Pre-Season Gets Competitive And Wherefore Art Thou, Ivan
Jul 25th, 2018 by 'holic
In less than 24 hours we get our first look at Unai Emery’s Arsenal against a quality opponent. Atletico Madrid were too good for us in last year’s Europa League semi-final and we have a chance to respond in whatever the International Champions Cup is in Singapore. I for one, and I know many of you, can’t wait to see how we are shaping up to the start of the Premier League season in just a fortnight from this coming Sunday.
The pre-season appears to be shaping up well. The spirit in the camp appears high, at least as exhibited by the daily videos on the Arsenal Player. We will also face PSG, Chelsea, and Lazio in the next fortnight. So plenty of chances to rotate as players conditioning is at various stages.
How will the new manager set his side up like for the Thursday lunchtime clash, British summertime. There is no Lucas Torreira or Danny Welbeck, still holidaying after the World Cup. Mesut Ozil may start from the bench if he is thought to need a few more days to sharpen himself up after the distractions he has faced of late. I have no doubt he will be the first name on the team-sheet against Manchester City.
Pure guesswork, but I will go with Petr Cech behind a back four of Hector Bellerin, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Konstantinos Mavropanos, and Jordi Osei-Tutu. A midfield pairing of Mohammed Elneny and Aaron Ramsey behind Emile Smith-Rowe could support a front three of Henrykh Mkhitaryan, Alexander Lacazette, and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang. Prepare for plenty of substitutions after the break.
As well as the players and coaching staff Ivan Gazidis is also on the tour, and remaining tight-lipped over the ever-increasing links to AC Milan in the Italian press. His silence could be construed one of two ways. Indeed Sir Chips Keswick felt compelled to issue a statement on the matter today (Wednesday) although it allowed sufficient vagueness to enable further speculation.
There are two schools of thought. The first being that he is using Milan’s interest to get a much improved contract out of Stan Kroenke as his current one expires later this year. Milan face FFP penalties right now that will hamper any quick fix to their footballing ailments. On the other hand Gazidis has won his battle for power at the Arsenal. He would be a fool to go, right?
An interesting alternative has appeared today, as far as I can see. Gazidis is being lured to Italy with the promise of a percentage of the profit should Milan be turned around sufficiently to make a lucrative sale happen for the new owners, Elliott Management Corporation. Now that may make him consider that at the Arsenal he has put his new structure in place and could move on in case it doesn’t work out and avoid the backlash?
You pays your money, you takes your choice. I’m still confident he will stay and is just haggling over his next deal. That percentage though. Very interesting.
Those of you who will not be working and can access Premier Sports in the UK should be able to watch it if you are a Virgin customer, I’m told. I hope that is accurate or I have just wasted a few quid on mobile wifi for tomorrow!
Have a good one, ‘holics.
42 Responses to “Pre-Season Gets Competitive And Wherefore Art Thou, Ivan”
Arsenal News 24/7
Nice to be back with a preview and an optimistic one. These early games are very experimental and Atlético will be considerably weakened too but let’s hope the Emery era continues in an upbeat way
[…] Link: Pre-Season Gets Competitive And Wherefore Art Thou, Ivan […]
Evening H
Trust you are well my friend,
Cracking British Open just finished,Wimbledon already a distant memory,England readying for a 5 Test cricket marathon against India,and another season of football almost upon us.
What’s not to like.
And after 20 or more wonderful/exciting/frustrating years,we have a bright shiny new Manager brimming with fresh ideas and formations,new players to inject a bit of steel and winning culture into our perennial underachievers,and 3 opening games against 2 of our top 4 rivals for CL places,and a London derby with a rebuilt Hammers side and a new manager who has already spent 100 mil in the transfer market and doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. !!
It will be fascinating to see it all unfold through pre season,trying to work out what the likely first eleven lineup will be when the boys run out against City on Sunday 12th August.
Will Ivan still be with is,will Rambo,will we make any late signing before the transfer window closes,how many are going out the door.??
It’s enough to make a man dizzy, with all the pieces of the puzzle still
not quite finished making up the final picture.
All will be revealed on the 2nd Sunday in August.
