Hey ho folks, another transfer round-up, saving you all the hassle of clicking around and being served pop-ups and pop-unders and auto-play ads by nefarious transfer scuttlebutt sites.
Let’s start.
Aaron Ramsdale
Today, TalkSport are reporting that we’re set to bid £30m for Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
While Arsenal’s interest in the 23 is genuine, this isn’t a particularly reliable source, and no club in our financial situation can spend that much money on a number 2 keeper.
Unless, of course, he’s not being signed as a number 2 😳 …
£30m is still a lot of money for a player who, despite having potential, has been a bit underwhelming despite being named Sheffield United player of the year last season (to be fair, this is like choosing the least worst member of Maroon 5).
Willian
Via Sport Witness comes a report from an Italian site which says that the Brazilian has no offers to leave this summer and, because of his £7.5m annual salary, is a ‘prisoner’ for the next two years.
Tough gig all right. I’d like to be that kind of prisoner. Held captive at a five star resort, waited on hand and foot, paid millions to do the square root of sweet feck all beyond eating as much Mr Kipling as you can lash down your gullet.
We suspect they don’t really know the meaning of the word prisoner, even if they’re just trying to say that Arsenal handing a 32 year old a deal worth £150,000 a week (it could even be more), was one of the stupidest things of all time because literally nobody else on earth is willing to match it and take him off our hands.
We give this an extremely low poo rating because it’s so hard to see how we get rid of him it all sounds quite accurate. 
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
The 23 year old made it fairly clear earlier in the summer he was open to leaving the club, talking to the Telegraph about his future and saying, “If it works out it works out, if it doesn’t then kiss Arsenal goodbye.
“It’s been a long journey but a proud one at that. Maybe they still want to do something and things could change. If not, there’s always other teams.”
The BBC report interest in him from Leicester, Southampton and Burnley – and the first two were teams who tried to take him on loan in January.
In a summer in which we need to sell, Maitland-Niles – with over 100 Arsenal appearances, an FA Cup winners medal and England caps to his name – represents a chance to cash in on an Academy graduate. Having seen Chelsea sell Marc Guehi – who made just 2 appearances for them – to Crystal Palace for £18m, we should be able to convince one of the sides interested in Maitland-Niles to take him on loan for seven years, eventually paying us in BrenCoin, the cryptocurrency with shark teeth and pictures of itself outside its own kleenex-littered bathroom.
Ruben Neves
We’ve been linked throughout the summer with the Portuguese international whose agent Jorge Mendes has been reportedly wooed by Edu for some time.
Again via TalkSport, a report that we’re losing the race to Man Utd. Are we even racing though? Neves feels like the kind of signing we could have made weeks ago if we’d really wanted. Maybe we’re waiting for Manuel Locatelli to make it super-duper-mega-clear his preference is Juventus, but maybe we’re just really slow and can’t take a hint.
Tammy Abraham
The links to the Chelsea striker feel a bit spurious, but at the same time they would make some sense. Aubameyang is 32, Lacazette is in the last year of his contract, and beyond that we have a pair of 19 year olds in Folarin Balogun and Gabriel Martinelli as back-ups (assuming Eddie Nketiah will be going too).
Abraham is 23, seemingly on the outs with Tommy Tickles, and with 90 senior goals to his name at Chelsea as well as loan spells at Swansea, Bristol City and Aston Villa, he has some striking pedigree.
There’s talk of a £40m fee; also talk of a loan move with an obligation to buy; and although it seems unlikely, we have a feeling in our waters that there might just be something to this.
God I really don’t fancy Tammy tbh
Yeah, let’s sign him when he’s 30
Neither do I. Somewhat cringeworthy thinking of him in our colours.
Let’s leave emotions aside.
At least his agent isn’t Kia.
A tough one. He really looked like he was about to hit his stride at Chelsea when he was given a chance by Lampard, and at the time I remember thinking that we should have gone for him when we were linked years ago under Wenger. But he could be Welbz 2.0, too. Very likable, but ultimately at a level unsuited to our ambition.
I think on balance, I’d take the chance, though.
Welbeck was an alright squad player I thought. He was in a team that finished 2nd and gave us the fuck you Van Gaal celebration in the FA cup the year we won it. That would be a pretty amazing ambition this year.
