Good morning everyone, a short Friday blog for you as I head to London a bit later.
Let’s start with this excellent piece in Martin Odegaard’s The Player’s Tribune. I have to say, overall, I enjoy the way they put together these articles – I’ve read a few before from players I’d normally have little interest in, and they’re almost always good. The style, where an interview is presented as if the player were typing the words, really works and it’s not easy to do.
Regardless, the Arsenal captain is the man in the spotlight this time around, speaking of his connection to the club that began through a video game. From there, we hear about his decision to join Real Madrid and ultimately how he ended up in North London.
It’s probably worth remembering where we were in January 2021, when we were looking to sign him on loan. We had that terrible period in November/December, then there was the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe and that great win over Chelsea that sparked a run of 16 points out of 18 before drawing with Man Utd.
That was the game in which the Norwegian debuted, but the first contact came when we were much further down the table. Tensions and doubts, it’s fair to say, were still pretty high at the time.
You could probably have forgiven a player for thinking ‘Hmm, I’m not sure about this’, but explain what happened:
I spoke with Mikel Arteta on a Zoom call and he told me all about the project. At that time, Arsenal was not doing well. They were way down like 15th on the table, but that meeting… I honestly challenge anyone to walk out of a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.
He is next level. It is difficult to explain. He’s passionate, he’s intense and sometimes, yes, he’s a little crazy… but when he speaks, you understand that whatever he says will happen, will happen.
He told me his plan, everything he was building. He knew exactly what he needed to change at the club. He told me all about these amazing young players on the team: Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe, etc., etc. He told me how he wanted me to fit in and how he was going to get better.
I had this strong feeling that he was onto something really special.
Fast forward to now and things fall into place perfectly. Odegaard’s career, which was not as stagnant as many thought at the time, has flourished. He is now the captain of Arsenal, and from the beginning he felt that he was the perfect fit for this club. The loan spell was decent, though hampered by injuries, then summer came and as always we had the inevitable split in camps as we reportedly chased both him and James Maddison.
With all due respect to the England man who is a very good player, I don’t think Mikel Arteta was in any doubt which one he wanted. It just made a lot more sense to try to make Odegaard permanent than to pay what Leicester wanted. When you look at transfer fees now, where players with limited experience can cost you €100m (think about that!), the €35 we paid Real Madrid is an absolute steal. It could become one of our best deals.
Anyway, read the article – there’s a video too if you prefer – and be happy that we have a great player who has played a big part in driving us to the top of the table at this point.
The coach will meet with the press a little later this afternoon. As always, we’ll have team news and all other stories on Arseblog News.
For now, I’ll leave you with a new Arsecast, chatting with Philippe Auclair about the big story of the week: Man City and the Premier League. We chat about the ins and outs of it all, how seriously the PL is going after it and much more, and then there’s a little chat about Arsenal with Andrew Allen.
We’ll also be launching our Patreon preview podcast later today as we look towards Brentford tomorrow, I’ll record it a bit later when I get to London, and it should be late afternoon.
For now, have a good time!
