We often bemoan the fact that hope is a frustrating commodity for football fans. Certainly the abundance of hope among Arsenal fans at the start of the 24/25 season was as high as it had been for twenty years. Two second place finishes in the previous two seasons had fuelled optimism that the title was within reach.
In this review of the season just gone I have dIvided my musings into three sections. Our domestic programme before and after Christmas and our journey into Europe which I have looked at separately. Hopefully, you will avoid a degree of indigestion by this division of what seemed in retrospect a very eventful and long season.
Arsenal’s close season had been unremarkable. Several of our players went a very long way in the Euros and we signed two players who had shown up prominently in the competition – Riccardo Calafiori, a left-sided defender from Bologna who had shone for Italy, and Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad who had come off the Spain bench to notch the goal that knocked Germany out of the tournament and played as a sub in the tournament final. As the window drew to a close we acquired two loan signings, Neto the Bournemouth back-up goalkeeper and excitingly (well, it seemed exciting at the time!), Raheem Sterling joined from Chelsea in a deal which saw them effectively pay him to play for us! It looked a strong squad but there was a huge striker-shaped hole upfront that we thought the continued development of Havertz and the addition of Sterling might help us to paper over. Havertz had finished the season so strongly and was so durable that many supporters felt he would be able to be the focal point of the attack for the season and it seemed that this was Arteta’s view too. In retrospect that seems a fundamental error. Certainly Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig appeared destined to join only for him to reconsider the move because he didn’t want to spend time understudying Havertz. The usual suspects were linked Osimhen, David and Watkins prominent among them, but no purchase was made.
A few weeks later it emerged that Edu was to leave his post as Sporting Director to join the network of clubs owned by Marinakis, the Forest owner and reflecting retrospectively on what proved to be an inadequate summer of team building there has been speculation that Edu’s attention had been diverted from his Arsenal role by the very big new job he was about to acquire. Certainly, suggestions that he wanted Arsenal to develop a multi-club model with a particular focus on South America started to circulate. Whatever the circumstances, Edu had presided over a very important period in the club’s history and helped to build a much stronger squad. Edu’s duties were assumed by Jason Ayto, his assistant, until Andrea Berta, formerly Sporting Director at Atletico Madrid moved into the Edu role in April. It has just been announced that Ayto, whom Arsenal hoped to keep has decided to leave. It would appear that the Berta appointment has thwarted his career aspirations at Arsenal.
Berta was an interesting choice. He is a close associate of Jorge Mendes the super agent. Arsenal had become increasingly data driven in their search for players. Since Sanllehi departed under a cloud following the Pépé deal the sense was that data trumped ‘ connections’ in deciding who to sign. Arsenal were the sixth highest spender on agents fees in the previous season, at a tad under £23 million, well behind the likes of Newcastle, the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea who topped the table with a spend almost double ours. It will be interesting to see what the ‘Berta effect’ has on our agent spend.
Arsenal’s season began on a hot Saturday in August at home to Wolves. Havertz opened the scoring with a header in the first half and Saka finished crisply in the second half to secure an uneventful 2-0 win. Both of our new signings had acquired injuries before the match and Merino missed several games through a shoulder injury sustained in his first training session. It was an eery omen for the season.
Our first away trip was a demanding one at Villa. A couple of Watkins misses spared us when he seemed certain to score but the main reason he didn’t were a couple of extraordinary saves by Raya who was becoming an increasingly impressive last line of defence . Trossard put us ahead midway through the second half and the travelling Gooners were quick to point out an Emi Martinez error which allowed Thomas Partey to extend our lead. A 2-0 win was a very good start to our away fixtures.
One of the themes of the season was to appear for the first time in our home game with Brighton, Havertz gave us a first half lead but shortly after halftime with Arsenal pressing for a second goal, the referee, Chris Kavanagh, took the extraordinary decision to send off Declan Rice for flicking the ball a few inches after being kicked by Veltman of Brighton. It was a second yellow after he had kicked the ball away in the first half. Joao Pedro of Brighton had committed exactly the same offence with no punishment, significant because he later acquired a yellow card and then secured an equaliser for Brighton ten minutes after Rice’s dismissal. The game was fundamentally altered by the decision and subsequent justifications by PGMOL for Kavanagh’s decision were profoundly unimpressive. It was hard not to develop a victim mentality when we received what Depressed Gooner described as ‘only us’ decisions from referees. We had plenty of those to come!
