Continuing the week by week guide to fortune telling which exists in order to give economics forecasting a good name.
First off its The Guardian, and this is so good they needed two writers for it: David Hytner and Fabrizio Romano. Welcome guys.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a summer transfer target for Arsenal. They have sent scouts to watch the Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder and have further monitored his progress via video clips.
This chap is 27, which as we showed in the recent article on the current team, is now on the old side. And he was going to join Liverpool! and also the Tiny Totts when at Shakhtar Donetsk, and the fact that he didn’t, tells us something about the sources of information.
He’s an Armenian international and has an unpronounceable name and he is “torn” (yes torn) “between renewing at Dortmund – for whom he signed in 2013 from Shakhtar for £23.5m – and considering a move to the Emirates Stadium. He would have no shortage of other offers from clubs across Europe.”
So he could go anywhere then.
Arsène Wenger is likely to lose Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky from his midfield in the summer. All three are out of contract and not expected to be given new deals, with age and injury problems having caught up with them while there is uncertainly over Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s future at the club.
2: Granit Xhaka
OK we’ve done the Granit job but the Guardian article above wants to tell us again.
Apart from using up vital column inches writing Borussia Mönchengladbach in full we are told that Granit is a holding midfielder is a mere 23, and has an imposing physical presence plus skill and intelligent reading of the game, will carry Switzerland’s hopes at the European Championship in the summer.
3: Andriy Yarmolenko: Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool on alert
Never slow to move into an act the Independent tells us that “Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have been put on red alert after the manager of Ukraine has said winger Andriy Yarmolenko should move to the Premier League.”
Oh well if it’s red alert it must be a load of cobblers.
The 26-year-old has been constantly linked to a move to England, and the comments from the national team’s coach, Mykhaylo Fomenko, will only further speculation. The Dynamo Kiev winger has made 58 appearances for Ukraine, scoring 24 goals.
Rated at £25m, Yarmolenko scored the winning goal against Wales on Monday.
“Yarmolenko has been heavily linked with Liverpool! in the past two transfer windows, but the moves eventually came to nothing.”
Does the occurrence of Liverpool! in every single story tell us anything?
4: Yaya Toure
Not a time warp from me but a story in the Indy today. They even remember that Yaya once had a trial at Arsenal (Mr Wenger called him “very average”) “however a permanent move never materialised,” (which is patently obvious.)
Toure would add some additional experience to the squad, however the club are already blessed with an array of midfield options, which might make Toure a luxury they can live without. Wenger isn’t a fan of older players either.
So that would be a no then. And besides we made a whacking great profit out of his brother, and we’re not going to get away with that trick twice. But Stuart Pearce (yes that Stuart Pearce) says, “Arsenal need an old head within the team.” And what, I ask, is wrong with Koscielny?
5: DONE DEAL – ARSENAL ANNOUNCE FIRST SUMMER SIGNING AS WORLD WINNER SIGNS FIVE YEARS DEAL. CHELSEA BEATEN TO SIGNING
Yes it is in SoccerTransfers, I know you’ve had to wait and a biting at the champ [I think that’s champing at the bit, your Grace – Tony]
Arsenal have completed their first summer signing according to daily star. The Gunners have reportedly beaten the likes of West Ham, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United to high rated Nigeria under 17 FIFA world cup winner Kelechi Nwakali.
Actually I warm to SoccerTransfers. Anyone who can quote the Star without sniggering and then write daily star in lower case gets my vote. Well, gets my vote if the only other party is Donald Trump.
The Nigerian who has been named the new Patrick Vieira in some quarters.
Right. “… with reports claiming Tottenham were the keenest in the bid to sign the Nigerian but according to daily star, the player will instead be signing a five years contract with the Gunners.”
But “there is no official comment on this transfer from Arsenal” but don’t worry for that is “not surprising considering how the Gunners conduct their transfer business in secrecy,”
Blimey, one nil to the arsenal then (sorry Arsenal).
“Kelechi Nwakali is not coming back to Nigeria, he has gone to London to stay,” a representative told allnigeriasoccer.com “He will do pre-season training with Arsenal. It is no longer in our hands if he’ll train with the first team or the Academy, they know the best for him. His application for a work permit can only be processed after he clocks 18.”
6 ARSENAL TO MAKE POLISH STRIKER THEIR FIRST SUMMER SIGNING
But maybe that (see above) wasn’t it after all. Soccer Transfers says we’ve already bought someone else!!!!
