Pre-Season 2025/2026: Page 3 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Pre-Season 2025/2026

Mirth

invisibleman18 Gyokeres is 99% locked - it’s just whether saving 5m now is worth the risk of dropping points early on

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Mirth it's never worth that. I don't trust us to amass the huge points total we'll likely need if we have a dodgy start.

Don Pacifico

This is all great but it's not the reality we live in. The board will always put limits on our spending.

We've all acknowledged that Sporting are dicking around - giving into their behaviour is exactly the kinda thing we've been doing for the last few years and almost led to us spending an obscene amount on Mudryk. I'm happy to draw a line in the sand so that clubs know that we won't be dicked around in the future and so we can maximise the funds we do have available.

£5m extra on Gyokeres would likely mean £5m less to buy Eze/Simons with.

Sicario2

Don Pacifico dropping points and having a poor or average start to the season is worth a lot more than £5m.

I don’t think we can survive a poor start as last season showed - margins too fine.

If VG for whatever reason can’t be done in July, the absolute latest should be August 1st/beginning of Emirates Cup.

Klaus

Mirth Precisely. I would have expected us to cave this weekend to get him on the plane. Sporting will be happy to drag this out for months, but we shouldn't be.

Don Pacifico

Sicario2 as Dules says, we've still got Havertz.

In a hypothetical world where there are two scenarios:

(a) We spend £xm more to get Gyokeres in now but don't buy Eze/Simons

(b) We wait it out on Gyokeres and also bring in an Eze/Simons

I think we end up having a better season in scenario (b).

lorddulaarsenal

Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely need another striker, but all the while Kai is fit and available there’s no rushed

Burnwinter

Don Pacifico Whilst I'm sceptical about the valuation we've attached to Madueke, it does seem to be in line with equivalent players in his position, with his experience.

In my opinion we got in Madueke's head and established he was keen to join us on our terms, but he would've had other options at around £50m due to his relatively low wages.

People who don't like that deal already speak as if "we got the business done by overpaying on this crap player" is established fact. It was likely a case of us anticipating pressure to close the deal efficiently so as to avoid competitors entering.

JazzG

Sicario2 That isn't how it works though, Sporting are changing the terms on this whereas we agreed something with Chelsea and it was wrapped up quickly.

This deal isn't stalling because of Madueke's signing, we need to do deals that work for us, we have other things to budget for as well. Clearly the Madueke deal is structured to work for us whereas Sporting are being dicks about Gyokeres. For example if we want to sign Eze/Rodrygo and if Sporting are asking for most of the fee for Gyokeres upfront then that creates a problem for us.

invisibleman18 If we keep our players fit we'll be right back up to 85-90 goals in the PL.

TambourineMan

Don Pacifico LW and ST are not the positions we should be holding back on to the late in the window. We all know the one we should have held back on but we're not allowed to talk about that without bring the mood down.

JazzG

Don Pacifico Exactly, people making it out like we are going into the season with no striker, it’s popular to hate on Havertz but he has done a damn good job for us when playing upfront.

We need to make the Gyokeres deal work considering we need to make another big purchase this window.

TambourineMan You get deals done when they get done. The ones where the selling club show more flexibility get done sooner and you should get the easy ones out of the way first. Clearly the management think there is a need for someone like Madueke in the squad, we’ve been linked to Mbeumo & Bakayoko this window already, so we have been on the look for someone.

invisibleman18

Don Pacifico so are we saying that £5m (or whatever it is) is the difference between getting the starting winger who improves the first 11 or not? If that's the case then the £50m given to Chelsea is sounding an even worse deal than it first looked if the finance situation is that tight.

TambourineMan

JazzG not really, you prioritise your most important needs and then work your way down that list. If you can get something else done before, that's fine but it should never be at the expense of a key priority.

We'll get a ST but no LW. That for me is a failure and poor prioritisation.

