@via Arsenal.com
Well good afternoon my darlings, here we are, another week has passed, AND I HAVE NO SIGNINGS to talk about.
The Sau Paulo President has gone on record to confirm that Arsenal took Marquinhos off them and paid a fee rather than take the player for a free when his deal expired in July. The rationale was that Edu wants to create a flow of players to Arsenal from Brazil and good relationships mean more players come our way.
… I’m gonna say it, this seems very odd. It’s the playing equivalent of getting two yellow cards in the same passage of play. It might be legal, but it seems very weird.
Arsenal can’t get a transfer fee for love nor actual cash/money and Edu is out here giving £3.5m for players that are going on free transfers? I’d be totally down for this being a masterful move if he wasn’t in the room when we basically did the same thing with Cedric Soares.
Alex Lacazette has exited the building. This was the correct decision and one that 2 years ago we might not have made. I can’t be dealing with the slander he’s getting in some quarters, the guy was a leader this season when he could have downed tools, he had a relentless work rate, he scored some great goals for us, and the kids loved him. But, it was time to go. Physically he wasn’t at the level and his confidence in front of goal deteriorated to extreme levels as the seasons wore on.
Good luck, Laca!
Folarin Balogun was a major part of the build-up for a Smith Rowe U21 goal earlier on today (ESR landed MoTM). He’s a massive talent, but I think it’s fair to say his career needs another loan move, so hopefully Norwich or someone like that comes in for him this summer. It might even be interesting to see if he’d go to Germany or France.
Nuno Tavares is another player that is likely to find himself exited on loan next season. The Portuguese fullback has lots of promise, but he needs to have those chaotic edges sanded down on someone else’s dime this summer. James from The Athletic says a move is being spoken about.
That leaves us down a left-back. There’s a lot of rumblings on the internet about Zinchenko coming to Arsenal because his pathway is blocked at City. The Ukrainian is just a proper operator, I’m just having big doubts we’d be able to afford a player of that pedigree if Kieran Tierney stays at the club. We’re not a mature enough operation to have that much expense sitting on the bench. If we’re going for a left-back, I suspect we’ll be looking for a Tomiyasu like deal if Kieran Tierney isn’t going to Newcastle.
I guessed a rumour into existence… apparently Newcastle are tracking William Saliba. It’s hard to know what is real and what is fake, because there are a group of media oddballs in France affronted that we loaned him last season, and they are desperate for him to carry on his career at another club. The only hinge factor we have here is that the player will fancy his chances of going to the World Cup. Can he trust Arteta to give him minutes? Would he dare sign a new deal with us? We’ll see. There are plenty of games to go around next season, I just hope Mikel has charm offensive planned.
Juventus, the absolute chancers, are offering up Arthur Melo for… Gabriel Martinelli. That’s like being offered a beautifully boxed dog turd in exchange for a Rolex. I’m sorry, but where do these Italian clubs get off? Also, I do find it amusing how bad at travelling Italians are. 23-year-old Striker, Gianluca Scamacca, has reportedly turned down Arsenal so he can wait out Italian offers. Again, take the links with a grain of salt, every player knows Arsenal wants a striker, so we are good headline fodder to shake out interest in the market. But come on Italians… why the fear of moving?
The striker situation is going to be interesting. The big names in journalism think the main target is going to be Gabriel Jesus, Germany thinks we might be monitoring Serge Gnabry, the Italian press are linking us with Tammy, Oshimen and Scamacca. There’s a lot of smoke out there and I think some of that is purposeful.
Youri Tielemans, this summers ‘he’s boring’ midfielder, is being repped by John Cross.
This move is the most likely to happen, apparently the players are talking about him joining at the training ground, most likely because they get the goss from the agents that are working on the deal.
He’d be a top, top signing for Arsenal. The man is making more ball recoveries than the internets favourite midfielder Yves Bissouma. He has it all to be a success at Arsenal and he’s a NOW player, so he can compete for a place in our midfield from day one. I just hope we don’t drag the deal out all summer.
