Happy 4th, everyone! I’m down at some friends and we spent yesterday on the lake, so you can thank me for getting an instant classic.
They’ll ultimately be fine because they have a lot of talent, but if I were an Arsenal fan I’d be pretty worried about Rice and Saka for the upcoming season. They both seem pretty banged up and are going to continuing pushing through the pain. I feel like they’re going to miss some time after the WC ends. This is the cost of winning the title though, so they can’t be too sad haha all worth it I’m sure.
I think they were going to miss the start of the season regardless. But we have decent backups, with more players coming in, so hopefully the impact is negligible. We’ll see. I honestly feel pretty chill about next year. Would be nice to retain the title but if things don’t go to plan early on, that’s okay.
Apparently we’re leading Liverpool in the chase for Barcola. I’ve enjoyed watching him this tournament, actually, and he’s an improvement on Martinelli, who has sadly stagnated.
Barcola seems great and I’d obviously take him at Spurs and all that. But makes me slightly worried that PSG are willing to sell him.
Not at all. He’s brilliant in the right system and will probably go on to be an excellent player elsewhere. Arsenal face statistically far more and lower blocks than any other team in the PL. That just isn’t his game and he’s really struggled. Look at how many goals he scored in the CL this season, he was incredible in that competition. If he goes to a team where he has space to attack, he’ll be lethal.
Definitely wasn't suggesting he's a bad player, by the way, because even good players get "found out" at some point. I just thought that maybe his training in Brazil had finally caught up with him v elite players in a top league, but you're spot on about his CL form. What about somewhere like Milan as a Leao replacement?
That’s a very good shout! I’ve seen clubs in Germany linked to him too. Either way, glad he got a PL title before leaving cause he deserves it for all he’s done for us.