Arsenal lost another preseason game, to another London rival, on a rainy August afternoon at the bowl. No one likes to lose, no one likes to lose to Spurs, but this is preseason and nothing really matters bar the result on Friday night. If you spent last season campaigning that beating Liverpool in the Community Shield meant nothing, pardon me not caring much about how important Spurs is in the Mindfulness Cup.
So let’s reestablish what preseason games are all about.
- Bringing your fitness levels as close to perfection as you can. Reality is, for elite level athletes, it takes about 6 games to get fully fit, so these guys are going to be burning.
- Trying out new tactical approaches. Arsenal will have a lot of time on the training ground this season, so expect the football to develop
- Learning who you can trust and who you cannot. There were players out there today you’d hope to see the back of in the next two weeks
What we did not like:
Our forward line really was drossy today, it has been all summer long. It was last season. Nicolas Pepe loves a standing start and it interrupts his strengths. Lacazette is our best striker, but he can’t drop deep then make up the ground. Auba is the next point.
Auba has lost all his confidence in his thirties. That’s a major concern. He looks depressed and he lacks the ability to contribute at the level we know he can. He’s so far off the pace and that is a concern. I don’t think this is an Ozil issue, he clearly cares, but he’s nowhere near the level he should be right now.
We only have two centre backs that are acceptable to this system. It’s pretty clear that Pablo Mari and Rob Holding aren’t cutting it. Mari with a horrendous bit of WTF in the build-up the Son goal. That’s a concern heading into the season and one that we’re going to have to live with this year.
We’re getting the ball into good spaces and crossing like there’s a target man there. None of strikers are tall enough. None of them seem to have the desire to hustle to win those high balls. It’s pretty clear we need to sign someone with a height and playing style of Tammy if this system is going to work.
Our right side of defence needs the Tierney treatment. The most ideal candidate would be Ainsley, but he wants central midfield, and doesn’t seem to have people advising him to take the Arsenal offer. That leaves us Hector Bellerin, who wants out, but has no interested clubs. With Soares, who is lucky to be at Arsenal. Chances are looking sparse that we move on anyone in that position and that is a massive, massive L for the summer plans.
What we most certainly did like:
Lokonga isn’t going to need 6 months to make an impact on this side. We don’t need to see Mo Elneny in the starting 11 on Friday. The Belgian midfielder looks composed, his range of passing is stunning, and he moves around the pitch with ease. Mo came on and we looked week, Granit Xhaka barking at him because he wouldn’t play a pass that looked on the mild side of risky is exactly why Mo shouldn’t be anywhere near our midfied, but be real, who is taking him?
Ben White looks like the central defender we’ve been needing for a long time. Not sure there will be many doubting what he offers. He has great recovery pace, his ability to dribble with the ball if there is no option makes him dangerous, his passing range is like a midfielder… and he is lightning quick into the back of strikers and midfielders. There were moments he could have done better, there are partnerships to build, but for a full debut, against a decent side, he looked very solid.
Granit Xhaka has come back looking fit and ready. I know a lot of people wanted him gone, but playing next to people like Lokonga and Partey brings out the best of him. He’s going to have a decent season and start on the right footing.
We controlled the game for the most part, moved the ball into dangerous positions, but didn’t make our chances count. That’s the story of the backend of last season. It’s positive that we can do that, but we really need to see some movement on players that can help us be more incisive. Tammy Abrahams in this system gets goals. James Maddison gives us better set-plays and more incisive balls where they need to be. We’re not there yet, but the basics of a very good system are there.
Final thing I liked. It’s clear what needs to be done this week. It’s clear who should stay and who should go. It’s absolutely 20/20 on what the side needs as we head into the final 2 weeks of the window.
Can Edu, who has been on about 15 holidays this window make it happen? So far, it doesn’t look good. We’ve moved the squad forward with two signings that’ll likely be there for the start of the season, but there’s nowhere near enough work on exits and there’s still a massive, massive lift needed to land that #10, a back-up keeper that’s not dropping howlers, and a striker that gives us the right sort of options for the type of chances we’re creating.
It’s a big week, all eyes are on Friday, all hopes are on a big 3 points landing to calm the nerves.
See you in the comments.