Finally, before I go, sign up to our Patreon. Johnny dropped some top level content 2 days ago about his top 25 players. Tune in for the series. Matt and me are going to do a podcast about old school transfers tomorrow, we’re starting in 1997.
P.S. If you would like to see me on the EXCELLENT Youtube Channel of Sophie and Super Kevin Campbell, check out the below, we have a wide-ranging chat that ends with me admitting a pop culture mainstream film is my vibe. Make sure you subscribe and like the video. BIG LOVE to Sophie and Kev for having me on. xx
Un, I have to say for a year or two some of Ozil’s performances were sublime. I’d go as far to say his touch and passing ability were as close to Bergkamp as I can remember from any other Arsenal player – about as high a praise I could give. That said, considering how high a standard he was capable of, the contributions he made in his last two years were that much more painful and disappointing. He let himself and his team down. He looked like he’d fallen out of love with the game after the way he was… Read more »
Cesc was a leader and at least with Cesc we were genuinely competitive in the big competitions (CL Final ’06, PL ’08, CL ’08, ’09). 07/08 he was the heartbeat of the team and we were a Ryan Babel dive away from making the CL SF and we lost the title in those 2-1 losses to United/Chelsea that we were leading in. We were also leading in Paris in 06′ but the 10 men was too big a hurdle to overcome and Almunia happened. As Un says Wenger failed to put the right pieces around Cesc. We had no proper… Read more »
And Arteta showed how incredibly difficult it is to win an FA Cup his first year here.
Others to have won it include Bob Martinez while being relegated, Van Gaal who got sacked the same summer for underperformance, Harry Redknapp with Portsmouth and Brendan Rodgers with Leicester.
It’s not like the old days, clubs no longer take the Cup particularly seriously whereas back even in my early days it was a really big deal.
Bob
Some of his touches? He was our landmark signing. Watershed moment. The new bergkamp. Stepping back into the big time
And we are left cooing over some nice touches or the odd day at home vs canon fodder when he felt like showing up?
Bergkamp won us trophies
Bergkamp turned up in the biggest games.
Ozil really isn’t fit to be mentioned in the same breath
Ridiculously talented but no bottle. He was a coward.
It’s like this
Our time with cesc was far more joyful, exciting and competitive than at any time under Ozil.
In hindsight laca was a huge downgrade on Giroud and I was very critical of Giroud. Laca vs Giroud finishing? Giroud Link up play? Giroud by a country mile Dribbling? Both aren’t natural in the ball Heading and volleying (cross based goals) Giroud Hold up play? Giroud Pace? Laca but honestly not by much General technical class? Giroud Stamina? Giroud Giroud was capable of donkey moments and would have been the number 2 to auba (when auba was on top form) But it’s telling that Chelsea went in for him and that Milan did as well and he was won… Read more »
Un, his passing was elite too but clearly you were not a fan and I get that. All I’m saying is having watched Ozil in person for almost every home game he played for us, there was a time(two seasons?) when he was by the player who gave me most pleasure watching. He was a joy to watch on many occasions and the recency bias of our views sometimes hides the full story.
I don’t believe considering the comparative success of the teams that Ozil and Fabregas played in, reveals all that much.
London gunner
I’d rather w e just kept Giroud sanchez and Theo over auba laca and Mkhitaryan
Theo at last could run wit the ball and off he shoulder
He wasn’t as prolific as auba but he wasn’t really allowed to be
I believe that Had we got Suarez when he wanted to join we’d never have slipped out of the top 4.
Bob
At the time we were in for both him and di Maria and I was sorely disappointed we ended up with ozil out of the 2
I think di Maria would have flourished at arsenal, even though he fell short at a United side who were and still are career killers for big players
I was never a huge ozil fan, even before he came to us
I don’t ever remember us being humiliated with Cesc in the team barring that 4-0 FA Cup defeat at Old Trafford in 2008. In the 7+ years he was a fixture in the team.
