Aouar is Worth the Wait by AI
Deal over. Negotiations were canceled and Houssem Aouar is staying at Lyon. That announcement came as a bitter blow to many an Arsenal fan. Aouar was what you’d call a premium talent, a player gliding and floating on another plane. He was only 22, with plenty of time for him to get even better. Pep Guardiola has praised him. Thomas Tuchel has praised him. Zinedine Zidane has praised him. No one in Europe’s premier competition has had more assists than him in the past two seasons. With his tendency to press, to turn up in big games, to play in different positions, Aouar would have been perfect for Arteta’s Arsenal.
These same qualities, rarely found in any other, make Aouar worth waiting for. Many have opined that Arsenal need to turn their attention somewhere else and fill the creative midfield hole. If you can’t afford him, the crowd wisdom goes, then go for a cheaper option.
Arsenal could indeed go for a cheaper option. There’s someone like Dominik Szbozlai at RB Salzburg or Luca Pellegrini at Roma. Plug your midfield, Arteta. Cut your cloth according to your means. Leave the expensive French toys for the aristocrats of football.
Virgil Van Dijk was a similar story. Liverpool wanted a first-team defender and their first choice was seemingly inaccessible. Southampton rejected their advances and cried foul at Liverpool’s negotiation tactics. They swore not to sell to the Anfield bastards. Anyone but Klopp. Liverpool publicly apologized and resigned. They backed off the player. Many other options were floated. Cheaper alternatives. The receptionist’s phone at the recruitment office was ringing off the hook. Agents pushed their own players. But the Liverpool executives were determined. Nothing was going to stop their plan of assembling what Klopp needed. It was Van Dijk or nothing.
Well, six months later, they went in again and the rest is history. Arsenal might learn one or two things from this. In fact, we may already have. If we’d waited for six months, we needed not have spent an unholy amount of money on Alexandre Lacazette. We could have waited for Aubameyang. That money could have gone somewhere else. And so it seems like what we are doing in recent times. Reports say that Thomas Partey has been a long term Arsenal target. Since 2018, we’ve watched our Ghanaian boy while the midfield grew light. And now we have him, a finished product, sneaked out of Madrid on the final day of the season.
Aouar is worth six months or more. None of the other options come close to him in style and pedigree. We are talking about one of the best Champions League midfielders. France’s midfield future. If what it takes to get him is time, well, we should be ready to spend plenty of it.
Agboola Israel
Van Dijk was a good purchase by Celtic (£2.5 mil) and Southampton (£13 mil)
I remember Wenger could have got Van Dijk and Xabi Alonso for £13-£18 mil each
Have a sneaky feeling we will sign another midfielder in January. Not saying it will be aouar but it will be someone creative.
Ozil is done. As much as the media loves to press on it, Arteta has made his decision and we move forward together. Interested to see who we bring in.
OT – Our fanbase is the most reactionary fan-base in world football. I can’t believe some of the things I have read on here and elsewhere on social media since the Leicester defeat. You would think that Klopp and Pep turned Liverpool into the teams they are now overnight… Lol They took a couple of seasons to get it right… Yet, the second things do not go our way for a couple of prem games our fans turn on the manager, the staff, the players, all of them. So fickle…
Every fan is entitled to their opinion, but that doesn’t mean your opinion is without consequences. Our players go up against the best in the business on a weekly basis, how on earth is getting on their backs and slagging them off when things go wrong going to help us progress as a club? We need to unite as a fan-base and realise that, sometimes, the need of the team is more important than our personal opinion. When things go wrong is when we need to stand behind our players most of all, they need our support (not relentless criticism) to be able to pick themselves up and have the confidence to go again without fear.
We all hurt after a defeat, even the players. Let us unite and be stronger together instead of picking each other apart! #wintogetherlosetogether
👍👍
What you are not understanding.. These two managers you mentioning were producing amazing football and their problems were their defenses and goal keeping.. Please do not compare Arteta to them.. Our team is playing such a boring football that bears no fruit and we struggle to move the ball forward
@Spur B, Here we go again another fan who made the comparison but did not bother to look at stats. Pep since he joined Man city has finished in champions League spot every year not to mention winning the EPL title twice. Man city finished 3rd in his first season incharge. Klopp finished eight in his first season but after that he has finished in top four every year. Both the managers are top class with proven track record and even in their first year played amazing attractive football. MA is no where in their league only Arsenal fans can make such deluded comments bec they are biased. MA has no record, this is his first job. We lost against top 6, we did not lose couple of games we lost 3 games and it’s start I’d season not even mid point. Apart from that our performances and football has been awful, we have already lost few fans bec of football UE played and now with this dull football even more fans are starting to stay away from football. One victory over an Irish team and I see our fan base celebrating it like we have won against Europe’s elites. All MA supporters have come out in force and think we are going to be great under him. Same fans will go back into their shell next week if we lose to Man United, they will again make excuses and urge fans not to make comparison to big teams as we are rebuilding but when we win they make comparison themselves to managers like klopp and Pep. You want to make comparison a fair one then compare the MA tenure to managers who took the team around same time like Morinihio and Ancelloti …that too me is a fair comparison and looks like we are not that good if you cmpare. Our record in EPL against too 6 is same so where is the improvement? We struggled to get past an Irish team till 42 min and had to rely on their keeper error. We only scored 3 against a team who would not be in tier 2 in England. Even our wins in EPL have been far from convencing, struggling against like of sheifeild and West ham, Barely scraping past the various opposition. Only Arsenal fans can call this as an improvement and think we are on right path to something big.
