The ballad of Giroud and Luiz

It feels like for my whole football life I’ve been watching Arsenal and Chelsea cup finals.

There was my first, the 2002 FA Cup final which Arsenal won 2-0. John Terry reportedly woke up with a virus which forced Claudio Ranieri to bench him for the first half but the manager brought him on in the second and it turned out to be an infamously bad mistake. One of my first ever favorite moments as an Arsenal fan was seeing Freddie Ljungberg – with his streak of red hair – make John Terry fall over on the way to scoring Arsenal’s 2nd.

There was the.. and I hate talking about this.. the 2007 League Cup final. We went from the high of Theo Walcott scoring his first goal for Arsenal – slipped in brilliantly by pre-Dan-Smith Abou Diaby – to the low of Drogba scoring twice on Philippe Senderos down to the basement of Howard Webb sending off Kolo Toure and Adebayor when Toure stood up to John Obi Mikel for his absurd “tackles” at the end of the game.

There were a couple of Community Shield matches in there. I can’t say I remember them much (though we won both) other than the one which Jose Mourinho waited for the Arsenal team so he could shake their hands. And then Wenger just darted around him which was hilarious.

And of course, there was the Europa League final in Baku last year. Which I have tried my best to put out of my mind. Though it’s hard to forget Giroud scoring and diving to win a penalty on the way to our utter destruction.

So, here we are again: another final against Chelsea. It feels like these two teams have been entwined in a dance for the last 20+ years and unfortunately for us they have been leading.

I want to win, not because I want to get into the Europa League next season, not for revenge from last season, but just because they are Chelsea. A club which has done more to ruin football than any team – up until Man City recently. I also want to win because winning the FA Cup is cool and fun and makes extends our record in that competition.

The Parable of Giroud and Luiz

When Giroud was with Arsenal, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of fans didn’t like him. Or at the very least didn’t fully respect what he did. Last season in the Europa League, Giroud scored 11 goals and provided 5 assists in 1126 minutes. His record at Chelsea is a very healthy 0.83 G+A per90. And hilariously, his goals/90 are the exact same (0.57) for both Arsenal and Chelsea. He’s a real threat.

The funny thing is that he’s one of those forwards who doesn’t really do much other than score! His progressive carry rates are astonishingly low, dribbles are funny (1 every 4 games), progressive passing is low, shot creation numbers are low, basically all the things you want from a forward are just not right. But he’s like a fried egg, chili cheese and chutney sandwich: all the parts are wrong but he’s just so delicious. He is the master of the one touch pass, the one touch shot, and he’s still dangerous in the air.

I heard a Chelsea fan (on BBC 5 Live) talking about Giroud and I was surprised by how much he said they love him. It was a combination of him basically sitting out a year under Sarri but then coming back into the team and him scoring some critical goals for them over the last two years.

This clashes with how Arsenal supporters seemed to regard Giroud toward the end of his tenure at the club. I remember a lot of happy people when he left and I’m curious how many of the replies will hold their hands up and say they were wrong. I was happy when the club sold him and brought in Lacazette and thought it was funny when he went to Chelsea, thinking we got one over on them. Did we get a better deal in Lacazette? Sure, in some ways, though that’s it’s own post. But I will admit I never saw Giroud fitting in at Chelsea, much less scoring almost 10 goals a season for them.

David Luiz is a big worry here. That same Chelsea fan said that DL is a wonderful person, an absolute delight in the locker room, and he was sorely missed when he left for Arsenal. Like Giroud, this clashes with how Arsenal fans (mostly) see him. You cannot find me many who are happy about his new deal because of the mistakes he’s made this season.

But while his emotions endear him to teammates and fans, it’s his emotions which prey on him at times. I worry about this game. Will we get the David Luiz who played well against City or the David Luiz who was sent off against City?

