Eddie delivers.

by .

Unai Emery pulled a magic trick out of his hat. He used the powers of youth to completely disguise that Arsenal hadn’t added a single first-team player to the squad this season and we’re three games into preseason.

Quite amazing to be having a 2012 like conversation after all the backroom upheaval to address exactly this.

Before I push on into the game. I’m also finding the strategy for moving certain players on a touch baffling. If we’re serious about selling anyone, why are we starting them on this tour? Mustafi and Jenkinson should both be getting their marching orders, but we have them stinking out the tour instead? Seems a very odd way to go about things.

Anyway, the game didn’t really tell us much about the upcoming season, other than it looks like it’s going to feel very familiar unless something very aggressive happens in the next two weeks.

Our defence seems to have honed its ability to leak good chances. Fiorentina were very poor but found ways to get in behind us time and time again. It doesn’t seem to matter what system we play, we’re a disaster. It obviously doesn’t help when you have Mustafi in the starting 11, but look, it’s not me putting him there.

My major worry is this: Emery has zero pedigree with defences. He averaged 49 goals a season at Sevilla. He took PSG from 17 goals, to 27, to 29. He couldn’t better Wenger’s tally last year, dropping 51 goals despite adding a keeper, 2 defenders and 2 defensive-minded midfielders. Where does the progression come from? Nothing in history to suggest he can change things.

Moving forward we looked interesting. Eddie had a really good game. He finished very well twice. Those chances haven’t been going in when it comes to competition time. I’m of the mind that he should go out on loan this season and see if he can work on his decision making. He needs to get some teeth. I know as fans we always lose our minds with kids on preseason, but the reality for Eddie is that Emery is not going to give him many chances this season because he has Laca and Auba… so maybe he should take the move out and force his hand in the back half of the year.

I also enjoyed seeing Willock on the scoresheet again. He really does have to be ready this season, at 19, it’s a big ask, but he does look the most ready. He’s focused, he has the physicality and he can be decisive. Let’s hope Emery doesn’t bottle it.

I also thought Gabriel looked sharp… he has a lot of pace and power. That long run he made was very exciting. It’ll be interesting to see what the club does with him. Can he cut it in the first team? A huge ask if we’re honest, but you never know… I guess it’s dependent on how badly we fuck our big signings.

I was watching with my dad. He made the point that we might as well give the kids a shot, because if it’s mistakes the manager is worried about… he’d not keep playing Mustafi and Xhaka. Let’s hope he doesn’t get consumed by the panic of his job situation and move away from his youth focus.

In other news, there’s hot talk that United are in for Auba for £62m. Arsenal fans are furious at the thought of us moving him on. I love Auba, I think he’s a joy to watch at times, however, if there’s huge money on the table for a 30-year-old, we should take it and progress the squad. As things stand, we’re finishing no higher than 5th this season… if £80m gets us Zaha and Pepe, we’re in a more solid grounding next season… we might also be able to kick this Tierney deal over the line.

Holding onto your best 30-year-olds when you’re skint isn’t progression in my opinion. Especially when they only have two years left on their deal.

Right, dine out on that my friends.

What did YOU think? See you in hell (comments).

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Bankz

Bankz is here for the Tr4phy again

Bankz

Let’s do this….

Bankz

Tr4phy secured!

Bankz

BOOOOOOM

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

Bankz

Not today groovey….not today

grooveydaddy

Nearly got you again Bankz

We’ll played this time….

Chitom

Auba to United is a no

grooveydaddy

*well

Chitom

Arsenal have a better chance of finishing in the top four this season ahead of United and Chelsea than the last.
United are a mess and Chelsea without Hazard will struggle too.
Selling Auba to a direct competitor would be madness.

Mr Serge

We cannot sell Auba to Utd after what RVP they can do one

Marc

” I think he’s a joy to watch at times, however, if there’s huge money on the table for a 30-year-old” Sorry but selling Auba to ManU would be a disaster. I don’t agree with selling him I’d keep him unless a real big money bid came in, all we’d be doing is selling him for £13 million less than ManU paid for Lukaku. If we are to sell him it has to be abroad. If we sell him to ManU he’ll be the difference between them finishing above us and not. The one area of the team that isn’t… Read more »

James.wood

Can’t see how you can loan Eddie out if Auba
who clearly was at odds with Emery last season
looks likely to move on.

Marc

James

Er I didn’t see Auba at odds with Emery last season.

Marc

James does however make a good point about loaning Eddie and selling Auba.

What happens if Laca gets injured?

Pedro I really think you’re all over the place at the moment.

