. So restricting clubs from selling their academy players wont work.

Instead we need to incentivise keeping them. We can do this by saying to clubs the total cost of academy graduates in the first team won’t count toward PSR calculations. The biggest part of this would be the wages and national insurance contributions but you could go into much more detail. Say you’ve got 5 academy graduates in your 25 man squad you could say 1/5th of the travel budget is deductible, 1/5th of the first team coaching costs is deductible, 1/5th of the first team dinner budget etc.

These will be relatively small amounts and can’t ever compare to getting £40m for a player but its about giving more reasons not to sell. There may also have to be a minimum minutes threshold for this to kick in to prevent clubs from leaving kids on the bench to rot just so they get the deductible.

In a similar way you could then reward clubs for keeping academy players for the long term. Say after 3 years of first team football, minimum 5000 minutes, the club gets an extra £10m in PSR allowance for every year they remain in the squad. Applying all these rules to Aston Villa with just one player, Jacob Ramsey, would give them about £16m more per year in PSR room and because of the way amortisation works that’s a £50m player on £100k per week.

One caveat to mention though, this would also help the big 6 because it has to be the same rules for all clubs. Plus we’d definitely need to bring back the 90 minute rule for academy recruitment (or some equivalent) along with more restriction on foreign recruitment because a by product of these changes would mean the best academy prospects becoming far more valuable.

Dave, Manchester

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