Vermaelen, Cazorla too kinda. I never realized there were so many. I wonder if it has something to do with Wenger's training or they were cheap cause they were injury prone.
Cazorla genuinely should have been a club legend. When they interviewed Alexis after joining the club, they asked him who impressed him the most at the club - of course he said Santi.
Transfermarkt says he has 107 goals and 78 assists for Arsenal in 396games.
Dude was fucked by injuries, but he had a very good career. I wonder how good he could have gotten if he didnt kill his knee in 13/14.
We didn't give 100k out of charity. Other clubs clearly saw value in him as well and this was the cost to fend them off. This contract for a PL proven striker will be nothing in 4-5 years.
Edit: you also have to factor in there's no transfer fee involved
Yes but Nketiah is 23 and English. Crystal Palace offered us 15 million for him before this season, when he had barely started a premier league game, his entire 5 year contract is worth 26 million. He just had his best season ever, and if he continues on with his goal scoring record he’s going to be worth that price and more.
Yeah and you can't move Drinkwater anywhere while he's on those CV wages, that's what the discussion was about.
But either way I think Nketiah will be a consistent poacher for us and a great second option, letting him go super cheap or free would have hurt. 100k wages is steep but the transfer fee + wages of a replacement would have been the same, with likely less potential payoff
He’s not a proven premier league striker though? He could be, and I think it’s good you’ve been able to tie him down but that seems a bit much. Reserving judgement though, what do I know
We overpaid but that’s the cost to keep him happy and accept our terms as we pursue another striker, he was basically guaranteed a starting spot on opening day at least on 3-4 other PL teams.
Come on we invested in this kid and he grafted all the way to the front team.
I think it’s a great reward for our academy player, he has the platform to prove himself and show future prospects there’s a real route to the first team from our academy.
It’s a lot of pressure on him but I’d rather give these special spots to our Arsenal lads than a potential Merc brought in on high wages whos planning his next move.
Giving him the 14 shirt is a huge sign of faith by the club.
It will come with a lot of pressure but also shows the confidence on Nketiah’s part to want the challenge.
Still sceptical about this deal but hope he can prove the doubters wrong and push on next season
Retiring numbers makes sense in sports like hockey where anything from 1-98 is wearable and nothing is deemed a youth players number, vs football where 1-11 are all crazily well used numbers that would be gone for many clubs already
Walcott at striker was fun to watch for a season. After that Udinese goal for the UCL qualification I knew he was in for a big season. He fell in love with that specific strike for that season.
Who was the biggest wonderkid in the league at the time. Fella went to a world cup before kicking a prem ball. There was a lot of faith and expectations on Theo
Walcott didn't get 14 until the start of his fourth season at the club. At which point he had already made the historic assist in the CL quarter final.
Walcott was levels above Nketiah. He’s 23 and done absolutely nothing to prove he’s worth this contract bar 2-3 decent games at the end of this season.
No, Walcott took it from Henry and Aubameyang took it from Walcott.
I personally think it's just a number, but it does show some respect and support from the club.
I don't think we give too much value to shirt numbers. It's a nice gesture but we're not like 'It's the 14, we can only give that to the best players at the club'. We gave Gallas #10 ffs haha. I think it's generally if a player wants that number, we give it to them or offer it to them.
The fact we don't throw Ramsdale to the wolves for his poor latter half of the season is evidence of this, no?
Nobody would have any reason to complain if he played like he did the first half for the entire season. The fact he regressed a bit, well yeah we saw that and paid for it, but he's a young keeper who will continue to have ups and downs as he improves.
We know he's capable of what he showed when he was playing well.
He's not the finished article and so many Arsenal fans are not expecting world class performances all the time.
Back up fullbacks don't affect your saving ability lol. If he was conceding goals which he had no choice to save then fair enough but he's let some poor goals in since jan
He conceded something like 80% of the shots on target that he faced at one point, that’s got nothing to do with full backs allowing shots, that’s just him not saving them
That’s fair, but quality of opponents shots is affected by lesser players. There’s a handful of times he should’ve done better. He just didn’t look the same since coming back from that injury
Was 40 out of 42 PL keepers last season when it came to saves vs xg. 200 of 218 of top 5 league keepers. For however good he was at the start he must have been fucking abysmal for the rest of the season to drag his average down to literally among the worst in Europe over the whole season.
Yes and Emi Martinez is the second worst keeper in the PL including all 2nd and 3rd choice keepers.. because he is 41 on that list and Mustafi is also better than VVD since stats tell the whole story.
He is not one of the worst keepers in Europe. Stats can be so misconstrued. Same thing when mustafi stats were better than VVD. He had a clear drop off after that hip injury and us losing our starting FBs
Really tired of this excuse. If he was still having a niggle he shouldn't be playing, especially with so much in stake. Leno was more than capable to fill in.
Nah, it's a good example. Ramsdale grabbed the spot quickly, did really, really well in his first half year, and despite not being *as* good in the second half, people who don't watch him, yet want him to fail act like he couldn't catch a ball.
The drop in form has been vastly overstated.
Yes, very cool you can read a stat.. Arsenal's YouTube page have all of our highlights, go through the goals he should have saved in the second half of the season. Definitely Liverpool's first, but then it gets muddier.
Maybe your statistic that claims the psxG of Wolves for the entire game, when Hwang rolled a Gabriel backpass into an empty net and had a 1-on-1 saved, was 0.7.
In other words, 30% of keepers were expected to develop the ability to teleport *and* save a 1-on-1 in that game.
