Oh man… I’m err… gonna do this.
Mustafi changed his Instagram bio and REMOVED the links to Arsenal.
Could it mean something?
Who knows. I really, really, really hope so.
Edu. The mightiest of Brazilians just oversaw a win in the Copa America. One more week and he lands back in the land of London Colney. That’s great news. We’re hiring in someone who can build a winning machine. Hooooray!
Sevilla is rumoured to be interested in Mikhi. That’s lovely, but I would imagine his salary would land them about 17 players, so not sure this one has much juice to it.
Kurzawa of PSG. Yes, that left back who always looks REAL cool in the stands, has apparently been told he can leave. Big fan of Emeryball? No doubt. Get on that overlap you absolute beauty.
Ok… I’m going to do it again… Kieran Tierney’s pals reckon the left back is going to stay at Celtic for another season. FFS… we couldn’t push it over the line. Still not quite sure about the sleuthing here. What sort of weirdo is keeping tabs on Tierney’s mates? Why is there ALWAYS a weirdo keeping tabs on football players bios? Why am I writing about it?
Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if we pulled the plug on the left back, because that’s old Arsenal, quibbling over £3m to make a useless point then wrapping a comfort blanket excuse around it like, ‘that’s Arsenal class.’ Fuck efficiency. Art of the Deal all the way.
Arsenal, who have managed to move on ONE player all summer, will want to punch themselves in the face when they read this:
🚨Bournemouth have sold Tyrone Mings for £26.5m! A player that has made about 17 appearances in 4 seasons!🚨
What the fuck is going on in Raul’s office? Bournemouth can sell an absolute nobody for £26.5m, and we can’t shift Calum Chambers, Fulham’s player of the season, for a single bloody sausage?
Sometimes I wonder if Raul just needs someone cranking those phones. I’ve worked in recruitment before. Just work out your script and start crushing digits.
‘Good afternoon, my name is Peter Wood, I’m representing the Yellow Sticker department at Arsenal football club, may I speak to your chief buyer?’
‘Well howdy doody, I have many fine products that are hot out the oven, with many genuine buyers interested. To name but a few: A World Cup Champion who is good with concentration, a young player with sturdy legs, a mercurial Germanturkishman with very fine taste in autocrats, a Swiss who always took charge of the spare key, and a Bosnian that will run and run and sometimes act if you ask him nicely. What takes your fancy?’
Easy.
Give me a commission. Say, 5% of every deal, reckon I’d be able to shift them in a week. How hard can it be?
Other things we could do:
- Offer to buy out their contracts
- Tell them not to bother coming to training at all, totally shut them out
- Sell them at literally nothing. Zero transfer fee, just to get them off the books. Because honestly, what is the fucking point in keeping these absolute wasters in the squad for another season? If we don’t take the hit on the books now, we’ll take it in the dressing room and on the pitch all season.
Ok, some of those ideas are a touch extreme. But sheesh, there is NO other club in the world that makes it easier to be an absolute bum than Arsenal.
There’s even a club photo of Ozil, Kola and Mustafi just hanging out.
🔙🔛🔝 pic.twitter.com/Fjw3KxlFbA
— Shkodran Mustafi (@MustafiOfficial) July 6, 2019
I am TRIGGERED. How dare they just, you know, walk about together.
I heard through the grapevine that Emery split the kids and the first team from eating meals together at the training ground. No idea why he’d do something like that, maybe he’s trying to create some ambition in the youth ranks, John-Jules out there dreaming of eating a sandwich next to Nacho Monreal is probably how he ended up on the plane to America… regardless, are the players we want eating meals with everyone else? Are we testing their resolve on any level whatsoever?
‘No Ozil, eat your profiteroles roll on that dirty beanbag in the corner, you lazy boy’
Real Madrid seem to be shipping their dross out with absolute ease. What is our problem?
Tyrone Mings for £26.5m! HOW?!
Maybe none of this matters. Raul was just keeping the preseason warm for Edu? Hopefully he has some really fucking great ideas about who he wants to bring with him.
My MAJOR hope is that he doesn’t ship in 15 of his mates. I hope he’s a true pro. He needs a new chief scout, I hope he finds the smartest person doing the most mental things with data you could imagine, unearthing gems in untapped markets, perhaps helping small clubs bat well above their average.