I hope PV4 does well at palace then we could take him off their hands when MA fails
Emirates We still will be without a competent enough CM partner for Partey. Honestly we’ve seen all there is to Granit Xhaka and it’s in no small part why we are where we are. Again, unless we are putting our hopes on Lokonga adapting seamlessly, we are still going to be with the same midfield that was not fir for purpose last season. As for the youngsters, ESR and Saka and Martinelli and Nketiah were all involved at some point with the first team already with ESR only getting a look in December after his injury or after Willian had… Read more »
And also they’ve got Soumare now, Ndidi would be brillaint for us or the Ajax lad. There’s even Brozovic who i don’t particularly like but would absolutely be better than what we have in there and at a lesser price.
Auroar plus Guimares from Lyon will probably serve us better long term. I mean for the fee we’d pay Leicester for Maddison whom i like by the way and would be glad if he came we could ads a couple mill and give it to Lyon for those two.
Lokonga so far has looked very good in pre-season, definitely has the potential to make his mark in this league.
Having said that, it’s funny to see Pedro go from this stance himself initially on him to saying he is ‘the best young talent in all of Europe’ which is how he described him after his last game.
Right around the time we extended Tet’s favourite and perennial let-down Xhaka making it clear there will be no additional CM incoming coincidentally…
KroenkeP
6/1
There’s clubs all over Europe running skint with assets that’ll improve us and we could get for bargains just would have needed smart planning on our part.
Like the look of Ben White but if buying him comes at the price of fixing other more pressing issues, then it would have been a stupid transfer because clean sheets don’t win you as much games as scoring goals does and we never look like we’re going to either last season or even in pre season games played so far
Bati
Inter ripping it all up, Atalanta heavily tipped to sell Zapata and possibly even Muriel.
I like your chances for a second title push this season. Giroud is nice cover to have for Zlatan and Leao and you have only really lost Calhanoglu who is replaceable.
Maignan is an upgrade in goal and Tomori is a great fit next to Kjaer. Still a bit average out wide perhaps as I don’t rate either of Krunic or Saelemakers, could do with a signing or two there and play Rebic LF.
There will be teams in Europe in dire straits touting players to arsenal. At the moment they may be wanting too much for them but closer to the window closer I think teams will be desperate to sell and we ‘should’ be signing some good players for real value
NORG
Cheers mate. I’m tempted.
China The point I was trying to make about making transfer profits is that in accounting terms you can say buy a player for £50 million on a five year contract sell him two years into that contract for £40 million but that fee would reflect a £10 million profit SAGG “ Weird that Roma have 40 million for Tammy Abraham, but was short of money to pay 20 millions for his FIRST TARGET OBSESSION Granit Xhaka.It is starting to seem like a bluff from Xhaka Agent to get a contract extension with a better salary at Arsenal.” Couple of… Read more »
Yeah it is a buyer’s market out in Europe right now, teams are absolutely skint when Serie A’s title winners are having a car-boot sale on all of their star talent and Barcelona can’t even afford to keep Messi.
And yet it is the summer we choose to go English in spite of PL clubs being the most unaffected and having no real need to sell. A+ strategy I’d say.
Anyone here thinks guendouzi is worse than elneny? Isint it artetas job (for the millions he is paid) to put the well being of the team before his little man ego? BTW saliba smashed it on his debut, and the opinion here was that he would be warming the bench because they have 6 CBs. What bullshit! The main problem with arteta is that I don’t think he is very smart, so always prone to idiot mistakes, like idiots are, you know? i dont get it when people say he is articulate, half the things he says makes no sense,… Read more »
Pedro’s unstated stance is Arteta-first
Determine what Arteta wants then mount an argument around it.
Imagine anyone defending spending £25 million+ on Ramsdale?
Not sure why people are talking about a midfield partner for Partey. The guy is going to be out for half the games himself, so who partners his partner when he is broken again?
Where’s the high priest of the cult-of-Arteta? I wonder he is creating an argument on how the signature arteta, U-shaped passing routine is the next big tactics revolution.
Norg/ kroenkephobe, Norg the Watford guy munoz is 6/1 on oddschecker. Arteta is 12/1. I think OGS at 33/1 is good value for an outside bet. Having been backed in the market he’ll have nowhere to hide if utd aren’t in the title race. He’s in Frank Lampard territory right now. The highest of expectations. He could very well produce a title challenge but he’ll be given very little wiggle room I feel, hence a decent bet. No way Arteta will be first gone, the standards are being lowered to accommodate him, ironically by the very same people who’d bite… Read more »
It makes no sense trying to downplay willock when we know xhaka and elneny are just worse and unserviceable in the arsenal setup as neither of them offer us anything.
Willock offering goals be it as a starter or impact sub is invaluable by comparison.
