Oh man, Open Mic with Martin Odegaard was good, right? What a leader. I love him.
Jan Fjortoft, who helped bring him into the Norwegian squad at 15 years old, spoke on ESPN and said he thinks the Arsenal project would be good for the player long-term. Jan is a big deal on the Norwegian futbol scene, he has good relationships with the kids, one would hope his suggestions was laced with some knowledge.
The player himself had an injury scare during the break, but the Norway manager says he’ll be fine for Thursday’s game… international breaks, in a season like this, are beyond the pale.
Arsenal players left at home have been training with Arteta and his staff. Gabi Martinelli scored a banger the club put on the .com. Hopefully a bigger chance for him to shine after the break.
Also great that our African players are not going to be as heavily involved for their countries. Thomas Partey and a focused Auba are going to be HUGELY important to any success we have post-break.
Welcoming Liverpool to The Emirates right after the break is not what I would call a sexy thought… however, it’s at home, Klopp won’t have much time with his players, we should at the very least be making the game an unenjoyable experience. Gonna be scenes when we beat them and people say they’re not a big 6 side.
We’re being linked with Aaron Ramsey who had a pretty fucking drab experience in Turin. He’s played 980 minutes this season, scored 2 goals, and made 5 assists. £400k a week for 6 assists and 7 goals in 2 seasons. He’s had 4 injuries this season already. There is absolutely no sense in bringing him back into the club, I’d prefer to sign Santi Cazorla. But really, I’d rather look to the future, than rely on players who were part of the Arsenal on the way down.
Just gonna be a short one today because that is the way we’ll be rolling through the international break.
Make sure you say your prayers for the player’s health, then listen to the evergreen podcast I did with Touchy Gooners.
1st
2nd
3rd
Thr4phy!!
Interlul…..yawn.
Europa!
Nothing happening. International football bores me.
10 place?
Pointless silly international games makes me think of summer transfer window. Edu has a lot on his plate.
4th place in posts since 18:35 (which is all that counts)
It’s a WORLD CUP QUALIFIER.?
Anyone who dislikes the WORLD CUP
is ODD..
Relegation zone?
International Break…where even people don’t care about commenting on Le Grove. Thanks for the post, Pedro! It is appreciated.
Aaron Ramsey?!?!? Hell yeah – as long as he pays admission at the door for each game. We could use the extra 100 pounds per game.
Some here wanted an extention for Ramsey
Let that sink in
Others think Xhakalson with 1 goal 2 assists this season is having a good run
Xhakalson 9 goals 15 assists for Arsenal since 2016
Apart from 2017-18, he has 2 assists each season in the EPL
Let that sink in
Xhakalson has more yellow cards than goals and assists combined in the EPL during his Arsenal career
Cazorla
Especially for you this morning:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9401075/Real-Madrid-wont-contemplate-letting-Martin-Odegaard-leave-Arsenal-permanently.html
Thanks for your risible post yesterday; it was very funny.
Can’t wait to see your next post.
Cazorla “Vieira, Anelka, Toure, Van Persie, Wilshere, Gnabry, Schezney to name a few of the top of my head.” I was talking about youth academy players around the age of 17, not 20 and over, but I did forget Anelka, Gnabry, Schezney and Wilshire. Permanent croc (bar one season) RVP was not a youth player nor was Viera both 20 plus when joining Arsenal. Wenger’s youth successes Anelka Cesc Wenger’s youth failures Gnabry Completely mis managed by Wenger Schezney Broke Wenger’s NNs Wilshire crocked by Wenger Just for the record once again for the umpteenth time, I was a Wenger… Read more »
Diet pep isnt fit to lace wengers shoes, not even the mad scientist version(kallstrom, park chu, Galindo)
As a thought experiment what about Reiss Nelson, and transforming into an attacking full back on the right side?
Well done Norway. All nations should boycott the world cup in Qatar. Corruption in football is getting more and more obvious, they don’t pretend to hide it anymore
Wow the French league is extremely tight at the moment
Let’s have anyone but psg win please
Would be hilarious to see poch remain empty handed even at psg
Wow how is it possible that Dortmund with all that talent and a goal a game CF are 18 points behind Bayern already?