Chitom

Pedro,
the TW is progressing exactly how I thought it would.
No one wants our overpriced, underperforming players and Arsenal aren’t the type of club to tell a Mustafi he needs to find another club if he wants to play football this season.

Marko

Sell United Lacazette but not Auba. Non starter anyway

Dave

Banks get a life!!!!

Marc

Marko

Pedro talks about a huge bid at £60 odd million – the Spud’s have just paid that for a midfielder and ManU paid £50 million for an inexperienced RB.

If they offered £120 million it might be a difference conversation.

James.wood

Marc
Auba and Laca showed disdain when they where subbed
last season mopey faced facial signs to me
showed they where both not happy with being taken off.?
I think the press picked up on this.?

l

HighburyLegend

“if there’s huge money on the table for a 30-year-old, we should take it and progress the squad”
Of course, this is a well known tradition at Arsenal, to sell our strikers to Manure!!
(Not funny ??)

Marc

James

Firstly I don’t want players looking happy when they are subbed.

Secondly maybe they are ruing missed chances.

They were occasions when Laca was subbed where you could apply what you say but not with Auba.

HighburyLegend

What’s worried me is to see that Edu is not worried with the possibility of seeing Mustafi and Xhaka in our squad next season.
Edu out!!

Marko

One things for sure Sven would have seen the back of Mustafi and Xhaka

Chitom

Everyone pray Sokratis stays fit because without him in the line up Arsenal’s back four most likely will consist of AMN at RB, Mustafi and Monreal at CB , and Kola at LB.
Put Xhaka right in front for “protection” ( cough, cough) and watch opposition tremble with fear. Lol.

Lari03

Like Moreno lived out his contract at Liverpool, Arsenal will slowly wait on Mustafi’s contract until he’s bored of bench warming. By the way we still have Elneny on our books, as well as Jenkinson.

Spanishdave

They cannot get rid of Jenks , but Madrid can tell Bale to piss off.
Just shows our soft core, for our multi millionaires.

Shad

Auba scores goals at the same rate he misses sitters, but with 2 years left on his contract and no apt replacement as yet, I would not sell him at all.
Only if he refuses to sing an extension and we can sell hiim for closer to £100m, then can it be considered.

James.wood

Marc I’m seeing different things to you.
I won’t say your wrong.?
But as now a solely tv fan I’m pretty certain
neither of them like being taken off
As you say I don’t want players to look happy being taken
off but some players react with a different view to that.
And feel they are being made the scapegoat.
Just a view.

Guns of SF

Do not sell auba

Marko

I still see departures though. Other windows close in September so there’s less of a rush to get rid of them. Ideally what they should do for example with the likes of Mustafi and Xhaka etc for instance if they really want to get rid of them is show them here are your replacements and you’re not going to be registered in the premier league list so you have 3 weeks to find a club elsewhere in Europe. That SHOULD do the trick honestly

Shad

It is diablocal that the only CB we have been linked to and are probably signing) is Saliba, who is being loaned back to St. Etienne.

The car crash that is Mustafi flanked by Papa cannot be allowed to start the season.

Imagine Papa getting injured and it would be Mustafi and Monreal.

We are royally fucked.

Shad

ION, Szczesny doing Szczesny things. Kane just ended him.

Marc

Shad

Holding is close to fitness – whilst I agree we can’t rush him back to quickly he will be an option.

Henry Root

The Auba to United bid was a rumour from weeks ago that has been rehashed. We would have to be offered £90 million but I suspect they will promote Greenwood to play with Rashford . They might be interested in trying to buy Kane

Shad

@Marc,

True. We don’t want Holding being rushed back a la Koscielny and then we end up breaking him even more. I’d say earliest start would be October and then eased into the fixtures slowly.
The future looks good with him and Saliba, flanked by Bellerin and Tierney (assuming we don’t f**k it up). That is one pacey and solid backline.

Marc

dave

It’s reported that Bale’s on £600k per week and has 3 years left on his contract. He might take a cut but he won’t go down to £100k.

How many clubs are there that can get close to what he’d want? PSG, City (doubt it though) and ManU?

Shad

@Henry,

No space for Kane given that they just rebuffed an offer for Lukaku.

Marc

Henry

I wouldn’t be surprised to see ManU go for Kane at some point.

Shad

Numerous reports saying Raul is back in London this week to drive transfer business. Hoping we don’t get stuck with Denis Suarez kind of deals/players.

Marc

Shad

They reckon Holding is ahead of schedule and could be close to being ready for the start of the season.

