By Sir Hardly Anyone
Is Pierre Emerick Aubameyang signing for Arsenal? What about Malcolm? What about Martial? The bloggettas and the newspapers tell us that all three are, or are not signing. And that is not just that one blog picks one, and a newspaper picks another. They are all changing their views by the hour.
And they do that to the exclusion of virtually all the other tittle tattle stories. Which probably means none of them is coming our way.
So now Arsenal are being linked with a double swoop for both Malcom and Aubameyang. And Arsenal agree €50m deal to sign Malcom as Alexis Sanchez’s replacement. And… well you know how it goes.
All the rest of the usual serious (I use the word in an in-exact manner) discussion (ditto) about transfers has been set aside in the race concerning Aubameyang and Malcolm and the outsider Martial. So here’s some stuff I picked up.
- Aubameyang is 28
- Malcolm is 20
- Martial is 22
And if that is not enough for you here is some more.
Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang plays for Borussia Dortmund and Gabon. When those in the know (and come to that those not in the know) write about him they speak of his speed (30 metres in 3.7 seconds). He can plays as a centre forward or a winger.
Here are his stats
| Years | Team | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008–2011 | Milan | 0 | 0 |
| 2008–2009 | Dijon (loan) | 34 | 8 |
| 2009–2010 | Lille (loan) | 14 | 2 |
| 2010–2011 | Monaco (loan) | 19 | 2 |
| 2011 | Saint-Étienne (loan) | 33 | 8 |
| 2011–2013 | Saint-Étienne | 54 | 29 |
| 2013– | Borussia Dortmund | 143 | 98 |
Malcom Filipe Silva de Oliveira plays as a forward for Bordeaux.
| Years | Team | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-2015 | Corinthians | 51 | 7 |
| 2016– | Bordeaux | 68 | 15 |
This season he has played 19 and scored seven. Malcom was called as a replacement for Kenedy at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, playing in 5 matches, including the Final. This season he has played 19 games and scored seven goals.
Anthony Joran Martial
He is French and plays for Manchester United. He won the 2015 Golden Boy Award for the best under-21 player in Europe.
He signed for Manchester United in 2015 for an initial fee of £36 million which could potentially rise to £57.6 million, at least that is what the reports tell us, but who really knows?
It was supposedly the highest fee paid for a teenager in football history even before the potential increase.
He scored in his first match for United, and was named the Premier League Player of the Month in his first month in English football. So why do Man U want to sell him? Some say they don’t so the deal is a non-starter.
| Years | Team | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–2013 | Lyon | 3 | (0) |
| 2013–2015 | Monaco | 49 | (11) |
| 2015– | Manchester United | 76 | (22) |
As for the other name often mentioned, Mahrez, apparently Leicester are refusing to sell him.
On the other hand none of this might be happening because the usually unreliable Daily Canon tells us that there is a “Blow for Man Utd as Arsenal miss out on £44m Alexis replacement”. In their case the replacement is Malcolm.
Oh yes and the ever cryptic Daily Express tells us that “MANCHESTER UNITED (their caps, they like to do that) will announce the signing of Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez later this week due to the timing of their game against Stoke, reports say.” (Quite what the logical of that is I don’t rightly know).
But just in case it all sounds too depressing for words, just remember this headline from Sport Witness.
“Bild say Arsenal are ‘hot’ on Bundesliga star, want to sign him within next two weeks”
Now we know that some of the newspapers etc must be wrong, since the chances of us signing all three are slim. However the biggest likelihood based on past performance is that all of them will be wrong.
And then what?
The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
Today’s Anniversaries
Personally, I’d prefer to see backs of both Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott. Sadly, both players – although promising once – are obviously finished at the top level, probably due to ACL injuries both players had gone through. Welbeck’s case was especially sad given that he has suffered injuries on both of his knees and if Isaac Hayden’s accusations are half true about how injury treatment is working at Arsenal, I can see now why did “a few days out” in Welbeck’s case (2015) become a nine-and-half months absence. Neither player has reached their potential at Arsenal with appalling technical (Welbeck) and tactical (Walcott) flaws. Both players are home-grown and that’s probably the reason why we won’t sell them both in this transfer window but I fully expect Danny to leave next summer. Nothing against either of them as persons and professionals but they are simply not good enough for Arsenal.
