Author Archives: keenosafc

Pre-Season Review – Some positives but same old issues a worry

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When it comes to pre-season games, there are two distinct camps.

Those that see every defeat or draw as a disaster and those that do not care about the results as it is “only pre-season”.

The early pre-season games can always be taken with a pinch of salt.

You never know where you are in your pre-season training in comparison to your opponents.

For example when we lost to Hibs, it was their 4th pre-season game and our 1st. They had been back in training for over a week before us due to the Scottish season starting a week earlier.

You also do not know what stage of training squads are at.

There are different intensities of training sessions. During the season you normally try and peak your fitness for the games, having lighter training sessions the day before to allow your body to taper. But friendlies are different.

Teams will be doing double sessions. Some will be high intensity. They might even do a full training session on the same day as a friendly.

It is all about doing what is needed to get ready for the new season.

In the later games, as you are closing in on the start of the season and playing other Premier League sides at the same level as you, more can be read into pre-season performances.

So whilst I am in the “it’s only pre-season” camp, it does not mean there are no positives and negatives that can be taken.

Positives

Albert Sambi Lokonga

Usually I am reluctant to get too excited about a young player after a handful of games, but Albert Sambi Lokonga looks the real deal.

He might only be 21-years-old, but he has played nearly 80 games for Anderlecht and was their captain last season. He looks like he has the capabilities to step up from the Belgium league to the Premier League.

He has power and strength, but is also good on the ball.

With Thomas Partey set to miss the first month of the season, expect Lokonga to be Granit Xhaka’s regular partner.

We have a good one here

Ben White

The other major signing this summer was Ben White.

What I have been impressed with is just how quickly he has got up to match fitness.

He had the Euros (where he did not play) then went on holiday. He only joined the squad for his first training session a couple of days before the Chelsea friendly.

With a little more than a weeks training under his belt, he was starting against Tottenham in the last pre-season game of the season and did not look off the pace.

There were a few errors in his partnership with Pablo Mari; but nothing not to be expected with 2 players that knew nothing about each other.

His performance against Tottenham was very good, and he will only improve as he gets more minutes under his belt.

Emile Smith Rowe

The Englishman continued where he left off last season, buzzing around and trying to make things happen.

In a front 4 that contained 3 £50million+ transfers, it is the academy graduate that looked the best.

His hunger and desire is not matched by anyone else.

Any new creative midfielder that joins Arsenal will not automatically walk into the team. For now the shirt is Smith Rowe’s.

Negatives

Hector Bellerin

It says a lot about Bellerin that he is open to leaving Arsenal, Arsenal are open to selling him, but so far no team has come in for him.

Bellerin has been a fantastic player for the club, and is an even better person. But it is clear his time at Arsenal has come to an end.

He has not been the same player since his ACL injury, and it might be that due to that injury his “time” as a elite footballer is over. That no Champions League club will be in for him and he perhaps needs to look a little lower down the leagues for future game time.

Bellerin is a great person and does not deserve the subtle homophobic abuse he gets from some of our fan base (we know the comments).

His performances in pre-season have shown just why his time at Arsenal needs to be over.

With 2-years left on his contract, I would not be surprised to see him go out on loan a couple of times before leaving on a free.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

When the Aubameyang contract saga was going on I was concerned that we were going to invest heavily in a player whose best days were behind him.

Aubameyang had a tough season last year with his lowest goal return since 2010/11 playing for Saint-Étienne and Monaco.

He has looked disinterested at times and is not buying into Mikel Arteta’s “defend from the front” philosophy.

Is he just mentally done with football? No longer pushing himself? Or is he just on the wain as many strikers who relied heavily on pace would be at 32-years-old.

He has performed in pre-season the same way he finished last season. Poorly.

Creativity

The biggest problem last season was we just did not create enough chances. This contributed to Aubameyang’s goal return.

The Tottenham friendly was a mirror image of so many games last season.

Arsenal on top, dominating play, but not really creating anything of note.

With no attacking reinforcements, it is not a surprise that we have not moved forward.

There are still too many aimless crosses into the box to a striker that is not a target man. We are still playing Aubameyang out wide who is a finisher, not a creator. And the Nicolas Pepe / Bellerin access is still not firing on the right.

Hopefully we can get Maddison over the line this week – although it will be a deal too late for the Brentford game.

Maddison in the middle, Smith Rowe on the left coming inside and either Pepe or Bukayo Saka on the right. Aubameyang given a shot down the middle. That is how we need to go.

For now it is “do the same get the same” and that is not good enough.

Summary

Plenty to be excited about. Plenty of the same old issues.

I would imagine we will start against Brentford with the same XI that started against Tottenham.

Brentford are a lower level opposition so hopefully in that period we are on top we can create more.

With games against Chelsea and Manchester City following, we need that 3 points on the board from the first game of the season.

Keenos

Ramsdale incoming? (And lets stop the Martinez obsession)

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I can not believe that some Arsenal fans are still obsessed by Emiliano Martinez.

I have never known an Arsenal player to have played so little, but has so many fan boys.

Arsenal on seemingly on the verge of signing Aaron Ramsdale from Sheffield United for £24million.

This has led loads of idiots to say “only Arsenal could sell one of the best keepers in the league for £14million to sign a bloke that got relegated for £30million”.

