GUEST POST FROM THE MAIN MAN MIKE MCDONALD (FOLLOW)
I can’t remember a time in the last 20 years where there has been so much potential Premier League talent available in the Championship.
I think this has snuck up on us as coaches. Championship teams have suddenly made the conscious choice to ‘play football.’ In previous decades there has been a marked difference in the playing style as you looked at the lower leagues.
The result is two-fold. Potential becomes easier to spot as teams like Leeds/Brentford have players who not only understand modern football but they play it too. Secondly, you can slide them into a PL team with significantly less adaptation.
Arsenal not only need to look at some of these gems because finances may dictate but also because they are good enough. Some could even be elite.
You will enjoy these videos. Some will dazzle you. I haven’t priced these players as prices will depend on each club’s Covid impact.
CREATIVE PLAYERS:
Arsenal need a modern midfield, centre backs that can handle stress, and arguably need a creative player or two more than anything.
The Championship has more of this type of potential gem than any other type of player.
Said Benrahma (Brentford)
An inverted right-footed, left-winger. Can play both wings and as an attacking midfielder.
A difference maker with delicious feet who brings joy. If you see potential in Pepe, you will see the same here. Perhaps the player we hope Nelson could be.
Chelsea are allegedly very interested but have much competition in this area already. Arsenal could use him as a ‘wandering left-winger.’
What a talent!
Ebe Eze (QPR)
A powerful, direct, line breaking attacker. Has an equal eye for an assist as a goal. Reminds me of Martial with a similar toolbox of skills.
Can play as an 8 in a 4-3-3 or anywhere across the front 3 in a 4-2-3-1.
Ovie Ejaria (Liverpool on loan at Reading)
Very similar in playing style and looks to Eze, but taller and stronger.
Another fantastic natural footballer with a bag of creativity.
Much like Eze he can play as a line-breaking third midfielder or across the front three.
Would Liverpool sell or probably want to loan?
Matheus Pereira (West Brom)
After speaking to a handful of fans of Championship clubs, most felt that he is the best of the creative players. His loan from Sporting Lisbon is now obliged to be triggered for €9M.
Plays as a 10 or as a right-winger. Six goals and 12 assists to date. His primary qualities are his vision and high technical level. Has a wicked reverse pass.
If you watch this video, you will note a left-footed, elegant player who seems to glide around the field. Never known West Brom to have this type of player!
Michael Olise (Reading)
Reading have this 19 year-old French kid Michael Olise, if we didn’t already have Willock I’d be rooting for us to get this guy as his deal ends 2022.
He’s certainly one to watch.pic.twitter.com/vRzx9n4vk3— Gilles (@_Grimanditweets) July 5, 2020
Yet another gifted creative player. Olise is a left-footed, attacking midfielder with the proverbial wand of a left foot. At 18, he may be the cheapest of the ‘creative’ list and a worthwhile investment due to his high ceiling. Seems to use the sole of his foot to bamboozle. Love it!
MODERN CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS:
Even though we all see the improvement in Xhaka and Ceballos, we all see the need for modern, athletic central midfielders.
Max Bird (Derby)
Arsenal need modern, athletic, tall, powerful midfielders to at least be on par with the vast majority.
Max Bird may not be this in the PL yet, but he has the profile. His most impressive quality lies in his ability to see both opportunity and danger quickly.
Bird plays alongside Rooney in the centre of midfield. Rooney recently claimed that he “wouldn’t be surprised if he was in the England squad within a year.” Much like Olise, at 19 years old it might be a wise investment?
Kalvin Phillips (Leeds)
With Leeds likely to go up, it’s highly unlikely that a hometown boy would reject the opportunity to play at least one season for Leeds in the PL. I’ve included him however as I think he potentially has everything we need. An athletic centre or defensive midfielder who can deny and create. You will remember him as the hub of the one sided first half at the Emirates in January as Leeds totally dominated. It is hard to find a central midfielder who is a specialist in both areas, you normally have to find two.
Arsenal are pursuing Partey as he can do both, but so can Phillips. I’ll be very surprised if he’s not very close to England’s Euro 2021 squad as he’s a far better footballer than both Rice and Dier.
Kalvin Phillips will also be the player with the highest value in the Championship at around £35M.
