Arsenal’s summer is well and truly rocking.
Nicolas Pepe finally landed on the .com. It has to be the most shocking signing since we landed Dennis Bergkamp. Out-fucking-rageous.
How the hell did Raul pull that move off? The player reckons he had the choice of Liverpool, United, Bayern and Arsenal.
Sure, some of that might have been related to moving up north or having to live in Munich — whatever it was that tipped him our way, it’s an immense achievement and a HUGE signal of intent for the upcoming season.
Things I love about this move:
He’s just turned 24 years old. We have him on the upward trajectory. He was the best-attacking force in Ligue 1 outside the PSG collective. This is basically us signing Eden Hazard of 2019.
Raul has tough financial restrictions to deal with, instead of mincing around pleading poverty and crying about how life is so fucking tough at a rich club, he’s gotten creative. We’ve structured a deal that works for us and a competitor and the transition seems to have been fairly smooth.
We’re now engaging with super agents and family members. I think this is one of those things you’d rather not know the true details of… but the reality of football is it’s a murky business, now we have a character willing to do whatever to get a deal over the line. If we had that sort of attitude on the pitch, maybe we’d be in the CL. Also worth noting that if we’d had that sort of mindset a few years ago, we’d have Mbappe in our starting 11.
This is a big boy signing. I think many people feared we were sliding down the pecking order for the type of player we could sign. We’ve landed two hugely exciting young players, we have an elite number 8 in Ceballos, a wow winger and I think there’s every indication we might bring in Tierney and a centre back.
This is a reminder to the naysayers… we are still an elite club, and a rebirth under the right leadership is possible. Think about that when you’re wondering whether a proper manager would ever consider joining us: short answer, yes.
So far, it’s been a great summer. Even wilder if we move on Mustafi.
It’s hard to fathom where this season is going to take us.
I love the new players, but the cold hard reality is that we haven’t moved the defence along and the new attacking bodies we have aren’t bedded in. Our opening month is going to be tough. I think once the stardust has settled, we might be in for a bit of a shock. Better attacking players make us harder to box in, but they don’t stop Xhaka kicking himself in the face, and they won’t stop the heart-attack that is our backline.
One problem at a time… for now, let’s just bask in the glory of a much better summer than we’d hoped for.
Let’s also laugh at the Spurs players treating a preseason trophy win like a real trophy.
Let’s also laugh at Dybala being lukewarm to the idea of going to play under Ole Gunnar Car-crash.
They’re having the summer we thought we were having… so amusing. x
Boom..
Exciting times
Tro4phy?
Pedro
The deal works for Lille as well, do they have some kind of embargo..
Deal suits them as much as us.
Trophy4
First time winning the Tro4phy
So fucking chuffed we got Pepe!!! Is this a new chapter in The Arsenal chapter? I surely hope so. I really want to see us start fighting and being more ruthless. I just hope that Raul and Edu have some serious plans for us. No more aiming for top 4 and nothing else. I really would like us to progress season after season to finally achieve a team that we are all proud of!! Come on The Arsenal! As much as we have some catching up, I want us to see us renew this team from back to front. It… Read more »
I am so happy right now can’t wait for the start of the season
Tierney is injured, he’s missed 300+ days in 3 years, hasn’t had a pre-season, and if we sign him? we won’t see him until at least Mid September. Bellerin + Holding are off the back of big injuries, and won’t be seen until mid September at the earliest. Monreal at one game a week stage. Our backup keeper looks decent, but lacks experience. We’ve got Torreira, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Ceballos, Pepe all coming back late. Mustafi is useless, Koscielny wants out. I can see us getting off to a slow start with some rocky bumps, Pepe is exciting, but the best… Read more »
WOB
“But when he was then moved back to be part of a midfield two, he was told to be disciplined in his positioning, and was just as effective in his defensive play as in his offensive play and late runs into the box. When he got injured, Arsenal’s form and results suffered.”
no disputing that , I said he had a very good 4/5 games in midfield and was then injured …season over .
Marko ( andy1886) for some reason has to bring Ozil and his wages into the equation …nothing new there.