The Sun says we’re selling Wilshere, and the Metro (rather slow off the mark this week) says, “Arsenal have decided to make Polish international striker Arkadiusz Milik their first signing of the summer.”
But look who else wants him. That bunch of criminals and crooks at Barcelona and Liverpool! yes Liverpool! But the Metro says we’ll get him.
Milik only arrived at Amsterdam last summer, in a £2 million deal from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, but now after having scored 16 goals in the Dutch Eredivisie his price tag will be closer to the £10 million mark, a figure still well short of the money that will be asked for Gonzalo Higuain and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who several papers claim are being linked with a move to the Emirates.
——————
So far this transfer window (which ain’t yet open)
The Ten Biggest Arsenal Transfer Stories of the Day complete with exclamation marks.
Should BREXIT come to pass, a lot of none UK players transfer to the Barclays Premier League may not happen next season.
Nevertheless, Arsenal already have a pool of top quality young players in their 1st team squad and in their academy school to draw from for their next season campaign.
Should Arsenal peradventure won the Premier League this season, any pressure on the Boss to undertake a turnaround reshufflement of his squad with many signings and selling out some, will considerably be reduced to the barest minimum.
It has been perceived by the Arsenal fans that, Rocisky and Arteta will leave Arsenal at the end of this season and it is likely Flamini too could follow them. But the Ox should be retained at Arsenal for their next season campaign. He has pace and his young. The Arsenal coaches should coach him how he should with some playing techniques avoid picking up injuries in his games. The Ox should have sold Mascherano at the Ems by lifting the ball over his head and then pace round him to the ball. If the 2nd approaching Barca defender tackled the Ox, the ref could blow for a Pen as the tackle will be done in the Barca box where the Ox would have gotten to.
The Boss has some upgrade of his squad to do next season as some specialist players are not in his squad this season. Those he should look to sign in or promote in from his youth team are:
1. Long throwing-in specialist whose long or short throw-ins can cause havoc in the opponent teams box.
2. Free-kick specialist. Arsenal need a free-kick specialist who can be converting free-kicks into goals for them on regular basis.
3. Arsenal need the option of power and steel at the center of the park. A player with a top physical presence at Arsenal midfield is desirous to have at Arsenal next season. Arsenal can play him when playing any team with physical presence players.
We already have Schemers in Cazorla, Sanchez, Campbell and now Iwobi who can scheme or wriggle past their makers. And we also have assist and corner kicks specialist in Ozil. We also already have good headers in Welbeck and Giroud. But we could still do with a top 2 footed striker from the market or from internal solution.
What Arsenal need is an Equaliser /fixer to put the fear of whomsoever or whatsoever in the PGMOB refs . Get them to be fair to us , or ..else !
Cue ominous background music …theme from Jaws or Darth Vader entrance ….
Funny how these stories seem to emerge and take up more space in even ‘serious’ newspapers in the weeks leading to season ticket renewal time. Perhaps the more pessimistic ‘fans’ need some encouragement. Those of little faith eh?
What a load of bollix.
What we need are Leaders. I’d like two players (given the emergence of Mo and Alex) in the latter part of this season.
We need someone who is fast but also scores – that would be Griezman. I also think we need someone to take over from Per – both positionally and as captain. We are losing leaders (Arty, Scissors, Tommy).
For me, bringing in Ramos as captain would give a leadership group of Cech, Kos, Ramos, Alexis and Mesut. You can probably add Welbz to that group as well.
There are others who we really need to consider if they fit the current bill: Ollie, Theo, Ox, Rambo. Still others who might want to move on for personal reasons: Ospina, MD, Kieran, Sanogo.
Next season’s starting 11?
Cech,
Hector, Kos, Ramos, Nach,
Mo, Santi, Coq,
Mesut, Alexis, Welbz
i still see no cover for Coq still yet. We need it. He is sometimes the player we miss when playing for a draw than a loss when we are not scoring enough.
The problem with bringing in Ramos at CB is that he is 30, has never played in the EPL and would prob cost in excess of 15m for a player who will only potentially be good for another 2 or 3 seasons and may take some time settling in. Also because of the fact that he is a similar age to koscielny, It would mean in 2 years we would have the prospect of replacing both first-choice CB’s at the same time. Not very Wengerian.
