Morning campers! Tim Stillman right here for the ultimate time earlier than Andrew returns to the keyboard tomorrow. Yesterday I took within the delights of Sincil Financial institution to look at the Arsenal U21s tackle Lincoln Metropolis. Floor quantity 70 of the 92 and that, pricey reader, was your complete purpose that I went to the sport!
It was a extremely fascinating take a look at for the kids although, they misplaced to Bishop’s Stortford on Wednesday evening- which isn’t an enormously uncommon consequence at this stage of pre-season. We’re speaking about lads of 16 or 17 locking horns with totally developed and totally grown males accustomed to taking part in bodily soccer.
I used to be anticipating the kids getting a correct hammering (I as soon as watched an Arsenal XI crew containing Hector Bellerin and Serge Gnabry lose 7-0 to Luton City at this stage of pre-season- when Luton have been within the fifth tier). For the U21s to solely lose 2-1 to Lincoln having taken a second half lead was a really spectacular displaying. They managed the primary half however, as the sport wore on, the bodily benefits loved by a League One aspect one week away from the beginning of their season grew to become evident. An satisfying time out, all in all.
Onto issues extra senior and now the crew shall be totally gearing up for a few friendlies in opposition to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday and Lyon subsequent Sunday. Saka, Raya, Ramsdale and Rice have all returned to Colney and it is going to be actually fascinating to see what the following few weeks maintain for Aaron Ramsdale. I imply, his Arsenal future needs to be in some severe doubt however there are problems.
Firstly, Arsenal haven’t been capable of procure a alternative goalkeeper but, they haven’t even been capable of get the third selection goalkeeper they need with Wolves rejecting Arsenal’s bid of a bag of Maltesers, some coaching cones and William Saliba’s beard comb for Dan Bentley. Karl Hein has seemed good in pre-season however absolutely a part of the settlement that noticed him lengthen his contract this summer time was that he can be allowed to exit on mortgage.
Secondly, there simply don’t look to be numerous Premier League groups in search of goalkeepers, particularly with the wage Ramsdale shall be on having signed a brand new deal final Could. Had Newcastle made it into Europe this season, I do wonder if they may have been capable of stretch to bidding for Ramsdale. If I needed to make a prediction, I might say the goalkeeper merry-go-round may go till late within the window, with Ramsdale ultimately leaving on mortgage with a view to constructing his worth.
As a result of winter World Cup (in a European sense) in 2022, that is the primary time we should handle the affect of a summer time event for the gamers in three years. The 2021-22 season, you’ll recall, acquired off to a dreadful begin with three straight defeats however I believe that was a really completely different crew to the one we’ve got now. I additionally suppose that poor begin was a bit extra all the way down to late switch enterprise than poor bodily preparation. The present Arsenal squad is in much better form to deal with the affect of protracted switch enterprise.
Additionally returning to pre-season coaching this week are the Arsenal Girls, save for the gamers who’ve been taking part in within the Olympics, which has been a extremely poorly conceived and organised event. The schedule makes the video games troublesome for viewers to look at with video games overlapping, gamers being requested to play additional time in the midst of the summer time with solely squads of 18 permitted and absurd quantities of damage time being performed. The referee performed 18 additional minutes of stoppage time with Brazil hanging on to a 1-0 lead over France final evening.
Arsenal’s Emily Fox went off within the last minute of additional time throughout USA’s 1-0 win over Japan with what seemed like a knee damage. She is 25 and has already torn her ACL twice in her profession. I realise soccer isn’t and possibly shouldn’t be the centre piece of the Olympics however the girls’s soccer event has created undue welfare considerations for gamers for my part.
Anyway, the remainder of the AWFC squad return to coaching and, as we solely revealed on Arseblog Information final week, I’m anticipating them so as to add 21-year-old Swedish attacking midfielder Rosa Kafaji to their ranks and consider they are going to attempt to add yet one more participant on prime of that too. When you have any degree of curiosity within the girls’s crew, do bookmark our Arsenal Girls part on Arseblog Information, we expect some enterprise out and in to maneuver alongside within the subsequent couple of weeks because the squad takes form forward of the season beginning with a UWCL qualifier in opposition to Rangers on 4 September. They may play a few friendlies in Washington DC in the midst of this month too and we shall be in DC for the second of these in opposition to Chelsea on August 25.
Anyway, that may do from me immediately, Andrew- and regular service- returns tomorrow.
