Friday, October 18, 2024

Report: Merino edging closer to Arsenal, Nketiah set for Marseille

Arsenal’s interest in Real Sociedad Mikel Merino has been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano and a deal is getting closer adds journalist Kike Marin of El Confidencial.

Fresh from winning the European Championships with Spain, the 28-year-old would bolster the Gunners’ options in midfield and potentially free up Declan Rice to play further up the pitch.

While Arsenal can currently call on Jorginho and Thomas Partey to play the holding midfielder role, the club doesn’t want to lean on the former every week and are open to letting the latter leave. The Ghana international only has one year left on his contract and has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia.

Mohamed Elneny’s exit and a possible departure for Emile Smith Rowe – heavily linked with Fulham and Crystal Palace – could further strain resources.

The Gunners started the summer courting Merino’s teammate Martin Zubimendi but it’s claimed he’s holding out for a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona so we’ve turned our attention elsewhere.

We’re not going to pull the wool over your eyes, Merino isn’t going to get the crowds flocking to the Emirates. However, ewe’d be silly to underestimate his ability to knit together a midfield. His shear ability in tight spaces means you rarely see him hoofing it under pressure and the baa-stard in him means he loves a tackle.

It’s been reported that Edu could get a deal done for £25 million. Let’s see what happens, we’ve been fleeced in the past.

Elsewhere, L’Equipe reports that Eddie Nketiah is close to joining Marseille on loan ahead of a permanent move next summer. It’s claimed that personal terms have already been agreed with the England international who’d be following Mason Greenwood to the Stade Velodrome.

Not for the first time, Nketiah would be filling a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang-shaped hole. New head coach Roberto De Zerbi has been doing some drastic surgery on his squad and more additions are planned.

Marseille’s history of English players is a mixed bag. While Laurie Cunningham, Chris Waddle and Trevor Stevens featured in the 80s and 90s, more recently they’ve fielded the likes of Tyrone Mears and Joey Barton. You’d struggle to find a more controversial figure than the latter, but Greenwood is certainly up there.

Anyway, it’s another one to watch in the coming week or so. If talks between Arsenal and Marseille progress quickly, Eddie may end up leaving the USA tour prematurely.

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Adney Toams

Ewe gave me a laugh there, Blogs 😄

gerbil

Not Blogs, rarely is on the News site 😉

GoonaDownUnda

Andrew Allen

Frosty

He was really ram-ming the puns into that couple paragraphs!

Mayor McCheese

His aerial ability is the best in Europe. I like that we’re buying a good jumper.

Wingston75

Ok, can we stop bleating about it now?

Wingston75

Sorry for butting in

michael

Lamb sorry

Mayor McCheese

And not that this is a compliment, necessarily, but apparently Alan Shearer can’t stop looking at this guy.

Dr. Gooner

A proper dyed-in-the-wool Briton. Just can’t stop spinning his yarn, can he? Too much shepherds’ pie.

michael

Baaaa

Lego hair

I will sheepishly add my comment hoping the masses flock to the comments section to pun-ish me for my baa-d take.

Grumbleduke

Hopefully a player with confidence on the ball and not too sheepish

Ebo

Andrew already completely exhausted the joke but you just couldn’t leave wool enough alone

michael

Just ramming home the point

Mayor McCheese

Oh, he’s confident alright. If Saliba is a Rolls Royce, Merino is a Lamborghini.

Dr. Gooner

Stop it already or I’ll have to press the dislike mutton

Mayor McCheese

I’m tired of being lambasted just for having an opinion.

Percy

Just can’t wait for new season to get underway

Naked Cygan

Me too. I think this guy is more like a Trossard signing. Quality player with experience at the right price.

Gervinho is Driving

Where’s the sheep joke dammit?

michael

Folks will be flocking to see him.
Is that better sir

gerbil

I hope like Hleb he is able to extricate himself from tight corners and not get penned in by the gegenpress

Wingston75

And let’s see how he recovers from a dip in form

fiserlaci

Haha, you pulled those Merino jokes off pretty well Mr. Allen 😁

Armchair Manager

I signed Merino for my Arsenal team on Football Manager.
‘Ewe’ better belive that he’s been a revelation.

Kiwomya

Can’t believe you are reporting such woolly rumours

karl g

I don’t quite understand the Merino talk. He is outside Arteta’s usual age for a signing and his passing stats are a bit worrying.

Tom

He wins an amazing amount of duels, has international and CL pedigree so should hit the ground running. More of a solid squad player than a nailed on starter. Good price too. Wouldn’t demand huge wages. It seems a solid if unspectacular signing

karl g

I agree, but his passing accuracy is way below other Arsenal players and Arteta’s game is based on that.

Ebo

Passing accuracy is to a large extent influenced by difficulty of passes attempted. I don’t know the player well but maybe he’s attempting more creative or difficult passes? If not then yes it would be worrying… but I guess then even just as a squad option he’d probably be a significant upgrade over our beloved Mo

Wingston75

Yeah, will he raise the baaa

Ebo

Exactly, even if the signing would be a bit meh

CLE

I’m admittedly unfamiliar but that could be more about the strategy of the team he’s in and the players around him. Passing takes two.

karl g

You’re probably right. There aren’t exactly a glut of quality players available in that position that are easily named anyway. Edu and Arteta have surprised us before, so here’s hoping.

