Ins/Out - Summer 2022

Vieira can also be used as a CM and Odegaard can play there too, but yeah, in terms of general CMs, that's it. We do need Tielemans as well IMO. If we can sign him, then we have enough midfield options IMO. For me, team dynamics supersedes individual quality.

 

Team is everything . If the team is right it always better than the sum of its parts and that has been shown in spades by Klopp even if we haven't won as much as we probably "deserved" .

 

Looks like we have a new "septic tank" as a back up keeper - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61950300

 

Looks like Chelsea have usurped us for Raphinha. Had a feeling this would happen the longer we left it because he was in such high demand.

The last thing we need is to get in a bidding war with Chelsea, so let’s hope we find someone else who can be as explosive a signing.

 

I still maintain he is a smokescreen for someone like Gnabry.

 

I hope you’re right lol. Whilst we’ve done some decent business so far, we still need more players. What we have atm still won’t be enough to sustain a top-4 challenge.

 

I bet 100 euros they can pay the asking prices for both.

 

I was hoping there would be some takers on a permanent deal, but his stock has sunk massively. Also, the level of club who would be interested in him probably can’t afford his £140k p/w wages.

Guess a loan move will have to do. Just hope we can at least get a decent loan fee and have the other club cover a large portion of his wages.

 

I have a feeling Pepe will leave on a free at contract end. Marking it probably one of the worst deals financially weve ever done.

 

From memory the deal for pepe was £72m payable over 12 windows at £6m per window.
That means that after this summer's window you'll still owe £30m for him!
In recent years your Transfers (like ours) have been very hit and expensive misses

 

We made a mess after Wenger of installing the proper people responsible for recruitment. We went from Wenger/Gazidis to Mislintat to Emery/Raul Sanhelli to Arteta /Edu. Thats 4 different groups of people responsible for transfers in just over 4 years.

It looks like we are now settled on Edu / Arteta. Whether they are truly the right people for the job, only time will tell.

As for Pepe, I have no doubt Raul Sanhelli pocketed a large chunk of change from brokering that deal. Im certain thats why we sacked him (as certain leaks alluded to in fact).

 

Ornstein and co. reporting that Lisandro Martinez prefers a move to Man Utd over us and they’re now ahead of us in the race to sign him.

A big blow, as he was one of our priorities this Summer, but it does make sense tbh. I know we were better than them last season, but United are still a richer, bigger club than us and obviously the link with Ten Haag from Ajax gives them the advantage.

I seriously hope we have other targets in mind…

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if he prefers Utd not just because of finances or the ten Hag link but that he’d surely walk into their XI either as a CB or LB.

Might be concerns over his height in the Prem as a CB but you’d expect him to be selected over Slabhead, whilst neither Shaw or Telles have nailed down the LB role and so Martinez would fancy his chances there too.

I’d say he’d get in your XI over Gabriel at CB but wouldn’t displace Tierney (when fit) at LB.

So moving to Utd probably makes sense for him if he’s after assurances over minutes, as his chances in both positions are more or less guaranteed.

 

Brentford supposedly close signing Aaron Hickey, wasn’t he someone you guys wanted?

They’re also signing Keane Lewis-Potter, we’d been monitoring him for a few months.

Two solid deals for them.

I’m hoping Eriksen stays there too, won’t look right seeing him in a Utd shirt.

 

I think the reason Arteta wanted him was because he’s very good at switching play fast from defence to attack and is competent technically. He’s also versatile enough to play LB, CB and DM.

As you say, his height is a concern - I think he’s 5’9 - but some CBs that are short have been able to succeed because their anticipation and reading of the game is elite.

I don’t know if Arteta saw Lisandro Martinez as someone he could mould into that type, but it’s a superfluous conversation now, as it seems United will get him.

£41m is apparently the price Ajax will sell for. Probably too much, but what transfer isn’t too much these days?

 

Fabrizio said Hickey was someone we monitored internally, but we never formalised interest in him, let alone bid for him.

£14m does seem very cheap though and, based on Tierney’s injury woes, I wouldn’t have been opposed to this signing (as Tavares isn’t at the right level/looks like he’ll go on loan).

Like I said though. I really hope we have other targets in mind. Our current group of players will not finish higher than 6th if we don’t strengthen further.

 

We had a similar convo on our board about Jules Kounde last summer who we were briefly linked with, a few had reservations over the fact he was 5'10. I half expected Nuno (just like Conte) to go with 3ATB with us so I felt a smaller CB alongside two bigger units would've been fine as he'd have had attributes the bigger ones didn't and so would've been a good mix but in a back four I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a below 6' CB.

You'll definitely have targets. The maddest thing is the window is still quite early, we've just acted very uncharacteristically and possibly made some panic by thinking they're leaving things too late - can tell Levy ain't the one doing most of our deals though, albeit the one he is working on is up in the air and may collapse, couldn't make it up

 

Gabriel Jesus (finally) announced officially. Welcome to Arsenal. I really hope he does well for us. We need him to.

 

He’s an instant upgrade on what we’ve already got and should add goals and assists up front.

I want to see us go and get Martinez and Tielemans this week as well as another defender.

 

Quite possibly definitely need a new CM really mightn't we...

Milinkovic-Savic AND Tielemens would be lovely stuff.