Morning all.
Still buzzing over Arsenal putting Liverpool in their place? Sure, me too. Like I suggested the other day, when there’s trophy to be won, the game is serious. The way the Liverpool players sloped off at the soonest opportunity, it was pretty clear they wanted to win. So many positives can be taken from the final. Most of all the way we didn’t go into meltdown after Liverpool grabbed an equaliser late on. Not that long ago I think we would have panicked and crumbled under the pressure the opposition put us under but we didn’t. Totally the opposite in fact.
As far as clear cut chances go though, I think we just about came out on top but worryingly still is the lack of goals from those other than Aubameyang. I know there was no Lacazette or Pepe but even so, good opportunities to score went by. Eddie and then late in the game, Willock really should have done better with his header. At least find the target.
Elneny, Willock, Xhaka, Torreira, even Dani Cellbaos last season, weren’t getting goals. Pepe and Lacazette chipped in, but not enough. Martinelli is ruled out for a few months so we can’t count on him. Guendouzi if he stays, doesn’t get goals and as for he seems to prefer passing to someone else regardless. Counting on Aubameyang to score a bucket load of goals for us is fine because he probably will, but we need more, many more if we’re to beat sides comprehensively. I’m hopeful that Saliba will find the net a few times from set pieces, Gabriel too if we sign him and of course, Willian.
There are reasons to be optimistic for this coming season though as against one of the meanest defences at the weekend, we created many opportunities to score. Saka can clearly play a precise pass, the kind we always expected of Ozil. Pepe will be more settled if he stays and as mentioned, our new signing from Chelsea should make a difference. Even so, our glut of midfield players need to chip in more. If not scoring themselves, then create more opportunities for others. In my opinion anyway.
No doubt every Arsenal fan has seen we’ve been linked with Houssem Aouar by now. £53 million according to reports, a similar fee to what Atletico are suggested to hoping for should Thomas Partey be sold.
Despite having a glut of midfield players, most of them are likely to be saleable should the right offer come in. Elneny and Torreira, possibly Willock and Xhaka too. Definitely Ozil and Guendouzi. It’s great to hear Mikel Arteta say the door is always open for every player to return to the team but I’d be surprised to see Guendouzi at the club after the transfer window closes. The Express suggest a £40 million offer and he can leave.
There was a report in the Telegraph yesterday which suggested that Arsenal are not only trying to secure the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but Emiliano Martinez and Ainsley Maitland-Niles too which I think is great news if true.
After all, all three played a big part in winning both the FA Cup and Charity Shield. I know it’s a team game but their contributions were crucial in my opinion.
I have to eat humble pie. Hands up and admit I got it wrong. Keeping Aubameyang is essential.
Have a great Bank Holiday if you’re in the UK. If you’re not, hard luck.. lol
See you in the comments guys.
Good morning Rico, I too saw the story about a new long-term contract for Emi Martinez. In view of the fact that the player has been making not too veiled threats about wanting regular first team football, it seems likely that he may be offered the chance of a loan deal rather than a permanent transfer, if Leno retains his number one status.
Nice one, Rico! I agree, it’s imperative Auba stays… looked on twitter for news, all they’ve tweeted is 9 years ago today, Mikel became an Arsenal player! 9 years ago today, Coco was born 😊😍
I’m still buzzing over Saturday and have lost count of how many times I’ve watched it!
Sokratis to Napoli is looking likely… as is Holding to Newcastle…
I’m surprised at Van de Beek going to the Mancs!!
Things are on the up, Rico, got a lot to look forward to!!
Hi Rico and all can not wait for this transfer market to close. one minute we want to sell certain players then after one game change of mind we want to keep them, then players have signed announcement soon but still no announcement then you hear that no announcement until we sell players but know one wants to pay the price we want if this keeps up we will have almost the same team as last year
.
our transfer market will read Arsenal in 2 players and 2 assistant coaches, Out 4 players out on loan 55 staff members released.
Roll on the new season
Morning all.