Let’s Ignore the way they are undervaluing the Martinez deal and over valuing the Ramsdale one for a second…

Are these people deluded? Let us remind ourselves of the Martinez situation:

  • Martinez had been at Arsenal for 10 years
  • In that time he had 6 loan deals
  • He had played 15 Premier League games in 10 years for Arsenal
  • He was 2nd choice to Bernd Leno
  • Leno had 300 top flight games to his name
  • Martinez had 1 year left on his contract and refused to sign a new one unless he was guaranteed first team football
  • Arsenal can not guarantee anyone first team football
  • So he left

Martinez turns 29-years-old in a few months. We sold him a few days shy of his 28th birthday.

So we got £18million for a 28-year-old goal keeper who had just a handful of appearances to his name and was demanding first team football. So in demand was he that he joined Aston Villa who finished the season 17th.

Arsenal did not want to let Martinez go. We offered him a new deal.

Instead of stay and fight for his place at a top club, Martinez decided to leave and join a club who would be battling towards the bottom of the table.

Part of me thinks “fair play he wanted to play first team football”. The other part of me thinks “he found his level with Aston Villa”.

The reason his fee was low was due to having a year left on his contract and there being no one other than Aston Villa interested in him.

One year on and I do not exactly see many teams knocking down Villa’s door to sign Martinez. He has found his level. A lower to mid-table Premier League team.

So on to Ramsdale…

Ramsdale’s situation is very different to Martinez.

He has just turned 23-years-old; so we can still talk about the potential he has as a keeper (in comparison to Martinez who was 28 when we sold him).

Despite his age, he already has 2 top flight seasons under his belt – with 75 Premier League games for Bournemouth and Sheffield United.

That is more than 20 Premier League games than Martinez who is 6 years his senior!

So whilst Arsenal sold a keeper who was at his peak, unlikely to improve, they would be signing a young keeper who will only get better.

Ramsdale also has 3 years left on his contract – so like with Ben White his club can afford to keep hold of him if their terms are not met.

Arsenal did not have this option with Martinez. The choices were:

  • Sell to Villa for £18million
  • Keep and lose for free in 12 months

We can debate whether a deal up towards £24million is too much for Ramsdale – it probably is about right.

But ultimately Edu and his team know the accounts, the maths.

If they think signing Ramsdale for £30million does not impact our financial ability to sign players elsewhere, then it really does not matter.

Ramsdale is a good keeper and in a years time could be ready to step up to be 1st choice.

My feeling is no matter what transfer business Arsenal did this summer, the same fans will moan.

Being an “Anti-Fan” and always taking a position against what you club is doing has become something people have used to gain followers and clout on Twitter.

These fans do not actually have their own opinion. They just disagree with everything.

Ramsdale joins Arsenal, I will be backing him from the terraces. Meanwhile the moaners and complainers are probably filming themselves watching the game alone on a dodgy stream.

Selling a 28 year old goalkeeper with 15 Premier League appearances for £18million and replacing him with a 23 year old goalkeeper with 75 Premier League appearances for £24million is great business

Have a good afternoon.

Keenos

Arsenal Squad Review: Why we can only buy 1 more senior player

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Over the years I have written blogs on the status (not state) of our squad.

Basically answering the questions of how many non-home grown players we have, how many home grown, how many U21.

It is usually a good exercise to see exactly why Arsenal need to sell before buying, and to see what status of player we can sign.

As always, the rules.

People often make the mistake of thinking you need a minimum of 8 home grown players in the squad. You do not. There is no minimum.

The rule revolve around the maximum of non-home grown players. You can have no more than 17.

For all intents and purposes, a side could register just 17 players for a season. All non-home grown. And not register a single home grown player.

You also have U21 players. They do not need to be registered in the main squad list.

For this season a you are U21 if you are born before 1st January 2000.

As it stands (I am writing this on Tuesday morning), our squad looks like this:

The break down is as follows:

  • Non-home grown – 16 players
  • Home grown – 8 players
  • U21 – 6 players

So to put simply, Arsenal have one space left in the squad of 25 that had to be registered with the Premier League. That space can be filled with anyone – home grown or non-home grown.

Some people are concerned that selling Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland Niles, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding and Reiss Nelson would vastly reduce our home grown contingent.

Yes, it would do that but it really is not that important.

Over the 3 categories Arsenal currently have 30 players. With no European football we have less games. We really do not need that many players.

All 5 of those players could be sold and not replaced and Arsenal would still have 2 players for each position.

The only issue selling all 5 would mean is we would still onely have 1 non-home grown player spot. So if we sold them and wanted to add another couple of players, one would have to be home grown and the other either home grown or non-home grown.

As our main targets seem to be James Maddison and Aaron Ramsdale, this does not seem to be a huge issue.

Edu and his team will also be looking to move on a few more non-home grown players.

The likes of Runar Alex Runarsson, Saed Koalsinac, Lucas Torreira and Willian will all surely be sold or loaned out before the end of the summer.

Getting rid of these 4 would give Arsenal a lot of flexibility as to what they can bring in.

Looking towards the future, everyone on the U21 list br Nuno Taveras will become “home grown” over the next 2 seasons so we also do not have much to worry about there.

So as it stands, Arsenal are in a tough position on squad size rather than the make up of the squad. We can only add one senior player to it without selling or loaning.

Selling players is key prior to further investment.

Keenos