I hit the big 35 today.
In footballing terms, I’m just in the squad for nostalgia reasons. I have no more than 23 games in me a season, mostly because I disrespected my body with heavy boozing sessions with Wayne Rooney in my twenties. Fans now clap patronisingly when I go for a sprint upfield. I’m called the wise head in the dressing room. I have TWO grey hairs in my beard, and I probably have 16 kids.
This year I’ll mostly be moving into punditry and doing a bad job of it because I neglected education during my career. I’m secretly very jealous that Europa Slayer, Petr Cech, has just landed a job at Chelsea as a Sporting Director… he’s the sort of guy who has savings as well. I’m going to go off the rails.
Damn… it’s depressing imagining yourself as a 35-year-old footballer.
IN THE REAL WORLD, Dalian have apparently suspended Carrasco as he angles for a move away.
I know I’d be doing the same if I were playing out there in my prime, but ultimately, the whole saga says a lot about who he is as a player in my opinion. Still, I’d rather him over Fraser every damn day…
James Olley reckons we’re reassessing our transfer moves now moves for both players have stalled. My thing here is this… just two players on our list of wingers? A whole season of watching Iwobi and we’re having a reassess targets like we’re now stumped? We should have 10 players we’re targetting. I know I’m getting angry about a guess from a journalist… but it all feels too familiar. We have an indecisive setup and we don’t have the key parts here to make it work. A disrupted preseason is looking more and more likely if we don’t shape up soon.
Bayern Munich player of the season waaaaaas… Gnabry. Another snappy bit of business. Ivan G and Wenger offering him a deal AFTER he smashed the Olympics. I also heard from a very good place that he was utterly horrified by how flummoxed Wenger was by a simple change in formation by a shite French team on the preseason tour.
One day, I’ll sit down and work out how much money we’ve wasted by losing good players for fuck all, overspending on wages, and buying players high and not being able to shift them. As a club, is there a better club in the upper echelons of football for making bad decisions? Doubtful.
Right, that’s me done. See you in the comments! xxx
“Arsenal don’t train in this way every day.”
Yes we don’t because we do not have fast dribblers, we might train that way if we actually you know buy players with those characteristics
Receding to make a point about Zaha is reimagining how Xhaka plays for Arsenal. He only plays short passes because we don’t have anyone running onto the ball. I mean sure. And he only makes errors leading to goals because we don’t have better CB’s
anyone that we could try to poach?
—————–
I’d start with Benitez, he’s better than our Spaniard.
What is going over your head Marko is we are discussing Zaha without the price tag. No one is advocating spending 70m pounds on Wilfred Zaha
What i am pointing out is that he represents a surer bet performance wise because he has the skill sets we need, he knows the league and will not need ant adaptation period. You know the type of adaptation period the “because he is that good” Naby Kieta ended up needing
Finally it seems Arteta will get his shot at glory
Newcastle are set to be considering him
I expect that Pedro will drop that bit into his next post when he recovers from his last bender.
Receding
It’s impracticable to discuss Zaha without the ridiculous transfer fee that is attached to him.
Dissenter
If Arteta does go to Newcastle get ready for a season full of he’s amazing look they beat X followed by it’s not his fault squad he inherited / lack of investment from the owner etc.
What is going over your head Marko is we are discussing Zaha without the price tag. No we’re discussing the price tag. You’re discussing something else with Ishola and possibly something else with someone else. I’m discussing how stupid we’d look if we signed Zaha for 40+ million when players like Ziyech and Neres for example would go for less and who are better. Even if the discussion was price aside and while we’re at it we’ll throw in failure at a big club aside and doubts about whether or not he actually likes being a footballer aside I’d still… Read more »
Marko Xhaka is no short pass master, saying he is one now that’s re-imagination
He has a long pass in him and very accurate ones at that, one of his strengths. You do not end up top of the charts for most passes completed in the opposition half by playing it sideways
I don’t rate Emery, but if Emery wants a specific type of player and Raul goes and buy a different type of player, then it’s not really fair on him, is it? If Emery wants to play aggressive high intensity football, then Zaha is exactly what Arsenal needs. Simply because of his pace, unpredictability and dribbling ability, most defenders take a step back. Opening space between midfield and defense. Xhaka would then have less pressure so in fact Xhaka and Zaha could be good for each other. Regarding his valuation, if Pepe is a €90 millions player then factoring the… Read more »
Receding
Regarding Bannecer [hope I spelt it right]
We will get part of the fee Lyon pay to Empoli so it will work out.
The lad is way too small. We need players with physical presence imo.
Were on the ride to nowhere. This regime will kill this club forever, We have just had THE LOST DECADE with Wenger and now its looking like we are on course for another summer of NOTHING, NADA, ZERO, ZILCH, We as a club need a serious Intervention before we become totally irrelevant as a club.Sad Times ahead.
“I don’t rate Emery”
NO SHIT ?? lol
You do not end up top of the charts for most passes completed in the opposition half by playing it sideways That’s literally what happens. It’s a myth this great long passer of the ball. He probably hits about 2-5 a game if he’s lucky. The vast majority of his passes are simple and safe. Worth noting as well that a midfielder who’s job is deep lying playmaker or whatever shouldn’t be having that many touches in the opposition half. Probably why he gets caught out so much defensively. Plus his passing stats have always been misleading. I remember the… Read more »
. Arteta gets the Newcastle Job. Destroys Arsenal with champagne football. Newcastle finishes above Arsenal. Pedro with “I told you so” blogs on a daily. Le-grove meltdown.
new post by the way
Don’t know how a conversation on wingers gets round to Xhaka
Will Ziyech and co better compliment Xhaka Marko??
New post
Le Grove never disappoints.
Zaha day!!!
Torreira ain’t going no where. I think his comment have been skewed by the press or his agent might be using it as a basement to increase his salary. He’ll stay, for that I’m optimistic