Except, your interpretation is clearly wrong. We bid for Sesko in the summer and failed. We tried to convince him (apparently) to move in January and failed again. We also failed to sign Watkins.
Clearly, the club is aware of the need for a striker. Nothing has changed since the summer. This isn't some sudden u-turn. We are still in pursuit of a striker, the issue is we keep failing to convince/land our man.
daredevil I didn't realize we tried to sign Watkins in the summer. Nevermind then.
Wow, Emery is down for a sale.
We did try for Sesko who is a striker, so it's not some sudden realisation.
Watkins is clearly us going further down our target list, given our desperation now that Saka and Jesus are potentially out for the season and Sterling has turned out to be trash. That was not the case in the summer, it is now, hence my question did you just wake up from a coma. We are desperate, we need to sign someone.
What are we discussing here? You want to criticise the club for not signing a striker, and now you want to criticise for wanting to sign a striker. Lol.
daredevil What are we discussing here? You want to criticise the club for not signing a striker, and now you want to criticise for wanting to sign a striker. Lol.
I'm not. I'm saying that if Wakins is someone of interest, it wasn't the right call in the summer to hold off because our wanted targets weren't available. "Lol."
But you're saying it was right to wait in the summer because our players hadn't become injured yet at the time, while now they have. I guess we just disagree about whether we should build our squad based on the possibility of injuries or not.
Injuries have clearly forced our hand. I don't think we'd be going for Watkins if we didn't have injuries. We'd probably be waiting out for Sesko to finally join us in the summer, but we can't afford to wait for that now. We need to sign someone. Circumstances have drastically changed.
I like the look of Rogers from Villa. He's more exciting than Watkins is. Different role/position, but he's got a bit of growing to do and if he continues to build on his form this season he'll get a bigger move soon enough. He was magnificent in their game against City a few months back.
and Orny with the finish:
Claudius Striker markets have always been tough, very few top class ones around so even the ones who aren't top top tier or top prospects go for stupid money.
Jhon Duran is averaging a goal every 90mins I think in this league, the money is crazy but if clubs cough it up they'll have seen the guy and watched him carefully in this league for 3 seasons now so will have a good idea if he'll step up or not. I think around £60m would have been fair for him in this market but Saudi's paying stupid money for their project
I think @Sicario touched on it earlier, Fergie signed RvP basically to win them the title. Different circumstances as Fergie was about to retire so desperately wanted that last title. Maybe Arteta thinks Watkins can be the one to get us over that phycological barrier and win us the title? Even if it is a waste of resources and we might have to bin him in a few years. I don't know I'm just throwing that out there.
To me it looks like Sesko isn't interested. We tried last summer, tried again this window and he's not moving. Time to move on.
Yeah, fuck him.
I don't understand how some kid who's barely done anything at the top level wouldn't be interested in joining us.
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert maybe he's seen all the young strikers who've gone to Chelsea and United and farted away their careers, and thinks better of it to stay in a place where he is a priority
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Agents and advisers play a big part in that, some of them will push players in the direction of where they get a massive fee and that isn't Arsenal!
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert He probably feels he isn't good enough to start for us and would rather develop his game at Leipzig before moving to a big club. I have seen bits of him and he does seem raw despite having some interesting qualities.
The Gyokeres situation is the one that intrigues me. This guy is banging them in left, right and centre and he did look a player when we played Sporting few weeks ago, but we don't seem to be making any effort to sign him. I must admit I haven't seen much of him beyond the match against Sporting, so maybe scouts that watch him regularly don't think he has what it takes to excel in the PL.
Tactics The Gyokeres situation is the one that intrigues me. This guy is banging them in left, right and centre and he did look a player when we played Sporting few weeks ago, but we don't seem to be making any effort to sign him. I must admit I haven't seen much of him beyond the match against Sporting, so maybe scouts that watch him regularly don't think he has what it takes to excel in the PL.
Something about him makes me think he won't step up, there are always one who do well at clubs and sometimes score 20+ league goals but they never make it to the top clubs. I remember back in the day on the forums loads of fans thought Darren Bent and Defoe should have played for top clubs but even though they put up numbers for the like of Spurs they'd never be able to step up. Arsenal & Chelsea are both actively looking for a CF, I'd argue both clubs have good recruitment in general and neither club has shown any interest in him.
Why doesn't it look like Watkins is possible now? Emery has basically said that anyone is for sale for the right price. And with Villa stepping up their interest in Tel (Bayern want 50-60 for him), trying to get 60 from us for Watkins would give them the money to buy Tel for around the same price, and they would get a player at the beginning of his career instead of heading to the latter part of it.
