Well good morning my darlings, what is coming home? FOOTBALL CHAPS BUT IT MIGHT BE HELD UP AT THE BORDER DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS.
What a game, absolutely thrilled to see Southgate massacre the demons of 1996, and chuffed to see Bukayo Saka take part in a high-pressure game, with fans, and do really, really well.
The atmosphere looked absolutely electric, I can feel the UK hangover from here this morning, so good to watch an England side compete like they’re one of the better teams in world football. What a generation of talent we have in our hands.
The transfer rumours are heating up. It seems the two players that are dead certs are Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga. Now, I’ve read a few fans complaining that these two signings don’t move us forward.
Caveat, you never know if a player will move you forward regardless of price… but, if we’re talking about what the two offer on paper, then yes, we are absolutely moving forward with these two.
One of the biggest issues we had last season was the depth in the squad. If Tierney was out, we played Granit Xhaka at left back and broke our midfield. If our midfield lacked Partey or Xhaka, we were choosing between Elneny and Ceballos.
These two signings give us proper choices. Sambi Lokonga looks like the sort of player that can sit deep as a six or roll into a more advanced 8 position. He is fast, looks like he has good anticipation, but the stand-out feature is the range of passing long and short. It also looks like he has good ball-carrying skills.
Nuno Tavares, outside the dog kissing, also looks like a sharp move. 6ft+, fast, with great distribution. His xA was 12 over 40 games. He has played left midfield and right back. So there’s flex in his game, a theme that seems to be shining through with the payers we’re targetting.
If we had two players like this shining last season, we make top 4. We don’t have Granit at left-back in the Europa Semifinal, and then have to search out another option. We can finish the season with Granit and Partey in midfield. Squad depth was a problem, addressing it is hugely important to our success this year.
Do we still need some big hitter signings in the first team? Absolutely. But don’t relegate these signings as filler, because that’s not the case. More players that can do the things the new system requires makes us a better outfit.
BUT… first-team players I like the idea of? Ben White. Ramos likes him, Foden and Saka said he was the most impressive player at England training camp, and he’s getting good write-ups from tactical blogs. This video from the excellent TIFO crew gives a bit more context to the crowd saying ‘this role isn’t important.’
We’re buying ourselves different level of athletic profile, someone with an exciting range of passing, and a defender that can behave like a ball-carrying midfield. He could totally change the way we play next season and I am fully bought into this sort of intelligent move.
Granit Xhaka, after putting France to the sword with an elite performance, is now attracting the loving eyes of the Old Lady. Juventus apparently can’t afford the fee for Locatelli, so could we be in a situation where Xhaka steals a move to a better side than Roma and that opens the door for us to bring in a bit of a dreamboat deeplying playmaker? Feels too clean to be a reality, but we are still very much in dreamland.
There’s quite a lot of chatter about Arsenal being in for strikers they can’t afford. Now, I don’t want to write off anyone and their sources, but I think it is very unlikely that Arsenal are going to apportion budget to a striker this summer. If there’s any notion of ‘we have to sell to buy’ that is firmly grounded in the reality that we have too many strikers versus any sort of cashflow issue. If we sell big names, we might buy… but even then, I struggle to see us moving on Balogun, who made it pretty fucking clear what he wanted. This is his transition year to being the number 2 striker at Arsenal. A loan in a big-league would be good, but a young striker with his athletic profile could be lethal for us next season. Can we go into a season with no bang-bang in our forward ranks? I don’t think so. Teenage strikers have a history of banging in this league, let’s hope Flo B has an Anelka season (in 1998, he had to compete with Wright and Bergkamp).
Arsenal is finally free of Mesut Ozil. The German, like the worst of politicians, has been de-platformed by Arsenal and the lack of noise is a fucking joy. He had some great moments, won some trophies, but in the end… he didn’t care and we paid the most almighty price for it. Let’s hope we can move Willian off the wage bill as well.
The next generation is coming through. Emile Smith Rowe is rumoured to be close to signing a new deal with Arsenal and I couldn’t be happier. What a talent he is, hopefully he moved to the next level this season and makes the World Cup squad. We’ll see, but exciting times. Hungry young players that only care about football. What a dream.
That Aaron Ramsdale rumour doing the rounds feels very out of whack with everything we’re doing. There’s money at Arsenal, but I have my doubts we’d go anywhere near a middling British keeper for £35m. Bernd Leno’s happiness is probably the best place to start. Get the coaching staff around him right and persuade him to stay versus signing a lesser model for mega-money. If he wants out, sell him, and find a keeper doing better things.
