Two weeks of the transfer window have passed, there’s still no return date for Gabriel Jesus, we’ve missed out on two targets to Chelsea and somehow, we’re not just top, but top with an eight-point cushion.
Will Arsenal take a huge gamble by sticking with the current squad? Or will we spend some of the cash earmarked for Mykhailo Mudryk? We don’t know.
But you didn’t come here for facts, you came for the poo-o-meter…
Ivan Fresneda
According to The Telegraph, Arsenal are one of a number of clubs keeping tabs on Real Valladolid’s 18-year-old right back. Do we need another one with Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Cedric Soares in the first team squad? It’s not a priority at this point but with Cedric likely to leave (stop those first bumps at the back) and nobody sure what we’re planning to do with Brooke Norton-Cuffy, we may have fingered him as one for the future.
Does he speak Portuguese? Dunno.
Has he ever played for Arteta? No
💩💩💩💩
__
Raphinha
We wanted him in the summer, so clearly, six months later, we must still want him. Right? RIGHT? For his part, the Brazilian has hinted he’s happy at the Camp Nou and wants to win more trophies having secured the Spanish Super Cup this week. Whether Barcelona’s finances allow that is a different matter.
Does he speak Portuguese? Yes
Has he ever played for Arteta? No
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
__
Leandro Trossard
He’s been axed at Brighton since an almighty fallout with manager Roberto De Zerbi and while the Italian has since offered an olive branch, the Belgian is still expected to leave the AMEX before the January transfer window closes. Sp*rs have already had a £12 million offer rejected by the Seagulls who are holding out for way more than that. So far this season he has seven goals and three assists to his name in 16 matches, which isn’t to be sniffed at. Is that enough to twist Arteta’s arm? Some people think so.
Does he speak Portuguese? No
Has he ever played for Arteta? No
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
__
Declan Rice
The Times claim this afternoon that the West Ham United midfielder is a top target for the Gunners next summer and that we’re confident of doing a deal ahead of his former club Chelsea. The England international, 24, has rejected the offer of a new contract from the Hammers but could still cost upwards of £80 million even with a year left on his current deal. That our interest is now out in the open is sure to alert Todd Boehly who’ll presumably start adding zeros to whatever loose change we’re able to muster. Oh well.
Does he speak Portuguese? No, but would be funny to see him try
Has he ever played for Arteta? No
💩💩💩💩💩
__
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Napoli spent £10 million on the Georgian in the summer and he’s quickly established himself as Serie A’s hottest property. 12 assists and nine goals in 20 appearances have helped Napoli to the top of the table and earned him the nickname Kvaradona. He looks the real deal…but let’s be honest, why on hearth would he leave them in the middle of the season when they look destined for a first league title since 1990. It makes no sense. Also, we need more time to learn how to spell his name correctly.
Does he speak Portuguese? No
Has he ever played for Arteta? No
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
That’s a whole lot of shit
Hope I’m wrong, but it looks a bit worryingly like we had a lot of eggs in that basket of Mud…
It’s gonna look real ugly if we don’t get anyone in an injury in midfield or our forward line derails things. Still two weeks left…
Can’t we just take Balogun from Reims?
I would honestly rather he develop properly there. he’s settled there nicely it seems so some continuity and minutes will do him good
He’s not ready for the Premiership. Yet.
😂😂😂ditto that!
But seriously trossard ticks many boxes, experience, versatility,talent,goals and price…. premier League ready as well…. we’re also pushing our luck with the midfield back up….too many matches to go..about 30…. elneny and sambi scare me…bring in a loan… déjà vu…last season all over again…
I wouldn’t mind acquiring Trossard for $15-20 million. A proven EPL winger who would add depth to the team as well as healthy competition.
He is too old, so doesn’t fit the profile. Didn’t he turn us down once before because there was no guarantee of a start?
He’s playing for his next contract, likely his last big one. Also he has a very spursy face.
He’s too old for what? I don’t care if he’s playing for his contract. We need depth, according to Mikel. He’s a proven league player who can bring that to us. We have a lot of talent. We require depth and experience. I’d waited long enough for the title. The time has come. It’s unusual for Man shitty, Manure, Rent boys, and Klopps to have hiccups like this this season. We must seize this opportunity and do whatever it takes to win now.
