Tag Archives: Arsenal

Nicolas Pepe signing shows that playing for The Arsenal is a bigger draw than playing in the Champions League

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“Arsenal will struggle to sign anyone with no Champions League football” fans of Tottenham have cried over the last year.

The signing of Nicolas Pepe shows what I have known all along, players do not care about the Champions League.

Players want to win trophies, they want to earn a lot of money, and they want to play for the best teams, those teams they supported growing up.

So playing for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus delivers all 4. Trophies, money and playing for a top team.

Whilst Man City, Chelsea and PSG have offered the trophies and the money.

Prior to last season the likes of Liverpool could offer the historic club and the money. As can AC Milan and Inter Milan.

In recent years, Manchester United and The Arsenal have bought big despite not being in the Champions League.

They were able to offer the money, at times the trophies, and their biggest draw was they are both amongst the biggest names in world football.

The likes of Nicolas Pepe would have grown up supporting Arsenal, with their numerous French African stars.

Raul Sanllehi recently said “when Arsenal knock on a player’s door, it’s a different knock than other clubs” .

And Sanllehi is absolutely spot on.

Regardless of 3 finishes outside the top 4 in the last 3 years, The Arsenal have still been able to compete and sign some fantastic players.

Nicolas Pepe
William Saliba
Dani Ceballas
Bernd Leno
Sokratis
Matteo Guendouzi
Stephan Lichtsteiner
Lucas Torreira
Saed Kolasinac
Alexandre Lacazette
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Henrikh Mkhitaryan

The fact is that as long as The Arsenal can compete financially, pay the salaries, we are still a bigger draw than someone like Tottenham who can offer the Champions League but not the salaries, success or playing for top club.

A lot of the players mentioned above have also joined from sides in the Champions League from Europe, highlighting just how big a draw it is to play for The Arsenal over the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Lyon.

It is not just The Arsenal that has this kind of pulling power.

Manchester United were able to sign the likes of Paul Pogba, despite no Champions League football. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and AC Milan could compete for any player in the world no matter if they finished 1st or 8th.

Money is king.

Champions League football generates a lot of wealth for clubs, allowing them to spend a lot more on wages. But the top clubs already have that money so do not require Champions League football to pay the top wages.

Regardless of what competition The Arsenal play in, they will always be a bigger draw for players than the likes of Tottenham.

Saliba and Ceballas picked Arsenal over Spurs, and they could only dream of signing a player like Nicolas Pepe.

Playing for The Arsenal is bigger than playing in the Champions League

Keenos

Why haven’t Arsenal signed a senior centre back?

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“We need defenders” is the reply by many to posts about Nicolas Pepe.

Some Arsenal fans are confused as to why we are spending big on one of the most exciting attacking players in Europe whilst neglecting a creaking defence which still contains Shkodran Mustafi. The answer is simple.

Arsenal need to sell before they can buy.

We do not need to sell because we need the money; we need to sell because we have too many defenders.

Sokratis
Shkodran Mustafi
Rob Holding
Laurent Koscielny
Calum Chambers
Kostadinos Mavropanos

As it stands, we have 6 central defenders in our senior squad.

Now you can moan about the quality of those, and any moaning would be justified, but the problem Arsenal face is were we to buy a new face without selling, it would leave us with 7 centre backs. Last season we had 5.

In a balanced squad, you do not need 7 central defenders. Five is probably the maximum.

Last season we went into the season with 5 centre backs: Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding, Koscielny & Mavropanos. Chambers spent the season on loan at Fulham.

Mavropanos played just 4 games all season, despite Holding & Koscielny both having long absences and Arsenal going to 3 at the back at times. Holding started just 9 Premier League games.

We clearly do not need 7 centre backs.

So Arsenal need to sell before they can buy, which is easier said than done.

Before pre-season started, Arsenal would have been looking to move on Chambers and Mustafi – the pair would have commanded over £40million between them.

This would have left Arsenal with 4 centre backs – Sokratis (who would start), Holding (who is injured), Koscielny (who is a faded force) and Mavropanos (unproven), leaving us plenty of space for a 5th choice to partner Sokratis.

