Thursday, March 28, 2024

Official: Arsenal sign Martin Odegaard

Arsenal have recruited Martin Odegaard on a permanent basis from Real Madrid for a reported fee of £30m million.

Signing the Norway international was a key priority for the Gunners all summer and eventually, after a few bumps in the road and flirtations with other options, Mikel Arteta has his man.

The 22-year-old made 20 appearances for Arsenal during a fruitful six-month loan spell last season and while his end product has room for improvement – he only scored twice and made two assists – the manager was impressed by the player’s attitude and aptitude on and off the pitch.

Given the fees being quoted for alternative attacking midfielders, snaffling Odegaard at this price looks like decent business. Here’s hoping he can build on the foundations he laid between January and May to become an integral part of our squad, the talent and the potential is there.

Odegaard is the latest recruit based on what appears to be a strategy of bringing in players in their early 20s, after Ben White (23), Albert Sambi Lokonga (21), Nuno Tavares (21), with 23 year old Aaron Ramsdale set to join too.

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Jules

fuck yeah!!! may you become a legend Martin!

TommyGun

Very happy with this signing. He is going to be a great player for us. People always want the shiny new signing and while he has already played for us, he only had half a season and did well. He is motivated and is a positive character. I don’t think it is a coincidence our season improved with him joining.

Whether Arteta stays or goes, we have good young signings that we can build with. This part of the process I can trust.

Azeez Is Good

We’ve added another captain to the squad too. First Lokonga and now Odegaard. Arteta is putting together a team full of leaders. And that’s fine by me.

Johnny 4 Hats

And he’s got arteta’s number. That’s just lovely. The two of them are clearly peas in a pod. Both quiet, thinking men in a world of masculine bravado.

This is just what we need to pick the team up and hopefully inspire some confidence.

This is a good squad man. If Arteta can’t get a tune out of them, it’s on him.

ChickPEA

That’s a good point. White and Ramsdale have also been praised many times for their mental strength and bounce-back ability. Hopefully that will allow us to will finally put our perennial mental weakness behind.

Azeez Is Good

Let’s face it, we were a team with so few leaders we had to make Auba captain, the quietest player on the field, just because he’s Auba.

I have no problem with him as our captain but he needs a lot of vice captains around him. Then he can lead by example while Xhaka, Tierney, Odegaard, Lokonga and White whip everyone into shape.

onegiantleap

Don’t forget Tierney was captain at Celtic

Hank Scorpio

Can’t say I’m too excited. It’s a bit like knowing what you got for Christmas well in advance. I miss the days of the surprise signing. Glad we have him on board though. Hopefully he can pick up where he left off in terms of interplay with Saka, ESR & co. Unlike some of the inflated prices we’re paying this is an absolute bargain in my view. And we fleeced Real for good measure. If we can just sell our 10 right backs and buy a good one we’ll be set for I think.

Azeez Is Good

Surprise! It’s Silvestre
Surprise! It’s Andre Santos
Surprise! It’s Park Chu-YoungSurprise! It’s Emiliano Viviano
I don’t really like Arsenal surprises.

Temmy

Lol.. well, I’m sure he meant surprise signings like ozil, arshavin,etc.

ChickPEA

Cazorla too, if I remember well.

Someone's Body

Santi was the best surprise ever

Anthony McCabe

Surprise! It’s Kim Kalstrom.

Kinghenrythe14th

And you skipped the 2 biggest surprises in Kim “broken back” Kallstrom and Amaury “permacrock” Birschoff!

Like you I’d rather have tested and trusted performers like MØ8

Hank Scorpio

I’d like to think I made it abundantly clear that I’m happy with this signing. Perhaps comprehension isn’t one of your strengths. Nice list. I recall a number of invincibles era signings were surprise signings. Different times I guess. Keeping a lid on things is a lot more difficult. It’s fine that you don’t like surprises. I see your list of surprises and raise you a Willian. I hazard a guess that he’s been paid more by Arsenal than those surprises combined.

allezkev

In the age of the Internet there are no surprises anymore I’m afraid…

Azeez Is Good

Well it’s just when dealing with Arsenal FC I tend to equate “surprise” with “fuck, time’s nearly up and we haven’t sign a damn player yet!”

But I take your point. Players like Arteta and Per arrived in the dead of night and did good.

Pepe was a big surprise and I loved that transfer. Now I’m not so sure. I guess my point is that often “I can’t believe we signed that player” has negative as apposed to positive connotations.