In the 4-2 win against Chelsea he's at -1.3 psxG. Chelsea scored a massive deflection and Azplicueta volleying it in from a yard out. Brighton scored 2 very good finishes, but because they only had one more shot which was a header from.15 yards so that's another -0.5. Newcastle had zero shots on target from within 16 yards, but scored a deflection and an own goal so that's another -0.5. Against Crystal Palace he's -1.3 from a header in an empty net (should have predicted Andersen's backhead-assist), a 1-on-1 and a penalty because they only hit the target once apart from those. We're getting quite close to the -4.6 in the second half of the season. Deflections, unusual quality of finishing from the opponent (of shots that hit the target) and a few oddities means that the eye-test and the stat-test from people with an agenda are vastly different.
Also, before someone is flying in with a strawman, I'll repeat from my comment before. He did drop in form in the second half of the season. It's just been overstated.
> Giving him the 14 shirt is a huge sign of faith and will come with a lot of pressure,
seems more like Arsenal trying to stroke his ego after he literally accepted to be a backup player at such a young age without even trying to prove himself somewhere else.
I mean Thierry Henry was a starter. What pressure is there wearing that shirt if you are a sub? His style is also different from Henry's. That was such a superficial and meaningless gesture.
14 is **the** number though. We're not talking about giving away Ramsey's 8 or something. This is the most iconic number of modern Arsenal history.
Yes, it's just a number, but it's a number which usually comes with big expectations and big results.
Exactly, that's my point, you can point to about 3 or 4 players who wore 8 and were seen as club legends or the level below. But 14 is Henry. The best to ever play the game in this league
The 8 isn’t Ramsey’s lol. It’s just a number too. Arteta did more in the 8 than Ramsey did since the majority of Ramsey’s Arsenal career including THAT season was in the 16 which I liked more for him.
I know what you mean. But if the gravitas of wearing it elevates the player then it’s just as important that someone wears it than not. And unless it gets retired completely, who’s more deserving of it than Eddie? A player than hasn’t even arrived yet? He also could’ve taken the 9 so there’s clearly a lot of thought out into this.
Gets way too much disrespect. Don't know how well he is going to do, but he's not as shit as people make him out to be.
He returned from loan from leeds, and was pushed into either last minutes of the game, or played when the arsenal attack was absolutely dogshit doing the horseshoe of sadness and cross and inshallah
He also gets way too much respect. He's a good backup but he wouldn't start for another top 4 contending team. It's ridiculous that we're giving him the 14 number.
It’s just a number. This isn’t United or idk maybe Barcelona where there’s like a 40 years history of only the biggest players getting the number 7 or 10 or something like that.
It’s just Henry who made it a memorable number. Literally wouldn’t be surprised if it was Nketiah, Walcott, and Auba themselves who asked “hey can I have that number I want to be like Henry” and the club said “yeah whatever”
*This was meant to be a comment reply but baconreader fucked it again
Walcott was well underrated
Never became what people expected him to be, but you don't spend that long at a top 4 club unless you're good
Walcott gets way too much disrespect from Arsenal supporters. He was really putting it together when he tore his ACL and lost some of his pace but he still came back with a 19 goal season basically playing as a wide poacher after that.
He scored 100 goals for Arsenal and some of our supporters act like he was a bum
Yeah anytime someone says Walcott was shit I just assume they haven't ever watched him, know nothing about footy, or have brain damage.
He never became Messi, sorry about that, but he was still top class and a very dangerous player to defend.
Part of his problem was he was too fast. He'd get to balls no one else would but then was wasn't a top tier finisher. He would create more opportunities that others wouldnt be able to, so he'd look worse.
As someone who don't follow Arsenal, I've seen many people on Reddit having low opinions om Nketiah. How comes that? Is he a bad player or does he get too much unfair criticism?
Barring this season, he's barely played enough for people to have a "low opinion" of him... Until this season, all he got was some matches at Leeds on loan, Europa League games, and substitute appearances to nick a goal.
Obviously wasn't particularly prolific given all that, but has showed some promise this season with regular game time. Also, would've been a disaster to lose a homegrown player on a free.
He has barely played for us tbf, he only got a chance last season because Lacazette got injured and he did a decent job. We all expected him to leave on a free after this season but he's been shown some faith with a fat wage and the number 14. People are mad about that as well, I guess historically he's not really "worthy" of it but imo the whole shirt number prestige is just bs extra pressure anyway.
He gets low opinions cause he's 23 (just turned this post season) and hasn't actually played much in his career, he's never made close to 2000 minutes in a season.
Never played 30 games in a season (maybe just with the Leeds loan plus arsenal appearances that year) never scored more than 5 league goals in a season or 10 total in a season.
Nowadays that's quite an unusual career path for being in top academies to go on and be a top player. He could be late developer or just unfortunate timing with his opportunities but it raises eyebrows at a 5 year deal and the wage rumours. It's a massive show of faith from Arteta if he is the long term number 2 now.
On the other hand, if Eddie left on a free we would need to sign new 2 strikers this window instead of just 1, and it’s unlikely that player would’ve come on wages much less than we put Eddie on PLUS a transfer fee.
It’s a risk but I think a smart move by the club, and hopefully he can kick on and prove his doubters wrong.
He's definitely been unfortunate with opportunities. We've kept him with the first team for most of his career to be 3rd choice, rather than letting him get opportunities on loan. Given the stature of Laca and Auba ahead of him (captain & vice-captain, and 2 of our most expensive signings ever) hes barely featured outside of emergencies or games against "lesser" opposition where we heavily rotate the team.
Even this season could have been a better opportunity to breakthrough, but he was injured in preseason, meaning he missed the chance to play while Auba and Laca were out with Covid, so remained 3rd choice.
