By Tony Attwood
Club after club, player after player, panic after panic: the media gave us the lot as a description of what Arsenal were up to. A desperate attempt to sign anyone who could kick a ball; yet no one in the media picked up on what actually was going on.
That no one of course includes Untold Arsenal, but then we are just a little group of people who run the site for fun (when we are not in a total panic about the site going up and down because someone seems to have done something nasty to it).
But still, it is possible to work it out in retrospect. Arsenal and Colorado Rapids have something in common: their owner, and so a transfer of Auston Trusty from one to the other is hardly surprising. It is an important signing for Arsenal for an undisclosed fee.
There are suggestions that he is just a youth player but in fact, he is 23 and played for the USA in the Fifa Under 20 World Cup, in which he scored. He has since been called up for the USA senior squad training camps – most recently this month. Although not too many drainpipes (outlets) have realised that.
In fact the impression offered is that he’s “just a kid” but no, he’s going to be a member of the first-team squad as a central defender once he arrives on 17 July. I’ve been told the trip to the USA was indeed one that combined doing the signing, talking with Kroenke who owns both Rapids and Arsenal and saying hello to the player’s family.
We also bought Matt Turner, the goalkeeper from New England Revolution for around £7m and he’ll come across to Arsenal in the summer as well.
So were there really the mad dashes and desperate attempts to sign every player that was highlighted by the media? Given the fact that none of the media picked up in advance why Mr Arteta went to the USA (when they did suggest anything it was that he was trying to beg more money from the owner, not meeting the family and to sign off a deal, and welcome the young player to the club), and no one seemed to predict what would happen with Aubameyang, it is not surprising they will now cover their lack of insight by blaming Arsenal for getting it wrong, whatever “it” is.
The prime objective was to get Aubameyang off the books, and it was rather droll that so much of the media told us late yesterday afternoon that the deal had collapsed, when in fact Arsenal did what they wanted – got him away from the club and with someone else paying his salary.
I’ve never been a fan of this idea of isolating a player – it happened with Ozil as well of course – not just because it removes a fine player from the club, but also because it gives Arsenal a poor reputation. But maybe it will now mean we don’t set up those astronomical transfer deals and salaries anymore but go back to the earlier model of buying lesser known players and building them up. That is after all what Mr Wenger was good at. Who’d heard of Vieira when we got him?
The question is being asked about “who will score the goals” without Auba, and the answer is we have two centre forwards, plus Smith Rowe and Saka. In a league table arranged by goals scored we are not as high as any of us would like, but it is hardly a disaster – and we are above Tottenham whom once more became the darlings of the media.
| Lge pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Liverpool | 22 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 58 | 19 | 39 | 48 |
| 1 | Manchester City | 23 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 55 | 14 | 41 | 57 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 24 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 48 | 18 | 30 | 47 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 23 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 37 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 22 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 36 | 30 | 6 | 38 |
| 10 | Leicester City | 20 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 34 | 37 | -3 | 26 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 21 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 33 | 25 | 8 | 36 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 22 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 31 | 34 | -3 | 24 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 21 | 8 | 2 | 11 | 28 | 32 | -4 | 26 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 20 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 26 | 24 | 2 | 36 |
- Arsenal transfers: The 11 players highlighted in the media on deadline day
- How Arsenal bought a new defence and conceded more goals, but it’s ok
Arsenal had done their spending in the summer, and this transfer window was mostly used by relegation threatened teams to give themselves a chance (again, mostly by New Castle).
Let’s just hope Laca, Saka, Emile & Pepe can improve their return in front of the goal.
My thought about the new signings is that they might be largely motivated by the desire to market the club better in the USA. Of course, this does depend on each of them getting some game time for the first team, but I sense the hand of Kroenke behind this. We have to hope that Arteta wasn’t forced to take them against his wishes, or they’ll be unlikely to feature much. Weirdly, Leno doesn’t seem to have departed even though Turner has arrived. Or did I miss something?
Lets hope that there is no foul play involved in transfer of the player between two clubs owned by the same billionaire. We don’t want such a taint on our beloved club. While what we did in TW is not disaster, we do have a thin squad and a xhaka red card away from imploding. Also how Arteta manages an alienated Pepe rest of the season is another interesting facet. He surely can get us goals as well. All in all, our season ending will depend on how do we keep this squad to less than 20 players interested, healthy and away from bad tackles.
@Madhu,
Even if Xhaka were the only one to blame on the red card front, You seem to forget the fact he was out injured for a few months and the team played rather well, absolutely not imploding at all. So, we have backup in midfield.
Visibly Arsenal are following a strategy and not going with the wind. This is good news. This means long term is in again and thea are building a new team, getting a new generation of players onto the field and preparing for the next one. If any other team were to do this it would be hailed as Guardiola-level-genius. But this is Arsenal.
As for the way the Aubameyang situation was handled, Arsenal did let him go on a free. He’s got a chance to a few more years of a hopefully successfull career instead of waisting 18 months on a bench as a substitute. This is not something that I would consider ‘negative’ from a player respect perspective.
lay of the arsenal land:
Ramsdale (Leno, Okonkwo)
Tomiyasu (Soares, Tavares) – White (Holding, Tomiyasu) – Gabriel (Holding, Xhaka) – Tierney (Tavares, Saka, Lopez)
Partey (Lokonga, Oulad M’Hand)) – Xhaka (Elneny, Henry-Francis)
Saka (Pépé, Hutchinson) – Odegaard (Lacazette, Patino) – SmithRowe (Martinelli, Flores)
Martinelli (Lacazette, Nketiah, Biereth)
if such a squad doesn’t make it to 4th or 5th, with only one game a week to worry about from now on, that’s when serious questions will have to be asked about management
in the meantime, COYG
PS: yes, i do believe Granit would be an outstanding left-CB
@ Le Gall,
Right on, one caveat….management, I mean Mr Arteta and his team have shown they are up to it so far.
