THE EUROS TONIGHT LADS AND LADETTES.
Can’t wait.
It’s nice that to commemorate the Italians and Turks game that we’re being heavily linked to Serie A players.
Locatelli as a Granit replacement?
Barella as tasty number 8 with bite to his game?
RODRIGO DE PAUL FOR CHANCE CREATION, BALL PROGRESSION AND BIG ENERGY VIBES?
Those are three very sexy links. I read someone say we go from ass to class and I am absolutely here for that sort of poetic internet prose.
Rodrigo De Paul is 27, repped by Mino Raiola, and probably going to Atleti… but his profile is exactly what we’re looking for. He’s tasked with progressing the ball from deep at Udinese. He creates a lot, scores a lot, has an energy profile that has attracted Bielsa. Give me that sort of talent over some of the one-paced merchants we’ve been looking to replace all day long.
This is an excellent scouting report if you’d like to read up further on him.
Locatelli is exciting because he’s handsome and Italian. He ticks all the Xhaka RPL boxes from a stats perspective. He’s at a small club in Italy, Sassuolo, so should be attainable. Though I do wonder how the P&P merchants are rationalising him more than the other slow deep-lying midfielders because he’s very one-paced even in Italy. I guess Italians just hit differently?
I’m not sure how much is actually going on, because I know Arteta is out of the building on holiday and it seems that Edu is still away because he keeps posting to his public IG stories. Breath though. Everyone is entitled to a holiday. BUT WHERE ARE THE SIGNINGS BECAUSE THE EUROS HAVE ALREADY STARTED. Breath. It’ll be fine. IT WILL BE FINE.
Tyler Adams feels like a dead cert now.
Agent Smith Rowe is on the blower as we speak luring him over to the mighty Arsenal. Journos are saying he’s a hot target of clubs with Champions League football. I’d say WE ARE ARSENAL, but Emi B just binned us off to play cards with John Terry, so who knows how the Arsenal pull is working at the moment.
More journos are talking up the prospect of Lokonga, a great talent, but not for the first team I’d imagine.
Then there’s the story of Eddie getting a new deal. Not quite sure how this one is working. If he’s getting a new deal, you would imagine it’ll be because Huss Fahmy put an option of an extension in his last deal so we could preserve his value… because I don’t see a world where he’d sign another year knowing how far he is down the pecking order to protect Arsenal’s right to sell him?
Granit Xhaka is about to move out of the club for £18m or so… if you spent the last 5 seasons calling him the worst player in the world, I can’t have you moaning about the fee in a post-pandy world (pandy is ok to use, right?).
On the note of moaning, word for the comments. I let a whole bunch of people back on a few weeks ago and predictably, the misery is back and the conversation is starting from a low point. People need to pick it up. Misery breeds misery and stops interesting conversation flowing like we have a few months back. If perpetrators don’t pick it up, I’ll do a sweep again.
On that note, I bid you farewell, enjoy the Euros, it’ll be fun!
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I’d imagine all the Italians are CL bound players. Can’t see us getting them.
Your pick for the Euros, Pedro?
Granit xhaka for 18m would be a fantastic bit of business for us
It’s not like he’s worth more than that is it!
Can’t see past France to win this thing.
Rich: “3rd – 4th slight overachievement 5th-6th hitting par 7th-8th slightly under par” In my opinion we should always look towards the richest clubs in the country in how we measure our finishes in the EPL table. We are the 5th richest club in England. I expect our par to be 5th place. In that logic 1st is a massive overachievement as much as 8th is a massive underachievement. 4th and 6th would be slight over/under achievement. Our manager had a winter + summer transfer windows with all the power a manager could have, massively underachieved in every tournament bar… Read more »
8th new trophy
Rich
From previous post:
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.
Nice one Pedro.
Yep, stopped posting because it’s Groundhog day on here an absolute bore fest of self-entitlement. It is literally the same shit regurgitated. As for the Xhaka hypocrisy, funny how a ‘shit’ player who has been abused almost daily on here and describes as ‘can’t run, can’t tackle and only passes backwards’ is suddenly ‘in his prime’ and being sold too cheap…..!!!! You could not make more hypocritical fake shit up if you tried.
