Morning all.
Yesterday the football headlines relating to Arsenal were all about Sheffield Utd rejecting our opening offer for their midfielder Sander Berge. TransferMarket value him at around £17 million but according to a few NN headlines, the player has a ‘get out clause’ set at £35 million. Local newspaper Yorkshire Live reported yesterday that United are willing to accept an offer of £25.8million, with a 10-20% sell-on fee.
Who can blame Sheffield Utd for pushing to get the maximum or best deal for their club? They know their players better than anyone and I think it’s fair to say Berge has been one of the bright sparks in what’s been a horrid season for the club which last season did so well.
Just because Arsenal have been a soft touch over the years when it comes to selling players, it doesn’t mean every other club has to behave in such a way and they don’t. Long gone are the days of signing an Anelka for £500k and then selling him for £20 odd million. To a degree though, that’s not always the best practice because if a club has a great player in their squad, surely the best option is to keep him? However, not always is that possible.
If Arsenal are prepared to sell Willock, AMN, Nketiah, Nelson and Chambers, or any other player for that matter, they really need to get the maximum fee for them. Even if a club offers £100 million for Martinelli or Saka, not that I think Arsenal should sell them of course, think twice, or a third time before saying yes. If Harry Kane might sell this summer for £150 million, Bukayo Saka is worth more, much more. As is ESR. Leno is a German international keeper, he’s better than Kepa so if he goes, stick a £50 million price tag on his name. All pie in the sky figures I know but I’m sure you get my drift. Same goes for wages, Arsenal need to stop dishing out the kind of salaries which then make it almost impossible to sell a player.
Anyway, back to Sander Berge.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NMZqeuh0NfI&t=202s
He seems to have everything, height, speed, ball control and he’s happy to have the ball at his feet and run with it. In other words, barring one or two in Arsenal’s squad, he has everything we lack.
If Arsenal really want him and this story isn’t just the usual transfer gossip which the media like to fabricate, they need to get him sooner rather than later otherwise another club will soon snap him up. Get a deal done before the Euros kick off. The player himself might not want to join Arsenal, although reports suggest he does, but Arsenal are a club on the rise, or at least that’s what I hope so the red and white side of north London could be an exciting place to be.
See you in the comments.
Sorry if this is a duplicate:
Last post I wrote may have got a bit confusing, but hopefully you guys will bear with me a while longer… if we buy Bertrand, then he is a player who plays in direct, power/pace type teams, like Klopps. Assuming Arteta is trying to build a team modelled on Pep, he would not fit.
If we buy Bertrand it will be a strong signal that Arteta either does not want to build a Pep-like team or has no clue (strong words I know) on what players actually fit in the system he purportedly wants. Bertrand is a great footballer, but only works in a Klopp type team – in fact Klopp would be better placed to buy him as a back to Robertson.
We should be getting Alaba on a free, pay him whatever it takes. Along with Aguero. Cavani has proved that senior, elite level players (no Luiz, I am not looking at you, or you Willian) can make a massive difference.
We are seriously facing an existential threat as a football club who have pretensions of getting back to elite levels. Next year Leic, Everton, Villa and possibly even Spurs will be stronger (if they can use the Kane sale wisely) and you know Liverpool, Chelsea, City and Utd will be strong already …
We need to bin Xhaka and buy Sabitzer who is very close to elite level CM IMHO. We should not be replacing Xhaka with Sander Berge, who again looks good in flashes, but cannot last the pace/intensity for full 90 over a tough season. He would be a very poor man’s Rodri (City CM). BTW, if Arteta buys him, then again points to trying to copying Pep model.
Next year, we should be lining up as, (backups in brackets):
Oblak or Gulasci
Hakimi/(Chambers) – Holding/(Saliba) – Gabriel/(Mari) – (Tierney)/Alaba
Sabitzer – Partey (Elneny)
Saka – ESR – Pepe (Martinelli)
Aguero (Balogun/Martinelli)
Sell Xhaka, Bellerin, Leno, Lacca, Auba, Willian, Nketiah and Nelson
If we could get Ben White from Brighton and sell Gabriel, I would do that… Gabriel is too accident prone and Ben White looks quality and is only going to get better IMHO.
I would also be looking to get rid of Pepe at some stage, and if Sterling became available (Foden is going to get better), I would do that deal … maybe he wants to come back to Lon.
That team is a team of proper footballers combining power, pace (Klopp world) with keep-ball, movement and intensity of passing and pressing (Pep world) that will define the next evolution in-
Ahem, sorry about that last bit, getting a bit ranty… need to get that coffee in now.
Raka, I wouldn’t like to see Arsenal pay massive wages to the likes of Aguero who is injured a lot or Sterling – and as had said before, I hope Arteta, if he stays, plays his own style of football with the resources he has in his squad.
