FINALLY, Bruno G has landed at Arsenal.
‘I am ready to be your warrior.’
And we are ready to be fans of your warrior-like tendencies. Just a group of medieval wives, watching our guy go off to battle. Here for support. We’ll pack the sandwiches. We’ll never betray your honour.
The Brazilian landed to another very awesome launch video.
These still remind me a touch of Raheem Sterling, but I’ll get over that with time. Andrea Berta, who is getting a little beaten up this summer by the mean people online, had this to say.
“Bruno is a player with a great mentality and great quality, who will bring strong leadership to our squad.
“With Bruno joining us, we are further strengthening the heart of our team. As we have all seen, Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box player. He combines quality with quantity, and has provided goals and assists for his team every year.
“Bruno will allow Mikel to further develop our playing style and will also increase our internal competitiveness, which is essential for maintaining the standards required when we are aiming to win major trophies.”
The main part that stands out here is the ‘development of our style’ line. Despite winning the Premier League last season, it was clear that our ability to deal with deep blocks actually declined last year. Sure, we were on the side of better fine margins, but it didn’t feel like there were as many tools in our attacking Arsenal as there had been in prior seasons. Some of that was down to injuries, some of it down to one-dimensional players, some of that was down to Carlos Cuesta leaving for Parma… but some of it was down to not having enough variety in our play.
Bruno really is the most Roy of the Rovers player in the Premier League. He can play as a 6, an 8, or a 10. He’s extremely progressive in the way he shapes his passing, always looking to find strikers, always moving the ball forward, driving teams on with relentless positivity.
This will work well for our wide player, who he’ll be able to find earlier with sharp long balls; think back to how good Granit Xhaka was for Martinelli. This will work well for Gyokeres/Kai who will have a partner who might be able to find his darting runs (Swede’s speed might be a problem). This should work well for a team struggling in a mid to deep block because he has bravery and accuracy.
Newcastle laid out the one negative of the deal… this is the most expensive midfield deal, ever, for a 28-year-old in the Premier League in that position. We have 3 good seasons out of this player. This is very much a now-type of signing. I’m not a massive fan of Berta and Arteta and the desire to keep loading up with players 26 and older. This can lead the team to a crash in 4 years’ time when all of a sudden, you look old, players are broken all the time, and you’re facing up to a massive rebuild the funds might not be able to support. But look, this is someone who the club have clearly said, f*ck it, we don’t care about resale, we care about preserving our ability to fight in midfield while we rest players.
Great signing. Love the player. We can all see the vision. This is going to be fun.
This isn’t a fun tweet. Romero being open to joining Arsenal is both not a surprise and very worrying. This is the sort of thing Arsenal were doing under Raul Sanllehí. I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone has looked at the player’s performances, his body language, his public statements, his red cards, or how he treated Spurs last season and thought… yes, this is a name I want to push to the centre of the table.
Someone said Spurs won’t sell to us? Are you sure? No one hates the club more than their captain. I’m sure they’d send him our way in a heartbeat. This is worse than the Willian deal because at least the Brazilian was a top professional revered by team-mates and coaches alike. I have no interest in the captain of Spurs. You should be able to make a move like that and have Spurs fans crying about it… not celebrating, begging for the £38m that would come from Arsenal that they could spend on a new air conditioning unit that’d do more for the team than him.
The only way I could love this signing is if they’re putting the rumour out to soften the blow of Ezri Konsa. You know, like when a doctor tells you that you have something terminal just to soften the blow that you’ll need to take pills for a few weeks. Oh, your doctor doesn’t do that? Hmmm…
Kenan Yıldız is attracting attention in the rumour mill. The story is that we’re making him a target for a £100m bid this summer. This feels like a Houssem Aouar type story. I like the player from an aesthetic perspective. He has a bit of the Rayan Cherki about him in terms of magic and occasional crazy output in terms of wonder goals, but I’m just not having it that anyone from Serie A is carrying a price tag that extreme. Especially a player who was so dismally underwhelming at the World Cup against some very average teams. 10 goals, 6 assists, in Serie A last season. 1 goal, 2 assists in the Champions League. Honestly, it’s just not a deal that moves the needle for me. What problem are you solving at this point? He’s not the next level and he’s not better than Martinelli.
I am very firmly in the camp of ‘don’t spend without guarantees’ and you might say there are no guarantees in football. Sure, but there are players who everyone can agree are level raisers, and there are players who need a season at Chelsea, Newcastle, or Bournemouth to see if they’re going to fly. Too many players Arsenal are being linked with have NOW prices, for high-ceiling potential. Our high-ceiling potential on the left is Tzolis, the biggest output merchant in Europe last season. Martinelli is a top player, if he has to stay, no problem for me.
Anyway, plenty of window to go. Arsenal adding Bruno to the midfield is really something. I’m pretty happy with Tzolis. Now we have to move on a centre back and see if we can do something sexy on the left… we also have to sell some players. Just hoping we don’t cut into some of my favourites. Let’s see what Berta has for us!
P.S. I have an apology to make about something I said in the podcast. I read that Kroupi had a 5th metatarsal injury. I read it as his 5th injury of the same metatarsal, not the injury of the singular bone called the fifth metatarsal. Damn, I am dumb as a rock. I’m still not signing a player with a broken foot regardless.
Oh, why not sign up to the podcast of a person who gets things like that wrong? Yeah, it’s good fun. Get onboard before the start of the season. Members pod dropping later today. x
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