How have we moved things forward?

by .

Oh man, it was totally an accident, I was wandering around the supermarket trying to find something that resembled healthy that could be cooked fast… and I accidentally bought something called Better Than Rice and a curry jackfruit pouch which is a vegan chicken substitute. I swear guys, this is NOT who I want to be…

Tasted pretty good though. Have to admit it. Also, I do feel smug because I’m pretty sure I just saved the planet with one meal? What did you eat? You fucking culinary terrorist.

Anyway, outside saving the world, I was thinking about the impact of Stan taking Arsenal private and Josh K telling us to all ‘be excited’ the other week.

Give it to him, he f*cking delivered hard. He even made Emery change his teeth, harsh, but that’s America people.

I wonder how they’re setting the club up financially now? Are they merging all their sports teams like some sort of mega content network? How is this summer working? How is Raul making the numbers continue to work? Or did everyone just get thrown off because Arsenal spent all season leaking they had no money to spend?

Everything the club is doing makes sense. They’ve invested in players before they’re out of our price range. They’ve taken a huge punt on someone that could be worth £150m in 2 seasons time. They’re trying to promote youth as a cost-saving measure. They’ve reorg’d around a serial winner.

From a business perspective, it would be a bad thing if we slinked into mediocrity. There’s no value in being shite in the world of democratised football content. This all makes total sense. But I feel uneasy, because Arsenal are finally doing things that make sense? What’s the catch?

I feel like one of those boys that went to Pleasure Island with Pinnochio. I’m out here, swigging citrus pale ale, smoking cigars, shooting pool with a puppet that has gender issues… but where’s the catch?

This just, you know, doesn’t feel very KSE.

Well, I guess that’s unfair. As we’ve constantly penned, Stan spends money, just not very well. The difference is KSE is now making good ‘soccer’ decisions. Maybe it took Josh to open his old man’s eyes to the utter corruption (legal) that was going on at the club. Everyone getting fat off over-generous pay packages, underserved long deals working in a no-pressure lifestyle. The opposite of an elite performance culture.

Now things have changed. There’s an urgency to the problems at hand. Let’s be more specific, there’s been an urgency in the last two weeks. This summer, if analysed in a debriefing, would still be classed as a bit of a mess.

I think the calmness from the fans has come from the realization that Raul seems to be a mafia-style killer in the world of football. We’ve not had someone ruthless before. Arsenal is on his terms.

The Nokia 3210 vibe of yesteryear is dead, we’re now dialling in on space phones. It looks great, we just need to see it move a little quicker because at the minute, we’re still fucked going into this season.

We’re still desperately under-resourced in defence. Jenkinson is in the squad for next year, Koscielny and Mustafi are still here and Nacho is now a captain and our first choice left-back.

Edu and Raul can pepper in as many exciting attacking players as they like, but reality will always bite in the Premier League if you don’t address the glaring realities. If you have a defence that collapses under pressure, you will be punished over and over again.

We are 7 days away from the Newcastle game. They are a terribly run club and they’ve let an elite manager slip away from them. They shouldn’t be a problem, but again, Emery and away form have not mixed well so far. I’ve read some people reverse engineer rationale for Pepe being so important because the club think our away form issue was a lack of pace going forward… could be… but that reads flimsy.

We’ll have to see what happens there.

This is a huge week for Raul. Does he pivot from Tierney after reading about his hip problems? Very worrying to read Adrian Clarke tweet that he had the same injury when he was young and it took a year to clear.

Who is the centre back? Raul is in Barca and we know they are desperate to move on Umtiti because… you know… he has a chronic knee problem. An outrageous talent and a World Cup winner, but no good to us if he’s taking 2 months off in December.

The Barca game today will give us some indication as to what to expect this season. La Liga for the Blaugrana starts on the 16th, so they’ll be fairly fit. Things we’ll need to be looking out for is who starts in defence and midfield. Is it going to be Xhaka and Mustafi again? If so, will Emery have done anything in preseason to address their glaring issues? Will Willock be a regular, adding more athleticism? How will Ozil be used? Will Ceballos be able to deal with the butchers in the league?

