Morning all.
A quiet afternoon he might have had when Arsenal beat a young Brentford team 4-0 in a behind closed doors friendly a couple of days ago but if reports suggesting Bernd Leno is planning to walk away from Arsenal next summer for free are true, our young Englishman’s footballing life might soon be busy. Very busy. Again, if true about our number one keeper, Mikel Arteta has a decision to make. Play Aaron Ramsdale now, or not?
In my opinion, it was obvious once Arsenal paid big bucks for Ramsdale, he wasn’t just going to sit on the bench, he was ready for a fight to oust the German. Maybe Leno knows that too and isn’t up for a battle, a battle he might not be confident of winning. For now though, Arsenal have both keepers and it’s a long season ahead.
The friendly fixture saw Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes return to the team. For the Brazilian, it was his second run out after injury which is great for the team. Our other Gabriel got minutes too, as did AMN who partnered Mo Elneny in the midfield. Charlie Patino replaced Elneny after half an hour and by all accounts, played really well. Omari Hutchinson, another academy player who was given twenty minutes with the big boys.
Charlie Patino, Omari Hutchinson and Kido Taylor-Hart – Arsenal’s next batch who are expected to have a big future ahead of them. But of course, just ahead of them are players who’re currently out on loan getting game time, maturing and hopefully learning more and more as the season progresses. Reiss Nelson, the oldest player Arsenal have out on loan I think, needs a big season at Feyenoord. Tyreece John-Jules at Blackpool, Harry Clarke at Ross County, Miguel Azeez at Blackpool, Dan Ballard at Millwall and Nikolaj Möller at FC Viktoria Koln. It’s a shame the latter didn’t go to a Championship or League One club in England. Finally, of those in with the best chance of pushing into the first team, if Mikel Arteta believes in them is Konstantinos Mavropanos at Stuttgart and William Saliba at Marseille. I would mention Matteo Guendouzi too but I think his Arsenal career is done for all the time Mikel Arteta is manager.
In theory, the above loanees should be part of Arsenal’s future and of course, save the club millions in transfer fees. Otherwise, they’ll be sold in order to generate fees. Sounds so easy on paper doesn’t it but as we’ve seen this summer, just because you or I think player x, y or z should be sold, either the club disagree or finding a club prepared to pay for them is difficult.
Arsenal are fortunate, or perhaps a better expression would be that Arsenal’s academy is doing what it’s supposed to do and that’s producing a number of players who’ll in all likelihood, will be the club’s future. I find that quite exciting because I absolutely love seeing Arsenal kids develop into Arsenal men.
As we’ve all said on more than one occasion though, younger players need maturity and experience around them and I think this part is where Arsenal are struggling as their are few experienced players at the club right now who I’d consider to be perfect role models. Alex Lacazette, Thomas Partey, Rob Holding, Gabriel and Kieran Tierney spring to mind but the latter two are still only 25 years old themselves. Granit Xhaka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang might be the more senior and extremely experienced players, but one can be a liability in many ways, the other, the club’s captain for goodness sake, only turns on the style when he feels like it. Cedric Soares, Pablo Mari, Mo Elneny, Sead Kolasinac and Bernd Leno are the remaining senior players and I don’t think any are what I’d call leaders, or characters, on the pitch.
I think Arsenal still lack a proper captain, a presence and voice on the pitch. A big character who’ll stand up for his teammates on and off the pitch. A man who will not only lead, but lead by example. A Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown or going back further, Frank McLintock. I would say Joe Mercer but I’m far too young to know what kind of influence he had both on and off the pitch.
Arsenal’s captain selections have been poor in recent years, in fact who was the last captain who in your opinion, has been Arsenal’s most deserved captain and who’s been the worst? When was the last time Arsenal appointed a ‘proper’ captain?
On the flip side, who in your opinion has been Arsenal’s worst captain?
See you in the comments….
Adam’s for me. Mclintock just behind. Worse is an even race between Gallas and Xhaka.
Best, Adams, worst Gallas or Auba.
Big Tone followed by Mclintock and I do remember Mercer just but only saw him play a handful of games , but he was “”Captain of The Arsenal “” in my formative years and certainly was popular with my Dad and Uncles that led me to Highbury. Don’t forget Pat Rice whose Arsenal heart was on his sleeve.
