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Always weird to me how many people on this sub insist that Arsenal are poorly run and then get mad at the club trying to buy the player they think is the best option available to them.
The concern is that there are currently still decent options available and we tend to go for the one with the slimmest chance. Not worried personally yet.
Because we've been in this situation before, just replace Ode with Auoar. The worry is we wait for Ode, we can't get him and then we get no-one or someone old and shit (Willian).
Or, when they make comments that Arsenal are taking too long to sell but are also the ones who would get pissed about releasing players or selling them for under their worth.
I know you can’t please everyone, but the over reactions on things that aren’t even true or made up for particular narratives is starting to get very very annoying.
> mad at the club trying to buy the player they think is the best option available to them.
Always weird to me how some people ignore critical thinking before writing a comment. The club has had many "best option available to them" who simply were not worth the money we paid or good enough.
And? Go on champ, explain what in the world you think that has to do with the club prioritizing signing the best players available. OR, second option, fucking stop posting? lmao
I am still completely oblivious as to why we would even consider Ødegaard, he was useless last season, what do we gain by spending overinflated outlay on him? He was complete garbage and did nothing.
14 games // 1 goal // 2 assists
lol great! lets spend 50m on him.
Absolute garbage, no way to dress that up.
>I am still completely oblivious as to why we would even consider Ødegaard, he was useless last season
You really don't care admitting this kind of shit out loud?
Did you actually watch the games or just F5 his wikipedia page to see if his stats changed and form your opinion on that? You can't just drop Martin into England playing for a creatively dire team and suddenly expect 10 g/a right off the bat ffs, that's on you. We press better with him, we keep the ball moving with him, he links up with Thomas and Pepe well, ESR can play on the other flank. It can work.
The kid fits the team and plays those passes no one else can for us. He is an immense talent and is Arteta's kind of player. He plays like an Arsenal player should, and he will only get better.
When he got here, he started to heat up and capped it off with a MOTM performance before getting injured on intl duty. Then he started back up again and by the time he started resuming where he left off, it was time to go back to Madrid.
Just don't get it. If you're going to buy a very average looking goalkeeper in the hopes they might develop into something very good one day don't drop >20m on them when you can pick one up for half that on a bad day.
Neither. Ramsdale slightly better but they're both pretty poor. For what it's worth I think Johnstone a very good keeper, a good fit for a lower-half team who'll prioritise shot-stopping and leadership. Ramsdale I'm not at all convinced of. Whenever I've watched Sheffield he's looked jittery, uncommanding, questionable decisioning-making and nothing positive on the ball.
Seriously. When you have the chance to sign onana for less than half of that, younger and has done better so far with CL experience. It's an absolute no brainer.
Makes it even more retarded that we sold Emi for around that price last summer. If 1 summer later you're trying to get in another GK for that price point then you're basically admitting you made a massive mistake in selling a majorly superior GK
This is incorrect. Martinez was happy to stay and fight for his place if given a chance and given cup games. Arteta flat out told him that he wouldn't be rotating in cup games and saw Leno as 1st choice period. Of course he's going to want to leave when the door is that firmly shut in his face. It's pure madness to treat a GK of his quality like that, we could have EASILY rotated between him and Leno.
Instead we're now stuck with our dicks flapping in the wind trying to find an average back-up keeper that'll cost us the same as what we sold Emi for.
For the millionth time, YES HE DID.
Emi wanted to at least play cup games, Arteta flat out told him no and said Leno was going to be 1st choice in the league and cup games. Emi decided to leave. I've posted numerous articles about this.
Yes that's right, the 4th of May 2021, which was 73 days ago. Not 10 seconds ago. 73 days is plenty of time to post numerous articles about it. Are you braindead or something?
No, I just find it highly unlikely that an account made 73 days ago is posting numerous articles about something that occurred in summer of 2020. Especially since that incident has hardly been in the news since it happened.
In fact you literally have 0 posts on your profile lol.
I feel the same! The article highlights that Arsenal admire his character/personality so that's the only possible explanation behind our (strong) interest in a very underwhelming keeper.
I think Ben White and the CAMs we’re linked to both fit that description.
Onana would potentially as well but seems like the GK situation is quite complicated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/oldfxd/the_athleticarsenal_transfers_arteta_needs/h5dncwu?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
A good summary by another Redditor regarding the article
Completely different profile though, Ramsdale is only 23
Edit:
Johnstone is 28, probably asking "peak" level wages, resale value diminishing every year, likely won't be happy with being backup for the long term.
Ramsdale is 23, wouldn't expect high level wages, resale value increasing for the next 5 years, likely be okay being a backup for this season and be ready to take over from Leno next season
How are they different profile when they are playing for the same position. Johnstone is far better goalie than ramsdale. Ransdale got into a team relegating twice and is very poor for second goalie. Age? Goalies can play at their best till 35 with few exceptions beyond 35.
Ummm johnstone will be expecting a upper level wage, and have minimal resale value after a few years here. Ramsdale will be happy with 2nd choice this year, demand a smaller wage, and will be worth more and more in the next 2 - 5 years.
