Morning all.
Albert Stuivenberg has left his position as Wales assistant coach to focus on his responsibilities with Arsenal. About time too! Why anyone would choose to work alongside Ryan Giggs I don’t know but apparently the two of the worked together at Man Utd. Giggs is no longer involved with Wales either but even so, Mikel Arteta needs his right hand man twelve months a year and I think it’s possible that some of the key training sessions take place during international breaks when there are no domestic fixtures. Especially as Arsenal don’t have vast numbers of players now who play for their country.
Sky Sports report that Ben White is set for his medical tomorrow. It’ll be good to finally get this deal over the line but our fears about Chelsea coming in late for him can be dismissed if the rumours going around are true. Ben White wants to join Arsenal only. Understandably really because as many of us have said before, unless a player knows he’s going to walk straight into the first at clubs like City and Chelsea, what’s the point in moving when he’s already playing every game for the club he’s currently at? In Ben White’s case, he’s already playing in the Premier League. I know he has to prove himself to Mikel Arteta etc etc but I’d imagine he’s seen enough of what he can bring to a team by watching Brighton.
Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares have looked good in the pre season fixtures so far. Their energy and pace is like a breath of fresh air in the team. I won’t shout it too loudly but have you noticed they actually pass the ball forwards?
How can just two additional players, hopefully three, lift the spirits so much? Well, they have mine.
Sambi Lokonga has been chatting to the Arsenal Media about who he’s looking forward to linking up with in the team:
I think Pepe [is the one I am most excited to link up with]. But I’m also looking forward to playing with Aubameyang, Lacazette, Saka also, so yeah, I hope to have a connection with all the players and quickly.
He might be disappointed then if Alexandre Lacazette leaves the club this summer. All our front players should benefit from having a midfielder who moves the ball quickly through the centre of midfield. I almost can’t wait for the Friday night fixture against Brentford. No, honestly, I am.
I never wanted to be like a player, I always wanted to be Sambi, so I took a little bit of all the players I used to watch, I never said to myself that you need to be like this player, I always wanted to be Sambi and to do Sambi on the pitch.
If his style of play resembles any player, I agree with Kev, it’s Patrick Vieira who with his long legs and lengthy strides could win the ball around our own penalty area, drive forward and before you knew it, the ball was in the back of the net. Ok, slight exaggeration because occasionally, we missed but I’m sure you get my point. A speedy transition in attack is something Arsenal have been seriously missing for a number of years. I’m sure like me, you’re hoping Sambi Lokonga can change that.
Nuno Tavares is similar, win the ball and go forward. He’s a battle on his hands to displace Kieran Tierney but at least if our Scotsman needs a break, we appear to have a really good backup. Mind you, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them both on the pitch at the same time for some fixtures.
Ben White? Hang on, he’s still a Brighton player. For now..
See you in the comments
From yestersay’s post ,
Waiting for Arsenal to crack under pressure to sell seems to be the norm in every transfer window . We have been run terribly over a number of years since the board screwed us over getting David Dein out of the club.
We have gained a reputation for buying high and selling lowand to compound matters have now set a precedent of paying players to go. No wonder agents love us.We are a win win for them.
This is why I am firmly in the bringing players through our own system and getting out of the high contract transfer market as much as possible .
When I became sales manager of a company the first thing I did was look at how things were done and worked out how to stop the mistakes that were being made .
Arsenal need to do that .
I understand that we don’t have an oven ready full squad crop coming through and that we need supplementing but I am not really in favour of paying fortunes to other clubs , players and agents and continuing the merry go round..I would rather look back at the 2016 Toulon tournament won by England the centre back partnership Rob Holding and Calum Chambers .now 5 years later we are still not developing it and splurging £50 million plus for another player.
Following my previous comments Neither Tavares and Lokonga have cost a fortune and neither are a great drain on the clubs resources
Whilst I am unsure about White , It’s Arteta’s choice and he is the manager not me. However as I suggested Chambers and Holding were oven ready , it was Wenger that decided to bring in Koscielny because he never really trusted English players to play English football . He put Chambers out of position and hung him out to dry and then instead of training him abandoned him . It is to Chamber’s credit that he has forced his way back
As you may have gathered I have a lot of time for him.
Potter, Chambers looked good enough to me playing RB when called upon, so maybe we give him a decent run at it and see how fares.
This season is still part of the rebuild.
I think most would accept (and rightly expect) a decent improvement on last season, so another 2 good signings possibly does us for this season, imo.
Top up this time next year and dulls team ahead.
Yes he is looking good , my point is not developing what was obviously a good partnership is now costing us large again when the solution was in house.
For sure, but let’s hope lessons have been learned.
Good comment Potter.
I too am a fan of Chambers but for a while I doubted he was good enough. His time at Arsenal is so similar to others. Signed, mucked about with positionally and subsequently lost form and confidence imo. Then played poorly and we wonder why.
At right back, he finally looks comfortable, happy and enjoying himself and funny enough, he’s playing really well imo. That’s why I hope Arsenal don’t sign a ‘first choice’ right back.
And if he gets his head straight, AMN is a more than capable back up.
Morning Gooner’s and Rico, the links to Odegaard are warming up nicely, we know what he can do after last seasons loan so I’d tend to lean mostly towards him rather than the unknown.