He was. The question, however, is whether would you be ok with Tammy Abraham being equal to that, given the price quoted and our striking needs. Maybe you would. I, on the other hand, would hope that he could exceed what Welbeck gave us.
Maybe I would what? You said Welbeck was likeable but didn’t match our ambition, I just suggested that he did.
When it comes to Tammy If we get him, I’d hope all of our new signings are successful and I think he would offer us more than Eddie or Lacca.
I think it’s clear what the question was –> “whether you would be ok with Tammy Abraham being equal to [Welbeck], given the price quoted and our striking needs.”
You’d pay £40m for the kind of squad player that Welbeck was? Not me. At that price, I’d want Abraham to be an improvement on goal return and ability.
And he may be that. May.
I think it’s pretty clear that he would be that, at least. An improvement. And that’s worth the money. I wouldn’t bother wasting any time on the Welbeck comparison…
Fair play, I definitely would want him to be better than Welbz, I t do hink his finishing is better (i would hope).
I think 40M is too much but football transfers are so mental now that I try and not put any weight into the cost.
I guess though if we sign a striker they are going to be a younger guy who you would hope contributes this season and pushes and then ultimately replaces Auba. I thought Daka would have a good shout at 24M but maybe Abraham fits the bill too.
To give Welbeck some credit he had flashes of brilliance but was so injury prone it seemed every time he hit some form he’d be out for 6 months. IMHO if he was for every week we’d have a very different opinion of him.
For me the bigger issue with TA is that he might also follow that same pathway. I’m I’m not mistaken he’s already had a few significant injuries.
Absolutely, I’d love to have seen the player Welbeck could have been with a body that didn’t continually let him down.
I don’t either. But who else can we get.
I thought we should have gone for Daka, Leicester moved early.
Abraham is actually a pretty good player though, he is definitely more of a threat than Laca or Eddie. A move for Abraham only makes sense if they both leave, which would be a good thing if it can happen. He’s only 23 too and would fit in well with our young group of British lads. Would also make a nice change buying one of their payers before his prime but 40M seems a little steep.
No he is not better than laca and 40 mil is a waste of money on abraham when there are way better strikers for the same money.
Just sick of us signing Chelsea players in general. They could announce we’d nabbed Ngolo Kante from that lot and I think I’d still be dubious about it…
My mind jumped to De Bruyne, Lukaku and Salah doing alright post-Chelsea, but yes we are scarred by our share, hopefully because we usually take oldies. Tammy’s fall from grace is a bit weird, thought he was doing excellently until they stopped playing him – still their top scorer last season?!
Not at 40m though…….30 tops
Why are we going for another Chelsea reject?
maybe we could give them back willian
This! £50m+Willian sound fair?
No better than Martinelli
But we do need cover up front. Auba may well be finished and Laca prob gone in January. I’d take a punt on abraham, 2 yr deal and see how it goes…
I’ll take Tammy for sure. The strikers who are a step up are 50% more expensive. We’d get a good finisher who occupies defenders and runs the channels. We’d create genuine competition for places for our two young strikers and be ready for a squad without Laca and Auba. If we can loan to buy and get money for Laca this window, it’s decent business.
I think everyone would be happy if we could swap Maddison for AMN + cash. I think he would fit nicely with Arteta’s style.
Someday we are going to find out why the Willian signing happened, probably either when a criminal indictment is revealed or the statute of limitations for said indictment passes.
I scanned the Pegasus news thoroughly for updates on Park Chu Young and Lucas Perez. Truth will out.
He must have Edu’s family somewhere.
It’s rare that the saying “we’d be better off playing with ten” rings more factual than rhetorical, but Willian has managed the feat.
Willian and Saliba are very vey weird. I shudder to think that our classy club could have some seriously dirty laundry where those two signings are concerned. But I just can’t see any other explanation for them.
There’s no secret. Arteta made it very clear he wanted Willian so we got Willian.
It’s a bit revisionist history. Nobody thought 3yrs was a good idea but a lot of people thought it was an upgrade on what we had prior to that. Everyone was wrong though…was not an upgrade. He just was way worse last year than he was before. Arteta recognized that as well and he barely played after Xmas.
https://arseblog.news/2020/08/willian-links-grow-as-winger-turns-down-chelsea-contract/
On this website specifically, most users did not consider Willian to be an upgrade. In the above post, those most resistant to the Willian transfer were pretty much spot on in predicting it would be a flop.
