Ozil confirms he wants a new challenge. OX off & Fulham flop set for Arsenal move?

Morning all.

Mesut Ozil, one of the best players we’ve had at Arsenal for a while, well, him and Alexis on the attacking front. Ok, Alexis hadn’t produced the kind of football he did last season but perhaps that’s down to his busy summer, little to no preseason and then playing a few too many games when he needed time to rest…

Some suggest Alexis has been found out, defenders know that when he plays on the left, he always cuts in to the right and he’s become very predictable. That may very well be the case and maybe that’s why he’s been playing on the right of late. Maybe Arsene Wenger has been trying something new. Maybe.

I’ve always thought Walcott is best played on the left, but hey, what do I know but he seems to do better there than when playing on the right, not that that’s difficult….

I digress, back to Mesut and he’s promised to change his ways. He no longer wants to appear sulky and disinterested. He wants to show the fans just how much he cares about them and his game by changing his demeanour on the pitch…

“My goal is to make sure my body language is right.”

“When I make a mistake, I get annoyed and you can tell from my body language. But these days I try to make sure that I don’t do that any more because in football you can make mistakes and play a bad pass.

“It is more for the fans, the people who watch the game, [rather than team-mates], because they might think that I’m not fighting any more.”

Stay annoyed I say and  just keep playing the way he does and maybe one day he’ll he have a striker ahead of him who will bury a lot more of the chances he creates for the team because who really cares what his face says? It’s what his feet does which matters…..

Lot’s of talk in the media about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He’s being heavily tipped for a return to Southampton. OC has not really progressed since arriving at the club a few years ago and to be fair, injuries have hardly helped his cause. On his day he can be great but like Walcott, those days are few and far between. Apparently Southampton are prepared to dangle the ‘vice-captain’ role under his nose in order to tempt him away from North London.

In other gossip, Arsenal have been linked with a summer move for Fulham striker Kostas Mitroglou, who is currently on loan at Benfica. Having been awful at Fulham, he went on loan to the Portuguese club and has turned his career around by scoring 22 goals in 39 games. He’s caught the eye of Arsene Wenger, according to A Bola, who claim an informal enquiry has been made with Fulham. 7 million Euros would be enough to secure a deal apparently….

I do wonder who makes this stuff up….

76 thoughts on “Ozil confirms he wants a new challenge. OX off & Fulham flop set for Arsenal move?

  1. Intolerant Kev says:

    I’ve got it on good authority ( Stan and Lee ) that the club is gonna ‘go big’ in the transfer market this summer…

    Back here in the real world, It’s a beautiful sunny day in London Town… ?

  2. rico says:

    I honestly don’t believe AW would be so stupid, not after the banners etc this season. If he’s staying and doesn’t make a few changes in the summer, he’ll know they’ll be far more banners, protests and abuse imo….

  3. rico says:

    I reckon he’ll sign a few Kev, but not necessarily ‘go big’ in financial terms…

    Lovely day here too, summer is just around the corner….

  4. Hell Raising Devil says:

    Brozivic thrown in the mix as well.

    Coquelin, Elneny, Xhaka, Kante, Wanyama, Brozovic.

    Soon we will see a white bearded MErtesacker shouting “Though shall not pass”, while banging his walking staff.

  5. rico says:

    I’m waiting to see if he stays or not first…

    Off out in the garden to get a few jobs done in the sun..

    Catch up later…

  6. Intolerant Kev says:

    Coach, did you read the rumours of Dan Crowley getting called into the senior squad for the remainder of the season…

  7. Hell Raising Devil says:

    yep. read them Kev. I honestly believe that AW will buy one maybe two (in my dreams) big game players but will fill the rest with players from within…….Iwobi, Toral, Crowley etc.

