My dad went on a stag-do with his younger cousins about 15 years ago, I wasn’t allowed to go. He had his own style, always, a sharp dresser if ever there was one. His best bit of work advice to me was.
‘If your clients aren’t talking about what you’re wearing, you’re wearing the wrong thing’
That has stood me well, being a bad dresser and all. Back to the point, he went on a Marbella stag do and decided he liked a £1000 cowboy jacket. It was black brushed leather with Eddie the eagle tassels so he looked like a bird when in the Jesus pose. Everyone told him he shouldn’t buy that jacket, but he wouldn’t listen, he knew it would crown his outfit… and that night, he was going to look like a hero.
He bought the jacket, owned the night, and never spoke about that jacket again.
To Arsenal fans, I think Aron Ramsdale is the jacket, we’re the friends wondering what’s going on… and there’s nothing we can do to stop the purchase. Arsenal are ten pints of data deep on this kid and they can already the dopamine hit when everyone is fawning over the tassels on the dance floor.
There is only one thing I can tell you to make you feel better… the same people that have identified Lokonga, White and Tavares are heavily skewing this decision. There’s something in his profile the club think they can work with. It’s not just him, it seems he’s quite popular in football circles, remember Chris Wilder is a proper coach and he made him his star signing (do NOT look at how that turned out). It is also worth noting that despite playing for relegated teams the past two seasons, both sets of fans voted him player of the season.
He’s also very, very young for a Premier League keeper.
So we’ll see. I’m just happy we’re bringing in a backup keeper. Even happier that the money would suggest he’s coming in to replace Leno as #1 as soon as the German drops a major footwork clanger against Brentford.
What I’m not happy about is that we are heading into the first game of the season having not added a single body to our attack. Arsenal had the 3rd best defence in the league last season and an attack that dropped just 55 (9th). Chelsea finished 8th for goals and spent £100m on Lukaku. I appreciate that attack often starts in defence in 2021. Ben White and a keeper that can pass will show us plebs that in due course. However, it is still quite baffling to be at a stalemate with our strikers and to still be fumbling around hoping Leicester or Madrid decide to deal this week.
Brentford will be a tough game, just because they have no history of the Premier League yet. We should beat them, but I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever known an Arsenal start to the season to be so pessimistic. There are a couple of reasons for that.
- Arteta burned all his ‘hope’ capital at the start of last season with that dreadful 14 game run. If you were a non-emotional fan, you’d be looking at the 60% of games we played post-Christmas for clues as to how we’re going to play this season. But you’re not, you are a hot mess of emotions and all we’re thinking about is how bad that start was last season.
- Preseasons against London rivals was a bad idea. Nice if you win, but back to back derby losses really was a waste of energy.
- Our start is hard.
A lot of the fear isn’t grounded in truth. I saw someone write ‘I just wish my team could register 15 shots a game’… our worst showing this summer was Spurs and we had 11 shots, 2 on target just like them. Chelsea 14, Watford 15+, Millwall 15+, Rangers 19, Hibs 19… shots hasn’t been the issue, but our forwards certainly have been.
There are going to be a lot of eyeballs on that teamsheet on Friday.
Is it going to be Hierahy FC this season? Are we going to see the rebirth of Laca/Auba as a mainstay? Will Arteta panic and start Mo Elneny in midfield next to Granit Xhaka? Who will start as right back, because Hector has been atrocious? Will we have to see 4 bad results to see the best starting 11?
Many questions I will look to tackle tomorrow.
Before we get there, I wanted to thank everyone who has been tuning in to the podcast this summer. We had our best week ever last week! We’re going to continue to bring you podcasts with LIVE video as the season goes on. One minor shift I want to make you aware of… we’ll be doing advertising on the podcast and a little bit with a great sponsor on the site. I went back and forth on it… but the reality is, I can’t ask people to do this for free, and this platform is expensive to run… servers, tools, microphones, WILD nights out in Vegas, all these annoying little subscriptions.
Anyway, jump on the latest videos, know that cancel culture exists and YOU made me change my haircut, and leave a nice 5* rating on iTunes.