Geoff, we are often guessing as to what’s happening with transfers.
It’s hard to really know exactly who Arteta and co. want to sell and retain.
It’s fun talking about it though 🙂
Morning Cicero, Geoff, all.
I like both our keepers but there’s something a bit more about Martinez. He’s bigger, stronger and the defence seem calmer in front of him, especially playing out from the back.
Thanks Sue. Happy birthday to Coco.
I think we’ll see the exit door busy now. Clear the decks ready to bring in one or two. Securing Auba, AMN and Martinez would be big news I think. Gabriel and a couple of midfielders, send a few younger ones out on loan and bobs your uncle.
Glad I’m not on your page Geoff…
If Arteta arrived at Arsenal nine years ago, so did Merts. What a day of panic that was. Santos joined too didn’t he?
Aww thanks, Rico 😊
I’ll be more than happy with the window if that’s how it goes!
How right you are – BFG and Santos! Santos was awful, wasn’t he?!!
Up there with Squilli and Stepnvos Sue, however the latter spells his name.
Rico I guess I just look at things from another angle to most. It seem to me that every transfer market we seem far to slow to make deals and we give our own players far to much time to sign new contracts we need some one to stand up and make deals ASAP not wait to the final week or give our players so much time that they run their contract in to the final year.
As you say Rico it’s a business and if I was the owner and it took this long to get contracts signed I would feel that the chief negotiator lacks confidence and he would be out the door quicker than he got in.
Hope fully we can just loan a keeper out for 12 months.
Geoff, look at the market in general though. It’s very slow. Only Chelsea have been busy.
No point in stressing over who might or might not arrive. Especially in this weird transfer window where quarantine is a hindrance.
Very weird, Rico! James Rodriguez to Everton 🤪
Let’s hope our days of buying dodgy Brazilians are over, Rico 😅🤔
I have an idea how to keep both our keepers happy.
we use Leno for home Matches and Martinez for away matches for the first half of the season then we swap them around for the second half, so each keeper gets to play half a season in front of the home fans
Coq, yes I did.
Afternoon campers, yes Rico I’m still buzzing after beating them 6-5…
I’d forgotten that it was a bank holiday today, I wondered why the streets were so quiet.
Interesting thing I read regarding Schalke being interested in Martinez, apparently Kolasinac has to drop his salary by 50% and Arsenal still have to pay half of the remaining 50% for the loan to go through. So how on earth do Schalke think they’re going to be able to afford Emi..?
Some of these clubs really need to wake up and smell the coffee – Arsenal aren’t a soft touch in the transfer market anymore!
Brexit is the long shadow hanging over the european transfer market that nobody wants to really talk about in depth.
I mean how is it going to effect everyone? The Europeans rely on the moneystream that flows from the Premier League and inflate their prices so how is that going to change things if that dries up?
I mean, if it’s going to be as problematic to sign players from France or Spain or Portugal as it is to sign players from Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil then why not go for the cheaper South Americans or Africans?
Maybe that explains some of the changes in our scouting network and how they operate because I noticed that Arsenal have retained all of our South American scouts.
Gabriel Magalhães I think he has yet been announced because he has to meet the pandemic period.
It will have an effect on how Premier League clubs can recruit other people from Europe like coaches, physios and all the back up staff.
It will also effect how Premier League clubs can loan players to european clubs as well, work permits etc, especially if they’re British players and if a British club loans a european player to a european club will they be able to get a work permit for that player again when their loan ends?
Prices for British and especially English players will go through the roof although fortunately most Premier League clubs have thriving academies, but nothing lasts forever and the attraction of the Premier League and the finance it generates comes from its cosmopolitan make up. Will it hold onto that interest if it’s made up up of mostly British players?
He can link up with Theo and Iwobi Sue, he’ll like that.. 😆
Afternoon Kev, the maths simply don’t always add up…
I read that the other day too Jm, apparently he underwent his medical in France and is now isolating. True? No idea but certainly makes sense. All the rumours/links with him and other clubs has died so he’s done a deal with someone.
