Arsenal has recently been linked with moves for Brentford’s duo, David Raya and Said Benrahma (90mins).
Both players are really fine players and they have demonstrated in the Championship, which is one of the toughest second-tier divisions in the world, that they are top players.
Brentford almost gained promotion to the Premier League last season and both players were key to their performances.
Raya is seen as a replacement for Emiliano Martinez should he end up leaving the Emirates, while Benrahma is considered a fine attacking player to add to our team.
I respect the English Championship very much, but I don’t think we should be shopping there.
This is because we are a team that is looking to move higher from where were are now to competing in the Champions League and then for titles.
If these are our aims, we shouldn’t be looking to buy players who play in the division below us.
Our targets should be luring players who are competing for titles in the Premier League or in other top European teams.
Adding players who have won or competing for top honours will only make us a better team, but going a level below is just shopping for mediocrity and expecting something better.
An article from Ime
Championship in three years, said the man. Yep.
If there good enough doesn’t matter where they come from.
Exactly mate and in Said case, it is simply one of top 3 attacking midfield in UK. He is extremely talented, will bench ceballos and Ozil together. Before to bet on Havertz, Chelsea had him on target. This will be the best signing for years in midfield and attack and in general.
Check his videos and you will get it right away… He is so good.
Bellerin is on his way out, be hard to replace him, a wrong move as we struggled in that position. Sometime I don’t get it… Niles almost gave up because played there outa position, we left with ceoares? Gee!
The Championship footballer may be a big fish in a small pond.Of course there are exceptions as in everyday life.
The epl is a league where there is no margin for error for both players and managers.
Managers who have spent big are expected to deliver just like players. Failure aint going to be tolerated.
Is this a bad thing? If we want to be at the top of the pile, then failure shouldn’t be tolerated. It happens, obviously, because no team is perfect, but tolerating it means accepting mediocrity, and that isn’t the arsenal I remember (even if it has been in recent years)
Not accepting failure is something we used to do. And it’s becoming too acceptable nowadays
Countless players who played in the the championship have become bona vide PL class payers – A few from Wolves for starters.
Andy Robertson anyone..? 🙄
Our own Eddie Nketiah is a holder of this years champiuonship medal.Who says he isnt doing well where he is now?
Arsenal has previously scouted players from lower leagues with great success.
As Icebox says, if the player is good enough it doesn’t matter where they come from.
However where is Arsenal getting the money to buy another winger, when the Club doesn’t have the funds to meet Thomas Partey’s €50 million buy out clause; a player it needs to upgrade its deficient midfield. The Club is a joke.
Because we’re not….
I don’t think we’re really in for him. I think he was a target when arteta wanted a winger, but we got willian. The papers just larch themselves onto a story and won’t let go (did you know umtiti is a transfer target 😉, again, apparently). Anything other than a midfielder in the news and it’s probably bull
MJH, I certainly agree.
Arsenal are playing a dumb arse game If the club do not sign title winning quality players as promised Aubamayang will not sign an extension to his contract. He is waiting to see if they can deliver a top quality lineup that can compliment his ability and so far they are going about it all wrong. they have not learned anything from recent history as we’ve been in the same position before first with Henry then Fabregas Van Persie and Sanchez. We will lose our best player because management insist on surrounding them with dross. We are incapable of thinking let alone acting like a big team anymore.
I think it’s more that the media is still doing exactly the same. Aubameyang hasn’t signed yet because we have a verbal agreement and haven’t given him the terms because we are trying to free up funds. I think he wants to, and they know that, so they are reducing the wage bill before giving it to him, IMO
We are still living on our old glory.
Arsenal is not even a top team anymore check our spending power is very poor even Everton are far better. We have to sell a scrap to buy a middle class player.
Remember ramsey left for nothing
By the way keep an eye on Everton signings. They have just signed Decoure from Watford, a midfielder who would currently be a starter in Arsenal’s midfield. This follows on from signing CAM Rodriguez, a player who has won numerous titles and LB Allen. Newcastle United have signed three players.
Meanwhile, procrastination reigns at the Arsenal with 4 days to go to the start of the 2020/21 season. Only Sam Greenwood out for £1 million and CB’s Mari and Gabriel, four Academy players and Willian on a free in! Most importantly Aubameyang’s re signing is syill in the ether!
I wouldn’t worry to much about Everton mate ,yes Doucoure is a great player ,a player I would have loved for us to go for TBH .
But the other 2 ,just going for the pay day ,we all know they pay over the odds for players (Iwobi-35 mil )it’s a club where they love to waste money without the return ,been going on for the last 5-6 years there .
As for Arsenals dealings I believe we have done pretty decent so far …
Plenty of time to get players in ,would have been better to get them before the start of the season but that’s how it goes .
