In short
The episode is a World Cup-and-Arsenal crossover, focusing on Bruno Guimaraes transfer talk and broader debates about how football identities and tactics are changing. Key claims include: Brazil’s “football stereotype” is fading due to players being educated and developed in Europe and leaving Brazil early; international football is becoming more like club football (more structured, collectivist); and modern defenses reduce the impact of pure one-on-one flair, increasing the value of players who create “half-yard” space and finish. The Arsenal core argument is that Bruno would add progressive passing and resilience, helping Arsenal keep their high-floor style while extending their “winning window,” even if he’s 28 and expensive.
Guests
Tim Stillman (Arsenal Vision host/analyst). Alan Shearer and Micah Richards are referenced as regular World Cup co-hosts on “The Rest is Football,” but they do not appear in this excerpt. Clive is mentioned as a Patreon contributor.
Notable examples
Declan Rice free-kick goal; comparisons to Manchester United buying Robin van Persie; PSG’s Vitinha/Verratti-style balance; Haaland/Mbappe/Messi/Kane as system-breakers; Newcastle’s potential losses (Gordon, Tonali, Bruno).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOBruno's Potential Impact
1:03 to 2:18
Discussion on Bruno Guimarães and his potential influence at Arsenal.
“Declan Rice with an absolute rocket with a free kick.”
Academy and Scouting Insights
2:18 to 3:17
Insights into Arsenal's academy changes and scouting strategies.
“This is the real scouting stuff, the good stuff.”
International Football Dynamics
3:17 to 4:04
Discussion on the evolving dynamics of international football.
“I do the introductory nonsense just because I feel like you don't want to get right into the chat, right?”
The Evolution of Football Identity
4:04 to 9:35
Examination of footballing identity and its shift in modern football.
“Can I just ask you how you're holding up with the Brazil and England thing first in your household, and then we can get to the Bruno stuff?”
Analyzing Current Football Stars
9:35 to 14:00
Analysis of current football stars and their impact on the game.
“I don't know whether, like, plates are shifting, but an evolution in kind of global football.”
The Evolution of Strikers in Modern Football
14:00 to 14:58
Explore the changing dynamics of strikers and their impact on the game.
“But it's his ability to just get a half yard of space and then finish.”
Bruno Guimaraes Transfer Update
14:58 to 16:10
Discuss the current situation regarding Bruno Guimaraes and Arsenal's interest.
“And why do we go to a Raffa Liao, who we know isn't setting the world on fire because he's one of those rare examples of an individualistically brilliant player, but is that really what we need?”
Analyzing Bruno's Fit with Arsenal
16:10 to 20:44
A detailed look at how Bruno Guimaraes could enhance Arsenal's midfield.
“So the very first thing, Tim, I need to just ask you, before we get into the fit and all those other things is, how do you feel about this player for Arsenal?”
Market Trends in Player Transfers
20:44 to 26:18
Examine the financial implications and trends in player transfers, focusing on older players.
“Worth noting, he had, in the last three seasons in the Premier League, seven goals and eight assists, five goals, six assists.”
Chelsea's Impact on the Transfer Market
26:18 to 28:03
Discuss how Chelsea's buying strategies affect the broader transfer landscape.
“Because, and that's what Man City do, right?”
Show all 23 chapters
Market Dynamics and Player Transactions
28:03 to 37:34
Explore the current transfer market trends and strategies clubs are adopting.
“And that might be, you know, like the Tonali and Gordon sales have potentially - Helped their 2026.”
Market Dynamics and Player Transactions
37:38 to 37:55
Explore the current transfer market trends and strategies clubs are adopting.
“Get a free AG1 travel case with seven free AG1 travel packs in your welcome kit.”
Midfield Dynamics and Player Roles
39:08 to 42:00
Discuss the potential midfield structure and player roles with Bruno Guimarães.
“Declan Rice gets picked every game he's fit.”
Midfield Dynamics: Rice, Guimaraes, and Zubimendi
42:00 to 44:30
Exploration of the midfield dynamics involving Rice, Guimaraes, and Zubimendi.
Evaluating Odegaard's Role and Performance
44:30 to 48:50
Discussion on Martin Odegaard's evolving role and performance within the team.
“It is unfortunate that the way we discuss players is they're shit or they're great.”
Creativity in Football: Expanding Perspectives
48:50 to 56:00
Debate on various forms of creativity in football and how they apply to Arsenal's tactics.
Analyzing Player Profiles and Team Dynamics
56:00 to 58:08
Discussion on player profiles and their fit within the team structure.
Concerns Around Player Injuries and Team Depth
58:08 to 59:55
Exploration of player injuries and how they affect team performance and planning.
Odegaard's Role and Future with the Team
59:55 to 1:02:08
Analyzing Martin Odegaard's impact and future role in the squad.
“Now with Rice, I will tell you I am less concerned than others about Rice, who seem to think he's got some kind of major back problem.”
Evaluating the Goalkeeper Position and Transfers
1:02:08 to 1:04:04
Discussion on the goalkeeper position and recent team transfers, including Ilan Melier.
“I'm sure the comments under the Twitter post were rational and cool-headed.”
Scouting Christos Solis and Tactical Fit
1:04:04 to 1:10:00
Scouting report on Christos Solis and his potential fit in the team.
“You can buy a backup who's experienced and talented and everybody rates him.”
Analyzing Player Transfers and Squad Depth
1:10:00 to 1:13:26
Discusses the potential impact of player transfers on the squad and team dynamics.
“It was watching him smart, technical, two-footed.”
Navigating Player Departures and Competition
1:13:26 to 1:15:01
Explores the challenges of retaining talent amidst intense competition for trophies.
“You know, the one that unfortunately to me looks like it makes sense because you'd get good money for him and there isn't room is Ethan, which would be a real shame because the talent I think is too big to let go of.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hey, World Cup fans. If you want proper analysis, honest opinions, and plenty of laughs along the way, give The Rest is Football a listen. Gary Lineker is joined by Alan Shearer and Micah Richards throughout the tournament as they break down all the big games, the biggest moments, and everything happening on and off the pitch. They'll also be chatting with some brilliant guests along the way. Whether you've watched soccer your whole life or you're just getting into it, they'll help make sense of the drama, the tactics, the joy, and the heartbreak of the World Cup. Listen to The Rest is Football wherever you get your podcasts.
0:34Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.
1:21It's Rice. What a goal! Declan Rice with an absolute rocket with a free kick. Arsenal lead 1-0. Cut inside. Saka! Sublime finish. He's back with a bang with Bukayo Saka. 1-0. Unbelievable. Remember that player you hate and you've hated for years? Well, you love him now. This is the Arsenal Vision Postman Podcast. My name is Alex Smith, the Blackman Twitter game. Hello, buddy. Bruno Gamer-Aish. Hate him. Can't stand him. Remember that time you did that thing? did that thing to Jorginho with the elbow, and he's kind of been mean to us and a bit rough with us. Well, we love him now because he might be ours because he wants to be at Arsenal.
2:00Once you want to be at Arsenal, you're in the fold, or are you? We'll find out what Tim thinks of that. Clive gave his thoughts on the Bruno stuff yesterday, along with the Meslier stuff yesterday, along with a bit on what's going on with our academy as some talent drains, but some new people come in to maybe protect the growth and development of the academy. So you can listen to that over on Patreon. So leave a 50s of code, a couple of quid. you're in tomorrow we'll have a Friday night clive today we have Tim tomorrow we'll have a world cup daily it's all happening it's all happening the football is happening watch it watch the football uh we're gonna get back to doing some scouting videos probably a Bruno scouting video but we scouted him once we have a collection called scouting videos if you go to the patreon you look up collections you can see every single scouting video we've done we've done Barcola we've done Bruno Guimarães we've done all these Solis done you can go watch it and these aren't just YouTube clips.
