Steven N’Zonzi has denied he’s in talks with Arsenal despite confirming his desire to quit Sevilla when the transfer window opens in January.
The former Stoke and Blackburn midfielder has been left out of Sevilla’s squad for the last two league games after a huge falling out with coach Eduardo Berrizo and has made it clear he’ll leave the La Liga outfit in the coming weeks.
The France international is currently in London but his visit to the English capital is nothing to do with speculation linking him with the Gunners and Everton.
Speaking about the rumours, the 28-year-old explained to France Football (translated by the Evening Standard), “My future is clearly elsewhere than in Sevilla. The only thing that disappoints me is the manner in which this is ending.
“But what bothers me is the way it’s going. It had never been bad with a coach before. I never had that kind of problem.
“I’m indeed in London, but it’s got nothing to do with a transfer or football. I’ve come to see my son who lives here and to spend some time with him. As you can see, it’s not a question of signing for Arsenal or anywhere else.”
That certainly put the poo-meter up a couple of turds,then!..
I just think that player wise, it doesn’t matter who we bring in anymore. We literally have two or three of the best players in the world playing for us, but we still as a collective make the same mistakes which ultimately cost us every single season. As an example: Chelsea won the title last year with 93 points, and their defense was mainly made up of players like Cahill, Luiz, Alonso and Azpilicueta; are they really that much better than Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal and Bellerin? In my honest opinion no, not really. They obviously have their strengths and weaknesses… Read more »
*yawn*
Kind of off-topic, but I get what you’re saying. Still, at this point there’s no point in being frustrated by it. If he didn’t go after last season that’s clear evidence that nothing the fans do will make any difference to him staying or going. I say just go with the flow until the 2 years are up. Linking this back to the blog this morning, that’s why I’m not that angry after defeats anymore, I think. If we can play some great football (which even though we lost on Saturday, I thought we did) in the meantime, at least… Read more »
I don’t think its that far off topic really. Its all relevant. We buy players all the time, some with bags of ability, some with not so much > Ozil Sanchez Chamakh Bendtner Arsene coaches them (along with the coaching staff) > We see the same results ——————————————– It honestly doesn’t really make a difference who we get in anymore. I am not trying to be negative, and I am not trying to get everyone to bring out their pitch forks and go for Arsene Wengers head – I am just stating pretty much nailed on facts. Obviously as a… Read more »
When was Mourinho’s last “fresh innovative idea”? Double parking two busses? When did Conte last have one? Everybody brings what they know with them to the EPL. It might be new to the EPL but Conte used the 3-5-2 forever in Serie A. For a stubborn old goat Arsene has been surprisingly experimental. Raise your hands if you remember us using the formation, yeah? 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-2-2-2, 4-1-3-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-1-2, 4-3-3, 3-2-3-1-1. Within the formations we have pressed while compacting the space, we have laid back and invited pressure so we could counterattack, and we’ve been all out attackers. I… Read more »
Mourinho last won the Premier League title in 2015. Conte last won the Premier League title in 2016 Arsene Wenger hasn’t won it since 2004. Its painful reading – but its the truth. Also formations don’t really mean too much unless the players on the pitch know and understand how to implement the formation. A tactical approach to a specific game isn’t just defined by a ‘formation.’ It could also be, as a prime example what United did to us last weekend – Mustafi and Koscielny like to have the ball at their feet, we like to play out from… Read more »
Hope he joins. I quite like his play.
He’s a decent player but style would get him too many red cards if he played for us. However I can see him following Fat Sam to the toffees as he knows he’d get regular game time with them.
Although he may prefer to stay/move somewhere with a warmer climate having already experienced the joys of a UK winter.
The PL is more physical than Spain, and he was grand for Sevilla. Also, he’s lived in Stoke and Blackburn. London is an easy sell in comparison
Yes it’s much more physical and he knows it well, but he wouldn’t be allowed by the refs to play the same way for us as he did for Stoke and Blackburn.
Whilst London is ‘an easy sell’ compared to Stoke etc, it’s not such a great option compared to most top teams in Spain or Italy climate-wise, especially if he’s not sure how much game time he’d get with us.
It depends how money driven he is but I’d guess he could have earned more by staying in the PL instead of going to Spain last time…
Good player, just not worth 30m. We need to get a world class ball winner. It hurts my soul when I remember Liverpool are going to have Naby Keita next season. How we let that happen without trying is baffling to say the least. Our scouts need to get to work.
Naby Keita would have been amazing but Liverpool caught everybody off guard by paying his release clause 1 year in advance, which I’ve never heard of a team doing before. Real Madrid and United were also rumoured to be waiting for his release clause to activate this summer before making a move, so it’s not a surprise we were blind-sided by Liverpool
thank god for that.
I see this as good news:
1) He’s confirmed he’s leaving Sevilla
2) He’s got links to the Premier League
3) his son lives in London
4) he didn’t say that he wouldn’t sign for Arsenal, just that it’s not the reason he’s in London right now
No point me commenting as i’d just be regurgitating what you have just said.
A ‘co-sign’ will suffice.
I would be happy if we sold Sanchez and (indirectly) replaced him with N’zonzi in January. He would act as Vidal did for Pirlo/Xavi Alonso by allowing Xhaka to focus on spraying his passes around and Ramsey could move into Sanchez’s spot further forward, giving him the freedom to attack more
I would prefer if we went to a back 4, something like this….if Sanchez leaves and we get N’Zonzi or another DM:
Cech
Bellerin Kos Monreal Kolasinac
N’Zonzi
Xhaka Ramsey
Ozil Iwobi/Wellbeck
Laca
Still think we need a world class CB though and we could easily be a force again!!
Well played N’Zonzi, well played….
Now sign the damn thing!
Walcott, Coquelin and Sanchez out.
Fekir, Lemar and N’Zonzi in.
As much as it pains me to say goodbye to our little rocket man, he ain’t going to sign a new ting and we’ve got to prepare now for the potential shit show in the summer.
That would be a net outlay of about £100m, wouldn’t it? Can’t see Arsenal doing that.
Surely we should be doing better.
Mediocre option. Might as well use Elneny who is mediocre
Personally I thought Granit played very well against United. Was competitive against Pogba and won a number of personal duels. But its not the nature of our system to man mark and we tend to let things be too interpretative. Granit isn’t really a DM but the conundrum as well is if you bring in a strict role player to cover DM we miss the benefits going forward In any case we have a DM terrier type player in Coquelin. If anything I felt we put 3 strikers on in the end but it was at expense of Granit, a… Read more »
Didn’t you see Manure third goal? Xhaka was ridiculous. Should easily have blocked the assist pass.