Unreal scenes in London when a couple of idiots tried to attack Kola and Ozil on scooters. Why the fuck anyone would attempt to attack a man who is clearly a fucking athlete when he’s with his wife is beyond me, but god bless the response. Ozil put the car in first gear and cleared the women away, Kola went for both of them… LOVE TO SEE IT.
Obviously, everyone has different responses to this sort of thing, but it does go to show you, these people are cowards. They legged it from a single unarmed man and they were wearing crash helmuts! Honestly, the bravery is something else… what a soldier!
On a side note, scary times in London that the dangerous shits are attempting nasty stuff like that… still can’t believe the uproar when police were knocking them off their bikes.
We also signed a player! Hooray.
William Saliba pushed off the advances of Spurs to do a deal with us. He’ll go back out on loan next season and we’ll hopefully have a very talented player on our books in the next two seasons. The club has to be praised for moving very fast on that deal and looking beyond our immediate needs. We should make ourselves the best club on the planet for young kids to learn their trade.
The club Q&A was about as interesting as it always is. I’m not sure Raul and Vinnai have quite grasped how educated our fans are. We’re obsessives, we know how they work the media, we know the finances, the masseuse, the tea lady, we’re fluent in operational structures. That Raul took offense to Arsenal fans not taking positives from last season is quite something. It always worries me when the standards at the top aren’t very high.
Back to positives.
Ceballos also signed, he’s in on a loan deal, I think he’s another impressive signing… there is a kicker though… If he does well, he’s back to Madrid. If he tanks, our season is ruined.
It’s still tough to look at this window with much hope. We’ve not moved the squad along, old players are a year old, bad defenders are still bad, the captain thing is still unresolved, we’re a bit of a mess.
I totally understand that the club is in a transitional moment, I just find it very difficult to understand how a summer can be run so badly? From the outside looking in, it looks like we’re willfully ignoring the most dilapidated areas of need in favour of a really shiny winger.
Things are so rough, Jenkinson looks likely to be a fixture this season. I find that maddening. We’re trying to develop a high-performance culture at the club, and we’re allowing fans to take a squad number… and we’re having to suck up the reality of loading up average players on massive contracts, again. Literally the same issue we were bemoaning back in the day when Nik B wouldn’t leave his £52k a contract.
I like some of the backroom moves, but it’s still hard to fathom what this summer was all about… to be honest, to me, it looks like we just waited for Edu. If that’s the case, we’re at ground zero again.
Still, there comes a point where you have to just be pleased with any move. Dani boy is a very good player, Medley has moved to the first team squad, Willock looks very promising, maybe Reiss or Saka could cut the mustard?
It’s all very hopeful, but that’s football my friends!
Right, I’m going to get my head back in the game next week, work has been fucking beastly this last month. I’m looking forward to getting back to some normality!
x
Pierre
No one clicks that link – it just makes you look an even bigger tit.
You must be distraught that we might be putting together a squad in a little over a year that pisses all over what Wenger was pushing.
If he’s on £85 000 that is not a bad starting salary at all.
Welbeck was on more than that.
‘If Arsenal get Pepe’
Arsenal got Pepe.
Ok so resident scouts, what should we expect from Pepe ? Not trying to dampen anyone’s mood but would Zaha have been better ?
Paulinho
You forgot to add that irritating cunt Jim White saying you heard it here first.
TR7
I’ve just heard terrible news. We have got Pepe but Emery’s going to play him at CB.
Did we bag the right Ivorian ? haha
Walt
“”””Sky reporting that we beat Napoli by offering better wages. “”””
No big boys after Pepe, then?
Just Napoli
Says all you need to know…
Exciting Prospect Granted .
But like the Saliba deal OVER PAID BY MILES AND MILES
The trick is – to get these players before you splash out £100 000 000
Thats Outsmarting The Market….
Truth Hurts.
Deal with it.
‘Ok so resident scouts, what should we expect from Pepe ? Not trying to dampen anyone’s mood but would Zaha have been better ?’
Now I’m rolling jubilantly in bed re Pepe, I would have jumped out of bed and getting into my third bottle already if it were to be Zaha.
Gentle, it aint official until I see him on one of those snazzy new announcement videos in an Arsenal shirt.