Great post Pedro,
9th.
For the moment squad wise for the defense and midfield we are nearly in the same situation last year. Ceballos is replacing Ramsey. Chambers is replacing Lichsteiner (at least Chambers can run), but Bellerin injured until September. Koscielny is on the naughty step with the U23 trying to escape his 90kpw hell to France. At least looks like some of the youngsters will be given a proper chance to swim or sink rather than token appearances. But with Xhaka and Mustafi, we have a nice new shinny motor, but still the same shitty chassis. The kit version of the Ferrari… Read more »
Rich
I agree
Avoid tiernay…
Great player … but.
Surely we have a good left back coming through the ranks..?
We should focus on other lb…
Pedro/Rich,
De gonna be a slow and tricky start, what with people coming back late from injuries, and summer tournaments, possible gaps in defence, and new players to bed in.
BUT:
The club has shown it is serious, ambitious and creative with transfers operating under tough financial constraints (which very possibly were relaxed a little as a result of the Raul/Vinai/Edu meeting with Josh and the later fan/blog/supporter groups collective pressure).
Really interested to see who comes in/goes out at the end of the (European) window
With this payment scheme, the club has mortgaged the future. We have to get back into Champions League now or next Summer would be really difficult. There will be more pressure on everyone to perform.
I really admire how Raul pulled this one off. We have no Champions League. Our team is weaker (on paper) than other competing teams. Our club is supposed to be skint…
Don’t entirely agree with you on the squad, at least as far as the midfield goes. With Ceballos coming in, and Willock likely to play a role in some matches, Emery is not condemned to play Xhaka all the time, and his use could be restricted to appropriate opponents. The midfield section of the chassis is not necessarily structurally unsound or shitty…..
The defence is still scary though, but let’s see what rabbit Raul pulls out of his hat before the window closes…
R.S.P..C.Arsenal Tierney is too much of a risk, we’ve got Dominic Thompson doming through, he looks a unit. Don’t know if he’s any good? We’re linked with Umtiti…. Barca don’t allow world class centre backs to leave in their prime unless there’s something wrong, apparently he’s fu*ked his knee? We’ll have the most injury prone defence ever, we just never seem to learn… there’s giant warning triangles all over Kieran Tierney, but that just seems to make our scouting department hard…. Wouldn’t surprise me if we tried pushing Ozil, Kolasinac and Mustafi all out the door before the end of… Read more »
80 000 000 Pepe 30 000 000 Saliba —– 110 000 000 Total 0 Champions League Matches played! 0 Premier League Matches played! No one knows if these players are any good- because they ain’t played anyone decent! Not one match! French football is painful to watch. It’s an irrelevance. If people think Pepe will be galloping down the wing like he does for Lille- they will be in for a nasty surprise. There is an Old Chinese Proverb: You pay The Big Bucks for Proven Performers & You pay the Little Bucks for Potential. (We have it the other… Read more »
CG/ Tony Attwood
Just piss off with your negative bollocks.
As much as I am no fan of Emery but I am glad to see us making the right moves for our team rebuild.
It will take time.
It’s hilarious to see you being so impatient. We wasted at least 5 years with AW and Gazidis stinking the place thanks to your kind who had your heads up fully up AW Arse.
So just piss off back to untold.
We are doing things Wenger wouldn’t, and that can only be a positive
According to the Press Association, however, Arsenal undertook a forensic analysis of last season’s run-in and concluded their dreadful away form, which saw them lose at Everton, Wolves and Leicester in quick succession, would most likely be remedied by adding more pace and skill to their forward line. Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan contributed just 10 goals and nine assists between them last season prompting Emery to switch to a five-man defence and placing the creative emphasis on his wing-backs, primarily Saed Kolasinac ________________________________________________ I don’t need a forensic analysis to tell me the best form.of defence is attack, especially… Read more »
So now it is “we are dealing with super agents” while a couple of weeks back it was “Down with Raul’s little black book of agents”
Pedro, you change your mind more than a 16 year old girl, deciding what what to wear.
