Here. We. Go.
Arsenal are the prime target for all the hot goss this window because Mikel Arteta broke all his Ikea crockery and DEMANDED we go shopping at John Lewis.
The Dusan Vlahovic story seems hot online, I have no idea what the real deal is, but as expected, the fees that were being spoken about yesterday are now starting to come into line with something a little more realistic. Italian Sky reporting Fiorentina would like a shit ton of money, but they’d deal at 55m Euros plus Lucas Torreira. That’s quite the climb down from 69m euros yesterday.
Mikel Arteta once again reiterated in his press conference that every player he speaks to wants to join the club.
‘Historically, this club has been targeting the best players in the world and the best players in the world were always interested to come here’
… so let’s be real here if we are talking to Dusan, we’re not begging for his services. Edu and Arteta rarely miss and seem to do their homework, if the deal is progressing, it’s because they know the player wants a piece of it.
My suspicions are not very insightful.
- Dusan Vlahovic wants a good deal.
- Fiorentina wants a good deal.
- There is only one club that will deal in January, which is Arsenal.
- If another club comes in, the money goes up for all parties.
Johnny made a good analogy in the podcast about trying to do your pulling business before the lights go up. I think Vlahovic’s team is doing a last scan around the bar before making the decision to leave with the only offer.
Quick Spurs interlude. Matt Law reckons Barca couldn’t believe any club would pay the fee Spurs dropped for Emerson Royal. Lol, remember Arsenal fans losing their shit that we’d signed Tomi over him? I do.
The next deal the transfer accounts are talking about is Arthur Melo of Brazil. He’s a #8, 25 yrs old, he’s capped, he’s at Juve, played at Barca, was part of a mad swap deal massively overvalued him and Pjanic. He sound look like a good boy, there have been behavior issues with booze in the past, but he certainly has a lot of talent, finesse, and raw power. He was savaged for being a bit of a boring safe player to watch at Barca; without meaning to be rude, he sounds quite Xhaka-ish. Secure, not particularly adventurous, but I guess that’s what Arteta needs in that role. It’s a weird signing, but I guess we have to keep reminding ourselves… this is an emergency cover option, not the future of our midfield.
News on outgoing players is: BALOGUN HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.
He’s moved to Boro as they chase promotion under the excellent coaching of Chris Wilder.
I like this move for many reasons.
- Balogun is a mature adult. No sulking. He’s just cracking on with his future and he’ll go to the most northern parts of England to fulfill his potential. This is his Huddersfield moment, we all know he can go to the top, now he needs to use this time to sharpen, grow bully boy teeth, and get some confidence.
- Chris Wilder is a great coach. What he did with Sheffield United was nothing short of a miracle. He’s progressive, he likes young players, he will make Balogun a star.
- Wilder has long had a football crush on Balogun. He likes the players, tried to signing him at Sheff U, which means this move isn’t a panic… it’s strategic. When a coach likes a player, they play them.
Arteta said Eddie is staying at the club, we’ll see there. If Palace comes in with a fee, it’d be hard to say no to it. The player wants big dollar, close to £100k a week, I’m not sure Palace are going to offer that. So his best bet if it’s about money, will be to wait and see who is there with a signing on bonus this summer. Rumours are French and German clubs want a piece of the action.
Talking football…
Arteta is going to seriously need to consider more rotation as we head into the back half of the season. Sambi Lokonga is a top player, but like any player, if he doesn’t get minutes, he’ll struggle when called upon. Arsenal played him on a long stretch of games until November the 27th, then we didn’t really see him until Nottingham Forest last week. The best managers in the league make everyone feel involved. I know we don’t have the depth of other sides, but come on, we have to be fair to Lokonga, he was part of that winning run, dropping him for 6 weeks wasn’t smart. There’s a lot on the line this season, but we’ll be better equipped to deal with bad moments if more players are trusted to take on minutes.
Nuno Tavares apparently reacted very well to the early sub. Arteta said he didn’t complain and that moments like this make the best people stronger. I really hope that’s the case, we won’t find out until we need him, because KT will need a rest at some point. Hopefully Nuno can come back fighting and play as well as he did at the start of the season.
Right, that’s me done. Have fun in the comments. x
1
Bankz is here for the tr4phy again
2
Let’s do this!!!
Sorry SWG
F*cked it Banks hahahaha!
Europe.
4th?
