Okay I just read it's a loan until his contract expires we're going to have to pay £20-30K per week of his wages.

Still 6/10.

Talk that Madrid will terminate Ceballos’ loan and sell him to Milan or Juve

I’m ok with that

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Talk that Madrid will terminate Ceballos’ loan and sell him to Milan or Juve

I’m ok with that

It also meets the criteria for Arteta to sell before he buys, as it effectively frees up space in the squad as well as our non-domestic player numbers.

Shame that Ceballos didn't kick on, he ended last season quite well.

Seems a player who compromised too much and moved away from his natural position/tendencies. He's more of a 10 than an 8 because he lacks the speed to play deeper.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Sabitzer would be ideal

For the Bundesliga fans here, what kind of player is he?

Only seen him in the Chanpions League and so probably aren’t best to answer that. But he strikes me as a versatile attacker who plays with a lot of energy and urgency. Carries a goal threat too along with decent work rate.

A bit like Eriksen and Thomas Muller hybrid

JazzG wrote:
@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Sabitzer would be ideal

For the Bundesliga fans here, what kind of player is he?

He’s excellent.
He’s a right 8. Incredible shooting technique - some of the best I’ve seen. He has scored some incredible long range shots in the run of play. Also excellent set pieces both direct and indirect. Very good passing ability. Athletic, a really good pressing midfielder. He’d be an excellent buy.

Question is do we put him right 8, Partey left 8, and one of El Neny / Xhaka in behind? And rotate ESR in?

Kola done by the sounds of it, loan with no obligation, we subsidise the salary (he’s also taking a pay cut). Good start to the window.

https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/B3-WeTG1Jku0p-Npl96dPw/Show/The-creative-star-Arsenal-must-pursue-next-month
Brandt - his key passes numbers are head and shoulders above what we have.
Only issue I have is IMO our CMs are at least half the issue in terms of our transition, let alone creativity,
so signing more creative AM types like Brandt or Buendia will not address the issue in midfield in getting the ball forward in the first place.

Claudius wrote:
JazzG wrote:

For the Bundesliga fans here, what kind of player is he?

He’s excellent.
He’s a right 8. Incredible shooting technique - some of the best I’ve seen. He has scored some incredible long range shots in the run of play. Also excellent set pieces both direct and indirect.  Very good passing ability. Athletic, a really good pressing midfielder. He’d be an excellent buy.

Question is do we put him right 8, Partey left 8, and one of El Neny / Xhaka in behind? And rotate ESR in?

IMO he can play alongside Partey as twin pivots in a 4231 as seen at RBL.
He'd also be my pick to replace PEA as Captain with Tierney stepping up as Vice Captain.

goon wrote:

Kola done by the sounds of it, loan with no obligation, we subsidise the salary (he’s also taking a pay cut). Good start to the window.

1 down, 10-12 left to go

and yes to sabitzer. might be a bit expensive though

Weird to be loaning out our only backup LB and still subsidise his wages.

And Schalke is not staying up, fat hope for a permanent deal

Not weird.
He’s not a key squad player. AMN and Cedric are much better footballers., and here for the long term.
So by loaning him, we use AMN/Cedric more, which is good for them, better asset utilization.
We reduce our wage bill.
We probably also improve competition. Players train with more likelihood of a squad place. Imagine training with Ozil and Sokratis who only have Fortnite and porn on the mind. This guy isn’t much better off

Claudius wrote:

He’s excellent.
He’s a right 8. Incredible shooting technique - some of the best I’ve seen. He has scored some incredible long range shots in the run of play. Also excellent set pieces both direct and indirect.  Very good passing ability. Athletic, a really good pressing midfielder. He’d be an excellent buy.

Question is do we put him right 8, Partey left 8, and one of El Neny / Xhaka in behind? And rotate ESR in?

Interesting, need to watch some videos of him. Seen him heavily linked to Spurs in recent weeks.

Also being linked to Brandt, Brandt strikes me as someone who’d play higher up the pitch.

I am warming up to Sabitzer too. Always thought in the past he was a little awkward being converted to CM but these days he looks like a superb all rounder.

Calico reporting that we will let Ceballos go to juve or inter on loan in exchange for taking Isco here. Weird rumour

Clrnc wrote:

I am warming up to Sabitzer too. Always thought in the past he was a little awkward being converted to CM but these days he looks like a superb all rounder.

Calico reporting that we will let Ceballos go to juve or inter on loan in exchange for taking Isco here. Weird rumour

It probably means we are serious about CM.
Ceballos is not pogos enough to but sadly. Has really disappointed me. Why persist?

Nice to hear activity is ramping up. From what Arteta said it seems as though we have a firm plan. Hopefully we can execute it without any or many hiccups

Bild claims we will receive a 3M loan fee and Kolasinac will waive half his wages. Fairplay to him if that's the case.

Colour me a skeptic, but I'm not sure I buy the need to prioritise transfers Out ahead of addressing the team needs in Jan,
and less so when we are already going to lose a half dozen or more players out of contract at the end of the season.

