Most likely!
We are not getting a CF this summer. We are very tight on the FFP budget, Riccardo Calafiori will most likely land at Emirates and we are so poor in selling.
Both Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga had the official exit from the club. Tavares joined Lazio on a loan with an obligation to buy for £4.3m. Lokonga joined Sevilla, again on loan, with an option to buy for £10m. None of that money is coming in this window!
And we have already exercised David Raya’s permanent move and we would have paid the pending £27m to Wolves. We did receive 4m from Omari Hutchison sell on clause, and another 4m from Mika Biereth sell.
We are in a net loss this season and I don’t think we can make a lot of money.
There are a few candidates though. Aaron Ramsdale will most likely depart and would fetch us 30 odd millions. We have already got the third choice goalkeeper from Ajax, Tommy Setford under a million pounds and showing interest in Joan Garcia who would cost us something between 15-20 million. Doesn’t improve much, does it?
Tierney will leave, and we use that money to get Riccardo. Nelson as well.
Both Crystal Palace and Fulham have shown interest in Emile Smith Rowe and we have turned them down for now (if the rumours are to be believed). He is a #10, he should be sold for a hefty price but we all know Edu and Mikel. The problem we have is, the money he generates will be used to get a Bukayo’s competition. We still can’t have enough to get a CF unless Stan finds a way around the FFP and open their suitcase.
Frankly, we are short 1 person in defence (CB – Riccardo), midfield (assuming Partey leaves), a RB back up to Saka and a CF. Everything else can be fixed except CF this window.
Don’t keep your hopes high. CF don’t keep cheap and we don’t buy/sell well.
“Arteta has confessed that their approach this summer has been altered, partly by the Euros and the Copa America, but also by the concerns now surrounding PSR rules, which have been shown to have teeth”
Now some might be swayed by our little snake oil salesman pitch, as these are all potentially noteworthy roadblocks, especially in this particular window, but surely after all the chatter surrounding our supposed meticulous plans they simply must have taken these variables into account along the way, after all they weren’t sprung upon them at the last minute…it’s far more likely that the reasons we’ve struggled to make any hay this off-season is the fact that we’ve totally mismanaged our assets, thereby making it exceedingly more difficult to sell them on, and the fact that our first priority signings completely rejected MA’s advances
as to the latter point, it certainly wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that none of those afroementioned factors would have stood in our way if both Sesko and Zubimendi had shown the requisite interest…why they refused to join is anyone’s guess, but if I had to hazard a guess I would strongly suggest it has to do with MA’s lack of tactical nous, especially for Sesko, as he has never found a way to properly incorporate a more traditional Striker, and his chequebook managerial tendencies, which might deter a younger player from committing their respective future to our club…as such, it comes as no surprise that we’re hearing about so many outgoing loan deals and bargain basement options in recent weeks
Cheers Ambarish
None of this makes any sense.
We’ll get penny’s for Tierney and why are we buying Calafiori unless a CB is leaving? If a CB is leaving we should be getting top dollar for them, if Calafiori is being bought for LB where does that leave Timber?
The other option is a change of formation to wing backs but that throws out our midfielders and forward players out of balance.
The likely hood of one or more of Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool, Newcastle or the Spud’s not improving on last season is remote and we’re looking at a makeshift team with lousy forward options.
On the bright side Arteta might manage to hang himself with his own arrogance this time.
Marc
I think we need one CB, we were just lucky last season that both Gabriel and Saliba were available throughout.
Don’t ask me why White or Tomiyasu (both primarily played as CBs) can’t cover. If they are not going to, we certainly need one. Now if we are going to bring Riccardo for LB, it’s a stupid move. We have Zinchenko, Timber, Kiwior and even Tomiyasu for that spot. Tierney as well. Unless we do a mass sell off, there is no point.
Vieira
We are really poor in selling. So poor that, we are going to sell a player in ESR who was starting games for us 2 years back, is an academy product, an English homegrown quota qualifier who comes with an premium in market, for about 25 million at best.
