Morning all.
This summer is shaping up to be a cracker for Arsenal. Last summer was pretty good but this one, it’s all about quality as well as numbers. It might not be official, or at least it’s not as I type this but Oleksandr Zinchenko is an Arsenal player. He flew to America with Man City, don’t worry, they could afford his ticket, nipped on a plane to Orlando and signed a deal which runs until 2026. He’s been spotted in his new kit, probably for the official photos, and then sat alongside Edu to watch his new team-mates win another pre-season fixture.
Zinchenko, already wearing Arsenal training kit in Orlando. Deal signed in the afternoon, official soon. ⚪️🔴 #AFC@Arsenalmaan 🎥⤵️pic.twitter.com/AzZv3QzruM
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 20, 2022
Rumour has it, Youri Tielemans will be next. Utd are sniffing around him according to the back pages which might, if Arsenal really are interested in him, speed things up. I know the journalists like to write big headlines just so they can then suggest we missed out on a signing but Tielemans, is the type of player which in my opinion, makes absolute sense. If not him, another midfielder like Lucas Paqueta who has also been linked to Arsenal over recent days. The fact that he’s Brazilian probably has nothing to do with it. Lol
Arsenal return home on Sunday, straight after the Chelsea fixture. Then I think we’ll see a number of players move on. If they can’t be sold, then I suspect they’ll go out on loan as if they’re not in Mikel Arteta’s plans then there’s absolutely no point in them staying. Football is a ruthless business and Arsenal aren’t afraid of being that. Just look at the change the club has gone through over the last two and a half seasons. Two really because little can be done mid season.
For the last two years, the squad has been stripped back with Arteta keeping hold of those he thinks are the best of the crop and letting the rest go in whatever way the club could. I must admit, I couldn’t get my head around a few decisions the club made but now, I get it. Sentiment has to go out the window when it comes to sorting out a squad. Footballers aren’t always loyal to their club so why should a club be loyal to them if they’re not putting in the hard work? I love to see young academy players come through the system into the first team but the one thing I’ve come to realise about Mikel Arteta is that he won’t give a player time on the pitch if they’re not right or ready. At least that’s how it seems to me. There’s too much at stake. I put my hands up to thinking player x, y, or z should get a chance but what do I know about that player? Nothing, not really.
The Arsenal board are giving Mikel Arteta the right tools to do his job to the best of his ability so now it’s his time to shine. He wanted more quality and better players and he’s got them and there’s little evidence to suggest the club are done yet. Yes, I’m starting to feel more confident ahead of the new season than I have for years now. Certainly more interested, excited even. I know other clubs have strengthened too but as far as Arsenal go, we have a proper competitive squad on paper. Adding a much needed defence minded midfielder would make us even stronger than we already look.
See you in the comments.
Looks like the Torriera deal to Italy is happening as he left the squad last night. Maybe he was waiting to see if the Zinchenko deal went through.
The squad will have to be pared down to 25 players, plus as many under 21’s as they like , of which 8 must qualify as home grown . Do the maths later after another cuppa.
I didn’t see that Potter. That’s good for him and Arsenal.
Interesting headline, first and foremost. My answer to that is both, but allow me to get there.
I have to say that so far we really have strengthened the squad immeasurably. Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Zinchenko and Matt Turner have really strengthened our ranks. Well done to Edu and Arteta, so far.
BUT (and it is a big but – pun unintended) we still have a lot of work to do. For one, we have an entire 11 players to get rid of and see if we can recoup some funds – Leno, Runarsson, Mari, Bellerin, Holding, AMN, Tavares, Torreira, Pepe, Nelson, Balogun (loan). Being very conservative, we could get around 110M for them:
Leno – 10M
Runarsson – 2M
Mari – 5M
Bellerin – 15M
Holding – 15M
AMN – 10M
Tavares – 5M
Torreira – 10M
Pepe – 25M
Nelson – 12M
Then all of a sudden you see that number-wise we’d still be a bit thin. With those funds and add the 60M we were to spend on raphinha, we could bring in a left footed CB, cover for Partey, Paqueta AND Tielemans (I’m getting to that) and a winger. Then we can truly go into the season with enough quality to not just go for top 4/win Europa league, but really close the gap with LFC and City.
On to the number 8 position. It is a very badly kept secret that we are targeting Tielemans and Paqueta. 25 and 24 repectively. And my position is that we should get them both and sell Granit Xhaka. Why?
For one, both are an upgrade on him.
Tielemans is not only a very good midfielder, he is EPL ready. His passing, both long and short is superb, and is very defensively capable. He’s very good at tackling and pressing. And he brings a dimension that Arsenal need – consistently scoring goals from distance. We need to have that option, especially in games against the top 6 where the opposition does not give us many chances.
Then there’s Paqueta. He is just a rolls royce midfielder. Elegant, technically supreme, adept in the dribble, Brazilian. He also brings an incredible engine – extremely hard working off the ball and in the press. He is another who brings goals to the squad – something Xhaka didn’t really despite being played in the more advanced number 8. Interestingly, it is the same story with assists.
