Tag Archives: She Wore

Should Arsenal sign “indisciplined” £122,000,000 star?

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Ousmane Dembélé is a talented kid. That is not up for debate. But he is a troubled star who reminds me of a young Mario Balotelli.

Genuinely two-footed, quick, skilful, strong and technically solid, the Frenchman should be the next global star in football, following Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.

It is his natural attributes that saw Barcelona pay Borussia Dortmund €105 million plus a reported €40 million add-ons for the then 20-year-old after just a single season with the German club. He was supposed to be a short term replacement of Neymar, a long term replacement for Messi.

Dembele had gone on strike at Dortmund in an attempt to force the deal through, with team-mate Roman Weidenfeller saying the Frenchman did not even bother to collect his boots. There were warning signs.

In fact, his issues were prior to his days at Dortmund when he refused to sign a professional contract with boyhood club Rennes.

Despite getting his desired move, things have not really gone to plan for Dembele in Spain, with injuries and apparent attitude problems hampering his progress, regardless of a recent upturn.

Dembele is reported to have turned up late for training more than once – including turning up 2 hours late earlier this week.

Last month he was left out of the side for their Champions League clash against Inter Milan after skipping a team meeting.

A few weeks ago the 21-year-old was left out of the squad completely for a game against Real Betis after failing to show up to training.

Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc has recently commented about Dembele having ongoing “indiscipline”.

Urbano Ortega, who was key in bringing the player to Barcelona, blamed his “entourage” in a recent interview – which brings back memories of another talented and temperamental young Frenchman. Nicolas Anelka.

“We already knew about how he was and about his entourage. In fact he had already had problems at Rennes, where he didn’t want to sign the professional contract at first. We had good information about him at the technical level and some facts about his indiscipline due to his youth and because of the people that surround him, which do not help him at times,” recalled Ortega in an interview with Catalan radio programme, Esports Cope.

The hope with him is that he is young and naive, and if he grows up he will be a world superstar. But the same was thought about Anelka and Balotelli. Neither had the career they should have done.

In 2017 Barcelona took the risk and went big on him. If he is available in the summer, should Arsenal repeat that risk?

Despite his problems at Barcelona, he will still cost a huge amount. We are talking about £70-80million. This is a huge outlay considering his issues.

You also have the impact he could have on squad moral.

Arsenal currently have a fabulous team spirit, but one bad apple can soon change that. With the side have so many talented young players – Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Emile Smith Rowe and the returning Reiss Nelson – would it be sensible to add a problematic player with attitude problems to that group?

Arsenal do have some senior French-born players. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette have taken Guendouzi under their wing. The hope would be that they could be a positive influence. That if he befriends these players, they could clip his wings a little, and maybe move him away from the troublesome entourage that Ortega speaks about.

But the risks are huge.

Like with Balotelli, the clubs willing to take a risk reduces every time a player moves but his behaviour remains unchanged.

Liverpool ended up releasing Balotelli after 2 seasons. He had played 16 league games; scoring just 1 goal. They wrote off £16million and a huge chunk in wages.

Dembele is currently reportedly on £200,000 a week at Barcelona.

Would Arsenal really want to invest a huge transfer (£70million) and tie up a further £52million (£200,000 a week on a 5 year deal) in Dembele? It would be a huge £122,000,000 risk

At those wages, Arsenal would struggle to recoup too much of the transfer fee if he does not settle, if he continues with the same behavioural issues as he has shown in Spain and Germany.

Looking forward 2 years, if he is still a problem child, who would pay Arsenal big money to take him on? The fear is Arsenal end up with a bad apple on huge wages that we are unable to sell.

If he does grow up, we would have a world class player on our hands. But Dembele is 22 at the end of this season. He has to grow up sooner rather than later.

Signing Dembele would be a huge financial risk for Arsenal. I am not sure if we should take it (but would be excited if we did).

Keenos

How will Unai Emery solve Arsenal defensive puzzle?

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Unai Emery is facing a defensive puzzle.

With Rob Holding out for the season, yellow cards to both Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi against Huddersfield means both are suspended for the game at Southampton on Sunday.

Not only does this give the Spaniard a headache for the Premier League match, but also disrupts his planning for the visit of Qarabag in the Europa League on Thursday.

Thursday’s game would have been used to give Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal a run out. Get 90 minutes of senior football under their belts after long lay offs.

Koscielny would have most certainly started at centre back, with Monreal at left back. The problem now for Arsenal is that with Sokratis and Mustafi now out, the pair are now likely to be our central defensive partnership against Southampton.

So what does this mean for Thursday?

Does Emery continue with the rehabilitation of Monreal and Koscielny by giving them 90 minutes against Qarabagm hope they both get through and hope recover quickly enough for Southampton at Sunday lunch time?

