Nothing from Ornstein?

Have to give him a fist full of dollars to find out

Those who know wont speak. Those who speak wont know.

Any of yous familiar with stat bombs how’s Upa compare to Ruggsy?

I bet if you run a CIES profile comparator Upamecano’s spider will be larger than Ruggy’s all around. Probably the only place Ruggy will compete will be passing.

I got a feeling we will get Rugani and that’s it and it will be the most anti-climatical ending to our summer transfer window.

Same. I can't see Upamecano materialising unless we're also close to shifting Mustafi.

Yeah serious Rugani fears

Meatwad wrote:

de ligt is also on monster wages (€16m base salary that could rise to €24m with add-ons). a big fee for dayot would probably be accompanied with 70k a week wages.

Wow didn’t realise it was that high, still we pay Ozil more than that :ffs:

I really dont want Rugani after reading Klaus and all the Juventus fans take on him. Normally only fans who watch him week in week out will know how bad he is. They are literally begging someone to take him off their books and will be happy to drive him to London if we are interested

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

JazzG wrote:

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

2 specific areas of concern for us with Rugani
1) he has been making lots of mistakes of concentration/focus. Would be okay if he was slotting into a defence of Lauren, Campbell, Cole; Burt we are too disorganized across defense and defensive midfield.
2) he doesn’t have the foot speed of an Upamecano. We will get caught if we play a high line and we have him and Sokratis. Sokratis is probably faster.
Otherwise the intrinsics are there. A team with a settled defense should try.

Ok so Rugani is not top quality but is he at least better then what we have? Or just more of the same?

He’s Mustafi. Just two inches taller and a little slower.

Of all the defenders we have been linked with, if we can't get this cat, I'd love to get Kamara. Two-footed versatile defender who can cover at left back as well.

BWoolley wrote:

Of all the defenders we have been linked with, if we can't get this cat, I'd love to get Kamara. Two-footed versatile defender who can cover at left back as well.

Impressive young man that. Reminds me a lot of Vermaelen. Amongst the young defenders, probably the most comfortable on the ball. He's definitely not in the defensive class of Upamecano/Konate but would be a good catch. 

Claudius wrote:

JazzG wrote:

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

2 specific areas of concern for us with Rugani
1) he has been making lots of mistakes of concentration/focus. Would be okay if he was slotting into a defence of Lauren, Campbell, Cole; Burt we are too disorganized across defense and defensive midfield.
2) he doesn’t have the foot speed of an Upamecano. We will get caught if we play a high line and we have him and Sokratis. Sokratis is probably faster.
Otherwise the intrinsics are there. A team with a settled defense should try.

sokratis is pretty fast, so he's definitely faster than rugani.

I know Sokratis is quite fast. Saw his summer sprint numbers last year, the granddad bod. But Upamecano is a fast bastard.

Rumours that Leipzig want ESR included in a Upamecano deal. I always hate getting rid of young talents, and would rather pay extra, but if it's ESR or no deal then I think I'd have to say yes.

Anyone think we are going all in for Upamecano or just making noises to be able to say on the other side of the window closing that we tried? Most people (Ornstein and a bunch of twitter rumours) seem to think we are pretty confident of being able to land one of the many centre-backs we are chasing - hope it's a good one.

I agree, ESR looks good but he's not a once in a generation talent.

Yeah give them ESR and insert a buy back clause

deardevil wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Rumours that Leipzig want ESR included in a Upamecano deal. I always hate getting rid of young talents, and would rather pay extra, but if it's ESR or no deal then I think I'd have to say yes.

ESR is unlikely to make it as a first teamer, so include him into any deal.

The question you have to ask yourself is can one of these two men change our trajectory? I strongly believe one of them will while the other is still a question mark. 

Now the trick is in valuation. The Red Bull empire is a finishing factory so they will probably have both a good sense of what ESR can achieve and be able to give him the minutes between Leipzig and Salzburg. So they might already see a 25m pound player while we only see a 15m pound makeweight. But if we accept that the value differential is dependent on their inherent capabilities to exploit the player and increase the probability he achieve his potential, then we might have to accept it. 

I'd rather give them Guendouzi than Smith-Rowe if we're giving away youngsters.

