Arsenal have beaten off competition from Real Sociedad to secure Martin Odegaard on loan from Real Madrid for the rest of the season.
The Gunners will pay an upfront fee in the region of £2 million and will also cover the player’s wages, thought to be in the region of £40,000 per week, until July.
The 22-year-old attacking midfielder had asked Zinedine Zidane to let him move in January so that he could play regular first-team football after a frustrating few months at the Bernabeu.
Odegaard was one of Europe’s hottest prospects when he signed for Real as a 16-year-old in 2015 but he’s only featured 11 times for the first team.
Consecutive year-long loan spells at Dutch sides Heerenveen and Vitesse were much more fruitful and he really came of age at Sociedad last season, for whom he scored seven goals and made nine assists in 36 appearances.
The San Sebastien outfit were pretty confident the Norway international would join them again but calls from Edu and Mikel Arteta changed all that, and he will add quality and depth to our creative midfield options, as well as easing the burden on the flourishing Emile Smith Rowe.
Welcome to the Arsenal Martin, we’re looking forward to seeing what you can do.
He’s here and he’s perfect.
All the talk is of him easing the burden on Smith Rowe, but I think he has a real similarity to Saka that could help manage his minutes.
Left footed, tricky, technical and plays in that right half-space channel. Hope to hell there’s no injury to Bukayo, but Odegaard is as good a like for like replacement as you can get.
Call me crazy, but it could be both.
You’re crazy
He should, in theory, be a similar level to both Saka and Smith-Rowe. And should, in theory, be able to replace either at RW or CAM without much (if any) drop off. So, in theory, if we can get them playing 66.67% of the minutes each for the remainder of the season, it should help keep them all fresh and injury free, give us a game-changing option from the bench, and help to prevent us becoming predictable In reality he will be doing very well if he manages to replicate the other two’s recent performances (Saka esp.), though Good signing,… Read more »
The theory is sound in theory.
In theory (and it’s only theory), he is miles ahead of both Saka and Smith Rowe. No one thinks Smith Rowe is one of the best 100 players in the world (as the Guardian’s experts thought of Odegaard). We hope that will be true sometime, but let’s not let our appreciation for what Saka and Smith Rowe have done, and our hope for their futures at Arsenal, completely overwhelm our judgment.
No, but Smith-Rowe might be one of the 100 most in form players of say the past 6 weeks. That’s a tough benchmark for someone adapting to a more physical league from a starting position of little match fitness Strongly disagree Odegaard’s miles ahead of Saka, who I’m not claiming occupies the world class bracket (hopefully yet), but I feel is already in the very, very good bracket (i.e. a top 20-40 player in his position). I feel ODG is probably similar He’s ahead of both in technique and vision. But part of what makes our 2 great is their… Read more »
Any more than 66.66% and I’m out
No more than 66.67% though. 66.68% and everything’s fucked
Yeah, guaranteed injury that. And the other other 2 on 66.66% will demand transfers for lack of game time
When have our mid season loan moves ever worked out esp in recent years
1 month to integrate–feb
1 month to injured–march
1 month to re-integrate-april
1 month to say cheerio-may
Thierry Henry
Who?
Benayoun did a decent job. Scored a few goals and helped the team in the 5 – 2 against Tottenham. Have a bit of faith
Sure thing – but he wasnt he a summer signing/loan
He was indeed, I remember now you that you’ve said it. He scored in a Champions League group match
That’s the spirit
Cheer up!
Kim Kallstrom was excellent, helped us lift our first trophy for 9 years!
He probably had help lifting it, with his dodgy back
Velkommen
kannst du snakke Engelsk?
I hope he makes all us fans say “oh-my-gaard” when he’s on the pitch.
Waking up after a great result yesterday, and seeing this loan signing happening makes for a nice Wednesday.
That must be one hell of a time difference
Number 11 shirt interestingly when 10 is available…
You gotta earn the #10
Why the hell would you give a 10 to a loanee? Honestly this was my biggest concern in this transfer, glad they did not do it. If it works out and we get him in the summer, then alright, but for now its ok.
Why would your biggest concern be the shirt number
Covid is too hard to think about.
Number 10 will surely be given to ESR next season.
That’s what should be the case, anyway.
ozil was registered for the squad right at the beginning of the season before partey came right? i think we unregistered him after the season started, so that might’ve been a number conflict.
i don’t know if that matters if he was never on the bench or starting 11
Very intelligent footballer. His mental game is elite.
Shame we couldn’t negotiate a future fee, but hopefully he will add further creativity to the squad for the rest of the season.
I don´t quite get this one. There are 18 games to play, he´s injured and not a player probven at the highest level. Will probably take some weeks to settle. I hope I´m wrong.
Is he injured, or just not match fit? If the latter hopefully won’t take him too long. I also see your point but ESR has shown how much better we are with this profile of player in the starting 11, so getting quality back up was very important.
I heard “small knee injury”
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2021/01/24/talk-of-recurring-knee-injury-may-make-arsenal-wait-to-see-martin-odegaard-debut-with-real-madrid-stars-loan-signing-imminent/
That dude is clearly not a credible source. You should know better.
