This kind of slipped under the radar…
https://arseblog.news/2021/06/confir...-new-contract/
I mean, I knew we were looking to extend, but that really has been wrapped up with no fuss…
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This kind of slipped under the radar…
https://arseblog.news/2021/06/confir...-new-contract/
I mean, I knew we were looking to extend, but that really has been wrapped up with no fuss…
Guess we won’t be getting a good look at Saliba in preseason after all then…
https://arseblog.news/2021/06/saliba...g-olympic-nod/
Ill make exceptions for legendsQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
"Following Scotland’s exit from Euro 2020, Tierney is now set for a bit of a break." :haha:Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Anyway, great re-signing :clap:
Villa have made a new 30 million bid for ESR, which has obviously been rejected.
Such a weird one, either they are trolling or have heard something with regards to his contract extension talks. My guess would be his agent playing games to try and bump up his salary.
Probably just Villa trying to appease their fans before Grealish is sold to City.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
Thank you for your interest in our affairs. Rejected.
it wouldn't surprise me if your agent theory was trueQuote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
This. Let's remember that for all his high profile head rushes, Luis was pretty instrumental to our ball progression last season when we did play well last season. If White's ability in this respect is a good as his rep, then he is being purchased as a premier league ready replacement for one of our most important positions/players in Arteta's system of playing. I don't think you take a punt on a 19? year old who is simply not tested in this league (League 1 not nearly as challenging) to fill this key position. Price seems high - but all English players seem to command a 20/30% premium. I would like to see Saliba play, but many of those demanding for him would be the first to criticise taking a risk with a club of our stauture if he was not up to it within a short period.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
That's not to say the whole Saliba deal doesn't look like a fiasco, but the question of what we need at CB if we are to hit the ground running nextseason is a slightly different one, despite the fact that this is Saliba's position.
£35m for Ramsdale :haha:
Surely has to be a wind up.
I'd sooner give Son of Runar a go.
:good:Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
It’s interesting - everyone now seems to be fully onboard with the idea of your forwards being your first line of defence, but a big chunk of the footballing world (esp. the pundits!) still seem to really struggle with the idea of your defence, and particularly your CBs, being your first line of attack? It’s not just about playing out from the back - the best CBs in the best teams can also evade pressure, carry the ball like a midfielder, and they have the athleticism to push high enough to keep pressure on opponents (by reducing the distance that their attackers and midfielders have to cover when pressing, and by being on the spot to play the ball straight back in if the ball spills out to them).
Of last year’s CB options, only Gabriel really has that pace and athleticism to play high, and he’s not the best on the ball when pressured. Luiz, for all his quality on the ball, forced us to sit too deep because of his ageing legs and could self-destruct at any moment. And Holding and Mari are just solid defenders who offer nothing much going the other way.
Unless there’s something really dodgy in the Saliba deal that we’re trying to cover up, or the kid has a major case of the Guendouzis about him, then I’d be inclined to keep him AND bring in White - sell one of the others if it comes to it.
Agreed. Unfortunately I do think there is more going on re Saliba than meets the eye, but I would be inclined to kep him as a backup choice to the first defensive pairing of Gabriel and White and get rid of one of Holding/Mari. It isn't difficult to see why a Saliba/Gabriel or Saliba/Holding or Mari pairing is not the way we should be going into next season...Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Good point re getting your defenders upfield too - our lack of solid options to do so last season is part of why we failed to stretch teams a lot of the time, and why we offered space in between the lines for oppsoition teams to exploit.
We are close to signing Nuno Tavares, young left back from Benfica, and Lokonga from Anderlecht. Two promising young players on relatively low fees.
At least feel reassured by the profile of player we are targeting this summer. No more OAPs looking for their last pay out!
Who knows, we might want all of them for next season? The extra man would come in handy if we want to play 3 at the back at times, and Mari certainly seems to spend a lot of time on the treatment table.Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
Tbh, a final loan to a PL side would probably be the ideal next step for Saliba’s development, but I have no idea how you’d even go about starting that conversation with him after last summer’s debacle! Plus I’m not sure I’d want to send him on another loan without getting him to extend his contract first… and I don’t see that happening if we send him on another loan!
:good:Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
Yeah, the profiles have looked good so far - no one above 25, but no one ridiculously young either. Ideal.
Fair play to Edu on the contract work, too - I still have my doubts about him, but tbf he’s quietly and efficiently tied Martinelli (last year), Saka, Balogun and Tierney down to new deals, and managed to bin-off all the trouble-makers (something no one else has managed to do). If he can get ESR signed up and find a new home for Willian then that will go a long way to winning me over.
Can't see us not selling one or even 2 of our current 4 (including - Callum chambers here). Saliba has to stay or be sold. I don't think a loan is feasible. Its suh a shame that we fucked up with him last Summer - and I have doubts about (a) Saliba's desire to play for us any more and (b) how much Arteta cares about that.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Also - agreed #Gooner 23 - now we have all calmed down re Buendia the profiles of the players we are properly linked with is good - and suggests that the potential White deal - though lots of cash - is at least part of a properly considered strategy...
I tell you what else has made a welcome change, and that’s having a range of targets identified for each area (assuming most of the links we’ve seen are accurate).Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
Although at this point I really couldn’t say what the plan is for RB and the attacking / creative midfielder? Maddison just doesn’t feel like it will go anywhere, and the news sites seem to be really struggling to guess our RB targets.
