Rob Holding is set to join Newcastle United on a season-long loan deal, according to The Athletic (£).
The 24-year-old joined the Gunners from Bolton in 2016 and has gone on to win two FA Cup medals but his game time last season was limited following his recovery from ACL surgery.
With William Saliba returning from his loan at Saint-Etienne and Gabriel Magalhães set to join from Lille soon, it’s no secret that Arsenal need to shift a few defenders before the transfer window closes in October.
Interestingly, despite our plethora of centre-backs, we’re short of options for today’s Community Shield clash, so Holding could bid farewell for the year after another run out at Wembley.
Under contract until 2023, there’s no immediate need to sell the 24-year-old. A season of regular football at St James’ Park could stand him in good stead for the future. A run of games has certainly helped boost his confidence in the past.
If Holding does complete a move to Newcastle, he’ll be the third centre-back to depart on loan for the year after Zech Medley, who joined Gillingham, and Dinos Mavropanos, who signed for Stuttgart.
thank goodness, not good enough for arsenal
many think he is or will be a tony adams reincarnation but not my a country mile- hope they buy him
5million cheap
Completely agree there’s this odd protection of him on here that other defenders don’t get. He’s not developed to a player that’s good enough. He’s terrible at one on one defending, shocking at passing and I can’t think of a single game where I thought he was outstanding.
You are having a laugh, sunshine! Protection? Mustafi is treated like a God on this page. Breathe a word against him and the total on your thumbs down turns into Roger Daltrey’s pinball machine in the film ‘Tommy.’
Nonsense bud
It’s not nonsense at all mate. There is nothing too detrimental that Mustafi could do to this club’s chances of success that would turn his not-so-little group of followers against him. Last season alone, his antics away to Chelsea, Brighton and Tottenham and also Leicester at home cost us 11 out of a possible 12 points. And they still maintain he has improved. Some were even clamouring for him to get a new contract – they still are. When he joined, we went out of the Champions League. And that’s where we’ve stayed – and will continue to stay, until… Read more »
Southampton away he was named man of the match
He also helped us win two FA Cup Finals in 2017 and this year.
I’m only thankful it was Holding in the side on both those occasions, because it’s a dead cert that had Mustafi played in both those finals, the cups would almost certainly have gone to Chelsea.
You must have amnesia, our 2017 FA Cup run? He was key in both the semifinal against City and the final against Chelsea. ??♂️
Bellerin haters, Holding haters, Ozil haters and Mustafi worshippers believe what they want to believe on this page – and they don’t allow for little things like facts and the truth get in the way.
He was our best defender 2 years ago
No he wasn’t Koscielny was. He had like one month of decent play and then got a really bad injury. Also that was 2 YEARS AGO!
“A really bad injury” then he bossed Liverpool in the league and had a good cup final. He is a good defender and with a run of games will prove that… again.
Kos was a good defender, but he was also prone to stupid mistakes, second only to the German Frank Spencer.
We seem more solid when he plays. Simple as that really.
Win win for us, he goes and increases his value or he comes back a better player with a full season of football in the locker. Curious how we are doing for the homegrown quota though? We don’t have many.
There isn’t really a homegrown quota, you can have as many as you like. There is a cap on the number of non-homegrown seniors at 17 within a maximum senior squad size of 25.
Saliba, Guendouzi and Martinelli don’t count as seniors because they were under 21 at the cut-off date.
I count 16 non-homegrown in a senior squad of 23, 7 senior homegrown, 5 u-21 players who will become homegrown seniors, 2 u-21 who won’t become homegrown seniors.
I think the concern was the minimum of 8 players trained in the same nation for 3 years before 21st birthday quota.
We have Saka, AMN, Nelson, Nketiah, Bellerin, Martinez, Macey, Chambers, Willock, Holding (10)
And we have many of those linked with a move…
There is no such minimum. The stipulation is that you can only have maximum 17 non-homegrown senior players in your squad. If you want you can have zero homegrown players, but then you’d only have a 17-man senior squad. Arsenal actually only named 20 seniors last season, with 6 homegrown.
Saka, Nelson, Nketiah, Willock won’t have to be named in the squad at all because they still have under-21 status. Same for Martinelli, Saliba, maybe Smith-Rowe, and maybe maybe Guendouzi.
Only Saliba, Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe count as u21 this season. We have 9 homegrown players and counting Gabriel, 19 non homegrown players. We need to move 3 players out, then move players out to replace any incoming ones.
