Morning all.
Rumours linking Arsenal to Dusan Vlahovic have been running for a while now, the latest being we’re pushing hard for a deal to be completed this month although the Daily Mail suggests it would set the club back £150m to do so. No, I’ve no idea where they got that figure from either.
But do Arsenal need him, or another striker during this transfer window?
Also, the club have been linked to a midfielder, from Jack Wilshere, who Mikel Arteta has ruled out signing so far, to Aaron Ramsey and Georginio Wijnaldum, with a few in between. We all have a player’s name we’d like Arsenal to sign I’m sure, but who we’d like and who Arsenal might actually sign is probably very different. Takehiro Tomiyasu who? Talking of our right back, if I were in control of transfers at Arsenal, if I could, I would have done a deal for Nottingham Forest right back Djed Spence before getting on the team bus to go home on Sunday evening.
I digress. The question today is, what position do Arsenal need to prioritise for a signing for this month? A month we’re already a third of the way through.
Very short post today. Sorry.
Soo Arteta took a leaf out of Wenger’s book and threw the FA Cup away. Play a weak side away from home and clear the fixture list for the rest of the season.
It’s a real shame as Arteta gained so much capital with the 2020 FA Cup win. The aim now is clearly very different. I always enjoyed the great FA Cup days out. Those halcyon days down in Cardiff in the early 2000s will live long in the memory.
Tavares has been an accident waiting to happen. Against Everton and Man Utd he was kamikaze. He can’t defend for toffee and shows little interest in doing the basics. He’s young and has time to learn. Not sure taking him off before half time was the best way to deal with the situation, but we’ll see.
Morning Rico and all
We need both, a strong midfielder can control the game but with out a real dedicated striker we will also struggle.
If we can only have one then I am going to show my trust in the defenders and select a striker but would be happy either way.
Vlahovic? Seems highly unlikely. Is he any good? Maybe, maybe not. Very expensive. Has a whiff of Pepe about it.
More likely we will go for a proven centre forward. Tall, quick, good at holding the ball up, and able to net a few. Calvert-Lewin, Abraham, Toney.
Good morning Rico a very short comment Striker.
Morning Cicero, Geoff, all.
I think we need a defence minded midfielder first.
Pete it may not look good taking a player off so early in the game but leaving him on could do more damage than good, it is up to the player to use it as momentum to show everyone that he just had a bad game and learn from it.
Most importantly did Arteta replaced him with the correct player ?.
Pete, I think I’d have left Nuno on until halftime, or pushed him up the pitch as a winger, moved Martinelli to the middle and taken off either Saka, Patino or Odegaard.
Midfield for me , not an artist though. A MIlner , Parlour type. A worker that covers the pitch and is not afraid to bend rules but has the intelligence to not bend them too far . Gilbert O Silva from Ireland if Edu can’t find one in Kia’s bag.
Smith Rowe , Saka , Odegaard and Martinelli all have goals in them providing that they are not playing too deep and Pepe and if he accepts the rumoured offer Lacazette will score too .
If we sort the midfield we sort the team .
Ditto Potter, oh to have a Gilberto kind of player right now.
We have enough creativity to sink a battle ship I think and I’d imagine Aubameyang will return at some stage unless he’s sold/loaned out this month.
On second thoughts a striker without a solid midfield behind him won’t be as effective, so midfielder first.
….although a solid midfielder without a good striker in front of him would be a waste, so both please Rico. 😉
My hope is both Cicero but my priority would be a midfielder.
I still say a proper striker, we can’t keep praying that ESR comes off the bench to score that winning goal. As much as I would like to pick up both, can we afford to buy both in the one window
@Geoff & @Rico Half time wasn’t far away, so he could have left him from the public dressing down. But maybe he wanted to make the point to Nuno that he is in charge.
He was definitely annoyed. Hopefully he will channel it in the right direction.
Pete, Tavares was hooked off at around the thirty-fourth minute, that left eleven minutes plus time added on, usually about three minutes, plenty of time for him to make even more dumb errors.
Get French Football News
@GFFN
· 5h
Most passes into the final third in Ligue 1 21/22 (FBRef):
132 | Bruno Guimarães (Lyon)
118 | Mattéo Guendouzi (OM)
115 | Jonathan Gradit (Lens)
Most progressive passes in Ligue 1 21/22 (FBRef):
122 | Bruno Guimarães (Lyon)
116 | Mattéo Guendouzi (OM)
107 | Lionel Messi (PSG)
I think the back pass threw him and he never got his head round it afterwards. i chipped my keeper once with a back pass it took a week or two before I could shake that off.
