Arsenal @ Nottingham Forest 19h30 GMT
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Claudius However, in an individual situation like Watkins, I think it is very harsh to say "there is no justification for not taking the deal", given that allegedly we found out about the potential for the deal while the Dhuran deal was ongoing, and within 48 hours of being alerted of Watkins' potential availability, Dhuran had been sold. Villa were most likely hedging to ensure that they had a fallback in case Dhuran didn't happen.
I don't think that is true. I'm I read we found out about his potential availability when we played Villa on 18th January. Duran was sold on 31st. That's almost 2 weeks where we could have influenced the outcome if we had the desire and killer instinct. I'm sure Villa would rather have had £40-50m for a 29 year old than £70m for a promising 21 year old.
There were already rumours of other bids for Duran from the likes of West Ham, and he apparently wanted out because of lack of playing time, so he may have already made his mind up that he was gone.
But I fully believe that if we were serious about winning the title then we would have pursued Watkins, and Villa could have 'promoted' Duran within the first team and assured more minutes, and everyone ends up happy. It's also possible Duran was just money hungry and playing time assurances wouldn't have changed things at that point. But the point is Arteta and the club didn't have conviction or desire to do what winners would do.
Tam it sounded from reports that came out like Arteta was all on for it once he found out he was available but the club didn't like his profile and it was delayed. Eventually when we bid it turned out to be too late but yeah the opportunity was there if we moved faster.
And its not just Watkins. He's a good example because he was a ready made proven top PL striker. There were others too though. Tel was an opportunity we decided was too expensive, I don't think he's a world beater but he's a lot better than Sterling and would have helped. Morata was available on loan, again I'm not a huge fan but clearly he's a better striker than Merino. Even if all he did was give Havertz 15 minutes rest each game and provide some fresh legs it would have been worth it. There were options available, we just weren't bothered or weren't decisive enough.
Qwiss but the club didn't like his profile and it was delayed
This is the bit that troubles me. So we’re to believe that Arteta had pretty much carte blanche to sign who he preferred whilst Edu was around, to the extent that Arteta’s increased influence was a factor in Edu’s departure, but when we’ve an empty glove holding Edu’s pen Arteta then faces enough pushback from the higher ups?
Doesn’t seem reasonable to me, but if it’s true there’s potentially a rift brewing there.
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Qwiss I really like your Morata call but paying £400,000 a week for Tel would be beyond insane. @QuincyAbeyie would have everyone’s balls for wasting cash.
And Claudius would've been happy with paying 400k a week for Tel, because if we ended up doing it he would've found a way to rationalize that it was the right decision. 
QuincyAbeyie nah. I’m literally saying Sterling was a clusterfuck all over this forum. So I’m not just sitting here drinking Arteta’s Koolaid. I come from the perspective that 18 teams would rather be us. But we can still do better. 
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Claudius careful, someone might accuse you of letting your standards slip with that attitude.
Claudius I come from the perspective that 18 teams would rather be us. But we can still do better.
Actually thousands of teams would rather be us. And if we come 8th again some time, that will still be true. So from the perspective of how many teams would rather be us, doesn't matter much where we finish really. 
awooga83 Llllllllllliiiiike! He's been washed for the past two seasons. His shooting has alwaaaaays been poor, even at its best. And then, without his pace? Then what the heck are you purchasing? What is the point of spending a single dollar on a player who can't run and can't score in the forward line? What is he good for? Absolutely nothing!
Tam March will be a more enjoyable month with only two games.
Two league games, but also the two CL games if you're so inclined to see the final competition exit for the season. Technically we could still go through with two 0-0 draws, but not sure where we finding 4 or 5 penalty scorers from.
I couldn't watch this as I had an early meeting in the morning, but sounds like I didn't miss much at all.
flobaba Like Jesus, Sterling had history with Arteta and I bet Mikel thought he could get a tune out of him. Unfortunately, the guitar came with no strings...
I didn't mind the Sterling transfer. While he is definitely lacking confidence now, when I saw him play live for us, it looked like he was unable to form any consistent patterns with the our midfield and RB. Timber did not gel with him and never looked like helping him create isolations to use his dribbling effectively. His few eye catching runs seemed to stand out from the rest of our play and also felt like the same about Martinelli. Thoughts at time were whether a healthy Ben White would have changed things for Sterling. Also made me appreciate how much Saka has had to do in our set up and how it has likely limited his contributions as an attacking force. Sterling won't change anybody's opinion of him now and maybe he is a spent force, but just feel other options would have struggled a lot as they can't cover what Saka does for us.