Arsenal to be Rashford’s Savior

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Marcus Rashford has had a tough 12 months.

Whilst Bukayo Saka took his England penalty miss in his stride and has become one of the best players in England, Rashford’s career has gone in the opposite trajectory since that night in Wembley.

There is a lot to admire about Rashford as a human being.

He has spoken up numerous times in the last 12 months about injustices in the UK and abroad. Always speaking with much intelligence and maturity beyond his 24 years.

But putting your head above the parapet and daring share an opinion also leads to much criticism.

We saw it with Hector Bellerin when he opened up on numerous topics including climate change and race. Many demanded he “concentrate on his football” and stop trying to lecture others.

But he was not lecturing others. He was merely sharing his opinion.

And Rashford is in the same boat.

Whilst it is undeniable that his form has dropped since he spoke out on matters such as school meals and racism, it is unfair to say this is cause and reaction.

Footballers, just like anyone else in society, are allowed to share their view on matters. Sharing his views does not directly affect performance.

So why has he dropped off?

Rashford is clearly suffering mentally.

He took horrendous abuse after missing that penalty. That was coupled with the abuse he was already taking after daring to share his views. Add in playing in a disjointed Manchester United, he looks completely shot of any sort of confident or belief in himself.

Rashford’s drop in form is not an ability problem. It is a mental one.

He needs to be loved again. To have a coach believe in him. To put his arm around him. And Mikel Arteta could be that man.

Arteta has shown he likes players who are intelligent. Who he can mould.

We saw the impact Arteta had on Raheem Sterling at Manchester City when he was facing similar struggles and criticism.

I am confident that if Rashford joined Arteta’s revolution, he will flourish.

But is Rashford what Arsenal need? I would say yes.

Playing out wide on the left, cutting inside onto his right, he is dangerous. He would provide Arsenal with an excellent option on the left hand side competing with Gabriel.

But he would also not be the answer to our centre forward issues.

Rashford, as much as I like him, is not an out and out forward for 38 league games. He is a cover player. But he has shown he is capable of contributing from all side across the front 3.

If we got in another top striker and had them backed up by Rashford we would have excellent squad depth – Rashford would also allow us to take a bit of a risk on someone like Darwin Nunez.

Rashford is also comfortable on the left wing. He would provide fantastic competition for Gabriel Martinelli.

He is also an adequate option on the right, providing cover for Saka.

Despite being in poor form this season, his output in the Premier League is not to dissimilar to Saka’s.

I would be delighted with the squad depth were we to go into 2022/23 with Saka, Rashford, Gabriel and Smith Rowe alongside a new striker.

The only stumbling block will be his wages…

Keenos

Happy 80th Birthday to the original Dover Gooner

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Me and my family are all Arsenal. We’re now into the third generation. But why? Well that is really quite simple. My Dad, Tim Padfield, is an Arsenal supporter. He was inspired when he was 8 years old and read that Arsenal were wearing gold shirts for the 1950 FA Cup Final. From that day on, despite being born and raised in Dover, he’s considered Arsenal to the greatest football club in the World. Today he celebrates his 80th birthday and I want to pay tribute this Great Man on such a special occasion.

On 5th March 1955 he was taken to Charlton’s Valley to see Arsenal play live for the first time. Jimmy Bloomfield scored Arsenal’s goal that day and Dad can still remember it, such is the impact it had on him as boy. In 2022 he still rarely misses a home game, and does more than his share of away games too. Many of you reading this today will either know or recognise my Dad. He is, to coin a phrase, a “proper Arsenal Man” steeped in the very best traditions of our great club.

My brothers, sister and me have been very fortunate (and now our children are too) to have been born into an Arsenal family. Not just an Arsenal family, but one where our Dad actually went to The Arsenal. Dad and his late friend Gordon “Bushey” Noremac first got their season tickets in 1971 but, along with other mates like John Hawkins-Moseling and Vic Carr, had been going to Arsenal for many years. Dad saw every Arsenal final live in the flesh from 1968 up until his run was ended by the debacle of Arsenal playing Chelsea in Baku. In that time my cousin Russell, brothers Mick and Mark, sister Emma, and now our children have all been taken to Wembley to watch Arsenal. If you want an idea as to how Dad’s support for Arsenal has influenced our family let me tell you that his grandsons are Freddie, Liam, George, Patrick and Charlie. Their names aren’t a coincidence.