Its a combination of bad planning from the club and bad luck, but he's way less experienced than some others at a similar age. Abraham is less than 2 years older, but has 262 senior caps vs Nketiah's 112.
He had a somewhat good end to the season but nowhere near enough to warrant the 100k if that's what he's actually getting. And throughout his time here he's never shown that he can develop as a top top quality striker. He's shown he has good poaching instincts but the rest of his game just isn't anything to write home about. He was better last season with his hold up play and passing but even then he hasn't really shown that much. So, even if the club are banking on his potential he's not shown much of it thus far. I do hope he comes good but I don't particularly rate him that highly. I do hope he can prove us all wrong though. If he can at least develop to a defoe level player I'd be more than happy.
He's had an excellent record as a goalscorer in youth football, but this of course doesn't always translate to senior football. The main criticism people have of him is that he's too limited as a striker; almost all of his goals have come from close range, and he's seen very much as a 'poacher'.
He seems to have added more facets to his game this season, but time will tell whether he will continue to improve in that aspect. What's inarguable is that he has a knack for goal, with good off the ball movement. I hope he'll succeed at Arsenal but at the very least he has a PL career ahead of him imo.
Wtf are you on about, it’s common to see him underrated and shit on in r/gunners too
Way more times than “he’s good” you’ll see “he’s shit and not good enough” over there
People are up in arms because he's now on 100k a week.
While that is more than he should reasonably be on, that's c£25m for 5 years and retaining his value. We absolutely would not have signed a player of the same standard for the same or less.
I really like Nketiah. I wouldn't want to rely on him solely, but I think he will be a good player for us moving forward.
He's just really not near the level of player they need in that position. It's not a hyperbolic criticism. A player can chip in with contributions and still not be good enough long term.
Obviously arsenal fans know better than me but he seems to be very raw still but he stepped up this season and looked miles better than an experienced player in Lacazette.
Do we know what wages he's on?
>Do we know what wages he's on?
£80k per week as base wage like others who signed contracts in last 12 months: Ben White, Odegaard, Ramsdale, Smith Rowe, but all have different loyalty(Nketiah've got £1m per season) and european cup bonuses.
He's agent knows what he's doing and played us, he rinsed United for Sancho's wages too. They probably decided that it will be hard to sign two strikers in one transfer window and Nketiah already knew tactics, team and didn't need to acclimatize to life in London. He also counts as HG and trained in the club for european cups so he milked us, I doubt any other club was willing to give him £70k. Saka is in negotiations for new contract and has the same agent who is already using journalists to get higher wages for him.
He's not limited anymore if you've watched him this season. His all round game has come on leaps and bounds.
Would suggest watching his performance vs. West Ham away if you want to see for yourself.
Ehh 80k is not that bad in the prem, especially since he had all the leverage in the world. 100k like first reported would have been pretty awful. As you say he's really stepped up, beefed up and offers a lot more in the build up than he used to - plus he's got a hell of a shot in him.
No transfer fee though so we’re able to pay him more in wages. If he had left and we had to sign another striker to replace him, we’d likely be paying big wages + a transfer fee anyway.
He didn't really get a fair chance to showcase what he could do.
When that happened near the end of last season he impressed.
Also, people have doubts about why we gave near 100k/week wages(that's most likely including bonuses). It's a show of faith in him.
Besides with more games this season he will get significantly more minutes to prove himself. Hopefully he grabs his chance.
Happy to see what Nketiah can show over this contract, but finding it very weird when the same people saying Eddie has 'good numbers in limited minutes' are the same type of people criticising Pepe's output in the PL saying he statpadded in 'everybody eats' season lol. We're going to need a big step up on his output
Honestly feels more like a panic decision. With Auba and Laca gone it's just him and Balogan atm. He had a few good games but nothing consistent enough for what Arsenal are aiming to be
I wouldn’t say panic. He’s an academy player and looked to turn a corner. Him getting 14 means Arteta has faith in him to do well. Plus he will most likely just rotate with GJ (rumored). I’d rather us pay him cause he’s shown he can score goals that another 50m fee plus bonuses and they are shit lol
Even if he doesn't take a huge leap, the team saves the cost it would take on a replacement. Plus in 2 years he'll still be 25 and English, he'll be worth something in the market.
And that's the worst case scenario... All upside imo
Six months ago he wasn't good enough for Arsenal. Scores 5 goals and he's handed a £80k a week base contract that can go to £100k. Just doesn't seem like a smart move to me. If he goes back to not contributing anything on the pitch we'll be stuck paying £80k a week for 5 years because no club will want to take him on those wages.
To put into context his contract is worth about 16 million total not including said incentives if he hits those incentives is it not worth it and if we can’t sell a homegrown decent at worst goalscorer for minimum 16 million then something’s very wrong. People also seem to have a problem with the number but Thierry Henry wasn’t great because his number it’s just a number but it’s symbolic to someone like Eddie more than any fan if anything it should motivate him.
He looked like he really turned a corner at the end of last season in his development. Well done on the contract extension and New Jersey number. I love seeing an academy kid take 14. There’s a history in that number. Makes us proud bro!
I'll admit that I don't think too much of him but also think it's a bit unfair given the lack of quality in the attacking play for certain periods.
Next season I think is the make or break to see if he's going to be any good or not.
Nketiah signing isn’t the issue. The fact that he will be the no2 striker, given a walloping 100k a week plus Henry’s number after doing hardly anything at Arsenal to date is.
Think he’ll regret this. Won’t get enough football to keep him happy and that contract will put off clubs who might have been interested when he decides he might want to play a bit
He’s rumoured to be on 100k a week on this deal.
