Category Archives: Arsenal

“Strikers inferior to Kai Havertz” moving for £60m+

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Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid for £64.4m (rising to £81.5m with add ons)
Dominc Solanke to Tottenham for (reportedly) £65m

If you are scratching your head why Arsenal have not yet moved for a striker, your answer is above.

For a long time, my answer to “we need a more clinical striker” has been to ask “who is out there”. The reality is, there are not too many top strikers in world football these days.

Their is only a handful of strikers that are on par with 00s legends such as Henry, Shevchenko, Raul, van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Batistuta, Vieri, Trezeguet, Crespo, Adriano, and Owen, followed by Rooney, Ibrahimovic, Torres, Eto’o, Drogba, Klose and Villa in the second half of the decade.

You can count on one hand the current strikers who are on the level of these – Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

Due to the lack of top, top strikers, we are now seeing decent strikers going for huge sums, and average strikers going for club record fees.

Some mocked when Arsenal reportedly demanded £35m for Eddie Nketiah, but in the current market that is probably what he is worth!

Do not get me wrong, Julian Alvarez is a lovely player, but in 2 seasons in England he has scored just 20 league goals.

Yes, he has played second fiddle to Erling Haaland in that time, but he does have a bit of the Gabriel Jesus’s about him. Alvarez turns 25 in 4 months and, like Jesus before him, has not been a consistent goal scorer.

Alvarez keeps Lautaro Martinez out of the Argentine national team, but this is based on his all-round game rather than his goal scoring exploits (for those calling for us to sign Martinez, he is not leaving Inter any time soon!). He is just not an out and out goal scorer.

Dominic Solanke is a solid Premier League striker. But last year was the first season he had performed at the highest level.

27 in September, Solanke’s Premier League record before 2023/24 read: Played 96, scored 10. You can perhaps understand why Arsenal are asking “so much” for Nketiah, who is 2 years Solanke’s junior when you consider those figures.

£65m for a player with one top flight season under his belt is an incredible figure. But this is from the club that spent over £50m on Richarlison. The Brazilian had 17 goals in his two previous Premier seasons combined for Everton!!!

Now I am not saying either Solanke or Alvarez is a bad player. But would either of them be a step up on Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus? Neither has ever scored 25 league goals in a top flight season in their career. and it is “we need someone that will score us 25 goals” that most of us call for…

Arsenal signed Jesus at 25 years old. just a few months older than what Alvarez will be when the Atletico Madrid deal goes through. With 58 goals in 159 league games for Man City, our Brazilian had a vastly superior record despite playing a similar role.

Solanke, meanwhile, is England’s seventh choice striker – Kane, Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney, Marcus Rashford, Calum wilson and Eddie Nketiah have all been selected ahead of him recently. Solanke’s only England cap coming back in 2017.

Meanwhile, Kai Havertz is Germany’s first choice striker. He averaged a goal every 130 minutes last season as a striker. Solanke averaged a goal every 175 minutes.

Any striker that comes in must be better than Kai Havertz. And I am not just talking about their goals.

Last season we scored more league goals than any other season in our history. Signing a more clinical striker, that might get 4 or 5 more goals than Havertz or Jesus, might result in a drop in the total team goals.

We could have a single striker score 25 goals, but end up scoring less as a team!

The more I write about strikers, the more I am warming to Havertz being our first choice forward:

If I were to say we were signing Germany’s first choice striker who had the 3rd best minutes per goals a top 5 division in 2023/24 for £80m, we would all probably be getting excited. But we have that striker playing for us right now in Kai Havertz and we have not had to spend that sort of money on him.

Isak would be an upgrade, but how much would it cost to get him from Newcastle? Way north of £100m IMO. Meanwhile ictor Osimhen is class, but it is interesting to see he is yet to move anywhere.

Do we really want to spend £60m+ on Viktor Gyokeres. The 26-year-old has had one decent season in Portugal, preceded by a solid good 18 months in the Championship 9he failed to score 25 Championship goals in either season.

