Arsenal’s push to sign 28-year-old Mikel Merino may have surprised many, not because he isn’t a qualified option to step in at Arsenal LCM but because of his age.
Though there have been unexpected additions of Leandro Trossard and Jorginho, Arsenal has always looked to signing young, quality players who can run the show at the Emirates Stadium for years to come.
So why choose Merino when Arsenal could go for a younger LCM, thus chasing young players like PSG’s Xavi Simons? One could argue that we want the Merino deal because of his quality. Apart from the obvious rationale, there could be another compelling reason.
Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, two academy midfielders, will hopefully receive promotions to the first team next season. Don’t you think Mikel Merino’s age makes him a market opportunity for Arsenal? If the club actually believed in Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, signing a younger midfielder would have hampered their development.
Imagine a scenario where the club relies on Merino for the next 3–4 years while simultaneously developing two young midfielders who can replace him by staying in the first-team environment and making frequent cameo appearances.
It is past time to rethink our policy of promoting academy players into the first team and having them play an understudy role, like Phil Foden did at Manchester City for years before he earned his spot.
Do you agree that Arsenal should promote 1 or 2 top academy stars to the first team every season?
Daniel O
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Merino looks like a very similar signing to Trossard, bringing in an older player who has a lot of experience but still a lot to prove to compete for a first team place. Merino will find it hard to get one but it did not stop Trossard who took opportunities where he could find them until he eventually was preferred to Martinelli.
What youngsters? All our players have at least three years of first team experience. We haven’t blooded any one new for years.Get a grip. Merino should only be signed on the merits he can bring. Is he a game changer or as mentioned above only a sometimes player like Trossard or Jorghino.
I would much rather have Eze but if we are dealing ESR to Fulham it may unfortunately be much less likely now. I suspect Merino could fit in however I’m not convinced that Merino would make a significant impact as his only PL experience was not very noteworthy (albeit at Newcastle). As always we’ll just have to find out and hope for the best.
As long as the hot prospects don’t leave Arsenal
Which might happen if we go trophy less again this season ,there’s only so many phases players and fans can take .
What we on now phase 27 ?
We are well past phases. Think in terms of moving goalposts instead.
Phases are finite and come with expectations, but if you continue moving goalposts you can always change the narrative to fit the situation.
The club learned after Wenger and Emery; no more public statements about minimum acceptable results. Best not to put expectations out there, better to not pressure the team.
Durand ,there are still fans that believe in this whole phases – process b0llocks ,like you said ,sold to the masses to try and get fans back on board ,but unless results and trophies come in words are completely meaningless,and you have to give it to Arteta he talks a great game
The youngsters might stay if they get paid well, despite the lack of major trophies
Most EPL players should realize that the league is a one-horse race now
If there is any truth to these Merino links then our transfer strategy is depth over upgrades. ( how many left backs or left centre backs does a club need?)
The only possibility of Merino becoming a starter is if Rice is burnt out or injured.
They both play the left 8 and neither are a 6 and I can’t see Merino displacing Rice considering he had a near perfect season.
So, unless Jorginho or Partey leaves then there will not be an upgrade in the 6.
How is Rice not A Six? Where has he played most of his career and for Arsenal ? He only got moved there because the experiment with Kia did not work. By the way, Merino is no Six, Zubimendi plays that Role for them or gets dropped back to partner Zubimendi as a double pivot when they switch to defensive and control. Do some of us really observe the game properly?
I agree with you Durand regarding the goalposts and DK regarding the phases.
I’d never heard about the phases, until we were told phase four was about to be implemented…. which meant that the goalposts has been rearranged!!
My questions to you both now though, is does that matter?
I’ve watched some great football these last two seasons, watched the club and fans unite and seen the owners finally decide to invest the money needed to see the club become relevant after six years of PL mediocrity (Arsene’s two last seasons, UE’s one and a half and MA’s first two and a half seasons).
I stick by my views regarding the way the owners and MA have, previously, stretched the fans loyalty to the limit, but now’s the time to move on in my opinion.
I fully expect to see The Arsenal win the PL or the CL next season and if we don’t, there cannot be anymore goalpost arrangements or extra phases – but I’m certainly going to enjoy the coming season, as I have the last two seasons.
