I’ve just finished the final run of guests, a run that lasted 11 days straight, I’m more relieved than David Beckham after picking up his daughter’s pencil case.
The above comment was all for the joke kids, all for the joke. Or quip. Whatever.
News continued to gather pace that Arsenal are going to make Torriera our first exciting signing of the summer. There’s talk that Napoli are going to enter the race, with Carlo seeing the Uragyaun as an exciting option. Now, I don’t mean to be mean about Napoli, but a few things here.
⚽ Carlo is walking into the same trap he did at Bayern, but with a less dominant team. I struggle to see how the Napoli players are going to adapt to his more relaxed approach to football after an intense few years under Sarri. The same issue happened at Bayern.
⚽ Napoli aren’t on the same level as Arsenal when it comes to player appeal. Sure, the area ‘might’ beat out London. The food is great. There’s a lot of sunshine. But club wise, there’s no challenge. Arsenal fill their stadium, the Premier League is better, the money will be elite, our city is elite and our training facilities are incredible.
It sounds like the deal is moving in the right direction. The player looks very exciting. I like that he looks a leader. That injection of South American passion sitting at the base of our midfield would be a sight to behold. I feel like the club has grossly neglected defensive midfield for years.
Emery made some interesting points in his GFFN article when it came to the position. He was saying that you lose something when you bring in a destroyer, which is why he liked to play Rabiot there when he was at PSG. He mentioned that Bayern/Madrid struggled defensively with Alonso, but they more than made up for his weakness in defensive transition with attacking prowess.
I remember when I would analyse Real Madrid, I thought that Xabi Alonso suffered from not having to run track back and that he was the weak link. When I would analysed Barcelona and saw Busquets, I thought that Sergio suffered from the space left behind him. I thought the same with Thiago Motta. All the great defensive midfielders suffer from a lack of space behind them, and when they are required to track back. But when a team has the ball 70% of the time, that is more important than knowing if you’ll struggle when tracking back. You are the one dominating the matches. That’s why your defensive midfielder’s output during moments where you don’t have the ball is less important.
Because those periods don’t last as long. If I were to put a destroyer at defensive midfielder, there’s a significant trade off between what I can do during build-up play, rather than what I can do in defensive situations. Of course, Thiago Motta needs to better without the ball. But if you analyse Xabi Alonso or Sergio Busquets, the same could be said for them. They struggle during those periods, but they contribute so much more while on the ball. I don’t think this position was a weakness for PSG.
Motta is an incredible defensive midfielder. His injuries were the problem this year. Motta brought a lot to the team and his contribution on the ball was significant. He had difficult tracking back? Fine, but so do two other European champions Xabi and Busquets, who possess the same characteristics as Thiago. I don’t think PSG’s problem was the defensive midfielder.
Let’s talk about Rabiot. He’s a central midfielder, who is more comfortable playing as a defensive midfielder rather than a creative one. Even if he remains more of box-to-box, rather than a defensive midfielder. When you want to play with a defensive, creative and box-to-box-midfielders in fixed positions, Rabiot finds himself confronted to a problem. He has to run, run, run and not play in a fixed position statically. And even less so with his back turned on the action.
Rabiot doesn’t really like playing as a defensive midfielder, he likes playing as a box-to-box, but I prefer him as a defensive midfielder. That’s why after the elimination against Real Madrid, I told him he would play as a defensive midfielder.
In that position, he can be faced with play and switch around with Verratti. He is more competitive in these conditions. With certain players, you can’t impose a strict idea. You have to adapt yourself to their characteristics in order to win in individual and collective competitiveness. Lassana Diarra? He arrived in early January, after having played for six months in a low level league, and he needed time to accustom himself to the high level.
I think clubs are trying to find players that can offer a bit more in both areas these days. When you read up about Torreira he seems to have a bit of Jack, with his ability to break the lines with cute play and pace, he has the long range of passing that Xhaka is known for, and he’s high energy like Ramsey. I found this great write up on him.