2:46This is the real scouting stuff, the good stuff. So I would enjoy it if you would watch it. You can watch Clive analyze the player and then you can watch me do things like go, Oh, Oh, it's really, really good stuff. Um, we've got an iOS app coming. There'll be more on that soon. And then the Android app will follow it. It'll allow you to stay connected with the pod. You can have your regular pods in there. If you're a patron, you can have your patron pods in there. You'll be able to submit mailbag questions in there, watch the YouTube videos from there. Um, yeah, it should be good. And we're going to hopefully keep adding things to that to make that worthwhile for you.
3:14So we look forward to giving you news on that. But I think that covers it for introductory nonsense. I do the introductory nonsense just because I feel like you don't want to get right into the chat, right? You want to be eased into the chat. And the introductory nonsense is kind of like, it's like that warm, it's like the bathwater. You know, if it's too hot and you try to get in, it scolds you. You need just a little bit of easing in. But now you're ready to be scolded with the hot takes of the fireman himself, Tim Stillman. Hello, Tim. Hello there. How you doing? Yeah, good, thank you. Good.
3:45It's warm here. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're ready to get hot. All right. Look, I have to say, I think this must be an interesting time for you. It's been a bad time for Brazil. It's been a good time for England on the pitch. Now there's a Brazilian who missed a penalty, who is a pariah in Brazil, who may be coming to Arsenal. You must be pulled in a million directions. Can I just ask you how you're holding up with the Brazil and England thing first in your household, and then we can get to the Bruno stuff? Yeah, actually not as bad is a very loaded word to use. But I think the thing is the expectation around Brazil is really dropping.
4:24And I think this is really like maybe not as painful because it's really starting to become expected. now it's like 24 years since they last won the world cup and i think the thinking is that like their time might be done as like a super elite footballing nation um i'm not as sure about that i do think just by the size of their population i think they'll put together a very good team or squad at some point but um yeah i i think it's i think it's actually a really interesting question around the world cup like some of these countries that have this reputation like the stereotype of brazilian football has not been true for longer than i've been alive that like that stereotype that people have that's from before i was born um right that's nearly half a century ago that stuff was true but it's endured for so long and then it's the same with like countries like netherlands right like there's the whole total football thing but actually netherlands have been bad for a long time now and germany have gone out the last three world cups early and italy haven't qualified for the last three so i think there's a really interesting question about like with like younger generations are those reputations going to endure i do young people look at netherlands and think total football johan kruif dennis bergkamp marco van basten and all of that all of that from like before they were born and same with brazil are people going to be like well they they won the world cup last time 24 years ago like how enduring are some of these reputations is i i think a really interesting question that's that's really emerging kind of from this world cup yeah and just to show you that arsenal isn't the only online community where absurd debates and discussions happen a not insignificant portion of the online Brazil footballing fan base is having a debate about whether the move from a Catholic Brazil to a Protestant Brazil is the reason for the change in football style.
6:31The Pentecostal debate, yeah. Yeah, the Pentecostal debate. And I will say my personal opinion on that, which no one needs, but I'll do super quickly, is simply the Brazil team is now increasingly educated. Their football education and their football career occurs in Europe, in leagues that have a particular style. And so I think the cultural identity of the Brazil team is going to be increasingly defined by whatever the identity of football in Europe is, right? Because their players are playing where? In the Premier League, in La Liga, in Serie A, in Ligue 1. And if that's where you're brought up and that's where you're playing, then whatever the prevailing style of football is in those areas, that's the football that you're going to be a purveyor of that's sort of it yeah yeah and it causes a disconnect with fans as well like most of the fans just don't like connect with the players because most of them leave so even like in in the build-up to like brazil norway when those gabrielle holland comps were doing the rounds i saw so many brazilians on my timeline that were just like i didn't know gabrielle was like this because he left like he barely played in brazil he went to france when he was a teenager then came to us and so they don't forge those connections like you know a player plays for you stays till his early 20s or whatever now they've gone at like 17 18 so you never see them play so that's created like a an emotional and cultural distance as well and then brazil started doing all this stuff with nike where they were doing road shows because they're such a big brand they'd go and play in the us they're playing the middle east so they wouldn't play at home very much um and and again this this could all like there's undoubtedly there's been a homogenization of football ultimately you look at it it's very ua for dominated um again these final stages but then you've got um you know like they're like someone like morocco like morocco a consistent tournament team now and but quite a lot of it is built on players who are like second generation and have also been raised like playing in europe and then you know success stories like cape verde and uh surinami and stuff like that and actually the reality of their teams is that most of them are diaspora and playing in europe so actually the european domination is kind of even bigger than it looks yeah and um and i just find this stuff really really interesting like are some of these teams i mentioned at the outset netherlands germany italy brazil are they losing their identity are they too obsessed with identity is it possible to have like a national footballing identity anymore i i think all of that all of that is like really really fascinating and really been crystallized by particularly the last two World Cups, I think, like the post-COVID World Cup, shall we say, I think, like, have really shown, I think, I don't know whether, like, plates are shifting, but an evolution in kind of global football.
9:40Yeah, I have to say, I think the international game is getting closer to the club game in terms of the way teams play. You see it now, right? Building in a 2-3 or a 3-2, defending in a 4-4-2 out of possession, but in first phase of build-up, there's those three defenders, There's those tucked in fullbacks. You see a lot of familiar things in the international game and in the club game. I have a theory, though, and it's a theory of why I think, first of all, Brazil may feel some of their footballing identity is withering. But I think it's also why we as Arsenal supporters are struggling with the question of who's the left wing player we should get?
10:15Where are these great players? I think football, because defenders are getting better, because fullbacks are getting better, because athleticism is improving and organizational defending is improving. I think football is becoming a more collectivist sport. And I think there is less ability for one-on-one individual brilliance on the ball to decide games in the way it has always done. The years of a Ronaldinho dancing on the ball or an R9 beating four defenders on his way to the goal or even Messi doing that. Defenders are better. Defenses are more organized. Fullbacks can defend 1v1 better than they have.
10:51and so the game is about structure uh it is about collaboration and cooperation it is about set pieces and why is it about set pieces in part because the the defenses are better at stopping you from those individual moves and while i think there's always exceptions to the rule i i don't think it's that we don't have talented players i think the talent defensively is starting to match the talent in attack in a way it hasn't historically especially at lower teams especially in the premier league where there's a lot of money and so tim that ability to find that player we're like oh gosh look at what he can do he can just devastate 1v1 there are some examples of it i'm not saying there are none you know and and some of them are 18 year olds like lamin yamal but even still his strength is actually how he provides for others right but kai osaka why is he so dominant when he's fit it's not his his sort of eye-catching joga bonito dancing on the ball it's the intelligence with which he brings others into play in his decision making and and i really do think that that is changing how we think about football and how we think about the identity of individual national teams that were built around flair because i don't know that flair players are in abundance able to decide games the way they so often did down the years you know yeah yeah definitely not um it's a lot more systemic um nowadays but but then as arsenal approved right a team of no real clear attacking stars winning the premier league and nearly winning the champions league but and this is where football is so great because like it's just never ending it's just an absolute hamster wheel we're saying all of this look at the top scorers list of the world cup yeah it's the best players in the world it's harland it's mbappe it's messy like the other thing about this tournament is that the stars have turned up and um usually in a world cup top scoring list you'll get someone like out of nowhere you know you'll get someone um and quite often they'll have scored like a hat trick against some no-hopers in the group stage and then they'll get one or two more or something and it'll be like oh this guy got five goals at the world cup and no one had ever heard of him before whereas this world cup it's like no it's Harland and Bappi Messi and Kane they're all going for the golden boot together and obviously there's more games now as well but it's like and they're all probably like whoever wins it is going to break the record for like a golden boot or world cup like so in many senses the other teaching this world cup is arguably that like it's the stars that are making it right because those are the ones that break the system so but you know what's interesting can break your system harland can break your system like not many players can but the ones that really can are hugely valuable obviously Absolutely.
