RAPHINHA RUMOURS GIVING OFF DISTINCT VLAHOVIC AROMAS

by .

We’re really in the thick of things right now, there’s cash in the water and MEGA agents, clubs, and players can taste it.

The latest move that seems to have caught fire with the big rumour monsters is Raphinha to Arsenal. The story follows a familiar one with Barcelona, they tap a player for months, then when it comes to payment, they plead poverty and hope no one else goes in for the name… no one goes in for player because they are fixated on moving to one place, Barca get a fat discount, the end.

Well, Leeds aren’t about that dynamic, Barcelona aren’t what they once were, and now Arsenal are at the trough with a very serious cheque and look on their face.

It all feels like stepping up to the table for Dusan Vlahovic. Commendable, but unrealistic.

I have absolutely no idea though, my gut says that it seems like quite a mad thing to do considering where we are as a club. This is the sort of move City or Chelsea make. Unless there’s a really big plan, I’m not sure that putting £60m on a right-winger is exactly what we need. We’ve just signed Vieira, Bukayo Saka is the Starboy, and Odegaard can also do bits out there.

If you are spending that much as a Europa League side, you are going to play that person every week. Do we see a world where that happens with Raphinha?

I have no idea. This has the hallmarks of Wenger needing to address a really important defensive issue, then dropping £25m on his 9th #10. Standards merchants will say you need two top-quality players in every position, and sure, I can vibe with that, but you need to address the things that broke you the season prior first. Chance creation from the right doesn’t need £60m right now.

I’ve lived in the transfer desert for 10 years before, so I’ll never look away from a top-quality 25-year-old Brazilian… but it would be a little bit at odds with the mission this summer. It would also make us a Champions League squad a year early, no doubt about that, because he really is top, top talent.

This rumour works for Leeds, it works for the player, and it might work for Arsenal who will no doubt be desperate to make sure we have as many of our targets in the building by June 28th when preseason starts. Leicester is dragging their feet, City seems to be doing the same on Jesus… the fear of seeing our cash go somewhere else might see more people pick up the phone, because there’s not a huge amount of cash going around this summer.

The Lisandro Martinez story is trying to find the next level now and United has entered the picture. Again, in moments like these, you have to ask where the story is coming from. It reads like it’s mostly a Dutch rumour right now and that could mean Ajax is a little pissed at the low fee and now they want to invite bigger clubs into the mixer. It could also be that United have a terrible mix of players in their squad and Ten Haag is a big fan of a very good player.

This is why Arsenal need to move in the shadows when they can, we’re not the biggest pig at the feeding trough, so we have to wait our turn for players.

The one thing you can be confident of is that Mikel Arteta is a very good salesman. He’ll have an extremely structured plan of how he wants the player to operate, he’ll probably have some sort of presentation ready for the agent, and he is selling a vision of competing for the league next season. United has the finances to deliver something big far quicker, they have more money than us, but really… would you trust that club with your career? It’s ruined so many names.

For me, the Arsenal brief is still very clear:

  • Left-back
  • Centre midfielder
  • Striker
  • Wide player

If we land those four players, plus the already done upgrades to our back-up keeper, and centre back… we’re cooking next season.

People keep pointing to midfield being an issue, but as it stands, I think Sambi, Xhaka, Partey, Elneny, and Tielemans gives us more than enough depth. It’s clear that there’s a new role for Odegaard coming at some point as well. I am actually very excited about Lokonga, fans wrote him off so quickly, but that kid has Vincent Kompany rummaging around in his phone book trying to contact Pep and Arteta because he loves the player so much. He has pedigree, he’s barely 22 years old, and I think he will step up when he’s given more minutes in the same way Eddie did.

There’s a video doing the rounds of Brazil expert Tim Vickery saying that Gabriel Jesus has been in an identity crisis for four years, basically, since he went to a World Cup as a striker and didn’t score any goals. I’m not too worried about this, the angle of the content was basically, ‘Arsenal should check they know what they are buying’, and I think it’s pretty clear that no club in the world is better positioned to know about Jesus than Arsenal.

