Morning all.
Stan Kroenke, Unai Emery and all those around and in between them have certainly woken up the Arsenal blog world. The circle of blame is spinning quicker than my yo-yo did as a kid. Stan Kroenke lacks ambition and financial clout. Emery picks the wrong players, can’t organise a defence and isn’t improving this Arsenal team. Raul Sanllehi can’t do for Arsenal what he did at Barcelona because of the difference in the two clubs ambitions and Sven Mislintat is yet to justify his worth. Just a few of the little gems I’ve read either on social media or another Arsenal blog elsewhere. Everyone has their own views, although not always will those views be shared by whoever is reading them.
It’s a vicious circle really. The club needs to spend money on the squad but we’re told we can’t sign anyone until players leave. We can’t sell them because no other club seems to want them because they’re not good enough, too expensive or on a wage far too high for most other clubs to match. Too old, that’s another problem the club has with a number of our squad members, not in terms of the game itself but when it comes to selling. No club is going to pay top money for a player who’s nearing retirement age.
Then there’s the younger players and we’ve never had so many coming through at the same time. I love the thought of in two/three years time, the likes of Smith Rowe, Willock, Nelson, Saka, Macey, Eddie, Medley, the list goes on, being the mainstay of our club.
Going off at a tangent, a few years back I was listening to Brian Conley talk about his battle with the booze.
He’d been seeing psychiatrist for a year as he tried to give up alcohol and then one day, Conley said to his psychiatrist: ‘I’m going on holiday to Antigua and it’s all-inclusive, all the booze is free. When I come back I’ll stop.’ The reply he got was simply: ‘Won’t there always be an Antigua?’
What I’m alluding to is there often seems to be a reason, justification even, behind not doing something whereas why not just bite the bullet and get on with it now.
I’m going back to our younger players who in reality, aren’t young. Just because they haven’t broken out of their teens, it doesn’t mean they’re not ready for the Premier League, or at least to be given the opportunity to show it. Is Willock not at a similar stage in his career to AMN, would Saka offer more on the left than Iwobi? Is Smith Rowe or Willock ready to fill the void which Ramsey will leave behind? Until they play in the league, no one will truly know. Now Mavropanos is nearing a return, will Emery use him, or Medley? Well if he keeps playing all three senior central defenders at the same time, he might just be left with little choice.
What’s the point in sending them on loan to another PL club where they’d play against the same opposition we have to? Or to a Championship club which is more physical than the PL? Michael Owen was a tiddler when he made his debut but he did ok.
Rooney, Owen, Wilshere, Lennon, McCartney (just checking) Reece-Oxford, Gomes, (Utd) Alaba, (Bayern) Bonazzoli, (Inter) Whiteside, Sahin, Seedorf, Donnarumma, (Milan) Odegaard, Sterling, Rashford, Sancho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Shaw, P Neville, Alli, Butland, Ferdinand, Carrick – and many others over the years. All still in their teens and already playing for their club. In a lot of cases, their country too.
More recent, Daniel Arzani, Kylian Mbappe, Achraf Hakimi, Francis Uzoho, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Moussa Wague and Jose Luis Rodriguez. All were at the World Cup in Russia last summer and still in their teens.
Most of our ‘younger’ players are aged between 17-20. They are good, we’ve seen that, so instead of leaving them to play for the under 23s where they’re not perhaps being tested as much as they could/should be at this stage of their career, play them.
This Emery team lacks width and pace, yet we have an exciting player in Saka. When the guys up front can’t his a barn door, why not try Eddie for 10/15 minutes? When our midfield is creating next to nothing and we’re in need of a goal, throw in Willock. When we know the opposition we’re up against has big strikers like against Southampton, why leave our tallest central defender at home? Emery doesn’t need to start with the younger players each and every game but they’re a serious option now. Or they should be.
Emery likes to use his substitutes and understandably but whereas they once worked well for him, they’re not now. I know we used to joke about Wenger and his timed changes but unless there’s a real need, like something is drastically wrong, or a certain player could exploit a certain weakness, early changes for change sake is pointless. All it does is lessen the options available a little later in the game. Perhaps when it matters more.