‘We should be getting Alaba on a free, pay him whatever it takes.’
Raka, imo, that’s exactly what Arsenal shouldn’t be doing.
Morning RIco. Who among us has really watched Berge with anything other than a cursory glance because Sheff Utd are hardly a riveting team? There was a minor bit of fuss about him a while back but-and perhaps I was unlucky- he looked tall but bang average to me. He is also another injury-prone player. If this and the proposed move for Bertrand have merit then it seems we have learned very little over the recent seasons and that there is really isn’t very much of a plan to re-establish the club at the top, as some of us have long suspected.
Morning Adam, I watched SU a few weeks back on a rainy day and thought he looked quite good. I think I feel differently to you about Bertrand as I can see the logic in bringing him in for a season but obviously not on silly wages etc.
Good morning Rico and all
Another interesting question today. An interesting post as well
RaKa….I love reading your comments. Especially as they are of a good technical level with regards players and which coaching system they fit in…Klopp or Guardiola system. An interesting perspective and a different angle to look at.
Aguero has signed for Barca by the way.
But Gulacsi I like. However I must point out that you need to remember that now UK are out of the EU and that means we have to be careful how many players we sign who are ‘foreigners’. Take that into consideration mate when discussing players. Because that situation is still there.
Would Berge be a good fit?? His size, technical level and speed is quite high. And he is used to the English league now. So yes that would make him a good addition. tbh I prefer him to Bissouma (for reasons discussed yesterday) but if I had to make a choice I would still opt to keep Willock. Its not easy to score 6 goals (5 in consecutive matches) especially in a team at the lower end of the table. If there was talk of Ramsey getting back I hope Willock is given preference to an over 30 has been who is more injured than standing nowadays.
If Berge comes to Arsenal we still need another midfielder if Xhaka leaves. I hope Ceballos never comes back, although as an opponent I would welcome him especially if he performs like he used to do so for us. Elneny, although I love his attitude a lot, is not more than a squad player fit for certain games. We cannot expect Azeez to play regularly…he needs breathers regularly.
……AND…..
…..Imagine Arteta striding out for a press conference with Harry Kane a la AW did with Sol Campbell. Spuddies fans will be mortified and on the verge of committing hara kiri around the world. 😂😂😂😂
Morning Devil, thanks.
I didn’t know that about Aguero. Interesting.
Hi Rico and all lets hope we can do all the selling and loaning out early other wise I can see us rushing at the last minute again to buy players.
Hi Geoff.
People talk about Klopp, Pep and even Tuchel but the team I like watching is Leicester. What Rogers is doing there is really good. What different paths ex teammates Saliba and Fofana (spelling) have taken. One shoved off on loan, the other becoming one of the better central defenders in the PL.
Morning All, yeah Rico I’m not too sure about Berge, he’s never caught my eye and he has a questionable injury record, he’s played 16 games this season scoring 1 goal, last season he played 14 times scoring one goal, so his goal scoring is on a par with Xhaka.
The suggested fees coming out of Sheffield are completely unrealistic, so if Arsenal have made a bid, just let it sit there and see what occurs.
I’m increasingly unimpressed with the players Arsenal seem to target, I thought that Partey was going to be a game changer and he’s not been has he. Don’t get me wrong I like him but I’m not sure that he’s worth what we paid for him.
None of these guys are going to transform us, it would need the club to target 3 or 4 £40m+ players to change us and that’s not happening under KSE.
I’m more invested in our youngsters.
It’s interesting to hear other views Kev.
The principle is the same though, which ever players Arsenal want to sign, imo, they need to get on with it.
Willock, AMN or Berge in midfield, I’d definitely opt for AMN and then Willock.
I’ve been underwhelmed by Partey too. I didn’t know much about him before but from what I read, I thought he was going to be a great addition. He’s hasn’t been. So far anyway.
Kev. Couldn’t agree more. It’s a throwback to the general lowering of expectations we always spoke about.
Rico, I’d say that, given Partey’s partners and some of the bizarre systems he has been asked to play in, he’s been ok. Not great, but not bad. He’s not a one-man midfield and after playing under Simeone and next to Rodrigo and Saul in a fairly defensive team, the Arsenal madhouse experience must have come as a shock. Injuries have cost him and us too.
I expect much better if he sticks around. He can perform at a much higher level.
I get that Adam, but I still thought he’d be better. Second season perhaps he will be.
Rico…..AMN and Willock should be the first preference imo. i have always banged the drum for that and have not changed my opinion. Homegrown is always better imo.
Willock would not be exactly in midfield with Partey. He should be rotated with ESR…..in certain games ESR would begin and Willock be sub and in others it would be vice versa. Because it will keep them fresh and also both have goals in them. Imo much better than Ceballos and Odegaard.
