Turkey window still open to Arsenal pair

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One of the mysteries in the transfer window was Arsenal resisting a late bid from Everton to take Ainsley Maitland-Niles on loan.

This led to an outburst from the no-longer-that-young Englishman who shared his frustration on Instagram.

It was a petulant action in an attempt to force a move out of the club. But it was an action he was perhaps forced into due to the clubs behaviour towards him.

Last summer he was on the verge of joining Wolves where he would have instantly gone in to replace Matt Doherty at right back.

At that stage he was on the fringes of the England squad with an outside chance of making it.

Someone at Arsenal decided late on that he would not be leaving the club and the deal fell through.

He would start just 5 league games before being loaned out to relegation-bound WBA; killing any chances he had of making the Euro’s squad.

You can appreciate his 12 months of frustration.

On the verge of leaving and then kept at the club. Whatever he was promised to remain did not materialise.

And now we are in the same situation.

He has played just 19 minutes of Premier League football this season, there was an offer on the table but Edu and Mikel Arteta have decided that they do not want to let him go again.

Most people thought this was because he might be utilised at right back with Hector Bellerin going to Real Betis. But then on transfer deadline day we signed Takehiro Tomiyasu. So why did we keep Maitland-Niles?

Could Mohamed Elneny be the answer?

Whilst the transfer window across the majority of Europe has shut, it is still open in Russia, Portugal and Turkey. It is the later which is of interest.

Elneny spent a solid year on loan at Besiktas in 2019 and his stock will still be high over there.

Last summer there were rumours of a Turkish return but he ended up remaining at Arsenal.

With one year left on his deal, and Arsenal having Thomas Partey, Albert-Sambi Lokonga and Granit Xhaka in the squad, Elneny could be off to turkey if a decent bid comes in. This would see Maitland-Niles “promoted” to 4th choice central midfielder.

Likewise Sead Kolasinac is still at the club.

Not only is he still an arsenal player but he played the last game against Manchester City, ahead of Pablo Mari. A strange decision by Mikel Arteta.

Not to long ago it seemed he was off to join great friend Mesut Ozil at Fenerbache.

That deal is yet to go through; but there is still plenty of time for it to happen.

With it being an international break, I do not expect either of these deals to be confirmed until next Wednesday, when the Turkish window shuts.

But I do expect both to leave us in the next 7 days.

Keenos

Arsenal Fans Unite Against Media

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Arsenal are easy to criticise at the moment.

Pundits know no matter what they say, it is going to get them plenty of attention. They are using Arsenal to further their own careers. But the tide is turning.

In recent days we have seen:

Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph mention that Arsenal were once offered Barcelona starlet Pedri when he was at Las Palmas.

Pedri would have been around 16 or 17 at the time and would have been touted around Europe by his agent. I imagine everyone – from Real Madrid to Manchester United, Chelsea to Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund to Liverpool were offered him.

In the end he joined Barcelona for €5 million.

Why did Matt Law decide to mention Arsenal missing the opportunity to sign Pedri, and not every single other top club other than Barcelona?

It would actually be more concerning if Arsenal did not know about Europe’s best young talents.

Then we have Sky’s Kaveh Solhekol.

What a fool he made out of himself on transfer deadline day, pretending that agents were calling him, text him, trying to get him to help with deals.

On deadline day, Kaveh “received a message” from one of Takehiro Tomiyasu’s “agents” about the new Arsenal player:

He said Tomiyasu “was offered to most clubs in the Premier League. His a good player but the problem his not really a right back nor is he a central defender. I am not sure how he will get on at Arsenal”.

Imagine being a professional journalist and reading out a text from a contact live on Sky. And imagine being an agent working on the deal and sending a journalist a critical text about your client.

Let’s be honest, the message was a figment of Kaveh’s imagination.

You have to wonder how such a nobody with a nothing sports journalism career got such a big role with Sky.

Then we have Gary Neville…

Neville states that he is “not sure what the strategy is. It seems a little all over the place” when discussing Arsenal’s transfer strategy.

You only have to look at the profile of the players we have signed – 21 to 23 years old, young but with experience – to understand our strategy.

A baffling strategy is over at Manchester United who signed talented youngster Jadon Sancho to go alongside Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood – with Edison Cavani as the experienced head to knit them together.

They were crying out for a midfielder to do Paul Pogba and Brune Fernandes’s dirty work, but then on deadline day sign 36-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo to £500k a week. Now that is a transfer strategy that is all over the place; but Neville is oddly silent. Just like his criticism of the Glaziers seems to have gone silent.

What is interesting is any criticism of Neville’s comments was hidden by Sky Sports News Twitter account.

It shows a worrying trend of censorship by Sky Sports

They are happy their presenters criticising and abusing, inviting pundits on with a history of abuse. Employing an ex-player who spat at a fan. But if you criticise their pundits, call them out for being wrong, they will censor you

Finally we have Danny Mills.

Back in July, Mills questioned why Ben White had joined Arsenal.

“I think he’s better than Arsenal right now,” Mills told talkSPORT.

“I just wonder what his ambitions are. I’m surprised bigger and better clubs with more of a chance to win something haven’t come in for him.”

Then on Sky Sports News he states that he is unsure about the signing, that it is underwhelming and White does not improve the Arsenal team.

This is what happens when you do not actually share an opinion. When everything you say is to suit an agenda and you basically make up an opinion for hits, clicks and RTs. You end up eventually contradicting that opinion.

So Mills on one hand says White is too good for Arsenal, and then on the other that he does not improve Arsenal.

Each day a new pundit, presenter, journalist or ex-player criticises Arsenal, more and more fans stand up and call out their bullshit.

Between these pundits and the YouTubers, Arsenal fans are coming together. Becoming more united. The agendas are becoming clear and obvious and more and more are calling them out.

They know their days are numbered.

I look forward to fans sharing their opinions of them with them at Norwich. But then they will claim the victim…

Keenos

Arsenal 2021/22 Squad Review – No player left unregistered

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With the window shutting across the majority of Europe last night, it is well worth reviewing the Arsenal squad.

Last season, due to having too many players, Arsenal were left Mesut Ozil and Sokratis unregistered. Arsenal simply had too many players.

So what is the state of Arsenal’s first team squad 12 months later?

According to Arsenal.com, we have a first team squad of 27 players.

Of those 27, 6 were born on are after 1st January 2000 so are considered “Under 21” and therefore do not require being registered.

You can have no more than 17 non-home grown players in your squad. Arsenal have 15.

Finally we have 6 home grown players that would require registering.

This is a nice place for the Arsenal squad to be as it leaves us a couple of non-home grown spaces for signings in January. We would not have to look to move players on prior to bringing players in.

Also looking forward to next season there is space for those under 21 players born before 1st January 2001 to be accommodated into registered spots without the need to sell – although if all the loan players return we will be in the same situation as 2020 of having too many players.

With no European football, we still probably have too many players to keep everyone happy.

The Turkish and Russian windows are also still open which might see the likes of Sead Kolasinac and Mohamed Elneny depart.

In summary, Edu and his team have done a much better job of reducing squad numbers than they did last year, even though they have probably not sold as many as they would have liked.

Keenos