If you’ve been reading Le Grove for a while, you’ll know I don’t really raise my hand on transfer rumours, because it’s a risky game. There are very few that truly know what they are doing in this space, David Ornstein is obviously the best in the business, BBC on the resume, an actual journalist, can cut through the bullshit, has real contacts, very rarely misses. There are others that get good information, but it’s peddled via agents, the deal with the devil there is part of your messaging is good faith, but the other part is shifting nonsense, being the authentic face of bullshit designed to whip up interest.
If a big name Twitter account says X player is moving to BIG club, it might not be true, but that Twitter account creates 1000 stories that make it feel true. Football is a game of emotion and execs all have the same biases and ticks you do. So this tactic can be fruitful because a front-of-mind name for you can be a front-of-mind name in an insecure scouting office.
So, first up on the nonsense chart.
The Daily Mail reckon Cedric Soares has been denied a move to Atletico by the move of Ainsley. This is a big fat NONSENSE. Remember, Cedric was a player so average Southampton assumed that when his deal ran out, he’d go to a lower league club. The idea that Diego Simeone is going to swoop in for a £90k a week right back that; as someone neatly put it the other day, is still our 4th best right back after shipping a few, is utter dross. This is a story of Kia’s imagination designed to fool other clubs into thinking there might be a player there. If Arsenal could shake his £90k a week salary, they’d stick Bernd Leno at right-back for the rest of the season. Cedric might land a move, but let’s be real, Soares can’t do anything Trippier can do, and if he’s not an Arteta or a Hassenhutl player, he’s not a Simeone player.
The second mega noise is around Dusan Vlahovic’s camp and club. Fiorentina folk are telling anyone that wants to listen that Arsenal needs to do something, like, so bloody crazy if they want the bring the striker over this January.
This story has flaws.
Firstly, the £58m price tag. Who are they kidding? The player has 18 months left on his deal, 12 in the summer, it would be nuts if they managed to squeeze £50m for the player in this market. Fiorentina desperately needs a club like Arsenal to come for their player now, because in the summer, the price drops again.
Then you have the summer. The pickings are slim when it comes to clubs with the money and the prestige to be a draw.
- PSG – Haaland / Lukaku / Ronaldo
- City – Kane / Haaland
- Barca – skint (dreaming of Haaland)
- Chelsea – Lukaku (Haaland)
- United – Too many strikers
- Liverpool – No room
- Spurs – Broke
- Juve – Would want a 6 year loan
It’s hard to ask for something crazy in a market of one.
Then let’s talk about the wages. The Mail again saying we’d need crazy money. He’s reportedly asking for £300k a week. Come on people. Are we losing our damn minds? Arsenal isn’t going to him with that money when we have Saka, Martinelli, and Smith Rowe on our book earning around £120k a week at best. We’re not going to fuck our wage structure on a 21-year-old that doesn’t have many options outside us / hasn’t proved himself outside a tier 4 league. You think Juve are going to give him that? No chance. They’ll ask Fiorentina to pay his wages on the loan move they’ll want.
The more noise I read about Vlahovic, the more I think the move is unlikely. This chatter is all driven by agents via Italian Football Twitter, but where there’s smoke… there’s usually a really annoying player that’ll come and want to leave after year one unless they land a new deal.
Again, think about the currency of the internet: Information. Look at how much info out of accounts linked to agents. This is part of a negotiation or it’s part of a noisy ‘PLEASE SOMEONE DRIVE UP THE PRICE’ campaign.
I’m going to say it again, I think Jack Wilshere might be an option this month, remember, it only takes a second to sign a deal.
Arsenal aren’t loaded this January, pulling money from the summer for a striker makes sense, but I don’t think we’ll be finding £60m for a midfielder. I suspect the pattern you see with the striker is what you’re going to see with the midfielder.
- Age Profile: 21-24
- Appearances: 2 seasons of consistent first-team action in a major league
- Contract: 6-18months left on deal so the fee can be lower
Who knows what the specificity is going to be, but I suspect we’ll be looking at an understudy for Granit Xhaka after nearly losing him in the summer and someone that can add a bit of bite and edge heading into the end of the year.
The key for the window is to manage the emotion of it. The easiest thing to do would be to waste money on someone (Gini). The temptation will be to break the strategy with someone older that could block the path of a young player that simply needs a 6-month loan to put themselves in contention.
