Tag Archives: Arsenal

Why has Dani Ceballos fallen out of favour at Arsenal?

1 Reply

It usually takes a foreign player a few weeks, even a few months to acclimatise to Premier League football.

Players coming from Spain have often struggled with the higher paced, more physical side of English football.

Dani Ceballos has not needed time to settle. He has taken to the Premier League like a duck to water. His man of the match performance against the Burnley Bully Boys was one of the best home debuts I have seen from an Arsenal player.

Ceballos was everywhere. His performance was all action. He attacked with intent, and also defended soundly. He covered every blade of grass.

That is what I blogged following Dani Ceballos full debut performance against Burnley back in August. It seems like that performance will be the highlight of the Spaniards Arsenal career.

Having got 2 assists against Burnley, his Arsenal record has been underwhelming.

8 starts in all competitions, 1 goal, and no more assists beyond those 2 against Burnley.

Ceballos came off the bench against Bournemouth in the cup. It was his first game since Mikel Arteta had joined.

At the beginning of November he picked up a torn muscle that ruled him out until the end of December. Despite being fit and ready to start, Arteta went with other options – including last night picking Joe Willock ahead of Ceballos.

So just why has Ceballos fallen out of favour?

He was signed under Unai Emery, who clearly rated the player. But even under the former manager he was not getting a lot of game time.

It always takes a while for foreign players to settle, and we as fans got a bit excited over his debut. He certainly went backwards after that Burnley performance, and the injury had hampered him.

By the time he returned from injury, Emery was gone and Arteta was in.

Arteta is building something at Arsenal. Not just for the short term but into next season and beyond.

It is unlikely that Ceballos’s deal with turn into a permanent one, so it is logical that Arteta is thinking “why spend time and effort integrating Ceballos into Arsenal’s first team only for him to leave in 4 months”.

The better option would be to give game time to Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka, allowing them to continue their development – play the players who will be here next season.

Playing or not playing Ceballos will not be the difference between us making the top 4 or not.

Against Bournemouth, Saka scored 1, assisted 1, whilst Willock was heavily involved in both guys. The pairs performance justified their inclusion ahead of Ceballos. Martinelli – also picked ahead of Ceballos – got the other assist.

If both young Englishman continue to get game time towards the end of this season, they will continue to develop. That will mean next season they are able to make an even bigger contribution than they are this.

In Martinelli, Saka, Nelson and Willock; Arteta has his “back up front 4” in place for next season. It is better to continue developing those 4 players, then give game time to someone who will not be here in 4 months.

Ceballos, it just has not worked out.

Keenos

FIVE theories why the Pablo Mari to Arsenal deal has stalled

Leave a reply

Arsenal are still negotiating a price

The news breaking from the Flamengo side of the deal is that Arsenal did not have the money to complete the deal, and instead decided to negotiate a loan deal at the last minute.

There are two parts to this theory.

The first is that Arsenal do not have the money to complete the deal. That is rubbish.

£7.5million is not big money for a club like Arsenal. And we would not have bought him across from Brazil to England if we were unable to afford the transfer fee. It would have just been a huge waste of everyone’s time.

The second part that we now want a loan deal has some legs to it.

We can afford ÂŁ7.5million transfer fee, but it had been widely speculated from day one that we favoured a 6 month loan deal. It is logically that we are now playing hard ball, seeing if Flamengo will crack 1st and agree to a loan deal rather than a permanent move.

It is like a game of poker. Who will fold first? Will Arsenal cough up the ÂŁ7.5million, or will Flamengo agree to a loan deal?

Flamengo have moved the goal posts

Why would Flamengo let their centre back fly to England for a medical a few days before their pre-season begins if they had not agreed the fee?

There have been a couple of rumours circulating that the deal for ÂŁ7.5million has been agreed, but then Flamengo demanded more.

It won’t be the first time a selling club have raised their asking price at the last minute.

A failed medical

Pablo Mari will not be the first player to have failed a medical.

Liverpool had gone as far as taking pictures of Nabil Fekir a few years ago. His medical raised an underlying knee issue and the deal was off.

Loic Remy joined Liverpool on tour in USA and had been with Brendan Rodgers’ side for around a week expecting to complete an ÂŁ8.5m move from QPR to the Reds.

To the surprise of QPR boss Redknapp and Remy the deal fell through with Liverpool pulling out claiming he failed a medical due to a heart problem.

Demba Ba has not just failed one but two medicals throughout his career. When playing for Hoffenheim Demba Ba first failed a medical in a move to Vfb Stuggart and later Ba failed a medical in a proposed move to Stoke in 2011.

It would not be under Arsenal’s remit to announce the failed medical. Doctor / Patient confidentiality and all that. It would be down to Mari’s people and his employers.

Other defensive options

There was plenty of logic behind signing Pablo Mari. But it is also logical that in the last few days, one of Arsenal’s major defensive targets has come available, and we have dropped our interest in Mari to pursue a better, longer term option in the closing days of the transfer window.

