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

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?

Anzac wrote:

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

id say both were more hyped and both were younger, which contributed to that

mdgoonah41 wrote:

Anzac wrote:

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

id say both were more hyped and both were younger, which contributed to that

Martial had all the talent just lacks hunger 

I hope this doesn’t drag out and we sign him early next week.

The longer it goes on the longer some ppl on here will panic

Haha it's never done until it's done. I still think we'll nab him but the sense of unease will linger until it's made official. Like has been said above, ideally this is wrapped up early next week and on Arsenal.com by Friday.

deardevil wrote:

goon wrote:

Raul will become a cult hero.

Did he actually say that?

Fucking beggars are at the door again.

speedy wrote:

He has salahs control of his centre of gravity, nowhere near salahs speed but his trickery will certainly help unlock packed defenses.

Ricky1985 wrote:

He's quicker than Salah. Maybe not quite as quick off the mark because Salah is tiny.

I mean I know Sanllehi is quick on the phone but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Tambourine Man wrote:

Haha it's never done until it's done. I still think we'll nab him but the sense of unease will linger until it's made official. Like has been said above, ideally this is wrapped up early next week and on Arsenal.com by Friday.

Next 48 hours will be key, it sound like we are close to getting the deal done.

Sounds like we're paying massive agent fees to get this done as well, definitely wouldn't have happened under the old regime.

I need to see the unveiling to get my heart rate to normal
Number 19 jersey number seems vacant. Or we could wait to see if Mkhitaryan moves himself to avail 7.

Clrnc wrote:

Yeah by the way the fee meant fuck all. I rather waste 100m to buy players than let it sit in the bank to pay taxes again

I’ll repeat myself again because it doesn’t do any good to let myths go uncorrected. That categorically didn’t happen.

This has been a rollercoaster. Been busy the last two days but catching up on all this news is like something from the A-M days.

Tam wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Yeah by the way the fee meant fuck all. I rather waste 100m to buy players than let it sit in the bank to pay taxes again

I’ll repeat myself again because it doesn’t do any good to let myths go uncorrected. That categorically didn’t happen.

This has been a rollercoaster. Been busy the last two days but catching up on all this news is like something from the A-M days.

I'm just quoting our accountant there. Not well versed with how the clubs are taxed in UK so I will just take his word for it. 

Clrnc wrote:

Tam wrote:

I’ll repeat myself again because it doesn’t do any good to let myths go uncorrected. That categorically didn’t happen.

This has been a rollercoaster. Been busy the last two days but catching up on all this news is like something from the A-M days.

I'm just quoting our accountant there. Not well versed with how the clubs are taxed in UK so I will just take his word for it. 

Or mine. I work in the tax office.

I’ve read the article. He would have absolutely no insight to the clubs tax position.

Napoli still in with a chance apparently

As with any online stories always pays to save the excitement until there is confirmation. I've certainly seen lots of hype about this guy but not really watched him. In terms of signing it looks positive but whatever the highlights reel or talk that they are like X player you only really can judge on performances in the team.

That's where I usually make my assessment as coming to a new and higher level league and different team can significantly impact how a player performs so it's difficult to make credible comparisons until then.

Hes negotiating wages so he has to hype up that another team is involved. Otherwise his position to demand high wages is weak. Napoli could be interested or it might just be a smoke screen.

Just do it tomorrow ffs.

Done yes, but i doubt our media team will be finished with their stuff before wednesday-thursday.

When will Mkhi leave? Maybe they delay it so this guy gets a fitting jersey number.

I'm scarred, I don't dare to be sure of this yet.