Ivan Toney is still talked about, but he would more be competition and cover for Kai Havertz, something a little bit different, rather than an our and out replacement. I would only want him if he was under £40m, and we sold Gabriel Jesus.

Any striker that comes in must be better than Havertz.

As we have seen strikers who an inferior to Kai Havertz are going for £60m+. I am not sure how many strikers out their would justify us spending the £80m+ it would take to get them!

Keenos

Why are Premier League set to investigate Chido Obi Martin deal?

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Chido Obi-Martin is on the verge of joining Manchester United.

The 16-year-old, who was nowhere near ready for the Arsenal first team opted to take a step down to Manchester United in the quest of fast tracking his journey to first team football, even if it means playing at a lower level.

As we blogged last week, Arsenal are better off without the youngster, whom is clearly being used by his handlers to make a quick buck at the detriment of his career.

The deal is subject to the Premier League 5 step investigation – or five-step review process as it is also known).

This process is nothing unique. It is an investigatory review that every transfer involving an academy player between two Category One academies goes through.

Before any academy player can be registered, the transfer must go through the review, which takes around 25 days to be completed. But what is the five-step review process?

Following Southampton receiving a suspended sentence back in 2022 for contacting academy players without permission, The Athletic outlined what is involved in the process:

Step 1: The new club submits a signed registration form to the Premier League.

Step 2: The Premier League appoints an independent third party (usually a law firm) to conduct “exit interviews” with the player, parents and both clubs. However, further interviews or requests for information are also permitted.

Step 3: The two clubs involved in the agreement, including the player’s parents, are required to sign a declaration that no financial or value-in-kind inducements have been utilised as a part of the move (including contra deals).

Step 4: Through the independent third party, a report is then produced for the Premier League’s board, coming up with a recommendation regarding the club’s application to register the player.

Step 5: The Premier League’s board can either approve or reject the registration application. They also have the autonomy to take disciplinary against the club if they were found to breach their youth development rules.

So what does this all mean?

Well firstly, absolutely nothing if the review finds Manchester United did nothing wrong in their recruitment of Chido Obi Martin.

If it is found that they have breached the rules, the player will still sign for Man U but they could face sanctions.

The Athletic article continues: Everton for example, were handed a two-year academy ban in November 2018 and a fine of £500,000 ($608,000) for offering incentives to a player and his family.

In 2017, Manchester City were fined £300,000 ($365,000) and also banned from signing academy players for two years after the Premier League found evidence of contact between City staff and family members. Incidentally, in that same month, Liverpool were deemed to have breached similar rules when offering inducements to a Stoke City player and subsequently banned from recruiting in the academy for 12 months. They were also fined £100,000 ($122,000).

Keenos

Szczesny, Chiesa, McKennie & Rugani – Should Arsenal target any of the “Juventus 8”

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Over the weekend Juventus made it public that “eight first-team players” had been told to “find new clubs” by manager Thiago Motta.

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was on the list, as was Federico Chiesa. Also named were  Weston McKennie, Arthur Melo, Mattia De Sciglio, Daniele Rugani, Filip Kostic and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia.

This news has led to fans from every Premier League club to speculate who they should sign (with some fans having ideas above their station on who their team might be able to attract!).

Wojciech Szczesny

We were linked with our former first choice goalkeeper towards the end of last season.

It is clear and obvious that we need a new keeper if Aaron Ramsdale leaves. Although I would not be surprised to see England’s number 2 remaining as Arsenal number 2 for another season.

Szczesny would give Mikel Arteta an experienced back up for Ramsdale. The Pole is still a high quality keeper and was Juventus’ first choice last summer.

Whether he wants to be 2nd choice for the tail-end of his career puts a question mark over the deal.

Now 34-years-old, he still has plenty to give. It is whether he would prefer being 2nd choice in the luxurious settings of London Colney, or be first choice training in a portacabin with cold showers at somewhere like West Ham.