This meant that Rice missed the North London Derby which came up next and his absence was compounded by a long-term injury to Ødegaard who had seriously injured his ankle playing for Norway. The extent of his injury was not appreciated at the time but, after his return from a prolonged absence, the Norwegian captain was a shadow of his former self for most of the season and undoubtedly the injury had a lingering effect on his efficiency all season. The absences did not affect the Arsenal performance in the Derby though. We held Tottenham comfortably and Gabriel struck from a corner midway through the second half. Forever in our shadow, the Totts started to turn against their Australian manager as we recorded our third win away at the Toilet Bowl.
The last leg of three seriously challenging away days in a week was at the Emptihad. The game was billed as pivotal to the title. Rodri injured himself early on (seriously) and an early Haaland goal augured badly. We then saw why Calafiori was signed as he scored an exceptional equaliser with a great curling shot. Arsenal started to take control of the game and Gabriel produced another majestic header to put us ahead just before the interval. There was still time for Trossard to earn a second yellow card from Michael Oliver, our refereeing Nemesis, for kicking the ball as the whistle blew for a free kick award. It meant the second half was a Mancunian version of the Alamo but we defended superbly only conceding in the last minute of injury time when Stones touched the ball home. The charmless Haaland abused the eighteen year old Lewis-Skelly, bounced the ball on Gabriel’s head and entreated Arteta to ‘stay humble’, a phrase that came back to bite him later in the season. Our performance was an extraordinary example of defensive resilience but a win would have emphasised more keenly the threat that Arsenal now posed to C130y.
Our next game was against a side from a similar area but several rungs lower in the pyramid. We faced Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup. It was the sort of game where Neto seemed a natural alternative to Raya…but we had signed a back-up keeper who was already cup-tied in this competition! Maybe a sign that Edu didn’t have his mind on the job or just as the papers had portrayed the signing – a stop-gap after a last minute change of heart by Espanyol who seemed all set to sell us Spain’s Olympic keeper Joan Garcia! In the Carabao Cup 16 year-old Jack Porter made his debut, Ethan Nwaneri scored his first goals for the first team and Raheem Sterling scored his only goal for the club – a tap-in from a few inches which completed a 5-1 victory.
We then continued a run of winnable home games by taking on Leicester City. The Foxes had started the season quite positively but we sailed into a comfortable 2-0 lead through Martinelli and Trossard. After the break Justin struck twice, one a worldie , to equalise and we had to rely on two injury time goals – an own goal provoked by Trossard and a late Havertz effort, to secure the points.
We returned to league action against stragglers Southampton and remarkably found ourselves a goal down just after half time when Archer finished a sinuous run with a cool finish. Havertz soon equalised and Martinelli fired us ahead ten minutes later. A Saka goal three minutes from time clinched another victory that was more ‘hard won’ than should have been the case against a club already grappling with relegation. It was hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for Aaron Ramsdale in the Southampton goal as he returned to the scene of former glories .
Arsenal were still unbeaten despite the best efforts of the PGMOL, but that situation changed at the Vitality Stadium largely because of a controversial VAR reversal. William Saliba was sent off after initially escaping with a yellow card for denying a goalscoring opportunity. Rob Jones, the referee, was persuaded to go to the monitor after originally deeming a yellow was sufficient punishment for Saliba’s foul on Evanilson, forty yards from goal. It changed the rhythm and mentality of the game even though by this time Arsenal had considerable experience of playing with ten men! Early in the second half Bournemouth worked a clever set piece routine at a corner for Christie to score and Kiwior conceded a late penalty which Kluivert converted. It was a disappointing and frustrating evening.
