Bloody hell, it took Mikel Arteta a total of five and a half season to get a CF. He inherited three – Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang but he shipped them all off to play Kai Havertz – a midfielder, Mikel Merino – another midfielder and Trossard – a winger. We finished 2nd three times in a row and I can bet a tenner we would have won at least one of them had there been a proper goal scorer upfront. With the Sesko and Gyokeres saga and the delay that was happening, I was getting sceptical that it might not happen at all, but better late than never.
Since The King left, we had the young 16 year old Walcott wearing that number for a decade, he did much better for his age and the support he had around him. Auba came and delivered some beautiful goals and games for us. Loved him except for his move to Chelsea but hey, he got a family. Nketiah was a trial and failed as it did for the ESR #10. Time will tell whether Gyokeres does justice to the number but let me be clear, I am pretty sure he will.
We are paying £64m to Sporting because the add-ons are too easy. That’s a lot of money after we have already spent some on Kepa, Zubimendi, Norgaard and a lot of money for Madueke. But I DON’T CARE. I just don’t want to see midfielders playing as a striker and I don’t want to see a sulking Havertz up top. We are bringing a striker who has got personality, presence, and intimidation in him. He has some unbelievable stats albeit in a weaker league but hey, he did pretty well in Champions League.
I have no doubt he will do great in red and white. He knows it, so he pushed for the move; his agent knows it so he is marketing himself by dropping 6m of agent fees, the club knows it because ultimately they are going to pay 60+ million GBP for him.
Cristhian is here – Welcome to Arsenal
We have signed Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia. I was always calling out the club to get a proper CF, and ignore this versatility crap everyone throws around these days. How many games have you seen Kiwior, White or Tomiyasu play at CB or which one of them were able to bench Saliba when he was going through a bad form couple season back? No one. We need competition everywhere and we need good back ups.
Mosquera has been a starter for Valencia since 2023/24 season and have played the most number of games for any player in Europe top 5 league who is under the age of 21. If you are not even 21 and you play 73 games as a CB in couple of seasons, you are a talent.
A very good signing according to me, hats off to whoever pushed for it. And we only paid £13m for him with some add-ons. Brilliant deal considering Tomiyasu is gone and we have White/Timber for RB while Calafiori/MLS fight for the LB spot.
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Right, sorry for a short one today. Days are just getting busier as I am getting old. Hope you are have a good one, wherever you are in the world. Cheers.
Yep,spurs will be dangerous if they have a full team out. Their squad is threadbare though so I’m not sure if that will happen often. They have their fair share of permanent crocks too in Van der ven,romeo and maddison. But Kudus is a quality signing no doubt.
Wicksy,I’d be inclined to give Gabriel the captaincy,I presume language is no barrier, Rice needs to get his own game firing consistently first before worrying about his teammates. Another year or two before he matures into that role for me.
PSG are totally off it here but that’s not surprising given how far they went in the CWC. I doubt they’re too worried about peaking for the start of ligue 1 either. That’s not to say that Frank hasn’t immediately improved spurs,I loved Ange at celtic and sympathised with him at spurs but they have gone up a level with Frank in no time judging on tonight and the Arsenal friendly. Makes one wonder about rookie managers and 13 phases!
Wicksy
How can you demand someone who can lead the team to success on the pitch but support a moron as manager who has blown 3 chances of winning the PL?
Say the words – ARTETA IS A CUNT.
“Makes one wonder about rookie managers and 13 phases!”
Christ is it only 13 phases – its felt like a lot more.
Marc,
Each phase was subdivided into parts.
Frank made 3 subs,including taking off Kudus and the game changed completely. They really are wafer thin. No wonder the savihno and eze links are strong. I don’t understand why they bought that Tel lad from Bayern. He was brutal on loan last season and worse tonight. I’d say Frank wasn’t too happy to find he was stuck with him.
