Match Reaction v Valencia (away) - Baku bound!

[SMatthews]

Forget the Cech talk. Get this guy in for Baku. 4 penalty saves and a converted penalty.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I don’t the see the problem here. I’m always open to have my mind changed as I want the best for every player that puts on the said. And yet, if a big offer came in during the summer for Laca I’d want us to have a serious think about it. I’m trying to take into consideration how little may be available to spend during the summer.The big question then is does all of it go back to reinvest? Who knows, but it’s an option. And it’s also not the only option. I’d like Laca to stay as he’s a very good player, but I’m also open to using one of our assets (Bellerin is another who would get big money but hes injured throughout the summer). If it could help us push on, ala Coutinho, who everyone thought would be a huge problem for Liverpool to solve. We won’t get Coutinho money but we’d still get a huge fee. You can boil my point down to say I believe we solve all our problems by flogging Laca, but that’s not what I’ve been saying. Great, we win the EL, get into the CL and have a better pot to piss in during the transfer window. But if not, we need to make the best of all our options.

I don't know, I can't really fathom how any of us could consider breaking up a partnership we've been yearning for more than a decade.

Yes, we need to invest in the squad but do we really need to sell our best players to do so? Isn't that just creating more gaps that need to be filled?

I think we fans should be putting pressure on our model to change; Man U, Chelsea and City don't need to sell before taking advantage of the market- in fact let's not forget that Liverpool bought Van Dyke even before they sold Coutinho.

I honestly don't think it would take that much money to sort our defence if we had a coach or TD who knew how to spot talent, then I could see us getting 4 really good defenders for under 80m total. Oh and we've not even talked about replacing Ramsey, as a like for like alone would cost us nothing less than 50m (and that's being conservative). Van der Beek is being mentioned. Plus we still need to get Torrierra someone good to play with. Ah, and what if Auba or Laca gets injured, or both at the same time.........

In short we have a lot of gaps in this squad, selling any player that's actually performing means creating another gap that will need to be filled. You don't want us to drop out of the top 6 but that's exactly what will happen if we keep on with this silly model of selling or letting performing players go because we want to bring in new ones; while keeping the likes of Xhaka and Mustafi to stink up the place and cost us more and more points.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

This is the key thing. Cech was part of the team that got us there, he deserves his place.
If there was a big gulf in class between him and Leno then I’d agree we should play Leno but there really isn’t.

BTW who remembers the season we got to the CC cup final with some exceptional kids and we binned all of them at the final to play the first team. I remember the feeling of losing that final and just thinking to myself after the game- wouldn't it have been better to have played the kids all the way?

I think it was during our extreme trophy drought as even AW wanted to win it so badly that year.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Herrera available on a free.

Offer £150k and ship off Xhaka, anyone??

[GP]

Nah

[SMatthews]

I don't know, I can't really fathom how any of us could consider breaking up a partnership we've been yearning for more than a decade.

Yes, we need to invest in the squad but do we really need to sell our best players to do so? Isn't that just creating more gaps that need to be filled?

I think we fans should be putting pressure on our model to change; Man U, Chelsea and City don't need to sell before taking advantage of the market- in fact let's not forget that Liverpool bought Van Dyke even before they sold Coutinho.

I honestly don't think it would take that much money to sort our defence if we had a coach or TD who knew how to spot talent, then I could see us getting 4 really good defenders for under 80m total. Oh and we've not even talked about replacing Ramsey, as a like for like alone would cost us nothing less than 50m (and that's being conservative). Van der Beek is being mentioned. Plus we still need to get Torrierra someone good to play with. Ah, and what if Auba or Laca gets injured, or both at the same time.........

In short we have a lot of gaps in this squad, selling any player that's actually performing means creating another gap that will need to be filled. You don't want us to drop out of the top 6 but that's exactly what will happen if we keep on with this silly model of selling or letting performing players go because we want to bring in new ones; while keeping the likes of Xhaka and Mustafi to stink up the place and cost us more and more points.

It has to at least be considered if we don’t get a CL cash boost and transfer funds are paltry. I’ll stress again I don’t see it as the only the answer, but it’s one to be mulled over if we get a big offer. You went through a list of players above - and I don’t think we need to spend hundreds of millions to be even more competitive - but the noise we’re hearing is a transfer kitty of £50m or below (hopefully higher with CL money). That alone is not enough to play with to make a real change during the summer - especially when Sanllehi doesn’t want anything to do with the winter transfer window.