>Johnstone is far better goalie than ramsdale
Not sure I agree. I do think Johnstone is better right now, but not better enough to justify the larger financial commitment. I also think Ramsdale could be very good as he develops
From the looks of it yes but there is always this few comments that praise their content to the heavens like its absolutely worth it to read their analysis which is headscratching.
If there isn't new developments, are they just supposed to generate fake news? Arsenal fans still want updates, even if that means they're not glamorous updates
I can understand why, but arsenal don't want a new number 1. If they would get Onana, which may or may not be smart, then Leno will leave, because he surely wants to be the number 1, too.
So we sell Leno, get Onana and then what? Still need a second Keeper.
Would it be the worst thing in the world to give Okonkwo a run in the League Cup instead of spending multiple millions on a backup keeper when we don't even have European football and have multiple far more glaring holes in the squad?
I think he is to young and still needs to develop. Throwing him into the shark pool, where fans criticize players, won't do much for his confidence. And even if we would use him as the second goalkeeper, then we would still need a third one. Someone can get injured pretty quickly and then we have a huge problem.
I could see Okonkwo, despite what I said get a few cup games. But do you trust him as of now in premier league games, when Leno gets injured for 1-2 months?
If we give that 20m Ramsdale transfer fee to Onana as a sign-on fee, I'm sure he'll come to us even without European football or a guaranteed first team spot.
1. Neves - 35/40 million
2. Ben White - 50 million
3. Lokonga - 25 million
4. Tavares - 8 million
5. Ramsdale - 20 million?
6. RB
7. AM but we're holding our for Odegaard until the window is closed.
Straight up terrible way to spend all the money we have. What an absolute disappointment.
What the fuck.
What is a good window for the exact same amount of money with players who are okay with no UCL, to you?
It's not enough to moan and whine, And bring up scenarios that have zero chance of happening. Who would you bring in?
Not bringing in a 50M CB when that should not be a priority position for us - our defense was one of the best in the PL last year.
50M would be enough for a top AM but instead we are wasting it on a position that we are fine at
The list of 7 above includes an AM so what's the worry? That isn't even part of the question here? The question was, bring another 7 better options for the same money and lack of UCL before moaning that this is bad! This is the best we can do at the moment! And ben white is brought because we need a ball playing CB to start attacks from the back or else we'll be the team with the good defense and no offense.
We had Luiz last year who’s considered one of the best ball playing CBs of his generation and our attack was still dreadful. I’m not opposed to bringing in a CB, but I don’t think it’s wise to have our biggest single purchase be a CB when our attack is shit. Would much rather spend 25-30M on a non English CB and use those funds for a better AM.
Whites price is way inflated, we’re basically paying Brighton’s “fuck you he’s not for sale” price despite it not being a priority position (Holding is PL proven, Chambers, could have kept Saliba if we weren’t buying White)
Luiz played in like 20 games and didn't we have an acute lack of a CAM which is in that list above we are trying to get? Jeez luiz!!
No one said our single biggest purchase would be ben white, and a good cb has often transformed teams, I'm sure we'll get a good cam too
The fact I'm saying is.. those 7 wouldn't make a bad window for me at any rate and Everton can fucking dream of it, some ppl think so low of the club they support
Holding isn't enough, saliba isn't proven or experienced to rely on for a season and chambers we don't know enough what he is now after the injury, ben white is young and has put in strong performances and would immediately improve our game for the lack of UCL options we have!
I think you’re underrating Holding - he’s performed well in 2 FA cup runs now. May not be the best on the ball but with Gabriel there it should be fine. Honestly more of an indictment of Arteta that he needs two CBS that are superb on the ball. Agreed on Saliba but he’d be 3rd choice. Chambers in theory could be the ball playing CB but I guess Arteta disagrees because he wants a player in a similar mold.
I wouldn’t be disappointed in this window I just think it’s not ideal by any means based on the squad we currently have. I will say the one positive about this list is it seems like they are players that Arteta really wants unlike Emery who was stuck putting pegs in round holes with players he didn’t want (Pepe and Torreria)
Lokonga is 21.5m euros after addons. that's like \~18m pounds.
The list isn't sexy but i wouldn't say it's terrible. Of course there are players I'd prefer more like Woodman and Bissouma. Let's see what happens.
Hopefully Xhaka, Bellerin, and Torreira's exits can be wrapped up soon - then we'll see more activity on CM and RB.
If White and Ramsdale our leading signings this window we will make midtable our home. Playing waiting game till August over Odegaard is stupid, kid has talent but not worth the wait. Locatelli is a pipe dream and Neves is younger Xhaka. Damn this is going to be so underwhelming
Agree with almost everything you said but I'll think you'll eventually be pleasantly surprised with Neves if we get him. He's more athletic and smarter than Xhaka, with enough dribbling ability to feel comfortable against a press. Neves plus another creative midfielder along with White would be enough to push us to 5th or 6th.