Not much revisionism tbh.
We can’t make a judgement on Willian until his contract has finished/he leaves. He could be amazing next season and seen as a good signing.
Thanks John, I needed that laugh in this heat!
Nope. Most people didn’t like the deal, but once it was clear it was happening, some were trying to convince themselves it couldn’t be that bad.
The most common way of doing that was convincing themselves he might be alright for a year, year and a half if we’re lucky.
The fact that most FANS thought it was a terrible idea when Arteta, Raul and Edu didn’t is … telling.
Here’s a theory, David Luiz refused to sign a 1 year contract extension unless Willian joined? In our desperation we got side show Bob and his BFF.
Nothing startling in the article, is there? It looks like we’re certainly in the market for a keeper – Ramsdale is one but others have been mentioned including Neto at Barcelona. I don’t see any keeper of quality (and cost) arriving if he isn’t first choice though so does that mean Leno is on his way? Not surprised about Willian – surely there’s a warning bell ringing somewhere when MA talks about the need to sign “senior” players. I don’t think it’s a secret that AMN will very probably leave. Which club seems to be the main question. As for… Read more »
If we bought Ramsdale for £30m when we let go of Emi for merely £20m (with Leno only 2.5 years left on his contract at the time), this but all confirms our set up as a football club reeks of incompetence. I will no longer waste my time defending the decision to keep Leno over Emi, the supposedly ideal free transfers of Willian, Luiz, the loss of our once best assets on bosmans or for peanuts. Plenty more wrong with this club and I see why a lot of the people involved in the club professionally don’t seem at all… Read more »
I prefer to see it as integrity. Emi did not want to stay as #2, he had been a long term loyal Gooner. Our manager made the right AND best decision by not keeping an unhappy player who earned such respect with years of service. We can question Emi vs Leno decision but blaming Arteta and club for showing respect and understanding to players we choose not to make starters is required in this business. Players know they must fight and sometimes great players do not start. Attracting the best requires money, respect and integrity just like clubs demand from… Read more »
Not keen on Ramsdale. He is definitely a number two.
So, off the charts on the poo-ometer, then?
If Ramsdale comes it will definitely be as the number one. That’s worrying. He’s nowhere near good enough for Arsenal. The rumours are that Leno wants out and Arsenal are waiting for a replacement before letting him go. As for Tammy Abrahams I’d take him. He’s young and could still develop into a top striker. We should be selling Laca this summer but nobody wants him. The big problem last season was that we just didn’t score enough goals. We especially need goals from midfield next season. And Auba needs to wake up. I still don’t see us a a… Read more »
“Auba needs to wake up.”
I think you meant, “Auba needs to recover from the parasitic disease he unfortunately contracted.”
Jfc, i would live to see all the people giving him stick try to perform athletic feats while infected with malaria.
Yeah he got malaria in March, he was shit for the entire season
Agree especially on Abraham,it doesn’t seem too much of a risk.
Yeah, totally agree….
Yeah concerned the rumour hasn’t gone away Can’t see that 30m can be justified, that’s Wan-Bissaka levels of English-tax!
what happened to the onana rumours? with the reduction in suspension reduction and the relatively cheap cost, seemed like a good bit of business.
Onana won’t come if Leno stays. He wants the no1 spot. If that happens we still need a no2 anyway.
Probably not a lot of verified sources there, but if true we’re being held hostage by Leno. Not to mention we let go of Emi because of him. On top of that he wants out but won’t settle for no 2 if he stays (again, no way to verify the source here). Either our contracting team are bl**dy abysmal at negotiating, or the rumors about Leno’s wanting to leave and not wanting to be no 2 are completely false. I’m wishing it’s the latter but deep down I won’t be surprised if it’s the former.
Leno is very average, if we can get a better keeper he should take his chances like everyone else. Pandering to Leno would be ridiculous, we already lost Emi because of him.
He prefers lyon over us-enal
Can’t we just get Jack Butland for £1m from CP?