Get real le-grove
Another laughable defense for Arteta is that expectations need to be adjusted and more time allotted due to his lack of experience
Problem is they people who want Arteta to be specially accommodated will defend every error he makes in real time.
How do you ask for a special dispensation when you won’t even agree he’s making errors all over the place.
The main issue with selling Willock just highlights our inability to sell Nketiah, Nelson and AMN, excusing the usual wasters we have.
If we could have sold the above English players this/last summer then we could have kept Willock as an adequate squad player who could kick on
Southampton accept bid for Armstrong
So with Ings already gone ?
EDDIE IS available.
“Pretty soon we will have comedy and sarcasm galore here after the TW has closed..”
This is what I’m here for!
Reiss Nelson is at minimum better than Willian, why sell him instead of play him ahead of Willian? Makes no sense.
Nketiah at this point is a better option than auba, might as well play him rather than shoehorning auba into lineups.
AMN is definitely better than elneny in midfield and can do a job for us as backup fullback for both sides, why is arteta persisting with elneny though?
I would be down for selling the youngsters if I wasn’t seeing dross and poor performances accommodated in the reverse.
Southampton we have forwards for sale Eddie Laca and MOPEY FACE.
Messi on a free transfer and at 20 mil.per year for three years would be cheaper than Madison
Nelson hasn’t ever done anything productive for arsenal. Add to that the likelihood of us getting money for him vs Willian it is a no brainer to move on Nelson. I would sell both if that was a possibility. Having AMN at the club for 10 years and still not knowing what his main position is poor by arsenal, however they know he isn’t a CM and therefore should have been old last season to wolves. As for Eddie, he was bright against Chelsea and scored a nice goal from Watford but he isn’t good enough to be starting for… Read more »
I see the fantasy manager league is up and running early this year….lol
Looks like our ladies team put the men’s team to shame yesterday, again!
Squad issues need addressing urgently this week, the market seems to be in flow now so there is little excuse for inaction in the coming days. Unless Edu is on holiday again. Not a good look!
“Sources close to Arsenal’s negotiations for James Maddison & familiar with the club’s ‘purchasing power’ in this window have already indicated that they would rather avoid ‘spending madly’ on one player & ‘neglecting any gaps or shortages’ in the squad. [@TheAFCBeII] ”
I wonder why didn’t they apply the same wisdom when they splurged £50M on White.
Unless Man Utd have an absolute shocker and are languishing in mid to lower part of the table, I can’t see Solskjaer being sacked mid season.
Even when Moyes tanked it they waited until CL qualification was mathematically impossible, same with van Gaal. They sacked Mourinho mid season because Mourinho is going to Mourinho.
Even if Utd finish 5th I get the impression they would roll with him for another season.
Funny reading comment as if Willock is prime Viera leaving for the Magpies. Willock is inconsistent and Newcastle is his level now. £25m for him is good business. Hope the cash is invested wisely.
If the barometer is that they have to be on the level of saka and ESR, even while not getting minutes, then we might as well have taken that 15mil for xhaka whom people are having to point to international appearances to justify his inclusion. Also be willing to accept 10mil for the likes of elneny and kola and Cedric and the majority of the squad in general rather than “protecting players value.” Funny enough everyone has forgotten that this guy xhaka was flipping the bird at the paying fans in the stadium not that long ago. Club is an… Read more »
Why are people going mad about Willock? He may develop into a decent Premier league level player but his ceiling is below what we need at arsenal.
Hes a squad player at best and hasn’t really ever shown anything (for us).
£25mill is a good return for a player we don’t want or need.
Because we needed a Luiz replacement above all else TR7 of course. No stupid questions please.
He was absolutely pivotal to our success in all of his seventeen PL starts last season, we averaged a whopping… oh wait that’s right, less points with him in the side never mind 😂
Excerpt from Devlin who is an Analyst, posted at 7 am “ Mikel’s coaching, based on the evidence of his tenure, is pretty bad for the level he is coaching at. An example would be Wenger’s through-play drills where his players played combinations around cones/mannequins to get instinctive understanding of their movements for in-game situations, and the Norwich goal is the best example, but most of our play showed from that session. Wenger-ball videos on YouTube show how it applied in almost every facet of our play. Mikel lacks an overarching approach of what type of football he is capable… Read more »
Weagle
Why would Arsenal spend on another young (19) CM when Azeez (18) and Patino (17) are highly regarded internally and we just added Lokonga who is a few years more developed?
