Morning all.
It was never going to take a rocket scientist or footballing genius to work out who was likely to be left out of our Europa League squad. Of course, it was two players who for whatever reason, has not played much under Mikel Arteta. Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Mesut Ozil. William Saliba has missed out too which might mean the rumours about him heading out on loan have some truth to them. No doubt all will become clear before this second mini transfer window closes in a few days time.
We needed to manage the number of foreign players in the squad because we are only allowed to have 17 on our list. I talked to Mikel about the players who were probably going to be left out and we discussed how to treat that challenging situation. The way we did it was to sit down with the players concerned and to be open with them and I also spoke to their agents. The only way to do that was face-to-face and to clearly explain why Mikel has made that decision. And I think we did it quite well.
For Sokratis and Ozil, they have limited choices if they want to play football this season, accept they might get a call up every now and again as long as they’re not left out of the squad submitted to the Premier League, agree to go out on loan to one of the lower league clubs or come to some kind of agreement with Arsenal about cancelling their contract. Or just continue to train before moving on in January or the summer. What a waste of a year the latter would be. They aren’t the first players to be in this kind of situation and they won’t be the last I’m sure. I don’t think one can blame anyone at the club right now for this situation, certainly not for Mesut Ozil as those responsible for his contract are no longer at the club. It’s his reputation being damaged, by himself.
Arsenal move on. Forward and with players who want to play the game they love. The signing of Willian might feel like Arsenal could end up being in a tricky situation again in a year or two, made with Aubameyang too but there’s a big difference. They are still performing on the pitch, putting the effort in on a match day and obviously working hard in training. The experience and attitude is key to what is a relatively young Arsenal squad. Plus, if Aubameyang scores 20+ league goals, Willian gets into double figures and we finish in the top four, well, priceless I think.
Another older head in the squad is the newly signed Thomas Partey who’s been talking to Arsenal fans:
It’s a great feeling to be part of a family like this. Thanks so much to everyone for the love, I feel so grateful and I feel so amazed to be part of you. I can’t wait to join you guys.
And don’t forget, no Thomas, No Partey!
The others, well, there’s Cedric, Lacazette, Kolasinac, Luiz, Mustafi, Elneny and Xhaka but only Luiz is over 30 years old. Four of whom are likely to leave next summer if not before. Mustafi, Ozil, Luiz and Sokratis. I bet they won’t be the only ones either as Mikel Arteta and Edu continue to rebuild Arsenal.
Many a younger player joined the club this summer including two on deadline day. Ajax winger Joel Idaho and Malmo striker Nikolaj Moller.
I can’t why the name Peter Crouch popped into my head whilst watching this YouTube clip. Lol
Whilst all of the younger players Arsenal signed this summer are said to be ‘joining the academy’ I think we can be confident that if they’re good, they’ll soon be training with the first team. 17 & 18 year olds aren’t considered young anymore, not really. If they are good enough and strong enough, Mikel Arteta doesn’t seem to be a manager who’ll ignore them.
- Omar Rekik
- George Lewis
- Tim Akinola
- Salah-Eddine
- Jonathan Dinzeyi
- Joel Idaho
- Nicolaj Moller
There’s a whole lot of potential in the above list and I suspect the entire group cost Arsenal less than £5 million. Even if just one of them turn out to be a success, that’s money well spent. At least it is in my opinion. I’m sure we all want the club to sign players like Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Partey, Pepe etc because spending big money guarantees success right? No, not always. Spotting them young and helping them to grow into being the the best player they can be must be a great feeling any manager. It’s certainly a sign of a great coach.
My weekend waffle is over, until the next time….
There are many aspects of Arteta’s ideas that mirror those of Wenger. Not so much on the pitch but off it. Wenger used to bring in players to see how they developed , many didn’t make it Svard , Gislarson , Mendez , Wreh , Boa Morte , Stepanovs , the list is endless . But then along came Anelka Kolo Toure , Clichy , Reyes , and Fabregas . Some make it and some don’t .
The list you printed is just that ,they hardly cost much but if 1 or 2 come through it’s worth it . It’s the only way to go if you don’t have the money to buy your way to titles.
Morning Rico and All
We have some top notch players in our squad also a few who could find their feet at the top level mixing in our youngsters with them is I hope something to look forward to.
Those young players we brought in going by the bits I’ve seen are the type that can change games and work for the team the 3 that I’ve seen Akinola centre mid has it all over the pitch
Idaho is a tricky wicky type not afraid of taking on a kicker
The beanpole Moller is the type of player that comes around now and again I love this type over the years we’ve had a couple the great Alan Smith and the best young player I ever see in the stiffs Nicolas Bentner I used to go to Barnet just to watch him toy with whoever he was up against I can remember telling Arsene and Pat Rice who were always about what a player we had and getting a rye smile back from both still have the signed team sheets.