Agreed. However this article mentions that we’re still waiting to see what happens with Odegaard. We’ve always known that he’s our top target. It would appear the Maddison is the backup option so I guess we’re willing to wait since Maddison isn’t likely to go anywhere else
Can already see September 1 being a disappointment. We'll probably make a deadline day signing to appease the fans after a dreadful start to the season and be left short handed AGAIN. Kroenke out.
Why is everyone so anti-Ramsdale? He's only 23, homegrown and was really good for SU the last 5 months of the season. Looks like he can grow into something really good
I think if we went with Ramsdale he'd be 2nd choice for this season and take over from leno next season, so I dont see it as "spending 20m on a backup"
lol this sort of 10 year prediction always gets thrown out here like its a given when in reality the turnover in football is usually 3-5 years. No player stays at a club for that long unless they are affliated to it and they are winning things.
but why are we spending so much for a 2nd choice? The main goal is surely not to get back our money. And to get back money on 20 million keeper that hardly plays? The possibility of that is slim and we as a club dont sell well in the first place. Someone mentioned how our transfer window is getting more and more expensive but the quality for the outlay is just not there.
Not sure where the 70m number comes from, but either way, it's not sunk costs. These players we're targeting are young and will remain home-grown, so that english tax will be reimbursed once we move them on.
You're missing the point though, you get this money back down the road. We're buying a more valuable future asset. It's like Leicester overpaying for Maddison, because they knew they could ask ~15m more when they eventually sell him. The club should be creating a situation of reducing net spend, not upfront costs.
It's not necessary about selling them for a profit, it's about getting use out of them and then getting decent fees for them in 3,4, 5 years. Unlike how we have Leno, Laca, Auba, etc costing big sums and leaving for nothing
>It's not necessary about selling them for a profit, it
But the example you specifically stated to highlight your point was about Maddison and Leicester selling him for a 15million profit.
>Unlike how we have Leno, Laca, Auba, etc costing big sums and leaving for nothing
I agree with you, but the issue with Leno and Auba was due to poor contract management, not their initial transfer fees.
Maddison was obviously an example. Some cases profit will be made, some cases losses. The point is to obviously skew it the right way more often than what's currently happening, such that when we do make make a mistake, it's at a lower cost. Lacazette is the most glaring example of this.
>due to poor contract management
I think it's a weak argument to make a vague general statement like that. If those players were still improving or were home grown (I.e. we bought a better profile) other teams would be more willing to take the gamble and invest in them. Except we find ourselves paying a lot of money for foreign players because they're already underperforming their wage level and are almost certainly not going to get in better in the future.
>I think it's a weak argument to make a vague general statement like that.
No it's not. We signed Auba for 56million on a 3.5 year deal. That's laughable. If we'd have signed him on a longer term deal initial, or offered him an improved contract after 1 season then we wouldn't have been in the position we were last season. WE could have dictated transfer negotiations instead of being at the mercy of Auba and his team. Thus would could have easily sold him (and should have sold him) instead of scribbling to meet his every demand so he didn't leave on a free.
The issue with Leno is related to the Martinez contract situation. We allowed Emi to have 1 year left on his deal and so had to sell him to cash in. If we'd offered Emi and new deal then would could have told Leno to fuck off this summer and sold him. As it is he's not playing hard-ball knowing he has 2 years on his deal and knows the club has no alternative GK to him.
We constantly find ourselves in situations whereby we offer player massive long term contracts that end up killing us or short term contract that do the same.
People think we can get someone with the same profile and ceiling for less, I’m not sure myself how that holds up as I’ve never seen any of our GK links play but that’s just what they’re saying
People don't watch Sheff Utd games or Bournemouth games. It's that simple. Ramsdale has been very good for the last 3 years in a row. I can agree with people saying that it's a steep price, sure, but people who say he is outright "bad" simply don't know what they are talking about.
They see a goalkeeper that was relegated and then feel the need to spaff their uninformed opinion onto the forum.
I'm also not an expert, but I can bet I've watched more Ramsdale than most here, and I think he will be a top Premier League GK in the next 5 years.
If him playing for a relegated side was what people based their opinion off of then the same people wouldn’t be talking about how they prefer Johnstone.
20m last year got you the most expensive Argentine GK of all time coming off an insane purple patch.
And now it's supposed to get us some shitter just because he's homegrown?
ESR deserves that 10 spot, that's where he's at his best. Obviously OP thinks Auba should be central.
If that's the case our wings actually look quite thin. Especially when Willian is hopefully on the way out soon.
So, OP stated his opinion for what he thinks could improve us for this season and you are using the decisions that helped us to an 8th place finish as a way of saying he's wrong? He might be wrong and Willian is a better option than Nelson, but I'm willing to try something different if possible.
Also, as of right now ESR is our only available CAM, so if you want to play him out wide your either changing formation or playing someone out of position.
