Daily Bits and Bobs

Arsenal really don’t need his sort…

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is officially a Barcelona player. Reports suggest he’s taken a huge pay cut to get away from Arsenal. Well, he can afford to can’t he and if he was as unhappy, as his body language suggested, then as I’ve said before, it’s best for both him and Arsenal to part company. But I don’t see this as a reason to berate either him or Mikel Arteta/Arsenal. On the pitch, his performances had dropped and even what seemed to be the simplest of goal scoring opportunities, were being missed. Opportunities which the old Aubameyang would have buried.

Shock horror though, other Arsenal players have been missing golden opportunities to score goals too. So many that had they’d gone in, Arsenal might be sitting in 4th place right now. How many chances went begging against Burnley? Just one example. Only Emile Smith Rowe has scored more goals than Aubameyang this season. That’s not me trying to defend Aubameyang at all, it’s just a reality.

If there was a school report for both club and player, I think it would read ‘could have done better’. Aubameyang should have gone to Arteta/Edu and told them he wanted to leave because he was unhappy. When he was given permission to leave, he should have returned on time. When at the ACON, he should have sticking to the rules and no Arsenal player should ever turn up late for any match, let alone a NLD.

As far as Arsenal go I think there will always be mixed opinions on how this was handled but without knowing the facts, I’m staying on the fence.

However, back in the days of Arsene Wenger, I can remember many of here on HH talking about the lack of discipline within the club. Ambition comes from the top etc, Wenger isn’t ruthless enough, he doesn’t demand enough from his players etc etc. Now it seems there is discipline, accountability for player’s actions and there are rules. This is Arsenal and you will show respect. You will turn up and work hard, otherwise you’re out. Rightly so in my opinion.

With that saga over, Arsenal can move on. Yes it’s risky to play four months of fixtures with just Alex Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah but looking at the squad, there are options for Mikel Arteta. Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pepe. Pepe on the left and Martinelli through the middle seems the obvious one if Lacazette is out for any reason. That might be Arteta’s plan anyway, we won’t know until the season kicks off again.

It was widely reported that Arsenal were chasing Dusan Vlahovic during January but it appears we’ve swerved a bullet. Fiorentina’s chief executive Joe Barone, hasn’t minced his words when expressing his views about the player wasting Arsenal’s time. He’s even called his representatives “liars.” – The Mirror.

My managers went to England to deal with foreign clubs, but they [Vlahović’s camp] always said no. They probably already had an agreement with Juventus and perhaps even as a free agent. His agents had the intention of expiring and ruining Fiorentina as is often happening now. They wanted to make themselves rich on our skin.

The last thing Arsenal needed, or need for that matter, is a player who is thinking about another club before he even steps foot into the Arsenal changing room. Even if we had managed to get a deal over the line, how long would it be before he wanted to leave and agents, with the morals of a snake, would use every trick in the book to make it happen. A player of his quality would be great in this Arsenal team, but at what cost? Disruption in a couple of years time? A financial loss as Juventus push for a cheap deal? No thanks. In the words of Peter Hill-Wood, we don’t need his sort. Mind you, look how that unfolded…

I think one of the first signings Arsenal make in the summer will be a striker. A midfielder too I hope, if not two. For now though, we have who we have and the next four months is about what Mikel Arteta can do with them.

See you in the comments.

 

 

 

 

 

rico

52 thoughts on “Arsenal really don’t need his sort…”

  1. pbarany says:

    Morning all,
    Well said, Rico. I share your – and Kevin’s – perception on a bullet being dodged.
    But time will tell if Vlahovic will become peer of Mbappe, Haaland and Lewandowski (following the footsteps of legends like Suarez and Ibrahimovic), or will stuck at a Giroud/Watkins/Lukaku/Lacazette level.

    To my surprise I found a level-headed article on our transfer window:
    https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-arsenal-manchester-united-january-transfer-window-arteta
    This seems to run to the same conclusion as Rico in his previous post: Arsenal getting smarter.

  2. rico says:

    Morning Pbarany, all.

    Must be honest, I’m not fussed about footballers unless they’re at Arsenal. It’s like dreaming for the perfect property by the sea for me when I know I can’t afford it. That’s Sandbanks for you though. Lol

  3. potter says:

    Interesting comments from the boss at Fiorentina which pretty much sum up the crazy situation that has crept into “”The Peoples Game “” ( sarcasm ) as agents are now running the club’s recruitment policies.
    None of us doubted for a second that Vlahovic was not heading this way once the news filtered out that Juventus were interested.
    We were used ! and that’s what agents do .
    They need kicking out of the game but the big question is how ?
    The PFA used to have a scheme but were so inefficient that players went off and did their own deals and I can’t see how anything that the F.A , Eufa, or FiFa would do would not be a dog’s breakfast and the money going to them instead.

