Good deal. Home grown, cheap and actually a decent player.

let hopium season commence

For us now this is the best 3 months of the season.

goon wrote:

Good deal. Home grown, cheap and actually a decent player.

That's what I thought as well. Why is he out of favour at Southampton though?

Because smart teams generally dump older players unless they’re uber productive

Bertrand ffs. We're a joke.

If he's not on high wages it's fine. He's 31, maybe we want an academy player to slowly take over as backup for Tierney in a couple of years but nobody is ready yet?

If our first choice was old it would make sense to look for someone younger, but Tierney is 23. In a couple of years Bertrand will be gone (assuming we are not giving him a 4 year deal...), Tierney will be 25/26 and we can hopefully bring a promising young talent in.

Is he a like for like sort of player to KT?
IMO one of the reasons as to why Pepe was used as LWF was to provide the width in the final 3rd when KT was out and Soares was used at FB, as Soares is more inclined to underlap when used on the left.
It's about balancing the team and why the likes of Soares and Chambers were preferred over Bellerin on the right, with Saka as RWF coming inside. Bellerin works on the right with Willan as RWF.

One argument for this signing is you believe that he will be a bridge to Mazeed Ogungbo. Ogungbo recently played his final u18 game and will now focus on u23. He is hot property and will probably pass Lopez at u23 level. Both Lopez and Bola should be sold, I imagine. So you keep this ex Chelsea guy for 2 years until our kid is ready.

This is going to be another shit signing that will burden the squad for years. Just spend a few million on someone young instead who has more upside in the medium to long term.

Cedric was only a burden because we signed him, gave him a 4 year deal then started the season with 3 other right backs in the squad. His performances for a back up right back have been fine the few times he's played there.

It would be like if we signed Bertrand, kept Kolasinac and also converted Gabriel into a left back.

You’d think.
This is what I don’t understand. After clearing out half the squad in January and then having to dump Willian this summer, you’d think that our leadership would start to see some patterns and decide over-investing in veterans isn’t too bright. But we keep coming back for more pain.

Yeah, one or two is fine, you have to roll the dice and keep a world class guy like Auba if you can for instance, but the kind of veterans we're picking up are mostly never-has-beens or players who have already fallen out of favour on the level we're playing at (or aspire to play at).

I get that funds will be limited this summer after we messed up, but ambitious clubs sign competition for the starting players they have, not backup options that they then pray they never have to use. As a thumb of rule you want players who are on their way up, not their way down. We can't settle for this level of signings, that's as bad as accepting a manager who can't even qualify for Europe. Standards slipping all over the place.

It’s a disaster. There are so many problems with signing these old men. First, they are declining in quality. So over time, your squad quality gets worse. But it also means your asset base is depreciating and disappearing as they age and retire. So you leave yourself without people you can sell to improve your team. But you have another problem. When you negotiate a contract with Saka, you catch him as a kid and can potentially undercut his value when you give him a salary. So we are paying him £40k a week but he’s our best player already. With a 31 year old, however, you’ll end up paying a high figure based on what he delivered last season, but every year after that, his output will decline and you’ll be in the red.

It’s madness to sign so many of these guys

not against bertrand. cheap experienced back up is fine for left back when we have whack a mole problems in other areas of the team. just don't give him 3 years ffs

Claudius wrote:

It’s a disaster. There are so many problems with signing these old men. First, they are declining in quality. So over time, your squad quality gets worse. But it also means your asset base is depreciating and disappearing as they age and retire. So you leave yourself without people you can sell to improve your team. But you have another problem. When you negotiate a contract with Saka, you catch him as a kid and can potentially undercut his value when you give him a salary. So we are paying him £40k a week but he’s our best player already. With a 31 year old, however, you’ll end up paying a high figure based on what he delivered last season, but every year after that, his output will decline and you’ll be in the red.

It’s madness to sign so many of these guys

With Luiz, Willian, Sokratis, Ozil, Mustafi leaving and potentially the likes of Laca, Elneny and Cedric, our old man count will be down significantly compared to this time last summer and some of those guys are technically in their prime.

