Monday, December 23, 2024

Transfer round-up: Neves, Lokonga, Onana, Alberto, Guendouzi

Friends, Romans, countrymen, Buend me your ears…we come with transfer rumours that don’t involve Aston Villa-bound Argentines.

Be puce-faced no more. Let us apply a soothing balm of poo-o-meter endorsed nonsense.

__

Ruben Neves

The Times (£) report that Arsenal want the Portugal international. Apparently, Wolves were asking for €80 million a while back but due to the pandemic and a “change in attitude by the Chinese government towards investment in football” we think we can get him for half of that. Sounds a bit far-fetched to assume they’d just start flogging their assets at half price if there’s still a market for them, but who knows. Neves would bring long shots and a dash of handsome to the midfield so we’re not against it.


__

Sambi Lokonga

Arsenal’s interest in Brighton’s Yves Bissouma is no secret but, given funds are tight, who might be a cheaper alternative? Belgian site Voetball24 claims Thierry Henry, who is back coaching the Belgium national team with Roberto Martinez, has recommended Anderlecht’s 21-year-old Sambi Lokonga. With Arsenal hiring headhunters to recruit a scouting department, it’s nice of Titi to take on the responsibility of sourcing young talent, especially as he’s spent the last few weeks slagging off the club’s owners. We don’t know much about Lokonga, but we don’t have a scouting department either.

__

Andre Onana

It’s still unclear if the Ajax keeper will have to serve the final six months of his doping ban but according to The Times (£), we’re pressing ahead with an offer for the 25-year-old. On the one hand, it could be quite savvy playing the long-game on this one, on the other we wouldn’t be surprised if the CAS decided to extend his ban for 10-years just after he’s put pen-to-paper. It would be very Arsenal.

__

Yuri Alberto

Brazilian publication Globo Esporte says Arsenal are going gaga for interstellar talent Yuri Alberto. The 20-year-old plays for Internacional, likes scoring goals and is apparently available for £11 million. To secure a work permit, he’d have to qualify for a governing body endorsement (GBE) via the new point-based transfer system and, given his background, we’re not convinced he’d earn immediate approval. This is not one we’re going to be getting worked up about.

__

Matteo Guendouzi

It sounds like our curly-haired, Gallic mischieve-maker met with Marseille at the end of May. L’Equipe, via Sport Witness, claims he is “no longer welcome” at the Emirates. Not entirely sure how they reached that conclusion given he was banished from the training ground 18 months ago and spends most of his time trying to wind up Mikel Arteta by brown-nosing Unai Emery on social media, but there we go.

Related articles

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

136 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
William Nillian

All very underwhelming.

goongot

seems we trying to get into top 7 instead of top 4 with all this transfer news.

Man Manny

It is not that bad. All we need to overhaul is seven points.
And believe me, the team we have on ground is capable of doing that, especially if we have Ødegaard or his type from the beginning.
A decent window gives us an edge.
Fewer games will also work in our favour.
It was always going to be dicey without European football and the lingering impact of the pandemic.
Even Barcelona is scraping the bottom of the barrel for freebies.

Once a gunner

Why can’t we emulate cheski in 2012 they used there absence of Europe to claim the league. What stops arsenal from doing that?

Andy

Where shall I start?

Damo

Hahaha

Canadagoon

Talent, sadly. But I don’t think UCL is out of the question

Atom

This team isn’t remotely close to challenging for the league. That Chelsea side was league champions only a year prior or so and downed tools to get Maureen fired. We improved a lot the second half of the year but need to find a way to win games when there’s actual pressure on us.

Kinghenrythe14th

Not with Arteta in charge

Mpls

moolah.
bones.
bread.
ble (for our strikers)
dineros (for Santi)
penger (for Martin)
pengar (for Freddy)
peninga (for Runarsson)
penize (for tomas)
geld (for God)
cabbage
Loonie
Wonga

Man Manny

City won the league in 2012 and not Chelsea. Chelsea won the CL that year.

Johnny 4 Hats

I hear what you’re saying.

But it’s worth remembering the transfer window hasn’t even opened yet.

ChickPEA

Yes but more and more big clubs manage to sign at least 1 or 2 players before the window opens, see Upamecano, Konate, Aguero, Garcia, even Soumare at Leicester… We should start to do the same in my opinion.

Johnny 4 Hats

And Chelsea just won the Champions League.