We don’t need to do anything wild. Arsenal has a wild couple of weeks coming up. The job is clear. We need to beat Liverpool for cheating their COVID testing, then we have to go to Spurs this weekend and take a point or more. After that, beat Burnley and we are game on for the Top 4 race for the rest of the season.
All we need to do is ride four games, then we enter into Phase 6 of the season with a 17 day break. Last season, I think Arteta took the team to Dubai. Get into that break without too much damage and the players will get some sun, they’ll have a mini-preseason with the new players, then we’ll jump back into Phase 6 of the season fresh, with no Europe, no more cups, just pure focus and a clear objective to chase.
Back to Liverpool. The press now seems pretty clear that, yes, conspiracies do happen in football, but only because Jurgen Klopp was dim enough to reveal it in the press. Liverpool opened their training ground a day after our postponed game, then admitted they had 10 false-negative tests. You’ve a better chance of winning the lottery than getting than many bad test results. Is there any other way of framing this outside cheating? There’s not.
At the core, this is a huge compliment. Jurgen Klopp has fucked Liverpool’s season by January again, which is a huge, huge failure on his part. He needs an insurance trophy, that is now the League Cup. He wants a good news story. Last Thursday, he knew Arsenal were in outstanding form, he didn’t have all the players he needed, so they gamed the system and had the event moved by Rick Parry (exLiverpool exec). False positives are rare. A load of them, at a professional football club, is impossible. This needs to be punished by more than a cursory fine.
Still, the ACTUAL positive here is Arsenal didn’t have Xhaka, who was really sick, and now they do. Arteta needs a performance, the boys need to get some good news into those tired legs, now they have a chip on their collective shoulders, so let’s see what we can do there.
I will say again… media that play the: ‘Hmmmffhhhopppphhh, fans are so dumb when they call out cheating in the game’ really embarrassed themselves with the lack of probing around what Liverpool did. Call it out, Klopp is a disgrace. Be a little curious on other things like referees and the drab data associated with how they behave around certain clubs.
Final piece related to Cup nightmares and the internet. Nottingham Forest are trying to get a promotion this season, they are in the mixer for the Play-offs. Did anyone think it was nuts that Steve Cooper went out of his way to shit-house Arsenal and put Djed Spence, their excellent full-back, in the shop window like that? Boro’ now has a proper coach in Chris Wilder, who must be wondering why a player that can go toe-to-toe with Martinelli is out on loan to a rival, and now the rest of the Premier League is looking at the same player and wondering if they need a new right-back. Mad put your best silver on show in a trophy you can’t win, but here we are, that’s football for ya.
Ok, have fun in the comments and WATCH THE DAMN SHOW (subscribe too) or LISTEN (subscribe) to it. Johnny seems to have won MoTP for his showing. Thank you for watching and tuning in, we love you. x
Bankz is here for the tr4phy again
DM
Hope you’re not sneaking behind me?
Okay.
Loading……
((((BOOOOM)))
Easy pizzy!
Trophy?
Ah damn missed by 6 minutes
A false-positive result was defined as a positive screen on a rapid antigen test and a subsequent negative confirmatory PCR.
Karis Mullis inventor of PCR test
“It is important to note that detecting viral material by PCR does not indicate that the virus is fully intact and infectious, i.e. able to cause infection in other people. The isolation of infectious virus from positive individuals requires virus culture methods. These methods can only be conducted in laboratories with specialist containment facilities and are time consuming and complex.”
Claiming Klopp is a cheat because of the tests is ignorant
Its likely the tests are from the same batch of faulty kits.
False tests are Not rare, im telling you for free!
The EFL announcement was always a little odd the League has accepted Liverpool’s request after determining, albeit reluctantly, that a postponement was the only option as the club looks to mitigate against the further risk of infection amongst its squad and staff alongside ensuring public health was protected by not travelling from Liverpool to London. It feels like even at the time Liverpool we’re arguing they did not know how many cases they had and were worried about the risk of further transmission – rather than purely they could not field enough first team squad players. Question is why were… Read more »
It’s getting very annoying what’s going on this season e.g. no VAR in our match vs N.Forest (clear foul on Holding for shirt pulling) while A.Villa denied a goal because of VAR, Brentford match not cancelled when we had 4 players (maybe more) infected but the Liverpool semis off because of one bloody player.
