I am AA’s 2nd oldest contributor (behind JC who is our non writing elder statesman). I’m also an eternal optimist and I see more good than bad in our team, management and club.
Arsene and Arsenal come under a lot of criticism; the Red Tops compete for readership with their fictitious and often outrageous headlines about our club, management and our players. These headlines are fodder for the more gullible supporters who in turn repeat the “stories” they have read and they get repeated so often that they become “Red Top” folk lore.
It’s a seemingly endless cycle and now we are into reading and hearing all of the pre-season doom that is being spouted about our lack of transfers etc – even though we are only 18 days into a 63 day transfer period.
So I thought about a few what if scenario’s.
- What if we sign no more players in this window?
- What if we sign players late in the window?
- What if we go a season with no injuries?
- What if Arsene extends his contract?
- What if Arsene does not extend his contract?
- What if we only finish in the top four?
- What if we finish outside the top four?
- What if we only win the FA Cup?
- What if we win nothing?
- What if we change ownership?
I will offer my opinions during the day.
GunnerN5
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Oh dear I just thought of an 11th What if…….
What if nobody comments? 😦 😦 😦
1 Unthinkable
2 Acceptable
3 Unthinkable
4 Acceptable
5 Unthinkable
6 Acceptable
7 Unthinkable
8 Acceptable
9 Unthinkable
10 Acceptable
Was the symmetry planned GN5
Its a good post GN5 and I hope you don’t mind me saying but I like the change in direction; that’s not to say, I didn’t like it before I just like what is happening now.
As LB tip toes into the minefield and slowly tip toes out.
“Arsenal have made a bid of about £2m for Bolton Wanderers defender Rob Holding, reports BBC Radio Manchester.”
This has got to be a smart signing but I had to laugh at the amount.
Arsene finally pushes the boat out.
Could be a good signing we need a “holding” defender.
1. Same old useless transfer policy
2. be better than signing no more
3. won’t happen but we could win the league if so
4. I will cry (thanks but time to go)
5. the right thing to do as have gone stale
6. the normal
7. possible if no more signings
8. its a trophy
9. we’ve got used to it
10. Great, get someone who wants to win things
Oh hooray. I don’t have to see my horrible old post anymore
Thanks GN5
I can’t go through one by one right now, but love the LB symmetry 🙂
To put my hopes and aspirations in their simplest form, it’s about entertainment.
I really don’t care who the owner is, manager, players (unless they are born and bred Gunners), trophies (although they are good things, and the FA Cup big one) but exciting games, exciting footballers and goals are imperative
Thanks LB for your comments, my stance on my club and manager since AW was signed has not changed; nor have my feelings towards the embittered folks who spout doom even this early in the summer transfer window. But I have mellowed in my reactions to their nonsensical mutterings.
In brief I agree with your 12:27.
GN5
You have to admit it’s just the tiny weeniest bit doomy for the goalfest armchair purist 🙂
Boy, it’s hot.
Cheers, GN5.
So many imponderables to ponder. 🙂
Way overdue a slider, but then again, that might ruin the nice footbally chat
I lie low
MD89,
I am an unabashed supporter of Arsene and Arsenal at the start of each season my hope is that we win everything we play for – just the same as every loyal fan would. However I don’t start throwing inane criticism at our manager and players when things go wrong.
I love the game of football and I fully understand that we will win games we should have lost and we will lose games we should have won – that happens to all teams.
If I only gained enjoyment when we won trophy’s then i would have been disappointed in 52 of the seasons I’ve supported our team – as we have only won trophy’s in 18 of the past 72 seasons.
MD89,
Like all supporters I get upset when we lose and fail to win championships that were seemingly in our grasp but I will never throw our manager into the fire over circumstances that are outside of his control.
I just deal with the outcome differently than those that beat the drums of doom.
There is one statement that answers all those questions and it’s simply this:-
‘we are still the Arsenal’
Transfers or not, we should still get behind the boys and look forward to an exciting season of ups and downs. I day we should enjoy Arsene’s good and bad points whilst he is here as it will be a sad day for football in this country when he leaves.
Btw, I still think we will sign a Worldy in this window.
All good points GN5, however, my fear really is that with the big clubs money has changed all good old fashioned values over the last 20 years, and I don’t like it.
It is so much a results based business, and I use the word business as opposed to sport
There can be no doubt that it’s a business Micky but the reality is that it always has been – it is just a dramatically more lucrative business than it ever has been – and that causes issues.
Herbert Chapman paid 10,24 pounds to Bolton Wanderers in 1928 for David Jack – that was a huge amount of money 88 years ago – so not much has changed really.
What if I killed the blog?
then you won’t be the first one 🙂
1. What if we sign no more players in this window? – I will support Spurs next season
2.What if we sign players late in the window? – better late than never
3.What if we go a season with no injuries? – I will grow another arm to applaud Wenger
4.What if Arsene extends his contract? – I will support Spurs next season
5.What if Arsene does not extend his contract? – I will grow another arm to applaud him
6.What if we only finish in the top four? – I will support Spurs next season
7.What if we finish outside the top four? – I will support Spurs for 2 seasons
8.What if we only win the FA Cup? – better this than nothing
9.What if we win nothing? – I will support Spurs for 2 more seasons
10.What if we change ownership? – I will grow another arm to applaud Kroenke’s exit.
what I would like is Wenger signs for 1 more year, splashes out to finish on the high and we indeed win the League, and maybe more 🙂 happy dayz 🙂
Ha ha ha Eddie
Best answers so far, and by some margin 🙂
Although, weren’t you going to switch to West Ham?
was I? yes, you are right. Ok, I’ve changed my mind again 🙂
But I think my wishful thinking will become reality – last season, ruthless spending, finish on the high, AW gets big send off and fans get a long awaited trophy. Fault this for logic, ey?
Cheers Gn5 🙂
We worry too much and also believe too much in the God of new signings. We know from the Manc clubs that spending loads on shiny new stars is not necessarily the way to success. I am looking fwd to Akpom, Theo and Iwobi, and possibly Sanogo, playing in attack at the start of the season. If Wenger believes they are ready the who are we to ask for new players?
Sit back, have a glass of fine wine and let the preseason commence. What if we are top of the league after five games and Ollie, Alexis, Mesut, Rambo and Koz are set to return? 😘
Great response Eddie 🙂 🙂 🙂
TA, You are a man would like to meet for a drink and have a sensible chat about Arsenal, we seem to think the same way.
Cult morning is it, Chas?
Fine by me
Star of David is such a weird thing. Sends out so many mixed messages. Are you a Mason, Jewish, Occultist, Magician or just slightly lost mixed up goth searching for your own truth? 🙂
Technical question
Presumably Clubs have to name/register their first team squads before the season begins, so how does this tally with the window closing at the end of August?
My question was promted by looking at the AFC site, and I was looking for Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who is still listed as an Academy player. I was hoping he’d be promoted.
So, next question, can Academy players turn out for the seniors in the League Cup for example?
do you know what? I couldn’t care less about Jeff Reine-Adelaide. The name is all wrong to start with. What’s that with double barrel names, trying to look posh?
Anyway, it seems that Juve are not going to pay £78.5 release clause. We are the only contenders now. Is he really £78.5 good??? Is anybody? how much for Messi?
Micky, the squad list of 25 players (over the age of 21) is only a PL requirement. You can have more players (even over age) on your books and play them in the cup competitions if you so desire.
The PL also has a list of U21 players that you need to register, but I think players can be added to this at any time (Might be wrong about that)
The preliminary squad list is submitted to the PL before the season, and the final squad list after the window has shut. The list can be changed and re-submitted in the January window.
Excellent, thanks Shard
Just remember really liking what I saw of Jeff. Hope to see more of him in the warm up games.
Eddie
Despite supply and demand stuff, there is absolutely no way Hig is worth 78m, but still could be the only serious quality striker available to anyone this summer, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he went for 50m
I have made up my mind about my preferred striker (realistic option).
It’s that guy from Toulouse. Wissam Ben Yedder. I think he’d be great for us. Apparently West Ham and Leicester are after him, and he could go for as little as 10m euros because he’s out of contract next year.
Little risk at that price, and he looks like he’s calm in front of goal and can finish with either foot. He can also score from free kicks. More than anything, what I like is that he isn’t really flashy. He can do the tricks and flicks, but he seems efficient. See I’m an expert at gauging players on youtube 😛
Backup option, Bacca.
I think they’d be better for us than Higuain, and that money can then be spent on buying Mahrez or another goalscoring wide forward.
hm, there is not way AFC would pay that kind of money. It is crazy. We will probably have to do with cheap Ollie again
Eddie
Assuming Ollie needs a post Euros rest, there is an opportunity for someone to seize that spot and make it their own. There’s also an opportunity for Arsene to try a different kind of set up.
I guess the likely candidates are Sanchez, Theo, Akbomb and Sanogo
akbomb 🙂
The pleasure would be mine, GN5 🙂
B.t.w. We rented an apartment in the Black Forest last week and one of the previous guests also came from ‘your’ London Ontario which made me think of you of course. 😃
What’s the cure to signilitis? …. Preseason footie 🙃
Question to all of you – maybe an idea of a post:
In the current squad:
– Who would you offload on a sale?