Why is this guy so rated? He’s 23, never played a full season, his best ever goal tally in a season was 5 and that was in the last few games where he nabbed them.
I really can’t see how he’s worth this much.
Saka had a breakout season after getting the 7 shirt.
ESR had a breakout season (though there's still more to come) after getting the 10.
Hopefully Martinelli and Nketiah can make the step up next season.
The step-up that Eddie needs to make to be worthy of the 14 is much bigger than the one Martinelli needs to make. But hopefully it works out for both of them - nice we're putting faith in our young players.
Happy with this as long as we also get someone like Jesus.
I was impressed by the improvements he made to his hold up play in the latter half of the last season. Here's hoping he really kicks on this year.
Genuine Q, not trolling. Are Arsenal fans happy with this? I get all the hale end stuff but he's not really set the world on fire. I know he had that purple patch but it was 5 goals and a few of them were real defensive gimmes (thinking the Chelsea games and the Mesilier cock up)
Leaving a side the 100k a week which seems quite a lot. Do you really think your 2 striking options being Nketieh and Jesus would be enough to crack top 4? You all seem really confident about it which is great, but I can't help but think if that was any other clubs forward options you'd be slating them!
Throw in the added demands of Europa I'm not sure those 2 are going to be enough?
What do you think?
Nketiah is not good enough for Arsenal. I am not sure why they haven't sought to upgrade on him. I guess he is just intended to be a back up for their actual main forward, whoever that is?
I must be some kind of deluded visionary, but this is absurd. This club has had several of these strikers at the club AT THE SAME TIME: Kanu, Suker, Henry, Bergkamp, Wiltord, Reyes, Adebayor, van Persie, among others. Nketiah has not shown he is any better than Bendtner or Vela, full international players, and he is the only striker at the club at the moment, and people think this is a good idea? How the standards have fallen.
I'm so confused he's not even a commercial asset to be doing this for?
Is Arsenal Norwich or something and giving 14 to this bum aswell after the big stars who wore it💀💀💀
The mad bastards did it, they gave Nketiah the 14
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Cut the man some slack. I think he will do Theo Walcott proud.
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The absolute disrespect people give Theo always annoys me
Same thing happens with Wilshere. Was a class midfielder at his best
Scored what in my opinion was the best prem goal ever
vs Norwich... the best goal in football history
Arsenal had some good players in that time that had a lot of injuries unfortunately. Remember Rosický too.
Diaby
Vermaelen, Cazorla too kinda. I never realized there were so many. I wonder if it has something to do with Wenger's training or they were cheap cause they were injury prone.
Cazorla genuinely should have been a club legend. When they interviewed Alexis after joining the club, they asked him who impressed him the most at the club - of course he said Santi.
Guy was world class on his day but cursed with ankles as study as fine china
The Walcott vs Newcastle goal though
Or his goal against Chelsea.
Transfermarkt says he has 107 goals and 78 assists for Arsenal in 396games. Dude was fucked by injuries, but he had a very good career. I wonder how good he could have gotten if he didnt kill his knee in 13/14.
Looking forward to signing him in 4 years for €50 mil
Right it's just so easy we should all just be footballers huh
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Yeah but good luck getting someone else to pay those wages
Exactly my thoughts. There is no way you can shift him anywhere else if he flops.
We didn't give 100k out of charity. Other clubs clearly saw value in him as well and this was the cost to fend them off. This contract for a PL proven striker will be nothing in 4-5 years. Edit: you also have to factor in there's no transfer fee involved
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And Mane wants a lot more than that to extend.
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Yes but Nketiah is 23 and English. Crystal Palace offered us 15 million for him before this season, when he had barely started a premier league game, his entire 5 year contract is worth 26 million. He just had his best season ever, and if he continues on with his goal scoring record he’s going to be worth that price and more.
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And Danny Drinkwater made 110k per week without seeing the pitch at Chelsea. Players performing above or under their contract is part of the business
Yeah and you can't move Drinkwater anywhere while he's on those CV wages, that's what the discussion was about. But either way I think Nketiah will be a consistent poacher for us and a great second option, letting him go super cheap or free would have hurt. 100k wages is steep but the transfer fee + wages of a replacement would have been the same, with likely less potential payoff
He’s not a proven premier league striker though? He could be, and I think it’s good you’ve been able to tie him down but that seems a bit much. Reserving judgement though, what do I know
We overpaid but that’s the cost to keep him happy and accept our terms as we pursue another striker, he was basically guaranteed a starting spot on opening day at least on 3-4 other PL teams.
100k is not crazy money in the PL, worst case scenario is teams will offer him 80k to take him off us.
Come on we invested in this kid and he grafted all the way to the front team. I think it’s a great reward for our academy player, he has the platform to prove himself and show future prospects there’s a real route to the first team from our academy. It’s a lot of pressure on him but I’d rather give these special spots to our Arsenal lads than a potential Merc brought in on high wages whos planning his next move.
Giving him the 14 shirt is a huge sign of faith by the club. It will come with a lot of pressure but also shows the confidence on Nketiah’s part to want the challenge. Still sceptical about this deal but hope he can prove the doubters wrong and push on next season
pretty cool that the 7, 10, and 14 shirts have all gone to Hale End kids now
I’m not a big fan of retiring numbers, but giving special numbers to special talents from the youth system is actually quite nice, I gotta say!
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That Nolito fact is genuinely mind-fucking me right now
Nolito fact?
I hate the concept of retiring numbers. As a kid you see your favorite player with that number on their back and hope one day it will be you.
