Mikel Arteta says he’ll explain Joe Willock’s absence in due course but for now, he’s unable to say why the player was absent from Arsenal’s squad for today’s clash with Sp*rs.
The England under-21 international has been heavily linked with a move to Newcastle United leading to speculation that the Gunners are ready to sanction a sale.
Willock spent the second half of last season on loan at St James’ Park and ended the campaign scoring seven goals in seven consecutive games. Magpies manager Steve Bruce has made it clear, he’d love to sign the youngster.
Speaking after today’s 1-0 defeat, Arteta said: “Joe we will explain the reasons when we can. I can’t say more now. When I can say more I will let you know more.”
Arteta was also asked about Rob Holding not being part of the squad. The Spaniard said the centre-back was out due to fitness reasons casting doubt over his involvement against Brentford in Friday’s season opener.
Hopefully not another Martinez type of sale that we will come to regret.
Re Martinez we had Leno. Arguably EPL grade starter.
Who is taking Willock’s place in this squad I’m curious.
lol, we had leno but who was the backup——-no-one
how stupid how the club to get rid of a no2 and signing an unproven rookie in runarson
even more stupid was the fact we backed leno over a player who had been at arsenal a decade and shown real world class performances
BIG Facts, we questioned Leno’s pedigree and warmed to Emis genuine tears.. I’m happy for him to kick on and show everyone his true world class level. Messi called him an PHENOMENON last month.. yet we offloaded him to villa, true gooner keeper with the club at heart, just like Szczesny yet we offload them as if they aren’t good enough. For them only to go on and get plaudits from the living goats.
serves us right.
Did Willock really have a place in the Arsenal squad because I’m not sure that he a spot nailed down prior to his successful loan to Newcastle?
Post his loan spell I’d imagine he would be in every match day squad at least!
Sachin, you don’t see the similarities here.
Martinez – We sold an academy lad who was finally coming into consistency because we had doubts about whether his “purple patch” was sustainable. Martinez’ stature and value have soared since he left.
Willock – We are selling an academy lad (for a reported fee less than Marc Guehi😂😂😂) who is finally coming into consistency because we have doubts about whether his “purple patch” is sustainable.
Meanwhile both Martinez and Willock are more suited to the high-tempo style Arteta initially promised than their counterparts in Leno and Xhaka.
Sweet mediocrity here.
I don’t think Xhaka being there has a bearing on Willock going.
But yes the direction we are heading in and the reported fee is silly
You forget that Martinez had no balls to fight for this position. Or do you expected us to hand him GK position on a silver plate?
His name is Lokonga
Oh so he isn’t the upgrade on Elneny and an understudy to Partey? Blimey
I hate to break it to you, but….
No, I can’t do it.
Here, have a beer on me. 🍺
If Joe goes we better be signing Odegaard.
Because if we don’t, boy will I continue to moan on Internet forums while continuing to shovel my hard earned money into the club
I prefer really not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble and I don’t want to be in trouble.
Boy..you must have a lot of money, using a shovel and what not…
me I will be tea- spooning it in..
Sorry for the bad joke..feel like it’s still better than the state of the team as of today.
We have no plan. The xhaka fiasco proves it..willing to sell then gets a new contract.. edu on his hols. We are as shambolic as ever. Half the players don’t give a fuck and only want the money. Some of our players are so bad and on such rediculas inflated wages that only a piss poor run club like ours would pay them such amounts and we can’t even give them away.
The manager cares no doubt, but like those in control of the club is out of his depth.
The Emirates will be toxic within weeks sadly
Something is needed but I don’t think odegaard is the answer Bernardo Silva would be a much better fit but probably not doable unfortunately
The problems started this summer with letting Villa sign buendia. Now we’re a headless chook still chasing Shadows (marty ø) and letting a proven EPL goal scorer go because the manager has no idea how to use him. This club is going backwards… We prioritise a 29 year old proven stalwart of mediocrity over a dynamic goal scoring talent with an epic motor, great character, and who loves the club. We are such an appalling run club from top to bottom. They are literally sapping the last drops of fun out of supporting this club. So they really think we’re… Read more »
Well he (Arteta) did say a month or so ago that Willock was staying at The Arsenal.
Which I guess now means that Willock is probably bound for Geordieland.
Banter FC
I once saw Sting in a chip shop outside St James’s Park before a league game in December 1984.