My big worry is preseason has looked pretty much exactly the same as last season. I also expect we’ll realise that most of the kids we’re purring over will not be features this season. Willock, Reiss and Martinelli are the big bets. I do like ESR, but he wasn’t exactly drowning in-game time at Leipzig.

Let’s see what today looks like… a 3pm kickoff for me for the first time in a while! I think London has to wait until November until they get their first one… sad times, fuck Europa.

See you in the comments! x

775 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tobs

RH, totally agree with your last post. The rate of attrition from the academy is high.

Tobs

A bit worried about Tierney’s injury issues now. I hope it’s not as bad as reported or we’ve got alternatives.

Tobs

Umtiti with his knee injuries might be too much of a risk, unless it’s on a loan with an option rather than obligation to buy.

Tobs

Hoping not to see Mustafi today, which may mean he’s on the way out.

Tobs

Overall I’ve got a bit more faith in Raul and his team and hope that they can finish the window strongly.

Tobs

Tierney’s injury issues may be the reason we’ve not gone back in yet. A deal is obviously there to be made.

Tobs

Hoping Willock kicks on and gets game time this season. He adds some physicality and mobility to our midfield.

Tobs

Definitely want additions in defence prior to any talk of Coutinho.

Marc

If Tierney has a major issue why haven’t Celtic bitten our hands off?

If you’ve got a wreck of a car that’s about to cost a load of money to fix and someone knocks on your door and says “I’ve always wanted to own one of them here’s £25,000” you don’t fuck about.

Celtic are the ones putting out the injury stories – I just can’t see the logic in it unless it’s a smokescreen for the Celtic fans to justify why they sold him.

Obum

10th

Leftsidesanch

Yeah we do have to wait until then to get a 3pm game. Hopefully its the last year we have to.

Leftsidesanch

I agree Marc, I think Celtic are trying to throw us off the scent. I’m not a fan of Lennon as well constantly mouthing off.

Raul would have known about the injury problems because it isn’t a new injury. I said on here earlier in the summer that if we are to strike a deal there it would be very late as he is on the shelf currently.

David Smith

Credit to Raul. But really shows Wenger and Ivan for what they are.
Wouldn’t touch Tierney at this stage

Obum

If umtiti is out by December we will have holding perfectly ready by then. No reason not to make the deal. We now have able backups. Umtiti, sokratis, holding and chambers. Not bad. Add saliba next year. And just get a xhaka replacement next season and we are good for the league

CG

Wonderful, Wondeful, Wonderful, Wondeful!

James.wood

Can’t say I like this Hire Purchase lark with these loan deals.

It’s like paying rent on a property when you should be buying
“It’s never yours .”

Tobs

Hopefully you are right Marc.

Marc

Tobs

I’m not saying we should buy Tierney – at this point the constant injury stories are a concern.

I just can’t understand the logic behind it for Celtic to keep saying a saleable asset is broken. The £25 million offer is a quarter of their turnover – it’s like us knowing Bellerin has serious complications and will never get back to being a good player – getting a bid for £95 million and announcing to the world he’s fucked.

Ivan

It shows more how useless Gazidis was. Wenger shouldnt have that much power in the first place.

If we had proper structure all those years, it would br another story. Whats the point having manager that do everything? It only makes him less focused about managing team.

I wonder how long will Gazidis last in Milan, and hoe much snake oil is left for him to sell…

Pierre

It’s good that we now have a quality potent wide player . It’s good that we have brought in Ceballos , a central midfield player who will hopefully demand the ball off the keeper and defenders and is clever enough to evade the press from the opposition. It’s good that we have Willock showing that he is more than capable of holding down a midfield slot if given the chance. We will see what our manager is made of …he has been given the tools to create a very exciting attacking football team , the difficult part is getting balance… Read more »

KAY Boss

Pedro, please kind answer me. Was Clarke (in your post) talking about himself or Tierney? I’ll be glad with your response.
Celtic are resigned to lose Tierney and they know it. It’s a propaganda machine they’ve set in motion with Neil Lennon as it’s operator. Just preparing the minds of their fans in the inevitable.
As I said yesterday, Raul and Co. ain’t dumb. If they’ve to walk away, they will.

