By Tony Attwood
First off, Gabriel Magalhães has joined Arsenal from Lille for £27m, signing a five-year contract. The delay in the signing has simply been because of the lastest covid restrictions, which mean he is still in isolation having travelled from France on 24 August.
There has of course been a lot of talk about him going to Napoli rather than Arsenal, and further talk about Arsenal losing him to Manchester United and Manchester City (although probably not both at once) with blogs developing the theme that Arsenal have been dithering or arguing over some detail in the contract. It was all untrue.
We have also re-signed Dani Ceballos on a second season-long loan from Real Mad. There will soon be stories concerning how much more this is costing Arsenal than if we had bought him a year ago. They will by and large be untrue. I haven’t seen the stories yet, but they are bound to come out, and they are always untrue.
We have also signed Willian after he left Chelsea. So that makes three. But “who are the others?” I hear you cry.
One is Mohamed Elneny – although the press are trying desperately hard to cover their tracks having spent a year telling us he is on the way out.
Elneny played in the game against MK Dons, and then again in the Community Shield match wearing the number 25 shirt – there being many reports in the media that the fact he had lost his old number was proof he was off. Playing in both those games, and indeed playing well in both those games, has suggested all the stories are wrong.
Another player we have all been told was leaving was Maitland-Niles but again, the excellent development of the player suggests that he too is staying. He has also been called up for the England squad, which will probably knock his talent back a bit, and could lead to him getting the virus as he goes jetting across Europe in the pursuit of … well what? What is the trophy called that England are competing for? Someone probably knows.
So Gabriel, Ceballas, Willian, Elneny, Maitland-Niles. Not a bad start to the window.
Going in the opposite direction we are told there is Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, Rob Holding and Sokratis, the latter who, having asked all the questions is now looking for the answers. (The old ones are not necessarily the best, but it is good to keep up traditions).
However a certain rehabilitation for Guendouzi does seem to have been encountered of late. Which means he could stay, and that would be a real bonus. A Guendouzi who stays and doesn’t get into trouble off the pitch would bring a real extra buzz to the team.
This all comes on top of winning the FA Cup and Community Shield.
And thanks to our Swiss correspondent Christophe Jost for pointing out that Mr Arteta has one huge advantage : he was a player under Mr Wenger and assistant manager under Mr Guardiola. Both, as Christophe says, are legends on their own in terms of football strategy, tactics, coaching. Mr Wenger was even given the honour of having a style of football named after him: Wengerball. (The only other manager who got a football event named after him was Ferguson, who got Fergie-time.)
There is also one other factor about our manager that Christophe ventured: Mikel Arteta has four trophies as a player with Arsenal, and two as a manager with Arsenal.
Beyond that he has nine appearances as a player / manager in seven years in Wembley.
Which is by and large not bad going.
- Arsenal: the underdogs; exactly when we shine
- Arsenal’s record breaking cup final run and Arteta’s amazing Wembley record
- Another legal case involving Fifa, yet more silence in the UK media
Saliba is also a ‘new’ player as he hasn’t played for us yet.
What about the permanent signings of Pedro Mari and Cedric Soares – that makes 7 signings
Hmmm. Okay it’s really really a jolly jolly time at Arsenal now as the club have after a bit of delays finally announced their signing of the Brazilian centreback, Gabriel Maglhaes this summer to the joy of us Gooners.
Matteo Guendouzi should go through or have a rehabilitation time period at Arsenal? But to rehabilitate him from what? Is he having a pre mental disorders which needed curing before he had that serious fall out episode in Dubai with his head coach Mikel Arteta that maybe makes him looked susceptible to be suffering from mental disorderlines? But other than a seemingly mental disorders he could be having, what kind of rehabilitation will he undergoes at Arsenal to rehabilitate back to acceptable normalcy? By the way, could he be addicted to the using of the hard drug substance which he is using could be to enabled him play football game properly? Which if otherwise he can’t play the game properly without using the drug substance. Just like Diego Maradona was using the hard drug substance at Napoli that reportedly enhance his game playing performance for Napoli. But without using he because seriously ill and had to undergo rehabilitation treatment to rehabilitate which he did be he became well. But I don’t think he play the game after he was rehabilitated. Nonetheless, I think Arsenal should subject Guendouzi to a thorough medical check up examination to ascertain if he uses cannabis, cocaine and etc or not. So that the club will know how they should handled him and what they should do with him. For, because the reported two altercations that he had allegedly with his head coach and club’s chiefs in Dubai and at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground with his head coach again and club’s officials including against his team mates has called for a serious investigations to be carried out.