Sampdoria primarily work with a diamond formation in which Torreira acts as the base of the three man midfield. When you watch them play, you can see how much compactness is stressed with the high volume of short passing in their build up play, creating shapes within the pitch for passing outlets as they progress the ball in such a methodical manner that will eventually lead to shooting opportunities. It allows Sampdoria to create situations where the opposition are attracted so much by the passer and the player receiving the ball, that connections are formed on the pitch and a third teammate can be reached by a pass, referred as “the third man”.
Torreira is important in the build-up phases for Sampdoria. He’s the one that operates as the base, positioning himself in close proximity with the centerbacks. Because of his ability to be cool under pressure, he can either pass it off to a teammate nearby or play a long pass up to the likes of Fabio Quagliarella and Duván Zapata so they can hold up play and play short passes/layoffs for other teammates in higher positions.
One of the things that I found most impressive with Lucas Torreira when looking at the video is the ease in which he hits long passes, and the variety to which he can hit it. This is born out in the data itself with Played Off The Park’s brilliant piece which tried to use statistical data and the use of z-score application in finding which players fit which archetype of midfielders. Torreira came out fairly well in relation to other players of his age group when it came to deeper midfielders, taking volume into account. Torreira is capable of attempting different kinds of long passes, whether it be while he’s got acres of space to settle down and pick out his target or being hurried by an opposition marker. It’s this kind of versatility that makes him an intriguing player.
Next season, give me someone who can defend, pass well, play in a system and offer us up the kind of mobility that might challenge your grandma in a race. Remember the Alex Song days? What a horror show that was…
We’re baking balance into our squad. An added bonus if we sign him is AMN has someone to learn off, as I see his future sitting at the base of midfield. It’ll also spare us from having to watch Xhaka plug away in a position he’s not built for. Win, win.
It’s also promising the money Sampdoria are looking at is around £20-25m mark. I’m amazed there’s less raiding of Serie A considering the talent they have on offer. Having a proper Head of Recruitment in place is finally seeing us raid countries outside Germany, France and Spain.
Finally, we’ve hired in a Director of Football Development to look after the coaches in the U9-U23s.
Marcel Lucassen (55) goes to work at Arsenal. De Venlonaar has signed a three-year contract with the top club in London and will work as Director of Football Development on 1 August.Lucassen thus becomes responsible for the development of both the coaches and the players of the teams Under 9 to Under 23.Lucassen worked for the past three years as Head of Al Nasr Education from Dubai. Before that he worked for the German Football Association for seven years and in 2011 he was assistant coach of TSG Hoffenheim. “What I’m going to do at Arsenal is to further develop the football philosophy, as I did earlier with Al Nasr and the German Football Association, and it was time to start working closer to home so that I could have my family in Blitterswijck. living, can see more often.
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Apologies
Hello
To
Greetings from wales
Whomever
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/arsenal-wonderkids-mislintat-emery-nketiah-13135548
I’ve been saying this for absolutely ages. We need to properly train and develop these players… if we do it will save the club millions.
Fellani on a free is not a bad signing… for the experience and height that he would offer us he is a good pragmatic signing. Is he the best that we can get? No but he’s far from the worst.
He has a knack of grabbing crucial goals and is good at linking others into play… he would offer a role very similar to Giroud imo.
If you invest heavily in quality players we will save the club millions.
Nketiah killing it for England it looks like. We need to give this boy playing time.
Looks like the club are finally looking at the structure of the club.
Seems like a good move.
The club has been stale so long it ha s moulded
Thank the lord for that.
Clearing out and dusting down the wenger shelves
Leeds
Was calling that last year,
Wenger said he would be rewarded ,,, joke
How could we trust a man 5hat passed over kante
Nketiah is junior Level not wonderkid.
Lets not embark in more trash projects.