Looking forward to the Djoker-Nadal SF coming up….
Pedro, Anyway, I mentioned Locatelli earlier, so I have re-posted my comment from lunchtime:- Italy v Turkey tonight. Roberto Mancini’s Italian team managed to win all ten of their qualifiers, making them one of only eight sides in the history of the competition to qualify with a perfect record. Whether or not that form will mean anything we shall see but Italy has some real talent coming through. My best mate is an Italian, so I get a lot of youtube stuff sent through from him and he thinks this is one of the best Italian sides for years, I… Read more »
Heard people mention Turkey as a potential dark horse in Euro 2020.
I’ll take a gamble and say they’ll finish 3rd in their group and either end their Euro right there, or get one of the top teams and lose to them in the 1st KO game.
In addition to Italy, I feel like one of Wales and Switzerland will finish above Turkey in the group stage.
There is a huge difference between being negative and being realistic.
Who’s gonna get the boot and come back as
LE PANDY
Raptora Arteta could have no complaints if he was handed his P45 Our exits from Europa + FA Cup were meek, and I think we slightly underachieved in the league overall The architects of Willian + Runarsson should have their heads on the chopping block, and not buying an established attacking midfielder last summer, really cost us Ultimately what I want is an elite Director Of Football, managers come and go, but we need to set our head coaches up to succeed It’s our poor scouting, recruitment, non existent squad planning, and contract management, are the things that have been… Read more »
Rich
“Ultimately what I want is an elite Director Of Football, managers come and go, but we need to set our head coaches up to succeed”
Couldn’t agree more and the worst part of it is whilst Edu is faffing about in Portugal you’ve got Rangnick out of work and rumours Overmars is leaving Ajax.
Marc,
Henry David Thoreau 19th century American philosopher
‘The question is not what you look at but what you see’.
What you see when thinking about AFC is similar to Private Frazier in Dad’s Army:
‘We’re all doomed!’
Rafa vs Djoker and Euro 2021 – can’t wait
The concern about the Italian league, is we’re not a particularly good team
But we’ve beaten Napoli + AC Milan with relative ease in recent years
I love the look of Barella, but the competitiveness of the PL looks like a big step up from Seria A
Bob
Maybe I can see just where we are and you’re being naive. Doesn’t really matter we’ll do what business we do this summer and we’ll go into the season with Arteta at the helm.
It is going to be interesting on here come September / October though.
If Buendia and Rodrigo de Paul are both available for more or less the same fee, who you think would work better for Arsenal ?
The Kroenkes, Edu and Arteta make for good bedfellows.
They are all out of their depth.
Next season will see the end of Edu and Arteta no matter how Pedro will spin it now.
The Kroenkes will continue to bumble, fumble and stumble until they fall flat on their faces.
I’d bet on Buendia who is three years younger at 24 and with recent PL and Championship experiences. Impressive stats on goals and assets too….
Watched the de Paul’s YT clips. Looks OK. However, I’d imagine he wouldn’t have been allowed to make those turns and mini runs etc as readily in the PL…. he’d have been chopped down before he’d turn or release the ball!
You Tube scouting report – Manuel Locatelli is a proper technician. Looks poised and very comfortable in the way he plays. My eyes will be on him when Italy play against Turkey.
Rich, Marc, Goongoonergone… agree
If we sign those 3 I will be very excited for next season miserable people sort yourselves out xhaka is leaving the building woot
Joke friday
In football each team has 11 players, total player on the field 22, each player has 2 balls, total balls is 44 + the playing ball = 45. Thats how they came up with 45 mins of play.
Joke friday
Kid looking at moms ID card,
Sex: F
He laughs
Mom: whats so funny?
Kid: i cant believe you are so bad in sex you failed in it.
Absolutely no chance of getting Locatelli even more so if he has a good tourney. He’s too good for us and De Paul too after so many years in Udinese surely he’d want to compete for titles so he’ll probably go to Atletico
Rafa and Djoker always a cracker of a game. Merely 2 games so far and it is already a blockbuster.
