GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY FOR GABI.
Now, we begin.
There’s really nothing better as a writer than the penning a boring post about how things are pretty decent. It’s a joy after 3 months of writing about how an idea you really pushed was actually pretty terrible.
This week is about three things. Moving on deadwood. Praying for Gabi’s ankle. Winning three points in a tough game against Crystal Palace this Thursday.
Players aren’t moving out the door fast enough and everyone is getting themselves into a bind. Fans tend to lean harder into believing the rumours they don’t like (stole that from Arseblog). The latest is that Arsenal are putting their foot down with regards to selling Eddie Nkeitiah to West Ham. Are you fucking kidding me? Arsenal just borrowed £120m to see them through the season. If someone offers £30m for an academy player that hasn’t been able to dislodge our strikers in the worst goal drought in a decade, I think Boris Johnson might roll down to Highbury House and call in that loan early.
There are very few players on our books that aren’t for sale at the moment. Kieran Tierney to Napoli? No chance. Eddie to replace Haller at West Ham for £30m? No way we’re not considering that sort of deal. We do not have the financial luxury to keep passing on good cash for squad players only to bench them.
I fully expect Willock, Reiss, Eddie, Mustafi, and Sokratis to be on the market this window… loan or sale. Sad reality is that Nico Pepe should also be on that list. West Ham took a £20m ‘L’ on Haller, the player wasn’t good enough, so they took what they could for an asset that was fast depreciating. We should look to do the same with Nico. It’s clear he’s not at the level. His basic technique is off, he’s too one-footed, the positions he takes up don’t help the team, and if anything… he seems to be regressing.
Also, what the fuck is going on with AMN? Arguably, he’s our best right-back, third-best deep-lying midfielder, and our back-up left-back. Why is Joe Willock landing minutes over him? I hope he’s being given the job of marking Zaha on Thursday, if not, it again starts to look like another ‘I just don’t fancy him’ issue from a coach with hard-to-comprehend player taste principles.
The biggest weak point for him is the weird relationship he has with young players. Why isn’t he coaching AMN to be better than Elneny? Why was he about to loan out ESR when he was literally the only #10 at the club? Why doesn’t he embrace young players he can coach with the same passion he embraces older bums? Painful viewing.
He’ll say that plays Gabriel and Saka. Sure, but those two were Emery’s doing. Gabriel was not part of the action at the start of last season and we wondered. The talent isn’t in giving minutes to generational talents, it’s making decent young players great ones.
If you’re going to hoard young players, you have to give them minutes. If you aren’t going to do that, sell them. We have to break the cycle, because at the moment, we’re giving minutes to players with no resale value at the expense of pumping the value of talent that could pick up £20m plus this summer. That’s dim.
Edu needs to find his cajones this summer and put an end to this sort of thing. Arteta shouldn’t have the option of clogging the path for young players. Let’s hope this window and the summer see Arsenal own up to the truth… the future is kids and there are no shortcuts to be had with bum players nearing the end of their careers.
I’ve just made myself angry after starting this post stating that writing was going to be a breezy affair this week.
Stupid football.
LISTEN TO THE ARSENAL OPINION PODCAST. Also, thanks to the sharp-eared listeners who corrected my error on Manor Solomon’s nationality.
He’s Israeli… not Brazilian… though that name easily passes the Brazilian test IMO. Could we not just pretend?
ENJOY!
Bissouma or bust!!!!
Freddie-
Haha sorry my bad, But you just know We will probably end up this summer spending a fortune trying to sign Dani Cebs.
We absolutely need another cm/cam and probably another this summer.
Oh damn Pogba got a lucky deflection. goal.
Such an average Man Utd side, funny season. But Shaw should have been sent off, our players get sent off for less.
United the Jammy fckers
All the luck going for them this season. They could actually win the title ffs
Bet Banford is laughing his ass out on legrove right now
See its shit like this that gets me….these writers just know how to get fans going.
Like taking candy from a child’s hands….
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-lineup-buendia-bissouma-transfer-23307869
Vic
Yes Man Utd are really getting plenty of good fortune. Lucky to have Ferguson helping the VAR officials too.
AFC
Funny enough you could be right on red nose still owning EPL officials and VAR to massively influence results for United, how do you honestly explain the amount of pen decisions theyve gotten from last season to this in comparison to other top 6 teams?Klopp has already question the matter, its simply ridiculous.
