Daily Bits and Bobs

FA Cup comes up trumps. Transfer speculation goes bonkers.

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Can’t say Man Utd was the team I hoped for in the fourth round of the FA Cup, not after they’ve found some kind of rhythm under Ole. At least we’re at home eh although that didn’t help us much in the other domestic cup. Like us, Utd are fighting for one of the top four places in the league although if we’re not careful, they’ll overtake us and stand a better chance. Liverpool we’re knocked out last night which of course I loved and the goal from Neves to win the game was a special one too. The start of a bad spell for Liverpool I hope after losing to City just a short while ago. They lost Lovren to injury during the tie and should something happen to VvD too, their defence will be wide open. Good.

We’re not the only club to face a fellow Premier League as Totts head to Crystal Palace and Man City host Burnley. but our game will be televised as it’s the big one. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Unai Emery sticks with the same kind of squad which won at Blackpool or if he opts to play what he believes will be a stronger eleven. The date it’ll be played on will be sometime between 25th and 28th of this month.

We’ve two tough fixtures before then, both London derbies. The first is away to West Ham, the second at The Emirates against Chelsea.

The under 23’s were in action last night and drew 2-2 away at Brighton. Both Saka and Medley played which would suggest neither will be making the trip to the Olympic Stadium. In turn, that must mean our centre backs are all fit again.

Transfer gossip continues to go on as it will for another three weeks yet but already it’s become boring. One newspaper prints one thing, then another says the opposite so it’s hard to know who to believe. Actually, it’s not. They’re all guessing, simply coming up with names at random in hope they hit the jackpot with one. The best headline was in the Express who tried to suggest Unai Emery was at ‘war’ with the Arsenal board because they said no to Ever Banega because he was too expensive for a thirty year old. Instead they want Denis Suarez who just a few days ago, pretty much said his goodbyes to his Barcelona teammates having been removed from the squad at the weekend at the last minute. I know, it was exciting wasn’t it? That was until he too was deemed too expensive, or Barca had a change of heart, or some other reason made up by some cunning football journalist trying to sell his story. It’s laughable, it really is.

Don’t worry though, we’re now red hot favourites to sign the Belgian Yannick Carrasco and on top of that, we’ve made a £63m offer for James Rodriguez.

Then again, just a few days ago, the same people were saying we as a club are broke. We’ve no money to spend on transfers, and loans were the only way we’d add players to the squad this month.

Talking of which, Arsenal have apparently appointed Ben Knapper as our loan manager. A new position which should go a long way to ensuring our players in need of a loan for whatever the reason go to a club which will suit their individual needs as well as the clubs. About time too I’d say as far too many players have go out on loan in the past and barely played. The most recent was Serge Gnabry who I’m sure Pulis did all he could to ruin. Whoever thought sending one of our players to a club managed by that idiot needs their head testing.

See you in the comments guys..


rico

40 thoughts on “FA Cup comes up trumps. Transfer speculation goes bonkers.”

  1. potter says:

    Ben Knapper ? No offence but he sounds like someone that’s just stepped out of a boys own comic with Roy Race , Blackie Grey and Alf Tupper
    Seriously though it probably is something that is long overdue ., Stepping into the modern world is something that we seem to have been loathe to do . We allowed too much water to pass under the bridge whilst we had the the biggest stadium in London charging the most money for entry but after a decade of advantage have allowed other teams to overtake us.
    Our board bless them needed a shake up then and still do . We have an absentee owner that shows little interest in the clubs performance . The least he could do is appoint board members from the 20th century if not from the current one.

  7. rico says:

    Not wishing to state the obvious but apart from Raul saying we are a self funded club and a few words from Ornstein, who I suspect knows no more than any other journalist, I really don’t know why it’s widely assumed that we don’t have money..l

  8. rico says:

    Scott, in all seriousness, I think many of us have simply got used to Wenger choosing not to spend what was available to him and expecting things to stay the same. I could be proved wrong over the next year but I’m convinced that if Emery went to the board and said he wants a particular player or three, he’d get them.

  9. potter says:

    The assumption that it was all down to Wenger is about to be tested. Lets see what happens if and when we do try to buy someone .
    There are so many unanswered questions . Was Wenger solely responsible or was Gazidis handling things ? Did Gazidis do transfer deals behind his back ? Who was fully responsible for the wage settlements ? once Gazidis had left the building the new regime have started to plead poverty . Lots of hows and whys and as usual rumour and counter rumour abounds.

