Klaus wrote:

Claudius wrote:

He's a good player, but I have no fucking idea what we are trying to do in attack. Are we selling one of our strikers?

I'm starting to get anxiety about the Aubameyang to United rumours.

Stop it Klaus. No need to spout such things.

Claudius wrote:

Bold Tone wrote:

Barcelona reportedly offered Premier League clubs the option to bring him in for the season for a fee of £27million which would include a further option to buy.

Coutinho is refusing to leave the Nou Camp in a loan deal and would instead prefer to leave permanently, should he have to.
https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20190804/463852273950/coutinho-no-se-plantea-salir-cedido.html

£27m?! We can buy a whole Saliba for that. No thanks, sir

Correction: Between £20 and £25 million

under the old regime, i could see selling auba to a domestic rival, undoing all the previous good business we did in a window. under this new regime, i cant see that happening at all

Laurens called the M’vila deal early

Mirth wrote:

Didn't Emery rubbish this rumour?

The evening before we announced Pépé he said:

We are speaking about a lot of players, we want to select on players who can really help us, give us big performances and improve our squad. We have different options. This one at the moment is not closed, but he is one we are following.

He'd had his photos and first interview done by that point!

goon wrote:

mdgoonah41 wrote:

i mean, if we are getting him on loan and paying a modest loan fee, this seems fine. i wont overreact until we know the particulars

I mean the suggestion when we were first linked was they'd wan't something approaching a years worth of the fee they're paying Liverpool, which I think was £25m...

I assume that would be bullshit, but even a 10m loan fee plus what I assume would be substantial wages would cost us in excess of 20m.

Hopefully it is nonsense. This is more of a 'Woodward' rather than 'outsmarting the market'.

The £25m fee figure was wrong. It was included wages for the season. So you're probably right when you say something like a £10m loan fee. Although, if this is actually happening, maybe it's because they're desperate and have given us a deal we can't refuse?

mdgoonah41 wrote:

under the old regime, i could see selling auba to a domestic rival, undoing all the previous good business we did in a window. under this new regime, i cant see that happening at all

Not a fair comparison as that only happened once in 22 years, IIRC.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

mdgoonah41 wrote:

under the old regime, i could see selling auba to a domestic rival, undoing all the previous good business we did in a window. under this new regime, i cant see that happening at all

Not a fair comparison as that only happened once in 22 years, IIRC.

we gave united both robin van judas and alexis. we gave giroud to chelsea. we sold tons of players to man city (that worked out for the most part), we sold ox to liverpool, etc.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Laurens called the M’vila deal early

It's all come flooding back to me. He really went all in on that didn't he!

Coutinho, for me, is no Number 10. He lacks way too much to thrive there, and even Liverpool rarely played him there. The best I've ever personally senn hkm play was at the Emirates in his penultimate season for Liverpool. He played left wing in a 3 man forward line and he took Bellerin to the cleaners. Roasted him every single time one-v-one.

If there's truth to this, it might be to balance our effectively having 2 strikers on the pitch, with Pépé at right wing playing very high and looking to get in behind, and Coutinho deeper and more of a playmaker. Kind of Pires and Freddie-like?

mdgoonah41 wrote:

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Not a fair comparison as that only happened once in 22 years, IIRC.

we gave united both robin van judas and alexis. we gave giroud to chelsea. we sold tons of players to man city (that worked out for the most part), we sold ox to liverpool, etc.

Alexis and Giroud were not equivalent to RVP (then) or Aubameyang (now) by the time we sold them but even counting them it's 3 in 22 years.

Aubameyang is never being sold to United. Would be suicide for the new guys running the club.

if we did bring him in, i definitely think it would be to play LW in a 4-2-3-1. right now, we have iwobi and nelson there, and if we were content to just battle for 4th, then i think we'd go with what we have. a front 4 of

pepe -- laca -- coutinho
------- auba ----------

would be really really good. i dont think we're going to play with a traditional number 10, i think the goal is to play laca and auba off each other. id rather see a regular 4-3-3, but even then, coutinho fits at LW. doesnt have blistering pace, but hes a good dribbler and can create in space

The only player we lost to a rival who was a big blow was RvP.

• Sanchez had clearly lost his explosiveness.
• Giroud had held us back for years.
• Adebayor's and Nasri's purple patches had ended.
• Toure was past his best. Clichy was Clichy.

I wasn't sorry to see any of them leave. Aubameyang would be a different story, and I'm certain he's not going anywhere.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Laurens called the M’vila deal early

which time? We signed him like six consecutive windows

mdgoonah41 wrote:

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Not a fair comparison as that only happened once in 22 years, IIRC.

we gave united both robin van judas and alexis. we gave giroud to chelsea. we sold tons of players to man city (that worked out for the most part), we sold ox to liverpool, etc.

I mean, the main reason we got rid of Giroud was so that we got Aubameyang - no one shed too many tears over that.

jones wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Laurens called the M’vila deal early

which time? We signed him like six consecutive windows

Lol. True.

The less minutes Ozil gets the better

jones wrote:

He managed to be wrong both about us signing him, the player being delighted and about that it would've been a great signing. 

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

jones wrote:

He managed to be wrong both about us signing him, the player being delighted and about that it would've been a great signing. 

I agree with what you said but I have to note that you said "both" and then listed three things. :quincy:

I'd rather play Iwobi than this half-pint turnip.

Spurs are front runners to get Coutinho apparently. It would be annoying to see him play for that shower of shite up the road.

No thanks to Coutinho. Would be a massive waste of ressources.

Not really if it's a loan.

He’ll head to spurs

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Not really if it's a loan.

That lessens the burden of course but it would not be a cheap loan. And we really don't need the player unless we're selling Özil. 

Although I don't think Özil has the capability to lessen the need for anyone, I agree that this isn't a priority. I just think that loaning Coutinho isn't as outrageuos as some make it seem. He was overrated when he was in the PL before, but nobody can tell me that Mkhi and Iwobi are close to him.

Hopefully this doesn't happen not a priority area for us and I don't think Coutinho would be right for us, far too inconsistent and we have enough of that already.

My worry here is that Coutinho is selfish, and hardly enables those around him. Don't want to see him as a focal point at the expense of Auba or Pepe, or even Laca. Also, a left flank of Coutinho + Kolasanic is going to be leeeeaaaaaky....at least Iwobi puts a shift in.

Rumours on twitter that this is back on!

This guy is suppose to be reliable.

We've had some eventful transfer windows but last few days have been absolutely mental with the players we are being linked with!

[Twitter]

Insane transfer window, can you imagine if Gazidis and Wenger were still in charge.

What da heck is going on at this club?!

JazzG wrote:

This guy is suppose to be reliable.

Barca fans on Reddit don't seem to think so. Tier 2/3.