The rule is under-21 on 1st January of the year the season starts so Guendouzi, Nketiah and Willock all still count as under-21. Here are the current non-homegrown seniors: 1. Leno 2. Sokratis 3. Soares 4. Mustafi 5. Mari 6. Luiz 7. Kolasinac 8. Ozil 9. Torreira 10. Elneny 11. Xhaka 12. Lacazette 13. Willian 14. Aubameyang 15. Pepe (16. Mkhitaryan) Gabriel would make that 17. As noted above, Guendouzi still isn’t a senior. I assume you also include Mavrapanos but he’s already out on loan. Mkhitaryan is in brackets because he’s supposedly already agreed another year at Roma but… Read more »
Makes total sense. It’s a good call.
Hopefully he goes and has a great season with 30+ games under his belt and then come back ready to compete with Saliba & Gabriel.
I agree. He shouldn’t be sold. He’s already proved to be able to keep a very cool head in high pressure games and picked up two FA Cup Winners medals for his troubles.
A good loan spell will set him up well for his prime days – hopefully as a back up for Saliba and Gabriel.
Or alongside them in a back 3! Could be the best defence in the country with an average age of about 22 if all 3 pan out (which is of course optimistic).
This is the sensible thing to do. There is a good (albeit slow) center back in Holding. We should loan him out and sell Sokratis, Mustafi and Chambers.
Chambers is a better football player
This weird thing happened with Chambers where he was doing quite well, often catching a lot of praise when he was given playing time whether at CB or RB, he gets injured, having been chosen as the starting CB by Arteta in his first few games, and suddenly he’s shit and not good enough again? I don’t get the narrative that follows that boy around at all. For years he has a lower ceiling than Rob Holding, then it’s “he’s not good enough” he goes out on loan and consistently distinguishes himself as one of the best players wherever he… Read more »
I know what you mean I think it’s because he’s not a particularly ‘eye-catching’ CB for lack of a better word. His strengths are his solid positioning, decision making, and calmness on the ball which are more subtle (but imo more effective) and therefore more easily forgotten when he’s out of the side. His USP is his lack of mistakes, basically. As far as weaknesses go he’s fairly slow and can be beaten in the air, which are more obvious and therefore stick in fans’ memories when he is out Our other CBs have more immediately obvious strengths i.e Holding… Read more »
Honestly think you’re giving people too much credit there. That’s a fairly rational explanation and even if I disagreed with the opinion I’d respect that there’s some thought behind it.
It just seems to me there’s soundbites or memes that float around, get lodged in people’s long term memories and in the absence of any other reference that’s what they default back to to base their opinions on.
Like how a player with good memes only gets better while not playing and a player with bad memes gets worse.
Great insight. Though I think Holding is more aggressive than Mustafi (think against Costa & Mane) whilst Mustafi is more superior in the air (he wins a lot of aerial duels) despite being shorter.
Sold or not Sokratis, Mustafi and Luiz should all be out of contract and gone by next summer. If back 3 becomes a favoured system then Saliba, Gabriel, Mari, Holding and Chambers would appear a more manageable group.
I’m still hopeful we’ll shift at least Sokratis this window.
This is all I wanted to say. Though hope and reality seem to be thoroughly at odds this year.
It’s OK saying “sell” them, but who is going to buy Sokratis, Mustafi and Chambers? There’s been a little interest so far and certainly nothing in any way concrete. How much do you think we’d get for them, anyway? We do need to shift them – or at least several of the centre backs – but the real quality just isn’t there (and if most Gooners can see it, potential buyers can) so none of this trio will fetch much in the current market, I fear. The biggest plus would be getting them off the wage bill.
Mustafi seems an ok backup for now, Sokratis is ok somebody might have him.
Back up for what? The only thing he’d be useful to back up is an understudy for a clown in a pantomime.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more interest in Chambers, albeit he is injured. Sokratis is rubbish. And yes Mustafi is also injured but the ridiculous salary we’ve been daft enough to pay him means that he could be as fit as a fiddle and no club in their right mind would choose to buy him. Mustafi’s ‘Mustafies’ are very expensive, both in terms of your bank balance and your position in the league table.
I think there’s a quality centre back in there so this could be a great move. If he has a solid season he either comes back into the fold or gets sold for better money than we’d currently get.
I think a good quality CB for a mid table team but for a club looking to challenge for top four I don’t think he is good enough.