Hank Scorpio

That’s fair enough. I’m probably yearning for ‘the good old days’ before the news spread like instantaneously online. And yes there was a period of ‘what the fuck’ inducing last minute signings a few years back. Not convinced with all the signings thus far but at this rate there’s cause for optimism with Odegaard being the pick of the bunch.

The Beast

Oh Andre Santos

gone but certainly not forgotten.

Brady’s bunch

Welcome back now show them what you’re made of 😎

Bishop

I really hope we do not place too much expectations on him. He is an amazing player but is no prime ozil or Fabregas, he could surpass the aforementioned players but right now, we need to let him develope and accept that he will have a number of stinkers.

That said, welcome home son 😉

Hank Scorpio

I’m expecting him to do better this time around. He knows the league and his team mates. Hopefully no injury interruptions and I expect he’ll help us move up the table

Ealing

he is more invested in arsenal than whilst on loan.

Brady’s bunch

Happy to have him here with something to prove to people whilst in an Arsenal shirt and for a reasonable fee can only be good

Daveo

Badly needed addition to the teams creativity. Let’s hope he can grow into his Potential. The age profile of additions is a refreshing change and hopefully they can build something together…

Brady’s bunch

The good player is already there so let’s hope the great one is not too far off

Tanjil

Can he play the chelsea game? Would feel a LOT better about that game with hin in it!

Jules

according to Chris Wheatley unfortunately not, his Visa issue still hasn’t been sorted so he won’t be able to be registered in time (i believe players need to be registered Friday midday or something like that) in any case, he was unlikely to start given he would have trained with the squad for just one day, so it’s not the worst thing to have happened.

Archer

How hard is it to give a working visa to a well known international footballer? Well, Unless you’ve got Chelsea supporters working there.

Azeez Is Good

It’s not hard. But they take ages. I had to get a visa to travel to South Africa and it was taking so long that I was going to miss my flight. Eventually I walked into the embassy, demanding my papers, and the visa was all done, sitting in a massive pile of other peoples done visas.

I think it was Salcedo who said “Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible”.

Tumang

Here in Msanzi we call it taking our time ! I do hope you enjoyed yourself in my country.

Teryima Adi

Hahahaha

Tanjil

Aah I see. Well we’re beating chelsea anyway so that’s alright I guess 🤷🏻‍♂️

Azeez Is Good

If we can not lose our shit for the next two games which are likely to end badly, we can regroup post international break and really put a run together.

Arsenal fans not lose their shit. Lol.

Optimist

I’ll come back in a month then

Someone's Body

Can I come with?

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Won’t make the Chelsea game but at least we can get excited for the League Cup 2nd Round next Wednesday.

The Kolkata Gooner

Nice! And 30m is a good deal. Credit where due!

The Kolkata Gooner

To think we sold Iwobi for more, haha!

gooner

Iwobi and Chamberlain hahaha

Azeez Is Good

I’m amazed we didn’t come up against any competition. Not many players out there like Martin. So happy we got it over the line.

El Mintero

Lol – no one else wanted to buy him, that should tell you everything about this deal…

Savage

True, the reported Liverpool interest made me a little bit nervous

Jules

Yup! I was excited about Maddison, but 30m for Odegaard is a steal if there ever was one. And 30m for Odegaard vs 65-70m for Maddison is a no brainer, i think Martin has a much higher ceiling. He really is one of those players that looks like he could be an all time great (fingers crossed). Martin, bukayo, Emile, Ben, Gabi, Gabriel, Flo, sambi, ramsdale… we have some really really talented youth in the squad now and they’re only going to get better. I like this a lot, it’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a young squad.

Bob

Good things come to those who wait! Great deal, welcome back Martin!

TeeCee

Yes, I’m amazed. We went into a transfer window with an obvious #1 target, got him and didn’t get royally ripped off.

This feels weird…

Sansanto

Bang on, Gunners!

Azeez Is Good

Some stories are just meant to happen. He was always destined for Arsenal.

So thrilled for the club and Martin. Fuck Maddison and Auoar. This kid’s got both of them covered.

The squad is starting to look good. I know we started badly but I really have high hopes for this group of players.

No Mikel has to step up and prove he’s the man to guide the ship.

Brady’s bunch

Arsene bewitched him all those years ago it was destined to happen 😉

Someone's Body

When are the Kroenke’s putting up the statue of our greatest ever (with him struggling with his jacket zipper?)

Brady’s bunch

Scandalous that it hasn’t happened yet

Archer

Yes, Yes we like him. We like Ramsdale too.