Given the ever increasing size of transfer fees we might need more money and it will have to come from somewhere, as it won’t be doled out by our owner. Hopefully all the speculation is wrong and we have more to spend, but we really don’t have a clue how we’ll operate now that Kroenke has all the marbles.

When it comes to putting pressure on the club to change our model that’s a bit hard to do when the owner is never over here. City can’t even be compared to, aside from PSG, while Utd have mega commercial deals and even the Chavs have changed their approach in recent years (and they should be worried about their owner being kept out the country). I don’t think the complaints from fans (voiced less at games, more online) about Wenger pushed the owner to get rid. He’s made it clear he will do as he pleases and couldn’t give a shit.

The reason I mentioned Liverpool and Countinho (whose sale was announced days before Van Dyke’s so they knew the money was there to spend) Is because Liverpool had to remodel their team after his departure. Most people thought it was a big step back selling him - but it’s the best bit of business they’ve done in years.

Of course, you need a good management set-up (including the Technical Director) to make the most of it. Are Emery (and potentially Edu) those guys? I don’t know, but I’m willing to give a new manager 18-24 months and a chance to spend to find out. I’m not sure Emery is the long-term answer, but I think he has enough to get us back into the top four consistently - although with the competition around the top six it is incredibly tough to do every single year now unless you are one of the top two sides.

I won’t go into the whole top six thing because we’ll continue to disagree about that point. Yes I want us to succeed and challenge more. And to do so I think we need to be creative as a club in how we source and use our money. If that means making sacrifices that will help us along, I’m all for that. If we don’t have much to spend I don’t think there are any ideal options available to us if we want to move on.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Cannot stand Herrera. I'd actually rather just keep Xhaka.

[I am invisible]

Personally speaking, I’d be doing everything I could to keep Lacazette at the club - I’m all for a huge overhaul of the squad, and I would be open to one or two big name / shock departures to raise funds, but he wouldn’t be someone I’d be looking at.

Aside from anything else, I really think it’s important for us to redefine the standards that are expected at this club, and keeping Lacazette could be a key part of that. It needs to be shown that you earn the big rewards at this club by putting in the same kind of consistency of performance and effort that we’ve seen from Auba and Laca; just as it needs to be shown that you get benched and sold if you consistently underperform or take the piss. No more of this ‘Arsenal is like a family’ BS, where everyone is forgiven for everything and shielded from consequences, and where the squad is collectively rewarded for the work of a handful of players. We need to get back to being a meritocracy again.

Normally I’d say that you don’t want to see too many changes in one window, for the sake of stability, but in our case I think wholesale changes are probably essential. There’s a pervasive sense of casualness and weakness of mentality about this club - one that might be so firmly entrenched that it’s becoming / become an identity - and the only way I see to halt it at this point is to cut as much of it away as possible, like a cancer, and replace it with healthy tissue.

And it’s not just about changing things at Arsenal either - a massive part of the problem is perception and how the other clubs look at as an easy meal. As long as we keep lining up with more or less the same players, our opponents will look at us and think that all of the same old weaknesses are there, and will come into every game against as fired up and fancying their chances. We need to break that confidence and certainty, and create a bit of uncertainty on how to approach us and how we’ll act and react. Again, the only way I see of doing that at this point is if we’ve changed things to such an extent that opponents look at us and literally see a different beast!

[SMatthews]

The thing is, if we wanted to sell big to raise transfer funds, the ‘big names’ are few and far between. Laca and Bellerin (who can’t be sold due to injury) are the only two we could flog for considerable funds. It would be great if it didn’t have to come to that but there’s a lot riding on Baku.

[GP]

The thing is, if we wanted to sell big to raise transfer funds, the ‘big names’ are few and far between. Laca and Bellerin (who can’t be sold due to injury) are the only two we could flog for considerable funds. It would be great if it didn’t have to come to that but there’s a lot riding on Baku.

The problem with selling Laca is, he'd have to be replaced. Unless you're selling for 100m+ there doesn't seem to be much point.