TRANSFER ROUND-UP

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So it seems that as well as Arteta being on holiday, so is Edu, hanging out in Portugal. I like it, working up that bronze tan so there’s a distinct contrast between his skin and that crisp white shirt. Nothing says Technical Director like a dreamy summer bronze on white combo.

The transfer window is now a day in and we have signed NO ONE.

That doesn’t mean things aren’t happening.

I love the Buendia story and its evolution. Arsenal were beaten by Aston Villa for speed, until they submitted their own bid, then didn’t go back with a second bid. So it would appear there was a price point we didn’t fancy dancing past. Makes total sense for a club with limited funds this summer. I totally forgot that Villa also put the feelers out for Smith Rowe. I suspect they’d not have moved for Emi if they’d landed our guy.

There are fresh links today to Neves, Lokonga, and Onana.

Granit Xhaka is close to making his move to AS Roma according to Chris W over at Football.London, making him one of the first signings for Jose Mourinho. This is fantastic news. He’s a good player, but don’t ever forget that his presence in our side correlated perfectly with the decline of the club. Too many errors in his game and a ceiling that hasn’t moved us up a level. It’s a good thing that he’s out the door. If one of the best leaders at your club tells the fans to fuck off, you have a leadership problem. I wish him all the best.

Reuben Neves is a similar profile player with Premier League experience. If there’s a busy summer of ins and outs, it’s important at least a few of the players know the league so there’s not a painful bedding in period. I’m not excited by Mr Neves, but how many of those sorts of players thrill? Not many. He’s a good player, he’s a better defender than Xhaka, and I think we’re all underestimating him because he’s not the P&P midfielder we were hopeful on / Wolves were shite last season.

Lokonga looks much more like ‘thriller’ talent. He has a similar profile to Thomas Partey, but if we’re building out midfield, we need young players like that. We can’t be losing Partey and hoping Elneny finds a level he doesn’t have.

Onana had his sentence for doping reduced to 9 months, so he can play as of November. He can play football the way Arsenal need a keeper to play. Fast off his line, good with the ball at his feet, very decent shot-stopper, and very young for someone who is capped with 50 games in the Champions League. Would he represent our first black first-team keeper? I can’t think of anyone else?

James M over at The Athletic has Arsenal linked with American right back, Tyler Adams. The Leipzig player can operate both as a right-back and a midfielder. He has a Tierney like athletic profile, and his versatility marks him out as talent because he can play that inverted role. Honestly, how excited would you be if you had a right-back that could offer us effective play like Tierney? It’d give us so much more balance and hopefully open up that right side so we don’t look so lopsided next season.

Sky Sports are saying that Arsenal are interested in Brighton defender Ben White. Again, it’s clear why, Brighton’s style is what Arteta wants. They are excellent in possession and Ben White has the experience we’re looking for in the Premier League, he’s with England, and he’s very young at 23. I honestly think we might see a shock exit this summer from our centre back collection. It’s also notable that Sami Mokbel has us linked to Tosin Adarabioyo, another 23-year-old English centre back of a right-sided nature. Someone has to leave and it’s obvious that there are those in the group that can’t do what Arteta needs. I also think any links to Brighton players should be taken seriously because I think Eddie would be a steal for a team that creates high-quality chances in the box but WILL NOT FINISH.

Finally, great that Daniel Ballard will take a loan in the Championship next season, promoted Blackpool will be interested, but apparently there are other suitors. I wish Saliba had moved to the Championship at the start of last season, he’d have done well and picked up the language in a more complete way. Arsenal are also bringing Patino into the first team, high hopes for him, which is great news for creating the image that Arsenal is a great place to develop.

Right, that’s all I have for you today. See you in the comments.