Something must be seriously wrong because with their squad they should be breathing down Bayern’s neck in that league
Yeah all motivation to read or talk about football during international breaks
It’s hard enough during competitive matches but friendless are worth even less than the energy it takes to mention them
Reiss Nelson lacks drive , lacks the fieryness, too comfortable
He will have a career in a midtable team(lets hope Arsenal manages to get out of our current midtable mediocrity)
The 1st step for Nelson and any academy youth that wants to be taken seriously is to get a manly haircut, get rid of the girly hairstyle which are a sign of misplaced priorities.
Sid
Sounds like you’re really au courant with youth culture and modern society.
Maybe they also all need birching and some national service?
I think the women’s team would also do much better if they got rid of their, er, girly hairstyles.
The resumption of PL football cannot come too soon it seems….
Gonsterous
There’s an informative back story article in the Guardian today.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4HFOOOGtc
That seemed to have upset Arteta, look at his face .
National service would be great, im with you on that
Really disappointed in our current youth system. Our U23s are doing terrible.
21 points from 20 games, in 10th position and a G/D of -6.
Men have to create their value. Women have to protect their value
Is all i have to say about the womens team…… for now
34 comment, 10 of from prophet Sid, is dire stuff
Not getting Nelson out on loan this season, seems like a complete waste of 12 months of his development
I’d be inclined to extend his contract and loan him out to the Championship to pick up 40+ games, rather than selling him at the bottom of the market
He’s a massive talent who can hopefully gain confidence from playing consistently
I listened the other day to an interview of Jorge Bird about Arsenal’s youth programme, which he made in 2020. He discussed former youth players whom he had expected to make the grade to first team, but had failed to do so and in some cases are now playing in non league football. In the interview he pointed out that being a flat track bully at youth level is not necessarily a recipe for success at senior level. What is needed is fearlessness, technical ability and of course application and work ethic. He highlighted then that he expected Saka to… Read more »
Saka + Smith-Rowe have saved us potentially £150 million I really like Joe Willock, the concerns some people have about his style not fitting a possession based game, are fair But I do think he’ll be a player who’ll have a very good career at the highest level, he’s got a lot of ability, and some really interesting qualities He’s really quick and direct over both short and long distances, both with and without the ball, his shooting technique is really good with both feet He’s great at finding space in and around the penalty area, and should become a… Read more »
Emirates
That interview with Jeorge Bird, where was that?
He is the authority, in my opinion as Arsenal youth prospects are concerned?
Did he say anything about the Balogun situation?
*concerned…
Rich
I agree with you about Willock… I would like to see how he would do next to Partey before we write him off or sell him.
Although if Newcastle or another club gave us £25m it would be difficult to turn that away… given our financial state. Perhaps we could include a first refusal clause if we get to that scenario.
What is needed is fearlessness, technical ability and of course application and work ethic.
Jeoge Bird
SidMarch 26, 2021 05:22:41
Reiss Nelson lacks drive , lacks the fieryness, too comfortable
Great minds think alike
A broken clocks right twice
Can’t believe you all think keeping Laca is an easy decision when you are all so quick to write off Auba. Auba has more goals than Laca this season despite having his worst season in years and playing off the left for the first half of the season. We need to sell Laca, lets stop re-signing old players ffs
Leedsgunner
DGX Jeorge Bird “Let’s talk about Arsenal” on Youtube dated 12.4.20
Balogun falls into same category as Nketiah, Balogun and John-Jules.
I did not get impression that he thought that they would make breakthrough at Arsenal, because at that time the established CFs were Aubameyang and Lacazette.
His view was that these players would not get enough game time at Arsenal.
willock , Niles and Nelson all lack the football intelligence and brain to make at the top level and are better suited to the clubs they are currently at and those mentioned are like 80% behind say Saka who is only really comparable too ODE currently when talking about the football brain and youth and ODE is say 3 years older than Saka and maybe slightly more technical where Saka has considerably more physical strength , When Saka gets to 23 -24 he will be a very very difficult player to handle as he has deceptive pace low centre of… Read more »
Happy Birthday Mikel Arteta
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mikel-artetas-most-controversial-arsenal-23800390
Ashley Cole was a brilliant player, best left back in the league for over a decade
Losing him over some petty squabble over a few grand, still really grates
The Pools has a game against Real on Tuesday 6 April and they play us on Saturday 3 April. I wonder whether they’ll focus solely on our game.