Sebastien Frey rumoured to be coming out of retirement
Has Leno been caught with a cigarette or something… how are we vilifying the keeper (and Rob Holding) when the manager was under the continuing impression that David Sideshow Luiz is the ‘best’ defender at this club?
Which he was despite his errors.
This rivals Theo’s “consistency in patches” for most Arsenalesque oxymorons.
Luiz was our best defender. Despite all the penalties, red cards and brainfarts. Which is a terrible thing for the others. I thought Mari was good when he played to. Made the least mistakes anyway. I like Holding and Chambers but the sight of Sterling getting between both and outjumping them still irritates me.
He slowed our play to walking pace and cost us enough points to have finished 4th. He has a beautiful raking long pass, but beyond that, I’d take Holding and Gabriel over him every time.
How is that an oxymoron? It’s certainly not an inherent contradiction to say that Luiz was the best defender at Arsenal despite being prone to the odd brain fart. It’s an indictment of Arsenal’s recruiting rather than a problem of logic.
Luiz is not a better defender than Rob Holding*, Gabriel Magalhaes, arguably even Pablo Mari. There’s a reason he was at the heart of a 7-1 Brazil humiliation, and why Chelsea were happy to let go.
His ‘value’ is his apparent passing range, which is only valuable to a manager who insists on a foosball – style midfield and playing Aubameyang as a wing-back.
*Please re-look that FA Cup final against Costa and Co. At any other club in this league, that 21 year old would be a league-leading defender by 25-26. At Arsenal, he’s “not a ball-playing centre-half”
David Luiz at Arsenal was an error-prone defensive maestro. The two descriptors negate each other completely. It wasn’t just the odd brainfart, he was responsible for 55% of the penalties conceded and 33% of the red cards we received in the league during his time here.
Not to negate his positive qualities but to call him our best defender is a joke when he couldn’t be relied upon to stabilise our defense in high pressure situations. You’re right, it is an indictment of Arsenal recruiting that they even considered David Luiz as leadership material.
I didn’t call him our best defender. I said it’s not a contradiction to say he was our best defender and error prone, which, if you were of that opinion, would be an indictment of our recruiting.
You disagree with the opinion, that’s fine, it wasn’t mine, it was Martin’s. My point was re: the oxymoron comment. It’s categorically not an oxymoron to believe he was our best defender in spite of the errors.
The phrase “consistent in patches” is a perfect example of an oxymoron.
I was referring to the statement about Luiz, not the one about Walcott. The Walcott one is oxymoronic, though if you were generous you could unpack it to mean he showed consistency during certain periods, but not consistency in general. If you were generous.
the manager was under the continuing impression that David Sideshow Luiz is the ‘best’ defender at this club Glad I am not the only one wondering how this thought process is even possible. It reminds me of how after every loss, Arteta was always talking about how we didn’t take advantage of the (often nonexistent) big chances we created. In 2020/21, we were 12th in the number of big chances we created (45) In 2018/19, under Emery we were 5th in the number of big chances we created (72) In 2017/18, under Wenger we were 2nd in the number of… Read more »
Can’t wait to see if we suck again this year.
Arteta will be gone by December. I’d put 50p on it.
Marc Guehi is very much blog’s 2021 Rhian Brewster.
Beginning to get worried about the centre mid position. We really need improvement here beyond squad players.
Maybe they’re waiting to move Xhaka first, but it’s gone pretty quiet on any serious interest from us.
Also a RB if Hector goes? As usual with us it’s all conditional on who we can move on – and with our bloated wage structure that just ain’t easy.
I’m pretty excited by lokonga actually. Wouldn’t mind another, but feel if that is a CM/AM Player that can fill both roles we’re looking solid. That one addition, and joe willock (and you know him actually being given a proper chance and allowed to play his own game) might be enough in those areas. Problem is I have very little faith in my own idea actually coming to pass… Don’t see mikel knowing how best to utilise willock.
That’s a fair point about Willock. I don’t really share your faith in Lokonga, but that’s probably down to my own ignorance having barely seen him play. I’m worried that he’s no improvement on Joe, AMN and Mo.
Obviously I hope I’m proven wrong.
(I usually am!)
I still feel if we lose Xhaka we need someone who can come straight into the CM in the first 11.