We want young and hungry. Haven’t we seen enough of players relaxing on their last big deal?
He’s 28 and will probably go for 15-20 mil. We are not talking Mudyrk money. Trossard is in form, proven EPL player and would play for the title contender. I’m not saying he’s the only option I would go for but for what they value him for, I’d land him at the Emirates.
BTW, with all the respect for Wenger, his Youth Project never won as a title.
Been an Arsenal fan for 20 years. The time is now.
Mikel’s youth project seems to be doing well though and that is what matters.
Of course it is doing well but he mentions the lack of depth.
I take Trossard over a someone with a tag ‘wonderkid’ on him to help us win this season.
You are right there, but I hope we see something a bit more long-term.
Arsene’s youth project included a number of traitorous little cunts who abandoned ship. Had they all stayed, I think there’s an excellent chance they’d have won a title. We’ll never know, sadly.
If Eduardo hadn’t been maimed by Martin fucking Taylor (the cunt) then Wenger’s youth project of 2007/08 would have won the title.
I think it was more the psychological effect than the player himself. I like Eduardo, but he never struck me a 20 a season striker.
The argument was that a Wenger youth project had never won the title – not whether or not Eduardo could hit 20+ a as season. (Which he probably might have done if he’d been able to finish that season)
I am with Dariusz on this one. I don’t believe we can lure someone at Martinelli and Saka age AND talented AND cheap AND EpL ready AND willing to be a substitute.
It has to be a bit older and motivated. Trossard is not like Willian, he is not so decorated. Regarding his spursy face I don’t have any comments other that I really do hope our scouts can neglect face control.
We should go for Willian. He’s got trophies, PL experience, will play for contract, who cares if he’s old…
Which young stud worth the same amount of money as Trossard would be a better fit for us to help us win the title and why?
Brighton striker Danilo Welbecko scored a fantastic goal against Liverpool on Saturday, surely his dazzling footwork can help us and the feelgood factor with the ‘other’ Brazilians would be worth the $10m.
I’ll never forget his artful air swing against Man City in the FA cup semi in 2017? opened the door for Alexis to score …
This post is a joke, right?😂 😂 😂
i didn’t say anything about his age, but given that he’s 28 he’s unlikely to get another large move to a club of the size of arsenal. do we think trossard is worth an outlay of $25-30m and 100k+ wages for three to four years? no thanks.
Just offer two years with an option for three then.
Short enough to require performance, he has the chance to pick up a PL winners medal in the next 6 months if he’s useful.
At 31 if he bangs in 14 per season he would still get another contract.
Trossard is the most Tottenham signing there ever could be. They’ll end up paying 25 millz, he’ll have a decent first 12 months and then vanish into obscurity (he might meet David Bentley on his way there).
I’m sure he’ll drop the r if he signs for Spuds.
Trossad…
In the long term, Rice would be perfect (and very expensive)–cover/competition for both Partey and Xhaka and eventually a successor for Partey. West Ham in a relegation battle won’t let him go now because staying up is worth more. And then, probably, Chelsea. But he ticks so many Arsenal boxes (quality, position, age, leadership) that crazy money might come into it.
Trossard, I think, depends on who is to blame for the problems at Brighton. I cannot imagine Arteta adding someone to the dressing room who risks disrupting what he has built.
Rice is a good fit but for me is also not £80m. Partey IS better than Rice and cost much less.
Bellingham or bust for midfield.
I am happy the deal for Mudryk failed. I read Shaktar is giving 25M out of the transfer money to the Ukrainian army for the war. Government can give my tax money to help Ukraine as it is a good cause but no way Arsenal pay for that.
It’s good that some of the money is going to such a worthy cause but tbh it doesn’t really tally with the way all of this has been handled, and it doesn’t really excuse or explain Chelsea’s behaviour since they did the same with felix, cucurella and tried the same with Raphina
I read Shaktar’s owner is worth 11.5 billion, perhaps he can give them some of his own money …
Not involved enough or close enough to speak on the merits of either side in the war. For that reason alone, I am glad Arsenal haven’t paid a “war” tax for a footballer! On the Raphina front. Not a chance in hell. Arteta spoke of players having to want to come to the Arsenal. That immediately discounts Raph or Mudyak ever donning the red under his watch. The Brighton winger that caused us problems recently I wouldn’t say no to. Schick would be nice. Bowen likewise. Alternatively, Nelson gets fit and firing. ESR returns with a bang. Lokonga sharpens up… Read more »
I don’t think money laundering should be called a ‘worthy cause’
What do you mean by money laundering? Surely the money has been obtained legitimately, no?