This stats card kind of Men In Black’d my memory of slagging off small strikers.

When starting, he has 76 goal contributions in 99 games.

That is top tier.

We’re not trying to win the league next season, we’re trying to make top 4, those sort of numbers in our forward line are literally going to be the 10 points we need on their own.

Do I still believe in tall boys? I do. Arsenal might need to adjust that when we move to the next level, but right now, we just need more goals from the person paid to score them. I think Eddie and Jesus give far more end product than the old boys Lacazette and Auba.

Finally, before I go, I just want to leave the below graphic in place. I had some friends that said hiring a PHD level statistics person to go through Arsenal’s fixtures was a mad move. They said you can’t influence fixtures. They told me to get back in my box. One even said you can’t call out a 3% chance roll of the dice.

Well, I present the below with no comment other than: ‘I am 100% responsible for the good fixture list we have’ and you know what, you’re all going to have to eat the W with me.

Tastes good right?

But remember who put that tasty W on the table.

I did it for the community and the most beautiful thing about that tweet thread I posted had over 180,000 engagements and it was mostly carried around the world by… Spurs fans.

What is that?

You want to contribute to our Patreon because of the good work I did with the stats PHD person?

Why thank you. Below is the link to our exclusive work AND we’ve put out a transfer window special podcast. It was the most-watched show we’ve had live, which was pretty cool.

Just be warned, I’m calling in Ws on that show, so brace for impact.

Become a Patron!

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trap

😒

benkind

Am i wining the tr4phy

trap

fu

benkind

HAhah

trap

cck

WengerEagle

”Tom if league and CL is not on the agenda then what are we doing? Why did we move to Emirate? What then is our ambitions. This season would it be too much to ask to win the Europa, 1 of League cup/FA Cup and finish 4th?”

Benkind asking all of the right questions today.

NJ Gooner

Uefa league

Mr Serge

We from last post I get you on the Milan thing

Tom

Wait, what?
Tottenham have the most difficult start schedule wise?
Did I read that right?

What the hell kind if excuse are we gonna use now that the luckiest team in football is no longer on the table?

TR7

“league and CL is not on the agenda then what are we doing? Why did we move to Emirate? What then is our ambitions. This season would it be too much to ask to win the Europa, 1 of League cup/FA Cup and finish 4th?”” While I definitely agree that Arteta must finish top 4 season ( In fact we should have got top 4 last season) it is true that unless we have a spending cap across the board one can’t expect Arsenal to win the league irrespective of who our manager is. A level playing field is prerequisite… Read more »

Bob N16

T**t**h*m Tom at it again!

NJ Gooner

Why Raphinha now?

Because, as Pedro would himself argue, we are trying to build a competitive squad of 16-17 players for the next 4-5 seasons. Not just a competitive team. Sometimes great things come along in life at the wrong time. Overlooking them normally leads to retrospective regret.

This looks like that kind of gift. We certainly do have more pressing concerns, like a CF or a utility LB. But that shouldn’t deter our interest.

That said, like Pedro, I (sadly) think the story is just clickbait.

Ishola70

“That said, like Pedro, I (sadly) think the story is just clickbait.”

lol that’s right.

Both of your doubts are legit.

TR7

Pedro

Liverpool success an aberration and probably a rare event unlikely to be replicated anytime soon.

Nigel Tufnel

That goal contributions stat from starts is very impressive. Let’s wrap him up because he also plays fast interchange, pressing Pepteta ball and doesn’t have to play straight down the middle.

I’ve been saying for weeks. Forget about Raphina. We are not going to pay circa 50 mil for a Saka backup. Those are fanciful rumours. People putting him on their wishlist are silly, especially after Vieira.

Emiratesstroller

Pedro I agree with your analysis. Arsenal’s priorities should be CF CMF LB W The Centre Forward option should be Jesus. Whilst he is not a prolific goalscorer I think that his experience at Man City and the EPL makes sense and more realistic than many of the other so-called expensive options. Personally I don’t believe that Spurs is a realistic destination, because he would go there as an understudy for Kane. At Arsenal he would be Number 9 and first choice CF and playing alongside a growing number of Brazilian and Portuguese speakers. We have now got 7 Portuguese… Read more »

Tom

Pedro, does apologist have a different meaning in England than the rest of the world?

