goon wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

By all accounts we made a 2nd bid.

That's not true, quite a few contradictory reports that say we never put in an official bid, with reliable people on either side. 

Reading between the lines, my guess is we basically "bid" or put in an enquiry without officially bidding, Buendia probably sussed that we're not 100% committed to signing him and just went for Villa instead. Basically like the Higuain/Suarez situation. It's probably why Villa got it done so quickly. 

Like I said earlier, it's fine if we get Odegaard or someone else higher up the list, but if we don't...

Apparently our 'interest' was real, but not much else.
I keep seeing that Odegaard is the #1 choice but I didn't see Buendia as an either/or scenario as they are different types of players.

Edu will be looking to unearth another option in Brazil.

Honestly the only reason I'm not completely livid with this outcome is that Liverpool weren't in for him, and I thought he'd be the right profile for them. I'm assuming then there's something these guys see that I don't.

why would liverpool be in for him? he's not quick enough to play as a winger for them, and they don't use a 10

Liverpool generally play 2-3 physical midfielders in their centre and have their technical option in Thiago.

On the wings, it's consistently fast players with a defensive striker.

I'd be more concerned about bissouma coming in and replacing WIjnaldum in that midfield.

Gazza M wrote:

why would liverpool be in for him? he's not quick enough to play as a winger for them, and they don't use a 10

because, for me, in CM he's still better than Henderson or Wijnaldum, arguably even Fabinho. Buendia is not just a Right Forward + #10, he's also a #8.

Some time back we compared him with Maddison, and the general opinion was that they were roughly of the same level albeit different players. Maddison is essentially unreachable now and by no account has Buendia regressed since then.

Wheatley and Bell revealing more info on our failed bid. Basically Villa's bid is more enticing to Norwich and Buendias camp. We offered similar but different structure.

So it's basically just finance that we lost out. Nothing special.

banduan wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

why would liverpool be in for him? he's not quick enough to play as a winger for them, and they don't use a 10

because, for me, in CM he's still better than Henderson or Wijnaldum, arguably even Fabinho. Buendia is not just a Right Forward + #10, he's also a #8.

Some time back we compared him with Maddison, and the general opinion was that they were roughly of the same level albeit different players. Maddison is essentially unreachable now and by no account has Buendia regressed since then.

Comparing Fabinho or Henderson or Wijnaldum to Buendia is absurd. Apples to oranges.

And saying he's better is even more so.

I rate Buendia a lot as evidenced by my posts here but comparing him to 3 players who've been quite consistent for 2-3 in the PL to a title-challenging standard is not on.

All of them pretty much play a part of pressing, harrying and ball winning while the main creators in the team are the full-backs (Arnold & Robertson) and the forwards to each other.

Sicario wrote:

Fuck Buendia. Two years ago Villa were in the Championship and he wants to choose them over us? Time to close this thread and forget this cunt.

This is a very tribalist attitude even for a supporter. We should've offered him better terms than a club that was just in the Championship if we wanted him to choose us. 

I don't think we can afford to be arrogant and just keep quoting we are Arsenal when we don't behave like one. On paper the Villa team is not that far away from us and thoroughly outplayed us twice last year.

Martinez Cash McGinn Mings Grealish would easily get into our team, although that says more about our team than their quality

We aren't the same Arsenal football club. We are a midtable shambles with clueless classless owners who lack ambition and a boring manager with a cowardly footballing philosophy.

Sicario wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

This is a very tribalist attitude even for a supporter. We should've offered him better terms than a club that was just in the Championship if we wanted him to choose us. 

We are Arsenal football club.

This time next year we may as well lose out on players to Brentford.

Isn't this Brentford's first ever PL season? As far as names go the distance between them and Aston Villa is much farther than between us and Aston Villa.

And I'm not saying we're not a big name, I'm saying that our big name doesn't mean we can offer worse financial terms both to Norwich and Buendia than Aston Villa did and expect a player to join us despite that just because our name is Arsenal.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Sicario wrote:

We are Arsenal football club.

This time next year we may as well lose out on players to Brentford.

Isn't this Brentford's first ever PL season? As far as names go the distance between them and Aston Villa is much farther than between us and Aston Villa.

And I'm not saying we're not a big name, I'm saying that our big name doesn't mean we can offer worse financial terms both to Norwich and Buendia than Aston Villa did and expect a player to join us despite that just because our name is Arsenal.

But according to those reports there wasn't a material difference in the offers and it also doesn't sound like there was much in the way of negotiations. If Buendia really wanted to come here but wanted us to match the pay, it would have simply been drawn out longer. I mean the transfer window isn't even open yet, why the great rush?

Similarly from our point of view, if we really wanted Buendia why lose out because we want it structured differently? The narrative that it's down to money just doesn't wash with me.

If I had to put up a theory I'd say he'd not our first choice, we would have liked this to be drawn out but Villa knew their best chance of getting him was forcing it through quickly. From Buendia's perspective, if you know you're only a backup option, you go with the team who wants you most.

The name doesn't matter much to players. If we had European football no doubt Buendia would have pushed a lot harder to come here than to Villa.

Will be funny if Villa get relegated next year.

Seems unlikely unless they lose a few of Grealish, Watkins, McGinn, Traore, Mings, etc