Thinking about the different reactions toward Giroud and David Luiz I think what’s going on here is a bit of impatience on our part (it’s certainly the case with me). Not with David Luiz in particular but with the club: many folks wanted firing Wenger to be a panacea (even while they would say that they didn’t, again, I did) and when things turned out to be a bigger mess than we realized we (I) lose patience with the players and the managers we have (and the owners!). But I think if we (I) are honest, we know that this club has a five year problem.

How many years before Martinelli, Saka, Saliba, Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe, and Guendouzi (well, it would have been him) are going to come into their prime? Three years? That’s pretty reasonable isn’t it?

Arsenal needed two years just to get their feet under them after Wenger’s departure. I thought it would be faster, that was clearly magical thinking. Andnow, here I am saying that they need three more years to build the club in the way that Arteta wants. There are already signs that we will get there, brick by brick but this is just going to take time and we can’t rush them.

In the meantime I’m happy to take an FA Cup win, it would be a great start to Arteta’s record and I know he will want it too. But if we don’t win it will be ok as well: it’s going to take years to get back into the top four and besides, if Chelsea beat us, it just means an easier schedule next season and more time for Arteta to develop his playing style.

Qq

53 comments

  1. First- Let’s win the FA Cup!

    Some solid salient points provided here, along with conflicted emotions.

    I, personally liked Giroud as a player for us. If Arsene had provided the team with another scorer during Giroud’s droughts we most likely would have won league, but that is for another time. Yet, he we are in another final with him and the chavs. I echo your sentiments that corrupt ownership, fA included, is the decline of our sport, along with fifA, eufA, and caS doing absolutely nothing to stop the slide.

    Believe Mikel will have a plan, and knows what to say and when, as he has been on the winning side in a FA Cup final.

    Do not want europa, and all the travel and extra games, unless Mikel sides under 23’s for those games.
    However, it will provide $ and glory for AFC.

    Looking forward to an exciting match and let’s win this match no matter how!

    1. Tim, I was so encouraged by your final few sentences. If we end up without European football it will give Arteta the time he needs to develop these young talents. I know people stress the importance of the funds we’d receive for participation in the Europa League. But look at some of the average players we’ve bought when we have had money. Maybe taking the longer view and seeing this as a slow rebuild is the way forward.

  2. If for nothing else we need Europa just for the additional dough ( approx 25-30 million) so that some of it can be used to bolster the team.
    Not much optimistic though tonight!

  3. Certainly hoping for a win to provide a bright spot in a dim season. And to hopefully also help us hang on to Auba, as I fear he’ll leave without at least some European option.
    As for Giroud, I fall into the camp that he was underappreciated. Yes, he’s not super speedy. And he had the odd drought here and there. But for hold up play and passing, he’s far better than Laca, and better in the air than anyone we currently have. A Giroud would give us a much better option to break down the packed defenses of the bottom of the table clubs. Plus probably make us better at defending set pieces.
    And I’m dreading tomorrow on the Luiz front. And generally defensively. Chelsea definitely have the right players to cause us a lot of trouble.
    In any case…come on you Gunners!

  4. I have to say, I’m not feeling very optimistic, though at the moment I can sort of be at peace envisioning either result. If we win, we beat a really despicable club, but on the other hand we get the Europa League, which I’d rather not have. If we lose, we have to put up with seeing Chelsea happy, but then again, no Europa League distractions, and honestly, this club is such a mess right now that I really do think we’d benefit from having more time on the training ground this year. And no, I don’t think Arteta would use the Europa League to field a B-team, other than perhaps for group stage games that were essentially dead rubbers, and the cash reward is hardly a big incentive.

    Tell me about this fried egg, chili cheese, and chutney sandwich. May I ask, what IS chili cheese? Is that the runny orange goop that gets pumped onto cheap nachos? Or is it a chili meat sauce with grated cheese on top? And do you use a mango chutney? I think the combination of sweet and spicy, with the richness of the yolk and cheese, sounds delightful.