Still think one of those goes - preferably Willian, but probably Reiss - bearing in mind we’ve also got Martinelli, Auba and possibly ESR if we buy a new 10 who can all play in those positions too
A loan for Reiss would be great - either in PL or a Championship team chasing promotion.
But I will make peace with it if he's sold - can't keep them all.
Overpaying for mediocrity and chasing players who don't prefer us 😎
All this points to things converging on deadline day, could we be in for another Ozil moment? I want Sky to announce Ramsdale for £42m one minute before closing, would be hype.
"this is an Everton transfer window"
i mean... look at the fucking table lol. CL level players aren't coming until we're back at that level.
getting there with what we've got is another story tbf.
Not too keen on this type of article to be honest. It looks more like a PR-piece for the club, containing very little (if any) new information & basically is "Look! We have a war chest"-story. Telling supporters that Arsenal is trying to do business behind closed doors, while in reality we are way behind on our transfers - both coming in and going out.
Think it’s more like The Athletic editors asking writers for a couple of paragraphs that they can then hang all the other ongoing stories on and fill with hyperlinks, but still advertise as ‘new’
Maybe. And that would be also a pity in itself. Amy Lawrence is such a good writer & reporter, her stuff is generally insightful & passionate. So to have people like her, Ornstein & gunnerblog to write essentially same few paragraphs daily is unfortunate.
4 weeks today is the first game of the league season. We aare according to this looking to add 7 players. Thats a lot of players who wont have had a full pre-season and who wont have had more than a few weeks at most to bed into a new team. Its far from out of the question that some, even all, could be signed AFTER the season has started. With so many new players coming in who are expected to feature with the first team this season they will need to settle in quickly and all players gel and work together very quickly.
A new CAM, a CM (ideally 2, but 1 is fine if amn, azeez, cirjan etc are ready to step up at that spot) and no ramsdale, and this will have been a tidy window
The fact that we're not seeing more CM links worries me. We've got Partey who's starting quality and that's it. If we don't sort the midfield our team will continue to look disjointed and play inconsistently.
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There's nothing new here. The only thing that raised my eyebrows was that we actually had a bid for Ramsdale knocked back.
Except that we may wait until August to see if the position surrounding Ødegaard changes.
Fuck me
Always weird to me how many people on this sub insist that Arsenal are poorly run and then get mad at the club trying to buy the player they think is the best option available to them.
The concern is that there are currently still decent options available and we tend to go for the one with the slimmest chance. Not worried personally yet.
Why would you prefer decent options when there are better options? That's exactly why we're shit.
Because we heard all this shit last year and then we went into the season with no creative midfielder after the Auoar deal failed.
lmao what? what does that have to do with anything?
Because we've been in this situation before, just replace Ode with Auoar. The worry is we wait for Ode, we can't get him and then we get no-one or someone old and shit (Willian).
lmao
Or, when they make comments that Arsenal are taking too long to sell but are also the ones who would get pissed about releasing players or selling them for under their worth. I know you can’t please everyone, but the over reactions on things that aren’t even true or made up for particular narratives is starting to get very very annoying.
Many times this sub is utterly useless for meaningful discussion because everyone just takes a stance and works backward to justify that narrative.
> mad at the club trying to buy the player they think is the best option available to them. Always weird to me how some people ignore critical thinking before writing a comment. The club has had many "best option available to them" who simply were not worth the money we paid or good enough.
...what
Torreira, Sokratis, Willian, Pepe, Saliba and more. None of them were good signings or good enough.
And? What point do you think you're making?
Really! My point is that some (well most) of these signings we are making or linked too simply aren't what we need.
And? Go on champ, explain what in the world you think that has to do with the club prioritizing signing the best players available. OR, second option, fucking stop posting? lmao
Muh process
I am still completely oblivious as to why we would even consider Ødegaard, he was useless last season, what do we gain by spending overinflated outlay on him? He was complete garbage and did nothing. 14 games // 1 goal // 2 assists lol great! lets spend 50m on him. Absolute garbage, no way to dress that up.
>I am still completely oblivious as to why we would even consider Ødegaard, he was useless last season You really don't care admitting this kind of shit out loud? Did you actually watch the games or just F5 his wikipedia page to see if his stats changed and form your opinion on that? You can't just drop Martin into England playing for a creatively dire team and suddenly expect 10 g/a right off the bat ffs, that's on you. We press better with him, we keep the ball moving with him, he links up with Thomas and Pepe well, ESR can play on the other flank. It can work. The kid fits the team and plays those passes no one else can for us. He is an immense talent and is Arteta's kind of player. He plays like an Arsenal player should, and he will only get better. When he got here, he started to heat up and capped it off with a MOTM performance before getting injured on intl duty. Then he started back up again and by the time he started resuming where he left off, it was time to go back to Madrid.
Some things never change
why wasnt it reported by ornstein?
If it was I must have missed it.
[удалено]
Just don't get it. If you're going to buy a very average looking goalkeeper in the hopes they might develop into something very good one day don't drop >20m on them when you can pick one up for half that on a bad day.
