There’s a story in The Daily Mail today stating that Arteta is not happy at our slow start to the transfer window. Could that be true? Likely. I mean, there were similar stories that he was pissed about how we ran the window last summer. He was raging before the Brentford game and you could kind of understand why.
Though I must say, it does feel a little early to be getting upset about deals. Not a lot of action has been had by other clubs and I think our reality transfers-wise is that we’re trying to play in a higher tier without having higher tier money. That means we’re competing for the dregs of the upper echelon and that might mean waiting.
The only thing that gets me is Dortmund do their business early every summer with no drama and they sign some pretty decent players. They’ve dropped £60m already and brought 7 new players to the club. We have Marquinhos, someone we paid money for despite them having 3 months to go on their deal.
Still, the rumours are giving us a pretty clear indication of where Arteta is regarding talent.
We’re signing a midfielder. It’ll likely be Youri Tielemans.
We’re signing a striker, the big question is whether Jesus is that striker, or is it someone like Scamacca, who fits the profile of what we’ve been trying to do for the last year.
We’re going to replace Nico. Today, we’re being linked with Jarrod Bowen. People scoff at him because he’s from Dagenham, but his numbers tell the story, he scored 18 goals in all competitions and landed 12 assists. He’s very impressive, he scores in big games, and he’s absolutely relentless. He looks like the sort of player Liverpool give a career to.
Raphinha, with the fancier name, is obviously going to excite people more. The 25-year-old scored 11 goals and landed 3 assists for a struggling Leeds side. Again, he has output, he’s played in a system that demands a relentless workrate, and he’d be a huge upgrade on Nico.
The story here is the players, it’s the profile. The big money is going to go on players that can put the ball in the net. Then the rest of the squad upgrades are going to have to come out of a smaller budget. Ainsley seems to be attracting interest from Nottingham Forest, so it seems like there’s a limited chance of him getting invited back in. Nuno is going out on loan.
The dreams of replacing Cedric are just that, he’s on a long-term deal that massively overvalues him, he ain’t going nowhere. The other thing we have to consider is BNC who will probably get a loan in the Championship next season, which, if successful will see him competing for Arsenal the season after.
Arsenal are going to need to spend cash on fullbacks this summer, but I think they are going to have play in the riskier tier 3 bucket because we are not flush with Zinchenko money for back-up.
I said at the end of the season that you shouldn’t be shocked if Granit Xhaka exits the building this summer, I don’t think it’s an urgent move, but if there’s a deal to be had, I think the players and the club would take it. Well, the player has been linked with Bayer L. They have Champions League money this season, so a move for Granit isn’t unrealistic. Keeping him is absolutely fine, but he’s 29 years old now, we know that there’s a tax (mistakes/refs) with him, and we need to do better if we want to win the league in the future. If we upgraded him with a Neves or… in dreamland, someone like Savic, we’d come out the summer really strong.
Finally, Bernd Leno might be moving to Fulham this summer. The German wants to stay in London, he clearly wants to be in the running for the World Cup, so I expect this move makes a lot of sense.
Ok, that’s me done. See you in the comments. Sign up to our Patreon if you can!
Benkind Guen is bang average I watched him loads of times apart from tenacity he brings f all I am glad he is gone a headless chicken in the middle of the park is not what we needed
Such an important headless Chicken Guen must be. He even ‘headless chickened’ his way to UCL playing an important part with OL and probably on his way to the world cup with a team that can actually win it.
What a headless chicken indeed!
Nunez to Liverpool pretty much done, Diaz in January and Jota the year before all young and potential to get better.
Salah, Mane and Firminho have all been brilliant for them all touching 30 (still plenty left in them 2-3 good seasons) all with 1 year left on their contracts.
Can say one thing about them they scout well and have a plan to replace players before they leave many clubs including ours reactive instead of proactive.
, “but roughly in the same league of quality as Xhaka”
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I doubt bonehead if he was French would get into their national team.
AC Milan now looking at Mari, Nottingham Forest sniffing around AMN, Fulham mulling over Leno.
Finally after years and years of carrying unnecessary deadwood we are moving them on! Hopefully we’ll add Torreira Pepe and Cedric to the names exiting the Emirates.
Going forwards, sign quality to begin with.