    Tonight I made the best homemade gyro sandwich ever. I had some leftover grilled lamb that I sliced up into strips and panfried until crispy-ish in olive oil, garlic, and oregano. I folded that into some warm naan with fresh onions, tomato, and lettuce, and slathered it all with tzatziki and hot sauce. I’m writing to you all from heaven.

      1. No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll always have that sandwich, JD.

        See y’all in the morning!

  5. i want to win the game today but that’s my nature.

    personally, i don’t mind the europa league. if it allows arsenal to retain the services of aubameyang and recruit the talent arteta needs to improve the team, i’m all for it. as i’ve said multiple times, arsenal getting a good cdm would make the team significantly better immediately in every phase of play. an interesting name i’ve dropped over the past three summers is abdoulaye doucoure from recently relegated watford. any takers? i think arsenal can get him “for the low” as the kids say.

    i’ve always thought giroud was, not necessarily a better player but a better center forward than lacazette. i’m on record numerous times saying that wenger was foolish to replace giroud with the former lyon striker. i would have liked to see lacazette play a second striker role behind giroud, like griezmann does for france. even before lacazette came to arsenal, i said the same thing about alexis playing in that hole behind giroud. the way to get the best out of giroud is to have someone play close to him. players like griezmann, hazard, and now mount/pulisic stay close to giroud and they enjoy playing with him. it would have been a problem for defenses to deal with lacazette in that role.

    giroud is not fancy but he is fantastic player who knew his strengths and how to use them to help his team. unfortunately, for arsenal, giroud still is a good player and has always abused david luiz. when arsenal beat chelsea last time, chelsea had just won the league and were having a bit of hangover when the fa cup final came around. they won’t have that distraction today.

  6. I think the biggest hindrance on our progress is whether we accept we are a work in progress, with two three years to get back up, or deludely thinking we are just a few signing away from getting back challenging.

    I wish it isn’t true, but our link with Zaha, Willian, Coutinho, feel to me we want to get back as quickly as possible. It’s not like there’s no one better and younger than them, which there are. Just look at Championship star and an all star of their team with Pepe, Tierney, Saliba and Leno/Martinez probably will challenge for at least top four. So, there’s no excuse not to get a quality player, young and gettable without having to go to bed with agent preferances..

  7. Giroud was and still is, strong in the air. That used to come in handy defensively as well. Not quick, but good anticipation got him into the right positions in the box. Excellent first touch for a big bloke. He sometimes surprised you with a piece of great skill. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if he bit us in the bum today.

  8. An excellent match preview and a very Stoic conclusion. A week or so ago, I too was equivocal about the merits and rewards of winning today. But Mikel clearly wants it. He sees it as important in the ongoing development of his team. So I want this to be the game that we look back on in 20 years time and recall as the pivotal game that reversed Arsenal’s trajectory in the football pantheon.

    COYG.

  9. Our problem with Giroud is as that, due to a lack of depth, for about a season we needed him to be a starting striker and reliable scorer. But that’s not him. He’s a streaky super sub who you might start occasionally to mix things up. We blame him for not being what we needed. But that’s not his fault! If he’d been a second or third choice striker throughout his career at Arsenal he would have been much more fondly remembered…

  10. Tim

    Thanks for todays post. Its a big game for us.

    I just read your comments yesterday and its certainly not my intent to stop anyone else’s analysis or enjoyment of football. I am simply stating my opinions and my own ideas. If you or someone else does not agree then then so be it. I can’t prevent anyone from stating their opinion or analyzing football on this blog in anyway they would like. To me no analysis is ever complete unless you look at the actual results of the thing you are analyzing. Over the years I am sure there have been tens of thousands of posts and comments analyzing everything about Wengerball but I suspect no one else has ever analyzed how many goals we actually scored during those years and to me that is a real head scratcher. However, that is just my opinion, nothing more or less.

    In my prior blog home Yogi’s warrior blocked a whole group of people from posting comments because they were profane and disrespectful of others opinions. Its your blog and you spend your time and energy writing the posts and managing the blog and you do it for us with no financial or other tangible gain. You can do whatever you want and if you don’t want me posting my opinions then you can block me from the comment section.