Secondly, they are both about to enter their prime.
Thirdly they do not sacrifice and physicality that Xhaka brings to the team.
Finally, and most importantly, we can get them both for a very neat package. Tielemans has a year left in his contract and Leicester want 25M for him. Considering he really wants Arsenal, we have room to negotiate that down to around 20M.
Paqueta wants the EPL. Lyon are willing to grant him his wish so if Edu can sell our project to him – which we know he very well can, then we could get a discount on the 34M Lyon is asking – to maybe 30M with add ons. That could see us get 2 incredibly talented midfielders, aged 24 and 25, who are an automatic upgrade on what we have for a combined package of 50M. Now that would be mightily impressive business.
And with the afforementioned outgoings, we could be left with about 120M to strengthen 3 positions. 140M if we sell Xhaka for 20M (again, being very conservative). If we went for an Evan Ndicka at LCB (we could realistically get him for around 20M due to his contract situation) and a young but talented DM as Partey’s understudy for around 25-40M, we can bring in a top top class winger/wide forward for 50-90M.
Our Squad would look like this (I’ll use Sane as the winger we go for and Amadou Onana as the back up DM).
GKs – Ramsdale, Turner, Okwonkwo
Full backs – Tomiyasu, Tierney, Zinchenko, Cedric and White who can play at RB
CBs – Gabriel, Saliba, White and N’dicka
DMs – Partey, Onana and El Nenny
CMs – Tielemans, Paqueta, Lokonga
AMs – Odegaard and Fabio
LW – Martinelli and ESR
RW – Saka and Sane (who can play in either wing btw)
CF – Jesus and Nketiah
Now tell me that isn’t a good looking squad.
Lucas Torreira left Arsenal’s squad in the USA to travel to Italy for personal reasons yesterday. It is unknown if this indicates an imminent move to a new club. [@ARSENAL442com exclusive] #afc
I think that Smith-Rowe is now over 21 so makes 7 that I can see although not sure about Tavares situation. I will wait for that the statisticians at Untold to do it for me. lol
Morning rico, all, good read. Was wondering why Torreira didn’t get some minutes or even make subs bench. Would have liked to see him again, but obviously he’s not in Arteta’s plans. One more defensive midfielder, and I’ll be very happy with this window and counting down to Friday week. Thumbs up to the Kroenke family who may not say much, but have delivered for the second season running.
Actually, 2 weeks Friday!
Ha ha Potter.
Morning Andrew. Yep, two weeks tomorrow and we’re off to Palace.
The squad is shaping up.
Good deals being done. I like ‘oven-ready’ Premier League proven players. They may be expensive, but we know what we’re getting. Compared to the Pepe deal these are like chalk and cheese.
The defence looks covered now. Zinchenko will get a lot of minutes judging by Tierney’s recent injury record. Also I think White will be moved to right back when Tomi is injured. By the end of the season we could have a starting back four of ZInchenko, Gabriel, Saliba, White.
There is still a lack of cover for Partey. When he gets injured there is no like for like replacement at present.
Marcus, I can’t see Holding being sold because we’re in four competitions and I think your valuations for our players are optimistic.
Ideally, we’d add two midfielders, especially considering the rumours about one of our players but with Zinchenko able to play in midfield, I’m not sure we’ll get the two. Not with Xhaka, Elneny and Lokonga as well.
I don’t think that Holding will go either and I am not sure that he should. He may not be the most stylish player but he is a good defender and seems happy to be a squad member . They can’t all be world beaters.
Morning Rico and all
As much as I am happy with some of the players we have brought we need now to move some players on before we buy any more.
Marcus, I think your values are wildly optimistic. Most European clubs are financially at risk and just cannot afford the sort of prices being payed pre-pandemic. They are also reluctant to take on Premiership players who are on unaffordable wages, those wages make even loan moves difficult to justify.
Luca Paqueta at Lyon and for Brazil, he’s slow (almost Xhaka like), dithers on the ball, always taking extra touches, gets caught on counter attacks a lot and doesn’t press in the way Arteta wants. I am curious to see how he will adapt if he comes to EPL. His best attributes is that he can pass and score (which is the reason he gets caught out of position, he’s in the box alot).
I know it’s preseason; but I have watched all Arsenal preseason games, damn Jesus is good, very good. It’s like he’s playing at a different speed. That Arsenal counter is going to be special. And for only 45m.
Only two weeks to go and we’re back on the treadmill, it’s approaching at an alarming speed.
Looking at our squad as it stands you have to give a lot of credit to Edu for all the work he’s done negotiating with agents etc, not an easy task, early days in preseason but Edu seems to have got good value in a static market.
Credit to to KSE for stepping up to the plate and providing the funds, even if loans have been loaded onto the club (I’m guessing here) they still have to guarantee those loans.
Good old Stan, I’ve always spoken highly of him and Josh is a real Gooner. 😐
Hi Geoff, I’m sure the players who are leaving will do so soon. There’s still 6 weeks to go before the transfer window closes.
