So, we’re entering the final run of the transfer window. This is where things will likely get a little bit rough for the impatient among us.
There are two positions that are a priority for Arsenal. The absolute guarantee you can make is that Arsenal is going to sign themselves a #10. This is happening, do not fear, we’re going to bring someone into that role. I think the two priorities are likely Martin Odegaard, who comes with complications… and possibly James Maddison, who will also be tough to wrestle from Leicester primarily because there’s a lot of money needed to move on him. It’s not in doubt though, the window will not end without a name there.**
**Worth noting a snippet of news that slinked out a couple of days ago. Maddison apparently has a 15% sell on clause in his contract, inserted by Norwich. Emi Buendia was a target for Arsenal, we shied away, I suspect that sort of sell-on clause was pushed our way and we said no. Rightly so at £40m, if you were lucky enough to resell him at £60m, you’d be handing over £9m, taking your profit to £11m. Anyway, main point here, we’ve already made moves on a #10, it’s part of the budget.
The next position the club will likely work hard to work on is right back. This is where it’ll be tough for fans, because it’ll be a one in one out situation here (maybe even two out). Bellerin is with his agent in London right now, likely trying to loosen the vice we have on his tenure here… Arsenal want a sale, Hector is a known quantity, he’s at his peak, and PSG apparently offered £30m for him last season. Then you have Cedric or Cal Chambers, who’d probably struggle to find a buyer, but one will have to move for on loan for Arsenal to sanction cash for a new right back.
Central midfield is where things might make us a little sad. The Granit Xhaka contract stories yesterday were a bolt from the blue. I have no idea what is going on there or whether it’s true… but here’s what is likely a fact. Arteta likes Xhaka, he doesn’t see him as a major problem, so if he stays, he’ll be fine. Roma is clearly interested, but if they don’t pony up, Arsenal would rather keep him around than sanction a shite deal that stifles their ability to replace him. This position, 100%, is a one in one out as things stand. If you want Bruno to replace Xhaka, there will have to be an actual fee for Granit.
It’s the same story in attack. David Ornstein just shared that Arsenal moved really did move on Lautaro Martínez… BUT… they wanted to see if they were interested in taking Lacazette in return. Which was a big fat no by the sounds of things. We can’t add to our striking unit if there’s no space for talent.
I see a lot of ‘ARTETA SAID HE’D BE RUTHLESS THIS SUMMER’ and I remember the quotes well. But part of being ruthless is telling other clubs to give you actual money for your good players. Granit gave a very good showing last season, he had a top Euros, he’s 28 years old, we cannot be accepting £12m for him (even though many of us would like to)… because we have needs as a club as well. If Roma is not serious, they’ll have to look elsewhere.
I think where you will see movement very shortly is with some of the English players. Ainsley, Reiss, Eddie and Willock are all likely going to have to find themselves new clubs and it does appear there is a bit of interest in all of them.
‘WHAT ABOUT RAMSDALE’ well, this quote from Arteta yesterday gives you a little bit of a view into Arsenal’s approach this summer.
“Ben is an intelligent defender who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet and his style fits perfectly with us. And of course, he is still young, so his age and profile fits with what we are building here. We are all looking forward to Ben being central to our future long-term plans.”
This summer, so far, has not looked like a typical Edu run out in the park. It looks like the analysts are finally having a bigger say on who we sign. Ben White took everyone by surprise because most normal fans weren’t looking at him last season, but he clearly has a set of unique talents we need. Sambi Lokonga, a player who seems to have it all, was on not one soul’s radar this summer. Tavares is raw, but he looks like he has all the qualities to be a top talent. Arsenal is identifying the qualities they need for our system and acting on them. I have no idea what they are looking at in Ramsdale, but they seem to have found something they think is valuable to our system and it’s not a recco from the keeping coach.
