ANOTHER CONTRACT SIGNED + HOW WELL IS EVERYONE ELSE SELLING?

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Another promising young player has committed their future to the new Arsenal FC. Kido Taylor Hart will drop a full season with the U23s this season whilst also being given time to train with the first team.

This is a coup for the system Per Mertesacker is setting up and it once again speaks to the new vision of Arsenal.

Young players, great coaching, fast-track to the first team if they do well. This is how clubs in our situation should be operating.

Granit Xhaka, as it currently stands, will be an Arsenal player heading into the new season. The Swiss was attracting interest from Roma, they apparently bid £10m for him, we turned it down because that level of compensation would have impacted our ability to move on other players this window.

I was kind of hoping the player moved on this summer, Xhaka feels like a hangover from the dark years of Arsene Wenger. I think that sentiment is shared by a lot of the fans. We all wanted to see a Locatelli at the carpet.

Not Arteta. He likes the player. This summer was never supposed to be about selling Xhaka, but the club was willing to do so if a proper fee was sent out way. £10m is no good if you need £40m to replace. We’re trying to move on a number of additional positions that need more attention than the one he normally occupies. If you take £30m out of the pot, that’s less money for a right-back, keeper, and CAM position. However you want to cut it, Xhaka was not a massive problem last season. When he dropped into defence, we weren’t as good.

Also worth noting that whoever we put there was going to be a problem. United is being linked hard with Reuben Neves, a player that the Arsenal fanbase went nuts over… but not United fans, who seem to be very excited about him. The role Xhaka plays is unsexy, but if he plays like he did last season, I don’t think we’ll be in bad shape, especially if he’s next to Thomas Partey.

The longer-term view is the one I’m paying attention to. Miguel Azeez has bulked up over the summer and he looks like he’ll be competing for the first team very soon, he scored another screamer over the weekend. Then you have Lokonga, one of the most exciting midfield prospects in Europe, who clearly can do a lot of things Xhaka can do and more. Don’t be shocked if our midfield pairing is Lokonga and Partey by January. The Belgian is not here as bench fodder.

The thing that really needs to kick up a gear in the next few weeks is transfer exits. People keep on saying that we’re not being ‘ruthless’ enough and I really don’t think they understand what they are talking about. What does get ruthless about selling mean? Like… force sales? To clubs with no money? Annul contracts?

So far this window, total sales from bigger clubs.

  • Chelsea: 4 players
  • United: 0 players
  • Spurs: 2 players
  • Everton: 1 players
  • Leicester: 0 players
  • West Ham: 1 player
  • Manchester City: 3 players

How about some of the smaller clubs?

  • Aston Villa: 1 player
  • Palaces: 0 players
  • Sheffield United: 0 players
  • Newcastle United: 0 players

Source: Transfermarkt

Notice the pattern? Selling players isn’t about being ruthless unless you think we should do another round of selling players for painfully low fees or we should just give free transfers to players the club thinks have value.

The market is dead. There’s a nasty combination of no one having money and no one wanting to sell the crown jewels to get the market going. If the best ‘selling’ club in the Premier League is CFC with a whopping total of 4 exits, then you know the market is totally fucked.

I suspect another consideration at play is a ‘it’ll brighten up next year’ mindset. Base premise of a portfolio manager, buy low, sell high. Why should Arsenal sell Hector Bellerin for peanuts at 26 years old? If the market bounces back next summer, he might have more than one club vying for his services.

What we’re waiting to find out is if clubs will start to show their hand a little more in the coming weeks. No good heading into a new season with no recruits. Clubs need to have players in the door. Ainsley, Reiss, Willock, and Eddie are very capable young players that would add value to plenty of squads. I expect (hope) there to be moves for them coming soon.

Lacazette, who seems open to a move, would add goals to any squad in Italy, France or Spain. Clubs will need goals and might move on him. Cal Chamber, Cedric, and Hector would be decent for certain sides.

These next two weeks are going to have to perk up for everyone because a market only works if there are lots of participants.

One thing to keep in mind: Arsenal won’t go into the season without a CAM or a back-up keeper. I think moves on a right back and a striker are going to be provisioned on exits.

So… plenty of summer still to come, just don’t blame the sluggishness all on Arsenal. I’m more than willing to go at the club, but you can’t look at a lack of movement without looking at the market as a whole… because a market and its health is predicated on active participants. You can’t sell if no one wants to buy.

Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.

P.S. I hope that picture of Thomas Partey out in Paddington was from yesterday, because he wasn’t limping around, and that is good news.

