THE CAPTIVE VOID OF NOBLE RAGE<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so close \u2026 At the end of the day, really, they made him an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse \u2026 It shows where we\u2019re trying to aim for the club \u2026 There has been a lot of stuff written in the papers that you have to take on the chin I\u2019m afraid \u2013 they should be talking about how well the England cricket team are playing at the moment.\u201d Words said not by Mikel Arteta about Arsenal missing out on Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior<\/a> after the Brazilian megastar signed a new Real Madrid contract, but by Glenn Hoddle in 2002, as Tottenham missed out on signing \u2026 yes, Rivaldo<\/a>. That last sentence was probably a dead giveaway. Tottenham\u2019s solution to the Brazilian-shaped hole in their transfer ambitions was to sign Robbie Keane to his boyhood club. What might Arsenal do next? Eye up Cristian Romero, you say<\/a>?<\/p>\n Arsenal\u2019s unrequited chase for Vin\u00edcius brought to bear the fantasy world that fans reside in when the transfer window is open and no actual competitive football is being played. Just imagine what he might have done to defences in Our League. In that netherworld of reverie there are no wet Tuesday nights at Stoke, nobody gets knacked, nobody fails to settle, they just score a gazillion goals and outperform their xG. Imagine football heaven, it\u2019s easy if you try.<\/p>\n There is a flip side. Transfer business, or lack thereof, can also lead to a summer of angst. See the social media disgrace wails of certain vocal fans at Liverpool and their exasperation that Virgil van Dijk, 73, is the sole senior Red Men centre-back. Perhaps the balm of signing Bradley Barcola will soothe, though that is not yet a DONE DEAL. Arsenal fans have already consoled themselves with the imminent addition of Bruno Guimar\u00e3es; who needs Big Vin when the other Brazilian can supply passes to, er Gabriel Martinelli?<\/p>\n Each summer includes a deal that unlocks others. In a sign of the times, Madrid ponying up for a mega Vin\u00edcius deal rather than his doing one will likely shift tectonic plates. With him set to stay, Rodri whose winning of the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or caused an almighty strop<\/a> from the Brazilian and his club, lest we forget, is now highly unlikely to head to the Bernab\u00e9u. With Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 already on silly money, and now Vin\u00edcius too, thus there is no room at the inn for the Spain captain. Instead, Manchester City\u2019s main man and the Geopolitics World Cup\u2019s very best player is said to want to join Barcelona, which would be a huge loss to his current club and Our League. Such is the transfer window, where it is far better to have loved and lost than never to have signed anyone at all.<\/p>\n LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE<\/p>\n It\u2019s Friday night. It\u2019s Littlewoods Cup time. Join Billy Munday for updates from Middlesbrough 0-0 Wrexham (1-0 on pens) from 8pm BST.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been worried consistently and there has been one more step in [a] worrying direction every year, every part of the year. The trust is now gone for us, there is no way back for Infantino\u201d \u2013 Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness calls on Gianni Infantino to do one<\/a>, although the civil war engulfing Fifa has deepened with Mexico and Argentina backing him<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lise Klaveness, having none of it. Photograph: Amanda Pedersen Giske\/EPARECOMMENDED SUBSCRIBING<\/p>\n Want a pick of Big Website\u2019s best sportswriting and highlights from the past seven days in your inbox on Sunday? Well, subscribe to the Recap then<\/a>.<\/p>\n double quotation markMikel Arteta said after Arsenal\u2019s 3-1 loss to Betis that \u2018sometimes it\u2019s good to create even more fire in the belly\u2019 (yesterday\u2019s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). Having the squad eat American lettuce would probably be faster in that regard\u201d \u2013 George Ronczy.<\/p>\n double quotation markRe: commemorative days of the year (yesterday\u2019s Football Daily<\/a>). According to the website, 7 August is International Beer Day, with (appropriately) 8 August being International Hangover Day. That\u2019s well planned\u201d \u2013 Mark Jones.<\/p>\n double quotation markYou claim to have an ever-forgiving reader (yesterday\u2019s Football Daily<\/a>). That is some claim. Can you let us know who this poor, deluded sap is? That might go some way to proving it. It would also help the rest of us help to show them the error of their ways\u201d \u2013 Peter Holford (no, I\u2019m not the ever-forgiving reader).<\/p>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day goes to \u2026 George Ronczy. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE CAPTIVE VOID OF NOBLE RAGE \u201cWe were so close \u2026 At the end of the day, really,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-577657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}