The chatter around Philippe Coutinho and Arsenal has increased this morning after an article in Mundo Deportivo which suggested we are ‘best placed’ to sign the midfielder.
However, closer examination of the story reveals that it’s still some way from being anything approach concrete.
The Catalan daily highlights the ‘great relationship’ between agent Kia Joorabchian and Arsenal’s Head of Football Raul Sanllehi – something we’re all well aware of at this stage. That would put us ahead of other reportedly interested Premier League suitors, Leicester City and Newcastle United.
Suggestions that a deal might involve the transfer of Matteo Guendouzi to Barcelona are played down, because the technical staff at the Camp Nou ‘absolutely rule out the midfielder … they don’t want him.’
The big issue appears to be money. Coutinho is on close to £250,000 a week following his £140m transfer from Liverpool in January 2018, and this is money they’d love to get off the books. The report says Barca ‘now want and need, money and only money’, and are thus reluctant to do any player swap deals.
This season, they got some of it back with Coutinho’s loan move to Bayern Munich, a deal which cost the German side an £8m loan fee + payment of the player’s wages in full, putting the entire operation well north of £20m for the season. In 23 Bundesliga appearances, he scored 8 goals, but of those 6 came against teams in the bottom five, and in 14 of those appearances made no contribution in terms of a goal or an assist.
With finances so tight due to revenue streams drying up because of Covid-19, Arsenal simply cannot afford to countenance that kind of expenditure for the services of a player for a single season. Even with some discount, it would be a poor allocation of scant resources.
One thing to keep an eye on though is Barcelona’s interest in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The same paper is reporting that Luiz Suarez has an offer from MLS, and it’s widely known the La Liga runners-up are keen to strengthen their strike force ahead of next season.
The Arsenal captain’s future is up in the air due to his contractual situation, so it’s not impossible that their desire for a striker might play a part in any further Coutinho discussions between Sanllehi’s former club, his current club, and his great friend Kia.
Bayern are still involved in Champions League action, so no decision over the Brazilian’s future is expected until that’s over. They face Chelsea on August 8th in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie with a 3-0 lead from the game which took place in March.
Let’s hope a Chelsea side demoralised from being beaten in the FA Cup final take another hammering.
For some reason I heard Edna Krabbapple yelling “Nobody wants Guendouzi!”
I love the idea of us trying to get rid of Guendouzi to arguably the biggest club in the world.
Arsenal – We could offer you Matteo Guendouzi?
Barca – Let me run that upstairs, give me a minute. (Whispers to colleague) Can you google er Glenfiddich and Arsenal?
*Short pause*
Barca – No. We don’t want to sign Paul Merson.
I would be happy with Auba for Coutinho swap.
Sad to lose Auba but Coutinho is younger and will address some of our creativity issues for a good few years.
Mate, you should do stand up comedy.
“Let’s hope a Chelsea side demoralised from being beaten in the FA Cup final take another hammering.”
The only really meaningful thing to read here…
Speaking of which, if Wolves win the Europa league, doesn’t that drop 4th placed Chelsea into the Europa?
And, consequently, doesn’t this drop Sp*rs into… nowhere?
They’re already going nowhere so I guess that speeds up the process
If Wolves win the Europa League there will be 5 English teams in the Champions League next season
Actually, that’s not true. If Wolves win the Europa League, there’d still be only 4 teams in the Champions league. They’d take the place of the 4th placed team (Chelsea) in the champions league and Chelsea would drop into the Europa League. UEFA qualifications rules only allow 4 teams from England into the Champions League and 3 teams into the Europa league. That would mean only Chelsea and Leicester would be guaranteed Europa league football, then Spurs would have to fervently pray that we don’t win the FA cup because then they can only watch European football on TV while… Read more »
That’s wrong – they changed that rule several years ago. If Wolves win then there will be 5 teams in the CL. The only way the 4th placed league team would be bumped now is if clubs outside the top 4 won both the CL & the PL.
https://www.premierleague.com/european-qualification-explained
The link you provided says, “The maximum number of English teams in UEFA competitions is seven.” I interpret this to mean top four and Wolves (if they win EL) in CL, and Leicester (5th) and us (if we win FA) in EL next season for a total of seven PL teams.