I wonder if Arteta has considered turning Saliba into a defensive midfielder next to Partey. He’s big, quick nobody gets past him and he’s got a decent range of passing. I think he’s tailor made for that role and it would save us some money as well
Thinking about the bin dippers and their woeful recent home form, I wonder whether the absence of fans has made a difference this year ?
(and not just to them, but that run of consecutive home defeats is extraordinary)
niell
Arteta puts a premium on being a good trainer and work ethic, which Lacazette seems to be. He’s rigid in his structure and Lacazette fits what he is looking for.
I would sell and upgrade. We can get someone with more mobility and talent. This is where a director of football should step in.
Vintage GunMarch 26, 2021 12:15:32
A broken clocks right twice
Still sour about Marcas Odegaard story, proving me right too? Lmfaoooo
The bindippers are focusing on the CL, if Diet pep is brave enough we will beat them though i expect a dose of anti footbal
Double – not a bad call although would have to see how it works in practice. Think we’d still neeed to spend on a DM who is ready now. I’s love to see Bissouma playing that role.
And signing Kanate would be awesome. Saliba is going to be an apprentice in either role unless he’s a quick learner.
“I wonder if Arteta has considered turning Saliba into a defensive midfielder next to Partey. He’s big, quick nobody gets past him and he’s got a decent range of passing. I think he’s tailor made for that role and it would save us some money as well” Double Double That’s actually a really good shout. For the same reason I wonder if Calum Chambers should be given a stint there. When he was sent on loan to Fulham he did really well there playing that role and ended that season as their Player of the Year. If money is going… Read more »
Leeds
Not for Saliba. Keep him at CB.
“If money is going to be tight, we need to start making use of our existing players and resources”
Arteta isn’t fan of this. He wants to chop and discard of players if they don’t fit. After a couple of training sessions, he said Saliba ain’t ready. Niles could have covered both fullback positions, but he chose to pay a loan fee and then sign Cedric on a free. He’s a my way or the highway type of coach. Vinai and Edu are not able to keep him in check
As for Arteta? He is looking like Wenger MK II as far as his player signing are concerned ‘’
Hope so
Dream10, fascinated to know where you get your insider knowledge from. ‘Vinai and Edu are not able to keep him in check.”
This idea that Arteta goes all gangbusters on Edu and Vinai seems to me to be agenda driven tosh. I’d love to know how people can make these assumptions without insider knowledge. I’d have though it’s much more likely an inexperienced manager like Arteta would welcome plenty of input from his Director of Football.
The idea that Arteta has time to scout players, make decisions on contracts and single handedly ‘reject’ players in the same way Wenger managed is fanciful.
Its common sense
Would keep Saliba at the back.. hoping him and Gabriel can form a long term partnership
“I wonder if Arteta has considered turning Saliba into a defensive midfielder next to Partey”
He can dribble too. Well, for a cb that is. May be a good shout tbh.
Saliba definitely deserves to be registered in our PL squad of that there should be no doubt!
S asoa
How do you know those two shots are connected?
“Still sour about Marcas Odegaard story, proving me right too? Lmfaoooo”
Marcas Odegaard? Can he play LB???
The funny thing is Sid that i thought your post about Nelson lacking drive and a bit of hunger was spot on. Nothing for me to sour over.
I remember someone defends Arteta sending out a not fully fit Saka to play in the West Ham match. Now it is confirmed that Saka will play no part in England’s World Cup Qualifiers against Albania and Poland due to injury..
As for Luiz and Paqrtey’s cases, people argued that the medical team gave the go ahead. But almost every time, the player was not really ready to play. Maybe we should fire this incompetent medical team.
All the big clubs looking at donyell again
We fucked up big time realising him… Club never learns
Saka needs a rest. He’ll be available for our next game.
