Arsenal’s new transfer Holding ready NOW? Gabriel on injury list?

Most Arsenal fans will have had an underwhelming sort of ‘meh’ reaction to the news that our latest signing would be the relatively unheard of 20-year old defender from a Bolton team that finished rock bottom of the Championship last season. No offence to Rob Holding but I think most of us were not really expecting to see much of the lad this year, in terms of the Arsenal first team at least, but two things have made me reconsider this idea.

First there were the words of our new player in his first interview on the Arsenal website since joining the Gunners. He talks about the competition for places with the likes of Mertesacker and Koscielny but also about how the club giving young players a fair chance to show what they can do was a major part of his decision to join.

Holding said, “It gives young players a massive boost. They know that if they work hard and stick to what they know, they’ll get the chance. It’s what we work for.

“There’s massive competition here and it will only improve me. It will push me to new boundaries and hopefully I can prove my worth.”

It does not sound as though he is expecting to spend the year with the reserves or be sent out on loan. And his chances of first team football may have been given another boost this week, with perhaps one less player to compete with for his favoured position of centre back.

I am talking about the unexpected and unexplained absence of Gabriel from the pre-season game in Lens. Just a week ago we saw pictures on Arsenal.com that showed the Brazilian happily training and he had been one of the first group to come back to the club, so should have been in the starting line up on Friday, or at the very least on the bench.

He was not in the latest pictures from London Colney showing Holding, Xhaka, Cazorla and Wilshere training either, so what’s the story? Has he become the latest Gunner to suffer the Arsenal injury curse? There could be another explanation, of course, but perhaps Holding just moved a step closer to a place in the Arsenal first team…

Bob.

Tags Holding Lens Wenger

14 Comments

  1. Gabriel supposedly had tonsillitis. It does seem strange though… 5 CB’s is a lot!
    Really think Chambers should get a loan move. So much promise but needs consistent football.

    1. I don’t know if its only me but I have confidence in CHAMBERS, high one for that matter. He’s the only non over hyped brits we have.

  2. If he’s good enough, he will start. Varane started playing games for Real Mahrez at a young age as well.

    1. Real Mahrez? lol. It seems lot of Arsenal fans has already started dreaming about Mahrez as gunner

      1. Talk about Freudian slip, that’s a doozy!. So I guess he believes Marhez is out of Arsenals reach, associating him with la Royal Madrid.

  3. Rob Holding was voted Bolton Wanderers Player of the Season last season
    That’s quite impressive for a 20 year old to be voted Club’s best player

    So he may be able to play FA Cup and League cup matches
    That’s up to him and Wenger
    But I see a good future for him

    But we still NEED to get a Top CB
    We can’t get a youngster and expect him to play like an experienced CB
    Also Gabriel needs more experience

  4. we must start acting like bayern and barca by being ruthless in the transfermarkt.
    And not going soft like buying players like holding and asano ‘future players’.
    When our state does not allow us to do so.
    A good start would be purchasing.
    manolas rodriguez mahrez and draxler.
    sell walcott debuchy wilshere and gibbs.

    1. A top world class striker would cost say £75m with weekly pay of say £250k. For a five year contract that is a commitment to pay £65m.

      Total expenditure for five years is say £140m. You may believe that arsenal with its current owner, manager and chief exec will spend this sort of money. However I have read their quoted comments in the media and looked at the last five years of arsenal financial reports. My conclusion is that there is no way they will spend this sort of money on one player.

      The only way we will bet a truly world class striker is to develop one ourselves, as we did with TH and RVP.

      My understanding of barca is that they have a very strong youth development programme but do make mistakes like Not keeping fabregas and bellerin.

  5. Gabriel 16 mill Chambers 16 mill
    are struggling bordering on flops.
    Mertz and Kos are 30+.
    Arsenal will need 3 new CB’s soon.
    Could cost 70 -100 mill.
    Wenger is having to cut costs and raid the bargain bin
    to try and staunch the club hemorrhaging
    millions more on his transfer mistakes.
    The same up front where after years of failed striker transfers
    Park Bendtner Chamakh he is still using el cheapos
    like Sanogoal and Japan shirt sales man Asano.
    DM was the same till we got Xhaka. For years he kept the
    injury wreck Diarby and old coots like Arteta Flamini and Kalstrom.
    After 12 years and 2 billion pounds on transfers and salaries
    he is still paying games in the transfer market and the club
    is still no nearer winning another major trophy.

    1. Chamakh arrived on a free transfer. At the start of his arsenal career, RVP was injured and Chamach was our main striker and was very good and scored a lot of goals. He also scored in six consecutive CL games which i think is still a record.

      We get half way through the season, goals dry up and he is never the same player again. What went wrong? Was he played too much, could not handle the rigours of the PL?

      Same with arshavin, firm fan favourite, remember the chant “we have arshavin f……… Adebeyor”. We end up booing when arshavin comes on to replace a very young Ox. What went wrong there?

  6. Wenger talks of the transfer window being like a poker game and suggests that we have to be good at it. ?
    That would explain alot of things when you consider how the Smirk on Wenger’s face, gives everything away! ?

    ?Ranieri – “Do you have four of a kind, mr Wenger? ”

    ? Wenger- ” Errrr… Only in Midfield “

  7. Bolton have a reputation for breeding certain type of defenders. Competitive, rugged, loving the challenge. I hope Rob is no different, he can control the ball well-enough for a CB, this is probably the biggest difference to others rared over there. Cahill, he’s good within a compact che unit, but in a high line with fullbacks pushing on he is not so content. Lets hope we got the real deal. We need Gab for beginning of season, liv and lei, counter and pace will be thrown at us. These are two huge games.

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