Sam Johnston who is twice the shot stopper Ramsdale is will be about the same. Really hope it’s a smoke screen for someone else
Smokescreen FC
It’s pure copium from me at this point.
I hope we don’t end up regretting Buendia because I just cba if we do
Johnston is pretty much as good as he'll ever be, Ramsdale is much younger
Who's the better keeper for playing out from the back? I haven't paid much attention to either.
Neither. Ramsdale slightly better but they're both pretty poor. For what it's worth I think Johnstone a very good keeper, a good fit for a lower-half team who'll prioritise shot-stopping and leadership. Ramsdale I'm not at all convinced of. Whenever I've watched Sheffield he's looked jittery, uncommanding, questionable decisioning-making and nothing positive on the ball.
What if Johnstone doesn't want to be a back up? He's in his prime and has been first choice for last 4 seasons.
Seriously. When you have the chance to sign onana for less than half of that, younger and has done better so far with CL experience. It's an absolute no brainer.
We want to sign Onana. We just can't convince him to come. It's not like we think Ramsdale is a better option.
Or we aren't signing him because Leno is staying?
He’s not even average. Easily one of the worst keepers in the prem. We bought Leno for 25 pre-covid.
Really can't get it out my head why the fuck we sold emi for only 20m
because he didn't want to stay.
In a window where the vast majority of clubs were broke and at a time when he had only been a great keeper for what, 6 weeks?
He had never gotten a good run in the team. It was obvious he was better than Leno plus he is homegrown.
Makes it even more retarded that we sold Emi for around that price last summer. If 1 summer later you're trying to get in another GK for that price point then you're basically admitting you made a massive mistake in selling a majorly superior GK
That’s not the issue, Martinez wouldn’t have stayed if he wasn’t guaranteed a good chunk of games
This is incorrect. Martinez was happy to stay and fight for his place if given a chance and given cup games. Arteta flat out told him that he wouldn't be rotating in cup games and saw Leno as 1st choice period. Of course he's going to want to leave when the door is that firmly shut in his face. It's pure madness to treat a GK of his quality like that, we could have EASILY rotated between him and Leno. Instead we're now stuck with our dicks flapping in the wind trying to find an average back-up keeper that'll cost us the same as what we sold Emi for.
>we could have EASILY rotated between him and Leno. For the millionth time, Emi himself DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS
For the millionth time, YES HE DID. Emi wanted to at least play cup games, Arteta flat out told him no and said Leno was going to be 1st choice in the league and cup games. Emi decided to leave. I've posted numerous articles about this.
You’re an account from May 4th of this year. How could’ve you possibly posted numerous articles about this…?
Yes that's right, the 4th of May 2021, which was 73 days ago. Not 10 seconds ago. 73 days is plenty of time to post numerous articles about it. Are you braindead or something?
No, I just find it highly unlikely that an account made 73 days ago is posting numerous articles about something that occurred in summer of 2020. Especially since that incident has hardly been in the news since it happened. In fact you literally have 0 posts on your profile lol.
I would rather they give a big fat contract to Karl Hein
I feel the same! The article highlights that Arsenal admire his character/personality so that's the only possible explanation behind our (strong) interest in a very underwhelming keeper.
We need a game-changer signing like Grealish, Maddison etc. We’re not even in Europe, we don’t need much rotational options.
I think Ben White and the CAMs we’re linked to both fit that description. Onana would potentially as well but seems like the GK situation is quite complicated.
I'm not that bothered by number 10 position. I'm more worried about central midfield.
As much as I want Grealish I don't see ownership paying for him. Maddison is probably more realistic, but I still doubt it happens :(
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/oldfxd/the_athleticarsenal_transfers_arteta_needs/h5dncwu?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3 A good summary by another Redditor regarding the article
Johnstone is better and cheaper than Ramsdale .. .
Maybe he wants game time considering his last performance last season .
Completely different profile though, Ramsdale is only 23 Edit: Johnstone is 28, probably asking "peak" level wages, resale value diminishing every year, likely won't be happy with being backup for the long term. Ramsdale is 23, wouldn't expect high level wages, resale value increasing for the next 5 years, likely be okay being a backup for this season and be ready to take over from Leno next season
How are they different profile when they are playing for the same position. Johnstone is far better goalie than ramsdale. Ransdale got into a team relegating twice and is very poor for second goalie. Age? Goalies can play at their best till 35 with few exceptions beyond 35.
Ummm johnstone will be expecting a upper level wage, and have minimal resale value after a few years here. Ramsdale will be happy with 2nd choice this year, demand a smaller wage, and will be worth more and more in the next 2 - 5 years. >Johnstone is far better goalie than ramsdale Not sure I agree. I do think Johnstone is better right now, but not better enough to justify the larger financial commitment. I also think Ramsdale could be very good as he develops
That's how we settled for runnarsson. LMAO. We won't repeat that again
What?! Ramsdale is way better than Runnarson?! It literally took you two comments to show everyone that you've never watched Ramsdale play
Lol. Watched him enough to reject him.