Haven’t watched a lot of Pepe, Marko is your man to consult there.
From what I’ve seen I prefer him to Zaha because he’s going to score more goals for us and past Aubameyang and Lacazette we literally have nobody that can even put up double figures.
24 so good age coming into his own and not far off his prime, physically not as outstanding as Zaha but he’s 6 foot and isn’t exactly a rake, fast too and can zip past challenges.
Zaha gets you Top 4
Pepe gets you More Loosers Cup.
That’s The Difference.
I want to see how old foes like United deal with our front three this term, given that Auba and Laca can easily find themselves better than last term.
With Pepe in the team, I’d strongly look at giving Willock a chance alongside torreira with both playing as DMs but either afforded the right to occasionally carry the ball forwards a bit. Then put Ceballos ahead of them as link up and transition player between midfield and attack With Ceballos we really do have options in CM now, so it’s really about how emery manages it from here Unfortunately I foresee guendouzi + xhaka + ozil horror setups incoming at least sometimes Emery now needs to demonstrate that he can be ruthless with his favourites and put the system/setup… Read more »
Just shut up C.G and stop being a stomach ache for once.
Not sure.how Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pépé start in the same XI with our defensive issues.
Team for Newcastle
Leno
AMN Mustafi Sokratis Kolasinac
Guendouzi Xhaka
Mkhitaryan Özil Aubameyang
Lacazette
Subs Martínez, Chambers, Montreal, Torreira,. Ceballos, Pépé, Nketiah
And this is the kind of set up where a kid like Martinelli could suddenly become the cream…..like K.M at Monaco.
Gentle
You have been Banging The Zaha Drum for Ages.
Dont be a Cheerleader for these Clowns in Charge
Zaha was The Winger we should have signed this summer…. not a one season wonder from lillie
The Pressure is On for Pepe
Wlll he cope with the Price Tag
I have my doubts.. …
Zaha would have Owned The Emirates Pitch..
When he joins Chelsea – dont start Squealing….
Yeah tbh my setup of choice would involve 2 destroyer DMs in front of a back 4. With two strict DMs we can also let our full backs overlap with more protection than currently In the second half of last season when our FBs pushed up we had guen (good but lack of positional awareness and pace) and xhaka (lol) or torreira exhausted and too far up the pitch. Little wonder we were relentlessly exposed Put Tor and Willock as DMs and tell them to sit and destroy. No glory. Just make a wall in front of the back line… Read more »
Haha CG. I love to see you cry. It’s a matter of time until Zaha ends up at world class Everton or signing an extension at the mighty palace
Tick tock!
‘You have been Banging The Zaha Drum for Ages.’
That was a dream. I have a reality to celebrate.
What’s the reliable source on Pepe? Ornstein has long been binned, Sky Italy?
Find it a bit odd we’d want Zaha but pay more for Pepe. Seems like mind games.
A lot of reports came out yesterday about how we were one of 4 clubs that had reached an agreement with Lille.
Their president even said it was going to be up to the player but Napoli emerged as favourites as Pepe’s agents had spent the week negotiating in Italy.
But things apparently evolved meanwhile as most reports in France tend to confirm he’s gonna sign for us now.
More to come..
The thing is if we do add Tierney as well we can afford to tell some players to be much more defensive in their play. If you have Dani Ceballos, Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang as your attacking unit you need to take so many risks in other positions. With Bellerin and Tierney we also have full backs who can efficiently do both parts of their roles offensively and defensively. Even without an athletic and powerful CDM/CM and a CB I think we will still look a far more solid team with that sort of set up. With Bellerin, Tierney, Pepe, Aubameyang… Read more »
karim
Any chance you can give us a more in-depth piece on Pepe?
‘Team for NewcastleLenoAMN Mustafi Sokratis Kolasinac
Guendouzi Xhaka
Mkhitaryan Özil Aubameyang
Lacazette Subs Martínez, Chambers, Montreal, Torreira,. Ceballos, Pépé, Nketiah’
No!
Leno
AMN Mustafi Sok Saka
Willock Guen
Ceballos
Pepe Lacazette Aubameyang.