I do however think buying a new CB along with a pacey forward is our top priority for summer. With Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Cazorla. Wilsh, and Ozil all providing different qualities for the 3 midfield roles and the fact that Elneny was brought in January, I can’t see us buying anyone there. Especially with Zelalem and Hayden coming through.
I would like to see a defender with experience (but still a few years left) coming in to partner koscielny as first choice, if we got someone like Bonucci 28, Howedes 27 or Hummels 27, I would be very happy. I would be happy to keep Per at the club for another year too, whereas its not very useful bringing Arteta in to play holding in any competiton other than early round FA or Capital One Cup, due to the physical power and stamina needed to play pre football, I do think bringing on per as a 3rd CB when we are winning a game could be very useful. He has the leadership qualities of Arteta and is our tallest outfield player and this could also be prove valuable if we had a defensive injury crisis, where we would usually play monreal or chambers in CB.
Rosicky, Flamini, Arteta should all go, and in my opinion one or both of Giroud and walcott. They have both been good for us at times over the years, and both have improved in someways since they joined the club, but Arsenal and Wenger have given them a lot of time to come good (especially walcott) and for players of their experience many would argue they should have scored more in our run of bad games after christmas. Walcott is 26 now and I would already prefer for Arsene to be playing any of Campbell, the Ox, Iwobi, Welbeck and dare I say it even Jeff over him.
He is struggling to get into the England team and there are reports that he wants to move to get regular first team football. We chose to play him when he was young instead of buying a more experienced winger, and even though I feel for him suffering injuries over the years if a player has not come good after ten years then we cannot go in thinking he will. Even though it is possible he might it is to big a risk to take when we have so much more young talent which could fill his position.
We should bag 20 mil for him, and use the funds to try and get a top class forward such as Aubameyang, Lewandowski, Bale, Higuain, Cavani any of MSN, Aguero (no chance), even Zlatan could prove a good buy even though he’s 34. There is no point us purchasing another forward in the mould and similar level to Welbeck or Giroud. The league is getting harder and harder due to TV money (and referees), and as Wenger said a few years ago to achieve domination in the way United did will only be achieved with players of the highest quality ( no Bentekes).
I believe Wenger will only choose to buy a top top player for the striker role otherwise he would rather promote from within due to the high cost of even mediocre strikers, and these are the names he will be looking at. I would have put Benzema on the list a year ago, but I doubt Wenger will go for him due to all his court case businesses this year. Whether or not Giroud should go is dependent on whether we manage to bring one of these players in this summer and also who they are. Giroud could be useful to keep next year if we bought someone like Aubameyang. Aubameyang can also play on the right and although he is pretty tall aswell Giroud maybe provides something different to him in attack.
Likewise if by some miracle we got one of Neymar, Bale or Messi then Giroud should also stay due to the reason that they can all play out wide, and neymar and messi don’t offer as much in terms of size and stature. However if we were to get Lewandowski, Aguero, Higuain or Cavani then Giroud should be sold, after all Wilshere and ramsey can play right wing if needs be.
@timo
Jack?
OT: Corruption
Apparently UEFA offices were raided by Swiss police today.
Fanticists still picking teams with monopoly funds. Brickfields Gunners there is something missing in your medicine cabinet that needs to be prescribed because the gun lobby has not allowed your weaponry to be used.
OT: Corruption
With respect to the Panama Papers (good bye ethics lawyer, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your away from the trough), the official story is that this was a hack of an email server. Other people with way more knowledge than me about finding and exploiting software holes, think this data came from one or two 3 letter alphabet soup organizations, and that it has been sanitized and redacted so as to not incriminate any USA citizens. Especially USA politicans.
