Arsenal keeping tabs on La Liga midfielder
Arsenal are exploring the option of signing Argentine midfielder Guido Rodriguez from Real Betis, according to Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio.
The Gunners have been linked with the Betis man for several months now. And with their hopes of landing Manuel Locatelli from Italian side Sassuolo looking like an uphill battle, they are naturally exploring several options.
¡¡¡@Guido_Rodriguez has won the #CopaAmérica!!! 🇦🇷🏆🥇
Congratulations! 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/uK2Fq053cA
— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) July 11, 2021
Wolves’ Ruben Neves and Brighton’s Yves Bissouma have been heavily linked until now, and it remains to be seen whether Arsenal are just interested in Rodriguez or are they desperate to sign him.
The 26-year-old won the Copa America with Argentina this month and is open to leaving Spain for a new adventure. The North London outfit can provide him an exit route from Spain, where he has impressed many.
The Real Betis midfielder reportedly has a £68m release clause but the Spanish outfit are willing to accept an offer in the region of £25m.
The defensive midfielder, who came up through the youth ranks of Argentine club River Plate, has made 10 appearances for his national team and has 49 appearances for his current club in the La Liga
Rodriguez made the switch to Europe in January 2020 and has caught the eyes of several clubs in his short stint in the continent. He has a good range of passing in his pockets and is good at making tackles and interceptions too.
However, Guido Rodriguez is not the type of player that excites me. He is already 26 and I would rather see Yves Bissouma or even Ruben Neves at the Emirates Stadium next season. Both are Premier League proven and are younger than the Argentine.
Signing either of Bissouma or Neves seems more rational to me. What are your thoughts?
Drop down in the comments section below…
It please @dan could you create this coming prediction league in groups of maybe 10 ppl per group in format of a league and at the end of the season you will have the top four of each group qualify for the champions league. Just a thought,
That makes sense. I would also suggest he gets everyone who is interested in participating to indicate, so we know the number of people who would be participating, and that would make his job easier, help us know who would go all the way. Not people dropping out after one prediction or coming on and off, like any time they feel like. We need everyone to be committed all through the season. 20/30 serious0 people will make a lot of sense My opinion though.
Yves Bissouma is my 100% choice to partner with Thomas Partey in a 4-2-3-1 Formation.
I love bissouma,but there is afcon by January,how do we cope without him, partey,Pepe,aubamenyand nd elneny
Yes, we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot if we sign an AFCON-bound DM like Bissouma. Neves is an EPL deep-lying playmaker, but I doubt his defending abilities
We’d better utilize Maitland-Niles as DM, since he played well against Hibernian and in 2019. We’ve also got similar midfielders like Lokonga, Elneny, Willock, Torreira, Chambers, Henry-Francis and Azeez, so we shouldn’t waste the budget on another right-footed DM
Since Xhaka is leaving, we need to find another left-footed DM instead. 50 M will be enough to buy Fabian Ruiz Pena, Eduardo Camavinga, Ivan Ilic, Maximilian Arnold, Kerem Demirbay or Teun Koopmeiners
Yes keep Maitland-Niles. Very skilful and flexible player. I’ve always rated him highly. Maitland-Niles can play more positions.
With this kind of thinking aston villa will be better than arsenal next season
Ben, I am with you on that. At some point I too believed niles has a point to prove at Arsenal but instead he is just proving me wrong day by day.
I am left footed my name is Ray
You can add me to the list
Ha hah ha!
Gai
Hope Arteta reasons with you. But really, a defensive midfielder only needs to be very skillful like former Arsenal Stewart Alex Song not necessarily left footed. Neves will be a good addition and he can improve on his defensive awareness. Locatelli is another option; but he seems to prefer Juventus. Arteta needs to be dynamic in his tactics.
There are plenty of choices, all the powers that be at Arsenal have to do is “choose wisely”, as the old crusader said to Indiana Jones.
Choosing no one is not an option for this coming season.
lets signed EPL proven players only then for every role striker, gk, midfielders and defenders
It’s a bit more complicated. There have been plenty of PL proven players who moved clubs and dropped off – eg schneiderlin at Utd, or Ings at Liverpool. I’d say the risk of signing players who did well at other PL clubs is not that much smaller than buying from abroad – either way requires good scouting to make sure they’re a good fit for the club.
Also, if we take a model of only signing PL “proven” players, then we’re basically saying we can’t scout our signings properly (which appears to be the case) so we’ll let other clubs pay relatively little for their lesser known signings, and then pay through the nose once those players prove themselves – is Arsenal rich enough to take on that model? That sounds more like Man City, and even they scout their signings very very well (and still occasionally make moves that don’t work out as hoped)
The answer is to improve our scouting and find players with the right abilities, playing style and mentality to improve the squad, not just look at someone doing well at Brighton or whoever and expect them to play the exact same way at arsenal.
I completely agree with you, spot on. We should try to find players with the right attributes, mentality and more importantly, to scout players that can play the exact role we want them to play (irrespective of where they played in the past, we need to focus on the actual ability demonstrated elsewhere and judge if their form can be replicated or amplified here). I ve been hearing that we need a “xhaka replacement” or a left footed cm/cdm/cam. Why? why would you need a like for like replacement on a player that failed miserably to have any positive impact on our squad, instead of searching for a player with different attributes that compliments our game plan and current midfield options?
Guido Rodriguez is in the same category as locatteli in my opinion.
If I was arsenal we would pass on locatteli, for so long he and his agent has been playing with arsenal..go and sign bissouma if Brighton will accept a fee in the region of 25m. Otherwise use Maitland Niles there and use the funds we have to push for Madison or grealish. That would be some statement of intent. Hell yeah chambers could even play along with partey in midfield. Chamber is a good player whom I believe injury really stalled his development. His technique for a defensive minded player is second to none. We should look to sign ACM,rb,and gk. I’m assuming Ben white deal is done otherwise a cb. And a right winger if nelson is going out on loan. That would leave us only pepe and Saka as both lw and rw. I’m already seeing willian as not our player as I think he is going. What if Tavares can play lw seeing he’s very good with dribbling. Just thinking out Loud.
Naves is the type but if u sign both Aouar for roll no,10 the better. Niles has committed suecide and kill his career by seeing by himself he is a midfielder and is a good defender who everyone trusted when he was at back.
My lineup,Leno, Chembers, Gabriel, Benwhite,perty,saka ,Naves ,Auba,Aouar,pepe.Subs.Smeethrow, Cedric,Holding,Mari,Luca,martarnell,Balacona andGk