Welcome to Tuesday.
Bacary Sagna has been chatting in the press a bit. He shared some thoughts on William Saliba.
“I still have trust in him, I think he is a good player and he can adapt to Arsenal because I’ve seen him play many times.
“He is doing well at Nice and has probably been their best player. At that age you need to be playing. He has big potential and in France people know it.
“Sending him away is not a bad thing, it’s not a punishment. To me it’s clever to send him [on loan] rather than him being on the bench or not even being in the squad.”
Quite clear that the main issue with Saliba wasn’t whether rotted on the bench with Arsenal, that was always a no-go… it was why he didn’t move out on loan earlier after joining Colney in June last year. The minutes will have done his game the world of good. Saliba, Mavarapanos, and Matt Smith are all having a good time on loan this season, that’ll be excellent for general awareness if we want to sell, but hopefully, it’ll be good for their prospects next season.
Some extremely sad news hit the airwaves, Claude, from AFTV passed.
He was one of the original characters that reshaped fan media. He was loud, over the top, and a proper Gooner. I never met him, but I’d seen him in pubs plenty of times. He seemed to love mixing it with Arsenal fans. A proper Gooner that will be missed by millions.
The darker side of this story is the relentless bullying he faced. Sure, he was no shrinking violet, but he had very public battles with own demons. There were groups of people that weren’t attacking him over his football opinions, they were attacking him because they hoped they could push him over the edge. There’s just no excuse for it, yet we accept it as part of ‘fame.’ Yes, he made mistakes. Yes, he was not designed for the modern world and some of his ‘jokes’ were very offensive. That makes no difference to the fact he was a person.
We should all do more to stand up the grotesque behaviour people display online. We need to stop giving pathetic attention seekers the oxygen they need to justify their embarrassing lives. Sadly, it won’t stop with action from people. It’ll have to come from the tech giants who allow it.
When Thierry Henry sits with Darren Lewis and tells the world that he can’t take the abuse online, it’s a big flashing warning sign. It’s gone too far. Thierry commands any space he walks into, the fact he gets rattled, with his mental toughness, is a worrying thing.
In his statement, he said something I’d said a few months back… if Twitter took abuse as seriously as it did copyright infringement, the online world would be a better place
We’re sending all our love to Claude’s friends and family. Gonna cut this post short. Here’s Thierry.
“It’s not a safe place and it’s not a safe environment.”
Thierry Henry steps away from social media in the hope that his decision will inspire others to stand up against racist abuse and bullying online.
👉https://t.co/Ut9PXaKIm2 pic.twitter.com/Ud76EfblHB
— CNN Sport (@cnnsport) March 29, 2021
I can’t help but agree Jim. It’s this type of story, combined with convincing xhaka to stay,offering mustafi a new deal,not selling amn, potentially losing balogun and others that has so many suspicious of Arteta’s ability to take the club forward. If he can’t identify the players we need to keep and those we need to be rid of then where are we going?
If Xhaka is our best player statistically since start of year, then that explains our 9th place table position so it makes sense to me as he leads the team with minutes played.
There are levels and then there are levels.
I’d imagine Luiz has very good stats too. That and 50 cents will buy you a cracked cup of coffee that will leak goals and red cards
Also, R.I.P. Claude.. I always thought he reflected what everyone was feeling.. which was despair most of the time.. sorry it caught up to him.
Nketiah has perfected the skill of diving. England leading 1 – 0
I find England U21 LB, Kelly is one of the better player in this team.
“ our plan for 22/23 season shouldn’t contain Aguero 34, Willian 34 and Aubameyang 33”
When put like that I would absolutely agree. The other thought is an Aguero in front of Saka, Odegaard (if we keep him) and ESR. Would that mean an immediate upturn in our goals for column?
Agree about Aubemyang also, I have said this before, we committed to him and now we need to figure out how best to utilise him.
Some good news? – https://www.football365.com/news/levy-mourinho-another-year-spurs-regardless-sack
Jones just scores for England.
Signing Aguero !! Come on guys. I know Arsenal are a bit of a basketcase but signing an injury prone 32 year old with too many miles on the clock is tantamount to insanity.
Our squad planning has been non existent
Martinelli should be being groomed as the heir to Aubameyang’s throne, ready to take over as an internal replacement over the next 12-24 months
Hopefully we can pick up fees for Nketiah + Lacazette this summer, put that money into signing Odegaard
Get Smith-Rowe + Saka on new 5yr deals
Odegaard, Smith-Rowe
Saka, Willian
Pepe, Martinelli
Aubameyang, Balogun
In an ideal world we’d get shot of Willian and go forward Neto as well, who’s one of the best young talents in the league, maybe offer Wolves Nelson + £25million?
Shit! England gave up a 25 yards long shot. 2 – 1. England is out!!!
Surely Boothroyd will be sacked.
“Hopefully we can pick up fees for Nketiah + Lacazette this summer, put that money into signing Odegaard”
Hopefully we have a back-up plan should it be impossible to sign Odegaard.
There are too many intangibles involved with signing Odegaard and we can’t afford to put all our eggs in one basket.
Real may not make the Odegaard decision till very very late in the window….how much are we willing to wait for them to determine what to do with Ode?
RIP Claude. Only just caught up with this news as I’m taking a break from Twitter as I find it to be a cesspit. A very nasty place.
Good post Pedro, thanks.
JR
Disgraceful dive by Sterling. He should’ve got a yellow but ingerland get a pen converted by Kane, king of cheats. Kurwa!
I used to be in a lot of social media sites. People either are racist, abusive or they are insulting someone. And these accounts have no faces. It happens everywhere. It’s like every douchebag got a license to be themselves without showing their face. It fuels everything that is bad about humanity. Anyway I quit everything in a single day about two years ago. And I am never going back. I don’t understand people who get on it now either. I only get businesses and influencers that are making money of it. The rest are sheep being led to a… Read more »
I’ve seen enough to suggest Odegaard is worth doing everything we can to sign him on a permanent deal
KSE need to get the cheque book out, and get this one over the line
Will Madrid stand in the players way if he wants the move?
I don’t see many players with this sort of talent around, if he decides to stay at Madrid, or if someone else turns his head, then we’ll have to identify another target
But Odegaard should be our No1 target this summer
Back to football, Nah to Aguero. We have tried to go this way before and we know what will happen. There is a reason city are letting him go. He is 32 and injury prone and is in the wane. We are not getting explosive aguero that we admire. I want us to give our young strikers a chance. They need it and that is the way of the future.
Can I just say, I think Declan Rice is a top top player. Rate hun so highly
Social media is backward evolution. Bad for you.
RIP Claude. Many on here abused AFTV.
Thanks for the post Pedro. Well said re Claude and the bullying he suffered at the hands of complete retards. It just goes to show the inanity of social media. What makes me laugh so much is that it is called “social” but it is the complete opposite in reality. It’s anti-social at every level. You a) have zero contact with people face to face and b) you can posture and invent a character out of thin air and pretend to be someone you are not (c.f.. certain posters on this blog). There is a big majority of idiots who… Read more »
RIP Claude, always outspoken but with a passion for the game and Arsenal in particular. A genuine guy plagued by the usual suspects – internet trolls and keyboard warriors. It happens off-line to with gossip and rumour – usually people jealous of what you have. It ruins lives and can end up taking lives. We must all be responsible for our actions/words particularly with regard to other individuals. Trust me it is not nice being on the receiving end!
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