Guess who isn’t leaving?

by .

Newcastle United will NOT be taken over by the bad folk that chop up dissenters.

I absolutely LOVE to see it.

Their fans, the greatest on earth, spent the last 3 months justifying the takeover, completely throwing all ethics to the wind… they were dreaming of Pochettino, MBappe, and spending £300m in a single summer.

Now they have nothing. Another season of Steve Bruce football. The hope that Andy Carroll might sign on for another year.

Good.

After that carry-on, they deserve Mike Ashley, and to have SPORTS DIRECT painted on their stadium.

My worry is that sports washing fund has just moved onto another Premier League club. I hope it’s not Spurs, who are rumoured to be looking for a buyer.

ONTO ARSENAL.

Arsenal inquired as to the availability of Jack Grealish and were told £70m. A silly sum of cash that basically says they don’t want to sell him this summer. I love the player, but we really don’t need to play with fees like that. We’d get better value from a distressed Europe this summer. If City can get Torres for £20m, then we should be looking to match that sort of value.

The Zaha rumours are also hotting up. Palace is not going to be a club with hundreds of millions this summer, but they do need a rebuild, and Zaha could be a good make-weight for them. I think he had the second most take ons in the league last season, and he’s readymade for the league.

If we are in for him, you’d have to wonder about the future of Pepe. I would not be surprised to see him moved on this summer and the fact he came from the Lille factory of talent via some Mendes dealings likely means there will be a club that they could find for him. I’m just not sure we’d get much in the way of recompense.

Interesting to see Lille getting €50m for a player with one solid season in Ligue 1 under his belt. That sort of price level would be obscene in normal times, why would anyone spend that in a depressed market? Even weirder when you consider they finished 7th this year. No Champions League. Notable that the same team were in the market for Pepe last year as well. Still, one thing is not in doubt, Luis Campos is a god of footballing talent.

Granit Xhaka had some nice things to say about the man who convinced him to stay in December.

“He convinced me to stay with Arsenal,”

“We had a very good conversation shortly after his appointment, and I can really only say positive things about him. He is a young, very meticulous trainer who gives more than 100% in every training session, who optimally prepares us for every single game.

“I have rarely experienced this. He is really a great guy as a coach, but also as a person and I have already learned a lot from him during the time he is with us. Many details that have made me even better.

“So it’s really a pleasure to be able to play under him.”

It’ll be interesting to see if he stays beyond this summer, I suspect he will.

Mesut Ozil’s agent has once again said his client won’t leave this summer. Super odd that the German doesn’t seem to care about football or playing at all. I hope Arsenal cut a deal and he leaves on a free. We cannot have his shadow lurking over the club for another season, it’s too disruptive.

FA Cup news has been hard to come by, so I guess we’ll save the chat for tomorrow after some prezzers drop and we get a bit of news.

I’m starting to get excited, I hope you are too.

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Boomslang

Boom

grooveydaddy

1st

Boomslang

2

Boomslang

Trofee

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

The Godfather

Ozil Smh what a loser

grooveydaddy

Damn you BS

NJ Gooner

The missing number 8 🙁

Rich

I’m not saying we should sell Pepe, because most players need time settling in.

But he’s not been automatic starter with Emery, Ljungberg, and now Arteta, his numbers aren’t awful, but selling him on for £55 mill after a season would show a level of decisiveness that’s long been lacking.

Just watched a 17 minute video of Aouar on YouTube, and it made my dick hard

TallestTiz

Can we please sign up Emiliano Buendia?
Partey
Xhaka
Ceballos
Buendia – Replaces Özilwho has to leave anyhow
Willock
Torreira replacement

TallestTiz

If we also get rid of Guendouzi – which I hope it happens, we replace too.
I don’t see anything special in his game. Too slow, one paced and predictable

Calypso

Something’s gone wrong with team recruitment because our league form has gotten worse not better.

The board need to shoulder the blame for the length of time it took to discharge Wenger.

DivineSherlock

Nobody is dismissing his quality. Just his age and value for money. And no, it’s not long term gain if we spend £20m on him for a season only for him to go back to Barca and we have to then look for a new amf player when he’s had a good season and the team functioned well around him. Better to have team continuity I say. Too much squad turnover, too quickly every season. There’s always a new round of “dross or deadwood” to get rid of. Then the shiny new toys that Marko and Hairline spunk their pants… Read more »

Marc

” I hope it’s not Spurs, who are rumoured to be looking for a buyer.”

Joe Lewis has been desperate to sell the Spud’s for decades now.