Going back to Sven Mislintat, the guy who can spot a young talent before most, or certainly has that reputation. As much as it’s great to think he might spot the ‘next big thing’ before any other club, we’ve already got a few of our own who might just be that ‘next big thing.’
Let’s look after them first and foremost…..
Like I said at the beginning, it’s just my own opinion and I know many of you will disagree with it….
Rico, best post I’ve read for ages, not that there’s been anything wrong with the rest!!
Why not give these “kids” a decent go?
As you say, they’re not kids, they’re young man and young men with immense talent.
If fans could see the club having a real go and letting these guys grow into first team football, I doubt many fans would care too much about the odd poor performance or result.
If the money isn’t there to buy quality, let’s see what we already have.
They need time, and they need patience from management and fans alike, and I dare say they’d get it, for the greater part.
At least we’d be able to see the club has a plan because of late, and I mean the past few years, we seem to be floating along.
Morning all.
Good morning Rico, it’s clear, to me at least, that we need some new blood in the team. Why try signing loanees who will need time to “settle in” when we have youngsters eager for the chance of playing for the first team who know all the players and all the moves.
Putting a pacy left winger on the pitch will certainly give Chelsea something to think about on Saturday.
In defence playing both Mustafi and Koscielny is like shooting ourselves in the foot, both lack pace and height, neither can be relied on to finish ninety minutes. Starting one, at least, of our younger central defenders is a no-brainer.
Introducing youth now will show us if they are good enough, if they are it would make next summer’s transfer window a whole lot easier…..and cheaper!!!!
K.C.A.C.O. 😉
Thanks Scott.
I just don’t get why we see other managers use the younger players yet we don’t. Yet we are seriously lacking in the positions a few of them play..
Great minds and all that….Scott.
Excellent comments Rico – you hit the nail on the proverbial and, you certainly know your non-Arsenal players who have made a lasting impression. Impressive knowledge.
I was struggling with most of those players………….
It seems to me that Wenger’s legacy is becoming seriously tarnished, along with the board of directors who have allowed the club to be in this current mess.
Frankly, it’s a disgrace.
We have seen the potential of the youngsters that have played recently so surely it must be time to give them a run. At least their enthusiasm (visibly lacking in some of the current team) and the chance to impress, might just engender the same with the more senior players? Well, we can always hope?
As you said Rico, ther’s insufficient width to the side and, insufficient strategy to deal with the opposition and, we’re giving the ball away too often.
We really have to get some results soon and Chelsea won’t be an easy opponent.
Man Utd let the Special One go, and look what’s happened – what do WE need to do to achieve the same?
Morning Cicero. Agree but then you probably knew I would. Lol
I get we need top experienced players in certain positions but that doesn’t mean our own Arsenal younger players should be cast aside. At least try them before giving up on them.
Who knows, being fearless as they often are when younger, they might just thrive.
Cicero, fools seldom differ so we could be in trouble hahahahaha
I dare say we could go through the season playing 2-3 youngsters a game and probably still finishing around 6th or so, which is a realistic target anyway, so I’m struggling to see why we shouldn’t do it.
Surround them with experience and see what happens.
Thanks Andorra but once I’d gone through all the English players I could remember I did use google for some of the others. Just to show it’s not just an England thing.
Ferdinand is the one which stuck for me, he was very young when making his West Ham debut, certainly for a defender yet Medley can’t get a sniff despite the rubbish defensive errors we’re seeing week in week out.
Willock pretty much ran the show against Blackpool, yet there were ‘better’ players in our squad. Get the guy in the first team alongside Torreira for the last twenty minutes of a game, see what he does then.
Great article rico. Yet again.
You are spot on. Why not try Medley in a back line of three with Socrates and Koscielny? They can shepherd him through, and if it starts to go pear shape then simply replace him at half time. Mustafa only lasts 45 minutes at best anyway.
Willock looks the brightest youngster to me.
Why not try
Leno
Sokratis….Medley…..Kos
Bellerin Monreal
Guendozi Torriera
Auba Laca Willock
SURELY thats better than playing the numpty Xhaka and the slow, useless Mustafa who always goes to ground when tackling?