Conor Gallagher (Swansea…. on loan from Chelsea)
A two way, two-footed creative central midfielder. An impressive eye for a pass in the final third as well as counter opportunities. A modern-day number 8, with boundless energy and goal threat.
Named Chelsea’s Academy player of the Year last season which is no mean feat amongst huge competition.
FULL BACKS/WING BACKS
We need a better option than Kolasinac and many including myself, think Bellerin is overrated.
Nathan Ferguson (WBA)
Ferguson is allegedly on his way to Palace. Smart move as he’ll play. Arsenal should take a look as he’s going to cost below £10M and has played both right and left back.
A fast, athletic, modern full back who at 19 has a very bright future.
Jayden Bogle (Derby)
Want your right back to be hugely confident on the ball? High technical ceiling? A huge attacking threat with the athleticism to recover?
You need to watch this video because people are starting to talk about Bogle.
Probably a better right wing back than right back.
Matty Cash (Forest)
A combative attacking right back who interestingly has the posture and profile of a defensive midfielder. Actually a converted winger who took advantage of Carl Jenkinson’s long term injury. Tough, quick and great in the tackle. Being tipped to get a call up to the Poland team through his grandparents heritage.
Kristian Pedersen (Birmingham)
Not the greatest video but you’ll get a little flavour of an emerging talent getting rave reviews at left back for Birmingham City. A tall powerful left back with a wicked left foot. Former winger, like Cash.
CENTRE BACKS:
The best CB in the Championship is Ben White but he is officially a Brighton player and I mentioned him in last weeks transfer blog.
Beyond Ben White there is one more worth your attention.
Pontus Jansson (Brentford)
A warrior. Arsenal fans pine for a Tony Adams type. Here he is. Not saying he is of this level but certainly a similar profile. Aggressive, strong, better on the ball than given credit for. This 29 year old Swedish international is worth a look.
STRIKER
Arsenal don’t need an unproven striker as they have Nketiah, Martinelli, John Jules and Balogun vying for this. What they will be interested in however, is the right profile of striker.
Arteta seems to like a willing presser. The ability to play with your back to goal, perhaps a false nine and I’m sure he’d love someone better in the air as in Saka and Tierney in particular we have good crossers but nobody great in the air.
So…
Ollie Watkins (Brentford)
To add to the list above, Watkins can create goals for himself off the dribble.
Tall, very fast and able to score in a variety of ways. Watkins will no doubt find himself in the PL with Brentford or somebody else, I’m sure.
VERDICT:
Firstly, I think it’s important that we don’t become snobby about this. The Championship truly has some gems. You’ll be aware that Jude Bellingham (Birmingham City) has just been signed by Dortmund. They play their youngsters like we do. A reminder that the most sought after creative player in the PL in Jack Grealish has played the majority of his minutes in the Championship.
I think Arsenal should take a close look at Bogle and Ferguson as wing-back options. Phillips would be a dream signing but it’s not happening yet.
We will need more than one creative force to finally connect the front and back. As Benrahma and Pereira will likely get promoted and be more expensive, I’d take a close look at Eze at QPR, who would no doubt need money and sell cheaper.
Follow me @Mike_Mmcdonald
SWG
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Tr4phy
Ps no Kalvin Phillips mentioned?
Yeah, I thought that Leeds kid was a sure bet.
Maybe he won’t be available as Leeds are going to be promoted??
Old-fashioned number seven!
No Fulham players mentioned? Surprising given their position.
Arsenal!
Grealish is overhyped, so are majority of the above mentioned players in the championship.
Grealish is ceballos levels
Good post. Off course- there is talent out in the English championship. ( and lower) There always has been,mind And managerial talent too, (eg Wilder and Dyche) The problem off course is we have a Brazilian as teck deck, a fat Spaniard as DOF and Kia dictating transfer policy. There is not a chance in hell- they will ever been seen scouting at the likes of Charlton, QPR and Ipswich Town. They just would not countenance it. Brentford are arguably the best run club in England. It will be no surprise to me whatsoever -if they beat Arsenal home and… Read more »
Sid
He spent 6 years of a 17 year career at Everton. The rest were spent with Barcelona, Rangers, Psg, Real Sociedad and arsenal
He was a youth player at Barcelona, but never featured for the first team (47)
Rangers (50 app)
Sociedad (15 app)
EVERTON (174 appearances)
Arsenal (110)
Its clear what type of football he has played for majority of his career
Pepe is one of the most talented players in the world. He should be as good as likes of Salah and Mane. Why is he not so? Because his positioning and off the ball movement is rubbish. When our CMs or WBs receive the ball its Pepe’s job to position himself well BTL to receive the ball there.. Also,we has to learn to run in behind the defence,attack the space in behind. He doesn’t do that. Always comes short,wanting ball to feet. Arteta played Pepe LW last game to limit his angles/view so that Pepe can focus on improving his… Read more »
Nice Bit of Research . I hope that even with limited funds we actually buy some better talents like them.