Marc

Pierre

It was all going so well – “He has some very good central midfielders in the side ”

Willock – check
Torreira – check
Guendozi – check
Ceballos – check
Xhaka – Doh!

5am

I think we should leave Tierney for now and set up the deal to review in January, as there’s no point adding a crock that won’t be available to play for an extended period….

Marko

Test

Jamie

The defender situation isn’t looking good.

Umtiti on loan? Is that the best we can do? And if Tierney isn’t the guy for LB, who are the alternatives?

Welcome back, Marko.

Pierre

Marc The only midfielder there with any ability in the air is Xhaka ( and he’s not that great) , and most fans don’t want him in the team. Our full backs are poor in the air , AMN, Bellerin, Kolasinac and Monreal are all weak in that department. Mustafi is our best header of a ball and he probably won’t be a starter …Sokratis is decent enough in the air , Chambers doesn’t attack the ball with any authority. Also , taking into account that Leno is not a keeper who commands his area ( like cech) then one… Read more »

Marko

Well I’ll be. Just so we’re clear if a player has ever had a knee injury does that then mean they have chronic knee problems? Cause if so then we might have an issue with Bellerin and Holding. And on Tierney the worries are frankly ridiculous he’s played 170 games for Celtic he played in 20 league games last season completed like 5 90 minute games since returning from the hip thing. If he’s injury prone at 22 and with 170 games under his belt well I dunno if I personally would believe that

Jamie

I’m guilty of worrying about Umtiti and Tierney’s injury records. Might be stupid of me. Marko makes fair points above re: knee injuries and Tierney’s appearances over the last few years.

What is almost certain, however, is a fit Umtiti and Tierney improves our back line.

Dissenter

Pedro
Glad to see you’ve come around
You spent the last season arguing that the squad is good enough so why are you still trembling at he prospect of starting a new season with the likes of Mustafi.
We kept telling. you that Mustafi, Elneny, Ozil, Mykhi and Iwobi (to some extent) were like aftershocks after 7.2 earthquake event…irreparably bad. You knew it but was in denial because it suited the narrative of the day.

Bienvenido Pedro

Marko

I dunno if we’d even have a chance of Umtiti cause they brought in no CB’S so they’d be a bit short if he left. But then of course they could easily bring in someone before September. I wouldn’t mind us coming away from Barcelona with Nelson Semedo given they now have 3 RB’s with the promotion of Wague

Jamie

I have a strange feeling we’ll come away with a Barca player before the window closes.

Raul is on the case this afternoon earning his corn.

What is the point of Mkhi now we have Pepe (and since Ozil isn’t going anywhere)? Surely he has to know he’ll get so few minutes this season..

Marko

I personally can still see possibly one of Umtiti (persistent rumours), Upamecano (long standing interest in the vein of Pepe) or Ruben Diaz (rumours of him a few weeks back and we’re now firmly in bed with Jorge Mendes) coming in before Thursday. Might be tight. On Mendes absolutely delighted that we now have a regime willing to work with these types of people.

Marc

Pierre

I was kidding!

Not about Xhaka of course.

CG

The Joan Gamper Trophy later ………

The last time Our Clown was at Camp Nou – he was pulling faces and hitting the turf as Barca’s 5th and 6 th goals went in…..

Has he learnt his lessons how to play Barca at the Camp Nou or will there be more humiliation for Unai??

(I think we all know the answer to that..)

Tick Tock

.

Dissenter

I don’t want is to just sign defenders for he sake of it. We can’t afford to be saddled with bad players like we did with Mykhi.

Let’s keep our gunpowder dry and keep looking for that special opportunity to get an exceptional center back.