13:43And I agree with that. But I'd say it's sort of interesting, right? What makes all those players special, I think, is their finishers, right? Holland is a finisher. Messi is no longer the dribble eight guys to score guy. He's a finisher. Mbappe, I guess, can do, I mean, he's extraordinary, right? But it's his ability to just get a half yard of space and then finish. Kane, of course, isn't going to beat anybody. But look at some of the goals he scores. He just finishes from all angles. And I think that, you know, and again, you're always going to see things in the way that enlarges your point. But I think in a footballing landscape where you can't dance past five or six guys and score the stunning solo goal, the guys who can take a half yard of space and turn it into a goal become so much more valuable.
14:31and we're really seeing now Haaland aside maybe Mbappe aside there's sort of there's there's two types of striker in football there's the finisher there's Kane who can stand still at the top of the box and just finish Lewandowski has a bit of that right for Barcelona Haaland can run in behind fish and then there's the false nines and there's probably more false nines than anything else because they can at least influence the game I don't know it's an interesting debate for another time we got to get into the the Bruno stuff but I definitely think that change to more collectivism and less one-on-one individualist brilliance is also why we look around the football landscape knowing we need a left-wide attacker and we're like, is it Barclay?
15:15Is there anybody else? Is it Raffa Liao? And why do we go to a Raffa Liao, who we know isn't setting the world on fire because he's one of those rare examples of an individualistically brilliant player, but is that really what we need? Okay. Bruno Guimaraes, yesterday, if you missed it, David Ornstein dropped the Ornbaum, and it hit. It hit its target, which is Arsenal supporters and Newcastle supporters, saying that Bruno has told Newcastle he wants to come to Arsenal, he's ready to leave. We've made a bid for$60 million. Don't think that'll get it done, and it's been reported it won't get it done.
15:49It is worth noting that Newcastle have already lost Gordon and already lost Tenali, and I think it would be unprecedented for a club of their size, whatever you think of them, to lose Tenali, Gordon, and Bruno, which are arguably their three best players all in the same window. But it may happen. It would certainly not make them happy, which I guess we're supposed to say is funny. But I think it would make us happy. So the very first thing, Tim, I need to just ask you, before we get into the fit and all those other things is, how do you feel about this player for Arsenal? He will be 29 during this season.
16:23He will probably cost in excess of$70 million when it's all said and done. And how do you feel about this player, though? Forget the dynamics of the move, this player for Arsenal. Yeah, I think he ticks a lot of boxes. He has a lot of stuff we don't have. I think it's really interesting, actually, with both our main targets, how, like, I feel like as Arsenal fans we've mischaracterized them and maybe based on the way those players have played against us. But, you know, get the spreadsheets out and what does Bruno come up with it's like progressive passes line great breaking passes through balls like that that's really what he does and that's what we don't do enough of but he also gives us resilience in an area where we probably need it it's probably the one area of the squad where if we're saying that nor guard is not really when i say a serious member i don't mean i don't mean that like personally but i mean like in an on-pitch sense like a serious part of the squad then he gives us that bit of resilience and he can he can do a bit of what Rice does he can do a bit of what Marino does he can do a bit of what Zubimendi does like he can I don't want to say fill in because I don't think he'd be a fill-in player but he could do all of those jobs basically he could be in a double pivot he could be slightly further forward you could probably even play him as a lone six like he's he's a bit like rice i think maybe in that respect in that he's he's versatile within those profiles but like what he does is he just he is progressive passing that's that's his superpower that's what we don't do enough of that's why we we get the horseshoe a little bit i think we were eighth in the division for progressive passes last season we were six for passes completed um like these are not normal numbers for a premier league champion and it's where we need to get better and um you know i'll echo the discussion you and clive had on the patreon yesterday which is you know about the age profile and stuff like that but actually once you're at the mountaintop you're trying to stay there you know you're not you're not in a four or five year project anymore you've reached the summit and you want to stay there and you want to get a bit better and so you kind of do need prime age guys for that and I guess the the most crude example I could find for that is Manchester United buying Robin Van Persie when he was 29 they lost the league on goal difference they bought the best goal scorer and they won the league the next year like sometimes it is you know you're you're trying to kind of you're trying to stay on base um a little bit so and also i think this summer it's not like last summer in terms of how busy we're going to be like we've got the backup well the backup like maybe the third goalkeeper that's done there might be a defender but like bruno and morgan rogers that that really feels like the meat it doesn't feel like this is going to be another six or seven guys in a six or seven guys out this feels like bruno will come in nor guard will go rogers will come in trossard will go maybe white will go in the defense like it does feel a bit more one in one out and i think within that framework as well you can definitely take like a guy who's 28 um and again the point you made yesterday on the patreon as well if he's 26 and he's got four years on his contract at new you cost or how much does he cost then i mean gosh there's so much there tim um i want to just start with him as the player though this is the rare example i think of a player who gives you progression creativity and out of possession work rate and an impact involvement all-rounder he's a proper all-rounder that fits what we do like because for example many people may know already I'm sort of obsessed with Adam Morton.
20:21I think Adam Morton is a cheat code in passes between the lines and through balls in behind. He's Trent in midfield. He's a bit of Sesk in midfield, if I may invoke that. He is, at least in my view, a bit of a liability out of possession. Now, you can make the argument, we have Declan Rice, mate. He can be a bit of a liability. but what if Declan Rice can't play and you're trotting out you know Adam Morton and who and Zubamendi I guess um maybe Miles it it starts to look a little lightweight for me in terms of our style and what we want to do what I love about Bruno is he gives you the ability to add the things that are missing without taking away the things that are working if that makes sense right you know if you look at a vitinier jaunevas at psg they're not assist monsters they're not goal creators particularly but they do a bit of everything they allow psg to be one of the best out of possession teams and in possession teams simultaneously and i think you get some of that from Bruno.
21:33Worth noting, he had, in the last three seasons in the Premier League, seven goals and eight assists, five goals, six assists. This season, nine goals and five assists. Now, two of those were penalties. So if you want to say seven non-penalty goals and five assists, that's 14 goal involvements from central midfield. That's real good. You know, you will absolutely take that. So for me, you know, the player is an excellent, proven Premier League player who can play with Zubomendi, with Miles, with Rice, with Odegaard, with any of those players, as are six or eight or however you want to think about those players, without us losing too much.
22:16Now look, you take a Declan Rice out of your midfield, you're never going to be as good as if a Declan Rice is in your midfield. But if you believe that we may have to play a bit without Rice this season, at least to start the season, I think Bruno Guimaraes gives you more ability to retain that balance. And then if you have Bruno and Rice in midfield, you have tremendous range. You have range in passing, range in carrying. Both of them can arrive into the final third and score goals and provide assists. But then think of what you can do with the third midfielder. You can have anything you want in there.
22:48You want a Morgan Rodgers who's not really going to do much in passing. You want Ebrecha Eza, who we know has struggled to kind of get on the ball, needs someone to link it to him, no problem. You want Odegaard and you want to be PSG and have the ball for 85 % of the time and play 4 ,000 passes, you can do that. You have a number of different ways of doing it. And this is where the age thing comes in too. Because I really believe this, Tim. When you're in your winning window, you need to buy players that make you better right now today. Because a player that makes you better in three seasons is all well and good.
23:22But if they don't make you better today, you could lose the years when you can win a title. As we know, 22 years it took us to get back to winning a title, but it took us four years of trying, of being right there. This is a guy who keeps us right there at the top of the Premier League game from a midfield standpoint. And guess what? If you get two good years out of him, and by year three he's starting to decline, and you win two Premier Leagues, I mean, mate, I don't give a shit what the third year is. And oh, by the way, what a perfect way to say to Miles Lewis-Skelly, we're going to play you a lot this season.
