If we sign Danny Rose I'm getting a militia of social media influencers together and I'm invading Artetas office.

I'll chip in pipebombs

Looks like Ozil is not eating any of his wages under his current contract and the move is still uncertain. Also rumours on Twitter that Betis are the only club in for Sokratis and they can't afford his wages so that move may not happen as well. So much for a bunch of January outgoings.

Qwiss! wrote:

If we sign Danny Rose I'm getting a militia of social media influencers together and I'm invading Artetas office.

jones wrote:

I'll chip in pipebombs

[font=Source Sans Pro]LOL. I've forwarded your details to the authorities.[/font]

It's tough to think of who might be a useful left back. I think one guy who might've been useful is Villareal's left back, Estupian. He is really good and only 22. And Emery got him this summer for only £15m. For that fee we could've gotten rid of one of our right backs and gotten great back-up for Tierney. He is a spirited attacker, so the left flank would still work well without Tierney. This Tierney issue will be a bit of a risk just because of the massive drop-off

To be honest, with a few exceptions, generally if you lose a player from the first XI and the drop off isn't somewhat pronounced then it probably means the first XI player isn't all that great, or less likely the back up player is too good to be a backup.

Oh yeah. You're right.
Our problem is probably less one of who plugs in when Tierney is gone and more one of this team needs to have more than Saka and Tierney as game-changers. That's really where the team lacks resilience. We are counting on Ceballos, Lacazette, Xhaka etc to make a difference. We need 1 or 2 more super quality folk

Totally. If we could get Pepe into good form it would make a huge difference.

I guess what else you could do to mitigate the loss is have the right type of backup, so the system doesn't suffer. So if Tierney is out and you have a full back who's at least gets forward well you're whole system isn't out the window.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Kurzawa is probably Arteta’s go to overpaid under enthused has been

Arteta's or Edu's?

goon wrote:

To be honest, with a few exceptions, generally if you lose a player from the first XI and the drop off isn't somewhat pronounced then it probably means the first XI player isn't all that great, or less likely the back up player is too good to be a backup.

I think the issue is exacerbated by managers/teams that can't adapt too. 

If we lose Tierney, we lose our main creative outlet. So Arteta needs to understand how to replace that by freeing up other players, or shifting our build up to favor other players. The problem right now, and why we're so scared to lose Tierney, is only Saka seems able to carry any consistent creative presence. ESR is getting there, Laca has helped, and Pepe can, but those three are providing far too few moments. 

By the way, what a weak Jan Tran window across the board.

Has anyone of note moved? Jovic on loan, anything else.....

I wasn't expecting much to come in, but I'm still amazed we can't shift anyone when we're at this point likely not even asking for a transfer fee.

Football really is fucked.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:

Football really is fucked.

This is better. Football was becoming too transfer obsessed. People need to coach their players. The last few years have been really unhealthy in terms of building healthy organisations. Too much turmoil driven by media and fan hunger for more transfers. Just coach up your players.

All our activity thus far took place in the first week.
Despite the talk re Ozil, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Runarsson there has been nothing other than speculation.

There has been nothing re the likes of Mustafi who is now likely to stay and leave as a free agent at the end of the summer = what is the point?

With about 2 weeks remaining this window currently seems as big a cluster fuck as was the summer in terms of failing to achieve the desired/required clear out. In tern this then impacts our inability to recruit effectively (let alone rebuild), and also continues to undermine Arteta's options re his 'non-negotiables' as well as eroding squad morale and performances from those players who will be out of contract.
IMO this is the level of incompetence/negligence that typifies our structures and decision making since the stadium project began.

There’s still plenty of time. As noted earlier, just like the summer there is little liquidity in the market. We are paying for our earlier sins in building a large squad of junk but I don’t think you can be too harsh at a time when every other team is struggling to dump salary and buy vital pieces

Claudius wrote:

It's tough to think of who might be a useful left back. I think one guy who might've been useful is Villareal's left back, Estupian. He is really good and only 22. And Emery got him this summer for only £15m. For that fee we could've gotten rid of one of our right backs and gotten great back-up for Tierney. He is a spirited attacker, so the left flank would still work well without Tierney. This Tierney issue will be a bit of a risk just because of the massive drop-off

We are not getting a LB for 15m. We just need a back up left back that's half decent. Kolasinac is not even acceptable and even then the drop off when AMN is playing is too big for us to ignore, especially when we are not playing a back 3.