Now the players don’t have any excuses anymore. They have enough chances to play, no run of 3 games in 7 days, all time to prepare and most positions have several potential players, so competition exists in many positions. The players need to step up. This is their show now.
Le Gall, this is an April Fool’s joke, right? Xhaka, an outstanding left-CB? You should be on stage at the Edinburgh comedy festival! LOL
The Daily Star have outdone themselves with their headline today – “Arsenal have sold £194m worth of players for absolutely nothing in recent years”. 🤦♀️ Do you want to tell them or shall I?
Speaking of the media, how many of our incoming transfers did they manage to “predict”? It seems to make no difference whether expressed as an absolute number or as a percentage.
Andrew, I think I’ve had enough of your opinions without any evidence. By your theory, you know far more about football than Arteta because you would not allow Xhaka in the team, and yet here you are, just posting evidence less comments on Untold. Why are you so right (I don’t know because you never give any evidence) and people who are employed in football so wrong. Why can Arteta and his manager at Basel and Borussia Mönchengladbach not seen what you can see (but refuse to give us evidence for). What has the Swiss managers who have picked him 98 times for their country not seen that you have seen (but refuse to give us evidence for). Why has Wenger, Emery and Arteta all put their faith in him, and not seen what you can see, but won’t give us evidence for.
Xhaka has had four red cards in 171 league games, in return for which he has among other things given over 12,000 passes including 800 long ball passes. He has a tackle accuracy of 64% which is pretty clever.
All you do is whine, moan, and make negative comments without any evidence or justification. I’ve repeatedly pointed out (because you never seem to get it) that this is a site that likes evidence, but you just keep on and on. I’ve put up with this for long enough.
It is clear that the club’s strategy is young players that can be coached and can be instilled greater loyalty and dedication with greater resell value. Thus, the loaning and cutting off of players deemed to be deadwood by the club.
Lacazette and Nketiah will be fighting for their next contract whether by this or the next club thus they will be motivated to produce the goods and show their value, if this leads to the club getting CL place thus it becomes win win situation for both. There is no point getting a player who does not want to be here.
Dear Tony, what motivates you to write all this shit? Do you believe that you know everything better than anybody? the more you talk about evidence, the more I think you are a lowly qualified layman, making use of the little you know to influence people. There is no difference between you and a rascal. End of the story.
You write a whole new story about my comments, but the fact remains you are who you are. There is not anybody in the world who can make you understand the damn shit you are doing.
Ken, I write what I write a) because I enjoy doing it, b) because I don’t think it is shit, c) because rather a large number of people read it and suggest that they like it (you are very much in a minority of readers in thinking it is all rubbish) and d) because as a person who studied psychology I am endlessly interested in why people such as yourself read something you dislike so much.
I do, myself, read newspapers whose political leanings I disagree with (the Telegraph for example, to which I subscribe) but I do so to give myself insights into how people of different political persuasions from myself are seeing the news. But I don’t take up my time writing to them to tell them I think they are wrong.
But you, you seem to have no reason for reading at all. And yet you seem to.
As for writing a whole new story about your comments – if you comment in public then what you have said is, well, public, and so can be used by anyone. You never know, you might turn up in a novel.
I don’t claim to have specific insights into the club, although I have done a couple of things with the club that I am rather pleased about, but I do try and apply evidence and logic to arguments because that seems important to me.
But it is interesting that you are so certain you are right and all the regular readers of this site are wrong. I’m glad you are not in the government.
(You’re not in the government are you?)
@Andrew, he’s already been outstanding in that position, actually
if you have a little time, just take a look at the replay of january 2020 chelsea-arsenal, after D. Luiz was sent off (26′)
Granit dropped back to … left CB then, and was instrumental in our surprisingly good result, that day
having said that, i’m rather fond of April Fool’s jokes btw … all the more so since it inspired the great Chris Bailey one of his very best songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Yvshwud8g&ab_channel=stotn
FIFA legal department gets a makeover:-
FIFA legal dept. rejig
So this is the first line of the analysis of the Arsenal transfer window done in the Guardian.
“The squad has long been filled out by mediocrity, so on one level the departures of six players who were not regular starters is welcome.”
I don’t know how you interpret this statement, but to me it is just bluntly insulting. Nothing else.
And it just highlights what has been discussed before my comment on this page.
Sure enough, the whole piece is not signed. Guess some anonymous idiot hacked the Guardian website so all can say : it wasn’t us.
Some dude decides he knows all and insults a whole organisation. You can bet your arse he would never dare to walk into the Arsenal loker room and say : Hi guys, just wanted to let you know that in my humble opinion you are mediocre. Or to make it easier, do that in a pub around the Emirates.
Nor would some of you calling players idiots or incompetents never dare to say that to their face – no you’d bend over backwards for a selfie to publish on your thread making believe the idiot you just called is a close friend of yours.
Why is that ?
Because the guys at the Guardian and the guys commenting like that here are just a bunch of cowards hiding behing the fact they can be anonymous here or on the Guardian. Just morons making no one’s life better, not even their own.
This is just so f…..g pathetic.