Morning all.
Well, deadline day was disappointing as the much expected winger to replace Gabriel Martinelli never arrived. Our only attacking players with pace is down to two, Noni Madueke and 16 year old Max Dowman. Both who tend to play on the right when selected but as we have seen a number of times, Madueke can play just as well on the left as he can on the right. Yes, I am being ironic. Ismeal Kabia might have been an option but he’s already been shipped out on loan to St Mirren.
Arsenal academy signings:
- Elijah Upson – 18 year old defender
- Habeeb Ogunneye – 20 year old right back.
- Axel Donczew – 16 year old midfielder
- James Scanlon – 20 years old (in a few days) attacking midfielder.
- Igor Tyjon – 18 year old striker
- Phoenix Blayney – 15 year old goalkeeper
This time next year Andria Bartishvili will be at the club, as will twin brothers Edwin and Holger Quintero so Arsenal really are focussing on the future while the present kind of takes care of itself after 2/3 really good transfer windows as well as other signings before them.
A lot of 20 year old footballers are playing first team football these days, some are even younger like Myles Lewis-Skelly, Bukayo Saka when he made his Arsenal debut and others before him. Max Dowman has already had a taste of it, Ethan Nwaneri too and hopefully both will continue to get more minutes this season although for Ethan, those minutes will be in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund. Thankfully though, this loan deal includes a recall option.
The younger players joining this summer will almost certainly start out in the academy but you never know, if we can go on a good run in the domestic cups and draws are kind to us, one or two might get minutes in the first team.
Arsenal have said goodbye to a number of players this summer, the most disappointing for me is Gabriel Martinelli. Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira have both left and Ethan Nwaneri, as said above, has joined Dortmund on loan. Tommy Setford has also gone out on loan to Stevenage. I wish them all well. I wouldn’t bet against Martinelli returning to a European club this time next year.
Has it been a good transfer window for Arsenal? Yes but has it been great? No, I don’t think so but it could have been had we signed a left winger. One minute we seemed to be chasing Vinicius Jr, the next it’s Alvarez and then it’s no one. I fear not addressing our left side will hurt us although I hope I’m wrong. Still, if the club has money to spend, there’s always January. Defensively we are very strong, especially with the addition of Ezri Konsa and with both William Saliba to return. We are just as strong in midfield with Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Bruno Guimaraes. It’s just our attacking unit which concerns me, mind you, we still have Viktor Gyokeres to make an appearance this season. I think it’s going to be a big season for him, Kai Havertz too if he’s going to play up front…
Catch up in the comments.
