Category Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal right to stay well clear of Bissouma

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And just like that, these pointless post-season international friendlies are over.

At the time of writing I am on the Jubilee line home. I am 6 beers in and have no idea what the England score is. Not do I care. All I know is it is over now.

What a horribly pointless tournament.

Every international manager ended up playing massively changed XIs as they realised players had just run out of steam. Time to get rid of the tournament.

In other news Tottenham look set to sign Yves Bissouma.

I was always uncomfortable with our links to him.

As far as I know the fella has not yet been cleared of some horrendous charges.

Brighton have clearly been pimping him around England in the hope of cashing in.

The scary thing about football at times is there is always a club willing to take a player on regardless of what he has allegedly done. This is an example of that.

Bissouma is still facing some really crazy charges – yet Spurs are paying £25m on him.

It might not end up in tears; but I am just glad Arsenal showed little interest.

It is that time of year where I have to remind people to ignore Twitter ITK’s.

In the last week, I have seen some fella with 50k+ followers claim that Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal is “nearly done”, that Gabriel Jesus to Chelsea is “nearly done” and the Gabriel Jesus to Tottenham is “nearly done”.

Questions need to be asked about these middle-aged fellas that spend their days in their bedroom shouting at a camera in the hope teenage boys follow them.

We won the cricket. I’m in Canning Town. I think. It’s still light outside. Might go for a beer.

Enjoy your Wednesday

Keenos

And on the 4th day of the transfer window Edu gave to me, a Brazilian born in 2003

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It was just 24 hours ago that we were advising people to calm down and not worry. That the transfer window was merely 3 days old so you were stressing over nothing that we had not signed anyone yet.

Barely 6 hours after that blog went live, Arsenal had made the first signing of the summer – Marquinhos.

Now the naysayers will be spinning the narrative that “a 19-year old prospect is not a real signing”. Well you were not saying that yesterday when you were talking about Liverpool having made a signing already – the only man they have signed is also a 19-year-old in Fábio Carvalho.

Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar – to quote his full name for the first and only time – joins from Brazilian outfit Sao Paolo; whom he played 41 times for last season.

I would be lying if I said I had ever heard of him prior to us being linked – or even seen him play. I am sure there will be some social media experts that will claim to have been following him since he was 11 playing on the beach though.

He does come with a fairly high reputation. Do not be put off by the price tag.

Arsenal got him at a cut price due to an issue with his contract.

In 2019, at 16, he signed a 5 year deal with Sao Paolo. However FIFA rules dictate that uU18 players can only sign a 3 year deal. This meant that his contract basically expired.

Arsenal have done a deal reportedly worth €3.5 million as Edu hopes to build a long turn relationship with the Brazilian club.

Where does Marquinhos fit in at Arsenal? I really do not know.

Look back to the signing of Gabriel Martinelli.

Martinelli was signed as an 18-year-old and expected to play for our PL2 side. His performances in pre-season saw him quickly elevated to the first team squad – and then he got his opportunities in the League Cup and Europa League and never looked back.

No one would have expected Martinelli to score 10 goals in 26 games in his first season. But he is now a solid member of our senior squad. And still just 20.

I expect there to be a similar plan with Marquinhos.

He will not be expected to make an immediate first team impact. Instead he will be with the first team in pre-season and then it will be “see where he goes”.

He could be the next Maritnelli. He could be the next Wellington Silva.

Either way, his signing will stop people saying “we have not signed anyone yet”. They will probably just find something else to moan about though.

Talking about something else to moan about, Emile Smith Rowe played for England last night in the U21s. What is the point?

Smith Rowe turns 22 in a month and already has 3 senior caps. He should not be taking the step down to youth football.

If Gareth Southgate decided not to pick him for the senior squad for the pointless Nations League games, he should have been given the summer off.

U21 football should all be about developing players, and I am not really sure how playing it benefits Smith Rowe.

Last season he played nearly 2,500 senior minutes for Arsenal. He should have been on the beach resting. Not still playing football in the middle of June.

