Welcome Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Jan 22nd, 2018 by 'holic
I don’t often watch Sky Sports News but I did this evening purely by chance and caught the moment that the exchange deal that took Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United and brought Henrikh Mkhitaryan to North London was announced.
It’s a deal that will provoke mixed emotions, indeed already has on social media. However we know it could have been a lot worse situation had Alexis run his contract down and joined Manchester City in the summer for nothing. United’s offer of a straight exchange deal leaves us with a considerable asset on a three and a half year deal.
As far as Alexis is concerned I am genuinely delighted I got to see one of the best players in the world in the flesh for his peak years. Events of recent weeks probably mean that this is the right time for him to go. We will be very happy we have signed Mkhitaryan if the player can recapture the form he displayed in Dortmund and if he now makes us look an even more desirable destination for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, should he too get the move he wants. Arsene Wenger could not hide his admiration for the Armenian captain.
“We’re replacing a very good player with a very good player, a world-class player with a world-class player. Mkhitaryan can play on the wing or in midfield, so I believe he can play very well in many positions. That can help us as well because he can play together with Ozil as well as playmaker, so overall it’s a good move.”
As for the player himself , well, courtesy of Arsenal Media you can see and hear for yourself here.
As for Aubameyang, Sky were warning us not to expect an imminent deal as there are a number of intermediaries involved and all will want their pound of flesh. This will be a significant test of the negotiating team, headed by Ivan Gazidis, currently in Dortmund. This is a deal they need to complete to lift the mood around the club.
Let’s hope as well that we haven’t taken our eye off the ball with regard to strengthening the squad defensively before the window closes next week.
69 Responses to “Welcome Henrikh Mkhitaryan”
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Bang.
Number 1, is Perry Groves…
Evening Steve.
Number 7 is Mkhitaryan?
Innit weird that, should Giroud leave as part of the deal for HWNCBP II (He Whose Name Cannot Be Pronounced 2, we’ve signed HWNCBP I today) we will have got rid of our front three, who scored something like 70 goals last season, but have pretty much kept all our defenders and midfielders, who have largely been abject as a unit, and individually.
We’ve gone from Walcott, Sanchez, Giroud to Iwobi, Welbeck, Lacazette (at the moment).
Progress?
Nice stuff H. Lots to digest re the deal. Firstly Alexis. Couldn’t agree more. A fantastic player who at times was genuinely world class for us. A joy to watch. Not only our best attacker in games but more than often, our best defender.
Welcome Henrikh Mkhitaryan. I’ve no idea how you will fit in to this side but I wish you all the very best. I hope that you rediscover your Dortmund form that saw you win the league player of the season award. Let’s hope that he still has the quality and that Henrikh is one of many players that Maureen has managed to waste.
It will always be Chippy H. You know it. I know it. Everybody should know it.
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I remember the excitement among the Gooners at a dinner I was at when Sanchez was announced. He didn’t le5 us down but I’ve been ready to let him go for a while.
But Pires got it right yesterday. Wenger hasn’t done enough to build a great side around our megastars. We start again but we need much more defensively ( and in attack) to echo Cynic’s interesting point. We do need Auba but I don’t expect any other signings. Wenger is still in charge but I suspect they are holding money back for the summer.
Judgement of this transfer window still very much hangs in the balance.
The conversation with both Alexis and Özil re their contracts should have started 12 months ago. If after months of negotiations a deal wasn’t going to happen then they should have been outed early in the summer for big bucks. Then there would have been ample time to find replacements. The fact that we are now at this stage is still a massive clusterfuck. We have effectively turned away £30 million to have Alexis for half a season.
If we end up with a situation where add Aubameyang to the squad, keep Giroud, add a quality centre back and both Özil and Jack sign new contracts then it’s a big step forward. If however we do not get Aubameyang and both Özil and Jack depart on a free then it will be an unmitigated disaster.
Lots and lots to happen. It’s just watch this space I guess.
Well said ‘Holic! I’m grateful too for the time Alexis was an Arsenal player. It’s obviously disappointing to see him go to United, but you can’t really begrudge him the preposterousness of that contract at the age of 29, and he probably thinks he’ll be in a better position to compete for the big trophies over the next 2-3 years. He’s always been a rolling stone – he does his 3-4 years, then moves on. He’s not got undue loyalty to any one club, having come an awful long way from an obscure little mining town in Chile. All we can do is be grateful that he pretty much served out the contract he signed with us, he was a hard-working player and pro (the strops never really bothered me too much as I just think he had more desire and higher standards than most of our players), and he scored 80 goals in 166 appearances, playing a massive part in 2 FA Cups which will be memories that will stay with us.
