I'd take him on loan with Inter funding half his wages.

you guys will never learn.
next year it will be Cuadrado and Marcelo.

Claudius wrote:

you guys will never learn.

Does that mean you've finally learned after cheering on the Willian deal all summer?

Qwiss! wrote:

Claudius wrote:

you guys will never learn.

Does that mean you've finally learned after cheering on the Willian deal all summer?

I had that Willian deal all wrong. I honestly assumed that guy was going to allow us to blood Saka slowly. Saka is young, and the schedule is madly congested right now. I never believed he could be a 10, cos he isn’t. What I never imagined was that he would he would threaten Pépé’s career as is happening now. Arteta’s teaching me grown man lessons.

I though Willian was a buffer if Pepe didn't come good. Didn't think he'd be much of a threat to Saka's minutes, and so far he hasn't been. The bigger issues is that neither Willian or Pepe have risen a level based off the competition.

To be fair Claud, it worked exactly as you assumed in the last game.

Biggest problem with Willian isn't his role though, it's that he's playing like pure trash. Forget about making things happen, he's suddenly incapable of controlling a ball. This is what we assumed the 3rd year of his deal would look like. Hopefully it's just bad form.

So why does Pépé have 2 starts this season? It only worked that way last game. Hopefully over the course of the season, Arteta balances it out a bit more, and Pépé gets the chance to start more games when he’s back from his suspension.

FWIW Arteta flat out rejected the rumours of Berge but is coy about Eriksen. It's on

Ew, more old dross.

gross

arteta out

Don't mind it if it's a loan.

Eriksen's face is massive. It simply isn't welcome here.

Holding's hairline suddenly wouldn't be the worst one in the squad.

Holding's is way worse and he just turned 25.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Is Koita worth us looking at?

Dula, he’s not a bad shout actually. I would put him ahead of Daka. He’s the youngest of the African contingent, so hasn’t as many games. He’s pretty small, maybe 5’8”. What stands out

• can play across the front line.
• able to play in box and beyond. Typically likes to be in box to get on diagonals.
• good finisher. Typically leftie.
• what’s nice about him versus Daka is his mobility. He has a variety of ways to get away from the defender with his back to him, via flicks and just posting up and turning with good footwork
• has great movement off the ball. A bit like Saka
• presses well.

He’s young. Obviously as a striker his size would be very limiting, but he looks more well-rounded than, say, Nketiah. I think he was injured last season and was behind Minamino and Hwang in the rotation.

Fabrizio says Szoboszlai is our main target, Aouar was our main target in the summer and that Eriksen is down the pecking order of this theoretical list.

I imagine Szob is simply an opportunity too good to turn down rather than actually being first choice. It's one of those where he'd almost immediately be worth more than what we pay.

goon wrote:

Fabrizio says Szoboszlai is our main target, Aouar was our main target in the summer and that Eriksen is down the pecking order of this theoretical list.

I imagine Szob is simply an opportunity too good to turn down rather than actually being first choice. It's one of those where he'd almost immediately be worth more than what we pay.

Yea, It looks like he has huge potential so you can see why we'd want to roll the dice with that one. And aslong as hes better than willock hes be pretty much guarenteed a starting role here. So it's easy to see why he'd be tempted.

MistaT wrote:

Ew, more old dross.

IIRC Eriksen, Isco and Alaba are all 28 = hardly old & according to some age theories are not far into their peak years.
So far as signings go give them a 3 year deal whilst the youngsters develop, and they'd still have re-sale vale by the time the market recovers. 

We spend way too much.
What we need to do as a club is reduce our weekly wage bill. Significantly. Going into next season, we should have as few players as possible who are excess. So that might be Willian, Mari, etc. But most of the rest should be going. And it doesn’t make sense to keep adding more of these high cost veterans. Look for more Gabriel type investments. Arteta needs a fresh start as much as possible where he doesn’t have to stick Lacazette somewhere into the lineup.

Claudius wrote:

We spend way too much.
What we need to do as a club is reduce our weekly wage bill. Significantly. Going into next season, we should have as few players as possible who are excess. So that might be Willian, Mari, etc. But most of the rest should be going. And it doesn’t make sense to keep adding more of these high cost veterans. Look for more Gabriel type investments. Arteta needs a fresh start as much as possible where he doesn’t have to stick Lacazette somewhere into the lineup.

Agreed in principle but at the same time we need to be cognisant there is a difference in signing 32/33 year olds to a 28 year old who is/are only a year older than Partey and the same age as Leno for example.  