We would have paid 60 for him.
Ambarish
You don’t spend €30 million on a back up CB when you have Kiwior, Tomi, White and Timber who can all play there when you don’t have the money to buy the striker we desperately need.
I do think we’ll see Zinchenko leave though although we won’t get much of a fee.
Ambarish—–it’s easy to get results when there’s no fiscal accountability, but it’s a different proposition altogether to construct an elite level side capable of winning domestically and abroad…in MA’s particular case, luck has played a decided role…not everyone will be gifted a couple or 3 seminal players, in key positions, and/or be afforded the luxury of managing at a time when some previously dominant sides have experienced a bit of a down period…so when you add the fact that he was given an unprecedented amount of financial backing, achieving a couple 2nd place finishes should have been minimum requirements and not excessively lauded
let’s face it, with all the monies spent, MA has only acquired 2 players of note, Rice and Ode, and the former wants to be given carte blanche to pursue his own nonsensical offensive dreams even though we paid a King’s ransom for a world-class DM…everyone else, even White, have been half-measure options or shoehorned coin tossers…by this juncture, considering the level of investment, we should have a world-class Striker, a world-class partner in the middle for Ode and enough versatile depth that we should be much more tactically diverse…instead we’ve ghosted talented prospects in favour of short-sighted/unproven/ill-suited options and spent far too much time and resources on a few positions, like Keepers and backers, yet they still seem to be relatively unsettled
if MA gets his way, we will start the season with a slightly above average Keeper, after 5 attempts to replace by far the best option, a CB on both edges, should Calfiori come onboard, even though his best position is in the middle, a whole host of sideway passing midfielders, if Merino is signed, minus Ode, none of whom are naturally scorers, Tross playing ahead of Marts, simply to compensate for our Striker deficiencies, and Havertz up top, even though he’s weak as fuck in front of goal and even less effective in the midfield, which seems almost unfathomable considering his fees and wages…now does this sound like a multi-tiered definitive plan for success to you?
keeping in mind, I’ll gladly change my tune if we found a way to get this window right…to do so we would need to acquire a readymade world-class Striker (Osimhen or Watkins), a starter-quality piece out wide, with pace and goals in their boots (Nico or Kvaratskhelia), and a bona fide 8, who can unlock defences and finish from distance (Simons or Eze)…of course, this would require us to sell ESR, Ramsdale, Partey, Nelson, Eddie and/or Jesus, both to raise funds and thin our bloated roster…tough ask from an incoming and outgoing perspective, especially with our sloth-like transactional history…that said, this would be a true statement of intent
Hey guys some very valid points and good piece Ambarish.
I’ve been banging the poor business wise of our club for at least 10 years now.
First very strongly in LG.
Wenger was the same low self esteemed manager who needed to pay to keep his little starlets, who in turn looked up to papa Asne arsehole. Those who stood up to him ended up the French version of El B’s non-negotiable rule breaker, which included asking simple and intelligent questions, such as will I play this season? Or making a comment that they Chavs wanted it more than us after coming off injured and then sitting on the bench for his sacrilege and Wenger heresy.
Wenger could only muster FA cups because 4th was a trophy. It was his keeping in the job model until the wheels fell off.
Now, we have a clueless pair who clearly failed their GCEs particularly maths or have forgot what they learnt. If either of them have studied any form of economics, such as in a MBA, they would have not been so derelict of financial prudence for the last 5 years of transfer windows.
As TRVL, Marc and Ambarish have eluded to, we have more than overpaid for garbage. Case in point is Havertz whose fee and price is holding us back from buying what we really need: a 20+ PL goals a season striker both aerially a beast and quick two footed on the ground.
Havertz is neither and what I’d term as a ‘luxury player’ City would have as a back up. Probably how El B saw it not realising fiscal accountability affected The Arsenal as well.Too conditioned by his time at City?
Na just no financial planning or understanding of the market I’d term it as or simply put: “out of their depth!”
