HOUSEBOAT - Warning: tenuous links ahead!: Page 465 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

HOUSEBOAT - Warning: tenuous links ahead!

QuincyAbeyie

No..?

Klaus

Ricky1985 wrote:
Add to that, Arteta has integrated Smith Rowe and Saka into the starting XI in the past season and would no doubt have had big plans for them last summer, and it makes your point about us not wanting to spend on AMs and not having anyone but Willian look less correct.

Saka played as a leftback for half a season and was only moved into the forward line by absolute necessity when Willian didn't improve. Smith-Rowe wouldn't even have been playing if we hadn't been dead last in the table around Christmas when it came to creating chances. You say I bend statistics to suit my point, but I think you cherrypick a few examples because there were so few good ones to point to last season. We began the season effectively playing with seven defending players. I doubt a single player ran ahead of the striker until mid-february.

Klaus

Ricky1985 wrote:
Quincy Abeyie wrote:
I'll only comment on the player of the year part, but that was Leeds supporters taking the piss and voting for him. Any Brighton supporter would tell you that Dunk had a better season.

And yet White got called up to the England squad. Did Leeds fans vote for that too?

What Southgate does is neither here nor there which I'm sure you would be the first person to agree with. I can see how it makes sense to take a 23 year old with a big future as the last man in the squad though rather than a 30 year old who's probably not going to get (m)any more callups in his life.

I did watch Brighton a fair amount last season and Quincy is right, Dunk was by far their best player. Webster was better than White too in their defence in my opinion. I wasn't aware of the Leeds fans voting for White in Brighton's POTY poll, but it makes sense to me, I was very surprised to read he had won the award when Dunk was so good.

goon

I had a read on the Brighton forums last week, there's something really weird going on with Leeds fans, they have a 600 page thread and half the posts are related to Leeds, they really can't stand them after last summer 😆

But yeah, consensus seems to be that Dunk and Webster had better seasons. That being said, they obviously rate him really highly, and while most are happy to take the £50m, the primary motivation seems to be so they can reinvest in a striker (I wonder why they'd want one of those :lol🙂. A few said they'd rather keep him as his value will only go up.

Sicario

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Arteta looks to be tapping in to the huge pipeline of talent England currently has coming through

The British 5 2.0

Klaus

goon wrote:
But yeah, consensus seems to be that Dunk and Webster had better seasons. That being said, they obviously rate him really highly, and while most are happy to take the £50m, the primary motivation seems to be so they can reinvest in a striker (I wonder why they'd want one of those :lol🙂.

I think my biggest concern is that White is yet another bloke who moves the ball well. It's nice to be able to play out from the back, but Sol Campbell he ain't. I don't like that we still don't have a defender who can properly mark a striker and dominate aerially, except for maybe Mari.

Playing White and Gabriel at the same time for instance seems to be asking for trouble to me. The former is not the player you want as your last man and the latter goes to ground every time the wind blows. It wouldn't surprise me if we went back to a three-man defence next season with all this in mind.

Ray

It’s going to be like when we tried to play Kos and Vermaelen, it needed someone like Per to organise, which is probably why Mari will be playing a lot of games this season.

Long term I think Saliba is also a bit like Per in that he is more of a reader of the game.

Gazza M

local Madrid journo speculating odegaard may yet want to leave

speedy

I'd absolutely love to get Ode, I'm still concerned that ESR has had major hip surgery at his age and Marty has had a major knee op.

Ode is clearly a cog in artetas plan, the guy is dripping in quality and works incredibly hard on the defensive aspects.he looks ready to go up a level aswell. Where he's be completely unattainable

TambourineMan

Would be a great signing and the best one we can make this summer. Fingers crossed we can pull this off. Madrid need the money and if he has not gotten a vote of confidence from Ancelotti then maybe we stand a chance here. A good offer to Madrid and be realistic about where we are when pitching to him - present ourselves as a stepping stone to a mega-money move to City, PSG, Barca/Real etc. down the line.

Kel Varnsen

Regardless, Ødegaard needs to get out of that shithole in Madrid. Real Madrid is cancerous to many young, talented players who have yet to establish themselves at the top level.

Gazza M

I'm not against ode on a permanent deal either. ticks all the boxes for me, and his workrate is great unlike maddison

goon

He obviously really wants to make it there but I personally don't know why he wants to take the gamble, I don't think it's doing his development any good.

speedy

goon wrote:
He obviously really wants to make it there but I personally don't know why he wants to take the gamble, I don't think it's doing his development any good.

I think if he could go back in time he'd have not signed for such a big club so early. But now they're broke and their other mids are too old theirs a real chance for him to take a place in the team.

QuincyAbeyie

The only reason I can think of for him to stay is that Ancelotti is using a number 10 wherever he goes, whereas Zidane always played with three CMs.

Rohit

I would love it if we somehow managed to sign him.

goon

#freeOdegaard

banduan

wow absolute silence
do they hate him?

Coombs

What a bunch of tools.

Clrnc

That's actually quite weird. He looks totally outcasted

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