1st
And
Trophy
The
Ok….by luck/accident, a tr4phy is still a tr4phy
Doh. Double doh for Ramsdale if it’s true.
Nice try IQ
Ramsdale, sweet Jesus. Project over paid English dross goes on. Donut football and over paid has been a all over the place.
For me the season is baked in, we will founded around, maybe pick up an el place and call it progress.
Horrific use of resources continues
Wow Pedro, you really are an expert at putting lipstick on a pig. This is a dreadful signing given all of our other needs.We could be paying up to 30m for a back-up keeper.
Look at just the conclusion of this video about Ramsdale that Gbat linked to.
https://youtu.be/TXJAEkevMfw
Overall, it’s a fantastic analysis but this is the same group that brought you the Martinez sale and Runarsson signing. Goalkeeping recruitment simply cannot be compared with other positions.
105M on White, Ramsdale, Lokonga and Tavares and we can’t be sure of moving even one place up the table from current 8th.
I think we should be finishing around 7th unless people believe West Ham will finish above us again, but no more than that. We have not improved the first team at all which is criminal at this point.
why do everyone think that ramsdale is coming in as a backup? if he really is going to cost 30m surely he might even be considered as a new nr 1? I mean who knows… leno might find himself on the bench in no time and sold in january if the new guy is putting in a shift..
Bollocks Pedro.
ben whites team finished 16th last season and largely flew under radar.. I needed to watch him about 60 minutes last sunday to be convinced that in 2 years time we are going to call that 50m a bargain for a world class cb
Net spend 6 million.. sold our reserve keeper with a year left on contract for 18 mill. The keeper we brought is 5 years younger and could easily prove to be better in time
Just like how they saw something in Runnerson right?
“why do everyone think that ramsdale is coming in as a backup? if he really is going to cost 30m surely he might even be considered as a new nr 1? I mean who knows… leno might find himself on the bench in no time and sold in january if the new guy is putting in a shift..” Well we had Emi M who for many was a better keeper than Leno and should have been our no 1. He was home grown too. So if Ramsdale is indeed going to be our no 1, we will be replacing a… Read more »
Yer da’s jacket sounds grand but it ain’t bringing Martinez back
“The profile is quite obvious, under 24 with good experience now, and significant room to develop further”.
Like Runnerson??? 24/5 years old when we signed him. How’s his development going?
Just because they are young enough for further development doesn’t mean they will. Sometimes you’ve just gotta call it for what it is. If Ramsdale turns into a world beater then great. But at the time of signing honest people would be very hard pressed to call him good.
And for the 7th highest fee for a Keeper in history?
Miss me with the BS.
Hope this Richard Garlick inside scoop on new found need for homegrown players pays dividends and doesn’t embarrass us down the line in the same way we waited for FFP to save us a few years ago. At the end of the day the people who’s job it is to find the right people want Ramsdale, and no amount of tears on Twitter is going to stop it. Hopefully it’s a data based acquisition and not another hit of Inaka Cana’s recommendation list ! In my opinion verging on unacceptable not to have the squad ready to go for the… Read more »
pEDRO
“There is only one thing I can tell you to make you feel better… the same people that have identified Lokonga, White and Tavares are heavily skewing this decision.”
You’ve gone off the deep end man
The same dudes who determined getting ball playing defender for 50 million takes priority over getting a proper CM and AM are in charge
The same ones who got us Runnarsson, who by the way is still around, are in charge.
Vintage
What BS is that, anything that deviates from your opinion?
I already said the nature of the transfer isn’t for me, I’m just not ready and willing to go all in on the hyperbolic opinions of others on Le Grove. Pepe was a game changer, and Torreira was Kante II on here, so in your own words….miss me with the bs.
Most of us think White is a very good ball playing defender. It was the price tag which was moaned about.
Most of us think Ramsdale’s a poor Keeper. Regardless of price.
The guy got beat 15 times from outside the box last season.
Even 15 years ago ,a leather tassel cowboy coat was bent
Where was your old man,the blue oyster bar ?
Gentle reminder that we will have spent circa £600m since 2016 if this Ramsdale transfer goes through.So yeah, the whole Stan won’t give us money to spend bollocks is wearing a bit thin at this stage.