Oh, how sweet that would be!
That is correct. However the odds of Wolves winning the Europa League are pretty minimal.
Suppose you don’t mean PL but EL here “… if clubs outside the top 4 won both the CL & the PL”
Unfortunately not, just be 5 English sides in the Champions League.
That’s really bad
But if I’m not mistaken we would pick up the space in Europa League they would vacate (if we didn’t get there by FA cup)
I’m sorry but why is it only players you don’t like or linked with an agent you don’t like, the only time when you amortise. You always refer to Luiz and Cedric and now Coutinho in this way. Let’s assume Pepe is on ~150k a week and his fee was 72m. Assuming he stays for 4 years (and hopefully gets better) he’d be costing around ~25 a season. His stats are similar to Coutinho’s this year and Coutinho for the year would be cheaper + you wouldn’t have to keep him if it doesn’t work out
Plenty of downvotes but no constructive counter arguments. It’s just cool to hate in the way we do business now isn’t it? It costs between ~20-25m a season for a player of that calibre if you amortise to include transfer fee. People moan about not being able to move on deadwood with players on high wages and a loan solves that?
I understand where you’re coming from and we all have biases, but I think it’s fair to recognize that Kia’s influence on our club is not healthy. Arseblog has also not been shy pointing out the ball in chain that is Mesüt’s contract (not a Kia client) Now the point about the article is that Coutinho cost £20m for a loan. If Pepe does well he has a resale value – hence the difference. Overall I think most people now understand that it’s much more than transfer price – it’s about salary, length of contract, image rights, etc. So the… Read more »
Personally I think the Kia thing is overplayed. I think someone like Cedric for example wouldn’t have been signed without the blessing of the coach. Could we have gotten someone better? Probably. But then you factor in speed of the deal and it being a January window and the agent thing probably came in handy? Just playing devil’s advocate
You may be right, but it is so frustrating seeing Arsenal continually buying players in positions that are already well covered.
What does Cedric offer that Ainsley and Hector don’t cover. It feels like a favour.
So now we’re pretending Hector’s been fit all this time and no-one was worried he’d ever get his form back? Cool
If you thought Hector was a worry, I don’t think Cedric is the answer. AMN, Chambers and Mustafi have played right back and are adequate backup.
Because of long-term injuries Bellerin has only played in less than half our last two Premier League campaigns.
And Arteta specifically said he didn’t want players filling in at full-back, and backed the signing of Cedric.
Maybe we should stop ignoring what the coach thinks just because it doesn’t match our own opinions?
We don’t want to rely on players constantly filling in, but I just don’t see Cedric as being better than our backup options mentioned above. Just my opinion and Arteta certainly shouldn’t be listening to us of course.
It seemed like a waste buying a player less effective than Bellerin, when some areas like central midfield are desperate for reinforcements. Let’s hope we get some money for Guendouzi and Torreira.
Well, one reason for doing a quick deal for a backup RB in the winter is not having to worry about that position in the summer.
We can now concentrate our resources on key positions like CM – exactly what we’re doing with Thomas Partey.
Like Saka at RB@
Agree with this Tom. My worries about which agent represents Luiz or Cedric became irrelevant once the coach backed both players.
Arteta is not shy about letting us and the board know exactly what he wants.
If we actually respect this coach, and he sees quality or leadership value in those players, we don’t have to agree with it, but we should respect his opinion considering it’s his ass on the line.
Yes, but he was injured and didn’t play for months while we were shelling out a loan fee and wages. Also he doesn’t seem to be particularly good, so we could have waited, saved a lot of money and got someone as good if not better. Kia did us no favours with Cedric or David Luiz.
Tom, Pépé will still be worth some 37M after 4 years if we don’t let him run his contract down. You could have used the very easy example of Ozil.
But if he does run down his contract he would have cost us somewhere in the region of £26m a year
It’s about ceilings of the two players. Pepe was over-priced for sure, but we hope he’ll improve next season and have a good a resale value because of his age.