There aren’t exceptional defenders available which is why we bent over backwards for the Saliba deal. It’s obvious that Maguire isn’t worth anywhere in the world record transfer range. He won’t even be he best defender at United – Smalling is better than him imo.

Dissenter

Jamie
I don’t think Mykhi gives a shit that he will get fewer minutes.
He’s just here on to while away time before retirement and to make cheap nationalistic points.

Wasi

Pierre
No Xhaka is not that good as u deem him to be(in the air). He’s got the frame and the power to be a menace but he isnt . His heading is actually quite poor. And is jumping reach is practically negligible. Diakaby’s goal against us in the EL semi should be a clear example of how bad Xhaka can be at set-pieces.

Marko

I don’t want is to just sign defenders for he sake of it. We can’t afford to be saddled with bad players like we did with Mykhi.

You mustn’t be aware of the policy that is this summer. The clear strat and thought out signings show us no one’s being signed for the sake of it.

CG

Dis

“”””There aren’t exceptional defenders available which is why we bent over backwards for the Saliba deal”””””

And no one knows if Saliba is exceptional either- because he has only played 18 games for St. Etienne. ( yes ,that’s correct .,18 games )

He looks a physical specimen- granted

The only thing exceptional about Saliba – is the preposterous fee.

Reports were yesterday- Newcastles front line gave him a torrid time….( early days, I guess)

“”Dunk- Lewis Dunk!””

That’s the defender we need.

If we dont want to get sunk- let’s get Dunk- would be my motto….

Wasi

I still think Mykhi can go to a top 4 Bundesliga team. Maybe a Leverkusen or leipzig. He is not gonna get any real game time this season . If Raul can get anything above 20 mil should be magic.

vickingz

@ tobs, we are indeed better than ac cos we are playing in champions league while AC is playing Europa

CG

Dunk . 6ft 4
200 odd games for The Seagulls
Attainable
Old English Yeoman.
Loves Defending
Eats centre forwards for breakfast.

Brighton’s Rock.

We need our Dunk-irk!

Dissenter

Marlo
What if there aren’t elite central defenders on the market?
My point may be controversial… I want us to take a pass if everyone we truly desire is unattainable. There may be opportunities to get a pre-contract on another top young prospect refusing to sign an extension or something in January.
For some reason, there’s a paucity of available top CBs this summer.

Marc

Signing a stop gap defender on loan is not a bad option if the alternative is Mustafi.

Dissenter

CG
Spurs know how to spot a good central defender, they’ve proven this consistently over the last half decade. They too went head over heel for Saliba.
Saliba is one of the most exciting talents in European footie. That’s just a fact
This season may be difficult for him though since he’s an Arsenal layer parked away at Sg Etienne

Pierre

Wasi “Pierre No Xhaka is not that good as u deem him to be(in the air). He’s got the frame and the power to be a menace but he isnt . His heading is actually quite poor. ” Of course , I never said he was that good , I said that compared to Torreira,Ceballos and Guendouzi he is the only midfielder with ability in the air , and I added “and he’s not that great”. You did conveniently miss my point though , which was our lack of aerial ability in the side could come back to haunt us… Read more »

Marko

What if there aren’t elite central defenders on the market? Define elite? And who said that they even have to be elite anyhow. Maguire is going for 80 million and he’s not elite. There’s defenders out there if you want to be able to find them. I doubt the only options available in Europe at the moment for us are Umtit or Rugani on loan as with anything Arsenal these days we have to be mindful of the budget. I’m hopeful though because there’s a lot of noise about some players leaving in that specific area and they’ll need replacing.… Read more »

KAY Boss

Dissenter, though your opinion, I disagree with your Maguire /Smalling post. Smalling is a brain fart away from colossal damage. Leicester did what they did as Utd were overly desperate for Maguire.
Looking forward to a quality and healthy defender with attributes for the PL.
Welcome home Marko.

Dissenter

Marc
I think you’ll find that getting a top defender on loan is as hard as finding a ready to go winger n January.
I hope they learned from the Suarez deal.