Let’s hope he follows the Smudgers path aye.
Morning all!
Absolutely Potter. We’re not City, Utd or Chelsea. Never have been and I doubt we ever will be.
These younger guys must have something about them but whether they make it to the top is something only time will tell. As well their own commitment and attitude.
Morning Fred, that’s good to hear. I can’t see Merts, Arteta or Edu signing players who didn’t show signs of quality. Moller certainly seems to have a bit about him and as a tall guy, 6’ 3”, i too think of the likes of Smudger, Bendtner etc, but also Giroud who I think would have benefitted from Arteta.
We certainly miss a strong central striker.
Yer just thought The Quiff lacked a bit of pace plus a 90.
Micky has shown what he can do Rico I think everyone’s on board now
Not so sure Fred , We still have those that wanted a big name and of course the Wenger disciples that are still rueing the day he went and blaming the world for his demise waiting to pounce
Reading around the Internet Fred, there are many Arteta critics.
The final day of the market in Portugal ended on October 6th. I believe it would not have been difficult to put Saliba in a strong Club and even Sokratis.
I think Saliba would benefit from an English club. Brentford perhaps or better still, Reading. Yes, I’m biased towards the latter.
Rico the reason why we are not city or Chelsea is our owner is too tight fisted to put money into the club and too many people back him up saying he runs it like a business but every business needs a helping hand every now and then and they don’t ask staff to take pay cuts
You know what Geoff, there is nothing within your comment which is factual. As has been said many times, Arsenal are a self sufficient club. Without CL football and with the wage bill as it is, the club are financially hamstrung.
As for the wage cuts, I really don’t get the big deal being made about them.
Potter/Rico
The Arsenal have many doom and gloomers for sure
I remember sitting up in the west stand one evening game coming out after the game two geezers in front of us one said to the other that Bergkamp effing useless,thought my brother was gonna nut him
Afternoon, good article rico. I thought it was a tricky decision for Arteta who to leave out. But the list I saw included 5 goalkeepers, one who has since gone out on loan. So the exclusion of Sokratis and Ozil was making a statement I guess of who he doesn’t want at club?
Arsene diehards know no different Arsene himself quote “I stayed to Long”
Afternoon each and Rico.
You obviously didn’t read the final comment on yesterday’s post. According to SSN
Edu said that Kronke put his hand in his pot of gold to make up the shortfall to pay for Partey’s release. Sounds like the Syrup was on task, on side and feeling flush, probably as his wife had just got shot of ASDA, for mega bucks! Small change for Stan the man and, of course in good Trumpian style he’ll be able to offset it against Tax😊
Win win!
Wavy. Agreed. It seems we have him to thank for the Partey deal.
Fred, some people are just impossible to please. Sad really.
Thanks Andrew, I read that Arsenal are thinking about ripping up Ozil’s contract, whatever that really means. I guess, buying his contract out.
Afternoon Wavy, yes, plus both Edu and Arteta have been really vocal lately about the owners being right behind them, and backing them in what they’re doing. But of course, that’s forgotten by anyone who has already made up their mind about the Kroenke family.
Exactly why I do not consider them opinions..Rico
Me neither Fred, it’s just negativity for the sake of being negative. There’s so much to be positive about but hey, let’s moan about Kroenke. The very bloke who supported the appointment of Arteta.
Geoff, gotta love Stan 🙂
In all fairness, it’s clear he did chip in to get the Partey deal done and I said at the time that had to have been the case, but let’s see in January and next summer whether sales of players see him recoup that money.
That, imo, makes both sides of the argument half right.
We got our man though, Geoff, and that’s what’s important.
Stan is never going to throw hundreds of millions at the club so accept it and move on.
Things like this situation are where he can help, and should help and he did.
From what I read Kroenke didn’t put cash in for Partey the money came from adjusting the loan repayment Seems to me that a lot of people don’t like me saying my opinion about Stan but they seem very jealous about the money that other clubs have
Geoff, does it matter wether Kroenke put in cash or adjusted loan repayments either way he made it possible for Arsenal to buy the player.
Geoff, I don’t rate Stan at all, but he’s a businessman and clearly said he doesn’t care if the club win trophies, he wants to make money.
He couldn’t care less about the club or fans, but he is what he is so we just accept it and move on.
Whether we like it or not, we can not compete with other clubs financially.
People say I am very negative about our club yet if you read the internet there are arsenal fans all ready complaining about Partey because he had a bad game for his country. Yes it is nice to win the World Cup but at the end of the day you can not judge a player by one game especially when the team is just picked for the country team
You are negative Geoff, most of the time which is your prerogative. Unjustified at times though imo.