Fast forward a year, Koscielny leaves and William Slaiba comes in to replace him.

And then Koscielny decided he no longer wanted to play for Arsenal, leaving the best laid plans in ruins.

With Koscielny likely to leave, it means Arsenal have to keep hold of either Chambers or Mustafi. The clubs preference is likely Chambers as he is:

  1. Home grown
  2. Younger
  3. More versatile

The problem is no bids have come in for Mustafi, and this is what is causing the club staff a head ache.

If Arsenal could get rid of Mustafi, they could then go ahead and sign a new central defender. That would then allow us to give Koscielny his wish – a return to France.

As it stands, Mustafi is going nowhere, which will leave Arsenal having to sell Chambers or, worst case scenario, keep both and lose Koscielny

Keenos

Could this be Arsenal’s best transfer window in over a decade?

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A short apology for the lack of blogs in recent weeks. Real life has taken over and with work being at its peak period, annual leave and weddings I have barely had enough time to think, let alone write a blog.

It has been 6 days since my last blog and a lot has happened since I blogged that Arsenal’s transfers were heating up.

On the Thursday I was at a wedding, sweltering in my suit in an old stately home with no air conditioning. Anyone that has ever met me will know that I am not the fittest of blokes. Let’s just say there was a lot of perspiration.

Since my blog last Tuesday Arsenal confirmed that signing of Dani Ceballos on loan and William Saliba, who was immediately loaned back to St Etienne.

Both transfers interest me because of the deals themselves.

Ceballos is a wonderful player, but the loan deal does not include an option to buy. This means if he excels and has a good season, Arsenal will probably have to pay even more to secure him next summer. This makes me feel that we see him as short term option.

Next summer Ozil will only have 1 year left on his contract. We will have to go big to replace him – an attacking midfielder will be next seasons marquee signing. That is perhaps why we have opted against paying (or pledging to pay) a fee for Ceballos. We want to ensure that we have enough in the bank to go big on a target, rather than have £20 or £30million less due to buying Ceballos.

Of course, if Ceballos does perform, he could become that marquee signing.

Saliba has also been loaned back to St Etienne.

At 18 we have clearly signed him with the long term in view. A replacement for Sokratis in 12 to 24 months rather than an immediate replacement for Laurent Koscielny or Shkodran Mustafi.

My feeling all along was that a senior starting central defender would only come in once Mustafi has left the club.

On a side note, the booing of Mustafi by Arsenal fans was childish. Grow up.

If Koscielny is released by the club in the coming weeks, it leaves us with Sokratis, Mustafi, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Kostadinos Mavropanos. Signing a 6th central defender does not make sense. Either Mustafi or Chambers will be moved on 1st.

Then in 2020, Saliba returns and we have our new centre back signing, Holding, Saliba, Chambers and Mavropanos (or Medley or Ballard).

Over the next couple of days Arsenal will confirm Nicolas Pepe, who flew home from Miami last night.

The French-born-Ivorian will be a real statement of intent. He is one of the best wingers in Europe and it shows that top players would rather play for top clubs who are temporarily out of the Champions League, then small clubs who do not win trophies.

It would not surprise anyone if we did the deal for Kieran Tierney towards the end of the week.

Carlo Ancelotti has recently announced that Napoli are out of the running leaving Arsenal with no opposition for the signing.

Arsenal have reportedly met Celtic’s asking price, but the Glasgow’s 2nd club are unhappy with the structure of the deal, preferring the full fee upfront. Expect the deadlock to be broken this week.

That would leave Arsenal having signed Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba, Dani Ceballos, Nicolas Pepe and Kieran Tiernay. It would be nearly £125million spent excluding whatever fee we have paid for the Ceballos loan deal.

We have always said that the £40million was a lie. We have been proved right. We are not ITK, we just did the maths and looked beyond the clickbait headlines.

The last piece of the jigsaw this summer would be that central defensive signing to replace Mustafi. If we complete that, Raul & Edu should be congratulated on a very good 1st summer transfer window under the new regime.

It is going to be another exciting week.

Keenos