El Mintero

No we don’t. Both these deals are bad. Ramsdale is no better than Leno. Odegaard is way overrated. We’ve spent 130 million quid during this transfer window, more than any other club. And yet we’ve barely improved the team. We have 5 players at RB that we don’t want and can’t get rid of!! But yeah let’s spend another 30 mil on fkn very average ramsdale when all along Martinez should still be our #1 keeper. Club is being run into the ground by inept Kroenke management.

Savage

Would have been interesting to hear your opinion on a 23 year old Martinez. Spoiler alert: you would have slated him.

Temmy

Very true bro

ParteyPants

Are you getting the impression you might be in the minority on this one?

Let. Emi. Go.

Really glad to see overwhelmingly positive comments on here.

There’s no such thing as 100% guarantee on spending 30m on any player, but this is a great looking deal.

Fezec

Either you’re the only visionary here who can see that Odegaard is overrated, or everyone else is excited for this signing for good reason…

Temmy

We can’t keep crying about Martinez… he wanted 1st spot guaranteed.. he didn’t get the assurance and so we had to let him go.. I’ve not really watched ramsdale, but I’m hoping his distribution is better than Leno’s, cause I think that’s what leno lacks

Teryima Adi

Take it easy, Bro.

Mpls

Old news, man. It is what it is. Just let it go.

beNZed

Great news and a great price.
Up the Arse.

Teta's cult of personality

Would “Up the Gunners” be better? 😁

Archer

Now we need to go sign Bayern’s gym instructor. Our players need the Goretzka treatment.

Evaristus

Sorry, I don’t get the reference.

Prakhar

We need this gym instructor.

Teta's cult of personality

Gym instructor or PED supplier?🤔

Chipper49.

Ah l see. That is some difference!

The Beast

Think I know a dealer, sorry, instructor that can provide the same kind of gains

Georgeycharles

Yaay !

Qwaliteee

This really is good news. Not a world class player, but given the right manager who employs an attacking style of play, there is no reason why he shouldn’t thrive and develop in the Premiership.

Odegaard In
Attacking play In
LEGOball Out
Arteta Out

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Arteta does employ an attacking style of play. 22 shots at Brentford – that’s a shot every 4 minutes – in a team of kids and debuts. Insert Aubameyang, Saka, Partey, Odegaard in that team and we’re a different prospect. All of our summer singings are forward thinking players – even the defenders. Granted we’re miles away from the top 4 but we’re in much better shape than 12 months ago.

Ex gooner

If Arteta’s is attacking style of play, then I absolutely hate attacking football

Qwaliteee

🤣

Jack

It’s so so so much more exciting when it’s not just a loan signing. I didn’t get that excited in second half of last year because I knew he’d return to Real Madrid, but now I’m buzzing

Fezec

Yes, Edu et al have come in for some justified stick. Only right that we credit them for grabbing MØ last year and signing him on a steal this.

Lovely bit of business.

Florian Neuhof

Unbelievably good deal. Makes the fees for White and Ramsdale look like an absolute rip off. Why bother signing overpriced English players? Arsenal should revive their international scouting department, its guaranteed to save us money.

Savage

Homegrown rule?

Florian Neuhof

Sure, but I’d rather we comply with that by developing homegrown talent in the academy.

Anthony McCabe

I think they are doing that now. Employing new scouts across Europe. Exciting times for Arsenal (even with all the problems and failings we’re all aware of).

Teta's cult of personality

I like the homegrown rule in theory because it stops richer EPL teams from poaching players from elsewhere in Europe and helps academy players. Though it really has distorted the market for English talent.

Now the only way you can get any decent English player for a good fee is either through your academy, the Championship or buying from Arsenal. The homegrown rule hasn’t done anything to improve the ratio of foreign to domestic players in the Premier League.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal

30 mil for Martin versus 36 mil for Buendia and 50+ mil for Madison? Who is already acclimated to the, club, the Premier League and only 22?

I hope I’m not alone in thinking that the club has done some smashing business here!

That said, it has to be a little daunting for Martin to now go out and wear Arteta’s old number!

Fezec

Odegaard doesn’t strike me as the sort of bloke who gets intimidated easily!

I hope not at least, we’re missing some bastards in this squad.

Teta's cult of personality

He just has to be better than previous occupant, Ceballos was. Which shouldn’t be too hard

Now of course, if he could bring as much joy as Ljungberg, Wright and Parlour. I wouldn’t be complaining😊

SarcasmB0t

Like A New Signing while Actually A New Signing – we’re getting meta.

