Tag Archives: She Wore

In a bad mood over The Arsenal

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I wake up this morning in a bad mood over Arsenal.

Today we face Sheffield United and it should have been the day fans are allowed back in to watch games.

Whether I had won in the ballot or not, I’d been down the Holloway Road, meeting me mates, having a few beers. Regardless of the weather.

A 2pm kick off would have been a nice little drink up before the game, as well as plenty after; before stumbling home for a Chinese.

Instead I am writing this blog whilst waiting for my yeast to proof for some home made crumpets.

A couple of coffees have not been able to shake the feeling of disappointment that I am not back over The Arsenal yet.

The feeling is even worse when you read that Dundalk have moved their fixture to Dublin’s Avila Stadium.

Anyone that goes to a Euro away knows Arsenal fans always do one thing. Find an Irish Bar.

In Dublin we would not have had to look very far.

It would have been one of those “I was there” games where people talk about them for years to come. Like Anderlecht and Cologne in recent years.

So we miss out on football today, and we miss out on a trip to Dublin to watch The Arsenal.

Add in this awful weather we have had for the last few days and will continue to have for the next week and it is easy to have a black cloud over your head.

But I guess if not going down the football today is the worst thing that is going to happen to me this week, then life really is not too bad.

Last night we had the news that Lyon were no longer going to sell Houssem Aouar.

Whether this is a negotiation tactic to push Arsenal into paying more, or the door is closed, I really do not care.

What I do care about is the online abuse dishes out to Arsenal photographers, to those that run our social media team and to Luigi Gasper, Edu’s 16-year-old son.

If you have spent your evening abusing a 16-year-old boy on Twitter because Arsenal might not be buying a player, you really need to look at your life.

The problem is not Stan Kroenke, Edu, Mikel Arteta or the Arsenal board but yourself. Your kind are not wanted over The Arsenal – chances are you live in Spain, Nigeria or America anyway so will never go.

Likewise those criticising the club over their support of William Saliba.

Saliba is a 19-year-old kid, trying to settle in a new country and whose mum reportedly passed away a couple of months ago.

It shows the class of Arsenal that we are putting an arm round him and helping him through it. Not just saying “man up, get on with it”.

If you think Arsenal are wrong for providing care and support to Saliba, then again you need to take a look at your own life.

It’s easy to be brave over a keyboard. To abuse people. Ultimately if you spread toxic negativity and abuse people online daily; it is your mental health that will suffer.

There are much worse things in the world to worry about than transfers and who is or isn’t playing.

Too many people are driving by clicks, hits, RTs, followers, subscribers, etc than being a decent human being.

The worst thing in my life today is not being able to go to football. There are people going through a lot worse than me.

Let’s stop abusing people online for attention.

Keenos

Houssem Aouar, Matteo Guendouzi, Bukayo Saka and more

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Houssem Auoar

Arsenal will get a deal for Lyon midfielder Houssem Auoar over the line. It will be done.

His signing will add important creativity to Mikel Arteta’s side; and will also see Arsenal transition from 343 to 433.

For a long time, the view has been that Arteta prefers to play 433, but did not have the players to do so. Auoar changes that.

Whilst Auoar is a creative player, he is not a Mesut Ozil – a player who want to play behind the forward line, and contribute little defensively.

For Lyon, Auoar usually plays on the left hand side of a midfield 3. Arteta will look to see him replicate that:

Leno

Bellerin Luiz Gabriel Tierney

Ceballos Xhaka Auoar

Pepe Lacazette Aubameyang

Xhaka remains fairly static in the middle of the park, allowing the 2 number 8s either side to press and push forward – with Ceballos offering creativity on the right hand side of the pitch and Aouar on the left.

(Note: at this point this isn’t a debate on who the front 3 is. Whether it is Willian on the right instead of Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka on the left it Aubameyang down the middle. It’s a blog for another day).

Auoar will change the way Arsenal set up.

Matteo Guendouzi

Arsenal quickly realised this summer that the big bids for Matteo Guendouzi were not coming in.

The midfielder is still just 21-years-old and is extremely talented. But a mixture of attitude and Covid19 has seen his value plummet.

Guendouzi’s value at Arsenal has not been as low as it is now since joining the club.

Whilst he only has 2 years left on his contract, a good season on loan at Marseille next season will see his stock rise again.

If he gets his head down, Arsenal would expect his value to rise again and bids northwards of £35m next summer.

Regardless of performances, his time at Arsenal is over.

Bukayo Saka

Well deserved England call up.

Alongside Ainsley Maitland-Niles, it is the first time in a while 2 Arsenal players have been selected in the England squad.

Just hope Gareth Southgate doesn’t waste his talent.

Bernd Leno

Fabulous performance from Arsenal’s number 1 last night.

Bernd Leno has not let the club down since he joined Arsenal from Leverkusen, and Arsenal were completely correct in backing the man with over 300 top flight games to his name.

Now it is time for fans to forget about Emiliano Martinez, move on, and back the keeper who wanted to stay and fight for his place.

Celebrations

When did everyone become so concerned about how other clubs celebrate trophies?

Is there a rule book on what games teams can and can not celebrate winning? How much they can celebrate? What is too much? What is no enough?

How about just let players and fans live in the moment, and celebrate how they naturally feel at the time.

Keenos

From Auoar to Ozil, Partey to Chambers – what business will Arsenal get done before the deadlines?