– Who would you loan out?
Morning All
Disappointed with transfer business so far. Good to read we have signed two promising youngsters.
Italian papers (never the most reliable) are stating that AW has offered Giroud plus 40m for Higuain. Seems unlikely.
I am so upset that:
– Vardy would prefer Leicester to Arsenal
– Kante would prefer Chelsea to Arsenal
Where is our attraction?
Love the cat vid. Top quality
Recruits so far:
Xhaka – Midfield
Asano – Forward
Holding – Defender
Arsene said we needed three field players – imagine if we stopped purchasing with that line up of a recruit 😦
PSG:
Trapp – Aurier, Marqhinhos, T.Silva, Maxwell – Verratti, Krychowiack – RECRUIT (Reuss or Draxler maybe), Ben Arfa, Di Maria – Cavani
Areola – Meunier, D.Luiz, Kimpembe, Kurzawa – Rabiot, Motta – RECRUIT (Saul or Insigne or Fekir maybe), Pastore, Lucas – RECRUIT (Milik or Lacazette maybe)
We are most likely to sell Matuidi
I think PSG will be a team hard to beat but not next year. I think we will struggle next year but in 2017/2018, we will probably be in the final of the Champions League…
if we keep Matuidi, Verratti will play as Nr. 10 which would make us even more solid…
Krycho – Matuidi
Verratti
Ben Arfa Di Maria
Cavani
Try to break that team…
This should tidy the game up.
………………………………………………………………………………………
Plans designed to reduce “intolerable behaviour” by players and managers in English football have been announced.
In a statement, the Premier League, English Football League and Football Association said poor conduct has reached “unacceptable levels”.
Starting this season, red cards will be issued to players who confront match officials and use offensive language or make gestures towards them.
Behaviour within the technical areas will also be more rigorously enforced.
Not one player has been sent off in the Premier League for insulting or abusive language towards a match official in the last five seasons.
But Premier League chairman Richard Scudamore said there has been concern “for some time” that players have been “overstepping the mark”.
“It is our collective position that these types of behaviour should no longer be tolerated,” he added.
“Things happen in the heat of the moment during fast and highly competitive football. We still want to see the passion fans enjoy and demand, but players and managers have to be aware there are lines that should not be crossed.”
Offences which could earn players a yellow card
◾Visibly disrespectful behaviour to any match official;
◾An aggressive response to decisions;
◾Confronting an official face to face;
◾Running towards an official to contest a decision;
◾Offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures towards match officials;
◾Physical contact with any match official in a non-aggressive manner;
◾A yellow card for at least one player when two or more from a team surround a match official.
New red card offences
◾If a player confronts match officials and uses offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures towards them;
Physical contact with match officials in an aggressive or confrontational manner.
I want to be optimistic about the new rules, but lack of rules and guidelines has not been the problem, as much as those rules and guidelines being interpreted and implemented inconsistently.
If the new rules are applied consistently that will be great, but if some players/teams seem to get special treatment then it will be just more controversy and drama.
Hopefully it’s a success, and leads to less abuse at all levels of the game.
so no yellow or red card if a player slaps the annoying usually incompetent little so and so. That’s good
I will be the first to admit that I don’t know too much about the prowess of a lot of football players. I watch mostly PL and CL games so I don’t get to see a lot of the players on a regular basis and therefore it’s difficult to express an opinion.
I read a lot about us lagging behind in the current transfer market – but not knowing all of the players I cannot see where.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
ARSENAL
INS: Granit Xhaka (£33.8m, Borussia Monchengladbach), Takuma Asano (undisclosed, Sanfrecce Hiroshima)
OUTS: Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky (all released), Isaac Hayden (£2.5m, Newcastle)
BOURNEMOUTH
INS: Lys Mousset (£5.4m, Le Havre), Emerson Hyndman (free, Fulham), Nathan Ake (loan, Chelsea), Lewis Cook (£7m, Leeds), Jordon Ibe (£15m, Liverpool)
OUTS: Lee Tomlin (undisc, Bristol City), Glenn Murray (loan, Brighton) Tommy Elphick (£3.6m, Aston Villa), Jayden Stockley (free, Aberdeen), Sylvain Distin, Stephane Zubar, Josh Carmichael, Josh Wakefield, Mason Walsh and Jon Muleba (all released).
BURNLEY
INS: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£2m, Charlton), Nick Pope (£1m, Charlton)
OUTS: Joey Barton (free, Rangers), Matt Gilks (free, Rangers), Luke Conlan (free, Morecambe).
CHELSEA
INS: Michy Batshuayi (£33m, Marseille), N’Golo Kante (£32m, Leicester)
OUTS: Stipe Perica (£3m, Udinese), Nathan Ake (loan, Bournemouth), Nathan (loan, Vitesse), Lewis Baker (loan, Vitesse), Joao Rodriguez (loan, Santa Fe), Charly Musonda (loan, Real Betis), Mitchell Beeney (loan, Crawley), Reece Mitchell (free, Chesterfield), Marco Amelia, Tika Musonda and Kevin Wright (all released).
CRYSTAL PALACE
INS: Andros Townsend (£13m, Newcastle), Steve Mandanda (£3m Marseille), James Tomkins (£10m, West Ham)
OUTS: Dwight Gayle (£10m, Newcastle), David Gregory (free, Cambridge), Emmanuel Adebayor, Reise Allassani, Andreas Breimyr, Marouane Chamakh, Connor Dymond, Spencer Forte, Matthew George, David Gregory, Brede Hangeland, William Hoare, Christopher Kettings, Adrian Mariappa, Patrick McCarthy, Oliver Pain and Christian Scales (all released).
EVERTON
INS: Maarten Stekelenburg (undisclosed, Fulham)
OUTS: Tim Howard (free, Colorado Rapids), Aidan Graham, Tony Hibbert, Leon Osman, Steven Pienaar, Felipe Rohde, Jindrich Stanek and Jordan Thorniley (all released).
HULL
INS: Jonathan Edwards (free, Peterborough),
OUTS: Max Clark (loan, Cambridge), Ben Clappison (free, York),
LEICESTER CITY
INS: Ron-Robert Zieler (£3m, Hannover), Luis Hernandez (free, Sporting Gijon), Nampalys Mendy (£13m, OGC Nice), Ahmed Musa (£16.6m, CSKA Moscow)
OUTS: N’Golo Kante (£32m, Chelsea),Joe Dodoo (undisc, Rangers), Andrej Kramaric (undisclosed, Hoffenheim), Jacob Blyth (free, Motherwell), Kyle Bailey, Jack Barmby, Dean Hammond, Aaron Hassall, Michael Kelly, Keenan King, Paul Konchesky, Jonathan Maddison, Harrison Panayiotou, Mark Schwarzer, Max Smith-Varnam and Ryan Watson (all released).
LIVERPOOL
INS: Sadio Mane (£34m, Southampton), Loris Karius (£4.7m, Mainz), Joel Matip (free, Schalke), Ragnar Klavan (£4.2m, Augsburg)
OUTS: Jordon Ibe (£15m, Bournemouth), Martin Skrtel (£5m, Fenerbahce), Jerome Sinclair (£4m, Watford), Jordan Rossiter (£250,000, Rangers), Joao Carlos Teixeira (£250,000, Porto), Tom Brewitt, Daniel Cleary, William Marsh, Ryan McLaughlin, Alex O’Hanlon, Kristof Polgar, Jose Enrique, Kolo Toure, Samed Yesil (all released).
MANCHESTER CITY
INS: Ilkay Gundogan (£20.3m, Borussia Dortmund), Nolito (£13.8m, Celta Vigo), Aaron Mooy (free, Melbourne City), Oleksandr Zinchenko (undisclosed, FC Ufa)
OUTS: Seko Fofane (£3.8m, Udinese), Jack Byrne (loan, Blackburn), Charlie Albinson, Martin Demichelis, Nathaniel Oseni, Sam Tattum, Richard Wright (all released).
MANCHESTER UNITED
INS: Eric Bailly (£30m, Villarreal), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (free, PSG), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£26m, Borussia Dortmund)
OUTS: Ashley Fletcher (free, West Ham), Oliver Rathbone (free, Rochdale), George Dorrington, Nick Powell and Victor Valdes (all released).
MIDDLESBROUGH
INS: Viktor Fischer (£3.8m, Ajax), Bernardo Espinosa (free, Sporting Gijon), Marten de Roon, (£12m, Atalanta), Jordan McGhee (loan, Hearts), Victor Valdes (free, Manchester United), Antonio Barragan (undisc, Valencia), Alvaro Negredo (loan, Valencia)
OUTS: Jonathan Burn (loan, Kilmarnock), Rhys Williams (free, Perth Glory), Luke Coddington (free, Huddersfield), Jordan Jones (free, Kilmarnock), Jonathan Woodgate, Damia Abella and Andre Bennett (all released).
SOUTHAMPTON
INS: Nathan Redmond (£11m, Norwich), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£13m, Bayern Munich).
OUTS: Sadio Mane (£34m, Liverpool), Victor Wanyama (£11m, Tottenham), Graziano Pelle (£13m, Shandong Luneng), Juanmi (£2m, Real Sociedad), Jason McCarthy (loan, Walsall), William Britt, Kelvin Davis, Gaston Ramirez (all released).