Radio Raheem

I think Napoli will sell Milik and have sold Allan to Everton. The deal for Osimhen also involves player exchange with Callejon. This might explain their spending. Anyway, for all the rubbish I see here written about Leno see below and watch the clip on Leno https://www.arsenal.com/news/vote-your-201920-player-season Martinez is doing well and deserves the plaudits he is getting. But it’s his best form in what a decade at Arsenal? And this for ten or so matches. For this the goalie who has been consistent over 2 seasons is cast aside like nothing the moment he gets injured. Let’s see if… Read more »

Marc

No way we sell Pepe this summer unless someone offers us £65 million plus.

It ain’t going to happen.

DivineSherlock

Pedro really Pepe ? , come on atleast let Arteta work his magic on him first . I think he is gonna be a revelation next season , just my instinct .

DigitalBob

Pepe is staying, you don’t sell your club record singing after one season especially when it could and should be classified as a decent debut season.

Financially its silly as well, considering we wont get close to the same transfer fee back, regardless of the agents involved.

Lets give the man another year, a full one with Arteta and see what type of threat he can be for us.

Habesha Gooner

Selling Pepe Would be stupid. No matter how poor a signing, You need atleast two seasons to fully Judge them if they show promise. And Pepe has shown promise. That is a Nonsense suggestion.

I feel like I have typed this a thousand times but Emiliano Buendia will be the bargain of the summer for whoever gets him. He is ready to take center stage. It will be a Wjinaldum From Newcastle kind of move If we get him.

Ernest Reed

Interesting comments, Pedro. On one hand you cant see us paying 70 million for Grealish and yet the doughnuts upstairs had zero compunction on spending that same amount on the Decepticon otherwise known as My Left Foot (Pepe), and you would not be surprised to see said person sold (obviously at a loss because no one could possibly be as stupid as Arsenal’s Idiot Management Team to pay such a ridiculous fee as 70m). Says a lot of what continues to plague Arsenal – bad management and bad breath at the top. No wonder they are so lousy and for… Read more »

Marko

We’re selling Pepe? Why? Because he only got 8 goals and 9 assists in his first season bare in mind Arsenal went through three managers in their worst season in decades. As I said before nothing more knee jerk than an Arsenal fan. Best not discuss it it’s not going to happen

DivineSherlock

Never seen Arsenal do that before though would be really ruthless stuff . Dumping a club record signing in a year. Must be really something wrong with him if Arsenal do that.

Marko

4th in scoring 2nd in assists with room for improvement obviously and people bemoan our lack of goals and assists outside of our strikers.

andy1886

Divine, not since we signed for a record fee and got rid of Clive Allen over the summer of 1980.

For all those that think of AFC as the great entertainers we swapped him for Kenny Sansom, a full back.

We did okay out of it though, but back then it was a very Arsenal thing to do.

Radio Raheem

I see posters throwing out stats and going “Ooooo look Pepe didn’t have a crap season, he had an alright season, infact compared to this and that he had a great season…” God help us. What happened to your eyes?? For fuck sake Hleb’s stats I’m sure were crap but boy what a player he was. But for a handful of games Pepe plays like a fucking predictable retard. He needs to do a lot better and more consistently too. Quite telling that he hasn’t been an automatic starter for all 3 managers he has had at Arsenal despite his… Read more »

Marc

“Every one of them but Leno will he gone this summer and maybe even Leno might go if the club is that desperate for funds and Areta prefers Martinez ”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Mislintat’s work at the club is it.

CG

Sherlock

“”””Lets give the man another year, a full one with Arteta and see what type of threat he can be for us.””””

the best and brightest coaches in the world WONT be able to teach Pepe to use his right foot or stop him being read by switched on defenders.

talented Harlem Globetrotter type but one dimensional and whimsical.
He will have 1 good game in 4.5

And that’s not good enough when you shell out on the clubs record transfer fee.

think what you could do with £72 million nowdays!

Trap

Zaha available on loan for with obligation to make permanent transfer doing yh rounds

Looks like we might finally land wilf

Trap

#the

crimson

It’s OK we are signing a unknown Norwegian youngest. George Lewis. 😂

Marc

Trap

Sounds like the worlds biggest dollop of clickbait to me.

andy1886

Radio, we all look at players differently. Take your example of Hleb. I watched him loads of times, thought that he was all style and no substance. Can’t say that he was missed.

Marko

Watch the pivot from some on the Zaha loan compared to the Coutinho loan.

Wasi

No way we sell Pepe this window. For 2 reasons

1) He looks settled and is getting better.

2) No way we can recoup the 72 mil we spent on him.