Coutinho is on a downhill at 28 and will drain a lot of resources, not to mention agent fees.
I really hope we see neither Coutinho or Willian.
This fetish for young players is becoming a bit ridiculous. 27 or 28 yr old players are not finished, they still have 3-4 seasons in them.
Even if Coutinho were on a “downhill” he still rracked up 8 goals + 5 assists in 23 appearances for Bayern. Which of our current midfielders came close to that this season?
The answer is none, ergo, Philippe Coutinho would still improve our attacking midfield.
I’d say you have a good chance of getting your wish, if the past is anything to go by. I just think the club need to take a long view after quick and expensive fixes didn’t work.
Talent doesn’t just disappear at 28, and besides, we’ve played a very young side at times this season which has cost us plenty of points. Us Gooners shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the value of experience.
Cazorla has shown this season that class is permanent
28 should be the prime age for a player and anyone who thinks Coutinho, especially given his experience of the league isn’t better than the option we currently have need their heads checked.
People just don’t seem to ever learn, we spent the last 10+ years of Wenger relying on youth and the promise of jam tomorrow and it never materialised.
We need better players for now, not the future.
We’ve also found that ageing players can’t stay fit, Aubameyang being an exception.
It’s not about just their longevity. When you sign a player that is 27/28, you’re often giving them a 4 year contract. You’re also buying them when their value is near its peak. Now, three years later when their contract needs to be dealt with, you can’t sell them for 20% of what you paid, or are giving an even larger contract to a 31 year old.
It’s bad business, and the exact things that Arsenal as a club have been terrible with for over a decade.
All valid points Robh, but respectfully, it’s only part of the argument. We can’t pre-judge whether a signing constitutes good or bad business based on age alone.
If we sign a 30 yr old this summer whose performances help us hit top 4 next season, what we lose in resale value we gain back in terms of cash, prestige and the pulling power that comes with Champions League football.
We need to “outsmart” the market, as our executives keep shouting. We probably over-paid for Pepe, not that he’s a bad player or anything, but that price on one player was too much. We have Ozil, by far our highest paid player, who doesn’t play.We can’t go risking expensive signings at this point, in my opinion. Firstly Coutinho alone will certainly not make us a top 4 side, because we need to strengthen both our attacking and defending, and Coutinho would only help in one of those aspects. Second, I’m certain there are cheaper midfielders who would contribute more goals… Read more »
Why is outsmarting the market necessarily mean buying young?
Aubameyang was 28 when we signed him, was that a smart signing or a poor one? He is out best player after all.
The truth is we need several players to become a top 4 side.
Personally I’m not invested in to signing Coutinho but he’s definitely getter than what we have
We’ve been chasing this for four years to disastrous results. We are not one or even two players away from being a consistent champions league club. With one great signing could we get lucky for a year and pip fourth? Sure. But we have to be more ambitious than that. I want Arsenal to build a champion contending team, and with the resources we have it will rarely make sense for us to spend big money on a player in their late 20s. Right now Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona, United are all desperately trying to sell older players on gigantic wages.… Read more »
lol… I remember the good old days of ‘getting playing XYZ would stop development of player abc.’ We all saw how that turned out. Most times, player abc is part of a future, all-conquering ‘British core’.
Kalus: exactly. People talk about Coutinho as if he’s past it. he’s in his prime and I think ready for some glory and a “home”. Honestly he is exactly what we need, more than Partey (though Partey would be an improvement over Xhaka).
The key is, how do we get Coutinho without sacrificing Auba? Kia and Raul gotta do the lifting here. Make it happen.
First of all, you are cherry-picking. You take our highest transfer, and you generalize that these are the costs for a “player of that caliber”. I personally wouldn’t mind paying 25m for a game-changer like Auba, but in case of Pepe, as you say, he better improve, otherwise he would definitely be considered a transfer failure. And then if a “player of that caliber” means nothing more than a useful squad member, then I would prefer the financials around the transfer of Kolasinac, for example. Second, intentionally or not, you are defending “the way we do business now”, and this… Read more »
Tom’s no more cherry picking Pepe than Arseblog is players who share the same agent, and that’s the question he’s asking.
