Photo from Arsenal.com
Morning all.
A number of Arsenal players picked up awards last night with Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes were named in the PFA team of the year which says a lot about where Arsenal’s strengths were last season.
In the women’s game, Mariona Caldentey, Emily Fox, Kim Little and Alessia Russo were all included in WSL’s team of the year, with Caldentey being voted PFA Women’s Player of the Year for 2024/25.
Photo from Arsenal.com
Injuries blew a hole right through our attacking unit last season with Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus all missing large chunks of the season at one stage or another. Take that kind of quality out of any team and I think it would struggle. A central midfielder playing as striker must be tricky enough but when one considers it was Merino’s first season in the Premier League, hats off to him I say because he scored goals for us.
I know we’ve signed Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke but I’d hoped to see the club add a bit more to the attacking side of the squad. I’m sure we all love Leandro Trossard but I really don’t understand why the club has given him a “substantial” pay rise because I think that’s going to make him more difficult to sell when the time comes. Admittedly, I thought that time had come but I guess I was wrong. If Arsenal are in the mood to hand out pay rises, I’d have thought William Saliba and Bukayo Saka would be the players at the front of the queue, especially as their contract situation needs addressing.
Going back to our attacking depth, Mikel Arteta must believe that the addition of Madueke and Gyokeres and hopefully, fewer injuries will be enough for the ten months ahead. Just 12 days of this transfer window remains and Arsenal have a number of players to move on.
According to Sky Sports, Porto are in talks with Arsenal to sign Jakub Kiwior on loan with an obligation to buy. More than £23 million is the said to be the deal which includes the loan fee. Sky also report that the club are open to selling Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira and Sambi Lokonga. Fulham are still trying to sort out a deal for Reiss Nelson. Personally, I’d rather we kept Nelson and sold Trossard’s but hey, that’s just my opinion.
Catch up in the comments.