Category Archives: Arsenal

England reinforce their Spursy tag and fall at last hurdle

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Well last night went how most of us predicted. It was all a little Spursy.

Hopefully by the end of this week, Gareth Southgate has done the right thing and announces he is stepping down to allow someone new to take over this England time.

it is quite clear that this England team has outgrown their defensive manager. No longer should we be looking to scrape through tournaments, beating lowly ranked teams, to then go out to our only decent opponent. Southgate is unable to get the best out of the attacking riches we have available.

Let him graciously step aside. Thank him and wish him well. then we move on.

As for the game being on a Sunday night, this is a disgrace. The game so late last night ended up losing its lack of community.

Everyone had been hanging around all day waiting for kick of. By the time the game started, everyone was lethargic, kids were falling asleep, and wives were looking at their watches itching to go home. Finals should be held on a Saturday.

Apparently, it was held so late last night due to the “American and Asian market”. But this was the EUROPEAN Championships. You do not get Eurovision held late on a Sunday.

And one big reason the NFL has never really taken across around Europe is because the Super Bowl is held so late on a Sunday. No one wants to be watching a major sporting event at a time when they want to be unwinding from a weekend and preparing for a week at work.

With both the Euro’s and Copa America now over, we turn our full focus back on The Arsenal.

Our first proper friendly is in 10-days against Bournemouth on some field in America. it will be interesting to see what sort of squad we send out.

After an international tournament, we usually see players get around 3-weeks off. By the time we play Bournemouth, everyone except for our English, Spanish and French contingent would have had at least 20-days off.

Ramsdale, Raya, Saliba, Rice, and Saka are our only players who were still involved in International football beyond 6 July.

For Bournemouth, I expect the team to be all those who did not travel to Germany or America for their countries, whilst Manchester United might see cameos from some of those who were knocked out early or saw little game time.

The Liverpool match is probably the game where every bar the 6 mentioned above will see some action. That would have given most of the squad their 3 week break and a weeks training.

It will not be until the friendlies in London that we see the likes of Saka and Rice. they will be given a proper rest with Mikel Arteta knowing he has a long season ahead.

One thing that is always interesting about these pre-season tournaments is the balance between Arteta wanting to give his players a rest, and the pressure from above for him to play his best players due to the money involved. There will be a lot of unhappy Yanks who have paid a lot of money if they do not get to see Saka, Martinelli, Rice, etc.

This week I expect to see us begin confirming departures. That then frees up the squad places for us to make some signings.

Have a good Monday!

Keenos

Supporting England gives insight of how Spurs fans feel

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Being an England fan must be what it is like being a Spurs fan.

The complete lack of national success in my lifetime is the only thing missing from my love of football.

Arsenal have provided my more success in my 39 years than most fans will experience in their lifetimes. And I have been there in the ground to see much of it. When it comes to England, before the Southgate-era the only thing I really had was Euro 96 and lots of penalty shoot out disappointment.

In four tournaments under Southgate, we have now made 2 finals and 3 semi finals. Only in 2022 did we fail to get past the quarter finals, losing to eventual champions France in the quarters.

Whilst Southgate has “achieved” more than any England manager other than Sir Alf Ramsey, I do not really class his era as a huge success.

Southgate is a poor manager and England’s progress deep in tournaments is due to the layers rather than him. And every time we have come up against a team that has equivalent players to us, he has been found wanting.

In 2018, we were beaten by Croatia in the semi-final despite taking the lead. We then lost to Belgium in the pointless 3rd/4th play off. Belgium also beat us in the group stages. Panama, Tunisia, Columbia and Sweden were the only names we beat in that competition.

That Croatia result would typify my issue with Southgate – take the lead, sit back trying to defend it and lose. And that is what happened 3 years later at Euro 2021.

Everything should have been in England’s favour in our first national final since 1966. We were playing at Wembley, against an ageing Italy team and went 1-nil up after 2 minutes. A better manager, with a team playing front foot football, would have looked to dominate the game and win at a canter.

Southgate’s England sat back, conceded and then played for penalties.

The fact that, against a slow, ageing defence, Southgate failed to bring on Jadon Sancho or Marcus Rashford until the 120th minute shows his issue as manager. He was aiming to not lose in extra time rather than win. Had he had the balls and replaced Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling with Rashford and Sancho, I am sure we would have won. Italy would not have been able to cope with their pace and fresh legs.