I’d still bed him in easily but it’s looking promising at least on that front.

andy1886

Surely we can sell Xhaka? Possibly the only player not yet tainted enough to put off potential buyers. Then we might some cash to buy either a new DM or a more defensively capable midfielder. I’m sure we could cope without his occasional nice pass which is usually balanced out by equally frequent brain fart moments.

Sell Auba though? To United? Hard to believe any Arsenal fan would tolerate that.

TR7

Unai‘ Did you watch Mav at all last season?Rabbit in headlights, guys definitely not ready for the prem regardless of how bad the other options are.’ A young teenager coming back from an injury layoff not looking up to speed in the limited game time he gets in a league still alien to him is hardly a matter of surprise. As far as I am concerned he has it in him to come good if the manager shows faith in him and gives him adequate game time. Talking of rabbit in headlights, what about calamitous Mustafi continuing to be a… Read more »

Guns of SF

Swap xhaka and elneny for Icardi since we apparently bid for him

Unai

TR7, your right, hes a raw kid who needs game time.

A loan? cup games? Fine.

30+ games in the prem would be pure negligence.

Marko

Irrespective of whether Bellerin and Holding are close to a return it shouldn’t be a reason to stop us from still addressing the defence. Only Arsenal fans get excited about two players who even prior to injury were still very up and down players and still were part of a defence that wasn’t good enough. And coupled with being out for 6/7 months and the seriousness of the injury it’s wishful thinking to expect them to come back in and be a solution. This is from a guy who actually thought holding was arguably our best CB prior to injury.… Read more »

Unai

Still, I’m on the same page regarding Mustafi, guy is next level terrible.

TR7

No club in their right mind should pay £90M for a 31 year old one trick pony striker but United under Woodward have been horrendous in their managerial and player recruitment, so hoping again hope we get to do an Alexis on them yet again.

Cesc Appeal

Would have to be big money for us to sell Aubameyang, not convinced by having Lacazette as the starting ST. He would have to step up massively or we’d need to get enough quality in the wide positions to compensate for his average returns.

Pierre

As for the being happy or whatever after being subbed, it’s intolerant you have to humour Emery by playing the smiling , clapping to the fans ,high five the manager game . If you come off looking seriously missed off as Ramsey and Ozil did before Christmas last season , you will marginalised from the team . Lacazette learnt pretty quickly as he looked unhappy the first time he was substituted and he was sub for a few games ….after that he played the game and came off smiling and clapping the fans ,hence he was back in the fold… Read more »

Pierre

correction *Intolerant*… obvious

* Missed *……pissed

Champagne charlie

“I’d keep him unless a real big money bid came in, all we’d be doing is selling him for £13 million less than ManU paid for Lukaku.” Right but none of that is particularly relevant if the sale of Auba means we m are a net gain as a side. You can be fixated on “big money”,or this player vs that player (29 year old Auba vs 25 year old Lukaku us a weird comparison), but that is just fluffy fan angst getting in the way of realities. Selling Auba to make us better is a no brainer. The emotional… Read more »

Pierre

If only Aubamayang was 25 years old.

Valentin

If ManUtd are really willing to offer £80 millions for Aubameyang, let’s sell him and reinvest properly in the team: A CB, a dominant CM.

The problem is that nobody trust Raul to make the necessary correct purchase. Even if he were to make contact for the right player, he would be swindled of Arsenal cash. A la Howard Wilkinson who contacted ManUtd for a player ended up selling Leeds best player Eric Cantona for peanuts.

TallestTiz

Pedro, like any other Arsenal fan is confused. “Loan Eddie, sell Auba” for around £60 million in today’s inflatef market? Same people claim to dislike being a selling club.
Pleee stop what ever you’re drinking.

If only consider an £100+ million from a club abroad and £150+ million from a club in England

Cesc Appeal

This close to the end of the transfer window United would have to offer £90 Million to even make me think about it.

Aubameyang is our most important offensive player.

China1

62m for Auba is not that much money in the grand scheme of things. If the offer came from outside England it might at least be worth listening to, but to man utd that’s complete suicide. Just because utd were irrelevant last season doesn’t mean they couldn’t have a lucky year or you know have a 30 goal a season Gabonese forward drag them to 4th at our expense… Look what happened with rvp – that’s literally madness Pedro. Also what gives you so much confidence that with the extra 62m we’d manage to sign two quality wingers like Zaha… Read more »

China1

It’s not an emotional response to be against selling your best player to a direct competitor for a less than massive fee now is it That would be the most arsenal thing ever to go into the summer trying to sell ozil mikki xhaka mustafi and jenkinson and literally all of them are still here but we sell our most important player to a direct competitor for only 3/4 of the asking price of a less than world class crystal palace player Selling to improve is one thing, selling your best player for a less than massive sum to a… Read more »

Nelson

I am disappointed with R. Nelson. Yesterday, he didn’t play like a winger. He didn’t run with the ball and didn’t take on any defender. I am afraid Martinelli will surpass him as our next winger.

