Isn’t he Debuchy in disguise?

Odd use of resources, but whatever

He's a big, dumb right back that is slow on the turn, has average technique and can't defend for toffee.

[Twitter]
Of course we're in for him ffs.

Ricky1985 wrote:

He's a big, dumb right back that is slow on the turn, has average technique and can't defend for toffee.

[Twitter]
Of course we're in for him ffs.

Dont seem to agree often these days but this is spot on. Never seen a defensively more inept full back at this level. He's like someone created a random FIFA player where none of his attributes, strengths weaknesses or position match.

So out of the 40 mil budget we are gonna spend 30 on right back?

I think as some have posted in other thread that the 40m likely counts for the initial payments and not the entire costs.

Don't want Meunier though especially for the touted fee.

Gunner89 wrote:

I think as some have posted in other thread that the 40m likely counts for the initial payments and not the entire costs.

Where do people get this shit from? 

It's just people on twitter with no idea playing pretend accountant. Folks said the same thing last year where our 70m budget was supposedly closer to 250m or something equally ridiculous because it would be spread over 4 years. That's not how a budget works.

I don't think anybody said our budget was 250m last summer.

goon wrote:
Gunner89 wrote:

I think as some have posted in other thread that the 40m likely counts for the initial payments and not the entire costs.

Where do people get this shit from? 

They're trying to make sense how a Premier League club in 2019 (let alone one with alleged title aspirations) has a budget of 40 fucking million. Fulham spent three times that amount last season after being promoted from the Championship

Then have a look at our finances. If it wasn't for player sales we would have made a loss of 44m last year. This year the AST estimate a loss of £70m before player sales. The AST also came out with the £40m budget estimate long before Ornstein had it. It's just a fact of life for a club that was massively wasted it's resources over the last half decade and is set to miss out on CL riches for the 3rd year running despite having a CL level wage budget.

I don't know what Fulham's wage budget it like, but I'm guessing it is considerably smaller than our 236m. Also people love to highlight a club down the table going on a one off spending spree but ultimately, whenever you look at a longer term view, we've always spent considerably more.

goon wrote:

Then have a look at our finances. If it wasn't for player sales we would have made a loss of 44m last year. This year the AST estimate a loss of £70m before player sales. The AST also came out with the £40m budget estimate long before Ornstein had it. It's just a fact of life for a club that was massively wasted it's resources over the last half decade and is set to miss out on CL riches for the 3rd year running despite having a CL level wage budget.

I don't know what Fulham's wage budget it like, but I'm guessing it is considerably smaller than our 236m. Also people love to highlight a club down the table going on a one off spending spree but ultimately, whenever you look at a longer term view, we've always spent considerably more.

Have to agree we've massively wasted resources for half a decade.

Gunner89 wrote:

Don't want this guy. It seems to be more inclined to us playing 5 at the back because this guy can't defend.

Yeah thats my worry too. And if Laca is going there is no excuse for that shit any more. The only upside to it was it meant both strikers could start.

goon wrote:

Then have a look at our finances. If it wasn't for player sales we would have made a loss of 44m last year. This year the AST estimate a loss of £70m before player sales. The AST also came out with the £40m budget estimate long before Ornstein had it. It's just a fact of life for a club that was massively wasted it's resources over the last half decade and is set to miss out on CL riches for the 3rd year running despite having a CL level wage budget.

I don't know what Fulham's wage budget it like, but I'm guessing it is considerably smaller than our 236m. Also people love to highlight a club down the table going on a one off spending spree but ultimately, whenever you look at a longer term view, we've always spent considerably more.

Last time I cared or looked at the finances was around 2012. That was the time when we had cash reserves bigger than the rest of the league combined

I refuse to buy into this story that a bunch of failed purchases (and we're not even talking about several 50m flops) must have led to this outcome. It may have if your policy from the onset is you spend only what is immediately available in terms of active funds. Anyone will struggle with a signing that didn't work out, everyone's darling Liverpool burned through a couple hundred million until they got where they are, and even if we suck at selling duds it doesn't change that we struggle with a self inflicted issue that we only invest the most liquid assets at the clubs disposal.

jones wrote:
goon wrote:

Where do people get this shit from? 

They're trying to make sense how a Premier League club in 2019 (let alone one with alleged title aspirations) has a budget of 40 fucking million. Fulham spent three times that amount last season after being promoted from the Championship

There's a reason the Championship play-off final is acknowledged as the richest game in football. The moment you are promoted you're effectively handed £100m in TV money. So of course Fulham spent big. Oh boy, are they ever fucked now though.

