Morning all.
Football in Russia is drawing to a close. The semifinals take place on Wednesday when England, yes, England face Croatia and France take on Belgium. Who’d have predicted those four teams getting as far as they have eh? France yes, maybe even Belgium but England and Croatia, probably not. There seems to be a lot of bitterness on social media about how lucky England have been, how their path to where they are now has been easy, certainly easier than the top half of the draw. Hard to disagree with that but it’s not England’s fault that other countries have flopped is it? All they can do is beat the team in front of them because the rest is out of their control. Croatia should be tougher than any side they’ve come up against so far although against Russia they were far from being a team to fear. My money is on a Belgium v England final this coming weekend.
A coming weekend which sees Arsenal open their preseason with a friendly against Boreham Wood. I believe there are still tickets available if anyone is interested.
It’s a busy day ahead for the Arsenal medical team apparently as both Torreira and Guendouzi are rumoured to be flying in to undergo medicals before signing up to become Arsenal players. Torreira has been linked to us for a while now but the move for Guendouzi came out of the blue over the weekend. The N’Zonzi stories won’t go away either, only now they include the tale of Sevilla wanting Granit Xhaka as part of the deal. Unlikely I’d say considering he’s not long signed a contract extension. West Ham and Everton want the French midfielder too according to this mornings headlines. Jean Seri artived in London yesterday and as we’ve been linked to him all summer, the question is, is he heading to us or Chelsea. Has to be the latter surely…
Love the way the official website is covering the preseason training with photographs and videos being published each day. It looks tough in this heat but by the time the new season kicks off they should be fit as fiddles. It’s good to see Unai Emery in the thick of it all too and not just standing on the sidelines with a whistle in hand and a ball under his foot. He’s in there and at them as he introduces his own new methods. Must be refreshing for the players to be doing something new, something different and they certainly seem to be working hard. In one photo though, Mustafi looked like he was ready to thrown up, bless him.
The jury remains out on the German central defender, actually that’s not quite right because all I’ve read about him across the Internet is negative which is hardly surprising considering his performances in an Arsenal shirt but there’s something about him I quite like. He’s strong and doesn’t shy away from getting stuck in but his positional sense is dreadful. Emery and his coaching staff might change that and part of me hopes they do before giving up on him. He’s not the quickest I know but if he can adapt his game and starting position, he’ll be a whole lot better. We’ve all commented on how players, players who looked darn good at their previous club, regressed under the previous manager after being at Arsenal for a season, so if were right, Mustafi and Xhaka for that matter could so easily improve. If not then fine, sell them, but imo, there are a few at the club who deserve that chance to be coached by a team of people who might actually get the best out of them before being dumped on the scrap heap. Coach them instead of leaving them to get on with things despite those things costing us valuable points each season.
But the more players in, means one or two, if not more will be leaving but isn’t it refreshing to see players joining the club before selling?
Finally, the ‘sign da ting’ saga goes on with Aaron Ramsey and it’s been suggested by the media that being given the captains armband might just seal the deal. Can’t see that being true as he’s been there and done it with Wales and didn’t last long.
I’ll leave you this….
Have a good Monday guys, it’ll soon be Friday again…
they want Xhaka’s brother
Morning all and thanks Rico.
Officially confirmed by Ornstein ! 🙂
https://twitter.com/MesutOzilClass/status/1016216707101351936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1016216707101351936&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.caughtoffside.com%2F2018%2F07%2F09%2Farsenal-to-seal-torreira-and-guendouzi-transfers-ornstein%2F
Just think we cou;ld have had two Harry Maguire`s for the same price as Mustafi ! 🙂
Not from the piece I read Alan.
I saw that too Lc, what does he know though…nlol
‘morning Le Coq, Two Harry Maguires? Double the dose of clumsiness? They’d be tripping over each other all the time! 😎
I almost forgot, thanks for the post Rico. 😉
You don’t need to thank me Cicero…
Morning Rico and all. Guendouzi looks an interesting player from those clips. Long stride and an eye for the through ball.
Nothing on .com.
……Bernd Leno will wear no. 19 for the coming season, it looks as though Cech is staying…..at least for now.
Afternoon Adam. A mini Luiz 😉
Jacks an ‘Ammer now then…
Ospina must be going then, Cech to help the younger keepers perhaps..
Rico. Yes, it’s all change at the Emirates. If Wenger was still in charge I wonder where we’d be in the transfer market? 🙂
Still pondering I suspect Adam.
Just goes to show where the problem was eh? Or perhaps is was Stan Kroenke being tight… 😉
Oh yes. The Stan thing. I’d almost forgotten. 🙂
Wenger would most likely still be commentating on the WC and talking bollocks.
Adam, don’t you mean the European Championships !
Micko. I might do. I haven’t watched enough games to know. 🙂
Hello everyone. Its been very long. I don’t want to lie the Wenger era had made me lose passion for soccer totally. I even stopped watching the league from my country, it was really bad.
I’m very optimistic about next season. Our transfers are timely and inspiring. I’ve seen pics of the boys hitting the gym and the floor hard (see what I did there). Hopefully watching them play will be fun again. COYG
Very true Adam, especially with France still in it. I suspec5 he’d talk about how he nearly signed Mbappe…..
I know how you felt Mabo, I suspect most of us felt the same. For the first time in yonks, I’m looking forward to a new season..
Rico. That whole mindset always confused me. Wenger seemed to think that, the fact he ‘nearly’ signed all these players who went on to great things, somehow reflected well on him.
It confused me too Adam. I thought it made him look quite stupid.
🙂
Without a shadow of doubt Arsenal have the greatest team ever of players Wenger nearly signed including the clumsy looking Maguire !
Evening all.
He could have had Vardy too, if he’d played his cards right! He could have provided a new axis with the ponderous Maguire. Ah, what could have been!
Thus far I’m quite enjoying our new found buying power and our new acquisitions. There have been just so many of them! Back in good King Wenger’s day we would have been delighted with one new player who was added at 11.55 on the final day of the TW. How things have changed, can only hope for the better.
Time will tell.
Sun just going down over the yard arm. More exciting weather etc tomorrow?
No news on signings.
Boris gone, come back Nigel Farage, your country needs you.
………good night to you all. 😴
I’m super excited about the new season… interesting to see if it was the tyrant Stan that was holding us back all those years!
I think we can already see who was to blame Lee. 😉
I see Arsene Wenger is now bragging about how he persuaded Ozil to reject PSG to sign for us… Tsk…
Morning guys.
New post up.