Arsenal have talked a rather interesting swap deal to Barcelona.
Philippe Coutinho’s future at Barcelona is on rather thin ice. In fact, everything points towards the Catalans’ record signing leaving the club sooner rather than later. And if the latest reports are to be believed, Arsenal offer Mattéo Guendouzi to Barça in an attempt to secure the services of the Brazilian winger.
The 21-year-old midfielder has had a falling out with the club and it seems that the Gunners are willing to part with him if they can get a quality player in return. Of course, Barcelona also want to get rid of Coutinho but seeing how they value him at 80 million euros whereas Guendouzi is valued at around 40, there is a clear disparity between the two.
Over in France, the media are also reporting that the Azulgranas have, for that reason, requested both the player and additional 50 million euros from the English side while Arsenal only offer Guendouzi to Barça in a straight swap deal.
Mikel Arteta has been reluctant to use the midfielder since a fallout against Brighton & Hove Albion in June and increasing interest from Barcelona suggests he may not play for the north London club again.
But there have been new updates on the situation and it seems that Barcelona are willing to send both Ivan Rakitić and Arturo Vidal to the Emirates if that would see the young midfielder go the other way.
In that case, however, Coutinho would still remain a Barcelona player until the right offer, most likely for a different club, arrives. Luckily for the Catalans, he is no short of potential bidders, if the reports are to be believed.
Since we are in transfer season, I think it's the best way to talk about Arsenal's worst signing in history. However, here are some of the worst signings made by the Gunners, including the likes of Park Chu-Young and Christopher Wreh
Arsenal have signed some world-class players in their long and illustrious history, many of whom arrived during past two decades under manager Arsene Wenger. But for every Thierry Henry or Alexis Sanchez who has rocked up in north London, there has been a Francis Jeffers or a Denilson, dire under-performers who, in some cases, were acquired at great cost only to be sold without ever leaving a mark.
With the January transfer window now shut, Goal takes a look at some of the transfers Gunners fans would rather forget.
ANDREY ARSHAVIN | From Zenit | €19m | 2009 Arshavin arrived at Emirates Stadium to much fanfare following an impressive string of performances at Euro 2008, and the Russia international scored six goals and made seven assists in 12 Premier League games, helping Arsenal finish the 2008-09 season in the Champions League qualification spots.
His £15m transfer was a club record at the time and the attacking midfielder’s scintillating four-goal haul against Liverpool at Anfield will be remembered for years to come. However, his inconsistency and lethargic performances eventually saw him fall out of favour with many fans and he eventually departed for Zenit after finding his playing time limited.
AMAURY BISCHOFF | Free transfer | 2008 Arsene Wenger described the signing of Bischoff as a “gamble” due to midfielder’s history of injury problems. It never paid off because, even after eventually returning to fitness, Bischoff found himself low down in the midfield pecking order.
He revealed in an exclusive interview with Goal that he decided to leave Arsenal due to a lack of playing time, having seen just 25 minutes of action in a solitary Premier League outing.
“It wasn’t easy [to decide to leave], because I was injured,” Bischoff explained. “But I came back and gave it my all. Then the question came up whether to stay or to leave. “I talked to Wenger and then we decided that it might be better to leave the club because I wanted go play more games for the first team.”
MAROUANE CHAMAKH | Free transfer | 2010 Chamakh joined Arsenal on a free transfer from Bordeaux in 2010 and had a promising start to his Gunners career.
The striker scored 14 goals in 67 appearances before joining West Ham on loan in January 2013, but it was Robin van Persie’s rise to promise that saw him displaced from the starting line-up. Chamakh later revealed that he feels Wenger misled him over his first-team opportunities at Arsenal.
“I played for six months, I scored goals, I was decisive,” the Morocco international argued. “In January [2011], Robin (Van Persie) returned from injury and overnight, I landed on the bench without justification. “It is clear that I am a little annoyed at [Wenger] because I think I deserved more playing time than what I was given.