I’m sure all of the above can do a job there, but I’m less sure they actually improve us.
Nah, I’d much rather see us drop 20M€ on a young target with promise that we have identified through scouting, than 50-70M on some “established” talent that we pay 5x more wages and he gives us no more on the pitch. We’re just not one of the elite teams any more, you’re kidding yourself of you think we are. Time to rebuild through scouting and faith in youth and the academy. Arteta prattling on about experience today just makes me think he won’t make it to Xmas. If he truly thinks that he’s learned nothing; like a Conservative voter that… Read more »
More on the pitch – sure. What about off it? I’d pay over the odds for a Toni Kroos if he were to be pushed out of Real, just so for his trophy haul and his ability to inspire the youngsters. Mikel himself was underachieving established yet limited talent who brought great stability to us at a critical point.
Has Willian been able to “inspire the youngsters”?
Was Lichsteiner? Or even Ozil?
No more of this experience-chasing bullshit, please.
I’d prefer players who can add to the Arsenal trophy cabinet in the future to has-beens who can regale the youngsters with their tales of past glories.
It was quite clear, to the dismay of many, that David Luiz was a highly respected figure within the club when he was here and got a send off in keeping with that.
The signings of him, Lichsteiner, Willian weren’t about bringing world shattering results on the pitch but to repair the culture within the club by raising the standards of professionalism. The only public evidence we have of that is the aforementioned fair well to Luiz.
Lichsteiner I can certainly understand but how did Luiz and Willian raise the standards of professionalism at this club? Nothing about their conduct on and off the pitch screamed professional.
Fighting teammates in training and flying to a Dubai restaurant mid-pandemic is the type of culture we’re trying to embed at the club? If anything all they’ve shown the youngsters is that being unreliable and doing the bare minimum has no impact on your future at the club.
Both Luiz and Willian are well known for their professionalism and they’re also serial winners. As for fighting, maybe some of our players both deserved and required a punch? Maybe thats how standards are raised with some? What i do know is that Wenger left the club in free fall and with a piss taking squad of players. We only have to look at Koscielny’s disgusting antics to see that the players held the club in complete contempt. Drastic short term measures where required and that’s what the club did. Now that those disruptive characters are mostly out the door… Read more »
I’m sorry but Ozil, Sanchez and Auba have been the reason we were relevant for a bit there.
It’s nice to have someone like Saka buoy the team for a change – have to say.
You think experience doesn’t play a role in bringing the trophies to the cabinet? Buzz off
I wasn’t referring to Ozil as a player so much as an inspiration for others, because that’s what was suggested experienced players are. Ozil was excellent for us when he was in his prime, but he clearly didn’t raise a generation of serial winners. If anything, his attitude towards the end fostered complacency and ultimately discord. I’m not opposed to experience per se, but I find it a waste of resources to sign players past their prime purely because of who they used to be. I think the experience we should be looking for is best displayed by someone like… Read more »
So you’d be happy for us to drop 300K/week on Toni Kroos for 2-3 years, while his career slowly fades out? Have we learned anything?
You know I’d be happy to win the league with a bunch of 1 year olds who have never even kicked a ball before, believe me. Never seen it happen though.
Don’t see Arteta allowing anyone to “play their own game” tbf.
Good point
The Twitter space is showing links to Jordan Henderson. It would be typical of us spending nearly 100 million on Ben White and Tammy Abraham, while getting Jordan Henderson on a 5 year deal to strengthen our midfield.
You’re sure it’s not just a shoddy plumbing job causing those runs again? Please have a second look, for your sake and ours.
I wonder if any Arsenal player in the last decade has been as widely disliked as Willian. I haven’t seen one positive comment about this man, opinions about him seem to range from disdain to apathy.
On another note, what is happening with Lucas Torreira’s future at Arsenal? It’s been crickets on that front
No one wants him and Mikel can’t find use for him.
That’s a shame. It feels like it’s been forever since he scored that game-killing goal against spuds. I hope he feels the Atletico loan was worth it.
Big difference here is Abraham’s peak years are ahead of him, where as Willians were behind him.
