Silly season, perspective and ins and outs

I don’t know where to start and not because there is lots to write about, because it’s pre-season and not much really matters right now other than fitness and everyone learning how Unai Emery wants to approach the season.

Morgan Rogers did leave for the £117mn and we have brought in Alejandro Garnacho on loan for the season, in a deal quite similar to the Harvey Elliott deal last summer, meaning there are conditions that could make the loan a permanent signing.

I guess it comes down to the player, because there is a very decent player in there. We’ll see and probably learn quite quickly.

Other than that, it’s all good. Sure, we’ve lost a couple of players that were very important to us last season and there is talk that others might be leaving, but if players want to leave, do we really want them at the Club?

As long as when they are wearing the shirt they give everything - that’s good enough for me I think, broadly speaking. I mean, we all want a change of scene sometimes and for these players it’s a lot easier than for most of us.

But I do see some getting worried about pre-season results. And on X, I’m even seeing people moan about this. It baffles me, it really does.

And I don’t know how many times I’ve written this, the most important person at the Club is the manager. And in Unai Emery, we’ve got one of the best that hasn’t let us down and has actually done the opposite - he’s delivered.

But it still doesn’t feel right that these restrictions are in place. I understand them, I just think there are better ways to do it. And for the record, I think every team should have the same budget for salaries, regardless of turnover. I think if we did that, it would become very fair in a very short period of time.

But as we’ve seen with FIFA the past few days, football doesn’t seem to be about fairness any more, it’s all about generating and securing money. Could you imagine every team in the Premier League capped to the same amount of money they can pay their entire squad - and let’s not be too restrictive, let’s make it £100mn a season.

It would mean it goes back to the days where at the start of the season, you really thought there was a chance.

But it isn’t going to change and when we accept that, we have to look at the people around us and I think I might have written this above, the people we have around the Club at the moment really are some of the best in the game.

We’re in a good place. Players leave and players come. But some things remain. So let’s not lose our heads over some training matches.