Clrnc wrote:

This guy looks very good. Midfield maestro. 

Does look good yes. I should imagine he’s on our radar.

Love the the way he strikes the ball. Foot angled in slightly more than your average player producing a flatter flight. Xhaka has that.

Who would you guys rather we sign - Leao, Nkunku, or Kvaratskhelia?

Hmmmm, it'll be between Leao and Nkunku for me. And if I had to pick one, I'd go for Leao as I think he has the potential to be the best in the world. Nkunku will always be one tier below the Mbappe's and Haaland's but I can see Leao in that top tier category at some point.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Who would you guys rather we sign - Leao, Nkunku, or Kvaratskhelia?

Nkunku. He is absolutely deadly and we need more finishers in our team.

Is this the same Nkunku Emery was supposedly looking to sign when he was our head coach? I don't recall him being so hyped at the time. Clearly his time at RBL has done him a world of good!

Seem to remember Emery being ridiculed for wanting him and most of the fan base being very pleased with the signing falling through.

Yes. He was supposed to be the b2b midfielder Emery wanted to replace Ramsey with.

To be fair to Unai on hindsight most of his signings and decisions proved to be right

It wasn't clear to me what Emery was doing. He wanted a lot of good players, but if felt like an extension of the rudderless late Wenger era. At least now with Arteta, when I hear a transfer rumour, I can take it seriously or dismiss it quite quickly because his style is clear.

Nkunku though is excellent. Has consistently been one of my wishlist players for the last few years. He would've worked well here. Chelsea will fuck him.

We've had a bunch of signings fall through too though. Buendia instead of Odegaard, Tapsoba for even more than we paid for White, Lisandro, Raphinha Vlahovic etc

The Buendia vs Odegaard debate is one of the funnier things that’s happened. Just no comparison between the two. I’m glad we chose my capi.

Can't wait for Bissouma to age and we can laugh at that one too. Another one to to throw in the Lorik Cana bin.

Didn't we bid for Buendia? We chose not to buy him the same way we chose not to buy Vlahovic.

I thought it was similar to Tielemans where we supposed to be interested but never actually bid...?

Nah it was reported we bid for Buendia and that Norwich rejected it, we didn't want to improve the bid and Villa paid what they asked. Not sad about it as I didn't rate him that highly, just saying that the masterplan involved a couple of bullets dodged even disregarding Willian, Luiz' extension etc.

Mustafi extension too.

It's not all bed of roses but it still worked out well.

Maybe if we had successfully bought Buendia he would be shining for us too. Who knows?

Vlahovic would definitely still be a success for us I am pretty sure

Buendia is a top 6 ambition player. Not title push quality. Every piece counts now.

Claudius wrote:

Buendia is a top 6 ambition player. Not title push quality. Every piece counts now.

I'll hold my hand up and admit to saying I wanted Buendia - primarily because he adds a goal threat.  That said I think Vieira is his replacement in that regard. 

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Glad we didn’t get Aouar

I still suspect if we had signed him last season (and played him in the Xhaka role in our 433), that we would have made top4 and possibly top3.  I know Xhaka is doing well in the role now but we only started playing this shape and roles this calendar year.  IMO if we had signed Aouar we could have done so from the off last season.

On a side note I don't get how many pundits thought we'd still struggle to finish in the top4 this season despite our new signings, and particularly after how close we were to doing so last season.  Even more so when they say we bottled it, which means we were good enough to do so.

Our recruitment since Arteta arrived hasn't been perfect, but it's definitely been one of the reasons we've turned things around as successfully as we look to have.

If you told me that 30 months from now our only recruitment snafus will be a couple of free transfers that don't work out and a few questionable contracts offered then i'd bite your hand off. Especially if we continue to spend enough for some on here to laughably call Arteta a checkbook manager again.

Offering Mustafi an extension and signing Willian aren't even in the same stratosphere as some of the mistakes our rivals have made over the last few years. Even reading Mustafi's offer still being brought up here as a stick to beat the club with must mean we've been doing something right, because that was years ago, and if there were a string of decisions as bad as that then we would've stopped hearing about a contract that was offered to a player we paid to leave a few months later.

City might be the only team in the league who wouldn't want our record of successful transfers over the last couple of seasons. Lokonga is probably the only player we've spent 10+ mill on that hasn't been an undeniable hit. Pretty impressive.

Kinda disagree with that, I think the pivot to youth has been highly successful, both leading to success on the pitch and letting us cut our wage bill temporarily, and I agree we are showing a good degree of acumen about who we sign. Jésus and Zinchenko are both looking like great investments, Vieira too.

But we have been downright awful at selling.

Leaving aside more complex situations like Aubameyang, what happened with Maitland-Niles for example? Leno to Fulham? Bellerin? And cans kicked down the road like Pépé. It'll hurt when he leaves for nothing too.

Our posture in the transfer market about having a clear-out has disadvantaged us, but still, the return on players leaving has been the worst it's ever been at the club.

the overarching policy of getting quality players in the 21-25 bracket, that can deliver now and also have growth potential, is bang on. I've been beating that drum since 2013 as the best path for us to get back to the top, and that's been the best part of edtetas strategy. it's been achieved with unprecedented investment on the purchasing side and unprecedented write offs on the sales side. the untethered nature of our spending as it relates to player sales, all while being out of European competitions, is what surprised me in the last 3 years. I know the kroenkes have restructured loans to free up more cash, but the level of investment does feel like an all-in push to secure our place back in the top 4. this season is the first time I've seen our finances being called into question a bit as well, what with those headlines about FFP compliance a few weeks ago

in other news, it looks like neto will be off our shopping list. he's picked up another serious injury, this time his ankle


He really is an excellent midfielder. ffs

He's brilliant - we definitely missed a trick here. Ah well.

Newcastle are only a few players away from being quite a force

Yep, could see them sliding ahead of some of Liverpool, Chelsea and United over the next 2 years if they make the right moves.

It will be them and City. The formula is simple. Money, great manager. Great DoF.

Yeah Ten Haag turning things around very quickly

Eriksen was a very shrewd signing for this period in their development.

I know they're the only team to beat us this season so it's hardly fair to be arrogant, but I think they will continue to be slightly ineffective unless they go through a process similar to what we've been implementing with their squad.


Kind of wish we signed him early in his career. Would have been great for us

Mbappe wants to leave PSG. Get that mad Walmart money out

Haaland is rumoured to earn up to 1M euros per week at City. Count us out of the Mbappe discussion. It’s City, United and maybe the Spaniards. Even Liverpool would be taking a chance

Imagine Haaland and Mbappe at City. I don't think don't one team can score enough goals to satisfy both players individual aspirations. And City are quite evidently starting to play for Haaland so I think that rules City out.

United and Chelsea would be the best placed teams in England to make it happen. Probably too early for Newcastle. I don't think us or Liverpool can afford him.

Madrid seems the most sensible destination in Spain. Doubt Barca have the financial muscle and Bayern won't spend this kind of money.

Not too many options for the ninja turtle. I have a horrible feeling it'll be Chelsea. Him and Nkunku propelling them into the City sphere.

Mbappé is not going to United or Chelsea.

Current Chelsea does not have deeper pockets than us. Maybe willingness, but not capacity.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Willingness is what matters.

are you willing to shell out the 300m pounds that would be required to secure him?

Don't think our squad have space for him to be honest and he wouldn't want to sit on the bench