All the time the PL pays the best wages Kev, I reckon overseas players and managers will be in English football. It’s not like they come to England for the weather. Lol
I like the South American players, well, baring Santos.
🤣 Rico.. the thought of Iwobi and he’ll be on the first flight back to Madrid!!
Gabriel spoke to Luiz after the match, saying he was nervous!! That and Auba’s brother hinting about coming to London today or tomorrow…. sheesh!! Has it taken this long to announce something before??!!
😳
Grealish has finally got an England call up!!
What with Ainsley as well, that means I’m actually going to have to watch an England game now!! 🤣
Ha ha Sue, so would I. And yes, England might be on my TV if AMN gets a game.
with all the players going away for international duty what happenswhen they land back ?
Saka , Nelson , Nketiah in the under 23 ‘s ,Amn for England and Tierney for Scotland also losing Xhaka , Pepe and Leno as far as I can work out if they have to isolate
My guess is those whose country are playing in a place which is on the UK isolation list, won’t go. They have the backing of FIFA.
I’m surprised the international fixtures haven’t been postponed.
Mkhi’s gone then… permanent deal to Roma!!
You could put his great Arsenal moments on 3 minute video Sue and that’s pushing it.
Was he the last signing made solely by Wenger without any Raul/Mislintat input?
I won5 miss him one iota…
Good, more money off our wage bill.
Wasn’t it Auba Kev?
Mkhitaryan went for nothing, his contract was terminated by mutual consent. As Rico said, money off the wage bill. He won’t be missed by many.
Aren’t elite sportsmen excluded from the need to self isolate if they are travelling in a “bubble”?
So it looks like things are warming up.On top of Mikhi going Kolasinac wants to go back to Schalke and reports from Spain that Ceballos is on his way back from Madrid also heard that there is interest in Leno from the Bundesliga which might be why we are looking at Brentford’s keeper .
Very happy about Ceballos!
I did reply earlier about Mkhi, but it vanished…
Wasn’t Mislintat involved in the Aubameyang deal Rico?
Apparently Mikhi persuaded Auba to join us after their time at Dortmund
I’ve read that the breakdown in costs, if this is correct, is quite advantageous to Arsenal.
Mkhitaryan agrees with Arsenal to cancel the last year of his contract saving Arsenal £8.5m in salary, also a £2.5m bonus and finally Mkhitaryan and his agent have to repay £1m in fees so that comes to a tidy saving for us of £12m or his value in a transfer fee.
Add that to the £4.5m for Sokratis and saving a year of his salary and we can see where the finance is coming to re sign Ceballos.
We should get a loan fee for a Holding from Newcastle if that goes through and then a loan fee from Schalke for Kolasinac and then a fee for Torrieira or a loan fee with an obligation to buy in 12 months and then if Lacazette leaves we should be in a position to bring in Partey.
Books all balanced and the squad upgraded all this during the Wuhan virus…
Cicero In Australia they put the Aussie rules teams in a bubble so they could play behind closed doors only problem a small amount of players broke the rules by going out to dinner, having a party and one player even got his girlfriend to sneak across a golf course and climb fences so he could sneak her into his hotel room only to be court.
It seems some players are worse than kids
I think it would be better just to cancel all nation vs nation matches until the virus is under control.
Hi Geoff,
We’ve had 2 League coaches fined for breaking Covid regulations-it’s quite incredible!!!
I can not believe anyone is even considering international games in any sport atm.
It should be enough just to have leagues up and running, imo.
Are you getting a bit windy? Scott. England vs Australia Twenty Twenty and one day series starts on Friday. 😉
Cicero, I take everything I said back.
Nothing better than belting your lot 😉
Scott what pees me off, is a lot of people have bent over backwards to get sports up and running and these professional sports players take advantage of it yet people like us have been in lockdown for months and now we have been told that it’s being extended for another 6 months. Some of these sports people need to have a bloody good look at themselves
Morning guys.
New post up.