This is what you get from reading the damn article first :/
Waiting for Pierre to come here and tell us we are all wrong 🙂
Seems to me Vlahovic’s agent and Fiorentina are playing a dangerous game of chicken.. There is a big possibility we say .. fine… we are tired of your non commitment. No deal. Then he ends up signing for less money at what they consider a bigger Club and he won’t be starting. So his future value drops.. all he needs to do is look at the Jovic situation at Real Madrid .. Same thing happened to him. Additionally then we pull the possible transfer of Torrieirra to Fiorentina and the club is left with a poor deal as well. Juventus… Read more »
RE: Arthur Though not adventurous himself, a reliable secure #8 allows our front 4 to be more adventurous! Definitely looks like a Xhaka-type, which we do need, minus the brainfarts. Fellow Brazilians help getting him settled in as well. Also, worst case scenario – quality cover in midfield. Best case scenario – we pull another Odegaard by using a loan to get a both parties accustomed to each other, and if all goes well, we get a Xhaka upgrade (similar profile but younger, and less brainfarty) in the summer, and as well as some cash from Roma for Xhaka. As… Read more »
Anyhow, I wish I would hear more about concrete moves to strengthen our midfield…. like yesterday. It feels like Afcon has aimed a giant torpedo at the side of our season.. and it could hit this week. Out of both Cups and back down to 6th place. Hopefully, not the case and we at least win the NLD whatever, it takes.
Pedro
There’s no way Eddie wants close to 10-k weekly
Is he maaad, or something?
No one is going to offer him more than 30k weekly?
*There’s no way Eddie wants close to 100k weekly
My only hope with Vlahovic is his intent. 1) He doesn’t owe us anything to blindly join us. 2) If he wants to shop around to get the best deal among various footballing projects, and try to milk the best deal possible, that is fair. 3) If we break the bank for his demands, and he joins us believing in out project 100% – not a bad deal (provided it doesn’t cause friction among our stars for the gap in contract terms – like Ramsey vs Ozil) What would suck is – he joins us because we broke the bank… Read more »
Youri Tielmans and Bruno G – the midfielders Arsenal need to reach next level.
@Dissenter – He is banking on the Bosman saving money for the team. Not that he deserves that wage because of his accomplishments. Case in point – Ramsey @ Juve.
The reason that Sambi was dropped (after a MOTM performance I believe) was so that MA could indulge as quickly as possible his Xhaka love-in. Not exactly clever on a number of levels ultimately.
This is just me reading the tea leaves but it does like Arteta wanted to get Granit firing on all cyclinders before Afcon knowing Partey and Elneny were leaving and he didnt take into consideration enough what that would do to Lokonga’s form. And then I believe also Loko came down with Covid further delaying things.
Agreed Andy. Arteta damaged Lokonga by dropping him the second Xhaka was ready, even though he was playing well…. bad management. He should have given him a couple more games then said I’ll giving you a little rest. BUT we’re talking a bizarre relationship here between Arteta and a very poor player in Xhaka, we all joke that Xhaka must have some VERY compromising photos of Arteta to get the chances he does. Lokonga isn’t someone you can rely on yet. Please just go and get Bissouma, he’d be so good for Arsenal, especially alongside Partey.
“He sound look like a good boy, there have been behavior issues with booze in the past”
Come on man. You can’t call players like Auba and Guendouzi a disgrace while downplaying someone that got arrested for drinking and reckless driving as “a good boy”.
Hoping that transfer rumour is just gossip and nothing more. Best not to get involved with a club under financial investigation.
Nah to Arthur Melo. Have watched him quite a bit over the years and have never really been impressed.
Serious questions have to be asked why he cannot break into this awful current Juventus side. Also was very meh for Barca before, Xavi comparisons were always daft.
I think Pedro has it about right with the Vlahovic situation. He is hoping for a bigger club, despite Artetas comments, playing CL and bigger wages. Its in his interests to will wait and see what his options are. I just hope we have more than one iron in the fire. We desperately need a striker and a midfielder.
Arthur Melo is terribly average, I am surprised we are even considering him.
Wasn’t it more a case they had injury concerns about Sambi, then we we on a good run and he also got covid explaining the limited use.
Regarding this Arthur signing I think overall it would be a really positive one. At the right age, previously shown his quality and get to test the waters for 6 months to see if he fits (ala Odegaard).
On top of that if he is the replacement for AMN within the squad that is such a massive upgrade.
“ Emergency cover operation.Not the future of our midfield”.wouldn’t be too sure about that scenario Pedro.Don’t like the sound of it one little bit.If they wanted a short term cheap fix.why not go for Gina winaljum from PSG .A player that ticks all the boxes.
If they can’t get the midfielder they REALLY want( whoever that is?) supposedly.Melo ain’t gonna do Arteta any favours.A step down from caballos.Nuff said.