The main thing is we now have a quality manager who I believe could do wonders these next few seasons .
I honestly think we will get top 3-4 this season .
Yes, Dan, there is still time until October for transfers. Also, I have faith in Arteta, provided he is given the “right tools” by the Board.
However, Ancellotti is no mug and he will have known what he is getting with these players and how to get the most out of them.
“still in the ether”.
I on my own and in my thoughts is convinced that Arsenal need to refresh their senior forward players that presently comprises of: Auba, Laca, Pepe and Nketiah by doing just one top quality grade striker’s singing this summer window.
If Arsenal believe in my thoughts and want to do as I’ve suggested to them to do in my wise. Then I will not only be glad the club has adhered to my suggested suggestion, but I will exceeding be contented Arsenal will not suffer when the grunch time comes to set in during the campaign in the PL this season.
For, I will be confident Arsenal will be more than able to cope in self sufficiency in top quality grade senior strikers for option and cover without having to resort to using teenage Gunners strikers when the senior ones should be used during the grunch time in Premier League campaign. And continue with playing the senior strikers to continuously leading the line for Arsenal without breaking off in be the ones leading the line for the club.
Should Arsenal decided to sign one top quality grade striker this summer who can guaranteed the club scoring 20 PL goals and at least providing 15 assists for the club this season.
But who is this striker that can do as I said above for Arsenal be should they sign this summer? Certainly, this is not an easy question to answer. But it shouldn’t be too difficult to answer either.
Apart of the Brentford FC’s striker Said 8enrahman that has been mentioned for this purpose, there is also the Celtic FC’s striker Odsonne Edouard who has been mentioned as well that Arsenal should sign.
But nevertheless, Arsenal should not limit themselves to the signing of one of the above duo strikers alone. But they should still spread their nets if they haven’t done so, to see if they will find a better than these above mentioned strikers to sign.
But by the way, who among Benrahman and Edouard us Gooners think will be best suitable for Arsenal to sign?
Benrahman ply his football trade in the Championship for Brentford FC where he has somehow excel to have scores many goals for his Brentford club side last season. And us all know that the Championship is the English League 2nd tier division. Where football is play there with some robustness aggression and hardness. Therefore, Benrahman who has been playing in the division will have some valuable footballi playing experience there that is similar to the PL difficult League to play in. And for this reason, Benrahman may not need to go through adaptation time to settle down at Arsenal if they sign him this summer. But can he score 20 PL goals and gives at least 15 assists for Arsenal this season if they happen to sign him?
Edouard is a recognized Scottish Premier top goals scorer for Celtic FC. And he should have UCL and Europa League football playing experience if he has been at Celtic playing for some seasons. Because Celtic often qualify for these 2 competitions to playing in them. But how old is he? 27? Hmmm.
L’équipe have announced that Arsenal have been offered PSG GK Alphonse Areola on a season long loan, it could solve our goalkeeping situation no?
Didn’t know we had a situation, other than we currently have 11 keepers for just 3 sides?
Martinez doesn’t want to play 2nd fiddle to Leno,if the rumour is true then we can sell Emi for around 20-25M then take Areola on loan, he would be a very good back up!
It does not matter the league a players plays for. All Big players once played in small clubs.
Benrahma is a skillful player just like Mahrez so I will not mind having him in our club.
For me if Aouar and Partey are too expensive for Krankie, then Benrahma and Soumare or Diawara will be cheaper similar but cheaper options
The league is going to be very tough this coming season. Everton with Ancelloti has signed 3 good midfielders in James, Allan and Docoure.
If Krankie doesn’t give us at least Partey then we will not improve our 8th position finish of last season.
Arsenal need skilful players, it doesn’t matter which league they come from. Check where Martinelli and Gouendouzi are coming from. Arsenal meeds rebuilding, and you can’t do that by signing old players like Willian.
Agree TG, we signed Luiz, Soares, Willian all aging players. Mari I’m not that confidant, a younger version of Per Merts. Willian for a year would be fine, three years and we will be complaining of dead wood again with no transfer fee, trying to get the wages off our books. Signing Saed would be a good deal, but Raya for Emi is a sad thought if not a bad thought. Signing big names is no guarantee, just ask our very own Mesut Ozil and he’ll tell you that one class (fluke )goal for 18 million worth wages is all he offered us last year, (but after all Unai, Freddie and Mikel are to be blamed).To win matches, we need energetic, tough, athletic young men on the field, not the Wenger type small sleekly chaps rolling on a field at push or a touch.
oh wow you still have those bloody blinkers on don’t you?
Why did we sign Willian? well because he was cheap ( free) he’s a winner, he is still a top class premier league player.
Once you get over yourself and realise the squad can’t be rebuilt in 1 transfer window we have no money in and then you will come to the same conclusion I and many other Gooners came to when the window opened.
