I echo putting out the welcoming mat for Kai and Declan and even more so that Mikel has got his men where any excuses for next season issues won’t be accepted in this quarter.
I agree Timber shores up our RB/RCB with White nicely. White tends to run out of gas after 60 minutes at RB, so I can see some rotation for RB but only when Saliba needs a rest to play CB.
It’s not the numbers so much but the lack of negotiating nous that played into Sullivan and Brady’s hands as the controlled the leverage and we have Declan to blame for that. He could have stepped in earlier to seal the deal, but his loyalty was to West Ham: I hope the lad shows us the same courtesy when and if he moves on. I believe he will.
Can Declan become Mr. Arsenal? If the price is anything to go by, then yes he will, as our most expensive player. I also don’t think the pressure of his price will bother him; how Arteta tries to use him might, though. Junior and I watched him quite a bit last season and he can pivot into 8/10 when he makes his runs from our half, but he’s ungainly in his stride and not fleet of foot, as one needs to be in that position – more Xhaka like than say ESR or Trossard who both defend well when needed.
We no longer need Holding with Rice also being a CB. It’s easier to see how Rice is going to be employed at 6 but how does Kai fit into Mikel’s intricate jigsaw puzzle of plays?
I don’t see KH as an 8, but a 10 back up, yes. False 9 and 9 yes he can play, and he has enough pace to go wide left when interchanging with our attack. Kai has the requisite technical skills to be successful in the opposition’s final third, but expect Pepe’s levels of defending, as Kai doesn’t like the physicality of defending and another Ozil like cupcake.
Mikel said he has five roles for Kai, so he’s going to be busy and probably confused. Kai also needs to toughen up and add a bit of bulk to his overall muscular frame although he looks like an ectomorph to me, so very difficult for him to add muscle. Mikel loves to play his shiny new toys, so I would hate Kai to be in front of ESR, and I hope Emile has a great pre-season. ESR is better than Havertz just younger and needs regular minutes to shine.
If we get Timber then we need to address the LB cover for KT and buy Lavia as MF back up or buy similar. Vieira needs to go out on a PL/Championship loan and be judged on that next summer. All in all the window is being kind to us and CL football is a magnet to quality footballers. Will we be stronger at the end of the window? That depends on the outgoings and who else after Timber A&E bring in.
I hope lessons were learnt by Mr. Lewis/Edu and Mr. Garlick. Never negotiate without leverage and a sound strategy, and next season is already looking like it’s shaping up for Mikel & Edu.
I’d say this coming season is all or nothing for Edu & Mikel – sink or swim?
See Marco Van Baston being one of football’s Goats as a striker, but only ever managed in Holland, is trying to advise Timber to stay one more year at Ajax, such is the ex Ajax’s manager’s agenda.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-player-rape-bail-30383963
Just wondering?
Tony
Pretty sure there’s nothing to wonder about and why we’re looking at 2 CM’s this summer.
Marc
That was my take, too. What has Arteta got against Caicedo? So what if the kid is ambitious, he’d give us a few seasons, and if he wanted RM after, then we got what we needed from him and him us: win, win. plus we make profit.
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if slime ball SMS Sullivan now wants a % for any sell on, then he’s taking the piss. I could never see Rice being sold for the huge overpay we’ve just agreed for him. It’s 5 foot nothing Sullivan’s last chance to make a big sale in his lifetime, so he’s milking it.
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It’s our fault for leaving holes by our negotiators for Sullivan to keep wanting more. I’d tell the little cnut to fcuk off on August 31st at 23:59 and see how he likes it. In the meantime go buy Caicedo and buy Onana as our 6.
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Rice aint that good compared to his price. It’s not rocket science, is it? We just make it to be that way.
Tony,
Whilst Arsenal fans will be pissed off if the purchase fall through West Ham will be stuffed. Their Captain whose contract is now running down will be fuming he wasn’t allowed to go and could easily look to wind his contract down. They would also have taken the heat out of trying to push his price up. Any club coming in now will say Arsenal are out of the equation so less competition for his signature.
No way it’s falling through, both sides want it done. This is just about the final haggle where thankfully there is no third party chasing the player too.
‘What has Arteta got against Caceido?’. That he prefers what Rice will be able to bring to the table. We clearly wanted him but sometimes it’s about timing. Not sure when Havertz was a plan but with Timber looking likely that’s £200m. Much as I’d love to see Tchouamani, I think that’s just part of the final negotiation with Sullivan.
Sounds like the timetable for payments has been agreed. Rice on the .com menu this week.
Just venting a bit, Bob.
Today’s first round of discussions looks like interest is strong for us, but timeline around December and a derisory offer to start proceedings. This is going to be a marathon and complicated.
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Not unexpected, but that is the way with corporate negotiations and different agendas from both sides.
