The only positions in our starting eleven this season which have yet to be confirmed are our LB and LMF positions. It is anticipated that both Calafiori and Merino will secure those positions once they have settled into the club.
Our preferred bench if everyone is match fit will include Timber, Tomiyasu and Zinchenko in defence. Jorginho, Partey if he stays and Vieira in midfield and Jesus and Trossard in attack.
So there is technically only the goalkeeper position to fill if Ramsdale leaves. The strong rumour
is that Garcia from Espanyol is his likely replacement if he does not stay.
Hein,Nketiah and Kiwior may also leave the club before window closes, but are unlikely to be replaced with external recruitment.
I have not included Nelson or Tierney in my preferred bench options and currently there is no
suggestion that they will leave before transfer window closes. Tierney is unwanted by Arteta, but
is currently injured. So I don't expect him to leave before January.
Nelson could be replaced by Nwaneri if he leaves as right wing understudy. In any event he should
be added to first team squad both for first team training and in event we need additional players
to cover for injuries.
The third string goalkeeper replacement is likely to be Setford who is currently a member of our
U21 squad.
I expect Arsenal to operate with a reduced squad this season ie a maximum of 20 outfield players
A general observation which the Gallagher deal has really shone a light on:
The idea that FFP rules encourage you to prioritize selling players who come through your academy is really really bad
Teams should be encouraged to retain their own youth players, not encouraged to sell them because of accounting loopholes
This needs to be closed ASAP. The whole way this accounting is being done to falsify FFP needs fixing immediately. You can sign a 100m player on a 10 year contract and the FFP accounting is amortized over ten years and the sale of a 50m academy player in the same window can basically cover you that same year because it’s ’pure profit’ even if that will be paid in installments.
Extreme example but the principle is simple. Whoever has designed these intentionally over-complicated rules has done a rubbish job. They need throwing in the bin and starting again
The amortisation has beeen reduced Tina 5 year cap for PSR.
I don’t see how you can rewrite the rules in depreciation and amortisation which have broadly served businesses for hundreds of years.
One point to note is that it only really matters if a club is buying as selling a player within a short period of time. He will then be likely to have quite a bit on unamortised cost to write off and hence a lower profit on sale. A longer term player is likely to have the same profit whether bought or from the Academy because most of his cost has already been amortised
What realities? If we are using a losses cap then losses have to be determined using conventional accounting otherwise we are using a cash basis and that probably wouldn’t suit anyone.
I think Chelsea sold a player who had value and was dispensible just as we have sold about 4 HG players over the years who who held value and were dispensible. Still looking to sell Eddie too.
This is not my point. I’m not against selling academy players who are not worth keeping. My point is a club can see it as explicitly better to sell homegrown players vs equivalent players who are not because of the concept of ‘pure profit’. This directly contradicts the policies of trying to promote home grown players and is outright against the spirit of promoting clubs to develop their own academy and promote players to the starting 11
Chelsea are struggling badly in a conference qualifier. Mudryk in particular looks absolutely gash 😂😂😂. Chelsea are a graveyard for talent but he looks like a player who is just from an academy making his debut. Avoid at all costs with some fans thinking we can fix him.
Patino with 4,123 minutes before his 21st birthday.
Vieira 4,759 minutes at 24, 37 months older than Patino.
Patino just needs to go and play, Partey played 2,973 minutes in the Spanish 2nd tier between the ages of 21-22.
I don’t mind Vieira, decent end product, but if his game time doesn’t significantly increase this season, he’ll need to leave before his career risks slipping him by.
We signed Declan Rice at 24 with 24,000 + minutes for club + country.
Havertz at 24 with 23,000 + minutes.
That’s the age Vieira is at now, with 20% of the minutes that Havertz had when we signed him last summer.
Saliba came back to Arsenal at 21 with 9,500 minutes.
Vieira is talented, but young players need to prioritise playing time, likely should have stayed at Porto another season, looking like he took a big move 12-24 months too early.
If he stays, he needs to be earning at least 2,000 + minutes this season.
All the stories talk about 2 other big clubs Merino turned down because of Arteta. Rice was the same turning down Man Cheaty trophies and Bayern. Havertz could've gone to a giant club, but Arteta convinced him.
A few months with Ødegaard had him pushing for Arsenal.
Arteta haters were hoping the lies about Saliba hating him were true... but no again..
