Arsene Wenger is reportedly increasing scouting missions on 17-year-old Frenchman Benjamin Mendy, dubbed the new Patrice Evra, who is rumoured to have a £3m release clause.
This would normally be a depressing rumour. In particular, when you’re chasing 17 year olds the idea is normally to find ones that cost a few hundred grand or £1m at most because most of them won’t make it and if you regularly splash out £2-3m trying to find a bargain then soon you’ve spent £20m and could have bought a couple of £10m players for the first team. Examples of this kind of policy going wrong are Nordtveit (£2m), Merida (£2m), Sunu (£2m), Wellington (£4m), cumulatively £10m’s worth of nothing. In contrast, when you’re bringing in players for £250k or less then with some decent scouting, all it takes is a few successes (Kolo Toure for £100k, Bendtner for £75k, Clichy for £250k) to pay for a couple of dozen flops.
However, if Wenger’s sticking around (which seems likely) and he’s keen to stick with Gibbs/Santos (which also seems likely) then left back seems like the ideal position for a big splash on a promising 17 year old. The likelihood is that he will get plenty of game and bench time while Gibbs is injured for 40 games a season, but in the theoretically possible case where Gibbs is fit for a run of games, you can fob off a 17 year old with reserve football and the occasional short-term championship loan.
Obviously I’d much rather just cough up for Leighton Baines!
Friday, 30 March 2012
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Winning at Anfield
It has been a rubbish season but winning at Anfield is always special! Plus another assist for assist-machine Alex Song (the new Cesc Fabregas).
Thursday, 23 February 2012
More on Ryo
Ryo gives us a lot of good reasons to be very excited. Firstly he’s really fast, and as the likes of Walcott, Aaron Lennon and pre-leg-break Djibril Cisse have shown, being fast just by itself is the basis for a top flight career (although obviously the hope is for more).
Secondly, Ryo made a huge impression at Feyenoord and this is a bigger deal than it sounds at first. Sure, Feyenoord are poor, but in a half-year loan as a youngster it’s very hard to get game time even if you turn out to be really good later and it’s even harder to win over the fans, whose affections will be saved more for local lads who will stick around rather than temporary foreign players.
Thirdly, there’s reason to think he can develop a lot further because as with all Japanese players his development so far has been stunted by their system of developing players. Ryo at 17 was playing school football for his first 11 against local schools whereas by an equivalent age top English youngsters will be playing full international football.
So for Ryo to be this good at 19 when a lot of Japanese players don’t make club debuts until 22 is very impressive (he’s 19 but I think in football development terms he’s more like a 16 or 17 year old). Fourthly, his dribbling is seriously cool and definitely something to work with.
I’ve seen 100s of youngsters come and go and expect most to fail but I’ve got a good feeling that Ryo will have a top flight career in Europe and that’s about as sure as you can be at this stage.
Secondly, Ryo made a huge impression at Feyenoord and this is a bigger deal than it sounds at first. Sure, Feyenoord are poor, but in a half-year loan as a youngster it’s very hard to get game time even if you turn out to be really good later and it’s even harder to win over the fans, whose affections will be saved more for local lads who will stick around rather than temporary foreign players.
Thirdly, there’s reason to think he can develop a lot further because as with all Japanese players his development so far has been stunted by their system of developing players. Ryo at 17 was playing school football for his first 11 against local schools whereas by an equivalent age top English youngsters will be playing full international football.
So for Ryo to be this good at 19 when a lot of Japanese players don’t make club debuts until 22 is very impressive (he’s 19 but I think in football development terms he’s more like a 16 or 17 year old). Fourthly, his dribbling is seriously cool and definitely something to work with.
I’ve seen 100s of youngsters come and go and expect most to fail but I’ve got a good feeling that Ryo will have a top flight career in Europe and that’s about as sure as you can be at this stage.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
I know what you did last summer Arsene... you bought rubbish players
Last summer’s transfers looked terrible at the time and they have panned out exactly that way (with the exception of Champo, who - I'm sure entirely coincidentally - is the only one we paid real money for).
