Morning all.
A short post this morning as for a change, I have something other than talking about Arsenal to do. Yes I know, how can that be.
The newspapers and NN headlines are going to town on the club after the redundancy news. Scouts are going, admin staff too and now, it’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles who could be for the chop. I don’t understand this move at all IF it’s true. The same newspapers reporting this story suggest that Mikel Arteta wants to keep him so this is one battle with the board I hope he wins. It’s his squad after all. It’s he who should have the last word.
Why sell a young, very good and versatile player on one hand and then go and sign a 31 year old whose best days are either right now or behind him, on the other? AMN has ten years at least in his legs barring nothing awful happening to him injury wise, yet Willian has two, three at best. This is a crazy idea in my opinion, absolutely crazy.
I’m not trying to suggest Willian wouldn’t be a good addition to the squad should he arrive but at what cost does he come? If it’s AMN then as far as I’m concerned, Chelsea can keep him. Plus, I can think of a number of players who’d be way ahead of AMN on the for sale list. This really is one story I hope goes away, and stays away.
Trouble is, our opinions don’t matter. We just have to suck it up and hope that any decisions the club make don’t bite them on the backside. Like seeing AMN line up against us next season with a cockerel on his chest because that lot are reportedly after a left back. Ancelloti is reported to be interested in AMN as are Brighton.
Less than a week ago, all looked pretty good where Arsenal are concerned. We’d beaten Chelsea in the FA Cup Final having seen off Man City on the way and yet now, the positivity I had, is waning fast. I know one player leaving doesn’t make much difference but it’s more than that. The staff redundancies are rotten, our scouts being part of the package is a worry, especially with that Kia bloke hanging around and I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile we have an extraordinary wealthy owner who remains silent, a board of directors being paid handsomely to make these decisions and number of players almost stealing a salary.
From the outside things don’t look very good. From the inside though, who knows? I guess they must know what they’re doing…
Stan is leaving his stamp on things lol
Silly us thinking he might actually chip in a few bob.
Morning all.
All the board of directors in arsenal/managerial officers,how much cut was taken from there take home,more so if players can sacrifice,they should do more,then redundancy can be meaningful.pls arsenal don’t sell Maitland,it will hunt you years to come
Hi Rico and all Scott like I said before Kroenke wants to fill as many American players in the team as possible so he can say he has a team based in England
Morning Scott. Rico, house.
We know that players must leave to generate a bit of cash. I certainly won’t shed a tear if AMN is one of those to go, rather him than Torriera, and many others. Why?
I can always accept bad performances, and we’ve suffered many from Xhaka, Luiz, even Auba missing very simple chances. But I would not criticize those players for overall effort. In fact I’ve read Xhaka is one of the best trainers.
What I find harder to accept is lack of effort. Lets compare Martinez who trained everyday at home in case he got the chance, and that’s after 10 years of being pushed out on loan. Then AMN, who reportedly was late for training on more than one occasion. Once forgiven, I’d buy a secong alarm! I know that everything we read is not necessarily true, but Arteta had him in the sin-bin for a few weeks, so that does back up the story. If he does go, maybe he should reflect on the chance many would give anything for, but he in a laid back way took for granted. And I still cant get the image out of my head of him ducking from a HEADER (not a 60mph shot at his goolies), and deflecting it into the net.
Know many here will disagree (especially you rico!), and he’s had a few decent games including the final. But I’ll always back 100% commitment from a player, and if he’s among those leaving, I’ll miss some of the others more. Socrates isn’t in Arteta’s thinking, and not a long term CB for us. But he’s never caused problems, always committed to the cause, and showed class recently when handing out medals.
Why are you pretending that maitland niles is any good? He’s one of the most mentally lazy players, low focus and very lax. Time always shows but concerning how you haven’t been able to see that. A couple cup performances can’t pull the wool over my eyes
First of all, hello.
Now then, scouts aren’t part of redundancy scheme as they are fixed term contractors. Liverpool and Man City have been using agents based system for a long time now, look at their achievements/form in that time. Scouting systems are outdated and borderline redundant nowadays. I am glad we are moving towards the model that is more successful and guarantees better players coming in.
Now about AMN, he’s had his fair share of bollocks moments since he’s broken into first team, he has cost us some very important points in the past with retarded plays, red cards, penalties conceded and I could go on and on and on. If we can get £30mil as it’s being quoted, then I’ll take it in a blink of an eye and wish him all the best.
Afternoon one and all, afternoon Rico, enjoy your day, interesting comment Andrew.
Arsenal are currently attempting to persuade Aubameyang to sign a new deal and convince him that the club are ambitious. We know that Arteta is ambitious and I’d imagine that Raul and Edu are ambitious as well, as for Josh, well he might be a bit ambitious but Stan, nah, forget it.
