Arsenal News Show: Simon Rolfes new Sporting director? | Ben White's 2024 is OVER!

It doesn't seem to be a dull day where Arsenal Football Club are concerned even during this international break. Allegedly, Benjamin White's recovery will take longer than expected and potentially his 2024 or what's left of it is over. The ITKs of this world are saying Izak is our number one target, where have we heard that before? And we've been linked once again with more sporting directors, people. Obviously, Edu is currently serving gardening leave, but it was announced a week or two ago that he'd be leaving. The world of football has been a madness. You know, you've seen audio footage come out in relation to Saliba, the whole heap of injuries connected to this Arsenal Football Club. Whether it's January or in the summer, we've been linked with several players. Allegedly, the Cronkies and the Arsenal decision-makers are having a meeting. And yeah, obviously we're nervous in relation to what's left of the league. You know, there's about 27, 28 more games left of the league campaign. We've only played give or take 10 or 11 and think about all the different talking points, but forget all of that. Smash the like button. Let me know your thoughts. People get the creative juices flowing. We need to get to 70k. So I'd appreciate if you turn on your notification bells and smash the like button. Let me share my screen and let's crack on now. Sammy Moatbell of the Daily Mail has been speaking about a couple of things directly and indirectly that affect our football club. It's behind the paywall. So I've used removed paywall, obviously. Don't shoot me, but you get it. It is what it is, people. Completely off topic, but Brighton have apparently sacked off a lot of their scouts. Why don't we employ a couple like Arsenal? But anyways, people, let's see exactly what this is. Arsenal eye-up Edu Replacement. Bayern Leverkusen's managing apologies director of sports, Simon Roos, forgive me for mispronunciation, I'm sure he's a former player, is among the early names on Arsenal's radar as they begin the process of replacing Edu. I mean, similar to Arsenal, I'm sure he was involved, I could be wrong, in bringing in Xabi Alonso. And we all know Leverkusen, you know, they bought players like Bonaface, you know, that was playing in Belgium, I believe, obviously of Nigerian heritage, bought a number of South American players. They've bought a lot of emerging talents that have amassed a decent squad and indirectly, that's what we want to do or aspire to do. As well as, can we just get the checks out and sign Izak Okudus and all of these things, people. The Mail Sport exclusively revealed last week that Edu was departing the Emirates Stadium to take a new global position with a multi-club structure, potentially with Greek businessman Ivan Gelos Marinkas, pardon me, stable of clubs, which include Nottingham Forest, as we know. Arsenal executives are in LA this week for talks with the club's ownership of how they look to replace Edu, sure to be on the agenda. Mail Sport understands Roos is among those who has admirers behind the scenes at Arsenal as they start the process of identifying candidates for the vacancy. And I mean, time is kind in that he's in his early 40s. Under Roos, who played 26 times for Germany, knew Arsenal play. Leverkusen have broken Bayern Munich's stranglehold on the Bundesliga title as the team coached by Xabi Alonso won their first domestic title last season. Big up Leverkusen, great achievement and big up our boy Xhaka. But a bit overdoing it, broken the stranglehold, if I'm honest with you. Until I see a team win about 20 million Bundesligas in a row, like Bayern Munich, I'm not too sure how far that goes. But journalists will be journalists, people. And his work at Leverkusen has not gone unnoticed behind the emirates as they get to grips with the sort of profile of candidates they look to appoint. Real Sociedad's director of football Roberto Alebi is also likely to emerge as a contender following his decision to leave the La Liga club at the end of the season, which is interesting. We've been linked with, you know, obviously Mr Roos. We've been linked with Tim Steyden. We've been linked with Monaco's Thiago Squero. Again, I'm butchering names. Forgive me if I'm wrong. We've been linked with a couple of people, only God knows, and those who they're probably eyeing up people. I just quickly typed his name on Google people just to see if we can find anything. I should probably make a video kind of delving a bit more in depth on this people, all the CEOs we've been linked to. But yeah, he helped bring in Xabi Alonso. He's been, you know, apparently he helped sign Tats Soba, who he was linked