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cubeadvance

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Rev

Rev

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The only "swap-deals" I can ever recall are Gallas<-->Cole & Zlatan<-->Eto'o. Every transfer window these types of rumours start flying around & they're almost always complete bullshit.

The Zlatan one was weird, clearly someone was profiting from that more than they should have done since there was a vast fee as well as the swap.

If a swap deal involving Ozil occurred I'd say it would be reasonable to say it was wholly unprecedented.

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BlinkyBear

BlinkyBear

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So it's universally acknowledged we need a striker. Assuming Welbeck isn't going to be that guy.

Who should we looking to buy upfront?

I said Martinez all summer, but now say Lacazette. I like his name. And he's looked shit hot when I've seen him.

Might as well say Aguero given that we're signing no one, but hey ho.

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Rev

Rev

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I don't think Aguero would actually be that good* as I think he'd get in a bit of a mess with the fact we've got an attacking midfielder in every position near him. I think we'd have to change the way we play a fair bit to really get the most from him.

Lacazette has the problem all players moving from France have, of suddenly finding it so much harder going. There are functionally no good strikers in the world though, so who knows. Higuain would probably be my choice, I think, but I'm not wholly convinced he's worth as much more as he would cost now compared to when he moved from Real.

*Relatively speaking.

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BlinkyBear

BlinkyBear

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Can't say I watched much of Lacazette last season but in the games I've seen since he started getting hyped in the summer he's been absolute trash.

I'd be alright with signing a wide forward and trying Alexis at No9 again, I think.

Yeah, from what I've seen (admittedly very little) of Lacazette this season, he's been utter pony.

Higuian: would he be available? And would he be any different to Lacazette in regards to finding England a big step

up? Real Madrid and La Liga to Serie A suggests to me that he wouldn't hit the ground running over here. Not that we're signing him.

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Rev

Rev

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I think Higuain is a professional and he's used to playing with/against the best. That's important, even if he might not be used to cold Tuesday nights in Stoke.

And he'd be available for the right price, definitely. Their chairman said something along those lines, it's just a silly high price.

If you limit it to people who can perform in the Premiership the list is vanishingly small. I don't think I'd have been against taking a risk on Dzeko, but he's really just Giroud again. Benteke is basically the same. Shrug.

We're clearly not signing anyone though.

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The Fox

The Fox

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Benzema and Cavani are not available. When you see Utd having to fork out all that money for basically 100% potential in the CF position, you can see it's not simply a case of chucking money at clubs like PSG and Real, especially now FFP seems dead in the water.

I'd have taken Götze tbh for an option on the left and tried Alexis at No9 again. I'm sure Bayern would have sold with Coman and Vidal arriving. Doesn't look like anything is happening though.

Fair fucks to us for managing to sign fewer players than Barcelona, who are operating under a transfer ban. :lol:

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Steve007

Steve007

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As much as I'm hoping we sign someone, who would people like us to sign?

We urgently need a CB, DM & forward. I'm not asking for world beaters, just decent level players to boost the depth of the squad. I've given up expecting us to sign world class players. It seems we won't sign anyone & the board will act all pleased with themselves when they announce how much more cash we have sitting in the bank doing nothing. Last time it was £138,800,000 just sitting there doing absolutely fuck all. I realise Arsenal are run as a business, but smugly telling everyone how much of the fans money they have hoarded is beginning to grate.

I wouldn't be so annoyed if we had some really promising youngsters who are pushing for first team action but there aren't any. The lack of quality & depth is alarming and we are nowhere near challenging for the title. It seems we are settling for a top 4 finish and anything above that is a bonus. Whoop-de-doo.

So as it stands, we expect to possibly scrape through the Champions League group behind Bayern Munich and they'll be an open top bus parade if we make the quarter final stage as that's apparently the sign of a highly successful European campaign. And 3rd or 4th in the league is an unofficial trophy. Fucking brilliant.

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Steve007

Steve007

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Lars Bender is considered a decent steady DM. Not sure how much he would cost, maybe around £18-£22m. He's be an infinitely better option than Coquelin who I don't rate at all.

I personally would have broken the bank for Benzema in July instead of faffing about and pissing him off all summer.

As for a CB, there are many, many options. I'd personally opt for experience rather than an rookie with potential. I'd have liked Otamendi but as per usual with a decent player that's been available for a while someone else came in and wrapped up the deal taking the player off the market. I think he would have been an ideal signing. There's loads of CB's around, it's just a case of Arsenal making an offer the club & player can't refuse. I still think if we do any business today a CB is the most likely signing. Knowing Arsenal it will probably be a loan deal of some kind.

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Steve007

Steve007

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We dont need a CB - chambers is Mert/Kos/Gabriel/Chambers - 3 of them are top class, one is potential, i'd like to have signed a defensive midfielder, but the best one available is not going to sign for Arsenal as long as Mendes is his agent.

Koscielny is top class, Chambers is very hit & miss and Gabriel is a decent reserve. I'd bring in a replacement for Mertesacker. He's still got it upstairs but his body isn't as fast as his mind and he's going to always struggle against decent opposition. A quality partner for Koscielny would ensure a decent upgrade for our first choice backline.

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Steve007

Steve007

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I wouldn't mind seeing Sanchez at No9

How would we accommodate that? Anything that results in Walcott starting more often is a bad thing in my book as he's fucking useless. I'd stick the Ox wide right all day long over Theo. He's by far the better footballer.

Giroud would be deadly if he wasn't so wasteful. I'd still be inclined to start with Giroud have Sanchez & Ox out wide with Ozil & Ramsey behind. The great thing is that those players are all interchangeable so if Wenger ever decided to use a plan B when plan A (or the only damn plan) isn't working there is so much we could do to change the way we play. And lets not forget Welbeck who can play wide or up front.