Just what I thought Pete.
I don’t know where Vlahovic figures come from, maybe from some imaginative accountant on Twitter or more likely in Sami Mokbals rather vacuous head, in general that poor excuse for a football writer knows about as much as a roll of sellotape.
Tbh the more I hear about Vlahovic and his agents the more I find them unlikeable.
Six minutes of that Cicero would have been with the ball out of play. 😂
Hi Kev, he doesn’t want to join us anyway. If the rumours are true of course..
Tavares is young, he’ll get better I’m sure.
I think there must have been something more between Tavares and Arteta.
Probably is now. 😆
A new Covid variant has been discovered in Scotland, it has been called The Bagpipe virus it’s not very serious but at least you can hear it coming.
Kev.. I’d love to see Guendouzi playing for us again..
Rico, I have to admit I’ve not seen Vlahovic play but from what I’ve read I’m not that keen. It may be agent talk (and we all know what a bunch of bellends they are) but he keeps harping on about how he’s waiting for City or another ‘top club’ to come in for him and has made it clear he doesn’t want to come to us, so I don’t understand why MA is hell-bent on getting him – another ego in the dressing room! If it was to happen it’d be all about the money, money, money and that doesn’t usually end well. I’ve also seen rumours about Calvert-Lewin, sigh, very underwhelming imo!!
Our U21s are currently 2-1 up against the Chavs in the Papa John’s Trophy 👍
Evening Rico and the House.
It’s h/t at the Emirates in a feisty papperjhons Q/F against Chelsea.
Olayanko gave us the lead and then was carred off with bad injury.
Chaves went down to 10 and against the run of play made it 1- 1
Then Bereith made it 2-1 just before H/T
Hutchison is playng in the role of Patino who I hope is watching,
he is showing how he should have against N/F
Its 4-1 now
Evening Rico and the House.
Having lots of trouble posting Rico.
Lost a few comments .
Great game by the boys tonight they are humilating the Chaves
Great result, Rick 👍
I hope we don’t sign him too Sue. Steer from big time Charlie’s imo.
Evening Rick, I found your comment but your usual details were missing so it went into moderation.
Nice to see the Chavs taking a beating.
Ha ha Cicero
Flores is another to watch
It fished 4-1 and could have been more.
In the semi final for the first time
The Chaves had 26year old Lewis Baker in midfield
(u21 compitition ?) He scored against in 2014 .and it was great to see Hutchinson and Flores putting him in his place
Every body will be talking about the goals and celebrationsof Hutchinson and Flores in the next few days they wer fantastic
Kev and Sue, I have been watching Guendouzi the entire season he has been balling, and he doesn’t mind tackling neither. I think a pairing of him and Partey will solve the midfield issues. The best thing is he will cost zero money. He has also been showing a level of maturity and couple with the fact that Arteta has been clearing the locker room of malcontents, Guendouzi will be a good addition.
Vlahovic is not as good as advertised. Hold up play is not strong, he doesn’t have good movement, most of his goal are from 6 yds box unmarked, takes a lot of penalties (he doesn’t miss though). He definitely not the finish product people thinks he is. Isak will actually be better suited for Arsenal.
The problem is, if Tavares had stayed on for another 5 minutes and made a mistake costing us a goal then fans would have blamed Arteta for leaving him on too long.
True fans can see when someone is having a game.
As someone said before did he throw his gloves on the ground in disgust that he was dragged or did he throw them in anger at him self for putting in a bad performance.
Let’s hope Arteta looks at it as a player who really wants to play for us.
Obi, I could well be wrong but I believe, as with Mavropanos, that their loans had an obligation to buy inserted in them so to all intents, both players are as good as gone…
The reason I put up those stats was actually to show how effective Bruno Guimaraes has been so far this season, a player who we’ve been heavily linked with but who could cost an inflated amount to get him from Lyon.
Hey Obi.. I’ve watched Marseille a few times this season and have been impressed with Guendouzi (but then I’m a fan anyway 😄).. I agree with your reasoning and the fact that he’ll cost nothing should speak volumes, but instead we’ll sell yet another decent player for peanuts = the Arsenal way!!
We’ve signed someone!! Er.. a 16 yr old from West Brom – Lino Sousa. Not exactly what I had in mind!!
