LOKONGA-ING ALL THE WAY TO MILAN? NO CHANCE

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The HOT rumour this morning is AC Milan is in talks to BUY Sambi Lokonga.

BUY?

Excuse me?

Now, firstly, what have we learned about rumours that come from Italy?

Not to touch them, fall in love with them, OR take them seriously.

Their clubs have about 4 pennies between them, they are unreliable for both buying (Fiorentina) and for selling (Fiorentina).

Arsenal fans are utterly unbelievable with younger players. Fans spent 6 months of last season berating Arteta for NOT playing Martinelli. He hated young kids, didn’t know how to coach, and he needed to be publicly flogged until he saw the light… Then Martinelli gets back into the squad, has a rough patch, and the same fans started calling him shit.

WRONG on that. WRONG on this.

Sambi Lokonga is a top young talent, he’s only 22 years old, he’s been in the league for a single season. One of the leagues greatest leaders and players, Vincent Kompany, was so excited about him he told Pep and Mikel to look at him. The player has some really good games last season, he has high levels of tekkers, he’s a born leader, and it is perfectly fine for him to lack consistency at his age.

Let’s just remind people that, yes, age does matter. Here is the table for the average age of the starting 11 for the first Premier League game.

Sambi is 22 years old. The average age of our starting 11 was 24.6. The average age of the second-best team in the league was 29.4. This childish notion that if you haven’t made it by 22, you aren’t very good, is tiresome in the extreme.

Sambi is going to get minutes this season, he’s going to get better, and I think all the folk slandering him next season will be deleting more of their ill-judged comments.

… that is, unless we are selling him. Which would seem odd.

Arsenal still have unfinished business in midfield as far as I am concerned. The trail is very quiet right now. Tielemans is sitting at Leicester and I’m not quite sure right now if we have him waiting there for a late bid THIS season, or the club has told him there’s a £10m signing on bonus if he waits it out for another 9 months. If we exited the window without adding to midfield, knowing that our two starters are 29 years old and one is very injury prone… I think it’d be a miss.

Especially as the one position that seems nailed on that we’ll chase down is the winger. The Raphinha miss was real. It’s clear we want someone with the special sauce to generate goals and end product in the box. I have no idea who we’ll get, but rest assured, it’ll be someone who has a tangible record. Not some child that has 16 minutes of top flight action to their name and a couple of Youtube comps.

We should have around £50m to spend. That is BIG money in Europe right now. So I suspect if we’re targeting a non-CL club player, most clubs will be open to the cheque.

Who will we get?

I don’t know.

I just don’t know.

Players exiting? Pablo Mari, the most handsome man in football, is heading to Monza on a loan to Perm if they survive. He seems a very nice chap, so good luck to him.

Betis want Hector on a free. The player is prepared to bin his own deal. It’s the most boring saga of the summer. Just get him out and let’s move on!

Ainsley hasn’t found a club.

Reiss Nelson will be training at Arsenal when his contract expires.

Runarsson is heading to Turkey again.

It doesn’t look like we’re making a lot of money this summer, does it?

Loan-watch:

Charlie Patino made his first start for Blackpool and absolutely smashed it.

Auston Trustey is at Birmingham and he seems to be smashing it there, the fans love him, they’re singing USA, USA, USA at him, which is a compliment I guess.

Ok, that is about all I have time for today! If you would like to hear our thoughts post-Crystal Palace, jump on our On The Whistle podcast below.

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324 Comments
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Crimson

Willy for 2 million……ok

Crimson

Seems a little steep

Rich

Naija + soccer The last time I thought we were potentially just 3 top players away from being competitive, was the summer of 2015. The league was much weaker that season, and Pep + Klopp have since set far improved standards for what it takes to be successful. We’ve been a long way off the last few seasons, you only need to analyse our squad over that time, in comparison to the clubs in front of us, in which there were plenty. We’re now close to a squad who are designed to play in the managers own image, which should… Read more »

Foxy

Naija did Tielmans disappear a bit in the second half as Brentford got back into the game or did he stay strong? We definitely need a player in CM who can impose himself on the game when we are under pressure.