Whereas in the Ozil years we had 6-0 at Stamford Bridge, 5-1 at Anfield, 10-2 to Bayern, 3-0 at Goodison, 6-3 to City, 4-0 to Southampton, 5-1 to Bayern again, 3-0 to Palace, 4-0 to Liverpool, etc.
Un Thing about Sanchez he fell off a cliff athletically and lost his pace. He has always been 100 or nothing player so I think he has burned himself out. I would have sold him rather than swapped (this is with hindsight at the time I wanted to keep him) Would have kept Giroud and never touched laca Theo I was a big fan of but I think we sold him as he started losing or declining on his physical abilities and has been very inconsistent with Everton and pretty bad for Southampton. I’d have brought in auba as he… Read more »
Yes Giroud was better for us than Lacazette was.
And that is without even factoring in the vast difference in price (£12m vs £50m).
I agree that Laca always looked like he cared and tried though, even this season. Wish him well.
Prime Auba would have done damage for us in the Giroud years though which is what is frustrating.
Prime Auba who was a guarantee of 30 goals a season even in Emery teams probably would have scored 40+ with Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey and Sanchez feeding him quality chances.
London gunner
I’m not sure I agree that Theo and Alexis fell off a cliff physically
Alexis lost his head. He was never the same after that.
With ozil and auba in the team, we had 2 first teamers who needed to be carried. Neither works hard defensively or off the ball offensively. They plays for themselves
Not many teams can carry 2 such selfish players without having extraordinary cover to pull the slack in the rest of the team.
Anyway
I’m glad both have now gone, along with Leno and bellerin
Loving the Cesc chat. That 07-08 team was very special and so unlucky in lots of ways, not just the Eduardo incident. That game away at Birmingham is a real sliding doors moment. The transfer business we did, or didn’t do, in the summer following that season didn’t set us up to continue in that same vein unfortunately. We were crying out for a beastly CB and we landed Silvestre.
We also needed a dominant centre mid that summer but we didn’t act.
WE
Insert prime Auba into that 15-16 team and I feel we would have come a lot closer to the title than the 10 point gap it ended up on, perhaps even won it. (Realistically we were out of it by mid March)
Giroud’s goal drought was not the only issue with the team but obviously a big factor. He is possibly still resented for that amongst some fans even though he was a very good player for us overall.
Un
”””I dont recall ozil making a single contribution in any of the 4 fa cup finals we played in his time at arsenal”””
Crikey- we must have had some side back then, playing with 10 men each time and winning the cup x 4 times.
Cesc, Ozil Carzola, Ramsey and Sanchez- all world class performers managed impeccably by A. Wenger.
Those were the days…like going from ‘caviar to English sausage’ as the great man once stated.
CG
I meant I’m terms of G/A
4 games, 11 goals and not one set up or scored by our best player and assist machine.
Just in regards to White’s injury problem, when is this club going to do something about either the training pitch or the actual training regime. Partey was rarely injured before he played for us. We have had a seriously consistent treatment table packed full of new and old players over the years. I remember in Wenger days a few articles about the training pitch being too solid or something. Now I say this without just diving nose deep that this is the actual cause of our injury problems, but there has to be something at the colney that is part… Read more »
Chris
Yeah I’ve come round to now appreciating Giroud for what he was. At the time he was here I won’t pretend that he didn’t frustrate the shit out of me for spurning chances. But he cost £12m and he had impossibly big boots to fill in RVP who is arguably the 2nd best striker we have had, well his peak 2010-12 level anyway.
Just shows that you cannot replace quality with quantity. Podolski + Giroud didn’t come close to = RVP’s impact.
UN
””’CG I meant I’m terms of G/A””
Ozil at Arsenal 33 goals 184 games
Ozil at Fenebache 8 goals in 32 games.
We need more players of Ozils calibre – not less.
Also farewell laca!!!
You didn’t live up to the expectations, but he did a job and his commitment was never in question.