We never hear that Aubameyang is going to cost circa £30m a year over the course of his 3.5 year contract do we? We’ve finished 6th, 5th and now 8th since he’s signed, not exactly value for money is it? Or does it not matter since he wasn’t signed by Raul and his agent isn’t Kia Joorabchian?
The argument is a simple one – we don’t have the money this year that we had last year and to spank £20m on Coutinho for 1 season, who had an average season last year, seems pointless. We put £72m on Pepe after he had a season only bettered by M’Bappe in France. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.
Have another downvote.
And lighten up FFS.
Just because your comment is nonsense and noone to the time to take it apart doesn’t mean down votes are meaningless. Bloggs put them there for a reason, yeah.
And, btw, a downvote isn’t “hating”. Wow, some folks have such soft underbelies.
You’re quoting a word I haven’t even used. When I used “hate” it was in reference to the way we do business, not the downvotes.
You don’t know fuck all about me besides a comment which most people managed to engage with in a rationale way, so don’t jump to conclusions about ‘soft underbellies’
But you’ve spent £20m on a player for a season when, with smart recruitment, maybe looking at the lower leagues, you might be able to pick 2-3 players for that kind of money.
Exactly. Buendia is on the market for a similar price. Data says he’s potentially an elite ‘creator’.
Wouldn’t be opposed to Buendia but he’s not going to cost less than 20m overall. You’re basing that off of a very good season he’s had, but what happens if for the rest of that contract he’s rubbish? Coutinho isn’t my favourite player by any means but I think he’s more of a sure thing over his career
Take your point, but I reckon Buendia is the safer bet based on age, upside and at least recent data.
And if it were up to me I’d probably choose the risk of Buendia, over the risk of Coutinho. However, (and this is just guesswork regarding fee & wages) if you sign Buendia for say 20m and he’s on 50k a week for 4 years that’s ~30 for the 4 seasons for 1 player, not 2-3 as blogs suggested.
You contradict yourself, Tom. It’s 20M for one year of Coutinho, and by your calculations it would be roughly 7.5M for one year of Buendia, so actually yes, it would be just under three players for the cost of one Coutinho at that rate. Plus with Coutinho you don’t actually purchase the player so you don’t acquire an asset.
I might’ve worded it wrong. Yes, you’re right but then you’re committed to 2-3 of those players for 4 years and if they don’t work out we’re in this deadwood cycle again. Whereas what I meant about Coutinho is that the board probably think it’s less of a risk because of what he’s shown over his career and if it doesn’t work out, you don’t have to commit to him. I’m not saying I’d rather have Coutinho over Buendia as an example, I’m just curious as to why Coutinho or any Kia player is referred to as total cost but… Read more »
He would want more than 50k a week.
And hunger . And Emi Martinez will make sure Emi Buendias feet are planted in the ground
https://youtu.be/tRAo-PwvAGw
Finally looked him up now, and let’s do it.
Plus It’ll give Martinez a younger brother (Argentine, another Emi) to protect.
Martinez will storm up the pitch to beat whoever tries to nip him in the ankles. Or just wait until he has a chance to crash into the guilty fucker with his elbows while coming down from the air.
And after a year Buendia is still there for probably another three, and can be sold if he doesn’t perform to expectations, or even for a profit if he does. The money for a loan season of Coutinho is gone, If he was that good Barca wouldn’t be desperate to offload him and Bayern would want to keep him.
Munich signed sane, from city , p.c. was a stop gap in their plans
But it’d be 2-3 players on 4 year contracts so it wouldn’t be just £20m surely? I’m all for doing that strategy-wise, but if Arteta has specially requested Coutinho or any other senior player rather than the ‘unknowns’ for lack of a better term, then that’s how much it costs for a year and it’s not different from someone like Pepe for example
Getting into the top 4 on the back of 2-3 players for £20mil (presumably excluding wages) is pretty unlikely tbf, let alone challenging for the title. Many people thought Daniel James was a smart pickup for United, a young player from the lower leagues. His transfer fee was still £15mil excluding add-ons. You also have to factor in what City, United and Chelsea will spend to try and catch Liverpool.