Depends on the fee of course but give it a few more weeks and Madrid might well lower their expectations, we’ve just gotta watch out for competitors for his signature.
Cedric imo Scott, or White should he sign.
Morning Kev, I’ve not seen any additional rumours related to Odegaard..
Nice post Rico, yes Tavares as a left winger swapping positions with Tierney, it’s been in my mind for awhile since we signed him, along with traffic congestion and road closures.
Arsenal have still only spent £24m (soon to be £74m) so there’s plenty more in the pot if the opportunities show themselves, with Chelsea focused on Haaland and City focused on Grealish and Kane we’ve just got the transfer competition of Man Utd to worry about.
https://arseblog.news/2021/07/reports-odegaard-open-to-arsenal-return/
Rico, I’ve been hearing whispers all summer via podcasts, Twitter and the like, but did you see that vid of Real Madrid training and how there was a lot of larking about during shooting practice but there was zero when a Odegaard took his shot, it’s as if he was being frozen out…
https://mobile.twitter.com/ltarsenal/status/1418262979217223682
I’d take him any day of the week!!
He’s got a touch of genius about him.
https://mobile.twitter.com/afcDW/status/1419429234712453121
Tell them we will take him.
I didn’t Kev, he’s been frozen out for a while now I suspect. Perhaps his name isn’t big enough for Real stars..
I did see were linked to Ramsey though. 😆
Thanks re the post Kev.
Imagine our left side of Tierney, Tavares and Martinelli. Great going forward if nothing else. 😜
Morning Rico and all
I would be quite happy if we got Odegaard back I recon he will be better this year however I still recon we needs to fix our keeper problem
Looking at the squad , we need a keeper . We have Leno , Runarsson , amd Okonkwo . An injury to Leno and we are in trouble .
We have 3 right , 3 left and 3 central defenders with Cedric and Chambers able to cover 2 positions but if Bellerin goes and they have to cover then AMN would have to drop back . .
Then we have 4 central midfield ,and 2 left and 1 right so we need to rectify that.
Forwards 4 central , 3 right including Willian plus 1 and a half left if you play Auba left
Allowing for playing different formations ,I can see that we need a keeper a right sided midfielder and a left sided forward .
This means that Torriera , Kolasinac and Willian should go but until they do we are pretty much stuck with those that we have.
Ramsey and Bale playing together at White Hart Lane, it could happen Rico..?
If we reach the finals of both domestic cups without replays then what’s our maximum games for this season, around 50 I’d guess?
With some rotation in the early rounds of the cups there’s no reason that our players will suffer many, if any, fatigue related injuries, unless they’re mishandled at International level (ACN etc).
Runnarson is going to Turkey on loan.
No way should we take Ramsey back. Bale’s spell at the spuds is over, he’s on his way back to the Golf club outside Madrid.
@GurjitAFC
According to
@Gazzetta_it
, Roma General Manager Tiago Pinto continues to work on the Xhaka transfer every day to try to close it as soon as possible but the feeling is that Roma will have to increase the offer a little to be able to complete the transfer.
No shit!
You know the price, stop dicking around and just pay it…
If they haven’t got the money and Mourinho wants him then let Mourinho pay for him. He is on 27 million a year and apparently has 120 million in the bank or assets.
Thunder storm here at the moment, very heavy rain but it’s starting to ease off now.
Hi Geoff.
Didn’t Ramsey once say he’d never play for the Toots Kev?
Apparently the Runarsson deal has collapsed as Altay can’t meet his £40,000 a week wages.
Who nefgotiates these deals and is the ghost of George Graham’s brown envelope haunting the place.
Matt Ryan has cartiledge operation in Spain . Did we know about it ?
£40k a week for Runarsson? Absolutely ridiculous.
Joe Willock in talks with Monaco apparently.
Evening Rico and the house.
Its h/t at Bromley and the u23s .are losing 2-0
Its a very joung side with soe older playersonthe bench
Evening Rick, good job it’s only a friendly eh. Lol
Rico I think some of the Bromly players were not awarec it was a friendly
It finished 3-1 .Our goal was scored by Cozie-Duberry just 16
There was a few players I have not seen before , one of them was just 15.
Considering some were playing for the first time this season and had not played together
untill tonight it was not a bad performfance.
Kido was there watching and 2 of the others who were offered pro forms played.
This leads me to think they have signed them.
The U18s play Hendon on friday ,, the U23s Play Ebbsfleet on Sat
and we are at home to the chavs on Sunday
We need them all for these games
Potter, he twisted the knee badly during a training session at his new club.
Lautaro Martinez the Argentine International striker at Inter Milan is apparently interesting Arsenal, so says the click baiters therefore it must be true.
Seems that Martinez has a buy-out clause of £77m so maybe Arsenal should bid £15m for him?
Throw in Bellerin as part of the deal and see how that sits at the San Siro?
The Bromley game was the first U23 game of the pre-season and following the WuFlu situation at London Colney so not a lot of preparation has been possible.
Good to see Cottrell and Swanson back, apparently Arsenal came back strongly in the 2nd half hitting a post and having one kicked off of the line.
I think we might struggle for goals from the strikers at both U18 and U23 this season, I’m not too sure that we have another Balogun or Nketiah coming through, I just hope the new guy from Fulham can pick up the slack and the lad we got from Man City develops?
That’s Mika Biereth and Henry Timi Davies
Morning no one. lol
New post up now