 

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raptora

CC, If you can show me where I compared Gundogan to Odegaard it would be helpful. I compared City’s midfield of this season to Arsenal’s potential midfield of next season. I mentioned Gundogan and KdB as they were the players who provided a lot of City’s attacking threat. And that we’ll be short of goals comparing their 2 to our 2. You, however, decided to pick Gundogan for whatever reason. Why didn’t you pick KdB to compare to Odegaard? Oh, yes, better pick the one who suits you. Well you lost that one as well. So please don’t put words… Read more »

Marc

CC

You say you didn’t compare Ode and Silva but then say you put up Silva’s numbers if they weren’t in comparison then why put them up?

I’m not going to argue with you – you do this type of thing frequently say one thing and then deny it with some convoluted upside down back to front bullshit.

It does seem as if you are just trolling for an argument some of the time.

raptora

CC: “Odegaard is a super talent”

Okay. Mr. Balanced opinion.

andy1886

I guess if he really is a ‘super talent’ we’ll have our hands full fighting off all the other interested parties.

Marc

andy

If he is a super talent at Madrid he won’t be moving for a low fee.

AFC Forever

Charlie & Rich You are both bang on about Odegaard. He is of course top quality and has shown what he brings to the team. The team dynamic changed when we bought him & Partey in & changed the way we played, hence the improvement post Christmas; you know the 23 game run we aren’t allowed to talk about because it offends certain people? The simple fact of the matter is that technical players who move the ball quickly, break lines and enable movement, open up play which creates chances. It affects other players. The David Silva point Charlie made… Read more »

Rich

Odegaard is a super talent, with unbelievable potential By the sounds of it he’s hungry to play, be an important cog in a team, rather than a bit part player, and leave Real Madrid for Arsenal, in order for that to happen When a players got talent, intelligence, hunger, and desire There’s a very good chance that player will reach their full potential I was never a fan of Ozil, a joy to watch on his day, but generally found him meek and passive I don’t see that with Odegaard, he goes looking for the ball, he’s brave and tries… Read more »

raptora

Rich: “If we can get a deal done for €35-€45 mill maximum, including add ons, then it’s certainly something I hope we go for” I agree. If the price is right – £35m to £40m max with addons it would be a decent move. Anything around and over £50m, is paying too much. Re Grealish and Maddison – Grealish is someone I’d love to see in our shirt. Sadly, the dreaming stops right there. The issues are that 1. He’s going to be very, very expensive, I would say over £70+m easy; 2. Buendia moved to Villa instead of here… Read more »

andy1886

Sounds suspiciously like the sort of thing that Pierre used to say about Ozil. The old ‘you’re too dumb to appreciate what he brings to the team’.

Marc, I suspect that RM will use our desperation to screw us for top dollar. If he really was that good RM wouldn’t be selling him anyway.

Champagne Charlie

Marc
It’s written in plain English above, if you read that then you wouldn’t be at my ankles claiming I’m the one looking for an argument.

Raptora
“If you can show me where I compared Gundogan to Odegaard it would be helpful“

This you…

“Does Odegaard compete with Gundogan in his defensive midfield play or in his goal scoring play? Nope.”

The Bard

Rich I seen plenty of talent on show with Odegaard but not a massive amount of hunger to be honest. I would have thought he had more ambition than to sign for a midtable side.

raptora

CC,
It was a reply to what you said: “Odegaard getting ruled out for his lack of “pace, dynamism, strength and power.”. Yet amongst the midfielders quoted there’s admiration of Gundogan. Cant really make it up. Gundogan the powerful, dynamic, pace merchant suddenly?”

raptora

I was surely comparing midfield to midfield not player to player. Anyway, this back and forth is boring, childish and it doesn’t add anything relevant to the blog. Sorry I decided to share an opinion just so you can come and laugh it out.

Marc

And CC’s off.

Not really interested in a guy’s opinion who claims to go to matches when he doesn’t. Claimed to have a season ticket when he doesn’t and once spent hours arguing that half of Henry’s PL goals in his first season were scored prior to Christmas / New Year.

I’m sure he’ll be on explaining that I didn’t understand the complexities of what he was claiming whenever.