Not saying spending that kind of money on Coutinho for one season is necessarily the best way to go either, it could be better spent. But 2-3 players for 20mil that can really help us right now? I don’t know about that!
We won’t be unless we’re very lucky. Our squad is full of players in the level below the required quality for top 4 let alone challenging for the title, we have no choice but to buy considerably better than what we have and that’s going to cost.
Exactly, we need big improvements on what we already have which is very unlikely to come from the lower leagues or so cheaply.
You mean a young player who has never played in the Premier League? someone without much experience? someone not attached to one of those nasty agents?
Would Guendouzi fit that bill? He was probably our best player in his first season, but somehow now he’s being demonised by everybody and their aunties. He’s still young but not good enough to be saved by our club, apparently.
All very well to clamour for young players as long as you are willing to back them up when the chips are down.
You have no guarantee those players are going to be better than, say, Coutinho. Who is proven in the Premier League.
It doesn’t make any sense Tom, it’s just a stick to beat Raul with and devoid of any logic. Barca paid £120m for him over what i’m guessing is probably a 5 year contract, so that cost spread over the length of the contract is £24m a year before wages, including wages is more likely around £40m. So £20m a year is half the going rate for what would be considered a world class player and was seen as probably a very reasonable and relatively low cost gamble for Bayern. Now has Coutinho worked out for them? I don’t know,… Read more »
You don’t know if he has worked out for barca? Bullshit
I was talking about Bayern not Barca but Barcelona are a bit of a basket case at the moment so it’s difficult to place blame on Coutinho.
He started well, 8 goals and 5 assists in his first 16 matches but last season wasn’t great.
Griezmann has similar numbers to Coutinho is he now a shit player too? or is something else happening at Barcelona?
Messi wants Neymar back and makes it difficult to anybody else.
P.c. was a stop gap til Bayern Munich completed in Sane from city.
My only worry about p.c. is if we play Wenger style formation and we have p.c. S one of the three midfield ers. He is not physically strong or a tackler. Liverpool improved by having three tough midfielders to protect the back four. So p.c. for me we would want play as a one of the front three..
Look he wouldn’t be my first choice but he’s the type of player we need.
To be honest, I’ve always been a quality over a quantity guy and think we have a far too bloated squad.
Instead of worrying about whether a single player costing £20m+ a year is the best use of our resources, i think having 7 centre backs costing £90m a year between them is more of a problem. If we could have 4 of better quality costing £70m we’d have a better team and have £20m left over to invest in greater quality somewhere else.
If Guendouzi really wants Barca as his first choice place to go, he must be dreaming. He hasn’t really set the world alight for us really. He has had some decent games but nothing really outstanding. He is not near Barca’s level at all so I don’t blame them for not wanting him
I also assume the words “difficult personality” weighs heavy in Barcas decision.
Bit of revisionism there I think.
It’s all down to opinion but I personally think that for large parts of the 2018/19 season he was our best player to the point of being called by France.
Only at Arsenal we go out of our way to publicly demonise a player and lower his value in the process.
He had a few really good games, generally run around a lot and showed a lot of promise but a world beater he isn’t. If his attitude is correct and arteta has plans for him in his set-up then I’d be up for keeping him….. But it won’t be a great loss if he’s sold at a profit either as he’ll hardly be missed.
You want him to be world beating at 21, in his second season at a new club in a foreign country? The boy did exceptionally well, let’s not take away what he achieved.
Bearing in mind his age, this whole affair has been mishandled and badly managed by the club, who now find themselves unable to offload a very unhappy player.
Guendouzi had about as good a start as you can have for a young player coming to the Prem, one pre-season and straight into the starting line-up holding his own against teams like Chelsea.
His attitude may be in doubt, but his talent is not. People forget he was also a Golden Boy nominee last year.
It doesn’t seem like he’s been mismanaged at all, quite the opposite actually. He had a pop at the coaching staff in dubai and has been asked to apologise for his disgusting outburst at some of the Brighton players but has refused to do so…. How is that situation been mismanaged? Yes he’s 21 and maybe if he gets his head down he will one day become a world beater but for now he is a squad player in an average arsenal side and has a bad attitude problem. So for those reasons I say, if he’s unwilling to address… Read more »
Xhaka has been playing well under Arteta, yes?
