WELL GOOD MORNING! If a sign of growing old is damaging yourself doing stupid things, I fear that age is coming at me fast. I damaged my finger breaking off a piece of late night chocolate. The guilt of being a gluttonous pig was enough already, now every time I look at my thumb I’m reminded of my food crimes with a bloodied nail. Life is unfair.
ONTO FOOTBALL.
Arsenal are tracking the Ajax keeper. Inject that rumour right into my_____
What?
Oh, he’s on a doping charge that probably won’t get lifted? Ok. Cool. Well, uhhmmmm… maybe not that joke.
He’s a good keeper from what I’ve seen and I would be happy to have him as a back-up if he wasn’t banned for 3 years. The Cameroon international fits the profile, good with his feet, 25 years old, 6ft3, one year left on his deal.
Mark Irwin, who is pretty good on transfer talk reckons Mat Ryan will be signed on a perm deal this summer but is viewed only as a backup keeper. The young players seem to love him behind the scenes and he’s certainly more than capable of playing that role for us. Apparently, our interest in David Raya has cooled because Brentford has been promoted. For me, interest in him should have been cooled because the guy recommending him has a terrible rep and he also put Runarsson on our wage bill this summer.
AFCON players seem to be the hot ticket at the moment, I’m a bit worried if we do all our business with players that will exit the club for 5 weeks, we might have a problem… you would hope that is being considered.
CARLO ANCELOTTI is rumoured to be on his way back to Real Madrid. Honestly, the management nostalgia going on in Europe this year is just TOO much for me to handle. It’s a very weird decision, but it would seem the comfort of a nice guy in the dugout is tempting for an owner that is a little all over the place. Everton now the feeder club for El Classico managers? And you want to tell me they have a better league? Bitch please…
There were some leaked documents on Spanish FT over the weekend showing the signatures of major clubs in the super league. Tim Lewis signed our document and the law firm on all the docs? Clifford Chance. Just goes to show you, when it comes to business, it doesn’t matter how hard you support a team, it’s all about the pound notes. He’s spent 6 minutes with Edu and he’s already ‘contacts lawyering.’
📍| Signature from AC Milan, Atletico, Arsenal and Chelsea. #ESL #rmalive pic.twitter.com/myA2KUQQWO
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 31, 2021
Also, the signature. So small? IS THAT AN INDICATION THAT AT THE TIME OF SIGNING HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING WAS WRONG? I have no idea, but my cousin is actually a handwriting analyst in Australia at an elite level. Going tap her to waste some time on what we can learn here.
The England squad is getting released later on today. There are rumours that Bukayo Saka is going to be included. I mean, honestly, why wouldn’t you take a player who can drop at least 3 positions to a high standard? Part of me was hoping he’d be left out so he could rest this summer, part of me wants him to avenge the memory of Theo Walcott going to the World Cup. Good luck to him, he deserves it.
We’ll finish this post out with some Kieran Tierney propaganda.
“I listen to everything the manager tells me, word for word.
“I love working with him, he’s helped me massively.
“If you can see the differences in my game in the last 18 months or so it’s because of Mikel Arteta and what his coaching staff have been telling me to do.
“I’ve been working on their advice every day. I’m really grateful for what the gaffer’s done for me.”
“I had a meeting with the Arsenal manager and he just told me, ‘Go and express yourself with Scotland, enjoy yourself, bring energy to the team, bring energy to the camp’.
“He’s always so supportive of me, and tremendously positive. The manager always brings the best out of me.
“With regards Scotland for the Euros he also said, ‘Give everything you have, that’s how you get the best out of yourself, and it will help the team the most’.”
You can call Arteta many things, but a bad coach ain’t one of them.
A short post today, we’ll be back with MORE news tomorrow because that is what we do on the Le-Grove.co.uk.