One of the few Holic gatherings of the season preceded the game with Liverpool in November, a game that was being billed (with some reason) as a potential title decider. The match began sensationally with a brilliant Saka strike but Arsenal were undone by a Liverpool corner routine that allowed Van Dijk to equalise . A bullet header from Merino (his first for the club) restored Arsenal’s lead but Salah equalised for the second time in the last quarter of the match. The game ended controversially when Anthony Taylor prematurely ended an Arsenal attack to penalise a Havertz challenge that when scrutinised was legal and which resulted ultimately in a scrambled goal for Gabriel Jesùs. Given the significance of the game a number of Arsenal fans began to believe there was a PGMOL conspiracy constructed to deny Arsenal the title. That feeling was destined to grow stronger.
Progress continued in the Carabao Cup when we coasted to a 3-0 win at Preston. The highlights were a rare goal from Gabriel Jesùs who was suffering a scoring drought and a superb effort from 17 year old Ethan Nwaneri, so young that under current youth protection rules he had to change away from the team. It was a very impressive performance in which we controlled possession for almost all the game and Tommy Setford, making his debut in goal, was rarely troubled . We had advanced to the last eight of the competition having ducked a round because we were in Europe and then we eased past Bolton and Preston. It wasn’t difficult to sympathise with those who felt the League Cup was ranked low on our aspirational ladder although the Arteta sceptics implored him to seek silverware by whatever route he could.
We were entering a challenging group of fixtures away from home which included the Inter away game which I will discuss in the review of our European exploits. We travelled to St. James’s Park for a lunchtime fixture with Newcastle and ran into the very impressive Alexander Isak who scored the only goal of the game with a superb early header. We gave a flat performance and found it difficult to make progress against a stiff Newcastle rearguard. This was the first of our meetings with them and highlighted how tough an opponent they had become.
Our next away trip was to the Bus Stop where results in recent years had been very encouraging. Chelsea had spent an inordinate amount of money on a huge squad most of whom they had secured on very long contracts. In a tight, tense London derby, Martinelli put us ahead early in the second half but Neto, one of the huge flotilla of wingers they have at their disposal, equalised with about a quarter of an hour to go. A point each was a fair result.
We returned to N5 to face a Nottingham Forest side who had been one of the surprise packets of the season but we beat them comfortably. Saka gave us an early lead, Partey doubled it in the second half and Nwaneri scored his first league goal soon after coming on as substitute. It was a Charlie Patino moment where he scored almost with his first touch but one hopes his story develops more positively than Patino’s did from an Arsenal perspective.
Our next away game in the League saw us travel to West Ham just after we had put Sporting Lisbon to the sword. The previous season we had won 6-0 at the London Stadium, emptying the stadium in the process. This time we were 4-0 up in the first half after Gabriel gave us the lead, Trossard doubled it and then Ødegaard scored from a penalty and Havertz finished unerringly when clean through. I mistakenly went to make a celebratory pot of tea only to return to find the score 4-2 after a West Ham scoring burst that took everyone by surprise as both their full backs scored. We were then awarded a second penalty which Saka dispatched and went to the interval 5-2 ahead emptying the ground again in the process. Despite wild imaginings of what the final score might be it finished at 5-2.
We were moving rapidly into the pre-Christmas period and faced a midweek test against Manchester United and their new manager, Ruben Amorim. We sealed victory in the second half with two set piece goals from Jurrien Timber, his first for the club and William Saliba with an inadvertent deflection off his nether regions. In the second half we exercised almost complete control in what was an impressive performance . Our set piece efficiency was becoming legendary but detractors claimed that Arsenal relied too much on their set piece expertise at the expense of more creative open play.
We then travelled to Fulham, once an easy place to visit as an away fan, but now one of the most expensive tickets in the League. We had been derailed there last season and we feared the worst when Jimenez outpaced Kiwior, who was deputising for the injured Gabriel, to slot home after we had dominated possession for the first twenty minutes. Saliba restored parity early in the second half with a goal from a corner allowed after an excruciating wait. Despite territorial dominance it looked like the points would be shared until Saka popped up to head home in injury time. This time the result of another excruciatingly long VAR enquiry was to disallow the goal because of a Martinelli offside and we had to be content with a share of the points.
Everton were up next at Ashburton Grove in a very busy December and were able to neutralise us as an attacking force almost completely. This was grist to the mill for those who refused to discuss Arsenal without demanding that we sign a striker immediately.
