- Kieran Tierney
- Cedric Soares
- Gabriel Martinelli
- Pablo Mari
- Eddie Nketiah
- Emile Smith Rowe
- Reiss Nelson
- Pepe
- William Saliba
- Bukayo Saka
- Joe Willock
Eleven players who in 2020/21 could really help push Arsenal into the top four. Some we’ve seen glimpses of, two are yet to make their debut, one who is yet to arrive at Arsenal.
Tierney. We saw brief moments of magic going forward. His link up with Martinelli in particular was great but having arrived at the club with a slight hip injury, further injuries followed him. A fully fit and healthy Tierney is an exciting proposition.
Cedric. A surprise signing perhaps with Hector Bellerin fit at the time of his arrival but the more our Spaniard played, it was clear there was a rustiness to his game. So much so I nearly made him number 11 in the above list. Two players going for one place is healthy. That’s assuming both are at Arsenal when the new season kicks off.
Martinelli. What is there to say really other than we’ve seen what this youngster is about. His first season in English football didn’t faze him at all. This coming campaign should be even better for him as playing time is likely to increase. His skill, pace and work ethic is second to none. One to watch I think.
Mari. Cool as a cucumber. Not yet snapped up on a permanent basis by the club but I think he will be. Holding and Chambers have a long way to go before they push their way back into first team. Chambers is still injured, Holding was struggling to return to the player he was before injury set him back. He wants an Arsenal move that’s for sure.
Eddie. Mikel Arteta threw him in as our main striker. A huge surprise to us all no doubt and to Lacazette who found himself on the bench. Did Eddie disappoint? Absolutely not in my opinion. He gets in the right places, he’s busy, he’s a poacher who will only get better I think. He’ll certainly score goals. More playing time for him in the 2020/21 season? A big fat yes from me.
ESR. Great things are expected of him but it’s fair to say that this current season hasn’t necessarily been as good as it might have been. Injuries have been his problem, certainly whilst in Germany but since signing for Huddersfield in January, things have gone better for him. Another to watch out for I think.
Nelson. In and out through this current season with injury certainly not helping his cause in 2020 but when he’s played, he’s been superb I think. He’s quick, can cross a ball and looks more like a £72 million signing than… Yes, I’ve read that. He’s another who I’d imagine all Arsenal fans want to see more of next season.
Pepe. All I’ll say about him is, some players take time to settle and I think he’s one of them. Pires and Reyes found it tough during their first season too and much of that was down to the rough treatment they received. Pepe is a classy player and defenders know that so he too has been subjected to some really physical stuff, much of which was outside the rules of the game. The Cresswell tackle on him was a shocker. Now he knows what English football is all about, his second season should be so much better.
Saliba. I’ve not watched him but I’ve read about him and i can’t wait to see him in an Arsenal shirt. But he’s still young and as said already, English football is a very different ball game. Not that it looks like it’ll trouble him.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oqzbrfnr2o0
Saka. Performed well at left back whilst filling in in an unfamiliar role, especially going forward. Something you’d expect from a winger. Defensively, he’d have learned a lot which will only help his game as he reverts to his natural position this coming season. An exciting young prospect who will be the subject of much transfer speculation this summer as he enters the final year of his contract. With Tierney and Kolasinac both expected to return when football does, his days at left back should be over. I hope he stays but if he thinks life elsewhere will be better for him, then there’s nothing the club can do other than accept the biggest offer which comes in for him…
Lastly, Joe Willock. A hit an miss season for him really but I like him. I’d love to see him push ahead of Guendouzi. I think he has the ability but until now has perhaps lacked consistency.
Then the club start all over again with the next crop. The likes of John-Jules, Balogun, Clarke and Ballard etc etc.
Lets face it, as the immediate future of the game remains up in the air and finances likely to be even more restricted for Arsenal than usual, our younger players could be crucial to our future. I think they are anyway and in my opinion there’s nothing better than seeing one of our own make it at the club. Jack Wilshere was the last, Nelson, Saka, Willock or even Eddie could be the next. AMN too if could shake the chip off his shoulders..
Stay safe guys, stay healthy.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy Good Friday.
Have a happy Easter everyone if it’s possible.
From an Arsenal perspective the future has to come from Hale End . If we can bring through the group that has been sucessful in youth and under 23 football and keep them together supplement them with a couple of signings things should be good .
We already have the makings of a young squad , we just need to be clever in how we treat them and introduce them going forward as the large financial drains come to the end of their time.
