STRIKER ON THE CARDS THIS SUMMER?
We are BACK in action – but the comments are misbehaving, I’ll get them sorted today.
OK – onto Arsenal.
Reiss Nelson ‘almost’ signed a deal 2 weeks ago, according to top ITKs. Final details are being resolved. He’ll be with us until 2027. I don’t need to tell you for the 500th time that I find this deal peculiar, so why don’t we consider what it could mean for Arsenal?
The betting might be this: Reiss can be a cheap option to give Bukayo Saka rest time in certain games as an impact sub or a proper rotation against lower-league sides.
I struggle to believe we’ve tied him down and we’re going to spend £60m on a wide player. That would be cruel. So – are we shifting dollars to the centre of the field.
You know what I’m saying – IS TALL BOY SUMMER BACK ON?
It’d make sense. We need a big striker that is interested in occupying strikers and we need someone with more clincality (let’s make it a word) in front of goal. If we buy a target man, we’ll be following the same path Manchester City did. We’ll be matching talent to a skillset we have in the team, namely, that we have a roster of players who can pick out players with 60-yard passes, but we don’t have a central player that can receive them.
Gabriel Jesus spend too much of his time dropping deep, drifting out wide, and doing nuisance things – which has been good for our team. But he lacks confidence in front of goal and sometimes we need a striker that’s going to do Ivan Toney things. Jesus can play left or right side of midfield, so giving us an additional option up front could be a good move AND it would also double up in giving Arteta more unpredictability next season.
William Saliba is close to signing a new deal – all the journalists are repeating the same news, saying things are progressing positively. Not sure there was ever a doubt, he has it great at Arsenal, he’ll earn a boatload of deserved money, and we’ll get to see him for at least 3 more seasons. This deal has been a bit of a debacle – in fact, his last few years have been a bit of a mess. The player wasn’t really rated by Arteta, he was put out on loan unceremoniously, and it was touch and go whether he’d get a go last summer. The club maybe could have done more to protect against this sort of dangerous moment, which has only been resolved because we had a great season.
Still, mistakes happen, but if you win out the backend, all that is remembered is the glory of a beautiful pen stroke.
Chelsea missed out on Ugarte – and now they are being linked to Caicedo.
This is an interesting development. Would his agent really suggest sending his client to a club out of Europe, in the mud, with no direction? Everyone in the game knows they are a mess top to bottom. Do you really move a 21 yr old to a place like that so early in their career? Or do you push for Madrid or Arsenal.
We’re going to find out what sort of agent he has – and what sort of draw stability has in 2023.
There are similar clouds forming over the Declan Rice deal. Manchester City is rumored to be at the table looking to spoil the hard work Arsenal has done to convince the player North London is where it’s at. Would his agents put him at a club under investigation? Would they send him to a team that seems like it’s at PEAK? Are they thinking longterm?
We’ll find out. I think Arsenal is the better option over the next 5 years. Our manager will still be here, our young squad will get better and better, there’s also no Rodri in the way at our place.
Am I going to talk a bit about MLS? Damn right I am…
Cesc Fabregas did a wide-ranging interview that asked a lot of MLS questions and he had this to say on coaching here.
“That is another story. I’m talking to you as a player, but as a coach, it’s another story. I think the MLS is great for young coaches that are starting to develop their careers. For many reasons. You have more time to build your own ideas, your methodology. You know you’re never going to go down, that is a big plus. If you’re a coach (in MLS) you have this assurance that whatever you do, you can experiment a little bit more, not like in a league where you have lots of pressure and lots of competition. It’s going well. I got my A license last week. I’m very excited about the next step of my life. It will be different, but let’s see how it goes.”
He’s at Como at the moment, it’d be incredible to see him move up the ladder, and I’d love to see him bring his ideas over here.
Also: Lionel Messi moving to Inter Miami? Wild times. That is a massive coup for America. Can’t have people saying it’s a retirement league, this is a guy who had La Liga Champions willing to further bankrupt themselves to have him play there another 18 months. It is quite something to think he’ll be here destroying defenders for 2 seasons. Also – St. Louis CITY sc plays Inter Miami at CITYPARK July 15th.
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