Morning all. George Graham didn’t shy away from blooding youngsters did he? Rocky, Mickey Thomas, Merson, Hayes, Kevin Campbell and, of course, Tony Adams. Didn’t exactly end badly did it? Although GG did screw up later.
Pete Cech retiring in the summer I’ve just heard?
Cech has announced his retirement at seasons end.
Thanks Vcc, makes so much sense to me too.
I reckon Willock and Saka will give us something different to Iwobi that’s for sure.
Billy, yep, and we know how that went… these younger ones have the club in their heart, it’s all they want to do, to play for Arsenal I’d imagine..
Morning Rico and all. I’ve seen so many wonder kids over the years and very, very few make it at the top level.
I’m not surprised re Cech… Another wage off our books.. 😜😜
Morning Adam. I agree that not many always make it to the top but I do think a few of ours look like they’re going to have a good career. I’d rather we make sure it could be with us before letting them go.
With all the penny pinching going on, imo we’ve little to lose by giving them a chance. In moderation of course.
Xhaka / Torreira is our elite midfield pair.
They were the lynch pin of the 22 game unbeaten sequence.
Xhaka then got shifted to cover the defence (for some mad reason) and now Torriera is in the red zone and being managed.
Guendozi is an excellent cover option.
Surely now tho would be a good time to sell mustafi.
Its obvious that we wont make the top 4 with him as a starting defender and he’s too experience for the bench.
Rolll the dice with Medley or Mavropanos beside Kos and Soki.
IT>CAN’T>BE>ANY>WORSE
If we have Ozil – play him – i don’t see the risk – dropping him doesn’t seem to make top 4 look more likely
I’d have
Leno
Sok Mav Kos
Bellerin Kolas
Xhaka Torriera
Ozil
Auba Laca
With miki as ozils replacement if ozil is dropped
bench – Cech Iwobi Nketia monreal Guendozi SAKA AMN
Rico. The way forward for Arsenal lies in proper financial planning and not handing out ludicrous deals to footballers that are average. I am hoping that the new financial regime can slowly get us onto a more sound footing. If a couple of players do come through from the ranks then that will be great.
D98, but even during that 22 run, opposition we’re getting through us quite easily. In my opinion, we need a quick and strong CB and Midfielder.
I realise Adam, but I’m kind of talking about the here and now whilst the stuff behind the scenes is worked out.
Personally I find watching this quite boring, so many don’t seem to give a toss about the club. I’d much rather watch players who do care in the meantime.
I agree but there are more questions than answers at the moment.
IMO it’s the perfect way to build a squad. Have 15 senior players with one for every position. And a couple of squad players, then every position should have a back up youth player.
They get to play in the lesser cup matches and when injuries dictate. Maybe also from the bench if needed.
If they are good enough they will take the position from the senior player naturally, if not they can be sold on for a few million and you can bring the next kid through.
If only we had the answers Adam.
Oh and if we are doing fantasy teams I’d be playing…
Cech
Bellerin Sokratis Koscielny Monreal
Torreira Xhaka
Maitland-Niles Ozil Iwobi
Aubameyang
In back up I’d have….
Leno
Jenkinson Mavropanos Medley Kolasinac
Elneny Guendouzi
Saka Willock Smith-Rowe
Lacazette
With special mention to
Nketiah worth a go.
Chambers coming back from loan
Nwakali coming back from loan
Nelson coming back from loan
Pleguezuelo worth a go
Zelalem worth a go
Coming back from injury Holding, Mkhitaryan
Selling Ramsey, Ospina, Asano, Welbeck, Mustafi and Beilik.
And that’s without buying anyone.
It’s a bit like Brexit Rico. 😃
Just heard that Czechs retiring at the end of the season.
With Cech leaving at the end of the season now is the time to promote Martinez to #2. A few games to prove his worth before a summer contract renewal….or be ready to move him on.
Does the retirement of Cech mean the return of David Ospina?
Or
Does it mean no sale of Emi Martinez to Leeds?
The wholesale criticism of Xhaka is really unfair.
He was not signed as a defensive midfielder or as a central defender. Yet he castigated for his inability to play out of position in those roles. His height advantage over the Diminutive Three, Koscielny, Mustafi and Sokratis, is the only reason he is shoehorned into our dodgy defence.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been asked to play as a central striker……yet!
