Roy Keane says ‘tidy’ Arsenal midfielder not ‘enough’ as Andrea Berta finds two replacements | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Roy Keane had dismissed Arsenal attacking midfielder Martin Odegaard following the defeat to Manchester City last weekend, as the Gunners’ sporting director Andrea Berta identifies two players to eventually take his place in Mikel Arteta’s team.

Arsenal suffered a damaging 2-1 defeat to Man City at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League last weekend.

With Man City beating Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor in the league on Wednesday evening, Arsenal are now second in the table on goals scored.

Odegaard returned to the Arsenal starting line-up against Man City after missing the previous two games due to injury.

The Arsenal captain gave four key passes and often dropped deep to initiate attacks for the north London club.

However, former Man Utd midfielder Keane was not impressed, and neither was journalist Henry Winter, who noted after the game: “Odegaard embodies Arsenal’s nice, neat football but doesn’t hurt elite opponents enough.”

When Arsenal legend Ian Wright was outlining on The Overlap what he would have done differently for the team against Man City, Keane quipped that although Odegaard is “tidy”, he needs to do more.

Wright said: “I would have put Declan in Zubimendi’s position. I would put Odegaard in where Declan is, and then I would put Eze as a 10.”

Keane observed: “I still don’t think Odegaard is enough. He’s neat and tidy and he’s good but…”

Arsenal have two Martin Odegaard replacements in mind

Odegaard is 27 now and is under contract at Arsenal until the summer of 2028.

While the former Real Madrid attacking midfielder is at the top of his game, Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta is already planning ahead and has identified two players who could replace him.

Arda Guler is one such player, with a report claiming that Arsenal have already been ‘in touch’ over a move for the Real Madrid attacking midfielder.

Like Odegaard, Guler is at his best when deployed in an attacking midfielder role, but the Turkey international is also able to play on the right wing as well as on the left flank.

The German media has reported that Arsenal have already made an offer to sign Ibrahim Maza from Bayer Leverkusen.

However, the €40million (£35m) offer from the Gunners has been turned down.

The Algeria international has been deployed primarily as an attacking midfielder in the 2025/26 campaign and has drawn interest from Man City, too.