Morning all.
Memphis Depay and Nicolas Pepe fill the Arsenal headlines this morning. Arsenal’s old midfielder Aaron Ramsey too. I never understand why a manager brings a player on from the bench just before a penalty shootout. Tuchel did it with his keeper didn’t he, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst
last night with Ramsey. Both times it backfired and I’m not surprised. Great shame though as to with the Europa Cup would have been fantastic for Rangers and two of Arsenal’s old boys.
Talking of old boys, Memphis Depay, now 28 years old and once of Man Utd could be on his way to Arsenal. Nearly every newspaper is covering this story. West Ham are interested too apparently.
Arsenal are also interested in Sparta Prague’s teenage hotshot Adam Hlozek, according to a new report in the Mirror. Whereas The Metro claim that Juventus sporting director Federico Cherubini has travelled to London for talks with Arsenal over a deal for Gabriel Magalhaes, according to reports in Italy. Juventus need to replace Giorgio Chiellini, who is leaving the club after 17 years this summer and have identified Gabriel to be that guy.
Another Metro story involving Arsenal relates to Weston McKennie, a midfielder at Juventus. This one might have some legs to it as McKennie is American. He’s 23 years old and plays mainly as a box-to-box or a deep-lying defensive midfielder. (Wiki) If he joins, he’ll be the third American player signed by the club in less than a year.
Here’s his best bits.
Nicolas Pepe wanting to leave is probably the most truthful of all. It makes sense for him to find a new club. His move to Arsenal simply hasn’t worked out for either the player or club. Had Arsenal not paid a club record transfer fee for him, Pepe would just be one of hundreds of players whose move to England hasn’t worked out. Instead, he’ll always be remembered as a £72m Arsenal flop. I wish him all the best wherever he ends up.
Edu has said the club are going to be busy in this summer’s transfer window and there’s no reason to believe he’s spinning false lines just to please us. Who the club are targeting might be very different to the wish list of fans but the important thing is is they are the type of players who’ll take this Arsenal team up a notch or two. Or three. No egos, just grafters who’ll give this team the edge on a cold winters night up north. Or even a warm Monday night in Newcastle. Arsenal have silky players in the squad in Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, ESR but what it’s missing is a bit of attitude. No, a lot of attitude.
See you in the comments.
Shedding few tears for Rangers. Disgusting set of fans. I’ve had personal experience of their antics and shouldn’t forget the damage they caused in Manchester in 2008.
Depay is another in the Lacazette mould.. No thanks. Barcelona are broke so will be hawking around their players to any takers. Newcastle the likely destination for a lot of the decent cast offs. Suspect Sterling will end up there too.
I think salary should be considered; both when buying and also when trying to sell.
Depay’s salary saga was more of a soaap opera. While The Sune and Goal reported that due to wage cuts it was reduced to 100k, I prefer to believe the Sportskeeda report about 230k. He was an in-demand free agent after a decent World Cup performance, and they seldom take cheap salaries. He is a fine player though – probably a bit too old for my taste, and definitely not the true striker we are looking for, but his versatility can be an asset – but I don’t think we should take his wages in Arsenal books.
Pepe is the opposite. While we played a hefty transfer fee for Nicholas, there was such high demand for him that we ‘had to’ offer him 140k a week. Which is not a huge sum would he fulfilled his potential, but I doubt if a mid-tier PL or French team would be able to offer him a contract close enough. So we will have to compensate them again with a largely reduced price tag – old Arsenal all over again.
Nice post, as usual.
Rico, you could write a piece on the geographical trend among the foreign Arsenal players some time in the boring summer days. As far as I can remember we started with a Dutch preference (Overmars, Bergkamp, van Brockhorst, van Persie), a huge and long-lasting French contingent (Anelka, Petit, Vieira, Henry, Pires, Wiltord, Flamini, Sagna, Koscielny, Giroud, etc.) a sizeable German unit (Lehman, Mertesacker, Podolski, Özil, Mustafi, Gnabry, Leno), and a fine set of Spaniards (Reyes, Fabregas, Arteta, Cazorla, Monreal, Bellerin).