Un
That is where I think our transfer should happen , somebody like Ceballos can play more forward passes and occupy more space ahead if we had a Kante or Matic behind him . Deliver the pass to our forward players. It will be huge bonus if that player can pass well which is where Torreria lacks . His passing is unimaginative.
Pontus Jansson lol. Can’t believe that is a recommendation
Grealish 39 passes per game 85% completion
Ceballos 50 passes per game 88% completion
Arteta the playmaker who had to play DM at Arsenal
There is no question that from time to time there are players from non EPL clubs who have slipped through the net and are “late developers”. The same also applies to players who have come through Arsenal’s own academy and have moved onto clubs on the Continent. The reality is that football is not an exact science and there are at any one time 25 places in the first team squad to be filled and realistically only perhaps 5-6 places where you can afford to speculate by recruiting young players from Academy or untested players at unfashionable clubs. If you… Read more »
Leftfootcurler
Pepe is one of the most talented players in the world – are you sure!!?
Un
Not saying it has to be Ceballos but someone has to though and I Rather have a Partey first than a playmaker you know.
Un
I don’t think we’re going to have much if any money – there’s a chance we’ll be selling purely to bring the wage bill down and balance off the losses.
Ceballos is a good and neat footballer, but whether he meets Arsenal’s current
requirements is debatable.
Arsenal’s current weakness and requirements in midfield department is finding a physically strong box to box player and also an attacking player who can unlock teams and also provide assists and goal scoring opportunities a la
De Bruyne.
Ceballos does not in my view meet either requirement. However at £22-3 million cost he would not be a bad buy so long as Arsenal has also funds to
spend on players who will meet the other requirements.
Deep lying playmaker that never played for the Spain senior national team.[
Rather have a play maker 1st than Partey
Emirates
One of the issues with talking about what / who we need at the moment and that’s before we get into the financial issues is what formation are we going to go with next season – continue with the 3-4-3 or go to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Either way we need CM’s but I just think this TW could be a lot tougher than people realise.
One strategy to signing prospects: stalk Dortmund’s scouts.
That’s it.
… and Leipzig’s
Raheem
Or you could just employ them!
Obviously not the ones recruited by the fraud Mislintat though!
Another would be stalk liepzig and leicester scouts
Marc
There’s that too.
Marc Realistically this is going to be a difficult transfer window for most clubs in EPL apart from perhaps Man City and Chelsea. What concerns me at the moment is that Arsenal appear to be spending money on squad standard players rather than recruiting players who will upgrade our starting X1 where they are most needed. The club has on its books 11 defenders and yet none apart from perhaps Tierney and Saliba are of genuine first team or squad quality at a top 4 club. We need to start offloading players in this department and use the money to… Read more »
Matt “”””Pepe is one of the most talented players in the world – are you sure!!?””””” Pepe does have talent. But so did Frank Worthington. And many other mavericks too. Pepe is a huge problem for Arteta. Arteta as we have seen loves his journeymen types( eg, Steve Round, Cedric, Mari etc) (As PedRo rightly stated Arteta is definitely more GG than AW.) MA wants Pepe running around like a headless chicken and Pepe does not do chicken impersonations. An appalling ignorant and ill thought out signing. Zaha was the player. But the commissions for Zaha were not good enough… Read more »
Mislintat has just got Stuttgart promoted, I won’t write him off so quickly. I say got them promoted because in Europe sporting directors have more of a say on player recruitment and the selection of a manager.
Stuttgart looked decent in the couple of matches I’ve seen them. I’d be surprised if they went straight back down.
Un, harking back to our convo on the previous post, the problem with a creative MF or #10 is that he isn’t going to get the space on the ball or time in possession to do his thing. We’re still weak physically centrally, he’ll need better support than he’ll get from the likes of Xhaka or he’ll get swamped.