There’s always a doubt that an overseas player won’t settle in the PL and no amount of scouting can tell you 100% however working on the fact that CG is a complete cunt and knows fuck all the fact that he is slagging off the signing means he’ll be a fucking star.
£30 000 000 Saliba ( St Etienne)
£72 000 000 Pepe ( Lille)
——
£102 000 000 Total.
Outsmarting The Market? Or Building Up Debts for the future???
How do we make future profits ( if that’s the aim) on future sales of we pay such OverFlated Prices.?
Saliba at £10 mill
Pepe at £ 30 mill
Sensible fees.
Eagle
He plays for Lille and Ivory Coast and had a sensational season in ligue 1, but he’s no Gervinho lol !
Marc
Why bother?
We know there are certain people here who always comment with an agenda.
Just leave them to it.
If you’re an Arsenal fan bitching and whining when Arsenal are signing Pepe for £72 Million then you really are not a fan and if you can’t excited by that I question why you even bother to follow Arsenal? Maybe they are waiting until Wenger finally gets a job somewhere and they can follow that team.
Just ignore him, todays confirmed hes not just bonkers hes actually a troll.
More seriously, he helped Lille reach 2nd place last year and clearly was their star man.
22 goals, 11 assists, bags of confidence, creativity and unpredictability would be a good start of a description.
Thats a proper winger sorted ! Those YouTube clips didn’t disappoint . Now for a LB , RB and CB . Once in the CL we can go all out for CM . if Ceballos doesn’t work out .
CG
Reign it in
This is positive for Arsenal. You think this lot are going oon get into debt? Every club we’ve dealt with has bemoaned our caution with regards to spending and negotiating so this is not an accurate description of what’s occurring
“Find it a bit odd we’d want Zaha but pay more for Pepe. Seems like mind games.”
I think it must be the structuring of the deal. Palace didn’t want to sell, and likely wanted most of the money up-front so they could immediately replace their star player: a financial commitment we couldn’t meet. Lille look like they’re happy just to agree a huge deal (don’t want to risk getting into a Fekir situation where the value plummets), and take payment spread over 5 years.
Cesc I think some have nailed their flags on the Zaha mast.
I would have preferred Zaha at a cheaper price but Palace seem determined to get max fees for him. I am super excited with this news, didn’t believe it but I think its a done deal now. I also think Tierney is done. It appears Emery is using Montreal at center back this season.
Monreal ffs
What a signing
Great news
Cheers karim and yeah, he sounds the part.
I know that every player to a degree is a ‘confidence player’ but Gervinho was to the point that on his off-days which grew to be ore often than not as his confidence wavered, he would look closer to a blindfolded Giraffe than a human pro footballer.
Pepe has that arrogance that I love in a player, the balls to keep trying things even when they’re not coming off.
RH I though Zaha would be a great signing as well, but I’m very excited by this. The likely issue is Palace seem to want more than we’re paying for Pepe and also more up front. We walked away. It’s good for future transfers as well. Shows teams Arsenal will walk away from them if they are being ridiculous. £50-60 Million with a player and Nelson on loan was a very fair offer. Palace were greedy and now they might have to face Zaha not wanting to go to Everton because he wants a bigger club and being pissed off… Read more »
Im a bit unsure on how to feel about this.
Im over the moon we got a talent like Pepe (assuming sky italy not playing games 🤣 ) but i am still feeling that this window can only be considered an success if we get a CB.
…
Pepe > Zaha
One we can sell on for big money, the other one we can’t
Zaha will go to Everton now I reckon, don’t see how he just goes back to playing for a relegation fighting outfit after being close to a move to Arsenal.
There’s nobody else that really needs/wants him in the top 6 and Palace won’t get close to the fee they want from European clubs for him. Everton have spent a LOT of money in recent years, forking out 60+ million for Zaha isn’t unfathomable for them to do.
Pepe has the higher ceiling -At worst he will exist on the level of Zaha but right now he has a ceiling high enough to become a world class player. -The negotiations are more straightforward and Lille won’t be behaving like bruised cnuts when we try to structure the payment. There’s no ‘20%’ united compilations to worry about. -let’s face it, Zaha can be described as the ‘best player out of the top-6’ or whatever his supporters wants to use but he’s not world class after all the exposure he’s had in a top league. -Pepe doesn’t have PL experience… Read more »
Dream10
For that reported price tag I would say Pepe goes straight in the starting 11. And why wait quite frankly. Get him in there.