Hopefully Onana gets his ban overturned or shortened, and we sign him
I’ve got serious concerns about losing a quarter of our squad in January with the African cup
But a keeper who’s better on the ball than all our centre half’s and midfielders, would be a lot of fun to watch
Onana + Ryan would at least point to a coherent strategy of having two mobile keepers, who’s strengths are distribution
Weagle I’m not even going to go there, I set so many fannies off talking about Pepe it’s ridiculous – when half your contributions come in the final 3 games of the season do not pretend to me you’re a reliable source. We don’t score enough goals and we don’t create enough chances, it was THE theme of last season. Half our home games we failed to score in. The issue isn’t a mystery.. As things stand we are minus Odegaard, who helped elevate our attacking potency to ‘much improved’ post-Xmas. He created most chances per 90 of all our… Read more »
Rich
””””Hopefully Onana gets his ban overturned or shortened, and we sign him”””””
Do you think he accidentally mistook his wife pills or do you think he made that story up to cover up his use of banned substances ? And did he continually imbibe them or was it just a one off?
And ifs it the former part , do you think we should be signing a goalkeeper who has poor concentration and eyesight?
I personally don’t.
The Arsenal of old- would be nowhere this potential signing.
Martinelli and Pepe is a decent enough LW imo. More decent than what we have in our midfield as we 100% need either a CM and a CAM or 2 CMs to have a semi balanced squad. That’s 2 mandatory transfers. If we dominate in the midfield, we’re not going to end up with having half a chance every 2 games.
I see the lack of experience and the lack of consistency in our attacking line. Problem with buying forwards is that they are always worth top dollar.
CC Our season can be split into two Before Smith-Rowe came into the team, and before we loaned Odegaard 14 league games, 12 goals After Smith-Rowe came into the team, and then with Odegaard 24 league games, 43 league goals Attacking midfielders saved our season, we struggled to breakdown teams when playing 3 at the back, and with a midfield with no craft, guile, creativity or penetration, Going into the season with 8 centre half’s, but only Smith-Rowe 20 + Willock 21, as our attacking midfielder options, was gross negligence Nobody should be surprised at how bad the football was,… Read more »
Kroenkephobe I’m confusing myself here. The iliad is the story of the trojan war,composed by Homer,he never wrote it down,but later oral versions were recorded in greek. The Aeneid is the story of Aeneas’ escape from Troy and how his descendants founded Rome. It was written by Virgil in latin. The quote is from the Aeneid and it is latin. I haven’t a word of greek, apologies for misleading you. Great stories both,mind you. I hope you’re having a better summer in the valleys, lashing over here. Do you know are they planning on opening all stadiums to capacity for… Read more »
Rich Totally agree. I spent the summer talking up Coutinho on loan to cries that a 5 mil loan was wasted money. When we didn’t bring anyone in I was convinced Ozil was getting rode until he walked, and then he wasn’t. Huge, huge mistake in failing to fill the void. We chased Aouar all summer and didn’t land him, but even then we had the Championship window open for longer and refused to go for Buendia. ESR and Odegaard completely changed our seriousness in attack. The summer doesn’t begin for me until we land an attacking midfielder, couldn’t care… Read more »
CG People make mistakes I remember in 2013 there was a group of virtue signalling Arsenal fans who were opposed to us signing Luis Suarez, because he had a habit of biting opponent players…. They thought by pointing out Suarez’s flaws, they could then highlight their own virtues Virtue + vanity are best of mates, and there’s a fine line between genius + insanity We live in a country where our sentences are far too lenient, but it’s still right that we have the rehabilitations act, so once people serve their sentences, they’re considered rehabilitated, and then get the same… Read more »
WEagle, a 15-20 PL goals per season winger at City is probably going to get half that playing for us. Put Pepe in that City side and he’d certainly get into double figures, probably mid-teens or thereabouts.
I would score a dozen of goals if I had KdB passing me the ball.
