Morning all.
Sometimes life dishes out a gigantic dose of karma and that’s exactly what happened in the early hours of this morning and I watched it unfold. All the “naughtiness” behind the scenes relating to the Folarin Balogun red card didn’t pay off as Belgium knocked the USA out of the World Cup. Belgium were simply too good and more than deserved their victory.
I’m not sure the same can be said of Spain though who I thought looked nothing like a team ready to win this big competition, at least not until Mikel Merino came onto the pitch. For all the million pounds worth of talent on the pitch, it was our midfielder turned striker who showed his teammates how to score and his goal was enough to see Spain through to the next round.
The result also meant that for Cristiano Ronaldo, his international career was over and I’d imagine his domestic career will soon come to an end too. Love or loathe him, he’s been pretty good hasn’t he but maybe this was just one World Cup too many for him and his country. Not that I give a toot of course.
As for Spain, despite David Raya, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino being in the squad, their playing minutes have been few which is good as far as Arsenal are concerned. Tonight, Argentina face Egypt at 5pm UK time before Switzerland take on Columbia at 9pm.
France v Morocco
Spain v Belgium
England v Norway
Argentina/Egypt v Switzerland/Columbia
Enough of the World Cup.
What’s going on at Arsenal? The answer would appear to be “nothing” but I’m sure that’s not the case. Any day now it’s quite likely that the transfer window will suddenly come alive for red and white club in north London. As other clubs spend vast amounts of money on players who are perhaps not worth such fees, it doesn’t mean we need to start feeling envious or fearful of what those clubs might do next season. Yes, I’m referring to that lot just down the road from The Arsenal as so far, they are the biggest spenders this summer.
Sandro Tonali – Newcastle, £100m
Jan Paul van Hecke – Brighton, £52m
Martin Dubravka – Burnley, free
Andy Robertson – Liverpool, free
Marcos Senesi – Bournemouth, free
Mateus Fernandes – West Ham, £85m
Would any on the above list make Arsenal stronger had we as a club signed them? Subjective I know but I don’t think so. In fact had Arsenal done those deals I’m pretty sure most fans would left feeling underwhelmed, especially for the fees Totts have paid.
I really can’t see Arsenal paying £130 million to Aston Villa for Morgan Rogers although I can see the logic in the club spending big for Bruno Guimarães because he always “turns up” in games. Even so, the net is wide and not every top notch player has to come from the Premier League. We often read about how Premier League players make better signings because they are used to playing in the Premiership but I’m not sure that’s always true. Noni Madueke, Ebe Eze, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are hardly proof that they are. Great in moments but three of the four are often injured or in my opinion, disappointing. Ben White, Leandro Trossard, Declan Rice and David Raya though, well, they’ve been brilliant for most of the time, especially Rice and Raya. Consistently so too.
As Arsene Wenger once said, a players passport shouldn’t come into the equation when signing players and back then, it certainly didn’t. When he did go for English/Premier League players, they didn’t exactly excel did they? Again, they had their moments, but seldom did many, if any put in an 8 out of 10 performance each week. All transfers come with an element of risk I know and sometimes just a change of club can bring the best out of a player but when they aren’t able to shine in a team which struggles, then I’m not sure they are right for Arsenal. Not if Mikel Arteta is looking to take us up to another level. I know the club have to be mindful of the homegrown rule but let’s not waste money whilst doing so.
Anyway, I’m off to find my hard hat…