TR7

Rafinha needed because Saka looked knackered and leggy as the season progressed. Besides we are overly reliant on him. Rafinha needed to change things up and make us more dangerous.

Bob N16

I think the rumours about Raphina coming can’t be right. If we were to sign Jesus we would have Saka, Jesus and Viera who could play RW, and LW would be Martinelli or ESR. If Raphina started then we’ll have disappointed players. Competition is one thing but we’re in the EL not the CL! Despite Pedro’s relative confidence in CM, Partey appears injury prone, Xhaka is Xhaka, Elneny is Elneny and Lokonga would need to step up to reach a level that would justifying starting. If we sign Tielemans great but unless he’s partnered with Partey, I don’t see our… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Yes we have enough bodies at CM, unfortunately outside of Partey they’re all not good enough to start for us regularly.

Again, last season with Partey 2.5 points per game, without 0.8 points per game.

Pretty solid indicator of where our greatest need is. And it’s not at RW.

Tom

Liverpool for all their planning, discipline and back room expertise will revert to type the minute Klopp fucks off.
It’s a near certainty.

Zacharse

the man knows how to celebrate a win

Tom

Pedro, Tottenham Tom has a nice ring to it, I welcome you addressing me as such from now on.

andy1886

What I want to know is why Sp*rs haven’t taken a ten year vow of poverty following their new stadium build. Yes they have CL football but so did we, yes there’s more money in the game now but equally their stadium cost twice as much, PLUS they have the Covid impact that we never had. Something doesn’t add up.

Bertie Mee

To buy Raphinha, Tielemans, Martinez and Jesus we would need a high-profile , large sale . The finance is not there for this sort of expenditure especially with Edu arranging the outgoings

Nigel Tufnel

To yesterday’s debate about Bissouma. Ishola posted this: ” this puts to bed old fashioned talk surely….Funnily enough Csemiro as a youth was very handy as an attacking midfielder”. That illustrates my point. Every top team that plays with a traditional DM, makes sure that he has the skills to play anywhere in MF, which means they’re well rounded passers with vision, who play deeper. Not simply tacklers, or “walls” as ignorant fans describe them. Pierre comparing Rodri in Peps dominant team that approaches triple digit points… to Bissouma in Brighton/Spurs is laughable. To the Bissouma lovers, there’s a misconception… Read more »

andy1886

True enough Pedro but so did we (although we’ve settled it and Stan has financed another loan). But seriously they should be looking down the back of the sofa for pennies, not spending millions (and Kane and Son’s values are dropping all the time). Let’s hope it comes back to bite them in the arse when they fail to make top 4 this time (another fine reason to give the b*stards a good kicking if we ever needed one).

Ishola70

Bertie Mee

“To buy Raphinha, Tielemans, Martinez and Jesus we would need a high-profile , large sale . The finance is not there for this sort of expenditure”

Especially with the big spend last summer added in as well.

WengerEagle

Well Dariano was from memory the guy obsessed with Benteke.

Thierry Martinelli

We can’t pay 50m+ (Brazilian tax 😒) on Raphinha. I’m sure we can get an alternative. Maybe that Vieira kid is.
And we need to bump up the AVG age of this team to say 25 or 26 at most. We can’t keep using age as an excuse for our failures. Plus we need experienced NOW players in the mix.
And I’m with benKid ; we have to bag at least 1 trophy next season. The investment we’ve put in merits it

Ishola70

Nigel

The point is though whether Casemiro could play a bit as a youth his role now for many years has been purely as a DM and a destroyer. He is hardly noteworthy in comparison in an attacking sense on the ball.

Same with Fabinho.

He’s a destroyer for Liverpool. Any notions of him being an all round midfielder are very secondary to what he does best for Liverpool which is to disrupt the opposition. All off the ball.