We had reached the quarter final stage of the Carabao Cup and found ourselves down to Palace within the first minute as Mateta scored. Gabriel Jesùs was picked upfront having endured a very long lean spell in front of goal but on this night the dam broke and his second half hat- trick illustrated how fickle football can be and how talented our Brazilian is. Eddie Nketiah, once of this parish scored an excellent header after coming on as substitute. It finished 3-2 and we were into the semi- finals where Newcastle lay in wait.
We then played Palace again on the Saturday before Christmas, this time at Selhurst Park. Jesùs having ended his goal drought scored twice in the first half (Sarr equalised the first goal) and Havertz put us 3-1 up at the interval. Goals by Martinelli and Rice enabled us to earn a 5-1 victory which looks increasingly impressive given Palace’s recent exploits. Alarmingly, Saka went down injured in the first half and was subsequently found to have a serious hamstring injury that required surgery and a lay-off of over four months. This was a profound blow to our prospects and reduced our creativity and goal threat enormously. There was intense speculation about how we would cope in his absence.
The last fixture of the year on the Friday after Christmas saw us labour to an untroubled but far from fluent 1-0 win against Ipswich at home. Havertz scored midway through the first half and the victory left us in second place in the league at the turn of the year but several points behind Liverpool who were setting a frightening pace at the top of the league.
The brutal and remorseless grind of fixtures appeared to have taken a toll on our stretched squad. In the first half of the season we had seen several key players injured: Ødegaard, Gabriel, White and Saka had suffered serious injuries. Little did we suspect that the news on the injury front was to become even worse very quickly.
So, as the year ended we could reflect on a season that saw us challenging for the title but which hadn’t been plain sailing as regular, serious injuries and what seemed unduly harsh and discriminatory refereeing decisions had cost us vital points. Whereas in past seasons we saw Manchester City as our main rivals, they had struggled through the first half of the season and lost their best player for the whole of the campaign. Liverpool were emerging as the most serious domestic threat to our aspirations. Could we find the sort of consistency and momentum that we had shown in early 2024 when the new year began?
Many thanks TTG for this characteristically magisterial recap of the first half of our bittersweet season, bringing back memories of my mixed emotions as I watched it unfold. So exciting to know that there are two more parts of your season recap to follow. Cheers!
A briskly paced and sharply observed jog down memory lane, TTG. You’ve set up well how the cumulative toll of injuries and refereeing decisions in the first half of the season will extract a heavy price from January onwards. I look forward to reading it.
So it was all downhill after the Villa game? That’s how I felt anyway.
Cheers TTG. I await the answer to your final question with bated breath….
A very effective summary, TTG. Just the right amount of detail to reopen all of the old sores that I thought had healed, without over-egging the cake and ending up in soggy sponge land (never a good place to be). Those first three red cards cost us seven points and the third resulted in the Saliba-Gabriel twin pillars being reduced to a single pillar with Big Willie sitting in the stand for Liverpool’s visit. (Take a bow Howard Webb).
Like Ollie, I can’t wait to hear what happens next – things can only get better, surely!
Thanks TTG for an excellent account of our preseason deals and the first half of this weird season. As BtM observed, you’ve reopened some old wounds but we should never allow them to heal. Next season we must constantly be aware that we have to manage the officials as well as the opposition. This season has been a painful lesson in the vagaries of the PGMOL plonkers. We must not give them any opportunity to shaft us because if we do – they will, for sure!
Thanks TTG – just what I wanted ! A chance to relive the torture of a uniquely tough, injury affected, appallingly refereed season. Very well put together piece though.
I still think PGMOL had decided to get their revenge on Arteta for criticising them at Newcastle – and ultimately getting away with it – after “that” goal the season before. Their never to be seen again decisions against us this season have cost us all the points we would have needed to close the final gap on Liverpool.
To be clear – Liverpool have been the best team over the season and deserve their league title. Injuries can happen at any time and we’ve had more than our share this season. The refereeing decisions we have seen should be investigated.
Thanks TTG
A well measured start to your trilogy.
