According to Calciomercato, Torino have taken a big step towards signing Lucas Torreira by agreeing a €24 million fee with Arsenal.
A move to Turin would see the 24-year-old join forces with Marco Giampaolo, the coach who played such a big role in his development at Sampdoria prior to his 2016 move to the Emirates.
It’s not the first time Giampaolo has been hot on the heels of the midfielder. It was reported that he tried to sign the player this time last summer during an ill-fated and short-lived spell at AC Milan.
Torreira has had several suitors in Italy in the last couple of years, including Napoli and Fiorentina. The latter seemed to be close to a loan agreement as recently as two weeks ago but whatever reason the Tuscan side failed to close the deal.
Torreira wasn’t included in Mikel Arteta’s matchday squad for the opening day win over Fulham.
Good move for all parties.
Torino get their man, and Arsenal move closer to getting their man (men).
Good move for all Parteys indeed.
…and we can get Aouar man.
Hope they start Partey in An hOUAr
When we sell a player – A Euro’s like pretty much the same as a pound right?
When we buy a player – What’s a Euro, like half a quid isn’t it?
Nope, 8 p from par
Great business if it happens! Also get the sense it would be best for all concerned (Lucas clearly isn’t highly rated by Arteta).
Isn’t *high*ly rated, i see what you did there ?
The question is, did you?
No one was ready for that mate…..its too layered
Good one though…
We got it, just not exactly a classic.
You’re right, I feel like Arteta isn’t very keen on and outright DM, which is a bit intriguing since I don’t see how we’d line up with a back four without one. Xhaka and Elneny in front of a back four, with a number 10 higher up still seems a bit risky to maintaining our defensive shape. Maybe three CM’s, a bit like Liverpool? Or is the back five now our default? I’m sure Arteta has something up his sleeves but as long as we get the wins I really won’t mind a back five. On a side note did… Read more »
Gilberto Silva?
Too much chat about tactics as if we know any better. I’m more than confident in Arteta having already thought of any variable you can throw at him… very confident.
I’m just sitting back and hoping the transfer market can work for us, and even if it doesn’t I feel we’re on the right track, and this is not a half year or 1 year project that we’re starting off on!
Hail the Manager!
Mikel is looking for an upgrade over Torreira. Good luck to Lucas in Italy. We’ll always remember that goal against Sp*ds.
Sign da ting!
Blind speculation alert, but could this plus the Martinez money give us the funds for a Partey bid?
I think the funds will be for Aouar. Elneny is the new Partey.
Although both Elneny and Xhaka have improved massively under Arteta, I still don’t trust them to be the key players who could help us become one of the top teams again.
I would want us to go for Partey. In fact I would love to see us go and get both Partey and Aouar but I could just be a bit greedy.
One step at the time
I’d love them both too, but given how well Elneny is doing now I think creativity at number 6 is what we need at the moment, hence Aouar for me should be the higher priority. Would finally fill that Cazorla gap. I miss the days when we line up with both Ozil and Cazorla, and Alexis further up. Had some bangers over the years; 2-0 City away, 3-0 Chelsea at home. And I love Elneny (I’ve been defending him even way before the community shield), and he does do what we’d be expecting Partey to do for us, but in… Read more »
Interestingly Ozil didn’t play in the 2-0 at the Etihad. Wenger went for a 3 of Coquelin, Cazorla and Ramsey in midfield. I wonder if he’d done that in all of the away games against better opposition that season we’d have been in the hunt for the title…
To my recollection we were only 13 points shy of chelsea that year
Our biggest weakness in a lot of ways last year was our inability to breakdown a packed defense which is where Aouar would really help. We’ve demonstrated that we can play on the counter with a packed defense quite effectively with the personnel we already have. It seems unlikely we have the funds for both players at this point so unless we’re willing to sell Xhaka (too much change for one year), we’re probably better off going for the player that would help us more against the smaller teams where we’ve struggled.
Just to play devil’s advocate Atom ol’ chap: How much of that is down to not having enough in the middle that can turn and drive past players through the centre of the pitch (Ceballos offers a little there, but still could improve – Xhaka and Mo bascially zero)? Judging on a small sample size and in a different position (although he did move through the attacking middle quite a bit), how much can Willian potentially fill that role? Can ESR play a role there also (especially considering we don’t have much ready youth in DM/CM, especially considering the Matteo’s… Read more »
Why can’t we play AMN as more a defensive mid against the smaller teams? We scored 48 goals last year which is more typical of a relegation fight than a top 4 team. I haven’t watched Partey a whole lot but I would genuinely ask how much of him looking good is down to the fact he plays for Simeone vs. being a world class DM?