These aren’t rhetorical questions, by the way, I’m honestly confused and thinking maybe I don’t properly understand what constitutes money laundering.
But ultimately it’s up to the selling club what they do with the money they get. Had Arsenal been successful with Mudryk after all I doubt we would have minded what Shakhtar did with the fee once we got their player.
The problem is that they added 25M onto the right price instead of paying that themselves.
It seems like bullshit to be honest with you, and that they are doing this now they realise they have made themselves look like assholes.
At least something good has come out of it, beyond just pure greed which is what it looked like before.
Perhaps I am just being cynical. It’s gone now anyway we all just need to move on.
I agree, this sounds like PR, in an attempt to clean their image after such shoddy behaviour by all parties involved.
Idk I’m kind of sick of my government giving away billions to arms manufacturers to supposedly help Ukraine while the rest of the country (bar police and prisons) gets stripped of funding.
That’s some PR bulls*it. They PLEDGED 25 million donation for the Ukrainian army, with no timeline set whatsoever. The money hasn’t been donated yet but some journalists are saying they “donated” 25 million. Absolute lies and misrepresentation of facts. How much feeling of guilt do you need to have to need to spin some PR lie for selling Ukraine’s best talent to Russian oil money? Disgusting.
That’s exactly what it is…They realise how bad it looks and are looking to make themselves feel good. As someone mentioned earlier, isn’t the Shaktar owner a billionaire? Why didn’t he donate some of his money to the Ukrainian Army?
I read that it’s going to some sort of charitable fund for people affected by the occupation of Mariupol, rather than to the army. Not sure how accurate that is.
It’s all still a pledge. And it’s not like they will be donating the whole amount at once. It’s just PR mostly. Disgusting the lot of them.
The only one remotely of interest there to me is Rice – and he’s not worth bidding £80m for, only for Chelsea to come in at the 11th hour with £800m.
I honestly don’t know anymore. (Ha! Bet you lot thought I’d never come out with that 😂)
Tielemans? Meh. I dunno.
Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to church. To pray.
Pray that Saka, Martinelli, Eddie, Partey, Xhaka – hell, the whole fucking squad – stay fit. 🙏🏻
The way Trossard is behaving at Brighton is a bit of a red flag I think. Mudryk too to an extent, that’s what I tell myself anyway.
Like Auba said, Arteta likes young “yes man” players but these boys are going to win the league for him. No way he will buy Trossard.
Aube’s comment was a throwaway. You can see he’s lost his legs and his desire, which is why he was thrown out. Pretty much anyone who isn’t a total diva could fit into this side just fine.
Come on man… Auba said that after he fell out of favor with him which was entirely Auba’s fault. I don’t have any ill will against the guy, but you cannot keep breaking the rules for a coach that clearly says the rules and accountability matter…. Which they should. This is serious competition and Arteta knows the mindset required to be successful. Be responsible be accountable and take care of your business as if you’re paid millions to do so. Then have fun and enjoy yourself to the fullest outside of those moments. Not like he was asking a lot… Read more »
I agree with you except for the part about no ill will.
The guy had everything. What did he do with it? He turned into a problem, acted selfish, put himself ahead of the team, disrupted the dressing room, and essentially downed tools. Glad to be rid of him. Glad he went to Chelsea. 2nd best place for him – or make that 3rd. Wish it had happened sooner so we could have had someone who gave a fuck sooner.
Mitoma looks as direct as Mudryk. I would be satisfied with that.
Cheeky bid for Tielemens as well.
IMO Mitoma’s highlight is better and more Arsenal-esque than Mudryk. And Tomi would be chuffed I’m sure. 🙂
Everytime I’ve seen that kid play he’s looked like the best player Brighton (and Japan) have had.
He looked great in the World Cup.
Mitoma is so one footed I would be worried if he coul adapt or develop in the way we need.