Malen has played over 130 games at PSV in just over 3.5 seasons He’s taken a backward step in order to progress, it would have been difficult to give him the consistent football to develop at Arsenal This is where we need to use our loan system much smarter What’s been the point in Reiss Nelson being at Arsenal the last 2 seasons? He should be coming back to Arsenal this summer with a stint in the Bundesliga, 40 games in the Championship, and a season in the Premier League behind him, and ready to stake a claim for a… Read more »
Rich
Fans and Le Grovers holding their nerve with regards to young up and coming players?
Sadly never gonna happen.
Everyone wants to be known as the first to say that “x” or “y” is never gonna make it.
I was one of the first ones to say Pepe would be huge at Arsenal.
Then I was one of the first ones to say he wasn’t gonna be huge at Arsenal.
Now, again, I’m one of the first ones to say he might still be huge at Arsenal.
Solid points Rich. The way we have been utilising the loan system over recent years has been cartoonish at best. Bar Smith Rowes’s six month cameo at Huddersfield and William Saliba’s current stint at Nice (However, the failure to get him a loan before the summer 2020 window closed takes the credit out of the bank) we rarely benefit from the players we sent out on loan. Whether that be loaning with a view to integration the following season, or loan with a view to sell. We rarely reap any benefits. This isn’t a new thing either, so i’m not… Read more »
Not getting Saliba out in October was utter incompetence We had Mavropanos out on loan Holding, Chambers, Luiz, Mustafi, Gabriel, Mari, Sokratis, Saliba Saliba not registered in the Europa, and Sokratis not registered at all Surely somebody at the club counted the amount of centre half’s on our books, why were we rushing around on deadline day sorting out a loan? Saliba should have had a whole season playing, not 3 months twiddling his thumbs The same with Nketiah in January once Martinelli was back, and Nelson for the past 2 seasons The best signing we could make is a… Read more »
Rich I recall the time when Arsenal under Wenger had an acute shortage of Centre Backs, which impacted on the club’s failure to win the title. The club then went into the complete opposite direction when we acquired too many CBs most of whom were not of the right quality for an ambitious club. If we are going to succeed then we need to focus on having on the books two CBs who will deliver an outstanding partnership. backed up by two solid squad players. I believe that we have in Gabriel the makings of a top class CB. It… Read more »
Nelson :I remember someone defends Arteta sending out a not fully fit Saka to play in the West Ham match. Now it is confirmed that Saka will play no part in England’s World Cup Qualifiers against Albania and Poland due to injury.. As for Luiz and Paqrtey’s cases, people argued that the medical team gave the go ahead. But almost every time, the player was not really ready to play. Maybe we should fire this incompetent medical team.” Not so fast It’s the England medical team that needs to answer questions as to why Saka wasn’t sent back immediately he… Read more »
One thing I really do enjoy about arteta is that he appears to actively plan transfer windows very early in advance We can scrutinize the choice of players and the salaries etc, but at least he knows exactly what he wants Under wenger you’d get 1 week before the end of the transfer window deadline and he’d still be talking about maybe possibly might be could be with seemingly no plan or idea what he wanted. He also used to be incapable of delegating. So the vast majority of our transfer business had to take place on days not immediately… Read more »
ET agreed on the CB part
My hope tho is that all our resources will go on the weaker positions because CB and wings are where we are most heavily stacked for now
Saliba at DM. Dunno if it would work but it would be fun to look at in preseason
Laca is now doing the holdup play and linking up the other forwards together in Arteta’s system.. Auba and Martinelli are both off a shoulder fast runner. Eddie is a box player. Done of them has a similar skill as Laca.
I have a feeling that Balogun can be developed to replace Laca. He likes to play with the back to the defender. He can still grow physically stronger. If Arteta doesn’t see his potential, I would be really disappointed. Maybe he just want to buy a ready made striker to replace Laca.
Just watched an interview of Martin Odegaard. He definitely speaks English better than Emery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVQx_bWNg1Q
Vintage GunMarch 26, 2021 19:36:37
Marcas Odegaard? Can he play LB???
Diet Pep has played Xhakalson/Saka at LB, Willian at #9 so you cant rule anything out.
Im telling you for free!
Nelson
Scandinavian folk speak a lot of languages. Germans, and Swiss are the other people speaking multiple languages, other than that I don’t think Many European countries speak more than 2 language. Most British people speak just English, maybe they can speak different dialects but mostly just English
Gons
The Dutch are multi lingual with many speaking 3 languages.
