Summa 26 TW: Page 119 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

Summa 26 TW

Burnwinter

Here's the Times piece: https://archive.md/rRzkU

Nothing fresh in there of course, they've padded it with a bunch of dribble about stadium sponsorship.

Mirth

With Bruno, I’d say we have the best defence, goalkeeper and midfield in the league.

The midfield point is slightly subject to Rodri being past it or moving to Madrid but still. It’s close.

If we go strengthen our midfield and defence in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to negotiate from a better position for any forward signings. At the very least we’ll be able to get to the first international break in decent shape.

JazzG

Scott I think will only get better, he turns 23 soon and I think under Arteta he could be someone to build the future midfield around.

I'm not suggesting we don't do it but we need to keep in mind Bruno turns 29 soon and has 2 years to run on his contract so spending huge money when he might not even be first choice needs to be taken into account. We got to where we are by investing money at the right age profile to give us more value, we don't have oil money behind us so need to be careful. But the market conditions need to be taken into account, so if a younger player is not available we can't leave ourselves short either. Also the odd older player even for big money while not ideal isn't going to financially cripple us either.

Klaus

Last summer we brought in a bunch of players who were ready to contribute here and now, and we won the league. That's what got us the title.

We only need to think about the next 2-3 years at the moment. After that we're gonna need a rebuild of the areas where we're the strongest team in England (and possibly Europe) anyway. Our goal has to be to maximise the current generation of players. We can't be building a team for 5-6 years from now; that's what we've been doing for the past 22 years and it hasn't worked out.

JazzG

Klaus But those guys we signed have only raised the floor level of our team, in a season where we had a huge number of injuries they played their role. I don't think a single one of our last summer signings with the exception of Zubimendi starts in our first XI or looks like they will in the future.

What we need now are ceiling raisers in some positions and in others I'd much rather we sign top class young players who could take the spot in the future rather than be stuck with players like Gyokeres or Eze who came in for big money and won't be easy to shift and aren't going to threaten the first XI. Eze might if he can get his head into gear Gyokeres defo won't.

In the past we were signing at the absolute bottom end of the market wise and hoping they'd come good. We weren't going for the top quality young players which is what we should be doing now.

Qwiss

Klaus The squads young anyway. We can afford one or 2 older players. Currently our oldest serious players are Raya and Merino. Raya as a keeper is fine for another while. Merino maybe you look at next summer, maybe not, we'll see. Then you are dropping to 28 for Gyok, Gabriel, Eze and White. Vast majority of the squad are between 24 and 28. Now is our time. The next 3 years are the prime years for most of these players. We can always grab a kid who we think is good value or ready to blow up but the Dowman era is coming after this one so lets just maximise our chances for the next few seasons and get most here and now players, especially if we are talking players who'll get 2800+ minutes in all competitions.

Mirth I also think Bruno offers something we lack in midfield with his ability pass through the lines. We don't get that from Rice, Zubi or even Myles yet so it'd be a great weapon to have.

Bernard Woolley

Gurgen No way. I was a huge fan two years ago but he has regressed since then both physically and performance wise. Never really kicked on from that breakout season. Also saw someone post on a different thread that his salary is 500k per week?? No, thank you to that. Diomande or Kroupi for me please.

Mirth

JazzG if we sign any top class young players, I’d be happy if they turned out to be as good as Bruno. In addition, the journey to get there would take at least a season or two at best.

So why not just sign Bruno now? Sure there’s a chance that they could be much, much better than Bruno and raise the ceiling, but the riskier outcome where they turn out to be worse is more likely.

I don’t even view it as ceiling or floor raisers. The biggest risk to our midfield is Declan Rice getting injured for 3-4 months or being overplayed. Bruno solves that risk immediately.

It’s the same for our defence - the biggest risk is that our right back position has two injury prone players. Now we could wait for the next wonder kid but a ceiling raiser there mitigates that risk just as well.

It’s not like there’s no young players in this squad - Mosquera, MLS, Dowman, Nwaneri is a pretty good basket of potential

JazzG

Mirth I get the reasons for signing Bruno and I'm not necessarily saying I am against signing Bruno. I think he would be a good player to have in the squad and like you say definitely allows us to rotate Rice. However spending _£85m on someone who doesn't start over Rice/Zubimendi can be viewed (as @Kel Varnsen says) as a short sighted signing.

If the player was offering an improvement on the first XI I'd be more in favour but I'd rather overspend on someone like Alex Scott who will only get better but will also offer a pretty high level as soon as he joins.

Mirth

Also it increasingly looks like we’ll have to make a bet on potential if we want to sign a LW. So it’s more important that the rest of our signings are no drama, obvious talent.

Don Pacifico

Qwiss The squads young anyway.

I don't disagree that the squad is a decent age but also worth pointing out we had the 11th youngest PL squad last season so I think we're definitely at a point in the project where we should be taking a couple of punts on youngsters.

HomeSteak

Klaus

A few more reports now

Qwiss

Don Pacifico we tried with Monga. Tzolis isn't that young but he's definitely a punt and at 24 if it works out we'll get loads out of it. We already have 4 absolutely top tier talents from the academy to bring through too.

Kel Varnsen

Guimaraes is good, but seems like a short sighted signing. Doesn't really raise our ceiling, and we have plenty of solid options in midfield. At least Scott is young and can contribute over many years.

MistaT

Kel Varnsen -- I think he noticeably raises our floor, and likely our ceiling. MLS played great at the end of the season, and Zubi early on, but I'll take a Rice - Bruno - Ode midfield any day of the week.

CPM

Kel Varnsen We only have three options who can play in our 'double pivot': Rice, Zubimendi, MLS. A CM is badly needed.

Kel Varnsen

MistaT

I think Merino, Zubimendi, MLS, Rice, Ødegaard, Eze, and Nwaneri is enough. Maybe another young cm to provide some extra cover, but i would much rather see us sign a decent rb and cb cover, and a left winger (or striker).

Dom

One midfielder is essential, but ideally get two if the opportunity arises to sign a young talent with the potential of becoming a star (like Scott?).

Rice will not be fully healthy until close to the new year, there's still the question of whether Odegaard will ever get back to his best and, apart from MLS, most of our midfielders are hovering around the age 30 mark.

Irishgunner

Nico Williams is electric - far prefer him over the likes of Barcola

Big Willie Champ

Irishgunner unfortunately I have to disagree there. I'm not the biggest Barcola fan and don't want us spending 120m or whatever it is on him but Williams is even further down my list of potential additions.

Felt that was couple years back and watching him recently has cemented that belief for me. Especially with the insane wages he's currently on after he used our interest to get a new contract, as well as his wanting to go to Barca over everything else.

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