Still cant see them winning it though, they still look distinctly average compared to Pool and City. But they unfortunately looked nailed on for top4 though
Azeez is a cm not an am. No. 10 is a specialised position. I don’t know if we have any aspiring AM’s in the u23’s. Don’t think we’ll bring anyone in other than a keeper this window.
Vic, yes I guess being the richest club in the World has some benefits. Never forget that 50th game because that was corrupt. Riley even got promoted to head of PGMOL after his appalling performance
This is a poor Man Utd team but it’s such a weird season who knows.
How in the world of fuck are United top of the league!? Bitch slap!
Mob-
Crazy… If OGS wins the League.. it would be the worst manager to do so ever. And might be time to end the League and start over.
Bissouma is a good player, but for the money Brighton would want I think we can do better.
I think we’re screaming out for a CM who can get the ball forward a lot quicker. Elneny can’t do it. Xhaka is better but not good enough. Maybe someone like Fabian Ruiz. I also like the look of Romain Faivre for the more attacking role.
Midwest
“Crazy… If OGS wins the League.. it would be the worst manager to do so ever. And might be time to end the League and start over.”
Love you man but if OGS wins the league it will be because he managed a group of players to out-perform every one else OVER 38 GAMES.
He would be the best manager in the league if he pulled it off
…Of course he wont pull it off.
Dirty manure.
Diss-
😀 I might be trolling somebody…. I don’t have a twitter account.
PIERRE
I don’t want to start an argument over nothing, but I have to respond to your reply to me last night:
”When did “decent” translate to “good”.
I mean, look in a Thesaurus my friend. ‘good’ is listed as a synonym for ‘decent’ in literally all of them. I know you only said that because you had no evidence of Xhaka being good in the air (or decent if you prefer), but don’t try and out-pedantic me!
I can’t see OGS winning the league. I don’t really rate him as a manager and their team is full of average overpriced players. They’re just on a lucky run, but if he does pull it off I guess I’ll have to hold my hands up. If their ‘luck’ continues with VAR and penalties then there needs to be a serious inquest into how much they’re paying for their ‘luck’. If they didn’t get a single decision from now until the end of the season it still wouldn’t even it out.
Fernandez looks to be an excellent signing though. I think I heard on the radio that he has contributed almost half of their goals and assists?
Dan T
“I mean, look in a Thesaurus my friend. ‘good’ is listed as a synonym for ‘decent’ in literally all of them. I know you only said that because you had no evidence of Xhaka being good in the air (or decent if you prefer), but don’t try and out-pedantic me!”
Nice try but I’m not taking the bait…
If Arteta was really a petty guy ;.
He’d offer Brighton £20m + Guendozi for Bissouma 😁. this month.
Leaving Guen to get to know Maupay and the boys better.
😀
PIERRE
“Nice try but I’m not taking the bait…”
It wasn’t bait, I was just asking you a genuine question of why you think Xhaka is ‘decent’ in the air and are there moments you can point to that might help me see your point of view? I haven’t seen it myself but I will always re-consider my opinion if you have some examples to back up your opinion?
“He’d offer Brighton £20m + Guendozi for Bissouma 😁. this month.
Leaving Guen to get to know Maupay and the boys better.”
Love the thinking. Maybe a loan move to Brighton. A touch of humility is maybe all he needs to move forward
What about this BS being reported that Mari’s previous Brazilian club will get a bonus of €1m for every 10 games he plays??
If Mari plays against Newcastle, that’s 10.
Didn’t we pay €8m loan fee and another €8m for his transfer?
Santos’s financial statement alleges they already got €4m bonus for something…
So how much would we end up spending on this guy whom Arteta fancies??
Bojangles
I echo your thoughts from yesterday on Mari & Gabriel M.
Our Chairman needs to approach Trump for a short term gig to help drain the swamp at Arsenal.
All Trump got to do is to summon and line up Ozil, , Sok, William, Kovac, Edu, etc, and say “you are fired!” …
Useroz
Arsenal paid £4.5 mil loan and a further £3 mil to make the move permanent. On top of that they have to pay just under £1 mil for each 10 games he plays up to 80,
There’s a leak by Mirror, i think, that Edu is actually answering to Aeteta, not Vinai, as a result of a KSE directive. Is this credible at all?
Thanks Bojangles.
So a max of around £16m then.