STOKE CITY
INS:
OUTS: Steven Sidwell (free, Brighton), Yusuf Coban (free, Hoffenheim), Mark Waddington (loan, Kilmarnock), Benjamin Barber, Edward Dryden, Bobby Moseley, Ryan O’Reilly, Peter Odemwingie, Petros Skapetis and Mason Watkins-Clark (all released).
SUNDERLAND
INS:
OUTS: Emanuele Giaccherini (£2m, Napoli) Danny Graham (free, Blackburn), Martin Smith (free, Kilmarnock), Wes Brown, Steven Fletcher, Mikael Mandron, Liam Agnew and Steve Harper (all released).
SWANSEA CITY
INS: Leroy Fer (£4.75m, QPR), Mike van der Hoorn (undisclosed, Ajax), Mark Birighitti (free, Newcastle Jets)
OUTS: Alberto Paloschi (£5m, Atalanta), Eder (£4m, Lille), Raheem Hanley (free, Northampton), Kyle Bartley (loan, Leeds), Oliver Davies (loan, Kilmarnock), Matt Grimes (loan, Leeds), Daniel Alfei, Kyle Copp, James Demetriou, Stephen Fallon, Alexander Gogic, Henry Jones, Lee Lucas and Gareth Owen (all released).
TOTTENHAM
INS: Victor Wanyama (£11m, Southampton), Vincent Janssen (£18.6m, AZ Alkmaar).
OUTS: Christopher Paul (free, QPR), Emmanuel Sonupe (released).
WATFORD
INS: Jerome Sinclair (£4m, Liverpool), Christian Kabasele (£5.8m, Genk), Isaac Success (undisclosed, Granada), Juan Camilo Zuniga (loan, Napoli).
OUTS: Miguel Layun (£4m, Porto), William Byers, Josh Doherty, Joel Ekstrand, Uche Ikpeazu, James Johnson, Javion Martin, Ayitey Mensah Jnr, Thomas Simpson and Mac Young (all released).
WEST BROM
INS: Matt Phillips (undisclosed, QPR)
OUTS: Callam Jones (loan, Accrington), Victor Anichebe, Samir Nabi and Stephane Sessegnon (all released).
WEST HAM
INS: Manuel Lanzini (£9.4m, Al Jazira Club), Toni Martinez (£2.5m, Valencia), Havard Nordtveit (free, Borussia Monchengladbach), Domingos Quina (free, Benfica), Sofiane Feghouli (free, Valencia), Gokhan Tore (Besiktas, loan), Ashley Fletcher (free, Manchester United)
OUTS: Stephen Hendrie (loan, Blackburn), Elliot Lee (free, Barnsley), Antonio Brown, Alexander Chambers, Nathan Mavila, Lawrence Nasha and Martin O’Brien (all released).
Great list GN5
We’re still outspending City. That is good news for spending fans 🙂
Mmmm, off to the cinema shortly
It will be quiet, so reckon noisy Maltesers could be a goer. Nice. Box of.
Fat Sam!! this country is regressing
I honestly don’t mean to be contrairy here but I think that Aladyce is a really good choice. Finally we seem to have realised that the standard of the England football team is on a par with something like Sunderland and as such why not get someone who knows how to work with a team of that standard.
What would be the point of getting someone like Jurgen Klinsman (that is just an example) an air fairy, flowerly type who would’nt know how on earth to deal with lower level football which England’s national team has become.
I am quite excited to think they may have actually got someone who might know how to deal with the shower of shite this country’s pride and joy really is.
Allardyce or Bruce.
Hmmmmm, neither have ever won anything.
Perfect for the England job.
Blimey, I have just seen in GN5’s comment that Richard Wright has been released.
I had to Wiki it, I am shocked that he managed to continue getting paid by an EPL side for so long.
Still angry that he let in that late goal at WHL by Sherwood I think.
hahaha LB @ 8.37, what a great analysis, and who’s to argue! 😀
Wenger, Conte, Klopp, Guardiola, Mourinho………Continentals
Allardyce…..English
Perfect fit really 🙂
Ha ha, I guess it’s not surprising I agree with LB given we both refused to watch England with their vile fans sometime in the ’80’s
I see Erik was around
Spooky really, as the film I saw last night made me think of him
About an Amazonian shaman, and while about cultural destruction, also showed this chaps use of rare plants for skooby dooby trips
Here’s a pick of South American Erikamakate 🙂
https://vice-images.vice.com/images/articles/crops/2016/01/07/the-new-film-embrace-of-the-serpent-conjures-a-forgotten-indigenous-vision-of-the-amazon-1452186262-crop_mobile.jpg?resize=*:*&output-quality=75
damn, no pic
Prime minister sorted, football manager sorted, so now it is just the Labour leader and AFC manager left for this summer 🙂
No idea how you Englishmen can say that Fat Sam is a good choice for such prestigious job?! Ok, at least he is consistent, never won anything and will not disappoint
I saw the photo micky, strange. What is it?
Allardyce as England manager, well that kind of sums this country up at the moment in all aspects …… backward looking and thinking a bit of passionate rhetoric is better than a calm considered plan.
Our transfer business bothers me little, I’ll still support the club.
What I think some miss is the fact that Arsene is always planning ahead, defenders like Chambers and Holding are rarely signed by our financial rivals. There’s a reason why these youngsters are better off at Arsenal, look at Powell’s signing and exit from ManUre to understand in full, highly rated youngster at Crewe leaving with no contract after being bought for a fair sum of cash.
We need young players to complement the 25 named players we also need homegrown talent, I wouldn’t mind gambling that some of our older homegrown players will be exiting THOF soon.
Eddie
It’s Amazon Erik
Clearly 🙂
the naked geezer? how lovely 🙂
hello GiE! No, we don’t need any more teenagers. Very few of them made it to the starting XI, waste of money if you ask me. How many youngsters are recruited every year and how much does it cost to keep them there for several years? And it can take years before it becomes obvious that they are yet another expensive mistake.
I’d say if you put all the money spent for 10 teenagers you could buy one proven player and avoid all the hassle with bringing him up
I was thinking about referees clamping down on bad behaviour of the players. I wonder when will we see punishing refs for their shocking performances? It is crazy that they get away with complete incompetence game after game, and go to work as if nothing happened.
Diversification is the risk mitigation strategy used by stock traders. And by football clubs.
You invest in a bit of everything. If the ‘market’ is low, you can buy established stars, no problem. But look at us, or even other clubs now. They have the money, but they simply can’t get the requisite talent for it.
100m+ for Pogba, and 320k p/w? Tell me how many young players that would be worth? And what are the odds that one of those young players would turn out to be Pogba (while the others would be sold on for some value too) The chance is more than good. How do I know? Pogba WAS one of those kids.
I think Sam will bring some energy and hunger but nothing else to be honest…The guy has not managed any world class players neither has he won trophies as a player or as a coach.
I hope that Sam has the good idea to get a backroom staff with experienced players and winning technical staff.
I would take Seaman – Ferdinand – Scholes or Lampard – Shearer
as part of the backroom staff. They said they wanted to help, they had successful carreers, played under the best coaches and did rather well for England.
To be honest – I was surprised that Pelligrini was not even in the running.
shard -” Tell me how many young players that would be worth? ” What does it matter that you could get 1000 youngsters for that money if none of them is any good. It could be a complete waste of money. But if you pay for Pogba the results are more or less guaranteed.
Like I said Eddie. Diversification. It’s not one or the other. If you buy only youngsters, you lose out, because there’s more ‘volatility’. But if you buy only top stars, a more ‘stable’ investment, you lose out on the return on investment, meaning your money isn’t doing as much as it could for you.
Buying youngsters, upcoming mid-level players, and established stars. A team needs to do it all.
You don’t invest in just one kind of asset to form a good portfolio. Simples.
Eddinski
Pogba is undoubtedly a very talented player but where would we play him and who would he replace? Would we put Rambo or Ozil on the bench for him, or a fit Jack? Don’t think so.
Bailly – Pogba – Mikhtyrian – Ibrahimovic ALL JOINED A MAN UTD TEAM THAT WILL NOT PLAY THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
Kante joined Chelsea with no Champions League.
Both teams had recent national and European success. It seems that we cannot attract the big names anymore:
– Sanchez wanted out of Barca
– Ozil wanted out of Real
oth these players are great but they wanted a guaranteed spot in the squad and chose Arsenal…
They chose The Arsenal..
So did Cech and Xhaka and Euro tournament-11 player Rambo. 🙂
When people say Arsenal can’t attract the big names anymore. Can someone tell me when exactly Arsenal attracted the very best players in the world?
And if you’re discounting Ozil and Sanchez, then you must discount Bergkamp and Henry because both were pushed out of their clubs Inter and Juve respectively.
Arsenal do not (and should not – at this time) operate on the same model as ManU and ManCity and Chelsea. They have more money than us. If we’re competing ONLY on the money, we’ll lose every single time.
Instead Arsenal operate based on players who fit the system, are relatively unknown but upcoming talents (if we can get them), and above all, who want to play here. Our self imposed salary cap seems to be around 150-160k/wk. We’re not paying 250k to Mkhitaryan or a 35 year old striker who isn’t the sort of player we need anyway.