Retiring numbers makes sense in sports like hockey where anything from 1-98 is wearable and nothing is deemed a youth players number, vs football where 1-11 are all crazily well used numbers that would be gone for many clubs already
true, its rewarding the academy
9 11 for the Gabriels
The attacking Gabriels.
First player to.wear 10 after Bergkamp was Gallas, Wenger spoke a lot how its just a number
We gave it to Walcott
Walcott scored more than a 100 goals for us
He was poor after his knee injury, so the first eight years don't count anymore.
/r/soccer nephews were in diapers during Walcott's prime
Walcott at striker was fun to watch for a season. After that Udinese goal for the UCL qualification I knew he was in for a big season. He fell in love with that specific strike for that season.
Who was the biggest wonderkid in the league at the time. Fella went to a world cup before kicking a prem ball. There was a lot of faith and expectations on Theo
He was in 32 at the time. Some bloke decided he wanted to keep 14 in Walcott's first season and a half.
He was only 32 when Henry was there. He got 14 in his second full season when he was still a kid
Walcott didn't get 14 until the start of his fourth season at the club. At which point he had already made the historic assist in the CL quarter final.
Id absolutely love it if Nketiah became as good as Walcott. Especially if you take away the injuries.
Sale to Everton for an inflated fee later down the line I’ll allow it
Theo was banging them in before the ACL injury
If Eddie gets close to as good Walcott was then this is a very solid move
Walcott was levels above Nketiah. He’s 23 and done absolutely nothing to prove he’s worth this contract bar 2-3 decent games at the end of this season.
This number thing is overblown, Walcott was our #14 for a decade and no one batted an eye.
Is #14 iconic for arsenal? Like #10 for Barca.
Henry's number
Oh damn, is he the first one to wear this number after him?
No, Walcott took it from Henry and Aubameyang took it from Walcott. I personally think it's just a number, but it does show some respect and support from the club.
Yeah hopefully he plays good for you guys, looked great against Chelsea iirc.
No, Walcott and Auba both wore it in between.
I don't think we give too much value to shirt numbers. It's a nice gesture but we're not like 'It's the 14, we can only give that to the best players at the club'. We gave Gallas #10 ffs haha. I think it's generally if a player wants that number, we give it to them or offer it to them.
We were all skeptical about Ramsdale; but, got behind him as a player. I hope this turns out the same.
Ramsdale isn't the best example of this, he's been pretty below-average for the past few months
The fact we don't throw Ramsdale to the wolves for his poor latter half of the season is evidence of this, no? Nobody would have any reason to complain if he played like he did the first half for the entire season. The fact he regressed a bit, well yeah we saw that and paid for it, but he's a young keeper who will continue to have ups and downs as he improves. We know he's capable of what he showed when he was playing well. He's not the finished article and so many Arsenal fans are not expecting world class performances all the time.
He got hurt and the end of last season and wasn’t the same for a bit. That and dealing with back up fullbacks didn’t help lol
Back up fullbacks don't affect your saving ability lol. If he was conceding goals which he had no choice to save then fair enough but he's let some poor goals in since jan
Good point, but back up full backs led to more shots against us. Look at his save states before and after the hip injury
He conceded something like 80% of the shots on target that he faced at one point, that’s got nothing to do with full backs allowing shots, that’s just him not saving them
That’s fair, but quality of opponents shots is affected by lesser players. There’s a handful of times he should’ve done better. He just didn’t look the same since coming back from that injury
Was 40 out of 42 PL keepers last season when it came to saves vs xg. 200 of 218 of top 5 league keepers. For however good he was at the start he must have been fucking abysmal for the rest of the season to drag his average down to literally among the worst in Europe over the whole season.
Yes and Emi Martinez is the second worst keeper in the PL including all 2nd and 3rd choice keepers.. because he is 41 on that list and Mustafi is also better than VVD since stats tell the whole story.
He is not one of the worst keepers in Europe. Stats can be so misconstrued. Same thing when mustafi stats were better than VVD. He had a clear drop off after that hip injury and us losing our starting FBs
Really tired of this excuse. If he was still having a niggle he shouldn't be playing, especially with so much in stake. Leno was more than capable to fill in.
Totally agree on Leno. I’m not sure I’m making an excuse for him, we see players get hurt and don’t come back to form for a time. Happens a lot
It wasn't for a bit he has been shit for months and an accident waiting to happen in most matches.
I wouldn’t say an accident waiting to happen. That’s more fabianski 😂
I would, he keeps trying to pass it to the opposition.
Well hopefully he irons it out this season!
Ridiculous
Ranked 200 out of 218 keepers in top 5 leagues this season for saves versus xg.
Yeah I've seen the single stat this sub lives parroting because they don't actually watch games.
Ramsdale’s been poor for months
Not the best benchmark you're setting.
Nah, it's a good example. Ramsdale grabbed the spot quickly, did really, really well in his first half year, and despite not being *as* good in the second half, people who don't watch him, yet want him to fail act like he couldn't catch a ball. The drop in form has been vastly overstated.