UTA
Many thanks for the review, TTG. It picked out the first half of our season perfectly- from the optimism of the pre-season period, through, as you and many above have pointed out the obviously pointed Arsenal-only decisions, onto the incipient impact. Of injuries which would hang over the remainder of our season. Not excuses. Reasons.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cq695j843qro
I hadn’t realized TR7 had been having heart problems.
Seems from the article he has been living a mite too well….
Thanks for the review TTG, i wish I could say onwards
and upwards from here but I’ve seen the movie already.
It appears Zubimendi is just dotting the i’s and crossing the
T’s – be nice to get it done early.
An excellent roundup of our transfer news and speculation as of yesterday: https://arseblog.news/2025/05/zubimendi-paperwork-signed-lokonga-seeks-stability/
Fascinating tidbit from the 2023/24 financial accounts of the women’s team (h/t Swiss Ramble): its total annual wage bill, which, at £9 million, is the second highest in the WSL after Chelsea, was less than what Martinelli was paid.
Congratulations to c100 for his outstanding and enjoyable piece in the Gooner, “On The Road: Best and worst Arsenal awaydays across 2024-25“ 👏👏👏
DG, I thought about replying to you in the last drinks, but since you said you were signing off for the last time, I didn’t think you would read my reply. I’m not one of the regular commentators here, but I’ve been reading this blog and Holics’s before that since the beginning. I don’t know, and haven’t met, anyone here personally but I feel the regulars here are genuine. I certainly wish you the very best. Take care.
Just to give a preview of our post- season activity we will be reviewing the season at home and in Europe , looking at our competition outcomes , getting the away fan’s view from C100, assessing how we develop young players and who might be the next cab off the rank, looking, inevitably at the transfer window , assessing the injuries we suffered and why , looking at the strengths and weaknesses of Mikel Arteta and looking at the potential options for increasing our capacity .
Hopefully there will be much to occupy and interest us during the close season and we expect there to be lots of lively and interesting discourse on the blog .
Another entertaining season is ended and the goonerverse wait patiently for new player to make us that bit stronger
Many thanks TTG for an excellent first part review of the season. Your writing style is very pleasing to the eye – it has a wonderful flow. I’m looking forward to what follows.
Uply@18
How kind, many thanks
A very sheepish looking Albion player in the picture.
A masterly piece TTG. The research this must have taken is remarkable.
@21 C100, indeed, sufficient material for a PhD thesis I’d imagine?
BtM @22 the thought of reliving that season for three years fills me with horror.
Agreed for you and me. However, no better man than TTG to beaver his way to a climactic finish.
Lovely piece by a follower of the women’s team
https://www.onlinegooner.com/articles/view/my-people-my-purpose-my-club-a-love-letter-to-arsenal
Thanks C100, it was a great piece.
You’re up late Matt. Planning on watching the CL final?
I had been thinking about it but didn’t bother in the end.
Did you watch? Looks like an old-fashioned tanking from the result.
C100@25: Thanks for the link. That was a read to warm the cockles of your soul.
I’ve just seen the highlights of the CL final. We gave PSG two much tougher games than Inter managed. PSG were able to play the entire match like they played for the first 20 minutes against us before Arteta worked out how to shut them down. Simone Inzaghi could not come up with any answers.
Very good analysis Ned
Irrespective of the distasteful ownership/ sportwashing situation, Enrique had built a very exciting team . In reality the Premier League clubs were the only ones who could live with them .
Doue and Kvaratshkellia are generational talents but Hakimi who played centre forward for part of the game and Vitinha were exceptional too .
TTG @30 – I hardly think you can credit Enrique with building his team “irrespective” of their distasteful, sportswashing ownership. He has certainly built a brilliant, young, exciting, hard working team but that has been possible only precisely because of the oil state funding behind him.
His is the latest stage of a “journey” that would have bankrupted almost all other clubs – except those also funded by nation states, in fact.
Qatar’s whole World Cup “success” fiasco only cost around 7,000 immigrant lives just to get the stadia built. And don’t forget the thousands of others who, when they were eventually allowed to, returned home with kidney, heart and lung conditions because they weren’t even given enough water to drink during the construction.
That is the success which has helped to build the fund that finances PSG.