As for our possible signings…
Aubameyang is extremely quick “run-in-behind” striker (at least he was converted into one at Borussia Dortmund) and enjoyed a special spell under Thomas Tuchel. Under Jürgen Klopp, he was playing with Robert Lewandowski in 2013-14 before taking his main role. He also played with Ciro Immobile and both of them scored in 2:0 victory of Borussia Dortmund against us in 2014-15 (Hector Bellerin remembers this game very well). As for Aubameyang, he can be really frustrating presence in front of the goal – he can score a fantastic goal in one minute only to miss a one-on-one in the next one. If we keep Özil, he could be a real asset.
Malcom seems to be a rather quick winger winger, a left-footed one, with ability to cross the ball which would give us an option regardless of who Arsene decides to start down the middle – Giroud or Lacazette/Aubameyang. The thing is, Arsene hasn’t been known for signing natural wingers, he prefers wide playmakers which makes this transfer a bit odd one. (Not denying quality of the signing, that is!) Mind you, there is also a story about certain agency owning 50% of the player which were later denied. As I recall, third-party ownership is not allowed in England so Arsenal would have to purchase the player from Bordeaux (probably after Bordeaux pay up the 50% that agency owns…if the reports are true).
Anthony Martial is a huge talent, a player about whom Arsene had spoken after Manchester United had signed him back in 2015. Unfortunately, Martial has been given a hard task to please a manager who doesn’t believe in attacking football and which biggest accomplishments about developing attacking talents have been sales of aforementioned talents to the clubs where they can actually develop (e.g. Salah, De Bruyne…). He has scored a winner against Tottenham this season, can beat his marker with dribbling but has eternally sad look on his face that might be wiped out if he joins Arsenal.
If I had to pick two out of three, I’d pick Malcom and Martial.
It is not enough to keep patching Arsenal up, the whole system seems to be flawed, out of touch and redundant now.
It is obvious that players cost much more money now, and it is not enough to buy sub standard players and expect them to function in a sub-standard environment. AW seems to have lost the eye for a good player(did he ever have that or was it just pure luck?). Whatever it was, luck or brilliance, it seems to have long flown out the window.
The environment needs a change of style, ideas and new working practices to motivate the existing players and any possible new players, who probably won’t want to come to Arsenal anyway until this is done.
All in all, a bad time for Arsenal, and even the blind can see that change is needed.
@para
A pure luck? No. It would have been luck if he had found just one gem but The Invincibles were his, from signing a problematic yet brilliant and systematic Jens Lehmann from Borussia Dortmund (I can’t recall of too many players playing for both rivals Schalke and Borussia Dortmund) and underrated yet always loyal (even these days when Arsenal legends seem to have an internal competition who will spit worse at Arsenal and a manager) to Thierry Henry, a fantastic talent who became the best striker in the world.
Never mind Fabregas, Van Persie, Hleb, Rosicky…
Great idea. Replace one problem child with another. Aubemayeng could be a disaster. I’d bet my boots two years into a deal he’d start his antics up again to engineer a move to another PL club. We need a top class defender to replace Kos ASAP. I don’t see his medical issue getting any better. Theo out, Welbeck out, Sanchez out would all be a good start.
Off to watch the youth tonight v Manu youth.
Utd resorting to fouling Arsenal brilliant youth.
Bad foul on Nelson straight red ignored by ref.
The U23 Game against United is now on Arsenal Player live. 35 minutes in and We are one nil up thanks to Reine-Adelaide. Our new Greek central defender is playing. Looks very competent
@Flares,
you forget that if Theo and Welback go, we can’t replace easily them….they are homegrown and I don’t see any homegrown player of their quality available in the PL right now. That is if I have understood the explation I’ve read here and there about that homegrown rule
How many homegrown do we need?
Arsenal U23s now leading by two goals an excellent finish from Vlad Dragomir and, needless to say, we weren’t given a penalty when Adelaide was pulled down
Mavopranos looks like a real prospect, so far he hasn’t put a foot wrong. He has been strong with tackles and his passing has been excellent both short and long. He is playing on the left side of the back three which is certainly somewhere we could do with reinforcement.
Mata cost Man U £35mill out of contract no publicity coz he’s shit.
Alexis Sanchez £35 mill front page news …..