Marko he plays for sasulo not Juve we can get him I bet he is not on more than 10k a week
De Paul will probably go to AM for sure
Serge Locatelli goes on the market and better clubs clubs in Europe will be in for him. I wish we could but I don’t see it
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 »
SidJune 11, 2021 18:20:28 Joke friday In football each team has 11 players, total player on the field 22, each player has 2 balls, total balls is 44 + the playing ball = 45. Thats how they came up with 45 mins of play Why is this annoying and funny at the same time 😂😂😂 Anyway, I don’t think we can get any of Locatelli, De Paul or Barella. The first two are moving to clubs in a better position than us. Barella is already at a top club. So having conversations about them is pointless in my opinion. The… Read more »
PMS2020 What’s changed in the last few years is the competitiveness of the PL Such is the financial might of the PL, teams lower down can pick off players from any team across the globe, outside 12-15 clubs in mainland Europe That means increased competitiveness We’re also now producing talent from our academies at a much higher level, and in much more volume, and this will be a continued theme over the next 20 years, and that talent will filter downwards There’s also no value in clubs like Villa selling Grealish unless he either kicks up a stink, or they… Read more »
All in favour of keeping Eddie. Partly, I admit, because he’s a home-made product. But mostly because he has the rarest and most valuable talent of all – a knack for scoring goals. All such players have lean periods. But they generally find their way back. Getting rid of him will turn out as a sad reminder of Andy Cole.
OK confession time I haven’t paid any attention to the build up etc for the Euro’s haven’t watched a single minute of qualifying etc.
With that in mind how the fuck do you get Germany, France and Portugal in the same group?
Englandsbest Nketiah is 22, he’s at an age where he needs to play competitive football consistently, in order to progress Our striker options are, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Balogun, Martinelli, Nketiah, and I think Pepe could do a job down the middle as well We either clear the decks and play Nketiah Sell him, and make room for Martinelli + Balogun, who’s contracts we’ve both recently renewed Or renew Nketiah’s contract, then loan him out to gain the experience he needs There’s no value keeping Nketiah around, when our striker department is congested, and he struggles to make the match day squad… Read more »
Turkey to grab a draw here I reckon.
Locatelli is brilliant, watched Sassuolo a decent bit this season after their high scoring results stood out so much last season for entertainment.
The elite boys are in for him though so next to no chance we will sign him.
Marc
Qualifying/Nations League is a snoozefest so no judgement here, barely watched it myself.
Euros/World Cup different gravy though.
Italy, France and England have the best squads on paper.
Marc Germany were awful in qualifying
Portugal have an outrageous side too.
Interested to see what Spain we get.
Djoker has woken up vs Nadal, won 5 of the last 6 games.
Portugal have a solid squad alright. Never a good idea to write off Spain and Germany. France, Italy and England brimming with quality talents. Should be a good Euro this one.
Pedro – sorry mate but i don’t agree that a Director of Football or equivalent IS entitled to a holiday in the peak transfer season; especially in the key time before a major tournament. Its critical to get business done then before values potentially increase. For me, taking holiday at that time is a sackable offence as being gross neglect of duty.
Thats like me as a partner in an accountancy firm letting my tax dept have holidays in January
More and more, I find it boring to talk about Edu and Arteta. I don’t expect much from them.
Just see that Locatelli is starting for Italy in midfield. He must be pretty good.
In our dreams we get Locatelli or Barella so moot there
Forza Italia. Gotta get the win here
Yilmaz getting his props now but this fella has been banging them in for many a year now.
Remember way back in 2012 or 2013 where he scored 8 or 9 in the Champions League with Galatasaray.
TR7 Yes, that’s probably right and as WE says, Portugal too. hard to look past the World Cup Winners, that French squad has a ridiculous array of riches. Giroud once again proving how much he adds from the bench, although his spat with ‘greedy’ Mbappe could go one of two ways. As I wrote above though, Italy are coming back and they have some good talent in their squad. Winning every game in their group will do them good and Mancini is nobody’s fool. They need a decent start tonight, the first game is always a nervy affair because losing… Read more »
Berardi is very good too.
Sassuolo were the most fun to watch in Italy after Atalanta. Their gaffer was picked up by Shakhtar.
Now I got me interested to check out both Locatelli and Barella
Serge
Ze German’s will make you pay for your insolence.