The chip shop was packed with Gooners, who all started singing ‘Every Breath You Take’ when Mr Sumner walked in with some fellow Geordies and ordered a bag of chips.
“Fook off ya cheeky cockney fookers” he said with a wry grin. This brought a good natured cheer from the Gooners.
For those wondering how we got on, we won 3-1 and Charlie (Nicholas) scored with a beautiful direct free kick. Great away day, but fuck me it was cold!! 🙂
He was my favourite wrestler too
Yeah?
My gran used to boo at Mick McManus on ‘World of Sport’ every Saturday afternoon.
Then Dickie Davies used to inform us that Charlie George had been sent off for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge after nutting Peter Osgood and giving the shed the V sign.
Gran knew her onions 🙂
Don’t all managers say that about players who are available?
If he said, “we don’t want him here and are looking to sell” he slices £5m off Willock’s value in three seconds flat.
So we actually made an extra £5 million because Arteta was having us all on? What a hustler. He sure knows how to broker a deal. £5 million, eh? Well that’s the summer ‘War Chest’ taken care of then…..
Would much rather, than what we’ve seen in the last couple of games, see Willock playing from the left and having licence to get in the box (with Tierney free to attack the space)
Hear hear
I am old enough to try not to over react, as pre season – even before Covid – was something of a lottery and is no real guide to what happens when competition starts for real. But even allowing for three decent signings, we have a mass of unfinished business. A goalkeeper is a must. Bellerin looks like he wants away, regardless of what Arteta says. We have at least four or five fringe players we need shifting beyond Bellerin.. We need a midfield addition. We need some more creativity. And we also need another forward – although we could… Read more »
Shut it with the creativity nonsense. Didn’t you hear, we have a ball carrying CB. Now ok, in 36 games last season he didn’t get a single goal or assist. But that just means he’s due a bunch.
But seriously. We are the exact same team from last season. This game just felt like an extension of a standard performance from last year. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Maybe not revolution, but perhaps evolution. Today felt glaringly like no solution.
I think Mikel and his tactics are jaded. We haven’t added any player who can bring some imagination. Maddison and Neves and Locateli aren’t exactly statement making signings and even they haven’t dropped yet.
It’s all in your hands now Dear ESR, Saka, Pepe, Martinelli.
You’re bang on the money there
Willock is gone but at little bothering that so many more have not found homes so late in window – it has been slow for all though. Worrying signs still that our new status as a mid-table club hurting our top signing prospects. Despite being a Barca-reject that Messi chap could do a job in attacking midfield. Good showreels…
It’s so frustrating. I genuinely think Arteta has it in him to make things work, but results (yes pre-season, but even the eye-test fails/last season) just haven’t met the mark. At this point, praying for a positive season ahead and a few strong additions. I really want it to work with Arteta, but this is a painful time to be an Arsenal fan.
Arteta is a poor manager, plain and simple, he’ll be sacked by Christmas
I hope not because that would mean we are doing worse than 8 – the Kroenke’s might hit panic button and get us an ever more ill-suited manager *gas* relegation specialist like Big Sam.
If Arteta needs to go he needs to go in the first 10 matches – if we do poorly. Or else suck it up and give him the season.
🎵”Joy to the world” 🎵 🎄
Seems this way more and more by the day. The fact he won’t even try to make a success of a proven midfield goal scorer because he doesn’t fit his exact tactical requirement, just further proves how out of his depth he is. I mean this sale felt inevitable, but it is still fucking pathetic. Arsenal kid through and through and we cast him aside.
A reverse Serge Gnabry perhaps? Who needs Tony Pulis to stall a career when we already have his younger counterpart as our manager.
Absolutely pathetic and just made my evening worse.
The man portrays himself to be a “project” manager and people actually take his word for it somehow…
We’re a project in mediocrity.
This.
Signing a second choice goalkeeper with good experience is a must.Also a first choice RB,first choice CM and a first choice ACM.Without these signings no way Arsenal could dream of clinching Champions league…
Champions league place…
CL is a fantasy in my view
It is, as it stands.
But with two or three key changes, it might be possible.
Maybe if we sign Messi UEFA will give us a spot for marketing purposes?
I don’t know if playing Chelsea and City tjis early in the season is a good thing or not.
