Morning all.
Many football fans will already know what Mikel Merino is like as a player whilst others like me, will have only seen him play for Spain at the Euros. I’m not one to jump the gun as far as transfers go but if Arsenal do get a deal for Mikel Merino over the line, here’s what we can expect from him.
The Spaniard isn’t going to excite every Arsenal fan, after all he’s a 28 year old ‘average’ (yes, I read that about him) midfielder who didn’t hang around long at Newcastle but all of that is irrelevant in my opinion. He’s experienced, he’s a Spanish international, he’s tall at 6’ 2” and he knows the league.
What he does in an Arsenal shirt (if he signs) will be more important than his journey in the game so far.
He’s a ‘here and now’ player and it’s the here and now Arsenal need rather than an expensive young player who might come good in 3/4 years time. In my opinion of course.
Not all signings have to be bells and whistles or cost in excess of £50 million to be good. A price tag in my opinion should never determine a player’s true value either. If the Spaniard becomes an Arsenal player and forges a great partnership with Declan Rice then it doesn’t matter if he cost the club £10 or £50 million.
Arsenal were so close to pipping Man City, experienced players can hopefully take the team/squad that one step further. More experience within the squad will only help our domestic cup chances too because Mikel Arteta is bound to trust the players he wants in his squad than those who were kind of just making up the numbers.
I read something from Ray Parlour about how Mikel Merino would be a fantastic addition to the Arsenal squad. Maybe, just maybe he sees some of him in the Spaniard. Nothing flash, but an excellent footballer who works hard for the team.
Catch up in the comments…
Morning Rico and all,
I want a player with all the bells and whistles.🤣
Morning Geoff. I don’t. I’d rather players who want to be at the club for the club, teammates and manager. No egos, just footballers.
Just watched the video, am I missing somethink as I don’t think his worth 50 million Euros and his 28 yrs old with less than 80% pass accuracy. I would give him a miss.
Only joking about bells and whistle Rico,
Don’t think he’s being sold for anywhere near that amount Geoff.
I realised by the way…
He joined Newcastle aged 20 and left one year later , no doubt he has matured a lot since then . During his time at Sociedad they have been pretty constant in la liga finishes , ranging from 4th to 6th.
I think that he is more of an Elneny replacement , experienced and steady.
I think he’s a Partey replacement, if he arrives of course.
He maybe experienced, but looking at the video clip I’m not sure he is going to improve us.
Good afternoon everyone
Just read this…..While many of the younger players at Arsenal have previously trained with the first team, for many, the USA tour was the first time socialising with their more senior counterparts. The pre-training gym sessions provided an opportunity for the whole group to mingle.
Reiss Nelson, for example, played table tennis against youngsters such as Ethan Nwaneri & Myles Lewis-Skelly, while Jorginho & Gabriel Jesus made themselves available to talk & provide advice. By the end of the tour, they had bonded as a group. [@gunnerblog]
off to read the post
YouTube isn’t reliable though.
I read that too Devil, it was from Mikel Arteta.
Emile Smith Rowe gone…
I enjoyed reading the post Rico.
Merino, it he plays well to his potential will have the same effect that Gilberto had for us. He’s quiet and not flash. He just does his job
Odegaard has been given first refusal on the number 10 shirt.
I’ve barely seen Merino myself, but all the info I can find says that he’s a mature signing. Experienced, tough, seems to have a winning mentality, has picked up trophies.
Seems he does a lot of little things for his team that contribute, but don’t get noticed by highlight fans.
I expect he’ll be starting the biggest matches for us, Man City, and big champions league clubs we come up against.
Thanks Devil. I think he could do something good with us too.
Partly will go I think. Or else he will be kept for the medium to low matches. If a suitable offer over 20m comes in he will be off
I wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave.
It was a couple of so called “low to medium” matches that cost us the the Premiership title and any chance of a domestic trophy last season. Don’t expect to see Arteta rotating his team selections unless he is absolutely forced to by injury or suspensions.
He should do if he gets the players he wants this summer..
If Nelson and Nketiah go, this is well and truly his choice of players and surely, he and they have to start winning something.
Like Ramsdale’s goodbye message to Smith -Rowe .””“My number 10. Going to miss sitting next to you every day!”
