ITALIAN MOVING, BUT WHERE?

by .

How are you today?

I’m in New York on a work thing, so I am going to be low on posting at the moment, but… when the post land, they land, you know what I’m saying?

I just want to clear up a couple of things from my expose on the Premier League fixtures because there were a lot of angry Spurs fans and there were a few Arsenal fans that cannot stand to see data that in any way looks like it might harm their naive view of how the sporting world works.

  1. We didn’t finish in the top 4 last season for a whole host of reasons that I have covered in some detail. If you think I was saying the only reason we failed was due to the fixtures, you are wrong and likely projecting onto the work.
  2. Marginal gains are a thing. If you don’t understand that, you don’t get modern sport. Clubs will try and edge out advantages all over the place. Liverpool don’t let key players go on international duty because of ‘injury’, Arsenal do, Liverpool end the season with Trent on the pitch, Arsenal end the season with Tavares at left-back. We had a whole conversation about the weirdos that thought removing mayo from the canteen was a marginal gain because Conte is a genius. So when we look at fixtures, don’t tell me that’s not a marginal gain opportunity.
  3. Finally, the key message: Arsenal drop out of Europe for the first time in 25 years and we didn’t face a single team that had played a European game. There’s a 3.4% chance of that happening. You have to ask questions about that, especially when you know the random fixture generator has human intervention involved. Calling it ‘luck’ is to sit on your hands. The same people telling you not to be curious about hard data were those that were telling you to put on your big boy boots when we didn’t have the Brentford game cancelled. What happened after they said the games couldn’t be cancelled? The games got cancelled when other clubs screamed louder. Everything can be influenced in football, we’ve seen it time and time again, Arsenal should be banging the table on this ‘freak’ roll of the dice and demanding it does not happen again.

Anyway, thanks to all the fans that carried that message.

ONTO STRIKER THINGS:

Arsenal are apparently kicking the Scamacca approach into overdrive. The story seems to have swung from ‘he’s angling for a move to Juve’ to ‘Dortmund and Arsenal want him.’ You would have to imagine Arsenal have more sway than Dortmund, we can pay more, give him a better profile, and we’re more prestige.

I like this striker a lot. He has all the bits we’re looking for, he fast, he can can score in lots of different ways, he has a fierce ball striker, and he’s only young. What is very interesting to me is whether we’re spending less on our main striker so we can afford someone like Jesus to give us more end product in the forward line. The interesting thing for Jesus is there’s quite a bit of competition at Arsenal for the spaces his likes to occupy. Still, we need a squad more than ever next season, so there will be loads of minutes.

Bukayo Saka is apparently on the radar of Manchester City. I think this is a familiar pattern that comes from his agent who seeded that Eddie was attracting interest from Chelsea and Liverpool. It’s all a game to get his client max money this summer. Let’s be real here, it’s absolutely deserved, we just need to make sure we’re very protected so we don’t lose him for nothing at some point.

Right, short one today. If you are Patreon contributor, Johnny has dropped a little beauty into the feed today where he talks about the next 5 players in his top 25 players. To get the exclusive good content, click below.

 

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The Real Vieira Lynn

Zacharse

I can’t even imagine being so thirsty for the wrong kind of recognition that I would actually go to the local cop shop and volunteer to be in a police lineup….you’re truly be a “special” individual

The Real Vieira Lynn

no “be”

Habesha Gooner

It is one of Scamacca or Gabriel Jesus for me. Not both. We would be overloading that striker area. We would have Jesus, Scamacca, Eddie and Martinelli to play that 9 role. We can use Jesus as a RW rotation option. But I think we need a specialist. What we need beside one CF is a top winger that can play both wings IMO. Gnabry, Moussa Diaby, Raphinha all make sense. That way Jesus and Eddie can play through the center plus Martinelli can play there from time to time. And we would have ESR, Saka, Martinelli and that new… Read more »

Old & Wise

“you should change your name to ‘new and insecure’”

It’s why I left you out as you’re still wearing your name calling “L’ plates. Once you lose the ‘L’ you can ask for the training wheels off next.

Give it a couple more seasons, though while you gat the hang of it.

Old & Wise

get*

Old & Wise

“I also think it’s ridiculously personal to say that Arteta is completely responsible for the choke at the end” My bad Nigel, I should have included Edu with Arteta leaving us with no margin for error as far as injuries went. Then what happened, Nigel, we lost key players to drum roll for Nigel please yes you guessed it Injuries. What a clever man you are to notice my deliberate mistake. Players bless them ran themselves into the ground most running in the red zone because of Arteta and Edu’s colossal fuck up in the Jan TW and also the… Read more »

Nigel Tufnel

Habesha,

I hate to say it, but it does look like Liverpool is doing a good job of reloading for the next few years. It’s going to be hard for anyone to break into the top 2 in England.

They don’t even spend nearly the most money, but have been sharp in acquisitions, and have the best coach. Easy for them to lure the top talent.
It’s frustrating.