Yeah but as a back up though prem proven
Sure he looks good, but I really can’t see Brighton selling a player they just signed and who has been a smashing success so far, especially in the same window as they are set to let go of another influential winger. Unless we pay
Chelsea/silly money, which I don’t think we should.That’s not a bad shout.
does trossard speak Portuguese? dnt think so
I notice Chelsea are looking for another midfielder now, that’s quite a coincidence
They are clearly going though a major rebuild. Let’s just hope that they aren’t interested in anyone we are as they will almost surely outbid us again if it comes to that.
A rebuild of 2 squads at simultaneously by the amount of players they’re buying.
They don’t have a clue who or what they are buying. Their American owners are trying an LA dodgers type strategy to win at all costs except this ain’t baseball…fk them. They’ll be left with so much debt they can’t shift while inevitably going thru manager after manager tying to make it work.,..clueless pricks.
Overpaying on the Jan signings is more of a demonstration of their intent with Potter, they are backing him. New owners, new manager, the club really has to either sack the manager or back him. I would have rather they chopped and changed Potter than stick with him.
Potter will last 12 months top. Then rinse and repeat for the next one and on and on….
Not sure who we sill sign, Trossard at 28 will not be it. I don’t think he fits what we are building maybe someone young that plays on the wing hasn’t been linked yet with us.
For the title race though. Would you not want someone who could come in and do a job instead of potential. We could possibly do another Fabio Viera someone we believe will come good but is not there yet? I will take someone who will make the team better now.
Trossard has spurs written all over it.
More like DROSSard
What do people think of Trossard? I mean he’s decent in fantasy footy, if we got him for 20 million that’s a decent price for a premier League proven player but where does he fit in our system? I don’t know, opinions wanted…
Discipline issues and looks like a Robbie Williams tribute act.
Ideal, then, for either Tottenham or Port Vale.
Not Arsenal.
“we may have fingered him”
Throw a 32-35m offer at Lille for David? He’s scoring pretty well. Sorry, I’m a little Canadian biased…haha!
I thought he looked like a complete donkey in the World Cup. Was that his normal standard or was he out of form? If it was the former, I wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole.
He didn’t really play up to par at the World cup, but definitely was a integral part of World Cup qualifications, especially with Fonzie out with the Covid complications for so long.
Not sure about that. He’s a good player, but not much better than Balogun, and 2 years older. I’d rather keep this spot for Flo next season.
That doesn’t help us now though. I wouldn’t be mad if they just recalled Flo and had him as backup for Eddie. Anything, as long as there’s another half decent forward that doesn’t cost a bloody fortune in case Big Ed gets injured.
We need reinforcements but whether any of the players featured are serious candidates only Edu will know. As always, he’ll try to get that elusive balance between quality and VFM. It will be particularly difficult now as potential sellers know we need to buy and time is running out in the window. Hopefully, he has a few options already lined up in part at least so we don’t start from scratch. As so much time and effort was wasted on Mudryk that may be wishful thinking though.
Waffle
I know what we need to do…
Cut short pepe’s loan deal with nice, offer them marquinhos as replacement for rest of the season
Do a swap deal with lille, jonathan david for pepe 🙂
If we talk Pepe up enough, Chelsea will buy him from us.
I wonder if Rice has a relegation clause in his contract.
NB, the only correct way to spell the last one’s name is ხვიჩა კვარაცხელია
Show off.
Feels like the squad is short of the Wiltord/Kanu/Reyes type options
‘Does he speak Portuguese? No, but would be funny to see him try’
LOL ! Top marks for that.
Does the lack of names with low poo meters indicate we are back to square one, or just that we are trying to do our business discreetly so Chelsea won’t swoop in?
Either way, hope for one or two incomings and outgoings this window. Even with ESR back it feels like we can use a bit more depth and tactical flexibility.
I want a team that competes for the title next year and the year after too. We can do better than Trossard
the athletic just reported our interest in rice and that we are increasingly confident that we will get it done. maybe that knocks one or two poops off?