Rich
But a keeper who’s better on the ball than all our centre half’s and midfielders, would be a lot of fun to watch
Onana + Ryan would at least point to a coherent strategy of having two mobile keepers, who’s strengths are distribution
I don’t want my GK to be fun to watch, I have seen Onana and he is always an accident waiting to happen, I like my keeper to be sure and steady and dominate his area- a bit like Martinez oh shit we sold him
””””Onana made a stupid mistake, he’s being punished, it’s a good lesson, once his sentence is up, life goes on…..”””””’
the only mistake he made Rich, was getting caught.
Aguero can’t be one of the best ever in the PL then because he’s scored his goals in a stacked City team. Calvert-Lewin would score that many if he played for them I’m sure.
Such a shit way to dismiss a player, never any credit for the player being good enough to be a central figure in a side with absolutely elite standards.
andy
He has massively outscored every other City player other than Sergio Aguero.
If it were so easy to score with City than Mahrez, Silva, etc would all be putting up much better goalscoring numbers. Mahrez’s numbers didn’t increase at all in fact.
Cha Cha
””””’Calvert-Lewin would score that many if he played for them I’m sure.””””
That boy can play. Thats the one they should go for. He could play on our big Emirates pitch.
(Forget another little legs in Stirling.)
He don’t gobble down Mrs Calvert Lewis pills by mistake either.
Sterling as an 18 year old put up a better PL season than the one that Pepe just managed in his 2nd year here as a 25 year old.
Calvert-Lewin is not a bad shout. Neither is Richarlison for our LW. Both top dollar though. EPL premium.
My thoughts exactly, why are we signing a keeper WHO HAS BEEN BANNED FOR DOPING? Don’t we care for that type of behavior?
We will know the full story after today’s hearing. What the court decides must be what really happened. Right?
Almunia Just like the reopening of pubs, I cannot wait to get back to watching football in the flesh. Any football. Anywhere. Away games are my favourite. There’s slightly more of an edge, and victory (and draws) are always sweeter. Plus there’s always more singing and general raucousness. I’m thinking of upping my support for my local team who play 6 miles away and are in the Welsh first division. I usually get to 8-10 games a season but I’m thinking of investing a full 60 quid in an access-all-areas season ticket! High roller eh? Plus Cardiff City with the… Read more »
“Sterling as an 18 year old put up a better PL season than the one that Pepe just managed in his 2nd year here as a 25 year old.“
Yea but how many did he score in the EL that season bruh.
So there is no correlation between the number of goals that a player scores and the number of chances he gets, or the quality of his team mates? Right ho. Good luck selling that one.
Based on the stats Pepe actually performed better than Sterling in the PK this season. Both scored ten goals, Sterlings xG was 12.05 (two worse than expected) and Pepe’s xG was 6.00 (four better than expected).
I’m not saying Pepe is a better player but be honest, if we swapped the two players it’s pretty obvious how their respective goal tallies would change.
PK = PL
“Some of the same people putting up the disingenuous Pepe G/A numbers which are bumped up playing farmers in the Europa League really are turning their noses up at Sterling, a bonafide 15-20 PL goal a season wide man.“ WE, true, but also some of the same people dismissing Pepe’s end of the season PL surge in goal production as a meaningless stat padding are praising Arteta’s second half of the season points tally. Hardly shocking. I was never Pepe’s biggest fan or critic but I find this whole Arteta has massively improved Pepe talk a bit weird. To me… Read more »
“So there is no correlation between the number of goals that a player scores and the number of chances he gets, or the quality of his team mates? Right ho. Good luck selling that one.“
Andy, there is correlation for Zaha.
Not for Pepe though.
Kroenkephobe
Yes, get to plenty league of Ireland games,our local team is down the road, the standard is dropping though. Most young lads with any talent are picked up by (mainly) English clubs long before they reach the age to play at that level. Still the odd one makes it through,Kevin Doyle, Seamus Coleman, but they are very rare. And most young lads who don’t make it in England return home disillusioned and don’t even play LOI level.after that. Still it’s a better afternoon’s entertainment than mowing the lawn.
”””’Calvert-Lewin is not a bad shout.””””
Englands Mpabbe.
heads them, scores them, run those channels, holds it up well, under the radar and likeable.
