Well happy damn FriYAY to you all.
There’s been a weird debate going on in some of the sports media that needs to go juvenile to make money in 2022. I am juvenile, so I’ll lean right into the ‘GABI VS RICHARLISON’ argument.
- Spurs chased down Gabriel Jesus first. There isn’t a world where an elite club would do anything different. Attitude, technique, output, winnertivity… Gabi J has it all.
- The goals comparison is ridiculous, Richarlison starts all the games, Gabi does not.
- Richarlison’ Premier League record is a goal every 290 minutes
- Gabriel Jesus’ Premier League record is a goal every 160
- Minutes-wise, Richarlison has clocked 4672 more than Gabi (that’s 51 more 90 minutes). In that time Jesus, someone who isn’t a prolific starter of games, has 10 more goals and 14 more assists.
- Arsenal bought a serial winner for £45m, probably lower, because the selling club leaks. Spurs purchased a sulker for £60m that was part of the worst Everton side we’ve seen in years.
Arsenal has the better deal here.
I’m gonna go out on a limb. If Eddie Nketiah can score the same amount of goals as Richarlison in a season when he was largely ignored, I’m gonna predict he scores more than Richarlison next season.
£60m and the best defence of him I’m getting is ‘there’s a good player in there’… mate, there was a good player in Jermaine Pennant when he wasn’t vomiting on himself at training.
I’m honestly living in a parallel universe when I have Spurs fan in my mentions purring over Perisic, Forster, Bissouma (cleared of sexual assault, yay!), and a £60m forward that doesn’t really score goals.
Arsenal said goodbye to Matteo G. Good riddance. I’m just a bit gutted we gave him away for such a pitiful fee. He’s really been transformed under the guidance of a macho manager in Sampaoli. I wonder what would happen if that manager left?
… too late. He’s out the door. Utterly furious that Marseille didn’t sign Saliba. Now, that tells you something… maybe Matteo was kept in check by a manager who as a bigger nutter than him. We’ll see. Either way, amusing that William Saliba is so good, managers end their own careers over him.
Things feel slow elsewhere, but you always have to remember, that’s because you don’t know what’s going on… it’s not real.
Gabriel Jesus is done, it doesn’t matter where the announcement is, the content team takes care of that.
The Raphinha deal might be frustrating, but he’s not moved to anyone yet, and it sounds like a crazy deal by any standards.
Martinez was always going to be complicated because Ajax don’t want to sell him.
Getting angry at transfers on the internet is the oddest of quirks, but we all do it. Arsenal are clearly making moves, there’s clearly investment, we’ll win some, we’ll lose some, but make no mistake… we’ll end the summer in great shape.
Right, short one today, but while you wait, check out our podcast we recorded for Patreon on Wednesday. We’ll be releasing these after two day because they are news related.
We discuss Gabi J, Raphinha and if we’re that bothered, we talk Martinez, and Johnny weighs in on standards merchants.
Sign up to our Patreon FIRST. Then watch the content and deeply regret the purchase after.
Arteta hasn’t finished learning the ropes as a coach/manager and he wants to be clever with tactics 😂😂 Goodluck with that.
Basic “give, go, space, receive” in midfield triangles we haven’t learned. It’s the FB tucked into DM thing we want to try. It’s ok.
We barely run rings around any team (control possession and play teams to submission). Even the lowest ones. Everyone seems fitter and faster than us in the middle. That needs addressing, not complex formation that only ever worked for Pep.
Rich
“Last season Tierney played much deeper, which allowed Xhaka to play a bit further forward”
And what is the point of that may I ask?
Most recognise that Xhaka isn’t very good further forward .
We can never play give and go cohesive football in the middle as long as Xhaka is in there.
It’s going to be fragmented and stop start or give it to the flanks.
6ft 5? DM, Belgian/Ghanaian? 20?
yes please.
Rich ‘Nonsense’ was harsh. It would make sense for off the ball when opponents spring quick counter attacks as our FBs would be in much better positions to win the ball back and snuff out attacks. I don’t really see how it would help us going forward. Saka and ESR as of now will be our starting widemen next season. Both like to come in and link up as well as get sight of goal, the middle would be very congested if we also had FBs that do not push aggresively high up the pitch. Walker, Cancelo and even Zinchenko… Read more »
Our counter attacks are soooooo slow.
