Arsenal latest news: Pepe contract decision | Tomiyasu's amazing day | Champions League disaster

Hello everyone, Charles Watts here. It is Sunday. I hope wherever you're watching or listening to this around the world, you are having a fantastic weekend. We're, what, eight days now into the Interlol? Seven days actually. It was seven days today, wasn't it? That fantastic win for Arsenal against Manchester United at the Emirates last weekend. Who could forget that? I was just talking to someone about that actually, about how great that day was. Still can't flick past that Gabriel Jesus goal, if it pops up on my timeline at the moment. So yeah, only seven days to go to Arsenal are back in action against Everton next weekend. Of course, that was a game that was going to be being played on the Saturday, but it's now been switched to the Sunday. Arsenal are heading to Goodison Park. Can they finally get that Goodison Park hoodoo off their chest? Fingers crossed they can. They didn't manage it last year. A horrible, horrible day up on the blue half of Merseyside last season, that 1-0 defeat in Sean Dyche's first game in charge. Arsenal are going to face exactly the same sort of thing at Goodison next weekend. Hopefully they are better equipped to deal with it and they put in a better performance than they did last weekend. We've got quite a few things to talk about today, even though it is Sunday, even though it's relatively quiet. Of course, we'll talk about Nicolas Pepe, who has now finally left Arsenal. It has been confirmed by the club. We'll talk about a very disappointing night for Arsenal women in the Champions League, or a disappointing day for Arsenal women in the Champions League. Awful result that, you know, real consequences in terms of the season. To come, going out against Paris FC yesterday, and we'll talk about some of the international football that has gone on. We've got some comments and questions from you guys as well, so plenty to discuss. And we'll start with Nicolas Pepe, who Arsenal have now confirmed has left the club. That statement come in sort of late yesterday afternoon. Arsenal saying we've agreed with Nicolas to terminate his contract with immediate effect. Everyone at Arsenal thanks Nicolas for his contribution during his time with us and wish him well for the future. They talk about how he, you know, his brief sort of time at the club, made 111 appearances in all competitions. And obviously highlight there that he played a key role in the FA Cup win in 2020 as well. And we all knew this was happening. Of course, it's been going on just throughout the last few days. Travis and Spaulding have been posting pictures of him on their private plane, heading over to Turkey. Some pictures from Pepe himself on Instagram, signing the contract and putting out a little message as well. We were just waiting for the official confirmation from Arsenal, as I spoke about yesterday in yesterday's episode that I'd seen that there were reports that Arsenal would get a nominal fee, but I was kind of being told that that wasn't the case and it was going to be a contract termination. And that's, of course, now been confirmed. So Arsenal's second highest transfer fee ever, the £72 million they paid Lil for Nicolas Pepe in 2019. Four years later, they have paid him to leave with one year left on that contract. So in fact, they still owe, I believe, because of the payment structure, that there was agreed with Lil at the time of signing of £72 million. That was going to be spread over to five years, of course. I believe they still probably have a payment still to make to Lil for Nicolas Pepe. So yeah, a very costly error at the end. Obviously, I spoke about it in the last couple of videos in terms of my thoughts on Pepe as a player and how I don't think he was dreadful at all during his time at Arsenal. When he played, he played pretty well at times. As I said, he had a big part to play in the FA Cup win in 2020. He had a really good season, a really good end to the second season. He scored a lot of goals in all competitions when Arteta was in charge, but then it all just sort of faded away. He clearly wasn't a £72 million player, but he had some good moments. But Arsenal kind of moved on from him, didn't really fit Arteta's plans. And of course, he had a massive thing in front of him called Bakaya Saka, who came in and just, you know, was basically undroppable after making his way into the team. So that didn't help Nicolas Pepe either. And he ended up losing. It is very sad. There have been lots and lots of comments and questions about Nicolas Pepe over the last few days on the channel in the replies to the videos I've done. Some people are sort of angry at Arteta for the way he treated Nicolas Pepe, felt he should have been given more of an opportunity. Other people happy that he's gone and it can kind of draw a line under the saga. We've got one here from Crefton, saying Pepe is worth much more. And if it wasn't so obvious, we desperately wanted to get rid of him. We'd have got more. We're really terrible at selling. We are so public in how we value our players, so open in what relations are like with the manager in the club. We don't hold cards close to our chest and it's hurting us. At the same time, these things take time to change. Improvement has been made. It's just that the window has been a step back on that improvement. According to me, even though we probably got market value for Pelican, the holding deal was just atrocious, bordering on shameful. How, how we got so little for an English Premier League proven centre-back to be on. I mean, it probably wouldn't have been better and it probably would have been better to keep him as image for our club. Yeah, I agree. I think we were all looking at this summer as a summer to see how Arsenal did. Could they improve that image that they've got in terms of being poor sellers? I don't think they really have. I don't think