I was taken to my first game in 1983 in the East Stand Upper (Dad had taken Bushey’s season ticket when he passed away) and have been a regular ever since, while my brothers (who’d have been just 11 and 8 at the time) were in the North Bank throughout the 80’s. I’m guessing my Mum either wasn’t quite aware, or didn’t understand what football terraces were like. Dad made lifelong friends in the East Upper and we all miss those days. Bob Everett, who sat to Dad’s right, sadly died in 2001 and his son Glenn took his place. To our left were the Goodson family who are still great friends to this day and are also into a 3rd generation of match-going supporters. When we moved from Highbury we were all split up, though it gave the chance for my brothers to move their season tickets next to us, but it’s never quite been the same for Dad.

I mentioned that Dad is a regular at away games, and this was also the case on the European tour of the past 25 years or so. He went everywhere from Moscow in the East to La Corunna in the West, and all points in between. He also attended the pre-season tours of Austria before Arsene Wenger was finally bullied into the corporate far-flung friendlies, and here he made other great friends joined by their love of Arsenal – Tony Hodgson, Keith Martin, Rod Miles, Jerry Quy, Jill Smith, John Williamson, Graham Stubbles, Matteo Scarpellini, Roberto Gionchille, Thomas Fuchs, Max Frey, Baard Hagsett, Andreas Kovacs and many others are firm family friends and followers of The Arsenal from across the continent. Dad holds these friendships very close to his heart and our European friends have been very much missed these past two years.

Many readers will know that Dover has an official supporters club affiliated to Arsenal. The Dover Gooners banner will be familiar to a lot of people. Well my Dad is the original Dover Gooner. Without him we’d never have been inspired to do it, for little other reason than we might not have been Arsenal supporters in the first place, never mind lucky enough to have had season tickets for all these years. We have a great group of Arsenal friends from this town of ours. Gary Cattermole and Bill and David Browning are the other Dover Gooners with whom we’ve travelled far and wide, and not forgetting the dear departed Frank Benn who Dad misses immeasurably but is never far from the conversations when going to and from The Arsenal. The supporters club, through our annual dinner, has also given Dad the opportunity to meet many of his heroes as they have been our guest speakers – Charlie George, Eddie Kelly, Bob Wilson, Frank McLintock, Pat Rice, Sammy Nelson, Peter Marinello, Graham Rix, Brian Talbot, Terry Neill, Martin Hayes, Perry Groves, John Lukic, Tony Adams, Gunnersaurus, the FA Cup and Charity Shield have all been to Dover! None of this would have happened if my Dad wasn’t Arsenal.

I asked my Dad what his favourite moments were from his long Arsenal life and he doesn’t hesitate in saying that the Fairs Cup win in 1970 was the greatest Highbury moment, while being right behind the goal for Charlie George’s winner in 1971 provides another. While he might not say it I think that 2014 and 2017 will be up there as well, sharing those special FA Cup wins as he did with all the generations of his family.

There’s are two particular Arsenal memories of my Dad that stick with me. The first was Anfield 89 which we watched in our living room. I was 10 at the time, probably not quite understanding what it all meant to a degree. But I will always remember what my Dad did as soon as the TV broadcast finished; he went to the phone and rang up his Highbury neighbour Bob Everett. They’d seen it all together over the last 20 years, from Brussells in 1980, to White Hart Lane in 1983 for a League Cup win and riot, and every Highbury occasion in between. Now here they were on 26th May 1989 emotionally celebrating Arsenal’s greatest ever night.