Im liking this Torreira kid. Im just hoping he could be our Kante or Makelele
Agree with Pedro need more south american players in the side. They bring a fighting spirit and flair which we lack
RSPCA
Wenger chose Xhaka (for more more money) over Kante who was EPL proven. To add insult to injury he went blew £35m on Mustafi because he was forced to due to circumstances.
At the beginning of that summer he could have picked up Mustafi for about £20m but injuries to Gabriel and Mertesacker jacked up the price because we were desperate.
£70m on two players that have been inconsistent at best…
The more I watch of Torreira the more I like him, would be happy to see him signed. Still think we need one more CM but hey.
Seems like Liverpool has hit a snag with the Fekir deal, would be amazing if we showed some balls and went in and hijacked that deal. Not going to happen but one can dream.
Torreria and Sanson for £25 Million each would not be bad business at all considering our midfield is total shit right now.
“Im liking this Torreira kid. Im just hoping he could be our Kante or Makelele”
I’m hoping he’s a lot better than those two.
I think Elneny is a bit pointless, Maitland Niles should be getting his minutes. The midfield options should be Torreira, another CM, Ramsey, Xhaka and then Maitland Niles getting some time.
TR7
From previous post.
What is really “sad” is that you think the reason Wenger failed was because he was on “a shoestring budget”.
Unbelievable!
We have to sign Torreira, he was born in Fray Bentos (it’s a town, who knew???)
Tammy Abrahams is a young Danny Wellshite…..no wonder Swansea went down,thats 2 chances he should have scored.
CA
The problem there is that you have 2 100k+ CMs on the bench. We would also get peanuts for Elneny compared to Xhaka so less money for a replacement.
Fekir would be awesome in an Arsenal shirt… and make up for the fact we missed out on Fabinho… and he would gel easily too with Lacazette already here.
Would be sweet to have a friendly rivalry between Auba/Mkhitaryan on one hand pushing Lacazette/Fekir.
I reckon this push for excellence would energise the entire squad and act as motivation to players like Özil and Ramsey to keep their form up.
G62
Did you watch the SA v Eng game?
Reminded me of Arsenal
throwing away a 4 goal lead at Newcastle.
Graham
Nah, I didn’t say that. I said he was on the verge of creating something special on a shoestring budget but he bottled it eventually. I didn’t say bottling it was due to lack of funds.
“The midfield options should be Torreira, another CM, Ramsey, Xhaka and then Maitland Niles getting some time.”
Lol…WTF…lol
Right now Fekir is too good for us, we have no chance of signing him.
Leeds sprinkle in 20m for Perez
And it’s a wasted 90m
Perfect
I recall I posted bout 4 years ago for the club to buy Fekir …
Seems like the club don’t listen ….
Bollox…you said you was sad for Wenger….meaning he’s a victim not perpetrator.
Freddie
I just do not see Xhaka being sold, I think Emery is going to try to use him and have a workhorse near him to cover for his weaknesses.
Obviously I would prefer Xhaka and Elneny to be sold and for us to land someone like Milinkovic Savic along with Torreira.
I do think Maitland Niles could be a great player for us, needs time though.
If Emery and his coaches can actually get through to Ramsey and make him more positionally disciplined and mature a midfield of Torreria, Sanson and Ramsey could actually be good. All well rounded midfield players leaning slightly toward certain attributes and all have good work rate.
OK @Pedro “It’ll also spare us from having to watch Xhaka plug away in a position he’s not built for” Exactly what position can Xhaka play? He’s slow, one footed, turning circle of an oil tanker, oblivious to danger, can’t defend, makes terrible tackles, picks up cards (not from being tough, from making stupid tackles), has slow decision making ( a recent scan of his brain revealed a noise that was eerily similar to a Commodore 64 loading a game), crumbles under pressure, he needs players to screen him from attacks while the aforementioned Commodore 64 loads or to avoid… Read more »
Germany’s former national youth coach now part of our staff…
Thumbs up from me! This from the team which is so brimming with young talent that they could afford to leave Sane at home this world cup despite the stellar season he has just enjoyed.