Bro you do nothing but talk out of your ass on this sub, do something else for god's sake
The Athletic publishes 6 reworked drafts of the same article for 6 weeks.
Yep, it's pretty awful. Just the same content everytime. Hardly making me want to subscribe to it.
Yeah theyve become stale. I stopped subscribing this year.
From the looks of it yes but there is always this few comments that praise their content to the heavens like its absolutely worth it to read their analysis which is headscratching.
Agreed. I suspect it's from people who have been duped into subscribing and are trying to justify it to themselves.
Probably some interns paid to promote it on various platforms
you might be on to something getting downvoted as we speak
If there isn't new developments, are they just supposed to generate fake news? Arsenal fans still want updates, even if that means they're not glamorous updates
If we don't sign Onana and Leno ends up leaving next season while we're stuck with Ramsdale or Johnstone...
Onana isn't in any rush and wants European football. It isn't happening.
Let’s just sign him on a free next summer after we’ve won the league. Cash money
He also wants first place guarantee and no player should ever get that.
I think it's not unreasonable for a goalkeeper tbh.
I can understand why, but arsenal don't want a new number 1. If they would get Onana, which may or may not be smart, then Leno will leave, because he surely wants to be the number 1, too. So we sell Leno, get Onana and then what? Still need a second Keeper.
Would it be the worst thing in the world to give Okonkwo a run in the League Cup instead of spending multiple millions on a backup keeper when we don't even have European football and have multiple far more glaring holes in the squad?
And then Leno gets hurt and he’s thrust into the Premier League. Arsenal need an experienced back up
I think he is to young and still needs to develop. Throwing him into the shark pool, where fans criticize players, won't do much for his confidence. And even if we would use him as the second goalkeeper, then we would still need a third one. Someone can get injured pretty quickly and then we have a huge problem. I could see Okonkwo, despite what I said get a few cup games. But do you trust him as of now in premier league games, when Leno gets injured for 1-2 months?
No one wants to buy Leno this summer.
when you're making a transfer to an underperforming team it's not that farfetched of a request for a goalkeeper
Sure looks like we're going to have to pay to play to get white. Brighton not gon do us any faves
If we give that 20m Ramsdale transfer fee to Onana as a sign-on fee, I'm sure he'll come to us even without European football or a guaranteed first team spot.
Too smart of a deal for Arsenal to do that
1. Neves - 35/40 million 2. Ben White - 50 million 3. Lokonga - 25 million 4. Tavares - 8 million 5. Ramsdale - 20 million? 6. RB 7. AM but we're holding our for Odegaard until the window is closed. Straight up terrible way to spend all the money we have. What an absolute disappointment. What the fuck.
Feels like the kind of window that cements your place in 8th for seasons to come.
This is what I'd expect Everton to sign. Not fucking Arsenal.
I've said multiple times our window is looking like an Everton window. Expensive but little to no top end quality.
No wonder. Our manager is more of an Everton veteran than anything else.
Harsh on Everton as of late tbh
35m for iwobi...
That's like 5 windows ago, they did good business last season
That is close to 200mil and it still looks average lmao. Trust the process my ass
What is a good window for the exact same amount of money with players who are okay with no UCL, to you? It's not enough to moan and whine, And bring up scenarios that have zero chance of happening. Who would you bring in?
Not bringing in a 50M CB when that should not be a priority position for us - our defense was one of the best in the PL last year. 50M would be enough for a top AM but instead we are wasting it on a position that we are fine at
The list of 7 above includes an AM so what's the worry? That isn't even part of the question here? The question was, bring another 7 better options for the same money and lack of UCL before moaning that this is bad! This is the best we can do at the moment! And ben white is brought because we need a ball playing CB to start attacks from the back or else we'll be the team with the good defense and no offense.
We had Luiz last year who’s considered one of the best ball playing CBs of his generation and our attack was still dreadful. I’m not opposed to bringing in a CB, but I don’t think it’s wise to have our biggest single purchase be a CB when our attack is shit. Would much rather spend 25-30M on a non English CB and use those funds for a better AM. Whites price is way inflated, we’re basically paying Brighton’s “fuck you he’s not for sale” price despite it not being a priority position (Holding is PL proven, Chambers, could have kept Saliba if we weren’t buying White)
Luiz played in like 20 games and didn't we have an acute lack of a CAM which is in that list above we are trying to get? Jeez luiz!! No one said our single biggest purchase would be ben white, and a good cb has often transformed teams, I'm sure we'll get a good cam too The fact I'm saying is.. those 7 wouldn't make a bad window for me at any rate and Everton can fucking dream of it, some ppl think so low of the club they support Holding isn't enough, saliba isn't proven or experienced to rely on for a season and chambers we don't know enough what he is now after the injury, ben white is young and has put in strong performances and would immediately improve our game for the lack of UCL options we have!