Naija+soccer

Pedro A few years ago I met this girl and the moment I set my eyes on her, my body was on fire. My electrolytes and all the charges in my body were going bananas as though a switch had been flicked. Anyhoo, I got her number and invited her out for a movie. She obliged, and off to the movies we went. She had a good time, she was laughing hysterically and calling me all kinds of funny and cute. I really thought I had sealed the deal. I invited her back home with me and once again she… Read more »

WengerEagle

Youth football counts for little.

Bojan Krkic was the Lionel Messi of youth footballers, smashed every record known to man at La Masia. Went on to do little in his career.

MidwestGun

Pedro we haven’t signed Tielemans yet… don’t jinx it.. sheesh. My worry is Xhaka will cock block a move.. hopefully not. I’m holding you to your assertion that this week will be exciting.

Chilling down some sparkling alcohol.

Naija+soccer

If we have 55-60 million to spend on a winger like Raphina why don’t we go and buy a world class midfielder to secure the middle now and for the future.

Get a guy like Tchouameni in your midfield and you are set for 10 years. But no we can’t afford one Tchouameni but we can afford 4 inferior midfielders that will all cost 30-40 million each and will never be good enough for us.

WengerEagle

Lol Naija now that’s an anti-smoking lesson that people could get behind!

Chrispy

Arteta might be the ultimate salesman. If he can get Stan to part with £200m+, milking the superbowl high and hopefully the Stanley Cup too, then i’m all for it. Jesus, Martinez, Tielemans, Vieira and fuck it, Raphinha why not.
That would give us a massive shot at WINNING the EL AND top 3 whilst restoring balance to the universe with a St Totts day again.

Its not our money.

Tom

Naija
Tchouameni blew off Klopp personally for RM.
We simply aren’t in the same market.

Pierre

Pedro “Chance creation from the right doesn’t need £60m right now.” I would happily see Saka move back to his original left side position. We miss the exquisite left footed john Robertson type crosses that he used to either cut back or play into the corridor of uncertainty. Saka has become a little predictable on the right ,so why not move him back to the left , a position he played all his life , and watch him drop his shoulder to gain half a yard and put the ball into areas that cause maximum danger. Maybe buying raphina means… Read more »

TR7

Pierre

Saka moving to left ends Martinelli’s career at Arsenal.

Br0wnie

I know this has been debated to a degree already but I can’t help but think we’ve messed up by committing to 5 years at $100k a week for Nketiah. He was clearly playing for a new contract at the end of the season and I’ll give him credit for taking his chance but 5 years for such a short run of games feels very optimistic. I hope it works out but 2 years would have been more realistic.

Pierre

TR7
If raphina comes where does that leave saka .

Wicked Willy

Naijja, thanks for sharing that story! I’ve had a few of those in my time… As for the need for a top RW (in addition to the other needs), I refer you to this excellent analysis: https://gunnerstown.com/arsenal/2022/06/19/arsenal-need-a-wing-man-part-2-the-a-list/ Or to put it another way, everyone is absolutely shitting the bed that we don’t have cover for Partey, without realising we are equally exposed with Saka. If Saka gets a long term injury without such cover, CL becomes a pipe dream. As for resource allocation, firstly, I don’t believe for a second we’ll be paying £60m for him if he comes. More… Read more »

Ishola70

It’s a huge decision isn’t it if Eddie N is seen as first team striker going into the coming season.

WengerEagle

Martinelli will be a ST, not a winger. His career is anything but over here and if we sell him we’re absolutely useless at identifying talent because he is a serious one.

Could see Klopp taking him to Anfield if we are not careful.

MidwestGun

I think if we get Jesus.. also not a done deal.. despite Peds acting like the transfer window is done.. making me nervous.. hahaha

Then Martinelli and Jesus will interchange at the number 9 position.. getting Marti valuable time and insight. and we could see Eddie at 9 and Jesus on a wing as well.. Hence, why I like Jesus. But again nothing is done. I hope all these rumors dont come back to bite us.

Until the dudes are posing on the .com. in the kit. We haven’t sealed the deal as Naija humurously pointed out.

andy1886

We were told last summer that signing Ben White wouldn’t be to the detriment of our search for a midfielder, didn’t work out that way though did it?

