Amy concerns that starting Nwaneiri ahead of Merino will kill his confidence, and essentially doom the transfer?

    they also have a different skillset so I don't really see it

    Gurgen well if you think about how much we hated him, I’m fine giving this guy some time

    Merino is a class player. He’s just not fully fit and he’s adjusting to our system. You all saw how good he was at the Euros and his stats from last season are unreal

    Gurgen was he? We improved a lot once he left. He was expensive to replace but we upgraded.

      Qwiss Xhaka had been so indifferent for years that it was considered revelatory he produced one season at the level of what people are now calling crap form from Rice.

        Burnwinter — have to disagree as I think Xhaka’s last season was as impactful, if not more, than Rice’s great first season.

        Xhaka at his worst was a liability which Rice has never been, but at his peak we got a lot out of Xhaka.

        Last season Rice played like a machine in both directions while also ultimately offering as much offensively (in terms of GA) as Xhaka's much-applauded final season.

        Xhaka's improvement was a big impact, but it appeared even bigger than it was because he'd been mediocre for a long stretch … not to mention due to him becoming less hotheaded. We've moved on and any nostalgia about him is misplaced I reckon.

        9 days later

        3 PL starts, 2 points.

        Makes Mertesacker look agile. I know he's new, has come into a team struggling and the rest, and he may come good but early impressions are he's abit shit.

        On Arteta for not easing him in. He's been pants

        Nah he hasn't been bad. Just suffering from the same malaise as the rest of the team - no creative focal point. Ode returns and everyone (midfield) looks good again.

        He was an overpriced squad buy. Always was. People shouldn't expect anything more, really. Shouldn't have cost over 20m euros.

        Bad summer. Really bad.