It’s been a few days since our inaugural tittle-tattle round-up thingy so we figured we’d cast a cynical eye over some of the latest rumours doing the rounds.
As we explained last week, the ongoing Covid-19 situation means all clubs will have to swallow significant financial losses so we’re not hugely enthused by talk of big-money deals. Nobody even knows when the transfer window is going to open. That said, revamping squads is part of the game and comings and goings will happen one way or another at some point.
Philippe Coutinho
Le 10 Sport claims the Barcelona midfielder will not make his season-long loan at Bayern Munich permanent which means he’s now the lookout for another club. Represented by Kia Joorabchian, it was inevitable that we’d be linked. The Brazil international proved his Premier League pedigree at Liverpool but having moved to the Nou Camp for £142 million it seems hard to believe his price or wages will have dropped anywhere near enough for him to be affordable.
Poo-o-meter: Were it not for the mention of Joorabchian this would be horribly running.
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Adrien Rabiot
The 27-year-old stropped his way to Juventus on a free last summer but is apparently so miffed at having a coronavirus wage cut imposed on him that he’s ready to quit Italy. A £27 million fee has been mentioned.
Poo-o-meter: We’ve got enough curly-haired Gallic indignation in midfield already…and somebody should mention we’re quite good at player pay cuts ourselves.
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Adam Lallana
The 32-year-old Liverpool and England midfielder will be available on a free this summer. Cue links with pretty much everybody.
Poo-o-meter: Patchy form. Patchy injury-history. Patchy beard.
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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Having covered this as a standalone story, we’ll keep this brief. Our captain hasn’t agreed a contract extension, he’ll be entering the final year of his deal soon, several clubs sniff a chance to snap him up for a decent price this summer. PSG are now one of those clubs.
Poo-o-meter: If he leaves, it’ll be for a big club with big money. Not impossible.
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan
We know Roma want to keep the midfielder and have the option to buy him. We know Mkhitaryan wants to stay in the Italian capital. We know Arsenal are happy to get him off the books. It should be easy. Except according to Il Tempo, the Italians preference is to extend the loan deal for another season before committing to a purchase. We can’t commit to that because at the end of a year-long extension, Micki would be able to leave the club for free. The solution? Arsenal extend his contract by a year to facilitate the situation. The problem? Well it’s just a load of fiddly bollocks really, isn’t it?
Poo-o-meter: Just buy him now and hurry up about it.
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Shkodran Mustafi
Milan want to throw €10 million at us for the centre-back. Cool. Thanks.
Poo-o-meter: We can’t say we’d complain but we’re not sure there’s any truth in it.
How about Coutinho on loan?
Elite clubs develop or buy players. Mid-table clubs that have accepted their mediocrity loan players. Don’t get me started on what Arsenal have become under the Kroenkes.
Didn’t realise Bayern and PSG were mid-table clubs for loaning Coutinho and Icardi respectively…
Loan with an option to buy not the same as our loan of Ceballas.
I remember Adebayor moving to Madrid on a loan. Doesn’t matter if the club is big/small, if there is a deal to be done temporarily and the clubs see value, they will loan players. END. OF. STORY.
Lets be honest, we cannot afford Coutinho, loan or mortgage or robbery..whatever be the means
So, if we identify the next Henry or Vieira in the market, you’ll be OK with getting them on loan for a year before they head back to their club, instead of actually signing them as part of a proper long-term strategy to get Arsenal back to being competitive with the likes of City and Liverpool? Fair enough then…
Obviously I’d rather sign them but if we could only loan them and they could help us get in the CL or even challenge for the title now, why wouldn’t you?
I’m certain we would be more than happy to get a player with the quality of an Mbappe or Haaland even if it is only for a season long loan
Also I wouldn’t be surprised if loans and swaps become more popular given the pandemic and the state of football’s finances.
I agree loans are going to be the way forward.
I don’t see any point in this deal going through with Ozil in the books aren’t they very similar players?
Coutinho has a wicked long range shot and typically scores/ shoots more than Ozil, particularly from outside the box. I’m sure he has but I can’t remember the last time Ozil scores from open play outside the box. That said if we did bring him in, it would be as Ozil’s replacement
I’m a bit surprised we haven’t been linked with Coutinho earlier, ticks a lot of boxes for us. An experienced, creative, goal scoring midfielder that we could get on loan, possibly with a big discount after.
