Mikel Arteta says summer signing Marquinhos will not go on loan this summer.
Signed from Sao Paulo as “one for the future”, it was originally thought the 19-year-old would be sent to the continent for a year to gain further experience in senior football.
As it turns out, having impressed in pre-season and in two appearances for the under-21s, Arteta is going to give the winger a chance to establish himself at Arsenal before assessing the situation further down the line.
“We’re very happy with him, he’s adapted really well,” said Arteta ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth.
“He’s a really likeable figure in the dressing room and around [London] Colney even if his language is not great yet. I think his physicality has been pretty exceptional for someone coming from Brazil with a different way to train and to play the way he’s done it.
“I think he’s got very good qualities for how we want to play. We’re going to keep him here for another few months and make sure he establishes himself in the club and the team. After that, we’ll see what’s the best move for him.”
Even with a break for the World Cup, the Gunners will play a lot of football between now and January with six Europa League matches coming on top of Carabao Cup commitments and 16 Premier League games.
Asked if the player would be more likely to play in cup competitions rather than the league, Arteta added: “For every player there is the option to play [all games], if they train and I’m convinced that they have the level to do that, of course, they will have opportunities.”
Sounds very encouraging (in comparison to sending some players out on loan for some time). Hope he can step up and get some minutes and make a difference.
Having never heard of this guy before he signed, never seen the guy kick a football (not even a YouTube synthpop inspired compilation) and knowing nothing at all about his style of play, I’m low-key convinced he’s going to be fucking awesome for us.
Excited to see what the lad can do in the cups. Looks to be a bruiser. His sticking around until the January window shouldn’t stop another winger coming in to compete with Saka.
Arteta is such a master of political talk, would be annoying if he was the PM but his press briefings can almost be poetic in their vagueness.
What was unclear?; he has been impressed, wants to keep him around until at least January to see if he can make an impact
It’s how he made every game available to every player without specifically limiting, or stating expectations of what games Marquinhos is more likely to feature in.
Or sumt like that. Mofo got me headspun.
He’s also pretty good at answering dumb questions. Someone actually asked him today: “In terms of transfers, is it key it has to be the right player, it has to be a certain player, not just any player?” 🤦♂️
And that journo gets PAID actual money to ask questions like that and probably quite handsomely too FFS
Actually it’s the opposite problem. The Internet means that news organisations have to compete with free “news”. As a result the money’s dried up, decent journalists cost money, so the person asking the question is more likely to be a meejah studiz grad with a press pass.
To me it seems clear. Marquinhos is a young Brazilian proving to be quite talented but with limited English language skills. We will keep him here so he is well integrated into our team, club and culture before he either is loaned or integrated into the first team. We will surround him with fellow Brazilians to help this process. We have a growing connection to Brazilian and other player development. We like a methodical well constructed ongoing structure and culture that attracts exceptional youth talent. It shows the player, agent, family etc. that Arsenal, the youngest team in the EPL… Read more »
If he stays, there’s no question we have numbers out wide: Marquinhos, Martinelli, Pépé, Reiss Nelson, Saka. That’s excluding nominal midfielders who can be deployed there (Smith Rowe and, ostensibly, Fábio Vieira). Would still like an injection of proven/trusted quality there…
Pepe out, class winger in would be great.
He’s young, just in Europe from Brazil, probably good to have other Brazilians and Viera around to help him adapt
I see the Gabriel Martinelli scenario playing out again. I watched the U21 highlights and he looked a cut above that grade.
He might even be the Saka alternative/backup we are looking for.
I’m glad he is here, but could someone explain how he got a work permit so quickly? I can’t imagine he has more paper qualifications than Joel Campbell did. (To be clear, I would anyone play, regardless of nationality; I’m just asking.)
Rules have changed post-brexit. I can’t say I know what they are exactly, but I’d guess it’s easier now for non-European players.
Sure, but I thought that meant that EU citizens would now be treated the same as non-EU (for example, South Americans like Marquinhos or Central Americans like Campbell)–which meant various criteria about being superior in some way to available UK citizens. I know that Tomiyasu’s many caps for Japan was important in his quailfying.
So, I’m not trying to beat a dead horse, but if anyone knows the answer, I’d be grateful.
“Language isn’t great yet”
Just imagining him effing and jeffing all round the training pitch
Pepe’s eventual replacement?
That young boy is very aggressive and very good on the ball.sending him on loan will be a terrible mistake.the so called big teams are going to poach him i can bet