23:54We're going to play you a lot next season, but you are in a position now to develop into midfield. Max Daum and Ethan Winery, if we want, you're in a position to develop, to find some minutes, but not have to win us a title right away. I think he's a bridge to the future while maintaining our incredibly high floor and high ceiling in the present. But I want to kind of give you another angle on this that I want to get your thoughts on, Tim, which is just value. It seems like the market used to forget at how important it was to buy pre-prime age players. And you used to see outrageous fees and outrageous transfers for older players.
24:28Robin Van Persie, you know, as great as United did with him for a season, became unusable one season later. They got one season out of it. They won a title and they got an extraordinary season. And I doubt any United fan would say that was a bad transfer. But really, economically or however you want to look at it, it probably wasn't a great transfer. He was usable for one season. But has the market moved too much the other way? because in my mind, Bruno Guimaraes today is better than Elliot Anderson today. Now, Elliot Anderson is 23 and Bruno is 28. But Elliot Anderson is 116 million. Tenali, who's two years younger, is 100 million.
25:04If you can get the better player for 70 million, could you make an argument that there might be a little bit of a market inefficiency developing or efficiency developing in the older bracket where these teams who are trying to build themselves up are not competing for talent? And if Bruno's elite through his 31-year-old season,$70 million for him versus$116 for Anderson or$100 for Tenali, to me, actually looks like you're kind of exploiting a market efficiency with the understanding that what you don't get, likely, is any resale value. And that's really where the pitfall is. Of course. But then, like, what resale value a Man City going to get out of Elliott Anderson?
25:46None. Because they're either going to keep him until he's 34, if he's good, or he's going to be bad and no one's going to want to buy him. Exactly. Exactly that. So like at the top end of the market, there is no resale value anyway, basically, because Man City are at the top of the food chain. No one is going to, like you say, the only reason he'd go is if he's been bad and no one will pay for him anyway, basically. So, you know, at a certain point, the idea of resale value kind of becomes a bit moot anyway. Because, and that's what Man City do, right? What did they do with Kevin De Bruyne? They kept him till his hamstrings fell off.
26:26What did they do with Aguero? They kept him until, I mean, in fact, he retired. like he went to barca and his medical uncovered some kind of heart issue so like and that's what they're going to do with rogery as well they're they're going to ride they're going to ride that until it's got no legs anymore so um yeah at a certain point um the the resale value kind of becomes a bit moot anyway and actually what you're looking at if you're looking at it you know purely financially you're looking at a mortar you know amortization and things like that and actually like you know if it makes you can get good book value without necessarily selling somebody and um yeah like i even think of you know man united buying andre santos from chelsea i wanted to ask you about that yeah for around 50 million i think that looks a really good buy quite a good price yeah and what's interesting about that to me is that like like chelsea are like the, is it the bull case or the bear case that's the bad one?
27:27The bull is good, bear is bad. Right, so they're the bear case. They've bought so much young talent and stuck so many of them on long contracts that they're kind of getting picked off here, because it's like, we can't sell a lot of these guys. So if we get, and it's the same with Madueke, right? Like, I'm not pretending that Madueke is a player that particularly changes their world, but they put themselves in a situation where it's like 50 million. we kind of have to take it because we've created this like sell to buy model and actually we're not finding a lot of value because we're buying loads and loads of young players that's a very noisy market anyway lots of variables in it and actually we're finding we can't sell a lot of these guys so when we do get a reasonable offer for a good player we kind of have to take it and the other thing about the buy to sell model now is there is only one market really and that's the premier league so you have to sell to your competitors like that that's that's the other again chelsea being the bear case that's the other position they've put themselves in is that they're strengthening all their rivals because like napoli can't buy no like you know what's a guy who's been on 160 000 a week no there's they have no ability to buy that player unless the fee 10 million yeah yeah exactly so like what Chelsea are essentially doing is like they helped us out by with Maduake thanks very much they're helping Man United out with Santos thanks very much so like I think there are some old ideas about the market maybe and particularly with like regulations changing and um you know SCR instead of um PSR and stuff like that it's also not a massive coincidence i don't think our two main targets are from aston villa and newcastle who are teams who are in trouble on particularly on uefa which is a lot more stringent they're they're in trouble on uefa and you know you mentioned there about newcastle kind of they might sell three players in one summer but i think the interesting thing about that is two of those sales happen before june 30th so it's in one summer but it's over two bookkeeping periods if they sell us Bruno as well.
29:44And that might be, you know, like the Tonali and Gordon sales have potentially - Helped their 2026. Yeah, exactly. This is helping their 2027. They've got this bookkeeping period and they've got to sell someone else really, particularly because they've got to do a bit of a rebuild and they've got to fund it and they've got to, you know, so it's almost like the Tonali and Gordon sales, not that they don't count, that's overstating it, but that belongs to a different bookkeeping period now. So you've got all of these these different things and us and tottenham to be fair and tottenham are a club who obviously made tons of mistakes but pure business terms their wage to revenue ratio has been low which is now giving them the ability to go and spend 100 million on tonali because they're not in any trouble they're also not in europe so they can push the limits a bit because they won't be for one year they won't be subject to uefa and all of that so i i'm with you i think there are loads of these kind of slight changes in the market that that we're going to see and one of them is going to be uh well it already is like clubs circling around guys like newcastle and villa who've kind of had to overspend to come to the level that they're at and that's the part of the argument the newcastle and villa fans that complain about the regulations conveniently ignore they're like oh we can't compete because we can't spend all this it's like no no no no you've already spent it that's what's got you yeah this level like Aston Villa were in the championship right until 2019 and you've suddenly become a champions league club that wins the Europa League sorry you how did you do that because you spent a lot of money and um and so yeah and so there's there's all these like slightly different dynamics going on and I I do think we're in a very, very good position to take advantage of some of those.
31:41There's so many things about this that I find so interesting, Tim. One is really a change of perspective for me, but I will say just from a Newcastle standpoint, you think about what they thought they were going to get with the Saudi takeover. And now you look at Elliot Anderson that they sold, Ilanga that they sold, Izak that they sold, Tenali, Gordon, maybe Bruno. know it really feels like they they just are kind of slipping away from being a team that's going to be competing for even European places at this rate um it is what it is I won't I won't cry any tears about it but it is an interesting thing to observe look here's why I think I've come around a little bit I was very militant five or six seasons ago about how I thought we should behave in the market.
32:29And I feel not justified, but I feel that I had a reason for that militance in my perspective, which is you have to start doing the right things to get back to where we wanted to be. You can't keep doing dumb things, you know, thinking short term, you have to have some vision of building for the future. And we did. We started buying players pre prime, and they started to age into their primes together. And we continued to do that so that when we hit a winning window, all our players were sort of prime and it kind of worked. But Kai Osaka's in his prime. Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Zubamendi, Odegaard, Saliba, Gabby, Timber, you know, Cal Fiori and Capier on the younger side, but they're also, like, all these players, David Wright, they're all in the heart of their prime right now.
33:19Now, some of them have been more important than we thought, some maybe less important than we thought, you know, whatever the case may be. and so there is a need to backfill of course now you could say we're backfilling with max maybe with ethan if he stays we're backfilling with miles lewis skelly and maybe a solis comes in you know we wanted jeremy manga there are there are things that we could be doing to backfill for the development but when you're in your winning window your primary concern has to be extending it it cannot be what do we if we spent this window worrying about what do we do when rice is done when Saliba's done, when Gabby's done, when Saka's done.
33:56First of all, that wouldn't be fair to those players who are here now and want to keep winning. And second of all, you have no ability to understand what that rebuild is going to look like at this time. So I think this is the right thing in that respect. But here's the other thing I think I've come around to learning. My theory that you have to kind of buy young and find those values in the market and then develop them and then you have resale value what's the theory there all right you buy a good player you buy a good player for 30 million at 22 they're good and they're developing and by 26 they've developed into a really great player so you sell them yeah well that that doesn't help you or you buy oh you buy a 22 year old for for 30 million good value bargain he doesn't really turn out to be very good what are you going to get for him well what did we get for samby what did we get for Fabio Vieira.
