What went wrong with Aouar? by Shenel
After being linked so strongly in the last two transfer windows to Lyon’s Houssem Aouar, I find it strange, frustrating and rather odd that we still haven’t ended up with him!
Now we know that it isn’t a budget issue because Lyon were happy to accept anything for him pretty much and when I saying anything I mean that due to the pandemic they were looking to add funds and so they lowered their fee down to between 20 and 30 million which if you look at it after spending £50m on one player Arsenal could have put their hands in their pocket and got him. They would even have accepted a loan deal as deadline day approached.
For a player that was looking to leave Lyon, and for a player that was linked to us so so strongly I myself would have bet that out of all players we were linked to, and we know we were linked to a lot, he would have been one I would have said would have gone through and been successful to join us.
Yet again it shows the poor recruitment process and the lack of thinking behind each transfer.
Now I am not saying Aouar as one player would come in and dramatically change things, but he is the type of player we were looking for and I do not think any of the players we have got will be any where near to his level. Of course I hope they prove me wrong and if they do I would always be the first to admit I was wrong.
But knowing us, we will probably go back for him in a few years time when he is 28 years old and nearing the end of his career and demanding high wages!
I know Arsene Wenger didn’t always come through with certain transfers, but if we were so strongly linked with a player for a number of windows more often than not we would end up with that player.
It becomes so frustrating to see the amount of players and the talent of the players we were linked with, to end up with none, because if we have another poor season which right now you can’t see anything but that happening, then again you will begin to wander and say, what if we had those players we were so strongly linked with things would be different!
Although this could happen, I for one hope it doesn’t come back to bite us and that this team will do enough to get us through this season, at least before the board stand up and take serious note! Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
How come? Canibus ft Youssou Ndour and Wyclef John.
If you ask me, na who i go ask?
It shows Arteta is a negative coach. That midfiled needed a complete overhaul.
We needed to get rid of Xhaka and Elneny and replaced them with Aouar and Bissouma.
But Arteta Knows best.
AFTER 3 GAMES PLAYED, A TRIANGLE HAS MORE POINTS THAN ARSENAL
The mens 3rd cubicle toilet on the main stand N at the Emirates is blocked, I blame Arteta it’s all his fault and only his fault. Sack him now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So where did Aouar end up?
Oh that’s right, Lyon. Why? Because not only Arsenal but no one wanted to take him, so there is obviously a problem.
Let’s not forget we managed to offload 32 players off of our wage bill this window. Yet Lyon could not offload their best player.
Who knows, may be just may be we might see Odegarrd converted into a deep lying playmaker rather like we did with Cazorla and even taking over the captaincy when Auba moves on.
Look the fact is that in Partey, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles, Odegaard, Azeez, Cottrell and Patino we have some very useful Midfielders, whilst Saka and Smith-Rowe are also good in midfield.
I am looking forward to the next couple of windows when the bang average players like xhaka, Elneny, Kolasinac, Cedric, chambers, mari holding, Nketiah, Leno, lacazette and most of those on loan are sold and replaced.
So has a pencil lol
Hello Mr fox. I’m sorry you didn’t find my comment that a pencil has more points than Arsenal funny. It was a response to Skills1000 comment that a triangle has more points than Arsenal.
As I have read in a lot of your posts you deal only in facts. ‘FAKE HILARIOUS AND CHILDISH TOO’ are not facts but just your opinion.
FANCY THINKING I’M FUNNY BY INCLUDING “LOL” That’s not fact as you haven’t got a clue as to what I’m thinking.
You say ‘I’M ABOUT AS FUNNY AS FLU, MY JUVENILE FRIEND’. No facts there either as I’m neither juvenile nor your friend.
The only fact I do know is that a pencil has more points than Arsenal.
I guess some people have a sense of humour and others don’t. But that’s just my opinion.
We have esr and oodegard, so why would we get him as well?
@OX, We had ESR and Odegaard last season as well. and we finished 8th in the league. These 2 featured from January of last season till the season end.
Money City have Bernardo Silva, David Silva, KDB at some point. 3 play makers.
Auoar is a very creative player. very intelligent and can move with the ball.
We needed a midfield that is without Xhaka and Elneny.
Creative players who can dribble when put under pressure. who can break the opposition press.
That is why we needed Aouar. It is a no brainer
What makes you think Auoar is that player we needed?
If he is that good tge then how come he is still stuck at lyon even with such a supposed reduced fee for him?
Not many are rushing to sign him.
Isn’t it?