The options are Partey (28), Xhaka (28), Elneny (29), Lokonga (21).
If we’re adding a CM, it should be a player around 22-25 with good experience now, and ability to improve (Bruno, Neves).
As much as we would love that [United keeping Ole] Chris, I very much doubt that.
You don’t spend 115m on Sancho and Varane to finish in 5th. His head will be on a spike well before the season ends if that transpires.
Let’s revisit the headline …WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Hardly much judging by pre-season games even taking into account typical pre-season blues. Funny, aren’t other teams also in pre-season ??
That Devlin guy knows what his eyes are seeing.
Really appreciate that quote @ Asoa.
But they are levels below them at a more mature age, there is a real reason why Saka and ESR are getting minutes. You shouldn’t be an ‘ok’ academy player play for the first team. I agree on Xhaka and the protecting player value was a load of rubbish in my eyes. Not selling as valuation not met, fair enough, however to extend it was ludicrous. His value would have been similar come next summer without an extension. How he came back from swearing at the fans like he did, especially one that is not a talisman and an instrumental… Read more »
In reference to Gravenberch? Good take yes why be interested in him let a Dortmund or Leipzig take him instead inflate his valuation and wait a few years before trying to sign him by which time bigger and better clubs will be interested in him. Nah I disagree with the whole experience is vital nonsense that comes out while other clubs snap up elite youngsters for pittance especially when you factor in how many experienced players have let us/continue to let us down over the years.
Champagne
Are azeez and patino actually rated?
Heard that willock was rated highly internally and he’s been shipped off now, same for balogun and he wasn’t able to catch minutes while our strikers were incapable of scoring for months on end.
You’ll have to excuse my spoons of doubt to sound bites emerging from the club.
Chris, They are certainly a patient club for one of their size. And of course have only given OGS a new contract, hence the 33/1.. But the fans will demand instant improvement given the signings and he might not be able to deliver. If anything he over achieved with a 2nd place finish last year so the odds are he will go down rather than up. It will be interesting because it will tell us a lot about utd’s ambitions if he starts poorly. I have a feeling he doesn’t have as much goodwill amongst a hungry fanbase as the… Read more »
Mikel Arteta cant even copy Pep . Atleast Pep has made the football they play look good . Meanwhile we’re stuck with Dourteta
Charlie Gravenberch is going to be top shelf, he’s only 19 sure but he’s already more than holding his own in CL games and is a man amongst boys in midfield in the Eredivisie, albeit on Ajax but still it’s very impressive. Full Netherlands international too which Pedro and a few others seem to hold in incredibly high esteem for Ben White despite him yet to play a single competitive minute for England as a soon to be 24 year old with Gravenberch at 19 already winning 7 caps and scoring a goal too for the Netherlands. He has a… Read more »
Man U have agreed to let Martial go to Inter with compulsion to buy at 50 million next year, but nothing finalised yet.
Regarding our Madison projections at 70 million, what are they smoking at Arsenal, eh Edu ?
‘we just added Lokonga who is a few years more developed?’
He may be older but Lokonga most definitely is not more developed than Gravenberch.
The latter is a full Dutch international, has CL and EL experience and has played 62 games for Ajax with most of those starts in a far better league than the Belgian league.
AC
Willock was highly rated, hence he managed over 90 appearances for the club (over 50 starts) before the age of 21.
Fact he hasn’t show himself capable of earning a spot in the first XI is precisely why a 25 million + sell on bonus transfer to Newcastle was deemed acceptable.
Balogun is at the other end of the spectrum, he’s just signed a 5 year deal and needs minutes at the top level to show his worth.
Patino and Azeez will both need at least 1 season away on loan. Players often need to cut their teeth elsewhere to be able to come back into the squad. They may not be properly ready for a year or two.
With that said I think that opens the door for a young CM signing now if they could become top shelf
WE
Oh my bad !! I forgot that even with prime Zidane, Iniesta and Messi in our team we would have struggled if we didn’t have a progressive passer of the ball in central defense. Goals galore this season then now that we have a pass master in White as CB and a rampaging Tierrney as fullback. Just need Auba to track back more and our defense will be sorted too.
WengerEagle
Patino is seriously been touted as the next star kid . He is very very highly rated . Not sure about Gravenbach , will certainly watch him.