JazzG

TambourineMan What if Sporting drag this out for the whole window? Do we then put everything on hold until this position is sorted?

I think once the striker is signed we'll move towards LW. Whether that is Eze or more unlikely Rodrygo. IF say we want Rodrygo that transfer probably won't happen until August and looks like Palace are gonna drag out the Eze deal as well.

The transfer window needs to be judged at the end rather than now. Clubs operate in different ways, some are quite black/white with what they want and deals can be done swiftly but some like dragging things on and trying to extract every last bit they can. We need to get the swift ones out the way first and then spend the rest of the summer working on the harder ones.

Burnwinter

It's not about the £5m. It's that if you put that £5m on the table too early, it's £10m.

When we talk about this deal, by the accounts we have Gyökeres and his agent both forgoing income to get it over the line with us holding firm, and Varandas has trousered that concession before reneging on his implied agreement to conclude the transfer on that basis.

In what world would "just hurry up and give him an extra £5m" work to our benefit in this situation? At best there's some imaginary framework he's working on regarding his other business. If not he just keeps squeezing us.

invisibleman18

Burnwinter obviously get all that, but the benefit to getting it done now would obviously be that he's with the squad on tour now bedding in and is ready to go when we play Man United on the opening day. We have a tough start to the season. Allowing it to drag to deadline day sees us play United and Liverpool away still without a striker and before he's even met the squad. But I get it, you can't just bow to every demand. If its going to be too difficult it would be better to move onto another option than drag it out to deadline day and potentially not get it done. What if that happens? A last minute loan again?

When is Madueke available by the way? We rushed that through for him to not be available for the pre-season tour anyway. Will be be ready to go for the start of the season?

Burnwinter

Also I'm starting to wonder if we should all get together for a poker game so I can sort my retirement out. Just keep raising, he'll definitely fold!

Qwiss

Burnwinter tight, aggressive poker beats overly safe play more often than not.

Burnwinter

Qwiss I don't play much poker, but last time I did I swept a table of about ten morally corrupt lawyers and lobbyists, so I guess I pretty much retired undefeated that night.

Sticking to your meagre offer on a top player you've subverted to the point he's going on an angst-ridden strike is the definition of a "tight, aggressive hand" in the transfer market.

Unless some other club pays to see our cards, figuring out the right raise here is a matter of guessing how many days we reckon Varandas will watch 40% of Sporting's stock sulking on the beach in Mallorca before he crumples.

Don Pacifico

invisibleman18 obviously get all that, but the benefit to getting it done now would obviously be that he's with the squad on tour now bedding in and is ready to go when we play Man United on the opening day.

I get that we've got a tough start to the campaign but the season is 38 games long. If we have to wait a bit longer to get Gyokeres in AND an Eze/Simons, I struggle to see how that's not a net positive for our season.

invisibleman18

Don Pacifico that would be amazing to pull off but assume that would require some big sales too. If we play the first month without all of that hopefully we're not already having to play catch up by the time they are all ready.

USArsenal

Don Pacifico I get that we've got a tough start to the campaign but the season is 38 games long

We don't have a 'tough start'. We have probably the toughest start we could have. Away to United and Liverpool and also v. City (not to mention Forest) all within the first 5 games. I know we don't see United away as as big of a game as it used to be, but we still need to go there on opening day and get the win. We need to keep our record of 0 losses to the 'big 6' in tact, but then also to get max points against the second tier teams (which is where our season has been lost the past 2 seasons)

Don Pacifico

invisibleman18 fair. Tbh, I suspect there will be a degree of having to catch up, whoever we've got available (and when they joined the squad). We should be expecting to come out of the run with a deficit vs top spot. Obviously, there's levels but it's not like we don't have a good base of players to work with already. Hopefully we get a CF in sooner rather than later.

USArsenal sure. But we're a good team already. I'm not personally convinced having Gyokeres now versus in a couple of weeks (etc.) makes much difference but appreciate people's mileage on that will vary.

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