Yes if we are looking for a short term fix until summer, Wijnaldum should be our guy.
I don’t think Vlahovic’s Melo’s reluctance has to with money.
It’s about the project; we have a young manager managing a club that’s been out of Europe now for 4 seasons.
Why would he jump in so readily when there are bound to be better offers to consider in the summer?
I thought PSG had refused a loan for Wijnaldum. They wanted a permanent deal only.
At least with vlahovic there’s prob reasonable alternatives if him & his agent think they can do better.F** k em.But midfield is the REAL bugbear & midget Melo ain’t going to cut the mustard short term or otherwise.Juve very rarely offload quality.cutting their losses at our expense & also adding insult to injury are also looking at Guimares.
Melo is taller than Santi.
It would be very Arsenal to offload one midget midfield in Torreira and recruit another in Melo.
I have been supporting Arsenal since the early 1970s. When have the really best players in the world ever wanted to come to Arsenal. Even at peak Wenger Chelsea and Man U in England and Real and Barca abroad would pick off our best players (who we would largely grow from scratch) and we would have to find ways to recruit undervalued stars. And going back before that Juve took Brady. Wenger’s strength was getting players like Overmars and Kanu that had injury question marks or young French talent like Vieira and Henry that were being undervalued. Bergkamp from the… Read more »
Melo is a slower Guen. Keeps his head down when receives the ball. So if he comes you’re basically choosing the lesser of two evils – xhakas snail like turning radius and lack of speed vs Melos selfishness and inability to spot
Probably both lol
We always have convinced superstar players to join us at various times from Joe Baker & George Eastham in the 60s,Alan Ball & Supermac in the 70s,the 80s Charlie Nicholas & of course the 90s with Bergkamp.But Arsenal have always been very cautious with their Big buys with v.few exceptions.It’s what’s cost them countless titles over the years when they should have strengthened ( like the 30s)& of course they’ve allowed superstars to leave.Too many.
Im glad to hear no one says no to Arteta and Arsenal.
Let’s go after this Haaland character then.
The Vlahovic transfer valuation isn’t the problem.
His wage demands are.
Give one 21 yo anything over £200kpw and you’re gonna have a difficult conversation with Saka’s agent explaining why his client isn’t worth the same.
Good point Tom
No to Vlahovic
Halaand is another overrated striker just like Vlahovic.
The problem is these guys aren’t “smooth”.
A true striker is aesthically pleasing to the eye.
There is nothing off about them.
Henry was smooth.
Vardy is smooth.
RVN was smooth.
You don’t find smooth ones these days. This is why i knew Sancho would be a flop. He’s not smooth.
Ferran Torres is smooth. Really an underrated striker, think he will do very well at Barca
Torres, yes. He’s like a smoother Martinelli. The closest smooth goal we’ve had in a decade was scored by Martinelli against West Ham. Was absolutely due at Arsenal.
Amongst our potential targets, Isak comes closest.
Muppetman
“Waiting for Pierre to come here and tell us we are all wrong 🙂”
Muppet by name, Muppet by nature.
Buzzy
Shearer Ferdinand and Wright weren’t smooth. Inzaghi, Morientes R9 Klose. All not smooth.
Van nistelrooy, big dunc and Jonny Hartson weren’t smooth
Chris Sutton wasn’t smooth. Andy Cole wasn’t smooth. Niall Quinn. Luca Toni. Carsten Janker.
R9 was a different level of beast. He could be smooth, mazy or lazy depending on his mood. There was nothing that he couldn’t be.
Klose, Inzaghi, Shearer were poachers, not sure you can call them complete strikers.
Unoni
Nistelrooy was smooth af in the box. Inzaghi was smooth too.
Klose is just a mystery that even the Germans can’t decipher.
And exceptions prove the rule.
Arteta should have sold Nketiah in the summer or last jan. While his stick was high and we could have got a decent fee.
Was never convinced but I thought I’d wait and see how he developed with time. No shades of Martinez over this guy. He’s never arsenal level. He’ll end up at Bolton or QPR
Buzzy
They were scrappy as hell. Goals off their shoulder, shins, ankles. Same as Drogba.
I’ve only seen YouTube clubs of Vlahovic but I’d say there’s more silk in his touch than that of Inzaghi or RvN.
But beauty is in the eye and all that.
And speaking of Nistelrooy, his goal against us in the cup was the epitome of smoothness, like it or not.
Apologies. I’ve certainly had one too many. And the full bodied cigar isn’t helping. That was Giggs.
