Arsenal

[The Fox]

Yeah. Think he was a teenager when he was there though.

[The Fox]

L'Equipe and other French outlets are convinced we're in for Mahrez, whereas Ornstein, Sky etc in this country say we're not interested and he's going nowhere.

 

Just his agent using French contacts to get a new deal at Leicester? Obviously it's very easy for agents of forwards/centre backs to feign Arsenal interest right now for their client's benefit. Although having thought about it, this actually looks pretty tasty:

 

-------------------Alexis-------------------

----Iwobi--------Ozil---------Mahrez---

------------Xhaka--Ramsey/Elneny---

--Monreal---Kos--Mustafi---Bellerin--

--------------------Cech-------------------

[Gotters]

I think Mahrez is after a contract - Ranieri stated very clearly there is no release clause in current contract, he's still quite young so can bide his time a bit and do a season at Leicester, but guess he'd feel better doing so with a fat pay rise and fixed release clause - this would be given in return for not agitating for a move away immediately.

[Larsen B]

11 hours ago, milko said:

Is this the same Mustafi that didn't really get anywhere at Everton a few years ago? I don't know much about him at all but it's always interesting when players fall through the gaps but then come back.

 

See: Gerard Pique, Paul Pogba

[The Fox]

If we do add Mustafi imminently and then go on to sign some sort of expensive forward, that's a pretty fucking good transfer window is it not? Addressed all our major shortcomings from last season. The squad would be in the best shape it's been in for many years, I'd say.

[Larsen B]

In the long term, perhaps.

 

The short term view would be that we're going into at least the first game without a strong squad. That's 3 points in jeopardy.

 

Add that we might have to rush players back who aren't fully rested to cover injuries which could exacerbate their own chance of injury (eg. Alexis in 2015/16) and put them out for a longer term. These players include our best defender, best midfielder and best/only striker. How many points are in jeopardy then?

 

We might end up with a great squad but we're not starting with one.

[Rev]

For it to be really good I think we need a couple more Rob Holding-esque signings, but certainly the core problems would be sorted out if we did that. It does feel like we're going to get Lacazette now, even if everything being said is that we won't.

 

Whilst I'm sure the general standard is going to be much higher this season, that will still result in points being dropped. It's definitely winnable.

[The Fox]

I think the squad we'll have for Liverpool is plenty strong enough to win the game, personally. Koscielny maybe having to be rushed back isn't ideal but he can be rested down the line if we get Mustafi and bed him in. Surely it's only at centre back where we have avoidable issues? Other players missing out just aren't back in time after the Euros; that's beyond our control and other clubs will have the same issue.

[BlinkyBear]

Great to see that we're finally being 'ruthless' enough to actually spend some money when we need/have to.

 

 

Quote

Speaking to Sports portal Spox, Ali Bulut said, “Shkodran and Arsenal agree. All that’s left is that the teams agree a fee.”

 

 

Oh FFS. Scrap what I said. 

[The Fox]

I swear if we signed Xhaka for £35m last week instead of before the Euros y'all would be much happier.

[hercules]

I'd be happy with Mustafi though haven't seen him play. As it is a genuine attempt to address a problem area. Then a striker would be great but all the noise atm are about Mahrez, which I'd be happy with but I'm guessing that would mean Alexis would rotate  playing up front with Walcott and Giroud. Sounds great on paper but not sure how it would work out long term. 

[Petrousgyre]

I don't see either Alexis or Theo working out as lone strikers.

[Larsen B]

1 hour ago, The Fox said:

I swear if we signed Xhaka for £35m last week instead of before the Euros y'all would be much happier.

 

That's one position in a team that has a lot of known weaknesses that need addressing. I don't really care what other teams do in the market or if their players will be suffering from a Euro hangover too.

 

You can be optimistic and realistic at the same time, Fox. I hope this team can do something special and will support them every week as I've always done but I don't expect it when we haven't given ourselves the best chance to achieve that.

[The Fox]

I agree we have numerous known weaknesses but I don't think a lot of them are personnel-related and thus remedied in the transfer market. Going into the summer we badly needed a defensive midfielder, and at least one out of a centre forward and wide forward. We got the best DM we could nice and early. Injuries have necessitated a CB too, which it looks like we've basically done now. Centre forward is obviously very difficult. It seems we're trying but it may be that we end up with a Plan B of Alexis playing No9 and a new wide player coming instead.