Yes and look at the performance we got in return, once we had both ESR and Odegaard in the set up. From the first 14 matches we got only 14 points. From the next 24 only Man City got more points than us. Let’s not forget in those first matches Martinelli was also out.
Going out of the Europa League and FA Cup were shattering blows that tainted our good work in the 2nd half of the season. The defence tightened up but our captain and main striker struggled with illness and family problems.
The result was the club offloaded 32 players over the summer and have spent big on young players. Unfortunately again for one reason or another our start has been affected by illness, injuries and the fact we played the 2 champions League finalists and a team returning to the top flight for the first time on 73 years at their new ground. It was always going to be a tough start and so it has proved.
For me the season starts tomorrow, from here there should be no excuses, our next 7 games are all winnable. That should see us progress to the 4th round of the carabao cup, work out way into the top half may be higher and beat that scum up the road. By October 22nd we will all either be smiling or getting ready to welcome our 5th manager in 4 years.
I bet 5th manager..
Let’s hope he is a good one!
If a coach, a serial winner like Antonio Conte were available to Arsenal, I would appoint him right away. Conte would position us to get into a Champions league slot within 2 yrs and position us to compete for EPL title within 3 yrs. Such goals look a bit too far for Arteta. Problem is I’m not sure if our many youngsters would fit and develop under Conte’s ambitious aggressive and impatient plans.
Atid, notwithstanding Arsenal has ESR and Odegaard from now on (barring injury), the Club is light on for midfielders. This is obvious given the suspension of Xhaka and the hamstring injury to Elneny has left Arteta has Partey, ESR, Odegaard, Lokonga and AMN for four midfield positions, unless U23 players are called up.
Does this site ever post positive articles about the club it supposedly supports.
All the time. How come you never commented on those?
Something doesn’t look right with Aouar.
On the face of it, a drop from £50M to £20M should have had clubs queuing up for a player of this calibre but I didn’t notice any great stampede.
I don’t think it’s Covid related – more that there is something about the player himself that clubs do not like.
@Ingleby.
That’s exactly in line with what I have read on more than one occasion.
First attempt was clearly budget related from above – it came down to Aouar OR Partey, but not both.
After much haggling we considered Aouar to be too pricey, and turned all our efforts to landing Partey.
As for the window just gone.
I am beginning to see a number of articles saying this player can be very difficult, in terms of his attitude and resultant effort in certain games.
No smoke without fire – given (as you say) the drastic price drop ?
Given we’ve had (and maybe are still addressing) “problems” of this nature in the camp, the last thing M A needed was to ship another one in.
I personally believe the Aouar ship has now sailed.
Whilst on, I expect big things from Tomi – got a “feeling” this guy could became a fans favourite.
Look forward to seeing him integrated into the side.
It just shows we are always interested in overpriced players that no-one else wants.
Ever noticed when there is genuine competition for a players signature we almost always lose. Buendia is a perfect example.
Are you serious? Tottenham was after him at the last minute.
I know Lyon are difficult to deal with, maybe that for us was a problem. Not getting Aouar isnt the problem, failure to freshen our midfield and attack IS. The recruitment has been so haphazard and thoughtless, our weaknesses from last season were not addressed anywhere. We spent 160 mil and it wont make that much difference.
There speaks the ultimate pessimist.What is thoughtless about signing two talented players like Lokonga and Tavares for positions where we need cover/strengthening?
Because we still have xhaka, only one real quality experienced midfielder and the same attack. The defence is no better and i would use realist not pessimist.
And who brought Xhaka to the Club along with a number of others who we were unable to sell Mr Realist?
I dont see what that has to do with it Grandad and why bring wenger into it, ive had my say on him. The FACT is we could have sold xhaka but we valued him too high. The team that plays Norwich will basically be the same team as last season, with one or two little changes, minus our best defender from last season and Artetas first pick xhaka, who is unavailable because he is xhaka!!!
With all due respect, we dont know how good Lakonga and tavares are going to be, id say good but they are at the moment cover. The first team and thats what matters is very similar to last season. No real xhaka replacement and no new striker, they for me were the most important areas. I dont see how on earth Grandad that is pessimistic in the position we find ourselves in today. GET REAL.
In all fairness, the 6 players we bought are needed.
Lokonga: Quality signing. good at picking forward passes. Tidy and has a lot of room for improvement
Tavares: Very strong. Can play as a wing back. can also play as a right back. he has stamina as well. if he works on hs pace, would be a good signing for years.
