Jump to content
IGNORED

The Nketiah Deal - behind the scenes (long article)


redordead1

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, chinapig said:

The player and Arsenal were entitled to make their choice. What sticks in my craw is the fact that, if the reporting was accurate, neither he nor anybody representing him had the courtesy to inform us that he wouldn't be turning up for the medical.

If that tells us something about his character we may be better off without him.

 

I wonder whether anyone at leeds bothered to tell him he wouldn't be playing in their last 2 league games?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Robin1988 said:

The article needs taking with a pinch of salt but you're putting your fingers in your ears too.

12 months ago Joe Bryan was physically at Aston Villa's training ground and yet he still didn't sign for the club. I think it was the the year before that Sheffield United set up a medical for Jerome Sinclair from Watford and he never arrived because his agent told him not to go.

Obviously we look out for City's interests but funnily enough Arsenal don't. Stuff like this happens all the time, and I doubt LJ has any beef with Arsenal about it. It's totally reasonable that we had a medical ready, if we were still in the mix on the final day of the transfer window of course you would prepare.

Phil Hay makes out it was all down to Victor Orta's great presentation and plenty of people in this thread have pointed out it sounds a lot more like his connection to Emery but that aside it doesn't seem unreasonable.

It's interesting that there have been a few posts feeding back comments from clubs that have praised the way City dealt with them over transfer business - Posh were the latest I think regarding Eisa's transfer.

I suspect that SL wants the club to act in the same way he has always done business i.e. with integrity, and this is demonstrated with the club's attitude to financial rules and ffp. Unfortunately, integrity appeared to be a commodity that is in short supply within top level football, and not because of Brexit!  

Are we being over optimistic or niaive  in expecting other clubs to treat us the way we would treat them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Robin1988 said:

The article needs taking with a pinch of salt but you're putting your fingers in your ears too.

12 months ago Joe Bryan was physically at Aston Villa's training ground and yet he still didn't sign for the club. I think it was the the year before that Sheffield United set up a medical for Jerome Sinclair from Watford and he never arrived because his agent told him not to go.

Obviously we look out for City's interests but funnily enough Arsenal don't. Stuff like this happens all the time, and I doubt LJ has any beef with Arsenal about it. It's totally reasonable that we had a medical ready, if we were still in the mix on the final day of the transfer window of course you would prepare.

Phil Hay makes out it was all down to Victor Orta's great presentation and plenty of people in this thread have pointed out it sounds a lot more like his connection to Emery but that aside it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Last week I saw a picture of Dan James holding up a Leeds shirt ready to be unveiled. Assuming it wasn’t fake it shows how close deals can be to being done and then not happen. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others have said, I can't see Nketiah starting while Bamford is scoring (that said, I'm surprised he didn't even come off the bench on Friday). Bielsa could alternate between the two, as Pep does with Aguero and Jesus, but I'm not sure that would keep Nketiah or Arsenal happy. It sounds to me like there could be trouble on the way in that respect. In hindsight, I'm thrilled we have Afobe. He has experience, great attitude and already seems to have fitted in with the other lads. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, AshtonGreat said:

As others have said, I can't see Nketiah starting while Bamford is scoring (that said, I'm surprised he didn't even come off the bench on Friday). Bielsa could alternate between the two, as Pep does with Aguero and Jesus, but I'm not sure that would keep Nketiah or Arsenal happy. It sounds to me like there could be trouble on the way in that respect. In hindsight, I'm thrilled we have Afobe. He has experience, great attitude and already seems to have fitted in with the other lads. 

Is it a season long loan?

If not, wouldn't it be some sort of poetic justice if EN gets little game time at Leeds and Arsenal  ask if we want him in the January window, but because Afobe is playing and scoring well we tell them 'thanks but no thanks"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RedSkin said:

If the article is true, I'd have thought the friendship only help pipped them to the deal over us.  Put it this way, if Neil Warnock was a friend and he did a presentation on how he wanted to hoof the ball up the NK, I don't think it would have swung it Neil's way.

Only right that Arsenal should do due diligence to protect their player.  NK is a highly valuable asset, and I am sure they also have the players interests at heart too.  A poor loan could really set a player back. Maybe not to the same level of detail, but I'd expect us to do some sort of assessment on clubs we loan players to as well.

Fair enough: on reflection I actually don't disagree with you about much of that. As you will have gathered, I was quite pissed off when I wrote the original post. I've calmed down a bit now (a process helped considerably by a couple of fairly promising performances from Afobe).

That said, I do stick with the view that whilst it may be accepted by many as par for the course in the modern game, certain aspects of Arsenal's behaviour don't sit comfortably with me and still seem, let's just say, pretty shabby as far as I'm concerned. You could, I suppose, put it like this: sometimes, it's not what's done, it's how it's done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, downendcity said:

It's interesting that there have been a few posts feeding back comments from clubs that have praised the way City dealt with them over transfer business - Posh were the latest I think regarding Eisa's transfer.

I suspect that SL wants the club to act in the same way he has always done business i.e. with integrity, and this is demonstrated with the club's attitude to financial rules and ffp. Unfortunately, integrity appeared to be a commodity that is in short supply within top level football, and not because of Brexit!  

Are we being over optimistic or niaive  in expecting other clubs to treat us the way we would treat them?

