Morning all.
Three Premier League transfer deals were announced yesterday. Erling Haaland to Man City was made official, Benfica confirmed that Darwin Nunez was moving to Liverpool and Arsenal announced the signing of Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar, aka, Marquinhos, a 19 year old forward from Brazilian club São Paulo. I’d much prefer Arsenal to have signed one of the first two players mentioned above but hopefully our striker signing is out there somewhere and he’ll arrive very soon.
Technical director Edu said:
We’re delighted to have completed the transfer with Sao Paulo, as Marquinhos was a player we had been watching for a while. At 19, he is still very young, so he is a player for the future. We look forward to Marquinhos now joining us for pre-season, making his new home, and continuing to grow and develop with us.
Marquinhos might be one for the future because of his age, but age means nothing if he’s talented and has a strong pre-season, I think he’ll be part of the first team squad. Whilst his name, or even his price tag, might make you raise your eyebrows, let’s see him in action before passing judgement on Edu and co for signing him up. Knowledge of Brazilian football is probably one of Edu’s strengths, just as France was Arsene Wenger’s and I don’t recall many of us complaining when he snapped up Nicolas Anelka for £500k.
Arsenal can’t compete with the rich clubs and without Champions League football on offer, I think a lot of players will resist any temptation to join us. Also, there’s the managerial pull. Guardiola, Klopp or Mikel Arteta? No offence to Mikel, but that’s a race he’s going to come third in. For now anyway but the other two won’t be in this league.
I wasn’t surprised to read the quotes from Dusan Vlahovic which made it clear he had no intention of ever joining Arsenal. He went as far to say he didn’t even know Arsenal were interested in signing him let alone any formal approach for him. He did though suggest his agent might have been made aware of our interest but he was only had eyes for Juventus. Honestly, I’ve always believed this was a media driven rumour and one which gathered so much pace, it almost plausible. If I was a cynic, I’d be tempted to suggest that Arsenal themselves wanted us to believe it. I don’t think there was ever any intention to add to the squad back in January because if the club really wanted to, they could have, even a loan deal. The decision not to, pretty much cost us Champions League football in the end.
I’ve been having a conversation about Mikel Arteta with a friend recently and we’re both on a similar page about him. If the Arsenal board/owners don’t give him the tools to do his work, why bother hanging around? Do you think Guardiola would still be at City if he hadn’t been given the freedom and finances he’s had, or Klopp at Liverpool had their owners had said no to signing Allison, VvD etc? Even Conte has thrown his toys out of the pram threatening to quit if he doesn’t have money to spend on his squad. If Stan Kroenke doesn’t back Mikel Arteta during this transfer window, then what’s the point in him keeping hold of the club?
At least invest as much as FFP allows and whatever money the club can make on player sales. A central defensive midfielder and striker would be top of my list, two of each if money was no object but it is isn’t it? Arsenal aren’t Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea or Newcastle Utd and until we’re back in the Champions League or sell one of our highly valued players, or even change of ownership, we’ll always be playing catch-up in my opinion. But, that’s not to say we can’t get 4th place this coming season, IF the board make the right kind of signings this summer.
Marquinhos is the right kind of signing I think because he’s cheap, low risk and in 3/4 years time, could be the guy to sell for big money, or he could be a superstar for Arsenal who’ll never want to leave. Mikel Arteta isn’t stupid, he’ll know that he needs experienced players as well and I expect him to get them this summer. They might not be names on our own wish list, but that’s life as an Arsenal fan.
Yep, my glass is three quarters full this morning.
Morning Rico, a very good post, I think you’re getting the hang of it… 😉
Morning Campers, looks as if we’re heading towards a period of transport industrial strife which is exactly what we need after shutting down the economy for two years and taking on a shed load of debt. Come the revolution eh?
Morning Kev, all, still a lot to learn but thank you. Lol
Tielemans would be a good signing I think.
Good Morning Rico and all
Fine post. But i still say that if we win against the teams which finished below us and get points (wins or draws) against those above us we will still challenge for the first two places. Yes they might have loads of money however I base my opinion on statistics and also what I feel.
We were a distance of 24 points between us and the EPL winners. Now I am not going to include the losses against Liverpool, City, Tottenham and the sole losses against Newcastle and Spuds in the second round. I feel we lost a lot of silly points against teams such as Brentforkd (3), Brighton (5) Palace (5), Man Utd (3) Burnley (2), Southampton (3) and Everton (3). A whopping 21 points lost.
And that would have put us just 3 points behind City. These were not games were the opposition were better than us but rather we were crap and did not turn up. The attitude was found wanting and while its true that we lost if one looks at the game stats we produced more shots than the opposition. Considering that Auba and Laca were leading the line at various stages and they left a lot to be desired than one can conclude that if we had a finisher we should have been higher up the table.
Nketiah scored 5 goals in 7 games. How many would he have scored had he played from the beginning? Just to point out that in the games against Brighton, Palace and Southampton we had a total of 63 shots and scored only two. Laca got dropped and voila….Nketiah played and scored 5 in 7 games.
Now I am not saying that we would have won them but having more shots and more possession implies that if we had a striker who wanted to score we would have been up there till the last two games.
Next season, if we get a balanced squad, goals are shared more around and we have a striker who puts away the chances that fall to him we should not only compete for 4th but also for 3rd and/or 2nd.
Kev such is the nature of our political system . There has always been money it’s always been how the powers choose to spend it.