CG
The issues with Zaha was the transfer fee being demanded by CP, which needed
to be paid up front and also his age.
Pepe was a younger option and Arsenal negotiated an instalment plan over 5 years. So the club decided that he was the better option.
Commissions had absolutely nothing to do with this decision.
ES “”””CG The issues with Zaha was the transfer fee being demanded by CP, which neededto be paid up front and also his age.Pepe was a younger option and Arsenal negotiated an instalment plan over 5 years. So the club decided that he was the better option.”””” Absolute bunkum. Who is the club? ( you mean Raul?) Everyone knows the Clown was useless. But if he wants Zaha. You get him Zaha or sack him. He never wanted Pepe. No one wanted Pepe, except Raul. Anyway how does MA integrate Pepe into his team? Any suggestions? Pep didn’t fancy the… Read more »
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/22546/Show/Alejandro-G%C3%B3mez
https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/RBf0UljFwkezhxImpVdsEg/Show/European-Team-of-the-Season-Central-midfield-Alejandro-Gomez-(Atalanta)
https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/iT7Mg9997EWBIKPyA7H5Fg/Show/Could-Atalanta-ace-dethrone-Ronaldo-as-Serie-As-best-player
Un, yeah, it’s two fold really. Without a solid MF your creative signing has no base to work from, and defensively the opposition will continue to run through our spine like a knife through hot butter.
Currently we pretty much give up the middle of the park and focus on using width. Even teams like Brighton have been dominating us there. Would love to see a B2B who can actually run with the ball and put the opposition on the back foot. Ideally we need both, one without the other isn’t going to solve our problem any time soon.
CG so you unironically think we got Pep Mk II in Arteta?
there’s a player in Pepe but he just need the right system and personnel for him to flourish
Emirates
I don’t get why we’re being linked with Sarr – I don’t know much about the player so it’s not a criticism of his ability but a comment on just how many CB’s do we need? If it’s a view of a freebie means we can sell an existing player for cash to reinvest I can see the logic just not sure it’s going to generate the sort of money that’ll make that much difference.
JAC
It’s his first season in the PL and he’s got 5 goals and 6 assists for a team that has zero midfield and is at best dysfunctional. Let’s give the guy a bit of time and support.
andy
I’m with you we need to start being able to control midfield and thus the match – imagine being able to stick a peak Vieira into the centre of this team and the difference it would make.
Maybe Arteta could channel more of his inner Jose to get the best of Pepe.
Lambast his performances to the media, look visibly distraught whenever Pepe does something wrong on the pitch (knowing the cameras will be panned on his face), bench him… 😁
Matt Pepe is a player who has great footwork in tight spaces and a fantastic shot with a very low backlift. Its a very very rare quality. So yes he is very talented. He has the potential to hit 20 goals in the Premier league just like Salah and Mane do. He will look shit at LW. Likes of Robben and Salah would look shit at LW too Robert Pires played LW,if he played RW he would look shit too. His playing LW is a temporary thing meant to improve him. I have already said what his issue is. He… Read more »
Only thing the creative player needs is that the ball reliably reaches him in the final third.
That he doesn’t have to drop deep to get the ball.
That’s all.
As for actually creating chances,there has to be 2 runners to hit.
One is Auba
There has to be another.
Pepe doesn’t run in behind enough,he needs to be coached to do that.
Marc
I too made that point about Malang Sarr
The position he’s supposed to play is already occupied by Pablo Mari. We need to stop stacking up our shelves with free transfer average defenders. That’s how we get Kolasinac, remember?
JAC “””CG so you unironically think we got Pep Mk II in Arteta?””” This is the paradox. Everything assumes MA working with Pep for 2 years is a positive. Its not. Its the opposite. Its about the worst place for a young manager to learn the ropes from. Arteta is his Arsenal days- was always seen in his Arsenal blazer. Look at him now. Simon Cowell dresses better. Arteta because of his Man City experience thinks money grows on trees.Because of that experience he is not concerned that FOUR year contracts are dished out to Soares and Mari types, Already… Read more »
Sid
That’s besides the point you dopey bastard. The point is that he’s steeped in possession football education
And the moment you move the goalposts is the moment you lose the debate
The moment you resort to Ad hominem attacks is the moment you lose the debate.