Obviously, the big question you have then is… are the analysts any good? We’ll see, but if it’s a choice of Ramsdale because they’ve found something others aren’t looking at, or Neto, because a palm has been greased somewhere, I’ll go with the smarts (as long as it’s a very good price and I don’t for one minute believe we’re offering £36m). White, Lokonga and Tavares look like smart buys, Ramsdale is a confusing one, but let’s see what it’s all about. Main point here… it’s a new day and the ideas will absolutely have been thought through based on a profile not a favour.
So, to conclude, outside a CAM that will definitely arrive, we’re at the phase of the summer where incoming players will only happen if exits accompany them. It’s frustrating, but one of the biggest issues last season was having senior players without squad places, and the toxic waste it causes to the whole club. Edu cannot allow that to happen again this summer, so he’ll have to get his Romford Market selling hat on and start moving some bodies.
Only thing you can take a positive from is that the market really isn’t in free flow at the moment, no club is selling deadwood for millions, and none of the clubs that usually buy it up have been spending. Just be happy that KSE is actually pushing cash around this summer, because if this apology tour wasn’t happening, we’d be bumming around like we did last year moving nowhere fast.
£110m is likely going to be the top out of expenditure (assuming £40m for CAM), we’ll need to raise cash for anything else from there. That’s an educated guess btw, but not bad considering we finished 8th and have no Europe.
Fingers crossed the summer is going to kick up with some sales, we need them.
Charlie
I generally avoid having a pop at posters. More interested in talking Arsenal and football in general than individuals on this blog. I have no problem with anyone supporting Arteta either. Just couldn’t help but react to a few instances of flip flops/U-turns but yeah will try harder to not to react to anything including flip flops/U-turns.
Pierre
Will be very interesting to see if Partey and Lokonga look good against Spurs and Chelsea in pre-season. I bloody hope they do, we need them to.
Chris
” but it sure looked good in the early few games”
I know le grove hate to admit it, but it is no coincidence that the quality of our football took a downward turn with the freezing out of Ozil from the squad.
Ozil was the catalyst for everything that was good in our game going forward and the team missed his onfield influence.
Early Arteta football
https://youtu.be/Q-Ni8y7ih-k
Pierre – if be happy for us to go full project youth, but I think 8th would be a stretch next season; were probably struggle in the bottom half for some portion of it. I would be fine with that as of trust enough of these players to come good and make us competitive over the course of 2 or 3 years. I doubt many would be happy to wait that long. The big problem at arsenal is not that we don’t spend money, it’s just that we spend it so stupidly on big wages and sometimes transfer fees. We… Read more »
You’re in good company with Marko and TYAG, know that.
Tbf it’s more than 3 people who think you’re dishonest and a hypocrite
Laca, Auba, Pepe are good players. Come to think of it, those backing Arteta who sets up his team without creativity are the same people criticising the above mentioned players for not scoring or perform poorly. Auba I understand as human as he is went through some moments in his life which was difficult aside reporting late for the NLD.
TR7 I have a feeling it will be a Partey /Elneny at the start of the season which is fair enough as we do need stability in our early games and they will give us that as the early fixtures are quite tough. Lakonga , i am hoping will play in the league cup and will be integrated into the first team with 20 minute cameos in the first half of the season and gradually cement a place in the starting line up.. In saying that , i would love Arteta to show faith in Lakonga and start him in… Read more »
Davi “Pierre – if be happy for us to go full project youth, but I think 8th would be a stretch next season; were probably struggle in the bottom half for some portion of it.” How i look at it is , all our youth players are final 3rd players so I don’t think it will affect the stability in the side.. Arteta plays 2 holding midfielders and the back 4 is pretty solid , so he could try any 4 from Pepe, Saka, Smith Rowe, Balogun , Nketiah, Martinelli , Willock and it wouldn’t affect the balance on the… Read more »
Tr7 having a cracking few weeks on Le Grove.
As for Charlie, no wonder why he rates Arteta,
All over the place.
Arsenal v European Champs later.
I ll be on William, Elneny, Runarsson and Sead K watch.