“As the year began, at the start of the season, he told me that we might change tactics and maybe I would be able to play up front with Robin.”
DENILSON | From Sao Paulo | £3.4m | 2006 Despite making over 150 appearances for Arsenal, it’s fair to say that the Brazilian midfielder never lived up to the lofty expectations of those who believed he was destined to become the Gunners’ new midfield star.
The former Brazil under-17 captain was physically weaker than many of his opponents and frustrated supporters with his tendency to pass sideways and backwards. His final seasons at Emirates Stadium were spent out on loan before he eventually decided to cancel his contract.
GERVINHO | From Lille | £10.8m | 2011 Arsenalsigned Gervinho at a time when Lille had the likes of Eden Hazard and Yohan Cabaye in their Ligue 1-winning team. It’s fair to say that Wenger signed the wrong player, as the Ivorian international never settled at Arsenal after coming in as a replacement for Samir Nasri.
Eleven goals in 69 appearances showed that he wasn’t the right man to lead Arsenal’s attack and a terrible open-goal miss against Bradford in the League Cup probably best sums up his Arsenal career
Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, Kimia Alizadeh has said on social media she had left her homeland.
The taekwondo champion, won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said she left because the Iranian authorities were using her as a propaganda tool.
Alizadeh implied in an Instagram post that she had now moved to Europe.
She wrote on an account she has used for some time, but it was not immediately possible to verify her location.
“No one has invited me to Europe and I haven’t been given a tempting offer.
“But I accept the pain and hardship of homesickness because I didn’t want to be part of hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery,” she said.
In a reaction, Mahin Farhadizadeh, a deputy Iranian sports minister, said: “I have not read Kimia’s post.
“But as far as I know she always wanted to continue her studies in physiotherapy,” the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
Alizadeh said the Islamic Republic’s authorities had attributed her success to their management and the fact that she wore the Islamic veil, which is obligatory in Iran.
“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran whom they’ve been playing for years… I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated,” she wrote.
“None of us matter for them, we are just tools.”
She said that while the government exploited her medals politically, officials would humiliate her with remarks such as “It is not virtuous for a woman to stretch her legs!”
Alizadeh said at the time of her medal in the 57kg category that it had made her happy for Iranian girls.
On Sunday she appeared torn by her decision.
“Should I start with hello, goodbye or condolences? Hello oppressed people of Iran, goodbye noble people of Iran, my condolences to you people who are always mourning,” she wrote.
In the past week, 176 people, many Iranians with dual citizenship, were killed when the Iranian military mistakenly shot a Ukrainian airliner down.
Also, at least 56 died in a stampede at the funeral for an Iranian military commander killed by a U.S. airstrike.
Alizadeh is the third top Iranian sports person to stop representing the country in recent months.
In December, Iran’s Chess Federation said top-rated chess champion Alireza Firouzja had decided not to play for Iran over its informal ban on competing against Israeli players.
Three months earlier, the International Judo Federation said Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei had refused to return home over fears for his safety.
This was after he ignored orders from his national federation to pull out of fights to avoid a potential final meeting with an Israeli. (Reuters/NAN)
The actual match between Arsenal and Chelsea seems to have taken a backseat in the build-up to the Europa League final with so much controversy swirling around the contest taking place in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku.
There have been widespread complaints about the distance the teams and supporters have to travel, the lack of tickets on offer to each club and the fact that Arsenal’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not playing because of political tensions between his country and Azerbaijan.
Obviously some of the issues in terms of distance only arose when two English teams qualified for the final, but with other problems entirely foreseeable, the question is being asked: Why did UEFA take the Europa League final to Baku?
The decision was announced in September 2017 after the UEFA Executive Committee met in Nyon and little was explained over the choice to head to Azerbaijan. A UEFA announcement simply read: ‘The Olympic Stadium in Baku has been selected to host the 2019 UEFA Europa League final. ‘To be held on 29 May 2019, the final will be the first such decider played in the Azerbaijani capital.