 

I think as far as the transfer market goes, that would be pretty much doing what we needed to. I'm not going to say we're perfect at it because we're clearly not, and it's frustrating. But there's still a good chance we'll get everything done that we needed and will have a strong squad for the season. We can lament not signing a forward in time for Liverpool but if we have to wait to get the right guy, I'd rather wait. We have to be more cautious than some of our rivals - we can't just write off £70m of signings like Mangala and Bony and shrug our shoulders as we replace them with £70m of fresh meat. We have to make sure we're getting as close to a sure thing as possible when spending big sums.

 

Even if we sign all the players I still expect us to have problems, because I think a lot of issues last season were to do with the manager rather than personnel. Those issues would continue irrespective of who we signed.

[Rev]

2 hours ago, hercules said:

I'd be happy with Mustafi though haven't seen him play. As it is a genuine attempt to address a problem area. Then a striker would be great but all the noise atm are about Mahrez, which I'd be happy with but I'm guessing that would mean Alexis would rotate  playing up front with Walcott and Giroud. Sounds great on paper but not sure how it would work out long term. 

 

I've seen him play quite a lot, but it was when Valencia were Really Quite Bad, so I wouldn't say it was that informative. He's definitely a good player and by current price standards he's certainly not a rip-off. I'd sign him over Stones at least, even if they were both the same price.

[milko]

7 hours ago, Larsen B said:

 

See: Gerard Pique, Paul Pogba

 

Pique? Where did he go missing? United played him quite a bit in the season before Barcelona tempted him back.

[hauk]

I totally get where Wenger is coming from in that he doesn't want to just sign a striker at the same level as what we have for 20/30 million (maybe more) and hope he comes good. You only have to look at some of the Center Forwards that Liverpool and Spurs have signed over the past few years to see that money doesn't always equal quality in that area.

 

Having said that we really are a player short up front, I mean imagine if we don't sign anyone and Giroud gets injured. We're then talking Theo or Joel Campbell (I'd prefer Chuba Akpom over either TBH).

[Rev]

We can't splash out at random, but we totally can afford to spend £30m and hope someone comes good. And even if someone we buy is a £30m flop, if he came in with reputation of doing well elsewhere he'll be bought by someone for £12m by someone slightly lower down the pecking order in the future. 

 

4 hours ago, milko said:

 

Pique? Where did he go missing? United played him quite a bit in the season before Barcelona tempted him back.

 

They really didn't. He played a handful of cup games then left.

[milko]

Truly? Weird. I worked there for basically every home game around then and my memory is of him playing quite a lot. This isn't to disagree, clearly my memory of things I don't much care about is not up to much.

[SeanR]

32 minutes ago, milko said:

Truly? Weird. I worked there for basically every home game around then and my memory is of him playing quite a lot. This isn't to disagree, clearly my memory of things I don't much care about is not up to much.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Piqué#Manchester_United

 

12 games, no goals. Domestically

 

or 23 games in 4 seasons, 2 goals in all competitions.

 

 

[milko]

I'm not sure goals is that relevant for a central defender, but yes, like I say, I don't disagree it's my memory that's faulty. He was definitely well-regarded but I guess he had Ferdinand and Vidic to compete for places with.

[Professor_k]

Excited for the first game of the season today!

 

I'm at work until 4pm but I'll be "sky going it" on my mobile until I make it back to the lounge at 4:30pm.  I fully expect us to be exposed in terms of our defensive frailties today and I predict we'll pick up another injury for the pure "Arsenalness" of it all.

 

My prediction is 2-2 with goals from Iwobi and Walcott and a late Liverpool equalizer.

[The Fox]

Coquelin starting against Liverpool's pressing. Ok Arsène m8.

[Rev]

15 minutes ago, The Fox said:

Coquelin starting against Liverpool's pressing. Ok Arsène m8.

 

To be honest that might even be better, at least he won't be asking Bellerin to make 145 yard runs to collect a ball Coquelin played forwards under no pressure at all.

[humdrum]

yay full mobile phone signal at the Emirates! 

[Shoes]

Theo! Glad we kept him.  

[Baring]

What's going on! 

[Shoes]

Iwobi and Ramsey off with injuries. 

[suzzopher]

Going to be a long season.

[The Fox]

On 11/08/2016 at 15:23, The Fox said:

Even if we sign all the players I still expect us to have problems, because I think a lot of issues last season were to do with the manager rather than personnel. Those issues would continue irrespective of who we signed.

 

Yeah this is a good illustration of what I was on about sadly. Don't think any of these goals have been on the inexperienced CBs really. I don't think you fix this with transfers. Wenger's just been done over.