Good post. Even though it is the truth people wont like to hear. It’s been a bad period for us since the new season began and Arteta needs to figure out how to steer the ship right. His decision making and tactics are very questionable. I dont understand why we arent allowed to question him exactly? He’s losing games and the team doesnt look good. But we’re not allowed to talk about it? Because then that means we dont like Mikel? Or maybe we want to see our team perform well…. idk.
RSH
I suppose it’s how the post is written-the tone, rather than not being allowed to express an opinion
Some of the posts have been shocking and definitely don’t add anything to the debate.
But, Pep and Klopp did not have attitude and lazy players like we do. There is a system in those clubs. The”greatest manager” diluted all systems, turning battle hard players into juvenile lads pampered them accepted mediocrity and hammerings without ringing changes (to save his salary). We have the most toxic and lazy dressing room and it will take a season or more to clear all the deadwood which is stuck. No big name manager wanted us, why? Even Rodgers preferred to stick with LC, why? He has hardworking players at his disposal. Talk of top four only after Ozil, Socrates, Kolasinac, Mustafi, Xhaka, Laca are gone. Boo and shoo these players who have taken us so low. Unai did well in his first year, did the board listen to him and bring the players he wanted? A non interested owner, a non cooperating board, lazy, uninterested social media savvy players, so what do you expect the coach/manager top do? At least with Mikel we are a cup team, enjoy that. We just do not have the hardworking players to play an entertaining game at the moment. The future looks good with Tierney, Pepe, Gabreils, Saka, Partey, we need to get rid of Wenger’s dross to make any further progress. Until then mid table is the highest we can achieve.
👏 👏 👏 well said on the negativity. It’s exhausting and embarrassing. We can’t just blindly support of course, but the derision that spews forth every time we don’t win (or even sometimes when we win sloppy) is astounding.
I will say though that we should stop comparing our incredibly inexperienced manager to Klopp and Pep’s EPL records, both of whom had vast experience, numerous trophies and big reputations before ever stepping foot in English football. For that matter, Pep will go down as one of the greatest managers in the history of the game, so for heaven’s sake (for Arteta’s sake), can we please be reasonable and stop mentioning these two when discussing our manager?
SB, Well said and I have also been saying that this ridiculous and panicky fan criticism of MA(by some fans) who is very clearly destined for greatness, is unthinking, harmful and the babblings of none too bright juveniles. If only the ability to think, and think rationally, were given to more on here, life would be far more pleasant for us all.
HAVING TO WADE THROUGH THIS TORRENT OF NONSENSE EVERY TIME OUR TEAM DOES NOT WIN BY A HATFUL IS LUDICROUS. SO GROW UP, YOU SILLY JUVENILES AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
According to Romano, we’re ‘following’ Szoboszlai…. make of that what you will!!
Romano is clueless when it comes to Arsenal.. Remember Kolasinac deal was done? No partey? And the list goes on
Just let us get either aouar or szoboslai by January pls
Or better still both of them. One can dream right 🙂🙂
I think Arteta Plan is to use Houssem Aouar at the left wing. The player himself said he loves it there.
So,
…………………………..Leno………
Bellerin… Saliba ….. Gabriel…… Tierney
…Ceballos….. Partey……. Xhaka………
Pepe…….Aubameyang……… Aouar
We can get Scobo in jan since he is cheap & move for Aouar summer but not on an overpriced value.
Salzburg sold Håland in January so I see no reason why they woudln’t sell Szoboszlai in January too!
Aouar in January is a fantasy IMHO.
Spending 30 to 40K during every transfer season is not in the cards for Arsenal. They need to find bargains in the form of young players like South Hampton an Leicester. Money wise we can’t compete with the big clubs unless we get an owner willing to spend.
Ummmmm pretty sure that
“owner” sanctioned the £50M +
Partey deadline deal. Kroenke is
never going to be the Sheik or
Roman A but unequivocally
accusing the man of not spending
money over the past few windows
is simply inaccurate.
Sorry your assumption is inaccurate.
Arsenal self sustaining model is governed by a budget that dictates what needs to be spend. Kroenke in this case is an outsider loaning money to Arsenal when the budget is running on empty. How much will he be willing to loan is another matter. Regardless maybe we sell few players in January, have fans return to the stadium and replenish the budget.
I agree, Icw. I forsee a Janauary of us being linked again with him every day and it not materializing. Two summers in a row we’ve spent big money. Low chance we splash 50mill+ mid-season. We will certainly need another midfielder midseason though if we want to stand a chance, but it wont be a pricey one.
Arteta’s tactics in aproaching top teams is completely eye watering, giving ample time for opponent to press instead of trying to attack to shater the opponents deffence and make them shaky for ones. Arteta simply was hire so as we play attacking football but all these are done when playing small teams. Arteta must prove his worth for future managerial experience and succes. #Artetamustactnow