According to Dutch publication De Telegraaf, Arsenal have made a second offer to Ajax for defender Lisandro Martinez.
Having had an initial bid of €25 million rejected, the Gunners have now proposed a package worth €40 million.
It’s unclear at this point whether Ajax have been receptive to the approach although the noise out of the Amsterdam Arena is that they are reluctant to lose the Argentina international for anything less than €50 million.
Manchester United have also been heavily linked with the 24-year-old but are currently focusing their efforts on a deal to sign Frankie de Jong from Barcelona.
Arsenal’s interest in the left-sided Martinez suggests Mikel Arteta could look to offload Nuno Tavares with Marseille already expressing an interest in taking the player on loan.
William Saliba’s future doesn’t seem to be affected by our want for another defender. As things stand, the France international will join up with the Gunners for pre-season training and a new contract offer is set to be tabled.
In terms of other potential incomings, it’s well documented that a deal for Gabriel Jesus will be completed and talks are planned with the striker’s compatriot Raphinha as the Gunners look to prise him away from Elland Road.
This should be our MAIN transfer target. Top player and versatile. Hope Ajax accepts this deal. If we can’t move Pepe, let’s use him. FORGET about Raphihna. ARTETA should help find a player in Pepe.
Absolutely agreed. Losing Tierney and Partey to injury cost us too many points. This highly technical and aggressive defender can play LB and DM flawlessly. Having proper cover at those positions will mean many more points than the previous season.
‘Flawlessly’ – come on now, no need to pretend you knew who he was two weeks ago.
Arsenal should sign him, but he is far from a perfect player. He’s good, but he has a long way to go yet. Right now he is not going to usurp Partey or Tierney, but he will be more than adequate cover if/when they get injured.
He has a tendency to “Mustafi” and dive into tackles, and his positioning isn’t the best. Let’s see what happens.
I’m not sure about him having a long way to go to replace Tierney. If the 40 million euro offer is true they must be thinking he has the ability to start at lcb or lb. Lot of money to pay for a backup defender.
I’m open to it. Good players are are a good thing.
More good players the better. I’m sort of in a state of shock that we’re going after these players and trying to get the deals done quickly.
Yeah but can we please prioritize a replacement for Auba?!! Jesus is not that player. 8 goals in 28 appearances for city last year and half of those came in one game. Let’s get a big striker that can bang in 20 plus a season then we’re talking…so far all we’re doing is a “mini me” city…
How do you know that? He only plays at CB for Ajax.
He is considered capable of playing LB or DM, but he never actually does it, so I think you’ve just made up that he plays them “flawlessly”.
Could get them both perhaps?
My view is that Martinez IS the next top target in the squad building and Raphina is the kind of target which is that a potentially world-class attacker is available and we’re making a bid. Same as Vlahovic. We will have a lot of competition for him, even if Barcelona can’t find the funds. Pepe is a right off though, he doesn’t have it.
This and a midfielder for sure. I don’t agree with Pepe though, no doubt there’s a good player there but he reminds me alot of players like Gervinho and Walcott (Walcott obviously far superior) in that when he has too much time to think he bottles it. The sooner we move on the better for both parties
Unless he gets a break behind defenders, or is allowed to cut inside and shoot, Pepe has nothing to offer than any player couldn’t also.
I don’t think it’s about bottling it, he has two tricks and that’s it.
I would assume that most clubs, including us, carry out business on transfer targets simultaneously & don’t wait for one deal to be completed before focusing on the next. That doesn’t really come out that way in the media though.
From everything I’ve read (mostly out of the Athletic) it’s not a matter of either or. The plan is to get all of our transfer targets, so whether or not we get Martinez doesn’t affect the potential deal for Raphinha & vice versa. Personally, I’m hoping for both.
Fully agree. I don’t understand spending bulk of our funds for Raphinha before securing LB and CM deals. We have back ups for Saka; but not enough back up for Tierney and Partey.
Who are the back ups for Saka?