Good morning all.
I see our transfer lunacy continues this time it’s strikers, Crystal Palace are in negotiations to buy Nketiah and Balogon is joining Middlesbrough on loan.
Newcastle and all that money; and they’re splashing 20m of it on Chris Wood 😱 the world has gone mad!!
He’s a left back Sue, Tavares replacement?
That wouldn’t surprise me, Cicero!
Morning all.
My own opinion is that once Arteta makes a decision on a player, there’s no turning back. I know Guendouzi was a prat at times but I do think Arteta often cuts his nose off to spite his face.
Same with Saliba and even Torreira.
Rico that could be Arteta down fall is that he not keen on giving some people a second chance.
Toreira didn’t like life in London.
Saliba was allowed to head home due to person reasons.
Guendouzi was a complete smart arse.
Let’s not ignore the facts guys.
Toreira won’t ever play for us again, but the other two are a decent chance if they’ve matured which seems to be the case.
We can’t applaud Arteta on one hand for getting rid of the trouble makers then complain he doesn’t allow trouble makers a second chance lol
Scott as you say Arteta is still learning and he will make mistakes, so maybe some players are in the same boat except they can’t handle fame and fortune at a early age and need time to wake up and mature.
I think it was Torriera’s wife , but if she’s not happy , neither will he be.
Saliba Is favourite of the three to return and has been making the right noises which is the direct opposite of Guendouzi who keeps being reported to have been less than complimentry about us.
Marseille must see something in them though as they appear to want Kolasinac too . Are we their feeder club or are they our newest retirement home ?
Hi Rico.. I think Xhaka has been a prat at times also, but he’s the golden boy. I agree with all you’ve said about Arteta
Geoff, I agree with that.
I’m confident Saliba will make it for us.
Guendouzi-again, if he’s gained some humility he could be a fantastic player for us.
Arteta has to be certain they’re right for us which is not easy, but no question people can change with maturity.
Potter yes, you are correct on Torreira.
Agree re your 9.04 Geoff. Sometimes one needs to be the bigger one and look a what’s best for the situation. Personally, I think he’s a bit of a control freak.
Hi Sue, agree re Xhaka and we could add Aubameyang too until his latest cockup. It didn’t matter how badly he was playing, he still played.
Even Saliba criticised Arteta though Potter. I hope he comes back and forms a strong partnership with Gabriel. I’m not 100% convinced by White yet.
Agreed, Rico. He has his favourites, but needs to trust others more…
Whilst their might be some truth to the Torreira being unhappy in England, it’s only media talk as far as I’ve seen and as we know, they don’t like to ruin a good story by telling the truth.
Agree Sue, or just let them leave. I think the way AMN has been treated has been awful. Should have just sold him last summer, and Nketiah. All these guys want to do is play and if Arteta doesn’t fancy them, why bother keeping them.
Afternoon Omicroners, afternoon Rico.
Sue, I get that you like Guendouzi, so did I before he became Billy Big Bollox, he’s a good player but maybe not as good as he thinks he is, I recall that he had some issues earlier in the season with his Marseilles team mates but hopefully for him he’s growing up a tad if not exactly developing some self awareness.
I’m sure we all remember immediately after our FACup win Sue that Matteo pointedly ignored his team mates victory and posted pictures of his holiday – what does that tell you?
It’s quite common among us supporters that when players are long term injured or away on loan that our memories of how average they’ve been starts to fade and we build them up into some kind of Messi type figure who could transform our season, if only…
For example I really like Rob Holding, I’ve always loved his attitude, his fcuk offability to opponents, but I can now see his limitations, especially since I’ve been watching Tomiyasu, White and Gabriel beat it up, we’ve been numbed by watching so many average and past it players in recent years, it’s a gradual thing, it lowers your expectations and you don’t always notice it as it’s happening and we’ve really put up with some very very ordinary players in recent years and hopefully that’s coming to an end and we can see the difference.
Afternoon Kev.
I just often ask myself if some of our players on loan could give more to the team than who we have.
At the moment I don’t care who we get in over the next few weeks as long as they can hit the ground running and fill in the whole in the both midfield and striker
I’m not convinced we’ll sign anyone, there’s only 19 days left. 😆
Jeorge Bird
The interesting thing about the Arsenal academy now is that it’s not just creative and attacking talents being produced, but there are defenders like Norton-Cuffy and Awe who have a chance of progressing. Still a long way to go but there have been some encouraging signs.
