Tag Archives: denis suarez

Denis Suarez – A Short Story

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In hindsight, the signing of Denis Suarez has been a poor one. But the criticism floating around of Suarez, Arsenal and Unai Emery is unfounded.

Suarez joined when Arsenal were struggling in the final 3rd.

Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil were both out of favour and suffering from minor injuries. The club made a decision to bring in an additional attacking midfielder and Suarez was that man.

It was not Arsenal’s fault that Ozil and Ramsey returned to form / favour in February, meaning that Suarez’s game time was restricted.

It was also not Arsenal fault that Suarez picked up a couple of niggling injuries that hampered his progress. The latest of which has seen his season end.

This is not a Kim Kallstrom situation where he was signed with a broken back. Suarez was fit and ready to go. Any player can get injured at any time.

I saw someone say “Mislintat must be laughing” after the rumours that he quit over the recruitment of Suarez.

For a start, he quit because he was turned down for an internal promotion. He has ended up at Stuttgart who are fighting relegation in the Bundesliga. Next season he could be the Director of Football at a German 2nd tier club. He does not exactly have much to laugh about…

The Suarez deal did not work out. Let’s wish him well and move on.

Keenos

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Has Denis Suarez fallen out of favour at Arsenal?

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What is happening with Denis Suarez?

When Arsenal were first linked with Denis Suarez in January, it was clear that Unai emery was pushing for a move for him because he no longer wished to utilise Aaron Ramsey or Mesut Ozil.

There was talk at the time that had Arsenal completed the move early enough in the month, that they might release Ramsey to Juventus earlier – making a couple of million from the deal whilst boasting the Italian’s Champions League chances.

It was a long drawn out transfer process.

Arsenal wanted the Spaniard with an option to buy at the end of the season, Barcelona wanted to either insert a compulsory purchase order in the deal, or have Suarez sign a new deal to protect them from losing him on a free in 18 months.

In the end Suarez agreed a new contract with Barcelona, and Arsenal secured their man on a loan with an option to buy.

It is now two months to the day since Suarez completed his move to Arsenal and he is still awaiting his first start.

To date Suarez only has a handful of substitute appearances to his name. Meanwhile Ramsey and Ozil have returned to Emery’s first team plans – starting 9 of the last 10 games between them.

It is odd watching Ramsey or Ozil starting pretty much every game whilst the man signed to “replace” them is on the bench, getting 10 minutes here, 12 minutes there.

So what is happening with Suarez?

The first theory is that he is still very much part of Emery’s future plans. That we moved for an early loan deal for him so that he could spend 6 months acclimatising to the Premier League whilst Arsenal have both Ramsey and Ozil still at the club.

He would not be under pressure to play, and could spend his time getting both physically and mentality prepared for the Premier League. Bulking up in the gym and physical training sessions meaning that come August, he is ready to go.

This argument is logical, and we have previously seen Arsenal do this before with Emmanuel Adebayor and Jose Reyes. Both signed in January with the view of getting prepared for the next season.

With Ramsey joining Juventus at the end of the season, Arsenal will need a replacement. Suarez will be that replacement and by the time August comes, he would be fully acclimatised to the Premier League.

Getting Suarez in now takes the pressure off the summer, meaning we can concentrate on signing a centre back, left back and winger, without having to be considered about replacing Ramsey.

A second argument is that he is not fully fit.

Prior to joining Arsenal, he had played just 10 games this season for Barcelona, with his only 2 starts coming in the Copa del Rey against Spanish 3rd tier side Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa.

To have barely played in 2018/19 is a problem.

With the added physicality of the Premier League, Suarez would have arrived nowhere near match sharp, and it is taking him a while to get up to speed.

The final theory is that having pursued Suarez, Emery no longer fancies him.

Emery has seen the man he managed at Sevilla up close at London Colney. Alongside Ramsey and Ozil and he is clearly inferior. Not up to it. Not a player for a top tier challenging team.

Having seen him train amongst his peers, Emery does not see a future for the 25-year-old at Arsenal and has already made the decision not to make the move permanent in the summer. He will pursue other options to replace Ramsey; like Christopher Nkunku, whom Arsenal were also heavily linked with in January.

Suarez has become a short term option to a problem that never really existed, and in the summer Arsenal will decide to pursue Nkunku to replace Ramsey, and return Suarez to Barcelona.

The situation of Denis Suarez at Arsenal is interesting, and he is seemingly no closer to starting a game for Arsenal then he was whilst a Barcelona player.

With the club chasing 3rd place, and Ozil and Ramsey returning to Emery’s 1st team plans, I doubt we will see Suarez start a game this season.

Keenos

Victories, Defeats, Signings, Emery and More – A lot has happened in 1 week at The Arsenal

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Good afternoon Arsenal fans.

My first blog in over a week following a nice break in Antigua. The cricket was awful but the weather was brilliant.