Has he ever apologized for his “disgusting outburst” at us, the Arsenal fans? No. He’s not 21 either.
Guendouzi was trying to insult a pathetic piece of shit who’d deliberately injured our goalie. Nothing to apologize for.
I feel Arteta is starting to show that despite all the non-negotiables talk, he will play favorites with senior players of a profile he likes. See also Luiz, David.
I am not commenting on the substance of this argument, just the point that only Arsenal supporters “go out of our way to publicly demonise a player and lower his value in the process.”
I think you’ll find exactly the same thing at every club, English and not.
I think it might be good for Guendouzi’s development to end up at a below average club. He needs a reality check and maybe he’ll work harder. He’s barely good enough for our starting XI let alone Barca’s.
That being said, if we can somehow swap him for a good player or sell him for a decent fee to a top club I’d take it.
“I think it might be good for Guendouzi’s development to end up at a below average club.”
I mean he’s already at Arsenal, why sell him then?
Really hope we stay away from this one. The idea you would pay that kind of money/wages for an offcast is ludricous. We’re currently being suffocated financially from paying numerous underperforming players with overinflated salaries such as Ozil, mhki, sokratis, kolasinac, mustafi all earning over £100k. Would prefer any money we have is invested in a few up and coming players at lower risk like Szoboszlai rather than a previously world class player in the hope he can refind his form.
Sadly we might blindly fall into it. Forget Raul and Kia, nobody is looking at Edu wanting to help out Coutinho. He’s been with their national team and they are lacking really top players now. Coutinho being one of the few high profile players alongside roll on the ground screaming Nancy at PSG, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Edu was hot for this deal praying their man finds a settled home
A probability.
Bunch of xenophobic sheep.
“Edu wants to help Coutinho because they’re both Brazilian” is it?
“Nobody is looking at Edu”. Right. No-one ever mentions him. Ever.
Nah some of you are actually mad. But I guess this Trumpian thing of throwing baseless vaguely xenophobic allegations around with no evidence is acceptable these days.
Surely suggesting that national team allegiances might play a role in football is not quite at the level of xenophobia.
As long as we don’t get Coutinho, they don’t get Auba and Geundozi’s over inflated opinion of himself gets a right kicking, then thats a triple win in my eyes.
The question is: who makes way for him and his £20M for ONE year? I doubt he’d accept to warm the bench… Özil doesn’t count, he isn’t even on the bench, Pepe, Auba, Laca hopefully not, so Joe? Reiss? Eddie? Saka? Gab? Shall we accept this 28 years old infamous fraud to take the place of one of the young? Is it a “covid friendly” decision after the 12,5% affair? Is it “rebuilding” and MA’s process?
Having a proper creative AM, a proper box-to-box CM with the ability to drive the ball past players and both enabling us to do something through the middle of the pitch, and having CBs who can actually handle playing in a back four would allow us to switch back to 4-3-3 setups, which, let’s be honest, are far more attractive, far more attacking and allow us to advance as a club. Currently we lack all those components so Mikel is being as pragmatic as possible to get us results with the fairly mediocre personnel we have in rather dour 5-4-1… Read more »
Am I the only one who really doesn’t want Coutinho or Willian? It’s all so underwhelming. I feel we’re just looking at overpriced rejects because they have the same dodgy agent. If Kia really is a fan he should be doing better than this, more like he’s figured out how gullible our execs are, or he’s sweetening the deals for them.
Bang on! I dont want either player anywhere near our club. Willian being a free is the only positive from those 2 deals
Totally agree. Even if Willian is free and a decent attacker, he just isn’t the kind of age profile of the player I want to us sign to start a much needed rebuild.
Willian is still a very good player imo and he’s shown that this season. But he’s the wrong age and plays the wrong position. Unfair to call him a reject, all indications are that Chelsea, or at least Lampard, want to keep him. Doesn’t mean we should necessarily sign him though.