The stadium was built for the 2015 European Games and has previously been chosen to stage three group games and a quarter-final at UEFA EURO 2020. ‘The stadium was one of the arenas used for the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, attracting a competition-record 33,000 crowd for Azerbaijan’s opening game against Poland. Baku was also a venue for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and hosted the 2014 UEFA Futsal Cup finals.’
Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang trains at the Olympic Stadium (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
In June of 2017, UEFA announced that there were three bids formally submitted to host the 2019 Europa League final, with Seville’s Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and Vodafone Park in Istanbul being the other two. What we have to go on to see why Azerbaijan beat Spain and Turkey in this race is UEFA’s Evaluation Report which also covered the bids for the Champions League final, Women’s Champions League final and Super Cup.
Report which also covered the bids for the Champions League final, Women’s Champions League final and Super Cup.
The document praised the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) for producing, ‘a very creative and professional presentation of its vision, concept and anticipated legacy.’
There is no mention of the potential issue of Armenian players competing in the final, with UEFA summing up: ‘The AFFA confirms that there are no legal or other constraints that would impact the fulfilment of the host associations’ obligations.’ This is despite UEFA being well aware of tensions as they keep the countries apart in international competition draws.
UEFA were satisfied by the travel situation, which entirely comes down to fans traveling into Heydar Aliyev airport, which is 20km outside of Baku. The Evaluation Report stated: ‘Due to its geographical location, most foreign spectators would arrive in Baku by air, resulting in high demand for flights.
Heydar Aliyev International Airport is the only international airport within easy reach of Baku. The in and outbound airport capacity meets the requirements. ‘ Despite this assessment, The Times reported that the airport’s small capacity of only accommodating 15,000 passengers-per-day was part of the reason that Arsenal and Chelsea were only offered 6,000 tickets each.
The stadium holds just over 70,000 people (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
The tiny amount of tickets on offer to fans of the clubs competing was seen as a real problem by many, but it was something brought up in Azerbaijan’s bid and accepted by UEFA in the evaluation.
The hotel facilities in Baku do not meet the minimum requirement set out by UEFA, but as the number of tickets on offer to foreign fans are hugely restricted, the failure was ignored.
‘Although the number of hotel rooms within a 60km radius of the stadium falls short of UEFA’s minimum requirements for fans, visitors and UEFA’s key target groups, the lower share of tickets allocated to the two finalist teams reduces potential risks,’ read the Evaluation Report.
In comparison, Seville’s and Istanbul’s hotel arrangements exceeded minimum requirements.
Choosing a destination that has to offer the finalists a feeble amount of tickets for their fans does seem odd.
However, despite the lack of tickets, both Arsenal and Chelsea have returned a substantial amount of their allocation due to the difficulty of getting to Baku.
6,000 tickets were awarded to each club and a UEFA spokesperson said: ‘Approximately 6,000 tickets have been returned by the two finalists together.’
How will you watch the game from Madrid on June 1? CREDIT: AFP
Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur meet in Madrid for the first all-English Champions League final since 2008 when Manchester United triumphed over Chelsea on penalties.
Both teams’ run to the biggest game in European club football has been remarkable, with Liverpool overturning a three-goal deficit against Barcelona and Spurs doing likewise with a last-minute Lucas Moura goal against Ajax in their semi-final.
Neither Jurgen Klopp nor Mauricio Pochettino have won a major trophy at their respective clubs but one of them will be able to shake off that criticism by close of play at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
Liverpool reached last year’s Champions League final, only to lose 3-1 to Real Madrid after losing Mohamed Salah to a shoulder injury in the first-half.
Victory would be Liverpool’s sixth European Cup, while Spurs are playing in their first ever European Cup final. Here are all the ways you can watch it.
When is the Champions League final?
The Champions League final will take place on Saturday, June 1.
There is exclusive live coverage on BT Sport 2. Alternatively, you can bookmark this page and return on matchday to follow all the action on our dedicated live blog.
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