I’d prefer someone better than Willock and AMN though Devil. Willock, although I’d prefer him to someone like Berge, now I know he’s injury prone, can be a headless chicken. I like him but as much as he’s done well at Newcastle, I don’t think he’s the kind of player who’ll help us win the league or even return to the top four.
Domestic Cups at best imo.
I see the departure of Luiz has been confirmed.
Once the season ends on Sunday, Mikel Arteta intends to do a thorough and exhaustive assessment of our season.
With that time to sit back and study the campaign in depth, our manager is certain that it will allow him to build towards an exciting future next term.
“I want to reflect now, in the next week or so when we finish but I’m sure we’ve done a couple of things wrong, 100 per cent now I can tell you that now before going through it,” Arteta said.
“So how am I going to make much better decisions and get the best out of these players and get the best out of this football club and all the resources that we have? I have spent a lot of time and effort identifying critical points to change and then how those changes are going to be made, in which timeframe we could do them and I want to spend time building, creating and with all the foundations that we have in place now, evolving the club and everything in the way that we want to do.
“I want a pre-season where we can work with the players and create. I’m a really creative person, I really want to create and evolve and a lot of the time since I’ve come here, I’ve been determined to make some very, very difficult decisions that I have to do.
“But I want to start doing more and more and more, because the capacity that we have to do it is incredible. I am so excited about that and I see that moment of a lot of change as a big opportunity for our future.
Ceballos and Odegaard do not attack the goal. They “flee” the area as opposed to Willock. If Xhaka leaves, we need at least 2 new players for the midfield. One of the best players at present, is Carlos Soller (Valencia). I don’t know if it’s already in someone’s sights. But it shouldn’t be long.
@Devil: Aguero to Barca? Wow, makes sense for them… reckon he will be a great asset for them.
Besides the friendly vs Rangers we are going to play against Hibernian as well during Preseason. The game is a one off with the JOSH DOIG TROPHY up for grabs. If we win we take him home with us on the coach. LB problem solved.
RaKa……
https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2021/4/20/22392048/sergio-aguero-very-close-to-barcelona-move-report
Adam 11.42, that’s why I’m more invested in our young players, I know it’s not everyone’s thing but I’d rather have seen Nelson given the minutes wasted on Willian for example and as for Berge, he might be good but is he better than Willock or Maitland Niles? I know that Willock, AMN and Nelson aren’t taking us to the next level but let’s be honest, under KSE we aren’t going to any next level, it’s not happening under this Ownership.
Under KSE there is no accountability, we don’t have enough football intelligence on the Board (including both Stan and Josh) and nobody to ask the kind of questions we need of our recruitment and sales?
Kev. You know my feelings about all this stuff. 😀
I do indeed Adam and I’m sure we’ll be moaning about it all summer. 😄
I reckon most of the “” Old Stagers “” see it that way, During GG’s time when he had to rebuild players like Hayes , Groves etc were never world beaters but they played for the shirt and gave it all that they had.
Which is why the supporters of that time remember them for the right reasons.
These transients that we had saddled ourselves with will be remembered too but not for the good ,and buying a journeyman to make ends meet ? I would rather give an Arsenal lad the chance and if it don’t work ? Will it be any worse than the fare served up by Willian , Kolasinac and their like.
Isn’t that the one thing we all want to see Potter, players who play for the shirt and respect the club they play for. Doesn’t matter who the manager is imo, Players should play for the club and it’s fans. And that’s what we’ll get from Willock etc etc.
Sander Berge has played only thirty games in two seasons, that looks like a player who will only clog up the treatment room. No thanks.
That is why I want AMN, Willock and Nelson to be given the chance. I know they are not at the top level but why waste money on other players when we have ones which we know will give their all. And who knows….they might turn out to be much better than Ceballos, Odegaard, Willian, Xhaka etc.
That is one of the reasons why I love Elneny a lot….he gives his all despite his limitations. Grimandi, Silvinho and Garde never let us down did they. Yet they were important for the team…and gave their all.
Across 2 seasons Berge has played in 29 lge games and 3 cup games. Making a grand total of 32 games and scored 2 goals. If they expect 25M UKsterling than Willock is worth 50M at least.
I wouldn’t worry about Berge, seems the story is false.
ROY Hodgson is leaving palace at the end of the season. Could we employ him as an advisor to Arteta?
If Hodgson has any sense, he’ll take up chess…
just read an article were Arteta said some thing like all players with contracts that are due will be resigned if our squad is still too big and we need to cut back then how can we buy new players when he want’s to keep all the players he has.
Geoff, he actually said players still under contract are highly likely to stay, not players who’s contracts are up.