If they fill a requirement and are starting quality we should not automatically dismiss them if they are not yet 30 and are likely to have re-sale value at the end of a 3 year deal.  However if the price is not right or their personal terms re wages then we would be right to then walk away from any deal and move on.

In terms of our wages we are in line to reduce them by about 50+m next summer with the likely departures of Ozil, Mustafi, Sokratis, Luiz and Ceballos, let alone anyone we actually sell such as Xhaka and/or Laca.  Apart from reducing wages it also means we are losing a shit tonne of experience which the youngsters cannot bridge the gap without another couple of seasons of playing time, let alone in terms of winning titles etc.

The problem with a 28 year old is he has no resale value. If I was buying a 28 year old, I would ideally be buying them to round out a team that is ready to compete for something substantial. Otherwise my core focus now would be on investing on the team that will grow together. That means a few things

• fully exploit Aubameyang and Davis Luiz before they expire. We are wasting Aubameyang now
• dump older guys like Lacazette etc. They’re just taking up valuable space that you can use to..
• ... really test the kids and accelerate your time to a decision on what you can do with them
• add more Gabriel types who will grow together and allow you to have a dynasty.

That should be the general approach. Just buying an Isco or Eriksen is a nothing move. It’s an expensive guy who gets in the way of 3 and 4. A guy I wanted last year specifically was Silva because I thought he could help Mikel adapt offense. That’s a very specific role for a veteran. He’s been dynamite in Spain

Claudius wrote:

The problem with a 28 year old is he has no resale value. If I was buying a 28 year old, I would ideally be buying them to round out a team that is ready to compete for something substantial. Otherwise my core focus now would be on investing on the team that will grow together. That means a few things

• fully exploit Aubameyang and Davis Luiz before they expire. We are wasting Aubameyang now
• dump older guys like Lacazette etc. They’re just taking up valuable space that you can use to..
• ... really test the kids and accelerate your time to a decision on what you can do with them
• add more Gabriel types who will grow together and allow you to have a dynasty.

That should be the general approach. Just buying an Isco or Eriksen is a nothing move. It’s an expensive guy who gets in the way of 3 and 4. A guy I wanted last year specifically was Silva because I thought he could help Mikel adapt offense. That’s a very specific role for a veteran. He’s been dynamite in Spain

IMO he does if he is only on a 3 year deal = you sell him after 2 seasons when he is only 30 & his fee has amortised by more than half value.  The question is does your initial transfer allow you to recover any resale value.  People think MC made a loss when they sold Robinho for substantially less than the fee they initially paid, but they actually showed a profit after the amortisation on his initial fee.

IMO you don't dump Lacazette because he's 29, as opposed to doing so because he's not good enough to be a starting player and cost too much in terms of wages to not be a starting player.  
Similarly just because a player is younger doesn't mean they are good enough or worth the same level of fee or wages. 
 
The fees for the likes of Eriksen and Isco are being talked of as being about 13m & 18m respectively as clubs are trying to conduct a fire sale to reduce wages.  I also think players are going to be willing to accept lower wages in order to get playing time as it's a buyer's market.  
The test will be by how much they are willing to drop their expectations and how much they want to play.

On a separate note - would Milik better suit our linking CF role compared to the likes of Edouard / Dembele / Daka?

Bergkamp, Henry, Kanu and Wiltord were the dream. Remember the times we used to throw them all on at once when we needed a goal? The good old days

They could all play football. They could all score. Who can we say that about on our team now?

Wiltord, the one who got the most flak out of that lot, would probably be our best forward outside Auba.

Big Willie wrote:

Wiltord, the one who got the most flak out of that lot, would probably be our best forward outside Auba.

Wiltord is what Lacazette would be if he was a decent footballer. 

Big Willie wrote:

Wiltord, the one who got the most flak out of that lot, would probably be our best forward outside Auba.

Spot on.

What a shocking difference in quality. Hopefully window by window we start to turn it around.

I would also give Balogun and even John Jules some game time to what they have.

Big Willie wrote:

Bergkamp, Henry, Kanu and Wiltord were the dream. Remember the times we used to throw them all on at once when we needed a goal? The good old days

and that wasn't some one off freak occurrence either. we ended the manyoo 2-1 game at the emirates in 2007 with thierry, adebayor, rvp and julio baptista on the pitch. then wenger stopped prioritizing getting quality strikers.

Anzac wrote:

On a separate note - would Milik better suit our linking CF role compared to the likes of Edouard / Dembele / Daka?

There's another RB Salzburg forward, Sekou Koita, who just scored a hat trick in 19 minutes today!