Likewise to you both…
Agree Potter, I’d love us to be the ones who take the talk away from Fergies class of 93.
Thanks for the post Rico, that group of young players look an exciting group and take me back to 1987/88 when Rocastle, Thomas, Quinn, Hayes, Adams, Groves, Winterburn, Smith, et al were just beginning to find their wings. Allied to a young manager and new coaching staff who bought into the club, that was a great time to be an Arsenal fan even though we were in the shadow of Man Utd, Liverpool and Tottenham at the time.
What goes around eh?
I was thinking similarly Kev. It’s been so long since we’ve had a group of players like back then. Certainly a group of players who look like they could be very good for us.
I really hope AMN can wake up and realise what he could achieve if he grew up a bit..
There are some that never wake up though . Look at Merson and how good he was , What would he achieved if he’d been sober.?
Very true. Idiots aren’t they. Such a short career you’d think they’d want to be the best they could..
Rico, I think that Arteta might have run out of patience with Maitland Niles, that could well explain why he brought in Soares?
We might well see Tierney and Soares as our full backs by the end of the season – in August.
………..or September………maybe not until October ……..
Ad Infinitum ………….???
I think you’re likely to be right Kev…
Morning all, seems that the Bundesliga are close to making a decision about returning to training.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52176562
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52198036
Morning Kev, aren’t the death rates still rising in Germany?
I read here that well be living with restrictions until a vaccine is found which makes sense to me.
Morning all happy Easter Saturday.
Germany are way below every other country. They locked down far earlier than we did and didn’t encourage the stupidity of herd immunity! In the main the Germans are a very obedient population. They have locked down so that transmission of the disease has been kept to a minimum. What’s more their provision of Pope is far greater than ours has been. They like all things German were better prepared and had/have wiser heads than we have, both governmental and medical!
I rest my case.
As for football and the return to normality, imo this will not be this side of 2021. Or as you say we have a viable vaccination to obliterate the dangers of covid19. Mind you by the time the scientists have developed a would be saviour the virus will have muted into something equally deadly and will have out grown the preventative measures. This could go on for years!
We’re all doomed….doomed I tell yer! Doomed.
Hope everyone has a really happy Easter and that I’m found to be totally wrong.
For pope read people and muted should be mutated.
Other than that I think my predictive text did pretty well! Ffs.
From the BBC.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: Arsenal striker urged to join ‘more ambitious club’
Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang needs to “secure a contract with a more ambitious club,” says the president of the Gabon Football Association.
The striker finished last season as the joint-top scorer in the Premier League with 22 goals.
His contract is set to expire at the end of the 2020-21 season.
“Right now, he’s at Arsenal, and he’s won nothing here, so it’s a collective failing,” Pierre Alain Mounguengui told ESPN.
“I don’t want to say that Arsenal aren’t ambitious, but Arsenal don’t have ambitions as high as some other clubs as far as Europe is concerned.”
Last month, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he wants to keep Aubameyang “under any circumstances” and the club need to discuss a new deal before the end of the season.
The Gabon international has scored 20 goals in all competitions for the Gunners in 2019-20 and is a reported target for clubs including Barcelona and Inter Milan.
“If Pierre could secure a contract with a more ambitious club, he’d definitely find his place there,” Mounguengui added.
“All Gabonese people see Aubameyang at this level, where he can now end his career at a major club and, above all, beyond individual trophies, to bring home a major competition.”
Since joining Arsenal for £56m from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, Aubameyang has suffered defeats in the Europa League and Carabao Cup finals and is yet to win a trophy.
I reckon Auba might find himself on the bench a lot more at a top top club than he is at Arsenal. Most top top clubs already have top top strikers..
Just my opinion.
Maybe he wouldn’t mind sitting on the bench so long as he got to appear in a final and got a winner’s medal.
Perhaps he could change nationality for a more ambitious country?
For double what he’s earning now no doubt Cicero….
Good point Adam, Gabon are hardly going places..
Great point Adam…
Morning all.
Germany also refused to help other countries in Europe-a hell of a nice thing to do for fellow EU members I’d have thought, and no word of every man of themselves lol
Australia is still on a downward trend as far as the spread is concerned without a lockdown, but as we discussed the other day, it’s all about masses of population in small areas that is the biggest cause of the spread accelerating.
It is so damn boring atm, I have to think what it is.
Adam, he has been trying to become an Aussie for years hahahahaha
New post up now Scott. 😆
Morning…