LET THE SELLING BEGIN!
THE PENNIES ARE ROLLING 💰
How long have you been hitting F5, waiting for some new content to feed your habit? You animal. Can’t leave those rumors alone, can you?
Alright, let’s dive into some guided missile content…
Mikel Merino will be done this week. The owner of Sociedad basically said there was one club they couldn’t refuse, and they came for Mikel. By the end of the week, he’ll be an Arsenal player, which will sort our left 8 role for the season. He’s not the most exciting player right now because I don’t know him well, but I do like that we’ve brought in another technical player who is an absolute beast.
As I wrote last week, teams will spring into action once they realize where they stand with their squads. Sure enough, Eddie Nketiah has attracted interest from Nottingham Forest, who are making a very, very good signing. £100k a week was never the issue; it was all about the waiting game. He’ll go there, get his confidence back, and could easily score 15+ goals this season. Don’t doubt him. Forest with a frontline of Elanga, Hudson-Odoi, Eddie, and Morgan Gibbs-White behind them… damn, that’s going to cause some nightmares.
Aaron Ramsdale wants OUT of Arsenal in a big way, and it seems like Wolves are back in for his signature. That feels like a really solid move for him: great manager, good squad of players, and a need for a keeper who can play with the ball at their feet. I’m expecting other clubs to throw their hats into the ring because I’d imagine Arsenal are hoping someone has a better offer than a loan.
The next player out after that is going to be Jakub Kiwior—too many Arsenal fans are forgetting that this Polish centre back is 24 years old, can play left back, and can do ball-playing things through the middle. Plenty of clubs could do with a defender like that. All the newly promoted teams would kill for him. West Ham has a progressive coach, and Kurt Zouma is still in the squad. Don’t rule out Crystal Palace, who are about to sell Guehi to Newcastle for £65m. They’ll be cash-rich, and it’s always better to buy from the Premier League. All the Italian clubs will also be there, waiting, with a begging bowl with four pieces of pasta and the worst swap deal you’ve ever seen. Still surprised that CL-qualified Bologna didn’t move on him as part of the Calafiori deal. He’ll be hot property.
Who are we going to sign? If you settle on no one, you won’t be upset. If we let go of Aaron Ramsdale, we might sign that Espanyol keeper. If the club finds a deal worth taking a punt on, they might sign a wide forward. But I don’t think Arteta would be upset if he went into the season with just Merino and Calafiori as his signings. It’d be a punchy squad with serious talent density. The big concern is that we probably have 18 trustworthy players now… but at least 5 have long-term fitness concerns (Tomi, Zin, Timber, Jesus, Partey). City has a smallish squad, but they’re mostly warrior beast machines… they never get injured. It’d be painful to lose the league because the same old characters weren’t up to the fitness part of the job. But we’ll have to see how that pans out.
Things are going kind of crazy at Chelsea—it’s like watching a financial fever dream unfold. Everyone is going to wake up there at some point and say, ‘Why didn’t anyone raise an alarm?’
Their latest bit of madness was signing Felix from Atletico so they’d be able to afford Gallagher, presumably because he’s homegrown. That’s desperate stuff. Felix was put on a 6-year deal. It’s incredible the lengths they went to just to exit their captain.
What are they going to do with all these players? Why are they warehousing talent? How are all these boys going to get minutes? What is this move doing for their brand, their market cap, their on-pitch offering?
It’s crazy…
Now, for what is FUNNY…
My Spurs pals thought those first 40 minutes were the best they’d ever seen… they were 1-0 up, cruising… then the ghost of Jamie Vardy entered the chat, and Spurs got banged. Absolutely magnificent. The top geezer banter lad then pointed out how many Premier League trophies he’d won, got into a fight with the South American contingent, and ran down the tunnel.
Oh, Big Ange… are you about to get sussed? Leicester won’t get 30 points this season. That was a SHOCKING result for a Spurs side that has spent HUGE sums under the Aussie. Keep an eye on that one, mate.
Ok, I’m done. See you in the comments. x
Chelsea moves are absolutely insane... I love watching it. It's like watching someone lose all their money on a gameshow.
I liked Martinelli vs Wolves. He wasn't wasteful on the ball and was a danger throughout the game.
I still can't shake the feeling he's being sacrificed for the good of the team.
Most of the game he's just hugging the touchline because:
- Zinchenko inverts meaning the full back isn't providing width;
- Rice (who played at LM) isn't the type of technical player to switch positions with his winger (even though there were decent combinations vs Wolves);
- Marti staying wide opens corridors for Rice, Havertz;
- Marti staying wide gives more space to Saka, Ode, Partey.
I believe he's not being used to his potential. I saw Rice attack the box to get at the end of a Saka or White low cross several times and Marti was so far away from the danger area opening that space for our other players.
Thing is, Declan didn't strike the ball well and that's one of Marti's best quality. He is somebody you want to give chances to cause he's got a good, clean shot.
I'm getting tired of commentators mentioning how our left side isn't doing as well as our right. Do they not realize that our flanks are unevenly positioned meaning that their tasks are vastly different and the way they operate as well.
I know that Martinelli would be a different player if:
- our LB is told to provide width, go deeper in attack and let Marti get inside of the box;
- we use a CF that can switch positions with Martinelli like in that stretch with Trossard at #9 (Jesus also);
- the LM is very good at combinations like Xhaka was - Merino should be the one.
The reason why Martinelli is not having his best time in our setup is because as a player, he is something between a winger and a striker (more of a striker than a winger really). He'll shine the closer to goal he is, unlike Saka who's fine operating around the penalty box.
We'll see how this conundrum is solved. Martinelli did well vs Wolves and so did the team. I just can't get over the feeling that we're not playing to his strengths and I think Arteta is aware of it. The reason our manager does it regardless is that the team benefit is greater than the success of the individual.
Maybe things will change with Merino joining, with Timber and Calafiori playing in Zinchenko's place. But if the formation/ideas remain exactly the same I'm not sure Marti is ideal for Arteta's setup. A one-man wrecking ball like Leao and Kvara would be the type of player we should target (although neither of them is at the level of Martinelli defensively).
Obviously, it's too early to talk about it but in the same way we are not benefiting from Marti's specifics (because he's probably not the right profile for Arteta's ideas), Martinelli isn't making a bigger name for himself as he is forced to do tasks that don't let him demonstrate his full potential and strengths.
The season is long though and hopefully Arteta will manage to help Martinelli so he could help us back in return.