Morning.
I can’t lie, I didn’t even know Man Utd were playing last night, but waking up to news they lost a penalty shoot-out to Grimsby in the EFL Cup is a funny way to start your Thursday. Not least because they were 2-0 down, pulled it back to 2-2, and then lost the shoot-out. On top of that, why is Benjamin Sesko going 10th?
Both Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt stepped up to go before an €80m striker. To add more context, the only remaining United player who hadn’t taken one was Andre Onana, their goalkeeper. I suppose it’s possible to read too much into something like that, maybe Sesko’s one weakness is penalties, but you’d be pretty vexed if your star centre-forward signing let a couple of defenders, and a midfielder the club are trying to force out the door, to step up ahead of him.
Stats update: I’ve just looked at Sesko’s penalty record in his career so far. Taken 11, missed none. Blimey. That makes it even more funny. It also means that Ruben Amorim has just 3 wins in his last 17 games as United boss, and all of those were last season. I think he demonstrated at Sporting that he’s a very capable coach, but in England his record is dismal. Has he forgotten everything he ever knew, or is he at a club that is such a clown-show, so irredeemably awful, that it allowed Sp*rs to win an actual trophy?
Maybe a little from Column A, a little from Column B, but I suspect it’s actually a lot from Column B. If I were Manchester United, I would simply not allow someone called Sir Jimmy to run my club, but maybe that’s just me. Some might say your stadium having its own waterfall, like Singapore airport, is a cool feature, but there’s not much call for that in England really.
What we can be certain of though is that Gary Neville is sad about all of this, and if there’s anything we need to cheer us up at any point of any day, it’s the idea that he’s at the end of his tether, crying on the phone to his brother Phil. Here’s what he had to say:
At this moment in time there has been a toxic culture and atmosphere created at the club over a 10-year period without its leader Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill who were propping the club up whilst the family to be fair was sat there in America glorifying the fact that they were part of it. We’re now seeing what has happened without Sir Alex Ferguson, without David Gill, without leadership. We’re now seeing what’s happening and it’s a mess and it cannot continue to go on, it can’t.
He didn’t say that yesterday, by the way. He said it three years ago. On August 14th 2022, the day after United had been beaten 4-0 by Brentford.
Neville: ‘It cannot continue to go on, it can’t.’
Man Utd: ‘Hold my cheap watery beer, while I fire all the catering ladies and set up an actual soup kitchen!’
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Speaking of the EFL Cup, the draw for the third round was made last night, and Arsenal will travel to League One side Port Vale. You never take anything for granted, but it’s the sort of tie that ought to allow Mikel Arteta to use the full depth of his squad. The last time the two sides met was in 1998, when we drew 0-0 at Highbury (the full depth of Arsene Wenger’s bench that night was Luis Boa Morte, Stephen Hughes and Christopher Wreh), before winning a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in the replay at their place.
Meanwhile, with just a few days remaining of the transfer window, there’s still focus on who might depart. I saw pictures of Fabio Vieira in training yesterday, which suggest there’s still some way to go between Arsenal and Stuttgart, if those discussions are even still ongoing. Elsewhere, Reiss Nelson has been linked with a £15m move to Crystal Palace, which would be a decent move for him and reasonable money if that’s what we generate.
There’s no question there’s talent there, but he has an injury record that would give anyone real pause for thought. He had been linked with Fulham, where he did well last season on loan before his serious hamstring injury, but they don’t appear to have really pushed for his return. It could be a question of finances, but maybe also caution about a player who spends a lot of time in the treatment room. I think it would be a solid transfer from his perspective, staying in the Premier League and in London, but let’s see how it plays out.
I also saw Albert Sambi Lokonga linked with a club in Turkey, but there’s always an abundance of caution required when it comes to transfers to that league. On the face of it, it’d make some sense, but the reality is so many players are reported to be of interest to Turkish clubs it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Mostly because there’s just so much chaff.
And on that note, having started with chaff and finished with chaff, I’ll leave it there. Have a great Thursday, and I should have an Arsecast for you a bit later today.
