Tag Archives: rob holding

Sead Kolašinac Signing, Alexis Sanchez Staying, Rob Holding & Stupid Stoke Fans

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Sead Kolašinac Signing

It looks like a deal has now been done for Sead Kolašinac according to reports in Germany.
Reports are he has already passed a medical and a 5 year deal has been signed.

Once the deal is announced, people will begin working out how he will fit into the team.

If we return to 4 at the back next season, he will be left back. If we go to 3 at the back, I would not surprised if he plays on the left hand side of the 3.

At 6ft and left footed, he could be a natural fit on that left hand side of the defence – arguably our weakest side and one where we do not currently have a natural fit.

Of course, some will be moaning that we have just signed a player on a free transfer. That Wenger is doing it on the cheap again. Remember what I said above about Holding? Ignore the price, look at the player.

Kolašinac is on the 3 man short list for the Bundesliga team of the season. Those who watch German football regularly have him as a shoe in at left back for the team of the season.

So Arsenal are signing the best left back in the Bundesliga for free. Great business.

Alexis Sanchez Staying

If you need any signs that Alexis Sanchez wants to stay at Arsenal, watch his celebration after his goal against Stoke City.

Clearly showing he loves Arsenal hitting the badge, then indicating he wants to stay here.

Either he is planning to renew his contract, or wants to play for Stoke City next year.

Good news for Arsenal.

Rob Holding

I have spoken before about over hyping a player after just a handful of games. The memory of Calum Chambers demise in still a recent one.

Rob Holding is a player.

Saturday he showed he has it all to become a top centre back. He was aggressive in the challenge, both on the floor and areal. Clearly happy to put in a hard challenge as Marko Arnautović.

https://twitter.com/ap__76/status/863721962417397760

This type of controlled aggression is something we have missed for a decade plus. When was the last time an opponent went home in a sling after a challenge from one of our players?

Not only is Holding a hard defender, but he can also pass and play.

He was calm in possession, and showed a little drop of the shoulder here and there to create space for him.

If his recent performances were done by a certain Manchester City player who cost a hell of a lot of money, the press would be going mad. But as he cost just £1m from Bolton, his performances are going under the radar.

Wenger was right earlier in the season when he apologised that Rob Holding did not cost £45m. It shows it is not about the cost of a player but about his ability.

And Rob Holding clearly has the ability.

I also look forward to Chambers returning next season. In the current formation, he is ideally suited to play on the right side of a back 3.

 

Stupid Stoke City Fans

“We want you to stay, we want you to stay, Arsene Wenger, we won’t you to stay”. 

Odd bunch the Stoke fans are. From booing Aaron Ramsey to mocking a manager who has won more than their entire club to shagging their own sisters, they really are an inbred bunch of imbeciles.

On Saturday they sang about wanting Arsene Wenger to stay at Arsenal. This season they have lost 3-1 & 4-1 to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team.

For all the media luvies painting Stoke as Arsenal’s boogie team, Stoke’s recent record against The Gunners reads:

P 5 W 0 D 1 L 4 F 2 A 12

So no wins in their last 5 games. And just 2 wins in 12 games.

Infact, since 2005, Stoke have beaten Arsenal just 5 times in 20 games. Great record guys.
Maybe I am actually misreading the chants. What they actually want is for Wenger to say in Stoke and manager them.

Mark Hughes is set to return Stoke’s lowest points total since their return to the Premier League and the team is sleep walking to their worst league position since coming up. With just 1 win in 10, they are finishing the season in relegation form. That is always a bad sign for next season.

Rather than mock Arsene Wenger, maybe they should look closer to home. It is not as rosy as Mark Hughes’ PR team makes out.

Keenos

Manchester United Victory, Stupid Arsenal Fans, Rob Holding & Overpriced Youngsters

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Manchester United Victory

It is all about momentum.

As previously stated, I am not too bothered about top 4, Champions League football or finishing above Spurs. I am all about trophies. And we have an FA Cup Final to play for. Any run we can put together that builds team confidence between now and the FA Cup Final against Chelsea at the end of the month is a good thing.

Yesterday’s win against Manchester United, with excellent performances from the likes of Xhaka, Ramsey, Koscielny and Holding can only be seen as a positive.

If we can remain unbeaten between now and the end of the Premier League season, we should be brimming with confidence for May 27th. Winning should never be seen as a negative.

Stupid Fans

I am not in the job of abusing our own fan base. Everyone is free to support the club how they wish. Whether they want to go on protest march’s, back Wenger to the hilt, video themselves for 90 minutes or live their life through Twitter, it is their choice. But one thing I will not stand for his so-called Arsenal fans wanting Arsenal to lose a game so it supports their agenda.

We won yesterday. I was happy we won. I want Arsenal to win every game they play. But I still want Arsene Wenger to leave.

After yesterdays win, there were Arsenal fans unhappy. Angry even, that Arsenal had won. They actually want us to lose every game, including the FA Cup Final, so that Arsene Wenger leaves.

