Rob Holding: I'm Sorry He Didn't Cost £55 Million

[Maybe]

Not sure how I feel about this. A part of me we are protecting a future asset but another believes this club has a serious bondage of mediocrity. I would put Holding in the “Bondage brigade” along with Xhaka, Bellerin, AMN and Lacazette in this bracket. By all means they’re not terrible players like Mustafi and co but I feel like the club won’t move these players on because you can justify their place on the team. Arsenal know how much work we have to do in the transfer market in terms of improving quality but Arsenal are poor in the market and we know if given the chance Arsenal would delay some deals to make things more convenient for themselves. We needed Partey and Aouar last summer and we only got one of them. That’s actually good for us because usually we don’t get anything. I just feel like we keep these guys for numbers sake and not for quality. Holding was meant to go Newcastle in the summer but now he’s getting a contract extension. Xhaka was close to leaving last year but he’s still a key member in our midfield. Most of us are questioning whether the club would be dumb enough to give Lacazette a new contract because of his new found form. The Holding deal sets a precedent that I think we’ve done too many times and haven’t given us what we ultimately wanted.

If you can’t be bothered to read what I’ve just said, all I want are your answers to two questions.

1) Just from a financial perspective. Say we sign another CB, Saliba comes back and Holding accepts being our 4th choice option. Would it be harder to sell him if he’s on bigger wages and plays less games than before?

2) If the club is willing to give Holding a new deal because I suspect it’s the easiest thing to do, what makes you believe they won’t just give Bellerin, AMN, Lacazette and Xhaka new deals because it leaves less work to do in the summer?

1) I doubt Holding would go from 20 to 100k/w with this contract, he deserved a better deal and it's actually players on small contacts like Saka, ESR and Holding that are keeping this club alive. You can understand their frustration while bums like Willian/Mustafi (and Özil who doesn't play at all) earn so much, but players that we depend on are on a low salary

2) Holding has been more consistent than the players you've mentioned. All 3 of them will go through some patch of abysmal form and then will try to make up for it with a couple of good games.

I get what you're saying, but if anything, our CB pair has been the most stable part of the team this year and he was a huge part of that. Nobody here is saying he is the best, but I hope everyone can see now that he can at least be a reliable squad option if we decide to replace him with another starter

 

[Macho]

1) Just from a financial perspective. Say we sign another CB, Saliba comes back and Holding accepts being our 4th choice option. Would it be harder to sell him if he’s on bigger wages and plays less games than before?

Do you think 6 months with Nice is really gonna change what Arteta thinks of Saliba? He’s going on loan again or getting sold, I’d be very very surprised to see him competing for a place here.

Holding wasn’t on much so even doubling his wages or more is not a big deal. It also bodes well if we do choose to sell him being 25 and English. I think this is a good thing.

2) If the club is willing to give Holding a new deal because I suspect it’s the easiest thing to do, what makes you believe they won’t just give Bellerin, AMN, Lacazette and Xhaka new deals because it leaves less work to do in the summer?

AMN and Bellerin almost got sold.

For Laca, the writing is on the wall. We’ve tried to play an ineffective Eddie in his place and made a big song and dance about Auba’s contract.

For Laca still nothing. Holding gets renewed and Arteta has shut down Laca contract talks more than once. I am no insider but common sense makes me 100% sure this is his last season here.

Xhaka, who knows - he could easily outlast Arteta and the manager after him.

 

[bingobob]

Good news.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

This is proactive stuff from Edu or whoever made the ultimate decision.

It's a win-win situation giving him a new contract. If he keeps performing at this level or continues to improve we've tied down a high level, relatively young CB long term on what I would imagine aren't massive wages.

If he stagnates he's shown enough in his career to date to move on for £20m or so quite easily.

From a £2m investment we're looking good either way.

Deserved contract for Rob too. He's shown real improvements this year and has obviously put in a lot of hard work to get there. It's nice to see that being recognised by the club.

 

[AberGooner]

Been a solid performer for us, just needed a good run of games after injuries which he's had this season and compared to some of the crap defenders we've had over the last 10+ years he's not let us down. I like that seems to be very vocal and with gaining confidence he even has been organising the defence a bit lately.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be on a Sokratis/Mustafi type wage even with a renewal plus the homegrown factor makes this a very smart move by Edu/Arteta.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

Thinking where we are as a club Holding is good enough.. thinking where we wanna be obviously we need upgrades. But where we wanna be isn’t happening for at least 8+ years so

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

He been good part of 4th best defensive team in league. He deserves new contract but I'd would have waited until summer so it won't disturb his performance let's hope he keep it up he been very good.

