Who knows? Worse things happen at sea.
So, Henrikh has signed and much of Goonerdom is happy to have shifted the misplaced pass, dog botherering money-grabber. We will miss the goals of the Chilean but if PEA signs and Micki can recover his Dortmund form, things could turn out rather well.
Where will Henrikh play, you ask. Well, I’d have a guess at left-side floating much as the mercenary he is replacing. If you’re good enough, we all know that Big Weng will tell him he can play wherever the hell he likes. The mix and match attacking options we might have come February are mouth-watering.
Yep, we could probably do with an invisible shield, Gilberto-style, to counter the potential wealth of creative genius but we all know that is most unlikely, in the short term at least.
I know very little about our shiny new Armenian. His father was called Hamlet and scored a fair number of goals in his career tragically cut short at the age of 33, much like our beloved Rocky. Micki used his father’s career as motivation to be the very best he possibly could be. From war-torn Armenia, Henrikh always loved the creative players, such as Zidane and Kaka, the most.
Let’s hope he really can re-start his career with us and become an Arsenal legend.
Welcome Micki.
Arsenal News 24/7
from the Metro?
Asked how he could fit Mkhitaryan and Ozil into the same team, Wenger explained: ‘Just play the good players! They can always play together.
nuf sed
If we had to take an MU reject why not one whom fits our demands? We are well stocked with attacking midfielders – Ramsey, Iwobi, Wilshere, Ozil, Xhaka and Elneny are a very good quintet. All first choice Internationals in quality teams (maybe not Ramsey 🙂 ) And we have Nelson, M-N, Willock coming through from the kids.
Why not take Shaw or Smalling? Or even a DM?
What we are doing is taking a punt on a player whose career has stuttered; it may well reap huge benefits for both AFC and the player but equally it may not.
One major positive is that we now have two players who can score with a Scorpion kick.
From AFC.com, Big Weng
“Mkhitaryan has the qualities to integrate into our game and that is based a lot on movement and technical quietly. I think he has the attributes, a good team attitude as well and I’m confident that it will work. He can play in all kinds of positions – on the flanks and he can play through the middle as well. I think he’s very versatile and it should help us to be very efficient going forward.”
on what Mkhitaryan will bring to the front line…
“I would say quality of runs, quality of creativity, and he can be very penetrating with his passing and his runs. Also technical stability in our team and experience as well. He knows what it is to fight at the top level.”
“Arsenal move for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off unless Olivier Giroud leaves” – f**k that for a bargain
BR
AW loves taking a punt on players whose careers have stuttered, look at
Bergkamp (Big Weng recommended him to Dein when he flopped at Inter)
Overmars (struggling with dodgy knees at Ajax)
Kanu (dodgy ticker)
Henry (Couldn’t suss out how to break the bolted door defences at Juve)
Kallstrom (Even a broken back didn’t stop him scoring a wonderful pen in that semi against Wigan)
one of the Arsenal FanTV motley crew interviewed after the Palace game goes on to say that if AW signs Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang then he can stay another 10 years, he is a genius.
Unbelievable how they can change their loudly espoused views when the wind changes direction.
Interesting point about Sanchez showing ambition comments, it was all about the money, if it was about ambition then you would go to Man City and the almost guaranteed trophies that would have gone with it. Instead he took the money and joined a team, and correct me if I am wrong here, a team that finished below us for the last 5 seasons…
Scouring the headlines before going to sleep –
Arsenal eyeing Mainz defender Abdou Diallo as Arsene Wenger vows to carry on spending
Crystal Palace and Besiktas target Danny Welbeck will not be allowed to leave in January
Nacho Monreal facing a fitness test to see if he’ll be available on Wednesday night
Aaron Ramsey is facing a late fitness test to see if he’ll be available for the game
Henrikh Mkhitaryan isn’t eligible to face Chelsea having previously played for Man Utd in this year’s League Cup.
Olivier Giroud will just miss out again tomorrow as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury
What happened to BR post
Beautifully constructed post chas.
