It’ll be very casual writing over the next couple of weeks. I don’t have much interest in the international matches and there’s not an awful lot going off on the Arsenal front.
Houssem Aouar wants you to know he’s ok. Honestly, he’s just fine.
“It wasn’t really Arsenal or nothing else, although at the end it was close to that. Really, a choice had to be made and I’m happy to stay here.
“I spoke about it a lot with sporting director Juninho. He shows me confidence every day and it’s a real pleasure to work with him. To stay here for another season – or more – with him, it’s a great pride.”
Those are NOT tears. It’s runny icing from a cake or something.
I have to say, looking back on the window, I am kind of happy we landed Partey, despite the priority clearly being attacking capabilities. If we were looking at how the season would shape up right now with just a creator signed, I think we might be wondering about how we’d deal with the lack of power in our midfield this season.
Don’t get me wrong, Houssem is an excellent player that could have been a game-changer for us. However, I do think we’ll have more luck finding a creative spark with a stable midfield, than trying to find power and control.
… and look, missing out on him likely means the move is over. I truly hope a greedy agent didn’t scupper his move. Anyway, that could open us up to better options next season. If we manage to sneak into the Champions League, we might have the finances to make Jack Grealish happen. A player that produces the numbers we need, someone who says The Grove is his fave stadium, a player that’ll be finding peak next season. One can dream, right?
Just to deviate back to Thomas Partey, the below video should get you excited. A stats person actually excited about the signing, and I am all for it.
I was wondering to myself whether the club will go back in for a Head of Recruitment type figure. We lost Cagigao, Sven is in Germany… there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of rumours with regards to that role. One would assume another £1m a year hire is probably not on the agenda of a club guillotining the club mascot. So what does that mean? Did the head of recruitment job get the internal solutions treatment? Wenger would be proud. The analysts must be picking up the slack and one would assume Edu and Arteta are probably more wired into what good looks like that Raul and Emery.
Not to cover old ground, but I still can’t believe Emery had Partey at the table last season and thought the priority was £72m winger. The best winger on the planet wasn’t making Arsenal a force last season. Baffling.
The transfer strategy this season looked fairly sensible, but we didn’t do anything overly curveball. I’m looking forward to seeing if that changes as we increase revenue over the next few years. Will Arsenal spend more time in eastern Europe, a well of exciting players with elite mindsets. When will we start paying more attention to Africa? North Africa has been a talent hive for years, same for the west. But what about the more southern areas?
Patson Daka, striking sensation playing his trade at RB Salzburg, originates in Zambia. He scored 27 last season, and he’s on 11 already this year. Following where teams like RB scout is never a bad bet. They have an ingredients list for their players and it doesn’t stop delivering hits. Keep and eye of this guy, he looks like the sort of player that’d thrive in the Premier League. He’d certainly be a good replacement for Lacazette when we look to upgrade. At 22, he’s hit the Logan’s Run age where they’ll look to move him out to the German Franchise or to whoever has the cash to get him.
I also wonder why we aren’t organising a feeder club system like City and others are attempting at the minute. The Colorado Rapids aren’t up to much this season, but it seems odd that there aren’t closer ties to Arsenal. Firstly, because the United States and the MLS in particular, has been producing some hits when it comes to young players. Factor in that lots of parents of precocious athletes might start favouring football, because, you know, it doesn’t melt brains… well, there’s probably not a better time to start expanding the new Arsenal IP and creating a feeder factory.
This is what happens when there’s no football.
Ok, listen to my podcast if you haven’t already, then come join the comments for a chat party.
1st
Änd
The
Tr4phy
Sweet?
Last Europe spot
Ok. That’s enough.
Pure dominance. What a slap to the face.
Make no mistake. Roland Garros or not, today was a comparable result to Bayern M’s 8 – 2 versus Barcelona. Annihilation.
Pierre
Nonsense. Wenger should have been dismissed years before he was, and intelligent Arsenal fans were right to want him out. He was incompetent in his final years, and he was completely contemptuous of the fans. That it got as unpleasant as it did was a function of his staying on too long and of his arrogance and obliviousness. Those who wanted Wenger to go were absolutely correct, and if he had left years earlier when he should have, things would never have gotten as unpleasant as they did.
Rafa always apologizes to the person he beats for a trophy 😂
Morning all
Well done to Rafa, Djoker couldn’t live with him today. Imagine telling anyone in 2016 that Nadal would go on to win 6 more GS titles and be competitive again at all 4 majors.
