Morning all.
Sometimes life dishes out a gigantic dose of karma and that’s exactly what happened in the early hours of this morning and I watched it unfold. All the “naughtiness” behind the scenes relating to the Folarin Balogun red card didn’t pay off as Belgium knocked the USA out of the World Cup. Belgium were simply too good and more than deserved their victory.
I’m not sure the same can be said of Spain though who I thought looked nothing like a team ready to win this big competition, at least not until Mikel Merino came onto the pitch. For all the million pounds worth of talent on the pitch, it was our midfielder turned striker who showed his teammates how to score and his goal was enough to see Spain through to the next round.
The result also meant that for Cristiano Ronaldo, his international career was over and I’d imagine his domestic career will soon come to an end too. Love or loathe him, he’s been pretty good hasn’t he but maybe this was just one World Cup too many for him and his country. Not that I give a toot of course.
As for Spain, despite David Raya, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino being in the squad, their playing minutes have been few which is good as far as Arsenal are concerned. Tonight, Argentina face Egypt at 5pm UK time before Switzerland take on Columbia at 9pm.
France v Morocco
Spain v Belgium
England v Norway
Argentina/Egypt v Switzerland/Columbia
Enough of the World Cup.
What’s going on at Arsenal? The answer would appear to be “nothing” but I’m sure that’s not the case. Any day now it’s quite likely that the transfer window will suddenly come alive for red and white club in north London. As other clubs spend vast amounts of money on players who are perhaps not worth such fees, it doesn’t mean we need to start feeling envious or fearful of what those clubs might do next season. Yes, I’m referring to that lot just down the road from The Arsenal as so far, they are the biggest spenders this summer.
Sandro Tonali – Newcastle, £100m
Jan Paul van Hecke – Brighton, £52m
Martin Dubravka – Burnley, free
Andy Robertson – Liverpool, free
Marcos Senesi – Bournemouth, free
Mateus Fernandes – West Ham, £85m
Would any on the above list make Arsenal stronger had we as a club signed them? Subjective I know but I don’t think so. In fact had Arsenal done those deals I’m pretty sure most fans would left feeling underwhelmed, especially for the fees Totts have paid.
I really can’t see Arsenal paying £130 million to Aston Villa for Morgan Rogers although I can see the logic in the club spending big for Bruno Guimarães because he always “turns up” in games. Even so, the net is wide and not every top notch player has to come from the Premier League. We often read about how Premier League players make better signings because they are used to playing in the Premiership but I’m not sure that’s always true. Noni Madueke, Ebe Eze, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are hardly proof that they are. Great in moments but three of the four are often injured or in my opinion, disappointing. Ben White, Leandro Trossard, Declan Rice and David Raya though, well, they’ve been brilliant for most of the time, especially Rice and Raya. Consistently so too.
As Arsene Wenger once said, a players passport shouldn’t come into the equation when signing players and back then, it certainly didn’t. When he did go for English/Premier League players, they didn’t exactly excel did they? Again, they had their moments, but seldom did many, if any put in an 8 out of 10 performance each week. All transfers come with an element of risk I know and sometimes just a change of club can bring the best out of a player but when they aren’t able to shine in a team which struggles, then I’m not sure they are right for Arsenal. Not if Mikel Arteta is looking to take us up to another level. I know the club have to be mindful of the homegrown rule but let’s not waste money whilst doing so.
Anyway, I’m off to find my hard hat…
Hi Rico
Just a moniker that’s a bit more positive.
As much as a squad we need to upgrade on our fringe players we have to bear in mind the affects that the world cup is having on it .
We know that at the moment Tuchel would start Saka in every game but so far has treated him with kid gloves because of his obvious injury . Not so Rice though , he is so important for both Arsenal and England that I forsee a long period out of the team in the coming season. We will need a similar style player to step in
It seem to be similar with Saliba as well ,he is rumoured to be on the cusp of a back operation and from personal experience , I know that even if the op is successful full mobility is not always regained for me I can live with it but then I am not an elite athlete .We have to hope that his surgeon doesn’t moonlight for the NHS.
So far our other world cup players seem to have come through unscathed , despite Bernardo Silva trying to leave one on Merino last night the Spanish contingent have so far been bench warmers.
I am sure that the club are keeping tabs on the wellbeing of our players and that maybe that’s part of the reason for not having dipped into the market yet.
Imagine going 3 months without Saka ,Saliba and Rice it would seriously impact on defending the title and give everyone else the biggest of sticks to hit us with.
It’s 40c here Cicero, so I’m sticking with watching the tennis.
I thought Zubimendi started strong but as the minutes stacked up, he began to struggle, especially post Christmas.
Top of the morning to all. A hot one here.
Zubimendi, for me is a case in point. An excellent player who has had difficulty coping with the pressure of playing in the Premiership, playing every three days, playing against sides that compete for every ball. There is no let up and no where to hide.
I am hopeful of a second season bounce from him, I believe he is capable of proving he is worth every penny of his transfer fee.
I’m optimistic Kev. 😂
David Raya shares what Mikel Merino told him before his winning goal.
“I was sitting on the bench with Mikel, and he turned to me and said, ‘You know, I feel like going on there and doing one of those late-goal moments we always have at Arsenal.’
After the match I asked him, ‘Did you actually mean it when you said that?’ He just laughed and replied, ‘Come on, David… we do this every day at Arsenal. I could feel the club’s mentality running through me.’
Yeah, I get that from Villa, they did the same with Douglas Luiz before selling him at a much lower valuation
Who knows Rico, who knows?
Agree Kev. I get Villa’s approach though as they are simply pricing Rogers out of the market.
Not Norway though Kev, they are going out next game. Lol
As for transfers Rico, yeah the prices are going through a crazy period again, it’s like every 3/5 years or so we see a surge in prices. Morgan Rodgers has shown in this World Cup quite conclusively why Arsenal should not pay £130m for him, should not pay £100m for him and probably not more than £70m. I hope we look elsewhere…
One of Spain or France will exit before the final, maybe in the quarter-finals and to me that makes it interesting. Argentina have reached this position with the minimum of fuss and with Messi taking most of the headlines but I suspect an underlying fragility in their team, even if they were my pick to win it pre-tournament.
Morning Gooners, Belgium like Sweden have been decidedly low key until just now, now following their defeats of the United States and Brazil they find themselves only two games away from the final and whose to say that they can’t get there!