Yup - get an attacker in first.
Nico Williams, Vlahovic, Marmoush, or Delap this January
el Janny Tranny
lorddulaarsenal would be a completely stupid signing at this point in time. Wouldn't even start for us anyway.
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MistaT In hindsight missing out on Vlahavoic seems like a big mistake.
Hardly a mistake. They tried to get him and he only wanted Juve, not much we could do about it. Especially at the time without CL football, etc The real mistake was signing Jesus instead of Isak who was actually attainable.
If we can get Vlahovic now I'd take him though.
By the way I’ve got this horrible feeling we won’t sign anyone this window
lorddulaarsenal I'm almost certain that will be the case.
Sicario2 - Tier 1 3 years ago he turned us down, we tried hard but he wasn't interested. Since then he's had a serious injury and since joining Juve his highest goal tally is 16 in the league, I'm not convinced this guy is going to elevate us. What we really need is a wide player this window and then go all out in the summer for a CF if needed.
lorddulaarsenal The Arsenal fanbase would go nuclear if we signed a defensive player this window over an attacker 
JazzG The Arsenal fanbase would go nuclear if we signed a defensive player this window over an attacker
This is the thing that kills me with fans. This idea of equating transfers. That one transfer in one part of the field negates a transfer in another part of the field. If we find a defender, mid or goalie we like for the long term, we should buy him.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put the majority of our effort into getting a forward.
PSR and limits on spending above your means say otherwise. We are not one of the top 3 or 4 teams in revenue and profits like we used to be in the late 00s and early 2010s. So prioritisation becomes crucial. We couldn't even sign Raya last season because of PSR and had to defer his signing to the summer.
Wasn't our net spend like £12m this summer? I think we are nowhere breaching and have good headroom to splash out. I honestly think in the summer we just put all our eggs in the Williams basket and ended up fucking ourselves over.
Ornstein mentioning City working to sign Marmoush as well, really like the guy and think he would be ideal for us.
Seems to be a lot of movement this January
JazzG Wasn't our net spend like £12m this summer? I think we are nowhere breaching and have good headroom to splash out.
Which makes you wonder why that was considering the amount of spending we did in the past years with no incoming funds, as well as the fact that we had to agree to a loan with obligation with Brentford for Raya in 2023 because we could not sign him outright then without having PSR issues. Otherwise what is the point of a loan with obligation if not to help manage PSR and FFP cashflow issues.
The sales of ESR and Nketiah last summer have given us quite a bit in terms of PSR, compared to where we were at the end of the summer of 2023. However we need to be careful with future signings being in the right positions otherwise we'lll be in a position where we have to either sell our academy graduates like Saka/Nwaneri/MLS or our most valuable non academy players who did not come for big fees like Saliba/Gabriel.
JazzG I honestly think in the summer we just put all our eggs in the Williams basket and ended up fucking ourselves over.
Even if that is the case, if we had plenty of money we could have bought another player attacker and then went for Williams if it became possible. It's not like Arteta has any issues replacing someone even if he bought him a year or so ago. If we are in fact putting all our eggs into the Williams basket, that would mean it is all our eggs, with not much left to bake another signing.
Gazza M obviously the budget is finite but you can eat and drink at the same time. That’s all I’m saying. If while you’re chasing your star striker, another required target becomes available you don’t sit there and say “oh I still don’t have my star striker, so I can’t solve the Zinchenko issue or the L8 issue”. You need to address the whole team. 22 places with a 4 year average contract, means you need to deal with 5-6 signings/renewals each summer. Quick math
Claudius Quick math also tells me that with this approach you can't say later on that the forward signings you want are too expensive.
QuincyAbeyie this is literally what any organisation that wants to replace and improve its personnel needs to do
Claudius but your example of our "star striker not being available" is made up. It's an identification issue. If we sign Cunha this January it's not because he wasn't available in the summer and will be easier to sign in the janny tranny. It will be because we've realized the error of our ways a bit too late. Same with City and Marmoush.
Yep yep fort so
Adidas are going to have to drop the bestest new collection ever to compensate
lorddulaarsenal Ornstein is out. He has no insider knowledge any more, he's just guessing. He was never able to predict anyway. Even at his most informed he just parroted what he was told after it was done.
QuincyAbeyie sorry. I have to completely disagree with this.
All of the names you are mentioning are either a) top performing strikers and/or b) playing at the biggest teams. It’s not like we are unearthing an unknown. The reality is given that we all know who these top players are and there is a limited market, it will be much harder to secure these names. Also buying strikers is much more straightforward from a metrics standpoint versus other positions where live scouting is much more important. For forwards the metrics are very well defined and predictive. So it makes the market much more competitive.
Arteta just dumped Nketiah, Nelson, Vieira and ESR in one summer. It’s clear the problem isn’t about accessing forwards in general. He wants specific high quality forwards. And that’s why I’d be comfortable with him overpaying for Cuhna or Williams. Because both have good qualities we need
Claudius that's my point..? Nothing suggests that Cunha would be more available after half a season of good form in the middle of the season, so if we buy him now the problem in the summer wasn't that no strikers were available and that they've somehow suddenly become available in January. It was that we want him more now than then. Identification issue. Not identifying his existence as a player, but our need for him.
HomeSteak would prefer him over Williams.
JazzG probably because we sold a bunch of players this summer. Including Nketiah and ESR who were pure profit.
Big Willie Yup, shows we have money to spend if we want.
I think this window we need to work hard for the wide player. In the summer go all out for a striker.
Marmoush and Cunha weren't as attractive in the summer, so the fact that they could have been purchased then is irrelevant.
It's precisely their form since the summer which is the reason clubs are now interested in them. Before that, no-one had even heard of Marmoush and Cunha had had only one good season under his name. The fact that he's now having the best season of his career is why clubs are interested in him.
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So... Identification then.
And by "nobody had heard of" I hope you're referring to the average Twitter user and not our employed scouts.
Identifying which player with a very limited track record (a single season in both cases) is going to have a breakout is as easy to identify as which company in the stock market is going to break through it's ATH.
It's always obvious in hindsight and ridiculous to claim that it's an error on the part of the clubs. Either you're speculating on who will, in which case you could just as well end up with someone who doesn't build on their previous season, or you're waiting for more information/evidence of sustained performance before you pull the trigger.
Cunha was in the PL last season and looked excellent at times. I don't think its unreasonable to say that our scouts should have known about his ability then. He's been excellent since Pereira came in at Wolves. So what QuincyAbeyie is saying about us being able to buy him just as easily last summer is entirely correct.
daredevil so we agree that the issue isn't that players aren't available but that we don't know which available players will do well and not. Identification.
QuincyAbeyie how could a professional scout possibly identify talent before every casual fan who watches MOTD every now and then has started hyping them?
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They're not mutually exclusive.
Using hindsight to justify that a player could have been bought earlier is still using hindsight. Both him and Marmoush are now highly sought after for their form since the summer in addition to what they previously did. You can't ignore that their recent form is a huge catalyst for the surge in interest.
To be fair most of our signings have been scouted and checked up on for months
Sing it @QuincyAbeyie !
If Kvaratskhelia is truly available this window, we need to be all over it. He's got everything we need (okay maybe not game breaking pace but he's not slow by any means) to play opposite Saka. Can create chances in any game state, is a great finisher, and works his socks off on both sides of the ball. He's been on the top of my list for the LW since the summer and is the type of signing that would keep our title chances alive IMO. I like him more than Leao.
Guys, chill out. All well and good saying our scouts should identify X, Y, or Z or they're failing at their job but...