with, Palacios. Obviously, I don't really rate Schrick, but he's done all right. Jeremy Frimpong, Hinke P, and a bunch of players have come in and done well and enhanced their reputations in which I won't ask them to go out and sign a Kudas. Kudas is like a Yokore's, relative household names. But you know me, people. I love the emerging kind of talents and, you know, for different reasons, Salih Baba, Kyle Saka, Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, you know, to a degree when he was here and playing Smith Rowe, Benjamin White. We brought him off the back of one Premier League season. Guys that are not quite held in high regards. Of course, we signed some for some big money. They've done all right and their reputations have enhanced and grew and stuff. So it ticks in. He also helped sign Bonaface, Granit Xhaka and Guilmando, as we know, people. So he's clearly competent. I mean, go and get that done. Apparently, Thiago Scruro is Arsenal's priority to replace Eduard Sporting director at the Emirates Stadium, according to numerous reports. And though a figure of and though a figure of relatively low profile, he has cut an impressive figure in the current role at Monaco. Fair enough. Now, this could be an interesting soundbite because, you know, I'm just going to say this isn't Mikel Arteta, but if you close your eyes, does this, would this sound like something the gaffer would say where Arsenal are in this current moment in time? The idea is we want to develop is to play aggressive football style of football. Absolutely. Resolutely focused on the offensive side of people to be fair. Offensive sides are cool. Open your eyes. Arteta ain't going to say that. This way of playing creates many chances and we have very good players ready to exploit them to score. And at the back, we are working hard to defend as a team in the best possible way. Everyone is playing together, whether in attack or defence, such as the modern day. It gives us the consistency to attack well this season. I'm on that. I like that people. And apparently he's also said we want to maintain a good mix between experience and youth because this corresponds to the history of the club. And this is how we want to move forward. Bringing along young talents is part of Monaco's DNA. But above all, we must remain efficient on the pitch. I think we want, you know, we've seen it with the guy, Osaka Smith Rowe, Jack Wilshere, young Ethan in short. Those of you that are old enough to remember, you know, Tony Adams come from our academy, RIP Rowe Castle. You've got him. I mean, who doesn't want academy grads? I hate to praise them that we recently drew a game against at Stamford Bridge, but I would like to, well, I'd like to win a Champions League or two like them. And I would like to, I know you just want to win a Champions League. But, you know, when you look at that picture, I think Christensen, although he's not English, came through their academy, kind of Reece James, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, the list goes on. How lovely would it be to get back in the Premier League race and win the Premier League, but also win the Champions League in that regards? How good would it be to have a blend of such in which indirectly we do? Some players didn't cost that much, obviously, whether you rate them or not. Kai Havertz signed for 65 million. You know, Mr Declan Rice signed for 100. And equally, they've become main parts, rightly or wrongly, if you agree or not, of Arsenal's team. Keeping up the theme with directors, don't worry, people, soon we're going to get over this. But I can only talk on what's in the present day. Let me know your thoughts on anything so far. Allegedly, the Real Sociedad director of football, Roberto Alebi, is very happy with the offer on the table from Arsenal and welcomes the offer from the Gunners. That's according to reports from Spain. The newspaper insists that Arsenal are very interested in his services and he welcomes the offer from the club. Although for now, his focus remains on Real Sociedad. Now, I must admit, I don't know. Do you go for a more experienced guy like him? You know, not that it matters about religion and race and country and all of that, but him being a Sociedad man or a Spanish man like Mikel Arteta in which, you know, David Raya has been signed. We've got a whole heap of coaches that are Spanish. They might be from the same train of thought, if that makes sense. So we're more likely to see consistency in that regard. Now, him being an experienced director, obviously, I'm not saying he's David Dean and I'm not saying Mikel Arteta is Wenger and I've said this before. I think whether we rate Arteta or not, you know, whether he should be sacked if he