New thread....

Of players at WC who might be available in positions of need, I was most convinced by Ounahi, Amrabat, and Thuram.

Ounahi and Amrabat are no brainers for us. Ditch Sambi and Elneny to make space and our midfield is set for years. Amrabat was already linked to many top clubs before the tournament as he was playing very well at Fiorentina.

Enzo Fernández looks a generation talent as well but probably too expensive for us.

I was speaking to a Wolves fan last night, who was cursing Enzo Fernandez slipping through their fingers. It's incredible how Benfica and Porto have this constant conveyor belt of young talent.

    It's not tough, just get all the River Plate talents in. Guaranteed to be a success.

    6 days later

    Amrabat struck me as more what we need (someone who can play Partey's role) than Ounahi or Mac Alister.

    Yeah he’s quality too, but just feel we can cover that off with versatility - Xhaka, Ounahi…

    6 days later

    Seems like Mudryk has been added to basket.

    Loads of options for another attacking mid.

    My preferred options are Kudus, Max Allister and SMS

    Danilo, and Tielemans appear to be the two spoken about for the deeper midfield spot.

    Doubt we’ll sign a centre forward. Nketiah is beast and we’ll be creative to cover him whilst Jesus is out

    James
    The main thing that these two teams have is that they are not competing for league titles with Manchester City and Chelsea. That allows you to just flood the team with young talent and one or two veterans. And when a few of them emerge as great talents, you create a bidding war amongst the big teams. So you can get volumes of players and give them tons of minutes. In a place like Arsenal, that’s just not possible, except in the last couple of seasons when we fell to 8th and it was very easy to push through Saka, Martinelli, etc.

      ————————-Ramsdale
      White——Saliba———Gvardiol—-Zinchenko
      ————————Partey
      ————Odegaard——-Mac Allister
      Saka——————Felix—————Mudryk

      Who’s with me?

        lorddulaarsenal not if it means shunting Martinelli out the side. I'd love a Mudryk and push Martinelli into the middle while Jesus is out. After that let the 3 of them battle it out.

        I'm not too bothered with McAllister at a time when Xhaka is actually playing the way he has been. Felix on a short loan would be decent too, and I think we have enough CBs not to need Gvardiol.

          10 days later

          Not sure Martinelli can play central here. I get the theory, but our center forward needs to have great hold up play with his back to goal. Nketiah has come on in leaps and bounds in this aspect, while Martinelli doesn't yet have it in his skillset. He is more a 'make runs in behind' sort of forward, and that would be perfect if we were a counter attacking team playing through the center - which we are not.

          I think Martinelli stays on the wing regardless of who we sign.

            flobaba I seem to remember Martinelli holding the ball up very well during his time up front. He has this skillset whereby he can occupy defender with his futsal steps.

                Never really been tried there has he? I doubt he's in Jesus's league with back to goal, or with the canny use of strength to hold off defenders in static positions, but he's certainly got a good model to work with.

                I feel certain Martinelli's finishing ability is still improving.

                  Clrnc he's pretty strong on the ball in any case and loves a physical challenge despite his wiry frame.

                  Burnwinter he was playing CF when he first broke out during the EL run. That season when he was playing in the cup teams he was a CF but has been on the wing since Arteta took over.

                      I think we should be aiming higher than Tielemans. He's a Xhaka replacement who probably isn't as good as Xhaka.

                      Trossard won’t sign a new deal at Brighton. I imagine he wouldn’t come cheap, as it’s his final chance at a big deal (he’s sneaky old). Could think of worse in terms of depth and ability to play wide and centrally. Probably too similar to Martinelli really.