Arsenal could be set for goal keeper headache if Leno leaves

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Lots of rumours doing the rounds that Bernd Leno has decided his time in London has reached a natural end and he is looking for a return to Germany.

None of these rumours have yet to be confirmed by any reliable journalist, so at the moment it is just ideal speculation, but there is usually no smoke without fire.

Leno joined the club in 2018 on a five-year deal from Bayer Leverkusen for £19.2million. He has two-years left on that deal.

The speculation is that he does not want to renew his contract. That the 2 years remaining will take him to 31-years-old at point he would have spent 5 years in England.

That leaves Arsenal in a predicament.

Do we cash in this summer, recouping the fee and reinvesting? Do we keep him for another year before selling him in 2022 for a much lower fee? Or do we look to hang on to him for the duration of his contract, happy to lose him for nothing in 2 years time?

A lot has changed at Arsenal since Leno joined.

In 2018 Arsenal were very “German heavy”.

Leno was signed to the club by German Sven Mislintat, joining compatriots Meust Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi. Also at the club was German-born-Bosnian Sead Kolašinac.

Also at the club were Granit Xhaka, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; all of whom had spent some time in the Bundesliga.

And the day after Leno’s signing was confirmed, he was joined by Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund.

Three years later and Ozil, Mustafi, Kolašinac, Mkhitaryan and Sokratis have all left the club – leaving just Xhaka and Aubameyang. Neither Aubameyang or Xhaka are likely to be here beyond 2023 (when Leno’s contract expires).

Arsenal is now a very different place, with a very different squad make up.

So it is only natural that Leno is looking around the dressing room, seeing the German-speaking contingent diminish and questioning his own future.

The club backed Leno over Emi Martinez last summer – with the Argentine keeper refusing to sign a new contract unless guaranteed the number one shirt.

Some argued at the time that Arsenal had got rid of the wrong man, but it would have been hard for the club to back a keeper with barely 20 starts under his belt against a man with nearly 300.

With these rumours circulating, those “Martinez fans” will come back out of the woodwork and say “I told you so”. But the reality is neither Leno or Martinez have had a particularly good season.

Both have made a few mistakes leading to goals, and had Martinez made the errors for Aston Villa in an Arsenal shirt we would be talking this summer about upgrading on him.

So what is the solution to Leno?

Well we could keep him for another season, promising to allow him to leave next season. But his form has not been great and this could be an ideal time to cut our losses and look to upgrade.

It would not be a surprise if Arsenal signed Mat Ryan on a free transfer in a deal that would be similar to Cedric last year – IE get the player in on loan for 6 months before signing him.

Ryan is a solid keeper and will make a great choice as number 2, but he is probably not good enough for number one.

Wojciech Szczęsny has been linked in recent weeks. But he is still error-prone, making another gaff for Juventus last weekend. There is a reason the Italian giants are looking to get rid.

Ajax’s André Onana is a name that has been mentioned a few times in recent weeks. He could be available for as little as £7million.

The 25-year-old is currently serving a 12-month suspension which is due to last until February 2022, having tested positive for Furosemide following an out-of-competition test.

Onana has always maintained that he accidentally took medicine that was prescribed for his wife and the Dutch Association of Professional Footballers has condemned the length of the ban as “disproportionate” and “incomprehensible”.

I have always maintained a zero tolerance stance to doping – you get caught once you should get a life ban.

Regardless of whether Onana took the medication “accidently” he should take ultimate responsibility of what goes into his body – like those who claim they ate “tainted meat”.

Onana would also not be the first sportsman to claim he “accidently” took a drug, and the concern is Furosemide is a masking agent. So if he took it deliberately, what was he hiding?

The interesting part of the Onana story is that Arsenal were looking to bring him in in January as Leno’s understudy prior to his ban.

Were Arsenal preparing a bid for him because they were already aware of Leno’s reported unhappiness? Or do they class him as a number 2 rather than first choice?

I am sure as the rumours of Leno’s impending departure continues, we will be linked to a lot more names…

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 3 – 1 WBA

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Arsenal (2) 3 West Bromwich Albion (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 9th May 2021. Kick-off time: 7.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Bukayo Saka; Mohamed Elneny, Dani Ceballos; Nicolas Pépé, Emile Smith-Rowe, Willian Borges da Silva; Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Hector Bellerin, Kieran Tierney, Alexandre Lacazette, Martin Ødegaard, Alex Rúnarsson, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Cédric Soares, Eddie Nketiah.

Scorers: Emile Smith-Rowe (29 mins), Nicolas Pépé (35 mins), Willian (88 mins)

Yellow Cards: Dani Ceballos

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 66%

Referee: Peter Bankes

Assistant Referees: Neil Davies, James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: David Coote

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Mike Dean; AVAR Dan Robathan

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

After last Thursday’s debacle, it is now imperative for us to get maximum points from the remaining four matches left to play this season, starting tonight with the Baggies. Let’s go!

Although the visitors put us under a bit of pressure in the early stages of the game, we managed to contain them, and as early as the sixth minute, our first chance of the match appeared when Bukayo Saka passed the ball to Nicolas Pépé, who hit it on the half-volley over the bar. West Bromwich Albion took the game to us with a couple of good chances, courtesy of Matheus Pereira, in the first quarter of an hour of the match. We had a penalty appeal turned down shortly afterwards, when Darnell Furlong brought down Bukayo Saka with a sliding tackle, but the appeal was denied. After twenty-two minutes, we had our first shot on target, when a Mohamed Elneny shot was easily retrieved by goalkeeper Sam Johnston, and just before the half hour, a low cross from the left, from Bukayo Saka, found Emile Smith-Rowe who was running in; he made no mistake in opening the scoring from close range. Just six minutes later, we were two goals ahead, when Nicolas Pépé cut in from the right flank, and hit an unstoppable left-footed shot past the outstretched Sam Johnstone, and into the the net. With two goals ahead, we started to play the ball around a bit, and as we were in control now, our chances to score more goals started to arrive thick and fast. Calum Chambers, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pépé were all unlucky in not scoring a third goal, but it made no difference anyway, as we went into the break deservedly in the lead.

