I echo putting out the welcoming mat for Kai and Declan and even more so that Mikel has got his men where any excuses for next season issues won’t be accepted in this quarter.
I agree Timber shores up our RB/RCB with White nicely. White tends to run out of gas after 60 minutes at RB, so I can see some rotation for RB but only when Saliba needs a rest to play CB.
It’s not the numbers so much but the lack of negotiating nous that played into Sullivan and Brady’s hands as the controlled the leverage and we have Declan to blame for that. He could have stepped in earlier to seal the deal, but his loyalty was to West Ham: I hope the lad shows us the same courtesy when and if he moves on. I believe he will.
Can Declan become Mr. Arsenal? If the price is anything to go by, then yes he will, as our most expensive player. I also don’t think the pressure of his price will bother him; how Arteta tries to use him might, though. Junior and I watched him quite a bit last season and he can pivot into 8/10 when he makes his runs from our half, but he’s ungainly in his stride and not fleet of foot, as one needs to be in that position – more Xhaka like than say ESR or Trossard who both defend well when needed.
We no longer need Holding with Rice also being a CB. It’s easier to see how Rice is going to be employed at 6 but how does Kai fit into Mikel’s intricate jigsaw puzzle of plays?
I don’t see KH as an 8, but a 10 back up, yes. False 9 and 9 yes he can play, and he has enough pace to go wide left when interchanging with our attack. Kai has the requisite technical skills to be successful in the opposition’s final third, but expect Pepe’s levels of defending, as Kai doesn’t like the physicality of defending and another Ozil like cupcake.
Mikel said he has five roles for Kai, so he’s going to be busy and probably confused. Kai also needs to toughen up and add a bit of bulk to his overall muscular frame although he looks like an ectomorph to me, so very difficult for him to add muscle. Mikel loves to play his shiny new toys, so I would hate Kai to be in front of ESR, and I hope Emile has a great pre-season. ESR is better than Havertz just younger and needs regular minutes to shine.
If we get Timber then we need to address the LB cover for KT and buy Lavia as MF back up or buy similar. Vieira needs to go out on a PL/Championship loan and be judged on that next summer. All in all the window is being kind to us and CL football is a magnet to quality footballers. Will we be stronger at the end of the window? That depends on the outgoings and who else after Timber A&E bring in.
I hope lessons were learnt by Mr. Lewis/Edu and Mr. Garlick. Never negotiate without leverage and a sound strategy, and next season is already looking like it’s shaping up for Mikel & Edu.
I’d say this coming season is all or nothing for Edu & Mikel – sink or swim?
KP-I tend to agree with your sentiments, in that when you look across Kroenke’s sporting empire whenever he’s made massive investments expectations have gone up exponentially…with the Avalanche, as soon as he needed to re-up their best players, only a Stanley Cup would suffice…with the Rams, he went all-in with another fairly untested manager/coach with the full understanding that anything less than a Super Bowl would be considered a failure…even this last season with the Nuggets, who were a winning organization for several years, he went over the salary cap at the trade deadline, which required him to pay a luxury tax for the first time in their existence, for the sole purpose of pushing for their first championship ever…of course, the PL is a different beast, as unlike those aforementioned leagues, who all have tournament-like playoffs to determine a champion, winning here requires a bit different squad construction and strategic nous to come out on top
Vieira
Just imagine Tets reading this exchange today while tucking into his quails’ eggs, manuka honey and green tea and thinking to himself, hey, I better jump and take that job at PSG before my fellow BASTARDS (tm – AlmuniaSNM enterprises) led by that gullible idiot Josh Kroenke rumbles me and decides to give me the push. Now, that would make the TW!
Interesting to see people’s thoughts and expectations for next season. My personal take is next season is going to be possibly the most fiercely contested season we’ve seen in the PL.
City will be there, Liverpool will be much better, ManU will continue to improve, Newcastle will improve and even Chelsea will be much better (although that’s probably not difficult). That doesn’t mean everyone’s going to be within half a dozen points of the eventual winners but the competition for top 4 will be savage.
So where do Arsenal fall in that and how will they do? Well I’m expecting Arteta to be Arteta – we’re going to have a stronger improved squad but the expectation level is going to be much higher and Arteta has struggled to compete on multiple fronts. Going out of the Cup’s early has been written off but this season anything less than Qtr Finals of the CL will be a dismal failure and top 3 is the minimum acceptable league performance.
I’m expecting Arteta to struggle trying to rotate a squad and will end up having an end of season bottle job finishing 4th or 5th. He’ll then be sacked half way through the season after assuming he doesn’t do a runner next summer.
Sorry for the ramble!