Frankly TG you know nothing about football, i highly doubt you have even been to an Arsenal game in your life.
If James the England Man Utd winger from Championship who was very much hyped massively flopped, then I don’t know what will happen to Raya who at the moment is a massive flop.
Arsenal should get serious in doing business… I thought when a player plays well, you give him better opportunities not selling him.
This is defying the laws of development!!!!
There are currently a host of non-performers like Chambers, Mustafi, Sokratis, Bellerin, Guendouzi, Torreira, who are getting an easy ride at the club.
Benrahma is certainly a very skilfull player and can guarantee lots of goals and assists for Arsenal. Never mind he is from the Championship, given the fact that Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Rece James all played inthe Championship before shining for Chelsea. We need good technical players no matter from where they come. Also I dont think Emi should be sold so no question of raya joining us.
I remember peole freaking out on signing mahrez in 2015 for 10 mil. How did that pan out?
The championship is a decent level, I would say most of the teams would hold their own in most leagues. Especially countries like Scotland, holland, belgium, etc.
That said Arsenal don’t need an attacker for first team duty,I would rather we convince balogun to sign a new contract.
With ceballos rejoining xhaka, I don’t see arteta rushing out anytime soon to break up his midfield partnership, there are rumours of him giving players a 2nd chance too, so he might just groom torreira and guendozi as the back up partnership
I can see us going with 343 a lot of the time and to be fair we already have more than enough players to carry that off. At home though when we have more possession I can see ozil even getting involved again.
We currently only have to move one player on to fall into the quotas for non-homegrown and I believe sokratis will be that man.
It’s not a question of which League, but the quality of the player.Tierney and Andrew Robertson are classic examples, plucked from lower Leagues but with tremendous talent.
Benrahma is world class, and Raya is potentially the signing of the season if we can get him.
Tbh all this talk of we have to sign top top is true but un-realistic we need to be clever in the market. But let’s have a look at Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd have they strengthened not really if they have its been in places that are not a priority.
Van De Beek at utd they are awful in defense so why prioritise a box to box midfielder. City bought Mings tbh Stones is a better player just need his confidence back. Liverpool signed a left back from Olympiakos when they should have signed Timo Warner.
There will be one more signing unless we sell all the dead wood in the squad and thats Thomas Partey. Auorar is a no go, why do we need him when we need combative holding midfielders first and foremost.
Creativity wise we have Smith-Rowe who will have his Saka season, Nelson, Martinelli and imo Saka will be moved inside to be a CAM. If we wanted a winger or a CAM we would have got Fraser for free and been in for James for 25mil don’t you think.
Let’s all be realistic an see what happens in the next 4 weeks.
Why is everyone saying Martinez is better than Leno?
Before we make that conclusion, let’s watch him for about 3 to 4 months into the season and only ten we could make a case but for now we should not write off Leno. I’m neither a fan of both rather I’m a fan of the whole team.
I remember last season, how Leno was constantly man of the match on every occasion. Aside Aubameyang I didn’t see any player worthy of a player of the season aside Leno. What we are forgetting is Martinez has not faced the crowds yet. Secondly he has benefitted from a better defensive organization since Arteta took over.
If I remember correctly Emery used Martinez at some point how did he fair? I remember some people calling for him to be sold and never to be used again.
The situation between the 2 gks are the typical example of the human behavior, how quickly they forget what you’ve done for them once you things goes south. Most people is writing off Leno and forgetting he was delivering world class saves on a daily for us. What match was it that he faced 28 shots? For me both are quality keepers
You’re not telling me we can’t find better than the likes of Bellerin, Ozil, Mustafi, etc, in the Championship!
In NO particular order a fairly big squad, within the non-homegrown/ homegrown quota
Martinez
Bellerin Holding luiz Tierney
AMN xhaka cellabos
Pepe lacazette aubameyang
Leno
Soares Saliba Gabriel Kolasinac
Willock Torreira Guendozil
Willian Nketiah Saka
Plus
Macey
Chambers Mustafa Mari Bola
Smith-Rowe Elneny Ozil
Nelson Balogun Martinelli
In my opinion, I think this article is promoting discrimination in football.
You cannot write off a player’s ability based on which league or division they play in or how many trophies they’ve won.
Buying players should be based on merit regardless of whether they are in top or lower divisions.
I have read all messages here and I really enjoyed it but my own contribution is that before any new signing again it must be Partey , Aoura and the rest( if there will be any again). The only genuine rumour I can support are Partey and Aoura, every other rumours is irrelevant to me.
I think said Benrahma will Be good for arsenal. His better technically then some player that coast arsenal a lots of money..
You mean like Riyhad mahrez, Kante, Vardy, right???? All these players have come from the place u mentioned and have won the trophy that has eluded us for 15 years. why did u write this??