Takehiro: Tall and Agile. We need a full back who can head the ball in case of corners. We also need someone that can play a 3 at the back.
With Takehiro, Arteta has to options for playing a back 3.
Option 1: Tierney Gabriel White
Option 2: Gabriel White Takehiro
Odegaard: A top signing. He is always available to collect the ball. He makes our attack tick. will improve further. He is also a leader on the pitch
White: He has a football brain. we need central defenders who are composed. Who can dribble when pressed. especially if we intend to improve on our pasing out from the back. With time, White will come out to be a top signing.
Ralmsdale: A good goal keeper. I see him replacing Leno in a few years time. He is more vocal than Leno. A good signing.
The issue is we also needed to have pushed for the signing of Aouar. Maybe the club will sign Aouar and Bissouma in January
So, you see, the 6 signings we made are needed in the squad
Boring, boring boring football!
So now we are going to play with three centre halves. I hear this Japanese kid can’t attack for peanuts. Odegaards build up is too slow. If Party doesn’t come good, the front players are really going to be scavenging for any scraps that come their way.
He is a good player but he (Arteta)feared Aours bad behaviour thus why he ended up buying captain materials in whole the field.Lokonga,Odergaad,Tomiyasu not a bad behavioural player,Nuno no bad behaviour,Ben white also not a bad behavioural player.He wants players who wants to do everything in the field than those who blames others when mistakes happen. He wants a team to be united ,work together and fight together.
May be we were not in for him because he cost too much. May be he is injury prone and or not our sort of player. May be we bought Lokonga at half the price. Odegaard had already played for the club and was always our first target. ESR is coming through. The failed sales of Niles and Elneny and Willian being paid 15mill to leave all meant less money for purchases. Maybe Guendouzie is still being considered for next season. So simply others were preferred and we could not afford any more. Interestingly no one else bought Aouar not even the megarati so may be he is just over rated.
Ask yourself why no club tried to sign even for 20million.
Aouar is arrogantly said we shouldn’t embarrassed his people who came to London because we wanted to sign him. He doesn’t have good behavior record at Lyons. That’s why we didn’t sign him.
2 reasons the lads got an attitude- you can’t let a talent like Guendouzi go only to indulge a similar disruptive influence and also he has not lived up to the hype therefore he is not worth the risk.
” I find it strange, frustrating and rather odd that we still haven’t ended up with him!….Yet again it shows the poor recruitment process and the lack of thinking behind each transfer”
Seriously???..
You don’t find it strange no team has gone in for him, yet you find it strange and odd he hasn’t ended up at Arsenal?
I guess all the top teams in the world have poor recruitment processes not just Arsenal.
You can sign any player the Media tells you is good when you own a team of your own and will bear the burden if it doesn’t work as expected.
Leno and Justin’s comments are spot on. The great unanswered question is why no one was much interested in signing Aouar this window, not why Arsenal passed on him.
Had we bought him, my bet is the same folks tearing their hair out now would have been bemoaning the fact that we only sign players that no one wants (see Odegaard)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Lyon were even prepared to loan him out to get rid of him but there were still no takers, so Shenel, rather than call it bad recruitment it is likely the complete opposite.
Cant agree here. I ak glad Arsenal saw enough red flags from Aouar to reconsider him. Even though his value dropped more than half, no other clubs wanted him. Disruptive agent brother. By all means you can criticize certain aspects of our window but it has been adequate. Spending 50 mill on English Mustafi who cant jump is sad, but apart from that I think they covwred all bases except a CF and a CM, which could have happened if he used the 50 mill and if Eddie N wasnt being difficult to move to Palace or we could have sold Laca. Squad good enough for 7th – 10th range IMO. Might gi higher but bad start hampered us. All depends on the synergy of Ma and Players now, and some guts from Ambitionless Edu.
Too many typos…
Not so Sid! You should see my posts before I correct my many typos, prior to sending.
Arsenal didn’t get Aouar because their mgmt. Is incompetent. They were willing to pay £30m last season & turned down a loan even though we are short of mfs & can’t even sell Elneny because we need another body there ..
They keep the dross & turn down brilliant players, ArtEdu should’ve sacked😹
Club preferred Marrin O.
We already have ESR, he was not priority.
Is this not the guy that said we are a stepping stone?
Would not touch him with a 5ft pole.
Forget Aour! What happened to Messi?
Was a time when he might have actually considered us because of our style of football and history (ok let’s not talk europe).