Arteta has seen a lot of game time and is the chief architect of our being so rubbish (someone said over the weekend that Arsenal is ‘designed to pass, not to win’; Arteta is designed to ‘pass for the sake of passing, and badly’), Mertesacker is average at his best and terrible at his worst, Santos I didn’t particularly like when he played (though Wenger loves him as he does Gibbs).
Park I won’t even comment on, Jenkinson is a joke and an injured one at that, Gervinho shows glimpses of talent and tons of non-talent, and at best he is very raw (at 24!) and will probably never develop into a good player, and Benayoun I guess is good for Carling cup games. All in all, it has all played out EXACTLY as expected last summer, and Wenger did not have some crazy insights from hyperspace after all that nobody else could see.
With this in mind, I’m shocked that Wenger is shocked about our form this season at all. A team with Fabregas and Nasri is a better team than a team with Arteta and Gervinho - no two ways about it, it's clear for anyone to see and it is reflected on market prices. Heavy Milan result aside (despite all my grievances, even this bunch of players could have done better at Milan) that’s exactly what has happened. A team that was not quite good enough last year is worse this year. Where’s the mystery? We are performing exactly at the level someone would expect given the downgrade in the quality of personnel.
Van Persie is defo going this summer, and I would be the first to urge him to do so; he is a top class guy and this is a mediocre team (for the standards it sets itself; it would be a great Everton team for example, and even a great Spurs team any year other than this one). With the £30 million we get for him we can make Wenger’s £15 million profit and spend £10 on buying some random youngsters and some random ligue 1 attacking midfielder than has once chatted to Eden Hazard at a party. And we'll even have £5 million in the bank to give all our underperformers a hefty pay-rise (because for all the talk of Wenger thrift and underspend in the transfer market, there is no thrift when it comes to salaries)
Arteta has seen a lot of game time and is the chief architect of our being so rubbish (someone said over the weekend that Arsenal is ‘designed to pass, not to win’; Arteta is designed to ‘pass for the sake of passing, and badly’), Mertesacker is average at his best and terrible at his worst, Santos I didn’t particularly like when he played (though Wenger loves him as he does Gibbs).
Park I won’t even comment on, Jenkinson is a joke and an injured one at that, Gervinho shows glimpses of talent and tons of non-talent, and at best he is very raw (at 24!) and will probably never develop into a good player, and Benayoun I guess is good for Carling cup games. All in all, it has all played out EXACTLY as expected last summer, and Wenger did not have some crazy insights from hyperspace after all that nobody else could see.
With this in mind, I’m shocked that Wenger is shocked about our form this season at all. A team with Fabregas and Nasri is a better team than a team with Arteta and Gervinho - no two ways about it, it's clear for anyone to see and it is reflected on market prices. Heavy Milan result aside (despite all my grievances, even this bunch of players could have done better at Milan) that’s exactly what has happened. A team that was not quite good enough last year is worse this year. Where’s the mystery? We are performing exactly at the level someone would expect given the downgrade in the quality of personnel.
Van Persie is defo going this summer, and I would be the first to urge him to do so; he is a top class guy and this is a mediocre team (for the standards it sets itself; it would be a great Everton team for example, and even a great Spurs team any year other than this one). With the £30 million we get for him we can make Wenger’s £15 million profit and spend £10 on buying some random youngsters and some random ligue 1 attacking midfielder than has once chatted to Eden Hazard at a party. And we'll even have £5 million in the bank to give all our underperformers a hefty pay-rise (because for all the talk of Wenger thrift and underspend in the transfer market, there is no thrift when it comes to salaries)
Monday, 20 February 2012
Arteta is killing Arsenal
Arteta is by far the most terrible signing we made this summer, and I include Jenkinson in that count. He completely kills our play in midfield, and when I say kill, I mean kill.