    1. You do take a lot of abusive disagreement here, Bill. I admire your equanimity amidst it all! You’re a better man than me.

      If I were you, I go full in on a change of ethos. Rid yourself of the humble horse and affable nickname, and go for something a little bit tres dangereuse! Something like, “SatanRipper” with a picture of a skull or Moon Knight or something. Who would mess with that? Not me!

    2. Cheer up Bill. You’re a nice and reasonable person and don’t let criticism get you down.

      We’re both reading and blogging on aclf and Stuart’s death was and still is a blow. I remember well the different characters and Stuart’s/Yogis warrior s voice of reason.

  11. It was Aubameyang we got for Giroud, not Lacazette. There was this whole 3 way swap of Aubameyang to Arsenal, Giroud to Chelsea, and Batshuyi to Dortmund. As much as I like Giroud, I think We got the better deal in that one.

  12. Tim

    I think the goal scoring numbers you mentioned for Giroud overstate his value a bit. I think the reason Arsene sold him and the reason he wasn’t being used much in Chelsea in the PL game and champions league is because his goal scoring record in PL games for Chelsea in the last 2 years was 5 goals in 40 appearances according to data from who scored. He padded his stats by scoring 11 goals in 14 games in last years Europa league. Before his recent run of form he has hardly started in the league games or the CL games because he has not been scoring in those games. That said he has hit a really good run of form recently and he is certainly dangerous right now.

  13. Well, that’s a good starting eleven / selection, but let’s hope we don’t have to call on that bench for anything! Oof.

  14. Chelsea just need one more to clinch it! Can they do it???

    I’m just speculating here, and we’re only 15 minutes in so I don’t want to be a hostage to fortune or anything, but I think ( I THINK) the key difference between the teams is that Chelsea is playing with a midfield.

    Revolutionary.

  15. HT: played better after drinking. They should drink more.

    Glad for the penalty, but that non-call for the most obvious red card of all time was just further proof that there is a clear officiating bias against Arsenal, whether on the field or in the video room. Let’s not even taint this with “conspiracy.” It’s just a fact. Replay that again with an Arsenal player as the instigator and it’s a red card. Every. Single. Time.

    1. Are you talking about the Azpilicueta one or the Kovacic one? Arguably both could’ve been given.

  16. I propose we re-name particularly delicious assists from “caviar” to “Bunburyist’s sandwich.”

    Luiz with a delightful Bunburyist’s sandwich to Aubamayaaaaaaaaannnnggg

  17. I don’t know why Arsenal didn’t press Chelsea’s midfield for that first goal. I knew it was trouble immediately when Jorginho was allowed to pick his head up and pass under no pressure in the buildup. They got a bit of luck with the bounce but it wasn’t good defending from Arsenal.

    After we started to press them all over the pitch like we’ve done in recent matches, we dominated. Xhaka made some excellent open field tackles and Ceballos has been good too. Playing out from the back has been decent except for poor Rob Holding who also seemed to get special attention from Arteta during the drinks break, presumably for dropping too deep.

    Bring on the second half!

  18. Awesome result. Winning a trophy after this otherwise miserable season and getting into the Europa league are really positive things. Hopeful Auba will be with us next year.

  19. I was strangely calm after we conceded that early goal. In years past I might’ve thought, well, that’s us. Not now. The team rewarded my confidence with an outstanding cup final performance. Today was also the first time I ever wore my 2014 Away kit, from the year we ended the mini Wenger trophy drought. I thought it might bring us luck and it has!

    Indeed, luck played a major role in this final. Chelsea didn’t have Kante or Willian available and lost Azpilicueta and Pulisic, their best defender and their best attacker, to injury during the game. The Kovacic red card was a little harsh, though when I saw it live my first instinct was: card. But I certainly don’t feel bad for Chelsea after years of watching similar situations going against my club with major injuries to key players and major decisions going against us. Football is a game where these things often swing games between well matched opponents, and today it fell in our favor. I don’t have any problem with that!