Gravenberch should be a no brainer honestly, barring serious injury he is going to be one immense midfielder who will be courted by title challenging sides sooner rather than later. We should be looking to grab these types of players before their sale value creeps north of 50 million. Just my opinion. Lokonga seemed like the message had finally sunk in at arsenal but then on the backend of that we’re now chasing madders for 60mil, we would be copping 80mil from gravenberch if we handled him well and someone considered him pivotal to their title run in the future.… Read more »
DS
I hope that he goes on to be brilliant for us obviously but we all heard how Zelalem was the next Cesc Fabregas and Fran Merida way before that if you remember so I have to take it with a massive pinch of salt.
The vast majority of super-hyped academy kids don’t end up making it at this level.
Can’t forget Henri Lansbury and Dan Crowley (the most gifted midfielder some coach had ever seen)
JET, Akpom and Lupoli were ones going right to the top as well
Zelalem, Merida, Lansbury, JET, Owusu-Abeyie, Crowley, Eisfield, Bielik, Akpom [was beloved on here], Afobe, Iwobi, Bartley, Eastmond, Miquel, Jay Simpson to name a few.
Ahhh Quincy Owuso-Abeyi. I had high hopes for him…his name alone made him a better player in my eyes
Jon Toral too. Was actually seen as the superior talent to even Bellerin when they were in the academy.
We should have a simple startegy with regards to young talents in our academy – filter out the most talented half a dozen youngsters every year and send them out on loan for 2 years and then judge who is good enough to play in Arsenal senior team. The ones not making the cut should be sold or released. If Patino and Azzez are really talented let them prove themselves on loan and then we can talk about them as potential Arsenal senior team player. So much noise on Balogun but you can see he is not ready yet. Loan… Read more »
But what do we do if we have Saka’s in house who didn’t need any loans? And there’s an issue that needs to be addressed in regards to trialing balogun or martinelli upfront, and that is what exactly is the worst that can happen? That they don’t score goals? We already have a pair of much more expensive and experienced strikers not scoring goals more often than not so what’s the harm in throwing balogun in at the deep end and seeing if he can swim? No doubt the player himself wants to know if he can swim in the… Read more »
The developmental approach wont work when there’s an acceptance of keeping average oldies that will block the path of talented youngsters. Case in point; It was obvious that Willian was going block the path of Reiss Nelson so the director of football should never have agreed to sign a 32 year old to a 4 year deal on 200k weekly. Nelson will be a fool if he agrees to extend his deal. Case in point; why is Elneny still doing photo shoots for this club when Azeez can easily be trained to do wherever is expected of Elneny, even a… Read more »
AC
Gets a bit trickier when you factor in that Auba and Laca are on a combined 450k a week wages so how can you justify benching both for an academy kid/u23 player in Balogun from a financial POV ?
I don’t disagree for the record, both have been shite [Auba more so] and I badly want them gone myself but we’re stuck with them for the season from the looks of it due to poor forward planning once again.
Canary’s can detect danger better than Elneny
Weagle And Saka and ESR to name two in the last 18 months. What’s your point? The club has big hopes for Azeez and Patino particularly, so where’s the sense in stockpiling teenagers for one position? Could just as easily return the fire for talent out of Holland. How’s Van De Beek doing at United? Van der Vaart was a prodigy, Kezman, van der Wiel, Klaassen, Babel, Promes all gash relative to their hype. Would be like splurging on a 19 year old CF when we have Balogun and Martinelli waiting in the wings. Just doesn’t strike the right balance… Read more »
Surprised no one has wished Willian a happy 33rd birthday to day
Okok I get it WengerEagle you are tiny bit sceptical , regarding Arsenal youth. 😉
No need to remind of all those who didnt make it !
Dissenter
The developmental approach wont work when there’s an acceptance of keeping average oldies that will block the path of talented youngsters.
Case in point , Dani Ceballos preferred over Willock.
Weagle If player salary is going to have that much of an impact on team selections then we need to adopt Wenger’s socialist wage structure again so that there is no fear in dropping our most well paid players to see what some new blood can do. Alternatively we just get a brave manager who isn’t so aware of what players are earning and instead is more aware of what players offer (or don’t offer) on the pitch. Maddeningly enough a manager with mourinho’s tendency of dropping fan favs who don’t perform to his own internal standards would be much… Read more »
CC
I would take gravenberch at 30mil, that’s a steal.
Could also get aouar for the other 30mil and start phasing out elneny and xhaka.
Would be a win, win, win, win for arsenal.
Martinelli already back training at Arsenal after the Olympics. Some lads just have the right attitude
Pedro,
Why keep mentioning Maddison? I think our window is largely done, it was all about BW. Its doubtful we are getting anyone else although I hope I’m wrong. Leicester have as much ambition as us these days. It would take an extraordinary deal to prize him away, I just can’t see it happening.
