Can we make a Premier League sex offender XI? Partey, Greenwood, Adam Johnson, half the Leicester squad in La Manga (innocent tbf).
Well yes, but this was already discussed at length previously and he never got prosecuted, so we just have to work with him while he’s here. On a purely footballing level, he’s a great player when he’s fit but those days are too far and few in between. Get rid in January and bring someone else in who is actually available when we need them.
Yeah, think we'll pass on that. We don't need the Geordie version of Mohamed Elneny in our team, thanks
Apparently he covers the most amount of distance in games than any other player in the Premier League. I would make a case the only flaw in his game is the ability to play football.
I wish, but nah. Tbh Longstaff would probably be more reliable than Partey and adds depth to midfield, so fack it, why not, ey?
The Mirror reports that Arsenal are again keen on signing both Martin Zubimendi as well as Aurelien Tchouameni. Would make sense if they plan to offload Partey.
The thing is if we added either Tchoumeni/Zubimendi and Ivan Toney - would the squad be pretty much complete? Martinelli/Trossrad-------------Jesus/Toney/Nketiah---------------------Saka/Jesus/Nelson -----------Havertz/Rice/Zinchenko--------------------Odegaard/ESR/Viera--------------------- -------------------------------------Rice/Tchoumeni/Jorginho------------------------------------------ Zin/Tomi/Timber-------Gabriel/Kiwior--------------Saliba/White---------Timber/White/Tomi ---------------------------------------------Ramsdale/Raya---------------------------------------------
I think it’s unlikely that we get both in January but IF we did? I’d expect us to win a trophy and get top 4 - as a baseline requirement - with that squad.
Seeing reports online that both Jesus and Partey won't be back until December . That is frustrating. To be fair, we do have an international break in a few weeks, but they're both likely to miss the following games: West Ham (a) - Carabao Cup Newcastle (a) Sevilla (H) Burnley (H) Brentford (A) Lens (H) Wolves (H) Can we survive this run of games without these two? I think we can, but we cannot afford to pick up anymore injuries.
I don't like the way Arteta seems to run players to death. Klopp does the same thing actually. Partey keeps having repeating muscles strains which to me indicate some kind of imbalance but ultimately the key is probably to reduce his workload. You have to make exceptions for players with consistent injury problems. Despite Partey being injured Arteta has stated that Rice will play today against West Ham - when we have Newcastle on the weekend! Seems a bit bonkers to me. I would protect Rice right now.
Reports from John Cross saying we may not see Partey until the start of 2024 . When you consider there's an AFCON in January as well, we're looking at him coming back into the fold during February at best (assuming he doesn't get injured on international duty). At this point, I can't even blame the player. The club knew how injury prone he was and decided to stick with him. It is what it is. I just hope we have a plan for when he's away at AFCON. This strengthens the argument for reinforcements in January. It's not even debatable that we require some new signings in Jan - assuming we want to compete across 3 competitions.
I don't think this is likely. Sesko only just joined Leipzig 4 months ago, can't see them letting him leave mid season. We'd have to look at someone else. Would love Zubimendi, but again, he's an important player for a team that finished in the top-4 last season and Sociedad will not want to lose him mid season when they're fighting for top-4 this season too - unless we offer a big fee.
I'm unsure about Sesko - lot of hype around him but his finishing looks OK at best to me. Think I would prefer Toney.
