Category Archives: Arsenal

Eddie Nketiah, Youssofa Moukoko, Rodrygo, Wojciech Szczesny and More

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Eddie Nketiah

We start off with some non-Eddie Nketiah news, but still related to his transfer to Marseille.

The French team were closing in on a deal with Borussia Dortmund’s Youssofa Moukoko, however the deal is on the verge of collapsing.

Marseille are reportedly prepared to walk away from the deal after being unable to agree a price with Dortmund. It i not too dissimilar to what happened with Nketiah.

Earlier this week, we reportedly turned down a £20m offer from Marseille for Nketiah. Our lowest asking price was £30m. This resulted in Marseille walking away from the deal and Edu getting criticism from some Arsenal fans for the deal falling through.

What the Moukoko deal has shown is that Marseille are not willing to negotiate for players. They will make an offer, and if a selling club do not agree to the offer they will walk away. They will struggle to sign any of their primary targets with this attitude.

I did find it laughable that Edu got criticized for the deal.

We moan about underselling players, for letting players leave to cheap, and then moan that we have not sold a player on the cheap – we are now in a world when Dominic Solanke has gone for £65m after one decent season in his 10-year career.

Now I am not saying that Nketiah should be going for what Solanke has gone for, but consider this:

Solanke – 27 years old – 29 Premier League goals in 134 games
Nketiah – 25 years old – 19 Premier League goals in 116 games

I feel we are justified in our Nketiah asking price considering what other player shave gone for.

And the same fans who are demanding that we undersell a player, whilst also moaning we undersell players, are also those that demanding we just “pay the asking price” for Declan Rice.

In their mind, it is only Arsenal that are not allowed negotiate. We must pay the asking price when buying a player, and we must accept the first offer when selling.

I dread to think how some of these people will react when they come to buying their first car or house…

And the ultimate irony is we may well be able to get even more than the £25m was asked for from Marseille if Bournemouth become desperate and look to splash the Solanke cash on someone who is not to different in terms of playing style and quality.

Rodrygo

Yesterday we were linked with Real Madrid forward Rodrygo. The Brazilian was also linked with Liverpool and Manchester City.

I think what is obvious is, following the signing of Kylian Mbappe and Endrick, Real Madrid have informed Rodrygo’s representatives that he can leave if they find a buyer.

The result is Rodrygo is being pimped around Europe, with his agents leaking links to every top club in the hope of generating interest.

I am not a fan of Rodrygo.

He is not physical enough to play upfront in the Premier League, and he is not better than any of our current wingers. At a reported £94m, he is massively overpriced and at best would be a squad player.

Wojciech Szczesny

Juventus and Wojciech Szczesny have reportedly reached a mutual agreement to terminate the ex-Arsenal mans contract with immediate effect.

Earlier this summer, we were linked with our form academy keeper.

At the time, it would have been likely that Arsenal were put off by Szczesny’s wage demands. He would have been asking for his Juventus money to be covered by any new club as a minimum to accept a move.

As part of the mutual termination, Szczesny is now inline for an “important pay-out fee” according to Fabrizio Romano. This could result in his wage demands being much lower than they were this summer.

We obviously still need get rid of Aaron Ramsdale. I can see the Englishmen heading out to Ajax on loan, with the Dutch outfit paying £5-6m in loan fee and covering his wages. Then in comes Szczesny on similar money as Ramsdale on a 2-year deal, happy to play second fiddle to David Raya.

In a years time, Ramsdale will still have 2-years left on his contract and, if he returns to form for Ajax, Arsenal cold expect to demand £30m+ again for him.

Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi

It always felt like in Mikel Merino that we were getting 2nd prize in the beauty contest.

Martin Zubimendi is the better player, but I could accept us moving for Merino as an alternative option if a deal could not be done.

I was therefore a bit disheartened earlier this week when it broke that Liverpool were in for Zubimendi. That doom was lifted when it was announced that he had decided to stay at Real Sociedad.

Clearly some months ago we had enquired about Zubimendi and got the message “he is not interested in leaving, but how about Merino?”. Liverpool, meanwhile, clearly ignored the message and this week made their pursuit public. And they have been publicly turned down.

A expect a deal for Merino to be completed shortly. Meanwhile Liverpool are stil lyet to sign a player of any note.

Keenos

Arsenal youngsters need to be “amongst the best in the world” to get chance under Arteta

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Another youngster departs. more comments follow about how Mikel Arteta does not want to give youth a chance.

Yesterday it was confirmed that 20-year-old Brooke Norton-Cuffy was joining Gerona for a reported £2million. We wish him all the luck in the world!