But then Stan is just your average billionaire, tight as arseholes, billionaires become billionaires because they are penny pinchers, that’s how it goes. His focus is Inglewood, end of…
Anyway, Aubameyang, the club need to be ambitious and would love to sell Elneny and Ozil and Mkhitaryan and Sokratis and Guendouzi, but none of them are shifting for various reasons.
The club need to sell to buy and I mean to buy on top of Willian whose already budgeted for I’d guess, so if we want to see Partey in an Arsenal shirt or the Brazilian defender at Lille or Ceballos again then something has to give and unfortunately that might have to be Niles and Nelson. I like them both and want them to stay but as we can’t shift the others then difficult decisions have to be made and Arteta will make them.
Morning all.
Some very good points made already in the comments, but I’d love to know if Arteta really wants AMN to stay or go as that would tell me plenty about the lads attitude moving forward.
Morning Kev, Andrew, all.
Seems I’m in a minority re AMN and that’s fine. I guess we’ll only see what happens if/when he goes. I certainly hope I’m proved very wrong on.
Like I suggested in the post, I guess the board must know what’s it’s doing. Although if that means the club dealing with blokes like Kia etc, lord help us.
Apparently Kia was interviewed and said there were many things at the club which were going to change. I wonder how a) he knows and b) why should he know….?
Hi Geoff.
If AMN wasn’t in Arteta’s plans, surely he wouldn’t have played in the fa cup final.
Quite a few were completely ambivalent about Auba staying not that long ago. There’s a lot of self-righteous nonsense around the fanbase since the glory of the FA Cup I think.
Scott, if Arteta really wants Ashley to stay, and he goes, then I would say we are in trouble. But I can’t believe board would over-rule him.
Like in the Wenger years, only when his book comes out, might we ever learn who made some of the decisions.
If Arteta says off you go then his value drops like a stone . As i posted yesterday we have to perm the home grown against bought in players in our 25 man squad . Selling AMN and or Nelson may bring in cash but doesn’t alter ther numbers . We still have to ship out extrangeros before we can buy any in .
Not here though Adam. People here are pretty consistent with their views I think.
Andrew, totally agree if the board go against Arteta we are in trouble. I never understand why anyone other than the manager chooses who he signs, after all it’s his job on the line.
Rico. 😃yeah, sure.
Adam/Rico, I was happy for Auba to go if, and it’s remains a big if, we reinvest the money on a replacement.
Better to sell and replace than let him run down his contract and I haven’t wavered on that view-same goes for any player, imo.
Seems he may have been playing the game to get an upgraded contract and if he signs, brilliant, but it needs to be sorted out quickly else we could well miss out on a fee and that is a bloody terrible situation for us.
AMN being young and on the way up is a different topic, but he has it all head of him and these are the kids we’ve seen coming through, Arsenal kids who offer hope for the future.
If we sell due to his attitude than fine, but based on anything else I can think of, I don’t get it.
Though Adam, people can change their mind.
You’re Mikels biggest fan now hahahahaha
Well, I hope you’re at least coming around his way 🙂
Oh and no way I want Nelson sold!!!!
Andrew, a Wenger auto-biography will make one hell of an interesting read, that’s for sure.
Scott, I was of a similar opinion re Auba. Trouble is, none of us know what’s really going on at Arsenal. Where the club is heading or what the players are really like in training, attitude etc etc.
I like AMN but why? Maybe it’s because he’s an Arsenal boy but also because he’s versatile. If the club was run like City is, I guess 70% of our players would be sold… but we’re not City.
Currently we have 16 out of 17 allowed with Mhikitarian , Elneny and Mavropanos coming back from loan . Heavily subscribed at the back with Leno , Sokratis , Soares , Mustafi , Mari , Luiz and Kolasinac In the middle Ozil , Torreira ,Guendouzi , Xhaka , and up front Lacazette , Aubameyang , Pepe and Martinelli ( not sure )
So it’s definitely sell to buy but they have to be out of that list.
Cont :- If you want Partey , Coutinho , Willian etc that is. Buy Danny Ings and it’s not a problem apart from the fact we can’t afford him.
Rico, I don’t think anyone wants Auba to go due to what he does on the pitch, that’s for sure.
He’s still one of the very best forwards on the planet.
You’re right, we never really know what’s going behind closed doors and that makes things very frustrating for fans.
I really thought Saka was a massive chance of going but then, he stays and tells us leaving was never in question.
Who knows what’s going on lol
Haven’t Mikki and Mavropanos just agreed loan deals for this coming season? Eleney has given his number to Saliba so I guess he’ll be gone. I’ll be glad when the transfer window is shut but then winter will be close so perhaps not…
How come Saka wasn’t nominated for Young player of the year??
Martial, Grealish, Henderson, Rashford, Greenwood, Pulisic, Mount and Alexander Arnold…. bit bleedin’ obvious who’ll win it!!