If that former totts player – sissoko(sic) could get into the french NT then anyone could.
Besides, guen is there to make up the numbers. He isn’t their go-to midfielder.
“AC Milan now looking at Mari, Nottingham Forest sniffing around AMN, Fulham mulling over Leno.Finally after years and years of carrying unnecessary deadwood we are moving them on!” Every season we talk about moving deadwood on and yet we always have a long list of “deadwood” required to be offloaded every summer. May be players are not deadwood after all and it’s our management which has absolutely no clue what kind of players it wants to recruit and when to cash in on players. AMN still better than Cedric and Lokonga Mari was hired by Arteta himself Leno was preferred… Read more »
Where are you getting your figures Tom?
Sky reported £80m + £20m in add-ons. Was that in Euros? Still more than the figure you quoted.
And the Mane add-on wasn’t if they won the CL. It was Wengeresque in banter. They have to win 3 CLs and Mane has to win 3 Ballon D’ors and the add-on at that is £6.5m and not £10m.
Mane is significantly better than Nunez is now so it is not a move that makes them better next season. Long-term a different story.
Who the hell is Tim Van Ritjoven? These boys are just coming out of nowhere and making established stars look pony. This guy just schooled Medvedev.
WW Nobody is paying £13m for Leno and £13m for Torreira, good luck with that. Torreira has torpedoed his value to next to nothing with all of the public statements about how much he hates it here and he is clearly not apart of Arteta’s plans. It will be like Auba where we virtually have to pay to get rid of him. Pepe is not much better so I would be surprised if we got £22m for him, more like £15m. Real Betis simply will not cough up £8.5m for Bellerin either. And none of these are guys that Arteta… Read more »
Thorough
Don’t think that Med has mentally recovered from that Aus Open Final 2 set throwaway loss to Rafa yet.
He has played like shit in all the Masters since then and was obliterated by Cilic in the French.
Whatever about them playing for us, selling two clearly very talented players in Mavropanos and Guendouzi for £12m combined was absolute negligence on our part.
To buy the equivalent level of talent on the market for both you would be paying £40-50m combined.
If you read Med’s “the boy had a dream” letter you can sense that he is disillusioned with Tennis and is playing tournaments just to make money now so that he can live a comfortable life post retirement.
Believe me once we move them on we will have a new set of “deadwood” next season.
Tr7
Bang on the money
Cedric, Tavares, Gabriel and Lakonga look to top that list as far as I’m concerned. They will be the deadwood of the next 2 seasons. The names thrown into the the hat as potential fund raisers
TR7
I know that you like Med but he is being a crybaby and should suck it up. Anyone playing vs Nadal is playing against the crowd.
Djokovic has been playing against crowds his entire career and he never bitched the way Med has. Just shows that Med isn’t cut from the same cloth and is mentally fragile.
Eagle
Same with Pepe
The boy produces numbers. He could have been utilised
Same with auba really. Could have made something for him the season he won us the FA cup. Barca were sniffing around bellerin up until the last 2-3 years.
Turned down good money for AMN. Torreira had market value before Arteta bombed him too.
Awful squad management
I don’t really see the potential with Lokonga if I am honest. Plays with less personality as a 22 year old than Cesc did as a 17 year old.
£15m was far too much to spend on him considering Guendouzi is vastly better and we sold him for £9m.
Un
I’d far sooner lump Xhaka in with the deadwood than Gabriel.
Gabriel needs to clean up the errors in his game but the bones of a very good CB are there imo.
WE
Yes Med needs to show mental strength. Djoker has 20 grand slams and yet hardly anyone was cheering for him at Roland Garros. Fed and Rafa are crowd favourites wherever they play.
Un
Arteta has been bleeding the club dry. Wenger made two bad signings (Xhaka and Mustafi) and he bore the brunt of those signings until the end. Arteta has had numerous such mistakes in just under 3 years and somehow still has the owners in a spell. I won’t be surprised if we waste money again in this TW.
“Where are you getting your figures Tom?
Sky reported £80m + £20m in add-ons. Was that in Euros? Still more than the figure you quoted.”
WEagle, €80m =£68,3m
Some Liverpool outlets reported Benfica’s sources of €75m + €25m in add ons, €10m going to Almeria.