He’s good because he isn’t just a DM, which I think we need more than an out and out DM. A Vieira style player that drives possession through the middle and is interchangeable with other midfield options. That’s the style player he is and IMO the style we need. Open up the middle of the pitch instead of forcing everything through the wings. To do that we need players that can beat people in midfield, players that can turn people in midfield against a press – day links mids to attack and increases our pace of possession… and they need… Read more »
Plays for rather than with.
Greedy indeed. Its already a big task to sign one of Aouar or Partey, not to mentioned both.
And besides like how Elneny seems to be ‘reborn’. He seems intent to make up for loss time
Go for Aouar now, we see if we will still need Partey the next season.
Would love both, but realistically it’s going to be one or the other. Elneny looked great in front of a back 3 against Fulham, but if we ever plan to play with a back 4 i still think we need someone else to anchor the midfield 3. Based on that, i’d say Partey is more essential at this moment. Plus, he’s 10mil cheaper than Aouar, and in the current climate that could be the difference between a deal getting done or not
10 million cheaper, 5 years older with astronomical wage demands of 200k and a huge risk if he fails to deliver. Aoaur could be like Hazard, it’s a no brainer to get him first.
Could use the extra creativity through the middle methinks
Astronomical wages? Based on Football.London or The Sun?
Plus no AFCON interfering. If it came to a choice,I will take Aouar.
I would take Aouar over Partey anyday. In fact if we only sign Aouar and keep Bellerin, AMN and Laca I would consider it a successful transfer window. Partey is full of running and would provide lots of energy and physicality and is probably at the peak of his game. However, I think those skills r easier to fill than those of Aouar (tricks, dribbling, close control, assists, vision). AMN, El Neny even Joe Willock could do a job that Partey can. None of them won’t b able to do what Aouar does.
I don’t think we play with a back 3 or a back 4 any more, it’s both depending on who has the ball
Top notch comment Anonymars. It’s so unassuming that it is actually easy to miss how insightful it is.
That’s only partly true. If you can trust your two centre halves (Mertesacker/Koscielny) then you can still play Bellerin/Tierney as fullbacks and add a Ramsey/Ozil/Santi/Aouar (all different, but fundamentally an attacking midfielder role) to Xhaka/Elnenny or Xhaka/Ceballos.
Well said.
People are getting way too far ahead of themselves with Elneny
Partey has been world class these last couple of seasons – has everything you want in a deep lying midfielder and more. Elneny has been decent in a couple of fairly low intensity games…
If he is to be kept as squad depth then fine, but I wouldn’t be optimistic at all if we end up with him competing against Xhaka and Ceballos for a starting spot
He absolutely has not been world class. There is generally nothing he does that is top 10 in Europe. He is a solid player, sure. You can make the argument that playing in a defensive team like Atletico stifles his outputs. But, we don’t play like Atletico do. So, we’re asking a player in his late 20s to change styles *and* improve while paying €50 million for such.
He’s a genius at getting the ball forward early – either breaking through the lines himself or picking out an incisive pass. He doesn’t assist or score all that much himself (although not bad at all for a deep midfielder) because generally he plays too deep to do that – but he will frequently move the ball into our attacking players early, before the opposition have reassembled defensively. They will then have more opportunities to create with time and space than they do currently. Add to that what his tackling, mobility and game reading skills will bring to our defence,… Read more »
He just turned 27 a few weeks ago. He’s not in his late twenties but in his best age as a cdm. I’d prefer Aouar over Partey too, if I’d have to chose one but it’s not like Partey is crap or almost finished in terms of his age.
Links to Mounir Chouiar are kind of strange but a bit of digging and he’s quite interesting. Creates on average about half a chance more than Aouar per game and is a year younger. He is a left-sided forward as opposed to a midfielder and I think any move for him would be to provide depth for Aubameyang’s position rather than a starter to improve the first XI. I agree that Aouar is the priority right now due to his versatility and proven ability to play at the highest level.
We already have too many left sided forwards
Well Aubameyang and possibly Martinelli yes but why have we been linked witha plethora of right-footed left wingers? Anderson, Chouiar, Benrahma etc. etc.
No smoke without fire so the club is clearly looking at that position…
Chocolateteapot, I agree, slightly different position to Aouar but I think Chouiar is the most interesting player we’ve been linked with this summer.
We have a coach who specialises in player development, and if he can work his Sterling magic on this kid, then wow. At 21 he’s raw but the underlying numbers indicate a strong two-way player.