I do remember Pires starting on the bench against Sunderland but this is different.
Easily the third best player in Ligue 1 after Neymar and Mbappe.
Lille were 17th before he joined. They came 2nd last season
Highest xA in Ligue 1 last season, 2nd-highest xG behind Kylian Mbappe.
24 years old, same amount of goal contributions as Sanchez in 16/17 with 23 goals and 12 assists.
A fair few were Pens but tbf he did win them. Has the pace, and the flair to go with it. Most exciting player from Lille since Hazard.
My pepe can only get so hard
Chatter of Juventus offering Dybala to United as part of a swap deal for Lukaku.
Hope that’s not true because Dybala would be mint in the PL, United would build the side around him.
Eagle
One should always be cautious but I tend to agree with you.
Let’s wait though, he’s still not ours !
I’m thinking the signing of Pepe and Ceballos means the end of Iwobi and Mhkitaryan and probably Elneny , .would have probably been Ozil leaving as well but his contract will make that difficult.
This will allow Saka, Nketiah , Nelson and Willock to be drafted in to the squad.
Pepe really does look a player. Seen a bit more of him and he’s got the quick feet and skill to extricate himself from tight situations before running with the ball, and he’s not just reliant on receiving it in space ala Walcott.
Raul stayed that he wants to be judged at the end of the window not in the middle.
I see a few people choking on the toys they threw out of their prams all summer if he pulls off Pepe, Tierney, Martinelli and Ceballos [loan] with the added bonus of a quality central defender parked away for next season.
Have we given up on Zaha? I hope not. What about Everton? I wish we could sign Zaha too and arrange a pre contract for Everton for next summer which by time next summer, mhki, iwobi and either Nelson (if he doesn’t step up) would have been sold. Zech Medley doesn’t inspire me as a good defender. He’s too slow from the little I’ve seen him play. For a defensive unit against good attacking sides like pool and city, I would prefer chambers and tor with Ceballos as the 10.
WE
Did you ever see the picture of Aaron Lennon after he signed for Everton?
That’s you that is Zaha!
Pierre
That sounds good but I think Mikhi contract especially makes it difficult to shift him also. I’m sure Elneny can see the writing on the wall now and his gamer is hopefully finding him a new club.
An attacking front of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Pepe supplemented by Saka, Nketiah and Nelson is extremely exciting prospect.
Pierre
End of Iwobi who’s low wage academy player who contributed more than your man crush last season?
The new people running the club aren’t that thick. They will keep Iwobi for cover, never know how people respond to competition.
You should be more concerned about flighty Ozil if Ceballos gets a good take-off.
Guns of Brixton
“”””One we can sell on for big money, the other one we can’t””””
And how do we sell on for big money if we have paid £72 000 000 for him?
A Signing that smacks of Panic and Desperation after the Toxic Q and A off a few days ago.
A One season wonder for £72 million ?
Arsenal have announced 3 signings since Marko has taken a mini break. I guess we will see him only after the TW closes so that he doesn’t jinx a good streak.
Weagle
I can’t see Dybala going there
Not with all the troubles their forwards are having. And I doubt Veron and Di Maria will be giving ringing endorsements either
If he does thought that would be a real fucker
Only hours after us getting the pepe news
I love dybala
Maybe Raul could make a last minute swoop again??? 🤞🏻
Who couldn’t be happy with Pepe.
This is huge huge news, let’s hope it happens!!!!
There are shades of Jay Emmanuel Thomas in the way he receives the ball and sees the game, although unlike JET he can actually run.
Pepe also appears an excellent penalty taker.
Wenger Eagle and Dybala
Never seen a player stuck in potential mode like Dybala. He hasn’t done much to meet all the hype and expectations heaped on him.
It says a lot that Juve are moving him on.
Well, we’v seen it all about zaha and I ain’t really impressed. Ain’t doing well scoring goals, assists? What then is his SP? He dribbles like a primary school kid, plays like one, dives and feigns a lot. Don’t want such dirty player at arsenal. Cazorla once feigned and got us a pen but that act soiled the pen. That’s who we are at arsenal. Let’s see what pepe brings, definitely a better sauce.
