Morning all.
T-Bag, that’s Nuno Tavares’ nickname for Fabio Vieira. That’s what the latter told The Athletic during an interview. The image of a PG Pyramid popped into my mind but of course that’s not what he meant.
“T-Bag” – full name, Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell is a fictional character from the American television series Prison Break. Nope, not watched that either but thanks to Google, I found this:
And here’s Fabio.
A slight similarity I guess although I think Robert Knepper has a bit more meat on his bones. Just. It must be really frustrating for Vieira though, moving to a new club and then suffering an injury which has so far kept him out of pre-season fixtures. Not ideal for Mikel Arteta’s plans either, considering the new season kicks off in just over two weeks time but at least we are well stocked in midfield, attacking wise anyway.
Arsenal play Orlando City on Thursday morning, Chelsea on Sunday and then it’s back home for The Emirates Cup.
I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to play fellow Premier League clubs in pre-season. I know the fixtures need to be competitive, or at least the opposition needs to be of a certain level but did anyone else see the horror tackle by John McGinn of Aston Villa on Leeds 16 year old Archie Gray? The poor kid was in tears and left the pitch on a stretcher. I know injuries, bad tackles etc can happen any time but why give clubs we’re going to be competing with in the league in just a couple of weeks time, the opportunity to injure one of our players. Or worse still, more. I don’t think for one minute that Chelsea won’t be competitive on Sunday. Yes, that’s me being polite about them.
Anyway, back in the transfer world, Oleksandr Zinchenko is closer to joining Arsenal than he was a few days ago according to reputable journalist David Ornstein who yesterday tweeted:
Arsenal finalising move for Oleksandr Zinchenko from Man City after reaching agreement in principle on 4yr contract. Fee £30m + £2m achievable adds & now personal terms in place too. If all goes to plan, medical then sign.
The Sun though, tell a different story as Martin Blackburn suggests is weighing up whether to take a new challenge at Arsenal – or stay to fight for his place at Manchester City. Apparently he’s changed him mind before when at the last minute, he decided not to move to Wolves and Napoli. We’ll see but I think Ornstein and Fabrizio are more reliable than most journalists.
As suggested the other day, if he signs, I don’t think he’ll be the last this summer and if the quote from Mikel Arteta in The Athletic is anything to go by, I might not be far wrong:
We’re still hoping to improve the team and make a few more changes. But again, the market will dictate our capacity to do this.
I’d imagine much depends on what happens with Hector Bellerin, Nicolas Pepe, Pablo Mari, Lucas Torreira, Reiss Nelson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles too. Who stays and who goes from that list is yet to be confirmed by the club.
Going into this new season, my thoughts on our right-back situation were focussed on Brooke Norton-Cuffy and will he or won’t he be Arsenal’s backup to Takehiro Tomiyasu rather than Cedric Soares. Then out of the blue, along comes Reuell Walters, the youngster we nicked from Totts. He’s a right-back/centre-back, although he played at left-back against Everton recently, who’ll be 18 years old in December. Being in the USA doesn’t mean he’s ready for the Premier League but it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for him. If all goes well for him and Norton-Cuffy, Arsenal will be well off for a right-back for a long time. England too perhaps. Left-back to if the Everton game is anything to go by.
See you in the comments.
Martin Blackburn eh?
Never heard of him.
Morning All, morning Rico, give it a couple of months or three and we’ll be moaning about the rain again, that’s how it goes…
Yes, totally agree about playing Chelsea in pre-season although, concerning Villa, we’ve got to take into consideration the Stevie G factor and that he wasn’t slow in coming forward with a lunging two footed tackle/challenge/foul, so a bit of encouragement from the Coach I suspect…
Morning Kev, apparently he’s ITK of all things City.. 😝
Then he must be right then Rico… 😁
Mind you London has to be a more attractive proposition than Naples or Wolverhampton, there’s a lot of Ukrainians in London so he’d feel at home.
Also this is apparently the third time that Man City have accepted an offer for him so I guess there’s a clue in there somewhere? 🤔
Ha ha Kev.
That’s just what went through my mind when I read it. I don’t recall anything about City selling him before now though.
Zinchenko makes sense. Tierney is clearly a big injury risk and this guy is a good back up. He played for Ukraine in midfield against Scotland recently and looked good there too. He is Premier league ready, whereas Martinez was a gamble. There aren’t many 5’9” centre backs in top level football.
Ornstein has a good source at Arsenal. The Sun is used as a chip wrapper (or worse). I know which one I would choose to believe…
Hi Pete, Martinez might play in midfield for Utd but yep, I think there’s less risk when signing a PL player.
The Sun is laughable, “he’s staying to fight for place”. OK, like “all world” Cancelo will lose his place other than an injury.
In the Telegraph this morning Ten Hag is reported to have said Martinez will be first choice centre back alongside Slabhead Maguire.
The VVD and Nunez battle with Martinez could be fun to watch then. Lol
Morning Rico and all
Considering his age I still feel Zinchenko will join us, after all if Pep has not selected him to start regularly and is willing to sell him then why would Pep start him know. having said that if he doesn’t sign in the next 24 hours then I would walk away and look else were.
The Butcher of Old Toilet
Thunder storm here now but only light rain with it, and the temperature is still 24 degrees.
Cicero enjoying an Aussie summer are we, although I must admit today I woke to 1 Degree it was warmer in my fridge.
Certainly a rare thing in this country to have a temperature of 24 degrees in the middle of the night Geoff, it does make sleeping difficult.
Cicero what till you get in the high 20s at 3am with high humidity and the Air con refuse to work.
That’s why I would love to see a white Christmas here.
Strange isn’t it ? I reckon that there is less than 20 miles between us and we had no rain or thunder but our outside thermometer is currently at 21 degrees with a light breeze.
At yesterday’s peak it showed 36 degrees , identical to a photo taken in July 2016.
23 degrees and spitting with rain at the moment. The storm consisted of one loud clap of thunder and a few rumbles, the rain was practically negligible. I got up to make sure the windows were partially closed and went outside for a few minutes to see if it was any cooler. It wasn’t.
Geoff, white Christmases are as rare as hen’s teeth here.
Yesterday it was 39c in the shade where I live. A few spots of rain in the evening but today it feels like winter. 😝
New post up now
Geoff, it was like that overnight. 22c and no air. Really muggy and rather unpleasant.