My point is that I hope we’re hiring in a professional. Someone that knows the market. Someone that interviews for the job, you know, best candidate wins like the old days. Hopefully, he has an idea in his head about where the next frontier in football is located. Has a contacts books that can help him. Leans into that contacts book and seeks advice from good people.
We’ll see, but whatever happens, we need something to ignite our dismal post-season. To start training with literally one Brazilian that wasn’t even playing at the highest level is a touch miserable, especially considering how quickly we attacked our business in Sven Mislintat’s first summer.
Right, that’s me done. See you tomorrow. I’m back on the 9am run people.
xx
Good article from Kicker when he made decision to join Arsenal.
https://arseblog.news/2017/12/sven-mislintat-kicker-interview-transcript/
Odd that Bieliek name was missing from list of promoted youngsters?
Mystic
Could be he’s being sold.
It could be he was part of a summer tournament and so hasn’t reported back and it will be announced then.
I would like to see him get a chance, take Elneny’s place in squad.
I guess the club is hoping other buying clubs will come late in the window.
In the case, we need to have our youth ready to replace them.
I certainly hope that we lose at least three of
Mustafi
Ozil
Xhaka
Kos
El Neny
Mikki
3 starters to replace…
‘Zaha 1-0’
I thought Zaha was so poor in the game he couldn’t move past a player.
Once some hotheads hate a player, they wouldn’t bother to wait until a game finishes before they rate his performance in the game.
So ozil Mustafi Kos monreal and elneny linked with a move away please let them all be true
Mystic
How is mcguaune doing over in Spain.
Zaha would improve us immensely anyone saying otherwise has not watched him rip us a new arse two seasons running his directness aggression speed and dribbling skill will leave space for our forwards and his crossing is good so will work with aubas one touch finishing
RSPCA he played 30 games for Barca B last season and played a 20 mins for Barca in the cup coming on as a sub
RSPC Mustafi, like so many before him, entered an unstructured shitfest. When you’re in an environment that doesn’t promote positivity, a proactive structure and a true winning mentality, you will ultimately suffer the consequences. Is he really that bad or is it just that he fell into the quicksand that has befallen so many before him? Sometimes you watch him and think he’s not really there. Once you start going through the motions and your mindset is geared to accepting mediocrity,, it is so difficult to motivate yourself. Is this what has happened to Mustafi? Sometimes he comes across as… Read more »
So much respect for any of the young kids trying their luck abroad.
He had the choice of all of the major clubs, would be great to see him break through.
Tyrone Mings is a very good signing for Villa , and yes he is a far better footballer than Chambers . John Terry took Mings under his wing last season and the transformation in his game was immense, obviously Pedro, you didn’t see him play in the run in for Villas promotion, he made the difference . John Terry showed Mings how the game should be played at this level , he showed him that you don’t always have to go flying into tackles , he showed him how to read the game , he has made him a much… Read more »
Pierre,
That’s a beautiful story, but he’s still a £26m Championship player.
Cheers mr serge
Looks like he may be something one day…
Graham
Another typical wenger signing….
It’s not fair on Emery having to work with a board full of AKB’s……..
Pierre
Check back with us in a few months in Mings
On Mings*
Long time Red
R.T
“””””It’s not fair on Emery having to work with a board full of AKB’s……..”””
And he will never work with Saliba too.
Saliba, the luckiest player alive today.
He will join Arsenal and never have to be coached by Emery.
And He will never get a close up – of Unai new gnashers. What a lucky boy!
I wonder who will be Salibas coach next season?
Arsene Wenger?????
Patrick Vieira ????
Enrique???
Freddie??
Arteta?
Tick Tock..
Barca are well advised to stay away from Neymar. It seems he didn’t show up for preseason at PSG. Barca may be enjoying seeing PSG squirm after what happened between both clubs two years ago but damn this lad brings a lot of baggage along with his undeniable talent.
There’s no reason why Coutinho doesn’t step up next season. He looked good at Copa America.
For one Barca has run the rule over him. Their president when talking about Neymar mentioned Dembele as a very capable left winger that offsets Neymars immediate need. No mention of Coutinho
Mystic
You don’t think Barca will take Neymar back?
If possible they will. President admitted mutual interests but said it will be hard to sign him this summer.