Agree Kev. The Kroenke family have had their critics but now they’re showing ambition. Same with Edu, the modern day David Dein perhaps.
Not only that Cicero, there are a couple of names in Marcus’ comment who I’m sure haven’t signed for Arsenal. Football manager is easy, reality is very different.
Rico, as far as some people are concerned they only have to dream up a player and his price and signing them becomes the simplest thing in the World.
The internet has allowed the creation of keyboard managers who are harmless in themselves, but can become tiresome.
From what Arteta said after the Orlando match, the Zinchenko signing is all but done and is just waiting for the “regulatory process” to be completed. I take that to mean we are awaiting confirmation that his registration has gone through.
Agree Cicero. It’s bad enough the journos do it and then NN is just a nightmare..
Can’t see there being any problems, not as he’s already working in England.
Edu’s probably moved on to the next one. 😂
Unless, Rico, the bloke who does the registrations at the FA is working from home. 😉
At the start I had no interest in Stan and Josh and was hoping they would sell the club, however since the super league failed it seems that Josh and Stan have finally decided to back the club which is all we can ask for.
Now the ball is in Arteta court so to speak to start winning trophy’s again especially the home and away series.
Potter, currently (with Zinchenko) we have 31 players, excluding Okonkwo and Balogun.
Out of them 19 are non home grown – or foreign grown (FG) as in Untold – 8 home grown, and 4 fist team U21 (so Patino and academy players are also excluded).
It means that literally we need to reduce the FG players by merely 2, to be able to register everybody. Non literally I would go for 4-5, as next season Saliba, Martinelli and Saka will belong to the adults, and even without buying players it would strecth the quota.
Nevertheless the expected departure of Rúnarsson, Leno and Torreira would decrease the FG contingent to a manageable level, even if Bellerin and AMN would decrease the number of HG players. But at least not cut them in half, like Marcus’ suggestion would do.
Ha ha Cicero.
I’d imagine Arteta and Edu have the numbers in hand and players will soon start to move on. In any case, just because they are at the club now, it doesn’t mean they’ll be named in the squad. Ozil certainly wasn’t and we know what happened with him.
I’m surprised Leno has not been picked up yet.
As am I Geoff, admittedly I’ve seen very little of Turner but so far, he looks a bit dodgy to me.
Good morning all.
Geoff, Leno is on £100,000 per week. That’s a lot of money for clubs outside the elite level. His net worth is given as £35.75 million so he could easily take a cut in pay to move on, but perhaps he’s happy to sit on the bench as his bank account steadily ticks up. Others have done it before.
Incidentally, Leno has one year left on his contract, that’s another £5.2 million in the bank. Nice work if you can get it. 😉
He’ll be gone I’m sure Cicero.
Last I read Arsenal were offered 10 mill but turned it down and wanted 15 million .
We wanted £15 million apparently but taking the saving on wages we dropped it to £10 million but Fulham want to play hard and are trying to get it lower still. Leno seems to want London ,so that restricts his options to 6 clubs and realistically that’s reduced even further as none of the others have shown any interest .
Our only selling point to get him to go is the World Cup and whether he gets selected as.at the moment he is not in the squad .
.It would not surprise me if he sits on it and goes on a free either in the next window or at the end of the season.
Leno is thirty years old, born March 1992, probably another four or five years of his career to go so sitting out one season, on good wages, won’t be too arduous and he will have a good choice of teams to go to on a free transfer next summer.
Keeping him until January makes sense to me, it will give our rookie ‘keepers time to show if they have the quality to be back up to Ramsdale.
Maybe we should try to loan Turner to Fulham so he can get some experience for 6 months with the option of another 6 months if we don’t need him
I think he’ll go, there’s still a chance he could go to Qatar. If he’s not already but sitting on the bench won’t do his chances any good whatsoever.
He isn’t currently in their squad , Neuer , Trapp and Baumann currently are their three , If he doesn’t play then he doesn’t go . It’s family happiness versus pride and football ambition.
Exactly, just why I think he’ll be desperate to go. I think Fulham will get him eventually.
All together now :- COME ON YOU GUNNERS . R.I.P Maria , you will be missed.
Maria who?
Maria Petri and Arsenal fan famous for always getting her chant out when the crowd went silent . I have seen her at Highbury many times and heard her many times more. She must have been in her 80’s , she was also known as the Arsenal screamer because of her high pitched voice.
Oh that Maria.
Its official Zinchenko has signed for Arsenal, it’s on the club website.
https://www.arsenal.com/oleksandr-zinchenko-joins-arsenal-manchester-city-transfer
I remember her, RIP Maria.
Very Good take by Arteta.
https://youtu.be/6IGUJjpdmuc
Really nice interview on Arse.Com with Zinchenko, he doesn’t just say all the right things you can see in his eyes that he means them, let’s be having a couple more Man City or ex-Man City players if possible, Sane would be good…
I’m sure he and Jesus will be labelled City rejects by someone somewhere Kev. 😜
New post up now