The next global football star will be at Arsenal.

so we should play a flat 3 in midfield (ceballos, torreira, xhaka (ugh) and then play pepe at RW, auba at ST and laca at LW. laca should not be a left winger, but i think we need auba in front of goal, and laca's hold-up play is solid.

Gunner89 wrote:

goon wrote:

It concerns me that 40% of his goals came from pens. To justify this sort of price tag he needs to be hitting 25 goals/assists a season.

He won many of the penalties he scored.

Yep

Recafe going absolutely crazy angry about this deal with their ambitions to sign players and secure 6th place. Finally they are being us. 

I just want this done.
Two players I’ve wanted more than any other over the last 2 years were Pepe and Ndombele. And we got one, arguably the one with the higher ceiling. If/when he signs will be a great relief after the way the early summer played out. So happy that Raul decided to leave the comforts of Camp Nou to do real work.

Guys and girls, what the actual fuck?!? Late waking up today but I just jumped out of bed. What a huge week if this actually happens!

Ricky1985 wrote:

Amen to that, brother! Just want to see this confirmed now.

Clrnc wrote:

I really don't think so. Zaha is quicker than Pepe for example and Salah is ridiculously intense in sprinting.

I'm telling you Pépé would leave them both for dead box-to-box. The boy can shift with the best of them and he can do it over and over again for 90 minutes and 40 games a season. He's an incredible athlete.

I think Clrnc is on about acceleration and you hardly ever see Salah running full pelt as, like Messi, he is away in 2 or 3 steps.

Bayern's scout claimed they didn't go for him because they are wary how he will perform with less spaces. As you can see he thrives alot in spaces and counter attacking, so that will be one big part of his game he will need to improve. Vision, technique and finishing is top anyway.

Mirth wrote:

Bold Tone wrote:

Ricky is more likely to be right as Raul doesn't have the authority to spend £80 of Kroenke's money like that.
If Gazidis is still chief executive, Stan is not loosening his pursestrings.

Gazidis really was fucking useless.

Not sure how the structure at Milan is but their fans are happy with their supposedly transfer dealings. 

What impresses me most isn't even the dribbling, the finishing, or the athleticism, but the passing and decision making that goes along with all that. Next level.

We’ll be pure sweat in Fifa

Clrnc wrote:

Bayern's scout claimed they didn't go for him because they are wary how he will perform with less spaces. As you can see he thrives alot in spaces and counter attacking, so that will be one big part of his game he will need to improve. Vision, technique and finishing is top anyway.

Bayern staff are full of shit. Anything anyone has ever said while on their payroll is a lie or comes at least with ulterior motives

Ricky1985 wrote:

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

I think Clrnc is on about acceleration and you hardly ever see Salah running full pelt as, like Messi, he is away in 2 or 3 steps.

I did say Salah is probably quicker off the mark, being 5'7" or whatever he is, but in a sprint Pépé would eat him for breakfast.

Talking about Salah, interesting how closely they measure statistically:

[Twitter]

They even finish similarly, that cut back and curl into the far post from the right. 

Looking back at my wishlists I wanted Tierney and Pepe so bad back in April. Seems unreal we are close to getting them both now. Bascially just a CB left to make this a 9/10 window all things considered

Clrnc wrote:

Mirth wrote:

Gazidis really was fucking useless.

Not sure how the structure at Milan is but their fans are happy with their supposedly transfer dealings. 

Not to defend Gazidis but it’s worth remembering he was the one who brought Raul in. He also essentially left with Wenger so it’s hard to really judge.

That being said, I’m glad everyone associated with the era defined by a lack of ambition is gone.

Coombs wrote:

What impresses me most isn't even the dribbling, the finishing, or the athleticism, but the passing and decision making that goes along with all that. Next level.

That’s what struck me in the clips too. Looks like the lad has a good footballing brain on him, something with I think Zaha is severely lacking.

This lad needs to go by Nicolas.

jones wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Bayern's scout claimed they didn't go for him because they are wary how he will perform with less spaces. As you can see he thrives alot in spaces and counter attacking, so that will be one big part of his game he will need to improve. Vision, technique and finishing is top anyway.

Bayern staff are full of shit. Anything anyone has ever said while on their payroll is a lie or comes at least with ulterior motives

As if there would be less space in Bundesliga, haha. What a horrid, classless club they are.