    In the big picture, Arsenal took the advantages they were handed, used them well and won the game. When it was XI on XI, the balance of play swung back and forth, but Arsenal had the better of it overall and I don’t think Chelsea can really argue that they deserved to win this. And if they do or did, I don’t much care. It’s all about winning trophies, innit? Just ask Mourinho. 😉

  20. I didn’t even mention Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. I was advocating selling him earlier and I have to say, in the aftermath of a cup final where he was the difference maker in the final and the semifinal it’s hard to stay firm on that resolve. I absolutely loved watching him play in this competition. The #14 lifting FA cup #14 was pure poetry. Plus, his friendship with Lacazette, his leadership, his obvious skill, it’s all fantastic. I believe he probably has a couple more seasons as an elite striker in him. How do you put monetary value on all of that? He’s been just about priceless if you’ll forgive the cliche.

    But you have to pay a player for future performance, not past. And you have to think about building a whole team over the next several seasons, not just next season or even the next two. We are not “one player away” from competing with City and Liverpool for next season’s PL trophy if that player is Aubameyang. If we sign Aubameyang but otherwise run this team back, I don’t see how we can compete in the league. If we sign Aubameyang, can we still strengthen midfield and central defense in a meaningful way? If so, fantastic, but is that reality? This is surely the major question mark over the offseason and I’ll follow the club’s decision making with interest.

  21. I’d argue that PEA is our most important player since Henry. Clearly Arteta wants to keep him and has publicly stated his desire to build the team around him. If we get another three seasons from him snd his output dips to 75% he’s still good for 20+ goals a season. What’s not to like?

  22. What a great performance all round with some stellar contributions. Exactly what Mikel wanted. He deserves that trophy because of how he has transformed a group of demoralised misfits and gave them organisation and belief. We have an excellent young manager. I hope he can go on to build ‘Artetaball’ and achieve even more success than Wenger achieved.

    I hope that Aubameyang re-signs. His goals will clearly be hard to replace, he appears to be a good leader and mentor and he seems to like the club and living in London. I think he can make a huge contribution over the next three seasons and become one of our great players. However if Barca, Real or even PSG, Juventus or Inter come in for him, I think he will leave. In that case we have to squeeze top dollar out of him to enable us to rebuild the way Liverpool did with the Coutinho money.

  23. I waffled some on Auba, but have become convinced we need to do what we can to keep him. I don’t see where we are going to be able to replace anything like the level of contribution he’s had.
    Plus he’s rarely injured, and apparently was clocked earlier this season at the highest sprint speed of any player in in the PL. So even if he slows down a little, he still should be plenty fast for a couple more years.

    Very pleased with the outcome today!

  24. Vardy is 33 and hasn’t slowed down yet.
    I think Auba can play at this level for another two years easily…….never understood why fans wanted to sell him.

  25. It’s not a want to sell, it’s about making the right investment in the future so that we have the strongest possible squad. I don’t know for how long Auba is going to be this player. Vardy is a nice comp though, didn’t know he was 33.

  26. Been away a whole pandemic and then some, during which I totally lost my love for spectator sport.

    What have I missed? (apart from Bill billinng? 🙂 )

    Oh.

    Congratulations, gunners. And Mikel, I love you and know that youre a modern, woke bloke… but please respect the occasion of an FA Cup Final next time by wearing a suit and tie

    Bratislava and former Soviet Central Asia here we come.

    1. Thanks, Tom. I’ve been fine. I’ve been worried about others in my family. Lost an uncle to the virus, live in fear of older relatives (mostly in New York) catching it, and it’s taken a terrible mental toll on final year of university daughter, who was unable to graduate. But I myself have been fine, touch wood. I guess it was a mental re-appraisal of what was important, and what needed my time the most.