Mario (andy1886)?? WTF are you talking about Pierre?
Ramsey wasn’t all that eh? Okay ignore the wages even if they are relevant (do you pay players based on performance or not?) and Ramsey who wasn’t all that last season according to you was still about twice as productive as Özil. Serious blind spot you’ve got there pal.
Mario = Marko (bloody spellcheck).
Welcome Pépé, now let’s see Emery pick a settled system (433 IMO which means we need that LB done pronto).
Well said Pedro.
If you can’t get excited about this signing you have issues.
Not sure how many goals and assists Pepe gets this season but Im putting money on him to lead the league in nutmegs.
This boy is electric.
Aloha from Hawaii
Flying back home tomorrow
Weird how this time change seems to work better for me
I dunno if we can afford umtiti right now, and I have big concerns over his injuries…
BUT
Next year we could have a defense of
Leno
Bellerin-Saliba-umtiti-Tierney
—————torreira
That’s pretty damn exciting for all 3 games per season that lot would be fit enough to play together!
In other world news, Trump has just demonstrated that he is as zany Frimpong.
With the beating Walmart is about to take, I wonder what is going to happen to the Kronkes.
With Kos and Mustafi both out, who’s goin was to head in corners to the opponent’s goal?
BTW, is Pepe a good header? Haven’t seen him scoring by his head in all videos.
Giroud was the best header Arsenal had since 2006?
Arsenal’s defence is still a complete rebuild job and that will take time to resolve. Personally I would prefer to play 4-3-3 formation. Ideally the club need 8-9 competent defenders in the squad who can rotate without serious diminution of performance. The centre back position requires one top class player to replace Koscielny and Mustafi this season. I think that Arsenal will keep Chambers as a versatile squad player in addition to Holding and Sokratis with Saliba coming in next season. The left back position also needs a first string replacement. One suspects that Tierney will come in once Arsenal… Read more »
Interestingly I was informed yesterday that the so-called multi million pound it programme upon which Wenger and others so heavily relied for player analysis in our transfer business has not been a great success.
Personally I don’t think that this is an ideal substitute for old fashioned scouting. We have seen in the tail end of Gazidis and Wenger stewardship too
many overpriced duds arrive at the club.
peanuts&monkey
Prior to Giroud, I think it was Sagna who bangs in the headers.
But it was Steve Bould who seemed to get Arsenal better on set pieces. I remembered some intricate Per and Kos plays from corners.
ES
Not surprising to hear that.
Today’s data tech should only be used as a guide to aid scouting to confirm a player’s fitness and skill set stats.
The rest should be done by watching the player to gauge the players’ temperaments and his nuances in his play.
Data has its place in modern scouting but as an aid only.
Do you ever sleep ES?
Dark Hei
Which country do you reside?
Just curious as you seem to post around the same time as me in Thailand.
Don
Took your advice with the water and found it works perfectly with the single malt whiskey my wingman kept adding.
Mad night last night.
Hotel has a great 25 meter semi indoor pool and sensible gym to work off hangovers before my wife and kids arrive this evening.
Tony
Erratically. Generally I get about 6 hours maximum.
Tony
Of course programmes are a useful aid, but it is not a substitute for old fashioned scouting.
Dark Hei: Gallas. A superb header from corners.
Welbeck was the next best header. Probably, heading was the only strength Welbeck had.
I can’t remember Auba connecting a clean header in all his 30 goals.
How to replace the heading prowess of Kos, Mustafi, Welbeck, Giroud.?
I honestly can’t recall welbeck even managing to score 3 headers in his entire arsenal career
He was big but not good in the air
Tony
Sobered up then old boy?
Stroller, didn’t StatDNA suggest Xhaka & Mustafi? Seem to recall Pedro championing it back in the day but if AFC didn’t thoroughly scout them too that’s pure negligence.
Wasn’t Mustafi a gazidis signing?
Wenger didn’t even know xakha’s game
Thought he was a box to box midfielder when he arrived.
How many of these players did he actually sign?
China1: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35515144
I will never forget this Welbeck goal from Ozil free kick.
