Afternoon all.
Mikel Arteta has held his pre Community Shield Press Conference today. No surprise questions fired his way of course because all anyone really wants to know is 1) Is Aubameyang going to sign a new contract and 2) Have Arsenal secured the services of Gabriel Magalhaes?
Aubameyang:
“I am pretty confident we will find an agreement soon, that’s my feeling. I keep being positive. We had some really good talks with him and his agent. I am pretty confident we will find an agreement soon, that’s my feeling. [It will be a massive lift] for everyone and for him as well. He should be very happy if he is able to stay at the club for a long time.”
Gabriel Magalhaes:
“We cannot announce anything yet. The deal is not finalised, he is a player we have followed for a long time. Hopefully we can get it done. Everything is okay when both parties sign and the player agrees the terms and he goes through the medical. Sometimes in the final stages it is not as easy as it looks but we are pretty positive that we can do it.”
“When we get it I will be very pleased. We are determined he has the right profile to improve our squad. If we are able to finalise it we will be delighted.”
I lied, there’s a third topic of conversation. Ainsley Maitland-Niles who Mikel Arteta said he likes and proved as much by playing him in the FA Cup semi-final and final.
“We have been reading a lot of news about our players. It is not bad that other clubs want him. With Ainsley, he is a player I said at the end of the season that I really like. The best way to show that is that I played him in the most important games. He responded really well.
“I’m always open to listen to what the players are feeling at every stage off their career. I then give them my opinion of how I see them and what I expect from them.
“If we have the right understanding we have to move forward together. If there is something that doesn’t work, we assess it with the player and the club.”
So nothing is cut and dry with anyone just yet, or at least that’s what Mikel Arteta is telling whoever is listening. I’m not sure he’d be quite so open about things if there was any doubt about both Auba and Gabriel being at Arsenal beyond next season. Also, it seems AMN leaving isn’t a certainty either. Wolves alleged £15 million offer for him was an insult I think. It’s the kind of offer Arsenal have be known to make over years gone by, you know, well below value which is why we didn’t always get our targets. Anyway, it seems Mikel Arteta is going to try and convince AMN to stay. I hope he succeeds.
Not one positive Arsenal test for Covid-19 since the end of the season so that’s good. No one in quarantine either said Mikel. When asked about whether we ready for the new season and challenging the top four, he said he wanted to see how we look like at the end of the transfer window, saying a lot can happen between now and October 6th. Sounds promising.
But even so, 100% we’ll be challenging for the top.
Excellent. See you in the comments…
Thanks Rico.
Hope you dont mind, but a bit of Spud transfer news!
The player the Spuds are chasing…………………………….. 😆
Matt Doherty
@mattdoherty20
Yes I’m a HUGE Arsenal fan !
10:28 PM · Sep 2, 2013
Matt Doherty
@mattdoherty20
·30 Oct 2012
I love arsenal forever and ever and ever
Well, he’ll not live that one down Lc.
No doubt Wolves will up their offer for AMN if they need a right back. Not that AMN likes playing in that position apparently.
Nice one, Rico, thank you!
I found it interesting what Mikel had to say about Guendouzi…. I actually think we could see him in the line up again!! 🙂 Albeit it’ll probably be for shop window purposes!! But it’ll be nice if all these ‘issues’ are resolved. He also said about everyone being treated the same – there’s hope for Mesut then 😜 I do enjoy listening to Mikel…
Will Willian play on Saturday??
Thanks Sue, I don’t. I think Mikel is bigging him up to sell. Same end result though. Lol
I hope Willian plays, depends if he’s been on holiday and where.
I think it will be a squad game utilising youngsters and fringe players
Hi Rico and all hope he does play Guendouzi as I said before by freezing a player out like Arteta has done to Guendouzi does not help anyone. Furthermore all this has done is lower Guendouzi value I believe he should have picked him for the interchange and play him for the last 10 minutes to keep his value after all would you pay full amount when you know that Arsenal must sell unwanted players to raise funds and to cut back on numbers and payments every week
Morning Rico and All
Glenda could turn out to be a top player
one day,his martial arts back ground
tells me he can defend the middle if
need be,box to box player will to win
he has it all if only he would listen,he
should stay with us to prove to himself
he can knuckle down,one thing I hate
about him is he has this great talent
yet still has to give it Billy- Big- Bananas,
prehaps his mum might turn up and give
him a cilp around the ear.
When ever you feel a bit down with whats
going on at The Arsenal,the spuds always
seem to cheer me up,and now with Maureen
dabbling with the best squad the spuds have
had for many years,his started to weed out
all the players that won’t bust a gut for him
in training..Here we go again.
Good morning all.
I see the Maguire saga is getting more complicated, now he’s saying he thought he was being kidnapped which was why he tried to run away while being handcuffed. Given a bit of time I’m sure he will come up with an even more ludicrous explanation for his behaviour.
So Arteta has wiped the slate clean and all the players will have an equal chance, that’s good to hear but Guendouzi must make big changes in his attitude and behaviour on the pitch before he can repair his reputation.
So much for a bloody announcement!! 🙄
Morning Rico and all. If Hector is for sale along with AMN, does that mean we have Soares as our first choice right back for the coming season?
With Chambers still injured, if Mustafi is sold Soares will be our only right back Adam.
Hi Cicero. That’s what I thought. 😬
Morning all,
I don’t see any logic in selling AMN.
He’s shown he’s good enough for the League, is young, versatile and English-there’s no downside to the kid imo.
Boring TV yesterday so I watched the FA Cup Final again! 😀
Love the bit at the end of the game when Lineker says……….” They`ve now won 🔟% of all FA Cups!”
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Evenin’ all.
I’ve a feeling that MA is not looking for ‘full backs’, I think he’s looking to play 3 at the back with flying wingbacks. Why else would we now (almost) have 7 CBs on the books? The days of Dixon and Winterburn seemed to have passed! For what it’s worth I don’t have any problem with that as a tactical strategy. I mean he can always lump a Mustafi in to make it a back 4.
We’ll see. It’s all to play for……..
It would be great to win the Charity Mug tomorrow. Only downside, we won’t be winning the EPL if we do! Who ever wins this charitable game never wins the League. C’est la vie!
Good point Wavy, makes sense I guess. Or the more reason to keep AMN I’d have thought..
New post up now