Tag Archives: She Wore

2 IN; 3 OUT at Arsenal

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With the transfer window slamming shut on Thursday, all has been quiet at Arsenal surrounding who is potentially coming in.

With the transfer window still be open throughout Europe until the end of the month, we will probably not see a mass exodus of players this week, however it will be the last chance for English clubs to bring anyone in.

In a surprising deal, it looks like Calum Chambers is set to join Fulham on a season long loan deal.

There was plenty of speculation that Chambers was going to join the West London club earlier in the summer. But a new contract and reports that Unai Emery was impressed in the Englishman seemed to quash that deal.

One of the few players to have played every game in pre-season, Chambers departure is very surprising, especially considering the long-term injury to Laurent Koscielny.

At the back end of last season, he was ahead of Rob Holding and Kostadinos Mavropanos, and this pre-season has played more minutes than the pair. He was clearly 3rd choice centre back, and also provided additional cover at right back.

He will be 24-years-old in January and has already had a season long loan deal to Middlesbrough. It just feels like a strange move. The only reasoning is that someone else is coming in.

Lucas Perez has been like a yoyo this summer. Early indications were that Emery was going to give him a second chance. He failed to start any of our 5 pre-season games

Both Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson started three games a-piece and looked good. Emery seems to have decided to give them more chances in the first team squad at the sacrifice of 29-year-old Perez.

Perez was not even in the match day squad for the games against Chelsea in Dublin or Lazio in Stockholm. He has been heavily linked with the latter (Lazio) and more recently West Ham.

Having been at the World Cup, David Ospina was already facing a handicap when it came to the battle with Petr Cech to be new signing Bernd Leno’s competition.

Leno stared 3 out of 5, with Cech starting the other two.

With Cech having one-year left on his contract, he seems content to stay in London where has been for 14 years and the city where his children have grown up, regardless of being number 2.

That leaves Ospina as the man most likely to leave.

He has been linked with a move to Turkey every since his second season with Arsenal; and it seems this year will be when it finally happens. Some outlets are reporting it is a loan deal, others a permanent deal. £2,000,000 the mooted feed.

The only logical reason for Chambers to be leaving is that we are going to make a last minute signing at centre back.

There has been massive speculation this morning that Arsenal are in for Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng.

Emery has been quoted a few times saying that “if something special becomes available, we will be in for him”. Could Boateng be that something special?

The reported £45million fee is relatively cheap in the current transfer market. Arsenal would be getting one of the best 5 centre backs in the world who, at 29-years-old, would add experience and power at the back.

The only concern would be his injury record. In the last few years, he has started to accrue a few muscle injuries.

He nearly missed the World Cup after a hamstring injury and did not look 100% during Germany’s early exit. He also suffered a hamstring injury in 2017, and has failed to play 20 Bundesliga games in the last 3 seasons.

Munich could be looking to cash in on someone who is broken, and will never be repaired. Alternatively Arsenal could end up with a top centre back with another 4 seasons in him.

There is also an outside chance that Arsenal could bring in Ousmane Dembele on loan, with the possibility of a permanent deal if Aaron Ramsey leaves.

Reports have claimed that the 21-year-old has been concerned over his role at Barcelona following the eclub’s decision to sign Brazilian winger Malcom from Bordeaux this summer.

Dembele has been heavily linked with a switch to Arsenal this summer as he still has a strong relationship with the Gunners’ head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, who he knows from his time at Dortmund. Last week, Dembele was also pictured having dinner with several members of Arsenal’s squad including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Reports from Spain are that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has personally assured Ousmane Dembele that he still has a future at the club, goning out of his way to speak to the France international.

All in all, bar the Chambers deal going through today, it will likely be a quiet week for Arsenal, with Perez and Ospina set to move closer towards the end of August.

Keenos

Brilliant recruitment key in crazy transfer market

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A good recruitment team is worth its way in gold.

Anyone ever involved in HR or recruitment will know that if you get a solid internal recruitment team, you do not waste money on expensive recruitment agency fees or poor hires who leave after 3 months.

Football is no different to business.

If you get a good recruitment team, with good scouts, you can save yourself millions.

At a club like Manchester City, with their billions, or Real Madrid with their millions and “pull”, you do not need a top recruitment team. You can keep chucking money at a problem until you get it right.