  11. Adam says:

    The club seem to have invested heavily in this new management structure to indentify, negotiate and buy new players. That’s fair enough. It makes a real change from what went before. As to whether the right people get the right input and take responsibility has yet to be tested. Arsenal have geared themselves up to be a big club but whether they have the required (available) money is not yet clear.
    In a way Wenger immunised Kroenke against the harsh realities of the PL though Stan is now counting the cost of allowing him so much leeway in the shape of reduced CL income. If the shrinking revenue is impacting then a downward spiral possibly beckons. With Man City, Liverpool, Spurs and Man Utd on the rise the indicators don’t look great. We have no potential big-name outbound transfers and the crowd are still unclear as to Emery’s real qualities. The jury is out for me until I see him actually do something positive with our defence and solve the Ozil conundrum.

  12. Cicero says:

    Good morning all, Man U at home in the fourth round? Luvvly Jubbly!

    Potter, a board member from the 21st century? Most 18/19 yearolds can’t tie their own shoelaces. 😀

    Rumors, rumors, rumors, don’t believe anything until you see it on arsenal.com

  13. rico says:

    And Wenger always had the stadium move to hide behind in a way Adam. But we can’t forget the amount of money he wasted on players during the last ten years. I know all clubs make errors but I dread to think how many he/Gazidis made.

    Until the last of the overpaid players leave, I think we’re stuck in a rut. I’d like to meet the man/woman who can sort Ozil out because I think that’s mission impossible right now.

  15. VCC says:

    Adam. “The jury is out fro me until I see him actually do something positive with our defence and solve the Ozil conundrum”

    DITTO

    DITTO

    DITTO

  16. potter says:

    There is on ly one answer to the Ozil situation , we have to bite the bullet and let him go if we can find anyone to take his wages Otherwise it’s suck it up and pay the money for little return.
    He is a good player but has his limitations and they do not suit the way we are playing. To get the best from him we need to play him just behind a front two like Higuain and Ronaldo which means that we would have to play a 4-3-3 or 3 -4- 3 system . We have the forwards to do it but behind it either puts too much on the central two midfielders or means that we have little or no width. In Emery’s eyes I am afraid Ozil just doesn’t fit.

  17. rico says:

    Vcc, perhaps it really is just a case of our defenders are poor. They might have cost a few pounds but that doesn’t make them good players.

    Mustafi, Koscielny, Lichtsteiner- all pretty average imo. Even Big Sam would struggle to make good defenders of them. I can forgive Lichtsteiner as his best days are long behind him.

  19. allezkev says:

    Morning Gooners
    Morning Rico, what a bore fest this January window is…

    If you take the £58m Chelsea spent on Pulasic out of the equation the rest of the Premier League have spent only £61.5m, that’s still double what they’ve spent in Serie A.
    Everybody seems to be hanging onto their dough.

    Arsenal seem to be employing a wait and see policy before deciding to spend or not on a defender.

    As for Emery, I said I’d give him two years and four transfer windows of which he’s had one, I’m sticking with that…

  20. rico says:

    Morning Kev. I’m in the same frame of mind re Emery. I never expected miracles within the first season let alone the first six months.

    I’m actually surprised we are fifth in the league and still able to secure 4th or even 3rd.

  24. Cicero says:

    I’m not expecting much improvement defensively whilst we are dependant on Mustafi and Koscielny. Good coaching can only do so much, trying to teach old dogs new tricks may be, to a limited extent possible, but it can’t correct a lack of pace, nor height and physicality.

    I don’t see how we can play with a back three when we are so short of central defenders so we must revert to a back four and until Bellerin returns, if Lichtsteiner is to play right back, he must be instructed to restrict his forward runs particularly when Kolascinac goes bombing forward.

  25. scottfromoz says:

    Rico, it’s the chicken and the egg story.
    Was Wenger a shocking coach who couldn’t teach defenders, or were the defenders so poor that they couldn’t be taught?
    Seems it all depends on who’s being criticised at the time.
    They’re good enough for their countries but not good enough for the Arsenal?
    Sorry, they can all play, but Wenger wasn’t capable of coaching them to play as a unit and Emery should have improved them to some degree so this is one area he doesn’t get a pass mark at this stage.
    Improving what is already there should be priority no. 1 for any new manager.

  26. potter says:

    I would still rather see Jenkinson get the nod over Lichtstiener , he is faster and younger and can cross a ball.

  28. Cicero says:

    Potter, Jenkinson gets used very rarely, I think there must be some doubts about his resistance to injuries, or maybe Emery is trying to use Lichtsteiner’s combative qualities to nullify some of our opponent’s strongarm tactics

  33. Le Coq Monster says:

    When this month is over will you confess your sins ? 😆

    Just read that Merson thinks we are 20 years away from winning the title !……………………………he`s a bit optimistic isn`t he ! 😆

  39. rico says:

    And Smith Rowe Kev.

    I wouldn’t mind seeing Willock face West Ham. If he performs well against them, then it’ll be a big step imo. Until he faces a PL side a few times there’ll always be the ‘it was only Blackpool etc..’ comments flying around.

    Not from me I hasten to add..

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