We buy expensive and pay unrealistic wages that prevent sales. Exactly what Wenger did. TRVL is right only Ode and Rice buys are worthy of their price and deal. However, if Rice had put a transfer request in, we’d have paid at least £20m less.
If that is not bad enough, our El B continues to tank players’ values by mistreatment or sell cheap because he needs the naughty outspoken player out in case his sensible thinking taints the squad as Auba and the new incredible hulk Ozil did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFi8W1KtQBQ
Didn’t he always need crucial matches off with a bad back? Must have a good Dr.
This process has continued unchallenged by Tim Lewes and the board for 5 years?
So, where does the real blame lie?
I’d say the board for sanctioning the purchases of and loss of player values and the need to pay to get rid of players, such as Ozil, Auba and probably others we don’t know about.
Now, we need to move on Zinchenko, Jesus, Havertz, ESR and a few others, but we want £25m+ for ESR who played 2 starts last season? That and a few last 10 minutes. We’ve lost future stars for peanuts.
ESR by virtue of Saka’s worth should be similar or a growth of at least £50m by my humble opinion. Wherever he goes he will show what we are missing. El B will be worthy of yet another seal.
Did we really need Raya?
5 years on and we still need an 8 CAM. Let that sink in…………
“Arsenal have decided they’re not going to sell Vieira, and now, the reporter says that he’s actually a big part of Mikel Arteta’s plans heading into next season”
come on now, do you really expect us to believe this to be true…likely more to do with Vieira’s current putrid MV and the fact that MA can’t have another failure on the books, were he to sell him for a fraction of his original fees
by the sounds of things, MA wanted to use Kiwior as a makeweight in the Calafiori deal, but the player has no interest in going to Bologna
Away kit is stunning…….. ly fucking awful.
I think I’m suffering from deep trauma. I simply cannot get over how nasty that kit is. Black red and green with white bits around the armpits. One of the worst since… Well, last season’s luminous monstrosity.
If you begin to add up the fees paid for players under Arteta to fulfil positions that then still need filling it’s fucking mental that anyone can expect the Kroenke’s to give him another penny.
Just off the top of my head as a couple of examples –
Striker – Jesus and Havertz combined fee’s £95 odd million.
Left Back – inherited Tierney who cost £20 million plus, Zinchenko £35 million, Timber £40 million but he’s a RB and now talk of the Italian guy.
GK – sold Martinez for circa £15 million, bought Ramsdale for £25 odd million dropped after 2 seasons for Raya who cost £30 million but no mention of the loan fee (no fucking way Brentford let us have him for a season for nothing) and he’ll be replaced in 2 summers. So after at least £55 million we still don’t have a keeper for the long term.
That’s a quarter of a billion quid for 3 positions where we still need a fix.
Tony—-totally agree with you regarding the whole Havertz “luxury” purchase , which wouldn’t have been the case if we got him on the cheap, as then he could have been utilized as a depth piece or occasional starter…likewise in full agreement with your “out of their depth” commentary, as we’re clearly a relegation level club when it comes to our transfer and asset management practices
Marc—exactly what I was speaking about, albeit my version might have been a bit wordy for some…it’s one thing to screw up once, learn your lesson, then get it right the second time around, but we’ve seen an almost ludicrous amount of turnover in several positions since MA’s managerial appointment…if it weren’t for the players he inherited, he would have been fired long ago, as they enabled him to sell the whole youth initiative narrative to ownership…furthermore, if it weren’t for the fact that several “big” clubs have massively underperformed, thereby opening the 2nd place door for us, his piss-poor hiring practices would have been considered a sackable offence…as the old saying goes, winning has a way of curing, or at least covering up, one’s ails
Marc—-btw we paid 75M for Havertz and 52.2M for Jesus = 127.2M
of course, this doesn’t include their ridiculous wages!!!
the two highest paid players on our team and neither can score a legit goal
Morning guys, looks like we are up shit’s creek without a paddle.
