₦airaland Forum

As predicted, Chuba Akpom goes on loan to Hull City. He should get enough games with Steve Bruce's side. http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150804/chuba-akpom-joins-hull-city-on-loan

@ipopalomo
You can see that AW will say one thing today and do another the following week.

In other news
Bielik, Jeff, Zelalem and Iwobi will stay with the academy.
I expect Iwobi to go on loan by January

I mentioned the Szczesny loan yesterday. I hear it's a 2 year loan actually but not sure yet.

So Roma wants Szczesny on a permanent basis but Arsenal prefer to loan him out instead.

For me, if Szczesny can shave off his rough edges, he'll be a great GK. A loan move will be good for him.

Update on the Benzema story.
Talks suspended because Real looking to sign a big name striker. If successful, Benzema will join Arsenal.

Flamini is off to Turkey.

Arsene discussed Benzema with both the player and his club. Talks suspended now. Waiting to see if outcome is positive or otherwise

Why should we sell Monreal?

Good game. Provided opportunity for the boys to stretch their legs and get much needed game practice.
Akpom hattrick and Wilshere scored too.
As predicted, Iwobi dI'd well, same as Akpom. Crowley and Toral came in second half and did well too. Bellerin showed why he's currently ahead of Debuchy.
We play Everton on Saturday. They should give us stiffer competition

I'm a fan of Chuba. I've followed him same way I've followed and still follow many in our youth set up. His level is above that of our current youth squad but not yet at Arsenal 1st team level. It is for his own good if he goes on loan to get much needed match practice instead of sitting on the bench at Arsenal. Akpom has played for 2/3 different teams on loan in the past and scored 0 goals. How many did he score at the euro u21?

Don't get me wrong, i see great potential in him and i rate him highly but it won't do him any good to wait on the bench. He needs match experience which he won't get at Arsenal. Anyways, if what my sources tell me is true, his loan deal is almost done. Let's wait and see.

As for Afobe, yes I believe we made a mistake to let him go. In fact I remember saying it here when we bough Sanogo that I didn't see any sense in buying Sanogo and letting Afobe go. But even at that, Afobe wasn't ready and still isn't. His goals were scored at league 1 level and even though he's done well sInce he moved to the championship last January, he's not yet a player I'll play in first team against any of the EPL side. But by next season (16/17), barring injuries (which has been his main challenge ), I expect to see him in the EPL.

Akpom is going on loan.
Welbz is still injured from last season. Return date yet to be confirmed.
We've seen Alexis in the top 9 position and I'm sure even AW won't try it again in a competitive match.

I'll be seriously surprised if AW doesn't bring in a striker even if on loan.

Our game comes up 1.30 on Saturday. Keep an eye out for Crowley and Jon Toral.

For those hoping AW will bring in a DM, I doubt this will happen now. I believe he's willing to gamble Chambers as his DM/CB backup.

Anyways, 5 more days to seeing Arsenal again! The break has been too long. We are likely to see the young 'uns on Wednesday and the big boys including our new GK on Saturday.

pickabeau1:
Erm.. so do we have depth or not?

I responded to your earlier post as per specific players regarded as "depth" in the squad. Those players do not count as depth as many if not all of them won't even go near first team this season.

As for your latest question on whether we have depth or not, I believe the last 3 to 5 pages on this thread has shown that most Arsenal fans (myself included ) still believe we need one or two additions in certain areas.

My thoughts:
GK: Covered
Defence : Covered (Many won't agree but my opinion )
Midfield : Covered
Attack: Need at least one WC striker

Spy360:
Ospina does not wish to be backup, besides he has offers. Also though you may not like this- WS1 has more potentials. Martinez is happy to be third choice.

What WS1 has going for him is that he's home grown which is an advantage for us.

When Arsene brought in Ospina last season, I was wondering what he was up to bringing in a GK not much older than WS1. There's no way we can keep WS1 and Ospina happy for more than 2 seasons. WS1 was no1 for Poland and has lost his place now to Fabianski. Ospina is no 1 for Colombia. Both will want to be no1 for Arsenal.

I'm biased towards WS1 cos I've followed him since his academy days but even I am getting fed up with his antics. This is last chance salon I guess. If he doesn't step up under the tutelage of perhaps one of the best goalkeepers in the world (Cech), not sure Arsene will remain patient with him

Same story? You mean same story when we were linked to Alexis? Or Ozil or Poldi or Cech?

Jeffers ke? Fox in the box? Nah. Wilshere just needs an injury free season and perhaps steer clear of his usual wahala.

Fact is whether Cech comes or not, we can't keep Ospina and Szczesny happy for long. They are both in their primes and there's just one year age difference between them. Both will want to play consistently which obviously can't happen.

Victor Baia was world class. Someone who won best keeper in Europe and best keeper/player in Portugal multiple times plus also won over 20 titles with Barca and Porto has got to be WC, No?