Yo Pedro, the Vlahovic numbers aren’t too far off actually. We’ve gone in hard from him but he’s not sure. That I’m itself should be a red flag for us.
And be ready to see Renato Sanchez join us shortly. 99% done
Sid, if they were PCR tests, they are processed in Laboratories, not the Anfield bootroom,
It’s all gone very quiet regarding Isak, so I am expecting an announcement imminently that we have signed him.
Pedro The priority in this transfer window has to be a CMF/DMF. I am sure that Arsenal have the money to buy a player in £30-40 Million price range and I don’t think that the wage bill will upset our pay structure. If we qualify for Europe with additional mid week playing demands then we need at least 3 seasoned players in that department. Whilst there is a lot of uncertainty over CFs with both Lacazette and Nketiah coming to end of contracts and Aubameyang in the dog house I do not believe that we need to spend inflated prices… Read more »
Sid, if your entire value here is to take joy in losses and bat for everyone bar Arsenal, you will go the way of other trolls. Remember, this is an Arsenal blog.
You can have that comment for free Sid.
Rumours are bollocks unless Fleetwood Mac are singing it.
PTAH, if your entire value here is to take joy in mediocre wins and bat for Diet Pep Not Arsenal, you will go the way of other trolls. Remember, this is an Arsenal blog.
Had we played Liverpool in the carabao cup semi with the same team that was crap on Sunday, they would have stuffed us at the Emirates. The tie would be over by now.
Kindly stop all this conspiracy nonsense
Liverpool may just have done us a favor, unwittingly.
Why would Klopp risk soiling his reputation concocting a scheme that gives him little if any advantage at all, in a competition he thinks so little of that he wanted to forgo the second leg at Anfield and only play the first one at Arsenal? Oh yes, he needs the milk cup trophy to lessen the blow from his tanking the league he was never favored to win to begin with, and which isn’t yet a forgone conclusion. I welcome an investigation into it by all means and let the chips fall where the may if there is one but… Read more »
Not at all sure Klopp rates Carabao Cup. He’s chasing City hard for the PL title, and we’re only halfway through the season. If he cheated, hardly think it was because he’s desperate for the lowest-rated trophy on offer.
It seems the Florentine is not on Arteta’s menu. Who then? Probably no striker at all if Eddie and Laca stay. A midfielder is much more likely. But if I was betting on a striker, he would have to be a game-changer – like Haaland.
Just hope Arsenal sign players to compete Top4…COYG
Just hope Arsenal sign players to compete Top4…COYG
Why don’t we buy Djed Spence from Nottingham Forest ?
Unless he is wary of getting out of the woods !
It was just a few days ago that I had a 20 min “scouting” of several strikers that we should be looking at, and Newcastle are supposedly in talks with one of them – Hugo Ekitike. 8 goals and 2 assists in roughly 10 full games (10 starts and 7 subs for a total of 866 mins played). He’s playing for Reims, he’s 19 yo and 189 cm tall (6 ft 2). At that age you never know how a player will progress. Could be the new Sanogo or a potential Adebayor/Drogba. We already have Balogun who ticks similar boxes.… Read more »
Someone needs to tell FIFA the time has come to push AFCON back to once every four years. The disruption of a tournament like this in mid season every other season is too much.
I would not be surprised if the current situation sees some managers privately avoid giving key African players contracts in future when there will be an AFCON in the middle of them. It’s too much hassle.
So annoying that if we were interested in buying Danjuma directly from Bournemouth – BOOOM £40m !!!
But because it’s a Spanish club that wanted him – bruvs you can have him for £20m.
AFCON has pretty much been held in January basically since forever, don’t know what’s always got most folks knickers in a twist with it and I’m very sure most managers would still sign very good players of African descent tomorrow if the opportunity came in
Didn’t know Steven Caulker was of Sierra Leone descent by the way or that he still even played football.