Just look at Manchester City and their signing of centre backs over the years since, how much they have thrown at trying to get a partner for Vincent Kompany:

Kolo Toure £16,000,000
Joleon Lescott £22,000,000
Jerome Boateng £11,000,000
Stefan Savic £6,000,000
Matija Nastasic £12,000,000
Martín Demichelis £3,500,000
Eliaquim Mangala £40,000,000
Nicolás Otamendi £32,000,000
John Stones £47,500,000
Aymeric Laporte £57,000,000

Nearly £250million spent on centre backs since signing Kompany and the best two were Jerome Boateng (who they did not give the chance too) and Martin Demichelis (who was the cheapest).

Over at Tottenham we can see the affect of good and bad recruitment.

In 2013 they sold Gareth Bale for £85,000,000. That same summer they spent over £100million on Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Robert Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Ericksen and Erik Lamela. Only Ericksen turned out to be a good signing.

More recently, however, they have recruited well.

Ben Davies, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Toby Alderweireld and Victor Wanyama all came in for a combined cost of under £50million.

That is not to say there recruitment has been brilliant. Daniel Levy is often lauded for his fantastic business as the transfer window comes to a close, but the truth is he has recruited poorly towards the end of a transfer window.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1025062638852743168

As prices continue to spiral and we see high prices for average players, it is more important than ever to have a top notch recruitment team who can scour the globe and find that superstar.

Some of the prices we have seen this summer have been incredible. Rumours of Wilfried Zaha for £70million. We are seeing Championship standard players moving for £20million+.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1025077776209129473

All this does it further highlight how important Sven Mislintat and his team are for Arsenal now, and moving forward.

We are never going to be able to sign a Kylian Mbappe for £166m, Philippe Coutinho for £110m or Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m.

But what we can do with the right recruitment is find the next 17-year old kid who could turn into Mbappe, or recruit a 21-year old Coutinho struggling in Italy, or a £12m youngster from Portugal who becomes the next Cristiano Ronaldo.

Arsenal recently spent around £50m on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. 5 years ago Sven Mislintat took him to Borussia Dortmund for just £13million.

In 2013, a lot of people knew of Aubameyang. Everyone knew his story, his struggles to break through at AC Milan, his sparkling form at Saint-Étienne in Ligue 1. But only Mislintat pushed to make the move and Dortmund ended up developing one of the best strikers in the world.

Good recruitment is not new to Arsenal.

Dennis Bergkamp was struggling in Italy. Marc Overmars had 2 injury hit seasons in Holland. Emmanuel Petit was a journeyman centre back in France.

A teenage Patrick Vieira was languishing in AC Milan’s reserves. Thierry Henry struggling to make an impact at Juventus. The early years of the Arsene Wenger era was defined by brilliant recruitment enabling us to compete with the much richer Manchester United in the league.

The late years of his time at the club, however, was defined by poor recruitment. A policy that had perhaps lost its way.

You probably have to go back to the 2012/13 season for the last year Arsenal had a real good summer when it came to recruitment.

Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal were not big names, but they became big players. It was also the year we took a risk on Olivier Giroud.

Since that year we have had a mixture of big money signings (Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Alexandre Lacaette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang) and relative unknowns who have not really performed (Gabriel Paulista, Calum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Lucas Pérez, Shkodran Mustafi).

The difference is between now and those late 90’s days is the relative unknowns are often costing a lot of money, and every top side has now invested heavily in scouting systems and statistical analysts teams, meaning it is even harder to find a talented youngster that no one knows about, or a senior pro who is perhaps underperforming or being under used.

In Sven Mislintat, Arsenal have one of the best in the world.

This summer we have spent a little under £70million.

When you consider that we signed Lucas Torreira for £22million, you realise how important a good recruitment team is.

Chelsea have signed Jorginho (£57.4m), Liverpool Naby Keita (£48m) and Fabinho (£39m), and Manchester United Fred (£47m). Based on his World Cup showing, Torreira is in the class of these players, but cost half as much.

The likes of James Maddison has gone to Leicester City for more than Torreira, and this week Tottenham have been linked with Lewis Cook for £30million.

Cook is a good young player, but Torreira is clearly superior – and only 1-year older. Torreira could turn out to be one of the signings of the season.

Arsenal also secured Mattéo Guendouzi for just £7million.

Guendouzi is the sort of player that Diamond Eye Sven was bought in to discover.