The worse ones , weve had a few and Gallas is certainly up there , Terry Neill , Graham Rix ,and of course Auba .
Some captains lead by example others by building a team spirit , Our current crop don’t seem to be able to do either.
Adams and Big Frank ( 😀 ) for me too.
It seems to me that very little thought has gone into handing out the armband for the last tens years or more.
Morning all.
Grant, I forgot Gallas, gee, he should never been at the club, let alone captain.
I don’t like forwards being captain at all. Imo, they should be at the back or midfield at a push. You can’t read the game from the front, nor can you keep a defence organised.
Good morning Rico, I have to say I was unaware of Leno’s contract situation. So he can sign a pre-contract agreement in January and leave for nothing in June. There has been no mention of a new contract offer and not a hint of a queue of prospective buyers for him, so I guess the powers that be have decided they have no option other than to let him have Bosman. That being the case Arteta should get Ramsdale between the sticks on a regular basis immediately.
Best captain ever? Tony Adams. No. 2 Frank McKlintock. If your looking for someone to back you in a fight Patrick Viera.
I can’t separate Gallas and Aubameyang as the worst.
I completely agree Rico, the captain has to be a defender or midfielder.
Morning Cicero, the Leno stuff was in the newspapers yesterday’s which if true, makes more sense as to why Arsenal signed Ramsdale. Totally agree, play him now and let his grow with the squad.
I also think we’ll go for that keeper who was banned, can’t recall his name. Either that or we’ll sign another next summer. I love guessing. Lol
Good morning Rico and all.
I am not spoilt for choice with regards good captains…..Adams and Vieira. Real men. Real captains.
The worst captains?? Any player who was chosen to be captain just because AW or the last two managers wanted to keep the player and the captaincy used as a carrot for them to stay.
The worst of the lot though?? Gallas without doubt. He was a joke. He wasnt a role model and certainly not one whom young players would look up to. If it were for me he should not even have been an Arsenal player let alone captain. Not even as a tea lady…..he would look hideous wearing an apron and a skirt.
Players who imo were not captain material but were chosen for the above reasons….Henry, Fabregas, RVP, Xhaka, Auba.
Ozil is another candidate for worst to wear the armband.
Great minds Cicero. Lol
As a coach I always chose a defender as captain and very rarely a DM. Otherwise I never chose any from the forward line and never a GK.
I feel that in January we will get Onana from Ajax and Leno will be asked to terminate his contract by mutual consent.
Morning Devil, I’m with you there re the captains. Too many emotional appointments imo.
That’s the keeper I was trying to think of, couldn’t recall his name.
Rico I think you missed a trick today who, from our current squad, should be captain going forward?
Until Holding shaved his head and became a Pascal Cygan look-a-like,and started playing like him, I thought he would be an excellent captain.
Now I’m tending towards Tierney although he does seem a little injury prone.
Darn, that was tomorrow Cicero. Lol
Rob Holding I reckon. The chopping and changing hasn’t helped him imo. We need a settled back 3/4 and keeper.
There has been a lot of focus on our transfer strategy in recent weeks.
After a frenetic summer in which we added six players, all aged 23 or less, we sat down with Edu, to reflect on the window and why we pursued the players we have.
“I think you have to see the bigger picture,” our technical director told Arsenal Media. “I know people want to understand a little bit more about this transfer window, which is quite clear for me the direction you go.
“We signed six players, all the six are under the age of 23 so that is the direction you go to try to consolidate the direction of the squad, to try to give to the squad more balance and more future as well. But what I would like people to understand is the big picture, because if you see a year ago we started to make some decisions in this direction so we renewed Bukayo Saka, and renewed Martinelli in this period as well just to give them some direction in the way you try to go.
“Just to give you some context, we renewed – in one year – five sets of contracts, and five of them are under the age of 23 for the first team. Then, in this period, summer to summer, we signed 10 players and seven out of the 10 are under 23 as well.
“So what I would like to explain is that is is not about this summer, it is about the project. It is about what we want to do. We have started the project, we are in the middle, so it is not just one window and go, it is window, window, window, window.