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It’s October the 1st already.

The garden centres have put the BBQs away and the Christmas decorations are up in store. Yesterday I planted my winter hanging baskets.

Winter is coming, but more important is transfer deadline day is also coming, at least for international transfers.

The transfer window for international slams shut at 11pm on Monday October 5th. However domestic deals can still be made up until 5pm on the 16th of October.

It has been a well written story that Arsenal have too many players.

As it stands, we have 33 first team squad players listed on the website. More importantly than that is we currently have 19 non-home grown players.

We can only register 17 of those.

So players need to be sold, but players also need to be signed.

We are still a Thomas Partey and / or an Houssem Aouar from having a really good team.

Arsenal need to sell to buy. Not just to raise funds but also to free up the squad space – leaving players unregistered is not an option due to contractual issues that could arise.

So what do we expect to happen in the next few days (internationally) and weeks (domestically)?

Sead Kolasinac looks like he is out the door, off to Bayer Leverkusen. By the time this is published he might be gone.

He was rated as one of the best left backs in Germany, having been named in the Bundesliga team of the year in the season before joining Arsenal.

Following Kolasinac out of the door will be Lucas Torreira.

His move to Atletico Madrid will be rubber stamped.

Atlético want a loan with an obligation to buy, whilst Arsenal want a straight sale.

What might happen is a loan with an obligation to buy next season will be agreed, but at slightly higher than what Arsenal want for a transfer this summer.

Arsenal then might use a factoring company to get instant access to next summers transfer fee.

The departure of both will bring Arsenal’s squad size down to 31, and non-home grown contingent to 17. Bang on where we’d need to be.

Whilst you might think “Arsenal still need to sell to buy” there is a school of thought that the club have already written off the futures of Sokratis and Mesut Ozil.

Come deadline day, Arsenal will be happy to sell Sokratis for free, and accept a loan deal for Mesut Ozil where they continue to pay the majority of his wages for the rest of the season.

Both of these deals will probably happen quickly on deadline day as clubs look to take advantage of Arsenal having too many players.

Napoli have already tried to sign Sokratis for nothing. Arsenal rejected the deal but come Monday they will have no choice but to sign off on it.

With Ozil, the club would prefer to ship him out to a side that pays a big chunk of his wages. But the lore he becomes unwanted by Mikel Arteta, and the more Arsenal need rid to bring the squad numbers in line, the less a loaning club would be expected to contribute.

Do not be surprised to see him go to Turkey (or even join Kolasinac at Leverkusen), with Arsenal still paying £250-300k of his weekly wage.

There are 38 weeks left on Ozil’s contract. Arsenal’s fall liability would be around £13.3m. If we can get that done to just £10m, we’d have done well.

Sokratis leaving would also save the club £3.5m in wages, whilst Kolasinac & Torreira leaving frees up a further £7.5m. £11m in total.

Following Kolasinac & Torreira leaving, expect the club to move quickly for Auoar.

With Arsenal mentally writing Sokratis and Ozil off, we do not need to sell them before signing Auoar. The Frenchman can be signed with the two unwanted lads dumped on deadline day.

Deadline day is when we will move for Thomas Partey.

Kolasinac, Torreira, Sokratis & Ozil sold, with Aouar in would leave Arsenal at 16 non home-grown players.

If Arsenal pay the release clause for Partey, they do not need to negotiate with Atlético Madrid. It is just a case of taking the money to the Spanish FA HQ which in turn triggers that release clause. It will be a deal done quickly.

Calum Chambers and Shkodran Mustafi’s injuries have proved to be a hit of a headache for Arsenal this summer.

With the likes of West Ham, Fulham, Crystal Palace & Newcastle desperate for a centre back, both would have had plenty of interest if they were fit. But no one will take a risk with their injuries

Neither are expected to be fully match fit until the end of October. That is just 8 weeks before the winter window opens.

I would be very surprised if either leaves before January, but we might see a club like Fulham take the risk on Chambers and sign him prior to the October 16th domestic deadline. Expect another loan deal with an obligation to buy next summer for him.

As for Mustafi, expect a “Cedric deal” to be done with him in January.

This year Arsenal signed Cedric on loan, with an agreement for him to join permanently from Southampton in the summer when his contract expired.

Do not be surprised if Lazio or someone else takes Mustafi on loan for the 2nd half of the season, and he later joins that club when his Arsenal contract expires in the summer.

Arsenal would benefit from his wages being paid by someone else for the 2nd half of the season.

Matteo Guendouzi could leave if a big enough hid comes in for him. If not he will stay.

If Arsenal do secure Partey and Aouar, expect Emile Smith Rowe and Joe Willock to be loaned out to Premier League clubs – although these deals will happen closer to the 16th October.

So in summary, we do we predict:

Kolasinac SOLD

Torreira LOAN with obligation to buy

Auoar to be SIGNED

Sokratis to be SOLD for free on transfer deadline day

Ozil to be loaned out on transfer deadline day, Arsenal paying the majority of his wage

Partey to be SIGNED on deadline day

Chambers to leave on LOAN with an obligation to buy prior to October 16th

Mustafi towable on LOAN in January. He will join that club on a free transfer next summer

Willock and Smith Rowe to go out on LOAN closer to October 16th

We will keep track of our predictions and let you know how we get on.

Keenos