Arsenal fans are a seriously funny crowd. After a win it's we can beat anyone while after a loss the bottom fell out of the world. Look with all due respect you can just about assume that Real will dispatch us and quite comfortably at that. Even at full strength they would have been favourites but us with the gormless football and the thrown together forwards have zero chance.
Which is unfortunate cause I'd like to see us give a team like them a proper go. Maybe next season after Berta's had a look at this squad and who knows maybe Iraola pulling the strings.
You arguing for arguing sake. The reports are, Sociedad are resigned to losing him. So they might accept a higher fee without us activating the release clause. Lots of transfers have been done like that recently. Enzo Fernandez the biggest transfer done like that.
Get through the first game in one piece and it’s anyone’s guess what happens next. But I’d actually be more nervous if we win the first game. I could see us trying to just defend the second 90 from minute 1 and I don’t think that will work.
Nah, we have to win at home if we are to progress. We won't win at the bernabeu. The best we could hope for is a draw there.
And it is not like Madrid have been flawless all season. they have been dismantled by Barcelona a couple of times, Liverpool have beaten them.
Even AC milan, lille have beaten them too. We are underdogs but we have a chance. This isn't David and Goliath. We are a good team and we have a chance.
Andrea Berta has been tasked to close the deal of Martin Zubimendi which is yet to be finalised. Arsenal believe they have done all the groundwork to land the Sociedad midfielder.
Sources say his parent club “have lost all hope” of retaining him beyond the summer.
Yeah, if we're paying the release clause it won't be all that problematic. Maybe there's a chance we buy him for a slightly higher fee + some add-ons but paid in several installments instead of one lump sum to work around PSR if possible?
Either way, the issue is if we're Zubimendi's choice. Wanted by Pool, Barca, Bayern and prolly other clubs as well, he's a been a hot property for a few seasons now. Berta will have to keep convincing him. Having worked for Atleti and in Spain might be of help.
That's why I said if we're paying the release clause it won't be problematic lol.
"Ornstein reports that Arsenal might look to pay a bit more than the clause so they can stagger the payments to allow them to do other business this summer. Spanish release clauses have to be paid in one go, so activating the clause would mean paying almost £51m upfront.
McNicholas confirms that the Gunners may be prepared to pay slightly more if they can negotiate more favourable payment terms."
If you're an OTK with internal info that Sociedad won't listen to any offer at all, you should make a career out of it.
Was it you Dissenter that wrote clubs have to pay full amount €€€ up front when paying release clause in Spain? I don't know anything about it but if we outright buying Zubi this summer for £50/60 than that won't leave much to spend on anyone else.
In a fully healthy Arsenal team with Havertz, Saka and Jesus all available and having played for a couple of weeks at least to get some tempo back, I would fancy our chances more.
In the current state, it's a long shot but it is what it is.
The nearly impossible thing - win over Real, PSG and Barcelona/Bayern in a row. The chances of that happening must be below 5%. If Saka and Havertz were up and running, I would have boosted our chances to about 15%.
Yeah, 24 goals, 11 assists from Feb 2024 to Feb 2025 (when he was moved to CF).
In addition to putting effort as much as two players combined.
The Havertz that once injured, a 7 pts deficit and a real chance of fighting for the title with 14 rounds to go, turned into a 15 pts deficit and a catastrophe within 4 games without him.
Prat! Anyone who doesn't rate Havertz is a Spurs troll- what an imbecile. Anyone who watches our games can see he's not good enough. Who was it that wasted all those ridiculous chances that meant we went out of both domestic cups?
Okay so it’s gonna sound like revisionist history but can someone tell me we couldn’t have used Marco Asensio? He’s been an absolute revelation in just a short while at Villa.
I’m really hoping this DOF can straighten things out at the Emirates. What a rudderless and shocking summer and January window we had ..
Specifically for Rashford, Pedro deserves catching strays the least. He's pushed big time for Rashford to Arsenal at least 3 times in the past years. He has always seen a player in him and thought he'd be a great buy for us. Which was and still is a very unpopular opinion amongst the Arsenal fans. Pick your fights better.
I am just amazed by the level of pessimism within our fan base. When are we going to reach the top echelons of football with this mentality? We dont believe we can win the UCL. With this mentality we will spend the next 50 years without winning the champions league.
Hot take: should we play Zinny over Ode in the next couple of games? I mean that shot he converted today was 10x better than all of Ode's shooting this season.
Not sure how true that is. The best defense in Europe over the last 2 seasons had white at RB playing basically every game
Timber is very good but I do think the fans have overdone it a bit with the superlatives. He’s a quality player who can absolutely slot in at LB or RB beautifully but I don’t think he’s necessarily an upgrade on white at all
I am not saying White is bad. His strength just doesn't lie in one vs one defending. He is great aerially for a fullback, and he is great at managing space. And he takes care of the ball more.
Timber on the other hand is very good at one vs one defending. He is also better at dribbling. It is down to different expertise.
Styles makes fights. If we defended against a player that will roam around from the left, I would prefer white. Say a player like Grealish or Eze. Vini though stays wide and he is always looking for 1 v 1s. So it has to be timber because he can shut down those players.