In my absence I see Gav has been writing a few blogs. He really needs to write more – and I do keep telling him that. His excuse is the shop and his kids keep him busy. He does spend a lot of time coming up with new ideas, like the fantastic Arsenal pop sockets he has just realised, but lack of time is just an excuse. He has a top view on football and very different to mine. We balance each other out.

Plenty has happened since I have been off.

Arsenal beat Cardiff with no defenders and then lost to Manchester City due to a couple of mistakes and a hand ball goal.

After the goal Liverpool scored against West Ham, there is certainly a feeling that the higher up the league you are, the more favourable decisions you get. Leicester City got many favourable decisions in the run in to their title. Do referees begin to buy into the story of Champions too much favouring the teams at the top? Perhaps.

We signed Denis Suarez on loan with an option to buy.

It was a bit of a transfer saga. Arsenal wanted a loan with option to buy Barcelona wanted a loan with an obligation to buy.

The Spanish sides worry was that with just 18 months left on his contract, if Arsenal did not sign the midfielder his value would dramatically drop. To get the deal through, Saurez signed a year extension and the loan with an option to buy happened.

I know little about him, but he is played under Unai Emery before and Raul Sanllehi has signed him twice for Barcelona. I back their view over someone on Twitter who builds his view on players mainly based on FIFA and YouTube videos.

Whilst I was off, Tottenham passed through 4,000 days without a trophy.

Mauricio Pochettino kept up his mantra of not needing to win trophies, saying that they only exist to boost a managers ego. How deluded is he?

Many Arsenal fans used to say “If Arsene Wenger went to Real Madrid and failed like he did at Arsenal (8 years with no trophy) he would be sacked within 2 years. Pochettino is in the same boat. Still trophyless after 10 years of managing.

He might be a media favourite, but ultimately he will judged on what he wins.

Finally I saw some people getting on Unai Emery’s back, with some even calling for his head. They really need to wind it in.

A lot of people have since jumped on the below (with the media companies “tarting” it up a bit).

Emery is a very good manager with a track record of success and winning trophies (unlike another manager in North London). I feel that some fans had too high expectations. They thought that by Arsene Wenger leaving, we would go from 5th placed in the league to title contenders.

The reality is that it has taken Jurgen Klopp 3 seasons (and 6 transfer windows) to turn Liverpool into a title contender. Prior to this season, they finished 8th, 4th & 4th under him.

Some seem to be criticising Emery for the attention. Others due to their love of Wenger. And some because he was not their preferred target when he joined.

It just feels like a lot of our fans like moaning and enjoy arguing on Twitter. They position their view to create an argument for attention.

The final thing that happened just as I flew out was the racism towards Alex Iwobi.

The Tweet by some Indian “actress” who is more famous for getting her rack out on Instagram (from what I what I have been told) was horrendous and certainly not a reflection on all Arsenal fans.

Sadly some countries are no as evolved as Britain. We live in a diverse, multi cultural society. Whilst racism still exists, it is no where near as big a problem as it was in the 1970s. Some countries still hugely discriminate against people of different backgrounds – whether that be race, sexuality or gender. It is worrying how many of these countries have legislation making this discrimination legal.

There are many countries where you may not hold public office if you are from a certain ethnic group, or where homosexuality is illegal or you are not allowed to follow certain religions.

With the rise of social media, the world has gotten smaller. What then happens is everyone from every country is held to the same level of accountability as they would be in England, even if the words or discrimination they used online is perfectly legal in their country.

It is right that all incidents of racial abuse is highlighted and acted upon accordingly, but it should also be remembered that the actions of someone in India, Russia or Finland (considered the “most racist” country in the EU – the UK is second least racist behind Malta). Views of these fans should more reflect badly on the country they live in, where racism is still a huge problem, rather than reflect badly on Arsenal who have a brilliant history of tackling racism and self policing.

I hope one day the rest of the world catches up with the United Kingdom when it comes to both legislation and individuals views.

Yes, racism still exists in the United Kingdom, and one incident is one too many, but citizens of this great nation can be proud that we are world leaders when it comes to anti-discrimination legislation.

The UK has never implemented any laws that discriminate or segregate on the grounds of race or ethnicity. Furthermore, it has never been an offence for persons of different ethnicities to marry one another. It has never been the case that a British citizen has been denied the vote on the basis of his or her race or ethnicity. Racial segregation and discrimination were never mandated or sanctioned by law in the United Kingdom.

Whilst some might say “these are things to celebrate, they should be the norm” sadly in the majority of countries in the world, its citizens to not share the same freedoms as in the United Kingdom.

So next time someone racially abuses Alex Iwobi, or anyone else, it should be highlighted, and remembered that their view is not a reflection on Arsenal fans but a reflection on themselves.

Huddersfield away this weekend.

Up the Arsenal.

Keenos