A winger who’s near impossible to tackle, but who is very good at pressing is like gold-dust in modern football. Also, Willian and Auba will not be around forever!
I think Aouar is the type of player Arsenal need more than Partey. Partey is a great deep midfielder but he is not significant improvement to Xhaka/Elneny considering the amount of money AM are asking for.
Whereas Aouar as CAM is what Arsenal can use if Arsenal ever goes to back 4.
or it pays for Gabriel and opens the door for Guendouzi’s return to the squad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I thought we paid more than 24Mil for Torreira. I’m not sure how a losing transaction would make money is available to buy new players, though the Martinez amount does count as a nice sum.
If the money we get for selling him and Martinez will enable us to secure Partey/Aouar (the dream would be both…) then I’m all in for these deals.
If we get both for £85m and sell Lucas and EMI for £45m then that’s only an outlay of £40m total. They’ve already said that they can recoup some me money in future windows. 10-15m for 2 center backs?
Sokratis fee? Some lean fees for a couple of the kids and we make that easy
Lean loan fees
So then does this mean that our pursuit of Thomas Partey is on again?
Probably Aouar, but who knows
I’d prefer Aouar.
Me too 🙂
Pretty reasonable return if it is true, though hopefully with add-ons and clauses.
Shame it didn’t work out for him, though I don’t believe the player is to blame here.
He never really seemed to settle in London. There were reports of him wanting a return to Italy quite soon after he arrived. I think the pace of Italian football suits him. Wish the guy well.
Probably the pace of Italian life, as well. I’d imagine it’s much more akin to what he was used to in Uruguay than the UK is (especially with the language barrier).
I do remember the reports of him being unsettled, and the subsequent rebuttals from him (via his agent if I recall?) that he liked the club and wanted to be successful here. But really, who wouldn’t prefer Italy to living here?
I think that he is someone Arteta could have worked with to overcome his positional deficiencies and control of the game, but given the other players at his disposal and the likely homegrown issues we’ll have with the departure of Emi, I can see why Arteta would want to focus his efforts elsewhere.
Doesn’t seem like anyone is to blame. Seems like a similar situation to Jose Antonio Reyes. I don’t think either player became bad before leaving.
Torreira was playing at the beginning of the year and was getting back to a good level. The games after the restart were after coming back from a broken ankle, so I think it was reasonable to expect he wasn’t at his best.
I think if he’d settled better he’d still be a good option for the team, but he hasn’t and it’s probably best for all concerned if this deal goes ahead.
West ham also in for kolasinac as twitter itk suggest. They say moyes is looking for a left back who can cross and kolasinac is a solid candidate in that regard. ??????????
Moyes obviously misspoke, what he meant was that he wants a LB who can’t cross.
We could tell them kolasinac is similar to antonio and charge 20m.
He’s probably worth that to be fair
Maybe not in this market
?
Don’t know where that idea comes from. It’s defending that Kolasinac is shit at. His delivery is actually quite good. Does everyone not remember how the main tactic in the 3-5-2 under Emery was “get the ball to Kolasinac for a cut-back”?
On one hand i’d be happy if we used the money to bring Aouar in. One the other hand i fear it could potentially block Smith Rowe’s path to the first team, which would be a shame, cause i’d really like to see him play more and eventually take the #10 role (and shirt).
Yeah one reason i’d prefer Partey over Aouar if we can only get one. We have Willian and the potential of Smith-Rowe to give us creativity whereas we don’t seem to have anyone who can do the role that Partey would
This is how I feel too. We are completely lacking a midfielder with the ability to dribble and drive through the centre of the pitch. Ceballos has it a little, and he has good off ball movement and can turn a player, but he’s like 3.5/5 at all those things…still developing. Partey has that ability, he can pick a pass and also is a strong defender – very complete player and the type we’ve been lacking for … well how long? The signing of Willian does give us that creative link. ESR also needs games, I mean potentially Saka can… Read more »
And Willock of course. I forgot him too. If his technical ability continues to improve we have one heck of a player there, with pace, movement and the potential to bag goals from midfield.
I think there will be plenty of football to go around. If we establish this creative role in midfield, ESR will still get plenty of game time since we don’t have many players in that mould. We can still develop him without heaping so much responsibility on a young player, for example see Willock, Nketiah, etc. These guys have Ceballos/Laca in front of them in seniority terms but still get to play and show their stuff enough that it’s worth having both options.
Maybe if Aouar comes ESR will go out on loan for another season. It might actually be the best thing for his development to play a full season as a 1st choice in the Championship than warming Arsenal’s bench most of the time
As for Lucas it just feels like we should get the deal done and put an end to all the speculation. Never seemed like he felt at home in London.