We have a decent midfield/forward line when everyone is fit, it's just finding a few systems that work well against different types of opposition. Unfortunately with Wenger sending them out to do exactly the same thing every week with no variation when things go wrong doesn't always work.

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The Fox

The Fox

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Pissing in the wind there Steve. Not sure why you think we need a centre back but yeah, the other positions are obvious. But clearly there are massive issues with availability of sufficiently good players in those roles, sadly.

Would Antony Martial be The Answer at centre forward? Not in a million years, but he's being sold for £50m or some shit. We need a Benzema or Cavani to propel us to where we need to be this season (and even they are not dead certs), but imagine how much we'd have to pay for those guys in this market. FFP is gone, so does the biggest club in the world need that money so badly that they'll sell their only established No9? Do PSG need the money? Not at all. It just isn't doable. It's not a case of throwing money at the problem anymore.

That said, I do find it hard to believe there's not a midfielder we could have signed who would have improved our options there. I've gone on and on about how I don't think this Coquelin-Cazorla axis is all it's cracked up to be, but even for people who like that XI our options don't seem good, unless Arteta is going to perform some Lazarus shit.

One thing is for sure: this is the first time Arsene's 'Judge me in May' will be truly fair. This is the squad he's chosen, essentially. If we don't put a proper, sustained challenge in then I'm not sure what excuses can be made anymore. We can't demand that we win the league when City are dropping £50m on guys they barely even need, but given our resources we should be making a proper fight of it now.

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Rev

Rev

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I'm not even sure it matters where, just one more good, known player would really help confidence and by virtue of the fact we've got players that can cover different positions actually make us a lot more secure. Hernanes, Chicarito* and Draxler that have moved today could all be given a spot on at least the bench. That's not a very Wenger way of doing things, so we'll see. He's right about the money/talent situation, but people know the Premiership is going to come into money, so it's a bit unavoidable. I suspect his real concern is wages for someone new and only average pushing everyone at the club to demand more, rather than the actual fees.

*Not massively happy with the idea of signing two striker rejects from Man Utd**, but if you ignore that aspect he fits on the list.

**ohmygodtheyareinept

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The Fox

The Fox

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Nah come on, we don't need Javier Hernandez man. It's not 2010 anymore. :)

Up front it's hard to find sufficient quality. I can't think of one forward who's moved this window who would have unquestionably improved our first XI. That said, this Welbeck injury is worrying now.

I find it perplexing going into the season with Coquelin, Arteta's remains, and Mathieu fucking Flamini as our DM options though. Ok, so Illarramendi obviously has issues and there's a reason why no one bigger than Sociedad wanted him. But Bender, Ki, Bruno, Motta? I can't believe none of those were gettable at some point this summer, and all would have improved us a fair bit. That's the real head scratcher for me.

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Steve007

Steve007

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One thing is for sure: this is the first time Arsene's 'Judge me in May' will be truly fair. This is the squad he's chosen, essentially. If we don't put a proper, sustained challenge in then I'm not sure what excuses can be made anymore. We can't demand that we win the league when City are dropping £50m on guys they barely even need, but given our resources we should be making a proper fight of it now.

I agree with what you are saying but we don't need to wait until May to judge the team. This squad cannot challenge to win titles, therefore it's not good enough & any Gooner should not be content with being 4th best. For the money the club generates, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect decent additions to the squad each year.

Admittedly they both usually sign a load of rubbish, but with far less revenue than Arsenal, Liverpool & Spurs seem to chuck an awful lot of money around on players, helped by sales obviously but you can't fault them for trying. We just don't try.

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Rev

Rev

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I agree with what you are saying but we don't need to wait until May to judge the team. This squad cannot challenge to win titles, therefore it's not good enough & any Gooner should not be content with being 4th best. For the money the club generates, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect decent additions to the squad each year.

Admittedly they both usually sign a load of rubbish, but with far less revenue than Arsenal, Liverpool & Spurs seem to chuck an awful lot of money around on players, helped by sales obviously but you can't fault them for trying. We just don't try.

As fun as it is to sign new players, I think there is a reasonable case to be made that Liverpool and Spurs would be better if they signed less players.

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The Fox

The Fox

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I agree with what you are saying but we don't need to wait until May to judge the team. This squad cannot challenge to win titles, therefore it's not good enough & any Gooner should not be content with being 4th best. For the money the club generates, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect decent additions to the squad each year.

Admittedly they both usually sign a load of rubbish, but with far less revenue than Arsenal, Liverpool & Spurs seem to chuck an awful lot of money around on players, helped by sales obviously but you can't fault them for trying. We just don't try.

You say we "cannot challenge to win titles" but that's why I'm saying we have to wait till May. There's no way of knowing for sure. Is it likely? No, I don't think so. I don't think Cech makes a vast difference, and I've gone on at length about how I don't think we can win the league with this midfield. Wenger has chosen not to strengthen (his hands may have been tied up front but as I said, we could surely have signed a midfielder if he wanted to). This is his team and he must feel fairly confident in it, because there's a lot of money left unspent. If we fail to properly challenge, it's on him this time.

Man City have signed Sterling and De Bruyne but are they better than Ozil and Alexis? For me, no, absolutely not. Chelsea look tired but I'm sure they'll improve. If we can find better balance in midfield, improve our efficiency up front (our chance conversion this season has been disproportionately poor), and keep key players fit for longer than last year, I don't think it's impossible that we're still in with a shot come the end. It doesn't seem likely to me because I think our midfield is decent but fundamentally flawed. But I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility, hence I say we have to judge in May. For real this time, without caveats.

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