And no thanks to Zaha , he will definately put up better numbers at Arsenal but a LW is not on high on our list if priorities right now.
And even if we decided to go for a winger , I’d rather it be Benrahma who is younger and imo has a higher ceiling.

Marc

“July 30, 2020 17:10:28
CG, can’t argue there, staggering we paid that much for a player with one foot”

“July 14, 2021 16:19:42
Pepe’s second season has been phenomenal, clearly amazing vision by Sven and even better coaching by Arteta”

Pedro you’re getting far to predictable.

Radio Raheem

Andy

The stuff Hleb, Cesc and Rosicky played was peak Wengerball…didn’t win much though.

andy1886

Crimson, he’s destined for the U23’s.

Nothing to do with the fact that he’s Rwandan, like one of our sponsors, honest…

Sid

Our signings of 2018/19 season are the only ones with a resale value,
Majority of signings pre 2018 would cost the club money to get rid,

CG

PedRo

“””””CG, can’t argue there, staggering we paid that much for a player with one foot”””””

Just as well( in many ways)

crikey what would have ‘tubby Raul shelled out if he could use both feet and head the ball?

Mpbabbe money?

Ernest Reed

Just guts you when you see other teams picking up good talent at good prices and here we are again with Arsenal handcuffing themselves by over-spending and over-paying for marginal talent. No wonder they cant compete with even lesser teams – how can you when cant even save yourself from yourself!

andy1886

Radio, I liked Rosicky, had character, balls even. Didn’t see too much personality from Hleb but I appreciate that that may have just been his personality.

DivineSherlock

CG

Raheem Sterling comes to mind , wildly inconsistent and solely right footed . Guess who coached him to get better ?

andy1886

* poor using the same word twice in the same sentence but I guess you know what I mean..

Champagne Charlie

If Arsenal land Zaha and Coutinho that elevates our attack something rotten.

They’re both 27/28 though so let’s avoid and bring in Joelson from sporting, at 17 he gives us 13 years for 13 mil.

andy1886

Un, you must know by now I prefer a different style of football, that’s early rather than later Wenger. Totally different teams.

Wasi

Even Robben was horribly single footed. Dont think anyone would disagree when I say he was one of the winger of his generation.

Wasi

best* winger

Wasi

Cg

Your sweetheart Wenger let Mbappe go for a couple of mils.

Marko

Is being one footed really that bad all of a sudden because we’re talking about Pepe. Fuck me some of you lot need some educating or I assume you feel the same way about Messi, Robben, Sane etc etc. I dunno sometimes. Van persie couldn’t tie his right shoe lace and he wasn’t bad for us

Ernest Reed

Comparing Robben with Pepe is apples to oranges, Wasi.

JAMES WOOD

Should we really have to give a player costing 70Million
2 seasons to settle in.?
He will be the same player in 2 years as he is now.?
A very good dead ball player.
A player that heads a ball like a balloon.
A player with a lazy side who goes missing.
A predictable player.
70 million what are we doing.

Marko

Van Persie was one footed until he turned 28/29.

????

Ernest Reed

“Is being one footed really that bad all of a sudden because we’re talking about Pepe. ”

It is when your other foot is as useless as Pepe’s, Marko. And those that you mention in your example have the element of surprise in their game, something that Pepe the predictable does not have. If you are going to bring a knife to a gunfight Marko, at least have the decency to not show up or pull an Ozil. You are as predictable a commenter as Pepe is a player.

Trap

Marc

Check the news it might be,but I think it’s the only way palace get say 50m in total for zaha his stats are real poor to command such fee but he’d be good for us no doubt

Wasi

‘Pepe the predictable ‘

Pepe the predictable? He is one of the most unpredictable players in the league.

Also , its not apples to oranges. Pepe is very similar to Robben in his style of play. Thats why Bayern were linked to Pepe to replace him. But Gnabry turned out good enough on the RW for them.

Trap

News has gone cold on a central defender apart from sarr ,upamecanos extension is till 2022 just a year.

Marko

If you are going to bring a knife to a gunfight Marko, at least have the decency to not show up or pull an Ozil.