I think it is when you're at the top level. At the end of the day, we need them more than they need us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Last week I saw a picture of Dan James holding up a Leeds shirt ready to be unveiled. Assuming it wasn’t fake it shows how close deals can be to being done and then not happen. 

It's from the Amazon Prime documentary about Leeds... the one they got the huff about when they weren't given the freedom of Ashton Gate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, downendcity said:

Is it a season long loan?

If not, wouldn't it be some sort of poetic justice if EN gets little game time at Leeds and Arsenal  ask if we want him in the January window, but because Afobe is playing and scoring well we tell them 'thanks but no thanks"?

Poetic justice would be saying 'Ta' and sticking him on the bench. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 15/08/2019 at 17:03, the1stknowle said:

Well Professor..

1. When you make comments like 'actively seeking to put local newspapers out of business', it's probably you that needs to show your workings. Or just some evidence. Or do you mean 'they are trying to write better stories about local teams' - which is a different thing now, isn't it. That would be the market working to put local newspapers out of business.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/sports/the-athletic-newspapers.html

“?? ???? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ???????????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???? ????????,” ???? ??????, ? ??-??????? ?? ??? ????????, ???? ?? ?? ????????? ?? ??? ?????????. “?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ??????. ?? ???? ???? ???????? ????????? ????????? ??? ????.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 29AR said:

Poetic justice would be saying 'Ta' and sticking him on the bench. 

Poetic justice would be asking him down for a medical and us not turning up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, cityboy said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/sports/the-athletic-newspapers.html

“?? ???? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ???????????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???? ????????,” ???? ??????, ? ??-??????? ?? ??? ????????, ???? ?? ?? ????????? ?? ??? ?????????. “?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ??????. ?? ???? ???? ???????? ????????? ????????? ??? ????.”

But that is the market he is talking about. The plan is not to burn down local newspapers or sabotage them. The plan is to do the job of local sports coverage better than them. Which is a good thing for fans.

And good for journalists too:

"One new staffer told Press Gazette anonymously: “It wasn’t a particularly hard sell. Every journalist wants the time and resources to do good work, and this puts quality front and centre.

“With other sports websites engaged in a depressing race to the bottom, this feels like a timely attempt to raise the level… the positivity has been infectious.”"

https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/the-athletic-launches-in-the-uk-with-focus-on-local-coverage-of-premier-league-football-teams/

 

Conversely, stealing their good, hard work and sticking it on a forum for all to read and then encouraging other people to do the same regularly is directly destroying good journalism. That's not the market working. That's someone being a thief with the intention of putting such good journalists out of work. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, if you read down the article, then your selective quote taking is a lot undermined:

 

"To understand why The Athletic is so brazen about its vulture strategy, one must appreciate the state of play at local and regional newspapers throughout the country. Under dire financial duress, many have put extraordinary demands on beat writers to produce heavy volumes of content, often without wage increases. The reporters are sometimes the most knowledgeable sources of information on the teams they cover, but they are afforded little opportunity to step back and write impactful articles."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, downendcity said:

Is it a season long loan?

If not, wouldn't it be some sort of poetic justice if EN gets little game time at Leeds and Arsenal  ask if we want him in the January window, but because Afobe is playing and scoring well we tell them 'thanks but no thanks"?

Yeah season-long loan. And maybe we  could have both! Actually I wouldn' t want Nketiah now

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was always a weird decision for Arsenal to chose Leeds over us. Bigger club with a better chance of promotion yes, but given its a loan that surely matters much less than playing time. He was never going to be more than a backup at Leeds, whereas here he'd have been playing almost every week I'd imagine. I'm surprised that didn't factor in more heavily to there thinking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, OldlandReddies said:

If he doesn't start at home against one of the weaker teams Brentford, then I fear he will be full of splinters before season end.

Wouldn't class Brentford as one of the weaker sides tbh. Some very good players and an excellent style.

Gave us the runaround twice in 2017/18 for a start.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, cityboy said:

It was always a weird decision for Arsenal to chose Leeds over us. Bigger club with a better chance of promotion yes, but given its a loan that surely matters much less than playing time. He was never going to be more than a backup at Leeds, whereas here he'd have been playing almost every week I'd imagine. I'm surprised that didn't factor in more heavily to there thinking.

Agreed.  I think it made a lie of everything Arse said they wanted for the lad.  It is entirely possible that Afobe will outscore Eddie this season, if for no other reason that Afobe gets 30 games and Eddie gets 10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 15/08/2019 at 10:45, Kid in the Riot said:

Hardly a surprise that Leeds are scouting Arsenal or their u23s though....they wouldn't have just been watching Nketiah and of course they'd have had loads of data and detail on him given he's one of the bright young English talents. 

I'm a bit tired of Leeds and Bielsa being made out to be this revolutionary club that uses so much data and scouts opposition teams in great detail. Most top level clubs do it now, even us but because it's Bielsa and Leeds the media lap it up...

Moved out on loan to get game time Instead of sitting on the bench for Arsenal. Now sitting on the bench for Leeds. Can't see Arsenal being happy at the end of the season

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Magicseason said:

Moved out on loan to get game time Instead of sitting on the bench for Arsenal. Now sitting on the bench for Leeds. Can't see Arsenal being happy at the end of the season

Yep I called it ages ago mate, he should've come here. Whoever made the final decision did not make it in Nketiahs best footballing interests. Real shame 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...