I think we signed Merino under the assumption that Partey would be far more injured this season than has proven to be the case. It’s a shame we probably wont get any money for him, but ultimately I think we’ve probably got the best out of him so looking back in hindsight it was worth the money we spent on him. Same with Jorginho
Agreed. In some ways the club has more recently been more dilligent with planning transfers (further evidenced by the Zubimendi news). The obvious exception is in our forward line - where we have sold but not brought in anyone.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I’ve never bought into this Goldilocks attitude, that Arteta is waiting for a player that is just right. I think it’s partly because forward players are going to be on higher wages and I think it’s that Arteta certainly doesn’t like the traditional centre forward. He’s often said I want us to be a team where goals come from all over the pitch, now I’m a big proponent of that. I like central midfielders, wingers, full backs and centre halves chipping in with goals….but the fact is you don’t expect them to be prolific. This is why for me we get games where we can score 4 or 5 in between two or three games where we’ve struggled to get one. A winger or a CAM might get you double figures but realistically they aren’t going to be scoring every other game the way you’d want a top striker to be doing.
I agree with you re Arteta's attitude generally. But there is also the fact that we know he is keen on Sesko; and we entered talks with Vlahovic as well as Ivan Toney and (by all accounts) Gyokores's agent. We were also hot for Mudryk and we know Arteta is keen on Nico Williams. This tends to suggest a desire for forwards - and potentially money to get the transfers over the line being unavailable...
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Sterling, Havertz, Trossard
No point complaining. What we have is what we have
I’ve done it again
I’ve done it agaaain
Anyway I await Salacious Crumb to make some facile and deeply hypocritical remark