Jeez man! This must be exhausting sometimes I hope. How do you turn the club making a big signing into a who said what and who hates who type commentary
Luxury position is having one of the best squads in the world. 4 or 5 players in PFA team of the year, not even including Saka!
Years ago we would have been so proud to have 1 or 2 players on that list.
Did you know bookies have Arsenal as 3rd favourite to win the champions league.. oddsmakers are the best judges of quality, no emotions or favouritism.
but still, bedwetters cry and moan about our situation.
I don’t buyin to this chat of us at Arsenal being in a luxury position.
Our last two league finishes mean, the squad is now expected to compete on three fronts: 1) win the league, 2) reach CL semis, 3) anyone of the FA or the Carabaro Cup. Okay so let’s now look at the squad which is expected to achieve that.
Our staring 11:
Martinelli, Kai, Saka
Ode, new guy, Rice
Cala, Gabi, Saliba, White
Raya
A beautiful, strong and settled playing 11
Dependable backups in terms of quality and availability: Trossard, Kiwor
Perma crocks: Tierney, Tomi, Partey
Big question marks on availability: Jesus, Timber, Zinchenko (Chenko even when fit you don’t want to play against top teams)
Old guy / lack of athleticism: Jorginho
Error prone / out of favor: Ramsdale
So we have a total of 13 dependable players, whom we could trust playing any game and any opposition. That is not enough to compete on 3 fronts. That will not be enough this season.
We were all hoping to sell Rambo and replace with a cheaper (net positive money exchange).
I'm starting to wonder if maybe the clubs plan is to not save money, but build a perfect keeping situation for the coming years.
If the Spanish keeper has agreed to terms with us, he must know he's going to be behind Raya for a good while.
I have always been against the complainers who moaned about Raya+Ramsdale 's cost.
I don't think a net spend of 60m on a great goalkeeping situation is bad at all. Every big club we compete with has spent more on their keepers squad. Most of them have spent MUCH more.
We have to stop thinking like Arsene or Tottenham, always searching for the cheapest deal. Bargain hunting.
60m to have an excellent keeping situation is a snip.
Raya is a top keeper underrated by gooners, and to have a good second choice, who isn't unhappy in the role, but can take over in the future, is a great plan.
The Merino deal was always going to happen regardless. We had an agreement with the player and we were always going to pay up. The fee is close to what City paid for Kovacic last year. So I am calm with it. The time it took was really poor for us. We could have had a player ready to go before the next International break. Now we have to ease him in with away games to Villa and Brighton at home.
Now we need a forward. There is a lot of talk about Sterling. If we don't find the right player, I wouldn't be too unhappy with Raheem being a backup to Saka on loan. Chavs will be desperate to offload him with him preferring to stay in London. Ornstein has also said he wants to move permanently and not on loan. But I can't see Spurs, Westham, Palace or Bournemouth making permanent moves for him. He is dynamic, knows Arteta and he is a far better option than Nelson. Use Chav's desperation to get them to pay half his wages with us paying a loan fee and he wouldn't be the worst option. Saying that though, we can't sign him on any permanent deal. Loan or move for other loans we can try like Koman.
We would have liked to spend lower for Merino but of course we had to swallow our pride and pay up. He's the player we wanted, Sociedad knew it and they held us ransom.
Hopefully this gives us time to go and get that winger.
His age doesn't matter if he's going to fix our left side and get us over the line
It's a position that requires lots of tactical maturity and reading of the game. That's why Xhaka did very well two seasons ago in the same role.
Add to that he loves the physicality of the game and has played for the orcs in the premier league before.
The only positions in our starting eleven this season which have yet to be confirmed are our LB and LMF positions. It is anticipated that both Calafiori and Merino will secure those positions once they have settled into the club.
Our preferred bench if everyone is match fit will include Timber, Tomiyasu and Zinchenko in defence. Jorginho, Partey if he stays and Vieira in midfield and Jesus and Trossard in attack.
So there is technically only the goalkeeper position to fill if Ramsdale leaves. The strong rumour
is that Garcia from Espanyol is his likely replacement if he does not stay.
Hein,Nketiah and Kiwior may also leave the club before window closes, but are unlikely to be replaced with external recruitment.
I have not included Nelson or Tierney in my preferred bench options and currently there is no
suggestion that they will leave before transfer window closes. Tierney is unwanted by Arteta, but
is currently injured. So I don't expect him to leave before January.