Sure I understand the want to reduce the wage bill and purge the squad asap, but that should have been done last summer and not be the priority when the squad needs to improve in terms of quality IF we want to retain UEFA football for next season, let alone to have a shot at winning anything.

the sooner the dead weight is gone, the better. makes summer planning easier if we shift the duds now

Gazza M wrote:

the sooner the dead weight is gone, the better. makes summer planning easier if we shift the duds now

Agreed with this, but we've had the last 2 seasons to make it happen & the failure to do so before now indicates it is not a priority.

Shifting the dead weight is not going to make summer planning any easier as we know who is going to leave as free agents, and we need to strengthen/improve if we do not want to see other players depart if we fail to retain UEFA next season.

IF the comments ARE genuine that it IS the club priority for Jan, then IMO we still have got our priorities 'wrong'.

We can't really keep adding players without letting some go though. We already have 2 senior players not registered and Saliba completely excluded from the squad. We need to make room for more signings. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to work on out goings and incomings though.

If we fail to get European football next season, and that looks very likely right now, then the squad needs a massive trimming down. Without the Europa to give players minutes we'll have to put a lot of players out on loan and sell off even more than we thought too.

JazzG wrote:
@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Sabitzer would be ideal

For the Bundesliga fans here, what kind of player is he?

I like Sabitzer, but I'm not sure how well his standout attributes - which, I would say, are his stamina and athleticsim - will transfer to the Premier League, where practically every midfield boasts those qualities.

If you want a player that he reminds me of, and I know this won't go down well, but it's Scott Parker when he was at his best.

Don't see anything special in Sabitzer.

Fair play to Kola.

News all running about Brandt now. Reportedly close along with Isco

Edit: I don't mind that comparison much Ricky. Tbh Parker was really good at his peak

Not having to watch Kolasinac play for my team ever againwould be great. I hope the rumours about a purchase option if Schalke stay up are true. I'll take him being gone for now though. The greedy numpty should have gone to Leverkusen in the summer.

And I'd take Brandt gladly. Yes, he's a bit lazy and can look, and play, like he's carrying too much weight at times, but the guy has superstar technique and is very intelligent. Exactly the kind of player we are lacking. I'd certainly take the chance on him, especially given he's still only 24.

Wouldn't mind if we can get him in on a loan with an option to buy. We have almost nothing to lose in the next 6 months so try him and if it goes well, that's great, else we go back into the market in the summer.

Getting in Brandt and possibly Isco, for the next 6 months is really good. It is an audition without risk really.

Ozil is the only player we have similar, and he will not play for us again.

If those two come in, with a CM, we would have really done a great job in the window. The CM needs to be a long term solution though.

Isco and Brandt seems overkill when we have ESR trying to break through, and crowded flanks (Martinelli/Saka/Pepe).

Is there not a mobile, defensively responsible CM out there who can be an upgrade on Xhaka/El Neny/Ceballos?

ESR is great but we’re talking about making a 20yr old with 3 PL starts and an injury prone record our ONLY option in the CAM/10 role. We need another option in there, ideally one maybe who can double up deeper as a CM.

Sure, I just don't think we need two.

Elshewhere, Eric Garcia to Barca confirmed....I know a few on here will feel that's a bullet dodged.

Qwiss! wrote:

We can't really keep adding players without letting some go though. We already have 2 senior players not registered and Saliba completely excluded from the squad. We need to make room for more signings. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to work on out goings and incomings though.

If we fail to get European football next season, and that looks very likely right now, then the squad needs a massive trimming down. Without the Europa to give players minutes we'll have to put a lot of players out on loan and sell off even more than we thought too.

Agreed with the first part.  I'm not saying we shouldn't be looking to offload as many as possible in Jan, just that it should not be the priority ahead of strengthening where it is so blatantly obvious we need to do so in order to improve the team struggles.  If we fail to add the players needed then nothing changes to improve the team over the remainder of the season, whereas as a worst result we can send players out on loan on subsidised wages to get them out of the club.  This purge should have been more the priority last summer not mid-season.

As for trimming down ahead of next season  we already have Ozil, Luiz, Sokratis, Mustafi departing as free agents from the senior squad, whilst Ceballos' loan will end (if not sooner).
Kolasinac leaving now is a bonus.  Lacazette will have 1 season remaining in the summer, Xhaka needs to go & there is noise around the Barca elections involving interest in Bellerin.
That's at least 5 players already leaving and up to 9 players OUT to provide a purge.  

Point being the purge IS already going to happen in the summer regardless, but it could become an exodus if we don't prioritise actually trying to fix the team before then.
My concern with the recent comments is that it's already got the excuses lined up ahead of trying to do anything, and doesn't set the right message IMO.

MistaT wrote:

Isco and Brandt seems overkill when we have ESR trying to break through, and crowded flanks (Martinelli/Saka/Pepe).

Is there not a mobile, defensively responsible CM out there who can be an upgrade on Xhaka/El Neny/Ceballos?

IMO this should be THE priority in Jan as our lack of urgency in the middle is killing our transition forward.

I don't necessarily want/need a creative passing playmaker like an Ozil type as CM, but I do want a progressive passing player to provide 'key passes' to get the ball forward into dangerous areas to feed the attack, rather than the attack also looking to do the same via the likes of Willian.  

Good luck Sead.