El B wants Williams and Merino as a reactive choices, not a proactive oner, such as signing them before the Euros. Wouldn’t that have been a novel idea?
Barca want both and they are Spanish, I wonder why El B thinks he has even a modicum of a chance of signing either, but only to lament as Wenger did and does with his I almost signed………. cue list starting with Ronaldo.
The question rallying around my brain is why El B thinks both players want to play for Him? None of his other quality choices want anything to do with El B’s losing ways. Agents will just use El B and our club as a pitch to get better deals elsewhere.
Less than 4 weeks where the biggest player noise we’ve heard is we bought Raya – Ramsdale was fine for me and where I see Raya as a 2nd keeper anyway.
So, we have a 2nd back up keeper for our top slot and guaranteed starter. Well he is Spanish!
The Manual like midget will get found out this season; he’s not that good with his feet and has the best CB pairing in the PL in front of him. I see him under much more pressure this coming season. Can Willie and big Gabs stay fit all season again? All we can do is hope against hope.
As Marc & TRVL have started, he’ll be gone in under 2 seasons, but hopefully, El B is going to have his last season with us this season.
Win the PL or fcuk offie my mantra.
Wake up Josh & daddy and realise quality players don’t want to play for your manager. 88522 is not a winning manager. It’s a class A bottler who has capitulated the last 5 seasons because of repeated errors every season.
Wake up and smell the coffee Senior Kroenkes or look like the dumbest owners in then PL. The nearly, but not quite Kroenkes when it come to The Arsenal.
By not seeing what we all see, Josh & Stan are being made to look like rookie owners still. They had the chance to get Pep & Klopp and decided on a rookie who is still a rookie who can’t buy a decent player for love or money.
Now the Italian kid is having 2nd thoughts or similar; the deal is stuck, which is funny, as you guys said we don’t need the LB.
On August 17 we kick off a new season, and we have no new players we need for preseason, how so El B like.
My view for this coming season is Manure are going to be finally making a statement. If the statement is not big enough early in the season, then expect TH’s head to roll. United mean business this season under Ratcliffe. Previously the Glazier enclave saw Manure as a cash cow; it didn’t matter about results, so much and why we love the Glaziers so much. They are the most seal worthy of all owners.
TRVL’s man Arne Slott is making moves with Pool where it seems like a happy ship, so expect Liverpool to be there or there abouts.
Spuds will fire and stutter and splutter but will be fighting for a Euro place.
I see Villa also pushing for a 4th spot.
Then, there is the Chavs and Bar codes and of course Pep’s last season with City.
The middle league teams will be taking scalps especially ours because they can out think El B.
So, all in all, I see our competitors getting stronger off season for various reasons.
Question is what is El B going to do to make us stronger, and how does he and Edu bring quality players to our club when they don’t want to play for El B?
Quite the conundrum isn’t it? Anyone with thoughts to add?
Tony—–just to be clear, I’m in a more positive headspace when it comes to Nico, whereas I do agree with you regarding Merino being a “reactive” choice…it didn’t even require any effort or ingenuity, they simply got spurned by their first choice, Zubimendi, then immediately fell head over heels for his midfielding partner…I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thirsty recruitment maneuver, at least not at this level…this is like some petty grade school playground shit
I think I’m starting to better comprehend why the Calafiori deal hasn’t materialized…we’ve clearly been up to our old nickel and dime/ makeweight tricks again, which rarely works under the best of circumstances, let alone when things are exceedingly more complicated (i.e. the whole Basel 50/50 sell-on clause and the fact that Kiwior wanted AC not Bologna)…this sort of amateur hour haggling usually leads to one of three possibilities, (1) we pay above the number and waste valuable acclimation time with no tangible benefit, (2) we’ve shown other interested teams exactly what they need to do to get a deal done and they gazump us, or (3) nothing ultimately happens or even worse we get some 11th hour half-assed replacement, which further complicates matters down the road once again…as such, I can only hope we’re actively engaged with other potential readymade recruits and not conducting business in a piecemeal fashion, not including our seemingly ridiculous pursuit of every two-bit Keeper known to man…it’s a bit disconcerting as I just don’t see MA as a walk and chew gum at the same time type of guy
Agreed TRVL I like Nico Williams I saw a little of him last season and loved his movement and thought no ceiling for that kid wanting him for us.