Odegaard for one. Smith Rowe. Martinelli maybe. Particularly if we’re serious about Raphina. Then we’re covered (and some) across the front 4 (assuming The Jesus is coming). LB, obviously an issue – hopefully Martinez fixes that. But I can’t help looking at the middle of the park and still see an issue. Xhaka has needed to be replace for half a decade. Lokonga hopefully can take a step forward with a season under his belt, but we need a midfielder to replace Xhaka. Xhaka apologist be damned, he’s not close to being a world-class, champions league level player, it’s delusional… Read more »
Assuming Pepe’s on the way out, I think there’s a need to replace him with someone that plays on the right. As it is, it’s only Saka & Pepe that regularly plays there.
Can ESR, Martinelli & Ødegaard play there? Probably. But they don’t for whatever reason. Having said that, I’m all up for versatility & a more fluid forward line
Maybe Mikel is thinking of moving Saka into a midfield 3 with Partey and Odegaard, with Raphina on the right and Vieira as his backup
Guys who can play at RW: Vieira, Pepe, Jesus, Martinelli
How about we sign Martinez AND Raphinha…which the club seem to be looking to achieve…?
I honestly don’t get the recent flood of comments on this site that seemingly purport to limit our options.
Absolute madness….🙄
Well there are legitimate reasons to want to prefer fewer, high quality signings. As much as fans refuse to believe it, more signings does not always equal a better team.
Martinez rapihna and tielemans would do. With saliba back, marquinhos Turner jesus and viera already signed pre season training would be tasty. Everyone looking over their shoulder, with a player looking to take their place.
I disagree that this will not affect William Saliba who will stay on the bench if he comes. Saliba is not as wanted by Arteta as El Neny is.
We have good owners spending the right amount of money. Arteta neeeds to deliver now. I want to believe in the results and no more in the process.
Why would someone that plays RB or right sided CB be replaced by someone playing LB or left sided CB?
Do you think maybe Matty Turner’s gonna eat into ESR’s playing time?
So much love for Saliba and he has never even played an EPL game. Half of the fan base seem to think he is already the next VVD or something. It’s a common theme throughout Arsenal fans. Whoever the outcast player is, or the player who we can’t buy, or the player that went to another club, is the player that would have changed our season. It’s so fucking retarded.
Yes, but then you have absolutely no idea what Arteta thinks of Saliba or what his plans are for the player. And I don’t think there’s a reasonable Arsenal supporter in the world who won’t have raised expectations for next season after this latest spending spree. But how about we actually wait and see what happens instead coming to definitive conclusions about Arteta after every match?
If saliba is good enough to play his way into the team why would it affect him?. If he’s not up to the challenge of winning a place then it doesn’t matter. Eddie and el neny both have enough confidence to fight for a start and take the chance when it comes. Nobody should be guaranteed anything, we’ve had years of that, players on big wages coasting thinking they were entitled to play.
Damn.. we should just have bid £40,000,001. Surely they can’t say no to that…
They do love their smoke in Amsterdam too
I’ve never really understood why people got so wound up about the £40m plus £1 offer. Arsenal were told that Suarez had a contract term that meant Liverpool were legally required to accept any bid over £40m. So they bid the minimum amount over £40m to trigger the clause, which made sense. It’s not clear whether Arsenal’s intel was wrong and the clause didn’t exist, or if Liverpool just ignored the clause (and Suarez didn’t sue to enforce it) – which is what I suspect happened. But it’s not like it’s some ridiculous move by Arsenal that needs dredging up… Read more »
Only going a pound over whether there was a clause or not signaled that we weren’t serious about our interest (I’m not saying that that was actually the case), it probably even played a part in Suarez perhaps not aggressively pushing for the move. If you really want a player, and we all know he was worth much more than £40m at the time (especially to Liverpool), you show intent and willingness to pay. I think even just going up to say £42m, which isn’t much for a club like Arsenal (particularly for a player that good in what is… Read more »
The clause was £40m, a lot of money at that time. What difference would £40.1m or £40.2m have made, the clause was £40m. Tbh I don’t get why we didn’t just bid fkn £40m on the dot, seeing as that was the release.
I’m not saying that £40m wasn’t a lot but rather that it was more than worth it for a player who I think is in the top 5 PL players in the last 15 years. And also only just meant that going up an extra £2m “isn’t much for a club like Arsenal”. I hadn’t been 100% sure when posting my previous comment if I was right in recalling that it had indeed existed (and it wasn’t relevant to my point there so I didn’t comment on it then) but as you and others have said it in fact did… Read more »
Listen anything said about the poor running of the club here gets down voted. You wouldn’t guess that we haven’t won a title since 03-04 season. Bruh it’s almost 20 years and people will still be here making excuses for a bum job like adding £1 to an offer.
