Fred to Utd according to DiMarzio for a fee of 50m Euros.

Stories in Italy (calciomercato was where I saw it) that apparently Roma are Justin Kluivert's preferred choice. That Monchi is one hell of a salesman.

Gunner89 wrote:

Valencia sign Kondogbia

Dimarzio saying Fred fee agreed by Manchester United and Shakhtar

Apparently his agent / "advisor" is Gilberto Silva.

jones wrote:

JazzG wrote:

Van Dijk another we followed closely since his Celtic days and didn't move on, Alderweireld another we were linked to at Southampton. And we somehow ended up with Mustafi

Bit of a lazy analysis, players do develop over the years both for the good and the bad. Alderweireld was a failure at Atletico and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Savic who was a failure at Manchester City is now a success and starts under Simeone. Similar with Mustafi who was one of the best defenders in Europe when he was in Spain, lots of different variables which determine whether a player turns out good or bad.

I agree, I am over simplifying things but both those players in question were doing very well for Southampton when we were linked but as usual we leave things too late. With Van Dijk it was even earlier, he was talking about how he was honoured to be linked with Arsenal while he was still at Celtic. Then you look at our record of signing CBs in the last 10 years it makes you wonder. Maybe with the new coach our current CBs will look better?

But like I've said before we've become a nearly team when it comes to signing a lot of players. Our board and Wenger are known to be ditherers, am hoping the new guys will be a lot more decisive.

JazzG wrote:

jones wrote:

Bit of a lazy analysis, players do develop over the years both for the good and the bad. Alderweireld was a failure at Atletico and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Savic who was a failure at Manchester City is now a success and starts under Simeone. Similar with Mustafi who was one of the best defenders in Europe when he was in Spain, lots of different variables which determine whether a player turns out good or bad.

I agree, I am over simplifying things but both those players in question were doing very well for Southampton when we were linked but as usual we leave things too late. With Van Dijk it was even earlier, he was talking about how he was honoured to be linked with Arsenal while he was still at Celtic. Then you look at our record of signing CBs in the last 10 years it makes you wonder. Maybe with the new coach our current CBs will look better?

I'm almost certain this will be the case. Almost everything about our defensive setup was a shambles and was almost deliberately put in place to expose the centre halves. The complete lack of defensive shape when without the ball, the haphazard positioning of full backs and midfielders when we have the ball, the absent training when it comes receiving a ball under pressure, passing it into areas instead of under a team mate's feet, the poor defensive contribution from our attackers and the overall carefree attitude of defending whenever anyone feels like it. I genuinely have no idea what the fuck Wenger, Primorac and Banfield have been doing in training because it sure as shit wasn't emulating real match situations.

Think about it differently. Mustafi has been very impressive for Valencia to the point Barcelona considered signing him, Kolasinac was in the Bundesliga team of the season and monitored closely by City and Bellerin has shown plenty of times that he can compete with Europe's best in the CL for us. Yet we conceded more than Newcastle fucking United over a full season, even West Brom who are dead last have conceded just five more than we did.

Emery must be ecstatic about coaching this shambles because there's very little chance he doesn't massively improve them. He had to field the likes of Carrico and Kolodziejczak in a European cup final and managed well enough, even if he's no defensive specialist like Simeone or Der Zakarian. He's basically the complete anti-thesis to Wenger in terms of management style, Wenger sends the kids out to express themselves while Emery is literally giving them instructions and tells them exactly what to do and when to do it. I wouldn't mind an experienced short term fix like Sokrates until some of our youngsters (Chambers, Holding, Mavropanos) can make the step up but I'm not worried either way, between Mislintat and Emery for the first time in more than a decade I'm not worried about us taking the right decision

We're going to be fucking shit this season.

Great Way to keep the hopes up Diaby.

Fabinho being linked to Atletico & Man Utd, would be a great signing for either of them.

To think of Koke, Saul, Gabi, Thomas Partey and Fabinho in the same MF while we sit around with Xhaka and Ramsey. I just died a little inside. Must say Mislintat hasn't been particularly impressive so far.

Our fans are gonna have to be patient. We didn't hire Sven to scout players that everyone already knows about. Fabinho can have his pick between Europe's top clubs this summer. He was never going to come to 6th place Arsenal without Champions League even if we tabled a bid.

We've been linked to Pellegrini and Zielinski in the last few weeks. Both of them (Zielinski in particular) are going to be among the best midfielders in Serie A inside a year or two, and after that it's anyone's guess how far they'll go. They're good, young players with a big potential payoff in the medium perspective; exactly the kind of players Mislintat has been hired to locate. Yesterday we were linked to Diallo who's another massive talent. This is how it's gonna be for the next few years. We need to restock on talent.

I agree - didn't mean he should have got us Fabinho. I'm sick of us being tipped to buy Leno, Lichtsteiner and Sokratis, that's all. God alone knows why we aren't aggressively pursuing Malcom, despite our interest in the winter. Diallo (as you mention) seems like a good one. Zielinksi feels like he is beyond us already - I thought he turned Pool down last summer? I remember Dortmund 2 years ago signing Guerreiro, Dembele (when he was the hottest talent in Ligue 1), Pulisic, Mor and a couple of others before the Euros started - we need something like that. Not 21 yr old unknowns saying they will make their decision after "international matches".

We'll have to see who we end up with and evaluate the transfer window after that. It's not surprising that we're linked with guys like Lichtsteiner who cost nothing, though. We need to add depth to the squad and we're on a budget. We're down to 18 or 19 first team players in a few weeks, depending on whether Jack is staying, and out of those 18 or 19 no one will expect anything from Koscielny next season. It means that we're going to have to stock up on the likes of Evans/Sokratis/Lichtsteiner and mix it up with a few raw talents.

BWoolley wrote:

To think of Koke, Saul, Gabi, Thomas Partey and Fabinho in the same MF while we sit around with Xhaka and Ramsey. I just died a little inside. Must say Mislintat hasn't been particularly impressive so far.

There midfield was shite against ours.

[Twitter][/Twitter]

Hope Sven is keeping a close eye on this.

BWoolley wrote:

I agree - didn't mean he should have got us Fabinho. I'm sick of us being tipped to buy Leno, Lichtsteiner and Sokratis, that's all. God alone knows why we aren't aggressively pursuing Malcom, despite our interest in the winter. Diallo (as you mention) seems like a good one. Zielinksi feels like he is beyond us already - I thought he turned Pool down last summer? I remember Dortmund 2 years ago signing Guerreiro, Dembele (when he was the hottest talent in Ligue 1), Pulisic, Mor and a couple of others before the Euros started - we need something like that. Not 21 yr old unknowns saying they will make their decision after "international matches".

I agree with that, those type of talents and players is what as a club we should have been looking at and adding over the years and we have been nowhere to be seen. With Sven it won't happen overnight but it will take a few windows to get the squad where it needs to be. For this window we need to firstly address the serious problems in our squad (imo GK, CB & CM) and then look to start planning for the future as well. Under Wenger too many transfer windows went to waste, money available and chasing unrealistic targets and lack of planning is what let us down. Then our dithering and going over the top with our bargaining as well. So many top talents moved in the price range where we should be competitive but we were nowhere to be found. The thing is I do believe most of these talents come to the attention of the club but we never act on it. There was talk for years that a lot of the problem was Wenger and how he'd change his mind often, we are gonna find out in the next few years if all these rumours are true.