Can we all call him Mik for short, or maybe McHit …. no ones name should start with 3 consonants. 🙂
I don’t see any problem fitting him into the front 3. Throw Aubameyang into the mix and it all gets a bit more complicated, maybe it will mean Ozil will play a bit deeper
If we view McHit as a replacement for either Theo or the Ox … and Aub as a replacement for the dog botherer, then surely no one can claim that doesn’t make the squad stronger.
It would be sad to see Giroud go the other way, but I guess his game time would be further reduced if Auba arrives.
Fred. We took it down and will re-publish on Friday.
Hope the rumours about an OG swap are fake news
Sanchez/Walcott < Miki/Auba
Considering the position we were in with Sanchez after the decision had been made to keep him this season, to get that business done with only £30m spent would be a stroke of genius if you ask me.
I can't wait to see how that forward line performs over the next few years (assuming Özil stays). It may be that one has to miss out now and again but you have a squad for a reason. Mourinho has brought in Sanchez knowing that Rashford or Martial will miss out now and again, but you need that depth and competition in the squad. Now we just need to improve to a similar level in the defensive areas.
OK
Great post and we will expect big things from Miky.
Here are our offensive players from box to box mid to ST:
– El Neny, Wilshere, Xhaka, Cazorla
– Ramsey, Ozil, Miky, Iwobi
– Lacaz, Wellbeck, Giroud
+ our youngsters including AMN
We definitely have creativity, skills, aerial strength and some pace as well. Basically, we can move up the ball well.
We may lack one on one dribbling potential since Sanchez left
If Aubam comes, we get depth, pace and fantastic goal scoring ability. Shall we sell Wellbeck then?
In
The only thing I hate with taking a united reject is it never works out for us
We can call him Henrick Rasp
They want to trade one scorpion king for a scorpion prince madness
Me to
Thanks Chas.
Dad called Hamlet, and he’s Armenian. Is someone taking the piss 🙂
Erik/Fred
Why wouldn’t anyone swap Pants Down for a top quality goal getter?
If I was Ollie, I’d be off just to play ahead of the WC
I saw a (somewhat disturbing) post yesterday that was stating that Dortmund, should they sign Giroud, would be wanting him as a “stop gap” for one season only, then signing the player they REALLY want.
Quite possibly click-bait, of course.
Well, Al, they’d need to appease their fans I would imagine 🙂
Talking of click bait, I just went digging and found a picture of some fat geezer putting something in, or possibly taking some out, of his car boot.
Silly me, apparently it was PEA loading up ahead of a move to Arsenal. You know, toothbrush, clean pants, phone charger and so on.
Damn, hope PEA remembers to bring his football boots. Can you imagine the wrath of Arsene if he forgot. My God, he’d be rightly furious
Ok, back to work 🙂
I saw a (somewhat disturbing) post yesterday that was stating that Dortmund, should they sign Giroud, would be wanting him as a “stop gap” for one season only, then signing the player they REALLY want.
Quite possibly click-bait, of course.
—————————————————–
Big Raddy says: “Why not take Shaw or Smalling?”.
1. Arsene initially wanted Martial (age 22) for our swap deal (young player). Mourinho said no.
2. Arsene then asked for Shaw (22 years old). Mourinho said no.
3. Arsene then asked for Mkhitaryan (29 years old).
Mourinho said YES !!
So we got Arsene’s third choice.
Amazing how he wants 3 players from the same club, but apparently just one other player from the rest of the entire planet
As regards Martial, I’ve already said my piece in previous posts. At just 22 years old, perfect! As good a player (or better) than the one we got, and sell-on high price guaranteed (in 5-6 years). We should have upped the offer but we didn’t. A straight swap is unthinkable.
If the Shaw story is true, that’s worrying as far as I’m concerned.
He’s a left back. So is Kolasinac.
My worry is that he would move Monreal back into the middle of defence in a wretched “back-3” again. If not, it begs the question: why the heck would he want Shaw?
——————
Here’ what Charlie Nicholas said, a few days ago [edit]… “I’d much rather pay an additional £50m to get Martial … Arsenal made £30m on selling Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, £20m on Theo Walcott, so go all-in.”
I’m with Charlie.