doesn't win a league, especially if Slott wins a league, he's going to have to face the music. But the reality is we're, you know, one love for the rebuild. You know, this might be the third year where we've but not necessarily the grooming or whatever it is, people. We've kissed success. We haven't reached success. Obviously, I do think there are some factors out of Mikel Arteta's control, but I do think isolated to the variables, he can control the responsibilities he has. And with, you know, winning the league being about fine margins, I don't think he's always got it right. And I do think he kind of gets his own way a bit too much at the club. So, you know, do you get a more experienced man that could kind of stop Mikel Arteta from moving a bit crazy, if that makes sense? You know, you look at Wenger. He was a genius, but sometimes it goes left. He had David Dean to kind of pull him from the madness. And I do think if Arteta is going to stay, which he signed a new deal before the season. So that probably told you, regardless of what happens, he's staying unless there's a dramatic fallout. And I don't know, Man United and Chelsea come above us or even, God forbid, Foster Cogsley Spurs. They look the worst of the lot, especially with Amarin coming at United. I think, I think United will be back soon. Of course, I hope I'm wrong. And I hope Amarin is more like VS Boas at Chelsea than Jose Mourinho. But it's an interesting one. Do you go for the more younger Wolves or the Monaco guy who kind of, not like Edu, but they kind of fit the remit in what, you know, Arsenal young manager, young coaches, young players and all of that kind of stuff. Or do you go for a more experienced head that can get us across the line in his own way? As I said, it's about finding margins now, if I'm honest, to win a league title and really maximising everything. I don't know, people. In relation to Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, as we know, Declan Rice played against Chelsea with a broken toe and painkillers. Don't know why he was called up for England. Don't know why he even tried to go play for England. The same goes for Bukayo Saka, but obviously they're not going there. You know, they're doing rehabilitation sessions at London Coley and the injuries have been moving mad. Apparently, Califuri and Tomi Yasuo are expected back after the international break. As we know, you look at the other guards, you look at the other guards, the Timbers, we're kind of not playing a dangerous game, but we're having to look after them. And there could be players that are in the red zone and at risk of injuries or not necessarily playing 100% already that we don't know, people. Quite contrasting from last season. And apparently Benjamin White's injury or rehabilitation isn't going to be four to eight weeks. It could be 10 to 12 weeks, people, following his surgery, in which, in my opinion, Benjamin White needed to, I don't know anything, but I think him and the club have known you need to do this a long time ago. Maybe in the summer, maybe I'm wrong. But for the last few years, it's well known. How many times? And it annoys me when people say people like football, footballers don't care or people look at Benjamin White and say, oh, he doesn't care about football because he doesn't watch it. How many years, even going back, if you care enough, go on Google and look at Rob Holden's comments where he's been saying Benjamin White plays, been playing with injuries. Mikel Arteta said Ben White is known to hide his injuries. Obviously he's a key player for us and we can't pay people to stay fit. It's peak really. The only saving grace is hopefully this puts an end to whatever persistent injury issues he's had. Obviously, as a footballer, he's middle-aged, but he's a 25, six, seven-year-old man. You're going to need your hip or knee, whatever, if you're going to live life, able body, be a father. I'm sure he's married now, be a grandfather, et cetera, et cetera. That's the only saving grace. But where Arsenal are concerned and what we need to do on the pitch, there's plenty of talking points before we look at injuries. Injuries are not exclusive to us. Again, I don't want to be that guy, but when you start to deep it and let me know your thoughts, the games he's going to miss. A lot of people sit there and say, no game is easy in the Premier League, but Arsenal have had a tough run, which I don't disagree. First 11 games, you've played at the Etihad. You've welcomed Liverpool to your place. You've gone to Aston Villa. You've gone to Newcastle. You've done all of that. But what I say to that is, boy, everyone's got to play everyone twice. And I'm sure of all the teams in the league, and you ask all fans, whether