My problem wit all these analysis nd wishlist is dat write/ say watever we like on dis blog or elsewhere Wenger is Wenger! He does wat He wishes nd wills no mata our cries; my take d/4 is for everybody to relax nd wait till summer!for me if my readings of Arsene’s bodylanguage nd utterances are correctly read,we shall ce replacements for Arteta,Rocisky nd Flam;but. I wonda if all those d media are linking wit us will be AW’s choice.we all kno Wenger likes obscure talents dat normally amazes everybody,players nd managers alike.I won’t be suprised if Silva or Rene turns out to be his new signing in d summer for d world striker position we desire;d man Arsene is simply Unpredictable:recall Elneny,ce how Iwobi has bin unveiled,don’t be suprised if Toral, Hind or Bennacar is d next new chip on d blocks; so those expecting some splashing of cash in summer may jolly well be Completely disappointed wen dey don’t ce an Higuain, Lavessi,Batshuayi,Goetze,Ibra,et al;all d same I won’t be amazed if a Lukaku,Kante or d like surfaces on Arsene’s wishlist; I tell u wat, Wenger is a man in his own professional world:he loves doing tins people wuldnt tink of doing or dare attempt doing; he enjoys success derived frm noting spectacular nd dat sets him apart frm odas uniquely,I admire him nd appreciate him immensely.people like him are always hated to be loved by those around dem who do nt hve his kind of ability,intelligence nd or capabilities.Trust Wenger we shall ce sumtin special in Arsenal next season dat will cause more envy towards hiim,dat I can sense already wit all d abuses,fan oppobrium, hate campaign, daily media onslaught ,PGMOB biased referring in Our matches etc; Wenger is nt a Fool,a highly intelligent nd efficent professional he is,an envy of collegues Morinhno’s explecites notwitstanding, dey all admire him ndwish dey culd belikehim, dats d reason for all d negatives,abuses et al, tank God d Board knos d value of wat dey hve! Vintage Wenger!!!
Austinpaul….could you translate your post into colloquial English please?
Austinpaul please get a new keyboard
Agree with the need for power and steel. Our ballet footballers can easily be brushed aside in a 50/50 challenge. Even Sanchez for all his determination wont be able to get the better of bigger sized thugs.
Btw,the fm is happily getting wonder kids. I hope he gets the top quality players as well.
A few medja sites think they know who is on Wenger’s short list. Here is a short list:
10. Joãozinho (5ft 4 in)
_9. Carlinhos Bala (5ft 4 in)
_8. Juan Cuevas (5ft 4 in)
_7. Franco Niell (5ft 4 in)
_6. Christian Lara (5ft 4 in)
_5. Mexican Elgabry Rangel(5ft 4 in)
_4. Madson Formagini Caridade (5ft 3 in)
_3. Maximiliano Moralez (5ft 3 in)
_2. Diego Buonanotte (5ft 2 in)
_1. Élton Jose Xavier Gomes (approximately 5ft 2)
Now that, is a short list!
Thanks to footballsTopTen.com.
@Gord April 7, 2016 at 3:05 am – Here’s another list .
The greatest scientists of all times were invited to a reunion …
* Newton said he’d drop in.
* Socrates said he’d think about it.
* Ohm resisted the idea.
* Boyle said he was under too much pressure.
* Darwin said he’d wait to see what evolved.
* Pierre and Marie Curie radiated enthusiasm.
* Volta was electrified at the prospect.
* Pavlov positively drooled at the thought.
* Ampere was worried he wasn’t current enough though alternately none were.
* Audubon said he’d have to wing it.
* Edison thought it would be illuminating.
* Einstein said it would be relatively easy to attend.
* Archimedes was buoyant at the thought.
* Dr Jekyll declined and would Hyde-he said he hadn’t been feeling himself lately.
* Morse said, “I’ll be there on the dot. Can’t stop now, must dash.”
* Gauss was asked to attend because of his magnetism.
* Hertz said he planned to attend with greater frequency in the future.
* Watson thought it would be a good way to let off steam.
* Wilbur Wright accepted, provided he and Orville could get a flight.
* And Dr. Sigmund Freud couldn’t help but give it the slip
@ Menace April 6, 2016 at 9:14 pm – Patience , my friend . Like all diseases , there is of course an incubation period .
The early symptoms to look out for are –
1. easy irritability and abusive tendencies ;
2. feelings of despondency and/or despair ;
3. tendency to lash out at loved ones , pets etc ;
4. unable to think rationally or formulate proper ideas ;
5. drinking and or smoking too much and substance abuse ;
6. not gainfully employed or inability to hold down jobs ;
7. blaming others for their present predicament ;
8. delusions of grandeur or entitlement ;
9. resentment of others beliefs and happiness ;
10. Xenophobia , often involving ‘French elephants in the room’ ;
11.insomnia ;
Actually ,after having written the above , I’ m tempted to believe that it is not working . Those are their normal tendencies anyway !
Damn ! Its back to the drawing board for me !
New meaning for optimistic –
http://newsthump.com/2016/04/05/optimistic-to-be-defined-as-a-three-year-contract-with-chelsea/