ParteyPants

If only he was coming back from injury then we could truly break through the 8th dimension.

Good to have goals I guess.

Prakhar

“Norwegian Messi” at age 16. He has got the mental and the technical side to an elite level. This will go down as one of the best transfers we ever made. This is transformational.

Cechmate

I like him and I know some people have some doubts on him, but his style or talent is unmistakable. If anything, it is the style of Arteta that makes it difficult for a lot of these young lads to play. Because we are slow in moving the ball, our attackers always have at least, a couple of markers on them and makes it difficult to thread a pass. If Arteta can look beyond this Pepball thing and move the ball faster and suit the style of play to the players we have, this could be a great season. MO… Read more »

Al alontos

A word of caution. Let’s not put too much pressure on this young lady to fix our teams problems. He is an Ozil kinda player, only more hardworking. He is not a goalscorer. Thus let’s not base his future performances on goals scored. Let’s not put too much pressure on him to score goals.

Welcome Martin!

Al alontos

*Young lad

PersonFace

The last time I was this happy about a transfer was another MO, let’s hope this one ends up better. Not to downplay Ozil’s contributions, but it would be amazing to see Odegaard spend the next decade here and be part of an Arsenal resurgence that sees some additions to our increasingly cobweb covered trophy cabinet. Odegaard, Tierney, Smith-Rowe and Saka. Four players that I’d love to watch play no matter what team they were playing for, and they’re all playing for us. Nice to not feel completely dejected about Arsenal.

Don't Dada

Great signing. Young player who already knows the Manager, the club and style of play. Loads of room to improve as well. I like it a lot.

Just for fun and to be a bit pedantic, does signing him for £30m million mean that we bought him for 30 billion?

Brilliant piece of business. World class player, perfect age profile, no adaptation period needed, and quite surprised we got him for £30m. In non-covid times I think we would be looking at closer to £50m.

My only gripe is that we should have signed him 4 weeks ago. By delaying the transfer – possibly just to save wages of 4 weeks x £100,000 – that has likely cost us points at Brentford.

K9ine

Covid and the resultant chaos cost us points at Brentford. Game should have been cancelled.

Phil

For all we know the transfer just wasn’t possible four weeks ago. Like with Willock, often clubs want to take at least some of pre-season to a look at returning loan players before making a decision.

Mpls

Real just recently dropped their original asking price from €60m to 45. I suspect that and negotiating down another 15 (up front at least, I imagine a good chance of add-ons) and Real warming up to the transfer were the blocks. From all the reports player wages were not a point of much contention.

Neil Bamford

Really happy with this. Welcome back Martin

Man Manny

Arsenal team in three seasons is potentially a mouth watering prospect.
Arteta and Edu are truly building a team that – if all goes well – will be there or thereabouts.
Ramsgate – 26
Ben White – 26
Gabriel – 27
Tierney – 26
Tavares – 24
Lokonga – 24
Odegaard – 25
ESR – 23
Saka – 22
Pepe – 28
Balogun – 22
The leading lights from the academy and a sprinkling of key signings, supported by old heads like Partey, complete the team.
It is something to look forward to.
Welcome, Martin Ødegaard.

Parisian Weetabix

This post is clearly bullshit when the town of Ramsgate was first mentioned in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1274-75 and is therefore at least 745 years old. Can’t believe the misinformation people will spread these days.

Man Manny

😁😁😁
Oh my God. Autocorrect!

Anthony McCabe

Could we add Saliba to that list? I still think he will be a star for Arsenal.

Ealing

I like that to happen, but i fear that ship has sailed.

Skooner

That is some serious value. It’s quite clear Arteta is building with longevity in mind and that excites me. Time to get fully behind our manager this season and keep positive. This squad with its injection of youth is exciting!

Anthony McCabe

Hope the fans do this on Sunday. The team and the manager need the whole stadium rocking against Chelsea.

shokim

Can we present Martin like Manure did for Varane?

Skooner

Absolutely. It’s no coincidence we’re already seeing more home wins now crowds are back so time to be the 12th man.

Jarghs

In todays world of crazy fees, £30m feels like a proper bargain.

My Favorite Martin

[movie trailer voice]

Matt P

Good business, good young player. Not convinced he will be an excellent player, but hope I am wrong. I am pleased with the signing.

Eric

I’m glad the atmosphere here is so different from Twitter. Woohoo!

Anthony McCabe

It really is so refreshing and positive.