Let’s just stay in our lane for the time being.

Var Will Solve The Problem

We are not having a buen dia when it comes to transfer 😞

Arsenalista

We’re as tight as a camels arse in a sand storm, I don’t expect us to do much. Oh how our mighty club has fallen.

Letscanstan&kiboshjosh

Well a camels arse is actually tighter when it’s owner is around to be fair

Eazy Deezy

A very sensible evolutionary trait. Who wants sand up there?

goonerrah

The bare minimum is a class CM, top RB, backup LB. Let’s see if Arsenal even do that. Anything less and the management are waving their bums at fans.

Artitty

As someone mentioned, underwhelming, but if these are the players that Arteta thinks fit into his preferred system, sure have a go at it. If it works, brilliant One way or another, we’ll have a conclusive understanding of whether he, Edu and the current operation is worth keeping or if it’s “restart the rebuild” o’clock.

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

L😂L. I can’t remember the last time Arsenal had an appeal granted in our favour.

Guess Kroenke must be stingy with the bribes too😉.

Titi’s Tea, Tea

He needs to take a page out of Sir Henry Norris’ guide to running The Arsenal.

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

😂😂😂. I’m sure Kroenke is familiar with the “dark arts” from his time on the Wal-Mart Board.

Twatsloch

Good if we sell Guendouzi. Goodbye to a player who didn’t live up to the required standard and a bit of money towards us for our troubles.

Johnny 4 Hats

It is a shame we can’t get more from him though and it’s these type of players whose value has just plummeted because of Covid.

A 22 yr old with French caps and 40+ Arsenal caps would have been comfortably £30m three seasons back.

We just need to make sure the we capitalise on this situation as well as being hamstrung by it.

Spanish Gooner

It also doesn’t help publicly banishing from the squad and trying to flog him to all and sundry for 18 months…

Johnny 4 Hats

Yeah but this loan move should have been all about him raising his value and his cache.

Instead it was a loan inhabited with mediocre performances and… you guessed it, disciplinary problems.

Heavenly Chapecoense

He had no disciplinary problems on loan. Was picked as the captain of french U21, I heard. Knowing how top notch french development system is, I am pretty sure his performances weren’t bad.

Medium Mozart

Sorry, HC, but that is simply not true:

https://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/fussball/hertha-bsc-so-bockig-sind-pal-dardais-halbstarke-hertha-stars-75504828.bild.html#%23%23wt_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&wt_t=1614068667032

If, like me, your German is ein bisschen rostig, Google translate will sort you out.

Johnny 4 Hats

Danke schön Mozart.

Heavenly Chapecoense

Diving instead of defending is a disciplinary issue to stick to him now?
Ceballos fighting with Nketiah in training was a real disciplinary issue. Did you hear anyone say Ceballos had disciplinary issues during his loan? Do you even remember of it? They stick a name to you and that’s what defines you.

Medium Mozart

Well, yes it is a disciplinary issue – or rather a lack of discipline. Dardai states he told him during training not to do it, yet he continued to do so during matches. It’s a continuation of what we saw him do at Arsenal. Run himself into trouble, and chuck himself to the ground as a cheap way of getting out of it. There were also suggestions that he was moody, and stubborn. ‘It’s like puberty for him. He’s rebellious’. So, not a team player in other words. It’s all about him. See, if he wasn’t an Arsenal player, and… Read more »

Heavenly Chapecoense

Yet we took Ceballos who once suggested something should explode to eliminate all players when Barcelona was facing another team from a region claiming independance from Spain.

Medium Mozart

Think you’re reaching a little with the disciplinary comparison, HC, but it’s an interesting one none the less… Dardai on Guendouzi: “He has to learn like animals’ Arteta on Ceballos (after having dropped him from the starting line-up for three months last season): ‘He completely changed his behaviour and trained like an animal.’ So, one player that responded positively to his manager’s words, and one who didn’t. You also mentioned Ceballos’ spat with Nketiah. Players fall out all the time, and get over it. When a player publicly falls out with their manager, there is rarely a way back for… Read more »

goonshow

Mate – you’re just digging it deeper now… You didn’t have your facts straight, own it and move on?
Guend has had well-documented attitude problems throughout his careern – and always on the same theme: doesn’t respond to authority; self-belief tipping over into arrogance; inability to control his temper; petulance.

He may still be young enough to change these traits – but shows no sign of the self-reflection it would require.

