Is this actually done then? Or as good as?
Is this actually done then? Or as good as?
sounds like it... very promising. seems alot although i guess it will hit 50m if we do well and win things so its probably pretty safe it wont reach that. but we are spoilt for choice at CB and i assume this means we wont be using the guy who we bought but doesnt play for us that i cant remember his name at the moment.Originally Posted by I am invisible
Saliba:. Tearing it up in the French league, I hear but obviously not good enough for Arteta. Going all out to fill a vacancy that really wasnt there. Moreover, I hear this chap is barely 6ft tall, so buying us another handicap right there, unless Mr Sauce wants to deploy him as Gunnersaurus replacement in which case height wont really be an issue
Make 2mrw better than 2day
It's a strange one.
We just sold Mavropanos for peanuts as well today.
I thought he looked promising. Strange times. Especially when a slap and tickle, cash no questions is rife
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
Mate, don't let the Saliba mess cloud your opinion of White - he's a very good player. Haven't read a bad word about him so far, and both Brighton and Leeds fans think we're getting a bargain, even at £50m. He was one of the stand-out players in the Championship with Leeds, thriving in a high-intensity Bielsa system, and in his first season in the Prem he was voted Brighton's POTY by their fans and called up into the England squad for the Euros. Plus I rate Potter as one of the best structural coaches in the league, so that bodes well for him coming in to work under Arteta.
I think we need to look at this in terms of the defence as a whole rather than just a straight choice between White and Saliba: can our main CB group of Gabriel, Holding, Mari and Saliba be upgraded by bringing in White? If the answer is yes (and for me it is) then we bring him in, no questions. If the weakest link then gets pushed out then that's their problem.
Let's see how things go when Saliba returns for preseason - I agree that it's not looking great, but I haven't completely given up on his time here yet. If he comes back determined to show everyone that he deserves to be here then who knows? It might end up being one of the other CBs who goes? I wouldn't even rule out keeping all 5 of them if we want the tactical flexibility to switch between a back 2 and a back 3. (Plus Mari seems to spend a lot of time out injured, so it may not be the worst idea in the world to have an extra man in there.)
Big money, but if you’re targeting the right profile of player then it becomes an investment and not an expense. These sums only start to annoy me when we start chucking them at players who are north of 26/27 because once their first contract comes to an end there’s no resale value there if we need to reinvest.
I do think this is an area that needs an upgrade, though, in spite of the number of CBs we have. We’ve been more solid over the last year or so, but a lot of the time I feel like it’s come at the expense of sitting too deep and leaving the midfield too stretched - one of the reasons we’ve struggled to link defence to attack, and often fail to maintain pressure on opponents in their half. At the moment none of our CBs are the complete package - they either lack the athleticism needed to cover distance or they lack passing ability and ball-control that’s necessary to contribute going forward.
Ironically, Saliba is probably the closest we have to the profile of defender that we want, but he has by far the least experience, and who TF knows what the state of his relationship with the club is like atm?
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.
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.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
£35m for Ramsdale
Surely has to be a wind up.
I'd sooner give Son of Runar a go.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
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