For me a striker and CM are top priority. If necessary Vieira or even Martinelli can play on the right (great goal from Martinelli from the RH side against Newcastle btw). Raphinha may prove to be a luxury signing that we can’t afford if we don’t address CM.

TR7

Pierre Saka still the first choice if Rafinha comes in. I see Rafinha as someone who can come in after an hour has passed and inject pace and directness in our attack. For me ideally Saka and Rafinha play at RW, ESR and Viera compete for CAM position, Martinelli and Eddie compete for a starting position on the left, Jesus starts most of the games as a centre forward and Ode drops deep in central midfield to replace Xhaka with Partey (if fit) or an out and out CDM his midfield partner. Eddie and Martinelli can obviously play as central… Read more »

Samesong

It’s a huge decision isn’t it if Eddie N is seen as first team striker going into the coming season.

Wouldnt it be Jesus?

Ishola70

TR7

“I see Rafinha as someone who can come in after an hour has passed and inject pace and directness in our attack.”

Very extravagant though isn’t for 60m for a player to be a possible impact player in the last quarter of the match.

Are you one of these that think Arsenal are flowing buckets of gold to spend? If so let’s hope you are correct and there is plenty of wonga available.

Naija+soccer

Tom

“Pedro, Tottenham Tom has a nice ring to it, I welcome you addressing me as such from now on”.

Hard to argue that you aren’t Tottenham affiliated with that statement. You wouldnt wanna be called Pedophile Miles bcuz it rhymes.

Ishola70

Samesong

“Wouldnt it be Jesus?”

Who knows. We only have links to Jesus so not seen as done by any means is it.

Mr Serge

Tom that statement proves you are a spurs fan imo

TR7

Ishola

We do need Rafinha though. Saka when not at his best can become very predictable as Pierre said. Rafinha can start PL games too when Saka needs a break and he definitely starts most of the cup games. So plenty of matches to play even for a second choice player.

Thierry Martinelli

We’re racking up the number of Portuguese speaking players in our team. That’s a good thing, right?

englandsbest

Raphinha? Smoke and mirrors from Edu to distract attention from the players Arteta REALLY wants? Gabriel J? Does he fit the bill? Not sure. My bet is still on an ace goal-scorer – which Gabriel is not. I’d much prefer Raheem.

MidwestGun

I don’t know Thierry Martinelli.. What’s the Portuguese word for winning. ? Need more of that. Anyhow, That was a bit over the top Tom… KInd of like Bamford Who claimed he was more of a ” student of the game.”.. and supported several teams. .. just Arsenal was his ” first favorite” in the PL of 3 others or something. Then proceeded to talk like OGS was a good manager. and Brenda’s LC was the shit. Just my opinion.. but i think you ride or die with the first and only choice you make at all costs and damn… Read more »

Dissenter

There’s a.good ole’ collective hard-on for Rafinha, same as the clamor for the likes of Yann M’Vila and Julian Draxler

We can get two players for the price that Leeds will want for Rafinha.
He’s no where good enough to blow up the priorities for the summer.

For the £50 million ++ that Leeds will want we can get Jeremy Doku from Rennes and Tiellesman from Leicester.

TR7

.@FabrizioRomano: “Arsenal had direct contact with Leeds for Raphinha – direct contact between the board of Arsenal & board of Leeds. They are negotiating, discussing, so Arsenal are working on Raphinha, with the intention to push & push in the coming days.”

Chris

I agree with the view that we should be looking to invest £60 million Raphina money in as bona fida midfield star as we can get. I don’t think the club will through as they have extended Elneny, at present have no plans seemingly to sell Xhaka, and we have Sambi also who has some potential. It would need to step it up from his showings last season. It relies on Partey staying fit which based on recent history is asking a lot. And central midfield, alongside a striker, is what we desperately need to address this summer. Perhaps we… Read more »

Positive pete

Maybe I’m missing something? Would Raphina not be the replacement for Pepe? Why Saka?

Emiratesstroller

andy 1886

For the record Spurs ground and infrastructure cost 3x Arsenal’s stadium and in contrast to
us they received some public money.

