WE LOVE YOU, BUKAYO

by .

England lost on penalties. It was very sad. Bukayo Saka took the 5th, his shot was saved, it was heartbreaking to watch.

… but I’m not angry that he took it.

It takes guts to step up. A true leader takes that sort of responsibility knowing full well how the country behaves when someone misses. That’s brave. Don’t give me ‘that’s not bravery’ shit either, a penalty for England is one of the gutsiest things you can do, full stop. Not many would do it. He did, we have to look after him now.

The disgusting abuse after the game is just a standard thing in sport. It’s not just an English thing, but last night, it felt like it. What more can be said here? Some people do it from the darkness of a burner account, others are stupid enough to do it from their real one. We shouldn’t tolerate it. It’s disgusting and weak.

You can fully witness the levels of pathetic we’ve allowed into our political system when the usual suspects go from badge kissing to dim takes like ‘maybe less time on the politics’ to burn a kid that feeds hungry kids.

We shouldn’t indulge it. We should bottle the togetherness the football brought our way. We should look forward to how this experience will take us up a level for the next World Cup. I don’t need a scapegoat, getting to the final was immense, I’m extremely proud of the team, and my love for Saka just went a little deeper.

The best way to solve for the nonsense? Have fucking great season at Arsenal and show the weapons what you have. Oh, and maybe hope the whizzes at the social media company could block certain types of language aimed at athletes. If you can block a IG post because it has protected music in the background, you can block a monkey emoji on a black athlete’s post. No excuses I’m afraid.

Short one today, back tomorrow.

 

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AFC Forever

Raptora

Yes that was cringeworthy! Jesus, 54i dislikes that in itself restores a bit of faith

raptora

WE, Mate, I don’t watch much football outside of the EPL and the UCL and Europa when we are in it. Not gonna watch much Europa, this season that’s for sure. I haven’t watched Sancho that many times, maybe 5 in total, so I cannot have an educated decision. I merely mentioned that you’ve been creaming your pants over the lad, not that Saka is better (he probably is). Nothing bad about it, he is good. If he is THAT good we’ll see soon enough. GS didn’t play him much, but then again Arteta doesn’t play Martinelli who is far… Read more »

raptora

Wonder if Arsenal are aware that during the shooting of the documentary, they might have to sack a manager and have that story caught forever on camera.

Wonder if the camera team was capturing 20/21 and we had the start we had, people would have thought that the cameras have anything to do with our atrocious form. Maybe cameras will have the opposite effect – people trying harder than ever to impress. I hope we start better this time around.

WengerEagle

Rap

Haha mate you were moist over Dumfries and Oyarzabal in the Euros yourself. 😉

It’s normal to get excited and enthusiastic about players you see with massive potential and ability.

Just hope that we see a lot of movement within the next 4 weeks on the transfer front. Tavares and Lokonganis a decent start but neither are likely to move the needle for us in the short-term.

We need at least x3 of those types for the XI.

Ishola70

Reports that Arsenal are back in negotiations with Wolves for Ruben Neves.

I would be enthusiastic with rumours of Mr Blobby as replacement for Xhaka never mind Ruben Neves.

Champagne Charlie

Lacazette getting slandered for Martinelli now, previously we’ve had Odegaard and Maddison getting dismissed because of ESR.

It’s Kids FC for some people I swear.

Ishola70

Rodrigo De Paul confirmed for Atletico Madrid.

The slight dream of him in an Arsenal shirt over.

WengerEagle

Ishola

You watch him vs Brazil? Bossed the middle of the park.

The anti-Xhaka.

Tom

“Wonder if Arsenal are aware that during the shooting of the documentary, they might have to sack a manager and have that story caught forever on camera.“

I’d say that’s one sign Arteta has until May at least, no matter what.

Ishola70

Nah

I saw him quite a few seasons ago though and mentioned him as a player worth keeping an eye on on this blog at that time.

WengerEagle

Good eye in that case, you were early on the scene.