Imagine if we had that kind of depth at Arsenal?!?
Things are a changing at Arsenal!
About time too! Why were we so afraid of it?!
Fekir not going anywhere according to lyon. Massive L for liverpool this.
Would I love him here? Absolutely. Do I see him coming in? Not if Ozil is staying.
‘Why were we so afraid of it’
‘We’ weren’t, there was only one man afraid of modernising Arsenal and thankfully he is unemployed now.
England win in Toulon! It would not surprise me in the least if Nketiah gets voted as the player of the tournament… honestly this kid needs to be given his chance at Arsenal or we’re going to lose him!
Ramsey needs to be sold IMO,injury prone and unreliable for DIck to consider pivotal in the coming seasons. Sell now while his stock is at a reasonable level for some deluded club to pay and inflated fee for an injury plagued player.
Frost
Aulas said the same about Lacazette before we bought him, he’s a nutter.
Leeds
Would rather we sell Welbeck and use that money for the rebuild and give Eddie the 3rd striker spot.
Would be madness to renew Welbecks contract, he’s already on 100k+ and so not worth it.
Cesc
Elnenny ain’t getting sold
He just signed a new contract
7nless it’s a ruse to sell him high
Eddie a stand out in that U21 team. Cook played well in midfield and the Chelsea player dassilva looked promising,apart from that thought the rest looked average.
Tammy Abraham…….say no more
Give Ramsey a deadline to sign his new contract…. say 1 July…. if he won’t sign, sell him. We really can’t afford in every sense of the word to have another Sanchezesque saga on our hands.
Ramsey if we sold him well would be worth £60m-£70m in this crazy market… sell him and buy someone who Emery can mould to his exact requirements.
In a recent post I commented on young Eddie having resembelences to Ian wright.
R3calling his goals in league cup and his recent England goals.
I have not changed my mind.
The lad Deffo deserves a chance. This season.
Sell Welbeck?
I have to agree.
He usually plays well for England so we probably could get £25m-£30m from clubs like Everton, Crystal Palace, West Ham or Watford.
The current midfield are Wenger’s babies and all need replacing.
Love Welbeck’s industry, versatility and attitude but he’s just not what we need at Arsenal right now.
So with regret, I say let him go.
Wellwide and Ramsey spend more time on the sidelines most seasons,if suitors could be found sell,sell,sell…..here’s hoping Danny gets some minutes and goals in the world cup.
United are after Savic and won’t pay 120m so sell Ramsey for half the fee we could rip them for 60m
Well done Eddie Nketiah and to England, winner of Toulon tounament. I would not be surprised if Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern try to turn Eddie’s head… I really hope the new regime at Arsenal is sensible and we develop him properly.
He could be our own version of Harry Kane, the boy is a natural goalscorer… every level he has played he scores… by the bucketload.
I might end up with egg on my face but I’ve been watching this kid since he came to Arsenal and he is exciting… and definitely deserves a chance.
Play him Unai!
Good world cups for welbz, iwobi, Xhaka, ospina, el neny, ozil- then start selling
Pedro
“‘Sure, the area ‘might’ beat out London’”
Have you been to Naples? If you have I don’t think you would say this…
Gundogan and Ozil are Turkish and should not play for Germany.
Liverpool tried to lower the transfer fee after the medical and Aulas got pissed off apparently:)
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/971958/Nabil-Fekir-to-Liverpool-OFF-real-reason-Lyon-cancelled-53m-transfer-rumours-gossip/amp
Get the fuck in there Arsenal, would be a statement signing for sure and would improve our attack immensely.
Lol @ Fekir being too good for us
Some of you talk about Arsenal football club like we are a charity case
What nonsense. Fekir plays for freaking Lyon.. He was about to join Liverpool not Barcelona or Real Madrid. Get a grip!!