And so the second half started in earnest, with confident play; within five minutes of the restart, Nicolas Pépé and Emile Smith-Rowe should have scored with excellent efforts, but in both instances, the Baggies’ goalkeeper pulled off two good saves to stop Arsenal getting their third goal of the night. After a couple of failed attempts by the visitors, we broke out quickly from deep, Bukayo Saka received the ball and took it to the byline, and his subsequent low cross only just evaded the trusty right foot of Emile Smith-Rowe. On the hour, Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette, and a couple of minutes later, Emile Smith-Rowe was substituted by Kieran Tierney. Unbelievably, a few minutes after our substitutions came onto the pitch, Matheus Pereira received the ball in his own half, ran the whole length of the pitch, and with a low shot taken from just outside of our penalty area, went past the outstretched arm of Bernd Leno and into the back of the net. Obviously the goal woke the visitors up, and the game became a contest again, and because of this, Thomas Partey replaced Dani Ceballos with just fifteen minutes of the game remaining. Albion started to push us back into our own half looking for the equalising goal, which made the last ten minutes of the game an interesting one, to say the least. Literally, as the clock showed ninety minutes, Willian finally scored our third of the night with his trusty left foot, with a well-taken free-kick from just outside the penalty area to seal proceedings; although there was five minutes injury time, the match drifted away, and we ended up three-one winners here tonight.

The headlines from this match will be mainly based around the fact that West Bromwich Albion are relegated, and our victory over them was the final act, which gets us off the hook somewhat. Our defence was shaky at times to say the least, and as for the embarrassing sight of Matheus Pereira literally cantering through the midfield and defence to score was truly embarrassing to see happening at a club like Arsenal. Likewise, the strikers missing chance after chance in front of the Baggies’ goal was just ridiculous and needs to be addressed too. Three points is always great, but a bigger test will be the Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. Will we turn up?

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, 12th May at 8.15pm (Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Broken, Broken Arsenal

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Arsenal are broken. And the bleak outlook is there is not an obvious way to fix us.

Under the Arsene Wenger / Ivan Gazidis regime, Arsenal declined, and the solution was clear. It was time for Wenger and Gazidis to go.

Bring in a new manager with fresh ideas and a CEO who will drive us forward.

Wenger departed, in came Unai Emery, Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat.

The 3 new appointments, alongside Gazidis, was supposed to bring in the new era for Arsenal. A separation of powers.

Emery deals with what is happening on the pitch, Sanllehi off the pitch, Mislintat the recruitment and Gazidis the commercial side.

It quickly fell apart with Gazidis, and then Mislintat leaving.

Despite the changes, Arsenal continued to be broken. But the feeling was we were making gains off the pitch under Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham, and the problem was on the pitch with Unai Emery.

So Emery fell and another “new era” was set to begin following the appointment of Mikel Arteta, who led us to FA Cup triumph.

The first post-Wenger era came to an end when Sanllehi was relieved of his position, meaning all the men in to replace Wenger had departed the club.

So the 2nd new era. Arteta, Edu and Venkatesham. And it has collapsed once more.

The solutions were obvious under Wenger / Gazidis, and under Emery. The worry this time is the solution is not obvious, and it highlights just how broken the club is.

You can get rid of the manager, and following many limp displays that is probably the right decision. But will that change anything?

A new man comes in and he still has the same players.

The same set of players who have now let down 3 managers.

The squad needs a total overhaul. But it needed one under Wenger, and under Emery.

Including Wenger’s last season, Arsenal have spent £420million in the previous 4 seasons. We also have one of the highest wage bills in world football.

So despite spending on average over £100million a year, we still have a squad where the “not good enough” out weigh the “good enough”.

So we have a new manager, but do we trust those around him to search, select and recruit the right players to play that managers way? And can we get rid of those players at the club sitting on big contracts?

Do you trust a recruitment team that thought bringing Willian in on a 3 year, £200k a week contract was a good idea?

So  a new manager, whilst it might improve the performances on the pitch to some extent, it would not solve Arsenal’s problems.

Any impact of a new manager would be temporary with the club in disarray off the pitch.

We also have the European Super League. I am bored of talking about it now but it is clear that those running the club, both Venkatesham and the Kroenke’s, are not working in the interests of the Arsenal fans.

So you go through it one by one:

  • The players are not good enough
  • The manager is not good enough
  • The recruitment is not good enough
  • The men running the club are not good enough
  • The owners do not care enough

The only part of the club that seems to be working is the academy. But how long until the poison running through the first team begins to drip down to the academy? How long till we start losing our bright young prospects to Tottenham, to Chelsea or West Ham?

So do we sack Arteta, Edu and Venkatesham? People might cry for that, but then who replaces them? And who is making the decision on who comes in to replace them?

If we got rid of all 3 in one swipe, it will be the 3rd overhaul of the clubs management in 4 years. Anyone you just can not run a successful business by continually getting rid of the senior leadership team.

I have never worried so much about where the club are going then I do now. Because the reality is I do not understand where we are going. What we are driving towards and how we will get there.

And I also think that those working for the club do not know that either, and that is the biggest worry.

Keenos