Killroy-TM

Old & Wise OH SNAP, that was some music to my heart, spot on with the Arteta cult like worshipers and I also skip the unbalanced posts by Pedro written to soothe his minions and making sure they will continue to line up at the Kool Aid stand. For me straight to the comment section. It has been posted several times by other posters here that there are Pedro planted alter egos to keep the AFBs in line and believing that our Director Of Fantasy and Pep’s Gimp are the real thing that will restore Arsenal’s glory in the ever… Read more »

Mr Serge

Pool can top up their squad with a class signing here and there they are eating at the top table, they only ship out players if they don’t work out or they get old, even Milner got an extension at 36. On the other hand we give struggling Barcelona a free top striker and give away players for little or no money, wtf the board and the management team are doing regarding transfers I cannot fathom, bellerin the latest brat/ moron to ask for a free, Until we sort out the idiotic policy of letting players go for next to… Read more »

China1

Nigel yes we had a very young team. Whose decision was that?

Wenger was never once bestowed such a free pass. He got slaughtered by every corner for even daring to try project youth – despite actually getting 4th with it and playing amazing football.

If we’re going to be offering the current management youth as an excuse then we all owe Arsene a great apology for not giving him the same.

China1

On the topic of free transfers and clubs and players taking the piss out of us I’d actually rather we made an example of torreira and bellerin than sell them for a pittance. I’m serious. Let them run down their final year whilst sitting on the bench or not even registered for the squad as we did with ozil. We can’t stop players running down their contracts but we can damn well make an example that if you want one of our players who is under contract then you need to bid the market rate. Betis and fiorontina should be… Read more »

Pierre

In Eddie and Balogun we have potentially 2 of the best young strikers in europe. Arteta left it 12 months too late before trusting Eddie , let’s hope he has learnt his lesson and doesn’t make the same mistake with Balogun, who is a different kind of striker to Eddie, more explosive but not quite as smart in the box.. Too many are concerned about our striker situation, no need, Eddie will prove to be one of the best strikers in the league next season if Arteta doesn’t make the mistake of spending a fortune on a striker who he… Read more »

Killroy-TM

Chine Just read this piece in the Mirror that makes so much sense why we are in this position of not being able to move on players. The problem is not with the players the problem is with our director of fantasy. “However, it’s stated that any clubs interested in Bellerin – or any of his Arsenal teammates also nearing the end of their deals – are acutely aware of Edu and co’s willingness to rip up their players’ deals in order to move them on and save money in the long run, a precedent set with Aubameyang and Ozil’s… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

Nigel It is frustrating. I was hoping they would be in a downward spiral after Mane and Salah leave. But klopp will find a way. He made those players who they are and he will do the same with the next batch of players. And the recruitment has been similar. He is targeting players with running power that have track record of scoring goals. He did the same thing with Diaz, Jota and now possibly Nunez. It is going to be hard for us to break in to the top two. We just need to get into champions league places… Read more »

China1

Yea absolutely It’s not only those two tho Don’t forget mustafi and kola, combined with us desperately trying to loan out players left right and center these last couple of years. I’m not unhappy that we’ve cunted off these players and in some cases it has been really necessary – but the problem is we’ve made ourselves look weak and desperate in the process and that is not being exploited. Likewise every time we bid for a player clubs hold out both hands for more. I know he’s older, but Sadio Mane >>>>>>>>>> Jesus. Jesus is very good but Mane… Read more »

Doublethink

Other than having a toung squad,why are people confident we will progress next season considering the expectation that Spurs, Utd and even Newcastle will be much better?

The Bard

If we’re considering selling Saka and or ERS what does that mean for the long term youff project ? There never was one. It was all PR bullshit.

Matt B

Old & Wise:

So, no room for nuance in your arguments, black and white, Arteta out, Arteta in! I didn’t agree with Pedro’s post about the fixture generator, but I don’t feel the need to bitch and moan about it.

Like you, I also think we bottled 4th as I’ve said previously, but don’t let ‘truth’ get in the way of your agenda…

Valentin

China I can’t see the attraction of Jesus at the price that ManCity is demanding and the salary he is requesting. It is not like we are involved in a bidding war. Nobody else is bidding for him, he is on his last year of his contract. He is not essential to ManCity, so he should be cheap or at least cheaper. The problem is that Arteta wants him and that Edu can’t overrule him. And what Arteta wants Arteta gets. Promoting them to the same level means that Edu has his tied behind his back on of recruitment. Arteta… Read more »

Valentin

Pierre, I think that Balogun still need a full season loan as a starter away from Arsenal before even be ready for first team action. At youth level, Balogun benefitted from the superior quality of our midfield who played quick early ball to release him behind the defense. At Arsenal he would play very few minutes and he would get very frustrated with the slow lateral passes with no penetration of our midfield. He needs to learn from a different challenge at senior level. Play with a misfield thar is not so dominant or as good than Arsenal U21. Also… Read more »

CG

V
“”ManCity is watching tangle ourselves in knots over Jesus when they are not that fussed about him leaving or staying.””‘

I am sure they are aware, because they are a shrewd bunch, that Arsenal had x 5 bids in for Benjamin White, before they finally got one accepted.