Exactly my thoughts. Peter always gets the price wrong. Who's buying Martenelli for £40 million good ebening Emery maybe. Zinny isn't collecting 30 lol. Your probs is accurate and Taveres I swear is agreed £5mill
Arsenal fans are a seriously funny crowd. After a win it's we can beat anyone while after a loss the bottom fell out of the world. Look with all due respect you can just about assume that Real will dispatch us and quite comfortably at that. Even at full strength they would have been favourites but us with the gormless football and the thrown together forwards have zero chance.
Which is unfortunate cause I'd like to see us give a team like them a proper go. Maybe next season after Berta's had a look at this squad and who knows maybe Iraola pulling the strings.
Rap
Ornstein isn’t a la liga expert.
If you want to read more about the Zubi stuff, check up on Graham Hunter, Balagué and robably sochon
Graham Hunter has reported a lot about it.
You arguing for arguing sake. The reports are, Sociedad are resigned to losing him. So they might accept a higher fee without us activating the release clause. Lots of transfers have been done like that recently. Enzo Fernandez the biggest transfer done like that.
VS real the mission is pretty clear
Don’t lose the first game
See what happens in the second
Get through the first game in one piece and it’s anyone’s guess what happens next. But I’d actually be more nervous if we win the first game. I could see us trying to just defend the second 90 from minute 1 and I don’t think that will work.
Nah, we have to win at home if we are to progress. We won't win at the bernabeu. The best we could hope for is a draw there.
And it is not like Madrid have been flawless all season. they have been dismantled by Barcelona a couple of times, Liverpool have beaten them.
Even AC milan, lille have beaten them too. We are underdogs but we have a chance. This isn't David and Goliath. We are a good team and we have a chance.
I have high hopes Saka would already be back by April 8.
With Saka and Martinelli back, with Trossard and Nwaneri there, the options ahead of Arteta on who to play I'm sure would give him a real headache.
For the starting CF especially with Tross, and to a lower degree Martinelli, we could probably do a bit better than CM Merino has done so far.
HandofOzil
Andrea Berta has been tasked to close the deal of Martin Zubimendi which is yet to be finalised. Arsenal believe they have done all the groundwork to land the Sociedad midfielder.
Sources say his parent club “have lost all hope” of retaining him beyond the summer.
What deal is he closing?
Isn’t Ayto who’s worked on it, still on staff ?
Isn’t this a straightforward release clause; we simply pay the fee to the Spanish FA so Sociedad doesn’t have any say.
Yeah, if we're paying the release clause it won't be all that problematic. Maybe there's a chance we buy him for a slightly higher fee + some add-ons but paid in several installments instead of one lump sum to work around PSR if possible?
Either way, the issue is if we're Zubimendi's choice. Wanted by Pool, Barca, Bayern and prolly other clubs as well, he's a been a hot property for a few seasons now. Berta will have to keep convincing him. Having worked for Atleti and in Spain might be of help.
Release clauses are different in La Liga
You pay up fully and deal with the Spanish FA directly, or you eff off. It’s that simple.
They don’t do tire kicking there.
We tried that renegotiation shit with Espanyol for Joan Garcia, last summer and they told us to eff off; pay up or vamoose.
That's why I said if we're paying the release clause it won't be problematic lol.
"Ornstein reports that Arsenal might look to pay a bit more than the clause so they can stagger the payments to allow them to do other business this summer. Spanish release clauses have to be paid in one go, so activating the clause would mean paying almost £51m upfront.
McNicholas confirms that the Gunners may be prepared to pay slightly more if they can negotiate more favourable payment terms."
If you're an OTK with internal info that Sociedad won't listen to any offer at all, you should make a career out of it.
Imagine tire kicking with Sociedad, asking for ‘more favorable’ terms…meanwhile someone else lodges the €60 mil check at the Spanish FA directly.
What terms could be better for the club that you you’re forcing to sell, than getting a lump sum of €60 million?
€70 million in installments maybe?
Was it you Dissenter that wrote clubs have to pay full amount €€€ up front when paying release clause in Spain? I don't know anything about it but if we outright buying Zubi this summer for £50/60 than that won't leave much to spend on anyone else.
Yea, it was me.
That’s why we can’t do too many release clause deals in one window.
If we do Zubi, then we can’t do Niko Williams as a release clause.
Lets just try our fucking best. I think we can take them at home. If Saka is back, even better.
But Ode needs to fucking step up. RM are beatable. No question.
Not like they are smoking the La Liga right now. WE keep a clean sheet in the first leg, then its game on
Looked at the schedule and we have seven bloody games in April. Including two against Real Madrid.
Bloody Hell!
Still don’t understand why Mikel didn’t use this game to give our young forwards a game. Even a blind man can see that Merino isn’t a striker.
At least give Oyedeji a run out.
Smh
Oyedji is 22 and has hardly lit the world on fire in the reserves he is not good enough
So why is he on the bench in most matches? Meanwhile, that prat Sterling gets on in most. Doubtless, one half decent game in 7 months justifies that!