Rabiot is a harder sell. We’ve wanted him before apparently but between discipline issues and wages I struggle to see it happening.
Can’t see any point in Rabiot, every transfer window this side is mentioned.
We could do with a imposing d.m. , so we will sign countinho . Raul contact book . Will talk .
But hey he will score some cracking goals
Mate we need a creative mf more
We’re lacking both a creator and an enforcer right now, especially if Ceballos goes
I think the chances of us signing Coutinho are < 1%, or at least I hope.
A hugely expensive almost 28 year old, on a downward trajectory and falling out of favour with the very top level of clubs. Question marks about his overall contribution to his teams and not just flashy solo plays every now and then. The sort of gamble you make when you’re swimming in cash and have an already solid squad – not for us
Swap countinho for auba.?! Would you at this stage of contracts, up or down vote
Or swap subs for Barca’s dembelle? Up / down
reportedly they are willing to lose 100m on dembele.
37m for his quality is good news.
the fact he has started 5 games in 3 years is not…
Dembele just doesn’t seem focused and motivated at all. Very much doubt he’d take well physically to the PL as well given his slight frame and injury issues
We can’t just spend our way back up the table on raw talent, so we need to create a cohesive, resilient team spirit based on professionalism and desire. I would imagine Dembele would do the opposite of help with that
I suppose the tricky bit of the Mustafi deal would be keeping a straight face until the cheque clears.
Id take the money they are asking for.
but a player of his quality at any other europa league club would cost us at least £20m
i can’t see Mustafi going anywhere, where is he going to go and be paid the same wages? I think we need to wake up to the fact that COVID-19 is going to stop us selling certain big wages under performers.
I agree, it’s going to be very difficult to sell players. Our 15% wage cut, is nothing in comparison to cuts elsewhere, clubs will be desperate to cut costs. Talks of swaps with Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are strange, particularly as players there have received a 70% pay cut They’re hardly in a position to tempt Lacazette with an offer of 30% of £180,000 p/w, which would be £54,000 p/w, when 85% of £180,000, is £153,000 it’ll be a similar story almost everywhere you look, you can hardly blame players for being cautious, players will still do well, but outside… Read more »
I’m not confident we can do well in the transfer market with the bloke from The Royle Family doing our negotiating.
Coutinho would be a good addition but do not allow Aubameyang to leave. He will be difficult to replace. Just find a way to get him to sign an improved contract extension.
Coutinho costed £142M and Barca couldn’t find a way to use him on the pitch. Great business from them, btw. Well, they loaned him to a lower lever, Bayern (yes, being German champion doesn’t mean much)… who couldn’t find him good enough to keep him. Now he’s linked to Arsenal, a team that is likely to not play any European competitions next season. So yeah, maybe he can become good after another low. And he’d be willing to play a season with a mid-table team (that hurts to say it) after accepting to cost £142M? And Liverpool? Hell was predicted… Read more »
We really have to accept that everything has changed in the transfer market, because everything has changed in elite football’s business model. And we simply don’t know what will happen. Here is the president of Sporting, quoted in the NY Times today, reflecting on the deal where they sold Bruno Fernandes to Man United for 65 million euros, only four months ago:
“Now sometimes I go to bed and imagine what would happen if we tried to sell Bruno Fernandes now — what would the price be? Fifteen? Ten?”
1.Coutinho will be useful to us.But we can’t afford him…2.Rabiot is a decent player but whether we should buy him is based on the transfer fee and wages….3.Lallana at 32 years is definitely a big no….4. Aubmayeng,a possible departure if a good offer comes….5.We should try to sell Makhitaryan….6.If we are not able to buy a good defender,Mustafi stays….
I wonder if we’ll move to the kind of model where clubs only have a core of say half a dozen key players on the books, and manage the rest of the squad, and wage bill, by hiring players on short term contracts from a pool of free agents. I am not suggesting its desirable from a fan’s perspective, but it may be a way for smaller clubs to survive financially.
You sure you don’t want that quality Gallic B*stard -barred from international duty- to show those youngsters how it’s done? Imagine the level of outrage this team could provoke, not to mention all that flopping curly hair on display!
More seriously, if Torreira wants to go, a swap deal with Juventus does not seem such a bad option. Sure, Rabiot and his mum become indignant the moment he’s not playing but, let’s face it, he walks into that midfield anytime he’s fit.
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