I hope he is playing possum either way 🙂
Morning all.
Unfortunately, I do not think we should hold on to AMN or Willock. They are solid and could develop (especially Willock), but both do not fit into the style of football Arteta wants to play. AMN is positionally not smart enough and even in a WBA team he is getting caught out. Willock is a better talent, but is a direct player better suited to a Klopp type team – although he is not yet at a level Klopp would take. He should have gone to Germany and developed there with a team like Dortmund or RBL for a couple of years.
I fear next year is going to be even harder as everyone picks up top level players from across Europe.
Paradoxically, and it may not seem like it now, but one of the main beneficiaries of the Super League collapse will be the re-crowning of the Premier League as the DOMINANT competition globally. Sure we will consolidate for a couple of seasons maybe, but that consolidation will be global… i.e. everyone reconfirms their business models.
But once the pandemic is over and the fans are back, the entertainment will begin again. The owners know this, the investors know this, the banks know this and the media companies know this. And eventually agents and players will figure this out.
Apart from a handful of clubs in Europe, they will all figure out that the place to be is the Premier League. The EPL will dominate TV revenues as never before as the pre-eminent brand, and the EPL clubs will dominate in the CL and Europa League for years to come.
This availability of talent knocking on the EPL door will see an even greater chance for the likes of Villa, Everton, Leic and even Spurs (if they invest the Kane money wisely) to pick up fantastic players relatively cheaply.
We need to decide where we think we sit at the table: are we still a top 6 club with aspirations of CL? If so, we will need to displace some of them to get back into a top 4 spot. Anything else will see us fall even further behind. Especially, if I am right, and we are going to see an acceleration, not deceleration of EPL spending in 2022 and beyond.
With that in mind, we need to be ruthless and determined to rebuild the squad fast. Finding players that can play in a Pep-lite team is damned hard and EXPENSIVE as they are so rare: Barca have failed to date, Bayern are about to start their rebuild whilst City are fast approaching their peak with this current crop, and will still be on the market for one or two additions.
If we are going to follow a Pep model, we need to ditch players who cannot play in a Pep system and find players that can, and we will need to spend the cash to do it. Hence, getting an Alaba on a free would have been smart. Paying top whack for a CM like Sabitzer would have been the right move… elite players that Pep would buy are very rare, and when they appear – especially on a free – you need to be quick.
The alternative would be to ditch the Pep model completely and switch to the power/pace model Wenger favoured c2004, and Klopp has since taken to the next level… There are MANY more players that can play in a Klopp system than there are players that can play in a Pep system. That way you could keep Willock…
Personally, I would ditch Arteta, ditch Pep model and go get someone who knows power and pace, counter-attacking with a gegenpress… and then buy players who can work in that system.
Right now its a mess…we have a squad of half PEP, half Klopp type players, we have a coach who thinks he wants to play PEP like, but then sends out teams that cannot manage to keep the ball, do not know how to high press and when we do have the ball (around 45% of the time or less) move it so slowly backwards and sideways that we rarely open teams up… unless we get lucky with an individual piece of brilliance… and don’t get me started on giving the ball away. Pep teams do NOT give the ball away. This Arteta team has made it a habit.
Raka, of course Arteta has a half and half squad-its pretty obvious he needs at least another 2 transfer windows to completely overhaul the squad so to say ditch him now makes no sense, imo.
We all knew it’s taken 2-3 seasons so why would we give up half way through?
Yes, we have players who give the ball away, but again, until the squad is completely overhauled……….
Saying that, we’ve got better in that regard as the seasons gone on and it’s our lack of goals that’s killed us, not just turnovers and defensive errors.
Morning All, I think that AMN could fall very much into the AOC camp of footballer. Chamberlain left Arsenal to join Liverpool partly because he didn’t want to play full back/wing back and ended up playing that way for Klopp. His next move will probably be to a Southampton, where as if he’d stayed at Arsenal I reckon that Wenger would have made him into an International wing back. I suspect that the intransigence of Niles will send him down the same path, interesting to see that Niles hasn’t made an England squad since joining West Brom and playing in midfield.
If he’d knuckled down at Arsenal he could have been an England full back now going to the Euros.
Morning all.
Interesting that Big Sam has reported to have told AMN to accept wherever he plays at Arsenal and just get on with it. Maybe playing in midfield will have helped him defensively and he’ll come back a better player both physically and mentally. If he accepts the right back position, I agree Kev, he could really push on. I think it was playing left back which gave him the hump.
Who knows what this summer will bring, with all the talk about the board backing Arteta, a possible takeover etc, Arsenal could look very different next season. Mind you, it could look the same too.
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/05/19/mikel-arteta-tells-porkies/