I think someone like Jetro Willems would be perfect. Not sure how he's playing after that serious injury but a cheap deal to bring him in as backup would be good. That sort of backup that's pretty decent and won't cost a lot.

Talking about Villarreal, Emery says Pau Torres is the perfect Gabriel partner for us and he has never had a better defender than him

I think it's hilarious how people make such a big deal out of this. We won an FA Cup final with Maitland-Niles playing leftback and he was one of our best players on that day. Same thing with the Community Shield we won a few weeks later where he got awarded man of the match, again at leftback.

He had a lousy game against Crystal Palace and it's not going to be the last if it goes months between each start he gets. Nothing more to it than that. He's two full tiers or so above nonsense players like Kolasinac and Cedric.

Technically he played as a left wing back, and his highlights from those games were mainly his defensive work.

It's true though, he's clearly capable of a lot better than what we saw against Palace.

Probably not the best example, Liverpool are 16 points behind where they were this time last year...

Linked with Swansea goalkeeper (on-loan from Newcastle) Freddie Woodman as backup to Leno.

Apparently he has been very impressive at Swansea.

He has a son of Ramsey look about him

That's more like it. Proper young keeper as backup.

The other day we faced Palace, they signed Jack Butland as backup to Guaita for 1m. Cheaper than what we signed the Icelandic farmer for. And then everyone keep saying its impossible to find a cheap backup keeper.

Clrnc wrote:

That's more like it. Proper young keeper as backup.

The other day we faced Palace, they signed Jack Butland as backup to Guaita for 1m.

Jesus, how much has Butland's stock fallen?

Yeah someone made the same point on twitter, but apparently he's been awful for Stoke over the last couple of years.

What’s John Lukic up to these days?

I like the idea of having a Woodman between the woodwork 

Claudius wrote:

There’s still plenty of time. As noted earlier, just like the summer there is little liquidity in the market. We are paying for our earlier sins in building a large squad of junk but I don’t think you can be too harsh at a time when every other team is struggling to dump salary and buy vital pieces

Oh I'm sure we will see further departures even after the latest news re Ozil.
I just don't see us actually adding and starting quality players despite now having both the places in the 25 man squad AND wages to do so, and having to try to make do with what we have - again/still.

Further to that I think as a consequence we will also retain players who will then depart as free agents at the end of the season such as Mustafi, and Xhaka will be our established creative solution to our midfield issues, and Partey will be used as his baby sitter.

Sicario wrote:

What’s John Lukic up to these days?

Not Lukic but I saw something that Matt Ryan is on the outer at BHA & the club would be prepared to listen to offers.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Jovic is going on loan to Frankfurt. Wonder if he'll come good again.

Took him 20 minutes to equal his Madrid tally (of two) of the last 18 months

So what's the likelihood of us actually buying someone ? Haven't really followed, seen a few links to buendia

Would he play as a #10 hypothetically ?

Still time for something I guess as the window doesn't close until 11pm Mon 1st Feb, but tbh I'd be surprised if we did anything other than possibly a few more departures/loans. ATM I suspect they'll be trying to resolve Sokratis out and terminating Torreira's loan in order for him to go to Serie A.

buendias price tag seems prohibitive unless we really are sitting on unspent cash previously earmarked for aouar. bunedia can play as a 10 with a right side bias

Gazza M wrote:

buendias price tag seems prohibitive unless we really are sitting on unspent cash previously earmarked for aouar. bunedia can play as a 10 with a right side bias

There is no unspent cash anywhere during COVID when there are no match day revenues.

Buendia is an opportunity that has passed us by. He's too expensive now and they wont want to sell him in the summer either as they come back up to the Premiership.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Might get a back up goalie and that’s it

TBH that's probably our biggest need/priority right now for the remainder of the season.