Just a quick update on Atalanta. They have apparently sold Remo Freuler for 9m Euros to Nottingham Forest. That is a huge loss for Atalanta because he was the heart and soul of the midfield. And to be clear, Forest are getting a top quality player here and at a cut rate price because he was on the last year of his contract with La Dea.
There are also a lot of rumors this morning that Forest want to sign Malinovskyi from Atalanta. That would be another big signing for them. The man has a left foot like a cannon. I know that Pasalic is the preferred player in the MF/FW role and is probably the better of the two but Malinovskyi was a player who added a lot of quality in depth.
In ANOTHER blow, Atalanta have lost Palomino to two positive tests for steroids. The club and player are claiming that it was accidental but for now he’s out and if WADA are as hardline with him as they were with Andre Onana then there’s no question that he will be suspended for quite some time.
That all comes on top of news that new Midfield signing Ederson is out with an injury, forward Aleksey Miranchuk has been loaned to Torino, and both Demiral (the summer’s big signing) and Zappacosta (both mainstays in the defense) are out injured for the first game of the season.
It always feels wild at the start of the Serie A season but this feels particularly upsetting. The draw of the Premier League (money) is huge right now and I can hardly believe that Forest can sign a player like Freuler but here we are. And if they can get Malinovskyi too, well, that’s almost enough to give them a real chance in the relegation battle (if the coach knows what he’s doing).
In Arsenal news: Arteta gave a press conference and says that he liked Saliba’s renewed confidence when he first saw him in training after returning from loan in Marseille. I mean, Saliba has always had confidence and was great right from the start at Marseille but I guess that’s what needs to be said after what happened with this position. We can’t expect someone to say “you know what? we should have just kept him and played him”.
That’s pretty much it. No surprises yet. Well, maybe a slight surprise that Tierney’s 100% healthy, the healthiest healthy Arteta has ever seen him.
On transfer news, Arsenal are saying that they will buy someone if someone super duper great shows up so we are virtually done for transfers this season. I guess we are putting all our eggs in the #5 basket.
Leicester still haven’t added or subtracted anyone other than Schmeichel to the squad. Very odd. Seems to me like a poor strategy. I wouldn’t want to be Leicester or Atalanta if I’m honest. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.
Arteta can’t just come out and admit that splurging £50m on Benjamin White when he already had Saliba on the books was a waste of scarce resources which should have been deployed elsewhere, now can he? It would be very bad form.
And then Saliba goes to Marseille and only helps THEM secure Champions League football, gets called up to Les Blues, wins the Young Player of the Year Award, gets named in the Team of the Season, and he does it all while looking calm and mature from the off?
Arsenal look like utter morons, especially after Arteta refused to even register Saliba to play for us the previous season, putting Mustafi in the squad instead, and the club tried to cover for him by claiming Saliba was supposed to go out on loan, which was the most transparently, ridiculously insane lie I’d ever heard from my club.
What Saliba did at Palace last Friday is what he did from the start of the season at Marseille – show that he’s ready for the top level, and that he’s been ready. Will he make a mistake or two, will strikers get the better of him from time to time? Yes, those things will happen, but a guy who faced down Mbappe and Messi and more than held his own isn’t going to be too fazed, methinks.
Now, do I hope he gets to have a long and glorious career in the red and white of the Gunners? Yes, I do. Do I fear that our inexperienced manager who appears to struggle with the man-management aspect of his job is going to screw this up? Also yes. I can only hope that if Arteta proves unequal to the job of stewarding the career of best young CB in Europe, he’s the one who has to leave Arsenal and not Saliba.
Senor Bure
In that eventuality Saliba definitely stays. Anyway , he has already quite made his point and confirming it likely in next games
😷😇
When it comes to ‘that player’, I’m really baffled by what the club’s doing.
I’m not baffled as to why they keep playing him, I might disagree with the decision but I completely see where the team is coming from.
What I AM worried about is the reason why the club isn’t trying to buy replacements for the guy in case it escalates. Even if the club believes that the guy’s innocent (I personally currently don’t), shouldn’t the team come up with a replacement just in case? Whenever I hear news (no idea if credible, to be fair) that Arteta is targeting another winger or something instead of a CM, I can’t help thinking ‘why’?
And that’s not even considering other things like injuries, fatigue, and cover. How many CMs do we have right now? Him, Xhaka, Lokonga, and Elneny? Maybe Zinchenko every now and then? Not exactly a lot of options considering we’re competing in Europe and that it’s a World Cup year, meaning fixture congestion will get insane at some point. I guess you can pull Vieira and Odegaard too, but eeeeeeeh.
I really really hope we can get one final signing in central midfield. We really need one.
Conspiracy theory for #5: England International unheralded wonder kid AMN unveiled to anchor the most promising & youngest premiership Guns like the next best & longest Niles on the planet. Trained in the most gruelling dark arts in secret away from the limelight with the devious Ancient Gladiators in Rome for a year, we have a new player meet the same old player who is as good as a new signing. Guess we can’t say we are short can we?
In other news, Arsenal was spanking awesome isn’t it.
Four key +s, Arteta managed to (1) coax Saliba to commit a fatal mistake to underscore why he needed to ship him to France for a couple of internships; (2) convince eternal villain Xhaka to role play as a Swiss Gundogan for our first home match of the new campaign, (3) got Jesus flying (could have flown much higher) like a certain South American hotshot Alexis (with certainly more frowns – maybe the look of the lush natural brows of our new spear of the “Samba Fab Gab Trio”) without the sulk; (4) & last but not least readied our ever improving new #11 to carry on his hustle with more end products.
Notwithstanding the fact that we conceded two soft goals, the intricate interplays btw our ex Manchurians and the existing squad was quite a joy to behold. & we haven’t even gotten our Saka engine running.
Can’t contain my excitement and absolutely can’t wait for the next match.
Until then, COYG.
Guess it is a nice hot weekend good for lots of good chilled beers.
The posts today are hilarious.
Thanks