Blow to Arsenal as attacking midfielder’s exit ruled out by injury

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos’s injury is claimed to be closing the door on Martin Odegaard‘s potential return to Arsenal this summer.

The Norwegian arrived in North London in January and became an instant hit, quickly settling into Mikel Arteta’s first-team plans.

His exit at the end of that loan spell left a big hole in our squad, with just Emile Smith Rowe as our only remaining option in the number 10 role, and bringing Odegaard back to the Emirates was claimed by TheAthletic to be our priority of the summer.

There has been months of contradicting reports however, with some claims that he wants to come back to London with Real failing to convince him that he will receive regular playing time, but AS in Spain now claim that n injury to Toni Kroos is to block any potential exit for Martin.

Arsenal appear to have already changed their focus from the 23 year-old of late regardless, with strong reports linking us with a move to sign Leicester’s James Maddison, although his club’s asking price doesn’t make that deal a formality.

We could still miss out on both targets however, and with just under two weeks left until the start of the season, I wouldn’t expect us to have a new number 10 available to feature against Brentford.

After a strong start to the transfer window, are we set to struggle through the final weeks of the window?

Patrick

Tags Martin Odegaard

30 Comments

  1. Arsenal have reportedly moved to sign Millwall midfielder Billy Mitchell. The 20 year old has racked up 16 appearances in the Championship and has been on the score sheet once already. Mitchell is available for half a mill so Arsenal must move quickly to secure the services of the next Jack Grealish.

  2. Actually that would be good news for us. Apart from 2 stellar games Odegaard was bang average.

    I feel ESR would outperform Odegaard given same number of opportunities.

    We wonder why we don’t develop youth like other clubs; benching ESR for Odegaard explains why.

    Add to that a woeful Ceballos for 2 YEARS when Willock could have had those opportunities.

    Not to mention that extra time for him last year would have made it easier to decide whether sell or keep, based on more performances to judge.

    But checkbook managers like Arteta rather buy players that coach and polish internal talent.

    If club let’s Arteta buy a team, why not bring in experienced manager to buy a team? Naggelsmann, Tuchel, Ten Haag, did club even try for them?

    1. Willock was never convincing after several opportunities from Wenger to Emery to Arteta not until his loan spell at Newcastle and we all do blame those coaches using him over n over again and till now am not convinced he can flourish at arsenal and will like Arsenal to cash on him….
      On Smith Rowe he was injury prone and never got enough run of game to convince any one not until last year December …..
      U just don’t blame management for everything there are a lot of circumstances surrounding many issues

      1. Actually you can blame management.
        For example
        1. Ceballos 1st loan was poor, 2nd loan spell was worse. Coach isn’t to blame for taking a 2nd bite of that?
        2. Willian was trash, yet kept playing through January even the Spring, while an improving AND SCORING Pepe was often benched.

        Was that Pepe’s fault or Arteta?

        False nine crap against Emery in Europa semi- finals, who’s dumb idea was that? With rookie 20 year old ESR as false 9 too.

        Please, Arteta has made far more dumb decisions than enlightening ones. 2 8th place finishes and out of Europe is proof.

        Who selects the team? Decides tactics and subs? Demands buildup from the back? Employs soul-crushing negative football?

        1. Well, Durand, when AW and UE were in the hot seat, they were to blame….. shouldn’t the same apply to MA?

          1. Ken
            It should if one is consistent, otherwise their emotional based judgement tries to justify anything.

            Unfortunately there is no “Arsenal DNA” in Arteta’s management.
            1. Gone is the fluid movement
            2. Quick passes and being direct and attacking when in possession
            3. Flair and sizzle that captivated fans around the world.

            Now it’s negative, risk adverse, anti-football that is soul crushing. 11 men behind the ball with a manager who doesn’t trust his players to trade punches with opponents.

            Arteta looking every bit the checkbook manager that we used to despise at other clubs.

            I’m amazed at what some accept under Arteta but criticized his predecessors.