Kev. That’s a good question.
Errrrr, out of curiosity, what position was Xhaka signed for Cicero? Yes, I know he is a Swiss International and so was Mustafi (Germany?) but we are paying for basic(?) mistakes which seems at odds to their international status?
Hobart, are you serious – I heard Cech was being signed up for Strictly, as they’re impressed with his footwork. Lol.
He WAS a damn good keeper, no doubt, but started to show his fragility when expected to play out from the back imo.
Like several of you, I’d like Özil back in the side No10, with at least one of the youngsters up front who are dead keen to run into open spaces which, if I am not mistaken hasn’t been happening recently.
Is it only me (surely not) but when the ball gets played sideways or back in our own half ,it’s usually because NOBODY is coming back to help out.
There’s a lot of that and far too much for my liking) – it demonstrates negativity in defence.
Less so in and around the opposition box as players juggle for position.
It’s been mentioned a few times now, but I seriously hope the players aren’t losing faith in UE just yet. Let’s face it that 22 game run had several matches we won by a whisker only due to the opposition missing good chances.
Take a deep breath and I think we’re all in agreement to test some of our finest young talent.
After all, W. Ham’s Rice is under 20. What a find.
The other place reporting Mislintat is out by month end?
@andorrabyte I’d rather have Cech than Leno.
Leno may have better feet than Cech (it’s not difficult) but the default attack in the premier league is whipping a ball in from the wing and from free kicks and until Leno can learn to catch a high ball properly he’s suspect in my eyes.
Can anyone justify me, what is the reason for being a month in the winter market?
Thanks
Very much like it Adam. 😜
Jm, to assist with injuries I think.
Fair comment Hobart
The position he plays for Switzerland, Foxy, attacking midfielder.
Cech is well passed his best, by two seasons at least. Put a couple of decent central defenders in front of Leno and you would see a difference.
Most of Europe takes a mid-season break in January, JM, so it’s a good time to reassess squads and get in reinforcements.
Oh! And move on a few higher paid players not currently earning their corn. 😉
The Mislintat rumour was started by Le Grove, so you can all safely disregard it.
C.C.A.C.O. 😉
Le Coq will be on soon attributing the rumour to his pet oracle Ormstein, even more reason to ignore it! 😉
That should of course be K.C.A.C.O. Spell checkers eh!
Can’t think why Mislintat would be moved on..
Throughout the Wenger years we have seen ,any young aspiring players get their 5 minutes of fame , get played out of position , get fitted in and then shunted off to a loan and then obscurity.
Denilson played 96 times for us at the same time Randall and Lansbury were sent all over. Would they have fared better with Denilson’s chances.?
Without the use of google I am not going to look for more but I am sure that there are many. I have long argued for a return to the old football combination system where the reserves got to play against players of a similar standard and I suppose the under 23 league goes some of the way to that . I want to see our young players develop at the club without being spoiled like Gnabry now in Germany . I want to see them get their chance but in small doses not all at once.
Merida is one of many who we let slip, Aneke too imo. As you say Potter, so many just pushed around only to leave.
At London Colney we have one of the best training facilities in the country, a great academy at Hale End and an excellent crop of young players. We are apparently unable to afford to sign any decent players to strengthen the squad during this window, yet we have lavished large sums at both venues in order to produce those youngsters. Why in God’s name don’t we play them? Just give them a chance, not ten minutes as a late sub, let them play from the start and see what they can do.
Giving them ten minutes is just a starting point Cicero, give them chance to get used to it.
Kane ruled out until March.
rico………you can give up the booze and still be a dry alcoholic, it frazzles the brain !!!
Luv the idea of the youths coming through but trawl through the archives and the ole faithful will keep telling ya it’s gonna happen but in reality it ain’t !
You need the right man to manage a team, Pep is the perfect fit at City, Emery was deemed the right man for us, always done well on a budget, it’s all about getting the best out of the players on a consistent basis and he’s falling short although some will tell ya he’s still doing brilliantly lol.
I never knew Micko, I’ll have to try it. Lol
I take it your not an Emery fan then…..
Evening all and another superb post from the talented latino sounding Rico. 🙂
Ornstein says nothing regarding Sven, Cicero.