Liverpool and Covid The Liverpool situation proves what I was saying last week. The system is open to abuse. I actually thought the fiddle was done by claiming players are injured, that’s a really easy way to reduce your playing numbers. Trying to pretend, as some are on here, that cheating doesn’t matter is a road to disaster and the integrity of the game. It is irrelevant whether Liverpool did us a favour or not, they probably did, it’s about making sure the game is honest and ALL clubs are treated equally. Not deciding which games they don’t want to… Read more »
Raptora
What about Brereton Diaz? 20 goals this season in 25 matches. Been on form since last season for club and country and is only 22?
I just wanna smash those Liverpool bitches , I hope we play our strongest team and nick a 1-0 win . Its very unfortunate that we have to play our most important PL match sandwiched between the 2 legs of the cup .
Why are fans generally aleays after the next shinning thing on the blog.?
How many fans have actually watched Jed Spence before the Notss vs Arsenal Fa Cup match?
You cannot out of the blue look at at him to be on your transfer list just because of 1 game. Only unique prodigy can be looked at that way and they are few.
A player can impress after one game but you will still need to do proper scouting before looking at him at as potential player.
I will take Tariq Lamprey, max Aarons before Jed Spence
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10390419/Former-Arsenal-defender-Laurent-Koscielny-EXILED-Bordeauxs-team.html
EB “It seems the Florentine is not on Arteta’s menu. Who then? Probably no striker at all if Eddie and Laca stay. A midfielder is much more likely. But if I was betting on a striker, he would have to be a game-changer – like Haaland.” Haaland is Odegaards best mate. If we somehow manage a minor miracle and get top 4, why not? Transfer speculation is 99% BS, so I wouldn’t take anything the media says. They know someone needs a striker so they start throwing names around, it’s clickbait. It is also worth remembering the difference between January… Read more »
AFC Forever
Not that I dont agree with you but its hard to feel sympathy for Aston Villa , who without THAT disallowed goal against Sheffield United , should have been relegated. But I agree with your much larger point about PGMOL and referees. But I dont think its a consipracy , its just plain incompetence and then consequent attempts to hide those which have blown on their faces recently.
For me, FA should have a policy to ensure every player and personnel participating on the game day be clean. If a team can’t come up with enough clean first team players, then it is a mistake of the team. They either fill the team with subs or forfeit. That would force every team to be very careful. It can only be a good thing.
DivineSherlock I hope you are right mate. However, the inconsistency from game to game doesn’t get corrected, which is very odd. The good thing is everyone has cottoned onto the fact that something needs to be done. From match appointments, the make-up of the select group and VAR the finger is being pointed at Mike Riley. I think all we fans want is to understand the rules and see them applied the same for everyone. There is no way we should be sitting around for nearly four minutes. waiting for fo a ‘clear and obvious’ decision, which is obviously not… Read more »
* There is no way we should be sitting around for nearly four minutes. waiting for a ‘clear and obvious’ decision, which is obviously not clear and obvious.
Major=jeneral
This is one of the reasons why I’m falling out of love with the game.
For me, Spence showed in that one game, he is more than capable of stepping up to the plate.
No doubt our scouts will be looking all over Europe and we’ll end spending an arm and a leg on recruiting someone.
Major_Jeneral
Sorry.
Samesong,
I hear you about Brereton Diaz.
He looks like a no-nonsense striker. Much like Haaland btw. They’ll score the ugly goals that the pretty boys don’t score.
Not that easy on the eye though. Not exciting or a fantastic footballer. Uncultured. Would probably fit the likes of West Ham and Newcastle.
Might do well though. As I said, Haaland also scores SO MANY ugly goals
As a whole I’d be reluctant on making Brereton Diaz our starting striker for the next years. Need to see more quality in his play than at this moment of time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2whCFQsZU
Rap
I get more the Harry Kane with him. Can he step up tonthe PL thats the question.
Samesong,
Yeah. His driven shots are very good. I’m more of a sucker for curlers but a goal is a goal. With so many clubs finding themselves short of goals, he’ll be in the EPL in no time.
Graham62 “This is one of the reasons why I’m falling out of love with the game. For me, Spence showed in that one game, he is more than capable of stepping up to the plate” Mate, you don’t scout or sign a player after one game!! I have been involved in football for years and let me tell you Spence will be known to the clubs. Professional football clubs have huge amounts of data with their analytics-led process with dossiers on most players. They know more than we can see in one good performance. Ask yourself how many players you… Read more »
Djed Spence, is talented, of that there is no doubt.