Invincibles I tend to agree with what you have posted. Arsenal have never been buyers of the top level players in world football, although we recruited Bergkamp, Henry and Vieira before they reached that level. I recall Hill-Wood’s statement when we moved to Emirates Stadium suggesting that Arsenal could now buy any player apart from Ronaldo and Messi. Sadly he underestimated the buying power and ambition of PSG, Man City and Chelsea. However, I do see a change at Arsenal since the Kroenke family took ownership as opposed to control of Arsenal. They are now prepared to make available an… Read more »
Tr7
Shearer was the complete striker. He was the best crosser in a great England squad before becks got in and even then was second only to him. Great with back to goal. Underrated passer. Different era but my point was more that many of these strikers were often scruffy in their approach play and that silk, while a sight to behold isn’t a prerequisite for a successful striker.
Yes R9 could be whatever he wanted but he wasn’t pure silk/smooth like an RvP or a Messi or Henry or Del Piero or prime Raul
uzzyJanuary 12, 2022 18:53:10
Apologies. I’ve certainly had one too many. And the full bodied cigar isn’t helping. That was Giggs.
😂
Can’t beat a good stogie and a glass of whiskey
The goal I’m talking about is in a match that ended 2-2.. at Highbury ..not sure what season
Unoni, did you really just say R9 was not a smooth striker?
He was literally the poster boy of silky until the injuries and weight started piling on that is.
We should erase the Notts Forest game from our memory. It has no bearing on what lies ahead. But I have the feeling that if Arteta had told his players, ‘Look, this is a game we gotta win’, Arsenal would have won. On Eddie, I am betting he’ll fire his agent and sign a contract with the Club One thing has become clear: money is not a problem. We might be mistaken by thinking Arteta had the Florentine in mind when he said, ‘the world’s best players want to come to Arsenal’. Instinct tells me Arteta was/is aiming far higher.… Read more »
Zimmie
Yes
I really don’t think he was smooth. He had unbelievable control at high speed but he didn’t do it with the grace and elegance of an Henry. He had a hurried ferrety style for me which made him appear a bit awkward.
Do t get me wrong. He was the phenom. Legend. Not disputing any of that. Just his style. It wasn’t always smooth. Not for me.
Henry, Messi, RvP. David Villa, del Piero, Baggio, Totti. Like silk
Arthur Melo big lol. Can’t break into what is maybe the worst Juventus midfield of all time and that’s with good reason.
We better steer clear of that mess
Berbatov was smooth
Even Torres had an awkward gait at times
Samesong
The epitome.
Only one I’d take in that Juventus midfield is Weston McKenzie. Has a good engine on him.
Asides that look, throw all the money at Ruben Neves or even Tielemans who sounds like he’s tired of the Liecster project.
Bissouma was outstanding for Mali today by the way
Think it’s incredible that we didn’t do anything in that midfield in the summer while stacking up defenders especially knowing fully well we’d be losing Partey and the very basic El Neny for a few weeks, poor squad planning if you ask me
Makers Mark 46 is smooth.
Unoni
Don Pepin with any cocktail is a safe bet the remembrance goes to shitter..it’s my go to on our big away games in the hope it’ll make me forget Xhaka plays for us
I think Nketiah is getting a lot of unfair stick. Sure he missed a couple of easy chances but the good thing about Nketiah is when he plays he seems to produce goal scoring chances due to his movement and instincts of a striker. A lot of players played much worse than him against Forest.
Inzaghi smooth? He couldn’t kick the ball further than 20 yards.
From the gossip I’ve seen, Arthur is supposed to be a loan deal until the end of the season. Pretty average player but this very much feels like a “get a warm body in there” situation. We’re hardly going to spend a combined 100M in this TW (striker + CMF) so this is a reasonable way to plug the gap until the summer. We need a goal scorer more than we need a CMF in the immediate term.
Anguissa who we asked for all summer has been outstanding for Napoli too Batistuta.
And he is a loan- €15m permanent fee at the end of the seaosn. Roughly the amount that we rejected for Xhaka and less than what we rejected for AMN.
Henry was the smoothest of all until Wenger went shopping for tampons in 2006. Everything changed then.
Buzzy
Smoother than Inzaghi 😉
Karsa
Makers mark is my choice. Love the stuff
Smooth is being thrown around way too readily. I mean in what world is Jamie Vardy smooth?
Henry and Ronaldo were smooth. Benzema is smooth.
Weagle
Agree, vardy isn’t smooth.
