Category Archives: Arsenal

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

Could Arteta sacrifice new striker to sign breakout Euro winger?

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Going into this transfer window, most of us agreed that a striker was tp of the list.

Despite us scoring more league goals last season than any other in our history, the feeling was we needed someone more clinical if we wanted to take the next jump from challengers to champions.

The issue, however, remains that there are not many top strikers in world football right now. And those that are potentially available are over priced having achieved little, and I question whether they would actually be an upgrade on Kai Havertz.

This is not the 00s where it felt like top strikers were going on trees (Henry, Shevchenko, Ronaldo, Del Perio, Inzaghi, Owen, Shearer, Rooney, Eto’o, Raul, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Trezequet, Anelka and more!). The lack of top strikers is highlighted by the list of names that led the line for their countries in the last 8 of the Euros:

Spain – Alvaro Morata
Germany – Kai Havertz
Portgual – Cristiano Ronaldo
France – Randal Kolo Muani
Netherlands – Memphis Depay
Turkey – Arda Guller
England – Harry Kane
Switzerland – Breel Embolo

If you take Harry Kane out of the equation (who has looked shot this summer), iwould not take any of the other 6 names ahead of Kai Havertz. And it is the same in the Copa America:

Argentina – Lautaro Martinez
Ecuador – Enner Valencia
Venezuela – Salamon Rondon
Canada – Cyle Larin
Columbia – Jhon Cordoba
Panama – Edgar Barcenas
Uruguay – Darwin Nunez
Brazil – Endrick

Half of the Copa America list are journeymen footballers, whilst the likes of Nunez and Endrick are unobtainable. Lautaro Martinez is a player I have always admired, but we are unlikely to persuade him to leave Inter Milan, whom he is a cult hero and will eventually be bestowed with legend status.

I appreciate that there are options outside the 16 nations who have made the quarter finals in the 2 only relevant contental tournaments.

Serhou Guirassy, Artem Dovbyk, Loïs Openda, Alexander Sorloth and Alexander Isak were the men to make up the top 10 of the European Golden Shoe in 2023/24.

Guirassy, Dovbyk and Sorloth are all journeymen strikers in their late 20s who have just had their first decent season in a top European league. We should not be looking at any of them. Loïs Openda is clearly a talent and will be on the shortlist, whilst Newcastle are unlikely to part ways with Isak.

We have long been linked with the likes of Victor Osimhen, Benjamin Sesko, Viktor Gyokeres and Ivan Toney. But all of them have been crossed out (on my list at least):

Osimhen (injury concerns)
Sesko (new contract)
Gyokeres (over priced)
Toney (Personality concerns)

Instead of looking to invest heavily in a new forward, an option could be to stick with Havertz. Playing as a striker in the 2nd half of the season, Germany’s first choice forward grabbed himself 8 goals and 7 assists in 13 games. Were he not already at Arsenal, Kai would be someone fans would be calling for us to sign.

Rather than a forward, we could look to add to the “forward line”, and that means buying a wide forward. And there is one man on everyone’s lips right now: Nico Williams.

I have long been a Nico Williams fan. He looks to have it all – power, pace, trickery and technique. At this Euro’s, the rest of the world have begun to realise just how good he is.

Yes, his goals to games is not particularly great right now, but he is still just 21. These will naturally improve as his career progresses and by playing in a more attacking team.

Williams on the left, Havertz in the middle and Saka on the right would be devastating. they would then be backed up by Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard.

For those that might say “harsh on Martinelli”, we will be playing 50+ games next season as we look to compete on all fronts. We should not be scared of having Saka, Williams and Martinelli competing for wide positions, further backed up by Trossard and Jesus.

Signing Williams also would not mean I do not want us to sign a striker. It might just mean we go for someone to back up and compete with Havertz rather than start ahead of them (if finances work, we might still be able to go for Williams and a top striker).

In the last few days, links with Dortmund striker Karim Adeyemi have intensified. The fee being mooted is €30m.

Adeyemi was once one of the hottest young strikers, but he has not really kicked on to that World Class level. He is, however, just 22.

The German striker come winger reminds me a lot of Isak in both the way he plays and the feeling he could jump to the next level. I could certainly see us accommodating Adeyemi as cover and competition for both Havertz and Jesus.

Ultimately, the question is if we can not fund both buying Nico Wiliams and a top striker, which option would you rather?

Keenos