Morning all.
Sorry for the lateness of today’s blog, but I slept it out. Or slept in. What is the difference there? Is there a distinction? Maybe sleeping in feels more deliberate, and sleeping it out is more accidental? I don’t know. And let me perfectly honest, I don’t care. I think I was mostly just catching up on sleep I didn’t get last weekend.
My body has been telling me some things this week. Primary of which is that when you get to a certain age you can’t go out on Thursday night, and Friday night, and Saturday night, and all day Sunday, and also Monday night when you get home, without paying some kind of price. I would gladly have laid out a significant sum of European currency to avoid how I felt all this week, but sadly that’s not how it works.
As it’s the first Saturday of the off-season, there’s not a huge amount going on, so let’s try and round-up the few bits and pieces that are making news. First, Fabrizio Romano – transfer guru and Cameo star – says that Thomas Partey will leave the club in the summer, with a couple of Italian clubs interested in the 30 year old. With just a year left on his contract, and no desire on Arsenal’s part to extend that, it makes perfect sense to take some cash and go in a different direction.
He missed most of last season through injury, and even though he returned to play a part in the run-in, he looked like someone whose legs have atrophied during his time off. Players ran past him with ease, and he couldn’t do much about it except make fouls. With strong links to viable replacements, including Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes, if Arsenal can get some money in, and go full DiCaprio (replacing an existing relationship with a younger model), then I’m all for it.
Charles Watts reports Arsenal are to hold talks with Emile Smith Rowe and his representatives to see what happens next with him. I thought it was interesting that when we needed a goal against Everton on the final day, he was the first attacking midfield sub we made. Does that show there’s still some faith there from the manager? I’d say so, but the question is more about what happens next season for him, because he hasn’t played anywhere near as much as he’d like. He got just 474 minutes in all competitions, and even with some injury absences, that’s not great.
There’s certainly a question mark over his future, and if he went elsewhere you could understand it. But where would that leave Arsenal? Not least because there’s a similar, perhaps bigger, question mark over Fabio Vieira, and it would be a lot to let both of them go in one summer. James did a player by player piece in the The Athletic (£) about how might stay and who might go, and his comment about the Portuguese midfielder stood out to me. He said, “His performances in training have not enabled him to sustain his position in Arteta’s pecking order.”
You don’t need a first class honours degree in reading between the lines to figure out what’s going on there. Vieira had knee surgery at the end of last year, but was back in the squad in February. He played 54 minutes of the 1170 minutes he was available for in the Premier League, and zero minutes in the Champions League. He simply didn’t get picked, and he looks like someone who has lost the trust of the manager. We have a good idea of what happens in circumstances like this, and it doesn’t augur well for him. I think he’s clearly got technical ability and plenty of talent, but in this Arsenal side you can’t shirk the hard work, and if he’s not doing enough in that sense, this is how it plays out.
As I said though, it would be a lot to lose both of them, so let’s see what happens with Smith Rowe, and perhaps some of Arsenal’s decision making will be informed by how ready they think Ethan Nwaneri is to push on and take a first team squad place next season.
And that’s really about it, other than I have to say the timing of stories coming out of Man Utd about how Erik ten Hag is going to be sacked are *chefs kiss*. Right before a cup final. What a clown show. I will admit, I’m sorry to see him go, I really thought he was the perfect manager for them. Another few years and they could have won the title. League One title, sure, but it’s still a cup.
Right, have a great Saturday folks, and if you haven’t seen it already, we’ve released last week’s live show at Ally Pally as a podcast, and you can see the full video on YouTube too. Till tomorrow.
