Morning all.
Arsenal are in Eire and for the primary time in weeks and weeks, we’ve had rain. Coincidence? A portent of the season forward? Virtually actually. However that is simply one other a kind of issues you must take care of as champions. As Mikel Arteta stated, “We all know this can be a very extremely organised climate system, with some excellent droplets, and we now have ready for it”.
I assume they’ll do some coaching at their resort right this moment earlier than the sport in opposition to Actual Betis tomorrow, and I’ve already seen photos of some followers with a few of the gamers. Fairly amusingly, and I received’t point out his identify right here, a person I used to be at school with all all through the junior and senior years, and who is clearly an enormous Arsenal fan, bought himself a selfie with Max Dowman. Truthful play, Peter.
Oooops.
Anyway, I’m positive he received’t thoughts. I simply discover the close to 40 12 months age hole hilarious, and the pull of Arsenal Soccer Membership is sort of one thing.
In the meantime, we await developments on transfers, and issues are transferring at glacial tempo. Apparently we opened official talks with Newcastle over Bruno Guimaraes yesterday, however I heard yesterday we hadn’t really completed that. Possibly we now have now. Or will do right this moment. Then we now have a Brazil primarily based ESPN journalist saying the deal between the golf equipment has been completed for the reason that weekend, and Newcastle are simply delaying till they’ve a substitute lined up. Which is likely to be a severe subject for us as a result of no person desires to affix them this summer season, it appears.
I child, however clearly this has been an uncommon pursuit, with a lot of it carried out by brokers and intermediaries, a kind of being our outdated good friend Kia Joorabchian who works very carefully with Guimaraes’ company. The participant has travelled to Spain to Newcastle’s coaching camp, which is clearly the best factor for him to do whereas issues stay up within the air, and we’ll simply have to attend and see what transpires over the course of the week.
And in Madrid, Vinicius Junior is again at Actual Madrid, and there are contract talks deliberate, but additionally no contract talks deliberate. There’s a hiccup over picture rights, a discrepancy within the ‘general bundle’, a willingness to speak however no plans to sit down down and talk about a brand new deal from the facet of the membership. The participant is keen to have that dialogue however feels let down they’re making it troublesome. We’re learning his physique language and facial expressions once we get a 2 second clip of him and Jose Mourinho on the coaching floor. His agent is posting Instagram tales about how the ITKs are peddling libel, and within the meantime he’s additionally posting about how he’s flying to London, and that is manna from heaven for the Web.
We love a very good aircraft story. It’s superb to me that they haven’t began paying baggage handlers and cabin crew for inside information. It received’t be lengthy earlier than we tick the packing containers of cloud formations, the type of bush that’s within the background of an image which is native solely to the London Colney space, the colors of the emojis utilized in social media posts, and Abou Diaby’s contacts down on the Mosque. Which is to say that is, as we thought it could be, a little bit of a saga.
We reside in a world of incremental non-update updates. It’s like turning your laptop on within the morning, it tells you it has to replace, you wait an hour for it to obtain and set up it, then when it restarts it’s precisely the identical besides the font weight is ever so barely totally different on one of many menu bars. Or is it? It appears just about the identical. The replace should occur although. For a way can we even know we’re alive with out any individual saying one thing about one thing always?
I realise that I’m sitting right here saying one thing every single day too, however it’s barely totally different in that I’m not in regards to the inside scoops on transfers. I very not often get that type of information, and if/after I do it’s normally greatest to maintain it quiet. Which isn’t to say I do know something about this deal, by the way in which, but when I did I wouldn’t say something anyway. I don’t want that warmth. So, the state of play is that the 2 Brazilians we need to signal are presently in Spain, Arsenal are in Dublin (or an adjoining county for the second anyway), and possibly London is the place everybody meets within the center.
Let’s see.
Should you’re travelling to Dublin for the sport, there’s a useful thread about pre-match pubs right here:
Coming to Dublin for the Arsenal sport this week?This pub tour will convey you to a few of Dublin’s greatest bars on the 30 min stroll from city to the Aviva stadium.Let’s discuss Temple Bar first. It is a vacationer space the place Dubliners very not often go. Suppose Covent Backyard. My pubs are significantly better. 1/4
— Darragh (@darraghdor.bsky.social) 2026-08-02T09:34:02.743Z
The essential rule of thumb is keep away from most – however not all – locations in Temple Bar (not less than till such time as you’ve had sufficient Guinness to not care about how a lot your subsequent pint prices). The Dublin Arsenal Supporter’s Membership meet on the River Bar on O’Connell Bridge, so there’s certain to be a very good crew there pre-game tomorrow, and Lansdowne Highway (Aviva Stadium) could be very walkable from town centre – or you will get the DART if you have to.
Proper, I’m gonna depart it there for now. Now we have our reside occasion this night at The Sugar Membership, so you may be a part of me, James, Elliot and Tim for some fairly informal Arsenal chat, and some beers, and we’re wanting ahead to seeing these of you who bought tickets afterward.
Have a very good one people!