  8. Intolerant Kev says:

    Seems that way Coach, although I’m sceptical about the level of the supposed ‘clear out’ of players…

    Blimey, if he gets rid of 10 and we have a few injuries the U18’s will be playing…

  9. rico says:

    He won’t get rid of ten Kev, just the thought of having to spend money on replacing them would see Wenger and Kroenke break out in hives…. 😉

  10. Obi says:

    Morning All:

    Arsene staying or going to me is not the Biggest issue. Arsene will not be Arsene if it wasn’t for Silent Stan, Ivan “the horrible” and the Inept Board. Leadership is missing on and off the field, especially off; in theory, Arsene has no “boss”. Part of Arsene earlier success was because he had a “boss”. The current players position by position are good enough to win the league – even with the inffective tactics, favoritism and lack of motivation, we have manged to be top 3 all season – if he reported to someone these deficiencies would have been corrected. As Lee has pointed out so many times, while buy Ozil and then short change him. But if Ivan was doing his job he would have demanded that a proper striker be bought. While I think the max for a manger in any sports is 10 years; however, whoever comes in will have no boss and certainly not the influence of Arsene, since all the top mangers are off the board now, that could be an even bigger problem.

  11. rico says:

    Both Lee imo.. Kroenke may have given the nod for Ozil and Sanchez, but bearing in mind how little he’d parted with before then, so he bleedin should…

  12. Obi says:

    Rico, he says he wants the club to go forward but he doesn’t follow it up with any action. He talked more than any one last year about how we are ready to buy World Class players, and we are still talking about it.

  13. Obi says:

    And there in lies the problem Rico. I do not think that many Chief Executives will stay if s/he wasn’t down with the program. Why be in a position if you are not allowed to do your job….as you put it “little power”.

  14. rico says:

    Maybe he’s waiting for AW to leave Obi because that might be where the problems lies. Wenger has far too much power at the club, when what he should be doing is worrying about the on field stuff only.

  15. Intolerant Kev says:

    Obi, Wenger rules the roost because he delivers the minimum of CL qualification for Kroenke, who isn’t interested in anything other than the bottom line…

    Gazides is a good CEO but is hamstrung by Wenger having the final say and that’s because Kroenke allows that situation…

    Blame Wenger.
    Blame Kroenke.
    But don’t blame Gazides.
    Imo, may I add…

  16. Intolerant Kev says:

    Remember his different things were when David Dein had influence and a say over Wenger…

    Thanks to Fiszman and Hill-Wood we lost Dein and gained Kroenke…

  17. potter says:

    Thanks to Fiszman and Hill-Wood we lost Dein and gained Kroenke

    Lot of truth in that although the deaf , dumb , non thinking and blind will tell you that D Dein introduced him first.

  18. Lee says:

    Potter, it’s that time of the year again, I’m on my son’s rugby tour in Norfolk (Searles in Hunstanton) this weekend…..

  19. Obi says:

    Well lets just hope that after last night PSG will get rid of Blanc and go after Wenger… he might leave for PSG to save face. Kev and Potter, I agree that the majority of the blame lies with Kroenke; the guy doesn’t spend with any of his teams: Rams #29 out of 32 NFL teams in spending, Denver Nuggets 25 out of 30 teams in the NBA and the Avalanche 24 out of 30 in NHL with $8.5M under the salary cap……………….

  20. almaria says:

    Rubbish Arsene Wenger is the best. on what he has had to manage on, would fergie or any one else got us repeatedly in the top four, and he hopefully will now have the money to spend, although worried about the american owner Stan whoever just trust in the best manager ever

  21. rico says:

    Psg won’t pay Wenger £8 million a year though…. Who would…. Lol

    I’m off guys, have a WI meeting…

    Chat tomorrow, nighty….

  22. Micko says:

    Simone, leading by example from the front tonite !
    Pep, very lucky as well, still unproven !
    Arsene, anyone just pass me the sick bucket please !

  23. scottfromoz says:

    Micko, oh he is proven.
    Proven to do no better and no worse with world class squads.
    Luckily, he’s taking a plunge going to a low budget mob next bahahahahahahahaha

  24. Intolerant Kev says:

    Would it not be ironic if Pellegrini won the Champions League in the season he departs the Etihad..?

    Personally I hope he does, otherwise I can see ManCity finishing 3rd and Arsenal in 4th…

    I think that Arsenal aren’t gonna finish any higher than where they are.
    That’ll mean no St Totteringham Day, but then I wonder what that is all about anyway?