The figures being spoken about Jesus are eyewatering , bearing in mind he has only 12 months on his contract left.

A reminder he scored 8 premier league goals last season and 4 of them were against relegated Watford.

(Looks like a younger Lacazette in many ways.)

englandsbest

Time to stop re-running the past, time to look to the future. Or is it too dazzling for some? Personally, can’t wait to see what Arteta/Edu/Josh have got up their sleeve.

Emiratesstroller

There are as usual a lot of mixed messaging in the media and press about players that Arsenal could be signing this summer. What is not in dispute is that Arsenal need a new Centre Forward to replace Aubameyang and Lacazette plus a central midfielder to rotate with Partey and Xhaka. There is a lot of noise with some of the media suggesting that Arsenal will buy Jesus and others suggesting that Man City are touting a sale to Spurs or Real Madrid. The latter story is plain daft on two counts. For a start Spurs cannot offer Jesus a… Read more »

CG

Last season

Jesus 41 games , 13 goals
Ronaldo 30 games , 18 goals

Tom

Tottenham, Newcastle, and Liverpool added players in January and these three were to most impressive down the stretch. Tottenham overtook us when we were the overwhelming favorites for the fourth CL spot. Newcastle surged up the table like a house on fire, and Liverpool came within a whisker of having the most successful season in their history. Meanwhile we purged our squad and left it threadbare for the run in, with Pedro being the biggest cheerleader, even writing enthusiastic pieces on wage savings. And now he’s searching high and low for all marginal reasons why we failed, I mean, succeeded… Read more »

englandsbest

Tom

Max marks for mixed metaphors and muddled mocking.

You have a two-dimensional view of the past. Lift your eyes and look to the future.

raptora

Tom,
You mean the reserve of Shelvey as Pedro referred him as?! Yeah, that guy got 4 MotM awards in 11 starts for Newcastle, 8 MotM in 32 games, when you add his Lyon games, compared to Xhaka’s 1 MotM in 135 games (last 3 seasons) for Arsenal.

Pedro celebrated that we didn’t get the player. Like what?!?!

Emiratesstroller

Tom Arsenal made the decision in my view wrongly to reduce their squad in January by offloading six players and leaving their squad threadbare. They gambled that the squad would be able to cope with a light fixture list. What materialised is that most of our defence got injured including several with longterm injuries. We were down to bare bones relying on Holding, Soares, Tavares and Elneny as replacements. Realistically I don’t think that Arsenal expected to be competing in January for a Champions League Place. The top 3 places were more or less guaranteed at that time. There was… Read more »

Pierre

What’s happened to everyone on Le grove celebrating Arsenal’s foolish decision to pay ozil 300k a week and not play him and then pay him to leave , whilst at the same time seeing our creativity plummet year on year . And now you’re all moaning about our transfer policy, many of you have the club you deserve for first supporting the minority of fans disgraceful treatment towards wenger and then Ozil for questioning the pay rise. Before Arteta came we received good money for iwobi, walcott and ox , since wenger left we have let players of the quality… Read more »

Graham62

Matt B In response to your 21:50 post. I will show and give respect but when, as a fan, you’re treated in such a way I’ll deal with things the way I see fit. Things have changed dramatically on here the past few years and instead of this being a blog for all Arsenal supporters to vent there opinions, it has become a promotional tool and, to be honest, I don’t like it! Every argument is countered with excuse after excuse and as Tom highlighted, it is all rather embarrassing. Anyway, whether you, or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t… Read more »

Graham62

Pierre

You’re probably right.

The Bard

Englandsbest you’re the sites very own black knight. What Josh and Co have up their sleeve is er….. the outline of a strategy to bullshit the fans even more. I sympathise with them, trying to sell a second rate club as challengers is a difficult job.

raptora

Smith Rowe in 2020: “I like to be versatile and I can also play in other positions. But I probably would say I do enjoy playing in the No. 10 position the most” “At Arsenal, I look up to Mesut Ozil a lot. I watch him in training and the movement he has and the little touches he does. For me to train with him every day, I can’t think of anything better.” “Since Kevin De Bruyne joined City, I like to base my game around him. I look up to him so much. I just like the way he… Read more »

Valentin

Stroller, Not all players only look at their paycheck. Some wants to play Champions’ League football and would forsake a higher pay from an European League over a club in the Champions’ League. Some wants chance to win things and would rather be substitute in a winning team rather than starter in a perennial underachiever team. The reality is Arsenal is currently an underachieving team that has not qualified for the champion League for 5 years and has not won the league in a decade. So Arsenal is not going to attract elite star players. MBappe, Haaland, Mane, Salah, Lewandowski,… Read more »

CG

Pierre

Mikityran- another quality player A&E paid to leave and not get the best out of.( They simply do not recognize talent- too busy wasting millions needlessly on the likes of White, Ramsdale and Willian, Runarrson etc)

Joining Inter Milan and playing in the CL on a free for next season?