Arsenal’s stadium was entirely self funded. Hopefully the bulk of debt will be paid off in the
not to distant future.

WengerEagle

Just confusion PP as we are not City and surely cannot afford to spend £60m on a Pepe replacement unless Stan has struck Gold and found a few extra pennies down the side of the sofa.

Omozuafo Frank

The main issue here is that our transfers should be sorted out before the beginning of pre season.

Samuel

Hmmm seems to good to be true honestly.

TR7

I find our attack to be pedestrian. So Rafinha is not quite a luxury signing, he is needed in our attack.

Positive pete

Wenger Eagle,If the rumour is true & who knows?.Dropping £45/60;million on a Pepe replacement is either,you assume,a priority,seeing as Pepe is a bit of a waste or you think priority should be CM & Tielemans?Or as others have stated ,all a smokescreen for ANother surprise?My heads pickled🤔

WengerEagle

Vieira, Raphinha, Jesus, Martinez would be a near £200m spend.

Sounds like Romano is talking some shit about one or two of these targets. No way we sign them all.

Dissenter

The central midfield is much bigger priority than ££55 million for Rafinha

Jeremy Doku will cost half of what Leeds will want for Rafinha, leaving enough change to fix the middle.

Hopefully, these are just mid June transfer rumors

Mr Serge

Raphina can play both wings he would be a great Pepe replacement

Rich

If next season our forward options look like this? Tielemans, Odegaard, Vieira Saka, Raphinha Martinelli, Smith Rowe Jesus, Nketiah There’s really no excuses, we should be finishing 3rd as a “minimum”, and competing in the cups. We’d be favourites for the Europa, and not winning it would be a big disappointment We should fear nobody in the FA Cup or League Cup, and there’d be no reason to prioritise the League over the cups, or to fall short at the business end of the season. I doubt we’d win the PL next season, it’s too big of a jump, but… Read more »

Dissenter

Mr Serge
‘ Raphina can play both wings he would be a great Pepe replacement’

At what cost?
He’s not the only player that can play both wings
Unless we are spending £250 million this summer, why drop so much money on that position.

This has all the makings of another misallocation of priorities as the Ben White signing

We’ll spend everywhere but the Xhaka position.

TR7

“Vieira, Raphinha, Jesus, Martinez would be a near £200m spend.”

We sold Guendouzi and Mavro for £12M.

You would expect Leno and Pepe to be sold for a combined total of at least $35M. I can see us selling one of Holding and Saliba too. So all in all we can recoup at least £60M in sale.

WengerEagle

”You would expect Leno and Pepe to be sold for a combined total of at least $35M.”

35m what, Yen?

Dissenter

Naijagooner just made a very colorful point about Tielemans

Stop assuming we are signing him. We just bypassed an opportunity to sign him and went for Fabio Vierra instead.

For all intents and purposes, that may be the midfield signing of the summer already done

After we splurged on Ben White, everyone assumed that surely we were not going to leave the midfield untouched but alas another signing never happened

TR7

WE

You tell me how do we recoup anything less than £60M from selling the following players

Guen and Mavro have already fetched us £12M.

Now tell me your conservative number for Leno, Pepe and Holding/Saliba and let’s see whether we get to £60M or not.

Ishola70

Pepe is on too big a wage to be sold.

He’ll stick around or go on loan. He’s got two years left yet on his contract.

Dissenter

I can’t imagine any forward player we are interested in will consider Spurs ahead of us.

Spurs starting forward line is pretty much set in stone
Anyone going there is going to the bench, why switch to go to be a substitute player for a club that never wins anything.

Dissenter

Ishola
Pepe is going to leave outright
Arsenal have to reduce their losses this summer- two years left in his deal
Pepe has to leave to play football again

He’s going to take a haircut on his wages,

Ishola70

Dissenter

“He’s going to take a haircut on his wages,”

lol is he? This is where loans can come in.

Have you heard any links regarding Pepe being sold outright this summer? A club mentioned? No. Me neither.

WengerEagle

TR7

Pepe and Leno you’d be looking at £20m for the pair. I think people underestimate just how much we have tanked Pepe’s value. Who is going to even pay £20m for him? Name the club.