Finally, where is the new home kit? Why would Adidas wait so long to reveal?
Ok, now listen to the latest transfer round-up podcast with Johnny.
Almunia, brilliant.
Almunia
Very entertaining, and very astute, as per usual 👏
Does Le Grove have a discord?
Marc, supposedly White is amongst the three possible Laporte replacement but not the primary target.
Laporte would have to find a club willing to pay his City valuation as well as something close to his wages first so good luck getting that done.
If Arteta wants White and is willing to pay Brighton’s asking price, he’ll get him.
Willian’s move to Inter Miami has fallen through after the club finally got around to watching his highlight reel from last season.
Mb I didn’t know there was a Willian’s highlight reel to be watched.
Mb
Willian deciding to take a hit on his contract, or another club willing to match what we’re reportedly paying him
Always felt like a long shot
Willian on a 3yr deal was absolute lunacy, and after the Ozil debacle, I was really hoping we’d learnt our lesson, but our obsession with over the hill mercenaries collecting extortionate wages, for contributing nothing on the pitch, looks set to continue….
Tom
My comment was directed more towards journalists who can’t even make up good rumours as clickbait.
Tom
The Willian Highlights are being put together by the very experienced Team at Sp*rs that put out their Highlights
This is how i see it If we sell 2 of Bellerin, chambers or Cedric ( and maybe Saliba ) then Ben white would be a good option…..no sales then pointless buying white. If we sell Xhaka, Guendouzi and Torreira then locatelli or similar would be a good option and possibly Bissouma/lokonga…..no sales then pointless buying more than one midfielder. If we sell Lacazette , Eddie and Aubameyang then isak would be a good option…..no sales then pointless buying. If we sell smith rowe then Maddison is a good option… No sale…then pointless buying. Basically, we need to reduce our… Read more »
Dog kissers should be beaten with a bat ugh
The Ben White story to city is bullshit all Mikel has to do is ask pep if it’s true it’s just the agent trying to light a fire under us to do the deal
Almunia that is gold
Sabitzer for 15m would be a good deal, but not if it came with 200k+ pw wages as it probably would
Pierre
You’ve missed off the fact that with no European football next season our first team squad is likely facing a season of 40 – 41 matches.
Marc “You’ve missed off the fact that with no European football next season our first team squad is likely facing a season of 40 – 41 matches.” Exactly Unless we sell as many as 8 players,it’s pointless even thinkin of making any signings….so far we have sold a couple of academy players. I said a few weeks ago that we need to let players go on the cheap to streamline our squad…the window is not looking good atm. If Arteta isn’t going to sell certain players then we need to let them go . I’m talking about Eddie, Guendouzi, Torreira,… Read more »
If Arteta isn’t going to sell certain players
Should read play certain players
Ish
I don’t think we’re shooting in the dark with Art, it’s an educated bet a lot of clubs would take a chance on.
see: palace
I’ll be gutted if city get white
So now we’re basing how we should operate as a club on what Palace does?
What ever happened to Arsenal being a big club?
Almunia[, that was funny
no I think you might be doing that all on your own to create an argument lol
plenty of clubs have made dubious appointments, thought that was obvious. guess not.
How about not getting a player when other expensively acquired players have not been giving an opportunity to0 swim or sink?
We have a bloated squad. particularly at the back. There’s no desperate need to buy White when some aspects of the squad are in abject disrepair.
It’s like installing gold-plated rims on a car with worn out tires.
There’s talk we’re trying to renew Nelson’s contract and loan him out This would be a better move than selling him for peanuts at the bottom of the market, a move we’d likely live to regret Providing he stays fit, he’s much more likely to become an appreciating asset, rather than a depreciating one Nelson could easily become another Gnabry once he’s gained some confidence and experience, he’s a really talented footballer The writing looks like it’s on the wall for Nketiah with 12 months left on his deal, we’ll have to take what’s on offer, and move on, it… Read more »
Brian White and Ben Knight had me rolling, Almunia always delivers.