they've done terribly. I think there's been some good deals. You know, Granit Xhaka one, I think has turned out to be a good deal despite him being a very good player. I think they got good money for Granit Xhaka. But like you said, the Rob Holden one, I think it's just atrocious piece of business. I don't understand how that has happened or why that has happened. I'd rather have kept Rob Holden for the season and then and have him in the squad as a potential backup option, then give him away to one million pounds to another Premier League club. I just don't get that. Pepe, I can see there'd be mistakes made and I think Arteta doesn't help himself at times when he, the way he manages players who are out in the cold a little bit, you know, their plummet, their value does plummet as a result. And, you know, I'm certainly not the only person to think that. I know people think that about him. And you look at Ainsley Maitland-Niles, for example, you know, that was a clear situation when Arsenal could have sold him for 20 million, didn't, kept him, then he went out in the cold, didn't feature at all, and Arsenal ended up losing him for free as well. Now, you know, Nicolas Pepe, slightly different because of the wages he was on. It was very difficult to shift. You know, Arsenal were hoping he would have a good season over in France last season and maybe Nice would take him on a permanent basis. That didn't happen. He had an alright season. He had injuries. Nice decided not to take him on a permanent basis and that left Arsenal in a difficult position. And I always kind of felt it was going to be a contract termination. And that is, that's the way it's proven. And yeah, I think when you kind of look at Arsenal's summer in terms of selling, they got in about sort of just over 80 million pounds, I think 85 million pounds for players, which isn't bad, but it could have been better. I think they certainly wanted to bring in over 100 million pounds. And I think the big key to that is just Kieran Tierney. I think you add a 25 million, 30 million pounds sale, Kieran Tierney into the mix and onto that sort of sale sheet. And then you're taking it to around sort of 115 million pounds in terms of money received. And I think it looks an awful lot better. And now Arsenal started the summer expecting to sell Kieran Tierney and bringing in 30 million quid. It didn't happen. Bids didn't arrive, which is a real, real surprise. And I think when you kind of look at the summer as a whole, that's the big one that is really, really disappointed. And hopefully in 12 months time, that will be resolved and he'll have a really good season at Saucy Dad and Arsenal will have, there'll be a big market for Kieran Tierney next summer. Arsenal will bring that money in, but for now they didn't manage it. And I think that has had a bit of a negative impact on how the summer looks as a whole in terms of their selling business. Okay. Let's quickly go onto international matters now. Yesterday in Zinchenko, a really good day for him and for Ukraine. 1-1 draw with England. So you had Zinchenko on one side, you had Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka starting on the other side. You obviously had Eddie Nketiah and Aaron Ramsdale as substitutes. On the bench, Zinchenko opening the scoring for Ukraine. Really emotional day for them, for him. You could see what that goal meant to everyone in the stands and to the players, especially into Zinchenko. It's a lovely picture here. If you haven't, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see it. Zinchenko, when he was celebrating up to the camera screen, you've got his wife shared a picture of his daughter watching from home. And that celebration that he did with that little heart symbol, you know, is dedicated to his daughter. Really lovely touch from him. And you could see what it meant. It was a lovely goal as well from Zinchenko, such a quality player. England did go on to equalise through Kyle Walker. Brilliant goal, actually. Great, great ball from Harry Kane. Lovely finish from Kyle Walker. And it finished 1-1. Probably a deserved scoreline, really. I thought England dominated possession, didn't really do too much with it. I thought Ukraine deserved their point. Yeah, I didn't think Ukraine didn't offer that. Modric was so poor. He kind of was poor, but Kyle Walker was just absolutely immense. It was honestly like a men versus boys type contest. Whenever Modric tried to square him up and go 1-1, Kyle Walker was just so dismissive of him. He just knew that he had him and that Modric wouldn't be able to get past him. And yeah, it was men against boys sort of stuff that. And Modric's toils, I suppose, since he's moved to Chelsea and didn't move to Arsenal, certainly continue. But I'm still convinced he's a very good player. And had he gone to Arsenal, it would have been a completely different story for what's happening right now. So that was a good result for Zinchenko. Really interesting game here. Japan versus Germany. I don't know if you saw the result. And if you're watching this on the screen, you can see right now Japan winning 4-1 in Germany. So that was it. And it was Tommy Asu versus Havertz. Havertz was playing as the nine for Germany. Tommy Asu was playing as the left-sided centre-back for Japan. Played really well, Tommy Asu. Japan winning 4-1 in Germany. What a remarkable result that was. Nine months before Germany kickoff Euro 2024 at home, of course, in Germany. Dreadful result for them. Real pressure on Hansi Flick, the manager. The stats are amazing. I don't know what Germany were doing defensively. I haven't seen the game, but when you look at the stats, you know, Japan had 14 shots, Germany 11. 