Never rated Abraham but the more I think about it I belive this will go through and that he will be a megastar. Just something with his size, style, age, and a impressive CV. Think this summer looks quite promising…
The one thing he offers, is his aerial threat – something that neither Auba nor Laca offer or for that matter Gabi too. With the no of crosses we ping in to the box, maybe it makes sense to have someone that can head a few in.
But, another Chelsea reject? Just shows where we are, doesn’t it?!
Mate he’s awful in the air. I don’t think I’ve seen him score a goal with is head and I watch him alot in his first season with Chelsea in the premier league
I believe the actual stats show he’s quite mediocre in the air – not good, but not actively shit.
Bro, I have followed him from the year when,
in Chelsea youth teams, he scored 40+ goals in one season(as did Solanke, but I digress) and let me tell one thing constant about him.
His aerial ability is relatively shit, despite his height. He rarely does anything of note with it.
Oh boy! If he can’t head well despite his height, then we better we keep off him. I retract my earlier statement. A Chelsea reject who can’t give us anything different to what we have today and at a high salary – please don’t show this guy to Edu!
He’s shit in the air, would much rather have Calvert-lewin
At senior level, Abraham has scored 80 goals in 209 appearances, 11 of which were headed goals. 2 of these goals were against Premier League opposition, the rest were against Championship teams or lower. Martinelli has scored 12 goals in 48 appearances at senior level, 3 of which were headed goals. 2 in the Europa and 1 against Nott’ham Forest. Aubameyang has scored 308 goals in 610 appearances at senior level. About 35 of which were headed goals. Lacazette has scored in 197 goals in 451 appearances at senior level. 17 of these goals were headers. Abraham – 11/80 =… Read more »
I would LOVE Calvert-Lewin, as would any team you suspect. But it would take untold riches to get him out of Everton. I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved this year(unlikely) or next if the fee was 80-100M.
He should have got some minutes over Kane in the Euros who was dogshit for 3 and a half games and alright for the rest.
I too would like Calvert-Lewin. He’s becoming a very mature and composed striker. His heading ability is quite incredible. Though 80-100 million is a bit too much, even though it’s likely what Everton will value him at. He’d have to show his current for an extra two seasons like Lukaku to even be worth truly worth any where close to that. Another good target man is Alexander Isak. Though his specialty is more in hold-up play and ball-retention. These are the key attributes best suited to Arteta’s style of attacking. Which incidentally is what our current forwards lack. As it… Read more »
Martinelli is decent when the ball gets to his head, but this is the very definition of small sample size. I’m not even trying to say that Abraham is good with his head, but using a percentage for a guy with 12 goals is not helpful and a bad use of data. The rest of it already confirms you point probably…would have been more useful to see more of an average forward and what they score relative to Auba/Laca/Abraham/DCL. Appreciate you getting some data though!
My breakdown is in response to the forwards that Checkmate mentioned + the forward with the most headed goals in the EPL last season and the forward with the most headed goals ever. While I don’t believe that Martinelli will maintain that proportion of headed goals in the future, he does in fact offer a good aerial threat. This is also backed by the fact that he is in the 74th percentile for aerial duels won per 90. Judging by his header against Standard Liege, I think his heading is actually quite underrated. Unfortunately I haven’t found any public databases… Read more »
The stats prove the Tammy is a decent goal threat if not a serious one.People might say he is a Chelsea reject but so was KdB and Sala. Besides Chelsea is bigger than we are player for player,I think a couple of their players who can walk into our first 11.I hope we land Tammy the kid still has time to improve.
*bench warmers
Oh I agree he is a good goal threat. Just that his aerial prowess is still up for debate.
It’s better business to keep Lacazette for the final year of his contract and lose him on a free then sign Abraham for £40m, there a reason that Chelsea have spent big replacing him and looking to spend even more on Haaland. This flawed logic that he’ll retain most if not all of his value in a few years time if he doesn’t work out because he’s English has never once been proven in our case. Are we getting the English tax for AMN, Willock or Nelson? Did we get it for Wilshere, Welbeck or Walcott? We’ve got 2 perfectly… Read more »
Totally agree…..focus on number 10, CM, RB and *cheap* no.2 goalkeeper (not Ramsdale for ££££££)…..attack is the one area we are covered in. Lacca fits into this system better than Auba IMHO
Tammy was doing ok at Chelsea until they brought in Timo Warner to take his spot. Timo, by the way, was very energetic, very unlucky (or maybe not clinical enough) and very much off the score sheet. Last year Timo did the following: 35 games, 6 goals and 8 assists as a striker who was force fed minutes like Willian was. Those are Pepe-esque numbers with many more minutes. Let’s see about Tammy. In the 2019-2020 season he had 15 goals and 3 assists in 34 games. Not earth shattering but he was 21/22 and a new starter in a… Read more »
Interesting you mention Nketiah because for me he is Chelsea’s Nketiah, and we already have out own Nketiah. A talented player but ultimately a mid-table striker.
