Morning all.
Finally, Arsenal confirmed the signing of Nicolas Pepe yesterday, possibly the most exciting player the club have signed in years. He’s quick, he runs at players, goes by them with ease and he scores goals. This is the kind of player we’ve been crying out for for years. The ideal player for Nelson and Saka to learn from. The kind of player I thought Theo Walcott would turn out to be. Silly me. For Lille, Pepe has been in great form.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPAI-rsqcc
Last season Pepe scored 23 goals in all competitions, the season before, 14. Whether he hits the same kind of figures in England remains to be seen but I think we can assume he’ll get goals. Honestly, I cannot wait to see him play. Our attacking unit right now is as good as any other club in the league in my opinion. Certainly on paper and as I said yesterday, it’s quick.
Our keeper situation looks good, something else we haven’t been able to boast over recent years but in between it’s all looking a bit hit and miss. Seven days to change that.
Nelson, Eddie, Saka, AMN, Saliba, Holding, Pepe, Bellerin, Tierney, (if he signs) John-Jules, Martinez, Leno, Martinelli, Guendouzi, Medley, Burton – the list goes on. All are young, many 21 or even younger bar Leno, but even he’s young in goalkeeper terms. They’re our future, a future which ends for Unai Emery next summer unless Arsenal and he agree on the one additional year. By which time Monreal, Koscielny, Macey, Jenks, Aubameyang, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Mustafi and Sokratis will be gone too. If not before.
Lacazette and Elneny – 2022. Xhaka – 2023 is the year their contracts expire but I wouldn’t put my mortgage on them lasting that long, certainly not Xhaka or Elneny.
Back when Arsene Wenger was manager, how often did we hear his name mentioned when players explained their reasons for signing for Arsenal? 80% perhaps, maybe higher. No, probably higher, nearer 95% I’d say because footballers liked the way he played the game. His attacking style, the ‘giving youth a chance’ myth, the things he’d done, especially during his early years. The history of the club, its ethics and of course, it’s location. When players sign for Man City, I expect it’s about Pep Guardiola, and the money of course but Manchester doesn’t have the same kind of attraction as London I’m sure. No offence meant. Utd attracted top players because of its history and Fergie. Liverpool the same and now because of Klopp too. Or I think so. For Chelsea and Toots, one is about money, the other Poch. It has to be as they sure don’t have much of a history.
But for Arsenal, that managerial/coaching reference doesn’t seem to be there anymore. The ‘French connection’ and history of the club for Saliba, History, Kolo Toure and other Ivory Coast players for Pepe, Emery being Spanish and a grafter for Cebellos and ‘a dream come true’ for Martinelli.
There must be more to it than that though. We’re not in the Champions League, we’ve not always played particularly well for a while now and as a club in general, we’ve certainly not looked very ambitious. Yet we have just signed three young players on long term deals who were being chased by other clubs in both England and Europe.
This tells me that Arsenal really do have a plan in place because the three we’ve already snapped up permanently and Cebellos too albeit on loan, must have liked and believed what Raul and co told them about the club’s plans going forward.
When Raul said Edu was the final piece of the back room staff jigsaw and Josh told us we should be excited about the club’s future, it’s hard to believe they were saying anything but the truth.
Emery played his part in the Cebellos deal but for the rest, including our other younger players, my hunch is it’ll be a different manager taking them forwards in the longer term. Freddie maybe, Vieira perhaps, who knows.
My interest in watching Arsenal came out of retirement the second after Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving. Sadly, it popped back in again half way through last season but now it’s back stronger than before because finally I can see a light at the end of what’s been a long and very dark tunnel.
This time though, I don’t think it’s just some random bloke/woman with a cheap old torch with tired old batteries in it….
I’m off to watch that YouTube clip again. #buzzing!,
Pep has said he’ll leave man city if they get kicked out of Europe next season… just in time for emeries’ s contract to run out… Hmm… wonder if he might wanna hook up with Raul again and manager a proper team… maybe there is a plan… 😅
Manage*
I think the Pep ship has sailed. He doesn’t usually manage two clubs in the same country does he?
France next for him maybe. PSG perhaps. Lol
Goodmorning Rico and everyone, what a lovely time to be an Arsenal fan, sincerely I wasn’t going to spend time in watching arsenal games this coming season with farm work and school taking most of my time, but as at now plans have changed.
There is this other angle to it though, the press, they seem to be loosing steam and materials to attack us with, it’s lovely and they will soon have to look for a new club to pick on and demonize… It can only get better from here, it’s becoming more evident that the club has a plan and is doing it’s best to execute it unlike the days of Wenger where he was almost in charge of everything and refused to accept the fact that he was a terrible manager, good coach but still a terrible manager.
Congrats gunners😁😁😁
Same could be said of Maureen though, don’t underestimate the power of the north/south devide😉 and his ego… wining with City was easy, pissing on Wenger’s reign must be tempting😈
Morning Mexy. Just need a central defender and defence minded midfielder and I reckon top four is on.