Any of them get minutes- Arteta’ ruthless’ mantra all more typical bullshite.
He wanted a full pre season- he now has one.
Excuses are out!
What was the point of the manager revealing that he asked Saka about how good Ben White was before signing him?
That didn’t come across as very professional not considered deeply
I guess that’s what happens when a club fires most of it’s scouts and relies of newbies for leadership
Pierre – fair point. I was thinking if you’re throwing players like Azeez and patino into the midfield as well, along with Lokonga, who I think will grow into the season but don’t see as the finished article yet. Likewise Saliba in defence
Still think we’d struggle with fatigue over a season and against bigger sides (both figuratively and literally)
A good strategy for any club would be to buy young players with potential and have an experienced manager who knows how to get the best out of them. That way you either win things with the players who have matured together, or worst case, you can sell them off for profit and re-invest.
But Chumpagne here is batting for the exact opposite.Appoint a rookie manager, and spend on ready made expensive players to prop him up.
Amazin’ (not really)
China
Friendly vs Chelsea timing is 3pm BST
“ Hello!
Good afternoon and welcome to the Evening Standard’s LIVE coverage of the Mind Series pre-season friendly between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Kick-off is at 3pm BST. We have Simon Collings there for us.”
Champagne Charlie thinks ESR and Saka arent ready yet but Saka was integral to England going all the way to the final and ESR has been officially given the number #10 but we shouldnt pin hopes on them to make us top 4 ? Quite strange position to take .
Only an idiot will pin a top 4 hope Solely on kids
The kids must be managed well so as not to run them down
lineups for the game?
Cheers Asoa
Bros where are we getting the stream later???
Are we doing a YouTube run again? Worked for that game 2 weeks ago!
I agree with Pierre – we’ll start with Partey / Elneny assuming no other CM is bought. BUT I suspect we will see Lokonga as a sub for Elneny after say 60 mins
Azeez is the more interesting prospect and he will take longer to integrate – probably in less high profile matches.
Actually reading a posters comments is not a strong point for many on here. Also, this ridiculous notion that you support Arteta just because you don’t hate him, like many of the usual suspects on here is just embarrassing
I really hope we see Patino being introduced at some point – if we don’t buy a CAM then it is more likely.
Tee we also only have ‘kids’ in management. They too don’t have anyone who knows what they’re doing to hold their hand. Applies just as much to them but with even greater significance and consequences
Pls no el neny. We will learn nothing playing him there. Just give lokonga a chance. El neny is a known quantity and unless it’s Thursday night he’s average.
Matt – too many people on here spend all their time being obsessed with Arteta. The dementors would be doing the same with any manager we appointed unless he went through an entire season unbeaten and won the treble. I do believe he should have gone after Villareal but we are where we are and now I see no point looking back. This is his make or break season and as a fan of AFC I sincerely hope its a make. Yet you’d think from reading the posts that a lot of people on here are wishing for the opposite… Read more »
China, streams for the match:
https://www.totalsportek.com/arsenal-streams-two/
What was the point of the manager revealing that he asked Saka about how good Ben White was before signing him?
All part of the data and analytics that drives our recruitment probably…that or Mikel hasn’t a clue
China – I have high hopes for Lokonga but realistically his name not on the teamsheet for Chelsea and Man City prem matches. By Xmas we’ll barely remember who Elneny is
Actually forgot Elneny is still here and likely to see a lot of game time this season. Oof
F1 has the most stupid administrators. Shacklebound by tradition they cannot find a way to put on a show that is actual racing. Why should it make sense to have £10 million cars ruined before even 500m of the race has been run. The fastest man gets put in front and the slowest man at the back. If this were the Olympics they would put the fastest runners in the semifinals 5m in front of the slowest and expect a race. Next they will claim to be trying to find a way to reduce teams costs. How about avoiding a… Read more »
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Arteta asking Saka about his opinion of Ben White since they were both in the England squad for the Euros. Only a complete retard would moan about such.