Playing for Lorient in Ligue 2, he only turned 19-years old in April and he looks a delightful talent. When you consider that “known” prospects are going for £20million+, if you can find an unknown prospect, you are quids in.

Leicester snapped up Riyad Mahrez from Ligue 2 and N’Golo Kante from Ligue 1. The unknowns are out there if you wish to take the time to find them.

We then have Bernd Leno.

Now he is certainly not an “unknown” but for Arsenal to have got a goal keeper of his quality for £19million is an absolute steal.

Arsenal have made some brilliant signings for less than £70million. For that we could have signed Richarlson and Lewis Cook. Two mid-table players at best. Or we could have spanked all of that on Zaha. An average player who flatters to deceive.

Sven Mislintat could be the most important appointment at Arsenal since Arsene Wenger.

Keenos

3 Arsenal youngsters impress

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It has been a solid pre-season for Arsenal so far.

Unbeaten after draws against Atletico Madrid and Chelsea, with a nice 5-1 victory over PSG the meat in the sandwich – I am not counting penalties in a glorified pre-season game as defining the winners and loses.

Arsenal players are slowly adapting to Unai Emery’s way of playing. Things do not change over night so we can not expect us to press high and man mark without making mistakes.

Remember it took 12 months and £300m+ for Pep Guardiola to build a title winning team; and Jurgen Klopp is still getting the benefit of the doubt with fans and the press saying he is still growing Liverpool in is vision.

But Arsenal are different, we seem to have a higher level of scrutiny, and even during the game against Chelsea fans were moaning. Rome was not built in a day.

I try not to read too much into pre-season. I remember a few years back. Tottenham won every single game. They ended up finishing 5th.

There are 3 things, or 3 people really, that we can get a little excited about from pre-season. Three teenagers who have looked very comfortable in the Arsenal first team.

Mattéo Guendouzi

Frenchman Mattéo Guendouzi was a £7million signing this summer.

Just 19-years old, he has been the man of pre-season, looking very comfortable in the middle of the park. He is the type of player that “Diamond Eye” Sven Mislintat was bought in to find.

Whilst I do not expect him to be parachuted into the first team, his composure and ability will put pressure on Granit Xhaka if the Swiss man struggles.

Thos in the know from France rate him highly and you have to keep reminding yourself when he plays that he is still just 19.

Emile Smith Rowe

When it was announced that Arsenal were selling Jeff Reine-Adelaide, a lot of fans kicked up a bit of fuss, feeling that the young Frenchman was never really given a chance in an Arsenal shirt.

Whilst he never did quite break through, a huge reason for his departure was the form of Emile Smith Rowe.

The Englishman is 2 and a half years younger than his former team mate and has shown in pre-season why the club is backing him over the senior man.

Smith Rowe scored an excellent goal against Atletico Madrid, showing why some fans who know their stuff have labelled him as the best home grown talent since Jack Wilshere.

Not only did Smith Rowe move ahead of Reine-Adelaide, but he also moved ahead of fellow teenager Joe Willock.

Willock is perhaps the man in pre-season to have missed out on a chance.

Whilst Smith Rowe will now move forward to training regularly with the first team, getting League Cup and Europa League starts, and getting opportunities on the bench, Willock will return to the U23 team.

That is not to write Willock off, he turns just 19 in a week or so, but he has seen both Guendouzi and Smith Rowe move ahead of him in midfield.

Smith Rowe can be very please with his last months work.

Reiss Nelson

With all the hype surrounding Smith Rowe and Guendouzi, Reiss Nelson risked joining Willock as a forgotten man. But he reminded us in the closing moments against Chelsea he showed his ability.

Nelson feels like he has been around for a while now, but he is still just 18. With Arsenal lacking natural width and pace this season, Nelson could be a game changer off the bench.

He showed against Chelsea how important it is to have someone who can get round a full back, hit the by-line and put in a quality ball.

If Arsenal end up not signing Ousmane Dembele or Leon Bailey, it will be up to Nelson to be the man who provides the width and pace.

On his pre-season showing, he might not yet be as good as the aforementioned players, but he is ready to step up.

Like last season, the Europa League could be the place to go to watch some of our talented younger players.

Guendouzi, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Ainsley Maitlan-Niles and Konstantinos Mavropanos will make up the spin of a talented young team.

Keenos