That aside, Arsene has not come out to say bringing in Cech automatically rules out buying a CF or DM. So let's not conclude. Everywhere I go, I hear fans and others say we need 3 quality signings to compete next season - GK, DM and CF. If we bring in Cech, that's one down, two to go.

diggz:
For 5mil mil? Mk una tell baba ijebu to pay up or fcvk off.

Cech has one year left. If he doesn't leave now, he'll leave for free next season or even in January. Moreover he won't stay on the bench at Chelsea for another season.

Specialist900:
I tot we already had two goalies, where does Cech fit abeg?

Na question I ask o

True we have 2 goalies but though Ospina was brought in to provide competition for WS1, he probably hasn't done enough in AW's eyes hence the quest for Cech. It might also be a case of Cech being available and AW/Arsenal seeking to take advantage.
If Cech comes in, I want believe WS1 will have to go on loan.

No transfer news this summer. Just rumours. And rumour has it that we've agreed deals with Vidal and Martinez. Interesting summer if true

Ah. True o. We still have Diaby. I hear he'll be placed on a pay as you play basis.

Exactly. Theo should fit into that role. As it is I'm not sure he'll be at Arsenal if next season goes same way as this season. I really feel sorry for him though.

Chamberlain is another person who could play a slightly similar role from the flanks but his injury issues + Arsene saying he sees him playing as a central midfielder, not sure again. He's one of the very few in our team who is willing to take on defenders and can actually dribble

^^^ True.

Also City's situation could also be blamed on Aguero's injuries /lack of form earlier on.

True we've scored a lot of goals. Maybe what I'm looking at are the games we lost/drew because we couldn't break some teams down.
yesterday's game is a classic example. Did we lose the game because we couldn't score or because we didn't defend well? Similar thing happened in the 1st leg and we've had a few games like that this season.

I may be wrong. Perhaps I'm just spoilt. I remember how Thierry used to bail us out of games. Maybe that's why I think we need someone upfront.

Good to see we have a full team bar Chamberlain and maybe Welbeck.

Team against Liverpool. It will be too early for Debuchy to step back into the RB position so I expect Bellerin to keep his place.
I am not sure if I want a pairing of Ramsey and Coquelin or Coquelin and Santi. As we are playing at home, I assume AW will play the latter pair. However, with Welbeck likely out of the game, perhaps we'll see the former pairing.

Ospina
Hector Per Kos Monreal

Coquelin Ramsey

Ozil Santi Alexis

Giroud

Bench: Szczesny, Gibbs, Theo, Gabriel, Rosicky, Chambers, ...

75000 graduates unemployed? I wonder how many graduates are unemployed these days?


I like the headline about troops forcing down prices. If you read the story you'll see that this anti corruption thing they say about Buhari is true. He's truly the one Nigeria needs now

POI still has a long way to go so I still expect Shaw to return perhaps next year Depending on when the next season is scheduled for. She's my favourite character in the show though I must admit I also like some of Frusco's dry jokes.

My best episode so far must be the one where the machine had to play several scenarios before deciding on best course of action. My everyday job has to do with machine learning so you can understand my excitement. That episode and the one where young Fitch developed the machine and the machine said it's first words are my best POI episodes

Spy360:
Predictable line up vs Brighton on Sunday.

........................... Ospina..........................
Chambers.... Per.... Kosch..... Gibbs
.......................... Coquelin.......................
Walcot... Ramsey.... Ozil.... Campbell
............................. Giroud........................

Subs: Szczesny, Monreal, Flamini, Cazorla, Sanchez, Akpom, Rosicsky.

Analysis: I think AW will keep Szczesny remaining on the bench; Chambers will start at RB since Bellerin is out; Coquelin may fancy another run-in to continue his good form; rests for Cazorla, Sanchez and Schemer; I am tempted to say Akpom will start but feel AW may want him to come from the bench.

Campbell has moved to Villareal on loan.
Is Bellerin out?

debosky: Says proudlybollocks aka mr the Higuain deal is already done.

What's that annoying sound?? Oh! Its a broken record

naijababe: what shall we call you if Gonzalo does make it to the emirates? kosovo?

I have reserved his name. Just waiting for the right time...

It seems we are so keen on selling NB52 this summer. I hear the club has agreed terms with 5 clubs. Bendtner needs to make a decision soon

I'm just glad the teams competing with us for no 3 or 4 position are not flying high at the mo

Chelsea fans, how meerkat?

olodo: Debo where is proudlysport na? wetin happen now

proudlysports will be here fully from tomorrow night after we've made our BIG NAME signing! I got the info and said it in summer and I still stand by it. If we don't sign, I'll change my username

I hear (not confirmed though) Jenks might be going on loan but from what I hear, its dependent on getting Diame from Westham.For those who don't know, if we get another DM, it will free up Coquelin to act as back up to Sagna for the rest of the season whilst Jenks gets valuable first team experience at Stoke. We need to start planning for Sagna's possible summer exit

Just been informed that Tomas Rosicky may start today's game.

If he does, I hope he gets through unscathed. We need a back up for Cazorla and Wilshere and I believe Rosicky is good enough to play either role