18 games + Europa League could be up to another 9.
He’s instantly like, our fourth best player. What’s not to get about that? He’s really, really good. We’ve been clamoring for an attacking mid for a year, we sign the best one available but he’s so highly rated we can’t do it permanently yet.
Paying almost nothing for 18 games of an exciting young player who can provide depth and competition at a position of need is a no-brainer
he was one the best attacking midfield in spain last 2 season with sociedad, at witch point you think he is not proven at the hightest level
he was great for vitesse in netherland too before that as well
IMO of all the signings we have made in this window, his is the most critical. ESR sumply can’t be expected to play EL on Thursday and then league on Sat given his iffy injury record….I like MO and I do want him to succeed becoz that will improve the chances of us doing well in both competitions.
Sumply=simply
We need some back-up given the next run of matches, so good news.
Let’s hope he plays great but Real don’t notice and we get him transferred to us in the summer.
In midfield, we have Partey, Xhaka, Elneny, Ceballos, ESR, and Willock
In attack, we have Saka, Pepe, Martinelli, Willian, Auba, and Nelson.
AMN can play in both the above. Strikers are Auba, Laca, and Eddie.
Why do we need more backup?
william pepe nelson,AMN,and eddie have been given many chance and so far most of them are proven not to be very good
Well that’s just stupid. We are 8th in the league.Our current back up players Elneny, Ceballos, William, Eddie, Pepe(even though I don’t actually think he has done that bad) are the main reason we are in this position. So clearly we need better back up wouldn’t you think?
when has AMN ever played up front? he can slot in at left or right back and is a good 1v1 defender, but I think he’s played like one game for us in midfield and it was against euopa minnows
That’s just pure mediocrity
Help us to a European spot this season, and we’ll remember you for a long time. Welcome to the Arsenal!
Speaking of which, unless I’m wrong it seems like 7th spot in the PL will go into qualifying for Europa Conference League, which sounds like something that is more trouble than it’s worth.
Winning it gets you qualification for the following season’s Europa League, but I’d imagine the prize money is even lower than that for the Europa League, so you’d probably lose money for each game you play, as a PL club.
The wage and the overall outlay looks nice for a change! Hope he can got the ground running!
40k a week, playing for real madrid? good for us but the lad should get a new manager!
I dunno, i wouldn’t of minded 40k a week when i was signed as a 16 year old
Let us pray He turns out better than we all imagined
From what I’ve heard about him I am imagining a great deal
Welcome, Martin.
I hope you leave good memories behind, if you end up not staying beyond this period.
Welcome. Would be exciting to see him provide some much needed backup to Emile Smith-UnbeatenIn17GamesInA- Rowe.
Why would anyone vote this comment down?
possibly because of the two ‘Ins’ but the comment is clever regardless
The Prudes …
The haters …
Fingers crossed on this one. Hopefully we’ve signed him at a point where he’s ready to make the step up that the hype once suggested. I’ve got a good feeling about this. It feels different to the signings that haven’t worked. He should be really hungry for playing time and also want to prove to everyone how good he really is. Hopefully he’s brilliant, falls in love with the club and agitates for a permanent move because he realises there is no greater club in the world! Oh and we go on an 18 game winning run. I think I… Read more »
Again, really positive non-controversial tweet but there’s one unhappy lad out there somewhere that has to hit the down button for some reason.
I really hope is does play well for us – let’s see – but remember, he’s only with us for the rest of this season. If he’s that good playing here, RM will probably want him back but even if they do put him up for sale, it will be at a high price if he performs here that well and we’re not exactly flush with money, are we.
Too much hype. Another Dennis Suarez. If he was really good they wouldn’t let him go. It will take him 6 months just to adjust to the style of play.
Yep, just like it took 6 months for Tierney and Partey. Oh, hang about………!
Let’s hope he doesn’t get injured instantly like Tierney and Partey 🙁
Cherry-picking 2 players that worked out is very easy. I can give you a bucket list of players we got that have been a disaster.
It did Take 6 months for those players to settle in you noob. They were injured for most of them!
He was one of the best players in La Liga last year. Madrid let Hakimi go, he would walk into their team and is a major reason Inter might win Serie A.
I’ll also add that last season, Odegaard got more goals, assists, key passes per match, shots per match, completed passes, expected goals and assists then Denis Suarez had got in any season in his career.
He was good but I think we should all calm down a bit and wait for him to at least kick a ball for us, shouldn’t we? I remember there were similar expectations about Ceballos and although he got off to a good start, I think most of us would agree the shine has worn off since. Also, there’s no buy-out clause so if he’s brilliant, we certainly have no guarantee that (a) he’ll want to stay – the lure of RM will probably be too strong, particularly if they ditch Zidanne in the Summer; and (b) even if he… Read more »
Ceballos never had a good full season of top flight football though. He had pretty good seasons, and advanced stats people liked him last season with us. But, it was never “this guy has top 5 in every good category in la liga” like odegaard.