  25. Intolerant Kev says:

    I don’t like Liverpool, I’m quite clear about that, but I hope they win the Europa, as it’ll help the English co-efficient, which’ll help Arsenal…

    Not that it makes any difference in the end as Wenger is hopeless in europe, he could never in a million years produce the kind of result Simeone produced for Atletico…

    And anyway, Arsenal were hopeless in europe before Wenger even arrived. We just don’t have a tradition of european success.
    It’s not as if Arsenal ever go into a season and remotely look like they might succeed, unlike ManUre, Liverpool, Chelsea and even the Spuds who all have a far better record and expectation of success in europe…

    Morning All

  26. Lee says:

    Simeone would of won the PL with this current Arsenal squad imo.

    He also probably would of strengthened the squad in the summer and not sat on his hands like le washed up one!

    Oh to have a pragmatic forward thinking manager again!?!?

  27. Lee says:

    “Arsenal were hopeless in europe before Wenger even arrived.”

    George Graham might have something to say about that Kev!

    Arsenal have been shit in Europe under Wenger imo.

  28. allezkev says:

    George Graham was our best manager in europe Lee, that’s clear, but even he fcuked up, Benfica….

    We had Don Howe in charge (in terms of coaching and prep) in 1980 but still lost to Valencia on pens.

    Real Zaragoza was a fcuking joke as was Galatasaray, then blowing it in 2006, I’ll never forget that gut wrenching evening…

    We could never do what Liverpool did to AC Milan or the Mancs did to Bayern, were more likely to fcuk up against Winterslag or Monaco or Fiorentina…

  29. Lee says:

    “Simeone can replace Costa, Arda, Courtois, Miranda, etc and knock Barca out the CL while Wenger still hasn’t replaced RVP.”
    – @the5thofficial_

  30. Adam says:

    Morning Rico and all. Barca blew out last night. Ath. Madrid are more Chelsea in the early Mourinho days than any other, but they are bastards to play against. Skilful but with a murderously mean and cynical defence.
    I see that overrated Pep made it through though.

  31. Marshall says:

    Hi all, yesterday’s UCL match I heard the commentator say the team represent their manager. And the manager’s influence is mirrored by how his players are fighting for him. Atleti players fought for Simeone… Shows how tough and influential he is to them.

    Our club, is soft and weak. A clear representation of the manager.

  32. Marshall says:

    Even the obsolte Van Gaal was more pragmatic than Wenger yesternight as he held on to a 2-0 lead. We are in shambles

  33. Lee says:

    BUT the manager is the closest thing to the team…. surely Stan didn’t chose to play Sanogo vs Bayern or rely shit injury prone players?

    Or royally fuck up winning this year’s PL?

    Wenger is the one that won’t spend the money, he is holding us back.

    Yeah Brudder the vastly overrated Pep is through as is Simeone yet back at the underachieving Arsenal our season is over…..pretty much like the last 12yrs!

  34. Lee says:

    Wonder if Griezmann earns £140k pw?

    Wonder if Simeone earns £8.5m p.a?

    Wonder if the Athletico wage bill is £190m plus?

  35. rico says:

    Not denying that bit at all Lee, but as I keep saying, an owner with ambition would not have given him and new contract and certainly wouldn’t be contemplating giving him another in a years time…

    What if the two young Nigerians prove to be great footballers? What if City or some other club had snapped them up and they are real gems? Wenger would be slated then for letting them slip away, as he did Lukaku.

    I don’t care about youngsters signing, I really don’t, as long as the first team get’s signings too but they don’t, and that’s the biggest issue for me.

    And of course what AW does each training session and match day with who he does have….

  36. Lee says:

    I definitely care about signing youngsters, when we don’t sign the quality established players required to better the current squad…..

    Surely Wenger should have some self esteem, take some pride in what he does for a living (a fucking great living) NOT act like a complete ungracious, arrogant, self opinionated prick?
    The bollocks he spouts on a weekly basis is tainting my love for Arsenal, he makes us a laughing stock…. and supporters still back him? Fucking Mental.

    Kroenke should sack the specialist in failure.

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