Marko

Look not to get involved or anything but only Arsenal fans think ESR is better than Martin Odegaard. Season after Sociedad if someone told me that he might end up signing for Arsenal I’d of bit their hand off. Don’t let a loan spell under a poor manager during a historically bad season fool you he’s a top top talent and we’d be lucky to have him. 22 by the way. Only worry I’d have with him and all new prospective signings is the manager and whether he could get the best out of him

China1

I am absolutely no expert on doping but how the fuck would banned substances help a keeper?

Normally such substances or blood doping is to give you an unfair stamina boost or whatever.

Keepers spent 90% of a match doing absolutely nothing and literally probably only cover a couple of hundred meters in a game. I don’t think a banned substance is going to make you jump any farther. Could it give you improved reactions? Maybe. But it all just seems very unlikely. Of all the positions to dope, GK is literally the most pointless

Marc

Marko

I don’t think you can really judge any player on last season under Arteta – even in the so called “better 2nd half” of the season we were poor a lot of the time, the tactics were off and the football dire.

CG

Zidane knows what it takes to be a top midfielder.

He normally sends the average ones to us.

£20 million take it or leave it.

Marc

China

Playing in goal for Arsenal with whats in front of the keeper and anything that’d calm the nerves would be a major help.

Champagne Charlie

Marc

You’re coming to me for an argument then claiming I’m argumentative. Bore off, haven’t said a word to you since you’ve been unbanned and here you are providing a running commentary of bullshit hot takes because you fancy yourself an authority on other people.

Flattered, but not interested one bit.

China1

Ode is very good on his day. A little passive when it’s not He would need to reduce the number of meh days if he wants to make the next step. The talent is there and when he shows it it’s obvious. But he needs to take more risks. He plays with a little bit of fear in him and is a bit too safe. He has amazing vision and passing but he usually waits for someone to make that run before releasing them. If they don’t he’ll twist and turn a bit and usually go sideways or backwards. But… Read more »

Marc

CC

I just told you I’m not interested – don’t bother to reply – if I want bullshit I’ll at least find someone who manages interesting bullshit.

Rich

The Bard In spite of the usual hyperbole, over the course of 38 games last season, the difference between 3rd + 8th, was marginal I expect others to improve next season, and the points tally needed to get in the CL, to be higher I said at the start of this season 3rd – 4th slight overachievement 5th-6th hitting par 7th-8th slightly under par We’d get roughly 60-65 points and finish 5-6th, and it’s be fine margins between 3rd and 8th, I thought Liverpool would win the title, but I wasn’t too far off with the general picture We slightly… Read more »

Marko

China literally everything you just wrote there meh, passive, on his day, needs to take more risks could be attributed to every player under Arteta last season. So in instances like that I’d say it’s less of a Odegaard issue and more of an Arsenal issue in general

Ernest Reed

“We slightly underachieved in the league, we underachieved in the Europa, and our meek defence of the FA Cup, was disappointing”

Slightly underachieved in the league?

Worst point totals in a significant period of time and thats qualifies as a slight underachievement – boy I’ll have whatever you are drinking and make it a double!

You just took reality into a whole new stratosphere, Rich!

China1

Marko yeah but not saka

Saka is probably the only player who has transcended arteta lol

He had a quiet patch for a few weeks and the very occasional off game but he was over the 38 games generally fantastic game after game. Put everyone else to shame including the manager

Rich

China1 Stimulants? Maybe his wife is dopey, and mixed up the paracetamol with her prescription, unlikely, but always a slight possibly Goalkeepers need elite concentration, stimulants would certainly help with that, I know there’s plenty of legal ones, but might explain it Maybe he got on the Jack n Jill’s, or the Charlie on a night out, and then needed to clean his system rapidly Whatever happened, he’s been punished, he’ll serve his sentence, life goes on… People always learn much more from their mistakes, than they do their successes, the bigger the fall, the better the lesson If we… Read more »