Finland were top of the education league a few years ago with most students being multi lingual.
Sadly us Brits are lazy with languages with most expecting people to understand English.
Germanic languages and English are similar
Brits not learning other languages has to do with inequality in the education system, the more affluent are more likely to be multilingual
Nah Sid it’s not an excuse
My parents didn’t give me any extra curricular language lessons or exposure to foreign languages. Learnt German in a regular senior school following the standard curriculum. By the time I finished my GCSEs I was far from fluent but certainly capable of going to Germany and handling the most basic conversations and scenarios in German.
The kids I knew who couldn’t either just didn’t like studying it or were lazy, or a combination of the two.
The British have an attitude that they don’t need to learn foreign languages because everyone else is learning English That is by far the crux of the issue. When I came to China I found it really hard at first because I’m in a city that’s not international at all. People here have terrible English so you either struggle on in English or learn Chinese. The point that used to motivate me strongest funnily enough was the service in Tianjin really sucks, and I couldn’t stick up for myself or complain, or argue with someone and kept having to take… Read more »
Speaking of Scandinavians I had a danish girl called Julie on my uni course way back when. Her English was better than the native English. It was absolutely flawless and without any of the bad habits that a lot of us Brits ourselves have
Odegaard: “He’s a really talented player with a lot of qualities, so I think definitely he’s one for the future. And he’s so young still, so I will go with him. He just has to keep working hard – as he’s doing every day in training”
Just another one in line who had to mention Martinelli.
But ofc some will argue he is a head down merchant and not all that much.
What a gem of a player and person he must be that every manager and player has to mention him whenever they give an interview.
Also one more thing to note is that Odegaard hesitates a little but when asked to choose 1 player in the present team so as to not make anyone upset ( Auba, Laca, co). But when asked about the future he is very bullish on Martinelli.
@China1 there are exceptions to the rule,
A good education system is suposed to change all the bad attitudes you have mentioned
Keep spreading the love @china, so far we know a Dane, a chinese, there must be an english…..
Dissenter Saka wasn’t the only English player injured in the run up to the latest batch of internationals nor was the only one sent back to his club.Love or hate England they wouldn’t have kept him with the group without purpose either treatment, trying to integrate him into the group or the like. Without knowing the nature of the problem it s difficult to pass judgment on the merits or otherwise of him staying with the England group and to be fair he like Rashford haven’t travelled outside the UK. Rich. Arsenal for me have not had any real plans… Read more »
UK.Rich.
Arsenal for me have not had any real plans when it comes to players development and as a consequence several players that potentially could be members of the first team squad have been handled badly and drifted away
Tierney
The 2 players that Odegaard chose as his top playets from the Arsenal side were Aubameyang and and Luiz, who many on Le Grove would be happy to see the back off.snd regard as surplus to requirements.
Does this make him a bad judge of players. .
He did praise Martinelli, and rightly so , but due to his judgement possibly being flawed(Aubameyang & Luiz), should we take any positive comments on playersftom Odegaard with a pinch of salt.
.
Stroller “I recall the time when Arsenal under Wenger had an acute shortage of Centre Backs, which impacted on the club’s failure to win the title.” He didn’t do bad considering he was tactically unaware and had an acute shortages of centre backs. Fyi “George Graham.. Pld 507-Won 247 =48.7%- Drw 147=30.0%- Lst 113=22.3%- GF 778 =1.5 ave- GA440 =1.15 average. Wenger…:Pld 1235 Won 716 =60.0%- Drw 266=21.6%- Lst 253=20.4%- GF 2298 =1.9ave- GA1227 =0.99 ave. So, AW heads the list in all catagories, most wins, least draws, least defeats, most goals for and least goals conceded – tactically unaware?… Read more »
If Odegaard chose Auba and luiz and praised Martinelli its likely he hangs out with them,
Diet Pep will be watching them keenly
You heard it here 1st!
Loved that interview with Odegaard, he articulates himself really well
Massive talent and level headed young man, who’s keen to play football and wants to improve
Hopefully we can sign him permanently