I rhink Nelson is a much better talent than Nketiah.

He probably has higher upside but I think he more than any player will need time on the field to fashion his game. Nelson is going to be a Muller type player. That’s a pretty complicated role. He needs time to learn all the different intricacies of playing off people, scoring, setting up attackers, defending etc. His technical level is high but I think the hours needed on the field will also be high. It’s the sort of thing where we need to take a Saka type decision and play him a lot. But he has Pépé and Willian ahead.

Claudius wrote:

I don’t subscribe to the chelsea model of keeping everyone forever. It’s not clear that either CHO or RLC have benefitted, for example.

On the other hand, Liverpool seem very adept at selling their fringe youngsters who have the slightest bit of hype around them.

Sold Solanke, Ibe, Danny Ward, Ryan Kent etc for a substantial amount of profit.

They seem to be repeating the trick this summer with Hoover and maybe even likes of Harry Wilson and Brewster.

... and this Dutch defender is proving valuable in the Jota negotiation. Jota had 20 goal contributions last year. That’s more than Pépé or Saka, and they are getting him for £10m in a trade-in. That’s good squad management. Now they’ll have someone who addresses their biggest area of insecurity, a potential injury to the front 3.

Claudius wrote:

He probably has higher upside but I think he more than any player will need time on the field to fashion his game. Nelson is going to be a Muller type player. That’s a pretty complicated role. He needs time to learn all the different intricacies of playing off people, scoring, setting up attackers, defending etc. His technical level is high but I think the hours needed on the field will also be high. It’s the sort of thing where we need to take a Saka type decision and play him a lot. But he has Pépé and Willian ahead.

Nelson is 20 though, Wilian is 32.

On that note, Martinelli is 19, Auba is 31. 

Laca will probably go next year if he doesn't go this year too. 

There's plenty of scope in the next 1, 2 and 3 years for all of these guys to take over. 

As for Aouar, I think he's a bigger threat to Willock than anyone else. Which is why I had him on my list to go out on loan, and I reckon he's the one most likely to be shipped out in the next 12 months.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I rhink Nelson is a much better talent than Nketiah.

I don't think Arteta is going to lose much sleep over building talent versus realizing application. 

He seems to be focused on short term results built upon players who are results oriented. It's why we may see Willian starting over Pepe, Nketiah over Nelson, ESR on loan, AMN/Douzi almost forced out, etc. 

Nketiah certainly has a lower ceiling than Nelson, but Nelson has done so little to suggest he's playing above (improving) his floor. I'd imagine Nelson will be sold if he doesn't get 25 appearances this year and crack 10 contributions (goals/assists). 

Nelson is more talented but Nketiah seems to have the stronger mentality and works more for the team.

Nelson needs a kick up the backside. Really can’t be having a repeat season as last year. Look at Saka in comparison.

I think Nelson's workrate is very good, it's his power I find lacking. Saka has him beat, physically, and that as well as his mentality (possibly lacking concentration across 90 mins, bit lacking in seriousness) is where I think he falls short.

If Simeone really is interested in Torreira we'll get Aouar and Partey.

I doubt we're getting two high-profile players in. Partey and Aouar is an investment of over £100 million on top of whatever we've already spent (£30 million on Mari and Gabriel, and you'd expect another £8-10 million to be earmarked for a new goalkeeper). There's no way we can cope with that even if Willian and Cedric were free.

To make a prediction, I think we're getting an attacking midfielder and a goalkeeper (or perhaps two), and that's pretty much it. We'll probably try for Aouar but I don't think we'll get him. Felipe Anderson on loan seemed more like the kind of deal we're looking to do this summer, but those rumours went away very quickly. I have my personal preferences for players we could go for, but I don't think they're shared by the club. Not sure what Arteta's alternatives to Aouar would be.

I don’t think they'll cost more than 100m to be honest.

Have faith, Klaus. Aouar is on his way.

I'm starting to feel we should just go to war with what we have. There's room for one or two good players but in the main we have a pretty good idea right now of what most match-day squads will look like I reckon.

I've always believed that the big improvement this season was going to be internal. Emery was such a lousy manager that he made people forget he had a squad that was top four quality.

I agree wholeheartedly that our squad is already a lot better than most give it credit for, but we absolutely need to fix the midfield. It was bad enough last year, now we’re losing Torreira and Douzi (in spirit at the very least). Determined for us to play with a conventional back 4 more often than not, and clearly that’s not going to happen with Arteta with the midfielders we currently have on the books.

Klaus wrote:

I'm starting to feel we should just go to war with what we have. There's room for one or two good players but in the main we have a pretty good idea right now of what most match-day squads will look like I reckon.

I've always believed that the big improvement this season was going to be internal. Emery was such a lousy manager that he made people forget he had a squad that was top four quality.

What do you mean by "we should just go to war with what we have"? There's no harm in trying to sign better players. Best case we get them, worst case we do what you say - go to war with what we have.

People often say a manager doesn’t add much, but I recall last season folks saying we need to sell everyone when we’d hit rock bottom. Emery took our cojones and cast them in the fire. There is still so much internal improvement to come, but we need to create more avenues for connectivity to the front 3. We need to make it much easier for Aubameyang, Nketiah and Pépé to just get on the end of chances. Think of Aubameyang’s goals. He still puts in so much work. I want him scoring those easy goals he had at Dortmund. Willian and Ceballos will help but I think Aouar in the center would also go a long way.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I'm starting to feel we should just go to war with what we have. There's room for one or two good players but in the main we have a pretty good idea right now of what most match-day squads will look like I reckon.

I've always believed that the big improvement this season was going to be internal. Emery was such a lousy manager that he made people forget he had a squad that was top four quality.

What do you mean by "we should just go to war with what we have"? There's no harm in trying to sign better players. Best case we get them, worst case we do what you say - go to war with what we have.

No, I think we should be conservative with what we spend, and how we spend it. Like I said, there's room for a good player or two, but we should also be mindful that there might be better opportunities next summer if we don't burn all our resources now just for the sake of appeasing the fans with signings. We can't really afford to make another Pepé signing for a second summer in a row, for instance. That's exactly the kind of reactive stuff we have to move away from.