This is just the financial reality. We still got Ozil and Alexis, and Cech and Xhaka, and Cazorla before that over the last few years, so we aren’t doing too badly.
TA – I don’t want Pogba, I am just trying to belittle the youth projects.
shard – I don’t agree. If you play it safe and have a few youngsters and not-the-best experienced player you will always have mediocre results. You don’t accumulate if you don’t speculate. Either buy the most expensive player and sod the youth project, or concentrate on youngsters and invest the lot in them. Each way you may get very lucky with almost guaranteed results from the expensive player.
the safe approach doesn’t work for me, not appeal there whatsoever
Buying the established stars is actually the ‘safe’ way. As you say, less risk. But it is also unsustainable. Even City and Chelsea with their unlimited funds, don’t follow the galactico model, and they invest heavily in their academies. Regardless of whether they use the players right now or not, having that procession of talent is important for their future growth.
Anyway, Arsenal are doing it my way Eddie, so there 😛
Thanks for the post GN5. Sorry I haven’t got the time to answer each point individually but a more general opinion based on some of the comments.
I do to a degree agree with RC78 that our attractiveness right now to the best established players has significantly reduced. personally I think last summers transfer window put some nails in our coffin. We put the handbrake on the progress we had been making in developing a team that could seriously, and regularly, challenge for the EPL and ECL.
I feel this has damaged our reputation to some degree and could turn out to be a bad error of judgement. Last summer was the time to strike (no pun intended) for that top striker. We procrastinated and it is now costing us.
Further I feel both Ozil and Sanchez have moved from being convinced about Arsenal’s ambition to being very uncertain. They don’t seem to be extending their contracts and are likely watching what AW does before committing. That means a stellar addition is likely required to appease them that we can challenge. Other clubs likely know this and in this years madly competitive TW (as oppose to last years) we can be held over a barrel.
If players like Ozil and Sanchez don’t like what they see and agitate for a move and we have to let them go, we will not only have to still find what we need right now but also cover for their departures. This all against the backdrop of us portraying an image of not being able to keep our top players thus further denting our reputation as an ambitious club that the top players should seriously consider.
I don’t think we will manage to do this and we will take a 3-4 year backwards step and then rely on another steady rebuilding process likely under another manager.
When it comes to who can spend what I don’t feel it is true that we can’t spend what other clubs do, it is more that we won’t. On a strict and genuine financial basis few can compete with us and few can also compete with the combined wealth of our 2 biggest share-holders. For me this is not strictly true and it is easy to see when you look at it this way why so many fans are disgruntled and perceive a distinct lack of ambition from our club relative to others.
I do think we are in a relatively delicate and perhaps dangerous situation right now which could go either way, and I do think that we have created this situation largely ourselves with our actions (or lack thereof) 12- 18 months ago.
Sorry to be so negative 🙂
GoonerB
I disagree that it is a matter of momentum in the transfer market, My understanding of it is that there were simply a lesser talent pool available last summer. I also think a lot of players were reluctant to move prior to the Euros. This year already in the striker market, there has been much more movement.
However, you are not wrong that it could go either way. That is simply because we are on the threshold. Look at how Liverpool have fallen, how Spurs have never been able to climb up to where we are. In fact, in Europe so many more clubs have fallen down than risen to true giant status. Some, like Juventus, Dortmund and Atletico Madrid are now back or rising again. Others like the two Milans have fallen quite hard. So yeah, it could go either way for us. But Arsenal have been consistently rising up as a club over the past 20 years. So, in organic growth terms (of which losing players is a part) Arsenal are the best at it. Hence, my lack of worry.
Eddinski 🙂
Le Coq, Rambo, Bellerina, Iwobi and Jack is a good return from our youth/buy early project.
Furthermore, we actually have a lot of stars now and do not need to add more than one or two per season. Which PL club had the most players in the Euros semi-finals? I cannot be arsed checking this but I bet it is Arsenal.
Forget about shopping and start emptying the cupboards… a lovely meal may ensue! 😀
Wellington Silva rejoins Fluminense
Brazilian forward Wellington Silva has rejoined his boyhood club Fluminense in a permanent deal.
Wellington, who signed for us from the Rio de Janeiro side in 2010, spent last season on loan with Bolton Wanderers.
He had previously gained experience in Spain with Almeria, Real Murcia, Ponferradina, Alcoyano and Levante.
We would like to wish Wellington well for his return to Fluminense.
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
shard – exactly!! and look at the result! when was the last time we won the league?
Right when we were still buying the same way.
Eddie
‘You can’t win anything with kids’………Alan Hanson
🙂
Thanks Shard, and you are correct in your analysis of my comment regarding a loss of momentum in the transfer market. I do feel this is the case but it is not only this and it is not about momentum for pure momentum’s sake.
I don’t feel that we need a consistent momentum in the transfer market every season just for the sake of it. I am a believer that a certain squad can mature to the point that you can have a 3-4 season peak period where no significant senior additions are required. Under these circumstances it is perfectly reasonable to only be bringing in the (cheaper) ones for the medium and longer term future.
We are not in this position. It has been pointed out, and I will again, that the purpose of the stadium move was to compete with the very biggest teams and to ensure we were one of the top clubs that could regularly compete for the biggest prizes.
I feel we started a process in the 2013-2014 season, starting with Ozil, where we could start to add those top quality players and develop a team that could win these big prizes. We added Sanchez the following season which seemed to indicate this was the direction we were heading in.
I said at the end of the 2013-2014 season that we needed a quicker CB than Per to partner Kos, a good DM with greater mobility than Arteta, and a top striker that had more pace than Giroud. This doesn’t make me right but this was the season when we had suffered those 3-4 hammerings and those 3 were generally a consistent feature in those games.
I felt we sat too deep defensively due to the fear of balls in behind Per, we had a lack of defensive protection in front of that back 4 due to Arteta’s lack of mobility (despite his obvious technical qualities), and opposition defences were able to play a high line and compress in our half because Giroud (who had just finished his 2nd season with us) could not threaten behind.
Moving on to the start of last season and now this one coming, how much have we actually addressed?
Le Coq and his merits to the team seemed to be found by accident rather than by design half way through last season. Ok fair enough, and we seem to have this area sorted now with other additions. Have we really found the answer to the right top CD to partner Kos? I am not so sure. But, the biggest problem area as I see it is with the striker and has been since RVP left.
Some disagree I know, and I am not an anti Giroud blogger, just that I see his merits as being a back up striker or impact sub at the highest level. This for me has been apparent for at least 2 years after 2 seasons of observing him and how the team functioned with him.
It is clear that Arsene doesn’t fancy either Sanchez or Walcott for the role and Welbeck, who I do like, is still not a proven top striker. Wasn’t he also injured heading into last season?
The need for a top striker was apparent at least 2 years back but we did nothing last year about it. It depends on how you see it. There is the nothing available at that time view, or as Arsene puts it, nothing available better than what I have got.
I don’t really subscribe to that because I think if you go in hard and quick enough with a decent fee then players become available all of a sudden. we are consistently seeing other clubs getting players that weren’t apparently available.
personally I feel that Arsene has over-estimated what he already had and has as such procrastinated in the TW last year, so yes, I do feel that we have lost critical momentum in the TW, starting from last year, which is now perhaps having a knock on effect this year. It is like we have started the project well then taken a holiday on it, and I don’t think this view or impression is lost on others either. I do feel this momentum was a necessary one and not one just for the sake of buying players.
It will be harder now, and far more expensive, to regain that momentum and I am not sure we have the desire to do, and possibly pay, what is necessary to regain it and convince the top players to come to us, and possibly more importantly our existing top players that this is where they should stay.
What may have looked slightly over the odds last summer would look a good price this one so I feel Arsene and the board have badly misjudged the transfer market, and the right time when we should have gone in strong and be the active big player. As I say not irreclaimable but very difficult now I feel.
We have probably just signed Higuain as I type just to make me look rather silly 🙂
You can’t win anything with kids.
Take an incidence, declare a trend.
I’d love to see wenger build a squad capable of winning the league. But if you’re only willing to buy what’s better than what you have you need to spend, BIG. And since we won’t spend big….. and because we’re afraid to hold back the denilsons of the world….(did anyone catch the inherent contradiction?),,,,,
And we wonder why.
It’s very quiet these days so I thought you might appreciate this portrait of Mr. Arsenal.
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Portrait of an icon: Tony Adams
Date published: Wednesday 20th July 2016 7:35
There is a picture of Tony Adams early on in his Arsenal career, taken in late 1983 when he was still 17. His arms are crossed and his mouth is frowning, as if to demonstrate his meanness, but the eyes give away his youth and inexperience. Adam’s Arsenal shirt has an exaggerated V neck, as was the style, made by Umbro and with a sponsor (JVC) for only the second season. Behind him are the concrete steps and metal pens ubiquitous on the terraces of the 1980s. A terraced house peeps over the top of the stand, providing an illicit Saturday afternoon vantage point.