The worst part of this season, is we needed an experienced head (that wasn’t that lamp post granite) in the side. So despite his lack of goals, one of our best runs of the season came when he was a focal point for building the attack rather than finishing it off.
Great use of a striker 😂 but it is what it is.
I wish Laca all the best. What a man
London gunner
Yes the pitches at Colney were designed for wenger ball. Hard and firm. But over the years, the theory goes that it can impact ligaments slowly, leading to damage over time.
How many players who joined arsenal at 20 or younger went on to have injury free careers? Not many
Jw10
Ramsey
Ox
Jenow
Walcott
Djorouh
RvP
Diaby
ESR starting to worry me and if Saka continues to get run into the ground I can see issues there too
CG
We need more players of Saka’s caliber
Cesc was another
Flamini
Un,
That is very interesting
I never liked Ozil as a player. I was thrilled to be linked with Di Maria and I thought we would get him instead we got the Turkish midfielder.
And I’m also worried for both esr and Saka. I’m all for keeping Tierney but like actually rotating him. He doesn’t need to play Norwich’s of the league. Or any early cup games at all consider his history. Things like working him to form for the big matches is what the priority should be. Not to perform the whole season (I know that sounds weird. But I love Tierney and he provides a lot for us). If we could keep him fit over the course of a season, by mega rotation in games he is not needed then we’d have… Read more »
Goobergunner, I believe that Arsenal had the second fewest players unavailable in the PL in terms of days lost due to injury last season so I don’t think in reality we have an issue at all. We certainly use to!
The problem is that the players who did get injured had dreadful replacements so it felt worse than it was.
Attacking midfielders who can carry the ball and run with it are my type of CAM ( Iniesta, Zidane, Rosicky, KDB, Cazorla etc.)
Ozil, Odegaard etc. are good at passing the ball but they rarely run with the ball or beat players. Invariably their impact on the game pales in comparison to the ones who carry the ball up the field and beat players.
Also the above rotation for Tierney is what I’d expect more of next season, as well as for other players, not just the more injury prone.
And again. It’s more simplistic just saying rotate. But that was a major downfall of Arteta’s this season
Bob
Also the youngest team
Also, comparing our rotation to say Liverpool’s where their players played multitudes more minutes isnt quite as simple as it sounds….
1. Their squad, especially the elite in their team are better than a lot of players even if fatigued.
2. They have a squad deep enough to cover a *few* major injuries. Just not to the extent of last season’s injury record.
3. We seem to have an ability to purchase players with broken backs and the like. Even Tierney was injured when we purchased him
Bob, I do agree with that.
The rotational problem for me wasn’t overplaying, but not having replacements properly trusted for injury prone players we all knew about
Un ‘also the youngest team’.
Do you mean that because they were young it explains why we didn’t have too many injuries or were you suggesting something else?
Agree Goobergooner, Arteta was almost forced into playing KT, TT and Partey (the Tees) every game. Both Partey and TT definitely came back too early after being injured and almost immediately got injured again. If the replacements had been closer in quality then it would have been easier to be more circumspect and give them longer to recover.
Not sure who to blame, Arteta or the medical team, other than the lack of depth in the squad!
UN
”””CG We need more players of Saka’s caliber””
We sure do. (Lets hope he improves his dress sense though, imagine Ozil looking like that)
How he would love the career Ozil has?
World Cup winner
Real Madrid
90 International caps
Multi millionaire
26 million twitter following ( Arsenal 19.2 million)
Let’s make things clear for those of you who want to distinguish between our A and B grade players. When you reach the top level in any sport, you’re more than capable of adapting to every physical and technical aspect of the game that you’re being taught. If Arsenal players had been taught the Klopp methods, do you think they would have been able to adapt? If Arsenal were taught the Pep way of playing do you think they would be able to adapt to that? Yes, most definitely, they would. Of course some players would be better than others… Read more »
CG, not sure what Twitter has to do with his ability as a footballer.
Outstanding first 3/4 of his career though.