I say let him grow up on someone else’s dollar.

Qwaliteee

I say put him in a KISS tribute band. As the lead singer, not the dude with the nine foot tongue.

Aalborgen

You have been proven wrong by Mozart. Now you are deflecting. Why don’t you just admit that you are wrong. It would be like discovering an extinct human race.

Twatsloch

I agree with the others here. We’ve reached the end of the road with Guendouzi. It’s good if we get at least a small profit on him to put towards new signings.

Ghani

Arteta has his favourites.

A Different George

I think it said to disable my ad blocker. No idea what that has to do with Guendouzi.

Qwaliteee

Mozart always did prefer to write his commissioned operas in German, rather than Italian.

Riku

I had read good reports on Goudonzi performance until the diving things incident, saw a couple of goals he scored . Berlin can’t afford him

Johnny 4 Hats

The thing that baffles me about Buendia (sorry for bringing it up) is that surely the player would want to keep his options open a little more.

No disrespect to Villa but he may get a better offer if he waited a month or so. And with Arsenal sniffing around, I would have thought that he’d be inclined to push for a slightly more spectacular move.

It makes me wonder if the Arsenal bid was actually real or a fabrication of an agent that wanted business to speed up.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

Comparing just Villa and Arsenal, maybe Villa seems like a more stable and attractive club in terms of the direction which they’re both heading.

Maybe Arsenal weren’t interested.

Shit.. the season ended last week, I won’t start losing my mind about transfers just yet. We do our business at 22:53 on deadline day, anyway.

Johnny 4 Hats

I just can’t see that. We had an abysmal season and they had a wonderful season and they finished 6 points below us.

Unless he’s a Villa fan, surely he’s choosing Arsenal everyday of the week.

Medium Mozart

Direction of travel comes into it too though. Arsenal, second season finishing in 8th place, whilst Villa climbed from 17th to 11th. An example of our respective recent signings: they sign Targett from Southampton; Arsenal sign Cedric from Southampton. Chat to a Villa supporter online, and see how different the mood is from them towards their current owners, compared to us and KSE. Seems they’ve finally got their shit together up there. Hurts to admit it – and bring on the thumbs downs for this comment – but Buendia choosing them over us this summer shouldn’t be considered a total… Read more »

A Different George

Of course their direction of travel looks good to their supporters. They were a massive club that collapsed, were relegated, and looked stuck in the second tier. Now they are well-run and being careful They have had one world-class player (Grealish) in the past two decades.

EmileSmithWhoa

Which fans would you as a player rather play for, Those excited and supportive Villa fans or Arsenal fans who demand vs. support? Which manager/club is more settled? Which team provides a foundation more likely to accelerate your career? What do fellow players tell you about the best environments for success? The stability of Wenger era is long long gone and the influences of fans is now far too significant. In the past, 7-8 of 10 players sought would choose Arsenal. Now maybe 4-5 of 10 players would choose Arsenal. Arteta and Arsenal will have 1/2 season at best to… Read more »

Johnny 4 Hats

Nah. Just not buying it. Yes we are a club with extreme issues but 99% of players are still choosing us over Villa. You have zero percent chance of silverware with Villa, and unlikely you’ll get European football.

Johnny 4 Hats

Fact check – Villa did win the inter toto cup back in 2001. That was their last silverware. Before that the league cup in 1996. And before that you have to go back to the early 80’s.

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

I love your avatar name👍 But can I just say that Villa aren’t charging fans ~£2000 for a season ticket with no elite football nor are they charging £100 for a polyester shirt. They also didn’t ask their fans to pay through the bucket load to travel to a country facing a geopolitical proxy-war just to watch their team lose 4-1. I think Arsenal fans have every right to demand better if they’re paying 1st placed prices but getting 8th placed performances in return. If the influence of the fans had supposedly increased. Would the ESL have been proposed? Lampard… Read more »

Daveo

You’d think so except perhaps the level of incompetence is becoming apparent to more than just us Fans. This is truly embarrassing. We lodged a bid, have been scouting him for years and let a Birmingham team out bid us, or muscle us and out attract us to one of the hottest attacking prospects in English football at a price that is not exorbitant… Oh how far we have fallen. Can’t wait for us to sign mahrez on the last day of the window for 60M 3-4 years after we could and should have signed him. We’re a club owned… Read more »

Twatsloch

I agree Mahrez would have been a sweet signing for us when he left Leicester.