How bitter and twisted must these peoples lives be that they spend all week moaning about Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, then when it comes to game day, they want Arsenal to lose and are unhappy when we win. Why do they even bother with football, with Arsenal. Their unhappiness probably filters through to other aspects of their life. Their wife / husband, their job, their children.

They are the type of fans who will agree with Piers Morgan, tweet him to support their view point, and RT him because he dislikes Wenger. They ignore want the vile man has done previously purely because his views suit theirs.

These people spend all day pointing at Arsenal’s recent poor record against big sides, Wenger’s poor head to head against Jose Mourinho, then when we beat Manchester United, it is dismissed, not as a good win but against a victory against a bunch of Man U kids (it wasn’t) and a Man U side that is no longer a top team.

So let me get this right, you include Man U in your statistics to shame Wenger’s record (and rightly so), but then we we win, you disregard it as it does not suit your agenda?

Recently someone gave me the choice, a guaranteed FA Cup and Wenger stays for 2 more years; or lose the FA Cup and Wenger go’s. Only an idiot would go for the later.

In football anything can happen. Changing the manager does not guarantee success. So in your mythical, illogical offer, you are saying we are guaranteed a trophy and he stays? I will always take the trophy no matter what.

How can you want Arsenal to lose, when you claim to be an Arsenal fan?

I want Wenger to leave. But I want Arsenal to win. And Arsenal winning is more important than Wenger not being in charge.

Rob Holding

What a player we have on our hands here.

Whilst I do not want to go OTT over a 21 year old centre back who has played just 13 games for The Arsenal, it is clear the boy has some ability.

He has recently played in victories over Manchester United and Manchester City and, one poor pass back towards Petr Cech / Laurent Koscileny aside, has not put a foot wrong.

Holding looks to have it all. Strong, aggressive, quick, but can play as well. He now needs to play games. Whether that be for Arsenal or on loan elsewhere, playing 38 games in the Premier League next year is a must for his development.

Personally, I do not think he is quite ready to play week in week our for a title chasing team. A loan move to someone like West Ham, Crystal Palace or Watford – where he could then play 38 games – would have him returning next summer as a 22 year old centre back ready for Premier League football.

Early this season, Arsene Wenger ‘apologised’ that Rob Holding did not cost £45m. A clear dig at the under performing John Stones and that it should never be about the price tag of the player, but about that players ability. There are some crazy price tags for young talents being floated about at the moment (more later).

Holding and Stones could well be the English defensive partnership for a decade. We have got ourselves a steal.

Overpriced Youngsters

John Stones for £45m. Leeroy Sane for £41.5m. Reports of Kylian Mbappe being available for upwards of £85m. £40m for Borussia Dortmund’s rising star Christian Pulisic. The cost of “potential” seems to be going through the roof.

It started a couple of years ago with how much Manchester United paid for Antony Martial. Bayern Munich spending £35m on Renato Sanches. These are price tags that used to be held for established superstars. Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard. But now it seems you have to pay the premium for what a player MIGHT become, rather than the player they currently are.

Let’s take Kylian Mbappe as an example. Now I am not doubting his potential. He is an extremely talented 18 year old. But when I see £85m – £100m for a player who has started just 16 top flight games is incredible. It is a crazy amount of money for a player who has achieved nothing, proven nothing.

His goals to games might be impressive, but it is over a 6 month period in a lesser league. Arsenal have been heavily linked, but give me the choice between an established Premier League striker like Lukaku or a player with potential like Mbappe, I will always go for the established player.

Pulisic is similar. A crazy price tag for a player with such little top flight experience. Liverpool would be paying more for Pulisic than they paid for Coutinho, Lallana and Roberto Firmino. All 3 are better than Pulisic – who has not even yet started 20 Bundesliga games.

In the past Arsenal have overpaid for the likes of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, paying the money for what they could become rather than what they are.

2 years ago Spurs got a steal with Dele Alli at £5m. Arsenal signed Rob Holding for £1m. Talented youngsters at the right prices are out there. So many players struggle to make the transition from talented youngster to established global superstar.

Since Sergio Aguero won the Golden Boy award in 2007, I would say only Paul Pogba has gone on to be truly world class. Others have become establish internationals, but none of them are in that top bracket of global superstars.

Being the best 18 year old on the talent does not automatically mean that, in 7 years time, you are going to be one of the best players on the planet. But at the moment, some of these players are commanding fees that are usually paid for the best players on the planet.

Find the value, scout the youngsters that no one else spots, and do not overpay for potential.

Keenos

Arsenal’s shocking transfer dealings exposed

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https://shewore.mysupadupa.com/Throughout all of the Wenger stuff, one thing has become increasingly clear. Our transfer dealings this season have been atrocious.

When the summer transfer window shut, I was fairly optimistic about our season ahead. And part of the reasoning behind this was due to our transfer dealings.

Arsenal had signed two excellent experienced players Granit Xhaka and Shkdoran Mustafi, a talented young centre back in Rob Holding, and a fairly unknown forward who had excellent statistics in Lucas Perez. But it all seems to have unravelled. £93million spent on some exciting talents.

Granit Xhaka

When we signed Granit Xhaka, I was excited. I had followed him since his Basel days and was excited that we had signed him.