Was always inevitable that he would catch Fed’s 20, is whether or not Djokovic can finish with more than him now. Probably 50-50 chance now, that was a huge swing title win today.
Pete
“It’ll be very casual writing over the next couple of weeks. I don’t have much interest in the international matches and there’s not an awful lot going off on the Arsenal front.”
Arsenal play City in six days.
Can see Rafa win 2 more French Open, so at the very least Djoker will have to win 6 more Grand Slams to finish ahead of him.
Bam, you know the concept of dog years?
I get that on international breaks, it feels like 2 weeks.
Pete
I hear you. Life is not as interesting without club football. But we do in fact play City in six days. And according to reports, we might not have Aubameyang, as he has a slight ankle sprain.
Bamford how about some new news
Auba was injured days ago.
Dier clumsy as ever.
England = boring.
Endless short passing gets you nowhere.
Average talent
Pedro
Tower Bridge rd..nice. That stretch along the river has been transformed. I remember the last time I was in Elephant I was astounded.
I think they’ve got the balance right round there though. It hasn’t been a case of how many Pret a mangers can we fit into 400 yards of High St.
From the same clip Szobzslai stands out
Why you do dat Kim Peh Dro?
Meunier real talent. Really dumb there.
Sid, because you made a discriminatory comment. Don’t do it again.
I haven’t posted much this year really as I’m out of the loop and not as au fait with current players and teams, Europe wide, as many of you guys are.
However, I think Partey is a game changer….that’s because he’s got a surname absolutely tailor made for pithy football headlines:
Partey on
Partey off
Partey time
Let’s Partey
Fight for your right to Partey
It’s my Partey and I’ll cry if I want to.
Partey pooper
Partey animal
I posted something about the feeder clubs before too and to me it makes no sense why we dont have feeder clubs in different continents.
City have in Australia, Uruguay, Spain, Belgium, India. These are only the ones I know.
The upside with having such clubs is massive. First refusal on top talents, helps with going around the work permit issues for young players, loaning out young academy players for experience, much larger reach, bigger fanbase, etc etc.
What do we have? Colorado Rapids. Cant remember one player/club who’s taken advantage of this connection.
Alex, elite analysis, I agree.
Welcome back!
Repeat comment from my last post.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/11/arsene-wenger-arsenal-manager-footballInterview with Wenger. Great read.When he talks, you listen.
Great interview.
When he talks, you listen.
The next level is the next level.
Not sure I’m overly keen on what I’m hearing about the proposed shakeup of the PL. Giving control to 9 teams is asking for trouble.
“North Africa has been a talent hive for years, same for the west. But what about the more southern areas?” Western Africans constitute about 95 % of subsaharan African talent because of physical excellence. They very often combine great speed (almost all top 100 m dash runners have been of western African origin since forever) and strength, but many are at the same time lean enough to develop great stamina. In Europe the closest approximation would for me be southwestern Balkans – Dalmatia, Montenegro, and Herzegovina – the mix of Slavs and native coastal Illyrians. Majority of top Croatian footballers… Read more »
Evening,
Concerning the American president debate from earlier.
It’s not been the same since Jed Bartlett left office! 🙂
England being England, no Saka, no AMN, no interest.
Bring on the grealish second half.
Well done to rafa in the tennis, and Hamilton equalling schueys grand prix record.
F1 needs a major shake up though, another easy title for Mercedes.
Between them and red bull before them it’s so predictable.
Let’s hope Auba is fine for city, or were up the creek without a paddle.
U4GN
I reckon if Martin Sheen ran he’d win in a landslide.
Interesting post Kris.
Always was curious why the vast majority of African talent hails from West/North Africa. Only notable players from East Africa/Southern Africa I can think of off hand are Wanyama and Benni McCarthy. Bolasie and Nonda repping DR Congo too.
Marc, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
What the bindippers and utd are up to I don’t know.
Reduce down to 18 teams, I don’t think clubs will be happy about lost revenue from two games less.
And the bottom clubs voting for it will be cutting there own throats as anyone from 10th down could get relegated.
No league cup, no charity shield, doesn’t really make sense.
Charity shield affects two clubs only.
And most clubs don’t worry about the league cup till the semis. So two games max!
