Tag Archives: Danny Welbeck

Arsenal and Adidas, Welbeck and Iwobi, Laughing and Harry Kane

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Arsenal and Adidas

As revealed on this site in March, Arsenal are in talks for a double your money deal with Adidas.

I have seen values ranging from £40m up to 60m floating about. My theory is that it will probably be in the middle of these – about £50m.

This might seem “low” in comparison to the £75m Manchester United deal, and the £60m Chelsea deal, but these are both long terms (Man U was 10 years, Chelsea 15 years).

As we saw with a 15 year deal with Emirates, the football world moves quickly

When in 2006, our deal with Emirates started, it was market leading. A 15-year deal estimated at £100 million to sponsor the stadium, combined with a 7-year shirt sponsorship. It was quickly outdated.

My bet is that Arsenal will go for less money per season from Adidas, but a short deal, likely 5-years.

This means we will be in a position to renegotiate the deal in 2024. Who knows what the footballing landscape will look like then. Meanwhile, Chelsea will still have another 9 years to go on their deal.

I also would not be to surprised if Puma come in with a late offer like they did the last time. They do not want to be left with no top English team wearing their shirts.

Welbeck and Iwobi

The pair are often labelled as not good enough ,and get a lot of justified criticism from fans. But against Southampton both performed well.

2 goals and an assist for Welbeck, 2 assists for Iwobi.

Are either of them ever going to be good enough to be regular starters? Probably not.

But football is a squad game, and unlike Manchester City or Manchester United, we do not have the finances to dramatically increase our wage bill.

Arsenal spend about £200m a year on wages, Manchester United nearer £300m.

That means the likes of Iwobi and Welbeck are important squad players. And if they put in performances like they did against Southampton more regularly, they can then be relied upon a bit more.

Laughing and Harry Kane

Spurs. The gift that keeps on giving.

So desperate are they for any sort of success, they have appealed a goal scored at the weekend. This is not an goal that was put down as an Own Goal that they are claiming, but a goal scored by another Tottenham player.

Cristian Erickson scored a free kick, and Harry Kane “swore on his daughter’s life” that it brushed his shoulder.

Firstly, Harry Kane shows he has a mental age of 12. Swearing on someone’s life is something that most of us stopped doing in secondary school.

Kane is 5 goals behind Mo Salah in the race for the golden boot. He knows that in his Tottenham career to date, he has won nothing but individual trophies. He knows the reality is playing for Spurs that he will not win any sort of team honours.

I will always remember Thierry Henry’s comments about the Ballon D’or (or lack of). His opinion stuck with me. That individual honours are not important, that it is what you win with your team that defines you as a player.

This showed through in Henry’s play. He was just as happy getting an assist as he was scoring goals. I have not seen as complete a striker as him. 30 goals a season, 20 assists a season.

Spurs appealing a goal scored by one of their own players just reeks of desperation.

3 golden boots in a row, 100 Premier League goals, and whatever else Kane might win as an individual will ultimately mean nothing if he ends up with less trophies for Spurs than Yaya Sanogo for Arsenal.

Try winning something properly, Harry, rather than whinge and moan until you get given a trophy to shut you up.

Keenos

7 OUT for Arsenal’s trip to Watford

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Arsenal could be without seven first team players for their trip to Watford in the Premier League this weekend following the international break

Prior to the final round of World Cup qualifiers, Arsenal were already without Laurent Koscielny, who had been sidelined for the Gunners over the past few weeks. The French centre back has seen a flair up of a long-term existing injury to his achilles. His chances of being fit for Saturday’s game were 50/50.

Koscielny may well be rushed back into the game with centre back partner Shkodran Mustafi having limped off in Germany’s 5-1 win over Azerbaijan on Sunday. The German international could miss the club’s next seven fixtures having suffered a torn ligament just 36 minutes into the game.

Another who did not travel with his country was Mesut Ozil has played just 17 minutes of Arsenal’s last 6 games as he recovers from a knee injury.

Two with a chance of returning are Francis Coquelin and Danny Welbeck.

Welbeck picked up a groin strain against Chelsea and hopes to be fit for the match, whilst Coquelin has been out since the Bournemouth fixture which took place on the 9th of September.

