Morning all.
With eight days of this summer transfer window left, Arsenal are, if the newspapers are right, still after a winger and midfielder. The Sun, regurgitating the story no doubt, report that “Arsenal are stepping things up as the transfer window enters its final furlong. The Gunners have reportedly held initial talks regarding the signing of Pedro Neto. They value the Wolves man at £35m while the Black Country side want a fee of £50m. Youri Tielemans is said to remain the club’s top transfer priority as they look to bring in a central midfielder, but Lyon’s Lucas Paqueta has received high praise from Edu and could come into the Gunners’ thinking if they fail to land Tielemans”.
Newcastle are rumoured to be after Lucas Paqueta so getting him might be tricky but he is Brazilian. Seriously though, whilst it’s great having the Brazilian players we do have, when the international fixtures come along, they’ll be travelling far and wide so that could have an impact on the team.
If Neto and Tielemans end up at Arsenal by the 1st September, I’ll be amazed. Stunned really but happy, as long as the club haven’t sold one of our younger players. By that I mean ESR, Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli. There’s no suggestion that’ll happen but I do wonder how Arsenal are going to get around FFP. Still, that’s the clubs concern, not mine.
The season has started well for Mikel Arteta’s team but if there’s one criticism, it’s that we’re still not ruthless enough in front of goal. So far that’s not had an impact on our results but it might in future if we don’t improve. Against the teams who sit back or are extremely organised at the back, the chances we have could be few and far between.
Whilst Arsenal we be judged on how we compete against the likes of Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea etc, having watched Leeds Utd tear Chelsea apart, they could be a club to be concerned about. Brighton, Newcastle Utd, Totts, regardless of how boring they are and of course the rejuvenated Man Utd. Yes, I’m joking. 29% possession against a terrible Liverpool last night and a dodgy offside goal means very little. I know that because that’s what the pundits said about Arsenal after beating a terrible Totts team last summer.
Ok, we didn’t end up getting fourth place because of the defeats to the Totts, Brighton, Southampton and Newcastle Utd in the run in but we didn’t have the squad depth we have now, nor did we have a top notch striker as we have now. Eddie Nketiah will learn a lot from him I’m sure. When one considers how many key players were missing during last seasons run in, I think we did well to get 5th but the trouble is, when something is so close, as top four was, it feels like a failure not to get it.
This is season though according to Edu. This is the time when Arsenal are expected to secure top four in May. No one can say the Kroenke family haven’t shown ambition in the transfer window because for the last two years now, they’ve rubber stamped some serious investment in the squad. Mikel Arteta and Edu etc, have gone about their business like kids in a sweet shop, nor have they spent big amounts on ageing players who’ll have little to no resale value either. They’ve signed players for the position needed. Where we’ve been weak, we now have strength as well as depth. Apart from the centre of midfield but that will hopefully change over the next 8 days.
Our bench against consisted of Kieran Tierney, ESR, Eddie Nketiah, Fabio Vieira, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Sambi Lokonga, Rob Holding, Mo Elneny and Matt Turner. When was the last time you looked at an Arsenal bench and believed there were a glut of game changers on it?
See you in the comments.
Good day Rico.
I still think we should be looking for a defensive/holding midfielder and Thilemans is not that man. As wingers go Neto ticks the “Premiership ready” box but £50 million is a bit much but his agent is thick with Edu so there may be room for negotiation, but I can’t see Wolves dropping the price to anywhere near the reported £35 million on offer.
We will Justus e to wait and see what happens.
just have to,
I’ve just replied to you Cicero, it’s flown off somewhere…
Afternoon to you.
Good afternoon everyone. It seems that we are under the loop from UEFA regarding the FFP regulations. How will this impact our transfer business? If it impacts anything that is.
Oops….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11137045/Arsenal-UEFA-watchlist-potentially-breaching-Financial-Fair-Play-rules.html
Spooky Adk…
I knew I needn’t have bothered.. lol
According to Untold it’s not a concern however where there is smoke generally something is burning.
And they’ll get us if they can… They’ll probably introduce points deduction if we carry on doing well..
Afternoon Rico and all
According to reports Leicester are interested in Pepe if true Edu should drive him their before they change there mind.
UEFA should sort out Barcelona before they worry about any body else
I seriously hope that the Neto rumor is just agent-driven bull$hit.
Morning Geoff. If true, perhaps we’ll see Tielemans as part of the deal. Not sure why Pepe would go there though as I’d have thought he’d had enough of the PL.
I don’t, not if Neto is who Arteta wants.
If we did a swap for Tielemans and Pepe at least if it don’t work out we could get some money for Tielemans which is better than loaning Pepe until he goes for nothing.
Morning Rico. I guess the issue with Neto would be his injury record and whether there are any long-term ramifications to that. But I’ve seen him looking very special.
Agreed Potter.