Norton-Cuffy joins the likes of Amario Cozier-Dubbery, Arthur Okonwko, Reuell Walters and Mika Biereth to fail to make the grade at Arsenal and be moved on.

It was not too long ago that we were speaking about Norton-Cuffy as one of the highest rated youngsters in our academy and a future Arsenal right back.

Back in 2021, we had just signed Takehiro Tomiyasu as first choice right back to replace Hector Bellerin. The Japenese international would be backed up by Cedric Soares. This looked to open up a potential spot for an academy player in the future to replace Soares. I had Norton-Cuffy penciled in for this spot.

Solid loan moves to Lincoln City in League One and Rotherham United and Coventry City in the Championship gave Norton-Cuffy 18 months of senior football experience. But from January 2022 through to the end of 2023 a lot changed at Arsenal.

In that 18 months, we went from a team in crisis where youth could be the solution, to a team challenging for titles, and in turn signing the players needs to win us the Premier League. That transition saw Ben White go from back-up central defender to one of the best right backs in the league, and the recruitment of Jurrien Timber.

Back in 2022, I blogged how come the summer of 2024, we could expect Norton-Cuffy to step up as Tomiyasu’s cover. We have moved on so far in those 2-years that Tomi is now our 3rd choice right back!

During the same time, another young right back was also catching the eye at Arsenal – Reuel Walters.

Walters looked as if he had jumped ahead of Norton-Cuffy due to our style of play – BNC is a traditional right back who gets chalk on his boots whilst Walters was a centre back turned right back in the Ben White style.

Before the acquisition of Timber, the talk was that it would more likely be Walters rather than Norton-Cuffy who has the best chance of making it. That put BNC as 6th choice right back going into the 2023/24 season.

Another loan deal ensued, and he performed admirably once more in the Championship, this time for Milwall. He was showing that he had a solid career ahead of him ,but just not at Arsenal.

On his return to the club this summer, Norton-Cuffy still found himself as 4th choice right back despite the departure of Cedris Soares and Reuell Walters. His path to first team football clearly blocked, a move was the best for all parties!

At this point, some of you wil lbe saying “Arteta never gave him a chance, choosing to play Cedric instead”. Let’s not change history.

In the last 2 seasons, Cedric played just 87 minutes of Premier League football for Arsenal, and 244 minutes in all competitions. In that same time, Norton-Cuffy has played over 5,000 minutes of Championship football.

244 minutes over 2 years would do nothing for Norton-Cuffy’s development. 5,000 minutes of senior football showed what level he is ready to play at. It has become a bit of a myth that Cedric blocked youngsters getting serious minutes at Arsenal. He barely played.

The departure of Norton-Cuffy and others highlights two things.

The first is just how big the step up is from youth football to playing for a title challenging team, and secondly just how far Arsenal have come in the last 2 years.

2022 we were talking about Norton-Cuffy and Reuell Walters battling it out to be Tomiyasu’s back-up. Now it is a case that Tomi is fighting for his own Arsenal future and has gone from 1st choice right back to 3rd choice.

Yes, I love to see Halen End boys get the chance. But we are fighting for the title and that means those academy graduates need to be performing at a much higher level to get that opportunity.

We can not afford to give kids chance when challenging for the title. And Arteta and his team sees these kids day in, day out and know exactly who is ready. We can not just give players minutes in the hope they are ready.

I saw recently someone say “even Ronaldo and Messi would not get a chance at Arsenal”. This is simply not true. But highlights just how good Arsenal youngsters now need to be.

For a right back to get a chance, they need to be better than Tomiyasu and Timber. Both are their countries starting right back.

An exciting young winger coming through the academy ranks has Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus ahead of them. Regular English, Brazilian, and Belgium internationals! Whilst a central midfielder is battling it out with Declan Rice, Jorginho and Thomas Partey.

It is fairly simple. If you are not at the level of those players mentioned above, you will not get the chance. Nor should you get a chance.

Look at Manchester City.

The one youth graduate to make it under Pep Guardiola is Phil Foden, and he has gone on to establish himself as one of the best in the world. Meanwhile the likes of Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb have flirted with the first team but not really made an impact.

There is a player in Lewis and he could go on to become a superstar. He is also just 19. Meanwhile Bobb is now 21 and has played just 295 minutes of Premier League football since joining the club in 2019.

2019 was also the year Martinelli join the Arsenal. He has gone on to play nearly 8,000 minutes of Premier League football in that time and become a full Brazil international.

Yes, Maritnelli is 2-years Bobb’s senior, but by the time he had turned 21 he had played over 3,000 minutes of Premier League football and had been capped by Brazil. The next season he played 2,806 minutes, scored 15 league goals and played for his country at a World Cup.