I can’t see him choosing El B who’s youth policy is not endearing going on the past 5 years optics. We can pay more than Barca but Barca is the short cut to RM. With us Nico has the pace and brutality of the PL and wonder if he could take weekly “Saka” treatment. Does Nico have the right temperament for the PL would be my immediate question.
He’s go a what? £50M buyout clause at athletic? I see Barca having a far better talent pool to offer in exchange and some cash.
What do we have? Jesus and Zinny and 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps?
Hardly Barca-esque sounding, is it?
Thanks for the Califiori latest thinking.
We can only hope, but I’m not holding my breath for any significant incomings especially when you say Vieira is going to be spun as the new signing now he has experience of sitting on the bench and on the treatment table last season.
Playing time last season?
This from Just Arsenal
“Fabio Vieira’s season at Arsenal began promisingly, with the Portuguese midfielder delivering several impressive performances off the bench. His early form suggested he was on the verge of breaking into Mikel Arteta’s starting XI. However, an injury sidelined Vieira for several months, and during his absence, Arsenal continued to perform well, focusing on other players.
As the season progressed, fans grew concerned about Vieira’s limited appearances, and he ultimately finished the campaign without making a significant impact. Despite his early promise, Vieira struggled to regain his place in the team upon his return from injury.
According to a report from The Athletic, the primary reason for Vieira’s limited minutes was his underperformance in training. The coaches felt he did not provide enough evidence during training sessions to warrant his inclusion in matchday squads. This lack of impact in training meant Vieira became one of the many incoming players who have struggled to thrive under Mikel Arteta’s management.
Vieira’s situation highlights the challenges players can face when returning from injury and the importance of consistently proving their worth to secure a spot in the team.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Vieira has been a poor signing so far because he has not broken into our starting XI. In some games, he has come on to show that he has the capacity to thrive at a top club like Arsenal.”
However, at other times, he has simply been poor, and it will be interesting to see if he leaves this summer or gets another season to prove his worth.”
Now he’s deemed ready for this coming season?
Oh, ok, then.
Tony—-Just Arsenal is an Arteta arselicking echo chamber that, like LG, has a long history of excommunicating those who don’t tow the party line…a few years back I was “cleansed” from that site, even though I was a poster and contributor for nearly a decade…I used to post anti-Wenger articles and took a lot of heat until it became all the rage…my issues with the blunt instrument, who ran that site, ultimately led to my arrival on the LG scene, little did I know I would face a very similar fate in a mere fraction of the time…that’s why I was so elated when Killroy suggested this site as a potential landing spot
toe the party line
I’ve got a slightly different view of the Calafiori thing. Why the fuck do we (or any other non-Italian clubs) do business with these twats? Can anyone name a single straightforward deal where we’ve come out of a deal with an Italian club smiling. The Vlahovic saga comes immediately to mind. We’re probably hard-balling a little but this kid has looked good playing for Bologna, hardly fucking Juve, let alone Real Madrid. They need to shit or get off the pot.
Anyone else still having horrors about that kit?
Tony and Vieira
Good thought provoking views lads.
TRVL
Pedro binned me one day after I made a comment about selling players in a COVID / post COVID world being difficult because all clubs had suffered a huge drop off in revenue and money was in short supply.
I’d gone at him on other stuff really aggressively this was mild by my standards – the simple fact is he’d ceased running an Arsenal blog and switched to running an Arteta blog and pointing out life wasn’t going to be all plain sailing (which had nothing to do with Arteta) didn’t fit his narrative.
We’re all better off away from Le Grove – it’d become too toxic with arguments between real actual fans, complete dickheads (how many were Pedro’s alter ego’s I don’t know) and Arteta sycophants.