I got on the train towards the end of 2019-20 myself, would have been my first choice CAM this summer. Interested to see how he gets on in Madrid.

raptora

Martinelli is probably where ESR is, which is 1 full season away of 50m players. Saka had that full season so is seen as the more advanced one. The other 2 have very high ceiling as well. I would give minutes to a young RvP compared to Laca who has been a passenger for each of his years here. Shit transfer we never should have made. Giroud could have stayed along with Auba, we’d be 35m richer and stronger in the past 2 seasons and a half.

raptora

Tom,
Yeah. It definitely feels that way. I mean, they didn’t sack him in December last season, I’m not sure we can do worse than that.

WengerEagle

I actually thought that Lacazette was one of our better players after Christmas, wasn’t even the goals but our overall cohesion in attack was night and day with Laca leading compared to Auba. Auba had an absolutely brutal season. If he’s not scoring you goals he is below average and he put up 10 PL goals all season. Not going to disagree on 110m for Laca and Auba being bad business though, we only needed one of them. Another big Wenger gaffe towards the end. 200m spent on Auba, Laca, Xhaka, Mustafi and Lucas Perez in addition to handing out… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Lacazette the passenger who is second to Auba for league goals scored since arriving, and was our top goalscorer last season. That’s before you even discuss just how much better the team plays with him central because of his football ability. Passenger though, what a take. Not fit to lace Martinelli’s or ESR’s boots. Just need another two or three teenagers with potential and we can sit back and watch the side grow into prime Barca. In for the shock of your life when not every youngster on the books actually deliver on their potential. Someone hold his hand when… Read more »

WengerEagle

Pedri cost Barcelona €5 million last summer from Las Palmas, lol.

Kid is probably worth 80+m now. Hope that Las Palmas were at least smart enough to stick a load of bonuses/clauses in there.

raptora

I guess 50m Lacazette was good value for our money. Actually, no, I don’t.

Ishola70

yeah bit harsh to say that Lacazette has been a shit signing.

Not a top signing but not a real flop either.

Somewhere in between.

WengerEagle

Barca were long overdue picking up a diamond amongst the shite though.

350m spent on Griezmann, Dembele and Coutinho. Ouch.

Marc

“Wonder if Arsenal are aware that during the shooting of the documentary, they might have to sack a manager and have that story caught forever on camera.“

No the club have built in a fail safe switch – the documentary starts on Boxing day Arteta will be gone before Christmas.

raptora

That I prefer Giroud to him says it all really. Of course I’m a nobody but then there’s the French NT where Laca got nothing but a sniff at behind players like Ben Yedder.

raptora

WE,
Pedri is stunning. The first absolute top class Spanish midfielder since Xavi and Iniesta. Unfortunate for Messi that Pedri wasn’t born 5 years younger. Barca dearly missed this type of player.

WengerEagle

Lacazette falls into the underwhelming category rather than flop.

For 50m and given he was a 30+ goal season man in France he has been disappointing, albeit he has been a consistent 17/18 goal a season man with pretty decent line-leading play so he’s done ok.

If you are being honest though even for his faults, Giroud for 12m gave us the same return/production on the pitch as Laca has.

raptora

5 years earlier***

Elmo

Laca was our Player of the Season (19 goals, 13 assists, knitted the attack together) in 2018-19, so really harsh to say he’s been a nothingburger in every year at the club.

It was a shame he had that ankle injury in the first half of the following season, because he never returned to the upward curve he was on the previous season.

WengerEagle

Raptora

Between him and De Jong they have a brilliant MF future ahead of them. Messi could have really used both in the post Iniesta years.

Still need a Busquets replacement though.

Emiratesstroller

Pedro

One can blame Rashford for a poorly taken and “missed” penalty, but from my point of view
the penalty taken by Saka was not as has been suggested poor.

It was saved by the Italian Goalkeeper who made the correct call. No-one criticised the Italians for the two penalties saved by Pickford. The media congratulated our goalkeeper for making two great saves.

As far as I am concerned Saka had an excellent competitive debut for England and I hope that he will have a long and fruitful career at Arsenal.

Champagne Charlie

Anyone with half a brain sees the Auba signing for what it was, pure opportunism in the market from a club with a history of such thoughtless moves. He was Ozil II.

