Thursday’s odd and ends

Happy August 6th!

Here are a few odds and ends circulating around the Premier League…

The Premier League’s shareholders met today and voted to revert to a the maximum of three substitutes for next season. The clubs voted in favor of the reversal by an 11-9 vote. The larger clubs voted to remain with five subs, while the smaller clubs wanted to go back to the standard three. The league also voted to reduce the number of match players on each squad back to the original number of 18.

The Premier League also said goodbye to relegated sides Norwich city, Bournemouth and Watford, and officially welcomed Leeds United, West Brom Albion and Fulham into league for the 2020-2021 season.

No date has officially been confirmed by the PL for the 2020-2021 season fixtures release, however, we should be seeing something within the next few weeks. The clubs and the Premier League’s broadcast partners will face a limited window to make arrangements for the start of the new season on September 12th.

Also from the league meeting on Thursday, the shareholders voted to approve implementation of VAR, in line with the full FIFA VAR protocols.

Closer to home with Arsenal, Emiliano Martinez has made a bold statement regarding his future with the Gunners. He said, “I showed that I can play. I need to play more game next season. I want to establish myself at Arsenal and become first choice. If I don’t play, I’m going to move. I’m going to go where I can play more.”

In other Arsenal news, the club has decided to eliminate 55 positions within the organization in order to help offset the impact the coronavirus had on Arsenal’s finances. According to David Ornstein at The Athletic, “Arsenal players are not happy with 55 staff being made redundant. They agreed to a 12.5% wage cut in April after receiving assurances nobody would be lose jobs. Yesterday’s new left the squad angry and they plan to raise it with Arsenal bosses.”

Here’s a clip from the club statement released on Arsenal.com regarding the job eliminations, “Over recent years we have consistently invested in additional staff to take the club forward but with the expected reduction of income in mind, it is now clear that we must reduce our costs further to ensure we are operating in a sustainable and responsible way, and to enable us to continue to invest in the team. Our aim has been to protect the jobs and base salaries of our people for as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we have now come to the point where we are proposing 55 redundancies. We do not make these proposals lightly and have looked at every aspect of the club and our expenditure before reaching this point. We are now entering the required 30-day consultation period on these proposals.”

And finally, former Arsenal man Jack Wilshere urges Aubameyang to stay with Arsenal, “If I was in his shoes? Arsenal’s a massive club. He’s the captain, the fans love him, he’s got the respect of the whole club. If I was him I’d stay, but it’s easy for me to say that.”

Okay, that’s it for now, but keep your eyes peeled on transfer news. I expect some big news to come forward in the next few days!

Cheers, and stay healthy and safe!

Gunner1953