Tony-I’ve always been a big fan of Krav Maga as it combines a variety of different techniques (judo, karate, wrestling, boxing etc…), but it’s real-world applicability has always worried me if placed in the wrong hands, so to speak…is Junior planning on finding employment which would require him to engage in hand-to-hand combat on a fairly regular basis?…with his height I would maybe suggest Muay Thai and/or kickboxing, for flexibility and core strength purposes, with a little BJJ on the side…the latter of which will provide him with some very useful defensive techniques when on his back, which is absolutely crucial whenever one uses their feet as a primary attacking weapon…I’m sure you and he know all of this anyways…Cheers
‘Derisory offer’ I suppose = opening position. Hope they’re not tyre kickers! Sounds promising….
Russo in the dotcom. I’m enjoying the culture of making winning moves.
We’ll have three of the England posters girls with next season and have a proper bash at the title
Not sure of the exact details, except those provided by numerous journos supposedly in the know, but it looks as if we went full amateur hour in our dealings with the Hammers…at first it appeared as if we wanted to spread out our payments to the maximum allowable period, 5 years, which certainly wasn’t surprising, whereas the Hammers were looking to have everything done and dusted within an 18 month timeframe…if the present rumours are to be believed, the “compromise” has us conceding 3 years and them a whole fucking 6 months…maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that we just had our already shrivelled balls handed to us once again…the sad part is, above and beyond the obvious, all our false bravado and empty posturing has prolonged this process for such a lengthy period that it’s opened the door to further criticsm directed towards the club, for how it conducts business, and the incoming player, thus tainting his pending introduction…of course, time will generally heal those wounds, but why the fuck would you want that to be the circumstances surrounding such an unprecedented signing
TRVL
David Dein had to go but we’ve never been the same club since he left.
Man knew how to close a deal, get us a good price and not piss off the selling club at the same time.
Full amateur hour on display in our dealings with WH. The scary part is that this will set a precedent for all other deals with EPL clubs. Why would Bloom be any different in his dealings with us if we are interested in BHA players. We have the three stooges do the bidding and in the end, either we over pay and will become like United, or we go for the cheap plan B like Wenger did. Since it is not my money I couldn’t give a rat’s ass of how they spend it. On the positive side if it goes south plenty to bitch about.
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What a bunch of fucking clowns the P.R.A.T.S. are. Thanks Almunia for that very appropriate acronym.
Marc-for me personally, which isn’t meant as a slag towards Wenger, losing Dein was far more detrimental to the club post-move…if we had kept the man behind the man, he would have undoubtedly found another way for us to achieve great heights and we could have kept Wenger’s legacy intact…there’s no doubt that managers and players alike would have still seen this program, with a new stadium to boot, as one of the most desirable landing spots in the footballing world…of course, I’m not trying to gloss over Dein’s obvious misdeed, albeit he tried desperately to remedy the situation, but once Wenger was left to his own devices the bar was considerably lowered
if we do end up getting Timber over the line, I will be fucking irate if our next purchase is another defender, especially if no one but maybe Holding is outgoing…I guess some will stretch the normal bounds of common sense and include Havertz as an addition to the midfield, but for all intent and purposes he’s a forward who may or may not have some box-to-box capabilities…even if he replaces Xhaka, the more positionally advanced version, he’s not the kind of player you would want to be deployed in deeper spaces against the likes of City or another CL-level squad with a stacked midfield…as such, we need to either keep Partey, who should frankly excel with some load management in play, or get someone who could do a similar job and be deployed elsewhere with a high degree of success
Killroy-you’re so right, as we would be the perfect case study for an online series about what not to do when it comes to conducting business in a transfer window…obviously our ineptitude in this regards can be traced back to a time long before Arteta’s arrival on the scene, but that certainly doesn’t excuse our continued incompetence…in fact, you might think, if this was supposed to be a culture changing appointment, that you would make a concerted effort to avoid the habitually poor practices of the previous regimes like the fucking plague…instead many of our worst traits, post-move, have actually been embraced by our current manager, which is why I just can’t get over the proverbial hump with him…I guess the only silver lining of this equation is that I’ve always believed that world-class talent can, on occasion, produce the desired results in spite of a manager’s obvious shortcomings…of course the percentages of this happening are significantly lower than those of a great manager overachieving with a lesser squad, but nevertheless it’s a very real possibility
Looks like we’re getting some seriously good additions to our squad. If we can add an extra 6 back up, then we should be extremely confident that we’ll be competing on all fronts – what the fan base has been waiting for, for too many years. Great time to be an Arsenal supporter.
‘Further criticism of our club’ ‘amateur hour’ ‘fucking irate’ ‘in spite of a manager’s obvious shortcomings’ ‘fucking clowns’ ‘shrivelled balls handed to us’ ‘on the positive side, if it goes south plenty to bitch about’.
Not sure everybody agrees with me!
Bob
With every pound spent Arteta and his fan boys have an excuse taken off the table.
After spending £600 odd million he’s getting close to only having a few dozen left.
Bob-time for a little Jeopardy
Category: Arteta Apologists
clues: context and nuance
answer: what Bob N16’s responses are generally devoid of