I just don’t understand why it takes so long for this club to close a deal. If Arsenal are not careful Gabriel will go to United or Napoli..
I noticed that Arsenal’s last few transfer signings that were English players came from the EFL. Was this done to save money?
When was the last time the club bought an English national from another Premier League team??
Wouldn’t mind Holding on to him, but a full season filled with fitness out on loan will do him a world of good.
After the Holding you needed something in there about not sticking around to Rob Saliba of game time
I was Holding onto all the puns but it seems you guys Rob me of them.
The centre back’s Holding, the midfielder’s Willi(an).
For God’s Saka
You Mustafi a word pun every now and then.
If it happens and there is no purchase agreement at the end (seems as though there isn’t), then it would be a great move for him and we should extend his contract by a year or 2. Otherwise he has less than 2 years left when he comes back to us.
The problem with extending his contract is that if it doesn’t work out at Newcastle, we have a player on the books taking valuable space on the wage bill
Yes, but he isn’t some 33year old with no talent. He has resale value regardless, but his value will go up or down on performance and contract length together. If he does average, a prem team will still buy him, if he does brilliant, a prem team will buy him for more money (or we keep him) but it would be good to be in control, whatever the situation
Definitely agree with this move. It will be a good move for him for a season to get regular time coming back from a serious injury. He will show his value and come back with added value.
Good luck RH.
Love this guy, and hope he finds consistency and joy on loan, and then returns to our colours; we certainly know he’ll see a lot of action as Newcastle do have to defend a lot.
They also have a poor injury record for Defenders, which is my worry ?. Then again, Arsenal aren’t much better.
This seems like a good move for all parties involved. Considering the amount of money spent on Saliba and Gabriel, they are certainly long term options, possibly along with Pablo Mari. Beyond those three, It is very likely that David Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi will no longer be Arsenal players by this time next year. There is a good chance Chambers won’t be as well. That gives Holding an opportunity of coming back in next year as a solid bench option or moving on for some money.
I’ve been annoyed by so much speculation about players going out on loan instead of being sold, but this is the exception. A season’s worth of games at a club who – in theory – spend more time defending than we would could be the making of Holding, and if he proves himself it would be great to welcome him back.
I’m really curious as to how we plan to raise funds for at least one midfielder who we absolutely need to make the team function how arteta wants. Ceballos was the only one who combined security on the ball and energy to make us move the ball forward quickly. I think he hid xhaka’s inability to do anything with pace. I get how loaning holding will probably raise his value and maybe the market returns in a years time to something like it was. But it is starting to seem to me that the only players we will sell to… Read more »
I agree. How are we going to fund very badly needed midfield reinforcements if we don’t sell?
Still weeks to go, with Niles, Torreira, Martinez almost out the door. Enough to buy a reasonably good CM, with change to spare. Mkhitaryan’s wages will be a burden off as well.
I’m relieved we’re not letting Rob go. He can do the business for us now when it counts, and will only get better, I think. Plus, he’s better than Cannavaro.
Cannavaro was such an intelligent player. I remember during the 2014 World Cup, he was asked (in English) how he managed as a 5′”9 centre-back against bigger forwards. He basically said everything was about timing when to & not to jump and using the forward’s body weight against him.
I wonder if he’ll ever take a job in the Premier League?
A winner of two FA Cup finals and in my view a very good centre back. Though he is slow he usually makes it on time. Only wished we gave him an extension of his contract prior to going out on loan so when he returns we would have a stronger hand in the future.
Good luck and hope you show your skill off like Gnabry did.
Let’s hope he DOESN’T show off his skill like Gnabry did. That loan to West Brom was a disaster.
I like him a lot, but he hasn’t done enough to convince Arteta so I hope he has a great season on loan and comes back stronger for it.
Hopefully we insert clauses on the minimum number of games he has to play. Sending players for a season long loan to a team in the top division can be tricky. Anyone who watched Nelson at Hoffenheim will know how some of those clubs can easily bench your player when results are needed and the player is out of form. While he got lots of goals at the start, you could clearly see his game lacking especially without the ball and in transition from defense to attack. Credit to him he was always in the right positions in the box… Read more »
Not a great surprise, I guess. If he improves (and there’s quite a bit of room for improvement if we’re honest) then as others have said he’ll come back a much better player – or we can try and sell him (“try” not “will”, saying it doesn’t make it happen) for an improved fee. We still need to reduce the membership of the Arsenal Centre Back Society though. Still way too much quantity over the quality we must have in that position if we’re really going to improve week in and out in the new season.
