Howdy folks, how we all doing? Good?

I’ve come down with a bloody cold, which is a bit annoying given I’m due to be flying to Berlin for a cheeky weekend away with the wife tomorrow night. Hopefully I’ve shifted it for tomorrow though. In the meantime, let’s have a pause and a sad face for poor ol’ Jurrien Timber, who the club yesterday confirmed he’d done his ACL and that means that he’s due for surgery and will be out of action for quite some time. I just Googled how long it takes for somebody to be out and this was the first response I got.

🙁

That is just for normal people and it’s suggesting six months to a year to be able to return to sport. But these players are highly tuned athletes in a sport in which every little marginal gain is everything. That means he might be able to start doing light jogging/running by about January, having spent six months with his muscles degrading, it’ll probably be another two to three from there before he’ll be training with the first team. That takes him to March this season and by the time he’s fit for matches it’ll probably be April. The season finishes in May so for all intents and purposes, his season is over before it ever really started.

I can’t even begin to imagine how gutted he is. He was doing so well, he’d got in to the first team starting XI, made his debut and looked good in that side for the first half against Forest. Now he is reduced to being a spectator and not able to help his new teammates out on the pitch. It is a massive blow for him, it is a massive blow for us, a sad incident that hopefully he can recover from.

So, what else is new then? How about this little Douzy on FourFourTwo about Flo Balogun to the Scum? Now that would be one heck of a move from all parties, but I can’t see it happening, not from Arsenal’s side anyway. The only way that deal even gets remotely considered is if Arsenal get top dollar for him – say, £60million – then we add a buy back clause ON TOP of that money. Can you imagine us doing that deal, Flo absolutely banging at The Scum, then Daniel Levy thinking he’s got himself another £100million+ footballer that he’d never sell back to us in a million years?

I can’t see it. The only way Arsenal should sanction that is if they get a cast iron guarantee that if we sell him for £50million, or £60million, that we can buy him back within three years for £65million. And I doubt Levy would do that deal. No way.

There’s a semi-Arsenal related news item doing the round with West Ham supposedly interested with Mavropanos, but I’d be looking at that with my Arsenal specs only if there’s some noises about us having some kind of sell on clause that we would get from the deal. Mavropanos was a decent player, occasionally injured, never really got the chance at The Arsenal. But we sold him so cheaply just a year ago for €3.2million, that if there ISN’T a sell on fee due to the club if he goes, then you’d have to chalk it down as another poor bit of work in our ability to sell players. If he goes for £15million, for example, you’d be hoping that we had a tidy 20 – 25% sell on fee due back to us, which would be north of £3million and better than a kick in the teeth, that’s for sure.

There’s also some noises about Nuno Tavares to Forest doing the round too, which makes sense because there’s absolutely no chance he’s forcing his way back in to Arteta’s plan. Before the Timber injury I would say that Tavares was probably sixth choice left back behind Zinchenko, Timber, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Kiwior, so it makes sense that we’d try to find a buyer for him. We bought him for around €8million (around £6.8million) and the fee that has been mooted is £7million, which I think would probably have Arsenal saying “alright then”. He started brilliantly at Marseille and was bagging a few goals, but his errors and erratic nature eventually won out – much like it did with us – and so I suspect Arsenal would be happy with a deal that washes its face. And for Nuno it would mean a Premier League club, more game time, a chance to prove himself and probably do it at a team with less expectation than Arsenal or Marseille. At Forest he probably could have a few brain fart moments as he’s prone to do. They loved Djed Spence at Forest a couple of season’s back and he was that kind of player who was raw one week, but superb the next, so I can see why this deal might be a possibility. I bet Forest fans would be happy to see a left back who can have one superb game every four if it means he’s scoring goals and adding a little flair to their side. At Arsenal that kind of inconsistency was never going to cut it. Worth a punt but just not something the club can accept, especially with somebody like Arteta in charge.

Right, that’s probably about it from me for today, so I’ll toddle off to work and catch you all tomorrow.

You have yourself a good one, ya’hear?