Or does he play Sokratis and Mustafi (injury permitting) against Qarabag, keeping Koscielny and Monreal out of danger for Sunday.

The fear will be against Qarabag, the one of either Koscielny or Monreal picks up a little niggle ruling them out of Sunday. This is highly likely. Small injuries often occur after a long lay off. And even if they do both get through unscathed, are either yet fully fit enough to play 90 minutes twice in less than 3 days?

Arsenal were already without first choice U23 pairing Daniel Ballard and Julio Pleguezuelo, as well as Kostadinos Mavropanos. This would mean that if either Koscielny or Monreal were to not fit for Sunday, either 18-year-old Zech Medly would start, or Arsenal would have to move either Stephan Lichtsteiner or Granit Xhaka into the back four.

Logic dictates that you do not involved Koscielny or Monreal against Qarabag. It would also make sense to not play Sokratis if Mustafi’s hamstring injury is to rule him out of further games.

So Medley and Big Carl Jenkinson it is then/

Keenos

Arsenal punished due to refereeing inconsistency

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Referee Paul Tierney was completely correct in booking Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi and Matteo Guendouzi for diving.

We have to remember that a dive is not just feigning contact. FA rules state:

Diving is defined as an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by falling to the ground and possibly feigning an injury, to give the impression that a foul has been committed.

Just because their has been contact, it does not mean that a foul has been committed. All too often, a player go’s to ground with minimal contact, rolls about feigning injury, exaggerating the contact, in the hope of gaining an advantage.

FIFA call this “simulation”. Just because you might have been touched, it does not give you a right to go down. If the contact was not enough to impede you, then it is not a foul. If, at the slightest brush, you then decide to go down instead of remain on your feet, you should be booked for diving.

Unfortunately, when it comes to diving, referee’s in England tend to be very inconsistent.

Against Huddersfield on Saturday, Tierney followed the rules of the game, booking Xhaka, Mustafi and Guendouzi. The problem is all too often referees wave play on.

We often see Dele Alli, Jamie Vardy, and others go down with little to no contact. The referee waves play on a we get on with the game. Against Leicester on Saturday Dele Alli feigned injury to give an impression that a foul had been committed. The referee in that game waved play on.

So Arsenal (rightly) got 3 players booked – one of which will lead to a suspension – whilst other players never get punished as referee’s wave play on.

Against Tottenham, Son Heung-min went down to win a penalty. Rob Holding lunged into a challenge, and made zero contact with the South Korean.

The media response was that due to Holding sliding in, Son had a right to go down. He did not. He cheated. He went down with no contact (or at most minimal) and rolled about feigning injury. He should have been booked. Instead the referee gave a penalty.

Mistakes happen, but what has happened since just highlights the inconsistency of the FA.

November last year, Everton’s Oumar Niasse was banned for 2 games having been deemed to have deliberately attempted to con referee Anthony Taylor to give a penalty.

The FA charged Niasse with “successful deception of a match official” and an Independent Regulatory Commission was unanimous in its decision to ban the Senegalese.

After the game, Crystal Palace’s Scott Dann (who made the challenge) said the referee had been “conned”.

 “I don’t like to see people getting punished but also I don’t like people diving to win penalties. [Niasse] probably knows he has conned them.

“If there was [contact] it was minimal. I haven’t tried to tackle him; he has gone past me and you can see on the replays he has dived. At half-time, [Taylor] probably knew he made the wrong decision.”

Replays showed that there was contact between Dann and Niasse, but it was extremely minimal. The Holding incident with Son was similar. If there was contact it was minimal.

Yet a week on from that game, Son has not been charged by the FA – let alone given a 2-game ban like Niasse. Meanwhile Arsenal have 3 players booked for similar incidents. Mustafi now suspended after reaching 5 yellow cards.

The incidents involving Xhaka and Mustafi had a similar level of “contact” as Son against us last weekend.

If the FA believe Xhaka and Mustafi were dives why have they not charged and suspended Son?

Too often they hide behind what the referee has “seen” and “not seen”. Were Xhaka and Mustafi incorreclty booked? Probably not. Should Son have been suspended for 2 games? Well the precedent is there with Niasse.

Further inconsistency was shown on Wednesday.

Marouane Fellaini pulled Guendouzi back by his hair. A similar incident happened back in 2016 when Robert Huth pulled back Fellaini by his hair. Huth was banned for 3 games.

In the incident with Guendouzi, Fellaini has escaped any retrospective action.

Now some will say you are only moaning because it is Arsenal and you are right, I am moaning because it was Arsenal. But up and down the country every weekend fans of clubs are complaining about referee decisions. We are all affected by it. The quicker VAR comes in the better.

All fans want is consistency.

Keenos