There probably is less space especially with teams playing against Bayern to be fair. The Bundesliga is better than Ligue 1, noticeably so in my opinion

Still Bayern are full of shit because if the lesser amount of space is the reason they didn't get him why are they chasing after pace merchant Sane instead?

Bayern are the worst. Remember their official Twitter rinsing us during one of the recent drubbings they gave us? Classless scum.

I would kill for Sane next year, if he wants out.

As for Bayern, I patiently await the day when we repay them.

jones wrote:

There probably is less space especially with teams playing against Bayern to be fair. The Bundesliga is better than Ligue 1, noticeably so in my opinion

Still Bayern are full of shit because if the lesser amount of space is the reason they didn't get him why are they chasing after pace merchant Sane instead?

If Pepe is better than Sane then I'm all aboard the hype train. I've only seen videos on YouTube and I wasn't very impressed, but everyone who have seen him a bit seem to be, so that's something. I said that the price was too high, but if he's comfortably better than what the highlights suggest I would be happy to be wrong. 

Pepe has such an effective shot on him. He’s gonna bloody take games by the scruff

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

This lad needs to go by Nicolas.

Was just watching more of his games, this is a good little show of his talent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW7CQXmItwc

He has such an element of chaos to him that I love. If he can refine his touch, he could be world class. I don't know that he'll ever get his touch to be that great because it's just who he is it seems... just chaos. He'll probably frustrate us bunch of times, I guarantee it. 

I like that he has the whole package otherwise: strength, height, speed, passing, crossing, agility, aggression...etc. His right foot is weak as shit though. 

Lovely watch that. Hadnt realised he had skills quite so mad to go along with his efficient style. He’s better than Zaha albeit I rate Zaha highly too

Yeah has a wanchope-like gallop, doesn't look clean technically but he makes it work well

Gazza M wrote:

Yeah has a wanchope-like gallop, doesn't look clean technically but he makes it work well

Whoever who called him Bolasie style dribble nailed it for me. Very awkward and similar.

I don't like his close control. Ball seems to bounce around a lot.

Edit: although I like his hesitation and acceleration move where he drags the ball with his left foot. Immediately creates a bit of space between him and the defender.

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

This lad needs to go by Nicolas.

If we sign him, i may try as my mind associates Pepe to this guy

Kel Varnsen wrote:

I don't like his close control. Ball seems to bounce around a lot.

Yep not clean technically which is my main turn off, but he seems to be aware of his limitations and compensates intelligently.  Unlike someone like lukaku who plays like his touch is bergkamp level and seems stunned everytime he thunks it into touch

Shades of Kanu with the way he sweeps the ball

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Shades of Kanu with the way he sweeps the ball

Good call. That long sweep is difficult to defend, especially since he can go both to the left and right. 

Hard to tell what kind of player he is from watching those compilations. Very interesting player, as he seems to be brilliant at times and slightly awkward at times. I think he needs a bit of space to thrive, so if he can move well off the ball, then I think he'll be a success.

Claudius wrote:

I celebrate tonight with goat in pepe broth. Up the Arse!!

Nobody has been bigging Pepe up on here more than you. Enjoy your day blud!

seems like hes capable of making intelligent runs, so thats nice.

we're certainly paying full sticker price for him, i hope he ends being good for us

I do still think that we are restricted in our budget even if not for 40m, however the structure of our deals this summer is very much an example of Raul's comments about outsmarting the market.

It seems the key thing to this deal was firstly that Lille are willing to accept a payment schedule in instalments of around 12-14m preseason. The second factor being that we then accepted the agent terms = you scratch my back & I'll scratch yours.

I think Zaha may have been the primary target but Palace were unwilling to accept payment by instalments.
With the instalments being accepted in this deal and the subsequent sale of one of our kids I expect to see us be able to get Tierney over the line. I think it was always a case of wanting to land the big signing and then the rest would follow based upon what was left over.

EDIT - other thing of note re instalment payments means we do not need to sell PEA or Laca, whereas with Palace holding out for most of the fee up front meant we probably would have needed to do so.

Not seen him play but the numbers are impressive. Surprised if we spend this much but would be exciting in comparison to a loan and a player who won't be here this season. Still going to need improvements in defence to make any of it worthwhile unless we're going for the you score 3 we'll score 4 plan this season.

Question - did either Martial or Dembele have as much hype before they left France?