And woah, bit of a difference between selling Holiding or Saliba. The former is only going to get you £5-10m while Saliba would go for much more but do we really want to sell him? Would be a mistake given how good he looked for Marseille.

WengerEagle

Exactly Ishola.

Worse again, we’ll probably loan him out to a Ligue 1 or Serie A club for 2 seasons only for him to slip out the backdoor for nothing.

Some return on investment that!

Dissenter

Ishola
‘ Have you heard any links regarding Pepe being sold outright this summer? A club mentioned? No. Me neither’

99.9% of what we hear or read in the tabloids is crapola tbh
We won’t have any problems moving Pepe on for £15-£20 million. It will be a loss but better than doing the lazy loans we specialized in.

TR7

Leno still a very decent keeper. GK coaches of most clubs will recognise his ability. £10M a realistic number for Leno I have never rated Pepe myself but he is still an attacking player who can score goals even if his overall game is not up to the mark. In case we sell him we get £20M for him, players worse than him fetch more. I am not even counting the likes of AMN and Torrera here. Saliba could still be sold in my opinion and he will fetch good money. Holding too £10M or more, he is a solid… Read more »

WengerEagle

TR7

Leno is 30, on £100k a week and is in the last year of his contract.

What sensible club would pay us £10m for him?

TR7

For a GK, 30 is kind of a prime age.

Ishola70

Dissenter

“We won’t have any problems moving Pepe on for £15-£20 million”

His wages of over 100,000 a week can suggest there could be a little problem there.

But I hope you are right that we can move him on with ease this summer and with a fee paid for him.

You can be the first to let me know.

MidwestGun

To be honest.. people keep saying we are gonna sell this .. sell that.. for about 10 different players .. and I havent heard of anyone interested in any of our players.. that are surplus to requirements. A brief interest in Leno at a low price from Germany. Usually the articles I see are Clubs not interested at all in buying our players.. aka Torrierra and Bellerin. Only Guendouzi and Mavro and they had a clause.. built in. If we are gonna sell half a dozen players or more .. we need to get crackin. especially if we have to… Read more »

WengerEagle

TR7

We got £12m combined for two extremely promising young players in Guen and Mavro that will go on to be sold for 4-5 times what we sold them for combined.

Do you really see us recouping £10m for a Leno that has been sitting on the shelf for 1.5 years and is on £100k a week?

TR7

Fulham interested in Leno.

andy1886

Leno linked with Fulham for £8m (think that’s GBP not Euros). We’ll be lucky to see £10m for Torreira. If we get anything for Bellerin it’s probably going to be around £5m. AMN similar unless Forest are prepared to stump up a bit more. Mari say £3m. The think with Pepe is that we still owe the best part of £30m for him, so if we sell for half that we’re taking a £15m LOSS on the books which is how the money men view these things, not a gain of £15m to re-invest. Despite what’s been said earlier this… Read more »

Ishola70

Put yourself in Pepe’s boots. It has been said that he definitely wants out this summer. This doesn’t mean that is good news for Arsenal though. It can mean that Pepe demands a loan move as he is that desperate to go this summer and of course he keeps his nice wage as well intact with both parties the loaning club and Arsenal putting into that nice wage he is currently on at Arsenal. I bet you would love to start afresh somewhere with a loan and still get your big wage coming in at the same time rather than… Read more »

andy1886

*The thing (not think).

MidwestGun

Andy yep pretty much we arent making any money off transfers.. That’s why I dont think we are selling to buy only making room on the roster with sales really not so much generating a bankroll.

Wicked Willy

People seem to be discounting how low our wages are going to be in the next couple of seasons relative to income. By my calculations the first team squad wage bill will be in the £105-108m ballpark. I don’t know what our expected revenues are likely to be with Europa, but I’d imagine it leaves a lot of room to absorb a fair chunk of transfer fees. Between that and receipts from the 10 players we’re hoping to sell this summer, I think we’re ok. This is the model KSE have executed elsewhere. Phase 1 is clear out and get… Read more »

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