Arsenal 31 games (9 goals)
Roma 65 games ( 18 goals)

raptora

We have his favorite players as Ozil, De Bruyne, he also talks about Iniesta.

But our one and only doesn’t give him a sniff to play his favorite #10 position but gives his toy boy 26 EPL starts in a row from October all the way to May and a total of 0 starts for ESR in the #10 position for the same duration – October till the end of the season. What the eff.

Wasn’t it supposed to be bringing in Ode to rotate with ESR in that #10?! I guess not.

raptora

Mkhi has around 27 goals and 21 assists in 6788 mins or the equivalent of 75 games for Roma. Pretty decent.

Tom

EB, notice what’s missing in my post btw? Not once did I use I was right, or as I predicted, which is a go to for most comments reflecting on the past however many dimensional. As a matter of fact I was almost wrong about Liverpool when I said in January they were out of the title challenge. I had no opinion of any of the Spurs incomings since I didn’t know a fucking thing about any of them, and I never even heard of Bruno G before he joined the bone saw outfit otherwise known as Newcastle. I also… Read more »

Tom

raptora, that’s where Pedro lets himself down the most with his petty attacks on anyone Arsenal mightve been remotely interested in but passed.

Bruno G was a monster for Newcastle and I watched their games not just highlights.

Valentin

I can see another conspiracy anti Arsenal brewing from Pedro.

The FA has requested that no Premier League fixtures between “Big 6” clubs be scheduled for the weekend before the World Cup starts.

CG

R

“”Mkhi has around 27 goals and 21 assists in 6788 mins or the equivalent of 75 games for Roma. Pretty decent.””””

The Dopes paid Mik to depart, then around about the same time- paid William to join, then paid Willian to leave. ( That was after paying Ozil to leave, and before paying PEA to leave)

Mik will be playing in Europe next season
PEA likewise

Willian will be on the Copacanbana beach.

No other club- would put up with this total shambles.

Dissenters

There;s some bombshell FIFA drama about to break. ‘Ecuador ‘are set to be KICKED OUT of the Qatar World Cup by FIFA and replaced by Chile’ after claims that defender Byron Castillo is actually COLOMBIAN and was not eligible to play in their qualifying campaign’ The country’s FA had been investigated by FIFA over the allegations raised by Chile, who finished seventh in South American qualifying and missed out on a place at the Qatar tournament, while Ecuador finished in fourth place. The report also claims there is a faint hope from Italy that they might be able to take… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Valentin

Mbappe and Haaland are not within our price range.

Also I doubt that Arsenal are interested in Lewandowski, Salah and Mane, because of their age and wage expectations.

Jesus makes sense because despite what you say he is a versatile forward and a good player
whose profile will fit into our current squad.

I think that Arsenal will recruit someone who will rotate with Nketiah and both these players should be able collectively to score 30+ goals.

raptora

Tom,
It’s totally not because he is blindly supporting every decision generational makes.

It’s like if Artedu make Gnabry join us this Summer. Do you think I’ll be fuming that they brought here a world class player? Fuck no! I’ll be dancing in front of my home to the beat of Jammin’ by Bob Marley.

Why was Pedro happy and celebrating that we missed on a world class talent, I’ve no clue.

englandsbest

Tom

You summed yourself up perfectly: no forward view, only hindsight

Tom

“Also I think that the expectation would have been that the fourth slot would be won by Man
Utd. On paper they had a much better squad and team than us. So Arsenal’s expectation was to secure a Europa League place competing against Spurs,
West Ham and Wolves.”

Stroller, not sure that’s entirely accurate.
Don’t remember the exact table but Arsenal finished December on a high so I think the club might’ve expected to have enough for top four without adding no one in January.

Dissenters

*CONMEBOL

Tom

EB, I’m leaving the forward view to yourself.
You seem to have a good handle on it.
6 new players in this summer and 150-200million in total spending was it?
Too bad Haaland didn’t see the opportunity you saw for him at Arsenal to take his career to the next level.

Another one with a limited forward view I guess.

Emiratesstroller

Tom

We were not in fourth place at end of January. We played only one EPL game in January
and I think that we were 6th or 7th at that time because we had played fewer games than
most of the other teams.

We moved up the table after beating Wolves twice plus Chelsea and Manchester United.

The games that cost us fourth place were Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton. These
games coincided with the spate of injuries.