No problems with the guy as a man or player at all..just seems he would be happier back in Italy and Arsenal seemingly want the money to invest in another, potentially, better player. Win-win
A nice problem for the manager to have.
Anyway, with both Martinez and now Torreira being sacrificed, it’s time to get this done and dusted and sign one of those targets.
If I can accept this – then anyone can…!! ?
Auoar at times play at 6 for Lyon though.
Selling a player for close to their real value??? Can’t be my club
Amazing innit? Could be the Edu effect, who knows. And 20m for Martinez as well (don’t forget he’s entering the final year of his contract) – when we got Gabriel for 22m, crazy!
If we can get even any value at all for Sokratis, Guendouzi and Mustafi (yes he’s done well since Arteta came but we’re way too numbered at CB) then we’ve definitely turned the leaf from previous management and their abysmal attempt at managing player contracts and transfers.
Time will tell with Edu, but very encouraging signs if/when both deals go through!
Amazing, yes. But it’s clear Torreira is well thought of in Serie A. So fair play to all concerned.
Was watching the Premier League’s goals of the season for last season. It was amazing how many new players got hyped up at the start of the season (Ndombele, Pukki, Daniel James, Tammy Abrahams, etc). Torreira was unfortunately one of those that never lived up to early billing.
” prior to his 2016 move to the Emirates.”
Didn’t we sign him just before the 2018 word cup ?
Well, if this happens, I guess none of us can have any complaints. 24m is still a tad on the cheap side in my opinion, but if this money and the money we get from selling Martinez can help us sign either Aouar or Partey then fair enough. I don’t think we’ll sign both and, given the choice, I would prefer the former. A shame. I would have liked us to keep Lucas Torreira, a good player and definitely one who has probably benefited greatly in training from Arteta’s coaching. If it goes through, it’s time to thank Lucas for… Read more »
I wish it had worked for him here, but it will be good to move him on and reinvest in the squad.
Torreira’s birthplace of Fray Bentos reminds me of those metal pies (manufactured by Baxters) that never manage to properly rise when heated. Had tried many different tactics of getting the inner part of the pastry to cook through rather than remain an undercooked disappointment. I think the promise of Fray Bentos pie vastly ignores the reality. Have long since given up on them. Sad, because if we return to considering football, I think this mirrors Torriera’s situation to a T. If we get what we paid for him (inflation notwithstanding) then it’s not a bad bit of business, and frees… Read more »
I zinc I’ve never had metal pie, but I steel like Lucas and wish him well. I’ll always remember him spanking that ironclad clinching goal against Spuds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2I_fJJnLvc
I remember (fondly) when those pies were manufactured by Fray Bentos and their corned beef which my mother used as a sandwich filling with Branston pickle as a packed lunch for school. Baxters is a fairly recent incumbant.
Anyway, returning to the football….
Best for everyone if Lucas returns to Italy and we more or less get our money back.
Fray Bentos ? Wasn’t he the Cuban leader ?
That was Sébastien frey
Hahahaha
God dammit David Brent, it was the 4 Non Blondes
That’s because the company originally had a processing plant there in Uruguay, so there’s a genuine link.
That border region between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay used to be a global cattle capital.
Fabulous business if it goes through. If we can also get some cash for Guendouzi and maybe Ozil, that would ho a long way toward getting our dream midfield…
We can always dream as you say. Nothing wrong with that. Sell Ozil? It’s not impossible, but I don’t think you should hold your breath waiting. As for Guendouzi, there appears from reports to be two lists. Clubs that want him and clubs that don’t. One has no clubs on it and the other an increasing number. We may get lucky but we’ll need to get something on that empty list first.
I forget the actual numbers but the magic words are “ set pieces. “ Look at our poor record. Look at our new center backs. Arteta is likely thinking, can I get a defensive minded midfielder who is not a liability on set pieces? I think he likely loves the fight and attitude of Torreira but prefers his “bite” be higher than the ankles of our opponents. Sorry, no offense intended but this is professional sport and sometimes size matters.
Ouch. Geez that was so harsh.
True it doesn’t make sense to have him defending set-pieces. Probably better as an outlet for the headed clearance instead.
I read somewhere that he actually started his football career as a winger. My critique regarding his physicality was that he was too light. Like Guendouzi, his body mass doesn’t allow him to absorb shocks well. So when he inevitably gets floored, he is always looking towards the referee.
In comparison, someone like Roberto Carlos handled his defensive duties better as he was more robust.
