Yeah we need a bit more than a Partey replacement and a backup goalie to overhaul 115 plus FC.
Wishlist 2022/2023
5 days later
Just throw everything we got at Joao Neves? Looking forward to watching more of him tonight.
Segway you want to throw £250m at him?
lorddulaarsenal Yep, just to make sure we get the deal over the line.
I would be very intrigued if we could somehow end up the summer with:
Joao Neves
Amadou Onana
Nico Williams
Neves to be the technical complement to Rice and develop into a world class partnership. Onana to provide duel winning in tough away games as a partner for Rice and deputize for him when he needs rest. Nico to provide much needed transition threat in behind and competition for Martinelli/rotation for Saka. It certainly wouldn't be cheap but probably could get all three in for 210m (120m RC Neves, 50m Onana, 40m RC Nico).
That’d be a lovely summer.
Prefer to get Desire Doue for that winger spot mind you
Javi Guerra
Do people like Williams better now?
Feeling pretty justified in my love of Nico Williams now. Get him in Arteta!
samthegooner Especially when Olise only moved for 50m. We better be in for him
lorddulaarsenal
Doue seems more like an 8.
————————Raya
White—-Saliba——Gabriel—-Timber
————-———-Rice
————Odegaard——Eze
Saka———-Havertz———Williams
We like?
No. Midfield isn't passy enough.
Yeah we need someone with a bit more metronomic passing ability sitting at the base of that midfield than Rice.
We need a Vitinha type in midfield.
Personally I think Rice can be that metronomic passer in the base of midfield and I believe his best role will always be the 6. I’d rather have a more attacking player at the 8. Eze is the closest thing to Musiala out there to me and would help us unlock the stingiest of low blocks and mid blocks that gave us trouble last year. I also think he would give us another top individual talent to win later stages of the Champs League. Would’ve loved to have him against Bayern last year. I love that we can nitpick huge potential signings these days instead of begging for scraps. These debates truly prove that we are back in the elites.
I think the season made clear that Rice is best when paired with a DLP, allowing him to get forward without the ball and join in the press. This is the Partey/Jorginho role and in the long term it is IMO our most important need. (Much more than a CF for example.) It's also the rarest of beasts and we may need to be planning 2 years ahead on a recruit. But we need to budget in a way that doesn't mean we end up with a left 8/10 who we need much less and not the DLP we need.
Rice as a 6 makes us very predictable and hard to build up play. I think we already know how limited his passing is at West Ham. It wasn't something unexpected.
Unless we can find an 8 that can open up defences, we definitely need a DLP
samthegooner I don't think Eze cuts it for me. I think we need a more two-way player with a balanced focus on attack and defence in that position, else it hamstrings Odegaard, who is our best player and deserves as much freedom as possible to drift between the lines, both horizontally and vertically. We need a #8 who adapts to that rather than another free spirit. I'm personally ambivalent to whether Rice plays at #6 or #8 (marginal preference for him at #8 where his ball-carrying is better utilized) as long as we get a complementary piece at the other position who can beat the press and pass through the lines, but that person shouldn't be taking up Odegaard's space and needs to be a more hybrid / moderately conservative CM. If we sign Eze, it has to be to replace Martinelli and I'd think that's a waste of 60M.