There are many more photos of Adams’ last game for Arsenal, a win against Everton at Highbury in 2002 during which the Premier League title victory – and with it the league and FA Cup double – was confirmed. Adams is pictured with Patrick Vieira and embracing Arsene Wenger in front of an all-seater, all adoring Highbury. The club badge, shirt sponsor (SEGA) and kit manufacturer (Nike) have all changed. Once the fresh-faced teenager, Adams is now Arsenal’s wizened old head. His face has been weathered first by football, but more so by life.
The length of Adams’ Arsenal service is magnificent in itself. Only David O’Leary played more games than his 669, and he remains the only league title-winning captain across three decades, having been made Arsenal’s youngest ever skipper at the age of 21 in 1988. Adams is also the only England player to make tournament appearances in three separate decades, and was the last England player ever to score at the old Wembley. He captained his country between 1992 and 1996, and won ten major honours at club level. Half of Arsenal’s post-war league titles were won with Adams wearing the armband.
Yet it is not the length of Adams’ 14-year captaincy that is so impressive, but the changes he oversaw. The defender was leader of his club through a time of great upheaval in English football, the increase in technology, commercialisation and the influx of foreign players all providing their own tests. Adams didn’t just survive amid this swirling sea; he thrived in it.
Nowhere more so were those differences noticed than at Arsenal, English football’s bellwether club, where the old-fashioned, working-class culture of Division One was replaced by the forward-thinking Premier League new world order. The progress of the English game and the advances in nutrition and sports science could be detailed purely using the case study of Arsenal’s George Graham and Arsene Wenger eras. Adams’ retirement finally marked the end of Arsenal’s ‘old guard’.
The best on-pitch leaders become the embodiment of their manager’s message, with a little of their own personality thrown in. They are essentially messengers, conduits between coach and squad but also perennially required to set the example. Rarely has that been more emphatic in English football than in the case of Adams.
Under Graham, Adams was a no-nonsense defender, the brave leader prepared to fight on the front line and get hurt for the cause; no war analogy is too much. Adams was the leader of the most efficient defensive line in English football, an organisational structure that seeped into popular culture, such was its success. ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ was not just a chant; it was an ethos.
Under Wenger, Adams changed. After initial scepticism over Arsenal’s recruitment decision, he embraced the Frenchman’s dismantling of the squad’s extra-curricular lifestyle, again setting an example to the other players. The fire in his performances was never dampened, but Adams became a ball-playing central defender, stepping up to distribute the ball in addition to laying his body on the line when required (which was far less often). Adams’ reading of the game had always been sensational, masking his lack of pace, but Wenger fine-tuned those strengths. Wenger and Adams were the odd couple, but it was a long and happy marriage.
This multi-functionality of Adams can best be demonstrated in two quotes, from Wenger and Paul Ince. “He’s a colossus,” Ince said. “Proper centre half. Men-of-men. In our England team we were all men, we were all big characters and big men but he was men-of-men.” “Simply a professor of defence,” said Wenger. Find you a captain who can do both.
“I think Tony Adams was a United player in an Arsenal shirt to be honest with you,” said Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. “I thought he would have been absolutely perfect for United. I tried to sign him when he was 19 and in the reserves but there was no chance.”
Adams’ skill and loyalty alone made him a fan favourite, but it was his humility and love for Arsenal made him an icon. ‘If I wasn’t playing I’d be in the stands with my mates’ is a well-versed cliche, but rings true. “Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they’ll remember the name on the back,” is Adams’ most famous quote; remember they did.
“It’s my football club, Arsenal Football Club, and when I get an opportunity and if I’m needed and if I’m ready then I’d love to be of service,” Adams said in 2013. “When I’m needed, when I’m wanted. I’ll make the tea there!” Arsenal was – and is – in his blood.
Yet the story of Tony Adams is only partially complete by celebrating his on-field magnificence; it is also a story of depression, mental illness and addiction. The cover of Adams’ autobiography does not picture him holding a trophy aloft or embracing supporters but features a simple, close-up portrait, staring into the eyes of the reader as if using them as a mirror. The appendix begins not with his career statistics or England record, but the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Adams is a man who has not merely come through sporting tests, but addiction, divorce and prison.
“I don’t actually like people,” Adams once told an interviewer. “I’m a loner and if I had my way I’d just walk my dogs every day, never talk to anyone and then die. I do get depressed, I’m a depressive type of guy and that’s depressing for me.” It is an emphatic reminder that addiction is not the condition as a whole, merely its most visible element. Addiction is the representation and result of mental instability and, in Adams’ case, crippling self-doubt. Alcohol became not just a drug for Adams, but a coping mechanism. At the highest level of sport, pressure becomes suffocating as your personality and reputation are constantly on parade. “There was no pleasure in anything,” Adams recalls. You drink to remember simpler times, and you drink to forget the present.
On May 6, 1990, Adams crashed his Ford Sierra into a wall when more than four times over the legal drink-drive limit. Later that year, he was sentenced to four months in prison, and served two of those. Adams still regularly visits prisons to offer advice to inmates and share the lessons he learned from his own addiction.
Even then, Adams’ problem was not managed or even highlighted. Such was alcohol’s inherent role in English football culture that many supposed Adams had simply paid the price for having too much on a night out. The fabric of football in the 1970s and 1980s initiated alcohol dependence, and then promptly allowed the problem to fester. Some could take it or leave it, but others were not so lucky; they never stood a chance.
There was a bleaker reason for Adams’ alcoholism to stay hidden. In some circles, depression is a modern phenomenon. To reveal your mental illness in the testosterone-charged world of the Division One changing room would have been a concession or admission. Even those recent sufferers (cricket’s Marcus Trescothick and Jonathan Trott are good examples) are treated with an air of suspicion, as if depression is an easy excuse rather than a debilitating, and potentially life-threatening, illness.
Thankfully, attitudes are changing. There is an odd dichotomy whereby every new publicised case is incredibly sad for the individual, but good for the greater understanding of the condition. Unfortunately for Adams, to have revealed his illness in 1990 would have been to risk stigmatisation and thus his entire career.
It was September 1996 when Adams announced his alcoholism publicly, and revealed that he had sought treatment. He became one of the most high-profile addicts of his time, speaking of his new-found love for Shakespeare and the piano. Five years later, and Adams was still leading Arsenal as they entered a double-winning season. A career and a life had been saved.
At a time when too many people still believed that fame, fortune and sporting success was a blanket against depression rather than a factor in it, it took an awful lot to be revered by the masses despite his condition. By merging sporting success, addiction rehabilitation and mental illness, Adams became the poster boy for recovery.
Not only that, but Adams understood the impact his redemption could have, if utilised appropriately. He saw the need for a dedicated environment where sportspeople could address and manage their mental instabilities, from the comparatively manageable to the life-limiting and destructive, while young athletes would be given proactive education to spot the danger signs. In 2000, he formed the Sporting Chance clinic.
“Sporting Chance is absolutely up there with all the medals I’ve ever won, the England cap and everything,” says Adams. “I’m very proud of what I created here.” And so he should be. Kenny Sansom and Dean Windass are just two former players who believe that the clinic saved their lives.
“You’re talking about a man who could drink and get pissed,” Adams said in an interview with the Irish Independent. “I had no self-esteem. I had suppressed every emotion in booze. I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know how to handle life, sex, everything. I had to learn absolutely everything, I was a child again so when I sobered up I got to know myself.” That he did all that while serving so magnificently as Arsenal captain shows incredible resolve and strength of character, but is also a testament to his natural talent as a central defender.
If it seems demeaning or uncharitable to focus on Adams’ off-field issues during a celebration of his iconic status, I take my lead only from the man himself. The final paragraph of his autobiography marries the two together:
‘My views on winning have changed a lot,’ Adams writes. ‘Today I am not just Tony Adams the footballer, I am Tony Adams the human being. I do my best to treat myself and other people with respect. In that there is also victory. Winning on the field is sweet, of course, but in addition, as far as I’m concerned, with each day that I do not take a drink, I will always be a winner.’
And, for as long as his beloved club play in red and white, Adams will always be an icon. He is the true ‘Mr Arsenal’.
Daniel Storey
Hi Wally.
I know I didn’t expand on that,but all I was suggesting by referencing that quote is that investing in youth isn’t always a waste of time as Eddie seemed to be suggesting.
To go one step further, every one of today’s superstars, was at one time, a youth player.
Hi GoonerB
I don’t think we’re actually very far off in how we view the club. I can agree with most of your points (Except Arteta in 2013-14. He might have been slow, but he was awesome that year, and the main reason for Ramsey’s miracle year)
I agree we have needed a striker. However, I also think that there aren’t many pure centre forwards available in the game these days. Perhaps its the fact that football has recently seen a tactical shift to 1 CF rather than 2, and a lot of the players of today grew up playing in a 2 striker system. We did sign Alexis and he is a goal threat.
But honestly, last season, we didn’t even need a world class striker or whatever. Just a capable backup/competitor to Giroud. Our finishing was the lowest its been in the Wenger years, despite a high chance creation (and high quality chance creation) I think the system worked (even defensively, until the attack’s failings told) So, I’m less fussed about a world class striker. I just want a capable striker who can play as a lone centre forward but offers something different to Giroud.