refreshed and back just in time for the start of the season…sorry to those I didn’t respond to in the meantime, but I went scorched earth with all things tech-related…that’s something I’ll undoubtedly adopt on an annual basis, at least for a week or so…I will say this, it’s probably wise to provide notifications to anyone who might reach out, as some were pissed by my failure to respond for upwards of 10 days…lesson learned
more than a few points of interest:
(1) it’s clear now that our Eze “push” had far more to do forcing Ethan’s re-upping than actually pursuing the player, so don’t be surprised if he ends up at our “crosstown” rivals…I’m a huge proponent of Ethans’, but I’m still not convinced that Arteta favours him enough to have him seriously cut into Ode’s minutes, whereas Eze’s mere presence would have put Ode on notice…that said, I personally feel that our unwillingness to get Eze over the line has far more to do with our insanely expensive Rice experiment than Ode, as Eze makes much more sense on the left, but Declan is somehow untouchable, even when he’s being deployed out of position…don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Rice making the odd advancing run and being a primary set piece option, but I wouldn’t pay a 100+M for him to be a regular left-sided 8, unless top 4 was good enough for ownership (btw this whole Ethan/Eze connection was further confirmed by Ornstein, who I still view as the most informed Arsenal “insider”)
(2) I do put some stock in the whole “something to prove” narrative when it comes to VG, as he has the physicality and pace that this sort of “come good” storyline generally requires, but I can’t stop thinking about the likes of Nunez, who also dominated that league then struggled to duplicate those performances in the PL…on that note, it’s important to remember that both players “did so in a league ranked as only the eighth toughest in the world, behind the Championship and Belgian top-flight”…VG is the more clinical finisher, so hopefully that enables him to succeed where Nunez failed…that said, VG’s success at Sporting was largely predicated on their willingness to make him the tactical focus, which surely won’t happen here…personally I still would have made a concerted push for Isak, as he would have forced MA into finally changing his vertically-challenged tactical approach
(3) I’ve spoken about my concerns about Havertz being shoehorned out wide left and I’m starting to see some unsettling rumours in this regards (this is something I desperately hoped that both Marc and myself were wrong about)…I’ve noticed that we’ve been looking to press higher up again, with Saka taking the backside CB when we employ our lock left-side lock from a few years back…this would allow our midfielders to sit a bit deeper, so as to stymie any direct line countering by the opposition…as such, I can totally see how MA might relish a pressing trio of Havertz, VG and Rice on the left, especially with an inverted backer in play…now maybe just maybe Noni’s presence will dissuade MA from deploying Kai out wide, but where else are you going to put him, especially with Rice seemingly a lock to play as the left-sided 8…I just don’t see Noni having enough goals in him on the left, as he’s far more effective in that capacity on the right, so it could provide MA with the perfect opportunity to lean even further into his fucked up shoehorning ways
(4) I saved the worst for last…I just don’t see MA getting sacked unless we finish outside the top 4…the Kroenke enterprise is now recognized as most successful sporting empire in the world today, but don’t get fooled by their continued backing of our runner-up master…the only thing their investments tells me is that they realize that in order to compete for the Wenger Cup nowadays you have to splash the cash…the key for me then becomes our transfer brief, which has seen us continually prioritizing defence over offence, even when it comes to more advanced players, instead of targeting in-form readymade proven superstars up top…this sort of strategy speaks far more about us trying to guarantee a top 4 spot, thereby remaining in the conversation, than winning major trophies…a real show of intent would have looked and felt decidely different, as it would have focused squarely on quality over quantity…of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t exceed our organizational expectations, but I don’t think MA’s future is directly tied to his ability to secure silverware, regardless of the outside noise
Glad to be back in the fold…sorry about the length of this post, but does it really surprise anyone…btw it was the first time I’ve partaken in my usual hash-related activities in almost two weeks, so the fact that this is even marginally coherent is a minor miracle…Cheers
Hi Vieira
Three things.
Welcome back mate. Sounds like you put yourself through some interesting changes.
Can you recommend going tech free? Did you follow a certain doctrine or did you make it up (as I would’ve done).
That league of leagues sounds intriguing. It suggests that by leaving Coventry for a big Portuguese team, VG took a step back or sideways. Time will tell. At least he won’t have to wait any longer for that first goal, even if it came in a friendly. Out of interest, where did the Argentine and Brazilian leagues come?
I’m imagining you were on some new age dude ranch doing tantric yoga all day and drinking your own urine. 🟡 Sounds perfect!
Welcome back TRVL. Good to hear you have recharged your mind and body.
Great post as usual.
With music song writing and production, video and photography driving my life I’m a self confessed techy and love the advancements each year brings.
I’ve posted my thoughts on the TW and next season so won’t labor the points here.
Now we wait to see starting this weekend. If I’m honest I never expected us to buy Eze. We are not liked by the Palace chairman and owner to begin with when we tried to boss them before with Zaha.
Time will tell my friend……..
New post.
Thanks once again Tony…I read many of your posts upon my return, among others of course…as you know, we’re aligned on a multitude of club-related matters, so it’s good to see you back to your old posting self
KP—firstly I’m not a big phone guy, laptops are my go-to, yet it still plays too dominant a role in my life…I would definitely recommend that you give it a go, but it’s easier said than done…of course one’s circumstances will come into play, so it’s probably only possible when you’re in full-bore vacation mode…the legwork prep will require more time and energy than you might think, as I can attest, but the juice is fucking worth the squeeze…I made a lot of mistakes this time round, but hopefully they’ll be easily rectified in the sequel…btw my little trek can be best described as one-half Ayahuasca retreat and one half Kitchen Confidential…at one point it had a bit of a Fear and Loathing vibe, so I quickly dialed things back…Cheers