He is also terribly slow for someone his size. I think at some point he was measured the slowest in the team. That could explain why he was moved away from the wings.
Our set piece blunders during the past few years have not been the fault of Lucas Torreira, but normally down to a ginger beard that doesn’t know what day of the week it is.
If it’s correct then the fee is about as good as we can expect. Yes, it’s a loss on what we paid, but not a huge amount (approx. £22m vs £26m) and we need to get the money in.
My goodness gracious me, do we need to get the money in? Well I never.
I find it crazy how our billionaire owner has made us believe that selling off useful squad players is the only way to buy new players.
While clubs like Chelsea can go on and spend 200 million on a new squad.
Not this old chestnut again! How long have you been a Gooner? The owner has NEVER supported us the way that Comrade A does for The Blues. That’s very unfortunate for us of course, but get over it now for goodness sake. We are where we are – it hasn’t happened and it simply ain’t going to. We need to sell to re-invest and to balance the books. This is one example and there may be others to come in this window.
What on earth has the length of time this person has supported Arsenal got to do with how we go about our transfer business?
Amusa has actually asked a very sensible, reasonable question, given that our majority shareholder could shell out for Aouar and Partey in the same way as the average man or woman in the street buys a coffee.
Just because you bow and scrape to Kroenke’s contribution of nothing, it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to.
The relentless criticism of Kroneke is really, really tiresome — we’ve bought one of the best strikers in the premier league (Aubameyang), a young central defensive duo that have great potential and which we’ve been crying out for years (Saliba, Gabriele), the best keeper we’ve had since Lehman, Pepe, etc. etc. All under Kroenke. Not only that, but there has been recognition of a mistake, in the firing of Raul and an acknowledgement that Arteta is more than a coach. There is a long list of achievements (and I’m sure, as the half empty brigade will point out, a lot… Read more »
Yes, we’ve had years of it. 16 years without a title. 4 years without Champion’s League football. And our worst finish in the league for 25 years. But we sure know how to count the pennies. Yes, we have a united squad finally showing some cohesion – that’s thanks to the former work of Arsene Wenger and the current work of Mikel Arteta. Not Stan Kroenke. How can you credit the guy with anything when he has never made a monetary contribution, helped himself to the club’s funds for his own personal use and made 50+ people jobless for a… Read more »
This is complete bollocks!!
Wenger ran us into the ground despite massive investment in the team. Wenger just bought the wrong players and played an out of date style of football.
Kroenke’s failure was not getting rid of Wenger years earlier!!
Massive investment….? I seem to remember that the main cry from your fellow members of the Wenger Out brigade (apart from “Wenger Out”) was that well known hit “Spend Some Fucking Money.” The unfortunate, but nonetheless hilarious irony of the Wenger Out Brigade was that they were all too thick to realise that the club where weighed down with stadium debt (thanks to Kroenke, we still are) there was no sufficient funds in the clubs coffers to spend on the very top players (there clearly still isn’t) and that because Kroenke abjectly refused to provide any financial assistance, Arsene pretty… Read more »
Let’s pick this apart: Dross like Santos? The same Santos that was bought after the 8-2 defeat when we all of a sudden found 10’s of millions of ££’s (when that was a lot of money) down the back of the sofa to buy, what 5-6 players in the space of a few days? Dross like Mustafi ehh?! You mean the second most expensive defender in the WORLD when we bought him!! Xhaka who cost more than Kante the same summer?! Ozil, who was the second most expensive player in the history of English football when we bought him Kolasinac… Read more »
Heh. We’re struggling with those contracts and wages because we’re trying to keep up with market forces – ie, City, Chelsea, Utd, Real, PSG and failing because we haven’t had the financial backing from Kroenke in order to compete properly. We have an eight time billionaire who doesn’t contribute a dollar – and you blame our struggles on our past management. What’s going to happen if we fail to secure top four for the next two or three years? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. People like you will be calling for Arteta’s head – just as you called… Read more »
We don’t have financial troubles and never have, can’t you get that through you thick skull?
I’ve sighted numerous examples of significant investment, which you acknowledge as “trying to keep up” and “market forces” but somehow can’t join up the dots that it hasn’t been a lack of money thats been the problem, it’s been a lack of “qwaliteee” on the pitch and in the dug out!
Arteta will be given a fair crack at the whip and like all managers if he doesn’t get the job done he should get given the sack, this is how football works.
To be fair, they also got big money for Hazard and a two window transfer ban to build up their transfer kitty.