Marc,
Me too, I can’t believe a country with 280 million people can’t rustle up a candidate better than trump and a guy they boosted from old age home.
How can you not start with Grealish?
Bland manager, bland football.
U4GN
It’s not the League Cup or Charity Shield it’s giving the power to 9 clubs to make all the decisions – we’ll end up with matches played overseas and god knows what else.
The fans will be forgotten in the chase for even more money – you’d think that the clubs would actually be aware at the moment how important the fans in the grounds are.
Feeder clubs has long been an idealised concept for nurturing talent, I just think it’s a slippery slope in modern football because you can get some institutional development beyond anything we’ve seen before. RB have flirted with that, but could imagine Man City owning the best clubs from regions and farming their various businesses however it suits. Loses the romance when thought along those lines. Personally enjoy the idea of prosperous relations between clubs without the murky corporate ties. Really surprised we haven’t looked to open a dialogue/pathway with a side like Rangers in Scotland. They’ve been slaves to the… Read more »
England will win the playing in triangles cup!
Marc,
Yeah that as welL, It stinks you have clubs like utd and the bindippers influencing the Fa and premier league already.
The bias towards them is a joke.
The little clubs should be thinking no chance we vote for this.
You could see it turning into La liga where it’s all about carving it up between Barca and real.
The fans will be the ones that suffer massively.
Belgium’s 2 CB’s look the same with the same hair cut.
Charlie
Chelsea had a thing going with Vitesse for a long time there didn’t they? Nearly all of their loanees including Mason Mount went there.
Mount scores.
Speaking of Mount…
Martinez and Southgate in charge of Belgium and England are the equivalent of OGS managing Man U.
I fell a better coach could get so much more out of all three.
PedroOctober 11, 2020 17:42:53
Sid, because you made a discriminatory comment. Don’t do it again.
Would it be discriminatory if i used Diego Costa as an example instead?
Cc,
All the premier league clubs should be allocated a non league club, or league two as a feeder, loan club.
Give a non league club ozils wage for a month it keeps them afloat for a season or two.
With all the money awash in the game, under normal circumstances.
No clubs should be in the state some of them are.
It amazes me clubs in league 1, 2 and non league keep going bankrupt.
When we pay players 100-400k a week.
In a alt. Reality i would fight for Carrasco
De Bruyne injury.?
Weagle Yea something like that wasn’t it. Really surprises me that we haven’t looked at a side like Rangers with their 15 annual loan deals and sought to expose players like Nketiah, Nelson, Willock to playing time at a club with all the demands of a big side, in front of 50k supporters etc. Take your pick around Europe in lesser leagues, there’s countless opportunities to establish relationships to that degree which are mutually beneficial. Perhaps there’s some rulings that forbid it I’m unaware of. – Up4grabs Yea agree with that sort of construct, I think we have good relations… Read more »
Pedro, Grealish is still on relatively low wages even for Arsenal , but his five year deal , and the fact Villa are no longer a relegation fodder (,I think) probably means he’s out of our reach.
United never pulled the trigger on him probably because OGS isn’t trusted with squad building anymore and they have other players on huge wages playing his position.
But with another manager they can always afford to come back for him and pay the premium it’ll take to get him.
Charlie
Yeah think that we sent Zelalem [the new Cesc, lol] out there on loan when they were in the Scottish lower leagues.
Does seem odd that we don’t utilise it more, as a whole loans seem to be better implemented on the continent.
Chelsea seemed to buck the trend for a while, remember they had a stupid amount of players out on loan for a period. Half of them at Vitesse.
Such a boring game. It felt like a friendly honestly.
Maybe France v Portugal will deliver. Cronaldo doesn’t like to lose important game or not.
Pedro
Grealish would be the dream signing , dare I say it makes us even title contenders .
Trigger needed to be pulled on grealish three years ago when villa wanted 28-30 million for him.
Now it will be 80-100 million.
Could see him ending up at city in a year or two.
Weagle
Haha Zelalem couldn’t hack Scotland, absolutely wank player he was. It’s a good acid test for those academy grads that have outgrown the clubs system. Patrick Roberts was at Celtic from City, Ryan Kent got good exposure under Gerrard.
Would enjoy us building a relationship with a Dutch side, or something similar where we can scout a few promising academy players cutting their teeth. Scotland or the lower leagues just makes more logistical sense given a lot of the teenagers are fannies about moving very far.