While we had problems all over the pitch last year one of our biggest issues was scoring. Auba looks shot. Laca is getting long in the tooth. Unless Balogun and Eddie are stepping the fuck up I fear for our goals for column this season.
AC
Why would Ajax accept 30 mil for a player that’s apparently ‘going to the top’?
They sold Ziyech for 40, Van De Beek for 40, De jong for 75, and De Ligt for 75.
Charlie What’s my point? Pretty obvious I would have thought. That the vast majority of academy prospects do not pan out, most actually don’t even pan out to a decent PL level like Iwobi in fact. That list I stuck up above of highly touted ones above all went on to become Championship standard or lower. Just because we have produced Saka and ESR of late doesn’t make us the next Ajax or noughties Barcelona. How many can you honestly name in the decade plus before that? Wilshere is about it, Bellerin too if you are being generous who came… Read more »
‘Surprised no one has wished Willian a happy 33rd birthday to day’
He’s having a quiet one in, you must remember that the man is 6 months pregnant.
Wengereagle a,good post. A reminder of some of the ‘going to be greats’ who ended up bang average. Most don’t make it. They don’t have the mentality. All this fuss about Willock is crazy. He’s ok but he ain’t taking us to the promised land.
What’s the most that Ajax will ask for in the current market?
Grav’s contract expires in 2 years time. He’s gettable and at a fair price.
Doubt they ask for more than 40mil really.
I hope we don’t sign lingard last minute, would be classic Arsenal
De Ligt and De Jong were both stars in a near Champions League Final run, that sky-rocketed their value. Van De Beek wasn’t quite as big a star in that side and had a year for his value to cool off a bit hence the lower fee. Ziyech was the best player in all of Holland by a country mile for years before his transfer, no surprise he went for what he did either. I don’t know if 30m would get Gravenberch but I’m guessing somewhere in the ballpark of 30-40m would. Which would be a great investment as he’ll… Read more »
And was Babel gash? I don’t know about that. He was immense for a season and a half at Liverpool and won 70 caps for Holland. Stuck the knife in on us in the CL with the 4th goal in 07/08 and also won them the penalty the won the match even if it was a soft one. 10 goals with 5 in the CL from out wide in his debut season. I remember Bin Dipper fans raving about him when I was younger, why he went so drastically off the boil is anybody’s guess. Lack of motivation and not… Read more »
I hope we don’t sign lingard last minute, would be classic Arsenal
United wouldnt sell him to us
I hope we don’t sign Martial….
Awful player.
Weagle Everyone knows the majority of academy players don’t work out, but you talk like every talent out of Holland is the bollocks, or tears up the PL…..which clearly isn’t the case. “You keep referring to Gravenberch as a 19 year old, any particular reason? He’s a full international [unlike White who is half a decade older] and already has a lot of top level experience where he has excelled.” Yea, because that’s his age. I’m glad you think slaying the Eredivisie is comparable to the PL, but that’s pure rubbish. Young players inevitably do well in Holland and France… Read more »
**wanted himself, not bought himself
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfer-news-saliba-arteta-24720320 LOL it’s being reported as ‘mixed signals’ but it’s obvious to all that the exclusion of Saliba doesn’t add up. To all those who are blaming Saliba for not taking the Newcastle loan. Why the fuck does he need another loan, whilst we have Mari and Holding starting?? Why should he take another loan when Arteta went back on his word that he’ll get a chance pre-season? Yet you chumps want to blame Saliba, when it’s obvious Arteta is a vindictive, Egotistical prick, who puts his ego before the club. Arteta’s gonna reap what he sows, the real losers… Read more »
Charlie Not acknowledging that Kezman howler no? I’m not saying that is the case, I was saying that Gravenberch is an outstanding young player for Ajax and that a lot of them have gone on to be very successful in the game abroad. Which is true, I just gave you literally a dozen examples. And convenient how you don’t tell the whole truth with that Abraham stat that he fell out of favour under Lampard to a 34 year old Giroud. I didn’t mean he was a veteran of the game or anything, but he has played at a very… Read more »
I’ll admit that I didn’t watch the game but from all
post match reports Saliba had a great game In his Marseille debut. I’ll keep watching that space 😀😀
“Southampton accept bid for Armstrong
So with Ings already gone ?
EDDIE IS available.”
They have had a bid accepted for Armstrong of Blackburn.