Federico Chiesa

Probably the biggest name on the list, at 26-years-old Federico Chiesa should be entering his peak. Instead he finds himself cast aside from the club that has spent over £50m on him as a 21-year-old.

I have never been a huge fan of Chiesa. For me he is a player who clearly had plenty of technical ability, but has never got the figures to back up the hype.

The son of legend Enrico Chiesa, he has never scored more than 10 league goals in a season. He also has a horrendous injury record.

Chiesa tore his cruciate ligament back in 2022 and has never really recovered. Since then he has continued to pick up minor muscle injuries. He gets fit for 5 or 6 games, then misses 2 or 3. and it has been that way for the last two seasons.

He reminds me a lot of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the sense that he had a lot of hype as a youngster, never really reached the heights expected, has had a career hampered by injuries but is still hyped up by fans.

We should stay well clear of Chiesa.

Weston McKennie

Leeds United signed the American on-loan in 2023. I was surprised to see that he was still only 25-years-old.

2 or 3 years, Weston McKennie would have looked a great fit for Mikel Arteta’s team – A versatile box-to-box midfielder who can also play deeper and at fullback, we would have been a perfect squad player back in 2022. But 2024 Arsenal demands better players.

I would not be surprised to see him join a Premier League club. He is more suited to someone like Fulham than Arsenal.

Arthur Melo

One of the worst loan signings in Premier League history, Arthur Melo joined Liverpool in 2022 and failed to play a single league game – and just 13 minutes in total.

The Scousers got all giddy when they secured the Brazilian, and some Arsenal fans made noise about how we should have dumped Granit Xhaka for him. But the writing was already on the cards with his injury record.

Arthur Melo had struggled for consistent game time for Barcelona and Juventus, so it was not a surprise to me when he broke down after playing his first game for Liverpool.

Now 27, Arthur Melo screams out “heading to the Saudi Pro League”.

Mattia De Sciglio

Another on this list who has had a chequered injury record, the now 31-year-old right back will be a solid acquisition for someone as a squad fullback. That someone is just not Arsenal.

We are well set at both right back and left back. We do not need another one! I can see him ending up at Manchester United who could do with his versatility and cover on both flanks.

Daniele Rugani

Still only 30-years-old, we were heavily linked with Daniele Rugani back in 2019. Despite reportedly having “agreed terms” with us, the Italian remained at Juventus.

Rugani was once considered one of the most promising young Italian players of his generation, but he has never really kicked on to show any sort of consistency at a high level. Just 7 caps for Italy sums his career up.

Having signed Riccardo Calafiori, we are not in the market for another defender. Rugani looks Ajax bound,

Filip Kostic

The Serbian is a solid left winger / wing back in the Ivan Perisic role. You know you are getting someone that works hard and puts lots of balls into the box, but will not be a superstar.

Now 31, he would not improve Arsenal’s squad in any shape or form so this one would be a non-starter.

A knee injury cut short his Euro’s, so an injury question mark hangs over him. Due to this I can see a loan deal – with the likes of Crystal Palace and various Turkish clubs already linked.

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

A victim of Juventus’ (and other top Italian clubs) hoarding and loaning out of young talent, Hans Nicolussi Caviglia finds himself having played just 13 games for his boyhood club at 24-years-old.

Once a promising young midfielder, Nicolussi Caviglia has had 4 unspectacular loan deals all within Italy. Expect him to stay in the country of his birth. Probably on loan again.

A lot of fans will be calling on Arteta to make a move for Federico Chiesa to act as cover for Bukayo Saka. But his injury record is a huge red flag.

Wojciech Szczesny is the one man on the list that I can see us signing. He would certainly fit in as our 2nd choice keeper and is a personality the club knows well (although this could be a bad thing as well!!).

It will all come down to whether Ramsdale is content remaining as 2nd choice, and whether Szczesny is happy becoming second choice.

My gut is unless anyone on the 8 man Juventus exodus list was already on our transfer target list, we will not be dropping our targets to recruit any of them.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Keenos