Category Archives: Arsenal

How does Edu solve Partey puzzle

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A few days ago we spoke about the issues we face in losing potential targets if Thomas Partey does not leave swiftly.

The fear for the club will be those earmarked, such as Romeo Lavia, might agree deals with our rivals before we are in a position to secure their signature.

So if our primary options are gone, what would our options be?

Move down the list

The question for the recruitment team is just how far down the Partey replacement list are they willing to go.

Do they splash out on someone who might be 7th or 8th on our target list? Or do they keep the powder dry?

If you go too far down the list, you end up with buying a player for buying sake. You end up with someone like Lucas Perez.

You spend £20-30m on someone no one really wants, not Edu, not Mikel Arteta, and as a result they do not see any game time. Their signing then restricts you signing a preferable target in 12-months time and you are stuck with them.

The result is endless loan deals and ending up selling them for a huge loss after a couple of seasons.

Thomas Partey stays

If there is not an obvious Partey replacement still on the market, than we must block the Ghanaian from leaving.

When fit, Partey is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. The issue is he can only perform at that high level for around 30 games a season.

Declan Rice will be Arteta’s first choice 6. His signing will allow Partey’s game time to be managed, playing in those bigger games where we want to go more defensive.

You can almost foresee a situation where Partey plays in the majoirty of our away games, whilst Havertz plays at home.

I certainly would not be upset to see Partey stay for one more year.

But then what if the offer from Saudi Arabia is north of £40m? A huge sum for a 30-year-old who can only play in half the available games a season. Arsenal would be silly to turn that down (and the chance to get Partey’s £200k a week salary off the wage bill).

It sort of makes little sense that one of our best played players would be a squad player next time, only expected to start 20-30 of the 60 games we will play.

And if we do not cash in this summer, we risk there not being a bid next.

It would cost Arsenal over £60m to keep Partey for 2-years (£40m in lost transfer fee, £20m+ in wages) and then let him go for a free.

That £60m would cover signing a replacement for £40m, and paying them £100k a year over 4 years. So if an offer comes in, we probably should take it.

The loan market

If we get to a stage where an offer for Partey is too good to turn down, but it is too late to sign a decent replacement, we may be best off looking towards the loan market.

Would Real Madrid be open to loaning out Aurelien Tchouameni if they deem him surplus for requirements over the next 12 months?

Tchouameni joined Madrid last summer for €80million on a 6 year deal.

His amortised fee costs Madrid around £12m a year. Could a deal for Tchouameni be done for around that price?

Madrid get his portion of transfer fee paid for the period, and salary. Arsenal get a very good player for a year but do not have to commit any longer. It could be an option.

And are there other options like Tchouameni that Arsenal could bring in on loan?

Of course, you also risk signing a Denis Suarez or Arthur Melo. Spending a hunk of change on someone who is either not good enough or not fit enough.

Sell Partey, sign no-one

The final option is we sign no-one.

If Partey departs, that leaves us with Rice, Jorginho and Mohamed Elneny as our 3 defensive midfield options. It would be a risk, but could we get away with it?

Once Partey departs, we might be best off keeping our powder dry if none of our top options are available.

Rice can certainly play the 6 role for 50+ games a season. And then if we want to go more defensive, Jorginho then replaces Havertz.

Elneny then provides a 3rd choice back-up in an emergancy.

Not ideal, but this option would stop us wasting money on someone we do not want.

It is not an easy puzzle to solve for Edu and the team.

Ideally, Partey’s future will be resolved sooner rather than later and we can move onto signing his replacemnt before they are snapped up elsewhere.

Keenos

“10 Unpopular Arsenal opinions” reviewed

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Scrolling through Twitter, I came across an interesting thread entailing “10 Unpopular Arsenal opinions”.

With not much new news floating about, I thought it would be fun to see how valid these opions are.

Both Balogun and Nketiah should be sold to fund a better striker

This opinion is both right and wrong.

I do not think too many people would be against the sale of both if it meant a single, superior replacement was bought in. But where it falls down is who that replacements could be.

There is a lack of top strikers in world football these days. Manchester United are searching for on. Chelsea have had to sign a winger turned striker.

Anyone who is deemed an improvement on Balogun / Nketiah would probably start regularly for Manchester United, so unlikely to join Arsenal to play second fiddle to Gabriel Jesus..

And if we go the level above, there is only one realistic name that would be an improvement on Jesus – Victor Osimhen. The sale of Nketiah and Balogun would not finance him, and we would also probably end up losing Jesus as a result.

Saliba could start for any team in the world

I really do not think this is that much of an extreme opinion, and I imagine very few Arsenal fans would disagree.

William Saliba is one of the best central defenders in the world. It is probably only Manchester City with John Stones and Ruben Dias where you would think “he would not walk straight into their first team”. But then Manuel Akanji started 40 games last season…

Saliba could certainly start in place of Stones or Dias, and would have been a suitable alternative to Josko Gvardiol if he was not at The Arsenal.

Do not think this one is too unpopular.

It’s a massive mistake to sell both Partey and Xhaka in the same window

Like the Saliba one, I do not think you will find too many disagreeing.

Thomas Partey, when fit, is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. The issue is he can only play 30 games a season.

Granit Xhaka is a leader of men. Whilst he might not have worn the armband, he was a captain on the pitch.

Declan Rice certainly replaces Xhaka’s leadership, and he can also be a long-term replacement for Partey at 6. But I think my preference is we keep Partey despite Rice’s signing.

That would allow us to go with Rice and Partey as a pair for bigger games, then Rice and Kai Havertz for games we look to dominate.

Then again, if £40m is on the table for Partey and we think we can get Romeo Lavia, then maybe we need to make the switch?