No transfer fee just pay his wages for which your will soon recoup in shirt and other merchandise sales. I mean we paid ozil £300k a year to warm the bench so Messi would have been well worth the initial investment.
I always say arteta is the most useless and senseless coach the team have ever gone in for …Bissuoma and Aouar would have been a better signing and they could have helped the club improve based on their performances, arteta did not come to help the team , he rather came to sink the team…look at the money splashed on Ben White it’s a total waste , we have saliba but arteta refuses to use him…honestly arteta deserves the exit door as soon as possible or else he will collapse the team totally
The usual negative gloom from Shenel, as ever . Only articles by that “Jeremiah”, Konstantin approach Shenels for woe, gloom and “whats the point of living any longer” negativity! It has completely failed to enter Shenels brain that MA wanted Odegaard instead.
A year ago he thought differently it seems. It also seems that with SOME fans no manager is ever allowed to change his mind about a player.
CERTAIN FANS DO SO THEMSELVES, ALL THE TIME, but when a manager does so, he is pilloried mercilessly! Sigh!
Ive stopped thinking about the transfer window. Im focused on Norwich. Hopefully MA will too 😂
According to the Arteta haters this guy is the greatest playmaker since Iniesta..Wonder why there wasnt a long line outside of Lyon for his signature..
😂🤣😂😂😂
No one as ever said that on this forum ,so keep the dramatics down a touch buddy .
Let’s not forget that Arteta wanted to spend 45 mill on him last season ,but we got partey instead .
Haha, some featuring toi got.
I guess Odengaar was chosen after his outstanding half season, scoring 7 in last seven games for Newcastle.
Oups, my bad, he was at Arsenal, Willock sent on Loan to make way; scoring 8!
Therefore we got Martin with a goal, and Newcastle fans get a chance to sing “Hey Joe” instead of us.
But, hey, who knows mates; we may have missed on Ouar so Spurs can close down on him for next window, as they do!
175M to replace
How many goals has Willock scored since Newcastle paid 20m for him?
To replace Willock sold, Luiz, Ceballos, and to replace Odengard by himself for outstanding mid season with best spot in decades; 8th!
Arteta and Edu need time, they have a plan for 3rd season.
Indeed, pre-season kick off set tone; start is same; worst & wort.
Arsenal’s brand IS to stay forever, invicible, Legend.
Arsenal will stand out for staying UP there 2 decades string, with exciting players & mémorable moments;
To treat our Prof this way IS precisly killing Arsenal’s brand with such a Sir’ .
Look where IS that. Saïd no to Real, Bayern who wfnt to win CL and any clubs!
Kroenke & board are on a narrative of rebuilding instead to extend legacy Wenger provided to Arsenal.
It Is sad for us fans to take it on our biggest Legend in such a way, a father who loves us fans so much; spoiled us to an extend to Ask him out!
And hé stepped out with si much class & love with a last win & Arsenal WE and world’s remember, unfortunatly to witness such a shoking event from fans : Wenger out!
Sir Alex so sadden to sée such a awful treatment, as MU and football true fans to sée “Sir Alex out”!
That’s what laim fans and Kroenke pays for!
Keep it up, destroy Arsenal biggest Legend; out Prof! That’s Comes right back 2 years now; breaking shamefull records
Come again?
I can understand Arsenal passing on Houssem Aouar, what I can’t understand is not going for Yves Bissouma, who wanted to come to the Emirates, or Bruno Guimaraes Aouar’s team mate from Lyon.
As far as ACM’s are concerned Matheus Pereira from WBA had the best proven EPL form, yet was allowed to go to Saudi Arabia. Marcel Sabitzer was another, who may have been achievable, even without Europe (he now is going to Bayern Munchen next season).
In my view, Arsenal is still two quality midfielders short, while still retaining Xhaka and Elneny and having sold Willock.
Arsenal don’t want Wengerball. They are not interested in the Santi Cazorla’s of the world anymore. Either Nabil Fekir or Houssem Auour would have been the last piece of our creative Jigsaw. But Edu)Arteta bottled it. Watch for more excuses when we drop points. Both Edu and Arteta will be gone by Christmas as they rejoice in having a team that is geared to be at it’s peak in 6 years time. You couldn’t make it up…..football insanity. Unforgivable.
These are the sort of normal questions knowledgeable football people might ask when they scratch their heads at some of the decision making at Arsenal, but then this club is not being run in a normal way. At Arsenal the new normal is spending almost half the budget on Ben White and extending Xhaka’s contract so that he will probably be here longer than the manager and Edu.