“We have to consider every single step, now is another one, I think in this one we consolidated a big step, I am really pleased because the players we signed are what we are looking for, so I see, and Mikel [sees] a much more balanced squad in terms of age, profile and in terms of some players who can get a lot of responsibility like Thomas, Granit, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
“We see the balance in the squad is much better, but again this is not the end. People have to understand we are still on the journey to go where this club deserves to be.”
Morning Rico and All.
Terry Neill was the captain when I first went to Arsenal although I did see Don Howe playing in the Football Combination at White Hart Lane.
Frank McLintock was a superb leader and a very smart footballer who 1st team coach Don Howe converted from a wing half (midfielder) into a centre half. I can’t choose between Frank and Tony Adams so it’s an equal 1st for me between them both. Pat Rice and Patrick Vieira led by example.
The worst captain? Well I never rated Alan Ball much as a skipper, it’s always seemed more about him than the team. William Gallas was a fraud, great player for Chelsea, pile of sh*t for Arsenal as is the case in recent years of all ex Chavs moving to Arsenal.
Koscielny and Mertesaker both did good for us as skippers, ideally I’d always prefer a centre back as captain or a full back at a push.
Wenger was responsible for diluting the captaincy, many of our most unsuitable captains came under his watch, Henry, Fabregas, Van Persie (I think) and Aubameyang currently fits that picture.
I like a Scotsman as our captain, so for me Kieran Tierney would be our next skipper, my only reservation about Tierney is his fitness because you need your skipper available as often as possible.
Martin Odegaard would make a good captain as well, as would Rob Holding.
Cicero, I’m sure that Leno signed a 5 year deal when he joined us in 2018 so he still has 2 years left on his deal, I reckon that some journalist hasn’t done his research properly – yeah, hard to believe eh? – and a lot of the usual sheep in the same profession have just aped his poor work…
Morning Rico and all
I Liked Viera best but must admit having trouble remembering some of the older ones but Auba is not a captain unfortunately not all good players make a good captain.
If story about Leno is true I wonder if we should of loaned Ramsdale Out for 6 months were he would have more game time and be match ready to take over. straight away
Leno just googled Leno and found a story from may 2021 were Leno said his contract at Arsenal runs out in 2023
Morning Kev, funny enough I never rated Merts or Kos, I didn’t rate the latter as a player at all. Merts was different although he lacked speed. He had brains though.
According to transfer market, Leno will be out of contract July 2022.
He signed for Arsenal in 2018.
Morning Geoff, you’re clearly too young. 😆
Rico or my mind not working at the moment lol
Sorry Rico, I didn’t mean to steal your thunder but as you said at 11.01 “great minds” 😉
Frank Maclintok, Pat Rice, Tomy Adams (the order is irrelevant)
Many. Since it started to be because of the years at the Club, “name” or for any other reason, and not because of the personality, profile and capacity of leadership on the field, it has opened the doors to several players with no vocation to be captains.
Ha ha Geoff.
Just kidding Cicero, the question you asked was inevitable, Auba is not captain material at all.
Agreed Jm.
Good Morning Rico and all
Kev….I just googled Leno’s contract and it says that his contract expires on June 2023. So you are correct about it.
I just go on NN just for the sake of browsing through it to see what comes up. But tbh I simply laugh at the headlines nowadays. There was a headline which states that ARSENAL ‘FANS’ are claiming that Odegaard was a waste of money simply because he had a stinker (?) for the national team. Do I care?? really?? I dont give a damn what he does for his national team as longs as he turns it on for Arsenal.
And another headline claimed that if Arsenal don’t win against Norwich then Arteta will be sacked. I can assure anyone that if Arsenal win against Norwich the same headline will remain the same except for the name of the next opponent. SAF once was in that position against Forest…failure to win would have seen him sacked. He won 1-0 and went on from there.
I dont think that the board will do anything before January at the earliest. They are not that daft because I feel that even with a different manager we will get the same results. I still maintain that in January the club will buy another two players while selling/releasing two.
I read the interview that EDU had and in it he said that other clubs basically buy one or two players because their team’s backbone is in place whereas we had no backbone, no depth and only a split team. So we had to start from scratch. And if anyone takes a look at the players bought this TW saw 5 out of 6 new players bought in for the defensive department. Next TW will see us getting one player each for the midfield and Attacking department. Or two midfielders who play in multiple positions between DM and AM.
Morning all.