Habesha Gooner

“””I can’t see the attraction of Jesus at the price that ManCity is demanding and the salary he is requesting. It is not like we are involved in a bidding war. Nobody else is bidding for him, he is on his last year of his contract. He is not essential to ManCity, so he should be cheap or at least cheaper.”” Nobody is bidding for him?? Check out the rumors. Tottenham are interested, Real Madrid are also interested if they can get Vini a Spanish passport. Inter Milan are said to be interested if they can’t get lukaku, and there… Read more »

Tom

Stroller, I didn’t say we were fourth at any point the club decided to stay idle in the January window.
I said we finished the calendar year well which might’ve convinced them we had enough for top four.

AFC Forever

Dissenter “I don’t understand for the life of me how they can even contemplate giving it to Italy. That space belongs to a COMNEBOL national team. Chile can’t get that spot too were 7th in COMNEBOL; Peru and Colombia are ahead of them on table” That story was covered yesterday on the radio. They said the reason Chile would get the place in Qatar is that under FIFA rules the sanction would be based on points obtained with Castillo on the field during the Conmebol Qualifiers. This would mean Chile would get sufficient points because they played two matches against… Read more »

raptora

Habesha,
Think the touted number on Nunez is going for €100m.

Laca back to Lyon btw.

Old & Wise

The club has never filled David Dein’s shoe’s in the boardroom and we became a F.A. cup club as time went on because of this. Stan should be looking for a modern day Dein who has the knowledge how to acquire players our clubs needs. Sadly, there has been no rush from the right players wanting to join us when you see through the media’s click-baiting. Clearly, Edu had nothing close to be signed or signed prior to the window opening. No plan B if we didn’t get CL? Begs questions why after he had 12 months to formulate such… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

Raptora I think it is 80 mil euros with 20 mil performance add ons. I know he fits Liverpool but I wouldn’t pay that for him. I would rather Jesus at 50 mil euros. Seeing this Roma are going to demand 80 mil euros for Abraham (the buy back clause Chelsea put in there). I would expect more than Nunez’s price for Osihmen. Johnathan David will at least go for 50 mil euros. Same for Amine Gouiri. And Jesus is a better player than all of these strikers bar Osihmen. Gouiri might go far though. There is a genuine shortage… Read more »

Valentin

Habesha, Real Madrid can’t register new non-European players because their 3 slots are already occupied. According to spanish rules, the earliest any of them could get a Spanish passport is January. His agent may blew smoke, but the reality is that Real Madrid is not after him this summer. Next summer on a free, they definitely be. Regarding Spurs finance, they need to get sell before they can buy. A striker is not their most pressing need. Also Jesus is already on higher wage than they are willing to offer to their second tier band players. The one below Kane,… Read more »

raptora

Knowing how Liverpool work, they don’t spend crazy money for players that aren’t worth it. If they splash the cash for Nunez, then he must be one hell of a player.

And they have to do it if they want to have a chance versus a Pep team with Haaland in it. It shows how ambitious Pool are in trying to keep in touch with City rather than sit on their hands, feel sorry for themselves and preach how unfair life is. They work hard, find solutions and just deal with it.

Naija+soccer

Italy doesn’t love Arsenal at the moment. Locatelli, Vlahovic, and now Scamacca all rejecting us. Even Fiorentina likes our player but can’t be bothered paying for him.

Naija+soccer

If we must sell our best players from time to time, then the club must find a way or a plan to keep us relevant and competing. I m not against selling Saka to Man City if that’s what must happen but make sure it comes at a cost for them and we replace immediately with similar players, so we don’t lag behind

For example sell Saka for 100 million then Replace him with Gakpo/Gnabry and a striker like Savic. We ve got a replacement wide player AND a striker.

Graham62

Valentin

Spuds finances are unique, in many ways.
Interestingly though, we don’t hear too much about their “sustainable business model” quite as much as we hear about Arsenal’s. Why is that?
Even after the opening of their new state of the art stadium and covid, we never get the same rhetoric that came out of Arsenal all those years back.
Is it to do with the fact that Spuds plan better and didn’t hand out vast sums to average to shite players like we’ve always done?
It seems to be our Achilles heel.
Financial sustainability that is.

Naija+soccer

We can’t have a repeat of the Cesc, Nasri, RVP era, selling our best players regularly making it impossible for us to be properly competitive. That road’s already been traveled and we aren’t paying off a stadium debt this time. We are club that wants to be back on top so we must do everything to make that possible.

It’s true we aren’t as rich as City, United, Chelsea, Newcastle but we must be smart and innovative.

Valentin

Graham, Spurs finance are quite opaque, nobody knows what is the objective of the owner. Nobody knows whether he will fill the losses. However you are right that from a financial planning perspective Spurs seems to be ahead of Arsenal. They have controlled wage bill ‘much better with few uninterested players on very high wage. However going forward I wonder if their timing is wrong. I feel that their stadium debt forced their hand in going after Mourinho and Conte. Neither are the kind of managers they usually go for. I hope that they are like Liverpool just of the… Read more »

Upstate Gooner

“He has all the bits we’re looking for, he fast, he can can score in lots of different ways, he has a fierce ball striker, and he’s only young.”