Instead of having Giroud and Laca as CF options we sought to get rid of Alexis, Theo, and Giroud for Auba and Mkhi – to Chelsea and United no less. Another classic example of our “strategy” in the market.

WengerEagle

Said it before but hate the stop-start nonsense with penalties. It rarely works unless you are Neymar/Hazard good at taking them. No coincidence that all three players who attempted the stop-start penalty missed (Sancho, Rashford, Jorginho). What ever happened to good old fashioned pick your spot.and plant it there by putting your foot through the ball in one clean motion. Hard and in the corner and the GK isn’t saving it no matter who he is. Funny thing is that Rashford never takes pens like that for United either, he takes them more like Kane does and just focuses on… Read more »

Ishola70

Rashford’s was the worst penalty of all.

Donnarumma so clearly spooked him.

Dragged it.

Emiratesstroller

CC

There was nothing opportunistic about Aubameyang signing his contract and please don’t compare him with Ozil.

Aubameyang scored 29 goals in the preceding season and played very well that season.

Okay he had an underwhelming season, but so did most of our team and I am sure that “family problems”, “malaria” and being confined at home during Covid had quite a lot to do
with his performance.

Let’s see how he performs this season before making any further judgments.

Champagne Charlie

Weagle

Weird trend developing in pens, Jorginho aside it just isn’t the move at all. I can understand a check-step if you’re the sort to eye the GK, but the best penalty takers I’ve seen invariably just hit the ball pure and decisive.

WengerEagle

Ishola

What do you make of GKs guessing which way vs holding their position till the kick is taken?

I prefer the latter even though the former is the norm. Pickford opted for this approach on Jorginho’s pen and he didn’t bite on the hop-fake.

There are so many badly taken pens from spooked players in shoot-outs like Belotti’s which was halfway to the corner at best without much pace on it. Easy save for a non-guessing GK to make.

Dissenter

I remember Wenger eagle and myself asking that pertinent question when we signed Auba How come no one is competing with us for his signature? Even then, BVB still took us to the cleaners. They made us pay full value for him. That said, he’s a gamble that could have paid off had we had the opportunity top play him in the EL of that season or had we eked out top-4 under Emery Champagne Charlie “pure opportunism in the market from a club with a history of such thoughtless moves. ” Don’t you think Madisson is possible an Ozil-III… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Emirates

You misread the context. Talking about his transfer in that January, it was nothing but opportunistic. We didn’t need a CF and yet we decided to spend 60 mil 5 months after spending 55 mil in the same position.

Was Arsenal’s attempt at saving face for giving Alexis away with a shiny signing. Very much Ozil II because Cazorla’s career as an attacking midfielder lived and died in that one excels t season. We used his ridiculous ability to shoehorn Ozil into the side when it wasn’t necessary. Would’ve much preferred Di Maria or someone of that ilk.

WengerEagle

Charlie

It looks amazing for the best pen takers like you say when Hazard, Neymar and Jorginho pull it off (although Jorginho has missed a fair few this season).

But it is ill-advised for your average taker. Breaks momentum and often sees them scuff the shot with the wrong part of their foot, more towards the bottom instep like Rashford’a last night dragging it wide.

I’d be banning that shit if I were a manager in a shoot-out, lol.

Champagne Charlie

“Don’t you think Madisson is possible an Ozil-III
The lad has major disciplinary problems so why burden a manager who’s shown little tolerance for tardiness.“

Makes no sense at all, we don’t have a senior #10 at the football club, we have an academy player who had his first kick this past Boxing Day.

Do enlighten us on the full detail of Maddison’s “major discipline problems”. Sounds pretty serious.

Emiratesstroller

Dissenter

If Aubameyang had not signed his new contract with us I can assure you that there would have
been a long queue for his services.

Strikers of Aubameyang’s quality who can score 25-30 goals a season are always in demand.

Ishola70

Weagle
“What do you make of GKs guessing which way vs holding their position till the kick is taken?I prefer the latter even though the former is the norm”

Yeah probably works better in high pressure situations the holding of the position rather than diving one way already decided. Maybe not so much with a single penalty in a run of the mill game at the start of a match.

