The same thing as what?

Get in!

Seems like no option to buy. Will be renegotiated at end of loan deal like Ceballos

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

The same thing as what?

As Kike . He was close to Sociedad, we came in with a bigger bid, he will come here.

local sauces confirm he's coming here. he'll slot in nicely next to the other pass and move guys we have, but who loses out? play a fully adventurous style with partey/ESR/ode in the middle? or do some young guys get demoted to Europa duties?

He'll be the backup in case ESR gets injured again and will be a sub in cases where we need a goal or a more creative team I presume. If he's really as good as they say and we have a chance to get him on a permanent transfer, we can deal with that issue at the time I guess.

BWooley wrote:

He'll be the backup in case ESR gets injured again and will be a sub in cases where we need a goal or a more creative team I presume. If he's really as good as they say and we have a chance to get him on a permanent transfer, we can deal with that issue at the time I guess.

Doubt he'd be leaving Real because he's a bench warmer only to join Arsenal to be the same thing. He'll be coming with the idea that he'd get regular playing time as if not why leave Madrid?

Yep. It's the same thing when 2 years ago we are linked with Ceballos people keep saying he's backup to Willock like wtf?

Exciting.

Would like to see a 3 man midfield consisting of Ødegaard, Partey and ESR. That’s mouthwatering!

Oh fuck immense loan deal. Didn’t want to get my hopes up but waheey

More confirmation. Ozil has not left officially and we already got someone in

Bell: After consultation between Martin Ødegaard & his close circle, the player has decided to accept Arsenal’s offer. There is an agreement in principle on a deal & that will be announced as soon as possible.
It is likely that the Martin Odegaard deal will not contain a an option to buy, but all parties will reassess the situation and the next stage this summer.

The main man, Bell calling it as done.

Marca: Odegaard to Arsenal will be announced in the coming few hours

I'm ridiculously excited about this even though it's a loan deal. 6 years too late but better late than never

First Noggie since Pål Lydersen at ours isn’t it?

Never thought this would actually happen, let alone so soon

Excited to see him play for us, remember watching videos of him as a 15 year old playing in the Norwegian league and hoping he'd come to Arsenal at some point.

I do hope he won't relegate ESR to the bench, but I doubt it, they can play together, either with Emile on the wing or Ødegaard deeper and with ESR having had so many injuries in recent years, it's really nice to have a similarly talented player to slot into what appears to be an integral position to our attacking play if need be. I hope he ends up replacing Xhaka as a DLP tho, doubt it happens, but our midfield would go from one of the worst in the league at the start of the season to the most talented of the league in January.

This is fantastic. He was sensational for Sociedad. No option to buy is a real dampener for me though.

If his loan goes well we can convince him to stay.

He is a real talent. Partey, Gabriel and now him. Willian is forgiven.

Sicario wrote:

Guys don’t want to get my hopes high but is he Ceballos level technically or better?

Much better. Technically he is as good as they get.

03.13 in this:

His passing is better than any player in our squad. My biggest gripe with us for 2 and a half seasons has been how we have become a really poor passing side. He is better than anyone in our squad in my opinion at passing a football. I am just worried he could struggle with the pace in England and 4 months is too little time.

I’m not too excited about this if I’m honest. Cant say I’ve followed his career closely and I don’t remember him standing out in any la liga games I saw where Sociedad featured. I don’t have a good gauge for the quality of the player, and I’m not going to be convinced by one nutmeg and a goal keeping error. There’s something that screams not quite there yet about his game from the highlight video Kel posted.

What position does he play? 8? 10? Guess it will be a good option to have another creative in the midfield. Welcome and good luck.

Fantastic news to wake up to. Get a £40m double deal for him and Ceballos in the summer so Madrid can buy Mbappe.

We're going to be good at football again.

With you flob. The ideal of this guy always appealed to me for an Arsenal midfield but now that we're talking actual possibilities, my outlook is a bit muddled. All in all I wanted another creative/goal scoring addition in this month for us to take a top 5 ambition seriously, because relying on only a 20 year old with an injury record for an essential and yet scarce profile in the team would be negligent and reek of mediocrity for the season. This ticks it so I'm content. While MØ isn't exactly a grown man with CL mileage and experience to lift the campaign(which I think was needed to balance the inexperience of several starters), he is a loan option till the summer, talented, La Liga experienced, and I imagine able to swap with Smith-Rowe if needed.