The €4m ‘bonus’ could actually be the £3.5m to make his loan permanent
AFC forever,
Quite the contradiction right here…
“You need short quick passes and movement. Players don’t make runs if they don’t think they will get the ball and without the movement, in front between the lines you are forced back or sideways; a vicious circle. Basic stuff. ”
Basic stuff alright, xhaka is not a pass and move kinda guy. In the slightest. Hence why we have an aversion to playing ball through the middle.
Also the contradiction I mention is that players don’t make runs if they don’t think they will get the ball.
Exactly. Because Xhaka and Ceballos/mo are barely ever looking forwards.
It’s not just xhaka that is shit if we want to be at the top. Our midfield is the weakest I’ve seen it since I started watching in 96.
But xhaka has been an ever present in a non existent midfield that has got progressively worse due to outgoing players and absolutely shocking incoming transfers.
Partey is half the way to a good midfield, but we need at least 2 more ballers to cover the 8 and 6 positions, along with a 10 to rotate with esr to even begin to consider the midfield adequate for the heights we want to reach.
Our midfield is putrid.
And fuck xhaka for telling the fans to fuck off. Isn’t The Arsenal meant to have class. That cunt should have never played a game again after that bullshit. Class left with Wenger.
Also I’m an Aussie, but fuck the cricket team. Smith was my favourite player in a while. But ruined that the first time they cheated. Can’t watch the game anymore.
Also no offence but cricket players have way too much of an ego for such a shit sport. Can’t stand any bloke in Aus that plays cricket. Bunch of cunts 😂😂😂
Useroz
Yeah, that’s what I read. He’s on around £85 thou a week so certainly not one the top earners at the club. For once we seem to have got value for money, if he continues at the level he’s shown ATM, at least.
Also ive watched xhaka duck a cross/shot enough times to know that the hard guy act is a joke.
He’d go down like a sack of shit with a tap on the chin
Like if you think of our squad building since we got xhaka.
He partnered Ramsey but isn’t the solid DM we needed.
Ramsey and Partey would have been delicious to watch in my opinion.
Wenger thought xhaka was box to box. If we bought the DM we actually needed we would be in a better spot.
But xhaka + ceb/mo/Guen/Ramsey has always lacked a proper DM to clean up and hold the fort. Even back to coq Santi days.
Now we have someone who can control a midfield in partey(still, it shouldn’t be on his own like Arteta left him to do), and we don’t have the baller to play next to him.
Whether Partey plays box to box or DM, he is suited to both. And if we are going to be “protagonists” you’d assume we would go a more adventurous box to box to partner him. If we think the forward line is good enough, then we need a bissouma type to be the ultimate double pivot allowing the front 4 to do their things.
One more thought out cm will take this team to another level. But it can’t be sustained over a whole season. So we need at least 3 players up to scratch or with potential (I have no qualms bringing Guen back as one of those) including a CAM to be serious over a whole season in all comps.
Then it’s back up lbs, hopefully a first 11 RB. And I hope Saliba comes back and stakes his claim to the first 11. Our backline is getting Better which is bizarre for us haha.
Question how many midfielders do Arsenal actually need to recruit?
Surprisingly Manchester City have only 5 midfielders on books namely:
RODRI [DMF]
FERNANDINHO [DMF]
FODEN [CMF]
GUNDOGAN [CMF]
DE BRUYNE [AMF]
ES
We have Guen, Torr, Partey, Xhaka, Dani, El Neny
We have 6 and all can go, bar Partey
Yeah ES, I agree with guns there. We just aren’t at the level needed there.
And I say all this like it’s done over 2 to 3 seasons. (Should have started ages ago) but last summer window was our best in a while for sure. Apart from Willian, who I really did think would not have been this shit.
Something is wrong with WIllian. Honestly, I can see a slight dip maybe due to age and injury, but not to this extent.
Is it that he is overthinking? sometimes he looks really tense, and does not seem to play with joy or any sort of freedom… maybe he just has the RBF
At this point, at his age, he is an ok back up player and bench player…
We need a 22-23 year old ( hmmm esr?)
If AUba keeps sucking too, he can warm the bench too…. we dont have the luxury of money or time for these types
Who’s buying this “Ozil moving this month” rumours!. I think all this news going around about Ozil move to Turkey is jus a PR stunt.
The team start winning, Ozil became irrelevant, go to Turkey, take a photo and put a twit. The agent start giving hints and suddenly, Ozil had Q&A on line session.