£1 processing fee, of course!
As no one actually know if this clause even existed, how can you be so sure how high it was?
Rumours have been the clause said he can move for everything above 40 mio so we tried to trigger that clause by offering what we thought was needed.
Absolutely agree with eazy deezy, always thought the outrage about it was way over the top.
It’s one of those where if it comes off you look clever and if it doesn’t you look naive at best. To many it appeared small time and probably was one reason why Liverpool fought it so hard and Suarez didn’t fight hard to leave.
I’m happy we didn’t sign the biting racist, no matter how good a player he was.
There are loads of publicly known release clauses (like Partey’s at Atletico). I’m assuming people don’t think that we should bid higher than those (like adding a million or two on top of Partey’s clause) to show we’re serious? So why do it with Suarez?
I’m also not interested in a fight over this, I just really don’t understand the idea of offering more than a release clause!
From what ThreadRipper has posted, it seems Arsenal’s mistake was that their intel was wrong and the clause didn’t exist. But based on their intel, that was the right bid to make
All the spanish clauses are public and compulsory part of contract. It’s a different league and system.
Different country with different laws, going to be interesting watching Todd boehely going all MLB at Chelsea and trying to to trade players for/or draft picks.
Glad we can discuss this without feeling the need to fight!
Liverpool’s owner admitted that the clause existed* and it seems my view on this issue is unpopular but just to give my two cents again I think that public release clauses are different because they don’t give the selling club any wiggle room to cheat, lie, disrespect the clause or otherwise go back on their word in some other weasely way.
*https://www.thisisanfield.com/2014/03/henry-admits-suarez-buyout-clause-dismisses-football-contracts/
Hi, I’d like to buy your house. I’d like to pay 200k over the asking price, please.
The +1 pound made us look stupid when the truth was there’s no such thing as 40mn release clause.
Ah yes, back when our very own Inspector Clouseau, Dick Law, was on the case. Did you hear about his sequel, “Lost in Costa Rica”?
Wenger clarified the story behind the bid in his book.Here it is : “We had an agreement with the player and his agent. But the agent claimed that there was a clause: with an offer above £40million, Liverpool would be obliged to let the player go. But thanks to an indiscretion within Liverpool, I found out that his clause never existed. To check this was true, we offered £40,000,001. This may have seemed ludicrous, I admit. But Liverpool did not want to sell Suarez, they could afford to keep him and there was already an offer from Barca on the… Read more »
It was ridiculous, or insulting maybe, we were trying to make the guy who drew up the clause look foolish. Didn’t reflect any seriousness on our part either. There wasn’t any difficulty in adding 200k say, we would have pulled that transfer. It was completely bull to add a pound to 40m.
No we wouldn’t have . Read the thing above.
You are just amazingly stupid.
I never understood how personally people take jokes about the 40M+1 quid offer…
Fucking hell get a new joke!
could we be thinking about setting a three man defence soon? because i’m telling you, martinez isn’t a left back. he’s played as many games there as xhaka has… or maybe we like that he can play there and also as a defensive midfielder?
I‘d guess if he comes in, he‘d be back up to Tierney, which would allow us to loan Tavares, and back up to Gabriel in certain games. And then after a season, if Tavares has done a good job on loan, we can bring him back to be LB back up and let Martinez and Gabriel fight it out for the left center back position. Which would allow us to cash in on Holding next summer. Then we would only need an upgrade on Cedric and our defence is sorted for the next 5 years at least.
yes yes, it just seems odd to me that given how much we’re spending this summer, we pay 40 million for a backup leftback who has played four games as a leftback in his entire life
I don’t understand why we don’t persevere with Tavares as back up. Giving up on him too early. The kid has a lot of potential if we can just make the commitment with him. He’s still very young,
Not giving up on him at all.
Suggested to loan him out to be able to mature a bit more and then bring him back.
But you gotta protect young players and Arsenal is just not a place for mistakes. After every bad game he was abused massively on social media and even from the stands.
That‘s why it was absolutely right to loan Saliba until now. If he would have made some of the mistakes he made at Marseille, his Arsenal time would be over already probably.