I’m sure the likes of Martinelli, Tavares and Tierney would love to have him on their side.
How much would he cost in today’s market?
Exactly!
Let’s go out though and spend another £40m on a proven player.
Batistuta & Insideright:
AFCON was played in the summer last time in 2019 and will forever more unless something changes. Covid disrupted it this time (2021) and it had to be moved to January.
AFC
I’ve been involved in professional coaching for over forty’s years, in various sports.
Data is overrated.
How did all that data work out in respect to Pepe?
AFC Forever
Is it just too much to ask PGMOL to change ? I dont think it’ll happen anytime soon or until every stadium in the PL starts booing the refs . To make wholesale changes we as fans need to make it loud enough that we wont tolerate this BS. a
Fedda
Yea I’m aware, just all of the noise around the tourney like it’s not for the longest time been played in January and teams haven’t still gone on to win leagues and cups despite having African players
DivineSherlock
They can’t change mate. Mike Riley is the problem. He hates VAR and opposed its introduction. Unfortunately, it is a protectorate but I think things will change because there are just too many terrible inconsistencies. You are right though, fans have the power to demand change but too many stick their heads up their backsides. At least former referees are speaking out now.
The day Sid gets binned will be a +1 for Arsenal and Le Grove.
“I’m telling you for free”!
30 yr old Wiltshere or 31 yr old Wijnaldum? pass the Dutch… then add a Svanberg/Luiz/Guimeres/Danilo. We paid 56m for Auba in Jan 2018, he was 28… 60m, four years later for a 21 yr old who potentially looks like the next best after Haarland/Mbappe and fits our style, doesn’t seem that crazy. we’d have one of the top strikers in Europe for the next 5 yrs if he lived up to his potential. Even the wages don’t seem that crazy. 160,000 over 5 yrs after tax? someone said Saka was on 120,000? is that before or after tax? In… Read more »
in the Summer, keep playing Lacazette till the summer when his contract is over, and go balls deep for Martinelli ST, Danjuma on the left, Saka on the right, ESR/Ode in the AM position.
Raptora
You’d put all your money on martinelli as mail striker when thus far he’s not shown any real aptitude with his back to goal?
He’s better feeding off a striker, not doing the feeding.
Hope we sign that Vhalovic, he’s the image of Chris Klein out of American Pie, so bound to be a good song for him at some point ‘Chickity China the Chinese chicken’
Someone must’ve be able to do that justice!
Don,
I think he could become van Persie type of player. Or Suarez/Aguero.
Sign an understudy for granit Xhaka? That’s the most absolutely pointless plan ever A player who isn’t good enough for us does not need an understudy. He needs an upgrade Funnily enough I was actually quite curious after being impressed by Bruno Guimares’ YouTube compilation for this season so I searched for a Xhaka compilation and Low and behold he has fuck all wow bits. Outside of the occasional slow high diagonal ball to a winger (he’s good at those but they rarely lead to anything) his highlights were absolutely basic. Short passes to players in space. The kind of… Read more »
Seriously if you’re going to sign a CM and he’s not even better than Xhaka what is the actual point lol. Might as well put el neny on a new contract if that’s the case rather than set fire to millions on a player inferior to someone who is demonstrably not a top class footballer
Pedro, I like that Vlahovic analysis. Makes sense.
Why should jonny foreigner be better than Spence?
Bowen at West Ham came from Hull and is a good solid player.
Hardened pros are needed in every team not always pretty but reliable like Milner.
We need some more Ray Parlours.
Djed Spence spat twice in the tunnel at halftime and then chucked the bottle on the floor, complete twat with no respect. He then ran down the wing and kicked the ball out for a goal kick because he can’t cross.
No wonder le grove champions him with his terrible opinions
Keep wishing Le groves supreme and Sid are tighter than a nuns g spot
No to Vlhaovic
Many reasons why.
Price, league, is he what we need?, etc etc
Yea he is 22 and scoring a lot but there are others too in the mold.