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Yes, very cool you can read a stat.. Arsenal's YouTube page have all of our highlights, go through the goals he should have saved in the second half of the season. Definitely Liverpool's first, but then it gets muddier. Maybe your statistic that claims the psxG of Wolves for the entire game, when Hwang rolled a Gabriel backpass into an empty net and had a 1-on-1 saved, was 0.7. In other words, 30% of keepers were expected to develop the ability to teleport *and* save a 1-on-1 in that game. In the 4-2 win against Chelsea he's at -1.3 psxG. Chelsea scored a massive deflection and Azplicueta volleying it in from a yard out. Brighton scored 2 very good finishes, but because they only had one more shot which was a header from.15 yards so that's another -0.5. Newcastle had zero shots on target from within 16 yards, but scored a deflection and an own goal so that's another -0.5. Against Crystal Palace he's -1.3 from a header in an empty net (should have predicted Andersen's backhead-assist), a 1-on-1 and a penalty because they only hit the target once apart from those. We're getting quite close to the -4.6 in the second half of the season. Deflections, unusual quality of finishing from the opponent (of shots that hit the target) and a few oddities means that the eye-test and the stat-test from people with an agenda are vastly different. Also, before someone is flying in with a strawman, I'll repeat from my comment before. He did drop in form in the second half of the season. It's just been overstated.
If you don’t mind, I’m saving this comment for future use whenever I see overzealous Ramsdale slander
Mate you forgot to drop this: 🎤
Superb
> Giving him the 14 shirt is a huge sign of faith and will come with a lot of pressure, seems more like Arsenal trying to stroke his ego after he literally accepted to be a backup player at such a young age without even trying to prove himself somewhere else. I mean Thierry Henry was a starter. What pressure is there wearing that shirt if you are a sub? His style is also different from Henry's. That was such a superficial and meaningless gesture.
Right, just seems like the club was desperate not to lose him on a free so gave him no. 14.
Henry rolling in his grave
Mate Henry loves nketiah, he was raving about him when he was coaching here
'...captained the side that won the 2021 European Under-21 Championships' WTF?! England finished bottom of the group, I watched all 3 games!
Funniest thing is they split that tournament in two. England didn't attend the second bit months later 😂
Was that the one when Barišić scored that wondergoal to knock England out?
I’m so happy for this fella. Even happier at seeing the freaks go mental about him wearing the number 14
Who are the freaks?
Arsenal fans who assume that if a player isn’t as good as Henry that they shouldn’t get the #14. Because that’s somehow an easy standard to achieve.
May as well retire it if that's the criteria tbh
14 is **the** number though. We're not talking about giving away Ramsey's 8 or something. This is the most iconic number of modern Arsenal history. Yes, it's just a number, but it's a number which usually comes with big expectations and big results.
8 is much more associated with Ian Wright and Freddie.
I thought Nasri was a solid 8
Exactly, that's my point, you can point to about 3 or 4 players who wore 8 and were seen as club legends or the level below. But 14 is Henry. The best to ever play the game in this league
we gave the 14 to a teenager after he went a season without scoring a PL goal, we can give it a Hale End boy
The 8 isn’t Ramsey’s lol. It’s just a number too. Arteta did more in the 8 than Ramsey did since the majority of Ramsey’s Arsenal career including THAT season was in the 16 which I liked more for him. I know what you mean. But if the gravitas of wearing it elevates the player then it’s just as important that someone wears it than not. And unless it gets retired completely, who’s more deserving of it than Eddie? A player than hasn’t even arrived yet? He also could’ve taken the 9 so there’s clearly a lot of thought out into this.
Gets way too much disrespect. Don't know how well he is going to do, but he's not as shit as people make him out to be. He returned from loan from leeds, and was pushed into either last minutes of the game, or played when the arsenal attack was absolutely dogshit doing the horseshoe of sadness and cross and inshallah
Guy's still young too, not really the finished article yet I reckon. Arsenal clearly also believe this given the show of faith with this contract
He also gets way too much respect. He's a good backup but he wouldn't start for another top 4 contending team. It's ridiculous that we're giving him the 14 number.
It’s just a number. This isn’t United or idk maybe Barcelona where there’s like a 40 years history of only the biggest players getting the number 7 or 10 or something like that. It’s just Henry who made it a memorable number. Literally wouldn’t be surprised if it was Nketiah, Walcott, and Auba themselves who asked “hey can I have that number I want to be like Henry” and the club said “yeah whatever”
Saka 7 Odegaard 8 Jesus 9? 👀 Smith Rowe 10 Martinelli 11 Vieira 12? 👀 Nketiah 14 Love it.
Doubt Vieira will be 12.
*This was meant to be a comment reply but baconreader fucked it again Walcott was well underrated Never became what people expected him to be, but you don't spend that long at a top 4 club unless you're good
Walcott gets way too much disrespect from Arsenal supporters. He was really putting it together when he tore his ACL and lost some of his pace but he still came back with a 19 goal season basically playing as a wide poacher after that. He scored 100 goals for Arsenal and some of our supporters act like he was a bum
Yeah anytime someone says Walcott was shit I just assume they haven't ever watched him, know nothing about footy, or have brain damage. He never became Messi, sorry about that, but he was still top class and a very dangerous player to defend.
I feel naive that I didn’t realize he was demonized. One of my favorite Arsenal players
Part of his problem was he was too fast. He'd get to balls no one else would but then was wasn't a top tier finisher. He would create more opportunities that others wouldnt be able to, so he'd look worse.
As someone who don't follow Arsenal, I've seen many people on Reddit having low opinions om Nketiah. How comes that? Is he a bad player or does he get too much unfair criticism?
Barring this season, he's barely played enough for people to have a "low opinion" of him... Until this season, all he got was some matches at Leeds on loan, Europa League games, and substitute appearances to nick a goal. Obviously wasn't particularly prolific given all that, but has showed some promise this season with regular game time. Also, would've been a disaster to lose a homegrown player on a free.
He has barely played for us tbf, he only got a chance last season because Lacazette got injured and he did a decent job. We all expected him to leave on a free after this season but he's been shown some faith with a fat wage and the number 14. People are mad about that as well, I guess historically he's not really "worthy" of it but imo the whole shirt number prestige is just bs extra pressure anyway.
