People reacting with explosive diarrhoea because of the word "prefiere" in that tweet... makes for hilarious reading 😆

Kike's tweet says that it's either Torreira or Banega Emery wants and that he prefers Banega. Weird.

Segway wrote:

Kike's tweet says that it's either Torreira or Banega Emery wants and that he prefers Banega. Weird.

Apparently it's not what he said, or wanted to say...

Kike tells me that his tweet was meant to say #AFC are targeting both: Torreira & Banega. He thinks it is possible they end up at the club this summer. Let’s see.

If we get both it means Ramsey is off. Don't want Banega here...

Orgullo De Nervión - Tier 1 for Sevilla: “Banega who has a €20m release clause has attracted interest from #AFC and Emery who got the best out of him.”

I can only imagine we're going for him if Aaron leaves but, if we plan to play 3 in midfield then numbers wise we could technically sign him even if Aaron stays.

Ramsey - Xhaka - Torreira
Benega - Elneny - AMN

It's not actually too much and is arguably necessary to cover for injuries or cover us if Xhaka and Elneny end up being shit again. We'd then have Ozil, Mkhi, Laca, Auba, Iwobi and Nelson for the 3 forward positions presuming Welbeck and Perez leave. Lots of depth and plenty of quality too.

goon wrote:

I can only imagine we're going for him if Aaron leaves but, if we plan to play 3 in midfield then numbers wise we could technically sign him even if Aaron stays.

Ramsey - Xhaka - Torreira
Benega - Elneny - AMN

We'd then have Ozil, Mkhi, Laca, Auba, Iwobi and Nelson for the 3 forward positions presuming Welbeck and Perez leave. Lots of depth and plenty of quality too.

Looks like we might struggle to get the HG numbers with that setup, no?

I like Banega but I struggle to look past the huge wasted potential from the days when Emery first signed him for Valencia as a 19yo for big money. Definitely wouldn't mind signing him we lack his type in the team currently and he'd provide some much needed competition to Xhaka too.

I'd be fine with spending the last of our transfer budget on Banega, actually. If Ramsey stays, that is.

Nah, you're essentially allowed 17 non-home grown players and we only have 14, 13 if you consider Ospina is probably leaving. We could sign Torreira, Benega and that Turkish kid and still be fine.

Goon's right - our HGs for next season would be: Welbeck, Chambers, Holding, AMN, Bellerin, Ramsey, Iwobi - that's enough for a 24 man squad plus a few U21s (Nketiah etc) to make it 25. Of course, if Holding is loaned out, that would reduce the count by 1 - Martinez may count too if he is registered as our 3rd choice keeper. Think we are ok on the HG either way.

Didn't realise how small our squad is.

If Banega still plays as well as he did against Man United when Sevilla knocked them out, I'll happily have him at the club.

jones wrote:

Didn't realise how small our squad is.

Yep, between the january sales and the contracts being up, we really are getting a bit down in numbers.  and that's even including the likes of Torreira and Sokratis (assuming they are signed)..  we really could use a couple more, unless Emery is planning on blooding some more youngsters (Nelson & Eddie perhaps?) and/or utilizing people like Lucas or (well, no one)

Well, Gazidis has talked often about the talent we have at the club, and that near the top of the list of requirements for a new coach was the ability to bring through that talent to the first team.

Yeah, they kept banging on about bringing through youth after appointing him too. We've also appointed loads of academy and youth personnel too.

My guess is we'll see a lot more of AMN, Nelson, Nketiah and Mavropanos this season. Not sure about Willock and Smith-Rowe is still young. But it's why I ultimately have big doubts about this story.

Probably only AMN and flashes of Nelson to be honest. Mavropanos is 4th/5th choice CB unless Mustafi is sold and not replaced and we have 2 good quality strikers ahead of Nketiah in a 1 striker formation. So nearly the same as last season. The issue is not playing too many youngsters, it's that our core of players is average rather than great. Leno, Sokratis, whichever other CB we end up with, Xhaka, Ramsey are all good but flawed players. It's a team designed for 4th place at best, 2 years after a second place finish (admittedly lucky).

I'd love me some Banega. He could end up having the same impact on our midfield that Arteta had when we signed him.

Thought he was in physical decline and too lightweight for a PL midfield even at his peak? Has that changed?

Banega is very hit and miss. I watch Sevilla a lot and he hasn't been impressive consistently enough.

That said, through his entire career he has only played well under Emery, over 4 or 5 years with 2 different clubs

Update:

Klaus wrote:

I'd love me some Banega. He could end up having the same impact on our midfield that Arteta had when we signed him.

He’s just getting started too

A midfield trio of

——-Ramsey——Torreira
————Banega

Would see us play some real purty football

With the razor sharp Aubameyang upfront we’ll be a threat

I'd take banega. Another EL specialist

It would also guarantee we'd never have to see xhaka and elneny play together again

arsedoc md wrote:

Always wanted an argentine here.

Rather Pavon.

I just had a crazy idea ... what if we could get Cesc back now.

arsedoc md wrote:

Always wanted an argentine here.

Emi Martinez not good enough for you?

mdgoonah41 wrote:

that is crazy

and also bad

Yeah I wanted Cesc before he joined Chelsea but he's tainted now, so don't want.

Would have liked Banega years ago but i'm not that keen anymore. Really wanted us to get at least one of Fabinho, Fred or Jorginho 

Cesc is also in decline - no point now.

Banega and Torreira will struggle at first to adapt to the pace of the league which obviously could cause problems for us results wise if we buy them both.

They are good passer with good technique and a low center of gravity which in theory would mean we could potentially dominate and dictate play once they get up to speed. That is the gamble. Would they both get up to speed in the premier league?

Tactics wrote:
mdgoonah41 wrote:

that is crazy

and also bad

Yeah I wanted Cesc before he joined Chelsea but he's tainted now, so don't want.

Would have liked Banega years ago but i'm not that keen anymore. Really wanted us to get at least one of Fabinho, Fred or Jorginho 

BBC won't let Cesc go for cheap.

I've softened my view on Cesc, maybe his snakey PR savvy ways have worked on me, but I'd have him back here... if he were good enough, which he's not.

Marca reckon that Sevilla reckon that the links are only surfacing because of Emery's history with Benega, but there's nothing substantial behind it.

Jed wrote:
arsedoc md wrote:

Always wanted an argentine here.

Emi Martinez not good enough for you?

A full on first teamer.  Like a gilberto than julio baptista.

[Twitter][/Twitter]
Class. And to add to that:
[Twitter][/Twitter]

Why hasn't he been starting for Argentina by the way? Pretty embarrassing being behind Enzo Perez and a 58 year old Mascherano in the pecking order.

Argentina's setup is a mess. They've left all their best players bar Messi on the bench.

It's a bit like blaming Pires for not being picked by Domench way back when.

Pires was competing with world class players for a place in that France team.

Banega has Enzo Perez and Masherano to contend with in a poorly functioning, uncreative Argentina team.