LIR allows passionate views and arguments without the agenda driven bullshit – obviously Kroenke’s rabid socialism seems to slip through but he’s worried about Labour tanking the economy again so we need to make allowances!
“Anyone else still having horrors about that kit?”
What the fuck happened to the yellow away kit?
Everyone liked the yellow way kit mixing it up is one thing but for fucks sake.
Marc—-I’m positive I’ve mentioned it before, but my ass got tossed in the wake of me carving Nigel another new asshole…I simply suggested that he loved himself so much that he probably jerked off to a picture of himself…little Pedro, aka Positive Pete, then went on an inane tangent about how my comment was homophobic and that he wouldn’t tolerate any such behaviour…it was such a ridiculous reach that it became abundantly clear, at least to anyone outside his circle of pigeons, that he was looking for any excuse to send me packing…I reached out to him privately but he doubled-down then went into full-ghost mode…what a twisted cnut
KP—-in most circumstances I would agree with your Serie A transfer sentiments, but we did get Tomi from them and Kiwior from Spezia with very little effort required…now neither of them are Italian, which might be what you’re specifically speaking to, but don’t forget that Calafiori, unlike most every other Italian player, actually expressed his desire to play in the PL
Hi Marc
I’m not sure you fully captured Kroenke’s left wing extremism there! And don’t get me started on the pro-Russian and therefore communist cunt with little orange hands and a sticky jam rag on his right ear. That’s what you get (ie Kompromat) for spending time in Moscow Hotels being pissed on by prostitutes – no wonder his skin and hair have turned tangerine. 🟠🟠🟠
How you coping under the same crippling capitalist paradigm being put to us by Gooner Starmer and Rachel Mogodon Reeves? Not sure quite where you are in SE Ingerland, but do you no longer have a Tory MP? I assume you’re now obliged to kiss the ring of a – yuck – Liberal Democrat. The politics are almost making me yearn for footy to return… Almost!
Any truth to the rumour that we’re in for a US International who might be looking for pastures new?Getting on a bit but a very effective dribbler. Wenger said he could’ve signed him back in the 1960s…Joe Slackjaw Biden. Another dangerous Maoist.
A sublime metaphor for our times.
Trump is (apparently) shot by one of his own fanboys…who fucking misses!
Morning all
Below is a headline from DM sport.
“Manchester United ‘want to sign 16-year-old Chido Obi-Martin’ – the teenager prodigy who fired TEN past Liverpool’s youth team last year and has declined a new Arsenal deal”
My question here is simple: why are good players going to Ten Hag at Manure with their history since old red nose left? It’s been appalling and a managerial merry-go-round with constant dressing room and player issues.
Answering my own question I’d say it is Ratcliffe’s influence. Revamping their own training ground to state of today’s art.
Perhaps a more pertinent question aimed at Tim Lewes and Josh/Stan is: why are we losing our best youth potential to rival PL clubs?
Does El B have more power than Wenger now and why we are bereft of any business sense?
Because for sure this lot seem to have lost their grasp on football economics and that players are a club’s core source of income by protecting and increasing their values.
TRVL
I only used that post as a reference because he highlighted Vieira being a poor purchase. Never seen the site before, just came up in a random search.
LIR is my only blog I post on or read where I’ve love to be more positive. I feel like a broken record sometimes, but with headlines like the above, clickbait or not, I’ll go with no smoke without fire here.
Marc
I remember your Pedro jousts they were legendary. He had no answer to you so like with the rest of us you we’re removed and early casualty of what I thought was Pedro’s recreational life. He seem so full on after Arteta came along.
Karma is a leveler in all cultures.
Ah well, back to hope it is for this TW.
KP
I asked myself how he missed? Is there more to it?
Tony—the mere mention of that site simply set me off, but it wasn’t directed towards you in any way, shape or form…just wanted to clarify before crashing…Cheers
“Because for sure this lot seem to have lost their grasp on football economics and that players are a club’s core source of income by protecting and increasing their values.”