He fast? Has fierce ball striker? He’s only young? Ouch… Thank god, you’re not in advertising, Pedro. Oh, wait… Well, hopefully you have an editor who proofs your stuff before it goes out of the door.

Emiratesstroller

Valentin

Centre Forwards are the one position where clubs are willing to pay an inflated transfer fee
particularly if the club is in urgent need of a replacement as is the case with Arsenal.

Jesus is not a brilliant CF but he is better than you suggest. He is capable of scoring 15-20
goals a season as a regular starter and it will afford Arsenal an opportunity to rotate with
Nketiah.

If we pay £45 million I think that it is a realistic price particularly when you hear the grossly
inflated prices being demanded for players like Isak and Calvert-Lewin.

Terraloon

Valentin

The reality is Arsenal is currently an underachieving team that has not qualified for the champion League for 5 years and has not won the league in a decade.

Fast approaching two decades!

Habesha Gooner

Okay let’s say we walked away from the deal as you said. Who would we get that is better? It is all good saying we should only pay £30 mil but every other decent striker costs more than €50 mil. Man city know that there isn’t any one else that is better than Jesus in the market for 50 mil. As you say, if there isn’t anyone that will bid for him then they will accept a low ball offer. But they know he will have suitors. That’s why they are asking for that price. In any case if Jesus… Read more »

Valentin

Stroller, I think that you are the one overestimating Jesus. He may be a hard worker and a pressing demon, but he is not a clinical finisher. Even in the season he played as a striker, his difference between his non penalty expected goal and scored goal was negative. So either he has been extremely unlucky at ManCity, or he just missed opportunities he should have buried. Take into account that Artetaball means that he will not see the ball in the penaltybox as often as he does at ManCity. Add the fact that Arteta will demand that he drops… Read more »

Upstate Gooner

Maybe this has been discussed already (apologies, I don’t frequent this blog anymore) but why are we after Jesus at all? He’s not a target man. He’s not tall, he’s not strong in the air, and he doesn’t score a lot of headers. He’s more of a fox in a box type of a striker, and we already have one of those in Eddie. So what’s the point of signing another “Eddie” when the original one just extended his contract? Shouldn’t we be looking at someone else?

Valentin

Habesha, Because there is a sucker willing to pay top money and big salary for a good but not brilliant player, does not mean yhat Arsenal has to be that sucker. It reminds me of the Pepe’s transfer a few years ago. Having seen play in the French League on TV and physically in the Stade I was one of the few who kept arguing that he was at best a £35 millions player and he would not be able to adapt to a different system. Everybody was trying to convince me I was wrong and that it was the… Read more »

andy1886

Val, I’ve been saying something similar for weeks. Why on earth anyone thinks that a player who plays for City and isn’t prolific will suddenly become prolific playing at a club that creates fewer and poorer chances is beyond me. Same old story, whenever we’re linked with a player you’ll get plenty of people overestimating their potential and ending up disappointed (Xhaka was a huge favorite in the weeks leading up to him signing I recall).

Mb

Jose Mourinho gets a letter delivered to his house in Rome. Opens it, it’s an electricity bill for £17,000 forwarded on by Manchester United Football Club.

He calls the club – I think there’s been a mistake, you have sent me a bill but I haven’t worked for Manchester United for years.

No Jose, sorry but there’s no mistake. You were the last person in the trophy room in 2017 and you left the bloody light ON.

#copied ofcourse

raptora

Talking about Pepe can we think for a second before we flame Raul at any given go, that when we got Pepe nobody could believe it and people were going crazy that we’ve signed the next best thing. Don Raul’s car was being surrounded by fans applauding him and singing his name for delivering them a top class talent in addition to Tierney, Luiz, Martinelli and Saliba. Hindsight is a beautiful thing but in football not everything is exact science. That’s why I believe that in case you have an incredible DoF, you have to give the manager the option… Read more »

Valentin

raptora, I agree with most of you points except the one on Raul. Raul was a chancer who should never have been brought at Arsenal. As a DoF he was diabolical at Barcelona that is still paying for his uncontrolled approach to recruitment. At Arsenal he went after the shinny new thing without knowing the kind of player he was buying. Anybody who had followed Ligue 1 knew that Pepe was a one season wonder. Half his goals were penalties. A quarter were counter attacking tap-in or cutback goals after the wingers Johnathans (Ikoné and Bamba) had done most of… Read more »

Killroy-TM

First of all it is NOT England’s Best it is England’s Worst because Best would NOT spout this Arteta BS propaganda.

Keeping that in mind Englandsworst how do you know where you will go in the future unless you consult and meditate on your past activities? You are typifying the Arteta fan boys AFBs and are aptly called out for your delusional BS about where we are heading since it is BS it still stinks up the blog.

Do us a favor and take a reality check.