The deal is simply not complete

Perhaps the most logical reason why Mari is back in Brazil is that the plan was always for him to come across to London, have a medical, and then fly back home.

With him not having played for a month, Arsenal might have wanted to judge his fitness and ability to make an instant impact, before completing negotiations.

 

Following Shkodran Mustafi’s injury against Bournemouth, Mikel Arteta said “We have a very clear intention of what we wanted to do in the market with the resources we have. If we can do it that’s fine but his fitness won’t change that”

Signing a short term option in defence was always the aim this January. The incoming player was likely to replace Mustafi. Now instead of him replacing Mustafi who leaves on an outgoing transfer, he will replace Mustafi due to injury.

The only thing Mustafi changes is the pendulum has swung towards Flamengo if the clubs are still negotiating, as Arsenal are a little more desperate.

Likelihood is the deal will go through and all those who criticised the club after he flew back based on some lies from attention seekers on Twitter will delete their tweets.

Note: And within minutes of this blog being published it was announced that Mari is flying back to England to complete his deal. Thus highlighting that Charles Watts had it spot on. The plan was always for him to go back to Brazil following his medical.

Keenos

FA are not allowed to reward FA Cup winners with Champions League spot

2 Replies

Following Jurgen Klopp’s refusal to be in the dug out for Liverpool’s replay against League One Shrewsbury Town, the conversations have taken place about how to “restore some pride in the FA Cup”.

The most commonly heard solution that many fans and journalists propose is to “give the winners of the FA Cup and Champions League place”.

Whilst in theory, it is a good idea, the fact is UEFA regulations do not allow for it.

UEFA have a 108 page document outlining the “Regulations of the UEFA Champions League”. Article 3 outlined “Entries for the Competition”.

3.01 UEFA member associations (hereinafter associations) may enter a certain number of clubs for the competition through their top domestic championship, in accordance with the association coefficient rankings, drawn up in accordance with Annex D. No more than four clubs may qualify for the competition through each domestic championship. These rankings also determine the associations’ positions in the access list ( Annex A), which in turn determines the stage at which each club enters the competition.

3.02 Associations are represented on the following basis:

  1. one representative: winner of the top domestic championship;
  2. two representatives: winner and runner-up of the top domestic championship;
  3. three representatives: winner, runner-up and third-placed club in the top domestic championship;
  4. four representatives: winner, runner-up, third- and fourth-placed clubs in the top domestic championship.

Gone are the days when the national association could pick their own criteria and nominate who they wanted to enter UEFA competition. UEFA now dictate who can and can not qualify.

When it comes to the Champions League, the Entries for Competition is clear – all entries must come from the top domestic championship, in the order sides finished.

Previously, the runners-up of the FA Cup would qualify for the Europa League (or UEFA Cup in old money) if the winners of the competition had already qualified for Europe. This changed in 2015, switching the place to the next best placed in the Premier League.

This denied fans of Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Wolves a place in Europe.

Like with the Champions League spots, this was to a decision made by the FA or Premier League, but one dictated to them by UEFA.

Only 104 pages in the “Regulations of the UEFA Europa League”. Again Article 3 outlines the Entries for the competition.

3.01 UEFA member associations (hereinafter associations) may enter the winner of their national cup competition (hereinafter domestic cup), as well as a certain number of other clubs for the competition through their top domestic championship, in accordance with the association coefficient rankings, drawn up in accordance with Annex D. Only one single team per club may be entered.

3.02 Associations are represented on the following basis:

  1. one representative: winner of the domestic cup;
  2. two representatives: the winner of the domestic cup and the club which finishes the top domestic championship immediately below the club which qualifies for the UEFA Champions League;
  3. three representatives: the winner of the domestic cup and the two clubs which finish the top domestic championship immediately below the club(s) which qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

3.03 In special circumstances, the winner of another official domestic competition may be entered for the UEFA Europa League in place of the lowest ranking top domestic championship representative referred to in Paragraph 3.02(c), provided such a competition has been approved by UEFA before the start of the season in question (see Annex A).

3.04 If the winner of the domestic cup qualifies for the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League via the domestic championship, the highest ranking nonqualified domestic championship club qualifies for the UEFA Europa League at the stage initially reserved for the lowest ranking top domestic championship representative. If the winner of the domestic cup qualifies for UEFA Champions League, the access stage initially reserved for the domestic cup winner is reserved for the club which finishes the domestic championship in the highest position out of all the clubs which qualify for the UEFA Europa League from the association concerned (see Annex A). In both cases each representative of the domestic championship then enters the competition at the stage initially reserved for the domestic championship representative ranked immediately above it.

So the FA and Premier League’s hands are once more tied by UEFA.

If the winner of the domestic cup qualifies for the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League via the domestic championship, the highest ranking nonqualified domestic championship club qualifies for the UEFA Europa League

UEFA have made it clear

Champions League places are rewarded on league position
Domestic cup runners up may not enter the Europa League

Keenos