Genuine question… Would Rice be a good signing for us? Would he be cover/challenging for Partey role? Only ever seen him for England and he seems a defensive aggressive type player…breaking up play etc. But what’s his distribution like? Can he do those penetrative forward passes like Partey? I’ve never seen him do that for England but that could be down more to the conservative style of football under Southgate. Otherwise don’t see him as a good fit for one of the other midfield roles in Artetas preferred 433… I’d much prefer Bellingham…which is pretty unlikely I know… Keen to… Read more »
Yeah I’m not sold on him. Maybe I need to pay less attention to aesthetics, cos he doesn’t look like good footballer with the way he kicks the ball.
Rice does not play exactly like Partey who, at this point, does things for us that I don’t think anyone else is capable of. But you can’t look for exact carbon copies. Ngolo Kante, at his fittest, did not do those things either, but he was the best number 6 (using a shorthand, not a real description) in the world. Casimiro, Fernandinho, Busquets, the same idea. Rice is a very good passer, intelligent, very hard worker, a real leader (captain of West Ham) in the Odegaard (not Adams/Vieira/Xhaka) mode. He will cost today’s inflated equivalent of Van Dijk and, I… Read more »
Why not Bellingham AND Rice, if we’re just spitballing? With two of them & Partey & Xhaka we’ll have great depth in possibly the most important part of the pitch. It’s not impossible either, 180 mill or so for the pair.
Rice has publicly praised Arteta and enjoys the way Arsenal play and has stated his priority is to play champions league football.
That would mean Chelsea are pretty much out of it.
If this is not possible why not Savic whose contract expires next summer.
Vlahovic would be a good signing but not until the summer..
No thanks to savic, the guy takes way too many touches and he’s nearly 30. If we wanted that player we could recall pepe
Yeah, well we all know what public praise is worth now.
Fuck all, when Chelsea get their cheque book out…
Mbeuno at Brentford is a solid option, and some people have mentioned madeuke as well (still pretty raw, imo and would need a loan).
However I bet we go for Torres at barca simply because he’s familiar with arteta.
if you’re voting this down you haven’t spent enough time watching mbeuno- he’s quick, he works hard off the ball, he’s got the stamina to play in our system, he can play in any of the front 3 positions, he’s adapted to the league, he lives in london already, and he fits the project as he’s young enough to develop into a real force (or sellable asset). ticks every box.
Even better than his stamina is his tactical discipline. If Thomas Frank loves a player, you should not sleep on said player 😉
Disgusted at some news today claiming Shakhtar donated 25 million for Ukraine’s war efforts from the Mudryk transfer. Absolute lies. How rotten and guilty should they be of selling Mudryk to Chelsea to spin a PR lie? They PLEDGED 25 million for Ukraine’s war efforts, they haven’t donated it yet, and probably won’t for a long time. Probably the idea of a Chelski executive, which is why the transfer happened so quick because they thought this is so smart they can have their cake and eat it too. Ukrainans were angry when they first heard Mudryk is going to Chelsea,… Read more »
Given how well connections often are between private equity (like boehly’s vulture capital firm) and the US government, it wouldn’t shock me if some of this is a tax dodge for some (or all) parties involved here. Money laundering, but “legally”
Just see Amber vs Depp to see how donation pledges can be used as PR tactic without them ever actually fulfilling the pledge.
same is true for a lot of us based charities or charitable foundations (particularly those founded by billionaires), many of which exist purely to launder the reputations of those responsible for funding them, but also some contribute as little as 3% of their take to actual causes they claim to support.
Guess you nailed it pal.
We’ve just had an excellent weekend. Missing out on Mudryk was a blessing in disguise. Edu was about to squander our entire transfer budget on a player we don’t actually need right now. And the Chavs have now just taken a monumental financial gamble on an unproven Eastern European kid who has done nothing in football so far. If he flops he’ll cost them a fortune. If they did it just to screw us then more fool them. And of course the NLD win was one of the sweetest in many years: my only criticism is that we should have… Read more »
Yes we need another attacker, but I thought Eddie had a very strong game against Spurs even though I know you have said, over and over, that he is not good enough. By the way Fats, I miss your explaining why we need to get rid of Xhaka immediately.
Goal scorers must score goals! It’s as simple as that. Jesus does lots of good things too, but the goals have dried up there as well.
An out-and-out goalscorer would complete this team: we need more goals.
