Dutch media – NOS which is the Netherlands’ equivalent to BBC for example – have been reporting that Andre Onana is likely to go to Arsenal. Other clubs are keen on Onana but they have Nr1 goalkeepers he would have to compete with. NOS reported that Arsenal do not have that issue apparently….. Leno could be on the move.
Onana is a great goalkeeper with truly superb distribution and he is in effect an extra defender for teams who like to push up. He is unlikely to be available in 2021 due to a drugs related ban, although shortly an appeal will be heard.
One to watch I guess?!
Finally, GN5 is running an EUROs competition, and all are welcome to join it (don’t need to be a regular!). 😊 ⚽ ⚽ ⚽
Here are the rules for the competition:-
1. Predict a win, draw, or loss for the home team a correct choice gets – 1 point.
2. In each group of games there will be 3 games where you predict the correct score – a correct score gets – 2 points
3. The person who gets the most predictions in item one correct gets a bonus of – 4 points.
4. The correct score games are indicated with the asterisks.
There will be 4 groups of games falling on consecutive days, they will vary in the number of games due the date the games will be played.
The next round of predictions will be posted on June 6th to give you ample time to make your next set of predictions.
It’s just for fun and everybody is welcome to join in…………………
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
June 11th Turkey v Italy ***
June12th Wales v Switzerland
June12th Denmark v Finland
June12th Belguim v Russia
June 13th England v Croatia ***
June 13th Austria v Macedonia
June 13th Netherlands v Ukraine
June14 th Scotland v Czech Reb
June14 th Poland v Slovakia
June14 th Spain v Sweden ***
By TotalArsenal and GN5
Bergkampesque 
June 11th Turkey v Italy *** 1-1
June12th Wales v Switzerland: A
June12th Denmark v Finland: H
June12th Belguim v Russia: D
June 13th England v Croatia ***: 2-1
June 13th Austria v Macedonia: H
June 13th Netherlands v Ukraine: D
June14 th Scotland v Czech Reb: H
June14 th Poland v Slovakia: H
June14 th Spain v Sweden *** 1-1
There may be something on the Onana interest seeing as Mat Ryan is listed as leaving the club; or is that an official talk since he isn’t our player yet?
Onana and Leno would present solid choices in goal and competition which can only bode well for our defensive performances.
Thank you for your predictions Total.
That’s a very interesting post about Onana as we seriously need a 1st class keeper – were the drug charges related charges due to private or football reasons? – although in the end result it really doesn’t matter.
Eris – I need clarification on your prediction for the Denmark v Finland game.
Denmark wins. I thought I resent it up in the previous thread.
Thank you Eris, I just read today’s post so I missed your clarification – thanks again.
I don’t know the details of it, but he got the lightest punishment possible. It looks he got it accidentally in his system hence the light punishment of just one year. Hard to prove or disprove intent I guess. Such a great goalkeeper though.
I think Onana is a great goalkeeper, with great academies and coaches in his personal history, but I don’t really see this transfer happening. Leno is not a much sought-after merchandise on the market, and I don’t know if he is particularly interested in leaving, so doesn’t seem to be an urgent issue. Even if the ban would be lifted, I just don’t see it as a top priority for Arteta/Edu, as Onana wouldn’t play second fiddle to Leno, and a complete reshuffling of the goalkeeper department doesn’t seem one of the most important problems. But I’ve been wrong in the past, so who knows…
Here we go:
June 11th Turkey v Italy *** 1-2
June12th Wales v Switzerland: A 1-1
June12th Denmark v Finland: H 1-0
June12th Belguim v Russia: 2-1
June 13th England v Croatia ***: 2-0
June 13th Austria v Macedonia: H 3-1
June 13th Netherlands v Ukraine: D 3-2
June14 th Scotland v Czech Reb: H 1-1
June14 th Poland v Slovakia: H 2-0
June14 th Spain v Sweden *** 3-1
Welcome to the game OMG I just need to make a few clarifications:-
1. You only need to predict scores for the games with an aster-ix
2. For the Wales game you predict an away game but your score is for a draw?
3. For the Netherlands game you predict a draw but your score is for a Netherlands win?
4. For the Scotland game you predict a home win but your score is for a draw?
Northern Macedonia will beat Austria. They are going to play their hearts out and Austria has been an underachiever of late. Northern Macedonia the new Iceland??
PB, the point is that the NOS journalist beliefs Leno is no longer required, at least not at Nr1… 👍🏿
Looks like Villa have signed Buendia. May be EMI has done the trick. One up on Arsenal again.
Madhu, they are either about to
– sell Grealish for 80M and secured his replacement in time
– consider playing Buendia (RM/RW) and Grealish (AM) in the same team
– start to hoarding players
Pbarany, my first thought is that Grealish leaves. Anyways let’s see who do we have in mind.
Apparently if the Onana ban is upheld he cannot go to any games, stadiums or the training ground he’s basically frozen out but I guess that Arsenal could arrange for some specialised coaching away from the club if we do sign him?