          2. Quite right. Arteta out and Durand in. He obviously knows what he’s talking about and has bags of experience.

          3. I really think u guys are wasting precious talent.
            Did you’ll ever considered being pundits.
            Talk more 💩 & support less.
            We don’t need supporters like you’ll
            COYG ✊ 21/22 season watch this space.

    2. your point about Arteta’s obvious missteps regarding the developmental component of our supposed “rebuild” mandate is a vitally important one, in that once the Willian et al experiment failed miserably in the first half of the season, instead of using the second half to properly evaluate already rostered players, he selfishly chosen once again to pursue pie-in-the-sky short-sighted scenarios by bringing in Ode, loaning out JW and others, then shoehorning ESR out wide…this was the perfect time to properly assess things, but he conversely opted to double-down on his own best interests instead of the club’s, so now we’re entering the Arteta reboot 2.0 knowing functionally no more than when we started

  3. Did not see that messi news coming. We just gotta get Willian off the wage bill to afford him, right ? 😭

  4. William Saliba has now been officially unveiled as a Marseille player, but he has admitted that Arsenal would have preferred him to stay in England.

    “I had the speech of Pablo, that of the coach. I knew that this is where I was going to play this season, with a stadium on fire and supporters who expect a lot, for a 20 year old youngster like me and that can only do me good,” he told La Provence via Sport Witness.

    “It was I who chose Marseille, Arsenal preferred that I go to England but I knew that here it was the right choice. I pushed and pushed for that.”

    This goes to show that we really don’t know what happens behind the scenes. We often criticize Players, Coaches and Management blindly.

    1. I know, like when manager talks about “2nd chances” yet Guendouzi, Saliba, Mavroporas, are all gone without a chance.

      Yet Bellerin, Willian, and Xhaka on their 15th chance.

      All new players won’t matter; until stubborn Arteta gets away from his negative football nothing will change.

      Last 18 months as proof, or blind hope for the best, you choose.

    2. Why must a player, who was signed with the promise of playing football in London at the Emirates stadium in the 20/21 season, listen to the management and goes out on loan to another club in England for the 21/22 season? Especially after the same management left him out of the squad for the first half of the 20/21 season and sent him again on loan in the second half of the same season.

    3. If I was Saliba, I would prefer to play football in the south of France with Marseille and experience Champions League football, than spend the winter away from Arsenal in the cities and shires.

      1. Messi, cannot go nowhere else, other than city, probably means that Kane stays at spurs, Lukaku goes Chelsea and Martinez stays at inter.

        May be haaland ends up at Chelsea?

        But I am not excited about our send up. 7th best England centre back, plus logonka and tavares? Really? Is bottom half our target again?

        1. Haaland > United
          Don’t be too despondent just yet, Atid. Over 3 weeks of the window left and those signings have looked pretty decent so far… I’m trying to look on the bright side 🙂

          (Although if we’re spanked by Brentford, I’ll get back to you haha!)

      2. Newell’s Old Boys must be the only probable destination. No other club except PSG and City can afford him, unless Messi and his entourage substantially lower their sky-high demands.

        At 34 and being one of the best paid footballer in the planet, signing Messi will be a huge success for any team and their respective league in terms of publicity. But, being a “shot caller”, Messi will be a massive disruptive force in any other dressing room except his native Newell’s. Pep and Poch are wise enough to block that from happening at their respective dressing rooms.

      3. Agree Sue, the only two clubs who can afford his wages. Mind you we can offer to pay his wages in installments?

  5. Get LIONEL MESSI NOW! And see the Arsenal win the league.
    Can arsenal pull this off? The answer is yes. First by selling or cancelling William deal, kolasinac, SELL bellerin, laca or auba, soares, nketiah, nelson AMN, Xhaka( I still want him OUT of the club)
    and get Bruno guimaraes, aouar, max Aarons and lautaro Martinez to play alongside Messi.

      1. Oh come on Phil! You don’t seriously expect an “intellect” like his to have thought THAT far ahead, do you!

    1. Barcelona, with other great players, didn’t win the league with Messi. Why do you think he would have that impact at Arsenal?

  6. Odegaard always preferred Madrid over Arsenal so it would have not worked out any way. Go instead for Aouar or Bernardo Silva.

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