Would prefer to see someone less pricy and also with more upside and a master ad heading the ball into the net
think he could become van Persie type of player. Or Suarez/Aguero. Raptora And you are willing to lay out ambitions on him being able to carry that weight as early as next season? More than a little unrealistic don’t you think? What have we seen to suggest he’s even suited to the role of no9? He can finish yes but his all round game is lacking in that position. IF he is ever able to produce effectively as no9 it won’t be next season and it won’t be playing the sort of football we are currently. He’s a low touch… Read more »
I don’t know but gabriel martinelli and rvp? Plus sanchez was always better as a wide player or ss at best. Look gabi might be a very good st later but nothing he has shown so far makes him look ready to lead the line on his own yet imo
China1January 11, 2022 15:18:03
Seriously if you’re going to sign a CM and he’s not even better than Xhaka what is the actual point lol. Might as well put el neny on a new contract if that’s the case rather than set fire to millions on a player inferior to someone who is demonstrably not a top class footballer
China
Like who? Guendouzi, torriera, Ceballos, Suarez and Lakonga? Great question
And there’s your problem china, your basic understanding of football is like how you describe xhaka, anything that doesn’t stand out and you’re lost. In the position xhaka plays most coaches prefer lowkey. How many times does jorginho “wow” you? This ain’t playstation guy.
Someone in the RVP skill set would be welcome. Fella was a stone cold killa..
A traitor but yea, great player
Raulishuss
Spot on. For now he’s better off coming from wide picking up on the threads from Saka laca and Odegaard
He’s the least creative of the quartet
Sf
Martinelli will never play like rvp. Rvp had touch, vision and the ability to link play with world class passes and flicks at a very young age. Totally different game. Martinelli might fill out and make the position his own one day, maybe, but nothing like the style and variety rvp offered
Don, There were doubts about ESR being good enough to be intergral to our game this season just like there were for Saka the year before. I’ve claimed in the Summer that we shouldn’t spend big in the AM position because ESR, who was already a 20m, would be a 50m player a year from now. Saka went down the same road, ESR was a full year of competitive football experience behind him. So was Martinelli. By the end of this season, Martinelli as well, will be a 50m player if he’s given enough opportunities. We don’t really need to… Read more »
RVP was technically skilled… good with foot, head, pressed, high work rate, sweet left peg, and a ton of aggression.
Exactly what we need. or any team needs really.
Wenger stuck him on the wing as a youngster and he did ok,,, but moving him to CF he really became world class
Djed Spence bossed us on a day when we were operating at 10% capacity.
So we go and sign him now?
Djed Spence is not considered good enough for his parent club, Middlesbrough
They obviously don’t value him enough to send him on loan to a club that’s only two places behind them in the championship.
Goof goal Ineacho
There were doubts about ESR being good enough to be intergral to our game this season just like there were for Saka the year before
Raptora
I don’t doubt wether he is good enough to be integral to our game. I doubt wether he can play with his back to goal and bring others into play at any point in his career.
I know that he certainly won’t be leading the line for us next season as our main no9
Don is joining the Pierre head-down merchant club.
He’s scored 3 headers, he’s scored curlers, he’s scored volleys (vs Newcastle for an instance), he’s scored from power shots, solo runs, tap ins. And he’s 20 yo. We’ll talk again about touch and variety. This touch should have lead to a penalty vs City.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soeot2m3GV4
Raptora I agree to an extent. I’d offer Lacazette a one year deal to allow Balogun and martinelli time to learn the role and see which of the two takes to it I would focus my funds on the best midfielder we could possibly get hold of to help us protect possession and offer a greater range in passing, penetration and variety. If Lacazette can still play the following season then I’d keep him on another one year deal but by then I’d hope Balogun or martinelli would be able to stake their claim to that spot I really don’t… Read more »
Pedro I love your stuff normally but our season could be effectively over by the end of January . We don’t know if Xhaka will be back ( how mad is it to be depending on one of the most unreliable players we’ve ever had?) and on Sunday we were considering Kolasinac in midfield because Roma insisted they needed AMN and we caved . Our two midfielders were completely overwhelmed on Sunday and if those two play again at Anfield and/ or the Lane we are in serious trouble . . As for Vlahovic Ornstein confirms there is serious interest… Read more »
Raptora
Sanchez could do everything martinelli can do only better. He wasn’t a 9. Why?