“Pedro – sorry mate but i don’t agree that a Director of Football or equivalent IS entitled to a holiday in the peak transfer season; especially in the key time before a major tournament”
Can’t argue with that after all the Elves don’t get Christmas Eve off do they?
Looking forward to the ITA vs TUR. Fancy a draw or maybe a sneaky win for Italy.
Scout watch-Celilk. Lille’s Turkish RB linked with us. And Locatelli- For my own pleasure
Arteta may be on hols, but I bet he’s on the phone too, night and day. He doesn’t need to be at Emirates to keep abreast of what is going on. Most of the action is chat anyway at the moment with the Euros on.
Marc no doubt lol
eb
I think a lot of that is directed at Edu rather than Arteta either way at a critical time of the season we should not have the 2 senior football people at the club both on holiday.
I don’t see a problem with Edu + Arteta taking a holiday
Taking a rest and a bit of distance from things is healthy
Travelling around at the moment is difficult, so talks are unlikely to be face to face anyway
I’d be more concerned if bureaucrats like Richard Garlic we’re on holiday, they’ll be the ones who sort out the legalities and negotiations
Whether Edu + Arteta talk to targets on the phone from abroad or from London, is entirely irrelevant
Storm in a teacup
Saw this fantastic table on Twitter through a Pedro retweet. It compares basically all of the midfield options we’ve been hearing about in the press + Partey. The author was kind enough to share another one with even more MF. https://twitter.com/adamvoge/status/1403358257075429376/photo/1 https://twitter.com/adamvoge/status/1403418247790223360/photo/1 All of the stats are per 90 mins and if it’s a negative stat the least per 90 gives more points. Really impressive that Partey is basically the best from everyone in the data in a season where he was struggling with injuries. Surprising how low in the table Bissouma and Anguissa are. Could maybe be connected with… Read more »
RichJune 11, 2021 18:47:50 Comparing different seasons is generally pointless, because you fail to take into account for variable change ————————– 07/08 1)Manure-87 pts 2)Chelsea-85 pts 3)Arsenal-83pts 4)Liverpool-76 pts ——– 2008/09 1)Manure 90pts 2)L’pool-86 pts 3)Chelsea-83 pts 4)Arsenal-72 pts ——– 2009/10 1)Chelsea-86 pts 2)Manure 85 pts 3)Arsenal 75 pts 4) Spurs-70 pts ———– 10/11 1)Manure-80 pts 2)Chelsea-71 pts 3)Man City-71 pts 4)Arsenal-68 pts ——— 11/12 1)Man City-89 pts 2)Manure-89 pts 3)Arsenal-70 pts 4)Spurs-69 pts ———— 12/13 1)Manure-89 pts 2)Man City-78 pts 3)Chelsea-75 pts 4)Arsenal-73 pts ————– 13/14 1)Man City-86 pts 2)L’pool 84 pts 3)Chelsea-82 pts 4) Arsenal-79 pts ——— 14/15… Read more »
Rich
Firstly Edu is in Portugal so will have to isolate on return for 5 days (10 if he’s tight) – why can’t he take 2 weeks off in September once the window has closed?
AFC
Yes team dynamics has been an issue for France especially in big tournaments. Probably Giroud is eyeing Henry’s record and being a bit selfish, not sure. French usually have a lot of internal strife within their squad.
Sad the Stadio Olympico isn’t full of fans for Bocelli belting out Nessun Dorma to open the tournament in Rome.
Something else Covid has ruined.
The EURO opening celemony looks good.
Elmo
Thought I was back in 1990 for a second!
U2 sings
“U2 sings” Uh?
Even without the fans, that was amazing.
Pretty mental that Giroud is 6 goals away from being France’s record goalscorer.
So many great forwards to have graced that shirt, no disrespect to Olly but Henry, Benzema, Trezeguet, Papin, Platini.
WE
Doesn’t seem right does it? A good tournament and he could equal / beat it.
U…S….A U….S…A U…S….A We believe thae we will win.. We believe tat we will win
oops wrong tourney my bad.. 😀
Seriously though Ill be rooting for England.. prepared to be disappointed.