At least that “campaign” is now over and he can now get 4 weeks rest ahead of returning to pre-season training in the middle of July (first pre-season friendly for Arsenal is 8th July).

Likewise tonight is the last “Nations League” game of the season.

We have seen teams begin to put out massively changed XIs for Nations League fixtures which highlights the shine has already rubbed off the competition. It is now being treated as post-season friendlies.

Good idea, but time to cancel it.

Hopefully Bukayo Saka gets through unscathed and will be able to get in some much needed rest.

Have a good Tuesday.

Keenos

Calm down dear, is has only been 3 days

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Over the weekend the moaning begun.

“Why have we not signed anyone yet?”
“Slow out of the box again”
“Our rivals are already improving”

My advice is calm yourselves down. And if you are obsessing about transfers a couple of days into the transfer window, you will only end up ruining your summer.

Me? I spent the weekend sitting in my garden, watching cricket, drinking cider and going a strange shade of pink.

But really guys. Relax a little. There is a big wide world out their beyond transfers. You will only damage your own mental health if you decided to spend your weekend crying on social media instead of enjoying the sunshine.

The season has just finished. Most players are away on international duty. And it was the weekend!

The only deals announced so far are those that were easy to make – where minimum release clauses were activated prior to the window opening, loans turning permanent or free transfers getting announced.

And lets break down the transfer business of our rivals right now:

Manchester City*
Earling Haaland – Minimum release clause activated

Liverpool
Fábio Carvalho – Free transfer

Chelsea
No business done

Tottenham
Fraser Forster – Free transfer
Ivan Perisic – Free transfer

Manchester United
No business done

*Julián Álvarez was signed in January and loaned back to River Plate

Of the 10 transfers made so far by Premier League clubs, 4 are free transfers, 3 are loans turned permanent and 1 was a minimum release clause activated.

That leaves just 3 transfers that required negotiations with a selling club – Brenden Aaronson to Leeds and Diego Carlos to Villa.

So lets stop pretending that other clubs were doing lots of business whilst we stood still.

Had we signed Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster on free transfers we would be up in arms over why Edu was signing ageing reserve players on big money. Not celebrating that we got business done early.

The only real stand-out transfer so far is that of Earling Haaland – but that has been in the pipeline since Earling was swimming around in Alfie’s ball sack.

“Oh but Liverpool are about to sign Darwin Nunez, Tottenham Richarlison and Manchester United Frankie de Jong”.

Yes, they might be close to signing them, but they have not yet. At the moment it is just media reports.

It is no different to the press saying we are close to signing Gabriel Jesus, Youri Tielemans, Serge Gnabry, Aaron Hickey, Yves Bissouma, Gianluca Scamacca, Raphinha and Marquinhos.

Why do we not dismiss other sides transfer speculation like we do our own? They will all be linked with ~100 players this summer like us. They will not sign them all.

If any of these deals do happen, it will probably be after the international friendlies are over. It is at this point clubs can do the medicals, complete the paperwork, apply for visa’s and secure their signatures.

Arsenal showed a clinicalness in the transfer market last summer – Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Martin Odergaard and Takehiro Tomiyasu were our 4 main targets and we secured all 4. We then added some talented youngsters.

I fully expect similar this summer.

3 or 4 senior pro’s who can come in and improve our first team from Day One (probably Jesus, one of Bissouma / Tielemans and a winger – Gnabry / Raphinha / Sterling) and then a couple of players for squad depth (Hickey, Matt Turner).

I will not worry until what we perceive as our main targets sign for someone else (if Jesus joins Chelsea for example).

I also will not worry if Liverpool sign Nunez for €100m after 1 good season (Calvert-Lewin, Isak) or Tottenham £50m+ on Richarlison.

I certainly will not worry that after just 3 days of the transfer window being open that we have not signed anyone.

We will do our own business, in our own time. And get it right.

In summary, go and enjoy the sunshine. Have a break for football. Drink a few beers. watch some cricket. And the transfer business will happen.

Up The Arsenal.

Keenos