Feel like Arteta really likes Chambers at RB. With Cedric as cover it could be bottom of the priority list when it comes to new signings. If we get White done, centre mid & attacking mid has to be the priority.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
The one link I am really not keen on is Ramsdale, especially the reported fee (£35m) which suggests he would be a replacement for Leno, not a back up. When you consider we let Martinez go for less than that, it really would be a massive downgrade in that position over a 12 month period.
Agreed. Not keen on Ramsdale as 1st choice GK.
me neither, it's a downgrade for sure
United have agreed a deal with Dortmund for Sancho.
73m, not bad really in this day and age.
73 million quid. Enough to fund a hospital for months. Not really bad? It's so far beyond bad it doesn't register on any scale that makes any sense. I bet the cunt can't even take a corner.
:lol: You can have that one. These silly amounts for players who honestly aren't that great makes it all very hard to take seriously.
Crazy! You could have signed Pepe for that kind of money.
Arsenal in for Locatelli?
https://arseblog.news/2021/07/sassuo...for-locatelli/
Juventus also showing interest, so he’ll likely end up there, although they’re also showing late interest in Xhaka, so maybe they’re eyeing him as a more cost-effective alternative?
You know what to do, Mikel...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57666280
Don't think he's got £600k tax free lying around to pay him me thinks. :unsure:
Sadly, we could probably easily afford it just by getting Özil, Willian and Kolasinac off the books. Plus you wouldn't need both Auba and Laca in that fantasy scenario...Quote:
Originally Posted by dazthegooner
Yep and at his age he will probably be injured more often than not, maybe we could also sign Ramsey and get them both adjourning beds during treatment ;)
He will certaily need lots of downtime for treatment after Maguire and Rudiger have shown him what's what.
Messi?
Just an Argie Elneny
If we spent 73M on a hospital, it would certainly come in useful with our history of injuries. Sign da ting!Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
OK, so now Saliba isn't going to the Olympics...
https://arseblog.news/2021/07/tokyo-...lympics-squad/
Update: looks like he’s going on a season-long loan to Marseille.
Not sure how I feel about that? The loan is the right choice for his development - at 20 he needs regular games and not a place on our bench - but a Prem side would have better this time. (I’m especially not happy about him having Guendouzi in his ear all year, if he’d ends up there too.) Saliba’s choice though - reports say he was given several options and that’s the one he picked.
The lad obviously wants to stay as far away from Arteta as is physically possible. Less chance of Arteta rocking up at any of his matches and putting him off his game.
Chances are Lego hair will be gone by Xmas anyway. Im hoping so anyway.
just ludicrous to pay £28m for a player we then decide isn't good enough for several seasons - even though he probably is.
Just chalk him up as another name we’ve wasted a fortune on over recent years.
Raul paid £28m for him in another deal that’s looking dodgier by the day. I think Edu had been here something like 16 days when Saliba signed so I doubt he had much to do with it. Arteta certainly didn’t.
At this point everyone just needs to forget the fee and focus on what is best for the development of a talented but still very young player. The fee wasn’t the player’s doing, and it wasn’t the doing of anyone at the club now - it’s just another entry in the long list of terrible deals that have been allowed to happen under KSE’s watch.
In terms of his development, a season-long loan is definitely the right move for him. He’s probably good enough to be part of our first-team squad now, if we’re only looking at raw talent, but he needs to get minutes in his legs and show that he can maintain form, focus, stamina and professionalism across a whole season (and I think a lot of players miss that point when we send them out on loan: we know what we need to about them talent-wise by that point - what we’re looking to see is how they conduct themselves professionally and whether we can count on them before we stake our season on them). So far he hasn’t played more than half a season anywhere.
We bought him off the back of just 13 starts in the tail-end of his first season for St Etienne. Then he missed more than half of his loan-back season through injury and the pandemic. Then he missed half of last season through no fault of his own (it’s now come out that we did in fact have a season-long loan arranged for him with Rennes last summer, only for them to pull the plug on the last day of the window and bring Rugani in instead, leaving us with no time to arrange anything else). And before anyone says the full-season test doesn’t matter, just look how Gabriel, who is 3 years ahead of him in his development, fell away in he second half of last season after such a strong start.
Also worth noting that Saliba was given the choice of which loan move he wanted, and he opted for the comfort and familiarity of a move back to France instead of one the PL options that were on the table - that tells me that the player himself maybe doesn’t believe that he’s quite ready for the step up to the Prem yet, in spite of what he might say.
Guendouzi also agrees a 4 year deal with Marseilles…
https://arseblog.news/2021/07/report...for-guendouzi/
€11m in total (loan with an obligation).
Honestly, best of luck to the kid - I genuinely hope he manages to find that bit of maturity he needs to make something of what could still be a promising career. Don’t fuck this one up.
The Turkish club president that we transferred Ozil too claimed that he hasnt cost them a penny in wages since he arrived, so we havent even got that load off our wage bill either. We owed Ozil plenty give that we refused him a testimonial. We are probably paying for his leg and armpit waxing till today. This club is run by morons. The stupidity amd sleaze didnt end when dodgy Raul left