Martinez is 5’9”, I’d really rather he wasn’t our backup LCB. Maybe to play there in a cup game, not the PL. we’re not a tall team as it is, but have managed to be great against set pieces. Let’s not remove more height from our team.
Ben White isn‘t the tallest guy too. So if you‘d play White with Gabriel and Martinez with Saliba you‘d have one big physical guy and one more aggressive/ mobile player in each pairing. And I don’t think height is as important as some may think. Our best defender over the last decade has been Koscienly and he wasn‘t exactly huge. Cannavaro was one of the best cb‘s in history and was pretty short.
As a left sided CB in a back 3 sure, he could do like Nacho. Not in a back 4 I don’t think though. And Kos was 6 ft or 6’1” no? 4 inches is A LOT when competing for a few dozen headers a game.
Zinchenko and Cancelo aren’t really left backs either! Maybe this Arteta trying to replicate what City have.
This is the one that excites me the most. I can see him being cover for partey, tavares or gabriel. Looks very tidy too.
More of a cover for XHAKA than PARTEY because he is a left sided player
I do not really understand why so many of us here consider him a DM…
According to WhoScored.com he hasn’t played a single match in midfield in the last 2 Eredivisie seasons…
I think Arteta sees him more as a quality left sided CB if/when we’d play with 3 CBs and a reliable/quality back-up for Tierney.
£40,000,001 bid loading…
Stop
Posting 2 versions of the same tired old joke twice in the same thread isn’t a very adult thing to do.
These are strange times. Arsenal going all out for players without waiting till 1 hour left on the last day of the transfer window. I love it.
Hopefully we can wrap up our incoming transfers early such that the players can have a good preseason and then we can focus on selling the players who are not in the Arteta’s plans.
Agree, no more last minute stuff.
But its not all that surprising, is it? That was the old Arsenal – under Wenger with a completely different “management” structure.
MA pushing things in the right direction it seems.
And hopefully move on those that are no longer needed which is a big ask.
A couple of my mates support ‘the filth’ (United) and they can’t stop moaning about their lack of transfer activity this summer. Every time we sign a player they go increasingly mental. It is hilarious to watch. If we announce Jesus, Martinez, and maybe Raphinha in the next fortnight I’m looking forward to them both imploding.
Seen rumours that the talks with Raphinha have broken down? Any news on this?
Came from Barca supporting media that. Still all in on Raph
How you doin Ornstein!
Shh, that’s suppose to be top secret 🤣
I hope not, honestly.
More than Raphinha this guy has to be our number 1 priority. He’s an absolute monster of a centre half but has the versatility and quality to cover for KT and Thomas.
A 5ft-9 monster, interesting.
I don’t think folks rate NGolo Kante (5′ 6″) as a poor player due to his stature. And yes, i’d call him an absolute monster.
Last time I looked Kante wasn’t a CB…
I’m sure no-one implied he was a CB
He reminds me a lot of Javier Mascherano. He did O.K at 5ft 8
Fabio Cannavaro? Carles Puyol? Or even one that was right before your very eyes for years; Bacary Sagna?
For me this this guys looks more like a xhaka alternative, could be a beast as a def mid.
Thomas?more like xhaka
If you play a fella that’s 5ft 8 as a centre half in the EPL you deserve the loss that you inevitably suffer. Not a chance this guy plays CB.
Mascherano played cb for Barca. Played in midfield for Liverpool. Pupil played in Spain. Cannavarro (a legend) in Italy and Spain . And Sagna was a RB. Please let’s use proper comparisons. Nobody plays a guy at 5ft 8 at cb in the EPL. Why ? Haaland. Nunez Kane wood Jimenez. Ings DCL Toney Borja Antonio ronaldo. That’s why.
So interesting! I never knew height advantage was nation specific in football!
Thanks, You learn something new everyday.
A backup CB should not be our priority when we already have 4 good CBs. He has hypothetical versatility, but he never actually plays LB, and a CB playing at LB is not ideal for a team looking to dominate and win most games.