Nelson could be replaced by Nwaneri if he leaves as right wing understudy. In any event he should
be added to first team squad both for first team training and in event we need additional players
to cover for injuries.
The third string goalkeeper replacement is likely to be Setford who is currently a member of our
U21 squad.
I expect Arsenal to operate with a reduced squad this season ie a maximum of 20 outfield players
plus 3 goalkeepers.
With merino now all but official, I think I think we can move calmly into the business end of the window
If good deals (in or out) work for us, great. If nothing else happens, I’m ok with that
A general observation which the Gallagher deal has really shone a light on:
The idea that FFP rules encourage you to prioritize selling players who come through your academy is really really bad
Teams should be encouraged to retain their own youth players, not encouraged to sell them because of accounting loopholes
This needs to be closed ASAP. The whole way this accounting is being done to falsify FFP needs fixing immediately. You can sign a 100m player on a 10 year contract and the FFP accounting is amortized over ten years and the sale of a 50m academy player in the same window can basically cover you that same year because it’s ’pure profit’ even if that will be paid in installments.
Extreme example but the principle is simple. Whoever has designed these intentionally over-complicated rules has done a rubbish job. They need throwing in the bin and starting again
The amortisation has beeen reduced Tina 5 year cap for PSR.
I don’t see how you can rewrite the rules in depreciation and amortisation which have broadly served businesses for hundreds of years.
One point to note is that it only really matters if a club is buying as selling a player within a short period of time. He will then be likely to have quite a bit on unamortised cost to write off and hence a lower profit on sale. A longer term player is likely to have the same profit whether bought or from the Academy because most of his cost has already been amortised
The rules should be based on the realities of football.
What realities? If we are using a losses cap then losses have to be determined using conventional accounting otherwise we are using a cash basis and that probably wouldn’t suit anyone.
* to a
I think Chelsea sold a player who had value and was dispensible just as we have sold about 4 HG players over the years who who held value and were dispensible. Still looking to sell Eddie too.
This is not my point. I’m not against selling academy players who are not worth keeping. My point is a club can see it as explicitly better to sell homegrown players vs equivalent players who are not because of the concept of ‘pure profit’. This directly contradicts the policies of trying to promote home grown players and is outright against the spirit of promoting clubs to develop their own academy and promote players to the starting 11
Chelsea are struggling badly in a conference qualifier. Mudryk in particular looks absolutely gash 😂😂😂. Chelsea are a graveyard for talent but he looks like a player who is just from an academy making his debut. Avoid at all costs with some fans thinking we can fix him.
Mudryk is at his level. Crackpot FC.
Was Batistupid anti Arteta? Probably won't admit it now lol.
Romano: significant sell on clause for Patino and Arsenal "will also keep potential future control on the player".
Maybe means buyback or right of first refusal?
Sounds a smart deal for a player whose last 2 loans weren't great, and had no chance of graduating into our squad, even on the edges.
This is how good businesses are run. It's not about the headline numbers.
Patino with 4,123 minutes before his 21st birthday.
Vieira 4,759 minutes at 24, 37 months older than Patino.
Patino just needs to go and play, Partey played 2,973 minutes in the Spanish 2nd tier between the ages of 21-22.
I don’t mind Vieira, decent end product, but if his game time doesn’t significantly increase this season, he’ll need to leave before his career risks slipping him by.
We signed Declan Rice at 24 with 24,000 + minutes for club + country.
Havertz at 24 with 23,000 + minutes.
That’s the age Vieira is at now, with 20% of the minutes that Havertz had when we signed him last summer.
Saliba came back to Arsenal at 21 with 9,500 minutes.
Vieira is talented, but young players need to prioritise playing time, likely should have stayed at Porto another season, looking like he took a big move 12-24 months too early.
If he stays, he needs to be earning at least 2,000 + minutes this season.
I loved what I saw of Patino. Now he will be playing, and we haven't thrown him away if he really comes good.
can be sure that eddie will be sold now
All the stories talk about 2 other big clubs Merino turned down because of Arteta. Rice was the same turning down Man Cheaty trophies and Bayern. Havertz could've gone to a giant club, but Arteta convinced him.
A few months with Ødegaard had him pushing for Arsenal.