Arsenal cesc was the KING Ozil at his best was nowhere close and was only at his best when the sun was shining at home against weaker teams, if he didn’t fancy playing fortnight instead and all the above only applied for the first couple of years. After that he was consistently rubbish Elite players at not YouTube highlight reel specialists. They don’t do two good touches and one great pass per game. They set up camp and dominate the fuck out of a match, in a large majority of games, home and away and against any level of opponent.… Read more »
Even in the first two years ozil was very inconsistent and frequently vanished. He still landed an assist eventually but the overall performance was largely anonymous half the time
Yeah watching old classic matches keeps the fire in the belly, that’s for certain!
Cesc was pure Wengerball.im sure he somewhat regrets going to Barca and not being the main man despite his team’s achievements.
Sick still to this day we didn’t bring him back
China yeah but Pepes yt highlight real had a massive effect on Raul 😂😂😂
CG
Yeah Dani Ceballos has trophies to his name.
I think Saka would rather go down as an arsenal legend than be remembered like ozil.
Bob
Yeah maybe. If the pitches are still an issue at colney then we may start seeing the next gen pick up those injuries that project youth 1.0 and 2.0 began collecting
Bob
”””’CG, not sure what Twitter has to do with his ability as a footballer.
Outstanding first 3/4 of his career though.”””’
Well, it tell us – he must have a lot of admirers and supporters for the way he has played and how he has conducted himself over his career.
x 7 million more than the mighty Arsenal. How the Arsenal PR team would love those figures!
Un
”””CG Yeah Dani Ceballos has trophies to his name.
I think Saka would rather go down as an arsenal legend than be remembered like ozil.”””
I am, sorry to break you the news.
Ozil is an Arsenal legend and is easily in the top 20 players to ever play for the club.
Lets hope Saka can surpass this.
Cesc was a true warrior.
Would show up home or away.
Fair weather or shite weather.
CG
Now you’re having a laugh!
Ozil is nowhere near being in the top 20 players to play for the club.
Graham
If B. Talbot was ranked 23rd by the supporters of the all time great Arsenal players
Ozil has to be in the top 20.
Google the list
CG
Ozil doesn’t come close to all time top arsenal players
Bergkamp
Henry
Pires
Vieira
Seaman
Adams
Keown
Wright
Brady
O Leary
Jennings
Cesc
Wilson
Bastin
Charlie George
Overmars
Anelka
Freddie
Kanu
Merson
Petit
Gilberto
Campbell
Cole
Sanchez
Rocky
Jens
Samson
Parlour
Rosicky
Toure
Van Persie
These
Grahm
Exactly
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-the-50-greatest-arsenal-players-of-all-time#section-10-1
CG
As voted by gooners
Not even the top 50
You think Rosicky over Ozil?
Always injured.
Team to face Hungary: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Walker, Maguire, Coady, Justin, Rice, Bellingham, Mount, Bowen, Kane.
Definitely would take prime Rosicky over Ozil.
Rosa was a magician before the injuries. Also rapid and direct when needed.
Even Rosiscky would admit , he was never as good as Ozil.
Great player though
Rosicky, Hleb and Fabregas played I would argue to this day the most aesthetic football seen in the PL, even better to watch than City who are more a juggernaut and just full of world class players all over the pitch given they spent over a billion.
And it’s why despite Ade scoring 30 goals in 07/08 he was still getting criticised because he missed an unbelievable amount of chances for every goal.
A prime TH14 or RVP would have scored 50 goals in that 2007/08 team.
Ozil overall was a better player than Rosicky sure, nobody would seriously debate that.
This is Rosicky before the injuries in a vacuum.
WengerEagleJune 4, 2022 15:43:10
Rosicky, Hleb and Fabregas played I would argue to this day the most aesthetic football seen in the PL, even better to watch than City who are more a juggernaut and just full of world class players all over the pitch given they spent over a billion.
👏
I second this
Give me any of those 3 in their arsenal prime over ozil, every single time
And Hleb, what a player.