Lots of ‘ high ceiling’ too.
A fabulous potential signing.
PEA v CL?
Tom you’re boring. Improving since Xmas is a period of 24 league matches. Pepe scoring half his contributions in our final 3 games isn’t apples for apples. He was bang average all season long and had a great fortnight to close it out, both good for him and in needing of some season wide context before the prizes are dished out. Neither has the argument for Zaha ever centred on his goal contributions (which were routinely dismissed in fact), but for his all-round game relative to Pepe who you just described as “ player with an eye for goal and… Read more »
We should try Pepe as a No9
He’s the best finisher at the club, offers plenty of pace in behind, he’s decent in the air, and he’s a match winner
I think he’s improved, he’s much stronger in the challenge, and he’s beginning to play with more purpose
I’d like to see us give it a try in pre-season, it’s not like Aubameyang’s all around game is elite
Andy It doesn’t always work like that you’re being too simplistic. By that metric, every player performing at a certain level at a lower table team that creates less chances will improve their return at a superior side with better creative players. Except we know that is so often not the case. Literally could give you plenty of examples but just off the top of my head you have Benteke, Wilfried Bony, Andy Carroll, Lukaku in recent memory that were all prolific at smaller clubs that created less chances with inferior players that struggled to make the step up into… Read more »
Conte in talks with Spurs,..,
Vermaelen as CDM next eh Rich? Tom ”To me he’s still the same player with an eye for goal and great instinctive dribble who’s lacking in all other departments therefore can be easily neutralized by opposition” Agreed, not exactly a controversial take that though. Think people were just more relieved than anything else that we were finally getting any kind of return on our 72m investment on Pepe and got carried away with his end of season form rather than actually believing Arteta to have miraculously improved him which he hasn’t. I would still sell Pepe tomorrow if I honestly… Read more »
CC
Zaha’s all around game isn’t all that neither.
Aside from his strong on the ball presence and dribble, his link up play is average and he’s not a great finisher either.
There’s a reason no big team has come in for him even though he’s 28 and he’s been in the league forever.
Oh, and apparently he wins five games a season all by himself, so 15 points in the bank before the ball is even kicked.
WEagle, of course it doesn’t always work that way but it usually does. Where it doesn’t there are usually mitigating circumstances for example when a player moves from a lesser side that is built around his game to a better one where it isn’t. Or he simply doesn’t ‘fit’, has trouble settling, or can’t handle the transition to a big side.
Of course it’s complex but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that with better service a player is more likely to score more goals.
Weagle
Exactly, it’s a reasonable idea but it’s by no means as simple or inevitable as is being stated.
Loads and loads of examples of guys unable to step up, it’s a much more multi-varied problem than simply being a question of ‘good player in good team would be great player in great team’. The transfer window would be a doddle if it were as cut and dried as that.
Think that Zaha has missed the boat on any kind of potential upwards career move at this stage of the game, he’s soon to be 29.
Couple of years too old for anyone to want to take a heavy financial swing at him, no scope for improvement and no resale value further down the line.
CG
Calvert Lewin would be probably more expensive than Sterling.
Proven goal scorer, young, on 70kpw, and Everton would never consider selling him to Arsenal under any circumstances.
Not to mention that he would probably consider a move like that a sideways move career-wise,
Pepe would be useless as a #9, he’d be a good 2nd striker, but not the main guy
Andy It’s not a lot of the time but you’re being overly optimistic even believing that it works out for most players, I’d say more like 50-50 at best. And Sterling is one of the 50 that has worked out, that cannot be understated. It’s not common at all for a wide player to score as many goals as he does, how many in and around Europe have managed his kind of numbers the past few seasons? With 2-4 of these wide men at all of the elite teams around Europe. Pepe himself has struggled to make the relative step… Read more »
I reckon when Kane leaves Spuds, DCL will be their first option. Everton could make some serious bank from it. Could fetch them north of 60m easily knowing that Spuds will have the money to spend and not many good options around especially with Spuds’ luck buying CFs in recent times. Most if not all of their CFs were garbage transfers lol.