Makes perfect sense to loan rather than sell as this time next year there will be no Luiz, Sokratis or Mustafi so we might need him in a years time. Hope he plays well and gets plenty of game time
What a beautiful picture of hope you’ve just painted. ??
You’ve got hidden talents mate. You should take up art. Or poetry. ?
This could be his first proper campaign of top flight football, hope he follows Chambers lead and makes the absolute most of it.
I might be too romantic, but i would keep both Rob and Calum. Hear out my rambling. Holding could make a solid 3rd CB (either as the backup in a 4 or starting in a 3) and Chambers is a versatile utility option for CB-DM and s.o.s. RB (he started there at Southampton, and could do a job like Sokratis and Mustafi had to, but still not ideal). They shouldn’t require high wages, show positive characters, in a good age profile, while counting towards the home grown quota. I understand the need for selling and that they are easier to… Read more »
Big Rob. FA Cup hero and winner (2x). Made Diego Costa cry and laughed. More medals in his pockets than Kane has change. Good luck in Geordieland, lad.
Top post, well said.
That image of him pointing to his temple and informing Diego Costa he (Costa) was a hi-hat short of a drum kit was hilarious.
Martin Keown, eat your heart out. ?
In torn on this one.
Rob has played, on the whole, very well for us, though he’s struggled since the injury, so on the one hand, this could be a good thing for him
On the other, it puts him away from the squad and subsequently further away from any immediate plans. Genuinely, I think there’s a top quality centre back there, and he has shown his quality in the past.
I trust Mikel though, so I am sure that if he’s sanctioning the loan, then there’s good reason.
If it goes through,we have to sell the other unfancied central defenders at the club.And we have to plan this well considering the injury list at centerback.
Think highly of Holding, but for his future he needs to play regularly and this should give him the chance. Just hope Gabriel (if he comes) and Saliba can adapt quickly.
Contrary to opinions here I think its a bad move. We need cold hard cash right now and havent been able to move any players Arteta doesnt rate, Holding being one of them. At this rate we cant reform our midfield
Would be nice to get one of his classic Wembley performances in this game. Meaningless as it is, would be nice to kick of the season well.
Should be good for him if he gets regular game time. Also Steve Bruce being a centre back himself could be beneficial.
Best of luck, Bobbo.
Two FA Cups – that’s as many as Spurs have won since April 1982. ?
Why?
Arsenal are broke and need money to rebuild.
Sell him or keep him. To loan him out to a team that we will probably be competing with makes no sense at all…
Why not? It’s giving Holding plenty of Premiership experience whilst our two new lads (when the second one has finally fucking signed) both acclimatise to their new club and build up a strong partnership (hopefully).
What’s more, we’re not as skint as Uncle Stan wants you to believe.
Arsenal are playing well against the best team in Europe.
Big improvements under Mikel Arteta – he has done really well.
Lets just hope that useless board of directors will back him up…
Arteta doing a great job – great result and moving in the right direction !
In my opinion centre backs are about partnership and communication. In today’s game you must have a really quick ball playing centre back – hopefully we have one in Saliba. Then you need a really good solid strong one. I believe that all great teams have great centre back partnerships. Not only have we had some sub-standard centre backs but we have not had a genuine partnership for years.I like the fact that Arteta has identified it as a priority area and we can already see evidence of our defensive organisation improving. After today I really hope ANM wants to… Read more »
Just hasn’t been able to fully convince (except some people who perpetually prefer to imagine only positives for some players and negatives for others)
That said a decent player and if on loan maybe potential for us to assess in a season down…
particularly as Saliba, Mari and (if/when he turns up) Manghales are all new and jury still out.
Interesting to see if he may retain one of Chambers or Mustafi (even with Luiz as insurance). Usually we keep 5 on account of our horrendous injury record.
A loan could be just what he needs. If he can stay fit he could still develop into a really good centre back. If that’s at Newcastle he’ll be spending a lot of time with his back to the wall.
Good luck to him. I haven’t given up on him just yet. He’s decent on the ball and has good character, as was evidenced in the two FA Cup finals. He’s never really got past being rusty due to lack of game time so it’ll be interesting to see what regular football would do for him.
He’s not good enough for our first team, but neither is Mustafi. Holding could come back a lot better after this loan.