Please does anyone have a link to the game
Elneny starts . ugh.
Try
sportlemon.live
Footybite.com
Usually plenty of links on there
Leno | Tierney, Mari, Holding, Chambers | Partey, Elneny | Aubameyang, Smith-Rowe, Pépé | Lacazette
Substitutes from: Runarsson, Okonkwo, Bellerin, Cedric, Kolašinac, Maitland-Niles, White, Tavares, Lokonga, Xhaka, Nelson, Willock, Nketiah, Willian
Chelsea starting lineup (3-4-3):
Mendy | Rüdiger (c), Chalobah, Zouma | Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Kovačić, Hudson-Odoi | Werner, Havertz, Ziyech
Thanks Cezan
Just seen the team sheet and it’s basically the same team from last season. We have spent about £75m and you could argue that those signings don’t really move as forward as a team.
There’s no noise about CM, CAM & ST, positions that are vital to us challenging for top 4 and if the CAM ends up being Odegard, status quo does really remain the same.
I actually think Arteta asking Saka is a smart move. If he intends to build a team for the future around Saka then he did the right thing.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this was last season.
What if Saka said he is rubbish
where’s the Gun?
Pierre, if Saka said that he’d be going out on loan
It’s not asking Saka that’s the problem, it’s publicly revealing that he asked Saka.
That’s as silly as Southgate having Saka take the 5th penalty kid.
The kid has enough on his plate. Don’t add more to it.
*5th penalty kick
“too many people on here spend all their time being obsessed with Arteta. The dementors would be doing the same with any manager we appointed unless he went through an entire season unbeaten and won the treble.”
We finished eighth for two consecutive seasons, and out of Europe after 25 years.
If you expect Arsenal fans to be perfectly satisfied by those results, maybe you’re supporting the wrong club, my friend.
Northbanker: Agree with you completely — hoping things work out. I also think Xhaka will go and that we’ll get a replacement and someone like MO. If that happens and we move others out permanently and on loan, then we’re good to go and fighting for 4th…
Diss: I hardly think anyone will blame Saka if it all goes tits-up for White
Globalgunner
That’s how life is. You can’t expect the fastest drivers to be at the back. The most fair is probably to have everyone level at the start.
But since that’s impossible due to the size of the tracks, I think this is probably the next best solution. And again, the front spots in any race are not automatic. Drivers have to qualify for it.
It’s like saying great managers/players should go to shit clubs to ‘prove’ themselves. Not gonna happen.
Cedric reported to have been enjoying a good pre-season yet doesn’t start…Elneny has looked distinctly average and finds himself starting!
No sign of either Azeez or Balogun on the subs bench yet we will inevitably have to endure the appearances of the dreadful Kolasinac,Gunnarsson,Bellerin and Willian as well as other members of the “Arsenal Deadwood Society”.
prvhc: If Northbanker is like some of the rest of us on here, he’ll have been supporting Arsenal for a long time — long enough not to throw his toys out the pram when we don’t finish top 4.
Some of us are prepared to wait and see what happens. Seems like there’s more of a plan than there has been for a long while and it’s clear MA doesn’t play the same kind of turgid shite we saw with Emery
Cedric is reportedly off to Turkey. Azeez played yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4AZiULtnbA
“Seems like there’s more of a plan than there has been for a long while and it’s clear MA doesn’t play the same kind of turgid shite we saw with Emery”
What’s the plan ? And we don’t play better football now than we did under Emery, especially in his first season.
”clear MA doesn’t play the same kind of turgid shite we saw with Emery”
It’s definitely not clear. Quite the opposite.
William on the wings and Forever Elneny. At least play
Given who we’ve bought and will stick with — Gabriel; Partey; Longka; Tavares; White — it looks as though we’re targeting young, (Partey excluded), athletic , ball-players.
