MARTIN ODEGAARD INJURED

NORWEGIAN HOBBLES OFF

Well, good morning to you all on this fine day. Autumn has just arrived; it’s still t-shirt weather, but the crisp breeze season has begun, and I’m pretty sure that means I’ll be wearing light attire for three weeks before it’s time for the Arsène Wenger caterpillar coat. I cannot wait.

Thomas Partey is attracting interest from Juventus, who are waiting on him at the end of his deal with a three-year contract. A low-risk move from a club with no pennies. I also suspect Thomas, our party boy, probably suits Italian life more than Saudi, so this move makes sense. It’s hard to truly celebrate the Ghanaian’s time at Arsenal. Zinchenko called him one of the greats of the league, and on his day, this is not in doubt. The issue for me is that he’s never been fit, and whenever the team started to rely on him, he’d be out injured. Add to that his insistence on staying an international… and behaving so poorly when away that he needed a chaperone… well, this expensive swing gets a C+ at best from me.

Arsenal have been linked to all sorts of players post-window – the ‘what could have beens’ list is growing by the day. I think one thing to consider here is that Arsenal’s chase for a wide player cast a wide net over Europe. Why would a team as hyper-specific in their profiles work this way? Because we were hunting for a back-up attacker, not a main man. What’s the point in spending £90m on a player who’s going to spend a lot of time sitting behind Bukayo Saka… or stunting the growth of Martinelli, who we’ve just put on £200k a week? Arsenal aren’t paying too much of Sterling’s wages… which shows where the salary budget was this window.

That’s why you should take large pinches of salt when there are suggestions that we’re interested in £100m strikers who are very injury-prone. Arsenal never had that sort of cash this summer, and it’s highly doubtful we’ll be running around Europe with a bag of cash that large next summer. Sesko wasn’t a mistake. £45m for a high-ceiling striker who could eventually compete with Kai is where we’ll likely go next year. Evan Ferguson is far more likely than Arsenal dropping £100m on Gyökeres or a player Newcastle will never sell to us.

You should also consider the profiles we’ve not been getting over the years when assessing the viability of rumours you’re falling in love with. Is the player strong? Do they press? Do they win duels? Are they lethal from set pieces? Are they extremely robust? Would they suit a club that spends most of its time dealing with mid and low blocks? These are the questions, my friends, and sometimes the name you have in your dreams doesn’t match up because Arteta is obsessed with duel-monsters.

Shocking news coming out of the international breaks as I write… Martin Ødegaard hobbled off with what looked like quite a bad injury to his ankle. This makes me so angry. We sent him away after a savage kick, his coach acknowledged the injury, he was played anyway, and now we might not have him for the Spurs game next week.

Why are these players on international duty? Why are the biggest names in the Premier League going public about the workload only to be met with shoulder shrugs? Who is going to take control of this issue?

Lots of questions. No answers. That’s the way today, my friends.

See you tomorrow. x