Basically I want the big teams to get through the groups so we have top level …. tournament in the ‘knockouts. Other then that I generally root for Italy not sure why… Think it;s because they were the team to beat growing up. Some tremendous players.
Team I least like is Belgium. Just don’t like them..
Joaquin Correa more likely than De Paul it’s like a plan B and you know we love a plan B
Can’t decide which game to watch – Rafa vs Djoker or Italy vs Turkey
It will be interesting to see if the idea of playing matches across Europe is kept on after this.
So going on holiday makes no difference? they’re going to be spending all day on the phone are they?
Now let’s count up the number of successful deals already made………..
Mid
I thought all you lot were Irish, Scot’s or Welsh – not a decent Englishman amongst the lot of you and that includes our current export and esteemed blog writer!
Marc my ancestors were English.. German and Swiss… when in doubt stick with your roots .. I say.
TR7 Yep, the French certainly like a falling out. Actually, it is Mbappe that has been accused of being greedy. Someone in the camp accused him of only playing for himself. Giroud has apparently inferred it to, something about Mbappes behaviour when taken off in their last game. It is their Achilles heel because that squad is rightful favourites. The team to beat for sure. I’m cheering Italy and England on. My wife and I travel to Italy a lot or used to pre-pandemic, I love the bay of Naples and the Amalfi coast and made some decent acquaintances over… Read more »
Bati/ Kroenkephobe
I got Italy and Holland in the sweep,feel I should apologise to you straight away Bati, I never win anything, sorry!
So are we meant to watch this hoping Barella and Locatelli tear it up thus guaranteeing we wont get them or that they don’t attract anyone by being average and dishearten us? Nothing, absolutely nothing is straightforward following Arsenal.
Some of you are a bit harsh on Artedu having their holiday btw, they deserve a break from the cooking,cleaning, nappy changing,painting,mowing,home schooling that all multi millionaires endure….
Although I think there was an odd Irishman in my family tree.. would explain the drinking.
Mid
That could be put down to any of the 4 nations – not known for being tee total over here.
Who’s the fella in the picture with ESR?
No Balotelli-I guess,to rouse the Italian passions..???
No Gigi Buffone seems odd.. but old man Chiellini still in there.
Fucking hell how much have VW paid for that? And in Italy of all places.
Xhara has left the building…
And relax….
Thank fuck for that
This Rafa Djoker game is something else, absolutely.mental.
Marc
51 matches. One of those cars breaks down in at least one of them!
RSPC that’s the Ameican .. Tyler Adams.. he plays Right back for Leipzeg.. decent player but has a history of back probs for a young guy. Still would be better then Bellerin or Chambers.
Elmo
It’s when it fails the emissions test that the shit will really hit the fan.
PMS2020 This isn’t rocket science, success comes in cycles Teams progress Teams regress Teams stagnant Teams get injuries to key players, that can derail their season, like Liverpool this season Some teams progress, but not as much as others Some teams regress, but not as much as others Sometimes the difference between success and failure is a few points, and key decisions either going for, or against you Ultimately if we make lots of astute decisions, we’ll have a good chance of doing better If we make lots of bad decisions, then we’ll likely regress, like we have over the… Read more »
It’s good to hear the we are *finally* selling Xhaka. He really should have been sold 2-3 seasons ago min. I still recall the chat after his first season where many posters were saying that the PL was not the league suited for him as it was too fast a league and that Italy would be best suited to him as it is slower league. That it took us so long to get rid of him says it all about how our club is run from a footballing perspective. I like the noises I am hearing about potential targets but… Read more »
“decent player but has a history of back probs for a young guy”
Yank out his wisdom teeth worked for another Adams.
Marc
Lol!
Alumunia
It’s okay, we’re underdogs anyway but I’ll be cussing you out if we don’t win it either way
WE Yes, it is but it just goes to show. Gary Lineker wasn’t a great player but he knew how to score goals. Giroud is the same, knows where the goal is. He proves you don’t have to be quick to score goals, as some like to believe. It’s his movement in the penalty area, he makes the right runs as we saw recently. They throw him on and he bangs two in. He’s also a menace in the air, strong and holds the ball up well. A few moronic fans used to abuse him regularly but he rammed that… Read more »