Assuming they ever had a grasp. Arteta’s management training happened at City where money meant nothing – we’ve still got the outcome of the judgement later on the year on the 115 charges.
Its no surprise he doesn’t value money because he’s operated in a world where he didn’t have to. I still to this day believe Wenger’s downfall was a combination of age (you lose the willingness to fight battles so don’t buy spikey characters) but the financial pressure of the stadium move at precisely the time Abramovich appeared made the original plan void and went against his ingrained belief on decency and fair play meaning that he became obsessed with doing it without spending money even when it became available.
TRVL
I guessed the name was a trigger. All good my friend.
Do you think Ten Hag will get De Ligt?
Manure are bringing in some potential game changers who seem happy to play for Ten Hag patchy managerial form. Maybe Ratcliffe has let the agents know he’s on top of things and Ten Hag is not going to stand in Manure’s way.
Señor Emery is doing good business also, so expect a CL birth push this season at least. Has bought Onana and Felix who flopped at the Chavs. Junior likes Felix so maybe Emery will get a tune out of twinkle toes Felix. He should be PL ready now.
The Mirror says:
” One of the Premier League’s busiest clubs when it comes to transfers, Villa have already spent nearly £100million this window. Eight new signings will grace Villa Park next season, with the headliner being left-back Ian Maatsen – Other signings include Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea from Juventus, Ross Barkley from Luton, young Everton forward Lewis Dobbin, and Jaden Philogene and Cameron Archer, both of whom return to the club”.
Meanwhile the ESR you-could’t-make-it-up-if-you-tried El B saga, now has El B saying he wants to keep ESR. ESL is probably why players don’t want to play form El B.
That and Vieira is like a new signing only will be exactly the same as before; a lightweight almost but not quite player.
Hardly Manure or Villa TW levels are we?
Oh the irony.
“Arsenal ‘agree deal worth £33m plus £4m in add-ons with Bologna for Riccardo Calafiori’ as Mikel Arteta looks to add to his defensive options by signing Italy star
Arsenal are close to agreeing a deal with Bologna for Riccardo Calafiori
The Italy international is capable of playing at centre-back or left-back”
What do we do to combat Emery & Ten Hag?
We buy another defender who could take a a season to get up to speed, especially with no pre season, when we needed Eze for our 8 slot.
Eze I think has a release clause of £56M?
Surely that means Zinny is going.
Brentford are reported to be cutting Ivan Toney’s price by more than £30m. Why not put a £20m cheeky bid + Jesus as a make weight?
Assuming Jesus wants to be a starter at Brentford?
Tony—-Calafiori appears to be a done deal, as you’ve suggested, but it has the feels of another Havertz reach, even though I like this player significantly more than our German Giraffe, so long as he’s deployed in his best position…unfortunately pundits are already comparing him to Zinchenko and Kiwior, which means he’s clearly coming to be played out wide…so once again MA’s shoehorning predilictions are on full display…like Havertz, there’s no way Calafiori was on our original wishlist and yet we’ve spent far too much time on something that wasn’t a pressing need…I feel for Timber, as who knows where the fuck he’ll play or if he will play at all, which is too bad as he looks to be the kind of inside/outside cutting wide side backer we’ve been looking for all along…maybe there’s a glimmer of hope that we will deploy a back 3 and have Calafiori and Timber taking up more advanced spaces…my only concerns with that course of action, considering MA’s tactical leanings, are that we probably wouldn’t get a real Striker in and Marts would undoubtedly get benched, as a more tucked inside Tross option would make more “sense” with Bambi skating up top…I would suspect there will be more misplaced managerial mimicry in the offing…this time MA will steal directly from Nagelsmann, even though they crashed out before the finals and Havertz failed to score from open play
So our main (I’m not going to include Tierney or Zinchenko etc) defensive options are going to be Gabs, Saliba, White, Timber, new guy, Tomi and Kiwior – 7 players with a combined cost of circa £190 million and 3 of them are going to be on the bench and in at least 1 case hardly kicked a ball all season.