RANGERS made an approach to sign Harry Clarke on a permanent basis prior to the Arsenal starlet agreeing his 18-month Hibs loan.
Harry Clarke made 17 appearances in all in the Highlands – and the Premiership champions were impressed.
But rather than do business with the Gers over a permanent deal, the Gunners’ answer was a flat no as they opted to farm the star out again at Easter Road instead.
His 18-month loan in Edinburgh includes two break clauses, which can be triggered by Arsenal either in the summer or in January 2023.
Hmm I’m not sure about that Rico, I mean who would you drop for Guendouzi or who would you drop for Torrieira or Mavropanos, I mean there’s usually a good reason why a player is on loan, it’s either to gain experience or to be in the shop window, the clue is usually what clubs are interested in taking them on loan or signing them, but hey, it’s good to talk… 😄
The academy seems to be working better under Merts.
They’d have been handy for the Cup games Kev.
I thought Hibs wanted Clarke on a permanent deal..
Rico if we don’t sign any one then Arteta has no one to blame if we struggle the rest of this season
I have always believed that there are two sides in all stories , Davis was insulted by Cockerill , Maclair started the famous points deduction spat , Van Nistelrooy cheated to get Vieira in trouble and Keown’s famous reaction and a combination of Silva’s dive and Attwell’s bias and inefficiency did for Gabriel most recently .
Had Guendouzi and Arteta handled things differently I would think that he would have developed and be ahead of Xhaka now and be first pick next to Partey .
As Kev said I too like Holding and I believe that he has his place in the set up .but Torriera and Mavropanos were Mislintat signings and I think that the new regime seems to hold that against them.
We should also remember that Wenger used to bring in young players that had the prospects but never worked out . Svard ,Mendez , Boa Morte ,Vela , Inamoto to name a few off the top of my head.not all work out and maybe Tavares and even Lokonga will fall into that group too.
In my opinion for too long we have cast our net far and wide but now it’s good to see that we are looking at keeping hold of the prospects that won’t make it with us. Ballard , Clarke , Nelson and many others , not all will make it but we need to get out of the habit of letting them go too cheaply .
We could have got £20 million from Palace for Nketiah but now will only get a development fee and the price for Maitland Niles ? that’s one side of our negotiation team that needs to sharpen up.
Depends if there’s money Geoff. There must be some if we as a club can afford not to sell players.
Good points Potter.
Surely Arteta knew whether or not the likes of Eddie or AMN were in his plans last summer. £30 odd million for the pair might have got us a midfielder.
Lazio, Nuno Tavares di nuovo nel mirino. Ma serve una cessione translates to
Lazio, Nuno Tavares again in the sights. But a sale is needed.
from Gazetta de la sport
Taking into account what we said earlier , I wonder if Immobile fancies a move ?
Can’t see Tavares leaving already.
Arsenal in talks with Juve for Arthur Melo apparently. According to all the back pages that is.
Have we been here before with Arthur Melo?
His profile describes him as a versatile midfielder who can play as a deep lying playmaker, a box to box midfielder, a central midfielder and an occasional holding midfielder. Jack-of-all-trades? Master of how many?
I thought the name rang a bell.
Yeah, I get that about the cup games Rico, yes there definitely seems a more business like feel to our academy these days under BFG.
I have said for a while that I feel Arteta doesn’t like AMN for some reason. maybe it’s something that he see’s in him during training who knows,
but just let them go on a good note with an option to buy back if new club wants to sell.
My concern is the longer we string them along will other young players want to stay or take off the fist chance they get.
ACON Referees more of a joke than the premier league, no extra time, match called full time when still have over 5 minutes left lets hope there refs never come to to the premier league.
Maybe they should follow the Aussie rules and have an official time keeper and take the responsibility off the the match ref.
‘morning all.
Balogun has signed on loan for Middlesbrough.
Arteta may be forced to bring back Xhaka after his bout of Covid…if he’s fit enough. Lokonga had a right mare in our thrashing last time out at Liverpool and gave away the ball that lead to the Forest goal that dumped us out of the FA Cup last Sunday. Pairing him with young Charlie Patino again, in midfield, looks like a recipe for disaster.
This transfer window is already looking shambolic.
Morning all.
Arsenal certainly haven’t shown any intent in this window that’s for sure. I thought they’d have signed a midfielder by now.
New post up now