Leno is on £100,000 per week, so that’ll lessen his options if we want to sell, not many German clubs will take on that salary so we’ll probably have to keep on paying a chunk of his wages if he leaves?
Onana won’t be available until February as it stands so Leno will be our No.1 for most of next season, that is unless Arteta wants to go with Runarsson, which would certainly make for an exciting season for all of us…
If …. if we truly wanted Buendia…. then this outcome is humiliating. Of course it will turn out to be an error by the player. They overachieved by a lot this past season. He could be playing with Saka, Pepe and at least one elite striker. Still its a slap in the face to us and I’m disgusted.
If we wanted him, and blew the negotiations (the reported price is extremely fair).. then we are run by incompetents. Villa will end up selling him for a solid profit… something we never do. Ever.
Aside from someone to supplement ESR, we badly need a central midfielder.
Not an auspicious beginning.
J, I have no problem with entertaining your conditional assessment of Arsenal being run by incompetents (or just rookies, but if they can’t do their job properly, then they shouldn’t hold such key positions).
However it may seem that Norwich didn’t make their decision based on the size of the offer (our 2nd alleged bid of 35M edged Villa’s 33M), and I don’t see it was us losing the salary race, so my money is on the player’s individual preference. It could have be Smith’s personal charm, the new AV ambitions, Martinez’ influence, or just not being keen on playing under Arteta, and fighting for his place in the starting line-up.
It seems we are still on the market for a decent AM (bad news for ESR and any winger losing minutes if ESR will be shifted to the left), and while Buendia could have been a fine player, Odegaard, Nkunku or Calhanoglu are probably better prospects, and there are older, yet PL-proven (unfortunately huge salary-demanding) players like Coutinho and Eriksen on the table. We’ll see what we get at the end of the day, but I would be satisfied without any AM reinforcements, but 1 or 2 CM of the finest caliber, like Camavinga, Aouar or Llorente/Niguez. I hope we don’t sell Xhaka, but if we start a DM project to complement Partey Bissouma, Neves and Zakaria are all decent candidates, but I have my doubts if they could outperform Xhaka.
Hi J, it does make me wonder how serious we were in getting him in the first place?
As a club we’ve overpaid so much in terms of transfer fees, agents fees and wages in recent seasons that maybe this was an example of a change in policy?
We’re not a Champions League club anymore and really shouldn’t throw money around as if we are, up till now it’s not done us any good and saddled us with a bunch of players we’d like to move on but can’t shift because of their inflated salaries.
At the same time I feel quite underwhelmed by the prospect of Arsenal attempting to sign Ruben Neves.
What do you guys think of Neves?
Being a strong advocate of our Academy and home made players I’d be more inclined to see us take players on loan so that our youngsters aren’t blocked off, I’d like to see Azeez, Cottrell and Balogun get opportunities next season not some ‘big time’ on big wages (Willian etc) who the manager has to pick to prove that he knows what he’s doing.
New Post 🙂
Good points, Kev.
I personally favor succession planning over binge signing and ad hoc transfers – although I’m not a manager to have a coaching philosophy to begin with.
While TA and I differ on the importance of the squad size as well as the desired size, we have an important agreement preferring to have 2 set of teams that are around the same skills (and current form, fitness and tactics should drive the starting line-up) over having a dedicated A and B squad – like they have at Liverpool or Tottenham.
So when it comes to introducing academy players to the first team, my main concern is the age of the current players. And from that aspect I tend to think we are doing quite good. (Although I’m far from being optimistic, as Arteta didn’t show any sign of succession planning awareness, otherwise he would have treated Nelson, Saliba, Nketiah, Balogun and Guendouzi differently. We might sell them – apart from Folarin – for a combined fee of 60-70M, but we are talking about a 200M bunch.)
Nevertheless when it comes to Azeez, he is only 18. And we have 28y old DM/CMs in the first squad. So by the time Miguel reaches 20/21 when he supposed to play in his prime for the first team, there should be vacancies in that department. While one can play at the top for about 33-34 years (see Rakitic, Busquests, Modric, David Silva, and co) it is not typical that players (especially central midfielders) retire from the very top. So as it is reasonable to play their 2 twilight years in a less demanding environment we should sell at least 2 out of Xhaka, Partey and Elneny in the next 2-3 years. And by that time Azeez and Cotrell could have their chances to develop, play (preferably in lesser competition, which Arteta managed to screw up astronomically) and mature. They should play at the highest level next season in the U23 league, and if they outgrow PL2 they can go for loan, so by the time there will be vacancy here they could come back already with valuable experience from a strong competition in their CV.
The same applies to Balogun. He and/or Nketiah could and should be the successor of Aubameyang – or at least have a decent chance to prove if they have the skills, nerves and balls to do that. From age-wise everything seems perfect, as Auba has a good year and a half (in his 2-year contract), but if we buy someone – like Edouard, Weghorst, Dembele, Plea, Jovic, Toney, Alberto – we would disrupt the development and chances to our academy players. And hardly anyone would care, as a big money signing is always preferred by the average fan.