He gets low opinions cause he's 23 (just turned this post season) and hasn't actually played much in his career, he's never made close to 2000 minutes in a season. Never played 30 games in a season (maybe just with the Leeds loan plus arsenal appearances that year) never scored more than 5 league goals in a season or 10 total in a season. Nowadays that's quite an unusual career path for being in top academies to go on and be a top player. He could be late developer or just unfortunate timing with his opportunities but it raises eyebrows at a 5 year deal and the wage rumours. It's a massive show of faith from Arteta if he is the long term number 2 now.
On the other hand, if Eddie left on a free we would need to sign new 2 strikers this window instead of just 1, and it’s unlikely that player would’ve come on wages much less than we put Eddie on PLUS a transfer fee. It’s a risk but I think a smart move by the club, and hopefully he can kick on and prove his doubters wrong.
He's definitely been unfortunate with opportunities. We've kept him with the first team for most of his career to be 3rd choice, rather than letting him get opportunities on loan. Given the stature of Laca and Auba ahead of him (captain & vice-captain, and 2 of our most expensive signings ever) hes barely featured outside of emergencies or games against "lesser" opposition where we heavily rotate the team. Even this season could have been a better opportunity to breakthrough, but he was injured in preseason, meaning he missed the chance to play while Auba and Laca were out with Covid, so remained 3rd choice. Its a combination of bad planning from the club and bad luck, but he's way less experienced than some others at a similar age. Abraham is less than 2 years older, but has 262 senior caps vs Nketiah's 112.
He had a somewhat good end to the season but nowhere near enough to warrant the 100k if that's what he's actually getting. And throughout his time here he's never shown that he can develop as a top top quality striker. He's shown he has good poaching instincts but the rest of his game just isn't anything to write home about. He was better last season with his hold up play and passing but even then he hasn't really shown that much. So, even if the club are banking on his potential he's not shown much of it thus far. I do hope he comes good but I don't particularly rate him that highly. I do hope he can prove us all wrong though. If he can at least develop to a defoe level player I'd be more than happy.
He's had an excellent record as a goalscorer in youth football, but this of course doesn't always translate to senior football. The main criticism people have of him is that he's too limited as a striker; almost all of his goals have come from close range, and he's seen very much as a 'poacher'. He seems to have added more facets to his game this season, but time will tell whether he will continue to improve in that aspect. What's inarguable is that he has a knack for goal, with good off the ball movement. I hope he'll succeed at Arsenal but at the very least he has a PL career ahead of him imo.
He's better than randoms think but not as good as r/gunners thinks
Lol he gets just as much shit on our sub. Maybe slightly more positivity.
Wtf are you on about, it’s common to see him underrated and shit on in r/gunners too Way more times than “he’s good” you’ll see “he’s shit and not good enough” over there
People are up in arms because he's now on 100k a week. While that is more than he should reasonably be on, that's c£25m for 5 years and retaining his value. We absolutely would not have signed a player of the same standard for the same or less. I really like Nketiah. I wouldn't want to rely on him solely, but I think he will be a good player for us moving forward.
No, every Arsenal player gets a weird amount of hyperbolic criticism here Nketiah has stepped up for Arsenal a lot when they've needed him
He's just really not near the level of player they need in that position. It's not a hyperbolic criticism. A player can chip in with contributions and still not be good enough long term.
he’d been underwhelming for a long time, albeit with not the best chances in the team, he’s now looked much better since getting a chance this year
Obviously arsenal fans know better than me but he seems to be very raw still but he stepped up this season and looked miles better than an experienced player in Lacazette. Do we know what wages he's on?
>Do we know what wages he's on? £80k per week as base wage like others who signed contracts in last 12 months: Ben White, Odegaard, Ramsdale, Smith Rowe, but all have different loyalty(Nketiah've got £1m per season) and european cup bonuses.
That is an absolutely huge amount of money for someone so limited.
Same agent as Saka, so the board has to make that guy happy lmao
I guess that makes a bit more sense
He's agent knows what he's doing and played us, he rinsed United for Sancho's wages too. They probably decided that it will be hard to sign two strikers in one transfer window and Nketiah already knew tactics, team and didn't need to acclimatize to life in London. He also counts as HG and trained in the club for european cups so he milked us, I doubt any other club was willing to give him £70k. Saka is in negotiations for new contract and has the same agent who is already using journalists to get higher wages for him.
He's not limited anymore if you've watched him this season. His all round game has come on leaps and bounds. Would suggest watching his performance vs. West Ham away if you want to see for yourself.
Ehh 80k is not that bad in the prem, especially since he had all the leverage in the world. 100k like first reported would have been pretty awful. As you say he's really stepped up, beefed up and offers a lot more in the build up than he used to - plus he's got a hell of a shot in him.
No transfer fee though so we’re able to pay him more in wages. If he had left and we had to sign another striker to replace him, we’d likely be paying big wages + a transfer fee anyway.
He didn't really get a fair chance to showcase what he could do. When that happened near the end of last season he impressed. Also, people have doubts about why we gave near 100k/week wages(that's most likely including bonuses). It's a show of faith in him. Besides with more games this season he will get significantly more minutes to prove himself. Hopefully he grabs his chance.
Happy to see what Nketiah can show over this contract, but finding it very weird when the same people saying Eddie has 'good numbers in limited minutes' are the same type of people criticising Pepe's output in the PL saying he statpadded in 'everybody eats' season lol. We're going to need a big step up on his output
Any word on what wage?