Noone ever talks about the fact they got £60m for Morata either (I know they paid that but from an accounting perspective it’s still available for 5 years on FFP). Chelsea have spent a lot but they’re also very, very good at selling. They use the vast majority of their academy products as never-ending source of £1-5m deals. We just need to get smarter.
Hear, hear. Chelsea do sell well, on the whole (no club is perfect – if only). We don’t, largely because we haven’t bought well in a number of significant cases over recent years. We’re paying for that now because we can’t offload said players, or not on the terms we’d like. We need to (finally) stop complaining about the owner – even if those complaints are justified, it isn’t going to change anything – and get on with it! We’re in the “what is” world, not the “what if”. It looks to me that this “smarter” approach is high up… Read more »
Chelsea do well because they buy based on quality not on price, something Arsenal haven’t really done for years
Not on price?! ?
Havertz – £72.00m
Werner – £47.70m
Chilwell – £45.18m
Ziyech – £36.00m
In this window alone, they’ve already kissed bye-bye to well over £200m on four players.
Yes, on Quality!!
They’re not looking at the price of the player they are looking at the quality.
For instance we bought Gervinho from Lille for £15m and Chelsea bought Hazard from the same club for £30m
We made a loss and they made a massive profit
So why didn’t Arteta go in for that lot……?
In your own time, mate…….?
Maybe he did, or maybe they’re not players we need, who knows
Not that I’m saying Chelsea’s director of football isn’t good at her job (she is) but I have a hunch that a big part of that club’s “selling well” is due to Captain Abe’s underhand dealings and gentlemen agreements. The kind of stuff that got Raul booted from his job. Atletico, the same club that won’t budge on Partey’s selling price is the same club that just stupidly pays a total of £57m for Morata. A striker who last managed 20 goals four years ago. The collusion in football is getting so obvious that even supporters like myself are starting… Read more »
Atletico also spent £113m on Joao Felix. Maybe they think players are worth way more than they are, so are prepared to pay stupid money, but also demand it?
https://simplywall.st/stocks/pt/media/eli-slben/sport-lisboa-e-benfica-futebol-sad-shares/news/is-sport-lisboa-e-benfica-futebol-sad-elislben-a-risky-investment/
Or they could just be colluding to help other clubs with their balance sheets. The £113m transfer fee was significant cushion for Benfica humongous debt (was even more than Arsenal). It’s the same reason, Lille are probably thanking Raul ?
Granted, I don’t think every transfer fee is one big conspiracy but I feel football journalists and supporters will uncover so much in the next decade.
You do realize that part of why Chelsea is able to spend so much is because they hardly used any of the fee they got from selling their best player in the last decade?
Says he, conveniently ruling out the rest of Abramovich’s spending in the past 15 years…..
Not denying that. Simply refuting Amusa’s point that only Arsenal as a club buys sees the need to sell players to buy new ones. Every club does it. Liverpool bought Van Dijk and Alisson by selling Coutinho.
To acknowledge that Qwalitee would have to acknowledge what a shit job Wenger did i the transfer market for the last decade he was in charge, something he just isn’t prepared to do!!
So you think Wenger did a shit job in the transfer market in the last decade of his management? Well here’s a date for you April 2007. It’s significance is two-fold. First, it’s the month when David Dein, who had worked so well alongside Arsene Wenger (to sanction the transfers of players like Vieira, Overmars, Petit, Ljungberg, Anelka, Henry,Pires, Campbell, Lauren, Toure, Fabregas and Van Persie) fell out with the board after they refused his idea of a takeover from Alisher Usmanov, who would have pumped millions into the club. Usmanov (Red and White Holdings) eventually bought up 14.58% of… Read more »
Someone has an issue with their reading and comprehension, I said the last decade. Kroenke didn’t make Wenger buy shit players, didn’t make Wenger talk about “no value in the market”, didn’t tell him to sign “cohesion”, didn’t extend the contracts of injured or injury prone players, didn’t force him to play possession football in an era of high intensity and the high press, that was all on Wenger. There’s absolutely no evidence Kroenke doesn’t like to invest or spend money, in fact there’s a HUGE amount of evidence that he does invest his money, and there’s also evidence he’s… Read more »
You have problems with your comprehension mate.
Lost years? In the Champions League?! Three FA Cups in four seasons?
You’re tying yourself up in knots.
Hilarious ?
Lot’s year of Wenger not maintaining the quality of the squad, it’s come to bite us as many of us saw coming!!
And you think Kroenke invests his own money into this club ??
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. None whatsoever.
But you are very very funny. ?