they've gone for it already or they're currently going for it, I'm sure if you ask them, they've looked at their calendar and there's probably a mad fixture list or mad run. This is all games, but I'm kind of focusing people on the Premier League. This is before you factor in everything. And obviously, the less players you have, the more you have to run your players into the ground. So did we play a dangerous game, not doing certain things in the summer? Did we isolate it away from actually transfer stuff? I haven't got it to hand, but I remember Mikel Arteta saying before the season started in one of his press conferences, what we had with Saliba, Gabriel, Benjamin White and our defensive options, he kind of said we got away with it. And historically, Arsenal have not got away with injuries. Definitely where the Emirates era is concerned. But you look at the games he's missing. Every game is difficult, especially with our form. But boy, he's going to obviously miss Nottingham Forest. You would have loved to have had him available for sporting away. But yeah, Nottingham Forest, Sporting Lisbon, West Ham, Manchester United, you might look different under their new gaffer. Fulham, which the two games against Fulham, if we got three points from one of them, where would we be? Fulham, Monaco, Everton, the doubleheader against Palace in the League Cup and the Premier League, Ipswich, Brentford, Brighton, Spurs, Aston Villa, Dynamo, Wolves, Girona and Manchester City. I am excited on one hand to see Califuri a natural left footer, and I assume Benjamin White. I'd love it to be that. But Timber on the right, Califuri on the left. Them being natural footers and just a bit different and seeing what Timber and Saka could do. I did think Martinelli looked a bit better with Califuri down that left-hand side. Just to see what that could bring would be, I wouldn't say silver lining, but silver lining. But we're going to have to be cute and clever, especially around festive period, really. And again, Timber and Califuri, we've had to manage their minutes. And yeah, you could talk about the Zinchenkos and Kyrgios, Zinni who picks up knots. Obviously, Tommy Assu, I love him, but I don't think anyone's holding their breath for sustained fitness from him, which I hope to be wrong. You're probably going to see Moreno rise or Jorginho and probably an extended period of Thomas Partey at right-back. We might even have to act in January. I must admit, in the summer, I thought we had good defensive options, random, but I'm sure Declan Rice played centre-half at one point last season. Maybe it was a game or a few minutes. I did think we had good defensive depth and I still maintain that, but everybody's not fit. And it's made me sit there and look and think, rah, of course I want an inside forward or a versatile forward or whatever. I want a striker. I want a number eight, a Santi Cazorla, a Cesc Fabregas type. We obviously need to sign some goalies. We need to flush players out, but I'm not going to lie. This current period's made me think, rah, it's going to sound mad, and I know you lot are tired of defenders, but could we do with another defender? Ideally, for me, a Tomiyasu, a Timba, kind of forcing it, but Califuri play right-back against PSG. One of the hybrids that are less so much Califuri and obviously more Tomiyasu and Timba, someone that can play across the defence. Benjamin White's played centre-half for us, this season once, and historically at Arsenal, but he's known for playing right-back. When I say that, I am more thinking internally, do we need another centre-half? I don't know, people, man, but yeah, food for thought. As we know, Declan Rice required painkillers to play against Chelsea with a broken toe last Sunday. If it wasn't Chelsea away, he may not have even played at all. Probably need to dip into the market for some other midfield options. I am not condemning or endorsing ITKs because I'd love for him to be right, but Conmarble Halls has said Arsenal have made Isak their number one target. Again, I'm sure Isak will listen to Arsenal. He could wear that very same number for Arsenal. Obviously, respectfully to Kai Havertz, and I'm not saying to alienate him, but any striker, we heard it with Cesco, any striker that looks at Arsenal and wants to sign for us and is enticed by playing in the Premier League, living in London, playing with this group of players, being part of Mikel Arteta's team, anyone that looks at Kai Havertz and gets scared, take nothing away. I'm not dissing Kai. I don't want you because Cesco's moving a bit mad, I'll still have him. But I'm sure we want Isak. Premier League-proven, great goalscorer, worked with Mourinho and Odegaard before. Where's the number 