speedy wrote:

He probably just wants to make sure Mustafi is staying before he commits long term.

getting to roast mustafi in training daily is probably a big perk for any potential attack-minded transfer target we have

[Twitter]

I reckon we'll get an announcement tonight. Might even be a double announcement given that Saliba is reportedly in London as we speak too.

Wish Ceballos was permanent. I’d go get the shirt

Clrnc wrote:

I'm relatively confident if we have a good season we can sign him permanently. Or at least this will help to build another good relationship with Madrid they might even do us a favour to sell us another player next season if Ceballos doesn't want to be here permanently. According to Romano Perez says he will review the situation next season to see if a permanent deal can be done. Madrid don't give young players chances so if he's smart he will know.

Lo Celso to Spurs is a real sickener though. Guy was one of the most impressive midfielder statistically that passes forward last year alongside Ndombele and they get both ffs

I'm pretty sure I remember that graph you're talking about and gave some information that showed how flawed that approach was. Not saying Lo Celso isnt talented he most certainly is but he's a much bigger risk in CM than Ceballos

Ceballos looks a proper talent. Will do a lot for our attacking game. One thing I'd worry about is his tendency to dribble close to the box in some very, I mean very, dangerous situations. In the video before there were a number of times he was jacked close to the box but luckily won a free kick.

With Dan The Man coming in we can field Wenger’s wet dream 4-1-4-1

————Leno
Bellerin—Musti—Kos—Nacho
—————Xhaka
Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos-Iwobi
————Lacazette

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

With Dan The Man coming in we can field Wenger’s wet dream 4-1-4-1

————Leno
Bellerin—Musti—Kos—Nacho
—————Xhaka
Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos-Iwobi
————Lacazette

i think we'd concede 60-70 goals this season if we used that team

Yes but a little bit creativity

Look, you know, I must say, footballistically it's top, top quality.

Claudius wrote:

Wish Ceballos was permanent. I’d go get the shirt

Really?

Personally, while I’m excited (or desperate) to see new players turn out for us, I don’t know if it’s realistic to expect that a 21 year old, with basically no experience of English football, and who apparently isn’t in the immediate plans of Real Madrid, comes in and impacts our game significantly. Don’t know if y’all have forgotten but the premier league is no joke. Even seasoned players find it hard to adapt most of the time. Hopefully Emery has a clear plan for him, but I thought we had a clear plan and purpose for D Suarez also and boy was I disappointed. Once bitten...

Omigod, that’s troubling.
If you want Ozil and Ceballos together, maybe try a 442 diamond with Xhaka base and Torreira and Ceballos on the sides. The fullbacks would have to earn their pay.

Ricky1985 wrote:

As good as Ceballos looks, and thanks for posting that video Jones, I can't help thinking we've been a little done by Spurs this summer. They get Lo Celso and Ndombele, whilst we end up with Ceballos on a season long loan. I've said elsewhere they are the bigger draw right now, but it still irks me a little. Especially Ndombele. That one sickens me.

I've seen a lot of Arsenal fans crowing over us getting Saliba and Ceballos over them, but I can't shake the feeling that it's because they wanted the former this season and not next and the latter permanently and not on loan. It needs must for us right now, but I'm really not liking this new development of them being on at least the same footing as us.

It's encouraging that they clearly wanted Ceballos over Lo Celso in a big way though.

Thing is apart from Spurs not a single other club was in for Ndombele, not saying that to put the player down but makes it easier to pull a signing off. Same goes for Lo Celso, I saw a Bayern link a few days ago but apart from that nobody in for him. Don't get me wrong both good players but you can't control what other clubs do. They're a well run club with a good coach and squad but despite their jammy CL run they only finished 1 point ahead of us. They are better but I don't believe the gap is as much as people make out. Also as you mention their number one choice was Ceballos, they'll brush it off though and argue they didn't take him because of no option to buy. But a loan deal with an option to buy is no guarantee you'll get the player, it would depend on convincing the player to stay. Also if they're paying £50m for Lo Celso why not offer R.Madrid similar for Ceballos, the truth will come out sooner or later. Don't really give a shit though, I'm more worried about the state of our club then worry about having the piss taken out of us for taking players on loan!

We shouldn't focus on Spurs, we need to focus on improving ourselves. Getting back into Top 4 is absolutely everything this season, it has absolutely crippled the club being out of the CL 3 years in a row.

Hope the Asensio injury doesnt effect this

Was thinking same. Fingers crossed

emery hinted he wasn't sure if the asensio injury changes anything

on the Dani Ceballos deal and if Asensio's injury affects it...
I don’t know. Our target also was not to take injuries in that match, and they maybe have with Asensio. It [could be] bad news, for them and also for us. I don’t know if it can change something.

Sounds like Zidane's interview indicated that it could change the Bale situation but not the Ceballos one.

Charles Watts also reckons that the Ceballos situation hasn't changed.

BWoolley wrote:

Sounds like Zidane's interview indicated that it could change the Bale situation but not the Ceballos one.

interesting. zidane hates bale's guts, cant imagine he wants to keep him in any scenario

It’s a rutpured ACL for Asensio. Shame.

The fact that an injury this severe doesn’t seem to change Madrid’s plans for Ceballos doesn’t give anyone else cause to pause?