They may have to make a tough decision to pass on that what’s available in this last five days to avoid making another mistake. That’s going to disappoint many who can’t stand Mustafi.

I say… they wait until a good opportunity comes, doesn’t even have to be European, it could come from South America in the copa libertadores.

CG

Dis

He is an exciting prospect
But you dont pay that sort of money for excting prospects……

You pay big money for proven players to perform instantly…

30 mill for Saliba
80 mill for Pepe

110 million???

Financial incontinence
Financial incompetence

How can Holding be worth 2.5 million
And Saliba 30 million?

We have a very expensive youth set up.

Use it or Disband it.

Dissenter

Marko
That’s precisely my point
Maguire is going for that much and he’s just another lumbering jack. He’s no where near VVD who’s the embodiment of “elite”

I see these transfer markets at cyclical
Sometimes here’s a glut of reasonable defenders md then it shifts to lots of midfielders. This is not a window where reasonably good CBS have moved much.

Maybe when Leicester spend that bounty it will shift defenders around.

Dissenter

CG
Actually the current thinking everywhere is to pay top dollar for exciting prospect because. their value can appreciate faster that your pocket boo very quickly.
Spurs wanted Saliba … don’t forget that.

Dissenter

*CBs not CBS

Wasi

Pierre
I was just stating that Xhaka is just as bad as torreira/cabellos and guendouzi in the air. And our utter incompetence aerially is where we are gonna lose silly points against smaller teams. Just hope that the attack can again make up for it this year.

Marc

Dissenter

CG actually decreed Levy as the master when he thought the Spud’s had got Saliba.

I’m not sure there’s a CB of the quality you want out there for us this summer. What I’m advocating is a player on loan so limited cost who’s a solid option rather than spectacular. It’s got to be better than Mustafi who just spreads nerves throughout the team and seeing his name on the team sheet must give the opposition confidence.

Marko

https://www.transfermarkt.com/transfers/sommertransfers/statistik/top/plus/0/galerie/0?land_id=&ausrichtung=&spielerposition_id=3&altersklasse=&leihe=

Actually a tonne of CB’s have moved this summer. None being available isn’t really an excuse for me. But with us it all comes down to money but I see absolutely no reason why we can’t get in at least two defensive players before the window closes especially considering the rumours surrounding Koscielny, Mustafi and apparently Chambers is now wanted. My guess is that we’ll get tonight’s game out of the way and go ham till Thursday

CG

Spurs never wanted Saliba(not for that price)

They and St. Etienne were in cohorts…
And we ended up paying more.

And having to sign away 20% of any future sale

Raul is Peter Risdale incarnated.

(Because That’s what happen when you give amateurs the Keys to your Kingdom. )

Splashing out on players- we dont really need for exhortatant amounts and revelling in it.

We are the next Villa or Leeds Utd.
Take your pick

The Spiv will be long gone- time all this lot has to be paid for.

Am I right or am I right?

Marko

No Pepe tonight

Emiratesstroller

Arsenal have recruited sofar three players for this season and one for next. All these acquisitions seem to be solid business. From my personal perspective we need to recruit at least one “quality” defender before transfer window closes and as far I am concerned that would be a successful transfer window. Personally I would rather recruit a decent CB rather than LB. Based on what is being suggested I would be reluctant to buy Tierney UNLESS I am 100% certain that he will be match fit within a definable period. Do we seriously want to have another unfit first choice… Read more »

Pierre

Wasi yes, Whichever way you look at it we need strengthening in that department. We did manage to defend quite well last season at set pieces when we used the zonal system , however it took a turn for the worse when we changed the way we set up at corners and started to concede on a regular basis. The manager and defensive coach will need to put a lot of time and effort into that area or if could cost us . Mustafi is actually pretty good at defending corners , he sees the flight of the ball quite… Read more »

Un na naai

Bris (From previous post) Yes this is my opinion. Football is a game if opinions. Managers make mistakes Emery in his short time as arsenal manager has made plenty already as did wenger before him.It was a mistake to let Bennacer leave, clearly. It was a mistake to keep Elneny clearly.I don’t need to be sir Alex to spot an obvious fuck up so please spare me the “you’re not an elite coach” diatribe We could all see the mistakes being made by the previous regime and those who aren’t being dishonest with themselves will see the ones being made… Read more »

Un na naai

Dissenter

make cheap nationalistic points??? You mean he was asked not to participate in the final due to safety concerns and then when they (under pressure) relented he chose to continue along the safety option??