He leaves a huge hole in the side in terms of goals, assists, and the ability to make things happen out of nothing. If Aubameyang doesn’t happen, I fear our slide – this season at least – will continue.
Quietly optimistic about Mkhitaryan. Best-case scenario is he turns into a sort of more penetrative, higher-scoring version of Alex Hleb. He could certainly bring some of the flair back to our side in conjunction with Ozil, Wilshere, Rambo, Lacazette and (hopefully) Aubameyang. He should fill the Iwobi role and would be a clear upgrade on the self-titled “Big 17” in terms of quality of end-product (Iwobi’s okay game against Palace notwithstanding). Fingers crossed Henrikh wins 2 Europa Leagues in a row!
Very happy 🙂
I listened to and read all sorts of comments about our transfer policy and about selling to rivals, but let’s be honest, this is nothing new. The fact is, we are unable to offer the minimum requirements required by top top players. Living in London just isn’t enough. We have not made a reasonable challenge for the title in years. Top four was a trophy until it wasn’t always guaranteed.
Players have a shelf life. Time wise, it’s a limited career. Players will not waste their time playing in the Europa and battling for top 6.
None of this is new. We have lost many players over the last 10 years who have not necessarily gone on to become better players, but they have gone on win things. Cashley was one of the first. Then we saw the exodus to Citeh. Then RVP and now Alexis. The truth is that at the moment we are neither good enough or competitive enough to satisfy their requirements.
We have been is steady decline for years now. All whilst we have watched others grow stronger. If we do not get the decisions right in this window then we will continue on that gradual downward slope.
TTG – If we’d spent a bit of time sorting out the defence and midfield, tactically as well as personnel wise, that front three should have been good enough to have walked away with this league.
Ah well.
Had a thought today and that thought is that Ozil will probably still end up at United, they just needed Sanchez now. They can wait for Ozil but now they needed goals.
It wouldn’t entirely surprise me if the deal has already been done.
It also wouldn’t completely shock me if he stayed.
The conversation with both Alexis and Özil re their contracts should have started 12 months ago.
Steve, the conversations started in the summer of 2016. The players hold all the aces. If they don’t sign then what do you do? Yes, we should have sold them both last summer and indeed we had agreed a deal with City for Alexis. Monaco blew that out of the water and yes, we came out of that in a very bad light, but in fact this has a feeling of a very good day for the club. Getting Miki rather than nothing for Alexis is quite the deal. We have an asset, and a very saleable one if Mesut does sign up again and they cannot play together. If Mesut goes we have a ready made replacement in, effectively for free.
Cheer up old son. ??
I’m going to leave these uppers on the bar. Tuck in lads. ?
Cheers H.
I’m quite happy. But that might just be the uppers!
I think we have to be realistic
There are six teams in world football who are rich beyond any of the usual measures- Barca, Real Madrid, PSG andvtyree Premier League club’s, the two Manchester clubs and possibly Chelsea. In reality Chelsea aren’t any more in this league. We are at the next level and unless we are bought by an incredibly rich owner like Usmanov our hope is that we are smarter than the top sides and pick top talent before they can demand the sort of moneySanchez has. His deal is ridiculous and will rebound if Pogba wants to match it. But good luck to him. He was marvellous for two seasons and we were lucky to have him.
We are in the same boat as Liverpool, Juventus, Atletico Madrid , Bayern and arguably the Totts. We have to get brilliant young players and continue a production line, ie we do what Wenger did from 1996-2006.He has dropped behind now but Mislintat and Sanllehi might let us get back to a similar model, with a more modern coach.
I’m not gutted about Sanchez just that we didn’t sell him in the summer. We must keep Ozil and Wilshere and sign PEA. In the summer we need to focus more on becoming defensively secure which we never will be unde4 Wenger.
Mkhitaryan is a very interesting player who I remember scoring for Dortmund against us. He impressed then. He is potentially a very credible attacking option with the other quality we have .
A lot hangs on clinching the three deals I mentioned earlier
On the subject of corners, Salah’s corners for Liverpool tonight were truly appalling. All night.
Just saying 🙂
As we get excited about comings and goings at the Arse,another excellent one club player from my youth has quietly slipped away into the night,after a long battle with Cancer.
Represented Club and Country with commendable class and elegance.
Followed his football career by going into management,and then had many years of enjoyable commentating on the Premier League Live Radio for BBC.
He played with and against some of the all time greats from the 50/60’s.
RIP Jimmy Armfield.
I can’t wait to see cut and paste and BamBam link up again. They don’t need to settle in. They’ll click like Mesut and Alexis.?