Replacing Xhaka, Partey and Albert Sambi Lokonga with Rice, Lavia and Havertz. Not sure too many would be unhappy with it.

Jakub Kiwior should start as our left back next season

File this one under “I am going to say something controversial that makes zero logic just so that I can say something different to everyone else”.

This is not an unpopular opinion. It is simply a stupid one.

Granit Xhaka had a better Arsenal career than Cesc Fabregas

I guess this one depends on how you define success.

Xhaka won 2 FA Cup’s, but was never the clubs most important player. Never the first name on the teamsheet. Was incapable of winning games for The Arsenal himself.

Cesc Fabregas was one of the best footballers I have seen. One of those players that would make inferior players around him play better, won a single FA Cup and was key as we made our first and only Champions League final.

For me, Cesc was the first name on the team sheet, our most important player and one of the best in the world. He was certainly the better player between the two.

But then if you base their Arsenal careers on trophies, then Xhaka is ahead.

Declan Rice is the best defensive midfielder in the league

Not really sure this is that unpopular. Many will agree.

Last season there were 3 defensive midfielders in the league who were head and shoulders above the rest: Rodri, Thomas Partey and Declan Rice.

All 3 could start instead of eachother and you would not see a drop off in quality.

Tomiyasu is the perfect back up option all over the defence. He is one of our ebst defenders.

Like with the Declan Rice one, I doubt you will find too many Arsenal fans disagreeing with this.

Tomiyasu’s quality has never been in question. Just his fitness.

Smith Rowe can’t be a winger next season. He’s better as an interior and can be elite

This is actually 3 opinions in one. So lets break it down:

Smith Rowe can’t be a winger next season – Emile Smith Rowe has spent almost all of his senior and youth career on the wing. Like Leandro Trossard, he gives us an option of playing outwide or inside. Why restrict a player to playing in a single position?

He’s better as an interior – Literally no evidence of this. He has only played a handful of games as an 8, and was not overly impressive. Whilst many, including myself, believe he can play there, he has yet to put in a top performance playing more centrally.

Can be elite – Like with Tomiyasu, quality is not Smith Rowe’s problem. It it is fitness.

Havertz is not good enough defensively to play in midfield. He should play false 9 instead.

Like with Smith Rowe, I do not really get why fans try to put players into a silo, expecting them to only play one position.

Kai Havertz is a versatile attacker and gives Arteta 6 tactical options.

His defending and workrate is underrated. He is certainly not a defensively lazy player. His long limbs and ability to glide across the pitch just make it appear that way.

When we dominate games, expect Havertz, Rice and Odegaard to be the midfield. When we are looking to defend, it will be Rice, Partey and Odegaard. Havertz gives us further creativity in midfield for those games when defending is not a focus.

Likewise, he can play upfront, and on the wing.

Arteta is building a team where players can play more than one position. I do not really understand why fans do not get this yet.

Jesus needs to play on the wings. He’s not clinical enough for us to win the league

Last season we scored 88 league goals. the most in our history. Just 6 less than Manchester City.

Our top league scorers (jointly Gabriel Martinelli and Odegaard), scored 21 less than Erling Haaland. But we had 3 players finish in the top 10 Premier League goal scorers.

Our strength last season was goals from across the front 4 positions. We were not reliant on a single main outlet.

You could go out and sign a Dusan Vlahovic who might score 20 goals. But the sacrifice is Jesus’s movement and ability to create space for others.

We might end up with a single striker scoring double what Jesus did, but that could result in those around him scoring less. A net loss in total goals.

Some interesting “unpopular opinions”.

A few are clearly attention seeking. Those sort of posts someone makes to stand out from the crowd and try to portray themselves as a superior thinker.

Others are not actually that unpopular and many Arsenal fans would agree. Often this happens when people talk about unpopular opinions (or underrated players). Thousands will agree which means the opinion is not actually unpopular / the player is not underrated.

And finally you get those that just expose somes lack of understanding as to what Arteta is doing. These are mainly around trying to put a player in a single position.

What do you think of these opinions? And what are oyours? Join the conversation on Facebook.

Keenos

Timber trains alone as Arsenal travel to Germany

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Pre-season has kicked up a notch as the team flew out to Germany yesterday.

The squad are off to Adidas HQ for a fee days of high intensity training with concludes with a friendly against Nurnberg.

Why Nurnberg you ask? Simple answer really. They are the sides closest to Adidas HQ.

At the weekend, we had our first pre-season friendly of the season. A behind closed doors game against Watford. We drew 1-1.

Nothing can ever be read into these behind closed doors games. They are more of a training match rather than a friendly.

Due to the internationals, Arsenal players are on a staggered return.

Those who did not represent their country at the back end of the season returned to London Colney early last week. It was those players that featured against Watford.

Meanwhile, the international players returned towards the back end of last week.

So what can we expect this week in Arsenal-world?

One thing we can guarantee is lots of pictures and videos of the lads training, laughing and getting up to hi-jinx.

In terms of transfers, we all know the two that are going to happen so there is nothing to worry about.

Declan Rice has completed his medical and returned to Portugal to continue the holiday he cut short to help push the deal over the line.

Expect Rice to join the squad at London Colney once they return from Germany.

Jurrien Timber is the other one expected to sign. He has begun his pre-season on his own in Holland. It doesn’t seem Ajax are back in training yet and, as he is not yet officially an Arsenal player, he can not join us for training.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal have set Timber a training programme and even sent out a coach to oversee the next few days.

If the Timber deal goes through today, we could see him make the short trip from Holland to Germany to meet up with his new teammates.

Finally, there was at least one big name absentee from the German training squad. Nicolas Pepe.

The Ivorian was pictured in France at the weekend, and has not been pictured at all at Arsenal yet in pre-season.

This week could see him finally moved on permanently.

Enjoy your Monday.

Keenos