I’m loving this decisiveness from arsenal, we gunners have been scarred for almost a decade of fucking around, so this feels soothing and a much needed one
Mate it’s been almost two
Yeah, if they’re the right players….if not then dumb as fck…
I’ve been mulling over the possibility of Arsenal lining up with a 3-man defence… Tomi and KT have experience (and success) in this set-up, and it’d be curious to imagine Arteta rotating these guys together with Saliba, Benjamin & Gabriel depending on what qualities we need against that week’s opposition. Throw in Martínez into the mix and we’ll have a pretty formidable mix of defensive solidity, confidence in ball-carrying from deep, overlapping ability and deep-lying playmaking options. As a bonus, we have Holding’s ability to shut-up shop in closing stages. Is this a nuts idea, or does it have legs?… Read more »
You mean a 5 man backline with 2 flying full-backs right? Using KT and Tomi at that place leaves only room for 1 natural CB. A 5 man backline with Saliba, White, Gabriel, KT and Tomi in rotation with this guy and Holding would probably make the meanest defence in the league
I’m not against a back 5, I just worry it limits our attack. We’ll have a plethora of attackers plus 5 subs next year. Will be fascinating to see how Arteta changes game to game and even within games
If Arteta gets all these players we’re linked with I think he then has a squad capable of playing a variety of combinations. Did read somewhere that Martinez is probably not being bought as cover for Tierney, but more as competition and rotation player for Partey
Partey is our most indispensable player right now. I’m not saying he’s our best player (Saka is, and Odegaard not far behind, I think), but his absence has the greatest effect on the way Arsenal play. We can sometimes win with Elneny and Xhaka, and any number of other combinations, but we can’t play the way, it’s now clear, Arteta wants us to play. So someone who can play that role–the single pivot who is comfortable receiving the ball even under pressure and moves it forward quickly is vital. I don’t know if Martinez can do that (I’m not sure… Read more »
He’s also going to have a massive target on his back. Stan has backed him like no one before has been so he has to produce silverware simples.
I think analysts, commentators, as well as we fans need to start moving away from the idea of formations, it’s more about what zones players occupy on and off the ball. Once we consider that, we already play with a “back 3” in our buildup with Tomi usually being the one tucking in and KT doing it when Tomi got injured, and even did it with Xhaka the season before last. Additionally, while maintaining that there’s a lot going on in terms of player positioning beyond “formation”, I don’t think you work as hard as Arteta has in getting our… Read more »
The flipside of “zones rather than formations” is that “three at the back” is also a shorthand description of zones or roles or whatever.
Either the ‘sweeper’ or the other defenders in a 343/352 do some of what would generally be assigned to midfielders in a 4231/433 – dribbling out of the defensive third, or playmaking from deep. Think of Xhaka dropping into the left of the defensive line to start attacks from there, but with someone who actually has defensive ability.
I’d be very surprised if we’re bidding 40 million, tending toward 50, for a backup left back.
Deleted earlier, then saw your comment. Those are the require 4 formations. Nothing else.
Interesting discussion! Yeah I understand that “three at the back” is also a shorthand, which is why I put “back three” in quotes like this. I do also agree, and did mention Xhaka did previously play that role for us in a somewhat similar system to our current one. It’s also why I specifically said traditional 3 CB system to try and convey how I think that would change things even just in terms of zones, without getting into the whole thing here, the long and short of it, in my view, it is that we would probably lose some… Read more »
Same page re these ideas being fluid, lost you re this team being set up to play 4-3-3 as a default. That requires Partey to stay fit, because Xhaka can’t be trusted to play that role. Or it requires him to trust Sambi Lokonga, which brings us back to your Wenger quote. In a 433 that deepest midfielder is effectively at times a third CB. A young guy put in that position will make mistakes, sometimes catastrophic ones. I think the manager should live with that for a player with as much potential as Sambi Lokonga, but he seems to… Read more »
Thanks for the link, interesting read! In terms of the “4-3-3” default I simply meant it’s our preferred option when all of our players are fit i.e. when Partey is available, and I personally think he’ll be able to mostly stay fit (call me an optimist!), but if/when he doesn’t play I do agree that it’s obviously an issue, what with him being our hardest player to replace and all. But I do think Arteta is all too fully cognizant of that which is why, as I said in my original comment, I’m also of the view that Martinez is… Read more »
Thanks for the link, interesting read! By default I just meant exactly what you said playing that system when everyone’s, i.e. Partey, fit. I think we’re in part targeting Martinez to try him in the single pivot role at least against lower level opposition, and from the little I’ve seen of him and his attributes, I think he could do it with maybe a bit of coaching. I think Sambi is still being groomed for the 6 role in the long run, Arteta just didn’t want to risk precious points in the run in and in my opinion Elneny, with… Read more »
Total football man. The versatility and interchangeability of the players mean for starters you don’t need 20 players to cover 10 positions. At the other end of the scale, it’s like having a squad of 30! Phantom players.
