According to The Times (£), Crystal Palace have stepped up their interest in Eddie Nketiah although their story is so vague it makes you question its veracity.
Things we know to be true:
- Eddie is out of contract at the end of June.
- Mikel Arteta says he wants to keep Eddie.
- Eddie can now sign a pre-contract agreement with a foreign club ahead of a free move in the summer.
- If Eddie chooses to join an English club next summer, Arsenal will be owed a fee for his development which will be decided by a tribunal.
- If Eddie leaves this month, Arsenal could command a fee although it’s likely to be pretty small.
- Eddie isn’t good at scoring headers from two yards out.
The report in The Times doesn’t explicitly state whether Palace’s talks with Nketiah are over a move this month or in the summer and the only figures mentioned reference a rebuffed approach in the summer.
The only way we can see the former being sanctioned is if Arsenal sign a replacement.
While there’s a lot of noise around our interest in Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic some of the figures being bandied about (£300,000 / week wages 🙄) are a bit mad and most likely the work of his representatives and/or excitable staff writers at dodgy Italian publications.
Which is to say, we think it’s far more likely Nketiah hangs around for five months and we don’t buy a striker versus the more enticing scenario. But hey, we might be wrong…
If there’s any certainty in football, it’s that highly paid players rarely deliver. I don’t want to see another ‘superstar’ signing on huge wages ever again. Let’s forge our own path to better times.
Yeah the Vlahovic stuff is quite enticing until they start saying £300k/week which is just dumb and clearly the work of an agent laying traps for Newcastle, PSG etc
Or it’s a player saying “Yeah. I’m not too fussed about Arsenal so you better go big on my wages”. Either way, you can’t help but feel that we are being used as bait for bigger fish. Let’s just hope we get the message and move on.
Fate is a funny thing and Aouar was a bit disrespectful too when we showed interest a year and a half ago. I wonder if he’s looking at us now and wishing he was a bit more respectful.
I don’t want to see him on the bench at Arsenal and everybody in Serbia saying the world is against them.
True, I’d rather we sign Isak or even Watkins (who’s an arsenal fan)
If Villa paid £33m for Watkins then I just don’t see how we get value. £50m is the absolute least they would sell for. And is he a £50m player? I’m not convinced.
He would probably be very overpriced. Think he would be a good fit though. I have a feeling he’s mikels type of forward.
Wouldn’t mind Watkins at all, seems to have some of the qualities we’re looking for but I agree, think we missed the boat on that one.
Any chances we can convince Villa that Ings has at least another 4-5 years of injury free peak form & letting us take Watkins off their hands would be doing them a favour?
But it would be good for Exeter City.
Yeah £50m sounds a lot, although I see Isak & Watkins as a pair that could work for us either on the pitch together or in the squad offering a bit of variety.
They would cost £100m for the pair but their wages would probably be circa £100K, so would that package be better than Vlahovic who doesn’t sound that keen anyway?
I’d say definitely !
*£100K each
Let’s just swap Pepe for this kid Jonathan David in Lille. Pepe likes Lille, and I am sure Lille like Pepe and we don’t like Pepe much anyway.
We get a shiny new striker, they get back their talisman and we can all forget that this ever happened.
I think you must mean highly paid *transfers* rarely deliver, or your statement is nonsensical (every big star, the ones who win championships and cups regularly, is highly paid). Even then, it really doesn’t hold water, it just means those are the ones you remember. You don’t have to go back to Puskas or Cruyff or Cantona or look beyond Arsenal. How did Sol Campbell do? Or Alexis? And even the big “failures” like Ozil and (I guess) Aubameyang were brilliant during their initial contracts.
Alexis and Ozil were on around £140K-£150K I think until Sanchez left and Ozil signed his £350K contract.
Auba was on a bit more than that I think (£200K?) but still not the massive amount of money we’re paying him now, the £200K reasonable given the status he had established for himself as one of Europe’s top scorers. It does seem like, at least recently at Arsenal, players on huge wages have seriously failed to deliver
Shall we revisit the wage structure set by Arsene Wenger, where the manager is paid more than any of the players?
Far from truth. Just have a look at the top of the table.
This is a quick fix:
“If there’s any certainty in football, it’s that highly paid players rarely deliver…at The Arsenal”.
A fair correction.
Strikers are the most valuable commodity on the market. You want a good one, you’ve usually got to pay a fortune.
Ferran Torres is 21 and cost Barcelona 65 million euro (and he wasn’t even getting a game at Man City). Vlahovic scores 25 – 30 goals a season he will be the deal of the century.
Also, may as well keep Eddie until we have cover.
Did you watch the last game? Did u see his miss against Everton? His link-up play is awful!! If you want to finish 8th again then he is worth keeping around but other than that we are wasting our time.
Not just his misses but on Sunday he had an opportunity to square it to Saka, who was open. He missed the target, and then I realised why he only has 1 assist in over 70 matches
I think it’s just the principle of losing him for free which isn’t great. Hopefully the last of our mismanaged youth – if they’re not good enough, sell them from a position of strength to the next Bournemouth or Shef U for £20m!