Ronaldo (R9) also not smooth to me. Maybe at time but overall could be very scruffy
Batistuta “Think it’s incredible that we didn’t do anything in that midfield in the summer while stacking up defenders especially knowing fully well we’d be losing Partey and the very basic El Neny for a few weeks, poor squad planning if you ask me” Agreed Nothing personal with Ben White who’s been decent overall but we needed two quality midfielders more than a “ball playing central defender”. Especially since we have a certain Saliba that did well on loan. We should have added the 15 million being offered for Xhaka to the 50 million we paid for Ben White to… Read more »
Wenger eagler
Anguisa won’t have been available in January though. He’s Cameroonian and is at the AFCON.
Unoni
Ronaldo9 scruffy? He was technically superb. Zidane maintains he is the most technically gifted player that he ever played with.
Ball was glued to his foot on those mazy dribbles for Barca and Inter before the injuries.
Bruno G is a bit like Verratti. If there’s one midfielder we should go all out for then it’s him.
Dissenter
For the price he went for, we could have picked him up in addition to another CM though
AFCON Goalkeeping coaches required.?
Henry hands down the smoothest ST ever imo though.
Those bottom-right hand corner finesse finishes were so OP.
Eagle
Yes his touch was good but his style (for me) was quite awkward, hurried and ungraceful.
Henry had far more elegance. His movements always seems like he had time to do what he wanted and seemed far more deliberate and in control.
Just my take
Vinicius Jr is a perfect example of somebody that was already a beast albeit raw but now he has added end product he is a phenom.
Yeah Henry the smoothest ST bar none, R9 the only other comparable striker.
Unoni
Understand what you mean, Ronaldo was more of a force of nature/wrecking ball whereas Henry just had so much swagger and class.
I cannot even begin to explain how much I enjoyed watching prime Thierry as a kid.
Eagle
Rooney, rvp, berba, Raul, del Piero, Totti, Vieri young Michael Owen, all more Graceful for me than R9
May be not as prolific but Berbatov was one of the silkiest strikers in the game, amazing technician too.
Makers Mark is for peasants.
I’m drinking Lagavulin 18 yr old cask strength single malt right now. Trust the process.
I wouldn’t have associated Rooney with graceful, was more a force of nature/bully type and blood and thunder. Obviously coupled with flawless technique but still, style-wise not really graceful for me.
For me Henry, Eto’o, David Villa, Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Anelka, Ibrahimovic, Benzema, Henrik Larsson, Berbatov were all very graceful and smooth.
Yeah Berba was only second to Bergkamp as a pure CF technician imo. RVP a close 3rd.
LG needs a smoothie
bunch of smoothie drinkers
Soon to be 39 year old Dani Alves marking Vinicius Jr in the Clasico here, lol.
Tom good post mate. Spot on. Bringing in big wage players charges the dynamic in the dressing room. I’ve said for a while unless we sign up Saka on serious wages he will be offski sooner rather than later
Berba is a cunt but he was a very smooth operator. Super technical skills
Watching El Classico for the first time in 6 years or so. How the mighty have fallen. The football is mind-numbingly boring.
Dani Alves one of the greatest fullbacks IMO
Heard he wanted Barca to have him fight for his place, ( not guarantee him anything, and also be the lowest paid player)
If this is true, then respect big time
Been watching my son play FIFA lately, and learning all about that money pit.
Who knew Vinicius has a card worth 3M with 99 pace.
for all you fifa players that is like a holy grail card
My kid will never be able to afford that one!
Agree LS.
Clasico between 2008-2017 was must-watch. Quality in 2010-15 especially was breathtaking, you pretty much had x2 World XI’s playing against each other.
How many from both sides combined get into a current World XI? Just Benzema really.
WE,
There’s a few world class talents in there like Vinicius Jr and FdJ. But the pace is just ridiculously slow. It’s shocking to see how much time they have on the ball. RM are acting as if they’re playing peak Barcelona and backing off. A bit of counter press, even at 50% intensity, and this Barcelona team falls apart like a house of cards.
Yeah LS weird approach from Ancelotti. Showing respect to a husk of a side that should put fear into nobody. I mean they have Luuk De Jong leading the line.
Real have the ability to just blow Barca away. Big pitch is an added bonus you would have thought with their pace up top.
Arthur melo can’t hack it. I thought there was a player there when I saw him in Barcelona. He can pass well. But he doesn’t make a significant pass often enough. And he has even regressed at Juventus. I guess he can come here to have enough bodies. But I wouldn’t play him instead of Sambi or Partey. Xhaka is going to play no matter what under arteta. So I wouldn’t understand this move aside from getting us a new body in that midfield the next few weeks. I am glad people are seriously looking at Bruno G. He is… Read more »