Author Archives: keenosafc

Should Arsenal have sacrificed new midfield signing to secure Jude Bellingham?

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So yesterday during the first half of England v Italy (I turned off for the second half), I began making notes on what England players would get into The Arsenal starting XI.

This blog will not be published, as it was only really Kyle Walker and Jude Bellingham that I would take. Walker is one of the most underrated in the last 10-years. Bellingham is simply World Class.

Bellingham is not just one of the best young midfielders in the world, he is one of the best midfielders in the world. And he is quickly becoming one of the best players in the world (some will argue he already is!).

Last summer he joined Real Madrid for around £100million. A similar price to what we paid for Declan Rice.

At the time, the debate in the WhatsApp groud was whether we should have been targeting Bellingham ahead of Rice.

I came out in favour for the former-West Ham captain due to him being Premier League proven. I also felt it was a harder job to find a long term replacement for Thomas Partey in defensive midfield than invest a huge sum in a Granit Xhaka replacement – there are more top 8s in world football than top defensive midfielders.

What also swung it was that Rice could also play further forward, but I did not think Bellingham could play deeper.

There is no debate that Bellingham would have been a better option than Kai Havertz, but that is also why Bellingham cost Real Madrid around £30million more than the German.

There might have been an option to sign both Bellingham and Rice and completely revamped our midfield – there would not have been a better midfield trio in European football than Martin Odegaard, Bellingham and Rice.

We spent close to £200million duing the summer on Rice, Havertz and Jurrien Timber. A Bellingham and Rice window would have seen us sacrifice Havertz (not an issue with an upgrade in Bellingham) and Timber.

That would have left us without further defensive cover. And whilst Timber has picked up an injury, I think we can all agree that he was exactly what we needed in defence – covers all of the back 4 and provides another option as a ball playing defender.

Would I have wanted us to have signed Bellingham instead of Havertz AND Timber? I am not sure.

That would have left us short in defence (again, ignore that Timber then got injured), and probably would have resulted with either Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding staying – Timber replaces the pair.

So you if agree that Timber was an essential signing, then the option of Bellingham AND Rice is off the table. It is then Bellingham OR Rice. And I still think I was right in my original assessment.

Rice is a level ahead of Bellingham (although Jude is closing that gap), and covers a harder to fill position. Taking into account Partey’s injury issues and the forthcoming African Cup of Nations, it would have been dangerous to go into this season with the Ghanaian, Jorginho and an injured Mo Elneny as our defensive midfield options.

So if you are then signing Bellingham instead of Rice, you do not need Havertz. That gives you the Havertz money to recruit a more defensive minded midfielder.

Romeo Lavia joined Chelsea for not too disimilar money, and could have been a good understudy for Partey. Hi-jacking the deal that Manchester United agreed for Sofyan Amrabat would have been an idea – but he is another African in the middle.

Ibrahim Sangare has been highly rated by some for a while, but has shown with his struggles for Nottingham Forest that there is a huge gulf between the Premier League and Eredivisie.

Lavia really is the only stand-out candidate. So I guess it is then:

Bellingham, Lavia, Timber
Havertz, Rice, Timber
Bellingham, Rice

Let us know in the comments who you would have signed!

A last little note on this, it also assumes that we could have beaten Real Madrid to Bellingham’s signing. Too often fans moan about missing out on a player without accepting that the player might have preferred to join a different club.

Last, last comment on this.

“We should be monitoring Jobe Bellingham” was mentioned last night. Just no.

You do not monitor a player just because his brother is World Class. Paul Pogba’s brothers where nowhere near his ability. Nor were Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s or Eden Hazard’s.

At 18, Jude joined Dortmund
At 18, Jobe joined Sunderland

We should be monitoring players on their own ability, not that of a sibling.

Have a good Tuesday.

Keenos

Chelsea game can not come soon enough

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Morning! Later than normal blog today as I had an early meeting in North London!

It is only Tuesday so it feels a little early to be looking forward to this Saturday’s game, but there is little else to talk about.

We have had an excellent start to the season.

Whilst the naysayers keep going with their “Arteta has been found out this season”, we actually only sit 1 point behind where we were at the same stage last season.

Those same moaners have been in huge praise of Eddie Howe and Newcastle’s start to the season. “Eddie showing he is the real deal whilst Arteta is all PR” is one Tweet I saw. Newcastle are in 8th.

We have already faced Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham in our opening 3 games, getting 7 points out of 9.