Donnarumma just stood stock still and stared Rashford out. Rashford spooked heavily.

Champagne Charlie

Weagle

Looks like a real reach from guys like Rashford to join a club of elite personalities. Your Balotelli’s, Neymar’s, even Jorginho’s are very particular personalities, it’s not faked or forced. Like you say, I’ve never seen Rashford entertain such an indulgent pen. It’s like his reaction to the occasion was to undermine his own stature rather than actually do what was required first and foremost.

RvP was one of my fave pen takers, outrageous striking ability and he used to decimate the side netting.

Rich

Maddison ticks a lot of boxes, he’s the right age + experience profile I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if we signed him, but paying Maddison £200k p/w, sets a dangerous precedent How do we justify paying Maddison that, when he can’t even make the England squad, but Saka who’s in the England team, earns less We need to start cleaning up our wage bill, rather than buying players at the top of the market, earning ridiculous money The noise around Maddison’s discipline issues are also a concern Hopefully Madrid need funds for Mbappe, they then decide to sell us Odegaard,… Read more »

Tom

I seem to remember Rashford taking them in exactly this manner during the season.
Still, not a fan of it in a pressure cooker situation.

You know who’s pen was the worst of the bunch though?
Southgate’s from 96.

Kroenkephobe

So, shout out to all you right wing, free speech, anti woke geezers who were supporting the booing of foreign anthems a few days ago (harmless banter right and certainly not connected to what happened at Wembley ?) and who profess to be appalled by racism, black lives matter and football hooligans. What IS the solution to combatting racist abuse, divisive behaviour and violence in England and how would YOU change policies so that all people were treated equally. I don’t think the answer has anything to do with Marx nor fake news but I’m all ears. I’m genuinely interested… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

“How do we justify paying Maddison that, when he can’t even make the England squad, but Saka who’s in the England team, earns less“

Really weird way to view it. Arsenal offer contracts based on the value each player is expected to deliver us. International caps are a near irrelevance.

Maddison has had three seasons in the PL where he delivered at a higher level than Saka, that’s the basis for any contract landing at his feet. And any subsequent increase in Saka’s wages will be following his efforts for us, not because Gary Southgate picks him.

Guns of SF

Donnarumma is like a grizzly in the goal. Massive… almost got Kanes shot too. I can see how Rash wanted to throw him off but it threw himeself off

Guns of SF

Rodrigo DP made me a believer man. That final against Brazil- whom I was going for, was amazing. his work rate was off the chart. Defending Neymar one on one, to making the assist.
not afraid to mix it up…. a tough Mfer…

Perfect fit for Atletico tho

Guns of SF

Kronekephobe

This is spot on. So many on here complain but have no answers…
What the F are they doing?

What IS the solution to combatting racist abuse, divisive behaviour and violence in England and how would YOU change policies so that all people were treated equally. I don’t think the answer has anything to do with Marx nor fake news but I’m all ears. I’m genuinely interested to hear some solutions.

Guns of SF

As someone who has faced racism at times in my life starting at age 7, with my own father, I can tell you that unless you have been through it, you dont have any fucking idea what it is and does… to all those who complain about BLM, kneeling, social media abuse, getting this all confused with Marx and other personal agendas, etc. Have any of you faced this throughout your life? I dare say that most of these posters are likely white folks. Not bad folks mind you, but its easy to make comments but until you experienced it,… Read more »

gnarleygeorge9

In Australia the Indigenous are subsidised by the immigrants. In England the Indigenous subsidise the immigrants. That might cause a bit of resentment with the Indigenous English, combined with the job losses from COVID.

Crabregas

I was at the game I feel blessed to have watched Saka represent our country live in a Euro final. What a player and what human he is, proud to call him a gunner.

At least he will be coming home to the love of the arsenal fans.

Dissenter

It seems Onana wasn’t too excited at the prospect of joining Arsenal but is talking to Lyon about joining them instead.