I wonder if Mik will play any part tomorrow evening …. hopefully he’ll be on the bench
Not sure, but Mik has maybe already featured in this cup for Man U.
Why don’t you put your name on your posts, Chas?
Can’t you spell it?
I almost had another go at poor old GoonerB.
I don’t think PEA’s cars have boots, they are not Landys for carrying kids and dogs. It has to be said he has good taste in motors
So, next time Chas will sign his post then
As GB 🙂
Big Al
What’s your source for your Martial, Shaw, Mkh info?
Fabregas and Morata missing for chelsea tomorrow. Good news. I suspect Wenger will play a similar team to the one that drew the 1st leg, but in fairness that was probably our strongest team at the time (other than the dog botherer) so maybe if Kos and Özil are fit they will slot in. I really hope we win as would be a good boost for the club right now. I worry that Hazard might be the difference though.
No way United would let us get Martial, £50m or otherwise. Id rather have Auba and Mkhitaryan than just Martial anyway. We need a bit of depth after losing Theo and Sanchez.
Martial is top quality. Would AW spend €100m to buy him?
Spurs fans already moaning about their lack of transfer business. Wait until they fail to get in CL and start selling their best players to pay for the stadium! 😂
Sorry for delay – I was watching lots of “Soul Train” dance routines on Youtube. Afros, flares, and birds. And the music. Love it!
Charlie’s idea was a swap – 35m for 35m PLUS 50m – he uses the word “additional”, therefore I gather he means 85m valuation. I personally would suggest 60-65m is more realistic.
Work out the transfer cost by dividing years left in the game – he’s only 22. Actually orks out cheaper than the old scrote we bought when we receive zilch on his retirement at 34.
———————-
FGG – Martial has not been in favour (fully) since Jose’s been at United. If Arsene was serious when offered 85m-ish for what’s-a-name just a while back – it’s been mooted a few times he could be on his way soon. He’s had a reasonable amount of benchtime at United.
Too late now, anyway. Missed opportunity for those who regard Martial as highly as Charlie and I do.
———————–
Chas – you ask: “What’s your source for your Martial, Shaw, Mkh info?”.
Various Chas. Key “arsenal news” into Google search bar and a hundred or more sites are there for us. Some probably rehashing others’ work, which is too often par for the course. I generally stick to what I deem to be most “reliable”, that is, newspapers: Telegraph, Mirror, Express, Star, Standard…
Pinches of salt always at hand.
Pinches of salt indeed.
All I could find when I googled was Football365 rehashing a story from respected Sun journo Alan Nixon.
Forgot to say that I avoid the Sun like the plague, so that’s probably why I missed the story.
Chas
Comments/quotes from ex-players may well hold some truth at times simply from a “connections” point of view. Alan Smith, Wright, Merson, Keown to name a few.
Sanchez to United started somewhere. Followed by a “swap deal”, which wasn’t just rumour. I take as much care as possible regarding where I click.
I think the Giroud “rumour” suggesting being only a one-season stop-gap was from a source in Germany. Newspaper or correspondent maybe. It was well written, in a believable fashion.
That’s not to say I did believe it, but I considered it as possible.
Bedtime…
City at wembley if we get through tomorrow.
https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2018/01/23/report-reine-adelaide-and-smith-rowe-excel-as-arsenal-u23s-hit-five-against-bayern-munich/
@7:07 – ok, the dog is crazy, but not half as crazy as the people who have a pig in the living room, nutters
Morning All,
7.09 😀 😀
Big Al,
I rate Martial aswell, that’s why I do t believe they’d let us have him for £80m.
Wenger been talking about our new Armenian and mentioned that he sees him playing central. He was then asked if he meant as a 10, and Wenger’s response was to say possibly even deeper. So panic over, we have our new HM player. Wenger has been talking about how hard he works for the team, so now he will turn him into the new Gilberto! 😂
FGG. Surely not! Miki is certain to be played on the right wing in front of Hector for a few weeks, then left wing, then CB until he settles into his best position between the posts.
Rob Holding played for the U-23’s last night in a 5-2 victory over Bayern Munich
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