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Marko

Stroller you seem like you need some help understanding and don’t worry I got you bud. Difference being Man City and Man United have better squads and can afford to spend that much on players and even afford to fuck up a signing or too cause they got a fuck tonne of money and they can always spend money to an address their squads. Meanwhile at Arsenal we got a shit midfield, a poor attack and could do with a starting RB and a new goalkeeper we’re basically a mess so we can’t really afford to spend 52 million on… Read more »

Zacharse

CC
I’ll gladly charter one for kola bell and neny if thats all it takes!

Zacharse

Xhaka too if im honest

Dissenter

I can imagine the city executives are stocked up on antacids to help them through dealing with Daniel Levi
‘Manchester City are £40m short of Tottenham’s £160m asking price for England striker Harry Kane, 27’

That saga will be fun to watch

Zacharse

Shit id charter a 747 if it meant someone bought xhaka for 20m

Dissenter

Lokonga won’t do too poorly.
Happy the lad will get.a chance to stake a claim, that is if Mikel trusts him ahead of Elneny.

Zacharse

Marko
You might be right that we got taken advantage of but if he winds up looking like a 50m defender for half that contract length i think most will be happy

Dissenter

Zachaese
You better still yourself to the fact that Xhaka is staying.He’s back home.

Zacharse

Too hard to swallow right now diss, im looking up plane prices

Marko

Zach that’s not the point at all. We could have gotten him for less and he could have ended up the same way. We could have gotten Upamecano or Konate a year or two ago. Hell Matteus Ginter has a year left on his contract and he’s a highly rated German international. There’s a load of ways we could have gone about getting a CB this summer and we picked arguably the least beneficial

Marko

Zach the only thing that saves the White signing for me is if it was part of a splurge a real spending spree an overhaul an attempt to address many areas in the squad but it doesn’t look that way instead it looks like 52 million on a CB and having to make do in other areas and maybe a possible late move for Odegaard.

Zacharse

Youve got a point marko. The only upside is that he is EPL ready, same way stones and maguure were (arguably). Upa was always going to bayern tho no? Not a lot to be done there imo…

Zacharse

Zahaland.
Nice pun

Rich

To lose both Partey + Gabriel in pre-season, is a massive blow 2 players I was hoping would kick on this season, really highlights how fragile our squad is to a couple of injuries, in spite of our squad bursting at the seams with players An adequate second choice keeper, and a quality attacking midfielder, are the bare minimum requirements But we could really do with a quality central midfielder as well, Elneny needs upgrading significantly Holding, Mari, or any of our right backs don’t exactly fill me with confidence either If you take 2-3 of Partey, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Tierney,… Read more »

RockyRoe

Moriba will turn into a world beater. I have no doubt. He will be 70 million in 2/3 years. If have to atleast try and see if we can land him, promise of more playing time might steer him our way than city or Chelsea. 100k is a lot but the guy is a complete midfielder. In 2/3 years him/lokonga/esr will make a formidable midfield. One that will not really depend on shoein roles like 6/8/10s, a fluid, total football sort of.a setup.

NWM

“PedroAugust 2, 2021 22:48:53 NWM, he played Saka and ESR in most of the games back end of the season, not sure he’s bothered about age if the player can do a job.” Saka was established in the team before Arteta arrived. Smith Rowe only got a chance because Arteta finally realized Willian was a mistake and he had no other serious options for a CAM, As you have noted elsewhere, Arteta loves Xhaka. It will probably take a Willian like patch of form for Arteta to replace Xhaka. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a Partey/Lokonga… Read more »

Dissenter

All this drama from people
If Partey’s injury was anywhere as bad as people are making out, he would be leaving the stadium in orthopedic boot and would need crutches.

Zacharse

Evidently joaquin correa has handed in a transfer request…
Is that good news for us?

Pedro

His rep now saying we shouldn’t panic

Pedro

NVM, if he cared about experience he’d not have dropped Ozil from the squad and kept The Smith. He’d also not have signed 3 players 23 or under so far. Young guys are the future.

China1

I don’t really get offering 100m for Lukaku when it probably wouldn’t cost much more than that to get Haaland.

China1

Where actually is torreira?

I assume he went to the copa America? Seems odd if he’s still not back in training since I gather no one is buying/loaning him yet

China1

Oh Charlie he’s going to Spain? I guess it’s a loan

China1

Yeah no chance of partey lokonga at the start of the season due to partey frequently being injured and also the moment sambi has a bad game he’ll get dropped to teach him a lesson and reinstate the hair

The earliest chance of those two having a long time partnership will be after the afcon, if partey is fit. Even that’s in doubt.