I hope it has nothing to do with the goal keeping coach because the goal keeping world is a small space; people know people that know people

SAGG

Tomorrow is the start of pre season and Arsenal has signed:

Tavares (Backup Left back)

End of the list

Arsenal in relegation zone after the first 6 games of the season, seems like finish 8th again will be our goal this season.

gnarleygeorge9

But I will say this to the Indigenous English as an Australian Briton, in 1973 they bailed on my fathers generation, whom they roped in to help fight their battles in WWII, to join up with the very place their battles were fought. Now England says it’s ‘Coming Back’ after 48 years. Well let me tell them, things will be a lot different for them this time round!!

Now, who the fuck have we signed? Let’s get this Club moving forward. STAN! Get those short arms out of those deep pockets & make the fans believe again 🙂

AFC Forever

CC Weagle It’s impossible to save a ball hit with power into the corners. I preferred to put my foot through the ball that way guess or not, he won’t save it. You can miss or slice it though. ! Once you go for placement over power you have to be so precise but you give the ‘keeperr a guessers chance. Most keepers guess a side because it gives them the extra fraction of time needed to get across. I’m not sure I like the shuffles. Rashford sent him the wrong way he had half the goal to find, that… Read more »

Pierre

If money was no object and we were playing in Europe then Maddison would be a good option. Maddison is a quality player but he plays in the same position as Smith Rowe, who came into the side when we were rock bottom and turned our season around. What was even more remarkable about Smith Rowe’s performances is that he was a player who had no experience of playing in the premier league but took to it like a duck to water.. I’m not sure some are giving Smith Rowe the credit he deserves , for me he has unbelievable… Read more »

MD-Gunner

It is official the clowns at Arsenal agreed to a deal to loan Saliba to Marseilles for the season, hopefully when this loan is done he will return under an actual Manager and DOF.

Godfather

Reading some of the Rubbish here is turning my stomach. It’s no surprise that racism continues to bloody thrive. “Kneeling serves no purpose” “Leave politics out of sports” “It’s just a minority of fans” “Focus on the football” “Anyone would get abuse if they missed a pk” I could go on and on but The rationalization and excuses for some of the vilest and abhorrent human behavior is the reason why this cancer exists and continues to thrive. I mean like I said before, Jack Grealish or Harry Kane doesn’t know what it’s like to suffer what Saka or Rashford… Read more »

Guns of SF

Indeed Godfather

Aussie+Gooner

A good article in Psychology Today explaining racism in laymans terms.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201801/the-psychology-racism

Guns of SF

Based in fear and insecurity

Guns of SF

Now on to transfers… I think that Dani Olmo was outstanding, I wonder what his ask is…

Guns of SF

ok 49 Mill on TM>….
That is the type of attacker we need…. young and already ready to play
Great upside!

China1

For a club with 250m to spend it seems like only a backup LB is not the summer we were expecting… Shouldn’t be that hard for us to close some deals if we genuinely have serious money to spend I like the look of this LB tho. He and Lokonga look like clever signings and I have high hopes for both to at worst add value to our squad and at best make a notable impact. If we are doubling a silly wad on one or two players like white I at least feel better seeing us spending cleverly on… Read more »

China1

Guns the problem is how do you fix fear and insecurity? 1) you can have more exposure to it. Like in London where it’s so diverse that people become very familiar with ethnic and cultural differences – on the other hand when people go from being a majority to a minority, this can make them feel under threat as many working class white people do now 2) you can educate people more – we are already doing this plenty at school, university and most institutions but apparently it’s not working for everyone 3) you can focus more resources on helping… Read more »

Godfather

I’m sorry but why does someone need to be educated about being a bigot? I mean this is like God raining down blessings and someone willingly choosing to wear a raincoat. What education does a person need to be informed that racism is wrong? Or using monkey or demeaning slurs is wrong? Sorry I’m done with being kind to bigots. The only language these kinda people understand is the stern arm of the law. When they lose employment or face time in jail then guess what, they will conform quickly. We are in 2021, there is absolutely no excuse to… Read more »

China1

Godfather ofc but what you’re describing are hammers which we can use to smash the symptoms of racism (there’s a perfectly good case for those, law enforcement, social media banning etc etc) But we also need to address the root causes. Why do people turn out that way? We can use a hammer to hit this problem hard and put them back in their box but so long as they remain racist they will remain bubbling under the surface until the next chance comes along to let them back out But don’t get me wrong, by all means the law… Read more »

TheGodfather

With all due respect China1, a child acting out and adults in 2021 resorting to racial abuse just don’t jive with me.
Again there has to be zero tolerance and no excuse for this kinda behavior PERIOD!
Yes my friend it’s that bloody serious!
Racism is a cancer and you don’t play around with it, you cut it out!