Arsenal are looking at troves of metadata that no one else is is seeing
Cited Chris Wilder as a reference, manager with one season in the premier league before relegation
… but don’t look at the results
This is a comedy skit
Arteta and the clowns he’s surrounded himself with have turned Arsenal into a laugh-house factory.
Why are some fans just too eager to believe in any crap the club throws up?
Speechless
Could this be the last straw for some?
3rd best defense in the league and we spend 90M on GK/defenders. The same GK coach who recommended we sell Emi and sign Runarsson now advocating signing Ramsdale for 30M. The entire Arteta crew is a joke. The sooner the clown is sacked, the better.
Assuming we get a new GK in, I’m pretty confident of a top 4.
As long as Auba doesn’t catch malaria again or have a very sick close relative, I’m sure he’ll be back in the goals.
We won’t be playing the first third of the season without a Smith Rowe, so again as long as he’s available we should be confident. Add in Odegaard and maybe we can challenge for the title.
The other thing… being (fans) player of the season in a relegated team surely just means you’re the least shit player out of a squad of objectively terrible footballers?! Pedro you talk often about the ‘eye test’ on players… does Ramsdale really pass that, just in the week he was caught out of position for a goal against Bham.
“we will be replacing a top class GK with a young GK for a higher fee”
sorry TR7 but Leno isn’t a top class keeper. He’s a great shot stopper but that’s only part of being a top class keeper. His appalling distribution and lack of box command does not put him anywhere near top class.
I know so little about Ramsdale that I can’t add whether he should replace although my enthusiasm for signing him is low. I just don’t get why we’re not all in for Onana
All very well buying players with potential but that requires coaches to bring that out of them. The GK department of Arsenal has been a hot mess for a while (preceding MA).
The more I think about it the deeper mess I feel we’re in…
Charlie
It’s BS because as SHITE as Ramsdale’s been it’s ok because he “fits the profile?” I could understand if he was showing high potential in previous seasons but that hasn’t been the case has it???
Tell you what means as we are supposedly in the market for a CF why not go the whole hog and bag Rhian Brewster from Sheff U?
Fits the profile right?
Diss, the comedy skit is you thinking you have a better insight into football than Chris Wilder who took Sheffield United up two divisions and kept them in the Premier League against the odds. Comedy skit? Please. What he did at Sheffield was nothing short of spectacular
Foxy “At £30m is he really going to be a back up keeper especially when we have no Europe, something is going on with Leno maybe we promised him a move in January.” Leno will end up in the same transfer situation as Xhaka. No-one will be offering even modest amounts of money for a ‘good, but not elite’ GK in this market (including 6-12m from now). As Pedro mentioned on the pod, there seems to be no mid-market for transfers: there’s only huge deals for those with external financing, and everyone else only has a family pack of Ginster’s… Read more »
A better analogy on Grimsdale is to describe him as a straitjacket applied too late to the insane cunts that are Arteta, Edu, Vinai and all the other wankers that think this is a good signing and the one that we need. In-fucking-sane.
“Most of us think White is a very good ball playing defender.“
I’m glad you think you speak for the masses, but it’s absolutely not what was written about White on here as far as his ability goes. He was considered a player that caught nobody’s eye, and in the shadow of Dunk. An opinion that’s already received significant walking back following a preseason match.
North
I meant Emi when I said top GK. I know Leno is ordinary.
When a club can spend 100m with few outgoing a and the fans are still monstrously pessimistic you know the history must be bad and trust must be seriously low It’s gone beyond whether the signings are good or not and moved into the territory of just a serious lack of belief and trust for those in charge to be spending the right money on the right players When I was a kid we’d hear arsenal were spending 200k on an Albanian second division player and we’d all be excited as hell that he’s probably going to be the best… Read more »
Club must be waiting for the money from that new third kit launch to come through before upping their bid I guess. Kit is absolutely sauce in fairness but what’s the point in three kits a season ??