If there is a statistic for how many times we lose the ball following each player’s pass, Arteta would be by far number one (I refer to him passing the ball to a player that will then proceed to lose it, because the ball has been given to him in a really bad position).
His play consists solely of trying not to lose the ball before he then passes it to the flank, when there are incredible opportunities up front. For the Sunderland game, I doubt Van Persie ever got a half-decent pass and there were opportunities. Alex Song, playing as centre half, actually was the only player who did try to find him.
And even worse about Arteta is that just casually observing him play or looking at his stats he does not look bad at all – making a lot of passes, most of them marginally forward (cos they are at the flanks!), not making many mistakes.
If there is a statistic for how many times we lose the ball following each player’s pass, Arteta would be by far number one (I refer to him passing the ball to a player that will then proceed to lose it, because the ball has been given to him in a really bad position).
His play consists solely of trying not to lose the ball before he then passes it to the flank, when there are incredible opportunities up front. For the Sunderland game, I doubt Van Persie ever got a half-decent pass and there were opportunities. Alex Song, playing as centre half, actually was the only player who did try to find him.
And even worse about Arteta is that just casually observing him play or looking at his stats he does not look bad at all – making a lot of passes, most of them marginally forward (cos they are at the flanks!), not making many mistakes.
Ryo
I didn’t see the Bolton game but I was keen to know more about how Ryo got on so I looked at the BBC reporting.
All Owen Coyle’s quotes about Miyaichi are glowing… but if you do a search on the text commentary it looks like apart from scoring, all he did was give away a foul, get fouled, hoof over, make a clearance and get subbed off.
I’d much rather an all-action display with no goal to show for it than a zero-action goal-scoring display but hopefully Coyle disagrees and will let Ryo start the next game.
Comparing to Bolton’s last league game, 7 players started both, suggesting a fairly strong Bolton side, i.e. Miyaichi didn’t just get a game in a B team. This bodes well for his prospects for game time.
All Owen Coyle’s quotes about Miyaichi are glowing… but if you do a search on the text commentary it looks like apart from scoring, all he did was give away a foul, get fouled, hoof over, make a clearance and get subbed off.
I’d much rather an all-action display with no goal to show for it than a zero-action goal-scoring display but hopefully Coyle disagrees and will let Ryo start the next game.
Comparing to Bolton’s last league game, 7 players started both, suggesting a fairly strong Bolton side, i.e. Miyaichi didn’t just get a game in a B team. This bodes well for his prospects for game time.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Wenger's crazy signings
Staying on the subject of Wellington Silva, Wenger has been taking a punt on random players ever since he first arrived. Here a few earlier efforts:
Alberto Mendez, signed from lower league football in Germany at 23 and later returned to it.
Stefan Malz, signed from complete obscurity at 27 and later returned to it.
A little bit less random because he’d had a few games at Monaco, Christopher Wreh was one of a number of players in world football trying to get deals based on the strength of being one of George Weah’s cousins (and note some of the extreme randomness later in his career like playing for Bishop’s Stortford in the lower reaches of English football, low enough down that it’s not even national competition at that level).
The really shocking aspect of these signings looking back on them is their ages, e.g. Alberto Mendez hadn’t made it past the 5th division of German football by 23, which is pretty solid evidence even at 23 that he wasn’t very good. If he was even very slightly ok then at 19 he’d have got a move to the 4th division and by 21 he’d have got a move to the 3rd division and by 23 should have been interesting 2nd division sides in Germany and that would be the trajectory for an obscure 2nd division footballer in Germany, not the trajectory for an Arsenal player.
Alberto Mendez, signed from lower league football in Germany at 23 and later returned to it.
Stefan Malz, signed from complete obscurity at 27 and later returned to it.