Collecting other teams also rans is what’s got us here in the first place.
Tammy is much much better than Nketiah, sadly…
To get the English tax for young players they must have at least one good, consistent season in the Championship.
That’s the one thing lower half Premier League teams, aka the buyers, really care about:
“Are they good enough to get us back up if the worst case happens and we are relegated?”
They have to look like they’re on the way up or have world class players blocking their path, two things we haven’t been able to demonstrate with our English lads
I’d say we got English tax for Iwobi and The Ox (flashes of real talent, but never really put it together to become a key player for us).
Iwobi’s not English and Ox was about market rate
he is english, he plays football for the nigerian national team but that doesnt renounce his british citizenship.
the english tax is more or less about players being homegrown, which iwobi is.
Though he was born in Nigeria,he was raised in East London as a child, so he does in fact have English nationality.
He even featured for England at youth level until his uncle, Jay-Jay Okocha, convinced him to represent Nigeria at senior level. Since he was
Shame we couldn’t get more out of Iwobi before selling because he was very likely to surpass the goal contribution tally numbers of Ox(who we persisted with for longer) despite playing way less minutes.
He’s at best a mid table player, and averaged around 2 goals a season since joining Everton. His sale, was without question the best sale we’ve had in the last 5-10 years.
And he may have British citizenship but he’ll be going to the ACN for 6 weeks in the new year, which negates that
If I take a holiday to Seychelles for 3.5 weeks (which is AFCON’s actual duration btw), does that rescind my British citizenship and English nationality?
Even when multiple people have corrected you, you double-down and invent some imaginary talking point that still doesn’t even affect Iwobi’s homegrown status. It makes a lot of sense why you love Arteta so much.
I haven’t been corrected, Iwobi is Nigerian, it’s a statement of fact.
And no going on holiday makes no difference, but a professional footballer missing a large portion of the season by being away negates any benefits you might have in way of nationality, it also affects his value.
And i don’t love Arteta, i was against his appointment because of his lack of experience.
I do however believe that Wenger left such a mess the club had to commit to a multi-year project to fix those problems, which is what I’m for.
I’m against an endless carousel of managers baking in Wenger’s destruction of the club.
Iwobi has lived in England since he was an infant.
He represents Nigeria, but to say he’s “not English” is pretty bold.
I wonder how he feels about that.
More importantly, he’s homegrown.
It can’t be just bad luck and everyone else’s fault that Ramsdale got relegated two seasons running.
To be fair, teams getting relegated have much bigger problems than their goalkeepers. They usually can’t defend well, and don’t score enough goals.
David Season was relegated with Birmingham
David Seaman was relegated with Birmingham
I really hope we don’t go for Abraham, that will literally show how far we’ve fallen. Can you imagine us parting ways with 30 million quid for that guy, he’s just as bad as nketia. We seriously need to take our eyes off Chelsea rejects.
Why the hell would we want Ramsdale, he’s awful.If the club does actually throw thirty million pounds at this deal somebody should be sacked.
If he’s awful why has he twice been voted player of the year at his clubs by the age of 23?
willian was player of the season before we signed him for free…
I honestly don’t think Willian was that bad, I think Arteta’s early season tactics where overly complicated and no one looked good. Our form change when we changed formation.
I tend to think of Willian as not being a complete failure of course, but also not justifing (so far) the wages he’s reportedly costing us. Either way, I don’t think he’ll be going anywhere until his contract expires because of those wages, unless there’s a really unexpected turn of events. MA will have to try and get the best out of him for the remaining time. Who knows, with several new players coming in, possibly new tactics etc., we’ll see him show more of the form he had at Chelsea.
