9 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer took a brief break from politics to discuss his beloved Arsenal with talkSPORT on Saturday.
The man who could soon be running the country doubles up as a Gunners season ticket holder and a keen amateur footballer.
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Besides serious conversations such as the need for an independent regulator in football and important matters of state - which you can watch on our YouTube channel - Sir Keir opened up using football as escapism from politics.
We caught him on his way to the Emirates for Arsenal vs Crystal Palace - which is live on talkSPORT at 12.30pm - and the 61-year-old gave his verdict on the Gunners' links with Brentford striker Ivan Toney.
Mikel Arteta's side have struggled for goals during a barren run of just one win in their last seven games, which has threatened to derail their Premier League title bid.
Toney, who returns from an eight-month ban on Saturday, was only outscored by Harry Kane and Erling Haaland in the Premier League last season.
The struggling Bees will only sell their star player if they receive an extraordinary offer and Arsenal have Financial Fair Play to worry about - but Toney himself has recently admitted he would be open to a transfer this month.
While Sir Keir does not see Gabriel Jesus as the long-term solution up top, the leader of the Opposition does not think the Gunners should sign Toney either.
He told talkSPORT: “Firstly, I don’t think we’re going to. It looks like he’s going to stay at Brentford.
“He hasn’t played for a long time now. For Arsenal, if we’re going to sign a striker, and there’s a good case for that, it’s got to be someone completely on their game.
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“It’s January, going into February, we can’t have someone who is going to take a bit of time to get adjusted. This is for this season.
“My feeling is it probably won’t happen. But the squad Arteta has got there… that’s the best squad I’ve seen in a long time and I’ve seen a lot of Arsenal football for many years. It’s a great squad.
“It’s about confidence and one or two extra players, especially that striker role. Jesus is great but he doesn’t score enough goals.
“But he wins balls he shouldn’t get anywhere near.”
One overwhelming transfer success has been the £105million signing of midfielder Declan Rice.
And Sir Keir jokes that his 15-year-old son was responsible for the deal after meeting the ex-West Ham captain last season.
He added: “We went to West Ham away last season. It didn’t go so well for Arsenal.
“But we met Declan Rice afterwards. I had the usual programme which my boy wanted to get signed.
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“Obviously, he slipped the contract just under the programme so that as Declan thought he was signing the programme, he was actually signing for Arsenal.
“That’s how it all started. That’s the untold story of how Rice made it to Arsenal.”