He’s paid hundreds of millions for a going concern that makes money and trusted those under the employment of the business to run it properly, how he was wrong!!
You also state “Kroenke didn’t make Wenger buy shit players”
So, you’re telling me that Ramsey was shit? That Ozil was shit? That Alexis was shit? That Lacazette was shit? That Auba was shit?
As I said, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
If they’re all so good, why didn’t finish in the Europa league spots with them? Is it them or him that was shit?
Neither. The reason those guys (you’ll note that they’re all either midfielders or forwards) failed to either win or (later on) even qualify for the Champions League was down to the defence. As I said in an earlier post, after the famous back four gradually left, so our defence went from the best in world football to the worst. Wenger didn’t change his football philosophy – we just had to put up with Mustafi and Co. And yes, those defenders were expensive. But World Cup Winner or not, even Arteta couldn’t teach Mustafi how to defend and concentrate – as… Read more »
Wenger completely changed his football philosophy, almost a complete 180 degree turn.
He went from buying big athletic direct players, playing pretty direct football to a possession based technical style using mainly small players.
And you’re assessment that we couldn’t afford Kompany is ridiculous, a 17 year old Aaron Ramsey cost almost the same in the same summer. van Dijk cost £5m in to 2015 and i’ll repeat Mustafi was the SECOND MOST EXPENSIVE CENTRAL DEFENDER IN THE WORLD!!!
John, your anti Wenger rhetoric gets a lot of downvotes, mostly I’m sure because everyone remembers the great things that Arsene also did at the Club. But I have to say I agree with almost everything you say. Some of the mismanagement was of staggering proportions and ego driven. I was in my late teens when Arsene came to Arsenal and he was an idol for many years, but now I have very mixed feelings about what he did at the Club. That last decade shouldn’t have been allowed to turn out the way it did. Wenger just had far… Read more »
The trouble is, Dave, Arteta is being given the same task as Wenger – namely to challenge for the Premiership and the ECL with only the club’s financial resources against the top clubs being given financial backing from their ownership. What Arteta has already achieved is remarkable and I hope with every fibre of my being that he can go on to beat the lot. But if he doesn’t – and we fail to make the top four within the next two to three years, the anti Wenger Brigsde will be screaming for Arteta’s head and blaming the management rather… Read more »
Apart from no clubs are receiving financial backing from their owners are they?
*Brigade
Look, i’m not anti-Wenger and think that his reign from his arrival to about 06 he is undoubtedly the best manager in the clubs history. But after the stadium move he was effectively given a position of tenure and instead of managing with logic and keeping to his own blueprint for success he became idealistic and had an ego-centric desire to build the club in his own image. The irony is had he stuck to his formula he would have done just that but alas he didn’t. Out went the big, strong and athletic midfield and defence and in came… Read more »
Didn’t he join in 2018?
Yes he did.
But hey, we all make mistakes. Just not as many as Mustafi.
Personally really sad to see him go, I thought he was excellent, however I trust Arteta 100%. If he thinks it is the right decision, let him go, wish him well, and it is all money to spend on our midfield
@Anonymarse Nice comment. It’s more of a 3-4-3 that turns into a 4-3-3 when we have the ball. Tierney becomes a LB from LCB and AMN becomes a LMF in a flat 4-3-3 from a LWB. Very efficient model for Saturday against Fulham but how good will it work against the big teams or how disciplined can we be over 90mins with the big teams? It remains to be seen. Still I feel we need an extra MF whether Aouar with the skills/dribbling or Partey with the grit and grind/physicality, we already have players that can do those jobs BUT… Read more »
I kinda get the impression the formation will just adapt to what the opposition is doing.
Against top sides we will be doing a lot more defending. Against the likes of Fulham it will be more attacking.
Either way it seems shut them out first.
Willian adds some more creativity, if we sign somebody else, there may be more.
It has done quite well against big teams considering we beat City, Chelsea and Liverpool twice recently.
If you need more evidence of how this will work against ‘the big teams’, can i suggest that you take a peak at the last home game against Liverpool, the fA cup semi final against shitty, the Cup Final against Spartak Chelski and the community shield against the mug-smashers?
Those were cup games. There was extra motivation to qualify for Europe and win a trophy. I’m talking about the long haul. Not just a knockout game. Do our present crop of players have the discipline to sustain it for 38 games? I don’t think so. We need at least one more quality MF
I understand the rest of the funny names but why are Liverpool called mug masters again??
Mug Smashers.
Blogs has a brother who supports Liverpool. His brother smashed his Arsenal mug. Consequently Blogs now refers to Liverpool as the Mug Smashers.