Why would it? Completely different players and positions

Ceballos already completed medicals and photoshoot today. No worries.

flobaba wrote:

Yeah, you’re right. Ceballos plays in CM where they are stacked.

Sidebar: if it had been one of our players who dropped with an injury like that in preseason we’d have folks blaming Emery’s training methods.

Coaches sometimes have favourites and players they dislike for personal or at least opaque reasons, Zidane is an egregious case of that. His impact on James was almost as bad as Mourinhos on Mata, while Vazquez was a fixture regardless how poor he was as long as he kept running and crossing 50x per match. Ceballos is a similar case, if he was given an opportunity he could have replaced Modric or at least Kroos during one of his poorer spells.

So even if Ceballos and Asensio played in the same position, Zidane not changing his mind doesn't really prove anything.

flobaba wrote:

...

Sidebar: if it had been one of our players who dropped with an injury like that in preseason we’d have folks blaming Emery’s training methods.

Asensio landed awkwardly and twisted the joint.
You will not find many fans blaming a coach for that.
We are not that stupid.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

With Dan The Man coming in we can field Wenger’s wet dream 4-1-4-1

————Leno
Bellerin—Musti—Kos—Nacho
—————Xhaka
Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos-Iwobi
————Lacazette

I don't think Wenger loved anything more than a circle jerk in the middle of the pitch. If only he had more Spaniards at his disposal.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

flobaba wrote:

...

Sidebar: if it had been one of our players who dropped with an injury like that in preseason we’d have folks blaming Emery’s training methods.

Asensio landed awkwardly and twisted the joint.
You will not find many fans blaming a coach for that.
We are not that stupid.

Speak for yourself good sir.

Also, negative bias isn’t the same as being stupid, and I was referring to the former, not the latter

deardevil wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

With Dan The Man coming in we can field Wenger’s wet dream 4-1-4-1

————Leno
Bellerin—Musti—Kos—Nacho
—————Xhaka
Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos-Iwobi
————Lacazette

I don't think Wenger loved anything more than a circle jerk in the middle of the pitch. If only he had more Spaniards at his disposal.

Can only imagine that line up. All of Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos----Iwobi playing no wider than the 18 yard box.

MistaT wrote:

deardevil wrote:

I don't think Wenger loved anything more than a circle jerk in the middle of the pitch. If only he had more Spaniards at his disposal.

Can only imagine that line up. All of Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos----Iwobi playing no wider than the 18 yard box.

with our LB and RB down near the touchline. the other team gets possession, and in 2 passes, they have 2 attackers running right at mustafi and sokratis and me changing the channel

mdgoonah41 wrote:

MistaT wrote:

Can only imagine that line up. All of Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos----Iwobi playing no wider than the 18 yard box.

with our LB and RB down near the touchline. the other team gets possession, and in 2 passes, they have 2 attackers running right at mustafi and sokratis and me changing the channel

An extremely accurate image. Thank you for that.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

MistaT wrote:

Can only imagine that line up. All of Mkhi—Ozil——Cabellos----Iwobi playing no wider than the 18 yard box.

with our LB and RB down near the touchline. the other team gets possession, and in 2 passes, they have 2 attackers running right at mustafi and sokratis and me changing the channel

Stunningly accurate

I still can’t get over the Liverpool 3 - 3 draw at Anfield years ago, when Arshavin scored a hat-trick.

One of the best individual performances in this league was utterly wasted by your exact analysis. I remember getting an instant headache, and feeling my heart thumping

I literally could have ripped up the whole house.

I decided to change channel whenever they wound me up from then on. Been doing it for a decade since

You're doing the little man an injustice.

I, too, wanted to smash the place I was watching the game at to pieces that night. Absolutely disgusted when we conceded the equaliser and even though we scored so late you still knew full well it was coming.

Ricky1985 wrote:

You're doing the little man an injustice.

I, too, wanted to smash the place I was watching the game at to pieces that night. Absolutely disgusted when we conceded the equaliser and even though we scored so late you still knew full well it was coming.

Absolutely.

4-3 up, and I remember thinking “injury time you bastards, just defend for a couple of minutes.............................“. then sheer anger and despair.

I really can’t remember being that angry for many things in my life

Oh boy.  Look at the pic again ohboy.

*4-4

Sicario wrote:

*4-4

Correct it was 4-4

FOUR goal performance, one of the greatest in this league thrown away

I need to step away, just thinking about that match is making me tense

Gentleman please, that 4-4 has nothing, absolutely nothing on the 4-4 vs Newcastle.

MistaT wrote:

Gentleman please, that 4-4 has nothing, absolutely nothing on the 4-4 vs Newcastle.

Are you not entertained?

MistaT wrote:

Gentleman please, that 4-4 has nothing, absolutely nothing on the 4-4 vs Newcastle.

i'll see that tiote goal in my nightmares from now till the day i die. i still cant fucking believe it went in

I've never rewatched that game and, apart from Arshavin's goal, successfully erased all the memories.

MistaT wrote:

Gentleman please, that 4-4 has nothing, absolutely nothing on the 4-4 vs Newcastle.

that newcastle one was the worse. it was so bad that some nonsensical conspiracy about rosicky and bookies even began to sound credible. it's like he was trying to give them the game.