Wenger’s faith in Walcott and the Ox backfired there. I remember him talking about needing to score 10 extra goals, and I believe he entrusted Walcott with that responsibility. Honestly, it is the first (and I hope only) season I have seen from Arsenal where so many players under-performed. The fact that we still finished second and were top for the first half of the season only adds to the frustration.
I don’t believe Wenger won’t sign a forward this year. As I said, I am not fussed about it being world class. I don’t think there are many, and none are coming to us (no point getting beat up about it. There is a natural order of things and we are objectively, not in the top tier yet). I’d rather we signed a competent striker and also buy an upgrade on the wing. Even if that means selling one of Theo, Ox or Campbell. However, I’m less confident that the latter will happen.
I don’t see CB as a problem area. Per is slow but his experience is still important there. As long as Gabriel or Chambers can play the ball out the back, I think we’ll be ok. If not, then perhaps sign a CB there and send Chambers on loan. I don’t know whether the imminent Holding signing is for the first team immediately. He does look like he’s born to play the ball-playing CB role. Don’t forget, Xhaka also strengthens our defensive capabilities.
Pre season game tomorrow. Finally. I’m excited about this season. Hopefully we’ll see some good football and a title win.
PS. Keep an eye on Akpom, Gnabry and Sanogo in pre season. I believe one of them will play himself into the first team. 🙂
Cheers GN5
A lot of “what if” scenarios my friend. This is like attempting to get an attractive but insecure woman into bed. What if you don’t respect me in the morning Terry? What if your wife finds out Terry? What if you think about Nigel Farage Terry and get disturbed?
What ever happens doesn’t bother me. I suffer withdrawal from not going to games so just want the season to start.
Hi Terry, as usual you make me smile – thanks.
I also cannot wait for the season to start, I’ll be watching our pre-season game against Lens tomorrow.
Friday
Yip Yip, Gunners in action today. Lens 17:00 Live on AFC.com
Gunner. Kink
Chas gone?
@6:31 – are they real bodies?
RC Lens – 6th in 2nd league. Wtf?
According to one dodgy looking site, this could be our line-up in Lens
………………….Martinez
Chambers ,Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs
…………….Elneny, Coquelin
Joel Campbell, Reine-Adelaide, Iwobi
……………………Walcott
Like the look of that, although when I said dodgy site, the same page assured me that “Sultry Russian babes won’t let you get bored”
Arsenal agree deal to sign Rob Holding
We have agreed to sign young defender Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers on a long-term contract.
The 20-year-old enjoyed a promising first senior campaign in 2015/16, making 30 appearances for Bolton and winning the club’s player of the season award.
This summer, Rob helped England Under-21s to victory in the Toulon tournament in France alongside Calum Chambers.
Rob is a versatile player, comfortable at both centre back and full back, and we look forward to him joining up with the squad. His transfer is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.
We remain in the market, so stay close to Arsenal.com for any further transfer news.
There’s a lot to come from Xhaka’
Arsène Wenger says Granit Xhaka will make Arsenal’s midfield stronger than ever this season.
Xhaka will set the tempo for us’
“[Xhaka brings] his passing ability to play through the lines from deep positions, his work rate, and he’s good in the air,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“He’s a young boy as well, 23 years old. There’s a lot to come from him. We lost three midfielders: Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta, and numbers-wise we are quite solid in midfield now.
“Elneny had a big impact when he came here, Coquelin was injured for a long time and is back. Cazorla will come back, Wilshere is back… so we are solid in midfield.”
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/
We said a Holding midfield player for crying out loud.
No.9 and No.20 jerseys are still available in the 1st team.
Current status (minus any future loan/transfer outs)
GKs:
1. Szczęsny (injured – thigh)(short term)
13. Ospina
26. Emiliano
33. Čech
DFs:
2. Debuchy (injured – hamstring)(short term)
3. Gibbs
4. Mertesacker
5. Gabriel
6. Koscielny
16. Holding
18. Monreal
21. Chambers
24. Bellerín
25. Jenkinson (injured – tore knee ligament)(long term)
MFs:
8. Ramsey
10. Wilshere
11. Özil
15. Oxlade-Chamberlain
19. Cazorla
29. Xhaka
34. Coquelin
35. Elneny
FWs:
7. Alexis (injured – malleolar)(short term)
12. Giroud
14. Walcott
17. Iwobi
22. Sanogo
23. Welbeck (injured – hyaline cartilage)(long term)
27. Gnabry
28. Campbell
32. Akpom
LB 🙂
Merts looking like a. Liability in the friendly. I’m excited about Holding but we need a CB ready to go straight into the team
The Arsenal stream for this game is rubbish – they currently have us losing 2 nil when it is only 1 nil – although we’ve been poor so 2 nil wouldn’t be a surprise
My Arsenal stream was really clear best I have ever seen a game on my computer. The problem for me was that I couldn’t get near the screen until well into the second half. Saw the Ox’s goal though, well taken.
There is a pattern, I don’t know if you have noticed. At the start of every season all the players who are likely to go out on loan always get to play in one of the pre-season friendlies, always.
The reason must be that AW wants them to feel part of the club. To give them a sense of belonging before they go out and play elsewhere.
Makes sense to me.
no, it is to show the potential buyers what a great deal they are getting.
Look all, Ox is in a great form, look at the goal he scored!
so is it certain that Ox is going?
Squad traveling to US:
GKs: Čech, Ospina, Emiliano
DFs: Bellerin, (Bielik), Chambers, Debuchy, Gabriel, Gibbs, Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal
MFs: Cazorla, Elneny, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, (Reine-Adelaide), (Willock), Wilshere, Xhaka, (Zelalem)
FWs: Akpom, Campbell, Iwobi, Walcott
– Bielik, Reine-Adelaide, Chris Willock and Zelalem join up with the senior squad.
– Macey and Sanogo stayed back.
– Gnabry and Asano joined up with the Germany and Japan teams respectively for Olympics football, thus are not involved.
– Jenkinson and Welbeck remain long term absentees through injury.
– Özil, Alexis, Giroud, Koscielny and Ramsey are rested and absentees following their international commitments.
– Szczesny is rumoured to re-join Roma on loan.
==========
Bonus:
“Some player” could be moving to Arsenal (in the works); The complicated deal either might or not go through, with various personnel involved.
– sources, Agence France-Presse and The Guardian
I liked what I saw of Willock for the few minutes he was on the pitch. I hadn’t seen him before, pretty good.
Zalalem showed that there is still an awful lot more to come from him.
I agree with Eddie that Oxlaide-Chamberlain looked defiant. You can sell me if you want, I don’t care I am going to succeed. Good attitude.
Theo, Theo, I only saw the second half, maybe he was really good in the first 45.
Mertasacker offers calm maturity, I like the BFG; he gets a lot of leeway with me.
No wonder Wenger brought Xhaka, when you watch Coquelin slide around the pitch you just know that he is a cruciate knee ligament casualty waiting to happen.
Chambers at right back, good cover, no problem there, same for Gibbs on the other side, all good if they stay that is.
Bielik, hmmmmm, I must be missing what is supposed to be happening there. Of the little I have seen of Holding he seems a lot lot better in every aspect of that central defensive roll and he will have Tony Adams to guide him. Looking forward to watching that one unfold.
Campbell looked spritely, Iwobi changed positions and stared playing deep, not sure what that was about, you really get the feeling that Wenger has high hopes for him.
I wish I had seen Jeff ahhhhh, I have just had a thought maybe AFC.com will repeat the game..later……….
lots of Mahrez rumours this morning!
Mahrez is Algerian, French, Morroccan – which passport would he use to apply for a work permit and visa?
Mahrez can have my passport if that is what is holding the deal up.
Higuain having medical at Juve.
Thank god for that! Sick of hearing about him. As if Wenger would pay £70m+ for a 29 year old!!!
Higuain to Juve will surely mean Pogba goes to United as I’m not sure Juve will want to spend that sort of cash without getting some in first.
LB,
It appears that on Arsenal player you can see the entire 2nd half or highlights of the Lens game – not much use to you if you’ve already seen the 2nd half.
Theo in the 1st half was constantly trying to get around the 6’5ish defender Ba and had little success. It was typical of many of his performances – it failed to impress, even his speed was not very effective up against Ba – who seemed to take only 1 stride to Walcott’s two.
Chris Willock looks like a player who will make the grade; his brother Joseph also plays for our youth team as a midfielder.
Thanks GN5
I certainly didn’t know his brother played in the glorious red and white.
Thanks LB for player analysis (and some epic theories and one liners)
Missed Lens due to surf camping
Watching Lens game on AFC Player
The Walcott looking, ummm, errrr, oh yes, pre-season rusty, that’s the one 🙂
Mehrez scored a lovely goal against Celtic yesterday. I hope he joins us
LB – I must say that Chris Froome is somehow nicer than the weird Wiggins. I hope he wins today!!
Eddie
“I hope he wins today”
Ok, I know nothing about professional bicycling, but I believe he’d have to go in the opposite direction for an hour or two to avoid winning
Lens defender Abdoul Ba. Bloody hell, what a unit. 22ys, fast, and 6’7″
I think you are right micky, but stranger things happen in sport. Remember Newcastle 5 : Spurs 1? did you think it was possible?
3 more weeks and we will finally have something to talk about 🙂
until then – woods.