I have a theory why the youngsters have not been used in the league more frequently and thats because we hardly ever go into the 2nd half of a game in the lead this season, if we had gone into the 2nd half of a game more frequently then more time may have been made for the introduction of youth.
However, player the fcukers, sod it ! 🙂
https://twitter.com/ArsenalGent/status/1085215236288929797
Thanks Lc, good point. Ideally the pressure would be off for them when they get game time. Initially at least..
https://twitter.com/ArsenalGent/status/1085215302537920513
🙂
https://twitter.com/ArsenalGent/status/1071388698288291840
Our defence needs a backstop…
Don’t be so hasty rico, better off going to Dubai for a week, you’ll come back a new woman lol !
Morning all.
Xhaka is suffering in the same way Arteta did-being played much deeper than they had built their career and reputation on.
Even more forward, Xhaka would probably will make his share of errors, but they’d be less crucial and certainly not as noticeable.
Whether people think he’s good enough to play for our club is another topic but he’s being judged a little harshly imo.
On our kids, I say again, play them but we do need to realise that youngsters not London born and bred will probably never be a Rocky or a Wrighty who just want to play for the Arsenal.
As we saw with Cesc, home can be on their minds.
Xhaka isn’t a defensive midfielder in the traditional sense he’s more of a quarterback and recycler of possession. This is why he looks much better next to Torreira, as he does the defensive tracking leaving Xhaka to control the tempo.
This is also why Guendouzi and Xhaka doesn’t work, as Guendouzi roams and leaves Xhaka without the partner he needs. Xhaka then makes similar mistakes to those that he made over the last couple of seasons without a proper partner.
For this reason I’d much rather see Elneny come in when Torreira is out as it gives us better balance, although Emery seems to disagree.
As for the kids and the way forward for the club we need to buy youngsters from all over and also bring through our local youth as well. Most will fall by the wayside but can still generate a profit for us. Some will establish them selves in the first team. If we are lucky we can get a couple of gems every 5 years and make a fortune selling them. A la Anelka, Bale, Coutinho.
Rinse and repeat until we are back in the Champions league all the time. Hopefully every few years the money clubs will have a wobble and we can Leicester ourselves a trophy.
That’s about as positive as I can get. Obviously this puts a lot of pressure on our scouting, recruitment, and contracts team. Good job they operate at such a high level and have no internal problems at the moment. 🤯
The last thing we should be doing is buying established stars or those that have passed the resale line (assume we need to sell them at their peak for the highest payout, say 28 years old. We need to develop them and get some benefit from the while also putting them in the shop window. 5-6 years). So we should resist buying anyone over 23 as it will be dead money. I’m assuming Emery understands this and wish he would physically wash his mouth out every time he says the word Banega.
The net is rife with the story Sven is gone!
The club isn’t commenting which in Itself is a worry.
Wtf is happening??
We always bought kids.
Example: Sanogo
He had a bright future, blah, blah, blah …
He scored a goal this weekend.
The winter market should only be two weeks.
Scott, I can only repeat the words of Corporal Jones in Dads Army. “DON’T PANIC!” “DON’T PANIC!” 😉
Cicero,
Something is very, very wrong if he’d another abandoning ship lol
JM :- yes we bought Sanogo and he failed but we bought Kanu and it worked, we bought Stefan Maltz and that failed but he bought Overmars when no-one else would touch him . Wenger would always gamble that a player would either recover or develop . Some had the misfortune to have their development hindered by injury , Jack Wilshere , Abou Diaby ,are classic examples but if you are going to pull a gem from a muddy pool you have to get your feet wet.
As a club we have often splashed large amounts on a player we needed but classicly you look at Anelka as the original financing transfer fee and sadly we need to do that again We will have to bite the bullet if we want to find the cash to rebuild and Hobart is right in that we cannot afford to spend what we currently have available on players that might be a band aid on the pitch but have no resale value However it will be a few years before our crop of youngsters attain the high value that we hope they will so it is a waiting game.
Where Wenger let himself down whilst searching for those gems imo is not accepting that some ‘failed’ – instead of cutting ties with them, he carried on regardless whilst tell8ng the world how good they were.
Water under the bridge now though I guess.
New post up now..