summer '22 transfer craziness and stupidity

[Gooner23]

Well, Jesus plays across all 3 forward positions, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a target/hold up man if he is signed. I think Elneny's new contract will mean that we are in for a MF and that we are more likely than not to keep Xhaka for another year to end up with 4 central MF's. If Saliba comes in then we don't need another central defender. That means that we are in for a MF; a striker and a withdrawn striker; a RB and possibly a LB - doable with our budget methinks.

Hopefully you're right as we're definitely missing a physical presence up front.

I just wonder if Jesus is being signed on the promise of being the main man.

[IBK]

Hopefully you're right as we're definitely missing a physical presence up front.

I just wonder if Jesus is being signed on the promise of being the main man.

I think that he will probably be the 'senior striker' but he is not a hold up/target player and we don't have one. All the reports in January were that were in for this kind of forward, and I think it's essential that we have another way to score goals when we can't play through teams/beat the low block. Given what we were reportedly willing to pay for Vlahovic in January, there will be funds for another forward even given Europa league football - particularly if Jesus can play in Saka's positon when he is not available...

[selassie]

I think that he will probably be the 'senior striker' but he is not a hold up/target player and we don't have one. All the reports in January were that were in for this kind of forward, and I think it's essential that we have another way to score goals when we can't play through teams/beat the low block. Given what we were reportedly willing to pay for Vlahovic in January, there will be funds for another forward even given Europa league football - particularly if Jesus can play in Saka's positon when he is not available...

I like Jesus, think he would be a very good signing even at the 40-50 million mark. He's a very good player with room to improve. About the hold up / target player, I see lots of links to Alvaro Morata today.

[I am invisible]

Sounds like we are going all in on Gabriel Jesus as our main striker signing. And if Nketiah is signing a new deal that will be probably be it in the striker department. I can't see us signing another no. 9, this summer at least.

Do those two players get us enough goals through the course of a season? I have my reservations but hope to be wrong.

Oh I think they’d get us plenty of goals, if we’re talking raw numbers - it’s the variety of goals that I have a few question marks over.

For me, the trick to getting this right isn’t to look at what City and Liverpool have been doing - it’s working out what they’re going to do next. Get ahead of the curve for once. City tried to bring Kane in last summer and now they’ve got Haaland. With Liverpool I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they brought in someone like Darwin Nunez and let Firminio go? Powerful forwards who occupy a couple of CBs and get you a different type of goal when you need it. Looking at the CFs we’ve registered concrete interest in over the last year - Abraham, Vlahovic, Isak - I guessing Arteta and Edu are thinking along the same lines.

I’m not completely ruling Jesus out - if we can’t get a world-class option that fits that profile then I guess we could look for more of a plan B option with Jesus coming in as the main man? That might work, and give us enough balance and rotation to keep everyone happy.

But I don’t see Jesus coming in to play second-fiddle to another CF and spend most of his time covering anywhere across the attack - if that’s the plan for him then why would he leave City?

[Mac76]

I see lots of links to Alvaro Morata today.

he was awful for Chelsea, why would we want hi - oh i get it, we always buy crap players from Chelsea...

[I am invisible]

Lol @ Morata!

I mean I guess there’s always a chance this is us sounding out every option on all 3 of our lists, even the disaster plans, but it feels more like click-bait websites dredging up old links, or even just tossing a hand grenade out there because they know Arsenal fans are the softest touch in town when it comes to getting a reaction.

[Marc Overmars]

I’ve never seen an Arsenal side so lacking up front, so I’m not actually going to be picky this summer about any forward signings. Lacazette went 17 games or so without scoring in open play before he was finally dropped, that is atrocious and it isn’t going to take much to improve on that.

Jesus, Calvert-Lewin etc, whoever it is, sign them up.

[I am invisible]

I’ve never seen an Arsenal side so lacking up front, so I’m not actually going to be picky this summer about any forward signings. Lacazette went 17 games or so without scoring in open play before he was finally dropped, that is atrocious and it isn’t going to take much to improve on that.

Jesus, Calvert-Lewin etc, whoever it is, sign them up.

Yeah, it's a pretty low bar - anyone who can score more than nothing will be an instant improvement!

The other glass-half-full way of looking at it is we finished with just 8 goals fewer than spurs, despite them having the two of the 4 best strikers in the league and us having what we had to work with, and 4 more than Man U with Ronaldo up front - we might be missing the CF, but I guess we must be scoring more than average from other areas.

[selassie]

he was awful for Chelsea, why would we want hi - oh i get it, we always buy crap players from Chelsea...

I don't want him either, he's not getting any younger and he's never been the man either. I think he would flop here and he would command high wages too. No doubt we would have to pay him to leave like others in the recent past

[Mac76]

I'm a bit behind on this stuff but glad we gave Elneny a one-year extension and it looks like Eddie's new contract is more or less done which i think is a good move providing we do get Jesus or A N Other in