It’s clear last season we didn’t have the personnel to play the way Arteta envisions, that’s why we’re after 6,7,8 players this summer and looking to move on a similar amount. I must be one of the only people that’s encouraged and impressed with the work Arteta and Edu are trying to do this summer, they seems to identify the exact same failures in the squad that i do. If we can get quick ball to Willian or any of our forward players for that matter next season i think we’ll see a far better and threatening team. The additions… Read more »
I think people in general are underestimating the impact of last season being in a pandemic with no crowds. it was a soulless experience, That likely impacted players in different ways. I know it was the same for all teams but that doesn’t mean it impacted them all the same. Some, like Auba, feed off of the energy of crowds. Maybe that was the case for Willian too. He was ay a new team that was really struggling in empty stadiums and then in a covid bubble the rest of the time (other than his jaunts to the middle east),… Read more »
Can’t we just sign the bass player from Maroon 5? A. He’d be cheaper, and therefore less of a risk than Ramsdale. B. He might assume DJ’ing responsibly in the dressing room, play the lads ‘some solo stuff he’s been working on’. It’s bound to be terrible. Perhaps terrible enough to force Willian to leave. C. Edu could probably wrap up a deal quicker for him than for Neves – though apparently the same could easily be true for signing Jaco Pastorius, and he’s been dead for fourteen years now. D. He’s a bass player. Maroon 5 would probably not… Read more »
So we could collectively spend 120m on White, Ramsdale and Abraham. No single word could adequately describe this scenario.
‘Madness.’
‘Amadness.’
Nope. You’re right.
‘A madness’.
Ridiculous to be in this position. I know I say this every season but this season truly is do or die. And we were definitely almost killed last season.
The Ramsdale offer seems crazy! If they wanted a home-grown goalkeeper so badly, they should’ve just kept Emi Martinez (I’m pretty sure he was qualified as “Home-grown”). The Willian signing just makes me sad… Reiss Nelson should’ve been given his minutes last year. If end up letting Nelson go, I hope it doesn’t turn into a Gnabry 2.0 situation… And then Willock & Maitland-Niles. I realise at least one of them will probably be sold, but wouldn’t you rather have one of them in the squad than Elneny?!
The absolute worse thing here is the idea of buying a poor keeper like Ramsdale for 1.5 times the price we sold an excellent keeper in Martinez. Like WTF!!! Villa got the deal of the centaury there.
I really really will not be happy if we sign Rammy the Sheep
To add to your potential unhappiness, it’s reported that Sheffield want us to increase the offer for Ramsdale (to £32 million)! I still don’t understand whether a new keeper is really coming in as back-up to Leno – playing in the event of his injury/suspension and in the two cup competitions – or as a replacement for him, which was suggested some weeks ago. I don’t see how we’ll attract – or then keep – a real quality keeper just to play second fiddle to Leno. Alternatively, how much is it reasonable to fork out for a backup? If that’s… Read more »
Abraham.. 40 million pound Welbeck
The Ramsdale rumor sounds so nonsensical we might actually do it.
As for Abraham, I don’t *hate* it, I just feel like you can get twice the player in Europe for that kind of money.
I guess they both have the “attitude” Arteta loves so much.
If we’re really interested in spending $30m on a goalkeeper give that money to Manchester United and get Dean Henderson or pretty much ANYONE ELSE rather than Ramsdale.
I’m hoping that the Ramsdale story is not true – £30m!!! Maybe selling Martinez at £20m wasn’t such good business
Tammy is a Gooner after all. That could be good, but it’s a lot to pay for someone who’s not 100% proven.
Ramsdale could be the next up and coming England goalkeeper…or he could be Richard Wright.
Trust in the process I guess.
The Aaron Ramsdale rumours aren’t going away are they.
£30 million for him would be some of the worst business we’ve ever done. There must be better options out there.
If we knew we were going to get rid of Emi last summer we could have signed Jack Butland, who went to Palace, for £500,000.
That would have been a bargain for a very decent keeper.
30m is crazy for Ramsdale…..but……they are saying 70m now for Maddison. That’s just plain insanity.
Give Balogun and Martinelli game time rather than buying another Danny Welbeck.
Jesse Carmichael