  4. Hobart says:

    Not fussed about missing out on Vlahovic. I’m always a little uneasy about buying players that don’t behave well. As fans we look at the shiny new signing but we forget that if they are willing to screw over their last club then they’ll probably be willing to do it to us as well.

    I do think we are light up top now with Aubameyang going (coincidentally a player that had ill discipline and was frozen out at his last club). I fully expect Lacazette and Nketiah to leave in the summer so we will need to get a couple of new strikers in at least. I also expect Elneny and Leno to go. So we definitely need another midfielder (ideally first choice to keep Xhaka on the bench).

    So two strikers and a midfielder is needed in the summer. That’s going to be expensive.

  6. Cicero says:

    While we are at last shot of he who shall be nameless, according to Sam Dean in the Telegraph Arsenal are still contributing instalments to his salary for the next few months.

  10. Aussie Geoff says:

    Morning Rico and all can’t wait until we start playing again, after this transfer market I feel very flat about our run home this season and hoping we start winning to lift my spirit that this team and Arteta can be the future.
    I just don’t understand why we are struggling to score goals yet we don’t bring in anybody to fix it.

  11. rico says:

    Morning Geoff, possibly because of the money, the overinflated winter market, all sorts of reasons/excuses, whichever one chooses to opt for.

  12. Aussie Geoff says:

    Rico if we can’t afford to by players then why the Mickey mouse holiday bonding camp in Dubai, if the players ain’t bonded by now they never will

  14. allezkev says:

    Afternoon Chaps and afternoon Rico, a well balance post, Wolves home on the 24th, good, let’s get our games fixed nice and early rather than having a jumbled end to the campaign with tired legs, tired minds and many bruises…

  15. allezkev says:

    Good article Peter, 365 can be quite varying in its quality but that made a lot of sense, for a change…

    I liked the reference about Arsenal clearing the decks now rather than next summer and that’s true up to a point, but we still have a lot of players out on loan and many might return to clog things up?

    Guendouzi and Mavropanos will be leaving but I’m not so sure about Bellerin, Torrieira, Mari, Nelson, Runarsson and Niles. Leno will almost certainly leave in the summer as will Laca and Nketiah.

    Balogun the new American goalkeeper and Saliba will return, a decision on Ballard will have to be made and will we extend Elneny?

    Then there has to be extensions worked on for Saka, Martinelli and Smudge, that has to be a priority.

    There’s still a lot in the In Tray…

  16. rico says:

    I doubt it’s a bonding exercise Geoff, it’s training but in warmer weather with a bit or PR. It’s a good thing imo.

    😀 Cicero.

  19. Cicero says:

    Rico signing Mbappe could be something of a curate’s egg, good in parts. A hat full of goals but a high signing on fee, high agent’s fee and high wages. It would also be good for our younger players to work with a real World class talent and, perhaps, win something.

  20. rico says:

    Isn’t Elneny heading to Turkey Kev?

    I think most who are out on loan will be out the door in the summer. Imo, Arteta wants his own players. Only Balogun and Saliba have a chance imo.

  22. Sue says:

    Hi Rico.. have you heard anything about our friendly against Reading? Surely it’ll take place tomorrow?

    Hoping Balogun bangs in a brace tonight 😉

  24. Cicero says:

    A new series based on Lee Child’s book “The Killing Floor” starts tonight on Amazon Video. It stars actor, Alan Ritchson as a full size Jack Reacher, rather than the diminutive Tom Cruise.

    I think Child has written eighteen to twenty Jack Reacher novels, I’ve read them all. Should be worth watching.

  25. Pete the Thirst says:

    Vlahovic was a huge gamble. It had a whiff of the Pepe deal about it.

    I haven’t seen the guy play, His stats look good 2 goals in 3 games this season. The Italian league can be very cagey.

    Then you start to throw in the curve balls…5 penalties scored, brings him to a 1 in 2 striker, still very good. Italian league standard has slipped. Is he on a hot streak?

    As a comparison Tammy Abraham is currently a 1 in 2 striker this season at Roma. He never got anywhere close to that at Chelsea.

    Time will tell, but there are lots of question marks about signing this guy for £75m. His agents definitely worked hard.