Tongue in cheek or what ?
I saw that, subtle as a brick….. still, it’s true..
I’m like everyone else, I’ve not really seen anything of Merino playing but those in the know all seem to agree that he’s what we need.
One thing I’ve heard about Merino is his ability in the air he apparently has some of the best stats of any midfielder across the top five leagues in aerial duels.
He’s a lefty like Xhaka and seems to have an eye for a progressive pass and also likes a sliding tackle.
At 28 and given his playing style is based it seems more around reading the game rather than charging around, we could therefore have him well into his Jorginho years.
I’d still take Ruiz if we could get him as well…
Rico, I’m pretty sure that we’ll eventually come to an agreement with Marseilles over Nketiah and I hope so as I don’t really want him playing for anyone else in the Premier League.
You go and play in Ligue Un Eddie.
It’s a shame to loose ESR and I wish him the best of luck, but at the end of the day, it’s the best thing for him,
I agree with Kev, that the deal for Nketiah will go through.
I feel sure that Nketiah would have done well had he been given a run of games rather than being thrown on for the last few minutes hear and there. Sadly, it seems that Arteta was happy to persist with Jesus even though he was carrying injuries and by any standards had a poor season.
What would have been better, a fully fit striker who worked hard and scored goals or a player who helped to instill a so called winning mentality in his teammates?
Four o’clock in the morning, 18 degrees and 85% humidity, not ideal conditions for sleeping. 😕
I hope it does too Kev, for his sake. I’d have rather ESR gone abroad too but Fulham at least means he’ll have his family around him.
I bet Saka is sad to see his mates leave, he’s grown up with Nelson and Nketiah…
We have rain Cicero, hopefully it’s on its way to you as well as the fresher air.
Good morning everyone
we have rain here…..sweat rain lol. we are frying. and real rain seems a million miles away. cant even see it with a telescope. too hot…..between today and Wednesday it will reach 40 degrees at some points in time. Autumna and winter cant come soon enough.
25 years ago we signed TH14. We need someone who can break his scoring record ASAP.
It seems that Merino is quite near to signing for us. That will give us a midfield of Merino, Rice, ODegaard with Jorginho, Nwaneri (if Arteta does use him), Vieira and half a Partey (we still dont know if he is staying or going. And Kev is right….to have good quality we do need to sign Ruiz as well. But I feel that to sign Ruiz we need to sell Partey and Vieira, which I cant see Arteta selling the latter. So I am afraid we will remain stuck with what we have in midfield.
Gyokeres to come after Merino??? fingers crossed its him out of all the names being bandied around
Hi Devil, maybe we could take Ruiz on loan as in a years time both Partey and Jeorginho will be leaving, the talk was that that’s what was being talked about initially, but then talk is just that, talk…
I agree with that Kev. maybe we might get him on loan with the obligation to buy like we did with Raya. Personally I prefer that players are outright ours from the beginning, however that seems the way forward nowadays. Buy now pay later…soon we will be having clubs who give the option to buy one get one free if all the sum is paid in full first time around. haha
I believe that if we manage to move PArtey out we will get Ruiz in the way you just said. On loan.
With regards Jiorginho I dont think he will leave after the coming season. I guess he will go straight into Arteta’s coaching team. He already behaves like a coach when playing so I presume that season 2025/26 might see both Jorginho and Cazorla added to the staff. Jorginho already has Uefa A in place. All he needs to do is get the pro licence.
This heat is infernal. its killing me
since I keep complaining about it during summer my name will not be Devilgunner from now but Grumblestiltskin
Arteta has done an AW. The latter said that his team could go a whole season unbeaten. Arteta has said that we need to win all the games (114 points) to win the league. I hope lightning strikes twice.
If we manage to go through a whole season winning all 38 games (impossible imo) all the other teams will have to invest in pain killers to cope with the headache we will cause them because we can make sure we ram it down their throats especially some pundits like horse mouth (GN)
Rico I sent a message which might have gone in spam or in another folder. can you check please….something about someone aka Grumblestiltskin
Morning to you all.
Guys, if you change your name, your comment will go into moderation and could be stuck there for hours.
New post up.