We are making ourselves injury proof. Would still like Hickey – versatile, coachable, HG. Cedric is a good crosser when on form, bar that, just no thanks. Something in me feels Hector may stay for the year.
If Tielemens and Martinez come in, I feel that would be it for Xhaka. MØ, Mo, Sambi and Hale End to support centrally.
Feels like a key signing. Big fan of Tierney as most are, but his fitness cannot be trusted sadly. With a potential 60-65 game season (World Cup) season coming up we will need as many bodies as possible. We can’t go into another period of this season risking a Xhaka at left back situation.
I wish we were going for Frenkie, but i guess he is out of our price range given the number of signings we have to make. He would fit in perfectly in the middle of this squad and i think he would be happy to play for us. Oh well…
I read an analysis on him and his one great strength is carrying the ball. Aside from that the metrics have shown that he doesn’t seem to lift the level of the team with his contributions. IOW over-rated, and perhaps understandable why Barca are happy to let go of him and let ManU overpay yet again. I’d be happy with that!
I could really get used to this. For the first time in a long time we are minding our business. We ain’t holding back. Iiiiiiiii love it.
A new dawn to Arsenal summer business. No nonsense approach!!!
Holding is likely to move on then
Martinez would make 5 CB’s and while that sounds like a lot we’ve been caught short with defensive injury crises before, I think if Holding is happy to stay we should keep him, especially being back in Europe
Not sure 5 CB’s is the way to go unless #5 is a youth player.
Tomiyasu and Tierney are too integral to full-back to contemplate them playing CB.
But I can see a case for keeping Holding, get the Europa group stages and World Cup out of the way, then reassess in the January window. Much the same way as we did with Mari and Chambers.
That’s certainly possible. He’s obviously a fan favourite but we are going to make sales somewhere.
Looks like first halv of window is dedicated for new signings. I expect departures in the second half. I don’t know how many in the office that is dedicated to the buy/sell part of the business, but I can’t imagine having the recources to both buy and sell in this tempo.
Better to buy then sell that to sell and then try to buy
To be honest I’m not a big fan of the reported versatility of players and therefore cover for a number of different positions, I think we need competition for Gabriel on the left side of central defence, if this guy is that bring him home. In the end I think AMN has suffered a bit from being Mr Versatile, for a while Mikel fancied him but didn’t really know what to do with him, at the level we are talking about most players are good enough players in certain positions, always the exceptions of course Super Saka has excelled in… Read more »
My sense is that the players we are signing have a primary position but can also play well elsewhere. They also perform at a high level. I think AMN’s challenge is that he doesn’t excel in one position, maybe a bit of jack of all trades master of none?
Fair enough chepetin, your’e probably right, if players we bring in for specific positions can help us out elsewhere if and when needs be that’s a bonus but if we are trying to bring in someone who could effectively play instead of Gabriel as a left sided central defender then I would prefer the best man out there for that job, that could be Martinez but I wouldn’t want us to buy him thinking that’s Gabriel, KT and Partey all nicely covered in one hit. We’ve already got Saliba, could he cover the Partey role if needed as part of… Read more »
Call me insane in the membrane if you like. But with this potential South American wave of incomers, I’d love to see Lucas Torreira reconsider his Arsenal future (providing Arteta would still want him). I think he’s a great depth option in midfield. Can operate as a 6 and a 8.
Love the lad but London and the premier league just wasn’t for him add Emery into the mix and the confidence was shot. But will always be remembered for his goal in the NLD 😊😎
@Brady’s bunch – not only the goal but his celebration of the goal. One of my favourite celebrations in recent years – no silly dance or contrived routine; just sheer raw emotion. Shame he’s craving an exit from London as I also believe that he’d be of value to us next season.