  29. allezkev says:

    It’s such a risk these days Pete and we’ve certainly had out fingers burnt a few times as Peter pointed out yesterday, £72m for Pepe was one of those and maybe Liverpool pulling out of the race at the time should have given us a clue, a heads up, as Liverpool are both smart and ruthless in the transfer market, in fact does any club tap up players with such aplomb as the Scousers whilst retaining their reputation from a fawning media?

    Yes Peter the £45m we paid for Thomas Partey has yet to really deliver the dividends, his Arsenal career has been a mish mash of misfortune, unlucky injuries like the the thuggish lunge by Loftus Cheek that put him out of our opening games and poor tactical decisions by the manager like playing him on his own as the sole pivot and pushing him back onto the field vs Tottenham which aggravated the injury, although he should have gone down and tried to get the game stopped.

    He’s not been the game changer I thought he’d be but it’s not all on him.

  30. Sue says:

    Rico.. with a lot of your time devoted to the finest blog out there.. how on earth do you find time to read all those novels?!

  35. allezkev says:

    Walter Presents on All4 Rico, Cry Wolf is pretty good, you an£ Sue might like that?

    Flo Balogun, Big night for him to shine…

  36. allezkev says:

    Shame about the choice of commentator on ITV with the nauseating Sam Matterface on the microphone which means we’re in for an evening of endless banalities…

  38. allezkev says:

    Gotta hand it to Middlesbrough, whatever happens from here on they’ve given the Mancs a game, really got into them, rode their luck and given the Salford boys a few juicy tackles, I luv it. 😃

  42. pbarany says:

    Kev, you are right on the returning loan players (that we didn’t solve the problem with Bellerin, Rúnarsson, Mari, just swept it under the rug). And it is a death trap: if the team perform well without them then who needs such fringe players; if we don’t then the whole team needs to be replaced – as it is the narrative on many blogs and Twitter accounts. However among those on loan Ballard, Saliba, Guendouzi. Bellerin and Torreira have good spells (WhoScored rating between 6.85 and 6.92) and Mavropanos has an exceptional season (7.14 average, 4 MotM, for half of the season were in the Bundesliga team of the year). But still, you may be right that only Saliba might have the chance to see himself in red and white next campaign.

    And we agree on the Partey evaluation, too. While I think we are paying way too much for him, if it was the condition of his signature, then we had no choice but to do it. He is indeed not solely responsible for the hectic midfield performance, and signing him could still become the masterstroke we all hoped it would.

    My point – of which I have the tendency to express in an unreasonably complicated and long manner – is that us fans are often ‘victims’ of many cognitive biases (myself included, but I’m trying to fight it). One of them is the justification of dubious moves by trying to find a positive pattern. Like the underlying topic of the high salary players who are ‘the greedy bastards’ if they don’t perform well and/or if being released. But when we sign them, then ‘it’s football-ecological necessity’ (Partey, White), or if we miraculously would manage to sign Mbappé, then those fans who said that we should never ever find ourselves in the Ozil-Willian-Auba situation again would cheer the marquee signing as the only way to get back to Europe’s elite. When Saka earns 30k/week as a 17-year-old academy graduate then it’s a humble boy. When he will request 150k at the age of 21, then we have to give him as much as he wants, otherwise Klopp will snatch him.
    So there are principles clashing on blogs (which is a good thing; in fact I think it’s great to have civilized conversations with people who equally love Arsenal, but have vastly different values than ours), but often these are flexible principles and mostly used as posterior excuses or justifications than expressed prior expectations.

  43. Sue says:

    [Not so] glory glory Man United 😜 and laced with controversy; don’t you just love it?!
    .Cheers Kev, will check Cry Wolf out

  45. Cicero says:

    A big week in the WSL for Arsenal, home to Manchester United tonight and away to Chelsea on Friday.

    We watched the first two episodes of Reacher last night. Very good, Alan Ritchson as the main character was so much more believable than Tom Cruise in the films.

  46. pbarany says:

    I have never read a Reacher/Childs novel, so I had no expectation about the title character, but I found both Tom Cruise movies excellent (at least as far as movies go, not as adaptations).
    So I’m looking forward to the 8-episode series, Cicero, thanks for the recommendation.
    By the way, is the first season only about the The Killing Floor, or are those different novels in each episode?

  47. Cicero says:

    The first season is based on “The killing floor”.

    Jack Reacher is six foot five inches tall. Tom Cruise is five foot seven. Cruise is just not believable in the part.

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