John C

The owners aren’t buying the players or negotiating contracts, they have left that to the various managers and execs we’ve had for the last 10 years. Those are the people that should be blamed for incompetence.

To be fair to the Kroenke’s they thought they were buying a top club that already had the best managerial structures in place, that’s why they bought Arsenal not a championship side.

I don’t believe for the slightest they thought they were buying a fixer upper project club.

Qwaliteee

Really?

I’m quite sure that Chelsea and Man City (who, let me remind you, were themselves both ‘Fixer Upper’ clubs whilst the Invincibles were sweeping all before them in 2004) would still be ‘Fixer Upper’ clubs if they hadn’t had the generous financial support of their respective billionaire owners – not the penny pinching ‘make sure we get it back’ loans from our resident Have A Nice Day spivs.

Once a gunner

We have not equal the Villa bid we have to equal first before personal terms and players choice of club

Daveo

But we made a bid. And then essentially just gave up… Pathetic. The two most crucial guys in team management – edu and arteta – are too inexperienced. We could handle one, but together they’re out in pipeline and they haven’t even learned how to swim let alone surf.

Andy

It scares the shit out of me if we can’t beat Villa to a player. We really have sunk low ig that’s the case.

Someone On The Internet

This makes no sense to me either. If it know I likely have multiple job offers incoming, I don’t just immediately accept the first one that comes in the mail.

karl

I wouldn’t worry about Buendia too much. He has done well in the Championship, but a year earlier in the Premier League his numbers were quite different. Is he really up to the quality of Smith-Rowe?

I’d say there are more important issues to deal with beside Partey if we are to get significantly better.

Cd78

My thinking is, he can see a better career path via Villa. If he performs he gets move to a bigger club, maybe at Arsenal he wouldn’t be guaranteed to start every game either. Where he’ll be 1st choice at Villa.

Spanish Gooner

It’s really not worth getting all worked up about the maybe transfers and potential rumours. We get linked to roughly 150 players per transfer window and 99% of it is crap, so let’s see how the squad looks on September 1st and make judgements then.

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

Well said. I’m surprised by how deflated some Gooners appear to be about these transfer rumours. Most of us never even paid attention to the players until a week ago.

I’m more interested in rumours about potential coaches & staff.

Unknown

You’re missing a point. Arsenal were interested in Buendia in January, he didn’t want to leave, we got Ødegard on loan. Question is how is it that we lost a player to Aston Villa. The point I’m trying to make is how is it that Villa can get a deal done and we can’t. How is it that other big clubs can get their players early or late in the transfers market but we end up panic buying with high fees or end up signing Willian on big money. We can’t get players we want and need and we can’t… Read more »

Wretched Powling

No the point is quite clear, you’re basing al your assumptions, opinions, frustrations on dodgy info – how do you 100% know that we were interested in Buendia in January?? I get your point on how we’ve done things in the past, but we can’t use this particular non purchase as a stick to beat the club up with

Unknown

Let’s just say I absolutely don’t trust Edu to sign players, Kroenkes to finance anything or Arteta to pick starting 11. That’s not frustrations or dodgy info those are facts. That’ll be my stance until I see otherwise. Arsenal is going down the drain and fast with current people in charge. Think of history of football in England. There were so many clubs, big name big history clubs in the same position where Arsenal is now. The ones who woke up and invested heavily in present and future now fight for titles, the ones who “trusted the process” and used… Read more »

Var Will Solve The Problem

I don’t think I can blame the heirerchy for this one. May be we pursued him in December and then our focus shifted on someone else…perhaps we want to keep Martin Odegaard or buy Aouar. That woule make more sense than being simply being beaten to the punch by a team that finished 11.
Last year we paid a release clause for Partey. The year before we shattered our transfer record on Pepe. Why? Because we really wanted that player.
My point is if we really wanted Buendia, there’s no way in hell we lose out to Ashton Villa

Qwaliteee

Yesh Mish Moneypenny. Ashton Villa….

Daveo

Ornstein, Watts and romano all reported bids and interest in buendia from arsenal (over multiple seasons). One night be off, but not all three. You’re grasping straws thinking we didn’t just get schooled by villa.

Dave

Or perhaps we set an upper limit for what we thought the player was worth and didn’t go above that?

Daveo

So 3M quid or a 10% increase is too much to get a player we’re clearly interested in? This is another fail. Carry on sugar coating turds though, I mean it’s really got us heading in the right direction over the last decade.