Arteta can’t be Pep MKII. As Arteta doesn’t have the greatest player of all time in his squad to win him leagues and champions leagues, or Arteta isn’t the manager of the biggest team in a one team league, or he isn’t the manager of a team that can drop £1.2 billion on players.
So Arteta will never be Pep MKII.
Progressive carries(bringing it out from the back)
Andrew Robertson (Liverpool) 171
Matteo Guendouzi (Arsenal) 161
Ricardo Pereira (Leicester City) 159
Fernandinho (Manchester City) 155
Harry Maguire (Manchester United) 154
Adama Traore (Wolverhampton Wanderers) 152
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) 146
Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) 144
Grealish is overhyped
@Sid –
You think you should be putting some context to those stats you’re posting?
Have a look at the teams those players play for…
We already have a player that can carry the ball from deep thats why a CAM should be priority
Jim LaheyJuly 17, 2020 11:59:09
@Sid – You think you should be putting some context to those stats you’re posting?
The point is there are better options than Grealish, not that he is bad.
This kid Tomas Soucek on loan at West Ham looks a good player
Pepe has some talent he has shown that. I have to say I am very surprised by just how much talent some on here think he has and Could be better than Salah!? I would love it to be true, but I see a talented but very limited player who also doesn’t have a great attitude and poor work ethic. Ultimately, a problem for us and we just aren’t good enough to be sighing £72m problems.
@Sid –
I am saying do you not think those stats would be greatly improved upon if he wasn’t playing for a team that is about to be relegated?
Jannson? Lol, i rather have Pinnock instead. Nico henry plays similarly to Ashley Cole, obviously not a place in need with tierney in the side.
Buendia has better stats and his team is being relegated
Tony Adams thinks the scouting network at Arsenal has “been blown up” in recent years with the likes of Edu and Raul Sanllehi “out of their depth”.
I am glad the great Tony Adams is in total agreement with CG.
All eyes on Lewis to save us.
CG
Crystal Palace demanded £80 Million for Zaha in a SINGLE payment. So what
exactly is the bunkum?
“You say that but it never held back Cesc or Santi or jack or Rosicky or hleb”
Not sure I agree with that. Every two bit side knew that they could dominate us physically, Stoke, Bolton, any side led by a Fat Sam or Clogger Pulis.
One of the young best center halves..and mentions Sarr, last season he was not a starter for Nice but to come here and start? Lol
Grealish has been linked to the likes of United for £70m – it’s not even a remote possibility so why waste time even discussing it?
Even Norwich are looking for £30m or £40m for players. Like it or not we’re going to have to take a punt on less well known options.
Marc’s dogs kill word is without doubt “Mislintat”.
The idea that we can replace expensive but very average defenders with younger, cheaper options is all very well but you have to be able to get rid of the players you don’t want first.
Who is going to pay Kola £140k a week for example?
@Andy –
Don’t see them getting anywhere near that once they are relegated.
“Who is going to pay Kola £140k a week for example?”
100k. Still too much, no one will pay that.
Stroller, “Crystal Palace demanded £80 Million for Zaha in a SINGLE payment.” Never heard of bridge or asset collaterised loan? With lower agents fees Zaha bought with a 5 years loan could well have been financially cheaper than Pepe purchase. Maybe Emery was taken by him, but from his recent interview it does look like he never fancied Pepe. Then why buy a player, the coach does not want. I agree with the fact that a coach should not dictate the purchase, but he should have a say. Otherwise it is a waste of resource money and time invested in… Read more »
Ozil – 350k
Laca – 182k
Luiz – 125K
Hector – 110k
Xhaka – 100k
Sokratis – 92k
Mustafi – 90k
Don’t think any of those players will leave, they will sit out those contacts as they will never be offered that money ever again.
Un
I’m not against signing Sarr because of Mari – it’s being able to unload Mustafi, Sok, Holding (who I think is OK back up and we do need some homegrown players) etc.
If you can’t we’re just adding another body to the wage bill – I also think as Mari is an Arteta signing you’d assume he’s going to be first choice.
Also there’s no way we’re getting £40 million for Leno – there’s just not the money in football clubs right now.
Valentin
Klopp wanted another player over Salah – that seems to have worked out OK.