I would take him if we are selling a striker or loaning our reiss or Joe.
Ok, I tend to agree with you. But woudn’t this team with Coutinho and Willian be in a better place? I would go as far as saying we would be in CL right now…
Kia jorchorbian touting coutinho to arsenal is like Lyle Lanley selling a second monorail to Springfield
Shit.. So much potentially depends on the FA cup final result.. Auba deciding to stay or not, the europa money to make some decent signings!
Anyone else starting to get really excited/nervous for Saturday already?
The similarities to a certain night just over a year ago in ̶E̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶n̶ ̶E̶u̶r̶o̶p̶e̶ Western Asia is scaring the Bejesus out of me if I’m being honest.
The Western Asia thing made my day. Top post.
refreshing at least to hear that we’re not the only club with a player on massive wages that can’t be easily moved….(let alone the 140m fee).
Emiliano Buendia (23) for £20-30m + £60-80k/wk, or Phillippe Coutinho (28) for £50-80m + £200-250k/wk ?
I know which one would give me a good day
Club can’t have it both ways. Leaked full sheets of paper against Duzi to make themselfs look like nothing is their fault and its all his – fact. They can’t now demand even half their valuation. People hate Guendouzi now and somehow are aplogistic to the club finishing 8th – you did your job but you will not have that fee you dreamed off. Also 50M is not valuation of Partey, thats release clause, the only reason why this player is 50M. Their valuation might be 60+Guendo/Laca if there was none.
So you’re just going to throw random direct baseless accusations everywhere. Young Matteo made himself this and maybe you need to take stock of other judgements you used similar standards in making.
Exactly this. Everyone’s jumping on the Guendouzi hate bandwagon initiated and publicised by the club, while Ozil has been with back pain for years and Xhaka tells fans to F off and get protected by the club as a result.
We protect players who are either over the hill or mediocre at best yet sell down the river a young player with great prospects
By all means sell the guy if he’s not worth the hassle but keep it the way it should be, private.
Unless MG has done something really, really bad, then his treatment by the club compared to, for example, the indulgence shown to Ozil, is out of all proportion. Sure he’s no Modric, but nowhere near as bad as his lack of game time suggests.
I think the difference in how Ozil’s and Guendouzi’s situations have been managed is because, at the time they were both frozen out, Ozil was already seen as a lost cause but Guendouzi not Arteta saw a streak of unprofessionalism / arrogance in Guendouzi, that he wanted to eradicate before it stunted his career. Once he doubled down against his public criticism, there was absolutely no way the club could back down. Allowing him back on board would totally undermine the culture Arteta is trying to create – which is far, far more important than any one player, or the… Read more »
Loan fees are a crazy idea for players like this. Imagine a good Turkish team came in for an Ozil loan, would AFC really ask a loan fee? Is this something that has to happen, do agents still get a % of that deal? All of this just sticks of AFC being used to force hands of other clubs to come in.
Coutinho for guendouzi and ozil ok? 🙂
And Ozil would probably smash it at Barca – albeit only for a season or two before retiring.
And I’d be so happy for Barca. They pay the 18 million wages and he can smash all he wants.
I never really rated guendouzi, and I know it’s easy to sound wise after the fact, but I’m not surprise nobody wants him given his attitude issues as well. Aside from his confidence on the ball, could someone explain to me why arsenal fans went so big on him so soon?
For me it was because he could actually carry the ball in midfield (at least at the start), and, importantly, he at least looked like a gave a shit.
Wow 8 dislikes.
Brave up mate! Guendouzi brigade is coming…
The fact that no top club seems to be interested in him, makes me think he really should buckle down and do whatever Arteta wants him to do for the sake of his career.
Precisely my thoughts. In my languag, we describe this situation as “driving a nail through your own boot”. He himself is responsible and I think he can make it work by putting in the hours. There are younger and better kids than him doing the same too. He’s a talent but most of all, he should realise it himself before throwing it all away
Exactly. You can’t really hurt Özil by freezing him out, the guy has earned millions and just happily retires after cashing his cheques for another year from us or plays on in a grandpa league like Quatar where age 35+ Europeans and South Americans play together with League Two level local players.
