Author Archives: keenosafc

Sagna Comments Show “Lack of Understanding”

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“How can you spend €150million and only bring in young players”

How do you say “I do not understand Arsenal’s transfer policy” without saying “I do not understand Arsenal’s transfer policy”. well Bacary Sagna has done just that with his recent comments.

Arsenal’s transfer policy has been clear and obvious to anyone with half a brain.

We are targetting younger players with experience.

I am really baffled as to how Sagna either does not understand that, or has decided to be criticial of it. It is almost TalkSport-esque. Making an outlandish statement just for attention.

Sagna needs to realise that there is a huge difference between buying YOUNG players and buying YOUTH players.

Back in the mid 00s, Arsenal bought alot of youth players – the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Abou Diaby, Phillipe Senderos, Gael Clichy, Denilson and Niklas Bendtner.

These were all bought in as teenagers with very little, if any, senior experience to their name. The majority began their time with the club in the youth set up before quickly progressing to the senior team.

They needed experienced players around them to help them develop and progress.

What we have done this summer is not buy youth players but younger players.

For me, a young football is someone between 20 and 24.

They have experince of a few years of senior football but have not yet reached their peak and still have room for progession.

Ben White is 23. As is Aaron Ramsdale. Martin Ødegaard is 22 and Albert Sambi Lokonga is 21. Nuno Taveras is also 21.

These are not youth players but young players. And young players with plenty of experience.

White has played 164 games. Of that 36 were in the Premier League and 46 in the Championship. He was part of the England squad that made the Euro 2020 final.

Ramsdale has played in the Premier League fot the last two seasons, playing 75 out of 76 games. In total he has played 125 senior games and was with White in Southgate’s England squad.

Both are still young, but have plenty of experience in England.

Ødegaard has played over 200 senior games (if you take into account that Real Madrid’s B team play senior football). Those games span 4 different countries – Norway, Spain, Holland and England. He is also Norway’s captain.

Last season when regular captain Hendrik Van Crombrugge was out of the team, Vincent Kompany passed the captaincy to Lokonga – despite him being just 21 years old.

The Belgium midfielder has now played 80 league games at a senior level.

Finally Taveras is the only signing that comes to us without a great deal of experience under his belt.

Sagna talks about needing senior players, but take the midfield.

We have added Lokonga to a group which contains Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny. Experience is clearly not the issue.

When you look at the teams transfer policy in recent years, we have spent a lot of money on experienced players that can make an impact in the present. But these players have cost us a lot of money which we have not got much return on.

Finally, Sagna says “when I was playing, anyone would be excited to join Arsenal”.

But this is what I think is great about our transer policy this summer.

We have signed players who are excited to join the club. We are not signing older players who see us as one last pay cheque, or because we were their only options, or offered them the most money.

When you consider that Sagna rejected a contract offer from Arsenal to jon Manchester City – getting one last big pay day – then perhaps he should not talk about “Arsenal DNA”.

If he continues down this route he can go into the box with Emmanuel Petit. Being critical of Arsenal in an attempt to build a media career.

Keenos

Bissouma to Arsenal would be a bad deal

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Following a very good performance from Brighton on Saturday against Watford, Arsenal Twitter had one thing on its mind.

“Sign Bossouma”.

For a while during early summer, Bissouma was one of our top targets and a deal looked close. But then everything went silent.

The possibility of a transfer probably died when we signed Ben White – it is always unlikely for one side to make two major signings from another side.

Having sold White for £50million, Brighton would be in no financial rush to sell Bissouma; especially to the same opponents.

But still Arsenal fans cry out for him; and I can understand why.

Bissouma is a very good midfielder. Covers a lot of ground. Reads the game well and at 24 is the right profile of player. But Arsenal should not go for him.

Football is all about balance.

Patrick Vieira would not have reached the heights he did without an Emmanuel Petit, Gilberto Silva or Didier Deschamps sitting in behind, mopping up.

Bissouma strength is getting around the field of play and pressing, but Arsenal already have someone like this in Thomas Partey.

Arsenal’s issue they tried to solve this summer was finding someone to partner Partey – a Granit Xhaka replacement.

Xhaka’s strengths are positional discipline and passing. It was why Manuel Locatelli was our primary replacement.

Xhaka’s strengths are Bissouma’s weakness.

Bissouma is not positionally disciplined and his passing is average.

Playing Bissouma and Partey together would not have the right balance; it would be two players who are too similar. It just would not work.

“But Bissouma could be competition for Partey”.

We have already signed that competition in Albert Sambo Lokonga.

Lokonga is one of the brightest midfield talents in Europe and heir-apparent to Partey in our midfield.

It would just make zero sense to spend big money on Bissouma when we have already invested in Lokonga who could potentially reach levels above the Brighton midfielder.

So in Bissouma’s position in midfield, we already have two players – Partey and Lokonga – who look to press, bully and drive forward with the ball.

The only way it would work is if Arsenal went to 433 and had a midfield of Bissouma Xhaka Partey.

This would actually be a strong midfield, although a bit too defensive for my liking. It would also mean only 3 of Pierre-Enrico Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe, Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli could start.

Our team lacks creativity at the moment so reducing the amount of attacking players on the field would have made matters worse.

We have also just invested heavy in Odegaard, a 10. But in 433 you would play without a 10.

Had we gone for Bissouma ahead of Odegaard, it would have shown a tactic switch to 433. We would not have needed Odegaard.