CB or LB, I’d certainly go for the CB if money is now tight…
Ha ha Strangeman.
@ true Rico, I’m still sceptical about who our DM will be, Xhaka is not it, torriera is someone I hope can do the job but the size ish is still a problem for me, we need our own fernando…
Morning Rico, and All, 😁
It was just wonderful news when Arsenal finally announced the official signing of Pepe.
The idea that we were back to recruiting top class players like we did in the Invincibles years — was absolutely terrific.
Not wishing to be greedy — oh to hell with that — we would be even better with Tierney at left back, and a new BIG, skilful centre back. Happy times are here again!! 😜
Torreira is more than capable imo Mexy but he needs a reliable partner just as Paddy needed Petit, etc etc.
Maybe Guendouzi will accept more responsibility, or Willock or Chambers.
Morning RA. Not just Pepe either. Martinelli has looked good too and Cebellos is meant to be a very good midfielder.
Seven days and still there’s hope for another player or too according to Emery.
Actually Strangeman May have a point. If Pep came would he bring Arteta with him ?
Food for thought.
Morning all and Rico.
Of Pep, if Rico’s view of the big city lights are the lure that the many, not the few, think they are London has its own special attraction. So Pep and Arteta arriving at the Emirates is not such a forlorn dream. Who knows??
We have seemed to recruit a better class of footballer this TW I do hope success comes with it/them.
I’m not over excited yet though. I’ll reserve judgement until we have completed the first five games!😊
Morning Wavy.
Didn’t Pep want to join us before he went to City? I suppose nothing can be ruled out..
Exciting times just around the corner. If we get Tierney and a new CB and Mustafi is out the door, I’d call that a pretty much perfect window…..I might even keep my season tickets to myself this year and go.
Great video Rico, Pepe has the balance of a ballerina as he tip toes through the flaying boots n studs. It would be nice to think that a talent like him, someone who’ll light up the EPL, would be protected, but we all know how bent our referees are, I can just sense the hatchet men discussing how they’re going to hack down that ‘fancy dan French African’, we saw it before with Reyes…
Makes good viewing Kev. VAR should prevent a lot of nasty stuff going on because big brother will be watching it. Big brother watching big brother so to speak…
I’ll have one Chrispy 😜
Morning all.
It’s looking more and more likely we can look forward to the season with a sense of excitement.
A little tweaking to the squad has made ya possibly the most potent attack force in the league, we just need that CB, and possibly Tierney.
If we can’t finish top 4 after being so close last season, then something is wrong.
Bielik has gone, Derby on a five year contract.
I’d like to have seen him get a chance, Rico.
Still, with him going on Kozzer probably leaving, you’d have to think there’s a replacement coming in.
Afternoon Rico and all. It seems as though optimism is once again stirring within the ranks of Arsenal supporters. It might be fanciful to say that the letter of no-confidence inspired the new signings but clearly, something has changed. Raul said that the club must be shrewd in the market and they have.
Football is shaking off the shackles of the all-powerful manager and devolving into more professional structures within the club. Pochettino clearly doesn’t like it but it seems to be working for us.
Defence please. You know it makes sense.
I would have too Scott, especially as we need a holding midfielder. Must mean Chambers will b3 considered if we don’t sign one. Not ideal but he has a bit of a defensive brain.
Afternoon Adam. Personally, I don’t think the letter would have changed the clubs transfer plans as things like that are in place long before then. It prompted Josh to speak to the fans and so far, what he said is coming true. Now we just need to see what UE can do with the squad..
Utd have agreed £80m for Maguire.
Evening all and thanks Rico.
All sounds very good, but if we start the season with The Mustafi/Sokratis Axis then be afraid……be very afraid ! ( I say that with a dramatic voice, think Vincent Price ! hahaha )
Can we dream that the rumours of Umtiti coming to us is true or a wind up? Barca are said to want cash to buy Neymar.
‘evening all, Arsenal buy Pepe for £72 million and United buy Maguire for £80 million, which club got the better deal?
Latest rumour is a loan deal for Coutinho being discussed between us and Barca.
Have they got a CB we can take 🙂
Maybe the centre half we want isn’t out there yet, isn’t available and not at an affordable price, but that doesn’t stop us loaning a centre back and that’s where I reckon we’re looking.
Umtiti has had a lot of injury problems but a loan is possible?
I liked the idea of Rugani, an Italian and for two years, seemed a win win, but Juve don’t wanna know atm…
Emery can’t solve all the teams issues in one window so as much as we may need a centre half, we might just have to wait until the right player becomes available?
Saliba will be with us in 12 months, Holding should be back up to speed by then, in the meantime we’ve gotta sweat on Sokratis, Chambers, Mustafi and Mavropanos.
Get Tierney, get him fit and that’ll be a definite improvement.
Hiya Kev,
Could be another season of ample goals both for and against, but the good thing is we have Saliba coming in, and next season, we definitely won’t need any more attacking players so could potentially chase another CB and/or DM
New post up now
And Medley in the Cups Kev. Elneny at CB too maybe…