I was saying in previous post that it doesn’t seem Coutinho has a future in that club going by the president’s statement. You also remember them have to buy Griezmann and somehow fit him in that front 3
Dearie me
Reports that Arsenal interested in Bakayoko
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1150816/Manchester-United-transfer-news-Chelsea-transfer-news-Arsenal-news-Tiemoue-Bakayoko
“Reports that Arsenal interested in Bakayoko”
The man who runs in treacle.
Trolling surely.
terraloon
It says the gooners are ” keeping an eye on developments”
Is the right eye or left eye that’s doing the watching.
Every story is an opportunity to rope in gooners for easy clicks
terraloon
I’d be surprised to see Chelsea sell any players they don’t need to this summer. When they’re stuck with a transfer ban selling players you can’t replace seems crazy.
For those naive posters on here- who think ( hahahahaha) that Raul and Vinny will be ASKING for anything from Stan when they have their meeting( inc. Extra funds) they are deluded as well. But they will be ANSWERING questions from Stan. Like: 1. Who chose This Clown in charge? 2. And why are you persisting with him? 2.Why did we not receive a penny from Welbeck and Rambo? 3.Why are we buying 4th division players from Brazil? 4. Why are we paying £30 million for a teenager- but cant play him this season? 5.Why do we have we 32… Read more »
I hope this supreme confidence by some posters on here that Chelsea have no chance at all for top four this coming season indeed proves correct.
Will prove very handy as Man United still have lots to do to recover.
Looking at juve potential team next season
They all have Ramsay pushed out wider…
I thought he didn’t like that postition.?
Strange what money does init…
Eagerly waiting to see how they fit Ramsey, Rabiot, Bentaccur, Can, dybala, in that midfield. They are other options I can’t remember now
Pjanic
The problem I have with Xhaka is that Emery prefers to play him as the CDM. That pushes Torr higher up as a CM. Torr’s position should be a CDM. He becomes half the player when playing as a CM. He is also physically not strong enough to play a whole season as a CM. Furthermore, Xhaka as CDM is another reason why our defense is so weak.
So potentially
Sczc
Bel hold papa mon
Torr amn Wilcox
Iwobi lacs pea
Could bee…
Nelson “The problem I have with Xhaka is that Emery prefers to play him as the CDM. That pushes Torr higher up as a CM. Torr’s position should be a CDM. He becomes half the player when playing as a CM. He is also physically not strong enough to play a whole season as a CM. Furthermore, Xhaka as CDM is another reason why our defense is so weak.” All deep lying playmakers play predominately deep funny enough. Torreira could play alongside him more but that is just inviting the opposition to come onto you right up to your own… Read more »
Ishola70
I prefer to have a box to box CM than a deep lying CM.
Nelson
“I prefer to have a box to box CM than a deep lying CM.”
I think it would make the midfield better yes from a defensive viewpoint but the club decided to go with this DLP.
It’s doubtful the midfield improves off the ball and defensively unless he puts three bodies in there instead of two and the third wouldn’t be Guendouzi at this stage. He’s not defensively that aware at this present time. So three (not Guendouzi) or ditch the DLP.
On transfermarkt Laurent Koscielny is valued at £7.20m. They are also interested in Elneny who is worth the same.
Bordeaux have two young decent wingers called Samuel Kalu (21) and François Kamano… (23) worth trying getting one of them at least on a swap?
I should have said Bordeaux is interested in Koscielny…
Neymar didn’t show for training… cheeky £40m bid to put Palace in their place?
RSPC Arsenal
Did you mean to put Szczesny in goal ?
The main problem is that we do not have the personnel in midfield to play the system that Emery want. When others EPL teams play 4-2-3-1, they tend to have two strong Midfielders who act in tandem. Spurs, Watford, Everton are the classic examples. We have Torreira and Xhaka… Some teams play 4-3-2-1/4-3-3, but then the deep laying midfielder has two dynamic but disciplined midfielders around him. Chelsea’s Jorginho was supported by Kovatic and N’golo Kanté. Even ignoring the fact that Xhaka does not have the same mobility and tackling ability of Jorginho, We have nobody who can play the… Read more »
40 million and Chambers. Job done
Syria 5 North Korea 2
The more and more I look into the Saliba deal, I like it. In effect we’ve placed a deposit on a top prospect and protected him from price increases for one year and have prevented him from being snatched up by another team. Good.