Calum Chambers on the other hand is not in contention for the clash. He is suffering a knee injury that will keep him out until the end of the month.

While Santi Cazorla will be out until the new year after suffering Achilles problems all the way back in October 2016.

Keenos

 

Theo Walcott – Not simply the best, but maybe better than all the rest?

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So yesterday’s blog bought out a response from someone on the She Wore Facebook page with regards to Theo Walcott. And that comment has inspired this blog.

The comment was a simple one. That of all of the players mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Walcott was the biggest freeloader.

I responded in my usual matter of fact way; 19 goals last year. Walcott is a better winger than Ox, Welbeck, Perez or Joel Campbell.

The response from someone was as expected. Are you having a laugh???

No, I was not having a laugh. Theo Walcott, whilst he might not be mine or anyone’s full cup of tea, is the better than those others named above.

Theo Walcott knows where the net is. Not too many wide men outscored him last year. Just the top, top players. The likes of Eden Hazard and Alexis Sanchez.

He has scored 104 goals in 381 games for Arsenal. That is a better ratio than Freddie Ljungberg. Add in the goals for Southampton in the Championship, Walcott scores a 1 goal in every 3.7 games.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has always flattered to deceive. He has the ability to beat players for fun, but then will run to the corner flag and stick one into row Z. He is currently loving the celebrity life style, and is acting Hollywood on the pitch.

The simple fact is, he does not have any end product. In his entire career for Arsenal, he has scored just 20 goals. Just one more goal than Theo Walcott scored last season. 20 goals in 196 games. Add the goals in League One for Southampton, he has scored a massive 30 goals in 239 games. That is 1 in 8.

One player who will always frustrate everyone is Danny Welbeck. He has the pace, he has the power, he looks like an elegant gazelle when running. But put him in front of goal and he looks like Bambi.

Twice against Stoke City at the weekend he had the ball with the goal in front of him. Both times he took 3 touches of the ball and failed to get a shot off. You can not take 3 touches of the ball in the box in the Premier League and fail to get a shot off.

Even when he scored against Leicester, he needed 3 touches of the ball. And that was 3 years out, with an open goal.

When we signed Welbeck from Man U, there fans told us exactly what it was we were getting. A player who was class until he had to score. It is crazy to think he has scored just 55 goals in his career, at a ratio of 1 in 4.5.

Then we come to Joel Campbell. Has there ever been a player who has produced so little who ends up so highly rated by many? He certainly falls into the category of “Wenger does not rate him, so lets rate him, because we refuse to agree with Wenger”.

Joel Campbell is now 25 years old. He is no a youngster anymore. He joined Arsenal back in 2011 and has scored just 4 goals for the club.

In his defence, he has spent most of that time on loan throughout Europe. But lets be honest, he has not exactly set the world alight whilst on loan.

He scored a couple of world class goals for Olympiacos back in the day, but it has been a career of averageness.

Let me but it another way, if Arsenal were interested in signing a 25 year old winger from sporting Lisbon who last season struggled to start for them – just 7 league starts, would you be excited, or would you be screaming for Wenger to go?

It would be the later.

During his loan spell at Lisbon last season, he scored 3 goals in all competitions. This bought his career total to 25 goals in 200 games. A fantastic 1 in 8.

Lastly we have Lucas Perez. A player who some feel has not had his chance. The truth is different.

Perez scored against Sutton (it was a cross), Basel, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth. Not exactly giants of the game are they?

Perez is a journeyman. A career that has taken him from Spain to Ukraine, on to Greece, back to Spain, then North London. 4 years playing in average Eastern European leagues did not get him the goals you would expect.

Only twice has he ever hit more than 10 goals in a season. The first was for PAOK in Greece. The second was the year he before he joined Arsenal .He scored 17 goals for Deportivo in 2015/16. That is 2 less than Walcott scored for Arsenal last season.

His record of 1 in 3.4 is superior to Walcott, but he has played in defensively inferior leagues.

If you look at just the last 5 years for Walcott – he was a very slow starter – his goal scoring record is one goal ever 2.5 games.

Theo Walcott might not be what we want, but he is better than what we have. And anyone that disagrees is an idiot. Simple as.

Keenos