If they’re not good enough, nobody is coming in for them. Not even Bournemouth.
It is a very fine art, that Liverpool have perfected (and Chelsea to an extent) of getting young players just enough loan experience to show their worth and be sold for 20+ million.
Having said that, it does seem simple enough. Arsenal have just massively dropped the ball in the last years.
We should have sold to Brighton 18 months ago and moved on. Best for all involved.
I vote for get rid at first chance
He is not good enough to replace Laca or Auba……why are we holding on to him????
Yeah I assume Arteta’s chat is just because he wouldn’t admit in public that he’s not good enough and needs to be moved. I loved Wenger but he did have a weakness of being too emotionally attached to some players to make objective decisions.
Wenger was very pragmatic and didn’t make emotional decisions, otherwise we wouldn’t have had a 1 year contract policy for over 30s.
The only sentimental decision I can remember was signing Santi on for an extra year when it was clear he wouldn’t be able to play.
Really expected Newcastle to make a move for him. Young player, striker, scored goals in championship and prem and would be cheap option (since they want to sign 2 strikers).
Considering their backing, I think they’d be wanting better too.
The £20million for Woods tells me a different story 😂
He’s caused our defense plenty of problems over the years. Would rather have him in a relegation scrap than Eddie, or aubameyang and pepe.
We’ll likely get nothing for him. Keep him in the squad as an extra body till summer. It’s not like he’s using up a slot.
Ummm…he is. I’d much rather be seeing Balogun getting Eddy’s minutes all season long. Ideally Balogun finds a good loan opportunity, but IMO there is no reason for Eddie to be receiving any minutes right now. Laca, Auba, Martinelli, Pepe should all be ahead of him at striker.
he is producing next to nothing every game he plays so there’s no point in keeping him
His agent is the greedy bastard who made himself 10.9% on the Sancho deal so Eddie is probably being “managed” to bring in the most commission. As he’s not exactly setting the world on fire it’ll probably be a sale now with a fat agents fee (is that what killed the deal last time?)The only thing that worries me is that Saka has the same agent, I hope he’s sensible enough to realise who has his best interests at heart. Most agents are vile parasites who leech off young players for a fast buck.
Think you’re getting Eddie’s interests and arsenals mixed up. I would say his agents doing a good job. He’s going to make his client who is an ok player very wealthy.
I don’t care about Eddie, he needs to go. It’s the Saka contract and all the bullshit about Liverpool that concerns me, that’s an agent shit stirring.
The reported Velahovic demands make him seem like a player who would come as a bit of a mercenary rather than someone who would be proud to wear the shirt.
Any chance Tomiyasu has a brother who plays upfront? That’s the type of low profile high quality player I would like us to sign.
Takehibro Tomiyasu
😂😂😂
While we’re asking, can we check whether he has brothers that can slot into midfield & back him up at rightback?
If the rumours are true Artera and a Arsenal can make a swap loan deal btw Gladbach. Arsenal are in need of a midfielder in Dennis Zakaria with 6 mths remaining on his contract so has Eddie. The deal will suit both parties who are intrested to see what the new players bring to the teams until d end of the season and then they can decide their final decision.
prefer to bring in jonathan david than vlahovic.
Oh, he’d be great, eh? And you should see him handle the puck too, eh?
FWIW, Fiorentina has completed two loans for strikers in the past two days (not rumours, real transfers). Does this mean they expecting to lose someone? No idea.
Two headers missed against United and Forrest. He could’ve made his mark in a positive way on our season. Instead, lingering questions about his marksmanship. If he leaves for good, I won’t feel we’ve lost a future top striker, but you never know what consistent game time will do for his talent…
Bomb him out the door he doesn’t want to be here nor is he good enough to be here
Dusan Vlahovic or Patrik Schick?
The only benefit for keeping him until the summer is the crappy tribunal fee. Let him go with a sell on clause now and be done with it.
The only guarantee about Vlahovic is that the only people who really know what’s happening are very close to the action and ain’t talking. If I have to listen to any more pundits blah, blah about this saga, I think I’ll scream. Your local butcher has more idea. The only objective facts are that Fiorentina has brought in replacements and would be nuts to wait for a better offer when Vlahovic has only 12 months left on his contract. They will be trying to push Vlahovic out the door pronto. Only question is whether he will go. Further, it looks… Read more »
The problem is he doesn’t seem to think we are a top team.
Even if we manage to get him, which I doubt, do we want someone who will be looking over his shoulder from day one, wishing he was somewhere else?
Shame he seems to be a glory boy like Ronaldo, rather than join a team with potential and become a legend!! Get Isaak or another decent striker instead
He plays shit.
We all know Arsenal aren’t very good “sellers”. Need to get the media team on the case. We mustn’t forget Eddie has scored a record number of U21 international goals taking over from Shearer, so clearly he will be better in the future too……. Etc. Someone must fall for the advertising.