Cesc Appeal

If we play hardball and demand £90 Million with the majority up front and that helps us land Zaha and a great CB that is something you can potentially understand.

Graham62

I forget who said it the other day, but someone on here compared Eddie Nketiah to Gerd Muller. I know!! GERD MULLER!!!!!! My take on Nketiah is such. He has talent, of that there is no doubt. He has speed and balance. He has good movement and positional sense. However, he lacks the outward hunger and desire to want to score………at all costs!! Gerd Muller was a legend and one of the greatest strikers of all time. He sniffed out goals and had the knack, as all great strikers do, of being in the right place at the right time.… Read more »

Marko

Gerd Butler perhaps

James.wood

£90 million .
That’s not hardball.
It’s robbery.?

Graham62

Martinelli looks a fantastic prospect.

Raw talent.

Dissenter

In all fairness, Pedro was dealing with heat exhaustion when he stated that £62 is a big money offer for Aubameyang. He’s caught up in the 100-110 degrees heat wave on the east coast.
Let them come back with £100 million then we start listening.

Auba is 30 year old and has 2 years left in his deal.
Sell Auba; get Everton Soares, Tierney and a central defender.

China1

close to 100m and arsenal can sign two serious players and potentially a bargain on top, so I’d take that.

China1

Dissenter we should already be able to afford Tierney and Everton without the Auba money. If we sell Auba for 100m and only sign those two and a CB I’m afraid it will be another example of cash hoarding arsenal again.

We should be signing Tierney and Everton before the 100 even gets touched. Use that for a top quality CB and a quality DM/CM and we’re talking!

Graham62

Lacazette was pissed off when he was substituted because he knew he was giving his all and the fans love him for that.

Ozil was pissed off because he genuinely thought he was playing well and felt he was being victimised.

We all knew differently.

Freddie Ljungberg

“West Ham are in pursuit of Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny, according to Ahly News. The Egyptian news outlet, who have over 100,000 followers on Facebook, claims that the Gunners are ready to cash in on the 27-year-old enforcer this summer and West Ham have “opened their doors” to the Egypt international. It is understood that the Hammers are prepared to pay £9million for Elneny, but Arsenal want more than that so they can make as much money as possible to help fund their swoop for Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha. Ahly News adds that West Ham see Elneny as a… Read more »

Dissenter

There’s tabloid talk that Juventus re trying to sign Danny Rose from Spuds
You have to wonder why the player who’s always lamenting about racist abuse will consider moving to Serie A.

Graham62

It’s sad isn’t it that, because of Wenger’s and Gazidis’s gross mismanagement, we have to even consider selling one of our top players.

No doubt they’re both sitting in the back gardens of their palatial mansions, sipping on their vintage Chateau Petrus, gloating in their own success and excellent work.

God and to think some fans still adore them.

Dissenter

I want us to sell as many players as possible … but not to fund Wilfried Zaha.
Best player player in a non top-6 club is not the same as world-class.

Graham62

Freddie

I agree.

Marko

Where are people getting the United Auba stuff from?

Guns of Brixton

Selling a confirmed 20 + goal per season striker to top 4 rivals would be disastrous.

Auba has shown he can perform in this League whilst Pepe hasn’t, and Zahas stats are bang average to be blunt.

Very very few strikers that can score 20 + goals a season exist right now and they re all very expensive.

So selling on our best player / striker when we re broke as joke, and as it stands our attack being the only thing going for us is a disastrous move.

Marc

Dissenter

Danny Rose is several rungs of the ladder below complete moron. Once the fans realised he reacts badly he’d get it constantly.

Champagne Charlie

China It is emotional, because you’re too busy worrying about a direct rival and not focused on whether a sale of Auba brings our side on any. You think Man United are going to struggle to improve? Their recruitment is irrelevant to us. Only questions we need to be concerned with is how we manage to make significant gains. If that means selling our best player to United then I’ll drive him myself, and give them Mkhi back so they can get the ‘Yo Pierre’ vid down. Arsenal need to improve. We don’t need to bleed from the fanny over… Read more »

Marc

CC

You’re so wrong on this one it’s hard to even know where to start.

Champagne Charlie

Marc

Cool story mate, right back at you and all that. Quality stuff

Marko

If that means selling our best player to United then I’ll drive him myself,

Wouldn’t drive Lacazette though.