Edit: But goon is right, just pay them instead. If we can bid £60 million for him we can pile on another £10 million too without going bankrupt.

It's a no from me. How much are Leipzig going to value ESR, £5m, £10m at most? Just pay up. Kid will be worth 3-4 times that with even average development at Leipzig.

Klaus wrote:

I'd rather give them Guendouzi than Smith-Rowe if we're giving away youngsters.

Edit: But goon is right, just pay them instead. If we can bid £60 million for him we can pile on another £10 million too without going bankrupt.

If you can do it with an ESR loan, even better for all involved. Send him out there for 2 years. He can come back with hair on his chest. 
Guendouzi will replace Xhaka in the next 24 months. Why would you send him away? 

They want him on loan. Just do it

[Twitter]

mdgoonah41 wrote:

this one is going to get done. welcome to arsenal

Fingers crossed - they're open to a deal so hopefully Raul swings in

Claudius wrote:

Guendouzi will replace Xhaka in the next 24 months. Why would you send him away? 

Because that's what I'm worried about. He looks like another Xhaka to me in that position. Bloke has all the makings of an attacking midfielder and zero of the intelligence and discipline that's needed at the base of central midfield.

Klaus wrote:

Claudius wrote:

Guendouzi will replace Xhaka in the next 24 months. Why would you send him away? 

Because that's what I'm worried about. He looks like another Xhaka to me in that position. Bloke has all the makings of an attacking midfielder and zero of the intelligence and discipline that's needed at the base of central midfield.

Interesting. We should discuss it further as the season progresses. I see him as a B2B who will develop a good variety of passes, have quicker ball releases than Xhaka and is more athletic. He will need to improve his toughness and defensive work, but I think he can learn. 

But back to Upamecano. If we are to say the top young defenders (u22) are guys like De Ligt, Konate, Upamecano, Dias, Diop, Saliba, etc, then there is a high likelihood that we could sign 2 of the top 10 young/upcoming defenders in the world in one summer. Crazy

Loaning them Smith-Rowe would make the deal even sweeter for me. Please make this happen, Raul!

This is all just so exciting. It seems like all the deals we used to invent on here; get this youngster he's going to be great, or nab that left back because we need one, get him in on loan to bolster us, send them this or that young player for a year to sweeten the deal, etc. It's not fantasy any more. Arsenal are making all these smart moves to get difficult deals done for highly sought after players on a limited budget.

It's magic. Thoroughly impressed if we get this boy in.

Ricky1985 wrote:

This is all just so exciting. It seems like all the deals we used to invent on here; get this youngster he's going to be great, or nab that left back because we need one, get him in on loan to bolster us, send them this or that young player for a year to sweeten the deal, etc. It's not fantasy any more. Arsenal are making all these smart moves to get difficult deals done for highly sought after players on a limited budget.

It's magic. Thoroughly impressed if we get this boy in.

In a minute we’re all gonna wake up with Wenger and Pat Rice standing at the end of the bed staring at us

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

This is all just so exciting. It seems like all the deals we used to invent on here; get this youngster he's going to be great, or nab that left back because we need one, get him in on loan to bolster us, send them this or that young player for a year to sweeten the deal, etc. It's not fantasy any more. Arsenal are making all these smart moves to get difficult deals done for highly sought after players on a limited budget.

It's magic. Thoroughly impressed if we get this boy in.

In a minute we’re all gonna wake up with Wenger and Pat Rice standing at the end of the bed staring at us

More like Dick Law and Gazidis: the real culprits for our shitty transfers.

Please bring him in.

Also, no to an ESR sale.

Definitely don't sell Smith-Rowe. I think Emery rates him too, so doubt we'll be seeing him leave on a permanent deal.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

This is all just so exciting. It seems like all the deals we used to invent on here; get this youngster he's going to be great, or nab that left back because we need one, get him in on loan to bolster us, send them this or that young player for a year to sweeten the deal, etc. It's not fantasy any more. Arsenal are making all these smart moves to get difficult deals done for highly sought after players on a limited budget.

It's magic. Thoroughly impressed if we get this boy in.

In a minute we’re all gonna wake up with Wenger and Pat Rice standing at the end of the bed staring at us