14? Loves scoring against, I'm not actually sure, I think Chelsea, but definitely loves scoring against Spurs. It makes a lot of sense. I'm sure he would listen. I'm sure personal terms may not be a problem, but it comes down to the fee. Now, unless Newcastle need to let him go to have some wiggle room around the financial rules and all of that, unless he's kind of burnt bridges and made it clear, yo, I want to leave, in which he can do that, I think it comes down to the price tag. What is the price tag? You look around the striker market, unless you're going to do the smart thing where Joker is in the last year or two, he's on everyone's lips. Before that, where was he? Half of these strikers have to start somewhere. Duran was playing in MLS. Unless you're going to do that thing, you have to sign one of these household names. It's like having a strong asset. In my 29 years, probably because of the new manager thing and playing as a striker is a selfless act, I believe in the modern day, if I'm honest with you, especially in a Mikel system where you will get chances, but you're not going to get chances like that. I'd say the best attackers or the best, you know, it's the wide, the wide ones benefit from the system. They're playing out from the back, all that jazz, it's the wide men. And do we need to do the Liverpool thing where you've got Sakho doing up mad numbers and he'd be our Salah. You've got your Mane, which at this moment in time, Martinelli isn't putting up mad numbers. Then you've got a facilitator like Kaj Havertz who can score goals and do all the stuff Arteta demands. And then you've got an Isak to mix in the thing. That would be the best of all the worlds, but I'm not sure. You know, I do think Mikel Arteta is going to have to find his own very own Erling Haaland in that you look at Pep Guardiola, of course, you know, he's had some pure strikers per se. But the Haaland thing, we've seen City have no striker, bare rotation options. Now you've got Haaland. I do think Haaland's general play has improved, but if you're asking him to be involved in the playmaking and just not be up front and score goals, he's in issues. So Pep probably had to compromise something, you know, to bring in Haaland. Obviously, Haaland's an anomaly. It's Haaland, isn't it? Anyone will break their rules for Haaland. But I do think Mikel Arteta has got to start thinking about that. Take nothing away from Kaj because I think Kaj has worked that role perfectly. I just don't think Kaj is going to be that guy that gets crazy numbers that ultimately wins games. And that could be another conundrum. For me, Kaj still be part of the team. And, you know, from what I see, you might not necessarily lose your spot, but there might be a risk of you having to play in midfield, which old conversations rear their old heads once again. But yeah, Izzac's more than welcome. Let me know. I'm sure a lot of you would like Izzac. But yeah, we're still linked with Zoubamedie. I mean, if we bring in the Sociedad CEO, you've got Zoubamedie, you've got Moreno, you bring in Izzac and Odegaard, who are not from Spain, but have, you know, lived over in Spain and in that particular part of Spain, it'd be great. Zoubamedie's linked with everyone, you know, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Bayern, Munich, staying at Sociedad, Barcelona, links have re-emerged, Manchester City, Old Winter, not having a proper plan B if there's no Rodri. I mean, it is what it is, but you know, Zoubamedie, big up the galley out there. You lot could apply this differently, or if that's what you like. But where I look at Arsenal's pursuit of Zoubamedie, or even if Liverpool or anyone else, if you genuinely, if you genuinely, because we don't know what the reports are saying. The report's saying one thing. We don't know what actually is going on in the world of football. If you genuinely made contact with Sociedad, tried to get a deal done, spoke with Zoubamedie, and he's saying one thing and then doing another, no matter how, you know, unless you're Lionel Messi or something like that, I think you should move away from it purely, if I'm completely honest with you. And I only say that because it's like me, and some of you are under, I've got too much ego for that, yeah. It's like me trying to talk to a girl, you know, I might be the best thing ever, but she's not giving me the time or the energy or, you know, anything that I want. How much time are you going to keep chasing before you have some self-respect and say, you know what? I think you're wavy. I think you're gorgeous. I think you're one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in the world, but there's a billion gal in the world. Man, I feel forward and try something