Diaminedave

as we don’t know what Villas upper limit was we don’t know if it would have been just 3 million…I am happy club made a decision and concentrate on what they can control

Johnny 4 Hats

If we get linked with 150 players but 99% of stories are untrue, that means we will sign 1.5 players.

I reckon we should go for Grealish because he’s a player and a half.

Wow, that joke took a lot of setting up.

Fatgooner

Fatgooner question: where do you guys think we’ll finish in the Premier League next season?

Torterrier

9th

DB10s airmiles

The championship. 😂

GateCrasher

4th – positive vibes!

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

Honestly I think 7th. I did some personal research in our underlying stats in the 2nd half of the season and much of our metrics were still the same. Similar chances created, shots taken, shots on target, progressive passes, xG, xGA etc. Our opposition were just a lot less ruthless with their chances. I took that to mean that our style of play didn’t really change, just that players of our starting XI did. I’m not one to make personnel excuses for Mikel. We might not have world-beaters but the only players who have really improved under him are Holding… Read more »

goonshow

Not sure where to begin with the sweeping inaccuracies in your post: ‘Our opposition were just a lot less ruthless…’ So the SkewShot Fairy miraculously decided to curse our recent opponents en masse? Or perhaps all those clubs held a clandestine meeting and decided to go easy on us, given that Stan’s such a nice bloke? No, wait – the bookies pulled an Indian Cricket stunt and got to all the opposition strikers before those matches? Only Holding & Xhaka? FIrstly – jury’s out on Holding’s ‘improvement’… he was always good with his head, and still dithers too much on… Read more »

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

There wasn’t any need to use half your post to be so condescending. I didn’t make any mention of match-fixing. I would post some links but it appears I’m not allowed to do that anymore. What is a fact, however, is that as the season progressed our opposition did become more wasteful. I didn’t make that up. In the first 19 games, they missed 9 big chances against us. In the second 19 games, they missed 14 big chances. These are the chances that Leno/Ryan didn’t have to save because they were off-target. Do you remember the home game against… Read more »

Qwaliteee

He defaults to the back pass because…….wait for it…..I’ll whisper…….he’s been told (commanded) to……😉

Qwaliteee

Heh.

You can do the critique bit, but I’ve noted that you’ve also conveniently side stepped Fat’s question.

Diaminedave

Pepe?
shots taken have improved as far as I can remeber ..still need to be better

Heavenly Chapecoense

14th, they will fire Artekker after we stayed in relegation battle too much. Fans wanting him to stay after two wins in a row then he gets three defeats and this going on until early March. The interim manager, Pepe and Willock will bring us back to 14th.

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Impossible to predict before the transfer window has opened. But judging on current squads, where we’ve lost Odegaard, Luiz, and a reliable #2 keeper, I’d maybe still expect us to finish above West Ham only, so 7th.

Paul Roberts

4th

allezkev

That’s a really good question but you’d probably be better off asking it on September 1st when the summer transfer window has closed.

Magneto

I think the answer to your question depends more on the extent to which Arteta has improved in his short time being a football manager, than it does on which signings we may make during the summer transfer window.

If Arteta is able to get much more out of the players at his disposal, and thus make the team more consistent when it comes to winning games, then there’s a good chance that whilst we may not necessarily challenge for the title, we can at least finish in a top four position.

Martin Cornelius

If we get really, really lucky 6th, as that is a big “IF”, but can’t see us finishing higher than 7th, so probably 8th or 9th.

Artitty

With the right signings and proper cohesion in Arteta’s tactics, 3rd. I’m serious. Shit signings, and the Arteta experiment continues to be wobbly, we could be in for an even worse season.

The ghost of George Allison

17th! We’re going to finish 17th, a point above sp*rs.

4th is being hopeful. All things considered with the work needed to be done around transfers and rebuilding, 5th or 6th would signal progress.

40 years supporting Arsenal. We’ve been we’ve been 1st… we’ve been 12th and everything in between. It don’t matter!

Gunner for life! ✌

Arsenalista

8th

Tanned arse

I’ll tell you where I think we should finish based on the fact our players will play once a week. There’ll be no need to rotate players and the cohesion should be great. They won’t suffer fatigue and with no fatigue there should also be far fewer injuries. We currently have an adequate keeper, potentially 3 out of 4 defenders (saliba Gabriel and Tierney) who are very good. 1 very good CM in partey and attacking talent of saka ESR martinelli and pepe. Then we have what most people class as a world class goalscorer in auba. If only 3… Read more »

John

4th. Above Spurs, who will be relegated under new manager Sam Allardyce.