It happened to me too. A Liverpool supporting friend threw a potato through my window and it knocked my Arsenal mug off the table and smashed it. Funny coincidence!
Thanks?
liverpool are the mug smashers only on this site as its an anecdote from the author.
His brother is a pool supporter and smashed his mug. I dont know the full story sorry :C
I wasn’t included in Mikel Arteta’s match day squad for Fulham. I’m not interested in any loan deals. And the Spuds can shove their 50 million pound offer where the sun doesn’t shine.
I will name my unborn child Mikel if this means we get our midfield sorted
You should do that anyway
“We ain’t gonna stop cause this is Aouar Partey….It’s gonna bang all night long…”
Really good holding midfield player but maybe a little too small and lacks pace for Premiership. 100 per cent player who was rarely played in correct position with the right players around him. Also had a few injuries with unfortunate timings. If he goes I really wish him all the best. probably best for all parties with Arteta shaping his own balanced squad.
You would have thought that the flaws you outline (correctly) would have given us cause to think more carefully before splashing out a reported £26 million on him in the first place. We won’t get that back according to the article, but it’s not too bad in the current market.
True. Not enough research.
I hope that a few of the links like the Celtic striker are just paper talk, I would like Reiss, Nelson, Eddie and Smith-Rowe to be given opportunities as one always need some home grown talent and these guys are talented if given the opportunity. Look at AMN! We have enough attacking talent although I’m not sure Laca is as good as some think
That would be Laca, our Player of the Season the year before last, and the player that covered the most ground against Fulham (despite not playing the full 90)?
No wonder he’s always tired by the hour mark. Makes a lot of sense now
Its a good move and we need the money to recruit others. Goodluck lucas.
Probably best all around that he leaves permanently
He simply doesn’t have the ability to progress play via dribbling and more importantly with progressive passing range.
At least Elneny is able to pivot easily and change the direction of play.
For Torreira all the play needs to be ahead of him. But you can’t have him and Xhaka both doing the same thing.
You might progress the ball but to don’t move forward as a team.
I really like him, sad it didn’t work out here.
Good deal. We need to sell. 22m into coffers plus Martinez for 20m = 42m Then IMO keep Bellerin but sell Kola at 12m. We get to 54m Its still paltry money considering either of Aouar or Partey will cost 45m in excess at the moment (I stress) And we have expended 24m on Mangalha es not to mention 20m for Pepe and Saliba due. If some money (say 20m) from marketing rights channel into the transfers, maybe we cover for the Pepe/Saliba commitment this summer. Which means about 30m left to spend. If we consider Elneny sufficient at DM… Read more »
Again I think we have a couple of unanswered blanks in the squad… ……………………………Laca/Nketiah/(Martinelli)……………………………….. Auba/Saka……………………………………………………………..Pepe/(Nelson) ………………..(Aouar?)/Willock…………..Ceballos/Willian……………………… Tierney/AMN……………..Granit/Elneny……………………….(Bellerin)/Cedric ………………..Mangalhaes/Mari…………(Holding)/Saliba……………………… ……………………………..Leno/(The Ice Man)/Iliev…………………………………. 1)Then Luiz, spare at the back. Saliba still unproven so Luiz will prob start first till Saliba can find his feet in the squad with peripheral cup games and early stage europa. 2)Guendouzi and Smith-Rowe I’d put out on strong loan. Ozil if possible if not he can sit out as peripheral/still a good asset to call if need be. 3)Chambers and Mustafi on mend likely hard to move till January. Chambers may have potential for cover at DM.… Read more »
It’s a shame the Arteta magic didn’t work with Torreira; Lucas did have a superlative but brief spell before the Emory effect took hold. Torreira may have been too far gone to recover. Or perhaps Arteta didn’t see Lucas making the kinds of contributions Mikel is looking for.
Whatever, Arsenal didn’t lose too much selling him, and every party looks to benefit. Good luck to Lucas.
Uni Emery stupidly ruined him by trying to turn him from a defensive midfielder into an attacking one. The player was never comfortable with that and his form dipped. A shame, because he was more than happy to fulfil the role he has be bought for – to replace Franny Coquelin (another player sold far too early) and sit in front of the defence. He had his work cut out too, with the likes of Mustafi and Co clowning about behind him. I hope he can resurrect his career and enjoy the rest of his playing days. He always gave… Read more »
*Unai
Lucas Torino
Always liked him as a player with Arsenal and thought he would flourish under Arteta, but if Arteta doesn’t see what he wants in him and isn’t going to play him would rather sell for 24 million any day than do a loan.