11 of Japan's 14 shots were on target. That's really clinical from Japan in terms of their finishing or just really poor defensively from Germany. Just allowing Japan such quality of chances that they've got, you know, 11 out of 14 on target. And when you look at Germany, 68% possession, Japan 32, Germany 754 passes, Japan 366. Yeah, absolute kind of smash and grab when you look at that and you look at the results. But yeah, fair play to Tommy Asu. A really good game, actually, Tommy, when you look at the stats and his numbers. Likes that left-sided centre-back role when he plays for Japan. They play him there a lot. He does very, very well there and obviously didn't give Kai Havertz much at all. I'm not sure Kai Havertz got much service, to be honest, but yeah, we're kind of hoping Havertz might have got himself a goal or, you know, got himself a win to lift his confidence levels. I'm not sure that's going to happen after a 4-1 home defeat and lots of pressure on Germany now ahead of their second game of the international break. But great day for Tommy Asu. I'm sure he'll be very, very happy with himself. OK, I've got to talk about Arsenal Women's result yesterday. Absolute hammer blow. I can't really put into words how disappointing this result is. Arsenal going out of the Champions League in the qualifying rounds after a penalty shootout defeat to Paris FC over in Sweden. Dramatic game. Arsenal finding themselves 2-0 down, conceding two goals in the space of a minute early in the second half. They fought back. Alicia Russo scoring her first goals for the club. Got an injury time equaliser as well through Beaty to make it 2-1. Went to extra time. Paris got themselves back in front. Then Russo scored again to make it 3-3 and take it to penalties. Russo then missing a penalty in the shootout. Arsenal losing it 4-2. And yeah, they're out. Unbelievable. Before even the qualifying, you know, getting through the whole qualifying round stages. So no group stages for Arsenal. And, you know, big, big hammer blow to the club. You know, Fiona Seineveld as well, he spoke about it. He said the important thing is you don't let this define you. Let the other things define you in the game. What you take with you from this game and that we send a message that we support each other all the way. I want to say the same to our supporters. You guys have been brilliant for us all two seasons since I've been here. Now more than ever, the players need that support and do that because they've given everything on the pitch. I think they're a little bit unlucky today that we don't get the result. They need the support so we can go strong into the season together. The investment Arsenal put into this club with the plans they had this season for all of the Champions League games to be played at the Emirates, to go out and not get to the group stages, you know, for all of the planning the club have put on and the sort of financial investment that they've done with the signings they've brought in. It's a really disappointing result for everyone. And I'm sure the club, everyone at the club will be really disappointed. And it's going to, they're going to have to bounce back very, very strongly for this. Of course, it probably will help them when it comes to the WSL campaign without European competition to sort of focus on the going to the Conti Cup. That's just going to be scant consolation. You know, after what Arsenal did in the Champions League last season, that brilliant run through to the semi-finals, those amazing days at the Emirates, those nights at the Emirates, you know, they would have been, everyone would have been focusing on bringing those back and, you know, and the plans are in place to bring those back and to go out the way they did. Yeah, it's just an absolute disaster for them. And it's going to take them an awful lot of time you'd think to get over it, but they're going to have to get over it quickly and concentrate on the league when it comes around. I mean, the timing of this is not, you kind of look at it and think, how can this be fair really? World Cup three weeks ago and no time for sort of training or anything like that, just get thrown into these games of such importance. You know, I'm sure Arsenal feel it's kind of a little bit hard done by in terms of how it's all worked out and the planning for it and the scheduling. But even so, you've got to win those sort of games and to fail to do that, it's just an absolute, you know, really, really tough one to take for them. And there'll be so much disappointment today all around the club and over to Sweden who watched it as well. So, yeah, tough, tough day for the Arsenal women. OK, a few questions and comments before we cut this one short. We've got one from MP Stephen says, Hi Charles, I don't want to invite any unnecessary criticism on our Rolls-Royce, but sometimes Saliba's positioning is very worrisome and nobody seems to mention it. What I love after that, after what I love that after years, we finally have centre-backs we can be proud of. And I think a lot of Saliba's amazing last-ditch tackles could have been avoided entirely if his position was better, like that one against Crystal Palace. I love him, but he's certainly not as perfect as people make out. Love to hear your thoughts. Well, he's certainly not perfect, but I mean, how's Saliba now, 21? I don't think he's 22 yet. So, of course, he's not perfect. He's only been playing top-level football for a couple of years. The fact he's been playing for a couple of years only and he's producing the performances he's producing is just unbelievable, really. And it shows that he's a generational defender. But of course, he's not perfect. It's just going to get better and better and better. Imagine Saliba when he's 28, when he's got seven or eight years experience playing behind him, when he's Van Dijk's age, to be someone like that. That experience, you think of the great Italian centre-backs, what age they were and how good they were when they got to their 30s, your Chiellini's, all those sort of players, Cannavaro. Saliba, the world is his oyster in terms of how good he can be. He's 21 years old and he's doing