Daveo

9th

Andy

6th at best

Hank Scorpio

We’re taking it to the next level according to Arteta so that makes it 7th. Silliness aside, it all depends on what we do with player transfers and what lessons Arteta claims to have taken learnt. Rubbish transfer window relative to our rivals and an increase in his micro-managing and we’ll be 8-10. Some decent transfers in and genuine lessons learnt (re-taking the Substitutions 101 unit of his coach badges for example) and somewhere between 4-6 is realistic. Liverpool & City are at a much higher level, Ole is a shit manager but supported financially & Chelsea have a good… Read more »

Tapps

4th

Riku

4 th or 5th

Riku

4th

Give youth a chance

I’m going to stick my neck out and say 3rd, providing we actually reinforce the team

Qwaliteee

8th.

And that’s being exceptionally kind and highly optimistic, given the state of our hierarchy and management.

Thomas B

I think getting Bissouma would be realy important ,it would help Partey to blossom.

Cliff Bastin

Boom Donnarumma

The_Golden_Wrigglesworth

Don Bananarama?

Medium Mozart

Let hope it’s not a Cruel Summer for Arsenal though, eh?

Qwaliteee

If it is, it’ll be self inflicted. As usual.

Medium Mozart

Nice round up, Andrew. Grim reading, but a couple of nice laughs in there too.

Anders Limpar

Players don’t want to come to the club at the moment, it appears that most of them don’t fancy MA as a boss even though he hasn’t yet realised this…

“Every player that we have been linked with, or we had some communication with, I haven’t seen one that was refusing to come here. Completely the opposite. Everybody is very willing to join our club.”

We are a club of delusion right now

Teta's cult of personality ●█▀█▄

I wouldn’t call us a delusional club based on that. If anything I’d say that statement suggests Mikel is, at worst, in denial, or at best, delusional.

I’ll say this though. It’s not worth stressing yourself over one player. Bear in mind that besides Villa offering Norwich better terms, Martinez and Buendia know each other well. Plus they also have the same agent.

PSG were outbid in a situation for Naby Keita who was already friends with Radio Mane and had the same agent too.

Hank Scorpio

Nice quote. Is the club or the manager in delusion? Arteta does talk a lot and quotes like these do make him look foolish. Too early to tell but yes we have likely missed out on what was seemingly a key target. I’d be judging things at the end of the transfer window.

Mpls

‘Players don’t want to come to the club at the moment, it appears that most of them don’t fancy MA as a boss’… That’s a remarkably large and unfounded assumption. IF we are even in for player x, or y, there are several other plausible factors that might influence decision making, each of which I believe satisfy Occam’s Razor a bit better. Here’s just a few: European football (we don’t have it) Money (less to spend because no Europe, other big money players) Competition for the position / playing time Whether or not we’re actually all that interested in Player… Read more »

Neil Bamford

There always seems to be an air of arrogance around an Arsenal bid for a player as it’s always much lower than the asking price. If a team wants a player and you think he’s integral pay the money! Don’t try and play hardball. You have to think what Buendia must have thought as well. The club he’s at have got promoted and he was key that success. They have valued him at £40mil which is not a bad price as he’s a young player and you can consider it a gamble but any player is a gamble nowadays. Jesus… Read more »

Merlin’s Panini

I would love to have Ruben Neves at Arsenal. I was thinking about this last week so I hope it can happen. He’s a very good player. A dynamic midfielder and more athletic than Xhaka.
He would fit in very well. We would still need one more good midfielder though so it’s massively disappointing they fucked up signing Buendia.

MojoWillneny

The window has just begun. But the Buendia fiasco would indicate Arsenal’s calamitous administration amd player recruitment continues.

Leadership at the club remains a shambles.

2highbury

I watched the sky sports highlight reel of buendia the other day and i must admit i was impressed

He was scoring some incredible goals and pulling off some nice skills at high speed.

I recall his season in the prem as being all about the chance creation and there was a feeling his goal scoring was lacking. I guess hes come into his own now.

But Smith-Rowe might be the guy to blow everyone away this season. Im really excited to see the levels he can reach.