Man Manny

If Arsenal had sold a player of Ødegaard’s quality to another team for £30m plus add-ons, this site would have erupted in vile rants and verbal flames.
This is the grim reality of the market today. Real football clubs are struggling financially.
There is a reason Real Madrid brought down their valuation to make this happen.
I am glad Arsenal could leverage on the situation.
Odegaard will be worth more than double that in a few years.

Nostalgic Gooner

Welcome back. This is great news. Hope he can add more goals and assists to his game.

gunnertron

So happy he is ours! Odegaard feels like we finally have a replacement for Santi. I know they are different players but I’m hoping to see Odegaard unlock the best of the current crop attackers the same way Santi unlocked the best out of Ozil, Sanchez and co at the time.

Teta's cult of personality

Not a replacement for Santi IMO. Not because Ø isn’t good, he’s just a different type of player. I think Ødegaard is stylistically similar to Özil.

The team still doesn’t have a creative press-breaker like Santi

shokim

Welcome back, Martin! COYG 🔴⚪️

eternalflamini

Whatever you may feel about the manager (I’m pretty down on him) the business we have done in this window is a vast improvement on recent years. And Odegaard is the best signing yet. Excited finally!

Good Grief

You can never have enough Vikings in the squad.. brilliant acquisition now we feast on the blood of Wessex or the spunts whatever comes first

Merlin’s Panini

Great news. I didn’t expect we’d see him again after his message to the fans but it’s good to have him back. Probably our best ever loan signing, just a shame it was in a turd of a season. Here’s hoping he has the desired effect.

Cultured Determination

edu has done it again. one of the best in the business. I have a good feeling about this guy. can he play CM? we need someone with his passing range to dovetail with Rowe in the middle for CM and AM role. I remember back in the days Arsene used to sign A LOT of creative players and we were all begrudging on why we cant get more direct finishers instead of passing creatively all day long, but we now see the significance of things.

Man Manny

The calls were genuine. The absence of more direct finishers/ midfielders was the reason Arsenal failed to go over the line in ’07 -08. We had, arguably, the best team in the Land. The injury to Eduardo halted our seeming unstoppable march to the title.
Same goes for ’09 – ’10, when Van Persie’s return from injury was a little too late.

Arsene also failed to solve the keeper problem, stubbornly holding on to Almunia.

Teta's cult of personality

Ø has only ever played CM a few times. He seems to be better suited to playing further up the field. Smith Rowe does have some experience playing CM at Huddersfield though he also has a tendency to drift to the wing a lot.

I think the squad still needs another creative CM to do what you’re describing, especially if either Torreira or Elneny leave.

Teta's cult of personality

For £30 million, this is a good deal. Much better than the €50 million Madrid were asking for at the start. MØ is also a player who has a lot of commercial value for his age which is something the club has been trying to improve.

I’m sure he’ll be @Pastor Simon and @Bishop favourite player.

All the best Martin 🔴⚪

Jim Gooch

Suddenly the view through the transfer window looks a lot brighter from a Gooner perspective.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

Got a good player for a good price.
Now let’s get a proper ball player to replace Xhaka and a right back that’s not a liability.

Teryima Adi

Welcome on board, Odegaard. Run rings round midfielders and defences and assist lots of goals and score a handful, too.

Tanned arse

I would’ve targeted an all-round dynamic central midfielder to combine and boss the middle of the park with partey this season (soumare or bissouma ideally) plus a quality right back. I would’ve tried to change the style and profile of our side. However, the club have decided to go down another route and xhaka aside I can appreciate what they’ve done. There’s a whole lot of future proofing and the actual fee paid for odegaard is quality business. For the first time in a long while it justifies the delay in signing early in the window. I wish him all… Read more »

Mark

He will have his ups and downs as will all the young players, but boy for the first time in so many years there is truly some excitement about the near term future of the squad with so many talented young players that have come up through the academy or that we’ve recently acquired. You look at Smith-Rowe, Saka, Martinelli, Tierney, Odegaard, White, Gabriel, Lokonga, Tavares, etc. that are all 23 or or younger and then you add someone still in their prime like Partey and I finally have some optimism that we are doing things differently and looking to… Read more »

Steve Dracula

Decent player who should improve what we are at this time.

Needs to start showing against the better teams as he was anonymous in those games last season.

Nahant Nick

Great news.
And time to get the typesetting straight.

Jon

This was the major signing this summer. The team has many holes to fill, and Ødegaard might have to deliver quickly, or risk gradually attracting the ire of the “x out” crowd.

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