what he's doing now. Yes, there'll be little errors there. There'll be errors of judgment, like you said, positioning errors. But that's some things you learn as you get older and you continue to play and you continue to get top-level experience against the best strikers in the game. He's just going to get better and better. I cannot even comprehend how good Saliba is going to be when he's 28, if he stays injury-free, if nothing happens to him and he can continue to sort of progress as he's progressing now. When he's 28, he's going to be absolutely... I cannot see there's going to be a better defender in world football when he's 28 years old than Saliba, given the attributes he's got and given how good he is playing now at such a young age. So yeah, I don't think it's anything to worry about. Of course, there are slight little errors in his game, but my thoughts on the situation are that you've just got to accept that because he's such a young centre-back that he's just going to get better and better. And the good thing is, although he makes a few errors positionally, he's got that recovery pace like we saw against Crystal Palace, like we saw against Mbappe last season when he made that tackle against him when he was playing for Marseille. He's got that unbelievable recovery pace where he can get himself back and sort of make up for that slight maybe positional error that he's made that has allowed the striker to be at goal side of him. Here's one from Zach. He says, Havertz's agenda is getting old. He isn't the tip of the sword at Arsenal. People are expecting him to be the next Messi or something. It's unrealistic. He's becoming a workhorse for us. His stats are easily comparable to Xhaka's best season at Arsenal without the goals. To be fair, he could have had a few and should have had at least one. He's adjusting well to his position and new team-mates as well. He's come from an absolute club in turmoil and arriving at the second-best team in the league with young, upcoming talent. He's not the big fish in our pond, so people need to stop thinking he is. I think that's a really good comment. That's why I put it up. I didn't want to really talk about Havertz in today's episode because, obviously, we've done so much talk about Havertz. I had my say on it yesterday. How everyone seems to just be turning everything, no matter what the conversation, seems to be turning to Havertz. I just think it's really unfair. But I thought this was such a good comment from Zach. It deserved a bit of an airing, I thought, because he's exactly that. He's not being brought in to be this absolute goal-machine stroke, creative machine. He is, obviously, this new type of team that Mikel Arteta is trying to build. He is this more workhorse-type player. Like you said, his stats in terms of recovery, running, distance covered, all of that sort of stuff is right out there with Xhaka's. The only big difference is the goals. Obviously, that's a big difference. He is playing in a position where he needs to score, and he probably should have had three or four this season. Had he done that, I don't think anyone, you know, had he taken those chances, I don't think anyone would be piling on the way they are to him. So he just needs, as I've said, he just needs these big moments. He needs to take a couple of chances, relax a little bit in front of goal, take a chance. If he does that, I think the rest of his game is there, and then he'll kick on, and then people will stop talking and focusing on him quite so much. So well done, Zach. I thought that was a really, really good comment. Here's one from Robin. He says, Brazil's fans are surprised at how good Big Gabi performed. It's killing me. He's been easily Brazil's best centre-back for the past 18 months, and they didn't give him a chance. I'm not sure if he's been Brazil's best centre-back. I mean, he might be. I can't, off the top of my head, I'm not quite sure who all the other Brazilian defenders are, but there's plenty of good ones. But yeah, I do agree. I saw that he's getting a lot of praise for his performance over in Brazil. But yeah, I don't see why anyone should be surprised at that. We've seen it all. In the second half of last season, I thought Gabriel was better than Saliba before Saliba's injury. I thought Gabriel was exceptional in the second half of last season. He produced real top-level performances, and he's a top-level player. I think that's why we're all so desperate to get him back in the team this season. I'm so shocked that Mikel Arteta wasn't playing him. Hopefully that's changed now, and we're going to see Saliba and Gabriel, you know, for a long time playing that centre-back for Arsenal together. Now he's back in the team. But yeah, he deserves so many, so much applauded. It's Gabriel. I just think he's a fabulous player. He's an excellent defender. He's cut out a lot of the errors that he used to make that were sort of costly, where he kind of had a bit of a brain freeze type moment. He's really limited that now. He's calm. He's a leader. He's a real handful in both boxes as well. You saw the part he played in Declan Rice's goal against Manchester United. He's just a handful. He occupies defenders from set pieces, and if he's not the one getting on the end of them, he's causing trouble, and that can give sort of space to other players to take advantage of it. So yeah, fabulous player, Gabriel. Delighted that he seems to be back in the team now, and long may that continue. Hopefully this injury that he picked up for Brazil isn't anything serious, and he'll be back to play against Everton a week today. All right, that's it from me, everyone. Thank you very much for your time, as always. I really do appreciate it, and I do have a very good end to your Sunday, wherever you're watching this, or listening to it around the world. I hope you have a fantastic end to your weekend. I'll speak to you again tomorrow. Have a good one, people.