Arsenal are operating somewhere close to break even, much like we always have. It's not the transfer fees that kill us, it's the wage aspect of our annual player costs. Good money thrown after bad on contracts that players do not warrant.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Think this guy is just the ticket

because you play too much FIFA, is my guess

jones wrote:
goon wrote:

Then have a look at our finances. If it wasn't for player sales we would have made a loss of 44m last year. This year the AST estimate a loss of £70m before player sales. The AST also came out with the £40m budget estimate long before Ornstein had it. It's just a fact of life for a club that was massively wasted it's resources over the last half decade and is set to miss out on CL riches for the 3rd year running despite having a CL level wage budget.

I don't know what Fulham's wage budget it like, but I'm guessing it is considerably smaller than our 236m. Also people love to highlight a club down the table going on a one off spending spree but ultimately, whenever you look at a longer term view, we've always spent considerably more.

Last time I cared or looked at the finances was around 2012. That was the time when we had cash reserves bigger than the rest of the league combined

I refuse to buy into this story that a bunch of failed purchases (and we're not even talking about several 50m flops) must have led to this outcome. It may have if your policy from the onset is you spend only what is immediately available in terms of active funds. Anyone will struggle with a signing that didn't work out, everyone's darling Liverpool burned through a couple hundred million until they got where they are, and even if we suck at selling duds it doesn't change that we struggle with a self inflicted issue that we only invest the most liquid assets at the clubs disposal.

I’m not going to sit here and argue we spend every penny we can without FFP constraints, that would clearly be nonsense, but at the same time the club is clearly spending close to its limits, the financial statements spell that out quite clearly.

I’m going to paint a little picture. We spent somewhere in the region of 140m in 2018, not bad but not enough. That was without CL football and despite letting go of 3 players in Alexis, Aaron and Danny for free, those factors combined amount to a further 170m odd we could have spent on top of that 140m. That would have secured us CL football this season too in all likelyhood and we would have had another £100m to spend this summer.

So yeah, the cautious way we are run might result in us spending a few million less than we could, but bad decisions have cost us at least £200m in lost funds over the last two years, and that’s a conservative estimate.

This has cheered me up

Lol. I like United. The one top 6 club even more incompetent than us despite their abundant riches.

Good to see united burning money as usual if true.

Great stuff. Would have a been a shit signing for us.

Wonder if Barca will take the talk re our interest in Meunier as a sign that Bellerin could be available for the right price?

I'd hundred percent sell Bellerin if a good offer came in. I like the bloke a lot, but he seems to have two bad seasons for every good one and he'll probably lose a ton of pace after that ACL. Use the money we get to buy Wan-Bissaka.

Seconded. Don't think there's a player in our entire squad whom I wouldn't sell at the right price, except Auba and Koscielny.

kos is older and not even wiser. he needs to be binned as well.

Klaus wrote:

I'd hundred percent sell Bellerin if a good offer came in. I like the bloke a lot, but he seems to have two bad seasons for every good one and he'll probably lose a ton of pace after that ACL. Use the money we get to buy Wan-Bissaka.

Apart from his first season, he has been disappointing.
His crossing is worse than Kolasinac and he is always too far up in no mans land to help the defence.
The main benefit of his return is to keep Mustafi out of the team which any competent LB can do.

Yeah Bellerin is a good fullback but is Moreno level.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:

Agreed. Certainly not a priority but in an ideal world we'd sign a serious competitor for Hector.

if we are going to persist with this garbage 5 ATB formation where most of our attacking threat comes from our fullbacks, we definitely need to allocate resources there, because kola/monreal are not good enough, bellerin is probably not good enough and is injured, and im not sure what AMN is capable of

You actually need 4 quality fullbacks I’d this is the plan. Hopefully, it isn’t. The formation smells like pig shit.

Klaus wrote:

I'd hundred percent sell Bellerin if a good offer came in. I like the bloke a lot, but he seems to have two bad seasons for every good one and he'll probably lose a ton of pace after that ACL. Use the money we get to buy Wan-Bissaka.

Personally think AMN could become a great RB for us, he's a bit raw but he has huge potential

Bellerin is the only defender we have who's worth his starting place. Obviously for the right money you'd sell but it'd need to be enough to replace him and have some money left over.