What the hell are you talking about idiot I don’t even know you. Do you usually get into discussions around here or do you usually just aim for 4th and go on your merry. You sound very intelligent all the same. Tell me again how being predominantly one footed is an issue

Champagne Charlie

“He didn’t ask to be worth that. As I said his G/A is higher than Pires and Freddie in their first 2 seasons.“ This can’t be the only yard stick for a player though, that’s what many people have said. Show me the stat that translates how constant a threat Pires was when the ball was at his feet, and how he’d combine superbly with his teammates to keep the ball and provide an outlet over and over in games. There isn’t one, but these aspects of his performance were witnessed by every player. Pepe being judged solely on numbers… Read more »

Radio Raheem

Being ‘one-footed’ or predictable isn’t the problem. An argument could be made that the best players are somewhat predictable, I mean you know Ronaldo will always go for goal, Messi will always shimmy, Robben left foot… The point these players were or are unstoppable even knowing what they’ll do next. You can’t say the same for Pepe. He is stopped often or he stops himself. So how about he becomes less predictable as he clearly isn’t one of the greats eh? I see he is now very quickly crossing the ball diagonally for Auba. Good. He is now also trying… Read more »

Calypso

Not wanting to appear controversial but Pepe had a better season than wonderkid Saka.

CG

Wasi

“””””Cg Your sweetheart Wenger let Mbappe go for a couple of mils.”””””

We will add him to the nearly signed list. ( its probably 2 pages long now.)

But Our Wenger* did always try for outrageous quality.
Now, we are less fussy. More mundane tastes…….

Some you win: some you loose.

*Book out soon.

Habesha Gooner

Seriously I think Pedro wrote that to spark some controversy. He will then tell us pepe is an agent driven signing. Since Arteta came in he has been performing to a really good level. And We have no creative players. We need them and we will see a different pepe next season.

Marko

Apparently Pepe’s the first player to dribble past VVD since March 2018 (50 games). But yeah predictable

andy1886

@ CG – Actually I will probably buy the book. Have no idea how objective it will be so I reserve the right to stop reading around half way through (assuming it’s a chronological review of his time in football).

Freddie Ljungberg

Pepe being one footed may make him predictable but it doesn’t make him easy to defend against, he is too quick footed for that. It doesn’t matter what his price tag was either if it takes time to adapt it takes time. Saying he’s going to be the same player in 2 years time as now just makes you stupid. Or saying that this is the best we’re going to see from Pepe just because he didn’t beast the league in his first season. Smh He’s been horribly isolated on the right with very sporadic help from RB and with… Read more »

Marko

Pepe being judged solely on numbers isn’t telling the whole story, he’s lived on moments and he’s absolutely not been the consistent menace game upon game you’d hope for given the investment.

I hear you but you could easily insert name of particular player you don’t like and have a similar argument. Like with Zaha and Coutinho for example. There’s nothing wrong with moments btw

andy1886

HG – Actually Emery wanted Zaha not Pepe so there must have been some other reason for the signing. I’m not saying it was agent driven but I’m pretty sure that Raul wouldn’t know a decent player from a bag of cement.

Marc

Trap

I think Zaha is overrated – he’d cost s fortune and wouldn’t get double digit goals in his first season with us.

DivineSherlock

CG

Have you heard the term reinvention ? Its what players do , they reinvent their games based on data they get . Do you think Pepe just sits on his ass all day , you think he doesnt know his weaknessess ? What a stupid assumption to make .

Ernest Reed

“But Gnabry turned out good enough on the RW for them.”

Thats always going to be an ouchy, Wasi.

Champagne Charlie

Marko I’m always concerned with performance before raw output, doesn’t matter the player. Zaha is an example of a player who I rate for performance and much less so his output, Coutinho I rate for both. Pepe has underwhelmed this season to any casual observer which I think tells a story on its own. No, there’s nothing wrong with moments because games need them, but that’s not why we invested so heavily in him. He was to be our Mane/Salah/Hazard/Sterling type player. How many of them are average for 5 games, or do little for 75mins? They’re constant threats, week… Read more »

Ernest Reed

“What the hell are you talking about idiot”

Nice one Marko. Little wonder you get no respect from pretty much everyone on this blog.

Ernest Reed

“Tell me again how being predominantly one footed is an issue”

To even ask the question…

Habesha Gooner

Andy1886 I actually wanted Ziyech Over any one. I still think he was value. But I can clearly see a great player in Pepe too. He is more a Right wing forward than a Right wing Midfielder. But he was trying to be the creator for a team that didn’t have creative midfielders. He wasn’t playing his role that he signed for. And He cost 20 mil the first season. Zaha was being spoken in the 80 mil range in one payment. That’s what Chelsea will end up paying for Havertz who is a generational talent. Pepe didn’t workout as… Read more »

CG

Sherlock

“””””Do you think Pepe just sits on his ass all day , you think he doesnt know his weaknessess ? What a stupid assumption to make .””””””

I would hope he thinks about the game. (But I have my doubts,)
But so do his opposing defenders.
And they know – he is pretty easy to read.
(He can only come inside the field of play from the right wing,)

Why do you think he has never played a Champions League fixture at 25?