The other thing I will always recall, and it makes me emotional even now to write about it, is the last day at Highbury. When they played the montage of those players who had passed away and asked us to remember our own people, Glen Everett reached his arm round Dad as we remembered his own dear father, Bob. Here we were, families deeply connected by The Arsenal. All those people I’ve named in this post, and countless others are also in that group. A shared passion for a football club. THE football club.
As I sit here writing this I realise how lucky I am to be able to support Arsenal. I’m even more lucky that today my Dad is celebrating his 80th birthday and still going strong, still going to The Arsenal. How fortunate we are to have been able to share so much. Happy 80th Birthday Dad. Thanks for being Arsenal.

Dover Marksman

Arsenal pull off “masterstroke” with William Saliba development

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He arrived with a huge weight of expectation in 2019.

William Saliba was labelled “The Mbappe of centre backs” by some following his £27 million transfer to Arsenal aged 18.

Some were putting him straight in the first team, already claiming he was one of the best centre backs in Europe.

Saliba was an exciting prospect, but it was clear to the majority that he still had a long way to go in his development.

His fans seem to forget that he arrived at the club at such a tender age with just 16 senior appearances in France. He was a clear talent but needed development.

As part of the deal with Saint-Étienne, Saliba remained in France for the next season.

That season was beset with injury.

A hamstring injury caused him to be out of the first quarter of the season, and a broken metatarsal led him to miss 8 games in the middle. Those injuries and Covid led him to make just 16 starts in what was supposed to be his first full season of senior football.

He begun 2020/21 at Arsenal, but failed to make a single start in the league and was left out of the Europa League squad.

At the time, Arteta was asked about Saliba’s continued absence on a number of occasions and it is believed language issues and the death of his mother contributed to the France Under-20 international’s slow adaptation to life in England.

“For many reasons, that [last season] wasn’t the transition year that he needed because he had a lot of injuries, some personal issues and also with COVID and the French league getting cancelled, he didn’t have that year,” Arteta said when asked about Saliba’s loan spell.

“He needs that year of transition and we are trying to make the right decisions for him to give him the best transitional year to have the player we want in our future.”

Saliba was supposed to return to Saint-Étienne that summer.

“Unfortunately, all the administrative conditions could not be met in time, in England, for the completion of the deal,” a club statement read.

“The disappointment is great for ASSE and William Saliba, who was particularly determined to return to a club where he has flourished.”

In January, he joined Nice where he quickly established himself as a first team regular.

With Ben White joining in the summer of 2021 to play alongside Gabriel Magalhães, Saliba had still yet to have a full season of senior football playing week in, week out.

That summer, some argued that Saliba was superior to White. But White was clearly ahead in his development having played a full season of Premier League football the year before – and a full Championship season the year before that.

Saliba had yet to experience an English game, was still just 20 and had not played a full season of senior football.

It was decided that another season on loan was what was needed to continue his development.

At Marseille, Saliba has got the game time he would not gained at Arsenal. And he has dramatically improved as a player as a result.

He has played 40 games this season and his form has led him to get a France call-up.

Considering the form of White and Gabriel (Arsenal have conceded the 5th least goals in the league), their fitness (neither has missed a league game since Man City away) and the lack of European football, Saliba would simply not have got an opportunity.

Saliba returns next season with a full season of senior football under his belt and ready to contribute to the first team. And he will be barely 21.

Next season, with a return of European football, Arsenal will need 3 front line centre backs.

White and Gabriel will start, with Saliba being their cover at right and left centre back.

To see the increase workload, take a look at the appearances of defenders at those 3 times above us

Ruben Dias (33), Laporte (31) & John Stones (20) at Manchester City. Virgil van Dijk (38), Joel Matip (33) & Ibrahima Konaté (19) at Liverpool; and Antonio Rudiger (33), Thiago Silva (27) & Andreas Christensen (22) at Chelsea.

Next season, White, Gabriel and Saliba will all play over 30 games across all competitions. With Rob Holding backing them up.

Saliba’s progress at Arsenal might not have been as fast as some had hoped. But slow and steady wins the race.

Next season Saliba will be “like a new signing”. He returns to the club, ready to contribute, with over 100 games under his belt – and potentially a few French caps.

The future is bright; the future is Arsenal.

Keenos