One of Arsenal’s most competitive wins in last 5 years.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2019/08/01/ian-wright-slams-fool-ivan-gazidis-after-nicolas-pepe-signing-10503398/amp/
I love Ian Wright. He spot on. Ivan gazidis was an absolute chump. Had wenger had someone like edu and Raul working with him maybe we’d have seen a much improved arsenal since David Dein’s departure??
Raul and edu have smashed it this summer
Over to emery
I’m, given how awful Gazidis was that wouldn’t surprise me. Yup, Wenger thought Xhaka was a B2B, no wonder he left with the squad in a mess.
I will agree with Pedro though
Don’t expect too much from emery this season. New attacking players or not he still plays that high line and still has a slow defence. I think we need to temper our expectations slightly
CG isnt tony untold he is Jack wilshere forever greatful to Wenger resentful to emery, you are not fooling anyone I know you handwriting jack
Bastard iPhone spellchecker, I’m = Un.
He’s not Tony Attwood because at least Tony writes coherently. No matter what posters think of him too, he is actually a fan who wants to see the club do well.
CG is extremely negative about 9/10 of Arsenal’s affairs, in my opinion he’s not a fan. He’s just here to shake up the comment section and antagonise everybody. What ends up happening is him looking very foolish after every post. At least he’s consistent.
I’m sure not even the most optimistic supporter was expecting this. Huge credit needs to be given to Raul for this and Pedro needs to start showing some respect to the man.
If we get Tierney and another CB then this sets up the squad nicely for a top four finish. I’m still not convinced of Emery making us defend better but at least his worshipers like Receding will eventually stop blaming our players.
Tony
I am from the far east too; Singapore. We are an hour apart.
peanuts@monkey
Welbeck best attribute is his work rate.
Followed by athleticism, versatility and technique.
At the bottom of the list is a stat called finishing.
I think we all underestimate the lift our signings could have on the team. If we give the defence a good shield, my first choice would be Torreira plus any of Willock, Chambers or Niles, even Mustafi can have a good season. We got overran too many times because our midfield contained two sissies in Xhaka and Ozil, I remember us being under repeated pounding by 10 man Watford and a relentless wolves. if our midfield becomes more competent and dominant, I absolutely won’t be surprised if Mustafi has a good season. My first 11 would be: Leno, Chambers (till… Read more »
And so good to have Raul and Vinai who are polar opposites to Gazidis and Wenger. I got bored every time Gazidis says they had funds saved in case we don’t make UCL as if they were looking forward to us limping out. Raul on the other hand, no UCL and no money, yet he signs players Wenger only get linked to in the Daily Mail. I can’t wait for us to make UCL as I believe Raul and his team will absolutely make the best of it.
Thorough
Your proposed first 11 looks ok to me.
Graham.
I hope it does to Emery.
For me Ozil and Xhaka mustn’t feature. We need graters and not people who will drift in and out of matches.
Thorough
Yes. My sentiments exactly . Two man shield for away games and top 6. No more high line with slow defenders. Still it in training every day we have an exciting attacking arsenal now with lots of potential combinations
But no
I’d not have Mustafi near the first team. Get rid. His confidence in an arsenal shirt is shot to pieces. I don’t think it will ever recover
I hope a few bad games from xhaka will get him to the bench. I remember wolves mid ripping us up. Strong dynamic and well positioned to kill on the counter attack
We add Willock Ceballos in the center and we improve a lot
Ceballos torr and Willock nice
Un na nai.
I look at the signings like Sanlehi passing the baton to Emery. ‘Now I’ve got you all the tools you need. If you mess up your head’s on the chopping board.’
I think xhaka would be a good sub in easier games
Will be seen if emery puts up with his shit anymore
Pulling for Willock
Guns of SF.
Do we have to wait? He’s had a thousand and one bad games already. If I were the coach his last game for us would have been Brighton. You can coach a lot of things but being dim is uncoachable.
“The player reckons he had the choice of Liverpool, United, Bayern and Arsenal.”
And Napoli, maybe ??
Mustardi out of our club would be the cherry on the cake.