I don’t get it at all. Especially when we had auba who’s whole career has been built on getting in behind the defence. We have martinelli who would prosper as well as Saka and Eddie, now Jesus. If we don’t pick up the pace this season in that aspect it will just be more of the same crab ball
I like what I see in Onana, a powerhouse by the look of it..
So many opportunities to feed someone in behind yet it’s look up, see the pass, stop and turn around instead. An efficient counter only needs 2-4 players getting forward, not like it’s a massive risk giving it a crack.
Need that handbrake off this season. Arteta will have his squad, so no excuses either for boring predictable football
Mystic
“Never seen Wenger second guess a player the way he did xhaka. He thought he was a b2b at the time of signing.”
Hahaha yeah b2b xhaka still makes me laugh
Norton Cuffy celebrating his medal. Seems like he’s got loads of potential.
If you haven’t seem him before look him up.
One productive loan this season and get him in the team there following season.
Another reason it’s great that Tomiyasu can play on the left too.
Ishola
“Most recognise that Xhaka isn’t very good further forward .”
Like a fish out of water i said at the time, and nothing i have seen since has made me change my mind.
Nigel Tufnell
“Norton Cuffy celebrating his medal. Seems like he’s got loads of potential.If you haven’t seem him before look him up.”
He won’t make it at Arsenal, he was one of our (England’s) more average players during the tournament..
I only have one proper fond memory of xhaka, when he turned out of the box to beat a player then nuttied another player which then if I’m not mistaken the resulting phase of play resulted in a goal. Can’t even remember who it was we were playing. Haha if only xhaka could do that every game
Goober
Only took him 6 years to produce one good moment in our shirt, can’t wait for the next one in 2028.
Stan must have realised his card was missing, and Josh had to bring it back.
Sorry, don’t get this fascination with copying Pep and City. ‘Modern football’ as some would have it is just the latest fad in the game, there have been dozens previously and will be dozens more that follow. Every previous iteration was also the ‘modern’ game and all were replaced by something else.
If we truly did have a ‘generational’ coach he’d be looking at evolving the game, not getting on the bandwagon belatedly.
Someone will come along and make Pep’s ideas look antiquated. I’d rather it was us looking to the future than clinging onto City’s coat tails.
“can’t wait for the next one in 2028.”
He’ll prob still be here in 2028, whilst Arteta is managing in Segunda Division B.
WE I’m not suggesting we do this, I’m just trying to explain why we’re trying to fix the defence, and why it’s so important to the way we attack. Last season we played with the 3rd highest defensive line, which was a big jump from 2020/21, when we were 11th or 12th If we’re trying to spend a lot of money on a left back, who’s statistically a ball progressing machine, that would suggest that we’re going to be playing with 2 No8s We clearly don’t see Martinez as a player who’s going to be running up and down the… Read more »
Pierre, yes I watched the U19’s too. BNC looked like a typical Wenger full back – decent going forward but suspect as an actual defender. Maybe he’ll work on that side of his game, maybe that’s the way he’ll always be. Time will tell.
I wouldn’t be holding my breath on all of these lads from the acaddny the way a few seem to be doing. Azeez, Patino, etc. It is exceptionally rare for academy players at the club to go on to be real fixtures in the XI long-term. Before Saka and ESR you had Bellerin 5 years previous and then Wilshere 4 years previous to that. We have already exceeded that count with ESR and Saka and Eddie looks as if he will at least be a decent back up ST and will be involved in the squad too. Patino is the… Read more »
How is this going to work though Rich with Xhaka involved this evolving high line?
We may have finished a close fourth last season but most recognise we were not bossing many games season just gone and you are going to vulnerable with a high line with Xhaka involved.
Must we keep accomodating him with as you said earlier Tierney playing deeper to cover for Xhaka. Playing your best attacking full back deeper to accomodate Xhaka’s weakness.
Pedro is a wonderful writer.. and I share in most of his views.. But he fucking compares a lot.. if it’s not club comparison.. it’s manager comparison.. now, we have started comparing players.. Mehn! The main goal is winning and making fans happy with beautiful style of play.. so let’s stop this fucking comparison.. For Christ loving sake, our comparison is putting Tot’ham in a greater light than Arsenal.. That’s the fucking truth.
Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano
Manchester United official proposal for Lisandro Martínez, better than Arsenal’s one but not enough yet. AFC are still there. #MUFC Man United also pushing to agree on personal terms with Lisandro – ten Hag, key factor. Lisandro will ask Ajax to leave, as he wants PL move
Rich So how would we line up then in this formation? Who is providing width with all these central players? There is not a single team worldwide including Pep and City that lack the option to penetrate teams from wide areas as well as central ones. This all screams of Arteta trying to be too clever for our own good and reinvent the wheel in a footballing sense. If you have no outlet wide you are going to be one-dimensional. We do not have wide foreards that like to stay wide, they are inverted midfielders really. If you remember Henry… Read more »
I would laugh if Raphina went to Barcelona after Chelsea fans were lording it over us by getting him over us. But how an Earth are Barcelona going to pay for him if they are a billion in debt? Personally I’m not sure £65 million is worth it for Raphinha, is he really that great? Very good but not worth that kind of outlay That £65 million should go on that world class midfielder, the best we could get anyway. Lots of talk of Xhaka here today I see, but it’s all valid. We will simply not progress into the… Read more »
Gbadebo Ojomo, you’d fit in here nicely with the swear words! Wel fucking come!!
Sounds like Ten Hag will sway Martinez’s decision here and if Utd are offering more money on top of that…
Move on down the list. I hate that we never seem to have alternatives or a contingency plan in place if it goes tits up on a target.
Habesha, “How can a guy that played with Santi, Ramsey and Wilshere on top of their game think that Xhaka is enough? He also saw and coached the likes of Gundogan, B.Silva, David Silva and Debruyne.” I wonder the same thing… I actually heard great scouting reports on Guimares in early January.. I assume that we thought Tielemans was worth waiting for, and I agree, as long as we don’t Fk it up. Reports in Italy say we have interest in Ruiz, and maybe he is the backup plan? Either way, we can’t ignore the need in that position. It’s… Read more »
I don’t even get why Barcelona wants to get Raphina if I am being honest. He doesn’t seem like their kind of player. And 65m is a whole lot of money for him. They have already matched the bid by Chelsea anyway so It’s just a matter of time now to finalise the move. #herewego
We were first linked with Martinez a fortnight ago. If we are bidding for players in demand we need to put in serious bids in a timely manner, otherwise other clubs will attain our targets.
Not to do the Pedro Spurs thing but I’m sure I only heard of Spurs interest in Richarlison a week ago. He has already been signed.
Derisory bids will always get laughed out of the room.
Barca are a bit of a mess Mystic.
Selling their best midfielder in Frenkie De Jong to get his wages off the books (300k a week+). Think he was one of their last Bartomeu contracts.
How a 34 year old Lewandowski and Raphinha fit into Xavi’s Barca revolution I do not know.
Arsenal’s propaganda machine makes Jesus look better than Aguero.
Chris
Barcelona are the teachers pet as far as UEFA are concerned.
Rules don’t apply as far they’re concerned.
Football has not been played on a level playing field for twenty years.
Agree with your take on Xhaka.
Every manager needs a yes-man. Xhaka is as good as they come.
Honestly this window is now looking a joke and a complete farce
Barca are £850 million in debt, they cannot even register the signings of Christensen and Kessie as they cannot afford to. Somehow they are also redeveloping the Nou Camp for around a billion. Where is all this money coming from and how are they not in deep shit with FFP etc?
I don’t mind missing out on Lisandro if Arteta sees as a defender. I am tired of Arsenal hoarding defenders and still conceding more goals.
The Xhaka debate is an aged one isn’t it Graham but it’s so true. Simply not good enough and personally central midfield would be the number one priority this window.
I obviously won’t judge until the end of the window and I do like very much who the club has brought in so far.
It’s alright getting in bodies for different areas defence, attack etc but we need to see Arteta’s playing style evolve this season.
Just throwing bodies at it without this evolving isn’t going to make the mark.
AMN very good as a back up full back. No need to sign any other defender.
How can we have gone so far into protracted negotiations for players that have absolutely no desire to come play for us? Edu is a clown.