China1

Ofc they might play a few games together as Gabriel and holding did at CB at the start of last season

Just wait for that bad game drop tho lol

China1

So partey is already out for the first month of the season

If you have any doubts… if you need any experience playing against teams like Chelsea, city etc… it’s going to be xhakaneny

China1

Romano saying we really really want ode

We already guessed that but still

It’s very possible we will spend 100+m this summer and the only change to our starting 11 is white at CB

DivineSherlock

I dare anyone to bring 3 qualities that Xhaka brings to the team . And no leadership doesnt count.

Tony

“Diss, Levy doesn’t have much leverage” And we have leverage Pedro? When was the last time we had leverage for a player we wanted to sell or buy? Certainly not White we paid £20m over the top for a player with one decent season behind him and still got our arse smacked with being forced to add a 20% sell on clause. Something we never seem to be able to do for players leaving us. Definitely not Willian because he spanked Arteta with his contract. Most of our best players wanted to leave Wenger because of lack of ambition in… Read more »

Tony

If we really wanted Oder, China RM stated their price a week or so ago. Yet no bid has been made either for real or click bait. Must be because we blew our wad on White. LG Read this morning that not only has Arteta made the public u-turn on Xhaka but now it’s reported that Arteta and Edu have done a u-turn on Bellerin as well. Aren’t we lucked to have such a decisive manager. I’m going to do my first flip flop on this blog since joining years ago. #Xhaka and Bellierin in. Why? Because the combination of… Read more »

Leftside

Literally does feel like we’ll try our luck with Ode (yawn) and that’s your lot.

Gonsterous

China

If we did go into next season with the same team, it will be up to arteta to improve them.

Wasn’t that one of the things we were told would happen if arteta came? That he would have everyone performing better like he improved sterling, or can he only improve players that are elite.

the more I see of arteta, the more I feel, sterling was going to improve with or without arteta. Arteta was just beside him at the right time in his career it seems.

Gonsterous

Okay we can’t sell xhaka but why reward him for that with a new contract.
Wtf is going on at the club.
Next we will offer laca a new contract 100%

China1

Hang on a minute Before xhaka was sold we already had a 38m bid on the table for loca The expectation was we’d get 17m for xhaka Now we’re to believe if we sold him for as low as 10m that we’d be incapable of signing a quality replacement. Who knew that 7m is so critical to us and apparently cannot be made up from any other sales? Not only that since loca isn’t joining we could just as well be looking at other players in that ball park for pricing instead possibly a little cheaper. The real issue is… Read more »

China1

Gonsterous I bet you a martinelli, saliba, AMN, guen, Nelson that his ability to develop existing players will leave us all disappointed haha

China1

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say I actually want Eddie to stay this season We know as a kid his goal scoring record was elite. He scored a few senior goals but always looked like a lamb in the headlights. A proper Bambi playing amongst the men with no meaningful impact on the matches usually and worse than that absolutely zero presence. Defenders had absolutely nothing to fear against him It’s only preseason but he’s looked like a player. He might be the one that got away if we sell him based on his previous seasons… Read more »

Leedsgunner

I don’t understand why we are extending Xhaka’s contract…

Didn’t we spent millions just settling contracts of malcontents?

No good is going to come out of keeping a player who really doesn’t want to stay.

Leedsgunner

China1

I was Eddie’s biggest fan but he really needs to play regularly.

I wouldn’t be adverse to him signing a new contract to preserve his value though… but I can’t see him doing this for us.

Leedsgunner

*we spend

Sid

Partey is a crock, end of

Leedsgunner

If Nketiah and Lacazette do leave, one player I want us to bring in is Paul Onuachu, a Genk player.

He is extremely good in the air and he would give us something different.

Tony

Had I not seen Eddie play against the Chavs last Sunday, China, I would have disagreed with you stating he was just a tap in merchant that was down to the way Arteta employed Eddie as a ST. However, seeing there’s much more to Eddie’s game at the weekend, I’d keep him as well. All though last season I wanted to see what Eddie and Balogun can do together playing 90 minutes along with ESR and Pepe. However, Arteta had other ideas with Willian, Auba and Laca none of which worked. For this season Arteta wants to buy a ST… Read more »

Guns of SF

Offer 40M for Olmo
HE did not move this summer….
LEts get on it

Guns of SF

Paul Onuachu

this fella is 6’7 a giant!