We’ve signed up all our promising young talent and their is a desire to rid ourselves of as many unwanted players that we can
Arteta, knows what he wants to do and who he needs to do it. Might not work out, but as I say, that looks like a plan to me
I must be watching a different Arsenal because we play very shit, slow football with an annoying voice barking every instruction from the sideline.
Awesome start
Arteta in
Links people …links
web site wont allow any on line match passes to be bought, classic Arsenal
Elneny is acting as a millstone around ESR ankles. Just is neither fast ,nor intelligent to read. Fumbles and stumbles along. Looks Arteta still looks same
TP looks really good.
Lol
Thanks for the YouTube link
I got a Chinese official stream
Matt’s definitely been drinking the Kool aid if he thinks there’s a plan
The stadium looks quite full.
Chelsea in their stride look well drilled. We might only get something on a break
Baldings passing way off so far
No new signings in either team
Was looking forward to Franz White pulling the progression strings from CB, shame he didn’t start.
MattB
Fair enough.
Let’s see if the ‘plan’ is put into action. How much time would you give to see if it’s working, considering it took a year and a half to even start implementing it.
Auba got a goal and did his somersault
Benny bianco on the bench
Sorry had switched to what was a simulation channel
https://www.twitch.tv/arsenalpresser
Thought Saka right and Pepe on the left was a better setup.
Why not start him there ?
2 on 1.
Yikes Robbie Holding what happened to yer hair laddie
prvhc: Cheers — think we’ll have a good idea if things are working out by how we’re playing in the first 6-10 games. As long as we’re playing the kind of football we all want to see (and accepting that we might not get anything much against Chelsea and Mac City).
I’d like to see us beat Spurs in those games too, but as long as we’re playing fast attacking football and none of the ponderous playing it out slowly from the back that we saw for a bit of last season, I’ll be happy…
Werner is the worst shooter to ever be a nailed on CF starter in a CL winning team I’m telling you
Stupid defending
Timo Werner gets a goal
Rob Holding getting sucked into midfield when both fullbacks are upfield is quite something. Leaves Mari wide open.
Elneny totally numb to what’s going on as per.
Arteta’s Arsenal useless as usual. Both CF pushing up at the same time, elhneny with no legs to cover up. Arteta is a curse
Perry Groves going crazy over Arsenals defending … Rank amateurish play in the final end of the field
Prcv because… reasons
It’s gonna be a long season
I pity those looking forward to a better season, you lot better take care of your health
I am Optimistic.
If we just cut out the silly mistakes at the back – which Pedro has promised us is the master plan – we would still be drawing with the European champions.
Smith rowe is the unluckiest kid ever with goals
I said this just the other day
People talk like he doesn’t striker the ball well when in reality he hits it really well but hits the post or the keeper or defenders make a worldie
Thanks CC no viruses on that link.
This is Ridiculous … Arsenal cut open again.
Werner back to normal and hits the side netting when through
Take off el neny at half time and balding.
Let’s have lokonga and bianco and get this too 4 party started
Btw partey looks immense today
See how easily Chelsea goes past us,, Arteta learns nothing, he hasn’t learned a thing. If only Timo is a player, wouldn’t he have scored the second goal? Arteta is a generational failure
Aside from Tierney we have no backline pace yet we still keep playing a high line with no on ball pressure
MattB
Do you think we’ve played anything close to fast, attacking football under Arteta to date ?
Quite a few of the comments recently have been foucsed on Saka, ESR and Martinelli etc. If anyone remembers Alan Hansen’s comment ‘you can’t win anything with kids’, it fits quite well with our current situation. Man United, with youngsters Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt and the Nevilles playing prominent roles, won the league in 1996-1997 and Hansen was mocked. What people conveniently forget is that United had the great Schmeichel (33) in goal, a world-class left back in Denis Irwin (31), two experienced CBs in Pallister (31) and May (26) and a couple of guys called Roy Keane (25) and… Read more »
Thomas Partey looks like he’s going to have a great season. It’d be a shame if we can’t get a proper partner for him.