Un

Talking of football manager
Anyone remember D’Allesandro? Huge things expected
Pablo aimar another
Saviola

All did well but not quite football manager well

The Real Vieira Lynn

Old & Wise I spent countless hours over the years discussing the slow yet steady decline of this club ever since the fateful day when Dein was forcibly removed from the equation…there’s no way that he would have stood idly by and watched while the stadium ruse, with it’s self-sustaining financially-contrived imperative, became the prevailing narrative…it’s clear that once Wenger was left to his own devices, albeit a managerial force of nature pre-move, cared infinitely more about maintaining his “genius” status and not allowing anyone to usurp his monopolistic control over all things club-related, than facing his fears head-on and… Read more »

raptora

Valentin, I agree that Raul wasn’t a good director. It’s why the manager should have had a big say in who’s brought and who’s sold, unless we had a world class DoF, which we didn’t have. My paragraph regarding Raul is that a lot of time the fans have not much clue as most of us wanted Pepe and thought we’re buying the next Salah. You might have gotten Pepe right, but no way you’ve been 100% accurate on every player out there. What I’m saying is that we can speculate and have our preferences, but we’ll probably get surprised… Read more »

raptora

Why didn’t we go for Locatelli before he was one of the stars of Euro 2020?***

Tom

raptora, I think I read somewhere Almeria have a sell on clause meaning 20% or so of his transfer fee goes to them in a lump sum payment. That’s probably why Benfica are asking 80m for Nunez. As for Camavinga and Tchouameni, Real have been keeping tabs on these two for years, so it’s easier said than done, but yea, we should still try. Although we did that with Saliba and it’s still up in the air whether he extends with us or not. We maybe forced to sell him soon for zero gains and watch him become top CB… Read more »

Ernest Reed

“ For example sell Saka for 100 million then Replace him with Gakpo/Gnabry and a striker like Savic. We ve got a replacement wide player AND a striker.” That’s not how you spend the money earned from selling your most prized asset. Spurs should remain the ultimate example of blatant stupidity when they sold Bale for a Kings ransom and spent it on a group of paupers – net gain of zero, zip, nada and worse. I would sincerely hope and trust that both Edu and Arteta are never this ridiculously dumb. Selling your most prized possession should require a… Read more »

The Real Vieira Lynn

Ernest Reed

very well-reasoned response regarding the selling of Saka…it’s one thing to follow the Pool model, when they used their acquired sell-on funds to bring VVD on board, than using monies received to buy lesser individuals…keeping in mind, that I don’t think you could get the players in question for the amount suggested, as I certainly don’t view Gnabry as a lightweight replacement…it’s like selling your house in an vastly inflated seller’s market, only to buy a shittier house for almost the same amount

Ernest Reed

Best wishes to Laca. Admittedly I am relieved that the club did not try to re-sign him as his best before date had already passed. I remain at a loss, outside of age, as to how a player can look so spent from playing as little as Laca did over the last season. Anyway, best wishes and the club moves on.

EdTheREd

If this club has ANY ambition left (apart from dumbing down supporters base) it would build everything around our only world class player – Saka.

Everything else is just mediocrity talk. It’s enough reading posts from Arteta’s Witnesses to realise they don’t give a fcuk if we sell Saka. You’d think an elite coach would love to coach elite players, and not Cedrics, tavareses and Xhakas of this world.

But I’m sure gaslighting from Pedro & Co will continue. What a sad state of affairs.

The Real Vieira Lynn

with the reemergence of chatter involving a move for Rashford, it appears as if either this is just more rumour mill fodder or we’re the biggest organizational who*es in the TW, who clearly don’t have a definitive plan when it comes to recruitment…maybe it’s a bit of both

of course, I realize that we’re going to be subjected to a plethora of media-contrived nonsense, as every one and their brother is frightfully aware of our supposed off-season pursuits, but when I look around the media landscape at other teams, in a similar position, in just doesn’t match up

Tom

If Liverpool do end up with Nunez, that would make adding two young, top quality players within 6 months of each other, and probably selling one 30 something on at a decent fee ( Mane to Bayern).

So much then for them nearing the end of the cycle talk pushed on here throughout the season by the project youth brigade.

There’s being positive …… and there’s believing in unicorns.
Liverpool’s end of the cycle will come with Klopp leaving.

Ernest Reed

Agreed that selling Saka is an absolute no for me. This is the one absolute untouchable player that the club should gear its future on and around. How anyone can find benefit from selling your most prized possession and he being of such a young age, is mind-numbing and just smacks of ridiculousness. A far better question should be fairly asked. If you can’t get said player to sign an extension then ask why that might be or is? Signing Saka to an extension makes sense on every conceivable level and if you can’t then obviously there is something not… Read more »

Ernest Reed

Liverpool have an excellent management structure in place Tom, they have a very real plan and remain serious about their continued success and aspirations.

Arsenal would do well to try to emulate the formula.