TeeCee

‘ Why should Arsenal sell Hector Bellerin for peanuts at 26 years old?’

Because we’re a mid-table club selling a very consistent poor performing player! We need to get past these low values as most are actually realistic in this market, although Xhaka should be worth 15m due to his euros performances.

We have a good half a dozen players who are ‘poor’ and are on high wages, we have to sell low to get rid or we’ll continue to have a poor squad and worse, Arteta will keep playing them!!

Gonsterous

China
Tony

But but, according to pedro, arteta has been giving a lot of minutes to the youth.

Only youth I’ve seen given time was saka and he got over played, I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a long term injury this season.
Esr was fortunate to get game time and established himself. Any youth who won’t produce the goods in the 5-10 min cameo won’t ever feature as a starter for arteta

Guns of SF

Any youth who won’t produce the goods in the 5-10 min cameo won’t ever feature as a starter for arteta

this is true.
I hope we do see more with Azeez and Martinelli… esp martin… he needs to fight for that lw spot

Habesha Gooner

Xhaka is staying till 2025. I can’t believe it. This guy is a very poor player. And we had a buyer lined up. We could have negotiated the price half way. But no we are rewarding years of mediocrity. CM along with RB was one of the positions we absolutely needed a new starter. We had other problematic areas but we would have been fine in signing supporting players. Leno, ESR were fine for next season if we had brought a supporting type player like we did with lokonga. But no we brought lokonga in to support the most average… Read more »

Gonsterous

If I was the aston villa manager, I would try to convince grealish to stay. They have a good squad, especially their midfield. Good enough to challenge for top 4, and with no European comp, if they really focus on the league even with their thin squad, they could do well.

Us on the other hand, I can’t see us getting past 8th, third time 8th finish for arteta would be saucy, no arsenal manager ever achieved that.

China1

I literally forgot martinelli is an arsenal player

Is he fit and training? Has he played 1 minute of preseason?

Guns of SF

with olympic team… then rest, then join Arsenal later… dude will be available in like Oct I think at this point. come back, get injured. again avail in Jan… then from Jan to March does well in sub appearances but still not a starter

China1

If we sign an AM, ESR is either benched or goes on the wing. If he’s on the wing we will have:

Saka
Pepe
ESR
Martinelli
Nelson
Eddie???
Balogun???
Willian
Auba

As options out wide.

From artetas perspective I’d expect him to consider

-Saka nailed on starter
-Auba/Pepe/ESR/Willian rotating as frequent starters on the other wig
-None of the others being afforded anything other than cameos and token minutes at best

Not sure that martinelli has any future under this manager if we’re being honest.

peanuts&monkeys

OMG! Is this blog now an extension of arsenal.com??

peanuts&monkeys

Actually actually, selection of subjects and the narrative being belted down in this blog tells exactly what is wring with Arsenal – lack of ambition, easily contended, condescending.

Tony

Gons
Sad but true.

Will it change this season?

Only if Arteta is forced to play youth players as he was after Xmas this year.

I wouldn’t discount Arteta buying a player that stops a Hale Ender from getting game time.

Guns of SF

My worry too China
Martin plays nice – says the right things and then moves on to a bigger and better team.

Can see him in any big team…

But our ultra defensive coach aint gonna help his case much

Mike is a rigid defensiv coach

Guns of SF

Wenger would work with Martin, turn him into a juggernaut

Sid

I see le grovers are getting to realise that Nketiah is as good as Lautaro
You heard it here 1st, from the Great Sid

Habesha Gooner

I can’t believe the whole season will hinge on Lokonga or Parety being fit. If not we are going to go back to Xhaka and Elneny. It will still be the same playing style. Xhaka won’t stay in the middle because he isn’t press resistant. He will be playing from the left back position when we attack. Arteta knows that and he still offered him a new contract anyway. Elneny is a hugely unimaginative yes man. That is why Arteta likes him. But he is a poor player. He is a great person but a poor player. How can we… Read more »

Godfather

No worries here.
All the Coaches who have placed their faith in
Granit Xhaka @ Arsenal have been fired.
Arteta will be no different

Guns of SF

Habesha
I think Loko will surprise us. If TP is out, which is likely
Loko and Xhaka might be ok…
Depends on who the other mids are.
We need a CAM badly….
We can do 4231 or 433

We do need a CAM

Maddison?
Aouar
Olmo

All fit

BUT NOT WE ARE GOING FOR ODEGAARD!!!!!!!

The solider is returning home. another yes man

Guns of SF

Mike sees himself as a smart general. The smartest in the room.