However, if Douzi is frozen for a year or so, then after such period it could well happen that no one even remembers him anymore.
We should be looking at exchanging Guendonzi with a decent player in Villarael, my Good ebening would fancy having Guendonzi in his team
Coutinho, Willian, Rakitić, Vidal…
would have been exciting transfer prospects. such a pitty it is 2020 and not 2016 ?
If it continues like this we might as well swap premiership for MLS.
Never rated him even when he had a decent season in Liverpool. Please don’t materialise.
Disagree with you there mate. He was fantastic at Liverpool. A player able to pick a pass, and pretty tasty at free kicks. Massively overpriced of course when he went to Spain, but would be the sort of proven PL signing that actually excites me, and I am a jaded old cynic.
Barcelona Director of Transfer Negotiations: “So you want Coutinho? This is fine, this is fine. But hard cash. You get it? Cash. We don’t want this shrieking poser guitarist from KISS, we want cash. Understand?
Okay, so you keep Coutinho.
I think Arsenal should be less emotional and work out the Guendouzi issue properly. He is a talented an young player still under contract and we need to manage his hot headedness (which can be in itself a positive if properly channled) As mentioned before my thoughts are we should be finding a good loan for him. Let him go out and spend a year (at someone-else expense) try and get regular footy at another club. If he does well, we can return him into the fold or sell on. If not, he will be chasten by reality. Which is… Read more »
With regard Coutinho, I’m a bit ambivalent on him since he has failed both to fully replicate Liverpool form at Barca and Bayern. Again I prefer we focus most of our effort for talent in midfield creative but with a cap of say 45-50m max. Aouar would be my choice even if he would be a hard target with many CL club likely potential destination and Lyon waiting on them. BUT money talks and what I like about Aouar is his versatility. Coutinho plays mainly as AM and maybe on the left but Auar can play across the midfield plus… Read more »
The other issue here of course is the inordinate influence and reliance on superagents by our transfer teams in recent years. Mslintat made a poor decision not to sell Alexis on to City then leaving us prey to Raiolla and a band aid in Mhkitaryan when we could have taken the plunge early on for Mahrez before City had need for another wide player VERY late in window and drove his price up. Things seem to be repeating themselves with Sanlehi and Edu, neither terribly experience in negotiations in market. Willian rumoured a Mhkitaryan 2.0 and Coutinho also a big… Read more »
A number of other players we have rumoured interest on worth a look at : 1) Amadou Diawara (Roma) has good height 6’1, good sense of space and ball retention (like his pull backs) 2) Said Belrahma (Brentford) left sided player with plenty of skill ala Alexis, has ability to lead the line if slightly disadvantaged at 5’8 in height but tricky Mahrgeb player. 3) Dominic Szaboslia (Salzburg) 6’1 attacking midfield but maybe also in future ability to play higher as reminds me a bit of RVP. 4) Malang Sarr (Betis) free agent Cback All dependent on price and who… Read more »
There must be something lacking in Arteta’s man-management skills if he can’t live with Guendouzi. nuf said
Why is it Arteta’s issue, and not the player’s? He’s dealing with Guendouzi.
I know some Arsenal fans are deluded that Guendouzi is one the best midfielder in the world. But the truth is he is not!
They seem to be suprised that both Barca and Atletico Madrid don’t want the young player at all!
Face it!
And yeah, i hate that kid. The way he runs like headless chicken, loses the ball and defends makes me sick!
Coutinho might be a more pricey option than other attacking mids!
here is a great vid about our issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAt7b_Tt9zo
The problem with all this is there are loads of “assumptions”. Lets assume he does sign then, and assume he improves the squad enough to make CL football. Then the assumption i would reach is that it was worth it as a net gain to the club. Let the manager pick the players he wants if thats coutinho then fine, let the finance lads worry about the finance, when it boils down to it we had a team good enough to finish 8th this season so we need to improve
Barca clearly have enough candidates for their annual Pub Nite Out KISS Guitarist Lookalike Competition.
We’ve more chance of buying and then selling on Paul Stanley himself, than the French Incredible Sulk.