“Pay 15 m for Lokonga and receive 8m for Guen.Heads need to roll, at all levels”
Pay 50M for White and receive 3M for Mavro.
We.
True. That was really heartbreaking for a lot of Medvedev and Djokovix fans.
Still gotta keep an eye on the Tim lad. He just beat Gaston Hugo, Phillipe Augier and Medvedev. Infact, only Augier took a set off of him if I remember correctly.
Here’s one for you.
Now I am not nor do I claim to be in the know but pace is picking up on the rumour that Spuds are expecting another offer for Kane and this time any offer above £100 million will be accepted.
Eagle
Yeah I agree on Lakonga. I’m not expecting too much from him. Loads of highly regarded ex pros have lauded certain players only to see them fall well short. Ravel Morrison was talked of as better than CR7 at the same age. Our own Reiss Nelson is another. Anderson. Nani. Ben arfa. Lord B. Djemba djemba. Liam Miller. Off the top of my head.
Darwin Nunez is moving for € 100 mil (€ 80 mil plus € 20 mil in addons) not £100 mil. That are the figures being discussed. I see the potential in Sambi. He needs patience. People don’t break out at the same age. He isn’t ready to play the No 6 role. He has lost the ball in a few occasions and you can’t do that as a 6. But his passing ability and awareness is very good. He should play as an 8. I would move on Xhaka and bring in a DM like Bissouma on top of Tielemans… Read more »
Tr7 We will see If Arteta doesn’t do it this season then it’s over for him. Back to the drawing board for us. He needs to make this season count. He cat waste a single first team squad player on cup competitions It won’t be tolerated this time around I can see why the board would be reluctant to release funds If they throw everything at him in this window and he has another costly 3 game spell then they’ve wasted obscene amounts of money and still no champions league Obviously I hope he does it but to be perfectly… Read more »
Sambi has failed when paired with Xhaka. He was very good when he was playing an 8. The through balls, the switches and the awareness to turn was what impressed me. He was initially playing as an 8 along side Partey. And he was performing to a good level. Even when paired with AMN he played some good football. But as a 6 he struggled. I wasn’t surprised that much. Xhaka needs his hands held let alone guide a younger player. Elneny did a better job because he knew what being a 6 meant. I could share a video of… Read more »
Not calling him crap Habesha but he looks lightweight and a passenger in the middle of the park.
Just not expecting anything much from him and think he will end up going out the backdoor as deadwood imo.
Tom
Yeah still a lot of money but you would trust Pool given their recruitment record. Although didn’t their DOF and the brains behind most of their signings of the past 6 yeara (Salah over Brandt, etc) recently walk away? Could have sworn that I heard that somewhere.
Papa Wenger to visit all 211 football associations in the world to help improve grassroots football. If it’s anything like it sounds, I m intrigued.
Glad to see him aging gracefully. Love that guy.
I don’t understand why some people struggle with when to move on from a previous situation. Just move on Guendouche.
Heard the commentator call Guendouzi “arguably OM’s most important player of the season”.
He played in every single OM game – 55 apps in all competitions. 2nd in apps is Saliba with 52.
His coach must have seen something in the “rotten egg” to play him in every single game. Deschamps as well.
Habesha
Since we won’t be buying Tchouameni then I guess we have to go all in with Lokonga. Seriously though I agree that there’s a good player there. He plays better with a more experienced player that knows what he’s doing. Pretty much anyone not named Xhaka and he’ll play well.
Xhaka is 30 in Sep, if he is not good enough then we need to move him on.
Xhaka is 30 in Sep, if he is not good enough then we need to move him on
Tets loves him.
Le Grove is at it’s weakest when Politics of the day enter the fray.
Naija All the games I have seen him be crap is when he played as a 6 with Xhaka and the Fa cup game that we got knocked out playing Forest with an even greener Charlie Patino. Tchouameni is a 6 though. I don’t think Sambi is a 6. He is kind of an 8. He has a bit of Cesc in him when making the cross field passes. And he is always looking to break the lines when he passes the ball which impressed me. Play him with Partey and you will get a different level of midfielder. Xhaka… Read more »
Have to say Tielemans looked very tidy last night vs Wales.