If HYSTERICAL Was a person, that’d be DISSENTER
That’s a lot of money right there for s keeper but I woulld do almost anything not to have runarson as our n 2
Very worried that ramsdale is not good enough but the kid is 23 what are most 23 year old keepers doing? Still learning that’s what
I’m not casting aspersions or being pejorative about anyone’s sexuality here, but I just checked on Wikipedia and saw that Brokeback Mountain came out about 15 or 16 years ago. Was everyone deciding to dress like Lee van Cleef at that moment I wonder?
7th most expensive keeper in history and 8th most expensive CB in history added to the third best defense in the PL
The expectation should be on an absolutely watertight defense next year. Right?
Pedro
There was a time when we all mocked CG for recommending Sean Dyche as Arsenal manager
Now you’re defending using Chris Wilder for hiring a goalie who by the way was part of the cast that got him fired.
What you’re doing now is the equivalent of a small town attorney banging the table in a court court room because neither the law or the facts are on his side.
There is only one thing I can tell you to make you feel better… the same people that have identified Lokonga, White and Tavares are heavily skewing this decision.
Yeah that’s not a good thing. So the people who have looked at addressing our 8th place finish last season by spending upwards of 100 million with only one player coming into the starting 11 are to be trusted? Nah mate nah
Nice spin Pedro.
Pops owned the night cause he didn’t give a fuck, that in itself is a win.
Our transfer crew must of been at the same stag, have the extended blinders on riding for the line here.
Ramsdale looks to be a decent keeper, it’s the price which is an issue. Even with White his price was an issue.
TR7 “3rd best defense in the league and we spend 90M on GK/defenders. The same GK coach who recommended we sell Emi and sign Runarsson now advocating signing Ramsdale for 30M. The entire Arteta crew is a joke. The sooner the clown is sacked, the better.” The team needed at least two creative midfielders bedded in last month. That was the priority but here these guys are splashing money on positions that could be otherwise filled by being smart in the market. Instead they are overpaying for English players in a depressed market in Europe. If everyone is lowballing Arsenal… Read more »
Regarding the Ben White issue
I believe Saliba would have done just as well in the Chelsea friendly and would have had a decent season at Arsenal, equal or better to anything Ben White would do for us.
We wouldn’t have had to spend 50 million and would have diverted that money to filling up the acute needs of the squad.
Am I right or wrong?
We will never know since the kid never got a chance to sink or swim so that debate will never grwo cold.
Matt Ryan – a perfectly good back up who proved to be a more than adequate GK last year. We’ve given up on him and seem to be taking a 30 million punt on someone who inspires almost none of us. It’s almost as if the chief objective in this TW has been to alienate the fans.
*never grow cold
Charlie
The stats show Ben White to be elite with the ball at his feet. The issues that i saw a lot of people had was with his height the £50m fee and whether that fee would impact on us strengthening elsewhere . I’m on record here saying that i like Ben White (fee aside) so no walking back for me my friend.
Quick question. Have you seen anything in Ramsdale to suggest he deserves to be 7th on the all time GK transfer list? i’ll wait…
Diss, you can have your wild anti-everything-Arsenal opinions… but the market makes the rules.
If Saliba was as good as Ben White, he’d be at a top Premier League club on loan.
If Ramsdale was total shit, Sheff U wouldn’t have signed him for £20m, and Arsenal wouldn’t be poking around now.
Trask
Totally agree with you. We had Saliba and Ryan in our squad, so we did not even need White and Ramsdale let alone for 80M. If we had kept Saliba and Ryan and signed Maddison and Auoar as you say for 80M, we would have been in a terrific position.
most people make mistakes in life. arteta and his crew have done their fair share. willian was a big one and most fans will never forgive him for it.. I know i wont. but i think i stand behind him and the team nontheless.. he is still repeating some of his mistakes but there are less as time passes.. at some point he probably has to give up on auba and laca playing at the same time too.. something i see as inevitable. but one thing is clear. arteta said last winter in a presconference.. probably on purpose that the… Read more »
Best case to make to Ramsdale is that at least he’s better than Runnersson
That’s an improvement right there.
“.If Saliba was as good as Ben White, he’d be at a top Premier League club on loan.”
Again economical with the truth here Pedro. Saliba wanted to go back to France. It’s not that he wouldn’t have got an opportunity in EPL.
Too much sense trask!