Your excellent preview shows that your own preseason work-up to the new season is going well, H. I hope the squad are as match-ready and able to give Atletico a pasting to make up for last season’s disappointment.
COYG!
Is Premier Sports via Virgin the only option for live viewing?
The Keswick statement said to me, Ivan’s had an offer he will take; we are trying to keep him; but we are far from certain that we will.
One for TTG: if Gazidis goes, who becomes chief executive? Josh Kroenke? Is he experienced enough? Would he give up his day jobs in Denver as president of his father’s basketball and hockey teams there? More to the point, would he give up his strategy role with KSE and KSE UK to do the day to day donkey work of a line CEO? Or does Sanlhei’s job morph into something approaching a chief executive’s role? Is there an internal promotion —Wisely, Venkatesham or Saving? Is someone brought in from outside, with the uncertainty and risk that involves? Or will the structure change to be more like a US pro sports franchise where the president, general manager and coach are the ruling trinity.
Yin walks into a psychiatrist’s office…
…while the Yang walks out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqTOYtN5cIs
Cherrs Holic !
Back in the old routine and straight back in form ??
I’m in the West Country this week with a WiFi that appears to stand for WIllitFIkkin work or not this time ? No idea whether I’ll be able to find a reliable stream or not but can’t wait to see how we shape up.
What does WiFi actually stand for, anyway ? ?
Thanks for the preview Guvnor.
Curious to see how we line up
but not too bothered about the
result. Not bothered at all about
Ivan to AC Milan. After several
years of doing nothing, Ivan
did something, the results of
which remain to be seen.
Ivan set his own performance
bar so low that actually doing
something is considered laudable
– a neat trick really and one of
his key strengths next to waffling
and ass-kissing.
Didn’t Welbeck have enough of a holiday AT the World Cup, ffs?
Just a reminder for those who can’t be arsed with Arsenal Player that Premier Sport is showing our games and that after losing all those UKTV channels, Premier Sport has been added to some, if not all, Virgin Media tv bundles free of charge, at least for a short while.
In HD too.
Looking at Holic’s starting XI, here’s a question (actually two) for Ned’s monks: what’s the record for the most syllables in an Arsenal starting lineup, most letters?
What does WiFi actually stand for, anyway ?
It’s Latin.
Wireless Interruptus Fuckin Internettus
Atleti 1:0 at the 40′
Guendouzi is a better Felliani.. 🙂
guendouzi is good
defence on the other hand…
Smith-Rowe with a belter 1:1
Smith Rowe just scored an Mbappe like goal…. We have superb talent!
😀
rowe!
Bosh! Get in Emile Smith-Rowe!
Cech brilliant… the rest of the defence is another matter…
penalties then
So the website says it’s Emile Smith-Rowe. The premier sports commentator has insisted through the whole game that it’s Ernie.
Enjoyable first pre season game.
Holy shit Cech saved a penalty!
Good run out. Encouraging performances by ESR, Guendouzi, Nelson, Laca and PEA. None of the defence set the heather on fire. Leno had no chance with the goal and no opportunities to show his talent. The result of the pens doesn’t matter as few of those players will take our penalties during the season. Much to take encouragement from.
On the other hand the commentator and that biased Oirish twat Andrews reminded me how low they can go.
Let’s hope we’re not in too many penalty
shoot-outs this season
They can’t stop the season from getting closer and closer.
Ah, cheers fellas.
Missed the entire thing thanks to my Internettus Interruptus (Cynic). It actually never got going to even be interrupted ?
Saw a clip of the ESR goal – wow !
Looks like he could be Emile Saville-Rowe if he can do that on a consistent basis.
I’ve been an ESR fan since I saw him dribble past six players in the Youth Cup semi to earn a penalty. He’s the real deal. He could be starting this season if he maintains his trajectory. I saw his goal but nothing else. My mate is raving about Guendouzi .
Ned
I don’t think Gazidis will leave but if he did it may well be Kroenke Jr who takes over. If he did it might mean we get a lot of attention in the Kroenke empire but Sanllehi has a lot of experience at a big club and I’d pick him
Thanks, TTG. What you say makes a lot of sense. If Josh Kroenke does become CEO, my impression on the basis of his Denver roles is that it would be more the strategist than operations type as he seem more absorbed by the media and innovation side of things than the nitty gritty of running football club.