Devil, the major problem, as I see it, is now! Can our new, fairly expensive ‘team’ have the ability, at the moment, to win? To beat any opposition no matter how humble. Unless there is a major sea change I just can’t see the new youth team winning much at all, this season. The older players may well return and offer a little more maturity and perhaps a little more balance, but by how much, is a moot point. 40 points is the first landmark! If we continue to fail and misfire we may well end up in the completely wrong division!
Believe me I really hope that Arteta turns the team around and they win more than they lose during this so called ‘transition period’. Continued failure would be heart breaking.
Still, the ladies kick off at 12.30 today against arch rivals Chelsea a win would be an outstanding result, a draw would be acceptable even a defeat would not be the end of the world, but it, like the men’s team, be very disappointing!
Here’s hoping that September will be successful for both the men and the women😊
Morning Wavy, Devil, all.
I hope Leno’s contract does run out in 2023, then we can sell him for a good fee.
Imo, it was inevitable the squad needed a total rebuild after the Arsene Wenger years of neglecting the team’s needs and then Raul signing players Emery didn’t even want. Dreadful way to run a club, but we are where we are.
I think the negativity surrounding the club and manager wouldn’t be as it is today if we were better on the pitch. As said all along, it’s not the defeats which cause the problem, it’s the manner in which they come.
Honestly Wavy, I don’t always believe ability is the key factor. Of course it helps greatly but players knowing their job and carrying that job out is half the battle won imo.
Forgetting the top four or six clubs in the league, other club squads are either lacking depth, strength or both but it doesn’t stop a manager from organising them well or getting them working hard on the pitch.
Hi DG, yes I’ve just had a look on NewsNow myself, kinda habit I guess, Football.London put out 8 posts so far today concerning Arsenal and there’s nothing happening, what a money making scam they run, appalling website and Just Arsenal News put out 4 posts, all bollocks of course.
Yeah I thought that was the case with Leno although it doesn’t stop some 14 year old calling himself a journalist posting the same BS for a ‘reputable’ website, they pretty much are all a bunch of wannabe, lazy, uneducated, lying tossers, the lot of them.
And with that I have a busy day, so have a good one, one and all…
I feel that Arteta will begin playing Ramsdale and either in January or in summer another keeper will arrive….it might be an understudy to Ramsdale or someone superior, depending how Ramsdale performs. So expect Arteta to go out and get Onana in January for around 2 million at the most or get him in summer. If not Onana then it might be someone like Woodman, an Englishman who can play second fiddle or even challenge Ramsdale for the starting spot.
I also expect Leno to be sold….if possible in January transfer window, especially if Arteta gets in another keeper. Leno will fetch around 15M I feel…..a sum of money which will go towards getting a new keeper like the two mentioned above and the rest invested in another area in the squad.
Personally I would drop Leno now and sell him in January…provided that I have talked and secured another keeper first. I know many will prefer Onana, but I feel that Ramsdale will prove to be a top acquisition who will make the spot his own. So I expect someone like Woodman to come in.
Don’t you think Runasson will come back and be our 2nd keeper then Devil? 😂
Kev, I can barely manage one a day. Lol
Fantastic result for the women..
Loved the celebration from the new manager…
Hi Rico… what a game!! Mead was superb and what a brace from her (don’t care about the offside for the winner 🤣). Brilliant attacking and defending; I hope the men were watching – I managed to get tickets for the Norwich game 🥳
Hi Sue, brilliant game. What offside? 😜
Excellent re Norwich, you’ll get the feel of the atmosphere within the stadium.
Great result and great to see the game played at the Emirates. About time too, in my opinion.
13 th minute: Iceland 0 – Macedonia of North 1
Runasson at he goal … not good
Absolutely agree re the stadium Cicero. These women are professionals too.
Haha good one, Rico!
Been a long time coming (over 500 days!) so I’m hoping it’s a good ‘un!
Saka scores on his Birthday 🥳
Rico, your one a day is always worth reading, because you’ve thought about it first – well usually… 😆
Football.London, Just Arsenal News, etc, et al, trawl the web and put out posts based around the work that others do, originality is pretty much non-existent in their content.
Any chance we can get the Ladies team coach and there strikers for our men’s team after all they know how to win.
You old smoothie Kev.
Morning all.
New post up now