Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our third signing announced today. Ben White is a RED now! That’s such a cheeky line, whoever came up with, should get a raise, a promotion and a wax statue in Madame Tussauds!
I’m as excited as you. He is the perfect profile we should always looks for. He is young and dynamic, had two good injury free seasons and can hit the ground running.
Playing from back requires an athlete who can sustain the press and move the ball forward. Arteta prefers a ball playing CB, primary reason why David Luiz was brought in and got an year extension. We have been defensively poor from quite some time now, which Mikel is trying to fix – rightly so!
With Ben White coming in, we have our CB problems sorted out. We already have Gabrielle, Mari and Holding. Left Back was already sorted with Nuno Tavares coming in as a back up and competition to Tierney. We have an addition in midfield in Sambi Lokonga, who looks pretty decent till now of what I have seen him in preseason.
What’s next?
We need midfielders! Except Partey, we don’t have any good midfield presence. Xhaka will probably leave, even if he don’t – I don’t expect him to suddenly win matches for us. He is average and we need an upgrade there. Dani Ceballos is probably replaced by Lokonga, which I think is a great move.
We would require another addition in the midfield except if Arteta trust in Willock and give him a game run.
We need Xhaka’s replacement and ESR’s back up. Laca is in his last year and there are rumors of Arsenal trying to sell him. Going in the season with a shadow-of-Auba and a young 20 year old Balogun with 0 premier league appearance certainly don’t sound good. Eddie has a year left in his contract and I don’t see him going for renewal too.
We would require an experience ST. There were rumors about us checking on Tammy Abraham, he is a good player and I would love to see him.
On the right side, Bellerin has lost a lot pace and he wants a move out too. Although Chambers has been seen playing as RB, we would need a KT-like player. Arteta’s system relies heavily on wings play, and every team knows it’s always the left side.
Loan and Sell!
We have not moved anyone yet! Laca and Eddie are in last year of their contract. Xhaka wants a move to Roma. I would even go on to say sell Auba if you find a buyer.
I like Reiss Nelson but he hardly gets any game time. Either loan him out or sell him and use the fund to buy players for playing XI. Maitland Niles is another one, we should have accepted the Wolves offer last year.
Willock shares are at all time high. I would prefer him to stay and play in that midfield but if Mikel think otherwise, we should sell him too.
Wrapping up
Short one for today. After a boring 2 months of no Premier League football and a somewhat silent transfer window so far, I can’t wait enough to see us playing. I am so buzzing I bought a ticket to the preseason against Chelsea this Sunday. I might get the privilege of watching Ben White playing for us for the first white.
Hopefully the weather improves by Sunday.