Martinelli is quite similar to cr7 but cr7 excelled most having water carriers like tevez, Rooney and benzema. A link player. Martinelli will always score Goals from either side of a main target but right now his game is not at 9
where is don? He is back? Which handle is Don- hehe
Dissenter
I agree with your earlier comment about Liverpool’s delay actually helping us
If we had played like we did against Forest, Liverpool would have murdered us
As it is we have Gabriel and perhaps Xhaka back and can keep the score close enough for a return game victory to be feasible
Don: “right now his game is not at 9”
And ESR and Saka weren’t 50m players 2 years ago.
Look, I don’t mind Martinelli staying a winger long term. But I see that he might have a future as a striker and this summer we’ll probably be without a senior one. It could be his position just like TH14 and RvP were eventually converted to strikers and excelled there.
why not just let Ødegaard play the false 9 role that way even ESR can slot in further back as attacking midfielder
most defenders can’t handle Martinelli and Saka anyway and with ESR coming late on penalty box that will be an added threat
just focus on the centre/defensive midfield targets
Raptora
But ESR was an attacking mid and Saka was an effective wide player
I’m telling you now. 1000% martinelli will not be playing as no9 next season. He’s just not got the skill set to make the role his own.
He’s at his best facing goal and bearing down on it, with or without the ball at his feet
Henry wouldn’t have been deployed as a no9 in a modern system
He’s be playing the left inside forward role is sanchez and martinelli
Football has changed.
Imo Martinelli will end up a pure 9. He is at his best through the middle and he’s a naturally gifted finisher. But as of now we desperately need a more senior ST to lead the line. As much as we all love Martinelli, Erling Haaland he is not. I think that in 2ish years time he will be ready to lead the line but until then we need a reliable 15-20 PL goal a season ST to replace what Auba used to provide us. We also need that ST to be powerful, mobile and able to bring others into… Read more »
Unoni
Henry could have played as the lone ST in the modern game imo, he basically did just that in his best season here which was in 2005/06 imo.
As he showed under Pep at Barca though, he was also elite as the LF in a 4-3-3 so agree he could have played in either spot.
how do you see top class cfs all over europe leading the line and think yep gabi for us?. Nothing in gabis game scream cf. He isn’t even patient enough,not strong to compete with cb yet and his touch and general awareness with his back to goal needs a lot of work still. Gabi is gold but a cf he isn’t just yet. He still has a lot to learn imo
WE: “But as of now we desperately need a more senior ST to lead the line.”
Wonder who that player is. All of the options I’ve thought of are young forwards, who have no more than 1 quality season and could realistically fail at Arsenal in England.
Michail Antonio would be near perfect for what we need. He is definitely better than any of DCL, Watkins or Toney for me.
His age and importance to West Ham make that a non-starter though.
Rap
I mean I am not Vlahovic’s biggest fan or anything but he is no flash in the pan. 40 goals in his last 60 games for Fiorentina is near elite.
We may need a more veteran ST to bridge the gap though, agreed. Would not be opposed to that so long as they were not on stupid Auba/Laca money.
Duvan Zapata is earning peanuts over at Atalanta for one.
ESR will be used as a false 9
You heard it here 1st!
Raul: “how do you see top class cfs all over europe leading the line” I don’t see the top class CFs. I see Juve lead by a bum Morata, Manure lead by 2 pensioners, Real M rock with a pensioner, Bayern M – a pensioner, City have Jesus who is good but compared to the rest is one of their weaker players, Liverpool have a 30 yo Firmino (the type of player that would fit us) who gets injured and was benched by a midget, PSG don’t even play Icardi, and Milan (currently leading Serie A) boss it with Giroud… Read more »
WE,
That’s what I said earlier. “I see that Vlahovic is someone we are interested in. But if he’s our 1st choice, and we fail to bring him here, would our 2nd choice be of the required quality and/or style?”
I don’t mind Vlahovic. But if the transfer fails, who would our 2nd option be that will be good enough for the next 5 years?
Weagle
He could have. Quite effectively (Henry) But he was best coming in off the left. I’m not sure anyone would argue otherwise.
Rap
They don’t have to be our main ST for 5 years because it presumably will not take Martinelli half a decade to mature and polish as a finished product with where he is already, more like 2 years.
You could get a prime age 28-31 year old to fill that gap imo so long as they are on reasonable wages and we are not prisoner to their contract.