As good a dribbler/creator as we had over the years. Just a shame that he was allergic to shooting or scoring goals.
I know it’s tennis but I can’t help but notice the contrast between men and women’s tennis.
Women get the same as men in prize money which I can understand in terms of achieving equality but when you note that the women play best of three sets as opposed to five and that the Women’s final was over in 68 minutes I slightly wonder if the physical challenge isn’t too contrasting. Nadal v Zeverev’s first set lasted for 90 mins!
Should the women not play best of five sets?
”Should the women not play best of five sets?”
No TV broadcaster in their right mind would be behind the move. Swiatek flogged that poor American girl in an hour flat today.
Also a vast physical difference so cannot see how they would be able to put on quality tennis for 5 sets.
Bob N16.
Should the women not play best of five sets?
In an era of equality ( and I know it will set some off ) should sport be based on gender at all ?
In other words knot woman’s or men’s championship just a championship
They shouldn’t be paid close to the same if we are being honest.
The Ozil disrespect is getting out of hand. Yes he had his flaws and major ones at that but he was the center piece to the team that finally ended that trophy drought and landed 3 FA cups. Lets give some credit when its due and not let his last couple of shitty years completely overshadow his entire time with us.
Diss, I know why Ben White isn’t starting for England, but where’s your boy Tomori?
Just seems bizarre that Swiatek can earn more than anyone on the Men’s tour barring Djoker/Rafa potentially in Slams when she would get destroyed by any bloke in the top 500.
It’s not slander Samuel but what do you expect when he is being directly compared to our hands down best post-Invincibles player in Cesc?
Ozil was very good for us between 2013-2017. I wouldn’t have called him our best player ever though, he was always behind Cazorla and Sanchez imo and Ramsey too for a couple of seasons.
ever as in between those 2013-2017 years.
Pedro Tomori not fully fit, Gueye(?) and him were training on their own.
Terraloon, you’re not really suggesting that women shouldn’t have their own tournament? That’s absurd. If you extend that argument only men would get Olympic medals in athletics etc etc
Center piece? Not in a million years. Part time genius is about as good as I’d put it.
Incidentally anyone who’s seen some of these social media ‘influencers’ knows damn well that Twitter is no indicator of anything serious.
And Ted Drake has to be in our top twenty ever.
CG
Maybe these were the same Arsenal supporters who sat back and applauded when Arsenal were regressing from 2009 onwards.
I saw BrianTalbot play and believe me he wouldn’t even rank in my top 200!
Ozil was, on his day, an exceptional talent but, for the most part, he didn’t have the stomach for it. He would rather sulk and mope around rather than take responsibility.
Buying Ozil was sheer ego. Wenger’s pride was hurt when he was made to look foolish with his £40 million + £1 bid for Suarez.
Graham “””I saw BrianTalbot play and believe me he wouldn’t even rank in my top 200!””” If Talbot is ranked 23rd by the OFFICIAL greatest Arsenal players voted by the supporters and Pat Rice 17th, its not hyperbole to suggest Ozil easily gets into the top 20 greatest Arsenal players of all time. Obviously, the Dopes ( not Wenger) who gave him the contract soured things with the supporters. But like Willian, PEA etc and even Eddie N- no one forces the players to sign these contracts. Its KSE ‘s decison to offer money that their talents may not deserve.… Read more »
I think the better question might be why anyone should give a shit how much any tennis player , man or a woman, gets paid when in effect it’s all sponsors money.
Not like you guys got taxed by the government and saw a woman tennis player make a couple mil in one hour of play lol.
“He’s a defininte upgrade on Xhaka as he has a better skill set and can play the 8 role much better than Granit ever could. Plus he has the capacity to add G/A to our team from MF. Something that’s been sorely lacking from the Ramsey/ Ozil hey days.£25m? I’ll take it.” 25m. Even more reson for the real big hitters to be lining up to sign. In fact every club on earth would want Tielemans this summer as he is the absolute complete midfielder according to these latest stats. But of course we know these latest stats are skewed… Read more »
Not mad on Tielemans either. Those stats put Hojberg ahead of him in ball recoveries and I don’t think that anyone on here particularly rates him besides Dissenter.