else. I'm not sure on the Zoubamedie thing, people, where, you know, we've been linked with him. Zoubamedie, I hear it, man. It is what it is. We've gone over, you know, the CEO of Monaco. Apparently we want him. We've been linked with a bunch of clubs. I reckon him and Diamonday of Sporting go to Manchester United in the summer. Deco of Barcelona has kind of distanced Barcelona from making a move. So if one drops out the race, that could be a spring in our step, people. It doesn't appear that there's anything new on this particular publication. I did cover this kind of stuff earlier, so go and check that out. Salah spoke about some Arsene Wenger advice as well, people, and said a very, good player is always focused on the game. You see my granddad, everybody listens to him. Actually, people, I'm doing you a lot of disservice because we need to go back. We have been linked with Mohamed Koudes. West Ham are expected to stand firm on Mohamed Koudes' 85 million release clause as they brace themselves for offers for their star forward next summer. I mean, can he perform off the left? Because if he can perform off the left, if you've got Koudes and Saka on the left and you've got Havertz up front, I still want to strike. I'm here for that. I know it's very structured and I'm a naive fan, but I know I'd prefer to see Saka on the right, even though some of you lot tried to fight me when he was a left back and I said he was a right winger. And even when he was playing off the left, it'd be lovely to rotate both of them off either side. But is it realistic, people, to expect, let's just say, obviously, if you negotiate with West Ham lower, then great, or if there's some make weights that could be used. But let's just assume we activate his 85 million release clause and we activate Yocheres' release clause. I do think we're at that point where we need to splash the bag, but that's 85 million times two. My maths is poor, but that's close to 200 odd million. Before we talk about outgoings, before we talk about several players who probably need contract renewals, and that does factor into the budget, before we talk about potentially selling people. Now, we've got money or we don't, depending on where you read. We'd love Koudes, but at the end of the day, he's a key player for West Ham. Long gone are the days of getting players or household names, I believe, on the cheap from fellow Premier League clubs. He's still got three years left on his deal, and apparently he's settled people. So, yeah, I mean, we could offer him the chance to stay in London, play in the Champions League and all of that jazz. I would love him, but they're going to stand firm on that. So I don't know where we're at with that, really and truly, people, but we'd love him. On the topic of Ben White, feels like I've spoken about him forever. Apparently, he's ready to play for England again under Thomas Tuko, which would be not great from a fan perspective, because it was nice to have a player that plays all the time and gets to rest during the international break, even though he's injured. But he's one of England's best potential defensive options. Of course, you've got Trent and Reece James and all of that, but as part of the squad, Ben White could be good, especially if Tuko plays a free at the back. Surely Benjamin White's got a spot as a centre-half, people. I don't know, though. I'm just trying to promote. Arsenal have just a 5% chance of winning the Premier League this season in comparison to Liverpool, who have a 60.3% and City have 34.3%, according to Opta. Now, that's obviously determined by how the season started and probably for Arsenal and City, how the last few games have gone. Now, football isn't won with AI or computers and things. It's won on the football pitch, in which if the season ended right now, Liverpool are on slot. He's matched Klopp's Premier League title, who already is funding games, and it's quite disappointing for us, man, really and truly, if I'm honest with you. But on that note, we've definitely gone over a lot of things. Let me know all of your thoughts, people. Rest assured, if there's any significant Arsenal-related talking points and stuff like that, I'll get videos out for you. Make sure you check out the video I did on Kenan Yildiz, people, a player I'd love to sign from Juventus. So yeah, videos, reactions to news, tactical analysis, speaking about Mikel Arteta and everything Arsenal. You know your boy's got you covered. So make sure the notification bells are on, you're following on all the socials. Everything's in the description. Most importantly, bless up for being here. Appreciate you lot. Stay safe, stay blessed. Let me know what you think in the comments once again. One love.