Tag Archives: Arsenal

5 Alternatives to Thomas Lemar

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The Lemar saga keeps rolling, rolling, rolling on. Whilst I think the epical transfer will eventual happen, it might be worth looking at a few other potential targets that Arsenal could move for, if the Lemar deal ends up dead in the water.

Riyad Mahrez

Arsenal have long been linked with the Leicester City play maker. If Arsenal are looking at Lemar as an option who can play both out wide, and behind the striker – providing competition for Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez – then Mahrez would be a decent option.

2015/16’s PFA Premier League player of the year would give the side another attacking option. He would be the closest ‘like for like’ to Lemar on this list.

I feel the only reason we are going for Lemar ahead of Mahrez is due to age. Lemar is 21 and has a very high potential ability bar. Mahrez is 26 and the finished article.

If the Lemar deal does fall through, Mahrez must be top of the list.

Jean Seri

The unknown-but-everyone-knows-about-him is predominantly a defensive midfielder. There has been talk that Arsene Wenger is targeting Lemar as a long term replacement for Santi Cazorla. That he will mould the Frenchman into a deep lying play maker.

If the Lemar deal does fall through, a move for Seri, whilst a different type of midfielder, will provide the reinforcements in the middle of the park.

Personally I think we should be targeting Seri and Lemar. They are completely different players. Lemar attacking, Seri defensive. By forcing Lemar to be deeper and defend, you lost a lot of his talent.

It should be Seri and Lemar, not Seri or Lemar.

Ross Barkley

Since Paul Gascoigne, there has been a long list of players labelled the next Gazza who have failed to ever fulfil their promise. Jack Wilshere is one, Ross Barkley another.

There has never been any doubting Barkley’s natural talent. The concern is his consistency. He has never quite put it together for a run of 10/15 games, let alone a season. If it ever does click that he is on the verge of wasting his talent, he could become a world class player. But at 24 in December, time is running out.

He has pace, power and ability abundant, but does he have it between the ears.

Gareth Bale

If Arsenal are looking to go big, could a bid for Real Madrid Galactico materialise?

A deal for Bale would only probably happen if Arsenal fail to sign Lemar AND end up losing Alexis Sanchez. The club could package up the £50m put aside for Lemar, add the £50 they get for Bale, to enable them to offer a world record transfer fee for the former Spurs player.

Suso

The former Liverpool youngster has revitalised his career in the last 18 months, becoming a key player for AC Milan last season.

With AC Milan’s new found money, Suso might find himself on the fringes of the future. Like Lemar, he can play in all 3 positions behind the striker, so would be a good, and potential cheap, 2nd choice. He would provide the back up needed for Ozil and Sanchez, as well as be able to play outwide if we change up the formation.

Keenos

 

If Coutinho is worth £133m, how much is Mesut Ozil?

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So Liverpool have “slapped a £133m price tag on Brazilian midfielder Coutinho.”

It forces to me to ask two questions:

  1. What are they smoking up their at Anfield?
  2. How much would Mesut Ozil be worth?

For me, Coutinho is one of the most overrated players in the game. Watch him properly rather than just the highlights.

He has 10 shots a game from the edge of the area. The majority go over. Once every 10 games, he catches one right and it flies into the top corner. Fair play. But that is 1 in 100 shots. Is it really that good?

He is a poor mans Frank Lampard. Shoots at every opportunity, misses more often than not. But he is praised by the fan boys who ignore the games he go’s missing (every game he does not score), always shoots one the edge of the area – even if there is a better placed player available, and is frankly average.

Coutinho is basically the Brazilian Andria Townsend.

He is not even good enough to clean Mesut Ozil’s boots.

Keenos

Arsenal star tees up a sick day

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We all know that colleague who, at around lunch time, starts coughing a little. Nothing to obvious. Just a little splutter every now and again. As the afternoon go’s on, the coughing increases. They start making a bit of a noise. Oh I’m feeling a bit rough they mutter loudly to themselves, just as the boss walks past.

They appear to be battling on, bravely. The cough is annoying you, but they can’t help getting a little sick. See you tomorrow they say, as they skip out the office. As they walk down the road, the cough miraculously disappears. It is like leaving work has cleared up their oncoming illness. So they go to the pub, to meet their mate, which they had prepared to meet that evening previously.

Of course, when they started to feel ill in the afternoon, they did consider letting their pals know that they would flake out. That they would not turn up, as they were feeling rough, planned to eat a curry, have a glass of hot whiskey and lemon, and get an early night. So that they would be at work the next day.

But their instant recovery has changed their mind. They go to the pub. Meet their mates. Have some beer. A lot of beer. And stumble through their day at 2am with a kebab in hand.

And 6am when their alarm go’s off, suddenly they do not feel to great. It isn’t the 10 pints, or the kebab they ate, or the 4 hours sleep, it is that dreaded cold that was coming on yesterday afternoon returning with vengeance.

So they text their boss real sorry Steve. Feeling rough today. That cough I had yesterday has turned into full blown flu. Real sorry about this but I will not be in today.

And they roll over, go back to sleep, before waking up at lunch, going KFC and spending the afternoon playing FIFA, cuddling his dogs..

They think their colleagues are none the wiser. Imagining them sitting their saying poor Alex, he looked like he was getting ill last night, I hope he is OK, as they pick up his work load, to ensure that when he is well enough to work, he does not have too much of a back log.

The reality is we all know what happened. Alex spent an afternoon setting up a sick day, because he knew he was going out on the smash with his mates. He knew he would be hungover the next day, but was unable to book the time off, as it was short notice, and he had used all his holiday up on a 4 week trip to Chile earlier in the year.

And this is basically what Alexis Sanchez is doing, via the modern method of social media. Rather than coughing in the office, he has stuck up on Instagram that he is ill. He is due back to training with Arsenal on Sunday, but he will be too ill to fly. Wrapped up in his duvet in Chile with Atom and Humber licking his shaft. And the speculation begins…

Keenos