CG You know absolutely nothing about what has been going on in the Academy over many years. The feedback coming out of the club and also observed by people who follow the Academy was that it had been unfit for purpose for a long time. Okay it produced some pretty and technically gifted players, but those who could see its deficiencies knew that the club was failing to produce physically strong players good enough to play in first team and also was too forward and midfield centric and not looking at producing decent defenders. I watched several Academy games against… Read more »
“With lower agents fees Zaha bought with a 5 years loan could well have been financially cheaper than Pepe purchase.”
Why are we even having this conversation? Zaha has scored 4 goals in 37 games this season. If Pepe is a useless flop having scored 8 in 38 where does that leave Zaha?
Backpass,
Sarr was vice captain and a certain starter before getting injured. He then told the board that he was not going to sign an extension, so the board tried to plan for future season without him. Despite that PV4 still used him regularly when he was available. Even with his injury He still played 19 games for Nice as part of a truncated season.
ES “”CG Crystal Palace demanded £80 Million for Zaha in a SINGLE payment. So what exactly is the bunkum?”””” And they were right to do so. You either pay it or you dont. What you don’t do , is buy a player like Pepe for £72 million just for the sake of it and just because its payable in instalments. Raul bought Pepe because it was good for Raul and not becuase it was good for Arsenal. That’s what Spivs do. You want more examples.? Raul choose Emery.Useless Raul chose Edu. Useless Edu chooses Luiz.Uselss Edu chooses Mari. Useless Edu… Read more »
““Who is going to pay Kola £140k a week for example?””
Firstly Kolas is on £100k per week according to most sources (still a lot of money) but there are reports his wife isn’t happy and wants to return to Germany. If they want it that much they’ll have to take a drop in pay – could he pick up £60 – £70k per week in Germany – possibly.
Jim, not only will they not get the same wage elsewhere, if they’re sold they can’t pick up a tasty little signing on fee when they leave for a free at the end of their contract.
@Andy –
Like a certain Aaron Ramsey did.
If Zaha is so good and wants out why aren’t the Spud’s, City, Liverpool, Chelsea, ManU, Leicester, Munich, Dortmund, Juve, Madrid or Barca buying him?
There is a difference between scoring penalties, free-kick, creating assists via set pieces and actually have an influence on games.
I don’t remember a single game where Pepe took the game from the scruff of the neck and drag Arsenal to victory via his play. Zaha on the other hand is the fulcrum of a piss poor Crystal Palace. He makes things happen.
In an Arsenal team , Zaha would be just a cog of the team rather than the fulcrum.
Can I ask how Aaron Ramsey is still revered by Arsenal fans after fucking over the club worse than Cesc, Nasri or RVP did?
The guy was offered a new deal at Arsenal, turned it down and walked on a free. Costing the club 20m+ in transfer fees. All this after the club stuck with him for years as he sat on the sidelines injured.
“There is a difference between scoring penalties, free-kick, creating assists via set pieces and actually have an influence on games.”
Have you made this statement specifically as to rule out when he came on and banged in two free kicks to win us a game in Europe?
Marc,
So we should wait until Chelsea makes their move for confirmation that Zaha is of the appropriate quality?
Your strategy for recruitment would be to gazump clubs owned by billionaire willing to fund it. I can see a flaw there.
🙈🙉🙊
Arteta on his comments on transfers: “We work so closely with all the hierarchy at the club, and the owners, to put the plan that we need to take the place forward. “Everybody has the same ambition, we are all in this together, but if you ask me if I know right now what I have and how I can do it, I’m sorry but I don’t know because there are a lot of questions we cannot resolve in the situation we have right now. “One, financially. The other one because we don’t know if we are in Europe, also… Read more »
Who’s fault was it that we had an underperforming academy?
I wonder.
Who’s fault was it that we persisted with so many technically proficient players over the years and nowhere near enough physically and mentally tough enough players?
I wonder.
Who oversaw all these things?
I wonder.
I watch the likes of Willock/Nelson/AMN/ESR/Nketiah and am always left thinking these kids are missing something.
Who’s fault is this?
I wonder.
These failings have been left unchecked for well over a decade.
Thanks Arsene.
Valentin
No I don’t think we should touch Zaha with a barge pole – he’s just another average English player who’s way over hyped and overpriced.
It seems as if the scouts, managers, DOF’s and Tech Directors at all the major European clubs agree with me.
Get ready to welcome Willians and Coutie courtesy Kia.
Like getting back Mikki and Ozil on new mega salaries!
Arsenal never have enough.
