“Utter rubbish” and other odds and ends

Here’s some odds and ends, plus a few notes and quotes worth repeating…

Gazette dello Sport is reporting Arsenal, and several other clubs, were “knocked back” by Lautaro Martinez this summer during the transfer window. Arsenal’s bid was apparently lower then the other two contenders for the striker’s services. Martinez is probably staying at Inter Milan for the time being, however, Arsenal could pay $117-million (USD) to Inter for the player to leave Italy and move to London.

The Sun has reported Bukayo Saka has been approached by other clubs, however, the Gunners consider him to be “untouchable.”

According to Todofichajes, Arsenal will attempt to sign Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar next summer, however, it will be difficult to get him to move to London if the club does not have Champions League football.

The Mirror is reporting Bernd Leno was “visibly frustrated” during Wednesday’s training session at London Colney. Some reports claim Ramsdale will remain the Gunners #1 goalkeeper, however, other reports indicate Mikel Arteta has told Leno that he will take a “break” for one more game before retuning to the starting XI.

Norwich City’s Max Aarons on Saturday’s match v Arsenal, “You could tell in the game that the fans were a bit tense and the players were a bit tense. You could feel it in the stadium.”

Takehiro Tomiyasu on playing different positions, “For me, it doesn’t matter because the most important thing is to play the game. If the coach told me to play striker, I would play striker.”

Pundit Chris Sutton on Arteta’s saying he had “the best ten days of his professional career” after losing his first three league matches, “Being sort of cynical, that is just utter rubbish. How could he have had the best ten days, come on. The best ten days? Better than winning the FA Cup? I just found those comments, well I didn’t believe him. I don’t think I’m the only one, how could that be possible?”

The Express reports Antonio Conte ‘would consider’ an incredible move to Manchester United if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lost his job as head coach, according to reports. However, there are few Premier League roles that the Italian would be open to because he apparently only wants a ‘winning project’.

Chris Wheatley is reporting that the much talked about, and often heralded Arsenal youngster, Charlie Patino is training with the first team, and will probably feature in next week’s Carabao Cup match v AFC Wimbledon.

And finally, the brother of Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun has openly criticized Arteta’s system saying, “When you look at the striker problem, in terms of chances created, it’s not just Folarin, it was there when Martinelli was playing, when Aubameyang was playing there – the system doesn’t work. You can’t blame one player for that. It’s more the actual systematic thing.”

Cheers.

Gunner1953