Nice post, Rico.. you have other things to do than talk Arsenal 😱 well I never haha…….just kidding with you!!
Ainsley asked to leave in search of first team football… but Mikel wants him to stay. But now about 12 players have been put up for sale if ‘suitable offers’ come in… so we shall see. I’d like Ainsley to stay.. but can see him going. If we got 35m for Iwobi (pre-covid, I know)… then what would we get for him?! And the others…..
And how much longer before Auba’s deal is announced?! Makes me laugh when they report about it being ‘close’.. can’t they find a pen? Has MacFarlane misplaced his camera? Oh come on, we’ve waited long enough!!! 😄
Scott.. the book is out in October!!
The champions league tonight!! City v Real… gonna be a corker!!
Thanks Sue. A bit of hedge cutting before the temperature became unbearable… 😆
Just looked on Amazon Sue …. due out on my birthday!
Ha ha re the pen. Arsenal do seem to like dragging transfers out.
Oooh I bet that was awful, Rico… at least it’s done now though 👍
Afternoon Rico and the House
Very hot down here today and with very little spare time
this is a short visit.
Rico as far as AMN is concerned while Im still around
you are not in a minority of one.
I find it hard to believe that it is 7 years ago that I first saw him
play as a right winger. Then he had the misfortune to
play under Gatting and Larramam as a right back. Its been a struggle for him
since then.
I can say more but wiil leave it at that for now.
Potter you are right about th 25 man squad.
But being in europe creats problems.
(1) Teirney spent his 3years with Celtic and is classified as a foreign player.
In the P/L as well.
(2) As Martnelly and Saliba have not been with us for 2 years
they must be included in the squad as over 21.
However they can play in the P/L as u21 players
How stupid is that.?
Rico many thanks for your great posts look forward to seeing many more
cu latter
Nice one, Andrew…. we know what one of your presents will be then 😉
Hi Rick, I knew you were in the AMN camp. Since the restart I think he’s been really good. Better than Kolasinac that’s for sure but of course, the latter won’t sell for as much as an English player.
Kolasinac when he first came looked so good, and had another spell when I thought … this time. But he seems so slow now, has injury hit him?, AMN certainly is more athletic. I think Tierney on left side with Saka as cover, if we revert to a back four. As long as Tesco is not injury prone. Interesting how many shirts he is selling, people do like a nice guy.
Rico.. did you see that I’m a celebrity are swapping the Australian jungle for a ruined British castle this time? Ooh thermals…..
If Saka covers the full back position though, we’ll lose what he can do further up the pitch. Being in Europe again, having guys like AMN in the squad is important I think. Still, what will be will be.
Sue, Seriously? That should be entertaining and bloomin cold. I wouldn’t fancy that at all.
we keep talking about which players stay or go but my concerns is our goal keepers will we be able to talk both into staying or will one of them ask for a transfer so they can get more game time.
As for AMN I wonder if the selectors are worried he may not be able to cope and fall back into his old ways and their for decided to cash in now before its too late.
In Magic Mikel we Trust!
Not only us that are shaky playing out from the back 😂😂
Hi Rick, with Martinelli injured I doubt that he’ll be included in the Europa squad anyway during the 1st half of the competition, Saliba is an interesting one, does his loan to St Etienne count as one year as an Arsenal player or does the two years start this season?
Seems as if Lucas Torrieira could be the next member of the FACup winning squad to be on the brink of the departure lounge. Napoli were really keen on him last January and in the summer and with Fiorentina and Milan said to be interested it will hopefully push the price up…
The Willian rumour is about to be confirmed. It is now certain that Arsenal will sign him. How do I know this? He is not available for the Chavs Champions League match this evening due to an Achilles injury, and as is well known we usually only sign players who can’t pass a medical. According to his current manager, Frank Lampard, Willian has been carrying the injury for some time. That’s just what we want isn’t it?
We don’t need background staff just agents . Having said that our previous record on buying invalids is not good so the new system doesn’t hasve much to improve on.
This is true as I know for a fact that Arsenal`s previous scouts included one at a leper colony!
There is also talk that a new sponsorship with the NHS and BUPA is in the pipeline.
This time last week I getting ready for an all day visit to DFS!………………thing is they close at 6pm, lucky I was dressed in an all black leather suit to camouflage behind a black leather sofa………..I was nearly sat on twice being mistaken for a pouffe!
nearly sat on twice being mistaken for a pouffe!
Dangerously close to the thought police LC.
It does seem rather incongruous that for a club with a billionaire owner we are hawking ourselves around Europe as poverty stricken . Can’t sign Willian unless MHikitarian is off our books and would have Coutinho if Barcelona pay part of his wages . Must sell English talent whilst overpaid imports block the finances. Gazidis has a lot to answer for , no wonder he jumped ship .
Morning guys, new post up now.