Thorough I have to disagree with you it’s all good shining in the French league and another doing it for a top prem side
Look at Pepe
Guen is not going to be a top player he is just good plus he is a dick f him
I stand by my headless chicken comment as I have seen him play live many times
Partey, Bisoumma, Tielemans, ESR, Odegaard, Elneny should be our 6 midfield players for 3 positions.
Lokonga should be sent on loan to a mid table premier league club (Southampton, Brighton etc.)
Tr7 would love lokonga to play and be coached at Brighton for a year great idea
Couldn’t care less if Gwen Dozy was second coming of Mo Salad.He’s a C** t.An arrogant,wiggy wearing one at that!
Guendouzi for £8.5m is appalling considering he was being trolled around these parts with a £60m valuation not too long ago. Hard to pinpoint a club worse than Arsenal at selling.
If it were up to me these would be the midfield combination. DM/ Partey, Bissouma, Elneny CM Sambi, Tielemans N10 Odegaard/ ESR (he plays on the left too). That way we have 5 players for the two deep positions. We are going to have injuries so this guarantees that our season won’t derail due to that. If we wanted to go defensive then Bissouma Partey can be the 2 sitting behind. Sambi can play the early Europa games, Fa cup and league cup. Elneny will just be there to guarantee against Partey getting injured and having Bissouma as the only… Read more »
Mr Serge. Guen didn’t just shine with OM. There was a reason we paid a lower league player to come play for us. And under Emery I saw him take matches by the scruff. More than once. I can’t remember Xhaka ever doing that in his 5 years here. He’s either bad or not very bad. He’s done it in OM. He was French u 21 captain for a reason. He did it for us under Emery. He’s gradually becoming relevant in the French national team. And he’s a dick? To you or because of the way he fell out… Read more »
Thorough
Guendouzi is gone so we have to move on too. We have Lokonga. At this point don’t really matter whether he’s great or not. Gone baby gone.
Habesha
Lokonga is an 8. He’s already at a good level in that position. Next to Partey or a midfielder that knows what time it is, and he shines. He can be a 6 too but he needs to games for experience and perfecting his trade.
Your midfield combo list I can settle for. It’s too bad Arteta won’t play ESR as a 10 as I think we can use him there. Some games ESR should be the go to no 10, while other games Odegaard.
Naija.
Exactly what I was preaching to Mr Serge..
Butthhurt fans should just stop bringing them up. Till then.
We make top 4 if Arteta had played ESR a little more and if he found a way to tweak Pepe’s game.
How do we have a guy like Pepe in our team yet we are struggling for goals ? Listen I m not saying he’s Mbappe, but he’s talented and a goal threat. Under a coach that knows how to tweak, Pepe would be golden.
Pepe isn’t a very good player but no doubt that he has regressed under Arteta.
WengerEagle
When Pepe is lacking trust and confidence he isn’t a very good player, you are right.
The last time he had the trust of the coach though, he was the second best player in League French.
He’s not a winger at least not a right winger. Play him support striker, left wing, maybe striker.
The fact that Arteta didn’t play him much in these positions is proof that we wasted the chances we had to experiment.
Tielemans has played 173 games the past 3 seasons. Thats a lot of games in a 3 year span.
Hope he doesn’t come to Arsenal and pull a Rosicky/Cazorla.
Getting proper cover at fullback and centre mid is more important than getting in a striker. Eddie, Saka and ESR have all shown they can score given chances but what we lack is chance creation and the ability to get the ball to these players in the final third. A lot of the time they have to drop deeper and deeper to get the ball and then beat 3-4 players to get a chance at shooting. That might work in the U23 but in the PL if you beat a couple players the third one will wipe you out. It’s… Read more »
Would be so Arsenal
Guys guys
No politics
This is not a political blog
Sid
Metrosexual Sal pretty much goes for 69 when and where ever he / him can.
Its all happening below 23rd, trust me on that.
New post!
No politics on the other side.
“If your daughter brought home Bukayo, you d be more than happy”- Gareth Southgate.
He’d probably teach her how to make Pepper soup. 🌶Our boy is little Chilli after all.
Thorough I am not butthurt whatever that means I just don’t rate him can’t you get that in your head ?sorry my opinion differs to yours but my eyes were not deceiving me