A little bit less random because he’d had a few games at Monaco, Christopher Wreh was one of a number of players in world football trying to get deals based on the strength of being one of George Weah’s cousins (and note some of the extreme randomness later in his career like playing for Bishop’s Stortford in the lower reaches of English football, low enough down that it’s not even national competition at that level).
The really shocking aspect of these signings looking back on them is their ages, e.g. Alberto Mendez hadn’t made it past the 5th division of German football by 23, which is pretty solid evidence even at 23 that he wasn’t very good. If he was even very slightly ok then at 19 he’d have got a move to the 4th division and by 21 he’d have got a move to the 3rd division and by 23 should have been interesting 2nd division sides in Germany and that would be the trajectory for an obscure 2nd division footballer in Germany, not the trajectory for an Arsenal player.
Is RvP's replacement already in the club?
Talking Arsenal has an interesting article questioning whether Silva, Campbell or Afobe could be RvP's replacement.
Silva has pretty much zero chance of success. We keep sending him on loan to progressively worse teams and each time they don’t reckon he’s worth a game.
Joel Campbell is the new Chou Young Park.
Benik Afobe is the new Jay Simpson / Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
That said, under Wenger, van Persie’s replacement is indeed almost certainly already at the club and could well be one of the terrible players above.
Silva has pretty much zero chance of success. We keep sending him on loan to progressively worse teams and each time they don’t reckon he’s worth a game.
Joel Campbell is the new Chou Young Park.
Benik Afobe is the new Jay Simpson / Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
That said, under Wenger, van Persie’s replacement is indeed almost certainly already at the club and could well be one of the terrible players above.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Olympics
Stuart Pearce isn’t allowed to select any Euro 2012 players but is otherwise free to pick who he likes for the British Olympic team.
I’m guessing there’s only room in the England squad for one of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott, so as a punt, let’s say Capello does a Sven and the Ox gets the nod, plus realistically I don’t think Wilshere’s going to make it in time and Gibbs’ international place as spare left back was long ago lost to Leighton Baines. So I think that means the Olympic team would have Walcott, Ramsey, Gibbs (if fit!) as near certainties, but it’s also highly plausible that Frimpong and Jenkinson could be involved, there’s a chance Ox/Walcott are both involved and there could even be a place for the hugely under-rated Kyle Bartley if anything happens to get him noticed in the meantime, which would mean potentially missing 7 players at once, 4 or 5 of which are probably in our current first 11.
I’m guessing there’s only room in the England squad for one of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott, so as a punt, let’s say Capello does a Sven and the Ox gets the nod, plus realistically I don’t think Wilshere’s going to make it in time and Gibbs’ international place as spare left back was long ago lost to Leighton Baines. So I think that means the Olympic team would have Walcott, Ramsey, Gibbs (if fit!) as near certainties, but it’s also highly plausible that Frimpong and Jenkinson could be involved, there’s a chance Ox/Walcott are both involved and there could even be a place for the hugely under-rated Kyle Bartley if anything happens to get him noticed in the meantime, which would mean potentially missing 7 players at once, 4 or 5 of which are probably in our current first 11.
Arshavin
There’s still hope!
The Russian transfer window does not close until February 24 so Arshavin could still move, possibly for about £5m, which would be a nice fee all round. It’s a pretty cheap chance for a Russian club to bring in their national captain but still a good fee for us for a player who’s over 30, playing terribly, on high wages and running down his contract so basically anything above zero is nice.
The Russian transfer window does not close until February 24 so Arshavin could still move, possibly for about £5m, which would be a nice fee all round. It’s a pretty cheap chance for a Russian club to bring in their national captain but still a good fee for us for a player who’s over 30, playing terribly, on high wages and running down his contract so basically anything above zero is nice.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
New signing alert!
So it looks like we might sign Thomas Eisfeld, who will come in and save our season!
Based on my imagination, he's amazing and probably the best £400,000 player in world football right now except for the fact that he's got two dodgy knees and is rarely fit and hasn't really ever played first team football.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
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