In Ozil’s little head and his agent, they’re at war with AFC, and he will stay until the last day of his contract to fight against the club for not giving him special treatment as uncle Arsene use to do.
The shocking thing, some of our fans still in Ozil’s corner, even if it’s against our club best interest.
What a sad vindictive man Ozil has become.
Ozil definitely wants to move to Turkey, but he wants Arsenal to pay his remaining wages.
GooberGooner
Nice to see a fellow cricket fan . To be honest Aussie cricket team was always unlikable to others, but this lot doesnt even play the game properly. Smith has ruined his legacy.
I used to love it! But that Aussie team ruined it for me big time.
And some of my mates play high level and are complete tossers, going out with them and their cricket mates got old very quickly 😂😂😂.
So disappointing
I used to think all Aussies by nature were like that 😂 having seen Ponting , Warne and co. I do watch Big Bash though thats very entertaining. Lots of rule changes this season , unneccessary.
Hahaha yep we apparently give off that vibe a lot, entitled city pricks 😂 get a country bloke around for a beer and you’ll be best mates by the time the 2nd pint is poured.
But yeah can’t say I’ve watched enough of the bbl the last couple of years. Moved out from a share house with my mates which had 3 TVs set up for sports the weekends we weren’t out and about, and into a house with the missus. I’m just lucky she’s asleep when the epl is on 😂
Also just a question I’ve wondered for years haha why do the colours of the monikers change?
Yeah time zones are killer with EPL. Imagine staying up late night to watch Arsenal losing to Burnley 1-0.
No idea about the monikers mate . Its sometimes black or red. Thats all I can say .
As a pom in Aus I don’t give a flying one about cricket! Although I did go and watch Kent play sometimes with my mates. All I can remember is drinking lots of Shepherd Neame and falling asleep for the afternoon! Don’t remember much cricket!
Yes, staying up to watch the EPL/cups/Euro games has become a pain. Arsenal always seem to be the late game. Bring back the Saturday 3.00pm kick off! Good time to watch it in a pub over here! It is fine if I am on night duty though! Some of the shit that has been dished up this season has often made me regret getting up at 3.00am to watch a game!
Hahaha divine yeah don’t have to imagine staying up for those ones 😂😂.
Nothing like a live game though, just prefer a win haha.
Though in saying that, it was way easier even a few years ago staying up late, the beers are already starting to hit me too hard on a long night 😂😂
Also just a question I’ve wondered for years haha why do the colours of the monikers change?
_________
The names change colors based on whether or not you have entered anything into the 3rd box above the comment box and below your email address. The one asking if you have a web address or something. If you have.. it stays red… if you leave it as default setting your name will be black.
You can switch it back and forth ..it doesn’t mean anything. I like mine red in general.
. Arsenal Red.
Mid, thanks mate.
I must have pressed a backspace or something 😂.
Nice to know, was always wanting mine red for the same reason haha
some body tell this is paper talk bull shit:
If Mari is selected for the Gunners’ home match against Crystal Palace on Thursday as expected, Arsenal will have to pay £900,000 to his former club Flamengo, report Globo Esporte.
This is because as part of the deal that saw Mari convert his loan move into a permanent stay, Arsenal must pay the Brazilian club £900,000 for every ten appearances he makes for the Gunners, up to 80 games.
I can’t take much more of this frigging insane stupidity and this fuckedu’s work was it ?
“Ozil definitely wants to move to Turkey, but he wants Arsenal to pay his remaining wages.“
So, he doesn’t want to move then. Or, is that the action of someone REALLY wants to move!?. It’s all to just stay relevant after being ignored recently.
To him as I said, it’s a war with the club, not about football or his future.
shaun
If this is true, it’s frigging crazy.
The earlier we bring in the players needed the better. We can’t afford to falter and lose more points in the second half of the season.
Deep down Ozil knows that if he fcuks up in Turkey and shows the same apathetic attitude to playing as he has with us, he will be hung, drawn and quartered.
Literally.
It must be paper talk Graham62 but to be honest I have heard something similar about the Saliba deal and would we really be surprised with this kind of dealing from the complete novice armature setup currently running Arsenal football club ?
amateur that is
So my moniker turns red now or what?
You guys just look for things to complain about. If Mari plays 80 games for us his total cost will be around £16 mil + £85 thou per week. Pretty good value for money really.
Guendouzi’s wife is pregnant. Maybe he’ll settle down and mature some with a little sprog around.