Good shout Clive. Jimmy was one of lifes gentlemen and gentle men.
Loved listening to him on the radio, I am too young to have seen him play but he came across as a complete gentleman when I used to listen to games.
@12/13 – Good man, Holic.
Looks to me that you’ve been spending too much time in the company of over-optimistic Jocks. Good for neither your soul nor your liver.
The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor, Is king o’ men for a’ that.
Blimey : are Liverpool the new us ?
I say a good day’s business for AFC.
Could well have been a whole lot worse.
I’m not even sure that I can begrudge sanchez moving on, when an astonishing £1 million + a MONTH after tax is offered. Ridiculous.
Yes, a really good player, a delight to watch when in the groove. But also lately, often greedy and losing the ball a lot.
Onwards and upwards. Spuds draw and pool lose. Funny game football, eh?
Holic. You’ve answered your own question. This should have been resolved last June. Especially if talks started a year earlier. No deal agreed then As you and I have both said, you sell them. Citeh came in very late but we did nothing to move him on.
I agree totally re getting Mkhitaryan in. Certainly the best of a bad situation.
Now, we just need to get the rest right
Cheers H
Pool defeat has unexpectedly opened the door of opportunity for us to aspire to nick 4th place.
Only 5 pts the diff now,and if we get our act together and sign the main man from Dortmund,i don’t think our midfield/defensive shortcomings will matter,as we will just score more at the other end. !!
@22 Klopp has lost the dressing room.
(I say this only because it’s what the gloomers say about Arsene every time we have an upset against a lower order outfit. Never have understood wtf they’re talking about. How can anyone lose a dressing room?) 🙂
As for Miki.
Wasted in the rigid structure of Maureen’s tactics.
An unselfish top notch Team man,
[ And let’s not forget it is after all about a team]
replacing exactly the opposite.
What’s not to like.
Let’s hope as well that we haven’t taken our eye off the ball with regard to strengthening the squad defensively
With Mkhitaryan far more defence-minded than Alexis we have already done that.
Now to back-read and find everyone else has pointed this out!
With Mkhitaryan and if Giroud stays, Arsenal lead all clubs in scorpion kick goals.
And there’s a ready-made song for the new signing via Toni Basil.
One in! Two more to go (plus “those”’two re-signed)! ?
Way to go Sven (Mislintat) & Raul (Sanllehi)! ?
Your “way to go” is still awaiting Ivan (Gazidis)?! You’ll get it once you Aubameyang over the line! ?
UTAAD&AN!
AFCOF!
I saw Jimmy Armfield in the first game I ever saw at Highbury. He had Alan Skirton in his pocket. A gentleman and a very fine player
Alan Skirton, TTG. Another memory from my extreme youth. ?
TTG – Jimmy Armfield would have had a very large pocket as Alan Skirton was a big lad, especially for a wing forward. That was another
Arsenal big time signing, from Bath City if remember rightly ( no doubt the monks at Castle Ned will correct me ). Jimmy was real old school – a proper gent and first rate captain. RIP.
Welcome to Henrikh indeed
Guv.
I’m hopeful he will find his
best form again with us and
we’ve done well to get him.
As others have said, from a
goalscoring point of view we
really need to get Auba done.
Good stuff Guvna.
Completely agree. A good day for the Arsenal. I hope our money men now bring in PEA and sign up Mesut and Jack.
I personally have no need for your uppers. I’ll leave them on the bar for those gloomy drinkers in the corner.
Have a glass of Bolly to celebrate the unfortunately somewhat delayed signing of Mr Alphabet.
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And RIP Jimmy Armfield. Never saw him play but loved his common sense on radio commentary. All men are dust but some are gold dust.
I’m less hopeful than some on
Ozil signing though – he’s played
a very straight bat on his way to
a lucrative free transfer exit so
far.
Still, I worshipped reverently at his
idolatrous image this morning
so let’s hope that works.
Dendoncker. Covers both CB/DM need, non?
Watched a few of this pianists videos and she is fantastic.
And then this week…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIeHdzsPvjw
You want pianists? I’ll give you a pianist … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Cs_zb4q14
…some morestride piano style as perfected by the incomparable Art Tatum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qWC6VjCS0
The comments are well worth reading, starting with WARNING: to be taken in small doses, it can cause vertigo and disorientation …
Really weird emotions seeing Sanchez in a Man U shirt! I think I only remember how glad I was when he signed up for us! Time flies I suppose. Doesn’t he look like Marcos Rojo’s brother now? Still a bit gutted but this was the BEST solution especially for us.
