WHO TO SELL?
Welcome to FriYAY people; we have lots of things to talk about. But first, take a moment to congratulate yourself for getting through a week of international break things. Ok, we feeling good?
Let’s get into it.
Jack Wilshere has been linked with a move to Colorado Rapids in MLS. The same conference as my team. I visited the away day there. Loads of nice people, close to the mountains, a team that is not doing so well – plenty of food for thought. Jack Wilshere bringing Arsenal football to America? I don’t hate it people. I’m glad he’s pursuing all options and it’s interesting to see Josh K roll out his young rookie coach strategy on another club.
There are some rumblings that Arsenal will have to sell to buy in January. John Cross reckons Ivan T could be on the list for Arsenal, but it ain’t gonna be easy, and it ain’t gonna be cheap.
My gut on this one? If we’re selling anyone it’s going to be Aaron Ramsdale. I think his cheering from the dugout and ‘I WILL FIGHT FOR MY PLACE’ vibes will last for about 4 more games when he realizes the path back into the first team is blocked barring a massive injury to David Raya. He’s a great keeper, he’ll have a market value, the question is whether anyone is in that sort of need in January. £40m would be my number, but that’s because I’m biased. It’ll be interesting to see if Brentford might be interested in him? Not sure their current keeper is up to much – Aaron will take minutes – it could make sense.
England gave a debut to Eddie Nketiah but he didn’t start ahead of Ollie Watkins. The Villa man has been on fire this season, so deserved his place. But Eddie getting minutes means Chris Hughton’s dream of taking him to Ghana is now OVER. Still, for all the Eddie slanderers, it’s nice to see him get an England cap. He has a long way to go to be an Arsenal first choice striker, but he’s had lots of minutes and he’s played in a team that’s winning. Arsenal doesn’t win with 10 men, so he’s clearly at a very high level. He has to score more goals if he wants to be taken seriously for England when Kane is out of contention.
Newcastle is apparently eyeing up Emile Smith Rowe in January for £50m. If we get a bid like that, no doubt we’ll sell, the question would be… does he make them stronger? To be honest, I don’t think that would be a question Arsenal would care about asking, we’d just sell him and be done with it if money like that crossed the table. The only way we don’t see him exit is if he starts delivering with the minutes he’s given. I watched Tom Brady do one o of those ‘Here’s how to be like me’ TikTok posts. He said he was only given 2 minutes to practice with the first team. It pissed him off. Then a coach said ‘treat those 2 minutes like it was your Superbowl. So he did. He went really hard at it, brought energy to training, then he started getting 4 minutes. Then 4 turned into 20. Then he became a KING! You get the gist… Emile has to think like that if he wants to get back to the promised land. Or he could just take a fat move to Newcastle.
Finally, Victor Oshimen has fallen out with Napoli after their social media manager called him a coconut on TikTok. An absolutely WILD thing for someone to think, let alone post on the Serie A Champions social page. Needless to say, the striker wants out, and Arsenal has been linked as a suitor. I love the player, but I can’t see him exiting for less than £120m. Is he £60m better than Ivan Toney? Who knows. But Italian papers say we might swap Victor for Jesus. If the Italians can’t be arsed to put together a plausible swap, it’s not worth dreaming about.
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— LE GROVE (@LeGrove) October 13, 2023