His team are soldiers who take orders.
His barking from the sidelines- I think he sees himself as a general… in the midst of a war.
He wants yes men, safe an secure soliders who do the task…
Not the ones who can think for themselves and save the platoon with some smart moves or use extraordinary skill to save the day.
It must be a system team effort only

Leftside

Granits extension is a monumental middle finger to fans. He is supposedly a good player but has only attracted bids from Hertha Berlin and Roma in his time here, only to be turned down by Arteta who has questionable player judgment. There is no danger of any club coming in to swoop him up he’s not good enough. Now we will be stuck with a player in his 30s on high waves that we cannot move out of the club. This club is determined to not improve or learn from their mistakes. I wouldn’t even be certain that they would… Read more »

China1

The guy who’s given us back to back 8th place is the smartest guy in the room

Guns of SF

only to be turned down by Arteta who has questionable player judgment.

No, its terrible judgement….

Habesha Gooner

Guns You don’t rate Odegaard. But I absolutely do. He will be a top player for us if he comes. ESR and Odegaard is good as a CAM options you will see in Europe in that age range. They are 20 and 22. He is creative and imaginative. I believe he hasn’t showed what he could do. He didn’t play for the first 6 months and then was loaned out to a new team in another country. Anyway I like the look of Lokonga. But expecting him and ESR who were a teenagers a few years ago to start for… Read more »

China1

Only at arsenal do we go from having zero wingers in the whole squad during Emery’s first seaso to like 15 options within 2 years. Kinda odd swing

Distanced hairline

Hey, can somebody sell me a time machine, i wanna just go 2 weeks into the future so i can watch football, thats not too much to ask for

Guns of SF

Habesha then whose fault is it ? I mean Xhaka was decent right?
Thats what Mike likes. The predictable.

I am all about high risk and reward, now. Its the only way to move the needle.

Gems. I love gems… and we need them

camavinga, Ilaix,

But no… Mike hates bling

China1

Habesha it’s all relative with xhaka anyway He went from absolute car crash for 4 years to ‘didn’t shit his pants for three consecutive games’ and the bar was just so low that that is now considered ‘good’ Vieira, petit, cesc, Gilberto, santi, diaby, Ramsey, wilshere etc etc all did a whole lot more than not shit their pants to get credit This is absolutely typical of the way standards have been lowered. Historically arsenal CMs dominate matches. They create, they can pass, they have great vision, they can beat their man with ease, they carry the team up the… Read more »

Guns of SF

China spot on that comment ^

Guns of SF

Xhaka rarely gets hurt too.
Given his Usain Bolt speed and Santi like moves, its amazing he is such a physical specimen. Truly amazing

Gonsterous

Guns

I’ve never seen xhaka turn with the ball like other mids, no wonder his ankles are safe and given that he hardly exerts himself as much as other athletes do), it’s no wonder, he is never injured.
You don’t see him in a foot race with anyone do yah?

Mee

Arteta was a very mediocre player. He is no different to a Djorou, Bendtner or dos Santos in Arsenal History. Currently, he can be compared to Xhaka only that the Swiss tortoise has a personality that rubs people the right way for some reason.

Habesha Gooner

https://youtu.be/OPGt5RrZWzE
This is what I saw from Odegaard.

Kegunner

Xhaka adds quality to the left midfield adding value to Tierney and Auba. To replace him there is the option of Locatelli who passes to the right and left despite being predominantly right footed or Camavinga who is left footed. Bruno is right footed so would not balance a midfield with Partey who is also very right footed.

Mee

Signing Odegaard would be a terrible move. If he got like double figure goal contributions in his six months it would make sense. However we know he is one-paced, slow and very predictable. There was this thing they would do with Pepe on the right wing where they would exchange passes to their left pegs like five times. No one with the ability to cut inside without being dispossessed or to dash to the byline and cross with their right. Odegaard as a 10 means he will spend his time on the right flank doing zero with the ball. But… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

China That’s my point. He is let off the hook because he was decent for 1 season. Not even great. And he is a CM that rarely goes in to the opposition final third. Name me a player that is great and is a CM that never ventures forward. He stays back because he is weak under pressure. It is baffling to defend him when we saw a ridiculous number of CMs at Arsenal that were top quality in the past. I would take Song right now. He wasn’t the best but compared to Elneny and Xhaka, he shits on… Read more »