 

[DanDare]

.

1) Just from a financial perspective. Say we sign another CB, Saliba comes back and Holding accepts being our 4th choice option. Would it be harder to sell him if he’s on bigger wages and plays less games than before?

I don't think that's the plan. I think that the capability of Mari so far and the form of Holding combined with a severe hit to our finances thanks to COVID will mean we won't go for another CB unless Saliba relationship is unsalvageable.

Think we'll use resources for elsewhere. We need a striker, an AM a CM, a back up LB and other squad players

 

[Oxeki]

I'm not his biggest fan, but this makes financial sense. He's English and he's 25 and yet to hit his prime. Maybe the club is just trying to protect and asset.

But he shouldn't be a starter. We need a quality RCB to partner Gabriel. Mari and holding can deputize for them.

 

[Riou]

@BigPoppaPump

You seen the great news, mate?


...great day, then and now.

Can't wait for Rob to get his deserved testimonial with us when he hangs up his boots down the line!

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Why do people losing thier s, *t over this . We losing Luiz Sokratis Mustafi Chambers it's the plan having Mari Gabriel Holding Saliba competing for the cb spots.

 

[Artisan]

This being Arsenal, bet we've got him on near 100k now and patting ourselves on the back for it.

I know some were a bit unsure about his extension but I’m glad this regime seem more proactive with this now.

Id say any contract allowed to run down from this point onwards is fully intentional now (soz Laca).

Pretty sure that's what people thought when we extended that bozo El-Nenny's contract too.

 

[Dutch D]

1) Just from a financial perspective. Say we sign another CB, Saliba comes back and Holding accepts being our 4th choice option. Would it be harder to sell him if he’s on bigger wages and plays less games than before?

2) If the club is willing to give Holding a new deal because I suspect it’s the easiest thing to do, what makes you believe they won’t just give Bellerin, AMN, Lacazette and Xhaka new deals because it leaves less work to do in the summer?

Depends on the wages. Is there more info regarding that?

20k was too low, most prospects are on those wages. Torreira, Soares are on ~70k. Elneny is on 50k.

I think if Holding is on 50k with his new contract he can still be available for purchase within the PL. Solid back-up imo, but should spell the end of Chambers.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

This being Arsenal, bet we've got him on near 100k now and patting ourselves on the back for it.


Pretty sure that's what people thought when we extended that bozo El-Nenny's contract too.

Elneny didn't deserve his contract we were all surprised why did we even extended. I'm not fan of Rob but he did earn his new contract we have good set of CB's and we'll let go all the bad once this summer

 

[Macho]

This being Arsenal, bet we've got him on near 100k now and patting ourselves on the back for it.


Pretty sure that's what people thought when we extended that bozo El-Nenny's contract too.

I'm sure this will somehow bite us in the bum, however I am not a fan of selling English players if it doesn't hurt us keeping them.

There are just way too hard to buy.

 

[Artisan]

I'm sure this will somehow bite us in the bum, however I am not a fan of selling English players if it doesn't hurt us keeping them.

There are just way too hard to buy.

For me the issue is that we are extending to protect the value of a player that no one was willing to buy, even with his so called well publicized low wages.
Similar issue with El-Nenny where we extended to protect the value of a player who refused to leave when we had an acceptable offer.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

My captain

 

[dashsnow17]

I'm not his biggest fan, but this makes financial sense. He's English and he's 25 and yet to hit his prime. Maybe the club is just trying to protect and asset.

But he shouldn't be a starter. We need a quality RCB to partner Gabriel. Mari and holding can deputize for them.

Yeah, even if he's not a starter he's still a decent player to have in the squad. Also like we don't know how he is behind the scenes, maybe he's just a really sound guy who loves the club and can be trusted by the coach. Sometimes intangible qualities like that are more important to coaches than tangible metrics like speed or pass completion %.

Maybe a John Stones becomes available in the summer and Arteta goes for him as 1st choice.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

I think this makes sense. Solid squad option, the right age, homegrown and he seems to have the right attitude.

Besides, he needs the income for the hair transplant.

 

[Sweet'n'Soulful]

I think he’s done enough to deserve the extension tbh. It’s important that we keep some capable Englanders floating around.