I see a decent final third player but pretty powder-puff in the deeper areas of the pitch. We already have Odegaard and ESR to accomodate.
Tielemans and Bissouma whilst moving on Xhaka, Torreira and AMN would work for me
A midfield three of Bissouma Party and Odegaard with Tielemans, Lokanga and Smith Rowe pressing them is a good mix. Quality and depth wise.
Oh and El Neney as a cover note.
TomJune 4, 2022 17:02:34
I think the better question might be why anyone should give a shit how much any tennis player , man or a woman, gets paid when in effect it’s all sponsors money.
Not like you guys got taxed by the government and saw a woman tennis player make a couple mil in one hour of play lol.
Tom
It’s a discussion in wether or not it’s fair. That’s what people do on forums. Discuss topics. Welcome to the present day mr powers, let me introduce you to the internet.
I know I am biased being a fanboy but had Rosicky not got injured we would have been talking about him as one of the great midfielders in the last 20 years or so.
Women tennis is a joke.
Justin Henin was the last great female tennis player, it’s been a shit show since then.
Iga Swiatek wipes the floor with basically everyone else and is on a 35 match winning streak but still no match for Graff, Seles, Henin etc.
We were never close to winning the UCL with Cesc in 09. We got lucky with mediocre opposition in Roma and Villareal. Got turned inside out by a proper side in Utd in the semis even though Gibbs and Almunia did not help either. But yeah, we should have won the league in 07/08 with Cesc. Would have been one of our greatest league titles ever given how young that team was and was competing against the juggernaut squads of Chelsea and Man Utd.
But Iga is kind of cute and a Rafa fan herself, so nice to see her win slams 🙂
Samual
In 06 we were 15 minutes away
Had we had a better keeper or Henry put one of his chances away we would have
In 06, yes we most definitely were. As much as I love Henry, he should have scored that chance in the 65th minute or so.
I’m not sure Tielemans will sign to be on the bench a bit like the Zinchenko rumours.
Out of the two I’d prefer to take a chance on Zinchenko over Tielemans for central midfield for what I see as the real needs of the midfield if we are talking about these two players exclusively.
Zinchenko has had to have a degree of defensive awareness about him playing as fullback and he overall has good technique and is a decent footballer.
As far as Ozil vs Cesc debate goes, I don’t think its even close. Its Cesc by a mile, far better leader and Rolls Royce of a player who was doing everything in the middle and was playing week in week out. Ozil needs too many right pieces around him to hide his weaknesses which is why he had his best stint at Madrid where Khedira and Alonso did the dirty work for him. But nonetheless, a lot of Arsenal fans completely brush aside the good things Ozil did for us in the beginning and the role he played in… Read more »
Zinchenko was actually seen as a No.10 when Man City first signed him.
So he has attacking instincts allied to the densive awareness he would have picked up playing as fullback.
A much more interesting signing for me over Tielemans.
And of course he can fill in at left back when Tierney breaks down again.
I think this would be an Arteta signing many could get on board with.
Cesc didn’t just outperform Ozil in G/A
He ran the game from the middle. He dictated the game. We played how he wanted us to play. If he wanted tika taka we opened teams that way, if he wanted pin point 60 yard through balls, that’s what we did.
Ozil had his little moments but cesc ran games
I think that there is pretty strong evidence that Arsenal are recruiting early this summer rather than leaving it late as has been the case in the past. GOALKEEPER We know already that Turner will be replacing Leno. CENTRE BACK The club has made a decision to bring back Saliba to join the other 3 CBs on our books. LEFT BACK The club have clearly made a decision to replace Tavares in the squad. The most likely replacement is Hickey from Bologna. DEFENSIVE/CENTRAL MIDFIELD This is perhaps the one position where there is no definitive decision at the moment. I… Read more »