Tom
I don’t really care about your sarcastic view of Zaha, he’s only ever been referenced relative to Pepe because it was an either/or scenario some two years ago.
He was much better option than Pepe for me, and there’s been nothing produced by Pepe that refutes that in two years since. Bit weird you’re still apparently so out of joint over such a view to make a point of being a shite comic.
Eh, I can’t be the only one that finds Calvert-Lewin pretty average can I?
Actually prefer Watkins and felt that he was hard done by and had the better season. He definitely has the more interesting skill-set than DCL.
DCL is a bit of a lump it up top type, very basic football ability. Always be a market for a good target man but Kane mark 2 he is not. Not even close.
Pepe was always good, Diet pep messed him up, the last 3 games of the season confirm this, he was playing his natural game.
I’m not blind to Pepe’s weaknesses, but to say he doesn’t have some qualities, would be disingenuous We massively overpaid for him, and you could tell within his first few games he was incredibly raw But he’s still a goal scorer and a match winner, and having someone with his type of qualities for certain games and from the bench, is invaluable 7 goals + 8 assists, followed by 16 goals + 5 assists, at least shows signs of progress, and gives him something to build on We’re probably stuck with him, so we have to try and extract value… Read more »
Tom ””””CG Calvert Lewin would be probably more expensive than Sterling. Proven goal scorer, young, on 70kpw, and Everton would never consider selling him to Arsenal under any circumstances. Not to mention that he would probably consider a move like that a sideways move career-wise,””” Fair and accurate assessment. I have flagged 5 players the imbeciles should have signed Grealish( about 3 seasons ago.) Zaha ( 2 seasons ago) Rice( 1 season ago) Ings (2 season ago) CL ( 2 seasons ago) What does on Gods Green earth does Edu do? Apart from dismantle the scouting system and ask Kia… Read more »
Calvert-Lewis is a good player, but I’d need convincing why he’s better than a Tammy Abraham or Ollie Watkins.
Both in the B-Tier of strikers for me, good alternatives but lacking real quality or star power. Not to say they aren’t useful to a top team, but they’re a lot of money for what they are.
I like Michail Antonio tbh. Sadly he was almost 30 yo by the time he started playing striker. Now at 31 and with a bad injury record he will never have the career he could have.
Rich
What’s the point in throwing around those 16 goals and 5 assists numbers when half of those contributions came in the EL?
His Whoscored rating for the season in the PL was 6.76, that is terrible for a winger for Arsenal and it’s downright shocking for a 72m one at that.
CC My sarcastic view isn’t of Zaha as much as of some of the comments you’ve made regarding Zaha/Pepe. My view on that has always been pretty much along the same lines as the Leno/Emi situation. Would’ve liked to have kept Emi but understand why they didn’t. Zaha would’ve been a better fit for Arsenal but I understand why they went for Pepe. No need to recite all the reasons I hope. I’ve made fun of posters claiming Emi walks on water just as I’ve made fun of posters praising Zaha’s superpowers. I realize my comedy isn’t of the highest… Read more »
I like Antonio as well, not really a proper ST though.
10 PL goals a season isn’t enough no matter how much else he is providing in his all round play. Shame for them that Haller didn’t work out.
Whatever happened to Pepe afterwards but in his first full game for us vs Pool he was electric. I could swear I saw a player destined to take the helm from Hazard as the best winger in the EPL. I wasn’t very close with my expectation.
Mr Ekstraklasa mascot, your gig is top notch,
You can take it to the bank!
Sid, a real bank I hope and not the one you make daily deposits at to keep the lights on.
Tom
Bully for you, except the last two years have only actualised everything I’ve said about the pair. Debates about Emi and such are hard to take seriously because we haven’t even struggled defensively in his absence.