I was merely commenting on the quality if dude he built without signing galacticos and the intelligence of the football they played
Interesting stats
Quite the fairy tale eh ……
Petro state beats distressed debt investor. Beautiful game, eh?
C100 @34- surely that table is all the evidence needed for anyone rational to understand what has been undertaken. That this is dressed up as democratisation of the sport is yet another example of modern day gaslighting.
More importantly the first transfer window is open. Have we signed a striker?
A striker, you say? I can’t imagine we’ll be looking for one of those!
There are international matches this week and next so I’d imagine any signings will wait until they are over.
Utter bloody madness. So many players exhausted and even more injured and then in the ever shortening summer break that players actually have some numbskull organises pointless internationals. Quite brilliant.
Trev
I know you don’t like internationals but they have to be played sometime . The season doesn’t permit them to be played during a packed programme. Tuchel has something like 11 games before he leads England into a World Cup- which we might stand a chance in.
Above all ask Rice, Saka and Lewis- Skelly if they want to play for their country . I’m certain what the answer would be .
Don’t forget to add the Club World Cup into the summer fixture list, or the Premier League Summer Series (Bournemouth v West Ham v Everton v Man U) over here at the end of July/early August.
Ned
Very true. If we dropped internationals completely we’d end up with more meaningless club matches to fill the void …and the coffers .
TTG
“ Above all ask Rice, Saka and Lewis- Skelly if they want to play for their country . I’m certain what the answer would be .”
I’m sure you’re right but if the question were “would you like to play for your country twice in the middle of June ?” I wonder if it would affect their answer. I’m sure Arteta is thrilled to bits as well.
Trev
I agree the season is ridiculously long and very demanding . Internationals are played in June because there is no other time to play them . Certainly Tuchel wouldn’t agree these upcoming internationals are meaningless with a World Cup looming .
You could reduce the number of teams in the Premier League to 16, make the Carabao Cup a pre- season tournament with the final early in the season and the surgery to the FA Cup has already taken place .
That would reduce pressures and leave time for internationals but we know that the clubs want more and more money and players want ever higher wages .And broadcasters want more games to cover. Sky are going to cover live 60% of games in the PL next season . Less is more but not in football
Going down to 16 clubs in the Premier League would cut 140 games from what is now a 380-game league season. That would be far too many lost advertising slots for Sky to stomach.
There are seven rounds in the Carabao Cup as it has 92 entrants, so it wouldn’t be feasible to make it a preseason tournament, plus it would kill the possibility of lucrative preseason tours for the PL clubs. So that idea would seem to be off the table. You could make it just for Football League Clubs, but that would cost one PL club Thursday night football in the even Ropier Conference League.
No easy solutions.
There is also an AFCON Finals at the end of this year (Dec 21-Jan 18).
At least ‘Pool will have to get by without Salah for a month.
Have we signed a striker?
Lumps the ball up the pitch…
Takes ball down after it has spent an inordinate time high in the sky, with a Bergkampesque touch, spins and curls an enticing pass between two advancing lumpen defenders towards the penalty spot….
*strikes*
(not in the French way :-p)
Congratulations Ollie! You have a very English sense of humour ! Not sure how you feel about that
Well in for the half-ton, Ollie, although it would have added to the drama if you had burnt a few tires and released some sheep.
The review of the GHF Predictathon season in seven easy charts has been posted. Lots to revel in: final scores, the distribution of your predictions, a season-long bump chart that tracks your progress from the off to the end, and more
You know where to find it all…
Ned @53 and all concerned with the predictathon
Masterly work all and a masterly summary Ned. My grateful thanks.
C100’s words of thanks to Ned are very well merited
Ned has done a wonderful job in turning an online conversation we had about a competition I had been involved in for some years into a reality with wonderful data analysis and regular commentary through the season. Perhaps most importantly it has raised a serious sum of money for the Willow Foundation
Another winner beginning with P. Interesting !
Many thanks Ned
PTG 😀
C100 & TTG: Thank you for your kind words. It has been my pleasure — and as they say, if you’ve had half as much pleasure out of playing the Predictathon as I have out of administering it, then I have had twice as much pleasure as you.