Of all the the critics of this regime, Un, seem to be the one a bit reasonable despite some of the vitrol he sometimes spit here. Personally, I’m getting quite impatient with the Tierney deal. No idea who our next cb will be. Everyday has a different name linked. IMO, Mustafi playing at rb or dm could do for him if (and a big if) we can’t move him on. He did well when he played there against Spurs never mind the penalty he conceded. But that high line Emery plays is capable of undoing the best cbs. Hope next… Read more »
Ceballos will shake the formation up
Xhaka and or ozil will suffer
Pray that Ceballos stays fit and adapts
Far from being Negative I am being Realistic. And as always TRUTHFUL (You lot are acting like kids in a candy store- ) For £80 million, we could have signed Messrs Dunk and Keane. Two young British based Robust Centre halves With Premier Experience. Now, that would have been sensible team building. Pepe ( like most soccer players) is an out and out Mercenary. Think about it- He finally makes the CL with Lille And then he and his Spivvy agents decide to join a team in The Loosers Cup. So much for playing atge highest level it’s all about… Read more »
Thorough
I hope so. There needs to be more pressure to succeed but at the same time integrate the youngsters when possible.
Emery needs to prove he can cut it and if we do get tierney and Rugani this week then he can have no excuses for not achieving champion league status come May.
Sf
If he does then I hope we make the signing permanent. Would love a tricky skillful attacking mid at arsenal again. Gutted when santi and jack left and all we had was ozil and Mkhitaryan
I think that the player who Wenger had not heard about or seen was Mavropanos and not Xhaka.
Xhaka was actually a highly rated player and considered one of best DMF in
Europe based on his international performances when we recruited him.
Despite all the negativity about Xhaka who is regarded as a “Marmite” figure he played quite well alongside Torreira in the first half of last season. His
shortcomings were exposed when Torreira lost form in second half of season.
Mabey Mezut will wake up with Pepe by his side, he clearly misses Sanchez..
Now lets bring in Everton, he is a galatico .
CG
Please study zaha
Dude has a lot of issues including loyalty and being a. Royal dick head
Raul is leading us to cl
Believe it
“Pepe ( like most soccer players) is an out and out Mercenary.”
And of course Ozil and Mustardi are not.
We’ll get to the CL and the fraud CG will complain.
Anyway, I hope you keep your word because from January we won’t have to suffer your irritable, hair pulling nonsense anymore.
Tierney- without question is the most ludicrous summer purchase of the summer
It has to Emery Driven( because it makes no Sense whatsover)
£30 million for an injured left back
9 games only in 2019
No better than Sead K
Why and Why dont AFC look at the Tierney situation in Jan transfer window?
He might have played a few games for Celtic, by then!!!!
Fail to Prepare
Prepare to Fail
Stroller
I agree regarding xakha
Much stronger alongside torriera and many will never admit that even though they witnessed it.
I will say though I have no strong emotional tie to xakha and if we were to find a better system without him then it wouldn’t matter to me
He is the captain now though so I expect him Torreira and ceballos to be our mf 3 for important matches when fit with willock and guendouzi and maybe chambers and AMN deputising
I really don’t think our midfield is bad at all this season.
Hey un
Do you all in the uk get the discovery channel on tv?
I wonder if Torreira is still a bit depressed… if he don’t like to live in England, that could really became a problem.
Bang on Wrighty about Gazidis, even if he didn’t mention him by name, everyone knows who he was talking about. All that hot air about us being in Bayern’s league, and he did fuck all in his time here apart from help set us back years by hiding behind a failing manager and then having the absolute gall to lie to the world about there being nobody better. He is a disgrace and I hope Milan are prepare to sink to new depths with him at their club. We now appear to be on the slip road to the motorway… Read more »
@CG : Fail on Le Grove.
Prepare to stay on Untold.
Sf
Go on….. what are you getting at. You know full well we do.
Xhaka has put our defense under pressure many times
Torreira has had to cover him many times
Granit is slow like ozil
Both of them slow is down quite a bit
Willock Ceballos and Torreira way to go
Woah, somebody call the hyperbole police…blogger on the loose.
