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.

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.

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.

Qwiss That is a possibility, sometimes you get a vibe that a player isn't all that committed to joining so you need to move on.

Doesn't look like Watkins is possible now so I hope we have other options!

Qwiss

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.

Tam Yeah Rogers does indeed look good, he ran rings around our midfield at Villa park this season but Boubacar Kamara tops my wishlist among Villa players. He doesn't have any hype but he's a genuinely good footballer. Hope we bring him in for Partey this summer.

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.

JazzG

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.

USArsenal Is Jorginho not leaving too? He's been heavily linked with a club in Brazil

JazzG I agree Durán would've been a better target. I'm strongly against us signing stars in the 29+ age bracket. Watkins would be an excellent signing if he were 25 or even 27. At 29 if he signs a 4 year contract here, chances are he'll spend a couple of years of it pulling high wages from the bench while we bemoan that we haven't signed a striker again.

He's not coming though so it's a moot point.

USArsenal Villa are still in the CL, still in contention for CL places in the league so I'd be shocked if they sold both their strikers this window.

USArsenal Gone quiet on that front but it sounds like a deal structure is being worked on and most importantly we've convinced Zubimendi. Getting him to leave was the hard part!

He is very reliable this guy....