  27. Thanks, Tom. Responded, but it got captured. You’ll see it when Tim retrieves.

  28. Hope you enjoyed that trophy lads, I thoroughly did.

    From a shaky start I was very impressed with the way we pulled it back. PEM a legend now, no question. All he has to do is stay. I can see a beautiful story coming together if he puts his faith in Arteta the way Arteta puts his faith in him.

    Martinez getting emotional with Auba after the game was great to see – here are players who care and are not afraid of it.

    All over the pitch you could see players believing in each other. Most matches I come away with a clear sense of who played well but today I almost didn’t notice who was wearing the red shirt. I think about Bellerin, AMN, Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Xhaka, Laca and I don’t remember much they did, except they were always there, always running, always working, always aware, always relaxed.

    Weird season, love and luck to you all.

  29. fantastic result. fantastic performance. glad to be a gooner.

    the folks who were saying sell auba, i never got it. to extend 2 years and an additional 50k a week to this guys has always been a no-brainer to me. you can’t replace that unless you pay exponentially more money. glad to see some folks coming around. likewise, big up to the guy who came up with the plan to get auba to arsenal. the alexis/mkhitaryan switch made no sense to me…until i heard that “yo, pierre” piece. whoever planned that was absolutely brilliant. we haven’t missed alexis sanchez even a little bit.

    in the past two weeks, arsenal have beaten three of the top 4 teams in the league. people thinking this team needs an overhual…nope. just a few changes to, at least, get back into the champions league. to compete with city and liverpool will require some work but if kronke was paying attention to what henry did as liverpool owner by backing the right guy, arteta, arsenal could be there soon. we’ll see.

    an aside, proud that two former dortmund team mates scored the goals today. i feel bad for pulisic, though. i’m sure he was looking forward to going back to deutschland. as a yank, i’m super-proud of what he’s done. i compare him to landon donovan with my u19s all the time; one is clearly better.

  30. hey bill, don’t listen to bun…unless he’s talking about döners. keep your “mr. ed” avatar. we need personality around here.

    you and i disagree a lot but i don’t find you the least bit disrespectful. speaking candidly, i think you develop an opinion, find a statistic to support your opinion, and apply a lot of conjecture to your opinions pieces. on 7am, we typically talk less about stats and more about the football. bill, you don’t seem to even attempt to justify your opinions by highlighting what we’ve seen on the pitch; instead choosing to take a WAG at why something happened and attempt to justify it by using a single stat. likewise, you don’t appear to be open to the fact that you may be wrong. lastly, you repeat the same unsubstantiated arguments quite frequently and they’re often negative.

    we don’t talk much about stats because you can make a stat say whatever you want. for instance, your claim that wengerball was ineffective because arsenal averaged 3rd in the league in goals scored since the emirates move makes 3rd out of 20 sound awful. it’s consistently higher than 85% of the league.

    your stat doesn’t take into account that arsene maintained that level of scoring with every team he’s had in over two decades or the fact that arsenal were often decimated with injuries, or that arsenal didn’t have the financial resources of some of the teams that often finished in the top 2, or that none of those teams consistently outscored arsenal (except for billionaire city), or that wenger often did what he did with kids. my question for you is what other manager in world football could have done what wenger did for as long as he did with the resources he did it with?

  31. Healthy debate is alive and well on this site. It’s why it’s so good to visit and to read the replies. Few other sites have such intelligent and respectful discussion. Good discussion requires different opinions although of course at least 50% of opinions are wrong.

  32. Josh

    My avatar is my 1200 pound girl friend and her name is Brynna. Sweetest and gentlest horse I have ever met and completely idiot proof for myself and my grandkids who love to ride her.

    I agree that you can make a stat say whatever you want but unlike all other stats goals scored and goals conceded have 100% direct correlation with the clubs ability to win games. Logic would dictate that those stats should be very heavily weighted in any analysis when debating the merits of something like Wengerball.

