Big news coming out yesterday evening from Bolton, with Rob Holding set to sign for over £2million, eh?
As usual, my timeline on Twitter was filled with varying degrees of ‘meh’, but the reality is that Arsenal have always made these kind of signings under Arsène. They’re sort of the standard model for Le Boss and although it gave some people the opportunity to sneer at our lack of big-name activity, if Holding turns out to be another Smalling-style player that quickly rises from obscurity to Premier Leavue stardom, we’ll all be quite happy with that.
He’s 20 year’s old, he’s only just started on his career journey, plus he’ll probably be given opportunities to play whilst out on loan. So this is clearly one of those ‘one for the future’ ticks that Arsène likes to make every season. And at £2million it’s as relatively risk-free as they come. He can spend two years developing and then we’ll see if he can break in to the first team, or he’ll be shipped out for probably a little more than we paid for him. To me it’s a classic example of the ‘cash cow’ model that the club employs to a degree of success with some of the youth team players that we have.
Speaking of which, it appears as though Wellington Silva’s time has finally come to an end, having played a grand total of zero minutes for The Arsenal first team, by which he now returns from whence he came: Fluminese. I don’t know how much cash they paid for him, but I think it’s safe to say that from an Arsenal point of view, Wellington was a busted flush. He never really impressed at many of his loan spells and I suspect the fact he hardly set Bolton’s world alight, would have been the final nail in his Arsenal career coffin. Sometimes these things just don’t work out, but apparently his attitude wasn’t exactly the greatest and his character was called in to question at times, so I’m not surprised Arsenal decided to cut their losses. Moving back to Brazil might allow him to get his career back on track, but given his age, I’d be surprised if he is back in England any time soon lighting up the stadiums of the Premier League.
So there you go. Our transfer business is done for the summer. We’ve got our squad in exactly the position we want it and now we’ll win the league at a canter…..of course I’m being sarcastic! This is a signing that was always going to happen – it’d been talked about since the end of last season – and I don’t think it will have any more bearing on who else comes in or who else leaves this summer. But at least it shows that Arsenal are still looking at future prospects. We just need to couple that with ready-made replacements.
One such player who won’t be replaced, I don’t think anyway, is Olivier Giroud, who’s agent has had some pretty firm words about the whole ‘Higuain swap deal’ nonsense. The player, it seems, is more than happy at Arsenal and to be honest with you why wouldn’t you be? We’re about three weeks before the new season and at this rate Arsenal fans will be begging for his return, as he’s the only major goal threat we have up top, given Walcott’s shocking form towards the end of the season. Giroud has been at Arsenal and seen plenty of rumours on players for a number of seasons, yet he always emerges as the main man, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him once again be that main man as the dust settles on the transfer market in six weeks time. So why wouldn’t he be saying he’s more than happy at Arsenal?
It’s up to Arsenal to provide him with that competition. It’s on the club to make sure he’s having to work for his position, so until that happens, he’s got no real reason to fear anything. He’s a good player; useful in the squad and has had some very good games in recent seasons, but the issue any Arsenal fan that I know has ever had, is that he’s the only option at times. That’s where the frustration comes from.
Whether or not the club does the right kind of business this summer remains to be seen though.
THe only other real news coming out of the official site is Big Per’s comments on Xhaka and how the German thinks Chama will be a big player for the club this season. The BFG will have clearly been watching the Euro’s with great interest and will have seen what we’ve seen on the Swiss international, which is a guy who controls play from deep. That’s exciting stuff, given that in holding midfield it felt at times last season as though we lacked that control after Santi’s injury, especially before Elneny’s arrival. If Xhaka can be that strong combative midfielder, who as Big Per says can dictate the tempo of play through his passing range, then that would be amazing for us. It will make us feel a little less haphazard in our build up play. Last season it looked at times as if we had no real structure to our style. Perhaps what we needed was that deeper-lying midfielder to be that glue that holds everything together. We’ll only get to see as the friendlies start happening, I guess.
Right, that’s me for today, so enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing for the rest of your day.
Nice work.
He’s two players in one, is Xhaka.I love his confidence, he’s ready to be a leader on the pitch
Holding sounds good. 20 years old, first team experience. Great partner/competition for Chambers. And plays all along te back line, so has the versatility needed for a back-up. By the way, I’m also looking forward to seeing Chambers carry on as CB cover.. Really promising player.
What’s the problem we have bought a defender, midfielder and a forward everything us fans have asked for. ☺