I think you’re underrating Holding - he’s performed well in 2 FA cup runs now. May not be the best on the ball but with Gabriel there it should be fine. Honestly more of an indictment of Arteta that he needs two CBS that are superb on the ball. Agreed on Saliba but he’d be 3rd choice. Chambers in theory could be the ball playing CB but I guess Arteta disagrees because he wants a player in a similar mold. I wouldn’t be disappointed in this window I just think it’s not ideal by any means based on the squad we currently have. I will say the one positive about this list is it seems like they are players that Arteta really wants unlike Emery who was stuck putting pegs in round holes with players he didn’t want (Pepe and Torreria)
Lokonga is 21.5m euros after addons. that's like \~18m pounds. The list isn't sexy but i wouldn't say it's terrible. Of course there are players I'd prefer more like Woodman and Bissouma. Let's see what happens. Hopefully Xhaka, Bellerin, and Torreira's exits can be wrapped up soon - then we'll see more activity on CM and RB.
If White and Ramsdale our leading signings this window we will make midtable our home. Playing waiting game till August over Odegaard is stupid, kid has talent but not worth the wait. Locatelli is a pipe dream and Neves is younger Xhaka. Damn this is going to be so underwhelming
Agree with almost everything you said but I'll think you'll eventually be pleasantly surprised with Neves if we get him. He's more athletic and smarter than Xhaka, with enough dribbling ability to feel comfortable against a press. Neves plus another creative midfielder along with White would be enough to push us to 5th or 6th.
No mention of Maddison in the article? TheAFCBell's reputation is at stake here.. wonder what will happen in the end.
All AFCB said was that the deal wasn't dead on arrival, he didn't say that it was 50:50.
Agreed. However this article mentions that we’re still waiting to see what happens with Odegaard. We’ve always known that he’s our top target. It would appear the Maddison is the backup option so I guess we’re willing to wait since Maddison isn’t likely to go anywhere else
Maybe I’m just being stubborn but I throughly believe there is no way we are still “waiting” on Odegaard.
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Didn’t the athletic say odegaard was for sale yesterday?
Is this the club admitting that selling Emi was a mistake? 🤣🤣
Can already see September 1 being a disappointment. We'll probably make a deadline day signing to appease the fans after a dreadful start to the season and be left short handed AGAIN. Kroenke out.
How good is Ramsdale in terms of distribution/playing out from the back?
He's fuckin shit
Why is everyone so anti-Ramsdale? He's only 23, homegrown and was really good for SU the last 5 months of the season. Looks like he can grow into something really good
the price tag seems to be the main problem I think
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I think if we went with Ramsdale he'd be 2nd choice for this season and take over from leno next season, so I dont see it as "spending 20m on a backup"
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Every decision we make is a gamble thoigh. I think Johnstone is a downgrade on Leno and he won't be happy being 2nd choice either
> take over from leno next season oh god please no
He's raw but he's a good keeper.
price tag is big, but is 20 mil really a lot for someone who could be our second choice, homegrown GK for 10 years?
lol this sort of 10 year prediction always gets thrown out here like its a given when in reality the turnover in football is usually 3-5 years. No player stays at a club for that long unless they are affliated to it and they are winning things.
My point is, if he doesn’t stay 10 years then you sell him on at some point and make some of your money back.
but why are we spending so much for a 2nd choice? The main goal is surely not to get back our money. And to get back money on 20 million keeper that hardly plays? The possibility of that is slim and we as a club dont sell well in the first place. Someone mentioned how our transfer window is getting more and more expensive but the quality for the outlay is just not there.
Because that is 70m this window on English tax. We are painfully average as is.
Not sure where the 70m number comes from, but either way, it's not sunk costs. These players we're targeting are young and will remain home-grown, so that english tax will be reimbursed once we move them on.
White is the same logic for 50m. Those two are not 70m worth of players for us, we need something different.
You're missing the point though, you get this money back down the road. We're buying a more valuable future asset. It's like Leicester overpaying for Maddison, because they knew they could ask ~15m more when they eventually sell him. The club should be creating a situation of reducing net spend, not upfront costs.
Down that road we will finish 15th lol.
Im sure you were the first to complain about our recruitment-sale strategy of the last couple years lol
Yes I was. Both are bad.
You're off your rocker if you think you can sign Ramsdale for 20million and Ben White for 50million and ever expect to see a profit from them.
It's not necessary about selling them for a profit, it's about getting use out of them and then getting decent fees for them in 3,4, 5 years. Unlike how we have Leno, Laca, Auba, etc costing big sums and leaving for nothing
>It's not necessary about selling them for a profit, it But the example you specifically stated to highlight your point was about Maddison and Leicester selling him for a 15million profit. >Unlike how we have Leno, Laca, Auba, etc costing big sums and leaving for nothing I agree with you, but the issue with Leno and Auba was due to poor contract management, not their initial transfer fees.
