I am watch-partying the Norway-France game whilst writing this.
I am watch-partying the Norway-France game whilst writing this. I feel like a dickhead. If only I could tell people I’m writing for thousands of my best friends. Actually, that might make things worse.
So… what do we have to talk about today?
Well, I looked at the data behind Bruno and I have to say I’m totally f*cking captivated even though I know he is a little old to be throwing £60m at.
What does Bruno represent for Arsenal?
End product. Passing quality. Boldness. Sh*thousery levels off the charts.
This is Premier League proven. A man in his prime. A beast midfielder who has always wanted the move to the biggest club in the world. If Bayern can make it work with latter-stage Harry Kane, why can’t we make it work with Bruno?
This is a box-to-box midfielder with extraordinary attacking skills that I’m going to be bold on… Newcastle under Eddie Howe has held him back. He needs unleashing. We need to be his promised land where he can take us to Champions League finals… nay, to Club World Cup finals.
We need more techy midfielders who can twist, turn, open up space, and do it within the strict control parameters Mikel Arteta puts on them. This rumour feels hot and very Berta-coded. The reason I don’t like it is the past we’ve had with Kai, but the reason I kind of admire it is I know the qualities the player boasts and he’s actually coming in to upgrade the floor. He’s not better than Declan, but he’s different. This is someone who can come in, take a lot of minutes, and give Arteta new options, not headaches because we’ve signed a 24-year-old prospect who needs time and minutes to slot in as we develop.
The reality is there probably aren’t too many midfielders in world football who can rank number 1 for shooting quality, number 3 for passing quality, and be in the 98th percentile for ground duels.
The trouble with Berta is he has rendered the reliable journalists a little bit VAR. No Sporting Director has their own personal PR outlet that they feed directly. Berta chums the water with many stories at the same time. The only thing you can really understand is the profile he’s looking at, which makes the truth harder to discern.
There are some clues though… I think we’ll be looking for more dead certs this summer, versus taking chances on high ceilings. That’ll mean more Premier League players or genuinely top-class players from the continent. Gyokeres and Madueke were most certainly big risks and though the league paid off, you’ll never convince me that was money well spent over the long term.
We’ll continue to invest in 14-19-year-old players and top ourselves up with best-in-class players. We’ve seen it with the Quintero twins, it looks like Monga will move from Leicester, there seems to be a renewed focus on academy talent and making sure if we can’t grow it, we buy it.
End product and directness is going to be the key factor driving decisions… we just don’t have enough of that. Arsenal get what they deserve from games, we need players who carry us when the chips are down.
I think Arsenal might be at the level now where we can fill the squad from top to bottom with quality. No more players like Norgaard. Wall-to-wall talent, because when you are vying for the Champions League, the finest of margins can cost you.
Ok, World Cup mode tomorrow! England plays, we’ll talk about how the games are shaking out for the knockouts, we’ll start working together to wean ourselves off 4+ games a day. Gonna be hard out there, get yourself a membership here and get hot ad-free Arsenal content, every damn day. x