Tag Archives: Arsenal

Nygaard, Garcia, Ramsdale and More…

Leave a reply

It’s Friday! Well done for getting through another working week Another 5 days closer to retirement!

Yesterday we had some actual transfer news. Sort of.

The club announced Danish keeper Lucas Nygaard would be joining the academy. I know nothing about the 18-year-old, and anyone who claims they have seen him play is a liar.

We have a log history of signing young goalkeepers from foreign shores, but to date none have ever progressed to become a first team regular. So excuse me if I am not exactly excited about his arrival (and nor should I be. He is a kid!)

Staying with goalkeepers, we have been heavily linked with Espanyol’s Joan Garcia.

The 23-year-old played a key role last season as his club won promotion back to La Liga, making 21 club appearances.

A quick Google of his name shows that in the last 24 hours he has also “signed” for Real Madrid, Liverpool and Tottenham. This one feels like an agent using big clubs to get his clients name in the press.

At the same time as the Garcia story, speculation is rising around the departure of Aaron Ramsdale.

Newcastle United seems to be the club he is being linked with the most, although they are also reportedly very close to signing Burnley’s James Trafford.

I did laugh at one article which stated “Newcastle value Ramsdale at £15m”. If this was the other way round, social media would be filled with crying Geordies complaining about the “Red Cartel”, PSR and that Arsenal are a disgrace for trying to by someone for less than they vlue him at.

Of course, the transfer fee mooted in media speculation is often wrong and can differ widely depending on the outlet. I am not sure why so many get their knickers in a twist.

Ramsdale’s book value is currently £8m, so anything above that will be profit for The Arsenal. I would expect any fee for the Englishman to both cover his remaining book value, and the cash needed to pay for his replacement.

The fee being floated for Joan Garcia is £21million, so I would expect Ramsdale to go for around £30m if that will be the cost of his replacement.

One last bit of Arsenal news surrounds Omari Hutchinson.

The former graduate joined Chelsea two years ago. He preferred to move to West London for “first team football” rather than sign a new deal with Arsenal and go out on-loan.

Hutchinson then proceeded to rot in Chelsea’s reserves for a year before going out on loan to Ipswich Town. The move to Chelsea basically cost him a year of his career.

The 20-year-old is now being linked with a permanent move to Ipswich in a deal that could be worth as much as £22m. Unconfirmed rumours are we will get 50% of any transfer fee.

Today it is a case of getting work completed as quickly as possible before heading to the pub. Pre-season starts this weekend with my annual BBQ.

Keenos

Saka left back for England

3 Replies

After the dismal bore draw against Slovenia, Ian Wright floated the idea of Bukayo Saka being moved to left back. This idea has been derided by many. But is it really as crazy as it seems?

A lot of (mainly Arsenal fans), gave Wrighty some abuse for his suggestion. They saw his comments as both a slant on Saka’s form and that Wright would be sacrificing the Arsenal man to et Cole Palmer into the team. Neither of these are true.

A major issue for England this tournament is the team has lacked balance.

Take way that Southgate is playing the wrong formation (he should go 4141) and tactics (why play so defensive minded when we have so many great attackers?), the left hand side has been one of England’s biggest problems.

Kieran Trippier was lucky to make the squad.

He had an average season for Newcastle United, which led to many Geordies calling for him to be dropped. At 33-years-old, his decline this season has been rapid. Were it not for Ben White’s falling out and Reece James’ injury, I do not think Trippier would have been in Southgate’s final squad.

The former Spurs and Burnley player is also not a left back. A quick search of Transfermarkt shows that he ha splayed just one game domestically in that position – a League Cup tie against Barnsley back in 2017.

Trippier offers nothing going forward on that left hand side. He does not use his left foot, does not even pretend to go down the outside and does not hug the touchline. It makes England very narrow and predictable.

Ahead of him, you have Phil Foden.

Foden is a fantastic player. You do not win Premier League Player of the Year being average. But he is best suited centrally, either as the sole 10 or on the right hand side of a pair of 8s.

When Foden plays on that left hand side, he always looks to come inside to get more involved. He is just not your typical “chalk on the boots” winger.

Trippier not being able to play on the outside and Foden looking to come inside all the time has made our left wing almost non-existent. we are basically playing in just 70% of the pitch, which in turn allows teams to defend narrower and restrict our space.

Southgate needs to get width into the team.

