He's been a starter for us for the past two seasons. No one here thinks of him as a prospect any more.
He's been a starter for us for the past two seasons. No one here thinks of him as a prospect any more. He's a senior Belgium international. Albeit still behind some of our bigger stars in the pecking order. But Martinez doesn't call up "prospects". It took a long while before he trusted say Doku.
How do you explain that match though? I don't think it is a conspiracy to maintain that grey markets with no transparency are prone to corruption - especially when the precise templates have been proven to exist in other leagues. So where it is proven that at the time, clubs could influence referees in Turkey and Italy as two examples, why would the same structures not exist in the EPL? Or a similar question - when you look at the wild corruption at FIFA/UEFA, why would EPL not be similarly corrupt? Remember for his "retirement title" SAF did not concede a penalty or red card for more than 1.5 years
BTW - I am genuinely interested in what you all think is going on. I don't claim to have the answers. I don't think SAF was paying the refs. I think he was able to get refs appointed who would tend to be favourable towards him. This is pretty much what was happening with Juve and Milan
Ferguson scared the refs they were pathetic older boys and he probably arse locked them or put the frighteners on them. It’s the same story with the nba, lebron gets free throws for people breathing on him the big teams get all the favours because they make the most money for the league
Incompetence, coupled with most of the refs being from northwest England so some inherent biases they don't even recognize.
I certainly think there is a thing where big stars can get away with murder I think you also get protected at some teams, that is why I didn't blame RvP or Fabregas for leaving.
so, unsurprisingly, united are in for lisandro martinez. there's a part of me that sort of wants us to stay in just long enough to drive his price up before backing off to go to plan B. i'm curious to see how he will do at CB* at that height and how united will look with the left-side of that defense being either 2 newcomers from eredivisie or 1 with luke shaw flanking him. *to my understanding, our plan was for him to be available for CB coverage but primarily be LB. that's fine. but a full-time CB at 5'9? that seems a gamble. and i want to see it. over there.
I don’t see why we want him as we would be paying for a backup I want an athletic midfielder it at least one good in possession Ruiz and soler are both going into their final year and Tielmans and aour etc
Assuming you mean Lisandro Martínez, you’re looking at cover for three positions. In two of those positions we suffered massively when cover was needed last year, and in the case of one it isn’t unreasonable to think he’d have to play half of our games. That’s far more than ‘backup’, and the kind of signing that could have a bigger impact than improving on any of the projected first eleven at this stage.
I saw an article yesterday that suggested Arteta views Martinez more as a left back and defensive mid than as a center back. If Madrid and City really are nosing around Tierney, it’s possible Arteta and Edu see Martinez as a replacement for Tierney, not as a back up. He would be a very good fit as an inverted left back.
I said it before in this thread, if we sign Lisandro it will not be to join the CB rotation. If he ever plays CB for us it will be in an emergency situation. If we sign him, it will be as "rotation" for LB and/or DM (our 2 most injury prone positions) until he takes one of those for his own.
it's going to be interesting. united and ten hag wants him as a centerback while we want him as a left-back and possible defensive midfielder who can cover centerback. so i guess it'll be whether he wants to play more as CB or LB and i'm sure ten hag is a plus in united's favour. i sort of feel the same way i felt about monreal: i wouldn't want him starting 30+ games at CB but having someone who can slide over and provide good cover if needed is reassuring. i'm not as hugely focused on measurable like heights as others are but i don't know how i'd feel about a 5'9 centerback vs some of the people he'd have to compete with.
He looks slow for me and undersized unless we want to go with an inverted lb? Maybe tierney is going? I want us to prioritise a cm
He is under sized, but your suggestion that he looked slow made me go back and watch a you tube video. When he closes out on players he appears to be quick to very quick over 5 yards. It’s hard to judge straight line speed from a video, but he’s clearly not Mari or Xhaka slow. Re prioritizing a CM, that was much more likely to happen before Elneny signed a new contract, which I think was a mistake. But counting three attacking mids (Odegaard, Vieira, and Smith-Rowe) Arsenal currently have seven first team midfielders, which may explain why they are slow walking the Tielemans deal. Maybe they are waiting for someone (Xhaka) to leave before they pull the trigger.
And adding a LB that plays inverted rather than bombing up the field makes the CM spots more flexible because you no longer have to worry about defensive cover on the left on a fast break. Now your CMs can both be more offensive and play closer to the box. You can have MO, ESR, Vieira & Tielemans and simply pick 2 for your lineup.
Sounds like Aaron Hickey is going to Brentford. Highlights of the 5-1 win over Ipswich are on youtube, Nketiah scored a first half hat trick. Balogun had a 2nd half goal. Sambi had a goal and pair of assists, looked to be playing pretty high up as a left 8. That may just be due to lack of options, AMN looked like the right 8 in front of Partey. Rumors of Arsenal having talks with Amadou Onana, he would definitely bring a physical presence to the midfield at 6'5". He's very raw, mostly played as a sub for Lille and is only valued at €10m. Doesn't seem super likely unless they get him for close to that price.
Onana would make a very interesting Sambi-esque signing for this season. He is raw but his film looks solid and his athleticism is intriguing. Bring him in and give him cup matches to figure out his long term position (DM vs #8 vs ???) and then possibly loan him next season depending on how his development progresses.
I always felt lokonga was an 8 maybe arteta feels he can step up more? He really is good at driving the ball forward and seems to have a developing play making ability I hope he keeps developing well. He’s a lot more mobile than Tielmans
No, but emphasizing America at this moment in time seems appropriate. The vast majority of people used to pretend or even believe that we were better than the rest of the world in this regard. Hell, a lot of people still do, unfortunately.
Clarence Darrow had a quote for those faux patriots who waved the flag while invading the Capital and who want to deny teaching the history of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans: “True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.”