Because of Arsene Wenger. Lo
Ref looking to give utd soft free kicks
Great performance by the youth 3-0 now
Nketiah makes it three having run two thirds of the pitch calmly slotted it in st the near post. Five minutes to go.
4-0
Maria in the crowd enjoying this one. In fine voice.
Nketiah has just made it four nil a blistering counter attack from Reiss Nelson who crossed for Eddie who side footed home for his second
Been an excellent performance from the youth players this evening. Definitely gone some way to remove the bad taste from the Bournemouth game.
…some dung flying around now that Chelsea have made a late bid for Sanchez (40 mil)prob a load of hokey from the tv world to spice up the grey world of the Jan transfer window as Sanchez’s wages are way to high for Chelsea.The Mikh didnt play tonight, if theres any swap shop biz it will be him and not Martial whose playing…
One, maybe two penalties could have been given.
Mavropanos has been yellow carded instead.
Does that mean the PGMO “malediction” applies to the under 23 too?
Anyway, good and pleasant game. Very nice goal from Eddie.
What exactly is a ”big club?”
That’s January 2018.
After the World Cup and the auctions how many ”Big Clubs” can the planet support?
It seems to me the Arsenal fan needs a new mindset to measure ‘Big Club’ or a new fund of Arsenal finance to blow people out of the water.
As for the ”manager”the collapse of Carillion today is sobering. The English appear fixated with managers as superheroes. As an old shop steward I always found them to be parasites. Mr Wenger is an exception.
How will any manager get a player to play? How can the manager get any player to play when the player has an agent?
How will Arsenal find a financial fund to blow OilWell States out of the water on deals for the world’s top ten players?
The thing is, Arsene hasn’t been known for signing natural wingers, he prefers wide playmakers which makes this transfer a bit odd one.
Maybe he should that’s one way to get behind a bus parking defence. Get the winger to take on a full back cross to players running in . It worked for Radford and Kennedy , Malcolm MacDonald and Joe Baker. There’s nothing new in football just how you adapt to it.
I’m excited to see some new blood coming in, regardless of who it may be. For the life of me, though, I’ll never understand how we’ve let it get to this point without bringing in reinforcements. Alexis looks to be off for a fraction of his value this week, while Ozil and Jack are free to negotiate with any non-English sides on a free. We do youth development and integration into the squad as well as or better than anyone, but our long term planning is atrocious.
(did he ever have that or was it just pure luck?)
From weah to cesc…no he doesnt… 🙂
we have the worst fans in history of the game. a bunch of idiots who have fallen victims of rivals and media trolling.
Such arsenal fans deserve to see their club in Rangers mode but why should the rest of us ..?
There is information out there confirming the banks required Wenger’s signature for at least another 5 years before releasing finance for emirates….and i have ‘fellow’ fans accusing Arsenal of being too small and having things dictated by a bank. They think we are bigger than HSBC or something or Barclays…… haha..
The ‘big club’ entitlement bullsh*t was started by Liverpool and has been picked up by all and sundry, to the point it’s now being parroted by tinpot no marks like Sunderland and Aston Villa, not mention Tottenham Hotspur. The only real barometer of size is when talking about the legacy clubs, that being those whose history and accomplishments place them in a strata far above others who measure their success in other ways, such as financial power or size of the fanbase.
Legacy clubs for me are:
Bayern Munich
Real Madrid
Barcelona
AC Milan
Juventus
Liverpool
No other English clubs make the list. The bulk of Manchester United’s success has occurred within the last 20 years and their overall prominence within the game was patchy to mediocre before that, so they don’t qualify. A big club, but not a legacy club.
Nonetheless, it’s a load of shite anyway.
I can’t see us buying Aubemayeng, purely because his real skill is speed and at 28 that could be very short-lived. Add to this he seems to target the space behind the opposition defence, but it’s a very rare occurrence in the PL for that space to exist, unlike the leagues in the rest of Europe… and he can be quite wasteful of chances, which wouldn’t tie in well with the lesser number of chances the PL would give him.
I don’t see why Utd would sell Martial. He may not have set the world alight for them but he’s done pretty well for such a young player.
I do think that ‘at the right price’ Malcom would be a worthwhile purchase, but the price Bordeaux would want is probably too much for an unproven player.
But I could be wrong (and have been regularly when predicting our buy/sell strategy).
Wow some people are fickle.
I reserve judgement!