We could get two demoralising results or morale boosting ones.
My head says it will be the former.
Lord have mercy!
I hope he goes to Monaco and not Newcastle.
I was hoping he’d go to London Colney and not Newcastle.
Could’ve really used one of Joe’s late runs into the box in the 2nd half today. I have a funny feeling I’m going to be saying that alot this season. While we cry out for a Ramsey style runner, we sell him for the fee that will get us 1/2 of a second choice keeper. Well played Arsenal. Aaayyyyyy
I hope Willian is off as well
I’d pay him off and accept it was stupid to sign him. Jesus even Mustafi was a better signing,
That’s a big shout.
It’s also true.
Well, he’s well past his sell by date.
I’d say he was definitely off – just not the way we’d all like him to be.
better be “no, money down!” and not “no money down” from newcastle
It’s hard to understand this in any other way than a deal is imminent and the buying team have asked (or Arsenal have decided) that Joe not be risked. I like Willock a lot, but for anyone who thinks this is a big mistake, ask yourself the same question that people ask about Xhaka: will his inclusion help lift the club from 8th to a credible challenge for 4th?
No, neither good enough.
Interestingly, neither of you questioned whether the guy that actually cemented us as an 8th placed club is actually good enough? @A Different George. Is he even capable of getting us back from 8th to 4th himself?
Mikel would most probably get a lower table La Liga or Prem team relegated. Financial resources , stature and a better academy are the only things still keeping this man employed.
No, not interesting at all.
Will his exclusion help?
C’mon. Play the in form player.
We can’t afford a Man City style project build around a Mozart symphony. We have to learn how to get more out of what we have. Under Wenger we played with the likes of Cygan and Bendtner and Chamakh and still ground out results.
The kid pretty much won points on his own in the prem for Newcastle coming off the bench. Why couldn’t he do the same for us?
Because he doesn’t play LEGOball the way the little bloke in the dugout wants him to.
I’m having extremely raised eyebrows at the decisions to put Edu and Arteta, two guys who have never done those jobs before, in charge of running this football club.
I’m having an extremely raised blood pressure.
In the interests of my middle aged ticker, I’m going to try my best not to give a shit about this season’s inevitable shenanigans, but of course, as usual, I probably will…..
It’s times like this that, like Nick Hornby, I hate The Arsenal because, paradoxically, I fucking love them so much.
It’s the illogical hope that kills you.
We already have one midfielder out with injury issues and these geniuses agree to sell one to further weaken the midfield depth.
On top of that they sell him at a fee lower than even what Championship players moving to a Premier League team are sold at these days.
It‘s so frustrating that we clearly need midfielders who can score but are willing to let Willock go, who scored more goals in 8 games than Xhaka did in 5 years here. Soooo frustrating.
I get your point but I doubt Willock would score them from that double 6 position. More like comparing Iniesta and Busquets but monopoly paper versions
Soooo Arteta, Edu and Kroenke.
At least we didn’t play Willian.
I’d happily drink to that for 38 games.
New season and our squad still have alot to do… Selling deadwoods, getting quality players and also improve our attack. Really think we need to sort either aubaor laca upfront instead of putting both of them in.
I’d hate to see us let Willock go, think he can play a good role in the squad (maybe even a bigger one than expected if we can’t get some attacking midfield help in soon).
Kind of departure related, I suppose.
Marseille are playing tonight, hopefully Saliba will be starting.
BT sport 19:30
Willock just sold for more than £20 million to Newcastle – just announced on the Athletic. Holy $+!? Arsenal actually sold a player this summer 😱
Pathetic.
Our midfield strength goes from bad to worse. Utterly pathetic.
But I’m not surprised in the least. Martinez II. Well done Mikel.
Right now we seem desperate for cash. They better have a plan up their sleeve. 20m is small change for a homegrown talent with goal scoring record in the premier league. Imagine in a year what is the value of Xhaka vs Willock. For context right now these are the prices people are WILLING to pay Willock 20m Xhaka 12m In a year this will be the price: Willock 25m-30m (assuming he scores at his Arsenal goal scoring rate but he WILL play 38 games for Newcastle) Xhaka 5m 32m vs 30m-35m We all know he will score more goals… Read more »
We could have pushed them to take Nketiah on loan with obligation to buy as part of a package deal.
We sold wilock just to get a lokomba