  33. Josh

    You can dazzle everyone with your in depth knowledge of all of intricacies and the fine points of football tactics and analysis and your own subjective eyeball test that’s great and more power to you. To each his own. However it seems to me like all of that analysis is never complete or and sometime inaccurate when you don’t take into account the objective final results of the thing you are analyzing.

    1. right on, bill. big up to big brynna! some guys are into the big girls…i’m way too shallow.

      seriously, i’m not here to “dazzle” anybody with my in-depth tactical knowledge. i don’t even think i’m dazzling, although i’m flattered. i’m simply a soccer nerd who love to talk about arsenal soccer. unfortunately, my neighbors in south georgia don’t give a hoot about soccer and have never even heard of arsenal. so i come here for the discussion. while i sometimes say stuff that teaches people, i learn more than i teach from folks here all the time. this is more a discussion forum than a debate forum, however debates still have their place and time; such is the nature of a group of smart folks.

      as far as stats, there’s no good discussion to be had about stats. we don’t care. they are what they are. they don’t tell the story. they are a side note to make sense of some of what we saw. they’re boring; black and white. most of the folks ’round here enjoy discussing the drama of the game, which is gray, not the stats. the gray is where the real talking points are; where the interesting details and nuance lie and where the real discussion is had and the excitement is shared.

      stats don’t consider injuries, financial restraints, or depending on young inexperienced players to get things done. that’s where the value is in this game of ours. the fact that wenger, during his time as arsenal manager, often overcame these and other obstacles and still put on some the most entertaining soccer many of us have ever seen is the main reasons we celebrate wengerball. we got to see our team rightfully compete amongst the elite in european football for 20 straight years playing wengerball. who else can claim that stat?

  34. Don’t know the real reasons for it but it’s clear that many top players of recent years continue to be productive into their thirties:
    Droghba, Ronaldo, Messi, Vardy, Lewondowski, etc. And of course Auba too. This IS The Arsenal, so the caveat, if he remains healthy as he’s been, I’m fairly confident that a 3 year big money deal will bring value and allow Arteta to continue his project.

    And if we’re going own something, we could do worse that the FA Cup. Yay us!

    1. Yes, if everything goes perfectly. It’s just a lot of eggs to put in one basket, even one as nice as PEA. I think in general athletes are better at taking care of their bodies than they used to be and that results in careers being extended, sometimes in unprecedented fashion (see: Brady, Thomas) so maybe this isn’t as risky as it would’ve been 10 or even 5 years ago. I just worry about a forward who really needs his speed to maintain his effectiveness aging gracefully into his mid 30’s. He’s a freak athlete and could easily prove me wrong. I hope he does.

      The other angle of this is one that I’ve already mentioned, but will hash out a little more here, concerns overall squad value. In three years’ time, will Arsenal want to have one 35 year old Aubameyang, or the players we bought using the fee some giant club paid us for him? In my mind that’s an easy answer. Not trying to discredit him or be ungrateful. This is just where we are as a club right now. We need to build and in order to do that we need to sell assets at their peak. Maybe Auba can be an exception to that. I hope he can. I hope the club can move other players instead to generate the required funds. But I do know his value will never be higher than it is now.

      1. It’s a fair point, doc. His stock may never be higher than it is right now, yet the thought of losing a talent like his makes me cringe. What would Wenger do asks.1 Nil with tongue firmly in cheek?

      2. arsenal paid £56 million for aubameyang. i don’t think arsenal can sell him at 31-years old for more than that…i certainly wouldn’t pay that. the smart money is to pay him and build around him. it’s the same point i made when i first noticed that all of our attacking players were in their prime age, including ramsey, ozil, and mkhitaryan. arsenal needed to dress up the rest of the squad to get those guys firing on all cylinders. too bad, they haven’t maximized that attacking quality.

      3. with that, i understand your point about a 34 year old striker but you don’t have to cash in on every player. likewise, you have to be smart to maximize selling a talent like coutinho. in fairness, he just doesn’t fit into the way liverpool play so maybe it was an easier decision for klopp than most realize.

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