Even if this is just a rumour, I love how its making manu fans lose their shit Hahaha.
Kroenke’s Colorado Rapids won the Stanley Cup last night, a few months after his LA Rams won the Super Bowl. Maybe Stan has decided that he likes this championship thing.
Oops, Colorado Avalanche. Sorry, Stan.
You can call him Stanley now 😉
The captain of the Avalanche was Gabriel (Landeskog) and they broke a 13-year drought. Spooky coincidence or what?
Stan also won the Super Bowl with the LA Ramsdales.
My bad … it was a 21-year title drought … let’s hope Stan and Josh get the Walmart card working for Rapihina and Martinez … Saka needs 180K a week too. COYG
I still can’t believe how we are operating like a serious football club. Haven’t seen this in YEARS!
I can see what Arteta and Edu are trying to accomplish. A lot of analysts talk about the challenge of Thursday – Sunday football because of EL; so, they are building a team to mitigate that. We could have: Turner, Cedric Saliba, Holding, Martinez, Elneny, Lokonga, Vieira, ESR, Raphina and Nketiah on Thursday. And Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Martinelli, Ødegaard, Saka and Jesus on Sunday. That is depth! Xhaka may not everyone’s cup of tea, I know; you are free to swap him with Vieira, or if the grapevine is to be believed, with Tielemans. We can… Read more »
Really hoping for this transfer. With 5 subs and Europa league we need atleast a strong 22 not just a strong 11, good backups for every position. The next would be a player to compete with Xhaka for the deep player maker midfielder position.
Don’t get your hopes to high. Man U or Newcastle can offer silly money/wages and we don’t want to get into that position again
Lisandro as a midfielder sounds brilliant to me,
Maybe him over Tielemans…
Disagree. Tielemans brings goal threat and midfield versatility. Martinez is more in the defensive zone.
I think Tielemans is on the back burner for other reasons. We should consider how much work/manpower is actually involved in completing deals so you need to prioritize the more difficult ones first e.g. we are not Raphinha’s 1st choice so we have to be aggressive with that. Martinez is very important and Man U want him so again that’s a priority.
Once that’s all done we can look at Tielemans etc.
I know we like hearing that a player can play multiple positions but honestly you really don’t want a player having to cover more than two. I’d say He’s a competing LB, backup CB. To put it into context imagine seeing City buy Saka for 100m to play him at left back. We would scratch our heads. Then again I don’t want to imagine Saka leaving. I take that back.
I don’t think I’ve known the club to be this aggressive in the transfer market EVER – and that’s 51 years of supporting them. Long may it continue, because, at the end of the day, we all want the same thing – Arsenal to put themselves out there with the very best. If we get these players in and they gel, then top four will certainly be achievable next season and a title bid the following year, if we continue on the same trajectory in the following windows. No one in their right mind can fault the club’s ambitions and,… Read more »
Where is the money coming from. I am worried now.
Arsenal will finish above spurs next season, FA cup winner and Top 4
Fuck me we’re spending some money
While I am excited about the all the signings and almost done deals I wonder where all the money will come from.
The transfer window incoming can cost around €150-200M. That’s insane considering the outgoing at best will produce €40-50M.
I am worried Arsenal may lose a big player for a big sum to balance the budget.
Have you ever heard of gate receipts, stadium sponsorships, kit sponsorships, match day sponsorships, worldwide merchandising and tv money…?
Yes, Stan and Josh are loaning us the money, but have you also ever heard of the phrase ‘Speculate to Accumulate’….?
Or would you rather we spent mid table prices on mid table table players and ended up you-know-where……?
Honestly, some of you on here….🙄
I was basking in the enjoyment of us spending a lot of money recently until I heard James’ comment on the Arsecast today. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if there was an outgoing transfer/sale this window that people didn’t like. While I just can’t see Arsenal selling someone like Saka, I guess I could see the logic of selling certain others who aren’t on our obvious get rid of list. In going through the squad back to front, I couldn’t see them selling Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, or Gabriel. Would they sell Ben White now that Saliba is coming back? Might… Read more »
We trimmed 80M off the wage bill, plus the outgoings will be closer to 60-70M. No buys in January. All that makes this window’s math very understandable.
I think it is a great move. A player who can cover for two of our most injury prone players.
No thanks, would prefer Zinchenko