Its a simple rule but quite effective, when the name Saliba is posted…. scroll down.
Pedro
“If Saliba was as good as Ben White, he’d be at a top Premier League club on loan”
What does that even mean?
The kids knows Arteta is full of shite and was going mess him up further so so he’s trying very hard to stay away from the manager.
You have no way of proving that Saliba wouldn’t have worked for Arsenal because your man never gave him an opportunity.. We had a decent defender who was messed up by Arteta.
I’m not anti-Arsenal but am I’m certainly a against this Arteta-before-Arsenal approach.
I would actually respect Tets more if he spent the season on the touchline at the Emirates in a Sergio Georgini tasselled leather jacket like Pedro’s old man. He’d be making clear that he runs this club, from top to bottom, unchallenged, like Wenger did.
TR7, which top clubs… Southampton and Newcastle? Both relegation fodder.
Saliba is going to be a top player, no doubt, but the idea he’d offer us more than Ben White this season is a joke.
Pedro if the market makes the rules what is the market saying about xhaka our high quality CM?
That actually got deleted….wow so even the mere mention of Arteta getting the sack gets deleted. Fair enough
Could the club be looking to sell Leno this window ?
Vintage I’m not saying you’re walking back on an opinion, but dont conflate your own views with the vocal majority on here. Nobody liked the fee, but further still Ben White has been handily dismissed by the usual suspects. “Have you seen anything in Ramsdale to suggest he deserves to be 7th on the all time GK transfer list? i’ll wait…” Err, no, which is probably why I’ve said about 5 times that it doesn’t make any financial sense to me, and that I’d prefer Onana. But what I’m not going to do is sit and nod my head in… Read more »
We can’t go into the season with Runarsson as backup keeper. Its almost as mad as signing him in the first place! But overpaying for a keeper while we are crying out for some quality at CAM and RWB feels very unsettling.
I think chambers will start RB on Friday other two MF can’t be trusted
Some of the things you look for in a top notch goalkeeper.
composure
size
presence
track record in performing on the big stage
good at crosses
good at saving pens
personality
Ramsdale has none of these.
They will be dancing in the streets of Sheffield this evening.
Another signing that will go down in folklore.
Pedro
Most top clubs send their young players to smaller clubs on loan. That’s the norm isn’t it ? Do Man U send their top young talents to Arsenal on loan ? No. Not sure what you mean when you say top EPL clubs were not in for Saliba for a loan stint.
So our back up keeper cost more than our main keeper… That ain’t gonna work
Martinez was home grown, Matt Macey was home grown. Usually the squad had 3 goalkeepers and two were home grown. With Leno and Runarsson we already have two non home grown players, so hiring a home grown goalkeeper make sense. The decision of only hiring a home grown goalkeeper seems to indicate that A&E intend to buy at least two more players who are not homegrown. The issue is the quality and price of buying home grown players. Grimsdale give me the feeling of Caporal Jenkinson refusing to leave his post. Once at Arsenal, he is unlikely to leave. We… Read more »
Tr7
Maybe BB stats work against saliba… That or maybe he has a Terrible Attitude?
Or simply maybe he don’t like him or want him at the club. Which I think is obvious
Team for Friday:
Leno
Chambers White Mari Tierney
Xhaka Lokonga
Pepe ESR Saka
Auba
Saliba is better than White because he’s French, I thought everyone was clear about that rule circulating in world football.
French defenders > the rest.
The challenge isn’t so much with the players, but rather its with Arteta himself. Which Arteta are we going to get game in and game out, he’s an enigmatic manager to be honest. Never quite clear on what the plan of attack is and he seldom comes at you with a consistent lineup. I get that Arteta is tinkering to find his best lineup, but after X amount of games and less than thrilling results, you openly start to ask whether he knows what he’s doing? I get fully where you are coming from Pedro, but equally I’m asking questions… Read more »
TR7, Lingaard went to West Ham on loan. That would be a move of heft that would indicate we might be off the mark with Saliba… or, a club like Leicester would just bid £38m for the player.
“French defenders > the rest.”
FFS CC you got it all wrong its:
French Girls > the rest.