Sure, prefer Emi over Leno if you want, but we aren’t where we are because of our defending. We’ve seen a stark improvement in that since Arteta walked through the door. We concede less goals, and we concede less shots than we have in half a decade. Meanwhile that’s 56 and 55 goals scored in the league, the problems/imbalance is fairly obvious.
Ajax just tweeted that the Onana hearing is over. It is not clear when the CAS decision will be announced. Whatever that means.
Pepe has proved himself when let free towards the end of the season. He cost 72 million and we would be losing about 40-50 million selling him, without any improvements from the proposals. Forget the affordability, it is stupid to talk of replacing Pepe. We, however need a GK since Leno is going, we do not need defenders unless Saliba or a few of our hoard departs. We need a partner for Partey ,with Azeez as understudy and Elmeny in support . We have adequte at front. But WE NEED AN ARGUMENT, AND MAYBE A PROJECTED NEED OF 6 NEW… Read more »
Raptora
What happened was the league has realized he could be thrown off his game by physical play and he became shell shocked by what was allowed by refs vs what he had been used to.
His confidence plummeted.
WeagleI’m not even going to go there, I set so many fannies off talking about Pepe it’s ridiculous – when half your contributions come in the final 3 games of the season do not pretend to me you’re a reliable source
Those final 3 games contribute alot to the ‘since christmas table’ you and pedro bang on about.
Shite….spurs are really getting conte aint they?There is a managerial merry go round once again anf it seems we will just sit by and trust the bloody process
“Those final 3 games contribute alot to the ‘since christmas table’ you and pedro bang on about.“
3 of 24 games. A lot indeed…..
.“3 of 24 games. A lot indeed…..
Yeah lets remove 6 points from the since christmas table and see where we would lie shall we…not even mentioning pepe scoring and winning us a pen vs leicester back in march.Look am not calling the guy neymar but if you can excuse arteta for being shit for one half of a season then the same can be done for pepe
Pepe is a You Tube player if you will – scores spectacular goals in meaningless games or against poor teams but looks out of depth against any half decent opposition.
Compare and contrast Pepe and Zaha’s reactions once the referees’ decisions stopped coming their way ( in Pepe’s case they never came to begin with).
Pepe went into a shell and became withdrawn. Zaha started throwing tantrums and became irate.
It’s easier to lobby for calls and plead your case when you’ve been around for years and speak the language well, as opposed to being new to the league, language and everything else.
Watkins would have been a good signing last summer, long term prospect and a far more energetic player than Laca. Take the disparity in wages into account, even a modest fee for Laca and the outlay would probably be close to zero net. But Arsenal don’t make those smart choices these days do they? One thing that never fails to amuse is the excitment on here whenever we’re linked with new players, like with Onana now, Xhaka, Mustafi, Pepe etc in the past. Always built up as the next best player ever (I know I’m exaggerating) by people jumping on… Read more »
Spurs are also going for juve’s former sporting director who worked with conte according to fabrizio romano…..we are in deep trouble if we dont make major moves this window
Conte is truly elite, up there with the likes of Pep, Klopp etc. We should have been in for him.
“Yeah lets remove 6 points from the since christmas table and see where we would lie shall we“ Makes absolutely no sense at all because the data is relative to other teams if you’re looking strictly at points accumulated – chop off 3 games either end for everyone if you want to arbitrarily play with the data – we still show the progression spoken of. Contrast that to player analysis and you’ve got to be really riding an agenda hard to ignore the fact literally 50% of a players goals arrived in the final 3 games of the campaign. Subsequently,… Read more »
Tr7 I agree,but unfortunately conte doesnt match the sauce meter
I swear the most basic of observations finds opposition on here.
If a player scores 0 in 35 games and then ends the season with 3 straight hat-tricks, that’s 9 for the season which is a decent haul if looked at in isolation.
Is it really that offensive to point out that all the goals came in the final three matches? It’s pretty important context.
Cc is it really that offensive to point out that those final 3 games carry 9 points which form part of the after christmas table that you take so much pride in?
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Isn’t Donnarumma going to be a free agent?