Barcelona on Thursday announced they had sold 10 percent of their Liga television rights for 25 years to U.S. investment group Sixth Street for 207.5 million euros ($215.5 million). “Sixth Street will initially invest €207.5 million and in return will receive 10% of the Club’s LaLiga TV rights for the next 25 years,” Barca said in a statement. The deal will allow Barcelona, beset by financial problems, to end the fiscal year that closes this Thursday in profit. Catalan sports daily Sport reported that otherwise Barca “would have ended the financial year with a loss of 150 million euros.” “With… Read more »
“Honestly this window is now looking a joke and a complete farce”
We should refrain from saying this while there is still plenty of time to go in the window.
With Jesus now signed up we need to secure that baller of a central midfielder who is going to transform our play. This to me is more important than another LB, WF etc. not saying those positions wouldn’t be a good idea to add to but priorities and all that.
Chris
Barca are £850 million in debt, they cannot even register the signings of Christensen and Kessie as they cannot afford to. Somehow they are also redeveloping the Nou Camp for around a billion. Where is all this money coming from and how are they not in deep shit with FFP etc?
They really are mortgaging their future.
It would appear that they have sold off a chunk of their retail arm and 10% of their future Tv revenue but now they seem to be selling of yet another 10% .
Bringing a 40m LB when we already have Tierney there is not that different to signing White for 50m when we already had Saliba. At least White’s main position is a CB. Zinchenko such an obvious choice but there are a lot of others that are really good too. Like this guy Lisandro has 10 games at LB in his career…
I see that we’re being linked with Arthur again….hopefully just paper talk.
Weagle
“Eddie looks as if he will at least be a decent back up ST and will be involved in the squad too.”
Ha ha , just admit that you wrong about Eddie and be done with it.
He was” involved in the squad” last season barely , due to Arteta’s incompetance .
This season Arteta will find it very difficult to leave him out of the starting line up and i look forward to hearing you struggle to give him any credit for his Performances.
TR7
“AMN very good as a back up full back. No need to sign any other defender.”
Exactly ….either full back positions., though i would like Martinez for cm.
Eddie did very well at the back end of the season Pierre but we need to see it over a longer period before you can proclaim being a visionary with him. You said the same thing about Willock as he was enjoying his purple patch, we then smartly sold him for £25m to Newcastle and saw it was indeed a purple patch and he produced an average at best season there. I hope that Eddie makes it here but I honestly still doubt he will be our future no.1 ST. It seems that Arteta feels the same way given how… Read more »
We should have got Bissouma and a cheap, young left back. (not another Tavares though)
AMM isn’t a bad player agreed. Think he’s servicable as versatile cover, could be our Wes Brown/John O’Shea type.
If Edu and Arteta bring in Arthur Melo, despite the fact he couldn’t hack it at Barca and has stunk out the place at Juve so badly they are absolutely desperate to offload him, then they will lose all credibility. A player who is so poor and overlooked in Serie A has no business playing for an EPL side with ambitions of making top 4.
A lot of posters are oversimplifying the way transfers.work. Take Martinez for example: Ajax have no financial need to sell, he won their player of the year therefore they’re thinking must be let’s try and drive the price as high as possible. If Arsenal had come in with a bid of say £40m it is quite likely that they would still have contacted Ten Haag and said ‘ how much are you willing to pay?’ With Tielemans, I suspect Arsenal have said ‘ sit tight, we’ll get you later in the window so Leicester don’t drive the price up too… Read more »
Can we please stop with the AMN nonsense please. He continues to be a major disappointment. Should have taken the 20 million from whoever the fuck when we had the chance
Well that would have been a no-brainer and is still one of the thickest decisions we have made as a club.
Rejected £20m for AMN only to let him rot on the bench and then loan him out to West Brom in Jan anyway.
I doubt we would even get £10m for him now because he has done nothing of note anywhere since then.
“How can we have gone so far into protracted negotiations for players that have absolutely no desire to come play for us? Edu is a clown.”
Yeah… and Arteta is not!
Bob
Ajax are a selling club like Porto, Benfica, Monaco, etc. They will sell Martinez because they know they can replace him at a fraction of the price given their elite scouting network.