Marc-there’s no doubt that finding our way into the 2-hole, or higher, this season should be a more arduous task than last…Klopp, who should have been at the Emirates all along, will almost assuredly unveil a better side, although they still might be a year away from competing for things…Poch will instantly make Chelsea a much tougher out, which shouldn’t be a difficult ask considering the manner in which they captitulated to us last May, but I still think they will need some time to get their i’s dotted and t’s crossed…that said, when you look at their similarly youthful options, they could emerge as a real footballing juggernaut in the years to come…ten Hag has proved his mettle, as if it weren’t for his unwavering presence early last season things could have easily imploded…now he currently finds himself in a bit of a financial pickle, until things on an ownership level get fully sorted, but if that scenario changes sooner than later, look the fuck out…finally, with Newcastle’s newfound financial realities, Emery’s redemption tour plans and the formidable duo of Bloom and DeZerbi at BHA, depending on their roster come mid-August, MA had better up the ante when it comes to his tactical nous or we could find ourselves battling for the Arteta version of the Wenger Cup
KP-good Tet’s imagery…if he were to read this he would be so incensed that he might even have a hair out of place upon completion
-Marc
“the competition for top 4 will be savage.”
Exactly my thoughts. The teams you already mention will battle for CL next season as they are all stronger, good managers, plus not repeating the mistakes of the last season, however I would add to that Villa. The points per game that Emery accumulated once he took over the job, if he would have been at Villa from day one, they would have made top 4 last season. Add to that Monchi being at Villas as DoF and the two of them working together if they can replicate what they did at Seville, Villa will be in the mixer.
.
That is 7 teams battling for those 4 spots and if you take into consideration that two of them most likely are assured of a spot City & Pool, that means 5 teams will battle for 2 spots. As you said it will be a savage battle. For me the outcome is determined bt how good will each team play against the stronger ones like BHA, Spuds and any surprise newcomers, plus win the games that we are expected to win and 6 points from them, then perhaps we will secure top 4.
.
However, we will have a field day if Arteta falls into his bad habits again, not rotating and exhausting his players, flawed in game management and subs. If that happens I hope that KSE will finally after 4+ years will see the light.
Apparently Steve Round gave his notice in with the reason being “I can’t handle working under that useless cunt for another minute”.
Who’d have thought!
Good luck to ESR in the U21’s!
A year ago, I’d have been aghast at the idea of ESR’s sale. Now it’s a question of how much his performances in the Euros have raised his value. Over 2yrs left on his contract too. If the talk about Balogun working from £50m is to believed, who can argue that one of the hottest players in the wining squad isn’t worth £60m at least? At least, if Edu is on his game it should be the starting point.
How many u21 duds have we seen being sold for big dough on the back of a single tournament (*cough, Sanogo)? While ESR already has a body of work going back 3 seasons now.
Some nerd at L’equipe is doing his ’10 to watch’ from the Euros and ESR must be on it.
That Tets-Round leaving interview in full.
SR – Kin ell Mik. After all I did for you, how could you stab me in the back? (ripping his P45 into a hundred pieces and scattering them over Tets’s thunderbird coiff)
MA – Steve. I told you repeatedly how I wanted those cones laying out but you fockin undermined me by leaving them misaligned by a few millimetres. You know how perfection is important to me.
SR – Perfection! Per-fucking-fection! You kept Xhaka at the club and signed Willian!
Per Mertesacker raises his head from under the table – Don’t bring me into this Steve.
MA – And Steve, it hardly matters now, but the writing was on the wall when I saw you on All or Nothing making a wanker gesture behind my back when I was telling the lads about the onfield benefits we could reap from hand rubbing. And luckily those Amazon cunts weren’t around when you stuck, ‘Glory Glory Man United’ on the JVC Ghetto Blaster when I specifically told you I wanted YNWA.
SR – I’ve worked at some giants of English football. Storied clubs with a much higher standing than this shambles. Derby! Middlesbrough! Everton! I’ll survive… I’ve already had offers from Pulis, Dyche, Mick McCarthy and Craig Levein to do their cones and sit silently on the bench while a game goes to fuck.
MA Est-ce que tu parles francais?
SR – Eh?
MA – C’est dommage parce que j’aurais besoin d’un assistant au Parc de Princes en quelques semaines.
SR – Mik you’re nothing but a piss poor polyglot and a sycophant… Just out of interest, who got my job? Vieira? Cazorla? Steve Bastarding McClaren?
MA – No, Josh agreed with me on a radical new approach. He’s here now.
Tets opens the door. SR looks across at eye-level but there’s no one there. The next thing he knows, there’s this massive brown labrador emerging from around the table with it’s ‘lipstick’ out starting to hump Round’s leg.
MA – This is your successor Steve. A break from tradition but a real upgrade we think. Adidas are making him a bespoke tracksuit to cover his constantly aroused genitals and like you, he’ll wear a nappy to counter his leg-cocking incontinence.
SR – Ah fuck Mik, he’s jizzed on my tracksuit bottoms and laid a cable on your Everton rug.
MA – Here Steve, use Pedro from le Grove’s cv to wipe it up.
I should have called it something… The importance of getting a win at AFC.
Aitcho
Personally I think selling ESR would be a mistake. There was so much obfuscation last year about his injuries and why he wasn’t selected at various points, it’s impossible to know what really happened. He’s a talented player, Arsenal through and through from what I can see, a European champion and a goal scorer. I’d give him more time and use him much more.
Only at Arsenal would a piss take bringing up the idea of Steve McClaren give people sleepless nights.
