QuincyAbeyie

Now we've got Rice himself, the remaining "Rices" for our midfield are a very short list.

Better at 6 than Jorginho or Partey, or worth shifting Rice to 6 to bring in at 8, or (hollow laugh) somehow better than Ødegaard at 8. League ready, as far under 30 as possible, with low overheads and risks of adaptation and development.

Zubimendi, De Jong, Kimmich, Locatelli, Guimaraes are almost (if not entirely) ruled out as unavailable, disinclined, crocked or too old, unless we do a madness like offering PIF £150m: the Gulf monarchy equivalent of shipping coal to Newcastle.

The "Trossard" is someone like Merino, or could've been a player like Luiz and Onana but they've already moved. Good squad depth but quite likely not starters. I'd be happy to sign Merino but it'd be a benefit, not a transformation.

The "Salibas" might be a broader category. Fellas like Wharton who are already overpriced, or random tyros I just wouldn't know of, or Nwaneri. None of them would be highly likely to help us win the title in 2025.

My understanding is Barca would be willing to let FDJ go for the right price, however FDj is not to keen to move. Maybe late in the window he 'might' become available.

daredevil Sure, but it can stop the fanbase from using it as a stick to beat management with.

Thing is yes there are players who are available, such as the 5 players from us who we know. And there are players who are completely unavailable like Saka and Odegaard etc.

But there are others who have not been made available who could become available if a big enough offer to the club came in. Naming those players is a bit more difficult than saying who can we buy who according to reports on who is available.

HomeSteak I am sure playing time affects his wages though. Atleast i hope it does or Barca are real big fools!

Cannon "base salary of 720.000", is what you can find online about him. But wages are not public info, so who knows..

Sane linked again today

Mirth

We have Party, Jorginho and Rice who can all do it to a pretty good level. When people say it’s a quality or skill we don’t have, they mean we don’t have someone who’s world class in that role.

Finding someone world class or potentially world class in that role is problematic for the same reasons finding a centre forward is problematic, because it’s an extremely demanding position.

Personally I think the solution is Rice as a 6. The issues with it earlier in the season was that we had Kai as an 8 who contributed nothing to buildup. If you have Rice as a 6 and Ode and David Silva as 8s, we’re probably not going to have a big problem.

goon David Silva is retired a year ago Goon, your plan has fallen at the first hurdle.

Don't think we'll get the best from Rice or our midfield if he operates as a 6.

Need him to have a partner (Ode as a 10), or to roam as the 8.

During our most dominant form last season we had Rice as an 8. I don't think Arteta will revert him back to a 6 unless we've got injury problems.

Dom I hope not. If we move him we need an 8 anyway. Just get a good 6.

Dom During our most dominant form last season we had Rice as an 8.

This isn't really true, though.

(5 game sliding window, by the way)

We started playing Rice further forward starting at gameweek 26 against Newcastle. As you can see, you can't really say that we turned anything around at that point. If anything, things turned around in a negative way. We simply started playing better when Odegaard started playing better. This happened to be confounded by some finishing variance stuff which has led to some bad takes about several players, in my opinion.

I didn't expect another 100m signing. That would be unrealistic at this point like he said. His responses before were coy. We must be under pressure to sell our dead wood before we can sign anymore players. We've spent a bit in the last 2 years

given how obsessed arteta is with buying more defensive players when that is already our biggest strength, its puzzling he wont just spend big money on a true DM. having a dedicated deep midfielder to just defend and free up the front 5 seems like a no brainer at this point. he obviously sees what rodri does for citeh, puzzling he wont try and replicate that here

Seems highly likely we bring in some medium to big fish later in the window, no matter what Arteta says.

He was saying he wanted to keep Smith Rowe a week ago, the man's rehearsing his lines carefully. This window's been built with the selling campaign up front. I'm sure we want to sort out a move for Nketiah before we show our funds.

mdgoonah41 this DM you describe at this level is a rarity. Rodri is the best player I’ve seen since Busquets.

If there really isn't an elite 6 out there this summer—and it does seem there isn't—then adding a "Trossard" (could be Merino) to the Ethan Nwaneri Project™ and kicking the regista-DLP-conductor-pivot-destroyer can down the road looks like the solid play for the present and future of our midfield.

Also seeing plenty of Arsenal buzz about 22 year old Ezequiel Fernandez, who can apparently play a long pass and likes to play left 8. No idea what his level is.

Ship out Partey please.

CPM Rice can play 6 very well in most situations. I wouldn't love him doing that away in Europe maybe, but he is still excellent there. The pendulum has swung too far to the "Rice is an 8" direction

Sure, Rice can do the job at a very high level. The thing behind the "passing problem" at 6 is if Ødegaard continues to come back to lead the build-up while also leading the press a lot of the time. I'm not a fan of that, it'll burn him out and I'd rather free him up to create further forward.

Burnwinter Odegaard wil likely keep dropping back. Our game is based on small triangles. So Odegaard or the new left 8 would come back to help secure and advance the ball

If Rice gets injured, or Jorginho and Partey both get injured, who plays left 8 for us? Merino sounds like a sensible buy to me. What is the current pecking order at left 8? Rice, Havertz, Vieira? Zinchenko?

I'd love Zubimendi for 6 but I think the worry around that role is a bit exaggerated. We have 3 players who can play it plus maybe Lewis Skelly may come into the equation this year. There may be a couple of games a year where none of them are who you'd ideally want at 6, but they should leave us covered to knock down the vast majority of our opponents across a season.

Gazza M @Claudius That's it. We need Ødegaard playing the forwards in or scoring, not the first ball. He's too good at working the right pass behind the defence to divert him to other tasks. He'll track back all day regardless but how deep and with what responsibilities? If he's often playing a pass he should be receiving, or he's deemed a necessity to evade the press, that hurts us.

I don't expect we'll be carrying the ball to break the lines often. Players who come to us with that reputation don't attempt it much at Premier League level. Rice is among those, I expect Calafiori will be next. We train the option out of them because it's inefficient nine times in ten.

So they are linking Sane to us by saying that he won't leave. Looool. They have no fucking clue what is going on.

Burnwinter Seems highly likely we bring in some medium to big fish later in the window, no matter what Arteta says.

That is my hope too. That they are just waiting to see what they can bring in first before they decide how much to splurge.

Agreed. We've a strong squad and it's clear we are sailing close to the wind with PSR, so finding players who will improve us that we can afford is going to be challenging. If I had to wager, I'd say we'll sign a fairly expensive wide player and more of a budget CM late in the window once Nketiah and Nelson have departed.

I just know we are going to try for ISAK at the end of the window. If Eddie leaves there is definite room for a striker.

Mik Merino is top notch by the way. Great physique, big range and uses the ball well. Reminds me of Edu in many ways

HomeSteak how are we not ready?

HomeSteak In terms of transfers, if you look at Man City and Liverpool, they're in exactly the same position as us. Euros and World Cups push the transfer activity out till the end of the window and that's normal.

It's only Chelsea and Man United that have been particularly active in the market but they're not a model to follow

As for Euros - they can't really be helped but most should be back by this weekend except for the English/Spanish players.

Still need a striker. Can't see Jesus giving us the goals we need