34:47So you kind of go one of two directions. You buy a player with the hope that they're elite. And if they're elite, you don't want to lose them. Or you buy a player that never develops into an elite player. And you're not getting any money for them because nobody wants them and you have them on Premier League wages. So, you know, to me, I get it. Do you want to buy a bunch of players who are aging out of their prime and have absolutely no resale value? No, you can't build a whole squad that way. But I think that you cannot be militant about avoiding those players. Adam Vogue posted on Blue Sky, he said, I was just playing with the formula, and here are the transfer age midfielders who are within a reasonable distance of Bruno in creativity, progression, and out of possession value added.
35:25These are the names. Angela Stiller, I think a fascinating player, by the way, but coming from the Bundesliga, unclear what you get. Adam Morton, 100 million if you can get him at all or more. And you have the out of possession question, of course. James Garner was a fascinating player to me. He shows up great on data. People rate him. He's at Everton, though. Is the Sean Dyche system causing some things to look more progressive? I don't know. Great player, very interesting. Kodai Sano, who we've seen at the World Cup, and Luciano Valente. You know, those last two are sort of like, I think, punts on value and hope.
35:55That's not the area we're in right now. So, for me, looking at that list, Bruno feels like value. I want to do this, Tim. I want to talk about who he's going to play with, how you see it impacting the rest of the squad, because we start to look like we have a big midfield group. I don't want to get your thoughts on that uh we could talk a little bit about meslier as well and um you know and then get out of here so let me before we talk about why this is the end of zuba mendy's arsenal career forever kidding i'm kidding it isn't it's the end of odigo no i'm kidding it's not it's the end of no elliot stop when you're at the bottom of the hole stop digging that's the first way out okay i am going to tell you about brands because you asked for it you didn't ask for it but you're getting it anyway.
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38:06Have you ever used a SIM card? It's like the worst experience imaginable. First of all, you have this expensive phone. You have to pop out a little piece on the side of your expensive phone. If your phone even supports that, that piece usually gets lost. You pop this card in the card, who knows where you got it from. If you bought it at some train station, when you landed in a new place, you know, can root your phone. It can steal your stuff. Forget that. Okay. Then you're going to get some wacky plan. And then when you go to another place, you have to get another one of those things. You have to pop the piece out of your phone, but it's dumb.
38:32eSIM is great. You just flip a switch on your phone and you get the sale app and you pick a plan. They have an ad blocker. So you're not using up your data on ads. You're not using your main data plan so that when you travel overseas, hey, great news, your data plan works here. It's just$72 a day or 75 pounds a day. And you can, no you get a nice affordable plan travel the world like a local use the saley app and you're good to go get the saley app code arsenal vision save 15 that's right the saley app code arsenal vision save 15 that is 15 with code arsenal vision doing that tim is that enough of that indeed now that tim whose career is over with bruno coming i'm kidding but i'm not because like see this is the thing nor guards career is over okay uh see i couldn't pin clive down but i feel that i can pin you down to have an opinion here the reality is as much as clive will scream at me and that's fine i i can take that i can't i'll be terrified there is in there tends to be a group that a manager picks most often and that group tends to reflect the players that he really feels can do what he needs them to do.
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39:40Declan Rice gets picked every game he's fit. If Pekai Osaac was fit, he'd get picked every game, right? Saliba, Gabby, they get picked every game. Timber, if he's fit or not fit, gets picked every game, right? There are certain players that get rotated, but in general, there are certain players that don't. I'm really fascinated what you think the midfield looks like with Bruno Guimaraes. My instinct, with the way Miles looked, he'll be in the plan this season. I think Zubimendi's reputation has taken too big a hit more of a hit than it deserves because he had a weak end to the season interesting by the way he's not even getting on the pitch for Spain this summer I think he just needed a refresh he's getting it so he's going to be nice and fresh I think he was very impactful in the start of the season and we've kind of forgotten that but it's Rice Bruno Zubi Miles that's sort of the the group for that area midfield and I'm curious how you think that group looks from a I don't want to say pecking order standpoint but from how the pieces get together.
40:36And if it is Rice and Bruno, who you think the third piece is that complements that group best? What's the alchemy there? Yeah. So I think that third piece will rotate a little bit. I think probably mainly Erdegaard. I still think that in his heart of hearts, Arteta prefers Erdegaard there than Eze, but it might change a little bit from game to game. I think also what we, a tough lesson we've had to learn over the last two seasons is what we look like without some of our best players um so when I was writing something today about like Bruno Morgan Rodgers and fixing progressive passing and all of that like I did kind of have to make the point a lot of these numbers are down because Saka was injured and Havertz was injured and Odegaard was injured and actually if you just bring those guys back all of those numbers will boost right they probably won't boost us to like the highest progressive passes but we'll we'd get we'd get out of eighth place in that particular metric um but where we've been fortunate and this relates to both of the transfer conversations we're going to have in this episode where we've been fortunate we haven't had to on a long-term basis glimpse what arsenal looks like without deckton rice because he's been fit the whole time he's been here pretty much and we haven't had to glimpse what Arsenal looked like without David Raya for too long um either albeit we did get a little bit of a glimpse in a in some of the cup competitions last season so like there are some things we've gotten away with it has to be said um we we had we were without Saliba and Gabriel for a couple of games last season around Chelsea away villa away and we did and we didn't look good surprise surprise but so what we've kind of had to do by force is build some sacralis erdegaard list havertz list contingency we haven't had to do that for declan rice yet but it's come it will come like he's he's not going to stay fit forever that that will come and if it's going to come it's going to come off the back of a world cup year most likely where he's playing with like ice packs like on his on his hamstrings and all of that so there's that part of it and i do think that that is a big part of it that they are probably thinking like this rice fitness run is not going to last forever however i i do see it being rice and guimarez as as the kind of two because what was interesting about rice and zubomendy as well and before zubomendy kind of got really knackered and this is where we missed marino as well i really think he could have taken um some of that burden and we've got to factor him hopefully back into the equation as well um but i think you know rice and zubomendy was a very it was like a rotating double pivot it wasn't like you know thomas parte sit or georginio sits here and rice goes there it was much more fluid than that and actually i think a bit of that fluidity broke down and it did start to look like two guys standing in front of the centre-backs passing side to side a little bit um but i i had i went on um the la grove podcast with uh with jacob who's been on this podcast a few times and does his own non-football podcast which is amazing by the way screen rot um but like one of the the things they do in the show which I'm surprised you don't do actually is like they kind of force you to do a hot take like what's your hot take that you really wouldn't want to share and my hot this was like early June my hot take was that Lewis Skelly was in midfield to stay and that he'd get ahead of Zubimendi in the pecking order not because I necessarily think he's a better player or Zubimendi's no good just because he offers progression in a different way he dribbles but like he offers progression and he's a really good partner for rice um but if we're buying guimarez obviously i'd throw that hot take in the bin i don't think we'd be spending big money on a 28 year old for him to be a rotation option to be honest like whereas when we bought michael marino that number because we bought him at 28 didn't we that number that price was a bit more we really like you we think you can fill in in a number of ways one of them ended up being up front but probably you're not in the Champions League final starting lineup type thing whereas Guimarez I think that number is going to be you're going to be a regular starter for us and if we're going to push for a player like this and all of the hassle that I think is going to come with that as well I think it's for no other reason than this guy will be seen as like a starter and Zubimendi might fall into that Marino category which by the way is still incredibly important he will play a lot of football it would hopefully be one of those things where you know big whoop Zubimendi starts instead of like Rice or Guimara like no one talks about it type thing you know a bit like I think on a slightly level like what we've had with like Martinelli and Trossard it's like ultimately who cares which one of those players starts they're both on a very similar level uh they just do different things so I think that's where we'll get to with Zubimendi still a really important player but maybe not the this guy plays every game type player anymore yeah I mean I think this should be a safe space for being honest and I'll be honest I think Bruno Guimaraes is a better player than Zubimendi.