What time Chaps Elysees?
Hope the English do that arm in arm showboating thing
Les Rosbifs side by side through the French capital and under their Arch of Triumph
Superb 🙂
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has once again denied that PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez will leave the club after reports in France of a £42m transfer.
The Italian also suggested that Mahrez might not play for Arsenal – or another big club – because he will not be the ‘fantasy’ star of the side.
“It is good because you can continue to write, write, write,” said Ranieri after Mahrez played and scored in a 1-1 draw with Celtic that ended in a shoot-out victory for the Foxes.
“It is good for you but not for us. Did you see Riyad, how he is happy? He played well and worked so hard for the team and scored a good goal. Then he stays with us. Of course.
“For us it is very important because he is one of our stars. He is our fantasy. We can work hard but with him something change.
“With another team there are many more stars and maybe he doesn’t play at the same level. Maybe he go on the bench. It is much better he stay here with me and another year is important for him.
“Maybe now this price and maybe tomorrow another newspaper says £100m. Keep going! Mahrez is okay with us. He understands that’s someone loves to put some speculation but it is only speculation.
Dog or Cat vids. Don’t care Tough times 🙂
ps bloody loved the Arsene crisps
Koscielny, Ramsey, Sanchez, Özil, Giroud, Iwobi, Gnabry, Asano, Jenkinson, Welbeck.
So far this is the list of players who will miss the start of the season. Unless we sign someone then its pretty difficult to pick a starting line up! Maybe something like this would do.
Cech
Bellerin Merts Gabriel Monreal
Xhaka Cazorla
Ox Wilshere Campbell
Walcott
FGG
Can’t we declare a state of emergency, and recall the big guns? 🙂
Micky,
The worrying thing for me is that if we were just picking our best 11 players available then we’d be looking at a team full of midfielders. Our squad is really unbalanced even with those players included.
FGG
Iwobi and Akpom are available, no?
Sure feels like I am standing here having had a bucket of cold water poured over me after reading Ranieri’s comments on Mahrez.
Hey FGG
Here’s a nasty thought regarding your line up at 9:11
I looked at it and thought “mmm, short on goals”, so did some sums.
That eleven scored a total of 14 league goals last term, so at that rate we can expect to begin the season averaging 0.3 goals per game
🙂 or should that be a 😦
LB
I watched the Tour yesterday. Heck that looks scary peddling over those cobbles. They did have superb aerial photos of Paris.
Very enjoyable
Sanchez and Ozil’s contracts are up after next year.
Anyone want to guess what would happen with those two if we don’t add more and don’t win the league?
Wenger on Alexis and US tour
Arsène Wenger says Alexis will not go on tour to California so he can rest the ankle injury he sustained in the Copa America final.
The Chilean forward is one of a handful of first-team players who will be left out of the travelling squad for the games against MLS All-Stars and Chivas.
“The players who won’t make it are the players who went very far in the European Championship, such as Ramsey, Ozil, Giroud and Koscielny,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“I left Gabriel behind today because he has tonsillitis and is infected. He cannot travel.
“Alexis will not go either because he had an ankle injury. That is not too bad but I will leave him behind as well.”
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Iwobi is at the Olympics I think. Akpom is available.
Regards lack of goals, without Giroud, Sanchez, Özil, Welbeck, Koscielny and Ramsey it’s inevitable we will have a line up short on goals as they were 6 of our top 7 scorers last season! Walcott being the other. We really do need some new players before the season starts.
So GN5, let’s get this straight shall we
Arsene is taking the players who did not do well in the Copa or Euros to sunny California, leaving those who did in damp, rainy London do extra homework and exercises
God, I’d be livid if I were an Alexis or a Mesut. Livid.
Mesut is still on holiday until just before the dippers game. 🙂
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3699108/Mesut-Ozil-enjoys-night-Hollywood-Arsenal-midfielder-continues-break-ahead-new-Premier-League-season.html
Mesut made a good exit from that club: no sniffing or fag in hand, that’s to say no cigarette.
any truth to the BFG injury? read he could be out for up to 5 months.
wake up DidIt, there is gossip
“Arsenal have made a forward signing their main priority during this transfer window, and after they failed to land their main target, Gonzalo Higuain, it appears that the club are weary about publicising their next move”.
“Arsenal are working on a secret name, not yet revealed, and the recent trip to Germany of some club members could mean something.
I’m weary about hearing about the Club’s next move. 🙂
What could this be a metaphor for?
cats are so much more cute than Arsene
Morning all
Rubbish gossip Eddie, but great cat vids from Chas
Worth a read
http://www.tom-cox.com/2016/07/world-turned-upside-down.html
pee off DidIt, have you anything better ? 🙂
The first few games of the season are a bit crap really, when you consider your new players won’t have settled in (or in our case, been bought) and your good players are on holiday.
Eddie
Be honest, the outlook is grim. My expectations of Bonzai Asano, or whatever his name is, are going through the roof.
Beginning to feel a little sorry for the fella. Much is expected of him, and I’m talking 20+ goals. At least.
Very nice wiff waff table in the background 🙂
Yep, only trouble is is that there haven’t been many still enough days to play.
Great article Chas
As someone who has been the victim of many wasp or horsefly attacks this summer, I can testify that meatflies are not the only “out and out wankers” 🙂
It’s your table?
A mate has the same one. Really good, and all weather. Ours is shite and bumpy 🙂
Nah, it’s my mate’s who has the Boston Terrier pup.
Chas
Are you bothering to go this season if we don’t buy more goals? 🙂
I’m seriously considering upping my attendance to the old 6/7 games a season, as opposed to last season’s 2!
I would like to think the club would mirror my own efforts (or thought-about efforts) 🙂
I’m just going to pick and choose.
Just got Leicester away tickets plus train tickets for the dippers and that Leicester game.
♬♫ Ant and Duck are on the p*ss again, on the p*ss again….♬♫ 🙂
Merts out for 5 months! If that doesn’t force Wengers hand then nothing will. If we buy a new first team CB then the injury could be a blessing.
Bad news for Merts though. Can’t see him playing many more games for Arsenal.
If they don’t spend at least some of the £200m kelsey is always banging on about, I think you should stop buying all that merchandise you’re so fond of and have your backside glued to your armchair.
FGG
Thought we’d already bought Merts replacement. 🙂
I actually really like the look of this Asano guy. Looks like he’s got some real talent. Obviously we need a new first team striker for the next few seasons, but that doesn’t mean the lad can’t become an important player in future. I just hope Wenger keeps him away from the first team for a bit because if he plays he will end up on the wrong side of a lot of fans if he doesn’t score goals straight away.
Chas,
I’d be very alarmed if we started the season with Gabriel, Chambers and Holding as our 3 available CB’s.
Guaranteed that we will now see Monreal at CB during pre season friendlies.
Did Bielik play there against Lens or was he in midfield?
If Wenger doesn’t buy a CB and a ST this window then the atmosphere around the club is going to be very toxic. Media lockdown for the whole season sounds good!!!
Chas : “I think you should stop buying all that merchandise you’re so fond”
That’s the last bloody straw.
I’m going to the shop and buying the full kit, and yes I do mean shorts and socks as well, then I’m turning up to the pub and sitting next to you like I’m your best friend, then walk right next to you to the ground like you respect me in my kit.
Oh and, to complete the look, I’ll tuck my shirt in and pull my shorts up really really high
Might come on roller skates
or the snug look
Afternoon all.
haha Didit, is that a young didit / old didt photo comparison? Kind of like a before and after (1975)….
N.N awash with news that we had a £29m bid for Lacazette turned down. In the current market I don’t blame Lyon. Someone else mentioned that WHU had a £35m bid turned down for him recently. Can’t believe that as it would make our lesser bid a bit puzzling.
It appears Lyon want £40m. Probably not an unrealistic figure this summer. What do we need, £80-85m to get both Mahrez and Lacazette. Can’t we just do that???
BTW can anyone tell me which position the Ox played in the recent friendly? Also how did he play aside from the goal, and what kind of goal was it?
GoonerB
He came on at half time.
Didn’t see the game but shoe-horned into the right-wing position , by the look of it.
GB’
The Ox was on the right side of mid field and spent a lot of time attacking I believe he was our best player against Lyon, he was fast and showed great levels of energy.
He looked like he was making his case to become a regular starter – and he may have proved his point.
Thanks guys
Shoe horned in Chas 🙂 Lefties on the right and righties on the left…you know it makes sense 🙂
GB
If Arsene doesn’t get his butt out there into the striker buying arena, DJ Bloody Marmite won’t be the only one stocking up on A4 paper
Supporting Arsenal Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Why can’t someone just stab me in the eye and get all this season’s pain out the way in one go.
Surely it isn’t true that Mertasacker is out for 5 months.
ALL,
Us Arsenal supporters have always had to swim against the tide of media driven speculation but I just cannot understand those that are mired in doom and gloom before the season has even started.
Like all of us I know that the results of our past transfer windows
have not fulfilled our needs but what none of us really know is the reason’s for our inability to significantly improve our squad.
It’s frustrates to me that we are always one or two players short of a championship team – but I imagine that it must be excruciating to AW as he lives and breathes Arsenal 24/7.