Spanishdave

Ode is a talent
Madrid brought him and he’s been pushed around from team to team because Modric didn’t fade but kept his fitness.
He probably needs some stability in his life and being Norwegian England is a good place for him to settle and put down roots
Problem is that Arteta is a boring coach and is too restrictive in his approach, this will not attract too many flair players.
Get him if he’s eager to join us

AFC Forever

To follow up on the comments:- Odegaard showed himself to be one of the leading creative midfielders at Real Sociedad, and across Europe, so I don’t understand some of the claims being made by the SEB on here. Those of you who obsess as much on stats as you do the manager, may be interested in Odegaard’s smarterscout ratings from his last full season in la Liga (19/20) for Sociedad. Smarterscout, for those who don’t know, is a website that provides detailed analytics on players, ratings (0-99) similar to FIFA but powered by real data and advanced analytics. The higher… Read more »

Rich

Ernest Reid There was 6 points between ourselves and 4th, and 8points between ourselves and 8th The overall picture was roughly what I thought it’d be, I thought we should be finishing 5th-6th, and get roughly 60-65 points We were capable of 3rd – 4th, but would be a slight overachievement Could easily finish 7th – 8th, which would be a slight underachievement If we’d finished 2nd, a massive overachievement, because I thought that would involve us finishing above Liverpool or City And if we’d won the title, we’d be building Arteta a solid gold statue We finished 4points off… Read more »

Marko

yeah but not saka

Very true

raptora

New post.

Ernest Reed

I had them finishing 6th, Rich. I cant honestly say i would classify the season in the way that you have, as slightly underachieving.

For me this season was as poor an outcome as one would never hope for. The fact that those fine margins you speak of came into play, only confirms that Arsenal were likely fortunate that the league came back down to play at their level. This was an abysmal season, Rich. No other way to describe it for me.

Marc

Rich

You need to take into account that both Chelsea and the Spud’s sacked their managers and Liverpool’s wheels fell off. West Ham overachieved and won’t do as well next season, Leicester did Leicester and will repeat but outside of the Spud’s ( I refuse to think they’ll do well!) I expect everyone else above us to strengthen and do much better next season.

Pierre

Finally it has sunk in to le groaners that you can be a creative influence in a game of football without actually having an assist. Of course, this is more prevalent now than before as most assists now come from wider areas. Even a good percentage of Debruyne’s assists are from wider areas with wicked balls across the face of goal. Gone are the days of the Denis Bergkamp defence splitting pass. it’s more about creating overloads out wide to get behind the opposition defence. Anyway it’s good to see that Le Grove has finally seen sense when analysing creative… Read more »

PhD2020

RichJune 11, 2021 16:44:32 “We slightly underachieved in the league, we underachieved in the Europa, and our meek defence of the FA Cup, was disappointing” ——– Really,now? We slightly under achieved in the league..Let’s take a cursory glance at the league points over the last decade or so,shall we… 07/08-83 points 08/09-72 points 09/10-75 points 10/11-68 points 11/12- 70 points 12/13-73 points 13/14-79 points 14/15-75 points 15/16-71 points 16/17-75 points 17/18-63 points 18/19-70 points 19/20-56 points 20/21-61 points We bottomed out of Europe all together,crashed out of the FAC.I’d say averaging the EPL total points out over 14 seasons-would have… Read more »

Davi

Not sure what the points tallies really tell you without taking the rest of the league as context. My impression was that after Man city, there was a large group of teams that were fairly close together, so in some respects the season was much more competitive, aside from the actual title. Basically the points totals don’t necessarily equate to the quality of the sides – if there’s 8 closely matched teams in the top 10, you’d expect the points to be spread more thinly and the totals to be lower.

Captain Tierney

Arteta trying to sign 50 million defenders when it’s clear we need attacking reinforcements is like Wenger signing attacking midfielders when everyone could see our weakness was in defense.
🤯

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