Bobb is clearly not on the level at the same age as Martinelli, which is why he has not had the opportunities at Manchester City that Gabi got at Arsenal.

At the end of the day, if you are good enough you will get the minutes. Get the game time. But to be good enough at an Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool you need to be 12 months away from also being good enough for your country. You need to be 12 months away from being one of the best 10-15 players in the league in your position.

Norton-Cuffy was nowhere near being in the best 10-15 right backs in the Premier League. Cozier-Dubbery, Okonwko, Walters and Biereth were also not close enough to being ready. Nor was Chido Obi Martin.

If you demand Arsenal to challenge for titles and demand that we sign the best players, you also need to raise your own mental bar as to how you rate young players.

My final thought is I think back to those early Arsene Wenger days and how few academy players broke through. It was really just Ashley Cole, and he went on to become ne of the best left backs in English football history (if not the best!).

Players to come through need to be the level of an Ashley Cole or Jack Wilshere and not Jason Crowe or Henri Lansbury.

The better we become, the better our youngsters need to become to get the chance. They need to be amongst the best in the world!

Keenos

Five takeaways from Arsenal’s pre-season

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No minutes for Ramsdale

Our former number one didn’t return to first team training until last weekend due to England’s exploits at the Euro’s. This meant he was unavailable for all but two of our pre-season friendlies.

Mikel Arteta opted to play David Raya for 90 minutes against both Leverkusen and Lyon rather than give Rambo some game time. A clear indication that the Spaniard is still first choice.

The future is unclear for Ramsdale now.

No club has yet come in for him and not got a minute for Arsenal in pre-season

Having not played a single minute at the Euro’s, you have to wonder whether Ramsdale could have got himself back to training earlier and played a part in those initial friendlies. That would have put him in the shop window for a move.

Zinchenko looking good

I have never been on the “Zinny is a bad player” bandwagon. He is clearly a fantastic footballer, with many of the issues around his positioning being due to the way Arteta was asking him to play.

The Ukrainian has looked fantastic in pre-season. Whilst Riccardo Calafiori played the final game, I would not be surprised if Zinny starts the first game of the season.

With White and Timber, Calafiori and Zinchenko, Arteta has the choice of playing an inverted full back, pushed further into midfield, on either side. Expect Mikel to chop and change throughout the season depending on opponent.

Havertz number 9

The early days of pre-season saw Gabriel Jesus play through the middle. When Kai Havertz did play it was in a deeper role.

Against Lyon Arteta went with Havertz up front, and I think that is how he Weill start against Wolves.

We are seeing a lot of forwards who are inferior to Havertz moving for £60m+. He will get us 20+ league goals if he starts consistently down the middle this season. And that is without penalties.

Jesus then becomes an impact sub. Someone to offer us something different when chasing a game. The Brazilian is also an option on both wings.

Nwaneri ready

Whilst a lot of talk this summer was about Chido Obi Martin and Amario Cozier-Dubbery departing, one teenage Arsenal star was getting plenty of pre-season minutes.

Ethan Nwaneri has shown if you have the talent, and apply yourself yourself in training, you will get opportunities.

He now needs to keep working hard on the training pitch, improving day in, say out.

With fitness concerns for Fabio Vieira and Bukayo Saka being an army of one on the right, there will be opportunities for Nwaneri if he works hard for them.

Life is different at Arsenal these days. To get a shot at our first team squad it is not just good enough to be one of the best youth players in the country. You need to be looking at being one footballers in the country.

Nwaneri is on the brink. He now just needs to keep pushing himself.

Set piece kings

I always remember Big Sam Allardyce talking about set pieces.

His philosophy was to not overcomplicate things. Just swing the ball in at pace, aiming for the centre of the 6 yard-box, and have your best headers attacking the front post, back post and middle.

Ball drops a little short, and your first man knocks it in, it goes deep and the fella at the far post gets it. If it’s a perfect ball the one in the middle scores.

We saw Declan Rice do this last season to great success, and with two goals from corners against Lyon, it looks like set pieces will be key again.

Final thoughts

We look no weaker than last season. And whilst we are starting this campaign with much of the same squad, so are Liverpool and Manchester City.

A key difference is that our young squad is a year more experienced, whilst their ageing squads are a year older.

During pre-season we have played games against high quality opposition.

The “worst” team we faced was Bournemouth, who are still a Premier League side. Playing top opposition allowed Arteta to know exactly where his squad is throughout.

We could have taken an easier pre-season against Scottish and lower league clubs before a tour to the Far East to face glorified charity teams. That would have led to a load of hype for youngsters and false hope before it all came crashing down in the first proper friendly against a top European side.

Our preparations have been spot on. We now need to start off fast against Wolves!

UTA

Keenos