The days of tip toeing around the issue have to be over … you cross the line, you get the hammer: End of story!

Enough is bloody enough!

Guns of SF

People will think their civil rights and freedom of speech will be stepped on. Sometimes these personal rights need to be kept in check. There are boundaries we need as a healthy society- so freedom of speech is only protected to a certain degree.
I like the UK in this regard, you can get arrested for making racial comments, fired and hung out to dry for the public. not in america though! GO figure!

We just show the racists on the FB, insta etc…

We had a president that was a complete racist FFS

Tee

Finally, Balogun got his shirt number for the first team

Goobergooner

It’s a tough gig losing in a final.
But what happened to sportsmanship? Seeing this happen more and more now with the runners up medal. That Is still something to be proud of, as much as you hate losing.
I’m not just accusing England here. So don’t shoot me for having an opinion.

Guns of SF

Rodrigo De Paul and Dani Olmo would have been stellar for us…
100M – but so worth it!!!

Goobergooner

Guns, that’s why we won’t get them haha

Pierre

Arteta has a job on his hands in trying to keep the team spirit positive.. One of his strengths over the last couple of years has been his ability to bullshit the fans and media and many have fallen for the bullshit. He will need to go heavy on the bullshit to the players in the next few months unless he manages to offload at least 5 players (possibly more) before the window closes.. Bellerin, Xhaka, Lacazette, Willian , Torreira, nketiah, Nelson, Kolasinac to name but few , will not be going into the new season with an appetite to… Read more »

Leftside

I can only see Xhaka and maybe Bellerin leaving and incidentally, those are the players that have requested moves away from the club.

Sid

We are 8th because mediocre players like Laca and Xhakalson have been tolerated for so long, instead of taking chances with players like Willock and Martinelli

Tee

“Bellerin, Xhaka, Lacazette, Willian , Torreira, nketiah, Nelson, Kolasinac”

Except for lacazette, the rest can f**k off. Not like they are needed anyway.

Sid

“””””””””GodfatherJuly 13, 2021 00:31:31
Reading some of the Rubbish here is turning my stomach. It’s no surprise that racism continues to bloody thrive.“Kneeling serves no purpose”
“Leave politics out of sports”
“It’s just a minority of fans”
“Focus on the football”
“Anyone would get abuse if they missed a pk””””””””””””

The 2 faced, stiff upper lip exposing themselves

Mr Serge

I am in agreement with Sid on this one

Mr Serge

Left side there will be movement in the market now all the football has finished xhaka will have another week off and will then do one hopefully

Sid

Economic policies perpetuate racist systems. The market prefers systems that uphold the status quo of wealth i.e Empire.

Chika

What purpose does taking the knee serve and for how long would the players keep doing it? As long as the relevant authorities continue to treat racism with levity, it would remain a menace. Sadly, the current noise will fade away until the next major incident.

Sid

Let people mourn any way the feel relieves their pain.

Sid

As long as its not indescent exposure

curse

Sid@8.27.20

well said, the closest to the root I’ve seen so far.

raptora

The Euros has ended less than 48 h ago, and I’m already football-starved.

Emiratesstroller

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Arsenal are considered a “soft touch” in the transfer market whenever a player wishes to leave us or more importantly the club wants to offload a player. We are struggling to generate transfer fees from the “departures”. Part of the problem was of course down to the grossly inflated wages we paid some of our players most notably Ozil and Mkhitaryan, but the situation was also highlighted by the ease in which Arsenal seemed also to capitulate when “loans” were proposed. The situation seems to be happening once again this season. We have loaned… Read more »

Leftside

Whos going to take the likes of Arteta and Edu seriously though? Would you?