Reine-Adelaide sold to Angers. Opens up a first-team slot for ESR or Reiss Nelson
Potsticker@12: This is the answer to not quite the question you asked, but its hot and the monks have cold beers to drink:
If you were to pick the eleven players which the most letters in their name who have played a competitive first team game for the club, and using their common names for the count, your side would be:
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Giovanni van Bronkhorst
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Konstantinos Mavropanos
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Charlie Satterthwaite
Efstathios Tavlaridis
Martin Angha-Lotscher
Then any three of:
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie
Sebastian Squillaci
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
Alexander Lacazette
Not sure who would play in goal, though. Wojciech Szczesny seems to be our longest named keeper, but he bare makes the top 40 of the longest named players..
Once our new signings qualify:
Sokratis Papastathopoulos and
Stephan Lichtsteiner
would go straight in to the team and you would need only one of the five with 18 letters in their name.
It’s an ever changing world football. On the day that a new potential 17 year-old star emerges the Jeff leaves for Angers. Remember the excitement when he broke through at the Emirates Cup, he looked a sublime talent but the next time I saw him he was very ordinary and has never reached those early heights again. I wish Jeff well but I suspect his career will be modest.
ESR on the other hand really does look special . As LJW’s story shows there are many bends in the road to superstardom but this boy really excited this old Arsenal fan as soon as I saw him and his goal today underlines his talent. I hope Emery exercises better judgement than Arsene did with LJW. That may seem a cruel observation but I think he overplayed a developing Jack which led to his injury problems. Let’s hope Emile gets the chance to be a serious talent for us
TTG@33, I think you might be spot on about the Jeff. He’s not broken through with us. He only got seven starts on loan to Angers last season and didn’t once complete 90 minutes. Still Angers must see enough there to take him permanently. No word on the fee. At 20, and not even one Premier league game under his belt, you can understand his wish to move onto regular first-team football. (And of course next thing you know he will be the star of France’s successful defence of its World Cup in 2022!)
TTG@33 I share your enthusiasm about ESR as I did about LJW when he came to the fore in the youth team when that was televised on ArsenalTV.
You are almost certainly correct that he was overplayed far too early in his career and became the target of too many opposition thugs as a result. Playing for Arsenal meant he had little protection from the custodians of the laws of he game and those games were, if I remember correctly not simply a consequence of his precocious talent but also the combination of CF4 jumping ship and several long-term MF injuries.
Ironic that the twitter sphere is today praising Emery for giving youth a chance ‘unlike his predecessor’. Bias certainly distorts memories.
I sincerely hope that ESR has more luck.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
used to be a genius
Ned @32.
So that’s what Tavlaridis’ first name was. It is never too late to earn an education.
Ned@32: please congratulate the monks on their excellent work. I see from Wikipedia (yes, I know) that Lauren is actually Laureano Etame-Mayer and under that name he would be in the first team with long names. I won’t trouble the monks for the team with the shortest names, but surely it would include Edu.
Potsticker@38, on the common names criteria Edu is indeed our player with the shortest name, though his full monicker was Eduardo César Daude Gaspar. Seven letters max gets a place in the short-name side. Seventeen qualified players.
bt8@37: That will teach you to frequent this establishment. 🙂
Jeff leaves for Angers
Let’s hope he thinks only of the future and doesn’t *ahem* look back in Angers
Preseason it was and let it be that. Laca and Auba enjoy each other’s company ( no pun intended) and it augurs well for us as it feels neither one minds moving wide for the sake of the other. Guendouzi reminds me of jack except the ability to dribble, he allows the ball to run and he stays still fooling the defenders, good signs but hopefully, he ain’t fragile like dear Jack was.
Defence is why we haven’t won in years and if we want to genuinely challenge this season, we need another CB. Kolasinac is an average defender and the less said about Mustafi, the better. Dont want to start of with a whine but please sort out the defence Unai, rest looks good.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>