Jesus, Peter. I really hope this guy turns out to be a very good player for us but take it down a notch.
This alone will not make us winning again…we still have so many failures in the squad. We must address the Kos and Mustafi issues ASAP and sign this pikey, Tierney quick fast.
Also, emery needs to pull some dynamic out of the bag.
On a scale of 1-10 I am at a 2 for happiness. Which isn’t quite as happy as Morrisey.
Chris
He was an utter charlatan. Along with dick law. The proof has been the last two summers.
Anyone watching shark week? Amazing!
Don Much harder to do post 60 no matter how young I felt when I drinking last night. TBH I much prefer making Amsterdam brownies and cup cakes at home to take the edge off the day but still function normally. It’s also good for my colon disease where my colon and heart Drs prefer this to drinking. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1722871/first-cannabis-drugs- in-three-weeks If I’m honest I rarely drink alcohol these days and I’ve only ever been a social drinker – only on a rare mad night out with my wife or out with my MC brothers these days. What did you do… Read more »
“Manchester City have put a price tag of at least £137m on Leroy Sane”
Crazy world…
Sf Guns
“”Raul is leading us to cl”””
Raul is spending the clubs future revenues on players that are massively overpriced and unproven.( but he wont be here- to clear up The Mess)
Think Risdale at Leeds
Seth Johnson
Robbie Fowler
Excess, flabby and needless.
Is any fan not concerned the shamelessly excessive prices we are now paying for players post Dortmund Eye.?
We used to get :
Leno
Tor
Sok
Genduzi types for sensible amounts.
This splurge has only happened post the Q and A!
T.H
“Which isn’t quite as happy as Morrisey.”
Ah ah ah!!
CG
Are you suggesting we are going to do a ‘Leeds’?
What is your definition of a proven player?
Personally I don’t think that midfield will be a major issue this season. For a start we will have two new additions in Ceballos and of course Willock. Both will be more than adequate replacements for Ramsey who played very few games last season because Emery chose not to start with him and then he got injured at a critical stage. Also I think that the defensive side of midfield will get better, because Torreira and Guendouzi will have had one full season in EPL under their belts. If we can get Ozil to start playing properly and not feeling… Read more »
Tony
Ah a good drink is sometimes required. You’ve done your hard yards so all power to you mate. Hopefully I’ll be relaxing in some beautiful part of the world when I’m done too.
The reason this signing feels significant than others is because there were many clubs interested . Pedro is right he is comparable to Hazard. Now a CB please!
Would’ve loved Everton too . He looks solid .
Iwobi and mikki have this year to show something or its curtains
Stroller
Agree about Iwobi. His major weakness is usually final third decision making/final ball/finishing (EL final goal excepted!). He does possess the ability to drive play forward quickly carrying the ball/initial pass so as you suggest a slightly deeper role may suit.
Marc said it right by saying Raul has set the bar this season for future seasons.
Expectations will be high from now on.
One hit wonder or the shape of things to come?
Only time will tell.
If say Nelson should start over mikki
We need the youth and energy
Chris 100% yes. No CL in the next 2 seasons Financial Armageddon will arrive on our doorstep ( we have already spent tomorrow’s money) (Like Leeds did!) Has the Pepe signing been prioritized to sell those unsold boxes ? Another £10 million will be paid out in the coming weeks when The Clown and his Cronies are sacked. The Pepe signing actually makes us defensively weaker if he plays in a front 3! We ain’t Going Nowhere fast. No strategy- we are just a collection of mercenaries in red and white. No one knows what system we intend to play… Read more »
Chris 2
A proven player is a player who has proved he can play consistently well in the Prem league.
Like Zaha and Keane and Dunk
Fergie became the most successful manager ever – by continually buying PROVEN PREMIER LEAGUE PERFORMERS.
(His last signing RVP)
I would love his take and insight -on the financial insanity that is going on at AFC these days
Sf. Day time here
I dived with great whites back when I was in Oz
I’d recommend it to anyone
Was a lifelong dream