That’s what I am saying Scott why is it that others complain about the amount of money other clubs have and that is fine but yet when you say something about our owner others turn on you it seems anything negative about Stan is off limits
I think that suggesting Stan Kroenke doesn’t care about Arsenal or whether the club wins trophies or not is a wrong thing to do. Of course he cares because why else would he invest? Why else would Josh say that he and his family want Arsenal to be a successful club?
Somethings people’s opinion and facts do tend to get muddled. If Kroenke cared only about making money out of the club, why didn’t he sell to Usmanov?
Scott I don’t think you can say Stan doesn’t care about the club, he has invested a huge amount of money in purchasing the shares to give him total ownership. He’s not going to sit back and watch that money go down the toilet.
He had made it clear that all his sports franchises must be self financing.
Had it not been for several bad decisions during Wenger’s final years, allowing contracts to run down, playing ludicrous wages and making some decidedly dodgy signings, Arsenal as a club would have been in a much better shape.
He must be reluctant to allow a similar situation to occur and has taken steps to instal a firmer executive team to oversee the financial and business preparations.
I think we are in a reasonable state and have stability under the Kroenke hand.
Agreed Cicero. I think we’re in a much better place than people give Arsenal credit for. And let’s face face it, bad decisions in the past haven’t helped us but still we’re able to make really good additions to the squad.
Morning Rico and all. I can’t believe we’re still on the Stan thing. We’ve got the best manager we could have at this time in my opinion and it’s not exactly as if they are in abundance. Witness the ‘biggest club in the world’ up in Manchester. We have just bought a player that we all wanted but few thought would happen. We are making moves to get Ozil out the door so he and his attitudes don’t interrupt what Mikel is trying to do. Surely we can all see how the team is shaping up.
As far as I can see, there is real reason to have some optimism at last. Stan signed off on all this. I agree with Cicero. We are in a reasonable state, things are happening and there does seem to be stability with the Kroenkes in charge. To blame a sports businessman for wanting to make money is daft beyond belief.
Morning Adam. Neither can I. Poor bloke gets the blame for everything, unless it’s something good of course..
Morning all..,,,and Rico.
Success, can it be bought?
It can’t have escaped most peoples’ notice that Everton have ascended to the top of the premier tree. Perhaps it’s no real surprise since Usmanov joined his very wealthy mate and former Arsenal would be investor (whose name escapes me) that the toffees have spent a small fortune for some very good players and found a seasoned and highly successful manager to guide their ship to the top of the pile. Meanwhile off the pitch a new stadium and training ground have been planned agreed upon.
At the end of the day it is all about the money, and the willingness of the owners to just pop in a few hundred million or more to make it happen, and Bob’s your uncle!
Just saying really. We shall have to see how well we finish now Kronke has started this year’s Partey and set us up with real hope in our hearts, that the future lies northwards.
Nice day here today. Makes a change😀
Morning Wavy.
I think Arsenal have spent more money this summer than Everton. #justsaying. Lol
Rico/Cicero,
Do you honestly believe Stan bought the club because he cares about the Arsenal, or because it would be a profitable venture???
You both know the answer, as Stan has openly stated he doesn’t buy clubs to win trophies.
I could be wrong, but this is the first time I remember that he’s actually thrown money in to help us buy a player and that’s great, but maybe it’s because he realises he needs to invest to get us back to CL football and thus make an annual profit.
Of course, I do think the money he’s put in will be taken back out once we sell a few players in January or next summer and that’s fine, but let’s not pretend he’s doing things to help us fans.
He is an investor.
And he is a good one.
Adam, we are still on about the Arsene thing, as well.
He will be blamed by some in a decade lol
Scott. I haven’t mentioned the Arsene thing for a while. It’s over now and done.
As a club we’re somewhere else entirely now. Let’s move on, 😀
Of course Kroenke didn’t buy Arsenal for his love of the club Scott, he bought it as an investment. As an investor he’s entitled earn a return on his money and to get that return the club has to be profitable. To be profitable the club has to be successful, that hope of success and profitability became only a dream under Wenger’s final five years of mismanagement.
Kroenke and his advisers made a bad decision, after quite rightly sacking Wenger, by not having a ready made replacement lined up, he compounded that error by appointing Freddie as a stop gap when it was obvious that he was out of his depth. We all know What happened next, Emery! Since then, as I said earlier, he has put a new structure in place and given them the responsibility of running the club.
We shall have to wait and see if the changes bring back success and profitability, but the early indications are promising.
We still make reference to George Graham so I’m not sure why Arsene Wenger would be forgotten. Especially after what he did in his first few years.