@RH, call me out whenever you are addressing me.
Outside of wages are ManU a draw anymore?
Squad’s all over the place, another questionable manager appointed and a CEO who’s about 12 days from being lynched by the fans.
Where has the money come from all of a sudden ? Instalments aside,
Is someone like Auba being sold ?
Is anyone 100pc sure that Marko isn’t Raul?
Playing some long con there with the Irish spiel to back it up.
Dissenter
I will be proved correct ..iwobi will be gone.
And why would I be concerned about Ozil , if Ceballos proves to be a better player than Ozil and improved the side I will be more than happy .
It’s the manager which is my concern , if he doesn’t set the team up correctly defensively , and from what I have seen so far I have no reason to believe he will, then the signing of these potentially very good players mean nothing.
Wow, didn’t see that coming and fair play to Raul if the deal does go through, big signing, statement of intent which i think is all we’ve wanted really. Personally would have preferred Zaha but that’s maybe I’ve seen more of him than Pepe but there’s a reason why all the big European teams were in for him so well played, let’s just hope he settles in quickly. Hopefully that means our full backs don’t always have to bomb foward to make up the deficiency in attack too. I like this, i love this. Still though, would sit much more… Read more »
English clubs need to change how they negotiate. There too much of it in the news.
I respected that Wenger way of ignoring questions about ongoing transfers or even denying it. The way manager’s butt into negotiations they probably know nothing about is laughable and often demands the club trying to buy the player.
Pochetinno just says he’s chairman handles it, which is also a good way to avoid talking about it.
Watching some clips of him, could it be that Emery is thinking Bellerin and Tierney provide more conventional width and crossing and that having the right footed goal threat Aubameyang on the left and the left footed goal threat Pepe on the right will work very nicely? Lots of moments where Pepe cuts onto his left foot and looks for the run of the other winger. Could work very well and Aubameyang likes those balls he runs onto with his right and powers for the corner of the net. Can’t use it as a go to all the time, but… Read more »
Not sure on Dybala. Reminds me of Griezmann in that he is very clever and technically sound, but can be shut down due to not having exceptional speed or dribbling ability.
Marc
Apparently Dybala was off to that sorry lot down the road earlier in the week, now it’s rumoured to be Man Utd, sounds like classic agent tactics for better contract maybe?
Bergkamp
You do realise we are a club with almost a £400 million turnover who signed a new kit deal worth £60 million a year that’s just kicked in?
Chris
Or just trying to drum up some interest.
“Is anyone 100pc sure that Marko isn’t Raul?”
“Ach you will, ach you will, you will, you will”
Marko doing the Father Ted tea lady routine to get clubs to accept our bids.
Unn
Dybala is in his prime though, 25 going 26. Alexis was over the hill even in the first half of the season for us before he joined the Mancs.
He has no place in the Juve XI with Ronaldo there past a sidekick role shunted out on the right and he’s far too good for that. He’d be the star man at any club in Europe not named Barcelona, Juventus, PSG, Real Madrid, Man City, Liverpool. Walks into that United side and takes them up a couple of levels.
Has a Juve link there in Pogba too.
Pierre
You think Arsenal gets rid of their academy product on 40k yearly who’s already out-producing your man-crush.
Ever heard of depth in a squad?
Like I said, start booking your Istanbul hostel.
Dybala isn’t exploding in the premier league. Personally I think his career has stalled and man united should be the last place he moves. Imagine being used in a deal to get Lukaku.
Vickingz I didn’t address you so don’t know what you are on about.
Elmo
Might be right there, just seems a bit of an odd departure at this stage. I think there’s more guarantees with Zaha, but Pepe is the sort of player we should be targeting frankly.
“Has a Juve link there in Pogba too.”
Who’s desperate to get out. Can you imagine that phone call “Hey Paul should I join ManU?”.
This is a high stake poker game. If Zaha really wants to play for Arsenal, he’ll have to pressure CP to come back with a counter offer. We’ll see the hand in 48 hours.
Bati
Me too, but I get the feeling the 1st choice CB pairing will be Sok and Holding with Chambers, Mustafi and co as back up.
