Arsenal reportedly battling Manchester City for Leicester City defender Ben Chilwell.
As we get closer to the winter transfer window speculation will increase and you can be certain that Arsenal will be right in the middle of it.
The latest rumour, courtesy of the Daily Star, have Arsenal challenging Manchester City for the signature of England defender Ben Chilwell.
Chilwell has been one of the most impressive members of Brendan Rodgers’ highflying squad this season and he has attracted the attention of several top sides.
A lot of noise has been made about the Foxes’ attack that is led by James Madison and Jamie Vardy, but their defence has played major roles as well.
The Leicester backline has conceded just eight goals in the league this season and Chilwell has been a major contributor both on the defensive and attacking side.
Arsenal has struggled in defence so far and keep giving away cheap goals. Their defenders also haven’t contributed much at the other end.
The arrival of Chilwell would bring more effectiveness down the Arsenal left and would probably spell the end for Sead Kolasinac.
It would also provide stiff competition for new signing Kieran Tierney, though the thinking maybe to play one of them more as a defender with the other one in front.
All that said, this does sound a bit unrealistic for two simple reasons, one, Arsenal does have Tierney and secondly, Brendan Rodgers is very likely to block any sale.
And even if Chilwell was to be allowed to leave then you just know he will not come cheap. We would be talking in the high tens of millions.
Another rumour that will never happen, as we all surely know. But it provides a filler article,so why not, I suppose!
Like Pepe, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Alexis
Sometimes they do happen
Agree Jon, plus the fact we’ve just signed a young £25 Million left back, and Martin following your facetious comment about the History of the Game, considering I’ve been watching Arsenal since the late fifties, we’ll call it half the History of the Game
If that is aimed t me Kenny I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. If not, then it is understandable I am confused by your remark.
Go back several articles Martin where I rubbished a comment about decisions even themselves out at the end of the season. It’s not like you to make facetious comments so if it wasn’t then I apologise but check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
No, I do recall and decided to ignore it as I thought it was beneath you and not your normal standard of response. Seems I was wrong. I stand by that statement wholeheartedly. I do not believe in all these conspiracy theories about refs, var and so on. Only losers use those as excuses and when I say losers I refer to fans of any team that look for excuses when their team loses. I obviously do not mean you are a loser, have to say that as I know how words can be misrepresented.
Martin, so you don’t believe in conspiracy theories but you do believe in the most over used and stupid statement in Football that”decisions even out over the season”. You don’t see anything wrong with the fact of sixty plus officials, including assistant referees, there is only one, yes one southern official on the Premier League list and he’s from Kent with 95% from the North. That’s acceptable to you. I suppose it’s also acceptable to you that we had no officials at the last World Cup because of their incompetence but Riley keeps his job in charge of the PGMOL. You also don’t believe in bias even though it’s prominent in the work place, the Police force, The armed forces, Politics in fact every walk of life but not football. I don’t know how long you’ve been watching the game Martin and whether you remember Mike Riley’s run in’s with Arsene Wenger but take it from me they were quite hostile especially when he made a terrible decision, according to the majority of pundits, and gave Wayne Rooney a late penalty which ended Arsenal’s forty nine match unbeaten run. You say only losers see conspiracy theories, I say only naive people don’t.
Kenny, I always think that when one gets over passionate that they make false statements and of course, you did. Also to label a statement stupid and therefore the person making that statement stupid is rude and unnecessary. I will try very hard, despite the provocation not to lower myself to that level. OK, where to start. Let’s start with that massive falsehood about refs at the world cup. England DID have a ref on the list, Mark Clattenburg, however, he left his position to take up a role in Saudi Arabia and haad to drop out and it was too late for the English FA to send aa replacement as per FIFA rules. It really does not help your point of view when you get basic facts so wrong. Arsenal hate Riley, Spurs hated Chris Foy, every club has their hated official, Arsenal is no different and to suggest that we are is to make us look ridiculous. Then you use bias in Police, Armed forces etc, if there is bias it is against an entire grouping, not one single individual or in the case of football, Arsenal. I mean, get serious now, stop reading all the bull fed to you on this subject from one particular website. You go all the way back to Rooney, I mean my god, every single club in football has moments like that but according to you, it is just Arsenal. Do you have any idea how that makes you sound? But clearly, I know nothing, I am stupid and finally, I have not done my research but I can think of at least four officials that are based in the midlands and not the North, so even on that, you are wrong.
Martin and Kenny, some questions on your refereeing debate.
If our refs association didn’t have time to nominate someone else, according to fifa rules, shouldn’t riley have at least ensured we had a “reserve” in place and agreed with fifa?
To have only one appointed referee at a world cup anyway, is most certainly not a badge of honour from Riley’s perspective and his refusal to let his refs use screens on the touchline, reeks of protecting his 96% right decisions he boasts about wouldn’t you say?
Martin, Would you not agree with kenny’s point regarding the bias of southern referees? Are we really saying that there are not any refs south of the Midlands who could referee a premier league game?
Personally, I have always believed there is a bias against our club, especially since Riley took over.
By the way, he has actually admitted to making a mistake with the rooney penalty award, whereas rooney has not – now we have Dean to contend with!!!
I think refs should explain their contenscious decisions and we should also use rugby’s example and have them with mikes, so we could all here.