Part of the muddled outlook has to do with wariness of his goalscoring potential, how quick his feet are and how close he likes to keep the ball. How markedly different his quality is to say Willock or Ceballos at 8, or Smith-Rowe at free roam attacking. It seems like ages since he was making noise at Real Sociedad (at least to a casual like me) so maybe it'll all be a super reminder if/once its sealed.

If there is no option in this deal he needs to be back up and nothing more.

Gazza M wrote:

his penetrative passing stats are up there with Messi in la liga. hopefully he brings that to the table

His final ball is Fabregas level quality, it's absolutely sensational. Now he's not yet shown himself to be a patch on a prime Cesc, and there's a good chance he never will reach that level, but he does have every tool in his locker.

I like his style. He has a really nice turn of pace and change in direction seems an excellent pass and move player but I don't see some unbelievable passing ability like some seem to say. I do like the thought of him playing slightly deeper however. Seems to have that ability of Santi to get out of tight situations with some quick feet and trickery as well as the ability to get the ball forward quickly. I don't know if Partey and Odegaard can work as a double pivot in the 4231 with ESR but if that could work then it this signing could turn out to be a real multiplier effect.

As a player playing further up the pitch he looks like a decent player, potentially a really good player but doesn't look like a immediate difference maker. I get the feeling that he's a player that is still developing rather than a ready made close to finished product for us. From the videos I've seen he doesn't seem to create loads of goalscoring chances nor does he look like scoring a lot of goals. Feels more like a facilitator rather than an end product player.

If he was a player we own I'd feel a lot better because then we'd be the club benefitting long term through his development with us. However onsidering our reliance on ESR for creativity he will be someone who can play the same role at a similar/potentially higher level so would be good. Doubt know if he'll be able to have a Bruno Fernandes like effect on our season but let's see.

what even the fuck how does this even happen.

If he does well enough in the loan that we'll regret having to send him back, he will have done his job. Right now Ceballos has not quite achieved that. But this guy is levels above Dani.

His profile alone is exactly what we should be focusing on. Young talents who we aren't pouring our budget into. If they don't work, take the loss, if they do - you're building a team that will grow together and eventually be better than anything we can afford otherwise. We need 2-3 more big young talents to go with what we have, and it may take 5-6 signings to find them. In the meantime, go out and fill the rest of the squad with PL experienced, James Milner type, workhorses (the logic behind Willian) to foil the young crop as their coming of age in a demanding league like the PL.

Ornstein on Norwegian telly sounding very confident this will happen.

We have no squad places available at the moment apparently. Fingers crossed for a Luiz deregistration though.

Klaus wrote:

We have no squad places available at the moment apparently. Fingers crossed for a Luiz deregistration though.

Don't we have Kolasinacs spot?

Qwiss! wrote:

Klaus wrote:

We have no squad places available at the moment apparently. Fingers crossed for a Luiz deregistration though.

Don't we have Kolasinacs spot?

I don't think so, Ryan took that spot and contrary to what's being reported he isn't homegrown (Scottish passport holders aren't homegrown; Tierney doesn't count as one either). We'd have to sign someone English or Welsh.

Klaus wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Don't we have Kolasinacs spot?

I don't think so, Ryan took that spot and contrary to what's being reported he isn't homegrown (Scottish passport holders aren't homegrown; Tierney doesn't count as one either). We'd have to sign someone English or Welsh.

Forgot about Ryan. Someone else must be going out so and not a homegrown player. Mustafi would be the most obvious I suppose, although Arteta seemed keen to keep him.

While looking up our squad list I discovered Matt Maceys middle name is Ryan.

I think I read somewhere that a club can only have one player on loan from the same club, which would mean thst Ceballos has to go back. I'll let someone else confirm whether this is true or not.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I think I read somewhere that a club can only have one player on loan from the same club, which would mean thst Ceballos has to go back. I'll let someone else confirm whether this is true or not.

Someone claimed it's not true when it comes to loans from Spain, but Premier League clubs can't have more than two players on loan at the same time, so same difference really. We just loaned Ryan so Ceballos would indeed have to leave to make room.

Edit: I'm actually not sure about the loan rule either, I think it might just pertain to English clubs. Where's that Premier League handbook...