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..

          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.

              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.

                  We might even see Rice and Merino as a double pivot so that neither one is responsible for setting the tempo and they'll have a partner to help the build up. It'll put more pressure on Odegaard further ahead but he's got the overall talent to make it work.

                  I also don't think Merino will walk straight into the side, the spot is for Partey and Jorginho to lose.

                  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.

                  • Dom replied to this.
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                      Interesting thing here at the end where Arteta confirms on the record that it seems likely that we're not going to make any really big signing this summer. I've been wondering when the bill was finally going to come due. Seems like it's this summer.

                      I guess Jamal "The Croydon DeBruyne" Musiala will have to wait for next year.

                      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.

                          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.

                          Claudius I mentioned this in the calafiori thread, but having thought about it a bit more, i can concede that getting calafiori and merino running that left channel could potentially offset rice playing at the 6. calafiori and merino look like they'd cause chaos for opponents given how dynamic their movement and passing is, and alleviate the need for rice to provide line breaking passing and invite pressure from the opposition.

                            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, exacerbated a bit by his struggles to successfully be a one-man midfield in a disjointed England setup.

                            mdgoonah41 Arteta isn't obsessed with buying defensive players. People forget that we were all in on Sesko, and would have signed him if he hadn't elected to stay another year in Leipzig. He is particular about buying players for his style of football, which is exactly what you want in a manager. And unfortunately you can't write a check and make a "true DM" appear. If Zubimendi were available, you can guarantee we'd be desperate to get him, and have the funds to do so. You want to spend £100m on a tiny 19-year-old DM in Neves, like PSG? I'm glad we've stayed away.