What a muppet you are.

þorkell einarsson

Why not move towards Bale instead of Coutinho ?
He is the next big thing apart from Ronaldo
him and Zidane dont gel apparantly and gooners will
love him after two goals in big game !!

Un na naai

Porkell

We can’t afford him
He wouldn’t come
He’s injury prone and 30 so not worth what real would be asking for him

Marc

Bale’s on £600,000 per week. Don’t be a dickhead.

Marko

Next big thing…:-)

Marc

Marko

Yeah just imagine how big he’ll be when he hits 40!

HighburyLegend

Did the Messi photograph was really needed ??

HighburyLegend

“Why not move towards Bale instead of Coutinho ?”
Lol the fans next door would go insane!!

Gentlebris

You don’t need your gold coaching badge to know that Bennacer is a better cmf than elneny.’ It’s like thinking you know more about surgery than a qualified surgeon just because you saw one make a mistake. Or like you think you can do better in a court than a qualified lawyer just because you saw one lose a case. Thick, very thick people think that, are you thick, Un? All these our ‘Wenger did that’ it’s just a matter of amateur opinions. The most terrible wrong Wenger did was Ozil’s contract and i like to beat him with that… Read more »

Gentlebris

Marko!

Good to see you around old guy.

CG

Gentle

Gazidas and his Chum- Raul signed off on Ozils contract…..nothing to do with Wenger

Raul loves spending ( wasting ) other peoples money.

He did at Barca
He is doing at Arsenal.

Wake up and smell the coffee- you Wally!

chris

I don’t understand (if true) Man Utd’s move for Mandzukic. Can’t see him being a success in England. He has a better first touch than Lukaku mind.

chris

Would welcome Dunk to the Arsenal.

Receding Hairline

Bennacer makes a 13m euro move to Milan and we haven’t been allowed to here the last of it from Un na nai and the frankly dense Vickingz. One would be forgiven to assume both watched all Empoli games last season to come to the conclusion he is better than anyone we have in midfield. If we go by performance at the AFCON we aren’t buying Pepe. Anyway I don’t have time to discuss our world class youth today. Those who are good enough with make it, some elsewhere. Again no club has a first eleven made up of their… Read more »

Dissenter

Un na The muppets show is missing a character if y you think the Azerbaijani government would have allowed anything to happen to Mykhi. Does your first class clown wit realize that several Armenian athletes have competed in Baku without drama? “Araks Marutyan, a lecturer at the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture (of which Mkhitaryan is an alumnus), compared the soccer player’s case to other Armenian athletes who have chosen to compete in Baku. “As a sports fan, I’d say Armenian boxers, for example, or any other Armenian athletes that went to Baku for various championships were taking a… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

Not really anything to do with being KSE or not, as many have said how good or bad Kroenke looks is determined by who is at the club but Kroenke is totally hands off. We now have a person who is master of the transfer market and knows everyone in the game. We have a more competent commercial/financial man and a competent contracts man. The idea at the club now is how can we use our resources to try and be the best club possible, not amateur hour action and financial/transfer policy centred on out of touch ideas and ‘values’.… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Marko Junior Firpo has moved to Barcelona….u owe me a drink.

Un na naai

Bris

I’m not saying I know more about coaching an elite football team than either emery or Wenger but I do know Bennacer is better than eleney

Can’t you grasp that?
And me pointing this out is nothing like thinking I’m a top surgeon. Get a grip

That’s what this comments section is for
Giving your two pence. Why come here otherwise?