Just listen to Charles Watts. There are currently three teams fighting for Saliba; Brentford, Norwich City and Watford.
Sounds like Saliba has competition to bench him..
‘Scotland or the lower leagues just makes more logistical sense given a lot of the teenagers are fannies about moving very far.’ Germany has become a destination for young English talent now funny enough with Jadon Sancho kicking it off and now Lookman, Nelson, Jonjo Kenny, Rabbi Matondo and Bellingham following suit for loans/permanent moves. Interesting really, my guess is that it’s easier for the youngsters to adapt given the Germans much better grasp at the English language than Spanish, French and Italians. Also the culture is less removed from the UK than the others. You also have full stadiums… Read more »
At least saliba going to one of them three, should mean a team fighting to get promoted. And all three will try and play football rather than a pulis hoof ball side.
Haaland hat-rick for Norway tonight.
Such a shame that we won’t be seeing him at the Euros next summer. This generation’s Ibrahimovic.
Bamford
In a nutshell.
Wenger has class
The WOBS are classless.
Weagle
Absolutely. We’re a real lazy bunch historically for trying to ‘make it’ in football at a young age. Most lads absolutely creaming themselves at being in an elite academy until 22 without a sniff of first team games in any consistency.
Much better to go get tracked to a first team, look after number one, and back yourself to end up at a top club end of day. Malen, Sancho, Gnabry and the like had the bollocks.
Norwich would be the best bet for Saliba..
Good footballing side plus they have just lost their captain who was centre back …
He’s more likely to get a game there…or 2.
Charlie Yeah think the celebrity factor is a big reason, being a pro footballer in places like London pretty much gives you pick of the bunch in terms of women, nightclubs and general off the field perks. Also likely scares them to go abroad at such a young age and have to deal with a new language, culture and dressing room. It’s why you have to have huge respect for the likes of Sancho as you say although you can tell that he’s itching to come back to England and London. Pretty much is only armed with ‘Guten Tag’ and… Read more »
Portugal can be a real threat to retain their Euro title. So much talent that wasn’t even at Euro 2016 with Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Joao Felix, Ricardo Perreira, Ruben Dias, Cancelo, Podence, Trincao, Jota, Neves.
And Ronaldo is still one of the world’s best.
Giroud is still France’s starting striker.
Pierre
You know I would argue otherwise but, as it’s Sunday and I’m in a good mood, I’ll leave it be.
Cheers.
Graham, Wenger was generally a classy guy. Not sure how you classify a whole group of people who wanted Wenger gone as classless, or that it matters. He was sacked and I think finally, after a bad misfire, we can see why it was so needed.
I ordered the book today. I hope it’s more interesting than the interviews.
Let it be on record I ain’t sure about Tomas
Pedro
Where’s da goss bout Mattie g
Kris, I don’t understand how you can base your analysis of African football on athleticism excellence. If that case the case the countries that are at the front row of African football would not be. Economic and political situation is the main reason why Northern and West Africans dominates football. Exceptional talent may still emerge anywhere, but Countries that have civil insurrection, civil war, no domestic football competition are less likely to produce talents in great number. Also those countries have more money and more stability, so they can afford to make use of the African diaspora. A lot of… Read more »
Pierre
Is sending him out on loan right ,?
Dont that just suggest we have other youngsters better ?
Pedro
You’ve lost me.
I was the one responding to Pierre’s “WOB’s are classless” post.
Have you been on the Smirnoff or have I?
Up 4
Didn’t spurs nearly sign him for 40m few years ago
Champagne charlieOctober 11, 2020 19:16:36
Sounds like Saliba has competition to bench him..
The 12 yo behavior on display.
Val
Economic and political situation is the main reason why Northern and West Africans dominates football
What about talent ? Algerians have always been called the African Brazilians for a reason.
So we had a price agreed with Aouar and his agents fucked the deal.
https://twitter.com/Patrick_Juan7/status/1315296679545970688?s=20
Algeria and Morocco have some serious talent Karim.
Mahrez, Brahimi, Benrahma, Feghouli, Bennacer, Slimani, Bensebaini, Atal.
Ziyech, Hakimi, En-Nesyri, Boufal, El-Arabi, Idrissi, Munir, Belhanda, Taraabt, Mazraoui, Dirar, Feddal.
Probably the two strongest African teams as of now. Maybe put Senegal up there too.
