Arsenal have been strongly linked with a deal to sign Arthur Melo from Juventus this month, either on loan or a more permanent deal, but he now appears to have picked up an injury of sorts.
The midfielder was named in the starting line-up for the Old Lady this evening as they took on Udinese in Serie A, but he began to struggle with an unknown injury after the initial 30 minutes, and while he completed the half, he was replaced by Manuel Locatelli during the break as seen live on BT Sport.
His appearance in the tie may well have downplayed our chances of landing his signature regardless, with clubs tending to opt against playing stars who are close to leaving for various reasons, with the possibility of injury high on that list of reasons for not risking players close to an exit.
We will now await news on his potential injury, although it wouldn’t surprise me if we were now looking at alternative options with the player seemingly being given a chance to impress, with Arthur playing a part in the build-up to Paulo Dybala’s initial goal.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t even want Arthur to join Arsenal. I’m not convinced he has ever showed a level of consistency that is worthy of the price-tag he has is talked of, nor do I believe he is a scratch on either Granit Xhaka or Thomas Partey.
If we are bringing in a senior option in midfield, he needs to give us something different and be of the right level, and I just don’t see that from the Brazilian.
Patrick
Denilson 2.0 ?
Not a scratch on Granit Xhaka ? Are you for real ?
Loan deal is the go. Then we can try before buying. We did that with Ceballos and Odegaard and passed on Ceballos and brought Odegaard after seeing him play.
As I know you’re a stickler for the facts(lol), we actually didn’t pass on Ceballos, after his first loan, as we stupidly brought him back on loan a second time…in regards to Ode, the jury is still out on whether that was a good piece of business or not…loans are a joke unless there’s a clause included, especially for a team that’s supposedly in “rebuild” mode
You are joking right? He’s 22 and improving each game. Øde was worth the £30m considering Saka, SmithRowe & Gabi cost £7m between them. He has slotted straight into the system now adays & playing like a young Mesut the way he moves the ball.
Mustafa £35m
Xhaka £34m
Laca £56m
Pepe £72m
I won’t name Auba or Ozil as both contributed alot in their 1st few seasons here but the new deals means we got the lazy players we saw in recent memory as the were already paid.
Elneny, Papa, Soares, Mari, Willian, Luiz, Kola all flops at Arsenal also. We have made so many silly transfers but the 2021 summer window we got every signing spot on for the new era of youth at Arsenal.
We are a few players short, when everybody is fit, to having a squad ready to compete for Top4 or higher every season.
what a ridiculous attempt to justify a decision that couldn’t possibly be properly analyzed at this early juncture…so regardless of the myriad of periphery nonsense that you brought into the equation, this will only be determined in time, like I said…fact remains, if MA has 4-3-3 aspirations, which some have continually suggested, Ode makes little sense long-term…furthermore, if MA continues along the same path, tactically-speaking, this could be incredibly problematic for ESR, whom I believe has more on offer, as he’s not a natural wide-side player and MA seems determined to have two of our slowest rostered players, Ode and Xhaka, on the pitch to start most matches…nice try though
who cares what spurs think ! mugs !
Kallstrom, Suarez come to mind. If this fella was our target why didn’t we sign him New year’s Day when knew our players were leaving? Why did we let AMN leave?
If there is anyone that thinkd Xhaka is better than this guy, then we should not even be looking at him or those people need to look at Xhaka’s highlights and I’m not talking about the ones he puts in his hair like some confused teenager.
this didn’t really make sense from the get-go…fact remains we should have never let any midfielder go elsewhere before we had found and SIGNED a suitable replacement…that move alone should have stymied any attempt by our club to seek a postponement for the NLD
He’s a hit or a miss he could end up here and be the same off the game, we should definitely try to get Thomas Lemar and gelson Martin’s from Monaco he has the speed of Douglas Costa and is so skillful and we’ll Thomas Lemar speaks for himself absolute class ,young France international.
all I know is there better not be any truth to the claims that Edu has been entertaining the notion of bringing Diego Costa back to the PL…for the love of God, this better be a completely baseless rumour!!!
Vhalovic isn’t coming, we know this tactic, it’s to say we tried our best scenario again when we know he doesn’t want to come.
I would look at Toney from Brentford for the CF problem & Teilimans from Leicester. Both Premier League proven to which we need now to come straight in and both realistic targets that are possibly available especially in January.
Tony would move to us in a heartbeat, massive step up for him & Teilimans has rejected talks over a new deal with 18months left on his contract. Both u25, money can talk and we seem to have some to spend.
Buying these 2 would let us easily move on from the sales/out of contract players like Auba, Laca, Eddie, Elneny, Xhaka, Lucas & Matteo. Saliba return same deal with Mari, Chambers & Soares! Kid can play RB like White can until we sign a cover RB for Tomi.
Come the summer after the departues above before we have made any signings in or out wherever we finish in the league.
Ramsdale & Leno (Okin back up)
Tomi / Saliba
White / Gabriel / Holding
Tierney & Taveres
Partey & Lokonga
Teilimans & Azeez
Øde & SmithR
Saka / Pepe
Gabi / Nelson
Toney / Balogun
Bellerin will also be replaced or brought back depending on form I guess. Leno may go also along with Pepe but that’s all incoming fees to the club to help with new signings, Two or Three from the Academy maybe step up also. Biggest mistake we have made is the dealings with Matteo & Dino imo.