The FA did fight to replace Clattenburg, FIFA said no and that is the only reason there was no English ref, absolutely nothing to do with competence. If there was a southern bias why have Chelsea won the league, why have Arsenal won the FA cup and so on? It literally makes no sense and is one of the reasons other clubs fans laugh at us for this ridiculous bias theory. As for the Rooney issue, it is such aaa bad look to be going on about that, Chelsea still go on about that Liverpool goal, there are thousands of incidents and I do mean thousands across every club at every level that complain about specific incidents years later, It is not just us. VAR has literally started over here, it swings in roundabouts, Spurs notoriously got VAAR onside and VAR was correct for the record, since then they have been on the wrong end and now they bitch about it, see a pattern here. I read an article the other day, it was in German and I had to use a translator and they are absolutely hammering over there and they use pitchside monitors, there was even once an incident in the Bundesliga that after the players left at half time they haad to return for a penalty, no BS, google it. I also remember the so-called best ref in the world at the time Colina send off Paul Ince in Italy when Ince was got kicked and replays showed it was a definite penalty but off he went for diving, so even the best refs get it wrong badly. We do ourselves no credit with all this, it is if we live in aa cocoon and think we are the only victims here. So weird how we went invincible, how we won doubles, how we won the most FA Cup with such aa conspiracy against us or is it just when we have declined? convenient that.
Thanks for the reply martin, much appreciated on the fifa issue.
We still don’t seem to have an answer as to why, from the midlands down, there are no premier league refs and why we only had one referee appointed for the world cup though do we.
I think you’ll find Kenny and I have been complaining about referees long before the club were winning cups, doubles, Invincibles etc, probably back in the 50’s to be honest.
Still, everyone’s entitled to their opinions and, having been a qualified referee for six years, I know how easy it is to be biased when players have spat, sworn, kicked and abused you and what a great feeling it is to give a fifty fifty decision to the team whose parents haven’t been abusing you all game.
Nations are only allowed one ref per world cup, you cannot have two per fifa rules. With regards to refs being from a particular location would you not agree if that what you are saying is true, that there is a bias based on location of the ref then how come Chelsea won the title, they are a southern team. It just does not resonate that Arsenal can win so much if refs are biased against them. Finally, I accept there are human frailties in all refs but the lite ones are better at handling that than all those in lower-level football. Neville and Carragher did aa documentary with refs, it is available on Youtube, watch it, it is insightful, these guys are trained to the highest standards and are analysed like hell. I find it inconceivable there is any bias as you claim. Let me put it this way, you must have sat with other clubs fans and heard them slam refs and accuse them of bias, I have, it is not just us, it is every one that complains and that alone tells me refs cannot be biased if everyone accuses them of being biased. Also, clubs do have the right to object to certain refs, I have never heard of Arsenal doing that. Ferguson did once, cannot recall incident specifically just that he objected and the ref was removed. Will have to research that a little to be certain.
He’s not going to come to us to play second fiddle to Tierney and why would he step down to us from Leicester? Sorry, truth hurts!
I actually agree Declan as I stated in the article and nicely said the second time around.
Martin, i did not label you as stupid, I labelled the statement stupid and please tell me, after accusing me of making force statements, what statement I made was force. Thank you Ken for your support, also in September 2016 Mark Halsey, a former referee, claimed he was asked by the PGMOL to lie in his match reports. The PGMOL denied this
English refs at world cup 2018 had nothing to do with competence as I explained. That was a false statement, Kenny. Google it by all means. As for Mark Halsey that is he says he says. Up to each individual to believe what they want but I find it strange that a ref can be believed when he attacks PGMOL but not when he gives a decision against Arsenal.
If it happens I’d be happy about it. He’s an excellent player
But I think CB and RB should be a priority
I’m not happy with Bellerin, Niles or Chambers at RB. We need a Quality defender at RB
CB Not happy with Mustafi, Sokratis, Luiz. Don’t think Chambers is the answer either
Holding is fine
Mavrapanos is an unknown quality
Saliba may or may not be good CB in the Premier League
Ideally would like a PL experienced RB and CB like Chilwell is at LB
The only transfer that interests me is emery’s to anywhere else … until then our decade long decay will continue unfortunately
The Soyuncu lad probably sounds more realistic, we could’ve had himself or Evans, fans didn’t want Evans but right now he looks a smarter operator than Luiz. I’m not sure what I said about Evans, and I never seen Caglar until he joined Leic. It could be that they suit one another, why they’re the meanest in league, it also helps when you have a team who work their socks off back to front, right up to Vardy they all take responsibility. I don’t think Leic play particularly great football though, they play one touch whenever they can but it’s not as slick as some folk are making it out to be, maybe it’ll get better but it’s not seamless in the way the best passing teams look with that type of game. They’ve a good scouting network over there, the scouts should be getting as much credit as anyone. Chilwell is another one we had a chance to sign, also Vardy interested us, Mahrez of course when he was there but got a bigger move. The scout or head scout – whoever was finding them since Kante up until now, maybe that’s who we should be looking to bring on board.
If Chilwell moves it will be to Man City, not to Arsenal who already have an equally good left back, and I’m not referring to Kolasinac.
Admin martins thanks for making conspiracy theorist see the light even though i know they will rather remain blind to it. But thanks for trying anyway