Naija+soccer

Imagine this current team without Kieran Tierney. Defence feels a bit light right ? Now imagine this team with Tierney. Yeah nope to City.

Ray+in+LA

buying Zinchenko as a backup/competition for Tierney, then selling Tierney

something is wrong with this picture?

LoveSausage

If it’s true that City are in for Tierney, it will be a true test of whether we’ve learned anything from our previous mistakes in the transfer market.

If a bid of 35M+ comes in, we should take it. As much as I love the guy, he’s too unreliable due to his injury record and LB is a comparatively easy position to fill. We shouldn’t wait until a player is spent and has lost all his market value before trying to move them on like we’ve done with AMN and Hector.

TheBayingMob

Why would City want an injury probe Scottish international who only plays 60% of matches? As good as he is that makes no sense whatsoever

izzo

City want Tierney as he will start but they will have the Anderlecht lad Gomes as backup. Obviously we shouldn’t sell as there are many other leftbacks in the market City can go for. Renan Lodi.

Topside Northbank

Tierney leaving in this window total non runner of a rumour.

Next summer a possibility but for where we are aiming for this season top 4 it’s a backward move to even entertain offers he’s staying put.

Topside Northbank

To add just reading Pep’s quotes about new signing Sergio Gomez.

He’s staying at City as back up to Cancelo at LB.

Tierney to City a total non story.

Naija+soccer

Rich

Pretty much agree that 15-16 team was our last proper decent team and adding 3 players would have turned them to title challengers for sure. But we didn’t.

Let’s hope we take the initiative this time around. And I think we will.

Naija+soccer

This is the most proactive I ve seen Arsenal in the market and I am enjoying every moment of it. We are used to Arsenal being so passive that this aggressive Arsenal is giving me confidence and lots of hope. As long as we continue spending consistently and with purpose like this, it won’t matter what City/Chelsea/United/Liverpool are doing.

Zacharse

saliba contract done before the end of the month my guess

Naija+soccer

Foxy

He was mostly good throughout the game, including the second half. Brentford’s 5 man substitution brought them back in the game. Leicester’s defence also lost its focus a couple of times.

Naija+soccer

The 5 man substitutions rule already having an impact.

bacaryisgod

I’m pretty neutral on Xhaka but surely everyone can agree that it would be good to bring in a top quality player in his position? Maybe Xhaka becomes a useful squad player behind that player or maybe Xhaka beats him out for the starting position and proves a lot of posters wrong. Either way, surely no-one could have an issue with a little more competition on that part of the pitch?

Topside Northbank

If the same starting line up tomorrow v Leicester we will have Tomiyasu, Tierney, Holding, Sambi, Elneny,Vieira, ESR, Nketiah, Turner on the bench.

At last a bit more depth to the squad, two players light for me still CM one for sure not so worried about wide forwards atm but we are moving in the right direction.

Naija+soccer

Topside

Don’t forget Pepe and Marquinhos. They are Saka’s back up/competition.

Bacary

And if this new CM help us get top 4, it will confirm that Xhaka is the reason why we ve missed CL for 5/6 years straight.

GD4

I don’t think you can keep Xhaka on the roster as a squad player.

Zacharse

ya bacary, we need another cm for sure

Naija+soccer

Pepe is in a weird place at Arsenal. Two/Three years ago he was the Marquee signing, and Arsenal’s most expensive buy ever. He was also a guaranteed starter in the 11. The kind of player Bukayo Saka would have looked at with awe and saliva.

Fast forward 2 years later, and Saka is the guaranteed starter, Arsenal’s marque and best player, and the one Pepe would love to hate.

Wicked Willy

Chinal

I think rotation option this season, and then go for something major next season (have previously stated Bellingham or Nkunku). That said, Patino might actually be the something major we need 🤞

Goobergooner

Dubious at best but why on earth doesn’t the ref run to the var screen as soon as it goes to car instead of waiting around like a numpty in the middle of the pitch?

As a write, overturned