Sicario2 - Tier 1

I agree.

For me it's binary, and appears likewise for football managers. Either you can participate in training and play at your full capacity in spite of your injury, or the injury limits you from participating. In the former case, the players will almost always play, in the latter they won't, until they can participate fully in training.

and the barometer for whether a players plays on matchday or not is whether they participate in the training session before the game, and thus be declared fit.

    6 days later

    Seems we're going to have a sell a quality player that conceptually or in-practice isn't discardable in the short and medium term. Sort of forced hand because we can't sell well. Can't access the article but thought if anything FFP would be the driving constraint.

      KingslandBarge we've spent a lot of money the last few years so it's understandable but like you say, this is why the poor sales (and to a lesser extent, arguably the inflated prices were paying for the players we buy) are so important.

        Clrnc He's shown nothing in England that warrants resurrecting. United were stupid enough to pay silly money for him, they can stew in their own mess while he goes the way of Martial. They deserve each other. All fizz and no pop.

          lorddulaarsenal not that I disagree with you but we also evidently can't keep buying multiple players with inflated price tags. I would like to see a bit more smarts in our transfer policy moving forwards (and better negotiation!).

            Qwiss Ornstein says we have no money for the winter window.

            This is why deals like Raya and Havertz that have a marginal or detrimental impact on the squad position versus FFP are a problem.

            Having said that, let's see the turnaround in our approach to the balance of Arteta and Edu's roles. It's time to stop Arteta writing the shopping lists.

                Burnwinter just to say I soooooo agree with all of this! Have always been vexed by this notion that it doesn't matter how much we spend.

                  That Raya money isn't even spent yet. It'll be out of next summers budget. I suppose if they can sell Ramsdale for the amount they're spending on Raya its acceptable. They've shown zero sign of being able to do that though. Everyone predicted last summer would be different because they were selling quality but they still failed to get decent money for anyone. Even the Xhaka deal which looked decent starts to look less than when you pay £65m for a downgrade.

                  Clrnc
                  No thank you. His mate Reiss can hardly get any mins so not sure adding another enigmatic winger will aid our cause.

                    Gazza M it’s incredibly hard to spend efficiently. Pretty much every club in the bracket we fall in to has seemingly wasted money. On aggregate though our spend is pretty decent when compared to rivals

                      The squad rebuild has been a striking success and Raya can be made to make sense if Ramsdale is sold for over about £18m—though I fear he'll go for under ten. If Havertz becomes any kind of valued regular I'll accept it, and I'd love to see that.

                      We just can't keep doing what we've been doing though. On the sales front, the poor results have been partly due to the direct devaluation of good players by the manager's selection practices.

                      Put bluntly, if we keep doing this we're all in on winning multiple major trophies with this squad. Without another step up in profile and revenue we won't be able to sign adequate players or compete.

                      Qwiss If this is what it's going to be we should sell him in winter to some desperate outfit. I think we've got Buckley's chance of getting what we paid, we'll get Leno money again.

                        I’m pretty sure we’ll see an addition to the attack this coming window. It obviously needs a boost.

                        Wonder if we’ll engineer a loan with an obbo to stay within FFP?

                        I think we need more explosive pace, direct running, and unfussy finishing, whether in the wide areas or at CF. I want someone obsessed with scoring goals.

                        Linked to Takefusa Kubo today. He’d be a good back up for Saka

                        Also still being linked to Zubimendi.

                          Yeah been very impressed with Kubo this season. Didn't realise he have this level to his game and he has been improving tremendously. Looks unplayable at times

                          He does. Not sure if it’s a purple patch but he has that elite nimbleness to evade defenders. One hell of a pausa on him too.

                          Think I’d rather him than Neto for the right hand side though I see Neto as being more versatile and he carries a more blunt overpowering running threat.

                          Shall we get both? 😃

                          lorddulaarsenal Also still being linked to Zubimendi.

                          Wonder if the plan is to use him as our No.8

                            Surely you'd play him at 6. He's probably the most obvious high quality choice for the role with how we play.

                              6 days later

                              There's also houseboat links to Santiago Gimenez. Looks good.

                                He looks a bit lacking technically but probs would be an upgrade to the squad

                                there is no winter windo for us. we're tapped. we'll be scraping around for loan deals for Chelsea leftovers again

                                  QuincyAbeyie Don’t rate him yet. Not at the level we require. I watch a lot of Mexico NT and he’s very inconsistent

                                    Gazza M I think we may well be desperate enough we find a way to sign a midfielder by then.

                                    Zubimendi, or is Kalvin Phillips worth a shout? Supposedly we are interested in him though there will be a silly "war" when City force him out.

                                      Gazza M
                                      Don’t believe Ornstein, he often gets it wrong in terms of how much budget we have in transfer windows. If we want to spend we will spend in Jan.