An appalling signing at £72 000 000
rank incompetence

Champagne Charlie

“Point is that even the greatest arsenal wide man of the premier league era had a slow start despite the advantages he held over Pepe.“

So he has been underwhelming then…

Because that opinion seems to rile a number of people up despite it being a pretty obvious assessment to make of his debut season.

Marko

He was to be our Mane/Salah/Hazard/Sterling type player.How many of them are average for 5 games, or do little for 75mins? They’re constant threats, week after week and it’s a crisis of one goes 5 games without a goal. You’ll have to be more specific are you talking about those players now or when they were starting out in the premier league? Because Hazard aside Pepe has done similarly as well as Mane when he first came to the premier league and obviously much better than Salah did at Chelsea. Sterling it’s perhaps unfair to him given he came through… Read more »

TR7

Pepe’s problem is not only his one footedness but also that he has just one signature move and one signature shot.

Habesha Gooner

Put Salah in our team as it is and he will struggle. Mane on the other hand is another story because he can do everything. I could see why people think a Brute force like Zaha would work better but he has never had to play against teams who sit deep. He would struggle badly in our team too.

andy1886

@HG I’m not really offering an opinion either way on Pepe. I’m simply pointing out that the selection process was a little opaque so we don’t really know what the thought process was that led us to pay £70m. I’m not convinced that our scouts had much of an input though. Haven’t we just let most of them go? Doesn’t suggest we had much faith in them. If I had to suggest a logic behind it I would say it was a combination of the stats guys and our management team thinking of who had the biggest resale potential. I’m… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Marko/Un

Pepe was bought by Arsenal at a different time in his career to Hazard and Salah, pretty disingenuous to use their debut campaigns when they were fucking 20.

Pepe is 25 now, does it really not twig with you that the demand for consistency is high in a player at that age? He’s not a bloody prospect.

Habesha Gooner

It depends on how you define habesha.

Wasi

CG

And here you are whining when we are going for outrageous quality again that is Coutinho.

Marko

Also to bring up consistency and players being constant threats and going 5 games without a goal to shit on the Pepe signing but then very much being all for the signing of Zaha kinda reeks of a double standard but that’s okay. You see Pepe and think underwhelming while I see promise in his first season and enough there to think that we can see better in the future. He wasn’t signed up with one season in mind thankfully

James wood

My post 17.24. 17.24.
I did not mention thatPepe is one footed.?
Saha is very one footed yet a lot of posters would take him
subject to his passport age Tomorrow.
I did mention Pepe heads the ball like a kid with a balloon.
And that he is a great dead ball player.
But at best he is a 40/50 Million player.

.

andy1886

If Arsenal signing George Lewis while United are said to be closing on a deal for Sancho doesn’t put our finances into perspective I’m not sure what will.

Short break between seasons but it could turn out to be a long window for us.

andy1886

Un, DB10 had just turned 26 when we signed him.

Habesha Gooner

In that Case Yeah I am.

Marko

Pepe is 25 now, does it really not twig with you that the demand for consistency is high in a player at that age?

I mean he just turned 25 and had just turned 24 when we signed him. I mean dunno what you want him to be as good at 24 in a new league as Salah and Mane at 27/28 in their 5th/6th season in the premier league respectively. Some expectation that.

Habesha Gooner

What is Barcelona and Willian? Are they promised to each other or something?

Habesha Gooner

what is with*

Marko

Anyway he’s not going after one season so it’s pointless arguing

Radio Raheem

I hope George Lewis works out. It’s the type of cheap signing that’ll save us a tonne.

Sid

Diet Peps tactics bring the best(if theres such a thing) out of Xhakalson, Mustafinovs, Luiz, Laca while stiffling our top players Auba, Pepe, Saka, Gabi

Radio Raheem

Un

True haha. But I’m sure every club has their Zelalem.

I’d really like us to be that club that finds hidden gems. Kolo Toure, Edu, Silvinho, Clichy, Vieira to a lesser extent… I think it’s the only way to get back to the top and it’s not impossible as clubs in Spain and Germany are still doing it.

Wasi

George Lewis seems more like a PR signing.
Rwandan and everything.

Champagne Charlie

Marko
I’m going to avoid going down transfer rabbit holes with you, you’ve got history of ignoring what’s actually being said and straw-manning your way down the yellow brick road.

You’ve got this weird equivalency bit you resort to because you can’t hack someone that doesn’t share your view explicitly. Spare us.

Un
Yea that’s the one, had a text off my pal Emery and he’s raging we might be in for Zaha this summer. Bring him back I say.

Radio Raheem

Won’t it be great if our super agent dropped us the new Tevez and Mascherano (but without the complex ownership crap).

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