Rumours of Ozil/Perisic swap deal.

Our two biggest swap deals have been so fruitful for us. Mkhitaryan and Galls. Why not try a 3rd?

Diaby KungFu wrote:
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:

Starting to want anyone

Oh horror

Depending on the wage we give Perisic, I'm not so sure this would be such a bad idea. Not because I think Perisic would be a great signing, but because we need a winger and we need to get rid of Ozil for all sorts of reasons.

Just wish we could get someone younger.

What you say makes a bit of sense. Would prefer a Malcom swap for example. Would Barca take Ozil if they also lost Coutinho? On paper, he should enjoy their system and his salary is in line with their structure.

Klaus. Assume for now the manager is going nowhere. How do you think this Ozil situation resolved itself? He isn’t going to suddenly start playing 80% of the minutes at 10. We need to resolve this

For me, Ozil is miles ahead of Perisic. We have been far too inflexible with our system at the moment.

In a way if we swap, it might benefit Emery’s system, but my god we have down graded. I would rather try and swap Mhkitaryan for Perisic.

Instead of addressing the weaknesses in the squad Wenger left him, Unai has instead ripped out the only good bits of the squad he inherited

That’s not entirely true. He’s struggling with a madly assembled squad.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Instead of addressing the weaknesses in the squad Wenger left him, Unai has instead ripped out the only good bits of the squad he inherited

On paper perhaps but I mean the whole squad was a mess really, nothing cohesive about it. Would be better to form a team unit that works rather than try to stitch up the fissures in this Frankenstein' monster of a squad that we've currently got.

Whilst I'm a little disappointed about what's happened with Ramsey, Wenger tried to form a team around Ozil and that demonstrably has not worked as he's too damn flaky. Willing to give Emery the benefit of the doubt on that one.

As for Perisic, so long as we're not committing to buying him outright, I could live with that. There are probably more pressing needs currently (our whole defence, upgrading Xhaka, finding a new creative fulcrum) but we are certainly short on wing options too.

Perisic would turn Auba into more of a goal scoring machine than he already is.

Perisic is old so has no resale value and could turn into Mkhitarian just as quick.
Reminded of Shevchenko who was killing it in serie A but failed to adapt to the premiership.

Claudius wrote:

In an ideal world, Quincy, you are able to do what Guardiola has done. He has put down a 3-5 year vision, and then he has been able to go to and secure the best young-to-mid career players who can help him execute that vision. Fortunately for him, he has the money to make this a quick and painless job.

On our side, I think we similarly need to have a clear vision, and we also need to go after young-to-mid career players. Only difference is we have to be more resourceful than Pep in our search as the laws of finance actually apply to us. I do not see how Perisic builds a 3-5 year vision. He just serves expedience - get them to Europe, and then see. The counter-argument might be “what if we don’t make it to Champions League? We will be even more fucked!” But even if we do make it to Champs League, we will have lost 6 valuable months in defining and fleshing out the 3-5 year vision. Every transfer window is so incredibly valuable right now. We did so well in June. We should be building on that with additional young quality fullbacks or wide forwards right now. Not this.

IMO the strategy has always been about retaining top4 under AW, and regaining it since we lost it.  
I don't think we have anything more than that other than some idealistic view about retaining our 'traditions and beliefs' as if saying it often enough will make it true, or convince everyone that it is the both the right thing to do and is relevant in the current money rich era.

Bottom line - if Perisic on loan is the only option we can come up with in this window, do we stick or twist?
How much do we think the lack of genuine width is hurting our attack? and likewise the lack of a player able to make something happen on the ball?

Which then is likely to be the quicker fix - the attack, midfield or defence?

Tbh i kind of like our current approach - get in players who can help short term and try to get CL either by top4 or EL. If we get it + add Adidas money + clear out people who Unai deemed surplus, then we should have a pretty hefty transfer kitty.

And if it doesn’t work, what do you do next summer? Try the same formula gain? Remember, Aubameyang will be 6 months older.

Doubt this’ll happen thankfully, dreading the summer window though, turning into Everton with every decision we make these days.

We’ve employed a coach who prefers Mkhitaryan and Iwobi over Ozil and Ramsey and wants players like Banega and Perisic to add to an aging squad...

3 more days to get stuff done.

Arsenal target Ivan Perisic has handed in a transfer request to Inter Milan, according to the club's director Giuseppe Marotta.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47023741

Marotta said we made no offer so maybe we'll get away with it. I mean the only way this is a good deal if it's an option to buy. If he plays well and we can get rid off Ozil or Mhiki then we sign him up in the summer, if not we tell him no. But how dumb would Inter have to be to say yes to such a deal?