Arsenal today completed the signing of Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid in a deal believed to be worth around £30m.
The Norwegian captain has signed a five year deal, having spent 6 months on loan with us last season.
The 22 year old will wear the number 8 shirt, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as: Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta, Freddie Ljungberg and Ian Wright.
Sadly, we’re going to have to wait for his second debut as post-Brexit requirements mean he has to be issued a visa which has not come through in time.
Booo.
But welcome back Martin. We’re sure you’ll be gr8.
[We’re getting our coat, don’t worry]
Have not been so excited over a signing in a long while. Get in!
Gr8 news indeed!
This is satisfying.
Get in. I can’t beleive all the pretend arsenal supporters being toxic on twitter. AVERAGE? You mad.. Man was playing Özil passes and he’s only 22 while actually doing all the things Özil doesn’t do. I’m flipping psyched! As a Swede I am happy to habr a other person Scandinavian in the team. Anders Limpar (who made me a gooner) to Freddie and Kim Källström the legend. Of course Seb Larsson who spent 7 years at Arsenal and was a 36 year old goat at the euros and for AIK. Woohoo. Norge!
Anders Limpar was my absolute favourite player as a kid. What a player. Who remembers the goal from the corner flag in the Makita Tournament?!
(You missed Stefan Schwarz off your list of Scandy luminaries though)
Nope, that was against ManU. My bad.
This is the goal I was thinking of, excuse the ropey quality
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lZJDcCkaK_M
A game which also had a massive brawl/handbags involving pretty much everyone
Also Rami Shaaban and Kristoffer Olsson.
…and John Jensen the goalscoring machine.
John Jensen, Niklas Bendtner, Carl Jenkinson, Glen Kamara and Runarsson too.
The Nordic quartet is now complete.
Håvard Nordtveit.
Anyone remember Pål Lydersen? Was some corruption involved in the transfer, and was the reason Graham was fired, I believe.
Those 2 and Ødegaard are the only Gunner norwegians that comes to mind.
We always looked more to Sweden for players.
You’re welcome.
Key phrase being – “pretend Arsenal supporter”. We’re just easy to troll right now because of our circumstances. Don’t take the fake accounts too seriously
While I don’t know if he’ll be a game-changer under Tetaball, I’m very happy the club managed to snag a good prospect for a very respectable fee.
Toxicity everywhere. We went into the window with half a dozen needs – backup GK and backup LB, a new RB, a DM, an AM, selling a group of players. I think we will accomplish most of the incomings by month-end. Everyone we have brought in is young and talented and with potential. But people complain about not spending enough in general, then about spending too much on a player, then about not buying players early enough in the window, then about the sequence of our purchases [i.e., how can we buy a CB when we need an AM?], then… Read more »
Yes but can’t you just see that we’re starting the season with an ‘identical’ team to the one that finished eighth and bottled up Villarreal? No excuses now as the kronke’s have backed the club…what would I have done differently with 130m?? For starters I wouldn’t bin the French defender that has a similar skillset to Ben White.. doesn’t make sense..I would tidy DM once and for all! We’re an injury away from starting elneny…I would have taken bissouma and sorted that position..still wouldn’t have affected the lokonga deal… should have kept Matt Ryan and added aouar to that midfield… Read more »
with ESR potentially more on the wing and odegaard the bigger name I’d have liked the numbers reversed, but that’s my OCD talking
We might see them as two eights in the long term, don’t worry.
Gabi or Pepe at 11 then?
Gabi obviously
gabi needs to prove a lot to be regularly in team and get 11.
I would play in 4-3-3 instead. Especially against the teams like Brentford who are sitting deep and trying to counter attack.
I hope I won’t speak too soon, but the ESR-Partey-Odegaard midfield seems to be quite exciting to me.
Not too soon at all. We’ve seen how that midfield worked great against Villarreal.
I think Ødegaard could play deeper quite well, not sure ESR would be so good at that. Also Partey I think from what I’ve seen is better at pressing higher up than sitting as a holding pivot. No doubt could be tried out though.
Papers talking about what this means for a Maddison deal given his comments about seeing himself as more of an 8 than a 10 – as if there was ever a chance of signing both! Half the price and the money doesn’t go to a direct rival, sorry Maddison but this is the better deal!
LANS
Need a striker for him to hit.
No one should go hitting our strikers, they need all the confidence they can get.
Great deal for all parties. MØ will regularly play, Madrid get £30M for a player who made 11 appearances for them in 5 years, and it’s great value for Arsenal. Maddison would have cost at least twice as much.
Surprisingly good window; not perfect, far from it in fact, but I don’t think many would have expected us to have a net spend well over £100M after missing out on Europe. Still work to be done, particularly in the outbound direction.
Quite satisfying that Arsenal’s squads nos 1 to 11 now form a reasonable-ish starting XI
(not that I want Torreira/Bellerin to start or Auba on the bench but ygm)
It might take another two windows, but the Arsenal team is taking shape nicely.
The modern pundits’ penchant for focusing on the here and now means this is happening largely under the radar. Nobody is talking about it.
It’s Grealish for £100m; Lukaku for little less; Varane – ” The ferrari of defenders,” and all the other eye-catching moves!
In a few seasons, a complete Arsenal team will suddenly loom on them.
The pundits just follow the wind most of the time. They complain that there’s too much money in football but can’t stop talking about record signing – Grealish. They said Arsenal were cheapskates for almost a decade but when Leicester use the same model, it’s smart recruiting. You won’t get much insight from pundits these days
It’s good for Martin, it means less pressure and hype, which is exactly what he needs.
I remember that game, was it against west ham, where the technical ability of Saka and MØ particularly stood out for me. That day just strenghtened my feeling that I want him at Arsenal. And he seems like a good person as well. Most of all I would always take young potential over old, overpaid, indifferent, lethargic players with dodgy agents. And lastly MÖ ➡️ MØ
Better 8 than never.
In my defense, I thought of half a dozen worse ones that I decided not to assault everyone with.
I’m here exclusively for the puns – post away! Don’t worry about the h8ers….
Never thought I’d be able to blame a (potential) defeat on brexit but here it is.
Very fitting that it’s against Chelsea too.
My sister’s hairdresser’s cousin’s mechanic says that the head of the department that deals with visas and immigration is a Chelsea supporter…
Absolutely buzzing over this one! I think he was mostly impressive last season. I know he had a couple of sub par games last season, but then again, Who didn’t?
Cant wait to see what he can do with a permanent move! I think (hope) this move will be as good for Martin as it will for Arsenal. Not to mention the Norwegian National team.
Also Great to see a fellow country man in the arsenal first team!
Lykke til Martin!
Ace. I’m getting serious Bergkamp signing vibes from this. I’m not saying Ødegaard will be the next Bergkamp, but their respective situations are similar (potential superstar unwanted by big club, signed by us during a low point in the league, dreamy blue eyes, etc)
Shame he can’t play tomorrow. Buck Frexit!