I would love to see us all move on from the Wenger fiasco, but the man himself just can’t resist sticking his finger in the pie, this morning he has come out with the opinion that Ozil could still make a serious contribution on the pitch. What alternative universe is the an living in?
Rico, if some of you painted Arsene in a positive light on occasions then fine but be honest, the massive majority of references to him on here are negative and disrespectful, yet Geoff criticises Stan and he’s accused of being sad, of having an opinion that isn’t an opinion, and blaming the man for everything that goes wrongs.
Funny,, but that’s exactly what I say some people do about Arsene.
We should ban both names lol
There are plenty of positive comments made about Arsene Wenger Scott.
Rico, It’s only the final five years that I regret, in his first ten years he worked wonders, then came five years of stagnation followed by five of spiralling into downright incompetence.
Similar for me Cicero. I understood that the stadium had an impact on what he could and couldn’t do as far as transfers go but the false hope he offered fans made him look a bit silly. Wasting the amount of money the club did at the time wasn’t helpful at all.
We should be bloody ecstatic as fans right now.
Let’s look at the future and smile 🙂 🙂 🙂
11.58 Scott. Tell Geoff that. The rest of us on here are looking towards the positive. You and Geoff started the negative Kroenke debate today.
Scott what positives are there to talk about in his final five years? No Premiership titles, no Champions League, refusing to accept £60 million from Man City for Sanchez then swapping him for Mkhitaryan, the Ozil contract and wages I could go on, but I won’t.
Cicero, so you only discuss the last five years of Wengers tenure?
A man who changed the game in England, gave us the Invincibles and you choose to remember that part of his career?
Fair enough.
Rico, that’s true, but it’s myself and one or two others making them hahahaha
Stan stepped up when we needed it last week, and I’m rapt he did it.
I hope he keeps doing it and if so, I will be as happy as anyone.
Scott, the most important decision made by the owners might yet prove to be Arteta. But that gets forgotten far too quickly imo.
Where did Cicero suggest he only discusses Wenger’s last five years years though Scott? He didn’t.
Rico, that’s not true at all.
If you read my comments today you’d see quite clearly that I’ve supported what Stan has done of late.
I’m happy to give credit where it’s due.
Ok Scott.
Scott have a look at my comment at 11.51
Rico the only reason why Stan brought all the Arsenal shares was because the large share holders would not sell to the Russian board member then Stan forced the small shares holders to sell to him and I am all ways negative why have stuck up for players like Xhaka, Ozil, Martinez and even Partey
Is that fact or your opinion Geoff?
Hi Rico… our women are 3-0 up!! 👍
This interlull is so boring, roll on next weekend!!
Hi Sue, excellent. Can’t believe Man Utd women top the league right now.
Rico. Usmanov was never a board member.
Adam, I know. 😂
Rico maybe usmanov was not of been a board member but some of the big shareholders come out them self and said that the promised someone that if they ever sold their shares they would not sell them to Usmanov
Geoff, wasn’t that in the beginning? Initially PHW said the club didn’t need ‘his sort’ referring to Stan Kroenke but once his toe was in, the big shareholders did indeed sell to him. Later though NBS was quoted as saying she’d sold her shares to the wrong man. I think that’s how it went.
I agree that the ownership saga has been done to death. Those who sold out have to live with their decisions. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Shocking, Rico haha!! Finished 5-0.. spot on!
Have you watched much on Netflix lately? I’ve just started ‘Ratched’…. it’s really good!
Haven’t done Sue. Started things but got bored. I’ll have a look at Ratchet, thanks.
The whole board , Dein , Fiszman , Usmanov thing has been done to death . There was a massive power play and the only losers were Dein , Usmanov and subsequently Bracewell-Smith who felt after the event that she had been duped and went on record to say that she regretted the boards decision. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2396845/Lady-Bracewell-Smith-reveals-deep-regret-selling-Arsenal-shares-Stan-Kroenke.html
This was the moment that things started to go backwards for Wenger and he should have resigned then. I do believe that it was a sense of misplaced loyalty that kept him in a downward spiral that he could not escape from. I don’t blame him but like a drowning man clutching straws he could not let go and that tarnishes his legacy.
Unfortunately not so in Fiszman’s case , He bought the whole thing to a head to make sure that Dein could not get back in after he had gone .
When we look back at the period it’s quite possible that we will see the Wenger / Dein period in the same light as Shankly and Paisley or Clough and Taylor. . Once Dein was ousted Wenger was never really the same and for that matter neither was the club.
Agree again. Dein leaving was the beginning of the end really.
Still, Arsenal go on but in a very different way.
Late in the day but a new post is up now.
Let’s give it until midnight 31/12/2020 to discuss the history then ban it all together.
No chance Cicero. Lol