And none of it would happen without the work Bath, Scruz and TTG put in, too.
We’ve raised some serious coin for Willow and that is main thing.
Thanks Ned, your excellent management has been at a level far above my mediocre, at best, forecasting. I will endeavor to do better next year but then I said that last year.
Anyway, cheers all, drinks of your choice on the bar 🍹 🍺 🥤 🥃
Ned – I’ve only just got to look T the Predictathon charts, etc
Many thanks for a brilliant job throughout the season 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Impressive work, Ned! Thanks and congratulations. No monks involved in that particular task either, I believe?
Many thanks Ned for your outstanding Predictathon administration, analysis, humor, and not least of all, CHARTS! I do fully intend to print, laminate, and post those twin bump charts but haven’t yet chosen the perfect spot to place them in my house. It’s currently down to the back corner of the bike shed or above the bathroom fixture but I may need to do some polling on this score. 😎🍷
This is the list of players leaving the club this summer when their contracts end. Jorginho and KT3 we knew about, and Sterling and Neto were loanees. The rest are from the U-21s, U-18s and the Women’s team, including some for whom there were high hopes at one point. Any you think we might regret letting go?
Nathan Butler-Oyedeji
Reece Clairmont
Khayon Edwards
Jakai Fisher
Romari Forde
Teyah Goldie
Jimi Gower
Jack Henry-Francis
Lina Hurtig
Amanda Ilestedt
Jorginho
Max Kuczynski
Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand
Ismail Oulad M’Hand
Neto
Brian Okonkwo
Elian Quesada-Thorn
Zacariah Shuaib
Raheem Sterling
Kieran Tierney
Brilliant data analytics and charts – thank you Ned and the kind words – flattery will get you everywhere. Where you have monks though, I am probably the equivalent of the monkey who typed out the collected works of Shakespeare. Proud Arsenal supporter of 50+ years, but always from afar. Here’s my tip for next season’s Predictathon: Arsenal #1!
ned@61, the m’hand brothers i wonder about, though their size might be an issue (as with jimi gower). edwards was also in good form, though injured a lot. sad for him. there are still a number of those mentioned in the hale end documentary from a couple years back that are playing (including alexei rojas, josh nichols, michael rosiak, seb ferdinand, and maldini kacurri) and still with the club. i doubt it will be hard for most of those cut to make inroads at a slightly lower level and succeed.
and ned, thanks for the hard work on the predictathon. so impressive, and so much fun to watch over the 38. congrats potsticker!
Scruz@63: You are right about the size factor, I’m sure. The same applies to Butler-Oyedeji, who otherwise looked promising in his first-team cameo towards the end of the season. Several of them have been dogged by injury, and a number, like Gower and Henry-Francis, have just aged out. The other thing is that MLS and Nwaneri have shown that if you are a youngster, you’ve got to be good enough not just to be training with the first team by the time you are 17 or so, but also knocking on the door of matchday minutes. That is a high bar to clear.
btw, the club says it is still in contract discussions with Michael Rosiak.
Ned, thank you for all the hard work on the Predictathon this season. It was great fun to participate in, even if I have serious neck ache as a result of looking upwards. And thanks to all those who supported in its production. Great stuff.
In other news, Fabregas to Inter is the talk in the Italian papers, as Inzaghi takes the oil money in the Middle East.
I’ve finally caught up with Ned’s superb review of this season’s Predictathon. A fabulous analysis of the affair which must have been challenging to produce in such a coherent format – not to mention the precise colouring in of the charts by the monks whose centuries of Icon and manuscript production has clearly stood them in good stead. Thanks again Ned for a season of hard labour and punctual production of the fruits of each game week. Bravo!
As CER says @65 Inzaghi does seem to be taking the oil money but he got a well-disciplined Inter side to the CL final, 2nd in the league and the Italian Cup semi-finals before getting absolutely hammered in the press in Italy as an abject failure. I thought he’d done well to get that group of players that far and in the circumstances I can’t entirely blame him for stomping off in a huff and taking the money.
To me it looks like a poisoned chalice for Cesc but who knows – also I thought he was part-owner of Como. Not sure I want a manager part-owning one club and managing another!
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