Fair enough but what are we going to do in the meantime? Are we going to play Chambers next year? Bielik? A free agent like Cahill?
Surely this means we have freed up the money to sign Tierney doesn’t it?
Or could it be that we are going to give another Academy graduate a serious chance to prove himself there? Medley? Although if we were going to go down this route I’m surprised we allowed Ballard to go on loan. Out of everyone I would have thought he was the closest to the first team in our youth set up.
We better hope Holding comes back quickly because we’re going to need him to… and I’d say it’s not fair to ask us to endure Mustafi for another year.
Well one piece of positive news is that one source has reported from Spain that we’ve made ‘no’ contact for Vasquez…this leaves us down to Zaha or Fraser for The forward left position.
As for the right, things have been very quiet…nothing since zyiech. I’m hopeful that Fekir will come in to film that spot
Leedsgunner
I think the club will keep both Koscielny and Monreal for one more year.
I can feel for Emery. There is pressure on him to play the youngsters. There is also pressure on him to get back into the Champions League. And the fans also want to see a defined style of football with consistency. I hope that he can get Zaha. That would give him a better chance. MC may also be banned from the Champions League the year after. A top 5 spot like this year could be enough.
Good deal if the Saliba rumors are true. Basement payment to ward off potential price hikes.
We need a good defender now to supplement for our inadequacies at the back watching the AFCON, I’m pretty impressed with the centre back from Ghana; Kasim Nuhu Adams. Learnt he plays for Hoffeiheim. Positional discipline and can do the primary thing which is defend. Also good ball playing defender.
Valentin
I think Emery was constrained at the fullback positions.
He could play a Xhaka, Torreira and Guendozi mid if he wanted to do a Chelsea-lite replica.
Nelson
“The problem I have with Xhaka is that Emery prefers to play him as the CDM. ”
Well, where else do we play him? CB?
At least his long pass is fast and accurate, like a golf swing.
Tielemans should have been a natural replacement for Ramsey.
Leicester did well there.
The Saliba desk will be very good looking if we can sign a decent short term CB for this season on the cheap
I don’t like the idea that we go into this season without 3 capable CBs, but the Saliba deal itself if payment is deferred seems like a very good move
Xhaka could hypothetically become more useful if we had dangerous runners as wing forwards who he could release quickly when we turn over possession
Xhaka has very pronounced strengths and weaknesses, but part of the issue is we don’t have a setup which can even accommodate his strengths
But I’d still rather replace him tho
Watching Arsenal last season, after the initial unbeaten run, the key word is consistency from the team , the players and I believe most importantly, the manager. For the team and the players to be consistent in their performance the manager needs to be consistent in his formation , personnel and tactics. Last season Emery had a tendency to change things when nothing needed changing. during our early season unbeaten run of 22 games we played a 4-2-3-1 system up until the Bournemouth game on November 25th. We were 16 games undefeated at the time and although the system wasn’t… Read more »
The issue I have with xhaka is that he requires a setup and players to enable him
When fully enabled he’s not a bad player as last season showed, but I don’t feel comfortable with depending on players who need to be enabled
I much prefer to have a player who can fit into multiple systems than build a system to accommodate a player
Pierre Arsenal had a nice run of away fixtures up intil the end of November and even then people on here were saying the unbeaten run wasn’t really wholly convincing. The team were giving up chances to the opposition and still looked defensively suspect. All this talk of Torreira playing too high up. So where is he meant to play with Xhaka? If Torrerira stays deep what do you want Xhaka to do? Stay deep as well? Where is the pressure on the ball going to come from higher up? You don’t expect Xhaka to do that job for you… Read more »
Ishola “If Torrerira stays deep what do you want Xhaka to do? Stay deep as well?”” Why not , it’s called protection…. especially as Emery was asking the full backs to be way too far advanced at the same time , leaving us open defensively down the channels. You can’t have advanced full backs and one of your central midfielders advanced at the same time ….it’s a recipe for disaster . 2 deep lying midfielders would give the team control of the game and doesn’t leave us open to the counter Having both full backs advanced and one of your… Read more »
It’s a shame that Guendouzi doesn’t look up to scratch defensively at this time because he could do the pressing further up with Torreira playing deeper as DM. He could be the box to boxer picking the ball up from Torreira but he looks a little clueless at times in his pressing. In that first away match at Chelsea in that first half the score could have been 6-6. It was like watching sunday park football with both defences horrible because Chelsea too were showing off their new shiny DLP Jorginho and they didn’t have a clue defensively either. At… Read more »
Ishola
“Arsenal had a nice run of away fixtures up until the end of November”
Yes and we were unbeaten for 22 games, primarily with a 4-2-3-1 sgstem.