However, if MA fails to deliver, it won’t be because he didn’t promote our young players, it will because his project has failed after six seasons, despite goalposts, phases and over a billion spent on players (Goonster 👍)… in my opinion.
so for the avoidance of doubt, not winning PL or CL this season is failure – ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer only please
Oops, didn’t realize I was back at school and you were the teacher 😂😂😂
Just to humour you and your obnoxious attitude though, the answer is YES – not at all surprised you couldn’t work that out in the first place though 🤔
so 85 teams out of the 86 teams in Football League are failures
including Arsenal are failures
So pleased you take such notice of, not only my posts, but my handle as well.
If you knew in the first place why waste my time 🤡
I’m not bothered about any other club, as you seem to be, but each to their own.
By the way, you don’t need to make each sentence a separate post – it’s called grown up thinking and writing.
As you can see, I’m able to do it, so please try it for yourself… Oh and punctuations, along with starting your sentences with a capital letter might help make sense of your words – heaven knows something needs to help you.
By the way, 85 teams can’t win the PL, as there are only 19 teams in said PL!!
I understand you get easily confused, but please try and keep up with the grown ups.
Here’s a tip, you can’t presume something and then say it shows, if you don’t actually know what it means – some real education needed 1886 and all that!
Don’t rise Ken👍
Hard not to NB, when some squirt, who can’t even write correctly, tries to be smart while making a fool of himself !!
But I take your advice on board and resolve not to participate with him any further.
Ken
It’s time to see results from the changes made at Arsenal.
I never took it seriously when Arteta claimed CL trophy in 3 years when he joined. However, I don’t think it unreasonable to mention silverware after spending nearly 1 billion (after this Summer), while having control decisions and ripping up contracts to move some on.
Battling for the title until the last week is a must, but no one is guaranteed. An FA Cup would be a triumph, but we have faltered under Arteta and his chosen players.
Odd how some are not too fussed, wonder if they were ok with top 4 trophy; because that’s all Arteta has delivered.
The football is enjoyable, but it also was enjoyable watching Wenger’s teams; and they didn’t cost 1 billion to finish 2nd.
Durand, I agree it’s time for results and battling ti the last game of the season while playing exciting football and we got that last season.
Of course I agree that, with the money spent, that’s what we SHOULD be getting, but some fans don’t see that as a yardstick to measure MA by!!
I also agree that we were entertained by the AW squads, no matter who they were, but the weird thing is that we had fans calling Le Prof out for NOT spending the money that they assumed was there.
As I said, it’s now time to see all the investment, phases and whatever else to be turned into trophies and, if we don’t win something like the PL, CL or the FA cup, we will have failed and it will then be time to take stock.
@ Ken…. I expect you to see things better and in a more realistic view. It’s too early to start holding the manager’s neck for not winning the league although I admit that’s now the target but it’s not yet do or die period.
If you’re only interested in money spent we’re not the only club spending as a matter of fact we are just a beginner in the big spending club league. Manure have been spending big for many seasons just to return to their former glory days and up till now they’re still spending but they haven’t achieve the goal yet. Same thing applied to Boeley’s Chelsea, PSG also. All these points to the fact that even though money often buy success in football is not 100% guarantee.
Secondly, I mentioned that it’s too early to start holding the manager’s neck for not winning the league that’s because winning the league only become a realistic target at the beginning of the just concluded season. Our title challenge run two seasons ago is out of the blue nobody expect it not even the fans or the club itself. I remembered that at the beginning of that season the target is top four but we exceed all expectations and compete for the league. Hence, realistically we have only failed the target for just a season.
Another factor to consider is the brilliance of man City. I often said if klopp who I rate higher as a coach than Arteta and his team which at their prime is one of the best team in Europe can only be reduced to one league tittle in 9 season by man city that shows how tough it is to beat them. They’re just so good under the best manager in the world.
Now am not saying we can’t beat them to the league am emphasizing how big a challenge it is. The good thing about this is that the coach himself is a self critique person. I listened to his end of the season speech and how he admitted that his team has failed this season but they’re going for it again next season because now that’s the standard but it’s not yet time to start going overboard for not winning the league. To me personally, all I want is a trophy of any color at the end of May next year.