Kinda shady if that is a true story about Pool and Fekir
@TR7
I was talking to your sorry ass with your silly Liverpool love in… Fekir too good for us… Nonsense
But as usual we are slow, and dithering while these great players are for the taking.
WTF is diamond eyes doing. More like got a shit ton of rubble outside those eyes.
No diamonds shining yet- get on it Sven
Get Fekir sell Rambo
Should be a similar offset
Get in Torreira
Get Leno
£53 Million for Fekir in this market is not bad at all, where would we play him even if there was a chance of us getting him? If it is CAM then the CDM and CM need to be absolutely spot on.
No CL and limited funds means Fekir is unattainable right now.
Liverpool grew cold feet because of the fear there could be recurrence of his 2015 injury to his knee
BREAKING: @OL say they have ended negotiations with @LFC over Nabil Fekir and the midfielder is staying at the club. #SSN
Nonsense… the champions league myth to sign players has long been discredited. The players will move where the money is and where they feel valued
It’s been 28 years and counting since Liverpool won their domestic league.. Let that sink in.
Coach 15
24-3 up and they end up losing 42-39………….Yeh, sort of comparitive to throwing away a four goal lead.
England are regressing under EJ and play a brand of rugby that is predictable and strewn with errors.
No chance in next years WC playing like this.
We should go in and get Fekir. By the sounds of it, Liverpool were still willing after the medical but something showed up that made them want to lower the fee. That they were still willing means it can’t be that major. Fekir will improve us over what Ozil gives us. If only we could find someone willing to take on Ozil’s wages. Common PSG, step up.
If we can’t/won’t sell Ozil then play Fekir on the wing. He’s still better there than most anyone else we could buy and lightyears better than what we have atm.
Leedsgunner
I’m with you on this.
Eddie deserves a chance.
Exciting talent.
TR7
Torreira 22m
Sokratis 15m
33mil left from the original 70m
Sell Welbeck, Perez, Ospina and Xhaka and we have enough for Fekir and a keeper as well.
If we need another CB sell Mustafi too.
We only have limited funds if we’re scared to improve.
QNA
Liverpool will go after Dembele now.
I’d rather get a proper winger like Dembele than Fekir but no chance with Liverpool.
Agree with Fekir. Hopefully Wenger goes to China and buy Ozil of us for 50m.
Leedsgunner
No please English players rarely become world class or even quality.
QNA
No chance with PSG unless Wenger becomes Manager. Tuchel would kill Ozil.
Eto, Ibra,Toue, Now Gotze what a bitter bitches. Blaming Pep for their failures. Lol they want someone like Daddy Wenger who let’s his son Ozil get away with anything not a manger who will tell them to fuck off if they aren’t good enough.
Please Wenger take your sons Ozil and Ramsey to China and give us 100m
Pedro
Also we employed some youth coach from reading been there 17 years. To assist per
QNA.
What take on another crock.?
20.26.31
Fekir and Lacazette together again lol.
Hmmm.
Tunisia Taking the the game to the Spain on less than 25% possession.
Fml England gotta be careful of that banana peel
Fekir off if he has dodgy knees
England will draw the first game
Watch out for Peru
Kevin. I am with you on Dembele. Much prefer him, but he won’t be sold. Fekir is on the table which is why I think we should pull the trigger at £53m.
Agree Ozil not going anywhere. He is not as good as many people think.
For whatever it’s worth Torreira just started following Arsenal and Ozil on twitter.
G62
Agree on WC chances next year,seems EJ has run his course
with England.
They looked devastating for 20 minutes then were never in the game until a late rally which ultimately was to little to late. How you throw away a 20 point lead before HT beggers belief.
Freddie
“Aulas said the same about Lacazette before we bought him, he’s a nutter”
True. Think it’s abit different tho. If memory serves, we were as usual trying to penny pinch & he came out saying laca stays if we don’t pay the quoted price, forcing our hand to do so basically.