Arsenal summer reinforcements are going well and on course this summer window as the club have reinforced their back line with 2 top quality centreback signings in Gabriel Maglhaes who has been signed this summer. And William Saliba who was signed last summer but was loaned out but now he has reported to the club and now training to be ready for action next season.
On the midfield, this article posting is saying Arsenal have resigned the midfielder, Dani Cebbalos for another season long loan deal from Real Madrid this summer. But for what role in the midfield? Central attacking midfielder role? Okay, what about the signing of a top quality grade defensive midfielder by the club this summer. Will the club do it? The majority of the Arsenal supporters are saying that they want to see the club sign one Thomas Partey 28 from Atletico Madrid. But I upt out to instead go for the signing of Amaduo Diawara 22 from Lille FC by Arsenal. My reason for this is Diawara is younger to Partey by 6 good years. And therefore, he will give Arsenal longer service years than Partey would. But in terms of quality at the top level of the game, honestly I don’t know who is the better in quality of the duo DMs. But Arsenal should know but they should try to avoid making the wrong choice out of the two if it is true the two DMs are Arsenal targets for signing this summer.
Nevertheless, media reports are also saying that Arsenal are after the signing of the attacking midfielder, Houssem Aouer 22 from Lyon FC this summer. But it has now been said that Arsenal have signed Dani Cebbalos this summer already. However, I don’t think the signing of Aouer by Arsenal this summer will materialized if they have already signed Cebbalos. But one of Diawara or Partey signing by Arsenal this summer could come to fruition.
But what of the attacking striker reinforcement signing by Arsenal this summer? For nothing has been said on this very important subject as Arsenal are reinforcing 2 out of the 4 departments in the squad but looking to neglecting the striker’s department reinforcement signing this summer. But that of the goalkeepping department is not really necessary to reinforced
i think if Arsenal want to compete competently for the Premier League title win favourably next season, they MUST sign a proven top League 20 goals and above goals scorer per season striker in the mould of Danny Ings. And use him to complement the goals scoring efforts of Aubameyang next season. Which if Arsenal sign this summer, the striker signing will significantly improved the club’s goals scoring tally in the PL next season far above the tally the club had last season.
Welcome to those that we hope will move us forward , onwards and to the summit . As long as we play as well as we can , I will have no complains.
Any trophies along the way are added bonuses.
Up the Gunners !
I really do believe that this season will be the start of something. I trust Aubameyang will stay, and looking at the transfers so far, what I see is stability. Wiklian, Saliba and Gabriel are newcommers, all others were already there. Can you name me another big club with that kind of stability ?
This means Arsenal will hit the ground running coming out of this summer break. No need for a few games fo the team to get acquainted. The guys know each other and have won 2 trophies. The individual level of the players is high enough that none can rest on his laurels and not give 100%. Competition for each position is really existing – and if there is not a clear one, AMN can play the position anyway so the pressure is on !
And from all I could see these past 10 months, M Arteta knows how to manage his group. From a managerial point of view, his getting Xhaka and Mustaif back into the team has saved the club millions. If AMN stays, the same can be said about him. I hope his magic works on Guendoui and it would be fantastic if it did on Ozil.
Chris
“I hope his magic works on Guendouzi and it would be fantastic if it did on Ozil”
Wouldn’t it just. That’s along the lines of what I said yesterday to Ron:
–Getting the back line sorted, ie for one thing reducing the way too many attempts at goal we habitually concede, gives a base on which to get the offensive game sorted.
The next thing to sort will be more goals from midfield. A more solid back line may in itself give enough latitude to the players we already have to achieve that, we will see soon enough. If not that may be the next position, a creative goal scoring midfielder, that Arteta looks to address. The only problem is they are like gold dust and usually have a price tag to reflect that–
As I make patently obvious I really like Ozil, and in his defence I have reproduced his Arsenal career statistics on here many times that clearly show what an immense player he is.
We’ve had Jack Grealish banded about on here as a replacement. Which is fine, he’s a decent player, but his stats are nothing like as good as Ozils. Even their defensive stats are almost identical.
Now I’m not knocking Grealish I’m just pointing out that despite Ozils current apparent trials and tribulations, we already have one of the best midfielders in the World on our books.
Now whether Arteta can get Ozil back up and running at his very best is clearly not a given. It may not even be something he wants to do.
Personally I hope it is and more importantly I hope he can.