Are you just going to agree with every decision a manager makes because if you don’t it signifies your belief you’re on par with a fucking surgeon??

Deary me……

Elmo

Brighton want at least £45m for Dunk, so if we were to go for him, it wouldn’t be as a speculative, cheap purchase we’re hoping works out, but isn’t a disaster if it doesn’t. If we pay that for him, he has to be a successful starting CB for 5 years. He’s combative, good in the air, organised and level headed, but is there any evidence that he has the ability to comfortably play out from the back? I want a no nonsense CB who is ‘defend first’ rather than a prancing show pony, but to play at our level… Read more »

Receding Hairline

How many games did Elneny play last season?? Do you think Elneny has a place in the midfield this season? Should being better than Elneny even be a thing? Who is Elneny.

Marko

You see that price for Firpo? Chump change. But we have our main targets and Tierney seems to be that guy. Which is why I’m still hopeful on Upamecano because he was seemingly our top target earlier in the summer

Un na naai

Dissenter

They couldn’t really guarantee that sort of safety inside the stadium could they? If 10,000 fans decide to storm the pitch and attack him or team members.

Would you put yourself and your friends and colleagues in such a position? And why would they ask him not to travel first if they were so sure of his safety?
It was only the subsequent backlash that altered the “safety” concerns. Why was he banned in the first place when we played in Azerbaijan in the group stages? They didn’t seem so sure of his personal safety then did they?

Un na naai

Rh

Exactly.
Then why have him in the squad?

bennydevito

CG you’re just trolling now. You praise signing Maguire for £85m when statistically Mustafi outperformed him last season but slate signing Saliba who’s a huge prospect. “The only thing exceptional about Saliba – is the preposterous fee. Reports were yesterday- Newcastles front line gave him a torrid time….( early days, I guess)” This too is utter twaddle as the reports were quite the opposite and that Saliba was very good but let down by a poor cb partner. Liverpool, Man utd and Napoli all had bids accepted by Lille for Pepe. If he had gone to Utd or Liverpool for… Read more »

WengerEagle

RH

Re Bennacer and people watching Empoli, you could say the same about Tierney at Celtic.

Who here has really extensively watched him in the SPL? My guess is nobody.

Which is why I find it comical and strange the indignant attitude to possibly moving on through the list and bringing in another LB target if his injury is legit and Celtic continue to fuck around.

MidwestGun

and I accidentally bought something called Better Than Rice and a curry jackfruit pouch which is a vegan chicken substitute. I swear guys, this is NOT who I want to be… _________ Ummm Pedro… did your insta-meal come in a plastic pouch? Then hate to tell you .. you aren’t savin the planet bro.. I’m glad your extra environmental woke now… all the rage. Anyhow.. I think your assessment of Raul was off.. maybe what we needed was a little more ruthlessness but I do think you were spot on with Edu… No coincidence to me we released the hounds… Read more »

WengerEagle

Reckon Citeh deal with Pool here. Interesting Aguero and Jesus are benched with Sterling playing through the middle.

Receding Hairline

Marko what was the name of the kid Barca bought back from Eibar? How good is he ? He is available now obviously

Receding Hairline

Eagle someone at Arsenal is apparently hooked on Tierney or wants it to appear so. It would be silly though to chase a left back all summer and end up with none.

Elmo

Interesting numbers, Pedro. If we are looking at him, I hope they watch back his one international cap for England (friendly vs USA last November) and see how he did (I can’t remember it).

Marko

Cucurella? Wasn’t he loaned to Gatefe.

WengerEagle

Firpo just went to Barca for 17m plus add ons, Nico Schulz went to Dortmund for 17m, Theo Hernandez to Milan for 20m.

Plenty of talented LB’s about for less than Celtic are turning their noses up at for Tierney.

WengerEagle

RH

The alternative is a realistic scenario at this stage with less than a week of the window left and if we go into the season with Kola and Monreal the LB options we’re once again going to really struggle.

chris

Very 70s feel to the Man City kits today!

1 2 3 8