He could play Saka on the left wing, but like Foden he will probably look to drop inside to be more involved. The solution therefore could be to move Saka to left back.

Often during his youth career, Saka would play at left back. And when he first broke into the first team, he was utilised both at left back and left wing back. I must say that these were emergency cases and the club always saw him as an attacking player.

Whilst you might lose some of Saka’s attacking contributions on the right hand side, you gain by having a natural left footer at left back. Someone that has the discipline and game awareness to provide width, get chalk on his boots, and make those runs in behind Foden.

It might not be a long-term solution as better teams will look to exploit Saka’s defensive weakness, however against Slovakia this has to be an option.

Slovakia are unlikely to attack us much, so doubling up with Foden and Saka on the left hand side could turn it into a strength.

Southgate then has the option of either Cole Palmer or Jarrod Bowen on the right hand side – whilst they might not be at our mans level, they can both certainly do a decent enough job on that wing.

In my view, you gain more upgrading from Trippier to Saka at left back, then you lose from downgrading from Saka to Palmer/Bowen on the right wing.

Wrighty’s (and mine) comments should not be seen as disrespect for Saka. it is not him being pushed back into defence due to his form. It is a compliment to the young mans versatility that he should be a genuine option there. And sometimes as a player you need to make a sacrifice for the betterment of the team.

Over the years I think of Thierry Henry playing left wing for France, Sergio Ramos playing right back for Spain, Javier Mascherano playing centre back for Barcelona and many others who have been pushed out of their natural position to do a job elsewhere.

I would be surprised if Southgate does select Saka at left back. the knock out stages of an international tournament is not really the time or place to be experimenting. But we can also not keep going with Trippier when he offers so little in attacking positions.

Enjoy your Thursday. Cricket starts at 15:30. Hopefully we smash the Indians!

Keenos

End Spurs title hopes in September, lift the trophy at Anfield

4 Replies

Morning! Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday. Life got a bit on top.

To cut a long story short, I got home from Slovenia at 2am Monday morning, then had a funeral that afternoon. By the time I was awake on Tuesday, it was already time to work and my inbox had over 100 unread emails after a week off work.

This morning has been a little more relaxing. I have already watered my plants, had a coffee in the garden, and now have a spare hour to write some random sentences on a keyboard and hope they make some sort of sense.

Yesterday the fixtures were announced. They are, of course, just a provisional list subject to change. We now await for the TV companies and police to interfere. We will know the final fixtures list in May!

The way I see it, Tottenham will be champions of August again, before we end their real title hopes in September. Around 30 games later we will be lifting the league title at Anfield!

I am of course jesting, although I bet this blog gets picked up throughout the season by those who regurgitate these things without reading.

It will be a tough title race once more. Manchester City have raised that bar to needing 90+ points. Finishing 2nd is not a failure.

Some people are already making noises that if Mikel Arteta does not win a trophy this season he should be gone. I do not think some fans realise how hard it is to compete in England.

Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. 5 into 3 does not go (excluding European success), meaning that at least two clubs a year will miss out on a domestic trophy. And that does not take into account the fact Man City can win it all.

And you also have the smaller teams; the likes of Newcastle, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Tottenham. They will all be having outside hopes of a trophy.

This is not France, Germany or Spain where their are only one (Munich & PSG) or two (Barcelona and Madrid) real big teams. Winning a trophy in England is harder than any other league in the world.

It has been 4 years since we won the FA Cup during those Covid times. The 12 domestic trophies since then have been split between just 4 teams: Manchester City (6 trophies), Liverpool (3), Manchester United (2) and Leicester City (1).

Chelsea have now won a domestic trophy since 2018 (6 years ago), Tottenham are 16 years without a trophy, Aston Villa and Everton are 28 and 29 years respectively and Newcastle have not seen success for nearly 70 years!

In this Manchester City era, failing to win a trophy should not be seen as a success. Likewise, finishing 8th and winning the League Cup should not really be something to celebrate.

We have a tough start, with away trips to Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City in the opening 5 games. Arteta will need to ensure the team come out of the traps a bit quicker than they did last season. He will already be preparing and planning.

In Super Mik we have a brilliant football mind. He reminds me of Arsene Wenger in the early 00s when every time a job at Munich, Barca, Madrid, etc came up he would be linked.

Those that demand high standards will be left scratching their heads with confusion the day Arteta leaves and is then linked with every top job, including Manchester City, in Europe.

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Keenos