Watched a few compilations. Not impressed at all.

Which is actually quite a positive review from our Kel

Claudius wrote:

Anzac wrote:

The only problem is that 25m saving in wages is accumulated over the season and is not available as a lump sum able to be used too make an up front payment on a transfer.  What we can do is then use that known saving to then take a loan for that amount and then pay it off through the season as those savings are made - instead of paying the players each week/fortnight/month we pay the loan - only issue is our financial policy does not allow for us to do so as it effectively increases our debt, and the only debt we are willing to accept is that related to the stadium.

IMO it is the lack of on hand Cash and poor cash flow that hampers us in being able to make such payments more than once during a transfer window.  As a club we are rich enough in terms of revenues, but we can't use them to our advantage when we need to because of our financial strategy/policy.

Exactly. Cash flow can be managed with a simple facility at the bank. But the bank is smart enough to see that you have a bunch of paperweights off your books and can give you the cash up front for the next 12 months. We still have a top 4 wage bill. After all these years of playing in Baku.

And I think we understand how/why re the above, as we are more likely to look to extend on an improved contract when we lack the cash on hand to effect any replacement via the market.

£22m release clause. A no brainer really.

According to Fabrizio. It would be a Gabriel type signing for midfield.

That's a bit of a reach.

Gabriel is the center of our defense and has massively improved us with consistency through the entire game.

Szobozlai is capable of moments of magic (great shooter) but he's not yet a CM/AM that will be on the ball all game. He would do well alongside a tempo setter or in a three man midfield. But he's not yet able to lift an entire CM by himself.

People had the same question marks over Gabriel when he was being linked. One footed, slow, lacked experience etc, who knows if Mari was fit, he may not even be playing now, but a mixture of physical attributes makes a massive difference in the PL, and Szobo seems to have that as does Gabriel, which makes him tailor made for the role.

The bell strikes again. Claims we are in prelims talk for Szobo

At 22m it doesn’t really matter if he’s world class or not. Get it done.

Szoboszlai in Jan

Aouar in the summer.

Make a decision on Pepe and Lacazette this summer. Too many good young attacking players out there to be messing about for another year.

If Pepe cost £30m i doubt anyone would have had an issue with him really. I also doubt we’d be able to get much more than that if we were to sell him. So with that in mind, it doesn’t really make sense to sell him. Folks just have to let go of the ridiculous fee we paid.

Claudius wrote:

Oh boy.
How much of Pépé’s troubles are down to him and how much are down to environment.
Has he had a run of 5 games where he mostly played in his preferred position with half decent players around him in their own positions?
Right now every player looks like a dog. I’m disappointed by Pépé but I think he is a very special case of a guy who has been here for 15 months and hasn’t found 2 months of stability to just perform.

I personally would start Pepe from now on.

I think with confidence he would smash the league.

The issue is, if the coach doesn’t trust him, then get in an attacking player that he will trust and use.

Claudius wrote:

Goon, I don’t think you should approach the selling decision like that.
We should give him enough time to prove himself. I don’t think he’s had that time. The team has been in transition and things have been topsy turvy.
Once you feel he has had enough time you should sell if you do not fancy him. Hanging onto someone because you bought them for a ton of money and they might only sell for a small amount now is you making 2 bad decisions on that player if you ultimately think they’re bad.*

*only consideration should be your overall accounting profit across all transactions.

I think you got me wrong. I’m saying I think his value is making people want to cash in on what is actually a good player who’s producing to an extent, just not to the level of a £70m player. But with our current options on the wings and and what is available out there, he’s not really worth selling.

This is definitely happening. The price is right

Ray wrote:

People had the same question marks over Gabriel when he was being linked. One footed, slow, lacked experience etc, who knows if Mari was fit, he may not even be playing now, but a mixture of physical attributes makes a massive difference in the PL, and Szobo seems to have that as does Gabriel, which makes him tailor made for the role.

Who the hell said Gabriel is slow?

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Watched a few compilations. Not impressed at all.

I'd actually agree with this. He definitely has end product with his passing and mainly his goal scoring ability. But the rest of his game didn't really stand out if I'm being honest.

Looks like someone to play in attack than midfield from what I've seen.

Get him in, play him at 10 as you say, play Partey and Ceballos at the base and then go for Aouar or not based on how that base works out.

Get him in, he's available for a decent price and we need goals from midfield. Those set pieces wouldn't go amiss either. somehow every player that comes here suddenly starts taking the shittest free kicks and corners of their career

I think it's more the instructions when it comes to set pieces. Pépé put in excellent corners last season, I don't believe that he suddenly only manages to hit them low at the first post.

Same goes for Wilian. They're clearly being asked to whip it hard just beyond the near post while the players crowd the keeper. It's a difficult technique and the margin for error is small though so it just looks pathetic most of the time.

It might be the players need time to learn to hit the ball the way they want.
Or that the FK specalist coach worked with players who can hit it the way he wants and our players can't and he needs to adjust.
Or simply arteta hired the wrong set piece coach and replaces him in the summer

Either way it's a teething issue thats likely to be resolved soon, arteta doesn't hang about.

Talking about set pieces and corners. I don’t know why clubs don’t use the near post flick on. Seemed like we score every week that way under George Graham with the likes of Adams, Bould and Linighan flicking it on

I suppose the trouble is these days we’d need someone to have Mustafi on their shoulders

Is it your money?

I can see Kel's, and other's, concerns with Szoboszlai's game outside of his phenomenal ball-striking. He doesn't look a playmaker to me, not at this stage of his career anyway. Perhaps in a City-style dual 10/playmaker system; De Bruyne and David Silva ahead of Fernandinho worked incredibly well, and masked the fact that neither De Bruyne (especially 3 or 4 years ago) or Silva on their own were quite Özil-like enough to run the play entirely through.

Szboszlai  Aouar
Partey

That midfield would a something special!

Claudius wrote:

Very few players are Bergkamp, Riquelne or even Ozil though Ricky. Coaches are training them to be generalists, and managers are creating teams with more distributed chance creation patterns. So that risk is not massive. I’d worry more about goals in the run of play, even things like taking chances versus looking to make the play. In their recent Europa games, Willock and Nelson looked to shoot when they could’ve passed. He can have more of that.

Those were the days where we enjoyed clubs building the entire team around a artistic number 10. Ozil is not quite at that style where he is super influential and responsible enough to be built around, more of a luxury cog in a successful team. But there were so many those days that were super artistic like Riquelme, Zidane, Laudrup, Totti, Hagi, Francescoli and also some underwhelming but similarly stylish players like Ortega, Gourcuff, Micoud, Djorkaeff.

Nowadays the most effective number 10s are the functional ones rather than the stylish ones like KDB.

KDB has supreme vision and passing. Very similar to Bergkamp.

He does but KDB is very functional too to be honest. Pep doesn’t really allow for free spirits.

What’s his passing range like for those who’ve watched him?