Bergkamp63,
‘Where has the money come from all of a sudden ? Instalments aside’
There was always a cash hoard as reflected in every financial statement. We had more money than the media fixated on.
Maybe the fan’s restlessness convinced Kroenke to do more, who knows.
Paulinho
“Marko doing the Father Ted tea lady routine to get clubs to accept our bids.”
When he’s done with transfers he’s going to get on Pedro’s case about cleaning up the comments section.
Dissenter What do you mean? He’s been dynamite for Juventus up until last season. Best player for them in multiple Scudetto winning sides. Ronaldo is literally a top 2 player of his generation and is still operating near the peak of his powers, of course a player that good will take priority over anyone else barring Messi. Dybala is at his best playing in areas that Ronaldo takes up so he has to be moved on unless he wants to wait out Ronaldo which I wouldn’t fancy doing as the guy is a freak and it wouldn’t surprise me at… Read more »
I love left footed attacking players, Pepe will be exciting for sure. From YouTube videos it looks like he does manage to get in to good goal scoring positions. I don’t expect his dribbling to be as effective in the PL as it looks in French league but for a change we have an out and out dribbling winger in our team, so all good.
Dybala is better than Griezmann. He does lack an extra yard of zip that Messi has though and obviously isn’t the dribbler that Lionel is.
Did anyone read the rumors that Sven Mislintat was drafted back in to help Raul and Edu.
Apparently that’s the reason for these burst in positive rumors about Pep and Tierney.
Marc
Dybala coming in with De Gea staying would go a way to changing his mind you’d imagine.
Then again Lukaku is his homie so what do I know.
*Pepe and Tierney
Wenger Eagle
Ronaldo the new Roger Milla
Dissenter
Agree with you re Pepe. Pepe over Zaha for me every day of the week.
He’s younger and has also scored over 20 goals a season, something Zaha has never managed.
Even if Pepe gets 15 goals and the same number of assists next season, that’s more than we’ll get with Zaha.
I could remember how most people here praised Pepe and wished for him at the beginning of last season. Most even resigned we were outsiders due to his performances then.
Seems people have forgotten. I’ll be delighted when that deal is announced.
Dissenter
Yeah apparently Emery is furious he wanted a 37 year old.
‘Yeah apparently Emery is furious he wanted a 37 year old’
He thought it was Pepe the CB.
I remember back in the day , Tottenham had the famous 5 Klinsman, Sheringham,Dumitrescu, Anderton and Barmby with Ardiles as the manager . Superb attacking line up but the manager didn’t provide a solid base for the team to function properly , no balance. Ardiles was gone by November as their defence was torn to shreds. Let’s hope Emery provides a solid base for our talented offensive players to function and he fields a team with balance and is not just loaded with attacking players .. Midfield will determine whether we will be successful or not and the manager he… Read more »
I’ll just point out that Ornstein the oracle had us down for a £45 mil transfer budget this summer, so I’d take his tweets with a pinch of salt.
Seems fishy to me, you see shit like this happen to force other deals. I’d be surprised for us to chase Zaha all summer and dodge at the last for seemingly more expensive player.
We win either way though so there’s a nice change.
Marc,
You do realise turnover means absolutely fuck all ? House of Fraser turnover is twice that but loses £50m !
Our budget this season is widely known to be around £45m and our wage bill is already north of £200m.
I wouldn’t be surprised at one major player sale who still has some value.
Didn’t people realize that Ndombele was lacking in premier league experience when they were gushing over him after Spuds signed him?
Pepe-Auba-Laca
Soon the sings will be ‘4-3 to the Arsenal’
We can out-score anyone
WE
“Dybala coming in with De Gea staying would go a way to changing his mind you’d imagine.”
No – I actually think he might end up staying this summer but if he does wait for the blow up / falling out with the manager team mates etc. I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t move either this summer or next.
Bergkamp “Where has the money come from all of a sudden ? Instalments aside, Is someone like Auba being sold ?” To an extent the hoarded cash (but if there was a load of that genuinely available the club wouldn’t be haggling over stage payments on every deal), but more so the future: big future installments for past transfers will mean less to spend in future windows, so we need to get back in the CL. Looks like the club are actually looking to achieve this. Hopefully we also can get sales over the line in the rest of the… Read more »