Hi Marc
You’ve probably seen this but just (or should I shay jushsst) in case…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZnoP4sUV90&pp=ygUac3RldmUgbWNsYXJlbiBkdXRjaCBhY2NlbnQ%3D
McLaren had been in Holland for days only but thought his best chance of making himself clear to Dutch viewers (in English of course) would be if he put on a terrible accent. 🇳🇱 Total clown. He sounds like that over permissive Dutch policeman from the fast show.
A very pleasing afternoon of cricket. And some of what that kerb-crawling bastard David Pleat might have called poetic justice against those cheating, kangaroo shagging bastards! Phew.
there’s been a few rumours swirling about our starting 11 and base formation next season…I was under the impression that we would be deploying our usual 4-3-3, or should I say 4-1-2-3, with a deeper-lying pivot…as such I felt it would be Ramsdale, a backline of Timber/ White, Saliba, Gabs and Zinchenko, Rice as the DM, Ode and Havertz in midfield, with Marts, Jesus and Saka up top…now this could be the case, but if Timber usurps White we just might see plenty more of the whole Zinchenko tucked inside gig on both sides of the pitch, thereby enabling Rice to play in a more advanced position…as such, our typical deeper-lying pivot would once again become a dual pivot scenario, but this time with our backers taking the lead roles in those regards…it’s an interesting concept, which could add some much-needed directness to our attack, but it will likewise leave us open to the counter in wider spaces, should we continue to be “loose” in possession:
“the Gunners made more errors leading to shots than any other team in the Premier League last season – and more than twice as many as the other three teams in the top four. They were a little loose in possession, a little open on the transition” (Sky Sports)
now it appears as if both Timber and Zinchenko possess the requisite passing skills to perform admirably in this capacity, but surely not as well as an in-form Partey…I get it though as Rice doesn’t have the passing nous to sit in the middle of the pitch and disperse the ball at a world-class level
I’ve even heard a couple “insiders” suggest that Rice could actually be deployed on the left side of the midfield, which seems an odd choice, except if the plan is to have Havertz wide right and Ode placed squarely in the middle…this would put our best passer dead center, while adding some more size and protection in wider spaces to help compensate for our new “tighter” formational approach…not sure I’m sold on this plan, albeit the possibility of Havertz and Saka teaming up against opposing defences does seem rather intriguing…I guess only time will tell
Hi Vieira
The club has now assembled so much exhorbitant ‘talent’ that formations really ought not matter. Our first XI should be nailed on to beat any team except manure, city and Liverpool (home AND away) without needing complex tactical tweaks. The ingenuity need only come to the fore against top, top opposition or when we fall a goal behind and a revised approach might be needed (not one of Tets’s strengths) .
I’m not a betting man, but it will be interesting to see where bookmakers and pundits see us finishing this year. My regained interest is a sign, perhaps, that I think we’re slowly getting back to the top table that we last sat at in the mid 2000s. That’s the expectation anyway.
KP-I want to agree with your assessment, but we’ve seen teams rife with talent not make the grade when the tactics didn’t align with the personnel on the pitch…just think about when Wenger would shoehorn Ramsey or Ozil out wide or when managers like Jose, Conte or Sarri would try to force ill-suited squads to play their preferred formations
that said,, I do concur with the notion that we should have enough talent to manhandle the lesser lights, regardless of the formation, but as we witnessed last year MA was outmanaged far too often in the business end of the season, against several basement dwellers no less, so too much nonsensical tinkering could prove fatal
tbh the only reason I have come to terms with the monies spent on Rice, instead of Caicedo, is that I envisioned him as a dominant figure in the middle the park, which would in turn would allow us to commit more players in and around the box…more often than not we were badly outnumbered in the final third last term, which allowed teams to constantly double-team both Marts and Saka
this wide-side defensive shift by opposing defences was what enabled Xhaka to be left unmarked on a fairly regular basis, so I was assuming the Havertz get was MA’s attempt to run it back with someone who might have far more goalscoring potential in the 8 hole…unfortunately Havertz hasn’t been that clinical since arriving in the PL, which is likely why some had hoped that MA would have targeted someone who was exceedingly more proficient in the final third
ultimately all I hope is that whatever formational course we choose it allows us to redress our biggest shortcomings, like our lack of directness, midtable finishing and vulnerablities on the counter, so that we can become the kind of team who, like City, dictates the tempo and style of play against all comers…that certainly doesn’t mean you should win each and every time you step in the pitch, but it does means that it’s going to take something special from the opposition to take a point, let alone all 3…Cheers
TRVL
One additional factor for me that makes the signing of Rica palatable is his on the pitch leadership. Sometimes it is a matter of expressions other times it is oozing confidence and steady the team when things are going south and I believe that Rice has those qualities.
Killroy-agreed…I would have mentioned it but I was solely talking about the tactical side of the equation…he surely makes far more sense as a leader than anyone we’ve had since MA’s arrival…Cheers
The concern is Arteta with more toys to play with will try and over complicate things (something Pep has done on occasions) even more.