Our striking options are Jesus (a perma crock), Nketiah (never going to score loads of goals) and Havertz.
If things continue along this general line we’ll be fighting for 5th at best.
TRVL
We paid £40 million for Timber – unless the injury has basically finished him no way we can write him off.
I do wonder if Arteta will look to go with 3 CB’s and have White copy Pep’s thing of stepping into CM.
If not why is he buying players we don’t need when we have seriously pressing issues.
If yes – is he capable of an original idea or thought?
Marc—I think we’re going “big”, in size not intent, as we could have Havertz, Merino, Rice and a couple former CBs turned backers bombing, on occasion, into advanced spaces…sound familiar?…problem with that, we can’t always be the poor man’s version…instead of Holland we have Havertz, instead of Rodri, we have Merino (so Rice can push forward) and instead of Pep, we have the 8-Track equivalent…now if we didn’t have to rely on Kai for goals and got our shit together up top, I would be less perturbed by our prospects…all that said, I get the thought-process, especially from a manager who loves him some negative football when the going gets tough
another rather frustrating day on the transfer front, minus talk about Calafiori pending transfer inching ever closer to the finish line…this just might be the most drawn-out negotiations ever involving a defender with no other competing formal bids…besides that, most of the chatter is focused on outgoings rather than incomings, as rumours linking Eddie to Marseille and ESR to Palace appear to be legit
unfortunately our recruitment strategy, beyond Calafiori, has a sloppy seconds sort of feel about it, as most fall under the category of “if we can’t get our preferred options, here’s who we might go for”…this list includes the likes of a “free” Rabiot, Sane, Kimmich, among others…only Sane makes some sense, as he’s a logical cover piece for Saka, especially if we’re looking for a like-for-like and not something a little tactically different…Rabiot is another Havertz-like luxury buy tweener, who provides very little in the final third, and Kimmich is no longer the kind of peak level performer he once was a year or two ago…not to mention, he would undoubtedly require starting 11 assurances that could come back to haunt us again
finally, I’ve heard more than enough about finding economical solutions, as that ship has fucking sailed, at least in the main, now is the time for bold, all-in moves that speak directly to our supposed top of the charts intentions…Cheers
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13654865/Italy-star-Riccardo-Calafiori-new-Paolo-Maldini-boost-Mikel-Arteta-title-bid-joins-Arsenal-Bologna.html
That’s some claim that we have the new Maldini; a great player from my younger days when Italy had the tightest and best dark arts defenses from the 80s+.
Their time wasting antics were legendary with many worthy Oscar dying swan’s awards from the merest of contact in every game.
TRVL/Marc
The question I keep coming back to re Maldini junior is why? The back 3 makes the most sense as a defense but it’s what happens in front of the back 3 that worries me.
White playing the Pep “Stones stepping up” is not natural for White to do. Same his overlaps with Saka. He’s ungainly and not suited to tippi tappi Barca triangles of old. He looks what he is: a very mobile CB/RB.
White is not a 6 imho. Could Maldini junior be?
I’m with you guys it’s all heading towards galaxy brain thinking with Edu infected as well or just not fit for TW purpose?
Said from day one that Eze as 8 ACM is the missing piece to get us a title and I stand by those words. We are doing nothing to make our 8 productive if we only have Rice stepping up there. As we saw with England Rice was not a star performer – particularly in the final.
I hope that doesn’t rub off on his coming season with us. However, it looks like Partey is with us for another season to play a handful of games meaning Rice will be expected to be our action man again.
None of it is looking good other than we have a quality defense and right side.
After that, it all starts to let the title challenge look weak and pie in the sky.
I concur with you, Marc. we could be chasing 5th.
Thinking about El B’s about turn thinking on ESR with Fulham about to offer £30M he’s just using gamesmanship of wanting-to-keep him leverage. I think ESR would do well at Fulham who will play to ESR’s strengths a concept lost on El B.
Marco Silva will get the best from ESR.