Gabby Agbonlahor says Ruben Neves isn’t so different from Granit Xhaka and he isn’t the best player to replace the Swiss midfielder.
Xhaka is on the verge of leaving Arsenal for AS Roma as the Italians relentlessly pursue his signature.
Arsenal might eventually sanction his sale as he looks forward to working with Jose Mourinho in Rome.
He would be a big miss and the Gunners have already started making plans to replace him at the club.
One name that has been in the news as his replacement is Wolves midfield lynchpin, Neves.
The Portugal star is one of the most recognisable names in the Premier League, but Agbonlahor is unconvinced that he is what Arsenal needs.
He says the Wolves man is almost the same player as Xhaka and Arsenal fans want someone who will do more for their attack than either player can.
Agbonlahor told Football Insider: “That’s just going sideways.
“Xhaka and Neves for me are similar players. Both can score screamers, both can score free-kicks but can’t really get around the pitch. They can’t really get the ball back.
“For me, Neves is not the type of player Arsenal need and I think Arsenal fans would agree. Any Arsenal fan I speak to or see is devastated that Buendia chose Villa.
“They’d rather the money spent on an attacking threat. They need to maybe bring in somebody stronger to play alongside Partey in midfield.
“Neves is not the sort of player they need.”
Lieing to ur teeth @agbonlahor, trying to hype aston with buendia that he choose villa, his agents use the name of arsenal to get him signed n Villa feel for it, wat a prank lol, at our worse season Villa still finish behind us, who wants to live his life backward, no disrespect obviously championship players ain’t our standard
Jeez!!
So Arsenal Finishing 1 or 2 points above Aston Villa@d end of a Season, is something to be Happy n Gloat about??😒😒
Comparing ourselves with Spurs, now Aston Villa!!☹️
May God help dis Club!!..
Finally, someone with sense.
How is Ruben an upgrade on Granit? Is it age? Is he faster? Does he take even less risk than Granit?
Am sick to my stomach when it comes to Arsenal transfer. No ambition, average buys are guaranteed.
Even the uproar about Buendia is silly if uu as me. Is a championship player the answer to our problems at Arsenal? I think not!!!
Nice from you!!
Neves should NOT be signed by Arsenal pls!!
He is also Slow like Xhaka n will put alot of burden on T.Partey d day we meet a team of fast players!!
Bissouma is a Must-Get for Arsenal!!
As for Buendia, don’t underrate him like that!!
That boy has real qualities of an attacking midfielder like Fabregas, Bruno Fernandez, Erikssen, etc..
Aston Villa paying alot for him are no Fools, Bro!!
granit is more better than neves
also xhaka is the best competitive player than partey
also granit miss Villarreal , this caused us to loss that game
xhaka is Best
Spot on from Gabby Agbonlahor!! From Petit, Sol Campbell to Darren Bent, Diz Ex Footballers seems to know Arsenal better dan some of our Fans!!
Neves is NOT a player we should ever sign!!
While he can pass d ball well, He is slow n doesn’t cover alot of areas in d midfield.
He is slow like Jorgihno of Chelsea but the Italian makes up for dis lapse by his high concentration n Focus to thwart dangerous moves by opponents!!
We need to Sign Bissouma@ all cost!! He’s the one we need!! Energetic, good n Quick passer of the Ball n Links well with Attackers!!
Kudos to Gabby for dis great observation!!
rather than wasting 20M more on Neves, just retain Xhaka ,spend less than 20M on Sambi Lokonga and release/transfer Elneny. Neves is a waste of money, cannot guarantee playing time at Wolves, so that speaks of his worth! Replace driftwood with deadwood and cry about our finances and league position. How much will we get from his future transfer?Big fat ZERO.
No way, Please!!
Xhaka should go!!
We need Fast players in midfield who moves d ball quickly!!
Look@Youri Teilemanns of Belgium/Leicester City!! He is a classic example of how a fast, right-footed central midfielder can Upgrade a Team!!
Pls, Arsenal, sign Bissouma!!🙏🙏
Yes V., I want Xhaka gone, but to replace him with someone worse, gives me the thought of retaining him.If it is an upgrade, the fine, if we hire a downgrade, then keep hold of Xhaka
Nevis going to Arsenal would only be for the money.They think they are bigger than what they will ever be and think they deserve to sign Top players ,if they can,t challenge the Big teams no top named player would ever think of playing for them. As for Gobby how does he think Villa did this year spending all that money and only finishing just above a Wolves team who were missing half their team for most of the season.
Yes, I agree with Mr. Gabby Agbonlahor. We need a player better than Xhaka who is among CIES’s Premier League Best XI of the season. Neves may not be the one.
It’s all academic, as while we would be faffing around, first deciding whether to bid at all, then going in with a lowball offer, someone else nips in, pays £40m, and laughs in our face. Fact: Xhaka is almost gone, so who does Agbonlahor think we should sign in his place? Obviously someone who would be an improvement, ie. better than Neves.
The reason we need to question the signing of Neves isn’t because Gabby or anybody else considers him a sideways maneuver, as he’s definitely an upgrade at both ends of the pitch, it’s the fact that if Arteta plans on maintaining the same underwhelming game script, with the deeper-lying pivot(s), and he envisions Neves as a like-for-like Xhaka replacement, the move makes little to no sense tactically or monetarily…what we need is a tactical rethink not a more expensive version of the same offensively neutered dross we rolled out on a weekly basis last season
I agree.
A lot of fans don’t realize that the reason for the so called “third best defense” jibe is because of the negative double pivot. Also, the major reason why we had very few goals from our CMF was because of this.
IMO, if Arsenal wants to move forward, they will need to ditch the double pivot. They may mean conceding more goals in other to create more chances. It’s amazing how spaces can open up in a football match by having runners from midfield.