The fact that we made enquiries about both Mudryk and Felix might give you a clue that our offer for Mudryk wasn’t our entire transfer budget.
😉
Would rather have Gross pf Brighton.
Blogs please make sure this doesn’t get leaked to Todd boehly. He’ll put 200 million for each of these players.
200 million for trossard would be hilarious, leak fake leads like that for the chavs to jump on and fritter their money away!!!
Actually, please make sure this does get leaked to Todd Boehly for exactly the same reason.
😀
The Rice link is fascinating. He seems more of a Partey type but I wonder if he could also play as an 8 in the way Xhaka has been playing this season? Having somebody who could compete with them both would be perfect.
What about that French chap that went to the world cup because someone got injured….. Muani? He played on the right wing and was rapid from memory? Also right sort of age profile.
we need someone in to hit ground running, not a project. I want us to move for Zaha
Zaha > Trossard
we aren’t moving for Zaha. Emery wanted Zaha. You wanted Zaha. The club does not want a £100m player with no resale value. Those days are done, thank you very much. Thank you for playing this weeks “Worst Transfer Ideas”.
Don’t you think this is a replay of the last Jan window
Kvaratshkelia is world class. We should be going to Mudryk levels of money
Very funny indeed
I can’t help to think that Milinkovic-Savic would be absolutely great for us, in that Xhaka box-to-box role.
Like ballon d’or level.
He works hard on defense, he is very creative with his passing and skilled enough to resist the high press. I think that’s what we miss the most when Partey is injured. He could play alongside Elneny or Partey.
Wilf Zaha would be a shrewd signing. Can play anywhere up top, hes a gooner and absolute proven PL quality. Plus his contract with palace is up in summer
Zaha is shit.
Lets sign you then Q
He is worse than shit
Actually, I played for Bishop’s Stortford under John Radford in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Jimmy Greaves once came along to a home game at Rhodes Avenue (the George Wilson stadium) at Raddy’s invitation.
A game in which I scored one and assisted two and afterwards, in the players bar, he came over and said to me “Well done, you were great today, son. Every single time you got the ball, you looked dangerous.”
So yeah, ‘worse than shit’ – in your head, maybe.
But I think I’ll still take on board what Greavsie told me. Cheers 😉
I am effectively done with the rumour mill after the Mudryk episode. I won’t bother reading any rumour – from Ornstein, Romano, or any other “reputable source” – until the player is flanked by Edu and Arteta with a signed contract papers in front of him.
Rice and Tielemans in the summer would be good business.
1 year extension for El-Neny?
Will be interesting where Balogun will play his football next season
Sadly I think Sambis time is up at the club. He needs a couple of seasons playing regularly to develop further. Although if Burnley get promoted we could send him there to reunite with Vincent Kompany
Trossard isn’t of the technical standard we need and would struggle to get a game imo. He’s having his best season but I wouldn’t say he’d challenge either Smith-Rowe or Viera and I can’t see him being decent back up for Saka or Nketiah.
Rice in the summer would be great but we’ll more than likely get out bid unless Arteta and Edu can sell him the ‘project’. That said if we’re champions it will be go a long way to turning his head from the career grave yard that Chelsea often is.
I can’t believe people are turning their nose up at Rice! I also can’t believe we won’t be gazumped again.
I can’t believe people want Zaha.
A me-first whinging whining piece of play acting crap, who spends 90+ on his backside crying at the refs.
I mean, fuck, what are we waiting for…?!! 😂
Not by Chelsea, though. He wants to play in the CL. Maybe Newcastle.
Xavi Simons looked great against us in Europe, where’s the bandwagon for his signing?
why don‘t we chase jaden sancho?
I’m Team Trossard to be honest and have liked the look of him all season.
MacAllister doesn’t look too shabby either but probably together are worth £200mil to Brighton mid-season.
I would slap £25m on Trossard right now. PL proven, scored some nice goals with good finishes and can add something to this squad. Certainly very practical for a sensible price that can help now.
Kavadona and Rice makes sense this summer as stage 3 of Plan Arteta comes around. Succession planning for the departures or decline of in demand or ageing players…
Hopefully Saliba will be around for a challenge of the champions league. Once he signs I’m sure we will begin to upgrade the fourth choice and likely keep holding but loan him out.