Sad that Arsenal are going to spend more on a backup keeper than what they got back a year earlier for a significantly better backup and starter in Emi. The optics smack of ineptitude and little else.
Ernest Reed
It does look really bad from that P.O.V doesn’t it?
Looking like he’ll cost more than even Leno as well
🙂
When Liverpool, Citey, Chelsea are making a big money move on a player; the talent is always obvious.
I hope these suspect transfers end well because beyond that I really don’t know what to say.
To allow Buendia to go and then blow the money on these guys?
Sal
Idk if Saliba agrees based on his snapchat
Pedro,
I think you need to resurrect your Dad’s jacket along with your cancelled Barnet and present the podcast with a naff background of 90s graphics a la The Word. Internet sensation waiting to happen. You know it makes sense.
I laugh out loud at “anti-everything-arsenal opinions”
Pedro you really take yourself seriously when you type that out or are you just winding people up?
I hope it’s a windup
Spudnik, the jacket was pretty cool.
“Err, no, which is probably why I’ve said about 5 times that it doesn’t make any financial sense to me, and that I’d prefer Onana. But what I’m not going to do is sit and nod my head in awe at hyperbolic testimonials online.” And this is the problem Charlie, Like you said the finances don’t make sense for a team that claims moneys tight. So to spend £30m on a player levels below the man in front of him is bizarre. And saying Ramsdale is poor is not “hyperbolic testimonials online.” It’s just the truth thus far. He might… Read more »
Anonymous Comm
Pedro is just banging tables now.
He knows Arteta is shitting the bed but is too wedded to him now
Now we are into dad’s jacket, Chris Wilder’s reference, ignoring Sheffield results etc.
Wenger deserves an apology from Pedro
Is the the project we were looking forward to?
Pedro If Ramsdale was total shit, Sheff U wouldn’t have signed him for £20m, and Arsenal wouldn’t be poking around now. Tell me about Brewster who Wilder signed for £23.5 million . Great return for a forward 30 games for Sheffield United last season and not one goal.Perhaps Arsenal should put a bid in for him ? Ramsdale is an ok keeper and that’s it he has flattered to deceive mainly because he has more work to do than most other keepers but even then letting in close to 130 over two seasons ain’t great. My daughters partner is a… Read more »
Arsenal win the gold medal for underwhelming summer transfers in & out
Edu/Mikels actions around the goalkeeping department have been nothing short of amateur and shocking. The idea that there is some sort of longterm strategy going on is laughable. They are throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks – and frankly nothing is sticking.
Really don’t think it’s a coincidence that it all went to shit as soon as Emi exited the club.
Pedro
Did the tassel jacket and Ugg Boots overlap? 🙂
Terraloon just raised an excellent point
Since we are relying on Chris Wilder now for references, maybe we can try to sign Rhian Brewster for say….35 million.
Chris Wilder has a reference from Pep Guardiola so that should count.
“And saying Ramsdale is poor is not “hyperbolic testimonials online.” It’s just the truth thus far“ Who’s truth? I get that’s your view of him, but extending beyond that is where I’ll say pause. He’s been rated at both clubs he’s played at, and was included in the England squad. None of that ‘because he’s gash’. Now I’m certainly not going to declare he’s exciting or elite, but a lot of the dissenting voices I read scream “emotional response”. The measured breakdowns I’ve come across from Blades fans, GK fans etc suggest he’s a very talented GK who could get… Read more »
Holding over Mari for Fridays game.
G
Martinez had 2 years left on his contract not 1 year.
He signed a six-year contract signed in 2016 worth £20,000 per week
Vintage Gun
The analysis on the link I reposted addresses long-distance shots as a primary weakness of Ramsdale. Essentially, he comes so far out that a shot outside the box gives him the same reaction time as a shot just inside the box.
Pedro
‘If Ramsdale was total shit, Sheff U wouldn’t have signed him for £20m, and Arsenal wouldn’t be poking around now’.
Based on this logic, should we putting in a bid for around 30-35m for Rhian Brewster who Sheffield United paid about 23m for last season?
I don’t think anyone is saying Ramsdale is total shit but we’re paying money that should be buying much more than a work in process. At least he might prove to be better value than Kepa.