“My comment was directed more towards journalists who can’t even make up good rumours as clickbait.“ Marc, Yea, I got that, but I don’t think it’s so far fetched at all. Basically white is probably open to any move that would guarantee to increase his wages ten fold, which either one would. The upside of Arsenal move – he gets to be a starter and make £100kpw and experience the glorious Arteta “process”. The upside of City move – he gets all the medals and trophies while still getting enough game time to keep fairly busy with City involved across… Read more »
curse
Doesn’t mean we should follow them. There are no guarantees when appointing a manager but you can shift the odds in your favour. A good example would be letting a rookie coach cut his teeth at a smaller club like Palace, gain some experience and then appoint them.
Arteta’s become some sort of cult for some Arsenal fans who are incapable of looking at the actual events, his decisions and behaviour and making a judgement based on what they see.
“Hopefully we’re not just winging it”
Arteta hasn’t thought that far ahead!
I haven’t seen any comments on Embolo
I liked his directness [battering ram] he’s 24 and valued at 17 million
“There’s talk we’re trying to renew Nelson’s contract and loan him out”
I agree Rich, offering him a new deal and loan him out makes more sense than selling him for a few mill now. Especially as he’s a HG player.
Also agree that we fucked up by not loaning Eddie out in Jan to put him in the summer shop window. Not sure he had a start after we knocked back loan offers in Jan. Which makes it hard to understand why we kept him. Especially as we had Martinelli and Balogun in reserve,
Marc
I only highlighted palace because they made an appointment I wouldn’t have in their shoes. I love Patrick but I rate Mikel’s footballing brain way higher.
Doesn’t mean I don’t see his faults, absolute control freak etc…but we all have faults and I believe he is a very quick leaner so I’m curious to see what he can do with a team that is of his own making.
so far, no alarm bells are ringing, he can’t afford to get this window wrong though that’s for sure.
rich
I think Nelson is too soft mentally, if he matures, maybe.
I’d like to see Flo fight it out wit Laca, Eddie got the chance and almost won lol. I reckon Flo would become second striker in no time.
Curse I think we’d be open to selling both Lacazette + Aubameyang this summer, but with how weak the market is, and their reported wages, that could prove difficult My preference would be to sell Lacazette + Nketiah, and go with internal replacements of Martinelli + Balogun And if we could find a buyer for Aubameyang, I’d happily sell him as well, and go sign another striker At least if Lacazette chooses to run his contract down and take a Bosman, and we loan out Balogun this summer, we have a more experienced internal replacement lined up for next summer… Read more »
I was happy when Arteta became manager and the FA Cup win glossed over some reservation I had of his first six months
Have seen some good and some bad during the next twelve months, but the Europa Semis were sackable offences
Is anyone else concerned that he will do a Joachim Low and will try to protect his immediate future at the expense of the Club’s development?
Ray I am willing to see what we buy and how we start after 10 games we look shit like last year the boos will ring out
ALmunia
Great one man. The Arteta fan boys are cringing with pain after that LOL
Seriously, I hope City take White.
I would like Saliba ( Free)
use that 50M cheddar on Aouar and Maddison
So easy – yet so hard for Eduteta
Ray The vast majority of managers will work with self-preservation at the forefront of the way they operate, very few manager have the luxury or fan capital to take a backwards or sideways step with developing a younger team The same people who want us to give Saliba a chance next to the inexperience of Gabriel next season, will be the same ones demanding Arteta is sacked, if there’s a couple of months adjustment period Without looking at the bigger picture, and taking into account that those initial teething problems with be worth it, providing that becomes our central defensive… Read more »
Sabitzer will be the bargain CM signing of the summer for any team. He is very reliable to produce consistent performances. He is 27 too. It would give time for Lokonga to take over too.
And on the white to City rumors, they mean nothing. City already have enough CBs. I could only see Laporte leaving for Madrid if Varane goes to United. That would take a lot of chains of events. City are focused on getting Kane and Grealish for 200 mil. The rest of the signings will be fillers.
What shall it profit Arteta to buy White, totally forgetting there’s a black Bisouma screening him and a giant Dunk handholding him. I think this White Elephant deal will end in tears
Hi Rich
Thanks for your comprehensive response, sadly I can’t challenge your analysis
Just feel that the ‘instant’ success route has been tried and has failed and worse has only delayed our recovery
Rich
You notoriously called our 8th place finish, the worst in 25 years a ” slight underachievement”
If top 4 is not achievable ;like you wrote , what then is the point of spending crazy money ona defender with one year premier league experience ?
Why not have a system that plays the likes of Saliba and Martinelli. I bet you that with a decent manager in place, it can’t be any worse than last season.
Swiss never give up.