46:19I think Zubimendi is a good player. It is unfortunate that the way we discuss players is they're shit or they're great. And there's no nuance or range other than that. I think Zubimendi is a good player. I think Bruno Guimaraes is an elite Premier League level midfielder. And I think he adds a lot of things that we could use. I mean, the thing that surprised me about Zubimendi, And I noticed it even in the scouting video. But we do sort of profile players a little bit about what we expect that they are. And they're not always that thing. I mean, Zubimendi is not a high pass volume, high pass percentage metronome.
46:57He's not a super progressive passer from central midfield. I think he's actually a great presser, a great recoverer of the ball up the pitch. And I think he's good in the final third, interestingly, or on the end of moves. he's more Marino than he is Jorginho. Let's put it that way. You know what I mean? But I look at the group and the group starts to look very robust, to put it mildly. And another way you can put it is crowded because you have Zuby, Bruno, if we get them, Zuby, Bruno, Rice, Miles, Marino, Kai, Odegaard, Ezza, Max, Ethan, if you want to throw them in there. and maybe a Morgan Rodgers.
47:39And I think that everybody who watches Arsenal at all agrees on one thing. Arsenal have to find a way to create more chances and score more goals from open play. And I don't think you get there with a functional controlling midfield. I don't know that I believe that. Now, maybe you get a healthy Saka and you put someone really talented on the left wing and you go, surprise, surprise, better attackers makes your attack better. That could well be the case. I think Saka's situation has made life really tricky for us. Really, really tricky. And we need, look, there's only one Bakayo Saka in world football.
48:19You know, Liverpool aren't going to find another Mohamed Salah, certainly not easily. City wouldn't be able to replace Erling Haaland. We can't replace what Saka gives us when he's at his best. So I acknowledge that some degree of decline in our attacking capacity comes from our best player and one of the best right wingers in all of football not being at his best and not being available if he is that will improve things and if we get someone better off the left that will improve things i think the question of if it's bruno and rice let's just say i hate the word first first choice because i know people will throw up on that but if that's the two of the three midfielders we're picking a lot i think the question of what the third midfielder looks like is really interesting is it a technical between the lines final third demon like abracia is it a possession monster like martin odegaard is it an off-ball physical player like a kai or a marino is it a transition monster like a morgan rogers you could say yes it's all of those things and it's whatever you need i believe that martin Odegaard is aging into being more 6 '8 than 8 '10.
49:33It's interesting the Norway coach I think his name is Sobaken was saying we don't play Odegaard as a 10 at Norway we don't that's not how we use him look and he was saying that's not how Arsenal use him that's not how yeah I'd like to be as honest as I can be about Martin Odegaard I think Martin Odegaard is just fundamentally not the player he was of before the ankle injury this is a player who was 20 to 25 plus goal involvements and you can't take that away and say he's the identical player that's not me saying i don't rate him but if you have a midfielder who was a 20 to 25 goal involvement player arguably one of our best shooters and finishers really legitimately the way he struck the ball and great with the final ball in the final third if you have that player who is also one of the best ball progressors and possession players you have one of the best midfielders in world football if you take the goal involvements away you still have one of the great possession oriented midfielders in football but now you have to ask what else they add and I would just say for the people that are like look at the 100 passes he did against Brazil look we had Martin Odegaard on the pitch against PSG and we couldn't get close to the ball so the idea that Martin Odegaard solves our problem in the highest level games of needing to be on the ball just isn't the case so then the question is what is his role and my belief is his role is more 6-8 than 8-10 and if you want to play Rice and Odegaard and Eza I love it if you want to play Rice and Odegaard and Rodgers or Rice and Odegaard and and Odegaard, that would be really interesting.
50:58I would love to see if that would help Martin get some of the goals and assists back, get some of the end product back. Because if we're going to be fair to Saka and say he just hasn't been fit for a while now, we should be fair to Odegaard and say maybe he's just getting back to fitness and we will start to see some of that end product in his game. To me, the reason Odegaard is a big talking point is he's our captain. He's one of our highest earners. He has two years left on his deal. so are are you going to invest another 285 a week 250 a week that's what it's going to cost to to renew him are you going to let him get to one year left on his deal because he's a globally important player he has value are you going to build around him and do you believe that his fitness level is such that he can be at the at his best tim these are not questions we should shy away from due to tribalism or or or or polarization of a debate we should be able to discuss what the right way to continue to use and benefit from Martin Odegaard is with thoughtfulness about where he is in his contract term, with thoughtfulness about how his game is evolving and the degree to which we think his fitness might help him get some of those goals and assists back, and how he fits into what becomes a crowded midfield if we bring in Bruno and Morgan Rodgers, and you still Marino and Kai and Ethan and Max and Miles.
52:14So I'm curious how you think of this in terms of Odegaard clearly one of the still important big midfield players in the game but what what's the fit for our midfield dynamic I just I it is a question that is fascinating to me and and I I think there's scope for having it a positive way and I just don't see a lot unfortunately yeah yeah yeah no I agree I think it's fascinating as well not least because we're not hearing anything about contract talks, right? And that suggests that that's a question for Arteta and the staff, right? Otherwise, like, maybe it's happening and we just don't know about it.
52:54That feels unlikely to me. 2028, right? So am I right in saying that's two more, right? It doesn't expire in 2027, it expires in 2028. So two years. So this would be the time that you'd start to think about a renewal or something like that. Maybe, you know, the transfer window is not the best time to do it. Maybe like the day after deadline day will hear and now they will move on some contracts or not, but not really hearing any noises around it, which suggests to me and kind of similar with Havertz as well. That to me has to be a physical question, not a question of style or anything else. But I do think it's fascinating.
