Morning all. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’re doing ok today.
Perhaps I should write more blogs about nothing happening, because I did that yesterday and then stuff happened. I can’t really take the credit for that, it’s just coincidence, but on the off-chance I was bitten by a radioactive spider on my holidays and this is now my super-power, I’ll give it another try during some other quiet period of the summer.
So, yesterday morning a story broke in the Danish press about how Arsenal had made an offer for Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard. At first, I was a bit skeptical, but asked a couple of questions to some people who know stuff (James), and became less so. Then David Ornstein dropped a message about how we were ‘exploring a deal’; a few hours after that he said Arsenal were ‘close to an agreement’ with Brentford; and by last night it was a question of ‘finalising’ that agreement and working out the details of the contract with the Danish international.
I think, unless there’s some kind of breakdown – which I wouldn’t anticipate but you never know – Norgaard will be an Arsenal player. At 31 he’s not really one for the future, but then the role he’s being asked to fill at the club is likely to be one that is probably best suited to an experienced player. More on that anon, but the sidebar to all this is that Arsenal are doing a deal with Norgaard because they couldn’t agree terms with Thomas Partey who, as Fabrizio Romano reported last night, is set to leave the club.
It seems pretty obvious that if we’re bringing in a midfielder of this profile, it’s to add another experienced head to that part of the pitch. What I would say though is that Norgaard is not replacing Partey, per se. Martin Zubimendi is his replacement, the man who will start most of our important games anchoring the midfield. Norgaard is taking Jorginho’s place in the squad, and on that basis, I think it’s a pretty smart deal. The fee is fine, I don’t think he’s gonna be looking for mega-money in wages, and he has a lot of Premier League and international experience. If you haven’t been paying attention at the back, you should know those are things Mikel Arteta values very highly.
Personally, I can see a world where this particular signing is one that’s a bit more attacking minded. That tricky, skillful left-8 that many covet, myself included, leaving Declan Rice as the other option at 6. It’s not a world where Arteta is the Arsenal boss though, so it’s projection really. What I would do, and what he does are quite distinct. The other thing to bear in mind is that I suspect a significant part of the manager’s plans for next season involve having Zubimendi and Rice on the pitch together as much as possible, rather than using the England international as the de facto back-up for the new man – which is what you’d need to do if you signed that more attacking player.
I think it’s because Arteta views Rice as someone who can score goals from midfield, and who has become more reliable in that aspect of his game. In his first season he got 7, last season he scored 9, and my sense is that the manager believes there’s more to come from him in that regard. If we think about the ways Zubimendi might impact the team and do things differently from Partey, I reckon Rice being even more advanced is part of the plan. So, with him in mind, with Mikel Merino, Ethan Nwaneri and Kai Havertz all options for that position too, it’s hard to see how another player would fit, given how Arteta has constructed the squad.
As for Partey leaving, I’m absolutely fine with that. As I’ve said all summer, I think it’s time for us to move on. He’s 32, there were clear signs last season that the legs were getting heavier, and if he really wanted more money than he was already on to be a back-up squad player then there’s no real justification for any kind of new deal. Sometimes there are things you can say and things you can’t say about a player, and for me there’s far too much of the latter in his case. Him leaving is the best thing, in my opinion, and my strong belief is that it should never have been an option given the expiration date of his contract.
As for the other stuff, there’s not much happening there, so maybe my new found powers will help. Benjamin Sesko has started following Arsenal on Instagram, but Viktor Gyokeres is looking for guard dogs in London. I heard from someone whose sister works at LinkedIn that their friend who is the head of social parterships at Snapchat works with a cousin of the security guard at London Colney and he said that on his MySpace page a player’s agent said ‘Watch this space’ before linking to his Bebo and there was a picture of Mikel Arteta on his phone checking out his Tumblr page. So, I think that clears everything up.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We’ll have an Arsecast for you a bit later on, so stand-by for that. Have a good one!