Now with Arteta and Edú in charge our once strong Brazilian connection (Edu, Gilberto Silva, Denilson) has been resurrected (Luiz, Martinelli, Willian, Gabriel, Maquinhos?), but if the next stop is the US (Trusty, Turner, McKennie?) I’m not sure we are in a clear progress…
No tears Pete, I found it quite abusing. 😂
Thanks Pbarany. I won’t be writing anything on the geographical trend though, I’m not fussed where a player comes from as long as he’s right for Arsenal.
The stories about Melo are gathering pace again , but at 5 foot 7 and not particularly physical is he what we need . ? Max Allegri apparently is saying he can go because he wants power in his midfield and \Melo doesn’t fit this bill and at £ 60 million plus is it good business .
Years ago we had an Irish core McCullough, ,Brady , Stapleton , O’Leary, ,Rice and Quinn . It seems that birds of a feather stick together.
Not to mention the Scots, Herd, Kelly ,Tommy Doc ,Robertson Dikov, Graham, Young , Ure , Marinello ,McLintock and Tierney.
Rico I’M with you it doesn’t matter were any new player comes from as long as they are who Arteta want’s and they can fit in and fill any position that we needed them for that’s good enough for me.
I still wonder about the meeting Arteta and Stan had in American, with 2 Americans already signed and possible a 3rd coming are they players Arteta really want’s or is Stan trying to fill the team with Americans.
Don’t want Depay or Wynaldum or Umtiti or Dembele or any other cast offs from Real, Juve, Barca, Bayern, etc etc.
We’ve been there before and wasted a shedload of dough on over-rated superstars and filled up the bank accounts of their agents and assorted relatives. No more Arsenal being mug punters and giving these geezers one last big pay day, leave that to Newcastle.
I liked the business we did last summer and hopefully Stan will support Arteta again this year, just as he does routinely for the LA Rams…
Good evening all, the hacks are approaching fever pitch when it comes to transfer rumours. Let’s face it few of them have a left handed clue about what’s going on in the Arsenal boardroom, far less what Arteta and Edu are considering.
The only rumour I give any credence to is the one about the young Scottish left back and the reason for my belief is that we need a Tierney back up if not a direct replacement.
Not Melo again…
McKennie looks good on YouTube Kev, right age for Arteta too.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfer-talks-juventus-chief-27013055
Everton are safe before their Sunday visit to us . wonder if the Calvert Lewin rumours will subside.
McKennie does look good Rico but I wouldn’t give Juve Gabriel for him, also some of those tackles look nailed on red cards in the Premier League – well if you’re wearing an Arsenal shirt… Still, one to watch and probably a lot cheaper than Bissouma…
All the Gabriel rumours I have read about Rico have originated in Italy and in numerous dodgy Italian publications, there’s been nothing from the UK end, so I have absolutely no idea what the Italian DoF is coming to England for if in fact he is coming to England, maybe it’s for his Missus who may like Oxford Street and shopping in Selfridges and anyway has he himself actually said that he’s coming to see Arsenal or anyone?
Smoke and mirrors I reckon…
We have just taken the first baby step towards getting back into Europe’s top competitions , so what is there better to do than try to destabilise the squad by trying to break up the obvious bonding that’s taking place.
For the next few weeks there will be no end of poor mathematics on display as the media try to spread their stories far and wide hoping that something will stick..
As much as you read that Juve want Gabriel and we want Melo and they throw in another American midfielder for good measure you read that Gabriel is happy where he is and believes the club is going the right way and he wants to be a part of it.
So Everton fans storm ground and try to hit Viera after Everton win, were is the protection for players and coaches.
1 Everton should be dropped 2 were are security and police 3 is it time to bring back the fences if clubs can’t control there fans. but I bet you Viera will get into trouble and not Everton.
I don’t believe the rumours surrounding Gabriel either Kev.
Red card tackles, surely not. Lol
New post up