Liverpool on the other hand are straight up reneging on an already agreed price. Think they’ll try to resurrect the deal tho just to save face. Which basically gives Aulas all the power. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t up the price just for bants.
qna
Where will he play though? He plays as no 10 or striker. With Ozil and Mkhi can’t play Fekir with them when we already have two playermakers.
What do you think about marqee GK instead once and for all like Oblak or Allison
Whisper it quietly but despite all our scepticism about the club a proper modern high- quality structure is emerging. It’s very encouraging and a little surprising. I think it shows how much Wenger was holding the club back with his refusal to change or modernise. Maybe it also shows that Gazidis is not the lightweight we all deemed him to be. The people we are recruiting are very experienced with excellent CVs. It won’t elevate us overnight but the club should move in the right direction at last. Agree about using Nketiah and shedding Welbeck . We do need to… Read more »
I’m transfer starved (yes it’s a thing).
Can we just get something exciting over the line already.
Remembering Wenger wasted £96m on garbage (Mustafi/Perez/Holding/Xhaka/Asano/Nwakali) makes me rage
Frost
I’m opposite waiting for departures so we can get rid of the useless fuckers who leeches the club like Wenger’s sons Wilshere, Ramsey, Holding, Chambers
No wonder Aubameyang is at Arsenal when he’s on £200.000 per week.
Ozil on £300.000 lol
Wenger cost us £90m due to no CL for two years plus another £50m down the drain because he refused to sell Sanchez. The guy really destroyed us. Makes me rage.
Wenger was never a man like Zidane, Klopp, Pep who walked away when they couldn’t take the team any farther. He should have done that in 2006.
We have a 34 year old, and a 30 year old coming in. TO help our Defense…. Let that sink in. We need youth and at least 1-2 world class players in the side this TW Fekir, Torreira are attainable. WE need the A OK from Kronke and we can do it. The fans and players need excitement again… morale is at an all time low Anyone and their dog knows this. I too am getting fed up at the slow pace. May be it wasnt wenger after all— just all the red tape we have to go through to… Read more »
Redtruth
In 2016, there was £226m available and Wenger wasted it all
Guns of SF
Calm down. Soyunu and Torreira are close. As for Fekir no chance he chooses Liverpool over us.
Kevin
Holding and chambers are not going anywhere
2 m holding 18m chambers
They are Toulon winners who have demanded better coaching , let’s judge them after they have had that.
20m for two centre backs in tim3 will look very good business
Kevin
You slow to catch up. Fekir deal is off with Liverpool.
Stop raging Kev
R.S.P.C.Arsenal
Kos, Mustafi, Papa, Mavp, Soyunu, Holding, Chambers
We can’t have 7 CB so two need to go Chambers and Holding are the worst
Hey, kevin!
Holding and Nwakali are’nt garbage please. Nwakali is a star in the making…watch out!
what are they smoking over there at Anfield?
Reports stating Sampdoria already signed a replacement for Torreira. Hopefully, we finally get our man.
Good thing we’re still getting linked to more centre backs.
Kevin “I’m opposite waiting for departures so we can get rid of the useless fuckers who leeches the club like Wenger’s sons Wilshere, Ramsey, Holding, Chambers” Thing is you have to look at it from the angle of what the club would do. Not what we as fans think should be done. Considering our financial situation, we simply are not going to go blow 55 mil on Fekir without selling someone like Ozil first. That aside, it looks like the hierarchy are looking at using the limited budget to fix our defense this summer, so it’s a no go for… Read more »
Kevin
I disagree
Kos finished now really,
Mustafi
To loose .
They should go
Xhaka is underrated here.
Mavro is the only CB worth keeping IMO
all our current ones are slow, too small and too error prone.
Kox was fine back in his heyday. He will never be the same player and with age, its time he leaves for something we can get for him.