They give with one hand and take with the other. For everyone that wins someone loses . Much fuss was made over the price of gas but many parts of the country don’t have it. Now those that have seen the price of heating oil and lpg double are getting the hit as in so many rural villages there is little or no public transport they are finding their fuel bills unsustainable. Furthermore the average wage where I am is under £20,000 a year and many way below that and with my nearest supermarket some 6 miles away, you hardly pop out for a pint of milk and a paper.
I’m not surprised that people are starting to block roads and bridges national policies are to urban centric when I lived in London I could survive happily without a car but here my 2004 diesel is a necessity.
Sorry for the political rant
Morning Devil, but we didn’t. Ifs and buts could apply to every club.
Welcome Marquinos.
Absolutely no idea what he’s like. Yes I did click on that youtube compilation and yes I now feel hollow inside. 😑
Hi Pete, 😂
Morning Kev / Potter
I think the train/tube strikes are poorly timed. WIth the shift to home working the lack of public transport will encourage people to stay at home. No point in wasting your time.
The new Lizzy line will be very handy with nobody on it. How much did it cost again?
Our friends are off the gas main. The oil and bottled gas are eye wateringly expensive.
Things are looking a bit dicey…
Morning Rico
You scoundrel!
Hi Potter/Pete, when the economy has shut down for two years it’s pretty unlikely that everything will go back to normal without any consequences, my industry shed 6,000 taxi drivers, many retired, many went back to their old trades, about 50% of private hire (minicab) drivers found other ways to make a living, delivery driver is a favourite. I didn’t work for months and lived off of savings and pension but the train drivers/workers still earned a wage, there were risks involved at the time regarding the virus as we didn’t know what we know now, but they kept their jobs and income. Were they lucky? I don’t know but to expect a massive pay rise during the uncertain times we’re going through is questionable?
Ha ha Pete, I’ve not been called that for a while.
I wonder why Arsenal haven’t gone for Bissouma, £25 million is a snip.
G’day Rico and all. Why haven’t we gone for Bissouma? Arteta seems to prefer Tielemans , as he can fill the defensive midfielder role and if necessary the attacking midfielder role too. Also, he isn’t the yellow card magnet that Bissouma is.
I still think we could do better than either of them.
Hi Cicero, I quite like both of them. Better option probably than going for someone outside the PL.
I can understand that Rico, but neither are exciting signings.
I think that the reason why Arteta SEEMS(??) to be going after Tielemans and not Bissouma is twofold. One is that statistically Tielemans is superior to Bissouma with regards forward passing and chances created. The second is that with Partey and Elneny both going off to AFCON in January and February, if we had gone for Bissouma that would have been 3 players in one swoop off. So Tielemans is the priority for Arteta I suppose.
Another reason is that it seems also that Arteta is going to sell Pepe. That means that the number of Africans going off in January/february is getting smaller. With Nketiah opting for Ghana Arteta wants more Europeans than AFrican players. I have nothing against African players but the fact that in mid season they go off to their competition seems a bit unfair to me.
Do they need to be Cicero? Pepe was an exciting signing on paper.
I think we lack personalities, guys who’ll get stuck in and drag us up when we’re down.
The ACON is irrelevant now isn’t it as the next one is in the summer of 2023.
Maybe Bissouma chose Toots over us
More likely is Arteta not wanting him.
Hasn’t Bissouma got a sexual assault allegation hanging over him?
Think that’s been resolved Pete and he’s a free man.
Interesting that Marquinhos has the same agent as Martinelli.
Also I remember listening to a podcast that said one of Edu’s big projects while working in Brazil was working with Young brazilian footballers who had dual nationalities. His job was to convince them to play for Brazil rather than the other countries.
I know Martinelli was eligible to play for Portugal but I don’t know if Marquinhos is similar.
Let’s hope a few more Brazilian players can be tempted to join Arsenal Hobart. I wonder if there’s ‘another’ Gilberto available.
As for the train strike I think there may be more to it than an individuals pay rise (lets face it they are always going to ask for one). From what I have read, to get the bailout from the government the rail company’s had to agree to some serious cost cutting. Of course they wanted the handout so they agreed. Now they need to cut jobs and wages to meet those commitments and that isn’t going down well with the unions.
I don’t think the rail companies can actually negotiate without the governments permission.
So basically more political machinations than anything else.
Think the rail company profits were ok though…..
England vs New Zealand, five days of brilliant entertainment. Now that’s what I call cricket.
England vs Hungary an utter f******g disgrace.
Hungary played well and deserved the win.
Southgate has managed an England team to it heaviest defeat at home since 1928!
Twitter will be outraged…
One substitution last night sums up Southgate’s muddled thinking, on 82 minutes and three nil down, central defender Stones was sent off and the manager responded by taking off a striker, Saka, and brought on another central defender, Maguire. Moments later Hungary scored their fourth goal.
I know it’s still early days but I hope we can sign a decent striker soon
Didn’t see it so can’t comment, but not surprised. Southgate’s way too conservative in his whole demeanour just how the F.A like things .
I thought England were brilliant…
Oops, wrong Sport.. 😂
New post up now
England lose in a friendly that isn’t a friendly. Couldn’t give two hoots.
A year ago Southgate was the reincarnation of the messiah. Now he’s the muck on the bottom of your shoe. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. He has some good players at his disposal, but the tactics are pretty negative.