i still think £20m sounds too little for a really good keeper - after all how many points does a really good keeper get you in a season - it must be a lot, one save can make the difference between a defeat or a draw or a draw or a win - 10 points? 15?
Why dont we make it a loan to Villa. I year and then we see where things stand. I would keep both. Give Martinez all the cups and Leno the league
Make 2mrw better than 2day
Not right now, but beyond this season it starts to make a little more sense.
Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi only have another year on their contracts, so they could all be gone by next summer.
And Chambers and Mavropanos could both be earning more money and getting first team football elsewhere, so I can see them moving on within the next 12 months too.
Gabriel, Saliba and Mari are obviously here for the long-term as they've only just signed, but that's only 3 CBs.
Which leaves Holding, who I suspect we might be looking at keeping him as our 4th long-term CB option.
Obviously if a large enough offer came in for him then we'd have to consider it - he's not so good that he's untouchable - but I think it would have to be something pretty big to make it worth our while. Again, it comes down to who we could get as a replacement - Holding currently only earns about £25k/wk (yeah, I know... "only") and has a contract until 2023, so we'd have to be able to find someone as good or better for less money otherwise it's not worth it.
In terms of this season, I reckon there there's probably a couple of plans for him: if no one goes, then we may look to loan Holding out for the year so he can build up his form and fitness up after a long injury (whilst we bring in a small loan fee and get his wages covered); but if 1 or 2 of those CBs do move on then it would probably be better to keep him here? Mari, Mustafi and Chambers are all currently out injured, and Gabriel, Saliba and Mari are all new to the league, so he'd end up having a larger role to play.
Sell Leno if we have to.. Martinez is the second name on the team sheet after Auba.
Arsene Wenger, the only football manager that got paid 8 million quid to do nothing but sit on his arse..
Villa seems a really low bar for Martinez to go to given the form he has displayed.
At the very least I’d like to be certain that what we’re seeing from Emi is permanent class and not just a bit of form before there’s any talk of cashing in on either keeper - Alex Manninger had a similar run of 10 or 11 amazing games in the ‘98 run in, but he never really kicked on after that.