Dawdler

No pressure… Don’t get me wrong, I am a big ESR supporter but would it hurt to give a 20 year old a few seasons to grow and learn before counting on him to set the world alight? I rate a lot of our academy players and it’s beautiful that they love the club, but we need to support them and set them up for success (mentorship, cohesive vision, solid squad foundation- all lacking). I think as supporters we have a role in that too; tempering our hopes and expectations supporting them through growing pains to discover the players that… Read more »

Qwaliteee

Mind your blood pressure now. 😜

Martyn

Shame about Guendouzi, I can’t help thinking we needed his forward-thinking swashbuckling style against Villarreal if he was still with us. But we move on, plenty of rumours of course but early days before we panic!

Walleye

I must be alone in being relatively pleased how the season ended. Darn right I believe saka shb left back after KT was injured and that blip in March really hurt, but we have talented players. Get ode sell those past their use by date add some more young ones (willock) and next year looks good. as far as KSE I will point out that the nuggets and avs are still playing the avs might be favored to win the cup and the nuggets are fascinating for an nba team. If you have any interest in bball find a way… Read more »

Billy

So much sucky sucky

Walleye

Test

Johnny 4 Hats

Received

podgygooner

Our form since Christmas would put us fourth.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda maybe – but it shows that we’re not too far away from the Chumps League. More goals from midfield and the midfield creating more for Auba is what (easier said that done) is required.

Glasshalffull

Walleye

testing posting

TexasRed

I love how everyone on here commenting about Buendia seems so cocksure about their opinions and the information those opinions depend on. You only know what whoever leaked the information wants you to know. Which means you know jacksh*t about what happened and what’s really going on. Even if true that Arsenal made a bid, might there be another explanation other than the silly idea that the player chose Villa over Arsenal? If Arsenal really wants a player, such as Odegaard (but could be anyone), is it better for the selling team to believe that Arsenal is Odegaard or bust,… Read more »

Goonerink

Negotiation strategy?
dont make me laugh

Modha

I think some commenters below the line have not realised that thanks to over a decade of managed decline between Wenger, Unai and Mikel, we AREN’T the club we used to be, ambitious players know we are not the club to fulfil them. We maybe able to pay above market rate in wages, but as a club, we aren’t big time and we need to admit that. Else it will just be more disappointment. Personally, I didn’t know who Vieira was, or Anelka, or Santi or many others. I don’t care if they are flying under the radar, and names… Read more »

Qwaliteee

Here we go again.

Blaming Wenger for the fact we’ve finished 8th twice on the bounce without him having anything at all to do with it.

Pathetic.

Modha

We went from a team that challenged for the CL and PL….to no where near. I’m not blaming Wenger, I’m blaming the club for the managed decline. Look at Leicester, they are using Wenger’s model. Find quality, second tier players and elevate them. But then again, you’d have to be able to look at our club objectively, and not through some partisan lens to be able to see I am not wrong in my statement.

Qwaliteee

If you’re not blaming him, then why mention him as part of the decline…..? Mate, you can’t even look at your own posts objectively, never mind anything else.

And as for my “partisan lens”, I’d say anyone who now wants Kroenke and Arteta out of the way – given the state of the club and the absolute clusterfuck of a season we’ve just had – is actually being highly objective about it.

Damo

If we are to retain any dignity this summer we need to at least try our best to somehow screw Mourinho on price if we are going to sell him Xhaka.

Qwaliteee

Mate, this summer should be all about moving the deadwood on and maximising what (comparatively) little resource funds are made available to us via the American Loan Shark. Xhaka needs to be moved on, no doubt about it. But I’m honestly not bothered about oneupmanship games with Mourinho. This club, thanks to its hierarchy and management is so devoid of any self respect that even any hopes of dignity are sought in the face of this club being pretty much the laughing stock of the Premiership – if not world football. If it’s dignity you want, then we need to… Read more »

Man Manny

It’s so quiet on the Arsenal front, anything would do.
Even if it’s “Arsenal to sign Arteta to partner Partey.”
It’s better than nothing.
A bored mind

benjmin

Bruh!

jack cooke

Does anyone have any insight into how press resistant Ruben Neves is? Obviously there have been a lot of comparisons with Xhaka-is he better or weaker in this regard than Granit?

Share article

Featured on NewsNow

Support Arseblog

Latest posts

Latest Arsecast

136
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x