He put up numbers very similar to vintage David Silva last season.
Can you provide any stats or facts on how he was one of the best in La Lilga players last year? Top scores? to Assists? Top 4 finish? any cups? player of the season? anything…?
You can visit understat, whoscored or even the recent arseblog article for his stats last season.
One of the best players in La Liga last season so how do you see a comparison? Did it take Partey, Tierney and Gabriel 6 months. Can you be positive for once?
Yes, yes it bloody did! it took Partey and Tierney 6 months to affect results in any meaningful way after they arrived because they both got injuries adapting to the move. Tierney was injured when we signed him!!
found him.
Ødegaard is a “thinking player”. He does not tackle hard or plow his way through defences. Such players, like Özil and Pogba, can appear lazy and static and sometimes get harsh treatment from fans.
If Arteta can set it up correctly, Arsenal could still, with Ødegaard, Smith-Rowe and Partey, have their best midfield since the days of Fabregas.
My dream would be to see that midfield 3, with Martinelli, Auba and Saka in front of them. Just imagine if Arteta could get that group clicking!
Ø my gaard!
Our strikers have let us down, chances are, that’s what is wrong with our attack, slow build up play, nobody running, and bad passing, chageing a player will not fix the system
We definitely need to sign a striker in the summer. Saying that we need to do quite a bit in the summer.
As long as it means it will push William further back in the pecking order it’s a great move, just hope it won’t limit the development of Smith-Rowe (though we do certainly need depth and attacking options).
Signing a Real Madrid midfielder to not compete with but to provide cover for our Hale End Academy Graduate.
Thats how good ESR is.
Let that sink in!
His name’s pronounced Martin Awe-degaard, apparently. Let’s hope he lives up to it.
Needs to slot in very quickly, I hope he can
Are we real Madrid’s youth development side. now they send us young players on loan with no option to buy so we can improve and develop them. Then if they are any good take them back or sell them.on. How the mighty have fallen.
I’m bored with that negative narrative.
We are getting one of the most exciting talents in Europe for a small fee and people are on here complaining!
If RM are so overstocked with talent they can’t use him, that is not our problem.
This is the exact opposite of a Willian signing. If it works great and we can make an offer at the end of the season. If not, at least we havnt blown the budget and can look elsewhere.
yeah well we can make an offer for messi as well, do you see that happening?
Could this be a changing O(f) de gaard?
He has mental toughness. He plays with the handbrake off and will help us in every moment of the first half and every moment of the second half. He can be a protagonist and can enter the box with great personality
Daaaaammmnn! Hope he’s actually as good as he is in my mind!
For those wondering how to correctly pronounce his name: the Ø in Ødegaard is pronounced the same way the germans/turkish say the Ö in Özil or as you’d say the U in Urgent, and the gaard with two A’s is pronounced the same way you’d say words like stored, bored, fjord etc but with a silent D.
Did injust make it more complicated? I think so…
I’m very excited for this signing, he seems to be an interesting player. My only concerne is about the type of loan because if he plays well and we want to sign him permanently we have, for sure, to pay an important fee instead if the fee was already established it would be more affordable for us
Out with the old guard… in with the…
Hope he wins us the Europa League
I thought the wage figure was pretty interesting. Real Madrid pay their young potential superstars the kind of money that Leicester or even Burnely pay many of their players. No wonder so many come to England.
Anyone else Zidane doesn’t fancy?
Love this signing!! I believe every Arteta signing is holding his own right now except Willian.Cedric and Mari look solid or better! Gabriel, Partey top quality. In the summer I’d love to see back up keeper maybe Ryan on permanent. New first team right back Back up left back 2 centre mids Playmaker Next season’s squad GK:Leno, Ryan, Okonkwo , RB:new right back, Cedric back up, CB: Holding, Gabriel, Saliba,Mari, Chambers LB : Tierney, new bk up Midfielders: Partey, New first team partner, new bk up, Xhaka,Azeez Forwards: Saka, Laca, Auba, Pepe,ESR, Martinelli,balogun, new creative attacking mid So that’s currently… Read more »
Forgot Bellerin I do love the guy but I think we should sell him. He has his obvious flaws but his love for the club is obvious too. I think he just isn’t good enough for what we need.
I also don’t think he has shown to be better than Cedric and because of his age and his name I believe we could get over £20 million for him.
Good capture. Not sure what Rm are thinking but a solid roll of the dice for us in an area we need some added invention. Contrary to what some ex-player/pundits seem to be saying, will not be detrimental to ESR. The way he’s going at 110mph, he needs the protection and we need an option/cover. Plus we can also finally play two higher mids with either Xhaka or Partey on base. That may also involve Ceballos higher up as another option. There are no absolyutes. Options is what we need and fluidity. Currently the duo of Xhaka and Partey seem… Read more »
Welcome to Arsenal! I always feel funny about loan deals, especially in January, but I hope he adapts quickly to the Premier League and shows us the potential people have been raving about.