Haven't seen the clip but watched it live. He said we're short because of the injuries but doesn't want to devalue the contributions of Havertz who gets stick online but that the fans in the stadium love him. Talks about the work he does up front, how he can play midfield etc etc.

Sounds like he just being PC to the outside world and not saying something that could be used by the tabloids like "we need to get a striker who finishes chances and upgrade on him". But we definitely need a striker, and he knows that.

Telegraph linking us to Wissa from Brentford. 28 years old (September bday) so not sure right age profile for us?

JazzG decent, my memory is not what it used to be but I'm pretty sure he is decent for english players at the very least. I think he was on it with some news about Ramsdale and Nketiah. And he gets medical & some team news spot on so he has someone.
What I like about this one is that leipzig are going for a striker this window, in fact they have a deal done for someone from AC Milan but he failed his medical. Also, makes sense, he was our target last summer, he will be our target next summer, so I can see them going for him, pushing the move now as opposed to going for another target, that is maybe secondary

    Sesko makes a lot of sense. Not as readymade as Gyokeres but he has great potential.

    Kept an eye on him at the Euros and he smashed one on the bar from 30 yards out. You can see he’s raw but the tools are there. Those are the types of gambles we need to take and hope he develops as he is promising too. Better than Rashford-type stopgaps

    • JazzG

    • Post #591

    DiabyKungFu Look at early-stage venture capital here. How it works (almost without any exaggeration) is that a VC takes a look at the cofounders' resumes and other funds that have committed money and if they see enough brand names that they like then they write a check for many millions of dollars. Otherwise, they pass. The idea that higher leverage situations necessarily call for more complex strategies is a fallacy. It is usually the opposite.

    But ... don't you think those conditions are very, very dissimilar to trying to negotiate with one of a small handful of footballers who are likely to improve an existing elite squad, all in the context of PSR, competing clubs, the player's existing contracts, etc?

        Burnwinter

        As I clarified later on, I was specifically talking about talent identification, not pricing/negotiations/prioritization. Prioritization is a somewhat sophisticated optimization problem. Spotting the outliers amongst outliers who would be of interest to a club at the level of Arsenal seems relatively straightforward. That was my point.

            DiabyKungFu but why do signings like Pepe, Antony etc. happen if that's the case? It doesn't matter that judging how a player is currently playing for his club is easy if judging how he'll play for your team is hard.

              JazzG

              Shame unless money talks?

              Looks like Vhalovic is the only real viable option this window

                  Hard pass on Vlahovic personally unless it's a short term loan. He is not a good finisher despite his highlight reels and is hurt right now. Do we really need another body on the training table? When the fans of his team are basically begging him to go, it's not a good sign. And yes, I know - Henry was a similar story from Juve but I just don't see the upside here.