I don’t think it was the talks that were at fault here, we as a club failed and it was evident for everyone to see. I’m sure Sanchez did so as well and we are still miles away this season. Great players attract great players unfortunately we do not have many of them in the squad because those guys want to win things and we are not a club that will challange for that any time soon. Let’s forget the FA cups these are domestic, I’m talking about the PL and CL, these are the trophies that matter the most.
Anyway let’s hope we can still save this season and a massive welcome to Mkhitaryan!
UTA!
#26
On top of the “lost dressing room…”
I wonder if the Red tops are also full of the following
a) “Pool cannot do it on a wet night in Swansea”
b) “Klopp out”
c) “Liverpool in Crisis”
Bet they are are not…’cos it’s not Arsenal.
By the by do Klopp’s post match interviews remind anyone else of a harassed Stephen Merchant (from The Office / Extras etc) ?
Not sure how I feel about PEA. I mean the last time we signed an apparently money obsessed bling merchant with temperament problems it didn’t exactly go that well.
http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4370717.jpg
OM@37 I’m with you on Ozil signing or rather not signing. No one seems interested in paying money for him so he and his agent are content not to highlight this by keeping quiet, but at the same time not signing anything with us. I think plenty of clubs will be interested in having him for free though and he can then get his fee and up his wages. I don’t buy into him wanting to sign just because new players are coming in. Most footballers are not swayed by this at all.
If Mesut only passed to Alexis will he pass to anybody now?
More bad news.
AW has confirmed that Dead Shot Danny will not be leaving the club in January.
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At that first game I stood in the West Enclosure with my Dad. Early on Skirton attempted to go past Armfield only for Jimmy to block the ball and sending it into my Dad whose glasses were knocked off!
We didn’t form a positive view of Skirton on that occasion but subsequently he did very well for us . As Uply says he was a big unit and did come from Bath City. I have a memory that we ultimately sold him to Blackpool. I believe he is alive and well and living in the West Country.
More bad news. Kroenke has increased his stake by .04%.
Mine was an attempt at humour TTG. Yours @49 really is bad news.
Like death, taxes, and Arsene Wenger, Kroenke is one of life’s certainties for Arsenal fans. He’s going nowhere.
i dunno if we’re all better off knowing the minutiae
i think i was happier
bellowing on the terraces or at the tv
with minimal knowledge of the swan’s bottom half
fortunately i have a shocking memory
so precise details are temporary
but i’m still left with the background feeling of gloom
that comes from this feckin information tsunami
I think we’re better off knowing the minutiae, they’re a lovely family.
not that it was always a swan
oftentimes it was a duck
but at least that distinction
was gained
with yer eyeballs
on a saturday afternoon
53 ???
i can hear robert robinson introducing them
“and from ashby de la zouch ……”
cba,
The trouble with the swan of minutiae, is that it feeds from a flock of great crested tits ……
The Cheese Savour hails from Ashby de la Zouch.
Just one of it’s good points.
i can hear robert robinson introducing them
“and from ashby de la zouch ……”
Haha, how I miss that programme. “If a lift takes 24 seconds to travel from the first floor to the sixth floor, how long will it take a camel to travel from Zanzibar to Marrakesh, assuming they both travel at the same speed?”
The revamp was so dumbed down it was like The All New Adventures of Billy Shakespeare, starring Joey Essex.
Sky Sports News have naturally recruited every pundit they can find to confirm that we have the worst of the Sanchez – Mkhitaryan swop.
Conveniently they forget that Man Utd moved desperately to nick Mkhitaryan from under our noses by paying twice the transfer fee to Dortmund, and twice the wages we had offered to the player.
Having completely mismanaged and under utilised him, he is now made out to be a makeweight in the deal to take Sanchez from us. It might just yet turn out that, properly utilised, he adds more to our team than Sanchez will add to himself at United.
It is a great shame that we couldn’t keep a fully committed Sanchez, but it is clear his motivation is a mountain of wonga that we could never afford.
The problem with the whole issue was letting it rumble on so long – together with the Ozil situation – before decisive action was taken.
Given where it had got to, we seem to have done quite nicely.
As you’re an expert in these things, Cynic, if it takes three men a week to run a fortnight, how many oranges are there in a box of nails ? ?
Trev.
Unfair question. How big is the box???
18 yards, Steve – unless your name is Mike Dean …..
Cynic and Trev @59 and @61. I must pass along the excellent word problems along to my daughter’s math tutor. 😉
? chuckles various ?
In that case the answer is two. One pink and one furry.
And one of those is magnolia.
We’re going to Wembley, Kay sera sera! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I believe Wenger will bring the best out of him, He has a bright future at Arsenal . Welcome to the Emirates