He looked the complete midfielder. Defensive awareness mixed with a fantastic range of passing. He would add steal to our midfield, protection to our defence, but would also be the man to start our attacks. He was the leader in the middle of the park that we had missed for so long. It seemed he had no weaknesses.

But then it all began to fall apart. His ill discipline that had hampered his early career reared its head once more. Rash into a tackle, he was clumsy rather than ferocious. 2 red cards and 9 yellows this season. And it could have been more.

Yes, he was unlucky to see red against Swansea, but there have been other times when he has been lucky to stay on the pitch.

He has probably not been as bad as it seems, but his position is made to seem worse due to the fact we picked Xhaka over N’Golo Kante, who has taken another huge step forward at Chelsea and is now the best defensive midfielder in world football.

With Xhaka, we are peering over the fence at our numbers Chelsea, seeing what we could have had, and it feels we picked the wrong option.

Shkodran Mustafi

I questioned Shkodran Mustafi’s ability back in December. At the time he had no lost a single game at Arsenal which he had played in. I was mocked in the comments o nthe blog, on Twitter and Facebook. How could I be criticising a player who had yet to lose in an Arsenal shirt?

Well at the time I looked beyond the results of the team and was looking at the performances of the defence.

At the time, Arsenal had not kept a clean sheet for 10 games, with just 4 all season – 3 of which had Mustafi in defence, and the Mustafi / Koscielny partnership was conceding at a rate of a goal a game.

I ended the blog with;

Arsenal defensive frailties have become worse this season. Mustafi has solved one problem but created another.

4 months on and he was part of a centreback partnership against Crystal Palace that failed to make a single tackle. Two crude tackles in the 1st half meant he probably should have seen red. He was lucky to stay on the pitch.

Mustafi has played 17 games in 2017, Arsenal have conceded 31 goals. We have conceded more 3 or more goals on 7 occasions this calendar year. We have kept just 6 clean sheets. 3 of which have been in the FA Cup.

It is not just Mustafi’s fault. The entire defence from Bellerin across to Monreal has been shocking. But Mustafi has shown as huge technical issues which worry.

He tends to chase the ball. He is a poor judge of a high ball. His headers rarely reach a team mate. He dives in to tackles. He is beaten too easily.

I still think he will turn out to be a good player at Arsenal, but at £35,000,000 you would expect better performances than the Sunday League level ones he is putting in at the moment.

Lucas Perez

It is easy to forget the Lucas Perez is an Arsenal player. He ha splayed just 265 minutes in the Premier League this season.

Whether this is because he is a poor player, Wenger does not fancy him, Wenger is misusing him, or a mixture of everything, it will probably never be known.

It would not surprise me of Perez was shipped out this summer with Arsenal recouping what they spent on him.

A hat trick against Basel in the Champions League has been his career highlight thus far. His other goals coming against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Sutton.

He was clearly a panic buy when it became obvious that Danny Welbeck was going to be out longer then expected. With just Olivier Giroud up top, we lacked a pacey option and Perez was bought in.

Perez has been hampered by the decision to play Alexis Sanchez through the middle. Whilst this did work out for the good, it has meant less game time for Perez. Walcott has had a very good season wide right (18 goals this season) but I perhaps would have liked to see Perez get a run out ahead of Alex Iwobi in a few games on the left hand side.

With Welbeck back fit, Perez is currently behind Welbeck, Giroud, Sanchez, Walcott & Oxlade-Chamberlain to get game time. You would struggle to make a justification for him to start ahead of any of those.

A very expensive panic buy. Not good enough to challenge for the 1st team when everyone is fit.

Rob Holding

It would be unfair on Rob Holding to label him a flop. He is just 21 and has shown good signs when called upon. At just £2million, he was clearly signed with the future in mind.

Unlike Calum Chambers, he does not have the hefty price tag over his head which will lead for calls for him to be ready for the first team.

He ha sonly played a handful of games this season, and could do with going on loan to a Premier League side next season to get some game time.

We could have a decent player on our hand, but he needs game time.

Takuma Asano

Does he even have a work permit yet? Throw him in the box with the likes of Joel Campbell, Wellington Silva, Samuel Galindo, Pedro Botelho & Carlos Vela. Players who we signed, spent years getting them valid work rights, and they ultimately turned out to be useless.

Kelechi Nwakali

Just a baby. We would moan if we signed him, and then moan if, after a trial, we turned him down and he became Yaya Toure.

£3,000,000 is a lot of money for a player who had only every played on sandy fields in Africa, but that is the cost of talented young players these days..

Cohen Bramall

Would be completely unfair to judge him as a flop. And I will not do so.

What he does highlight is just how poor our transfers have been this summer. He was the only signing in January, and he highlights just how little business we did in January. Just a young, non-league full back.

We have barely won a game in 2017. Not signing a single senior player in January is now looking like a ridiculous decision.

 

£93,000,000 spent. Money not well spent.

There is no point moving to the new stadium, having a big load of money to spend, if we are not going to spend it correctly. Just another reason why it is time for Wenger to go.

Keenos