Ernest Reed

Rashford is more interested in being a social and social media darling than he is being a player of anything resembling world class. His past season should raise sufficient red flags to perspective buyers.

Tom

Ernest, that they do , but Klopp is the key ingredient there.
Just like Guardiola at City.

These two leave and the league will instantly become way more competitive at the top.

But Nunez to Liverpool is a bad news for Arsenal and not only because we were interested in him.
In the last two windows Klopp signed Konate( 23), Diaz(25),……..with Nunez (22) it’s becoming abundantly clear to me the bastard is going for the quintuple next season.

If we lose the highly coveted youngest starting Xl trophy many on here will be inconsolable.

englandsbest

Pepe is an enigma and the likelihood is that he will be gone soon enough. A disappointment at Arsenal, it will not surprise me if he is five star elsewhere, an instinctive game-changer. If so, no doubt Arteta will be blamed for not using him properly. But my mind goes back to GG who demanded players followed his rules to the letter, and created – and not inherit – a side that returned Arsenal to the elite.

Zacharse

Old & WiseJune 9, 2022 06:23:50 “you should change your name to ‘new and insecure’”It’s why I left you out as you’re still wearing your name calling “L’ plates. Once you lose the ‘L’ you can ask for the training wheels off next.Give it a couple more seasons, though while you gat the hang of it. The Real Vieira LynnJune 9, 2022 04:12:13 ZacharseI can’t even imagine being so thirsty for the wrong kind of recognition that I would actually go to the local cop shop and volunteer to be in a police lineup….you’re truly be a “special” individual can… Read more »

salparadisenyc

Raptora Only reason LG was thrilled with Pepe signing as most had very little knowledge of his abilities barring squaka and that 5 min youtube reel of Ligue 1 bangers was the price tag. When your club puts in its highest transfer fee, exceeding PEA by £15m for a flank man you have to have some kind of faith the system is working and the gold rush is on. I was excited by the Pepe signing this entire space was barring a very select few. Then we all gradually realised how limited he actually was matched with the meekest of… Read more »

Ernest Reed

The challenge Tom is that Nunez was “mentioned “ in rumours and really nothing more. The fact that Liverpool are targeting these players and signing them is of the greater concern. The financial outlay for those players is not ridiculous, not when you consider what Arsenal have recently paid out for Pepe and White as examples. The fact that those that Pool are signing become impact and meaningful players is more telling of how far advanced their scouting and development networks are in comparison. Let’s face it, Arsenal have only just recently rid themselves of the Club Wenger atmosphere where… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

Valentin Sorry for the late post, got caught up at work. Pepe and Jesus are totally different players. Jesus brings something if he isn’t bringing goals. Pep has trusted him in his biggest matches because he presses, harasses and does everything else. Pepe brings nothing if he isn’t bringing goals. And I will give you that, you were totally bang on about Pepe. But I have watched Jesus enough times. He is a good player. He has lost some confidence because Pep wants something different from his No 9s. I have seen only Lewandowski play a traditional 9 and succeed… Read more »

The Real Vieira Lynn

Zacharse

I’m not surprised whatsoever that my comments went over your head, as based on your “contributions” this seems to be a fairly regular occurrence…not sure if you could even comprehend the dumbed down Coles notes version, but here goes…your unsolicited response to Old & New’s post, saying that you were upset that you weren’t included in what was a justifiable admonishment of several posters, was akin to someone, without provocation, going to the police station and asking to be part of a police lineup, which, at best, would be stupid, and, at worst, incredibly stupid

Soham

For Arsenal the transfer window opens only in the last week of August ! Till then its all click bait !!

salparadisenyc

Its pretty clear LIverpool are light years ahead of Arsenal in terms of recruitment from Klopp’s hiring on down the line to Salah, Mane, VVD, Jota etc and likely Nùnez.

We may have the data department but certainly don’t utilise it like Ian Graham and his team. Lets hope he’s actually left the building as was rumoured mid season.

Habesha Gooner

I wish there was someone better than Jesus on the market for that price. Even for something like € 80 mil euros you get an unproven potential player in Darwin Nunez.

We need to find a Center Forward next season. Unless we go for a totally unproven forward like Scamacca, Gouiri, Matheus Cunha (which is just as much a risk as Jesus), I don’t see better options.

I would have waited a year more if we had decent options at CF. But we can’t go through the season with Eddie alone.

The Real Vieira Lynn

Salpara there’s no doubting the fact that the Pool administrative/management teams are far superior to what’s on offer here…I would suspect that this is immeasurably aided by the fact that Klopp has a definitive tactical plan which, in turn, provides those within the recruitment office with clearly defined player specs that must be properly met long before any approaches are made…whereas no one can still define our current playing style, besides the fact that it’s overtly negative, and/or definitively state our future tactical aspirations…the fact remains, if what’s presently on offer is a proper glimpse at the tactical future with… Read more »

Graham62

TRVL

Correct!