Winter Transfer Ignorance and Dart Throwing.

[I am invisible]

You think Xhaka is essential, what has the world come to, the guy is slow, can't tackle and consequently gives away fouls left right and center and has a bad attitude. The sooner we sell this guy the better, then we can get a proper CM who has more energy and drive to play alongside Torreira...

I think what he means is that Arteta has a system that he wants to play and he only has this group of players to choose from - Xhaka is currently the best fit we have for one of the roles within that system, so that in itself makes him essential right now.

It doesn't mean that we can't find / shouldn't look for a better, more dynamic option at some point - it's more about pragmatism for the moment. My gut-feeling is that he will also end up leaving in the summer - regardless of how much Arteta likes him as a player, or whether he can coach him back to some kind of usefulness, I just think his relationship with the club and the fans may be too far gone at this point. What we're seeing at the moment is probably some kind of mutually-beneficial agreement between the player and the club / manager to hold off until the summer: the player gets to build his reputation back up for 5-6 months with the hope of attracting some better offers; and the club don't lose a senior player that we wouldn't be able to adequately replace half way through the season (and might be able to get a bit more for him, if he looks a better player by the summer).

[Niall_Quinn]

You think Xhaka is essential, what has the world come to, the guy is slow, can't tackle and consequently gives away fouls left right and center and has a bad attitude. The sooner we sell this guy the better, then we can get a proper CM who has more energy and drive to play alongside Torreira.

As for Lacazette, he's hopelessly out of form at the moment, I hope he can come good, but with Aubameyang probably on his way out we can't afford to lose him as well really.

I didn't say Xhaka is essential, I said Arteta seems to find him essential right now, at this early stage of us learning to play effective football again. Assuming we aren't buying Arteta's ideal 11 this month (and probably won't be buying anyone at all, given all the talk of loan deals) we have to make the very best use of what we have. Xhaka may not be a world beater, but he's improved in the last few weeks and is doing a job for now. Doesn't mean we can't get someone better when the chance arrives (if ever), but also doesn't mean we should cut our noses off.

[Niall_Quinn]

Would you be okay letting him go if we got 80 million quid? Dudes going to be 29 in a few months and hasnt set the world on fire for us. I like him, I like his effort but we'd be foolish to not accept a big bid for him.

Of course I'd take 80 million quid. I'd take 160 million too but nobody will pay either. And even if they did, I'd be wanting to see that money spent - this month. Do you have any confidence that would happen?

[Mac76]

I definitely don't want Giraffe back and as for Xhaka i completely agree with Ozim - he simply isn't good enough, is too slow and has too many suicide moments to be part of a genuinely successful side

i'm slightly worried about how Arteta's so positive about him, but i'm hoping that he's just seeing him as important to tide us through to the end of the season until he can rebuild a bit

if Arteta saw Xhaka as part of our longer-term future i'd be really worried

[Marc Overmars]

It's difficult to judge anything that happens at the moment because I'm sure Arteta has plenty of ideas on how we should move forward but we currently don't have the time nor funds to make that happen this season.

We knew when he was appointed the remainder of the season was a bit of a free hit because of how poor we've been. Lets just hope we can finish a few positions higher in the league and win one of the cups, preference obviously being the EL.

Then let the real work begin in the summer.

[Özim]

It's difficult to judge anything that happens at the moment because I'm sure Arteta has plenty of ideas on how we should move forward but we currently don't have the time nor funds to make that happen this season.

We knew when he was appointed the remainder of the season was a bit of a free hit because of how poor we've been. Lets just hope we can finish a few positions higher in the league and win one of the cups, preference obviously being the EL.

Then let the real work begin in the summer.

If we don't qualify for the CL by winning the EL our summer funds will probably be limited, we've already spend 30 million on Saliba and a chunk of the Pepe money has been spread over several seasons so there's probably 20 odd million to be paid there as well, that's probably about 50 million already gone.

Think we hedged our bets that we'd qualify for the CL thus covering these purchases.

[I am invisible]

If we don't qualify for the CL by winning the EL our summer funds will probably be limited, we've already spend 30 million on Saliba and a chunk of the Pepe money has been spread over several seasons so there's probably 20 odd million to be paid there as well, that's probably about 50 million already gone.

Think we hedged our bets that we'd qualify for the CL thus covering these purchases.

Agreed - the whole thing felt a little desperate to me, with no real strategy behind it. In some ways, I'm kind of glad it didn't work out as planned because we now have to be smarter than just throwing money at our problems.

Tbh, I'm not overly fussed about how much we might have to spend in the summer - for one thing it might actually force us to sell before we can buy, but also I'm not actually convinced that we do our best work at that [expensive] end of the market anyway? I'm mostly anxious to see whether Edu and his scouting team can keep the unknown gems coming - Martinelli was a good start, but how many more can they come up with? What other markets do we have expertise in, or is it just Brazil / South America? How is foreign recruitment going to work after the UK leaves the EU?

[Chippy]

Agreed - the whole thing felt a little desperate to me, with no real strategy behind it. In some ways, I'm kind of glad it didn't work out as planned because we now have to be smarter than just throwing money at our problems.

Tbh, I'm not overly fussed about how much we might have to spend in the summer - for one thing it might actually force us to sell before we can buy, but also I'm not actually convinced that we do our best work at that [expensive] end of the market anyway? I'm mostly anxious to see whether Edu and his scouting team can keep the unknown gems coming - Martinelli was a good start, but how many more can they come up with? What other markets do we have expertise in, or is it just Brazil / South America? How is foreign recruitment going to work after the UK leaves the EU?

Dont worry! An African Billionaire is going to buy us in 2021and spend shit loads of Money 😁

[dazthegooner]

He can't buy us he will have the pay the $10,000,000 he promised me

[I am invisible]

Dont worry! An African Billionaire is going to buy us in 2021and spend shit loads of Money 😁

That guy’s back is he? Let me guess - he’s just working on some oil deal first... but after that, he’s definitely going to buy us!