Wenger's an idiot , Mustafi will probably sign for Chelsea if they are interested

Klaus wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

it's possible that wenger signs that bruno peres chap, and makes nacho the back-up cb

can't see him dropping more than 20-25m on a cb when he still believes in the kos, gabriel, mertesacker, chambers quartet. it effectively means the end for one of them

I was thinking the same thing earlier this summer. I think Per practically ended his own career last week when he tore a knee ligament at the age of 32 though. Wenger will never have a better excuse to sign a new starter without having to admit that the Gabriel gamble didn't work out.

possibly. the thought occured to me when those ricardo rodriguez rumours first popped up, and these bruno peres mutterings concern me now as well

Klaus wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

it's possible that wenger signs that bruno peres chap, and makes nacho the back-up cb

can't see him dropping more than 20-25m on a cb when he still believes in the kos, gabriel, mertesacker, chambers quartet. it effectively means the end for one of them

I was thinking the same thing earlier this summer. I think Per practically ended his own career last week when he tore a knee ligament at the age of 32 though. Wenger will never have a better excuse to sign a new starter without having to admit that the Gabriel gamble didn't work out.

Why are we linked to him? 

Good player, but I've never seen him play LB ever. 

I'm surprised Mustafi is only being quoted for 20-25m pounds when the likes of John Stones is 50m pounds. Valencia don't even have to sell him for that much when his release clause is much higher than that. 

Bryant wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I was thinking the same thing earlier this summer. I think Per practically ended his own career last week when he tore a knee ligament at the age of 32 though. Wenger will never have a better excuse to sign a new starter without having to admit that the Gabriel gamble didn't work out.

Why are we linked to him? 

Good player, but I've never seen him play LB ever. 

I'm surprised Mustafi is only being quoted for 20-25m pounds when the likes of John Stones is 50m pounds. Valencia don't even have to sell him for that much when his release clause is much higher than that. 

he's alleged to be comfortable playing rb or lb, but i'm basing that on a few italian twitter twats, so pinch of salt and all that. it also makes sense given debuchy is probably leaving as well

mustafi's not being quoted at that price, he'd probably be closer to 30-40m. i don't see us going that high for a cb. 20-25 is the max we'd spend imo

Bryant: I'm not sure. I haven't seen the rumours about Peres specifically. We were linked to Rodriguez heavily before the Euros though and it struck me as a credible rumour for the exact reason Gazza states. I think Monreal's legs are starting to go. He never had much pace to begin with but he really went quiet during the second half of last season. I don't think he has more than a season left in him as a leftback. Two tops. Wenger rates him as a central defender though, and so do I.

Isn't Peres a right back? He played most games as a rb or rw.

Bryant wrote:

I'm surprised Mustafi is only being quoted for 20-25m pounds when the likes of John Stones is 50m pounds. Valencia don't even have to sell him for that much when his release clause is much higher than that. 

I read somewhere that Valencia has problems with complying to FFP requirements, thus they need to sell. Really don't know how reliable is this, but it would explain a lot why they are considering selling him and for relatively low fee.

Gazza M wrote:

it's possible that wenger signs that bruno peres chap, and makes nacho the back-up cb

Can you imagine. We are already terrible at defending anything that comes in above waist height when Mertesacker is out and Monreal was murdered in the air last time he played at centre half. It would be so easy to throw a big CF at us and get a goal.

chelsea supposedly bid £25M and it was rejected. we are definitely not interested

Herbas wrote:

Bryant wrote:

I'm surprised Mustafi is only being quoted for 20-25m pounds when the likes of John Stones is 50m pounds. Valencia don't even have to sell him for that much when his release clause is much higher than that. 

I read somewhere that Valencia has problems with complying to FFP requirements, thus they need to sell. Really don't know how reliable is this, but it would explain a lot why they are considering selling him and for relatively low fee.

Mustafi has made it clear he wants to leave and the club doesn't seem to want to stand in his way. Who knows though with Valencia, they are run like a complete shambles, even if they're planning to let him go they shouldn't have gone public with their statements

Funny that it takes a total injury cluster bomb to make Wenger move on something that was clearly an issue months ago. Why save £2-5m or whatever it is when it could cost us upwards of that in points. That might be the difference come may yet Wenger is blinkered to the fact we were likely to encounter this at some point with Gabriel, kos and merge as our only real CBs.

In fairness this was reported well before Gabriel's injury and perhaps even Mertesackers injury. Wenger also said a couple of weeks ago that he wanted a defender in before the start of the season.

What do you figure the financial cost of a single point is?

Few million? More?

Depends which point, not even joking.

It is always about the money. I remember we had a deal agreed with Juan mata but we waited to conclude the fabregas deal and avoid paying a few weeks wages. In the end Chelsea swooped him up. 

The ONLY reason we are delaying with Mustafi(or any other CB target) is the same. Wenger just waits for clubs to become more desperate (or the player to grow impatient) and knock off the price a bit.

I am not getting into pro's and cons of it, but barring exceptions that is the standard modus operandi of Arsene and the club.

It's also counterintuitive in a lot of instances because your own situation becomes more desperate closer to the deadline, the player has less time to integrate with your squad, and you give the selling club less time to secure a replacement. Wenger is a feeble-minded gambler.

It's also not true.

what's not true, Capi?

Savz wrote:

Manolas is taller, better, faster and has more experience.

The fee for Mustafi is around €25m + €8m add ons, we could get Manolas for around that fee. I do hope we go for Manolas instead.

Mustafi played LCB for Germany, if anyone knows, does he usually play there? Because if he comes he'll be playing RCB. Manolas is naturally a RCB. grr.

Last I heard €50m is what Roma want for Manolas.

Ivansen wrote:

Would you want us to do a "bent deal" like that?

Why not? You could also do a loan with option to purchase next year, plenty of ways round it if Roma are willing to do a deal.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

chelsea supposedly bid £25M and it was rejected. we are definitely not interested

Matt Law who seems to report quite a bit on Chelsea saying they aren't interested, it seems like Koulibaly is the one they want.