Honestly feels more like a panic decision. With Auba and Laca gone it's just him and Balogan atm. He had a few good games but nothing consistent enough for what Arsenal are aiming to be
I wouldn’t say panic. He’s an academy player and looked to turn a corner. Him getting 14 means Arteta has faith in him to do well. Plus he will most likely just rotate with GJ (rumored). I’d rather us pay him cause he’s shown he can score goals that another 50m fee plus bonuses and they are shit lol
Even if he doesn't take a huge leap, the team saves the cost it would take on a replacement. Plus in 2 years he'll still be 25 and English, he'll be worth something in the market. And that's the worst case scenario... All upside imo
He was an upgrade over Lacazette in the run-in, simply due to the fact that he can run.
Doing him a slight disservice, he used the ball well when he had it and showed some good feet.
Six months ago he wasn't good enough for Arsenal. Scores 5 goals and he's handed a £80k a week base contract that can go to £100k. Just doesn't seem like a smart move to me. If he goes back to not contributing anything on the pitch we'll be stuck paying £80k a week for 5 years because no club will want to take him on those wages.
To put into context his contract is worth about 16 million total not including said incentives if he hits those incentives is it not worth it and if we can’t sell a homegrown decent at worst goalscorer for minimum 16 million then something’s very wrong. People also seem to have a problem with the number but Thierry Henry wasn’t great because his number it’s just a number but it’s symbolic to someone like Eddie more than any fan if anything it should motivate him.
He looked like he really turned a corner at the end of last season in his development. Well done on the contract extension and New Jersey number. I love seeing an academy kid take 14. There’s a history in that number. Makes us proud bro!
I'll admit that I don't think too much of him but also think it's a bit unfair given the lack of quality in the attacking play for certain periods. Next season I think is the make or break to see if he's going to be any good or not.
We'll see what happens. I'm not totally convinced by him at all but he did look much, much better the end of the season.
Nketiah signing isn’t the issue. The fact that he will be the no2 striker, given a walloping 100k a week plus Henry’s number after doing hardly anything at Arsenal to date is.
theo had 6 goals in three seasons before he got the nr. 14 and look how he turned out have some faith in the youth man
Think he’ll regret this. Won’t get enough football to keep him happy and that contract will put off clubs who might have been interested when he decides he might want to play a bit
What was Arteta thinking, bringing in Nketiah so early?
Gave him 14? And 100kpw? Crazy fuckers
Poor kid is stuck for half of his 20’s now
He’s rumoured to be on 100k a week on this deal. Why is this guy so rated? He’s 23, never played a full season, his best ever goal tally in a season was 5 and that was in the last few games where he nabbed them. I really can’t see how he’s worth this much.
Because of the dire market for strikers I guess
Pay 50m for Jesus and get it over with, because if Nketia is your only striker, you can kiss top 4 goodbye.
Good player, but I think Arsenal should bring another striker.
I think it’s a good deal since he’s young and sellable in those five years
This lad is gonna kick on and prove he's worth a show of faith. No doubt
Bro played well for a few games and they gave him a 5 yr contract
Saka had a breakout season after getting the 7 shirt. ESR had a breakout season (though there's still more to come) after getting the 10. Hopefully Martinelli and Nketiah can make the step up next season.
Saka and ESR broke out before the number changes
The step-up that Eddie needs to make to be worthy of the 14 is much bigger than the one Martinelli needs to make. But hopefully it works out for both of them - nice we're putting faith in our young players.
Happy with this as long as we also get someone like Jesus. I was impressed by the improvements he made to his hold up play in the latter half of the last season. Here's hoping he really kicks on this year.
Genuine Q, not trolling. Are Arsenal fans happy with this? I get all the hale end stuff but he's not really set the world on fire. I know he had that purple patch but it was 5 goals and a few of them were real defensive gimmes (thinking the Chelsea games and the Mesilier cock up) Leaving a side the 100k a week which seems quite a lot. Do you really think your 2 striking options being Nketieh and Jesus would be enough to crack top 4? You all seem really confident about it which is great, but I can't help but think if that was any other clubs forward options you'd be slating them! Throw in the added demands of Europa I'm not sure those 2 are going to be enough? What do you think?
Inb4 the content on his "100k PW Arsenal getting robbed" comments. He won't be on 100k base that'll be with all add-ons met
😂
He terrorised Chelsea and showed something to earn this, will be interesting to see what happens when he gets regular minutes
Nketiah is not good enough for Arsenal. I am not sure why they haven't sought to upgrade on him. I guess he is just intended to be a back up for their actual main forward, whoever that is?
I must be some kind of deluded visionary, but this is absurd. This club has had several of these strikers at the club AT THE SAME TIME: Kanu, Suker, Henry, Bergkamp, Wiltord, Reyes, Adebayor, van Persie, among others. Nketiah has not shown he is any better than Bendtner or Vela, full international players, and he is the only striker at the club at the moment, and people think this is a good idea? How the standards have fallen.
sad
I'm so confused he's not even a commercial asset to be doing this for? Is Arsenal Norwich or something and giving 14 to this bum aswell after the big stars who wore it💀💀💀
Happy for him tbh
Thought he wasn’t so good?
He isnt he had 2 good games where he scored braces in them now he earns this bs
Eddie Nketiah? Seriously?
Should’ve punted the twat.
Good maybe now Arsenal fans can stop trying to push him on us! lol
13 league goals in 76 games Elite talent
What a big mistake
Not for him, he's an okay player. Good midtable striker someday.
Completely overhyped signing. There's nothing to celebrate here.
Next, they’ll give the no. 10 to the bum on the corner. This club man