Yes, it is frustrating that it was not 9 from 9, and with the Fulham draw as well an argument could be made we should have had a 100% start to the season. But that argument is probably made play people who are new to football, or trying to fit a narrative to their agenda.

Chelsea this weekend will be a huge test for us.

The 3 games against other former-big-6 teams have been at home. This will be the first visit of the season to a tricky away ground.

Whilst Chelsea are not the team they once were, they are on their best run for some time having won 2 Premier League games in a row – away to Burnley and Fulham; throw in the Brighton League Cup win and it is 3 wins from their last 3 games.

The Fulham game was a little fortuitus – Fulham dominated the play and had some good chances – but the victory away to Burnley was decisive.

Last season we beat Chelsea by a goal to nothing and it felt like a bit of a statement win having only beaten other big 6 sides at home up to that point.

Gone are those bad old days under Jose Mourinho et al where Chelsea seemed to take 3 points off us twice a season. They have beaten us just once in 8 games, with The Arsenal winning 6 of them. That victory was against a patched up, Covid hit team.

Our good form against Chelsea extend a long time prior to Covid as well.

In the last 23 games, our head to head against Chelsea reads: P 23 W 12 L 6 D 5. A run that goes back to April 2015.

Compare that to the previous 23 games: P 23 W 4 L 14 D 5, a run back to the 2005 Community Shield, and you can perhaps see why fans like myself are fairly confident about Saturday.

Saying that, having a good record against Chelsea means nothing if you do not win trophies, and I would much prefer having their record over the last 9 years against us and winning the trophies they have won!

So we have England tonight. Hopefully any of our players involved (basically Declan Rice) gets through unscathed. Then it is just prayers overnight with the two Gabi’s and Thomas Partey representing their countries I the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Have a great day!

Keenos

Key Arsenal stars will have less than 60 hours to prepare for Chelsea fixture

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As usual in the middle of an international break, there really is not much news out there. So quiet it is, media outlets are going the extra mile with clickbait headlines to earn that advertising revenue.

Gunners were bled dry by flop who cost £2.4m every yellow card was my favourite one of the season. It was one outlight highlighting Lucas Torreira as our biggest flop of recent times, and used “cost per yellow card” to highlight this. What an odd metric.

Are they suggesting that had Torreira received more yellow cards, they would have written a story about how great a signing he was due to having a low cost per yellow card ratio?

I was absolutely buzzing when we signed Torreira. He looked to give us that bite and energy in midfield that we were missing at the time and would have complimented Granit Xhaka perfectly. But it did not work out for him.

He never settled and clearly suffered from some mental health problems that have carriered on throughout his career. He flopped on loan at Atletico Madrid, was not particularly great back in Italy for Fiorentina and his career has drifted resulting in him now playing in Turkey.

I actually feel for him because something clearly happened during his time at Arsenal that changed him, and he has never regained the confidence that made him one of the most exciting young midfielders in Europe.

In another fun headline, it is reported that Edu is in Brazil to ward off an attempt by Liverpool to hijack our move for a Brazilian wonderkid.

The player in question is highly-rated Fluminense midfielder Andre Trindade. He is 22-years-old.

Now I have not played Football Manager for some years, but surely a wonderkid stops becoming a wonderkid by the time he gets out of this teens? I guess “Edu in Brazil to ward off attempt by Liverpool to hijack move for a Brazilian 22-year-old will not get the hits”.

The new “international football weekend festival” that FIFA, UEFA et al have come up with to spread international games across 7 days has resulted in Ghana playing USA in America in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

That means that Thomas Partey will not be back into London until early evening Wednesday, with just 2 days of rest and recuperation before the Chelsea fixture.

Brazil also play during the early hours of Wednesday so Gabriel’s Magalhaes and Jesus will probably not be back in the UK until the late hours of Wednesday night.

It really does baffle me why the authorities try and put club and country in direct conflict. Would it not have made more sense for Ghana to play Thursday and Sunday rather than Sunday and Wednesday?

Anyway, I have working up a little bitter and grumpy this morning. I blame it on the bitter air. It is blood cold out there!

A week ago I was in Athens. 27°C. Whilst out there it was 24°C in London. This morning it was 27°C. Winter is well and truly here!

Wrap up and stay warm. Do not be afraid to put that central heating on. Or invest in a good fleece blanket!

Tomorrow it warms up!

Keenos