Players Decide Where They Want to Play

Good morning from a chilly New York City. The wait for Arsenal action is almost over, but in the meantime it’s been fun watching all the FA Cup matches. The big result from yesterday was Sheffield Wednesday’s upset of Newcastle in a deserved 2-1 victory for the Owls. The whole Newcastle being purchased by a nation state, specifically one who has committed such public atrocities, has turned them into an enemy for most people. I for one loved every second of them losing.

As I mentioned in the blog yesterday the major Arsenal involvement yesterday was Charlie Patino and his loan side, Blackpool, taking on and destroying Nottingham Forest 4-1. Patino did not disappoint, his pure talent on full display for all to see. No player on the pitch made more successful tackles (4) and he was top on his team for aerial duels won (4) despite only playing 68 minutes. It wasn’t all perfect, but there is no doubt there’s a serious player in there. He has now made more interceptions than any English teenager in Europe (27) and only sits one goal involvement (4) behind some guy named Jude Bellingham (5) who seems to be a decent player in his own right. I certainly don’t mean to heap too much pressure on the 19 year old, but he looks like an academy graduate that will have a genuine chance at first team involvement next season. Here’s to more progress as his season unfolds with Blackpool.

Mikel Arteta faced the press yesterday and had a couple notable comments. The first being that he is hopeful for Emile Smith Rowe to have involvement in the Oxford match provided he comes through today’s training alright. He said, “First of all, we need him fit and at his best, and when we have that, we have an incredible player that we have missed a lot in the last few months.” He went on to say, “Emile can play as an attacking midfielder, as a winger and even as a nine.” The last part is by far the most interesting. We know he’s been deployed there a handful of times in the past, but given the current situation with Eddie Nketiah as the lone striker option it’s interesting to hear Arteta say that. He wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t something he’s considering doing, so my inkling is that we’ll see him involved in that role in the coming weeks in some capacity.

The other interesting tidbit came from questions surrounding potential transfers. Chelsea’s interest in hijacking our move for Mudryk are quite public now, just as the player’s heavy preference to join Arsenal this month is. A quick view of some of the Instagram posts the Ukrainian winger has been liking on Arsenal have ranged from links of him to Arsenal, not being interested in Chelsea and a variety of memes including one showing him in a Shakhtar prison cell. While not directly claiming to be talking about the Mudryk situation, Arteta said, “At the end of the day, players decide where they want to play, and if they want to play for our club, that is great.”

It’s completely understandable that Shakhtar want to maximize the opportunity at hand, but they can’t make a player sign somewhere he doesn’t want to. It’s that simple. Their claims that he is worth €100 million are simply ridiculous, but they seem to be trying to play hard ball publicly claiming they’ll wait as long as they have to. Is that reality? I doubt it. They won’t want a player who doesn’t want to be there. United’s stupidity paying that money for Antony doesn’t reset the overall market despite how badly they might wish that to be the case. Arteta also said, “Valuations have to be made between the selling club and the buying club, and it is difficult but it shows there are a lot of clubs with a lot of financial power to spend big amounts, and we have to compete with them.” He knows Chelsea have serious cash, but our projects are in very different places. Arsenal sit first in the table with a five point lead, while Chelsea are fizzling out in 10th place. If I’m a young talent I know where I’d rather be.

More FA Cup action today. I caught much of the Bristol City-Swansea match and have to say I was really impressed with Bristol’s #7 Alex Scott. He looks a tidy player with a quality Arsenal name. The heavyweight matchup later is Chelsea-Man City playing each other for the second time in four days. City may rotate, but Chelsea’s injury issues mean they don’t have much of a choice on who they play. Seeing former Arsenal academy talent Omari Hutchinson come on for his debut the other night was interesting. The details around his departure last summer are still odd to me. He’d certainly be seeing involvement with us given our lack of wingers, although he looked far from ready during his brief cameo on Thursday. For such a flare player, he sure seemed scared and timid. Will be an interesting one to watch over the coming years.

Enjoy the last of the weekend. We’ll be back tomorrow ahead of the Oxford match.

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