They are not in the business of hoarding onto players. Martinez could suffer any injury or have an underwhelming season and see his value plummet. They will not take that risk. If we do not sign him, Utd will.
Pierre
If Eddie had played when he should have played, Arsenal would have comfortably made top 4.
You are right, all down to one man’s incompetence.
That’s not being negative, just stating the obvious.
It was Wolves who had a first offer of 15m that was going to be 20m eventually, the price tag we had on his head. Then Arteta spoke after AMN had another good game in our win vs Liverpool in the Community Shield how he’s super happy with AMN’s progress and all that and it all ended there. We cut the conversations with Wolves and here we are 2 years later and it wouldn’t have made a difference if he was sold 2 years ago to him staying here other than we’ve lost a shit ton of money. That’s how… Read more »
Looks like United will sign Lisandro Martinez easily.
The player wants to connect with the manager who’s managed him since he moved to Europe in 2019. It’s nothing to do with Arteta or Arsenal’s profile.
It’s possible the we heaped premature praised on Edu
Now it’s time to earn his money, he has to unleash his algorithms and pivot to the other players on his spread sheet.
AMN never has had the consistent mentality to be a nailed on first team starter.
Obvious error from Arteta in not letting him go earlier.
WengerE, I’m not suggesting Ajax won’t sell Martinez, I was simply pointing out that it helps their selling position to appear to not be fussed about whether they sell Martinez in this window and an auction between two rich PL teams is an ideal scenario to exact the highest price.
My point was that getting transfers over the line isn’t as straightforward as some posters on here seem to believe.
Artur Melo is the equivalent of a product on the ‘past the sell by date’ in supermarkets. His agent is trying his hardest!
The audacity of Pedro moaning about why we only got £9 million for Guendouzi
He’s sound the better part of the last 3 seasons bashing the kid, applauding Arteta when he ran him out of the club.
£9 million is what you get for a player who’s not wanted by his home club. You can’t have your cake and eat it.
WE Saka + Martinelli are regularly stationed out on the touchline, both provide plenty of width, and have the ability to go on the inside + outside Having full backs who tuck inside gives us defensive security, leaves us less open to the counter, and providing they have the right technical quality, would make us deadly in transition. Playing with 2 No8s, would means we’d have more players attacking the box, add that to 2 penalty box strikers who press from the front in Eddie + Jesus, and we could see the goals spread around nicely. Getting enough players into… Read more »
Nice one Graham, you haven’t lost your mojo, you got to post about Arteta ‘the incompetent’ again., lest we forget.
Thought you’d lost your touch, back with a bang!
Don’t disagree that it was a mistake, I was wanting Laca dropped for at least 4/5 games before he eventually wasn’t picked. Saying he’s incompetent is too far of course but there is a place for hyperbole when you are attempting to make a point I suppose.
Us Arsenal fans find ourselves in a really difficult place, the same place we’ve been for too long, we are not an exciting or inspiring project, we don’t have a manager with any reputable pedigree that any player is falling over to play for, and all we ever seem to do is sign ‘safe’ players that maintain our very ordinary status quo.
If we refuse to shake ourselves out of this constant complacent mediocrity, we will spend years finishing between 5th – 8th and be made to be thankful for it.
That’s where we are as a fanbase.
Herb
“we don’t have a manager with any reputable pedigree that any player is falling over to play for”
Jesus walked over and on water to join Tets.
The problem is Tierney’s fitness isn’t reliable, I’ve also got big concerns around Partey’s muscle injuries. We can’t just rely on White + Gabriel to play 60 games We can’t continually see our season go up in flames when we have 2-3 injuries, We need a squad, we need quality in depth, we need 2 teams of 11, particularly if we want to compete on multiple fronts. We need more quality in depth from the bench, so we can change a game. Numbers aren’t a problem, we’ve currently got 31 players on our books, it’s quality in depth we lack.… Read more »
One word to you Rich = Xhaka lol
You like to keep overlooking it while I of course will always be here to remind you of it.
We don’t become an expansive exciting team to watch so long as Xhaka is planted in the middle of the side.
Herbs, only you think Arsenal isn’t an exciting project, don’t classify yourself with the overwhelming majority that are absolutely loving where we’re heading.
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