Guns of SF

You can count on one hand how many times Ode uses his right peg. I think thats why I get so triggered by him. Its a bit of a stubborness that mike has that makes me not like him I think. Like thinking he can be world class with mostly one peg.
Even Pepe has learned to use his right much more…
A CAM must be 2 footed for me…. period

China1

Literally this is one of the main reasons why our offense struggles Xhaka has to drop silly deep if he’s going to have time and space to do anything of note most of the time. If he’s super deep then there’s a wall of opposition midfielders between him and our offensive players (thus why he always need to go for the high ball). If he receives the ball under any pressure he won’t have time to do anything of note, so it remains basic El neny is just as basic and cannot carry the ball forwards either So you have… Read more »

Guns of SF

Mee Spot on… Pepe and him occupying limited space on the right side so they can use their left legs. I noticed that too in later games. At least Pepe does tend to venture inside more and shoot… even crosses with his right foot now and then. Ode not as much… at all. I dont dislike him as a person. seems a nice kid but how on earth any of his coaches have not worked with him on using that right leg? Again, if RM is rejecting him. Stay away…. RM knows what players will cut it or not. Experts… Read more »

China1

The other thing I dislike about this building out from the back BS is this silly fad that it needs to take place as deep as possible Before anyone was ever talking of such things, arsenal were building from the CBs, FBs and CMs. We traditionally were never good in the air besides giroud so how did we do it before? We’re we playing long balls every time? Nope. Just calm confident passing to players in space, then move up a bit. Only in the last few years has this hipster approach become a thing where people are acting like… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

People judge some players way too soon. I have been guilty of it in the past too. Odegaard falls into that category. I saw him at Sociedad. And he was the 2nd best creative player in the league after Messi. There were a lot of told quality midfielders in that league. But he still came out ahead anyway. If the best Odegaard can deliver is the past season with us then I wouldn’t have wanted him. But I know he has it in him to play a lot better. He was playing safer passes than I saw him do at… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

Top quality*

Kegunner

Locatelli plus Maddison at the least in the midfield will add quality necessary to dominate teams. From the Chelsea game the midfield isn’t still compact enough. Need pure passer like Locatelli slightly ahead of Partey.

Habesha Gooner

If he doesn’t move to us now, Odegaard will be moving in a few seasons to a PSG or a Mancity in a few seasons. That I am sure of. He won’t succeed at Real Madrid though. That environment is toxic for a lot of young players. I don’t mind it if we don’t get him and get someone else. But I will bet he will replace someone like debruyne in a few years.

Raulishuss

This china guy is so dishonest and hateful its unreal. Dude you don’t know half the stuff you say. Take a chill pill

The Bard

I think you make an excellent point Pedro. Nobody else is managing to get many signings in and out. The market is totally flat. I expect there to be a flurry of activity at the last minute with the hope of getting a few bargains. The rebuilding at Arsenal will take more than a few transfer windows.

China1

🥲🥲

You caught me lying and my dishonesty! Please quote it for good measure!

Raulishuss

arteta hates kids, he won’t play loko even if he does he’ll bench him at the slightest. How do you even believe the shit you write? Pick it up bro you’re better than that

China1

Hi mate. The phones ringing for you. It’s Saliba, martinelli, guen, Nelson, eddie, AMN, balogun, azeez, calling.

If lokonga plays more matches than xhaka next season I’ll eat my own head.

China1

The other Gabriel was also on the line!

Mee

Arteta really has it in for the kids. His comments about Smith Rowe needing 10 goals and 15 assists to become Arsenal level AM were in really bad taste. You would think his fave Willy was dropping PFA player of the year contender numbers.

Pierre

It’s ok being one footed as long as the player has the ability to go past a defender on his right side with a drop of the shoulder . A prime example of a left footed player drifting past the opposition on his right side is the 1979 cup final Arsenal v United . https://youtu.be/rGF5-GPtLiE Liam Brady had a hand in all 3 Arsenal goals because he was prepared to drive through the defence on his right foot despite being a very left footed player. I would say that in all 3 situations for the goals that Brady was involved… Read more »

Raulishuss

He doesnt need to play more minutes than xhaka to prove shit. You have no idea what you’re talking about and you keep on polluting the site. Stop for a minute and think for yourself and stop trying to impress the gang on legrove

China1

The extent of your contribution is ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about’

Cheers for the insightful commentary.

Tee

“This china guy is so dishonest and hateful its unreal. Dude you don’t know half the stuff you say. Take a chill pill”

Lol, he even asked where martinelli is. I had to refrain myself from asking if he leaves in a cave.

China1

Tee I don’t watch the olympics, sorry to inform you.