CELEBRATIONS FOR SAKA + BIG LEICESTER GAME LOOMS!
Bukayo Saka is nearing a new deal at Arsenal. Mr Mokbel at The Daily Mail dropped the news that Star Boy is going to accept £200k a week. I don’t believe I’ve seen the length of the deal, but would suspect it’s 4 years with an option of a 5th.
Our best player has decided to give us until he is 26. He deserves every penny of this deal. £200k seems low if the story is he’s our highest-paid player. I’d have thought he’d be closer to the £265k week that Gabi J is rumoured to be on. Whatever the deal, it’s a number I’m happy with.
Bukayo IS a role model.
Bukayo DELIVERS time and time again.
Bukayo is the reason players all around the way want to join Arsenal.
He’ll be a Gooner legend, he’ll lift a Premier League trophy with us, I think he has a Champions League in him.
Congrats to the Arsenal leadership team.
Arteta created something worth staying for, Edu got the deal done without any drama, ownership decided to invest in best possible Arsenal their money could buy.
We are a serious club in 2023.
How good does that feel?
Arsenal vs Leicester under Arteta has generally been a good time. I’m not that worried about this game; Leicester plays football (thought Brendy does like a deepblock sometimes), they defend terribly, the way we play is kryptonite for them.
I watched the United game at the weekend and they should have scored 3 goals in about 8 minutes after ripping through them. Attacking-wise, they put 19 shots at their goal. However, at the other end, United savaged them, hitting the target 8 times off 26 attempts at goal. As a side, they’ve regressed, they haven’t replaced Vardy, their Champ Man style of recruitment hit a rut when they started buying players off Twitter reccos, and their midfield has been pony. Their main star, James Maddison, is nursing a knee injury… you don’t fuck around with those.
Arsenal has to show up, play with focus, and make this a 9-point kind of a week.
News around the other clubs has been fairly positive. United beat Barca, which is delicious on many levels, but mainly because it keeps United busy. Rashford limped off as well, which ain’t good, because they’ve very much been Rashford United. City drew away to Leipzig, which means they are in a bit of an away day rut, and it is clear that Pep isn’t getting the turn out of his players post-Arsenal win he’d hoped for. Liverpool was hammered by Madrid. Spurs and Chelsea play each other this weekend, so someone is ejecting themselves out of the ‘we can be an Arsenal problem’ race.
A Government white paper on English football landed and we’re going full-on BIG GOVERNMENT on the beautiful game. Here are some snippets from BBC.
The main purposes of the proposed new regulator will be:
- Stopping English clubs from joining closed-shop competitions, which are judged to harm the domestic game
- Preventing a repeat of financial failings seen at numerous clubs, notably the collapses of Bury and Macclesfield
- Introducing a more stringent owners’ and directors’ test to protect clubs and fans
- Giving fans power to stop owners changing a club’s name, badge and traditional kit colours
- Ensuring a fair distribution of money filters down the English football pyramid from the Premier League
This proposal has the backing of PM Rishi.
“Since its inception over 165 years ago, English football has been bringing people together, providing a source of pride for communities and inspiration to millions of fans across the country,” he said.
“Yet despite the success of the sport both at home and abroad, we know that there are real challenges which threaten the stability of clubs both big and small.
“The new plans will protect the rich heritage and traditions of our much-loved clubs and safeguard the beautiful game for future generations.”
I have wondered to myself why England gave up so many cultural crown jewels. Premier League is soft power around the world, the fact we’ve given up so much ownership is quite depressing. You have to balance that sadness with the hard truth: The owners have made the league more competitive… in fact, they’ve totally dominated the rest of world football and I love it.
The Italians had their time…
The Spanish ran riot over 10 years with their own version of financial doping via debt levers…
Now it’s our turn.
The fact that a large chunk of the success of English football is because we show up at 92 clubs every week regardless of how poorly we’re treated. I work in MLS, I see fans claim that the lack of storytelling is the problem here. That’s usually wrapped in the context of Wrexham or Sunderland docos. This view is totally wrong… the thing that is interesting to people around the world about our game is that support is a birthright, not a choice, and we carry that responsibility through our entire lives regardless of how shitty we’re treated. To the outsider, it’s misery porn, and it makes good TV. But honestly, does anyone in England really give a shit about Wrexham’s football story? Will their fans love the ownership group when the ratings dip? It really doesn’t matter to Wrexham fans because British fans show up regardless and it makes for compelling TV. No one wants to watch games played at empty stadiums. That’s why Italy lost out despite having richer owners and better football. It’s why their clubs are spending millions to move into smaller stadiums.
Broader point here: The idea that the fans that have helped make the game the money machine it is today could be totally bypassed on factors impacting the shape of OUR game was always bonkers… but we never really thought something as horrific as the Super League would be dumped on us. Then it was. So none of the big clubs can blame the government for stepping in to preserve our culture. It is a long overdue addition to a game being railed by big money from nation-states.
I’m very happy the government has stepped in. The asks are reasonable.
Don’t cheat.
Don’t spoil what’s working.
Consult with fans.
Treat the assets you’ve bought like the community treasures they are.
Run a sensible business.
Beautiful stuff.
Ok, that’s me done. I’ll be in Austin later today. My second team, St. Louis CITY sc goes live tomorrow evening. I might write a little piece about helping to build a club from an idea into a reality. It’s been an incredible journey. The only unknown is how the team will perform. I’m back to trusting the process, but this time, I’ll be seeing it from the inside. Pretty awesome.
MORE TOMORROW. Get on the podcast right now. It’s our second Patreon of the week.
New Patreon
Pedro and @mattkandela talk about Saka’s new deal, Saliba being the last of the unsigned, and we do a bit of a Leicester preview!
Sign up below!
(We also launched a Patreon Discord because @HvrrisonJack told us to)https://t.co/BIP4tLuPes
— Le Grove (@LeGrove) February 24, 2023