53:32I think that I think the other thing that's really interesting, right? So Bruno and Rodgers, they seem to be the big targets, right? And you pull up the data, they get the ball into the final third. They do it in different ways, but they get the ball into final third. Morgan Rodgers rates very highly for through balls. He's a risk taker with the ball. I think people have a very narrow definition of what creativity entails. I think people think it has to be Bergkamp, Fabregas, Ozil. That's the only creativity that exists in football. and again to create a really crude example I remember having an argument with someone years ago because I think Peter Crouch came second in the Premier League for assists when he was playing for Stoke how do you think he got those assists Peter Crouch playing for Stoke you can probably guess right well flicking on long balls right and so someone was like does that make Peter Crouch creative player and I was like yes yes it literally does he is literally creating loads and loads of chances he's just doing it in a slightly different way and I won't waste anyone's time with like I think a lot of the aesthetic argument I think a lot of that is is dogma actually I think it's just like you are told that aesthetics have there is one good way to do aesthetics and blah blah blah you are told that footballers are only creative if they're doing flicks and tricks and through balls and stuff like that I think a lot of that is like assumed knowledge that is almost like it's like the the right way to play football and the only way to do that is lots of short passes and all of that um but there are other ways of being creative and i think it's really interesting that bruno again potentially because of maybe the way he's played against arsenal which would be a very different challenge for newcastle in a lot of their games a lot of people think of him as a shin kicker and like i i think he can do that don't get me wrong that's not who he is it's in his game but that's not that's not how he's defined at all he's such a technical player yeah he's hugely technical he's a progressive passer and and so like but he doesn't fit our idea of that and it's the same with morgan rogers i think he is a creative player in a very different way he makes stuff happen he doesn't do it in the erdegard way by having 300 touches a game um so so there are different types of creativity going on here and Erdogan is one of them and there are games where we really need that I won't go back and re-litigate the Everton game again because everyone's heard me do that 50 times but where we doubled our passing average for the season away at Everton because what did we want to do wanted to keep the ball on the floor um the whole time and have no transitions and no fouls and stuff so what do you need Erdogan for that so I do think it's developing into a very kind of horses for courses we can see that centre forward Havertz and Jokeres we can see that on the wings there are very different profiles of player and I really think that Arteta has wanted for a long time to move to and I think he's kind of got there largely that kind of I want to be able to solve every problem now I think some people would say but do we have enough of the Erdegaard type creativity do we have enough of that because it does feel like we've got a lot of almost brute force um you know in in that respect and i think that's that's kind of a fair question however with with erdogan the fact that i'm not really hearing anything about a contract that does make me wonder a little bit if they're just gonna wait and see and again that might be a physical question as well it might be i i would if i were arson i'd be like you know what we've had two seasons that have been quite on off because of injury your form's been up and down we're not we're not going to give you 285 ground a week yet into your like early 30s we we can't make that decision yet maybe three four months into next season they feel like they can but I I think that's an open question I really do and I I can only deduce that it's an open question for the club as well yeah yeah I mean everybody has like their conception of the right way to play football to create chances they have things that fit their eye i mean like and we want to do every way i think that's the thing yeah yeah and clive and i talk about this a lot right this kind of player that he really is drawn to that kind of player that i'm really drawn to everybody knows ebert as a is that kind of player that i just kind of like those fantasy players good in tight spaces you know really technical can see a pass no one else sees or score a goal no one else scores but I will be the first to acknowledge that Ebrecha Eze was less influential than I expected in his first season at Arsenal that it was not the the season I fully expected from him go ahead yeah yeah I was gonna say I'm like an Aaron Ramsey Alexis Sanchez guy guys that that they might all action yeah they might cough up the ball they might take some shots that make you kick your chair and swear but they do stuff they get stuff done you know I like risk takers but you can't have too many of those otherwise you're turning the ball over all of the time so like you do you ultimately whatever your aesthetic preference is you do have to have a bit of everything it's funny I was gonna say I don't know that we have a player like you just described currently I mean Rice can be a bit of that but like the closest I can think of it in attack is ironically Nani Maduike he tries and tries and tries but unlike Alexis Sanchez or Aaron Ramsey like it doesn't come off maybe as much yeah and and maybe that's who Morgan Rogers would be that's I was just gonna say that yeah I mean I do think if you have Bruno Morgan Rogers and Declan Rice in your team especially if you have a Kai Havertz in your team you are building one of the fearsome transition teams in world football the ability to win the ball back and turn ball recovery into goal I think becomes just unrivaled especially if you have Bakaio Saka back to his best with his burst.
59:39And like, we are going to have to accept that Saka, Odegaard, Rice, Saliba, Timber, there's a lot of players with lingering long-term medical issues that their recovery from those issues will determine, to some extent, our ceiling for this season. Now with Rice, I will tell you I am less concerned than others about Rice, who seem to think he's got some kind of major back problem. The way it's being described, it sounds more like sciatica, which is just, you know, first of all, it's a pain tolerance thing. But second of all, you can get that pinching to stop. And if that pinching stops, then you're fine.
1:00:11It's not a muscular issue. Now, like any injury, pain can cause you to change how you run or change how you move. And that can lead to lots of injuries. SACA. Yeah, you got to be worried. You got to be worried a little bit because you know, it's a long term ankle injury. And the only thing that fixes it is probably just a lot of rest. It's not a case of what we do this procedure, and then you're fine. You know, from what we understand, saliva needs a minor back procedure. Scary because it's back, but if it fixes it, so be it. SACA, there doesn't seem to be a clear path. I'm not going to do the whole medical thing now, but some of what we're probably trying to do is make sure that we have redundancies because the brutality of and the attritional quality of the football calendar means the teams that win are the teams that are fit at the end of the season.
1:00:53You can do that one of two ways. You can be PSG and play in a league that is not competitive for you. And so your best players are just Champions League pieces that you roll out for the games that matter and then you roll them back in the garage and they sit there, you know, like a nice car in the summer. You know, I live in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, and the wealthy people here have their pretty cars and they only come out in the summer, right? They're in the garage the whole winter so they don't get the snow and the salt and the dirt on them. You know, it must be nice. But the fact is, that's what PSG can do.
1:01:22We can't do that. So then the way you go about doing it is you just have redundancies. And it does seem like we have a lot of redundancy in a lot of positions now that could be very and i say now we don't have bruno we don't have rogers we haven't signed anyone but yeah but it's what we're trying to do who we've officially signed yeah so that's what we're trying to do as we as we kind of wrap on this um i think the reason i find the odegaard piece so interesting is identity right i mean if you think about the identity of this team through the eras of mikhail being at the club i think martin odegaard has been the rare bridge between those eras.
1:02:02You know, we had Odegaard through it all mostly. You know, we've kind of moved on from some of the other players that were key pieces, Jesus and Zinchenko and, you know, Ben White, I think is, you know, at the end there and players that we really identify with those first phases, Shaka. But Odegaard has been there. And the thing about Odegaard is he's such a big presence in your team when he plays and understanding his role and what that will look like moving forward i think is interesting but i'm sort of in this weird between two stalls kind of thing where i think it's still way too good not to find a role for him but i think if the end product isn't what it was once if it's if that's not going to come back then i think he's not necessarily a horse for every course he's not necessarily and and the question is with two years left in his deal and and it going on 28 years old is that what he wants because this is the interesting thing the debate around Bruno is kind of is he too old to be acquiring now Odegaard's one year younger right he's one year younger he'll be 28 this season so he's very much in his prime but he probably has one more big contract left where does he want that to be we'll see final thing here uh Ilan Melier officially announced uh by Arsenal does that make him our first signing of the summer, I guess.
1:03:24Yeah, yeah. Our first big signing of the summer. That'll get everybody fired up. I'm sure the comments under the Twitter post were rational and cool-headed. But I'll ask you, Tim, do you have any opinion on this? I find myself unable to have any opinion other than fine. If our team of talent developers and talent identifiers thinks he's acceptable to be our third or second choice goalkeeper, then who am I to argue? We've got David Reyes. Setford will go out on loan and develop. And, you know, Kepa's a big name, talented, experience keeper. He was our backup last season. We used him twice. He cost us two cups.
1:04:02So, like, you can do all the right things. You can buy a backup who's experienced and talented and everybody rates him. And he can chuck two cups for you. So, who the heck knows what to make a milieu? Yeah. I mean, first off, it looks like he's going to be the third goalkeeper. And in that scenario... If Kepa stays. Yeah, exactly. In that scenario, no, I have no opinion at all. No opinion at all. and usually like in training I think the idea is you kind of want four because they pair off quite a lot right so you want like four competent goalkeepers to be able to do that as part of the training group I think the thing is on backup goalkeepers I you can't win you can't win because one of two things happens I think Kepa is an unusually high standard second choice goalkeeper unusually I think you don't usually get one like that and obviously the the position turns over a lot so you have this conversation a lot but like it goes in phases right we had Leno as our backup goalkeeper when we bought Ramsdale obviously that lost one season because he's too good to be a backup we had Ramsdale as a backup for one season same thing happened there and then you have these kind of in-between goalkeepers a bit like matt turner and you know um you know potentially kepper at the moment but the the problem and so obviously it's a very difficult position to buy it's it's going to be the position where you've got the biggest delta between your first and second choice because good goalkeepers don't really tend to want to do that job and even if you get one you don't for long again i was talking earlier about how we've probably been quite lucky in some respects injury wise this is a position where we've been lucky so like netto rubbish but raya stayed fit so he didn't have to play didn't matter runnison rubbish cost us he cost us a league cup game against man city that we were lost anyway so who cares and he cost one one million pounds like genuinely who cares they should have given me that one million and so like i could have done better what what we we haven't had a significant goalkeeper injury for a while um except the last time it happened was when we were in that rare sweet spot was when it happened to leno and martinez was our backup goalkeeper at that point and he came in and created a genuine conversation around who we should keep and now he's aston villa's number one he's Argentina's number one like so the last time we were genuinely exposed in that position we we had a really really good backup but what happened he played 10 games and he left because he was like I'm too good to do this the other problem it gives you I know people will be saying why are you saying Kepa's good after what happened last season here's the other problem no matter how good your second choice goalkeeper is when they play once every two months they will be crap anyway right that the same thing happened to Ramsdale Ramsdale was a perfectly good goalkeeper for Arsenal he spent one season on the bench but he had to play those games against Brentford because of the loan agreement what happened he chucked one in his net right and why did he do that that wasn't standard for him he did that because he played like three games that season and he wasn't sharp it's the same with Kepa if you if Kepa had been playing for three months before that Carabao Cup final, I guarantee you that mistake doesn't happen.