In a fully healthy Arsenal team with Havertz, Saka and Jesus all available and having played for a couple of weeks at least to get some tempo back, I would fancy our chances more.
In the current state, it's a long shot but it is what it is.
The nearly impossible thing - win over Real, PSG and Barcelona/Bayern in a row. The chances of that happening must be below 5%. If Saka and Havertz were up and running, I would have boosted our chances to about 15%.
Havertz???? Ha Ha Ha Havertz
Yeah, 24 goals, 11 assists from Feb 2024 to Feb 2025 (when he was moved to CF).
In addition to putting effort as much as two players combined.
The Havertz that once injured, a 7 pts deficit and a real chance of fighting for the title with 14 rounds to go, turned into a 15 pts deficit and a catastrophe within 4 games without him.
That Havertz.
Don't feed that spurs troll
Prat! Anyone who doesn't rate Havertz is a Spurs troll- what an imbecile. Anyone who watches our games can see he's not good enough. Who was it that wasted all those ridiculous chances that meant we went out of both domestic cups?
Jesus? 😂
A wild card that on his day can make a difference like he did last season against Bayern.
And then our great manager puts him in to start against Villa, the whole thing went tits up and we lost the title effectively.
He made the difference on our way out 😂
Okay so it’s gonna sound like revisionist history but can someone tell me we couldn’t have used Marco Asensio? He’s been an absolute revelation in just a short while at Villa.
I’m really hoping this DOF can straighten things out at the Emirates. What a rudderless and shocking summer and January window we had ..
Absolutely shocking
Don’t forget Rashford had a 4.6 rating today.
But Pedro telling us no one out there that could help us
We could not sign Rashford we already had two loans from the Premier league that's the max you can have do your homework
Specifically for Rashford, Pedro deserves catching strays the least. He's pushed big time for Rashford to Arsenal at least 3 times in the past years. He has always seen a player in him and thought he'd be a great buy for us. Which was and still is a very unpopular opinion amongst the Arsenal fans. Pick your fights better.
Didn’t push for him when we needed him most, this Jan. Said there was no one available to make us better.
Couldn’t get him anyways.
You’re allowed only two EPL loan signings in a season. We thought it best to get Neto and Sterling. Bloody Hell!
MidwestGun 6h
Not sure who can score today.. Rice or Zinchenko maybe? Here we go!
________________________________
We've got Nostradamus up in here. Woah, that's some fire prediction.
Watched our game late, and very surprised to see whom Arteta put out, Finally!
Rest our guys, and that means in EPL too, for AFC to have a chance against madrid.
vaR on penalty takes now, this is why I hate this Sh*Te, just adding more layers to the manure, the smell is horrible too.
Anyway, onwards and upwards in the CL and maintain top 4 in EPL, and I don't care if it is just top 4.
I am just amazed by the level of pessimism within our fan base. When are we going to reach the top echelons of football with this mentality? We dont believe we can win the UCL. With this mentality we will spend the next 50 years without winning the champions league.
Manager has bottled too many matches. It’s scarred everyone
Hot take: should we play Zinny over Ode in the next couple of games? I mean that shot he converted today was 10x better than all of Ode's shooting this season.
Emery making it to the 1/4 finals with Villa.
Interesting.
Add that to the job Nuno is doing at Forest.
Martinelli Saka Nwaneri
Ode
Rice
Partey
timber Gabriel Saliba white.
That’s enough to challenge Real.
Let’s see if the manager is up for it.
Nah, White against Vini is a massacre. It has to be Timber for his one on one prowess. MLS on the other side for me.
Not sure how true that is. The best defense in Europe over the last 2 seasons had white at RB playing basically every game
Timber is very good but I do think the fans have overdone it a bit with the superlatives. He’s a quality player who can absolutely slot in at LB or RB beautifully but I don’t think he’s necessarily an upgrade on white at all
I am not saying White is bad. His strength just doesn't lie in one vs one defending. He is great aerially for a fullback, and he is great at managing space. And he takes care of the ball more.
Timber on the other hand is very good at one vs one defending. He is also better at dribbling. It is down to different expertise.
Styles makes fights. If we defended against a player that will roam around from the left, I would prefer white. Say a player like Grealish or Eze. Vini though stays wide and he is always looking for 1 v 1s. So it has to be timber because he can shut down those players.
Thank you.
Ben White can’t smell the field, unless we are cooked
Bernabau bring it, obviously not favourites but its doable. Going to have to be near perfect, get thru that anything possible.
VAR is such a cruel bastard, be flaming if I was an Atletico man.
I think that you’re being a little over ambitious with your valuations Peter.
I’d guess Martinelli 40 Trossard 10/15 Zinchenko 10/15 Kiwior 10/15 Sambi 10 Reiss 10 Fabio 10/12
Hoping that yours are more accurate of course.
Exactly my thoughts. Peter always gets the price wrong. Who's buying Martenelli for £40 million good ebening Emery maybe. Zinny isn't collecting 30 lol. Your probs is accurate and Taveres I swear is agreed £5mill