However I await the start of the season with positive excitement and in the knowledge that our management are doing their level best to recruit the players we need to improve our areas of weakness.
Preaching to the converted here GN5.
Good comment GN5
I’d separate “positive” and “excitement”
I don’t think I’ve ever approached an individual game not believing we’d win, and usually by at least three goals, but I often approach a season with a certain amount of trepidation.
Arsenal football games always excite me, but the overall outlook does not always fill me with positivity.
As for the here and now, one good striker and I’d be both 🙂
I knew that LB and most of the AA bloggers also tend to have more positive/understanding attitudes. I’m just expressing a more general frustration at the media and blogs that thrive on doom and gloom – they are just not my cup of tea.
Why support a team when all you can do is revel on the negative press – it counter intuitive to me.
£75m for Higuain!?
Mental. Good player, but at his age thats a whole lot of money.
Just like Wenger, Chas, he also played Techno with pots for years. ⚽️💥😜
Haha.. Chas. Ox shoehorned on the right wing 🙂
Oh, so when I post videos of Wassim Ben Yedder, no one cares. Now that some French channel links him, he becomes our prime target 😛
And that is a fake Ornacle account. #duped
Right we obviously need Wissam Ben Yedder and his brother.
Evening all – Mahrez to the chavs …. tell me it aint so.
Having said that we won’t sign La Cazette and Mahrez. It appears we have made a low offer for Caz – let’s hope that is the start of a bargaining process.
By the look of the Ox’s performance wide right, and since no-one has come in for Theo, I’d say Caz would be the right one of the two to go for.
Another CB should be a priority.
Have that guy work with OX on shooting!
Guy has good touch and direction in his shooting boots. OX just tries to crush it and almost always misses.
Ox said that he had been practicing lobbing the goalkeeper and it worked well against Lyon.
Mahrez going to the Habs is more ammunition for the doomer/gloomer club. We should expect incoming trash talk about AW………… 😦 😦
That isn’t David Ornstein’s twitter account. Unless he’s changed his name to Daivd. It’s a fake. A troll. Relax.
LB
I’m assuming “Wissam Ben Yedder ” is secret code talk for someone good. Is it an anagram? 🙂
…just checking…still no news…woods
yearned swim beds
sideways bred men
dismays we be nerd
embassy weird end
midways beers den
wednesday ribs me
Must have a deeper meaning then Shard. Any ideas?
I was just looking up KO time of MLS game on Friday, and AFC site says 01:01 on the 29th. Any symbolic reason for the time?
Also on AFC site, Arsenal ladies striker Jordan Nobbs headlines with:
‘We’re creeping around the back door’
Dirty girl.
Morning
I really don’t understand how I and others are called doomers by some fans.(Eddie will know what I mean).
We payed 30 million for the Swiss lad which hopefully will be a good purchase then 3.5 on a couple of youngsters from Bolton and Japan and in every other alledged players we go for who has class we miss out usually because we don’t offer the going rate or they don’t want to play for us or inparticular AW but rather go to a club not in the CL.
It really speaks volumes as how the respect and the way we do business has been flushed down the drain.
if we buy the two players we stll need it will be because either no one else has bid or aren’t interested, or they aren’t top quality/
Gazidis is already spouting his usual rubbish not once but twice in two days.”we are active in the market blah blah blah”.
If I didn’t suport the club so much I wouldn’t be so annoyed and frustrated by the people in charge.
How can that be dooming these are facts we are crap at securing a deal and again buy potential, the latest being the Nigerian kid.
We keep buying these misfits hoping one in twenty might make the first team bench.It’s pathetic
Thank you.
Ben Yedder looks a bit of a mix of Hazard and Aguero. Not a bad combination!
He must be decent if they let him wear number 10 and number 7!
Kelsey,
It could be seen as ‘dooming’ because what you and many others are doing is believing all the rumours about the club going for players and then using it as ‘fact’ that Arsenal are shit at transfers and don’t get the players they go for.
As Arsene said, the club like to keep things secret, so when a newspaper says we are going for a player they usually have zero proof of that and are just guessing. Then when we don’t get said player that we never went for, people moan about it and use it as something to bash the club with.
We all have the same frustrations that the club keep things under wraps but the actual facts show we’ve bid for Vardy and Lacazette so far this window, so that would suggest we are trying to get the job done.
He must be decent if they allow him to wear the number “107” how does that work 😉
FGG
I realise that and one only has to look at Newsnow every few hours,but I have been around long enough to know that rumours are often for a particular site to get hits but there are are a fair percentage of players that we do miss out on because we won’t pay the going rate.
Vardy might have been a god buy or not but preferred to stay at Leicester.We have more money than ever and football is big business and IMO we don’t handle things very well but unfortunately the main culprit is Kroenke as he conducts the orchestra.
FGG
“Ben Yedder looks a bit of a mix of Hazard and Aguero”
That is spin of the very highest quality. I’m sold 🙂
Seriously though, however hard Arsenal may be trying, we go into games against Liverpool and Leicester with Sanogo or Akpom as first choice striker, and that does not look like good preparation.
Ah, more people in LB and Crystals. Ahoy.
107 🙂
Magnificent dooming, kelsey, cheers. 🙂
“in every other alledged players we go for who has class we miss out usually because we don’t offer the going rate or they don’t want to play for us or inparticular AW but rather go to a club not in the CL.
It really speaks volumes as how the respect and the way we do business has been flushed down the drain.
if we buy the two players we stll need it will be because either no one else has bid or aren’t interested, or they aren’t top quality/”
These are facts – hahahahahahahahaha.
every start of the season I enjoy seeing Arsenal sitting on top of the table. Now I see Bournemouth sitting above us. Why have they used AFC at the front? I guess they aspire to be Arsenal Football Club…
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/lyon-name-their-lacazette-price-for-arsenal-united-target-allowed-to-leave-liverpool-bid-rejected/story-29555941-detail/story.html#mD6vofsl3GpJa4mO.99
Here’s a good example.Applies to above link.
LYON have told ARSENAL they will have to pay £40m plus bonuses to sign striker Alexandre Lacazette.
The French club set out their terms before Arsene Wenger moved for the 25-year-old with a bid of just £29.3m (€35m)
Will he or won’t he.
Good morning everyone,
I’m enjoying a nice cup of tea from my half full cup and reading my favourite Red Top which is Arsenal.com which is the definitive source of accurate information about our club.
Here is this mornings main story on Arsenal.com.
Wenger on Mertesacker and Lacazette
on Mertesacker…
We have bad news on Per Mertesacker. He played in Lens on Friday night, he finished the game and had a little pain on his knee. We found out the next day that it was much more serious than expected. He had surgery yesterday in Germany. It all went well. I know you will ask me for how long he will be out. I don’t know that, it’s [some] months, but I don’t know [exactly] how long he will be out for.
on Xhaka…
He will play a part in the game. He is a bit short fitness-wise, because he just came back last week.
on how injury to Mertesacker complicates defensive options…
We have to look for an option to get a bit more experience. We will see some of our young centre backs on Thursday as well. With Per being out, we are a bit short on the experience front and we are looking to bring somebody in.
on Lyon issuing statement regarding bid for Lacazette…
Lyon is responsible for their own statements. On the transfer front, I think the best [option] is always to keep as secret as possible. If we sign somebody, we will announce it. But I cannot tell you much more on that.
Wenger on Zelalem…
Last season he was on loan at Glasgow Rangers, where he did quite well. He is a player with top quality. He might take a bit longer to mature because he was physically a little bit behind on body structure but I’m sure he will be a great player. He [matured a bit slowly] physically but overall I’m convinced that he will make a great career. Will he play? Certainly a part of the game as well.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160727/wenger-on-mertesacker-lacazette#9YjoV3VC1vLcBUix.99
Kelsey,
That’s a perfect example of what I was talking about. Where in that article have Lyon said they want £40m? They haven’t, it’s just a made up number that the newspaper has printed. The statement that Lyon released said they don’t want to sell him.
If we don’t buy him though fans will say that Wenger didn’t want to pay the extra £10m which is a load of bollocks created by artificial press stories.
kelsey
Sky Sports reported that the 29.3m offer took place last month, before West Ham had their higher offer rejected. So which media outlet is wrong?
Also, Lyon’s statement refuted a newspaper’s story about how much money was offered by Arsenal. Now was that paper wrong, or are Lyon lying/bending the truth? Did the newspaper include the add ons while Lyon don’t (This is why Martial’s reported price varied between 35 and 65m pounds) And why would any other paper know what happened with any more accuracy?
Or do you just consider the worst interpretation of Arsenal as the truth because that is what fits in with your beliefs? Which is ok. Not necessarily unreasonable. But ‘the truth’ it is not.
‘if we buy the two players we stll need it will be because either no one else has bid or aren’t interested, or they aren’t top quality/’
It’s statements like that that I think qualify as being in the doom territory. Even if Arsenal buy the players you think they should, you don’t seem willing to give them 100% credit for it. You qualify it so that even if Arsenal do what you want you still want to be able to have a dig ie no one else wanted them or their not that good
New post ……
LYON have told ARSENAL they will have to pay £40m plus bonuses to sign striker Alexandre Lacazette….
To me that is pretty clear.Direct from club to club