1:07:29Same in the FA Cup. I guarantee you those mistakes do not happen. They happen because he's playing infrequently. So whoever your backup goalkeeper is, they're going to play below their level anyway unless you get genuinely exposed and your goalkeeper's out for six months or something. At which point, if that happened to us, that would be terrible and it would be very, very costly. but I bet Kepa would look fine over six months if we had to do it like he wouldn't be as good as David Raya of course not but I bet he'd largely be fine I bet he wouldn't be doing like chucking the ball in his own net every game might happen once a month or something because he's not the standard of Raya but that's why as a position it is it's almost impossible and any situation you get where you have a really good second choice is temporary people point to kelleher at liverpool what happened he went to brentford he got sick of being the backup at liverpool and rightly so because he's because he's quite good so like i just think these things they invested in mama's dashvili right and but didn't bring him didn't bring him in because they knew they couldn't keep him happy as a backup exactly exactly so like you get very rare spots of sunlight where you hit a bit of a sweet spot, but it's temporary anyway.
1:08:47So, yeah. I think we should leave it there. I want to say, though, links with Christos Solis have picked up again. And Solis is a player that we did scout. And I will simply say, like, low-key, I think if he comes in, I think he's going to be a bit of a favorite. I think he's a really, really talented player. And, you know, there are things that don't scale to leagues. We've seen with Jokeras there were growing pains in coming from the Portuguese league where he could physically, you know, destroy the opposition to Premier League where he couldn't with his athleticism and his power. But like Solis' technical level is high.
1:09:22He has two feet, which I know you'll love, Tim. You know, unlike Endrick, who tried to take that 1v1 with his left and was so, you know, intent on getting it on his left that he missed for Brazil. Solis has two feet and he does the thing that I think Martin Elliott at his best does, but hasn't done as much lately, which is quick first-time decision. Cut in, curl it on his right, or beat the man with one step and fired him with his left. He has an eye for a pass. He destroyed the league he was in, which is a good sign, right? The numbers, I think it was like 29 assist circles. It was 20, 22, and 17, something insane.
1:10:01But it's not the output. It was watching him smart, technical, two-footed. I think as a Leo analog, I see it, but he's quicker than I expected. I think he can still run away from people a little bit, just enough to be dangerous. And assuming that we get someone that we think is the first choice off the left, I think he's a tremendous high-level squad player to invest in at a low cost. So I'd be very excited to get that done because I think we may need to be replacing both our left-wide options in that. I wouldn't have sold Leo. Like, candidly, I wouldn't have sold Leo. I would have kept him. I would have invested big in the younger star left wing signing.
1:10:37I understand Leo probably wants to go to three years on a last deal in his prime. So it makes sense for the player. But if we're going to sell him, I like Solis Tim. So I'm excited to see him if we get him. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a, to tie all of this together, there's some, there's some other things here. So this is a young man's position, I think. Yep. So like we're talking about Bruno central midfield, not really a place for kids. It's like, all right, Miles, I've kind of picked him up. Well, look at Ethan, a sensational player, but when he was moved inside, you could see the growing pains.
1:11:09It's harder. Yeah, yeah. On the outside, though, we brought Saka into the team at 18, 19. We brought Martinelli in. Madueke is only, what, 22, 23? It's more of a young man's position than maybe some of those kind of spinal positions. But also, and going back to our conversation earlier, I don't think we'll do this deal if we do it because it's like we're investing in, there'll be an element of we're investing in like a younger player for the longer term because we're effectively replacing a 31-year-old. He is 24, I should say, by the way. So we're not a child person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coming into his prime.
1:11:45Yeah, exactly. What are we looking at for attacking positions? Rodgers and this guy are both 23, 24, whereas Bruno's 28. So that tells you a story. But I think there's two parts of it. There is a value part of it. This really, I've said this before, this feels and sounds a bit like the guy that Brentford or Bournemouth or Brighton buy and two seasons later they sell to you for 80 million. It has that feel to it. But also, I think that they're probably going to do it because they want Rodgers as well. And in this price range, they think they can do both or there's a reasonable expectation that they can do both.
1:12:28So it might be a bit of a punt in terms of like the level and everything like that. But I do think there's an economic reality behind it, which is we want Morgan Rogers. He might cost like nine figures and we need another guy. And so, yeah, we do have to shop in that like 30, 35 million bracket. it so I think there's an element of that to it as well it's budgeting kind of thing but I don't know enough about the player but obviously if you lose Leo Trossard we're trying to score more goals as well and I appreciate Trossard didn't have his most prolific season last season but we're trying to score 15-20 more goals and we're probably going to lose one of our most reliable goal scorers so that has to be replaced you can't just say the 20 million for Trossard looks nice on the balance sheet you have to go and get replace that end product so um yeah but but overall this strikes me as the kind of you know buy some ennio from was it sunderland um i think like some years like buying from sunderland instead of from bournemouth type thing i mean literally if solis can get a third of the goals and assists a quarter of the goals and assists he got this past season it will probably been a good return i agree with you on all that tim i i will say as a final final final thing if we get the players we're linked with i'd probably hold on tight for maybe one big departure that we don't expect and i'm not gonna sit here and pretend i know who it is i don't know if it's a kai or an odegaard or someone so and as a a zubamendi like again i know all that sounds ridiculous we just got two of those guys they're not leaving but my point is certain areas start to feel crowded when Bruno and Rodgers get in.
1:14:16You know, the one that unfortunately to me looks like it makes sense because you'd get good money for him and there isn't room is Ethan, which would be a real shame because the talent I think is too big to let go of. But like I said, you can't, and this is the thing we're going to have to get comfortable with as a big club, as a club competing to win the league and the Champions League every season, season in, season out. When you are trying to stay fourth, you don't have a squad like we have now so you have room to make way for young, talented players. When you are trying to win the biggest trophies every single season, inevitably someone who's good will be on the outside looking in and not want to stay.
1:14:56And you have to get comfortable with that. You do. I mean, it's unfortunate, but it's the case, and we'll just see how that shakes out. Okay, Friday night clap tomorrow. World Cup Daily comes back. Excited for the World Cup to come back today as France and Morocco play. Should be a fantastic game. So looking forward to that. Tim, thank you very much. my pleasure as always we will have details of the uh dublin event soon so want to get that out to you soon we'll talk to andrew and we'll confirm it but there's going to be an event in dublin uh i believe the day before the game the pre-season game there talking about pre-season never ends watch the football watch it's always on okay we love you and we will talk to you after our still 10th
1:15:43For Bye.
From the publisher
On this edition of the ArsenalVision Podcast, Elliot is joined by Tim to discuss every aspect of the potential move for Bruno Guimaraes. There’s also a bit on other incomings and outgoings as well as thoughts on Meslier. Chapter timings below.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro Music
04:52 Brazil, England and footballing identity
10:45 Is football becoming more collectivist?
15:44 Bruno Guimaraes wants Arsenal
23:53 The value case: buying in your winning window
32:46 Newcastle's decline and rethinking the market
40:24 How Bruno reshapes the midfield
50:42 The Odegaard question
1:00:21 Injuries, redundancy and squad depth
1:04:12 Illan Meslier and the backup keeper problem
1:09:53 Christos Tzolis and the left wing
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