So who did we play towards the end of the season …..Everton, Palace, Wolves and Leicester …they look quite a nice run of fixtures don’t they …so what happened ..
We lost all of them and also drew with Brighton at home using a primarily wing back system.
What are you talking about Pierre? You can’t go through a whole season with two midfielders sitting deep with one of those midfielders not even being remotely good enough defensively. You can’t go through a whole season basically giving up the midfield because that is what having those two deep all the time will do. So you want opposing teams to go through the middle and have no check on them until they are deep in Arsenal’s midfield and coming near to the Arsenal penalty area? It doesn’t work like that Pierre not with two midfielders and you are living… Read more »
Pierre
Arsenal didn’t play a team that finished in the top ten away from home up until the beginning of December apart from the first match at Chelsea.
It was a nice run of away fixtures no doubt.
Ishola “You can’t go through a whole season with two midfielders sitting deep with one of those midfielders not even being remotely good enough defensively.” a manager should adapt to the players he has available…let’s not forget , he bought Torreira who although a good player , he has little pace and not a great engine to get up and down the pitch and it was the managers decision to play Xhaka who you believe is not remotely good enough defensively. He had Ramsey sitting on the bench for ten straight league games who proved later in the season that… Read more »
Pierre
There may be some posters that agree with you I don’t know but to me you are talking crackers.
You want a midfield of two that doesn’t press the opponents when they advance into Arsenal’s half.
Crackers to me.
Ishola “What a novel idea on how to improve defensively. Just tell the players not to move five yards from their positions these being the two deep sitting DMs and the two fullbacks lol” I do realise that you are not as stupid as you are trying to perceive but I will humour you for a few more minutes. Firstly , Arsenal need to concede fewer goals . How will we achieve that …is it by having a solid, disciplined midfield with the full backs having more emphasis on defending than attacking or is it by p playing with the… Read more »
Ishola
“You want a midfield of two that doesn’t press the opponents when they advance into Arsenal’s half.”
Of course I never said anything remotely similar to that ….seems like your struggling and are now have to resort to bullshit to prove a point.
Pierre
I don’t know of any team that plays just two midfielders deep as DMs of which one isn’t even a DM and fullbacks that don’t engage their opposing fullbacks in pushing them back to defend.
As said certainly novel your ideas.
I can understand two deep sitting DMs with three in midfield the other being a CM but not just two in midfield.
Ishola, Spurs, Watford, Everton, Leicester all plays with two defensive aggressive Midfielders who sit quite deep. They have a third midfielder who is further forward and more attack oriented. The width is provided by the fullbacks. Any counter-attack via the wing is handled by the two midfielders sliding toward one side blocking any further forward move. The third midfielder coming deeper blocking any central pass. That give times to the trio of attackers and the fullbacks to come back into defensive position. Most teams don’t have players good enough to expose it by playing quickly long digital switch of play… Read more »
Valentin Xhaka is not a DM. Already said two sitting DMs is understandable with another CM in there. Pierre has got it into his head that Arsenal looked good defensively with what he thinks he saw as Torreira continuously sitting deep with Xhaka. I’m sure Torreira did get back deep when needed behind the ball but he wasn’t continously deep with Xhaka. It’s as much about the level of opposition as it was about this mirage that Torreira’s so-called sitting deep with Xhaka made the team good defensively and they were giving up chances anyway in the unbeaten run. And… Read more »
Ishola, I agree with both of you. However when Pierre blame the system and the manager and you blame the player Xhaka, I think that it is a combination of both. Xhaka is not a DM, but I don’t think either that a DLM is a good solution in the EPL. Chelsea made it kind of work, but they lacked physicality and creativity. They were lucky that they had two players who could compensate for those flaws. Kante with his extra running compensated their lack of bite in midfield and Hazard upfront compensated their lack of creativity. Personally I rate… Read more »