Wingston75

But he’s a good jumper’s

Wingston75

JUMPER!!

f**k

Wengerball

I forgot which great recently said this, but passing accuracy doesn’t really tell the whole story. For example, Saliba probably has the best passing accuracy at Arsenal last season, but how many of those passes are to Gabriel or Raya. We need less sideway passers and more progressive passers, let’s take a few more risks next season when in possession. Our defense can easily cope and the turnaround in goal production will greatly outnumber goals conceded.

Dr. Gooner

Yes, a truly valid comparison of any statistic requires all else to be completely uniform, or it’s not a valid comparison (this is the idea behind clinical trials btw). If Merino played for Arsenal his duels per 90 would go way down (but not his duel %) and his pass volume and accuracy would look a lot like Declan Rice.

Sakatatties

His ‘passing accuracy’ is statistically equivalent to Kevin de Bruyne.

Catbiscuits

I won’t pretend to know much about him, but we definitely need a traditional defensive midfielder for the big games if Rice is playing number 8. Jorginho is too easily bypassed in those matches and so too Partey now that his legs have gone.

Dr. Gooner

This guy is not a single pivot… either an 8 or a double pivot. Makes you wonder if we are still going to see the same type of midfield as last season, or if Mikel is cooking up something new.

Cannon and ball and arsen’all

I think if rice is at left 8 then we essentially have a double pivot; rice will still provide an exceptional level of solidity on that side. Give we will also have one or possibly even two fullbacks inverting, then I’d say that if (on paper) merino is a single pivot, it’ll very rarely be the case in practice

Cannon and ball and arsen’all

That said, I think we will probably see Merino in the left 8 – that is where he plays for Sociedad – but with potential to switch with rice in a fluid system

Wingston75

He’ll fit in well to our tight-knit dressing room

Dr. Gooner

I see him as more of an alternate to Rice, not a pairing in most games. Their profiles are too similar. That being said, they absolutely could play together, I just don’t think that’s the plan.

Henkamp

Why do clubs wanting to buy our players quote cheap prices or suggest the loan-first-buy-later option? It’s starting to grind my gears!

loose_cannon

Because our better players aren’t for sale! Apart from a dodgy Saudi deal or PSR related shenanigans, it’s very unlikely anyone would get top dollar for a bench player, unless they really had high potential.

kas

Other clubs just pull the wool over Arsenal’s eyes. Take the piss & get away with it. Marseille can afford to buy ‘Greenwood’ 30 mill , nice profit for Man U but only want Eddie the Eagle on loan. Others like the weak Viera we’re stuck with! Edu is useless at transfers, not 1 penny has come in, Paying players off then other clubs make a profit ie Auba.

Crash Fistfight

Most fans are still under the illusion he’s doing a good job, hence the ratio of down-votes to up-votes. Ask yourself what he has done to a) save money on transfers we have made and/or b) maximised the transfer fees we have received. I don’t get why people think it is some sort of achievement to buy players for the amounts the selling clubs asked for in the first place, after weeks of ‘negotiation’ (which is how fans offset the argument about him doing terrible deals the other way). It’s not like the recruitment has been based on the systems/structures… Read more »

Vavavoo titi

I don’t know why we going for loans for our players? If u want a player out it should be a straight deals. Eddie is a good player but Merino I don’t knw if he firs to the age group we are building and we will not make any resales profit on him..

BillyKrystal

I’m going to say it, more handsome than Riccardo. Not as good as MA though which is what really matters.

Austin Bud

Can someone explain what I’m missing with these sheep jokes lol

Bradys chips

Darn good baller.

Zed

Meh.
A bit annoying to see that our midfielder chase is led by Arteta. He’s super biased being a massive La Real fan. First wanted Zubimendi and now Merino. Shouldn’t our transfers be dictated by our club needs rather than our manager’s love for certain players?

Kevin

Props for the wool gags, Andrew. Great work. Worth this month’s Patreon sub on its own.

thw14

He looks like a replacement for the role Xhaka played for us in his last two seasons here.

Getting him in makes sense to me, because Declan Rice is the best pure DM in the country. We had to play him further up because Havertz wasn’t a fit there, and Partey wasn’t regularly available.

Hopefully this improves the midfield balance, although obviously it wasn’t terrible last season.

Dr. Gooner

High motor, high intelligence duel winner who is not a liability in possession and doesn’t need tons of money or tons of minutes. You know exactly what you’re going to get from him every time. Always available. Quality role player. Every top team needs them.

TeeCee

£25m? He’d be sheep at twice the price.

Bergytime

I saw the headline and wanted to join in with the Merino puns, bet there are already too many baaaaaad puns to count

Olawale Olayemi

The puns flew over my head at first reading. Second time, plus the comments, omg!

TexasRed

But what’s his injury record? Is he “Ram Tough”?

Ian

Nice sheep puns

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