Forgot Harit for Morocco too. They are just a conveyor belt for gifted widemen/CAM’s.
Pedro
Sanllehi’s running the deal and that agent would now be sleeping with the fishes.
Would never happen again.
Good link Pedro.
It actually sounds legit. And yes. Everybody is a loser in this situation.
I wonder if Aouar’s price was really dropping, how cheaper he was going to be? From the 45m pounds that they wanted, maybe they were going to do business at 38m?
It’s shitty to pay up agents and dipshits around the player, but if 3m pounds really was the reason we missed out on him, it’s kinda sad.
Pedro
Enraging stuff
Eagle
Agree. The Germans reckoned Algeria was their most difficult opponent in 2014.
Kind of happy there wasn’t a France / Algeria quarter-final, I wouldn’t have known who to cheer on to be honest.
*were
That thread is a bit of a shame, seems like we were super close to completing Aouar, although not sure what the issue is with paying his agents (family) a few mill. Isn’t that kind of standard with any player transfer?
Raptora
You’ve no room to call anyone childish, you come on here claiming Arteta is killing talents like Saliba, Guendouzi, Torreira and Pepe and offer up absolutely nothing of substance to support it. Wasteman
Jamie
It’s the criticism that’s often thrown at Wenger for missing out on some future stars.
Jamie
” seems like we were super close to completing Aouar, although not sure what the issue is with paying his agents (family) a few mill. Isn’t that kind of standard with any player transfer?”
Are you nuts? His brother wanted £10 million…!!! The greed of these agents is absolutely disgusting. They should get a fixed fee, that’s it.
Marc –
Exactly.
AFF –
The thread Pedro posted quotes €4m, not £10m.
AFC*
“Its the criticism that’s often thrown at Wenger for missing out on some future stars”
Wenger’s principles,you could argue, were his Achilles heel. He hated agents and the control they had. Not just when buying players but also keeping players. In the old days, it was less transparent, Fergie, Rednapp & co would make sure everyone’s palms were greased, right bunch of alleged crooks. Now it is licensed skulduggery.
Jamie
I read somewhere it was nearer £10m.
Anyway, just think for a minute. £5m. (£5 MILLION QUID) is a joke. Football has gone mad mate.
Interesting discussion on African players. I was in West Africa nearly 30 years ago and was amazed by the athleticism, skill and determination of the players I saw there playing on grassless pitches in very hot conditions. In fact I mentioned this untapped resource to my contacts at Arsenal and shortly after they improved their scouting network in that part of the world. I am not sure how many players immerged from this region but I know of many who made it big time in Europe. This is the bread and butter of scouting networks and this is exactly the… Read more »
Champagne charlieOctober 11, 2020 22:35:02 you come on here claiming Arteta is killing talents like Saliba, Guendouzi, Torreira and Pepe and offer up absolutely nothing of substance to support it. Wasteman I’ve already voiced my opinion. £130m worth of players and only 1 of them stays in the team as a 2nd choice RW. I also said Nketiah, Nelson, Gnabry loans were a big ass failures so is it worth risking another failed loan with Saliba when we have more than enough games that he could start in. You start ridiculing it even though it’s facts and real worries that… Read more »
Raptora
Yea, with nothing to substantiate or support it, which is exactly why you had more than one response asking if you were ok over there.
Now you’re losing your rag over being called childish for those very views. Big lol.
I was wondering to myself whether the club will go back in for a Head of Recruitment type figure. We lost Cagigao, Sven is in Germany… Cagigao was effectively the head scout and Edu does what Sven done in his time here so we don’t need to replace anyone we’ve just streamlined the whole spotting talent at the club. It’s hard to know if we’re better or worse off at negotiating since Raul left because it’s hard to know if that slow approach to the window which ended with Partey was because of a personnel issue or if it was… Read more »
Beveren used to be a feeder club for us right
Raptora On Saliba. Arteta has decided he’s not ready. As fans we know how important it is we are solid defensively, so it’s no point using games for him to learn in. Much better he goes on Luan. Remember we signed him when he had played less than 18 games in the French 1st Div. We loaned him back because we thought he needed more experience, expecting him to play 20-30 games. Three things happened: 1. He ruptured an Abductor muscle & needed surgery 2. Next he broke his foot 3. Then the Global Pandemic ended the season early The… Read more »
Marko
Correct, Kolo Toure the only notable from that link as far as I’m aware?