Marc

There are probably 5 or 6 20 plus PL goals a season strikers in the league. ManU don’t have one selling ours so we score less and they score more? Hmmm that sounds a great idea – why don’t we offer to help the Spud’s pay for their new stadium while we’re at it.

Crimson

Agreed Dave… There are lots of people on here that need to get a life.
Probably including me. 😜
But still I read… Hmm
Most posts are negative and I understand the frustration from the bottom to the top of the club, things need and are changing. It’s a slow process…
Be positive and don’t drag this site down. 💋

Batistuta

Why would anyone want to sell our best striker to a direct rival? Golden boot winner? Probably has 3 good seasons left in him at the top level if he looks after himself?

Again, are people actually saying we again sell our best player to Man Utd especially knowing it’ll probably take Raul and co another 2 years to sign a worthy replacement at this stage

Marko

You sound emotional Bati. Don’t be emotional

bennydevito

Afternoon Grovers, good post Pedro.

With all due respect Pedro, Emery has come out and said Nketiah is going nowhere and staying with us.

He also says that are waiting on 3 – 4 top quality very expensive players but are remaining patient as they don’t want to drop down to their 2nd tier list of players.

This is music to my ears. Very promising stuff.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11767510/unai-emery-to-be-patient-as-he-bids-to-add-players-to-arsenal-squad

Champagne Charlie

Marko

Why not Lacazette? Every player is dispensable, that means every player funnily enough.

Batistuta

See Madrid taking a stand with Bale and then you’ve got us still starting Mustafi in games because ” he’s wages are too big ” . I mean even against a poor Florentina side,you can still see both him and Xhaka are absolutely going to cost us points if they’re still here so how on earth haven’t we taken a stand with these error prone players? I mean Xhaka one could understand as he always has the odd good game but seriously, what exactly is this club doing to free up wages asides letting players run their contracts down and… Read more »

Marc

benny

Sorry but you’re being positive now and that’s not allowed on here. I was being positive but I’ve been shown the error of my ways and repented. We’re fucked we might as well apply to play in League 2 although we’re so bad we’ll probably be embarrassed there on a regular basis.

We should just donate our best players to other teams as punishment for sacking Wenger – oops wasn’t supposed to let that slip.

Batistuta

Marko

Lol I’m not mate, it’s just bonkers to even consider selling our best player to them AGAIN unless they’re paying stupid stupid money for him

Marc

Bati

Maybe we were trying to put them in the shop window to Italian teams!

Marc

Bati

That’s the thing £60 million is peanuts for a top striker in todays market. If we were to sell him we’d need Laca and the 2 new wingers to score 35 goals between them next season to stand still.

Batistuta

Marc

Completely agree there. West ham got Haller for a huge sum too so unless Utd want to pay upwards of 100 million then they can as well go fuck themselves really

Marc

Bati

I think telling them to go fucks themselves is far too polite.

Uwot?

Ye gods.will we never learn.selling aubangthemin to Manure will help them get top four at OUR expense.Madness.only the ditherer would sanction such a sale.Not even for £90 plus million.it would be like rvp all over again.enough is enough.

Marko

Charlie you have argued against selling Lacazette in the past. Something about being able to hold up play and being younger and such. It’s just ironic that you’re now saying that we shouldn’t let emotions get in the way of selling Auba is all. No big deal. Given last season I would be less inclined to sell Auba given he’s better but it would be hypothetical given our needs. Definitely wouldn’t sell to a direct rival though. We did that before and it was dickless then and it’s dickless now

Marko

*hypocritical not hypothetical

Champagne Charlie

“That’s the thing £60 million is peanuts for a top striker in todays market. If we were to sell him we’d need Laca and the 2 new wingers to score 35 goals between them next season to stand still.“ Yea like that time we sold Alexis and tore it up for them. That’s such ABC logic. Obviously nobody wants to sell to United or whoever the fuck else, but if they came knocking with good money we should be a smart enough club to turn that into a positive for us nvm them. You’re concerned with that because the folk… Read more »

Marc

CC

What do you class as good money?

Pierre

Graham Personally, I would like to see someone like Thierry Henry or Ian Wright take Nketiah under their wing . Nketiah has bags of talent but he looks like he is trying too hard to impress and tends to rush things , especially in front of goal. Someone like Henry could teach him the importance of composure when he is attacking a defender going into the area and make him realise that he is the one in charge when he has the ball at his feet. At the moment Nketiah is in too much of a hurry to get a… Read more »

China1

Right so we’ve sold two top players to utd and one won them the league and the other flopped, ergo it’s not a bad idea? Nice logic

You must be a quality gambler with such disregard of risk

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