In fact, that would pretty much leave Auba as the only real old man left in the sqaud.

I would assume if you have a Saka or Martinelli level youth that no one has discovered, we'd go out and sign them instead, I just think if it were that easy, then everyone would be doing just that. In reality the last time we signed a really promising young 21yr old left back from an obscure league it cost us £25m. I can't imagine you're in favour of spending that much on a backup given you've been a big proponent of a lean squad.

The bell is saying we have the best chance to sign Eduardo Camavinga over any club if the player moves this summer.

Be excited guys.

I thought Berge had a release clause of £12m? Guess that was nonsense?

Also, I think Bell is basically saying if we try to sign him he'd seriously consider us rather than saying we'd be the favourites.

goon wrote:

Also, I think Bell is basically saying if we try to sign him he'd seriously consider us rather than saying we'd be the favourites.

Well, I don't know how right google translate is...but they translate the post to "Arsenal will have better chances than any other club if they decied to make a serious offer".

No that's what I get too, but the tweet he makes shortly after clarifies in a little more detail.

How would Camavinga fit in the midfield and does the pursuit for him have implications on Ødegaard?

It can be a clean 4231 with Camavinga and Partey behind Odegaard.

what's your obsession with odegard? some stats you look at love him or something. he's lame.

I can't believe we're going to let Arteta and Edu do this to us for a third window in a row.

Meatwad wrote:

what's your obsession with odegard? some stats you look at love him or something. he's lame.

He makes us play better. He’s an excellent talent. If he’s available for a good price, I take him. If not, go get Buendia. He takes us forward, passes incredibly well. I want highly technical players on this squad. Tired of scrubs

Claudius wrote:

It can be a clean 4231 with Camavinga and Partey behind Odegaard.

Thanks Claude. That sounds quite light but then again I’ve never seen Camavinga play. I don’t rate Bissouma all that much but I’d more inclined to have him in the 2, with limited perspective.

Meatwad wrote:

what's your obsession with odegard? some stats you look at love him or something. he's lame.

Ødegaard is a quality prospect, on the precipice of realization I’d say. 20 G/A calibre with the right structure and that supports a top 4 push or maybe even title charge in my opinion.

Klaus wrote:

I can't believe we're going to let Arteta and Edu do this to us for a third window in a row.

You keep the same cooks in the kitchen and expect to see some Michelin star meals coming through the doors?

Lads, it's fullback cover. Do you even know the names of Liverpool's second choice fullbacks?

God knows what the reaction here would have been when we signed Oleg Luzhny.

So Goon, nobody knows Liverpool’s backup players.
The concern we have is not that this is a one off fullback cover. It’s that we consistently hire these past it pensioners. It helps reinforce the notion that Arsenal is Club Med, a great place to come relax for a few years before heading off to MLS or Qatar. We have to stop buying these guys. Everyone has to be hungry.

Claudius wrote:

Meatwad wrote:

what's your obsession with odegard? some stats you look at love him or something. he's lame.

He makes us play better. He’s an excellent talent. If he’s available for a good price, I take him. If not, go get Buendia. He takes us forward, passes incredibly well. I want highly technical players on this squad. Tired of scrubs

I think he's a talented player but we didn't look better with him in the team. Our best form came with ESR playing at 10 and he usually looks better there than Odegaard. Odegaard just makes us even more blunt. He's a good player but he's not the player we need.

goon wrote:

Do you even know the names of Liverpool's second choice fullbacks?

Robertson played every game this season. He's barely missed a game in the last 3 years. Do you think we can expect the same from Tierney?

That’s fine too. Then get a Grealish type for the left wing. Or get Buendia right and move Saka left.
My one worry is trying to start Pépé on the left. He’s too variable for my liking. He’s productive but causes variance in performance. You don’t want that if you want your team just dominate in a game and be able to put on runs. Think about the great Arsenal teams. They didn’t have streaky starters. Guys like Reyes were on the bench.