englandsbest

Godfather You are right in every way – so why can’t we respect each other, no matter what race, colour or creed? The answer to that is simple: it’s in our DNA. I might add it’s the reason why we go to war, fight for our country, cheer on our national side, etc, etc. It’s a defence mechanism against what we perceive as dangerous. The driving force of evolution that has brought Mankind dominion of this planet. So what kind of society would we have to be to respect each other utterly? Not one, I would hazard, that we would… Read more »

raptora

Stroller,
You’ve talked about it before as well, using Xhaka as a squadie like Elneny. I’ve told you before, he will never accept that role imo. He wants to play week in, week out. Keeping him to play second fiddle is just not an option like it wasn’t with Emi Martinez. It just isn’t.

Roma are offering £13m pounds and we want £20m. I believe the two clubs will meet in the middle and it will be a good deal for both clubs.

Valentin

Englandbest,

I am sure that the Uighurs, the Mongols, the Tibetans and basically any non Han ethnie feel respected by the Chinese authority.

Even North Korea is not that homogeneous ethnic group you seems to think.

You seems to confuse respect and social cohesion.

Emiratesstroller

Raptora

I have not suggested using Xhaka as a “squad” player. I have suggested “rotating” him.

It does not matter what Roma or Xhaka may want. The player has two years left on his contract so Arsenal should still be in driving seat.

Elneny is in his final year of his contract and frankly should not be in our first team squad.

We need to stop the culture of capitulating every time someone comes calling for a player.

Rich

We’re in an awful negotiating position Very few clubs in mainland Europe have money, we’ve got no European football, our squad is too big, and we need players to leave, before we can bring some in I think KSE will invest this summer, providing we can clear players out, but without clearing the decks to make some space in the squad, investment becomes impossible Leno, Runarsson, Okonkwo Bellerin, Soares, Chambers Tierney, Kolasinac, Tavares Saliba, Holding Gabriel, Mari Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, Niles Partey, Lokonga? Smith-Rowe, Willock Willian, Saka, Nelson, Pepe Martinelli, Aubameyang Lacazette, Nketiah, Balogun 30 players is far too many,… Read more »

Sid

Racism is an acquired trait, one that comes not from some tiny bit of our genetic code, but from our upbringing

raptora

I know what you mean but he’s either seen as first choice or not. It’s clear as day he is one of the players that want to be first choice. Your idea of him playing second fiddle cannot work.

Even if he says yes, keeping Xhaka would mean our midfield transfers are practically over with Lokonga’s acquisition. We’d be in absolutely the same position as last season. Or you think we bring someone like Ruben Neves to “rotate” with Xhaka?

It’s bad any way you look at it.

Danny

raptora
July 13, 2021 10:05:56

The Euros has ended less than 48 h ago, and I’m already football-starved.
——————
We’re playing Hibernian today.

China1

Godfather you’re missing the point I don’t say be soft. I’m saying you have to play whackamole whilst simultaneously taking action to reduce the number of moles who want to pop up in your garden It’s like taking medicine for an illness. Medicine for a serious illness is necessary but not putting yourself into a position to catch said serious illness is equally if not more important No one is saying be soft. I’m saying running around with a hammer means you’ll be busy forever wondering why there are so many moles to hit all the time. The number might… Read more »

Mulerise14

Pedro, I’ll like to know if Miguel Azeez’s contract situation… who is highly rated by the club, and from the “lil videos I have watched of him, he is quite the midfielder.. I don’t know if a’body remembers his only cameo last season in Europa league match,he looked quite confident kinda.

englandsbest

valentin

You seem to confuse ‘respect’ with ‘disrespect’

Emiratesstroller

Rich Roma have offered £10 million for Patricio a 33 year old goalkeeper in final year of contract. Yet they are only willing to offer us £13.5 million for Xhaka who is 28 years old and has still 2 years to run on contract. Inter Milan have just sold Hakimi for mega bucks and yet seem to think that Arsenal should offload Bellerin on a loan without obligation to buy. Guendouzi has been loaned out to Marseille with an obligation to buy, but only if he plays a set number of games. You know how that is going to end.… Read more »

raptora

Danny,
Shiiiiiiieet… Let’s go!