Morning Adam. I think Neto looks good too.
Potter, that’s a really valid point on the benefit of the swap.
Re Neto: no doubt he is a fine player, but hardly seems an upgrade on Pepe – however I won’t bother with data as you don’t really like them. Nevertheless I don’t see Pedro a starter, so buying a bench player for 50M+ (especially being under scrutiny for possible FFP breach) doesn’t make the transfer a no-brainer. When Cody Gakpo costs half, and performed consistently on a much higher level I hope we won’t pay 20% more than we did for Jesus, or spend around the same ballpark you can buy a Sterling, Haaland or Raphinha for a backup-winger.
No data…. Hooray….. 😀
Only joking Peter. 😉
Tbh I don’t really know all that much about Neto other than he’s had a lot of time off with injury, that he’s quite talented and that his agent is Jorge Mendes.
But if Edu settles on Neto then I’ll trust his judgement.
Arsenal are becoming quite a Portuguese/Brazilian club these days.
Didn’t realise Neto missed nearly the entire season 20/21..
Nice agree Pepe loan from Arsenal.
Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe has agreed to join Nice on a season-long loan.
The deal for the 27-year-old Ivory Coast international does not included an option for the Ligue 1 club to make the deal permanent.
The last details are being finalised and it’s hoped it will be completed in the next 48 hours.
Pepe, who has two years left on his Arsenal contract, moved to the Emirates from Lille for a club-record £72m in 2019 and has scored 27 goals in 112 appearances for the Gunners.
Barany is right about Neto for 50m, when 35m is too much IMHO. At the moment he would be a backup, but Eddie, ESR or Marquious can all be backup wingers. For less than 50m you can get Jimenez his teammate, who can play the wing and as a striker, at about 6’3″, when plan A with Jesus doesn’t work with certain teams. Sure he’s about 30, but he’s a different option that we don’t have in the attack.
Maybe Jimenez isn’t the kind of player Arteta wants, perhaps Neto is. Who wed like to see join and who fits into Arteta’s plans is probably very different.
Firstly Jimenez doesn’t speak Portuguese and secondly he is injured and not expected back for a month and we’ve had enough experience of signing injured players thank you.
Arsenal v Brighton in the League Cup. Guess we’ll be going out early then. 😝
Brighton is not the type of draw we wanted , We will have to play a fairly strong team and not be able to play the young ones we want to get experience . My namesake Mr Potter will not make it easy for us and will play a strong team he will want the chance of the big time the winner gets. Having said that there are a few tasty draws apart from ours.
We don’t need any more injury prone players joining no matter how good they are.
Sound like good news for Pepe maybe a break from the Premier league will help rebuild his confidents a win for all
Potter, Jimenez just played on Tuesday against Preston, and Geoff @ 2:56, injuries are part of the game. You can’t manage injuries, they just happen.
Martinelli is the tallest outfield player at roughly 5’10”. The time will come when we would need a target man in some games. Granted Arteta and Edu have their plans, but it’s not as though we are clueless observing the team or watching the games. We can see where there are needs. We comment here not because we know better than Edu or Arteta, but to express opinions as we observe the team. However, that doesn’t mean Edu and Arteta are flawless.
Good morning all.
Obi,we know only too well that injuries are part of the game. However, to sign a player who is just returning from an injury that prevented him playing for the best part of a season and being asked to pay between £35 and£50 million to do so seems to be an unnecessary risk. We are not desperate for another winger so in my opinion we would be better to hold off to see how he progresses and make a bid in the summer if all goes well. Incidentally, I’ve not noticed a queue of other clubs waiting to sign him.
Cicero, Good Morning. I agree. That was exactly my point yesterday. Why pay 35 or 50m for a position where there are plenty of options.
Tyreece John-Jules scored his first goal for Ipswich Town in their 3-0 win against Shrewsbury Town. The striker played 74 minutes.
Folarin Balogun scored for the third game in succession as Reims drew 1-1 with Strasbourg.
Arthur Okonkwo was in action as Crewe Alexandra drew 2-2 with Northampton Town.
Nuno Tavares played the full game and was deployed as a left wing-back as Marseille won 2-1 against Nantes.
Marcelo Flores played 75 minutes as Real Oviedo won 1-0 against Leganes.
Auston Trusty played the whole game as Birmingham City lost 1-0 to Wigan Athletic.
Omar Rekik was an unused substitute
Alex Runarsson‘s Alanyaspor face Sivasspor tomorrow.
From Jeorge Bird
:
Mika Biereth is a worry , not even on the bench for Waalwijk ( I think ) . Is he injured or is it not working out , We must not let his career just pass him by. If they won’t play him find him somewhere else.
I think it’s a shame Biereth didn’t go out on loan to a championship or league one club. I seldom see the point in going abroad when it’s the English game and climate they need to get used to.
New post up now