Arteta haters were hoping the lies about Saliba hating him were true... but no again..
Not a good era to be an Arteta hater, is it?
Jeez man! This must be exhausting sometimes I hope. How do you turn the club making a big signing into a who said what and who hates who type commentary
Luxury position is having one of the best squads in the world. 4 or 5 players in PFA team of the year, not even including Saka!
Years ago we would have been so proud to have 1 or 2 players on that list.
Did you know bookies have Arsenal as 3rd favourite to win the champions league.. oddsmakers are the best judges of quality, no emotions or favouritism.
but still, bedwetters cry and moan about our situation.
Ok Edu, one more please!
I don’t buyin to this chat of us at Arsenal being in a luxury position.
Our last two league finishes mean, the squad is now expected to compete on three fronts: 1) win the league, 2) reach CL semis, 3) anyone of the FA or the Carabaro Cup. Okay so let’s now look at the squad which is expected to achieve that.
Our staring 11:
Martinelli, Kai, Saka
Ode, new guy, Rice
Cala, Gabi, Saliba, White
Raya
A beautiful, strong and settled playing 11
Dependable backups in terms of quality and availability: Trossard, Kiwor
Perma crocks: Tierney, Tomi, Partey
Big question marks on availability: Jesus, Timber, Zinchenko (Chenko even when fit you don’t want to play against top teams)
Old guy / lack of athleticism: Jorginho
Error prone / out of favor: Ramsdale
So we have a total of 13 dependable players, whom we could trust playing any game and any opposition. That is not enough to compete on 3 fronts. That will not be enough this season.
I forgot Fabio in the above list but can be added to lack of ability and availability list ….
We were all hoping to sell Rambo and replace with a cheaper (net positive money exchange).
I'm starting to wonder if maybe the clubs plan is to not save money, but build a perfect keeping situation for the coming years.
If the Spanish keeper has agreed to terms with us, he must know he's going to be behind Raya for a good while.
I have always been against the complainers who moaned about Raya+Ramsdale 's cost.
I don't think a net spend of 60m on a great goalkeeping situation is bad at all. Every big club we compete with has spent more on their keepers squad. Most of them have spent MUCH more.
We have to stop thinking like Arsene or Tottenham, always searching for the cheapest deal. Bargain hunting.
60m to have an excellent keeping situation is a snip.
Raya is a top keeper underrated by gooners, and to have a good second choice, who isn't unhappy in the role, but can take over in the future, is a great plan.
Chavs spent over £70 m on just Kepa.
Chavs is not a big club.
We should have as many players per position as Chelsea. For now we have more leftbacks, next is goalkeepers.
Are you smoking some of that Boehly shit?
The Merino deal was always going to happen regardless. We had an agreement with the player and we were always going to pay up. The fee is close to what City paid for Kovacic last year. So I am calm with it. The time it took was really poor for us. We could have had a player ready to go before the next International break. Now we have to ease him in with away games to Villa and Brighton at home.
Now we need a forward. There is a lot of talk about Sterling. If we don't find the right player, I wouldn't be too unhappy with Raheem being a backup to Saka on loan. Chavs will be desperate to offload him with him preferring to stay in London. Ornstein has also said he wants to move permanently and not on loan. But I can't see Spurs, Westham, Palace or Bournemouth making permanent moves for him. He is dynamic, knows Arteta and he is a far better option than Nelson. Use Chav's desperation to get them to pay half his wages with us paying a loan fee and he wouldn't be the worst option. Saying that though, we can't sign him on any permanent deal. Loan or move for other loans we can try like Koman.
A big fat No to Sterling. His mentality is crap and he misses so many sitters. I rate him below Gabriel Jesus and I want us to offload Jesus.
Sterling cannot even fulfill the role of a squad player at Arsenal right now. He is not at the level.
We have Nwaneri.
I agree dis he strengthens our midfield.
Hopefully we get a new winger as well like you say.
We would have liked to spend lower for Merino but of course we had to swallow our pride and pay up. He's the player we wanted, Sociedad knew it and they held us ransom.
Hopefully this gives us time to go and get that winger.
His age doesn't matter if he's going to fix our left side and get us over the line
It's a position that requires lots of tactical maturity and reading of the game. That's why Xhaka did very well two seasons ago in the same role.
Add to that he loves the physicality of the game and has played for the orcs in the premier league before.