ES
“”””Final point both Edu and Mertesacker came to same conclusion that Arsenal’s
Academy was grossly overstaffed.””””
And what have they ever accomplished?
( non playing)
I think Mertseackers opinion might be worth something.
As for Edu.
He is only here, because Raul ‘owns’ him
Like Raul ‘owned’ Emery.
How a man who had a fake passport the first time he was at the club ,is allowed back is mind boggling.
It is worrying though that he seems to want to keep too many of the deadwood, that’s our best way of freeing up some money.
If Guen didn’t go against the grain he would be the last midfielder I would sell but it looks like he’s one of the only few outgoings so far. Hopefully he’s just keeping the rest sweet until the end of the season, going into next season with the same clowns is going to be a fucking nightmare.
Freddie
I fear we might be stuck with a lot of players because of the market conditions but what we must do is not play these players if they won’t leave.
Giving them new contracts is pure madness.
Doesn’t seem like Adams has a scooby what’s going on at the club, holding up Rowleys scouting network like it’s the gold standard and peddling the agents contacts myth.
Edu has overseen a January window with no money and got a couple of loans and free signings in and we paid the princely sum of 8m for Mari, a third of that up front so we have spent fuck all really. All of these players are I think seen as cheap backups so we can free up money elsewhere. Way too early to judge him.
Valentin
Sarr started 10 times as a CB and 6 as a left back..16 apps and 3 sub’s and in no time was he injured, it was because he kept making errors, that was why he was constantly dropped.
He won 47% of his aerial duel which is very poor, in the premier league 60% is also considered very poor.
For a Defender claimed by some to be the best in the world, its simply not good. He may yet improve, but we’ve got Saliba in that role.
Ovie Ejaria is special
Been banging on on about this kid all season
He makes Jay Jay Okocha look like David Batty
UN
Isn’t it too early to be drunk?
The only player amongst all of these kids that shows a semblance of genuine promise, is Nketiah. Is that because he still has the Chelski philosophies in his blood?
Willock drives me bloody mad. Always in cruise control.
Nelson also needs a kick up the backside.
Nketiah joined Arsenal from Chelski when he was already 16?
All the others were aged from 5 to 9 when they joined Arsenal.
Mentally programmed like robots.
Interesting.
On a side note, I don’t know what the Nigerian FA is doing. They should be all over Ovie, Eze, Saka and Balogun.
They should form the core of our 2026 world Cup squad.
Makes me laugh when some folk think that our failings have only materialised post 2018.
The academy has been a long term failing.
If you don’t see that, you must be blind.
Graham 62 Wenger was as we know obsessed with technically gifted players including in defence. Many were injury prone and lightweight. The Academy mirrored Arsenal’s first team in the way they recruited and style they played. There was absolutely no attention to good defending a point I heard time and time again. It was incidentally a point made by Jeorge Bird on a number of occasions. Two years ago I was told by a Sports Journalist who watched regularly Arsenal’s youth teams that the set up at Academy was piss poor and well behind those of Man City, Chelsea and… Read more »
Good on Arteta to qualify his comments. He is learning. A part of backing a manager is giving him some latitude to pick or sign players. If it so happens we sign Willian and/or Coutinho he’ll have my support. That Coutinho couldn’t get into the Bayern side is no drama, Muller seems to be back to his best. Why should Bayern tamper with a winning side? As for him not fitting in at Barca, how many do exactly? You’ve got to fit in to a unique style of play and then Messi. I’m not fussed if agents are our scouting… Read more »
Arsene Wenger’s( recent) Arsenal Academy produced:
Iwobi, Bellerin, Eddie, AMN, Saka, Nelson, Willock.
No other club is comparable.
And yet according to ES – it was not up to scratch.
We all know ES has more contacts than Raul. But could he name the club Arsenal should emulate with regards to their academy?
CG
The only Academy defenders who came into the first team squad during the
Wenger era were Ashley Cole, Gibbs and Bellerin. Cole and Gibbs were converted Wingers and Bellerin arrived from Barcelona Academy.
Not a single Centre Back has managed to make the grade during his era.
If you leave out of the equation Sol Campbell the only half decent centre
backs recruited by Wenger were Kola Toure and Koscielny.
Considering that the manager was in charge at Arsenal for 21 years that is frankly an abysmal record and highlights his achilles heel as a coach and manager.