Ultimately, Italy won because they had the better manager (Roberto Mancini).

And it was de ja vu in 2022 as England beat Iran, Wales and Senegal (drawing with USA), before losing to the first decent team we faced. Once again, Southgate was outclassed by his opposition manager – Didier Deschamps.

Despite having a wealth of talent capable of winning the game on his bench, Southgate kept up his policy of not making subs and looking to not lose the game. It was only after France went 1-nil up with 11 minutes to go that Southgate made a sub – Sterling for Bukayo Saka.

In the 85h minute he finally got Rashford on the pitch, and his final sub happened ithe 98th minute (Jack Grealish for John Stones).

This tournament has been very much in the mold of those previous – England playing uninspiring football against teams we should beat, with Southgate setting his team up negatively and failing to make pro-active changes.

We have somehow got to the final. Although we have had a huge assist by being on the easiest side of the draw.

Whilst Spain have faced Italy, Germany, France, Croatia and Albania, we have played Netherland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia and Denmark. the runs are simply not comparable.

Today I am filled with hope just like I was back in 2023. But I have nagging feeling we will l fail once more. And for one evening at least I will feel like a Spurs fan.

Enjoy the game wherever you are watching. Look after your mates. And if we win, enjoy your celebrations.

Keenos

Arsenal – State of the Squad 2024/25

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This years State of the Squad repor comes a little later than normal.

Blame the Euro’s, bad weather and both my personal and work life being ultra busy right now (and one too many holidays)! My annual review always takes a day or so to research and right.

As with previous years, the yearly report will highlight exactly where the squad is ahead of the new season, taking into account home grown requirements to register players.

Normal rules apply:

• Clubs can register up to 25 senior players in their A list
• Of which no more than 17 can be “non-home grown (NHG)”
• To be considered home grown (HG), a player must have been registered to an English (or Welsh) clubs for 3 entire seasons before the season he turns 22
• Players born before 01/01/2003 do not need to be registered in the A list

The first thing that is very obvious is that in the current first team squad, we have no players aged under 01/01/2003. that means we have no “bonus” players that do not need to be registered.

What will be interesting as the summer goes on is if some current academy players are promoted to the first team, replacing senior players.

Personally, I am not too concerned about the lack of bonus players. Most top clubs tend to only use 22 or 23 players regularly regardless of whether they are registered are not. All this means for Arsenal is that our first team squad will all be aged over 21 for the first time in decades.

There are 26 players listed above. That means we are in a position where we need to sell before we can buy.

If we buy before we can sell, we are in the situation of a couple of years ago where we either have to dump players on the cheap, or have to leave them unregistered. Buying before we sell will leave us in a poor position to negotiate.

We are not short on players that could be heading for the exit:

Kieran Tierney
Nuno Tavares
Thomas Partey
Albert Sambi Lokonga
Aaron Ramsdale
Emile Smith Rowe
Eddie Nketiah
Reiss Nelson

I would not be surprised if all 8 of the above listed names depart. That would bring our squad size down to 18. Four new signings then take us back up to 22, with the rest of the squad being made up of the likes Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Chido Obi (who do not need to be registered).

We currently only have 15 NHG players. That means when it comes to incomings, we can sign at least two without infringing the 17 man NHG rule. Further NHG can come in Kieran Tierney, Nuno Tavares, Thomas Partey and Albert Sambi Lokonga.

I would expect at least 3 of those above to go, with Partey the only one that might remain. And if Partey does stay at the club, we are unlikely to sign a new midfielder.

If all 8 names mentioned above do depart, we then have 11 NHG players and 7 HG. for all intents and purposes, we could then 7 new players not from these shores and still be within the rules!

What is more likely is we buy one HG player (the back up keeper), and then the other 3 or 4 signings being either NHG or HG. We really have zero concerns in this area.

Where we are operating a bit different from previous years is we are in no rush to sell most of the potential outgoing players.

Mikel Arteta is likely happy with Nketiah as 3rd choice, Ramsdale as back up keeper, Smith Rowe as 4th choice on the wing and Partey as back-up DM. that means players will only depart if our valuation is met.

As for players coming in, it will be one in, one out:

A striker to replace Nketiah
A winger to replace Smith Rowe
A midfielder to replace Partey
A keeper to replace Ramsdale

The other 4 on the list (Tierney, Tavares, Lokonga, Nelson) contributed so little last year so do not need replacing.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Keenos