As it is, we signed the Norwegian and will stick to 4231.

Finally you have the issue of the African Cup of Nations.

Bissouma plays for Mali – although has not had a cap for 3 years (no idea why). Partey is Ghanaian and Mohamed Elneny Egyptian.

It would feel irresponsible to sign Bissouma as cover and competition for Partey; only to lose both for 6-8 weeks of the season in January and February 2022.

In summary, Bissouma is a really good player; but just not the player we need right now.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 0 – 2 Chelsea

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Arsenal (0) 0 Chelsea (2) 2

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 22nd August 2021. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Rob Holding, Pablo Marí, Kieran Tierney; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Nicolas Pépé.

Substitutes: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nuno Tavares, Calum Chambers, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Folarin Balogun, Sead Kolašinac, Aaron Ramsdale.

Yellow Cards: Pablo Marí, Rob Holding, Albert Sambi Lokonga

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 35%

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Neil Davies

Fourth Official: David Coote

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Sian Massey-Ellis

Attendance: 58,729

Welcome to the Emirates for the first home game of the season; today our opponents are Chelsea. The good news is that we have secured the services of Martin Ødegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, although the former is not available to play today because he is awaiting visa clearance. The bad news is that Ben White has been taken ill and Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Rúnarsson and Willian have all tested positive for COVID-19, and as such are unavailable for this match, but the fourth member of this particular group, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, has since tested negative, so he will be on the substitute’s bench this afternoon.

Within a minute, we had the first shot on goal, as Emile Smith-Rowe’s effort brought on a comfortable save from Edouard Mendy in the Chelsea goal. As expected, both teams spent the opening minutes of the match probing each other’s defence, and out on the left hand side, Kieran Tierney was finding spaces in order to get some low crosses into the Chelsea penalty area. The pace of our forwards were causing the visitors issues at the back, and it was against the run of play, when after fifteen minutes, Chelsea took the lead when their new striker Romelu Lukaku had the easiest of tasks to shrug Pablo Marí away to tap it into the net from point-blank range. Chelsea now had their tails up and their confidence on the ball became evident to see with constant raids on our goal. However, after twenty-three minutes, we managed to break out and Nicolas Pépé released Bukayo Saka in the left channel with a superb ball, but he was unlucky not to get a snap shot on the Chelsea goal, as a strong block from Cesar Azpilicueta meant that the chance had gone. Every time the visitors came forward they exposed our weaknesses at the back, and at times things look quite messy and disorganised. Ten minutes from the break, Kieran Tierney was exposed out on the left, and as Mason Mount slotted the ball over and into our penalty area, Reece James was left with the simple act of scoring the second goal of the match for the visitors. Shortly afterwards, we had a surefire penalty call denied when Bukayo Saka was clumsily brought down in the Chelsea penalty area by Reece James but unbelievably referee Paul Tierney ignored our pleas. Just before the break, we started to apply pressure on the Chelsea goal, and won a couple of hard-earned corners, but we ended the half two goals down, sadly.

Chelsea started the second half in earnest and almost immediately placed us onto the back foot by pressurising us into our own half. Kieran Tierney lifted the crowd with some inspired play, and using his example as a lead, we took the match to the visitors, and a long-range shot from Bukayo Saka was tipped over the bar by Edouard Mendy. Pablo Marí was unlucky not to score when his header went over the bar, and a few minutes later, Bukayo Saka was replaced by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and almost immediately his presence lifted the team; in fact within a minute or so, he had an excellent goalscoring chance which was pushed aside by the Chelsea goalie. We started to look a little more lively, and sadly Kieran Tierney picked up an injury which left him with a limp. Minutes later, he was replaced by Nuno Tavares, who promptly got himself booked for a foul on Romelu Lukaku. Somehow, a header from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the penalty area gave a chance for Emile Smith-Rowe to score, but sadly Edouard Mendy was first to it. Bernd Leno made a fantastic save from a header by Romelu Lukaku when he pushed the ball onto the bar and over, and with ten minutes remaining, Folarin Balogun replaced Gabriel Martinelli, which invigorated the team, as we started to push the ball around better and created chances in their penalty area. We appeared to run out of steam towards the end of the match, which the visitors sensed and tried to grab a third goal, but thankfully we managed to stand firm at the back. In the three minutes’ injury time, we simply did out best to contain the ball and keep Chelsea out, which we achieved, but either way, the two goals that were scored in the first half were the difference between the clubs today.

Not surprised at the result, but disappointed overall. Despite spending more money than any other club in Europe on transfer fees in this window (£130m), the hard and bitter truth is that clubs such as Chelsea are so much ahead of us now, and with no European football in the near distant future at the Emirates, it’s hard to see how we can attract top, experienced players to turn this around. Never in our history have we been in this position quite so early in the season, and with Manchester City being our next opponents in the Premiership, this situation is starting to look bleaker every week now. What is to be done? We know that we have several players to return from injury and illness, but even so, they may not be enough for us to finish in a high enough position at the end of the season in order to be in Europe for the next campaign. The senior players are not stepping up to the plate, there are no on-field leaders and the team appears to be directionless; even if Mikel Arteta stepped down tomorrow, we would still have the same set of players and as it stands, that may not be enough to get us where we should be historically, as many of our squad are young, inexperienced players. This is truly going to be a more difficult season than most of us ever imagined. Tough times ahead for us all.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on Wednesday, 25th August at 8.00pm (EFL/Carabao Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.