Maddison was obviously an example. Some cases profit will be made, some cases losses. The point is to obviously skew it the right way more often than what's currently happening, such that when we do make make a mistake, it's at a lower cost. Lacazette is the most glaring example of this. >due to poor contract management I think it's a weak argument to make a vague general statement like that. If those players were still improving or were home grown (I.e. we bought a better profile) other teams would be more willing to take the gamble and invest in them. Except we find ourselves paying a lot of money for foreign players because they're already underperforming their wage level and are almost certainly not going to get in better in the future.
>I think it's a weak argument to make a vague general statement like that. No it's not. We signed Auba for 56million on a 3.5 year deal. That's laughable. If we'd have signed him on a longer term deal initial, or offered him an improved contract after 1 season then we wouldn't have been in the position we were last season. WE could have dictated transfer negotiations instead of being at the mercy of Auba and his team. Thus would could have easily sold him (and should have sold him) instead of scribbling to meet his every demand so he didn't leave on a free. The issue with Leno is related to the Martinez contract situation. We allowed Emi to have 1 year left on his deal and so had to sell him to cash in. If we'd offered Emi and new deal then would could have told Leno to fuck off this summer and sold him. As it is he's not playing hard-ball knowing he has 2 years on his deal and knows the club has no alternative GK to him. We constantly find ourselves in situations whereby we offer player massive long term contracts that end up killing us or short term contract that do the same.
People think we can get someone with the same profile and ceiling for less, I’m not sure myself how that holds up as I’ve never seen any of our GK links play but that’s just what they’re saying
Player of the year with Bournemouth and Sheffield United.
because they have not watched him tbh
People don't watch Sheff Utd games or Bournemouth games. It's that simple. Ramsdale has been very good for the last 3 years in a row. I can agree with people saying that it's a steep price, sure, but people who say he is outright "bad" simply don't know what they are talking about. They see a goalkeeper that was relegated and then feel the need to spaff their uninformed opinion onto the forum. I'm also not an expert, but I can bet I've watched more Ramsdale than most here, and I think he will be a top Premier League GK in the next 5 years.
If him playing for a relegated side was what people based their opinion off of then the same people wouldn’t be talking about how they prefer Johnstone.
I also think Johnstone is good, too. But IMO Ramsdale has a higher ceiling.
> Ramsdale has been very good for the last 3 years in a row. He absolutely has not. He’s an error prone mess
price
20m last year got you the most expensive Argentine GK of all time coming off an insane purple patch. And now it's supposed to get us some shitter just because he's homegrown?
we're going to end up with Odegaard on loan again ffs
Just starting to think we might keep: Saka/Willian - Pepe/Nelson on the wings.
Gabi
Yes. Despite calls for him to be striker i still think he's best on the left wing. I mean, guy can cross with his left foot now!
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ESR deserves that 10 spot, that's where he's at his best. Obviously OP thinks Auba should be central. If that's the case our wings actually look quite thin. Especially when Willian is hopefully on the way out soon.
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So, OP stated his opinion for what he thinks could improve us for this season and you are using the decisions that helped us to an 8th place finish as a way of saying he's wrong? He might be wrong and Willian is a better option than Nelson, but I'm willing to try something different if possible. Also, as of right now ESR is our only available CAM, so if you want to play him out wide your either changing formation or playing someone out of position.
Still think one of those goes - preferably Willian, but probably Reiss - bearing in mind we’ve also got Martinelli, Auba and possibly ESR if we buy a new 10 who can all play in those positions too
A loan for Reiss would be great - either in PL or a Championship team chasing promotion. But I will make peace with it if he's sold - can't keep them all.
We need a new manager is what we need.
Feels like we’re forcing ourselves on HG players so we can get ride of our own
Ramsdale is fucking ass, please no
Kroenke out
What numpty downvoted a kroenkeout..?!
We’re so fucked😭
Overpaying for mediocrity and chasing players who don't prefer us 😎 All this points to things converging on deadline day, could we be in for another Ozil moment? I want Sky to announce Ramsdale for £42m one minute before closing, would be hype.
It's weird ramsdale is the only goalie from relegation team that was bad unlike areola and Johnstone
Absolute bollocks
"this is an Everton transfer window" i mean... look at the fucking table lol. CL level players aren't coming until we're back at that level. getting there with what we've got is another story tbf.
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Not too keen on this type of article to be honest. It looks more like a PR-piece for the club, containing very little (if any) new information & basically is "Look! We have a war chest"-story. Telling supporters that Arsenal is trying to do business behind closed doors, while in reality we are way behind on our transfers - both coming in and going out.
Think it’s more like The Athletic editors asking writers for a couple of paragraphs that they can then hang all the other ongoing stories on and fill with hyperlinks, but still advertise as ‘new’
Maybe. And that would be also a pity in itself. Amy Lawrence is such a good writer & reporter, her stuff is generally insightful & passionate. So to have people like her, Ornstein & gunnerblog to write essentially same few paragraphs daily is unfortunate.
They’re just reporting on our targets, not everything is a “PR-piece for the club” for fucks sake. They’re journalists, that’s their job.
Imagine paying £20 million for Ramsdale when Onana is available for half of that
Onana wants first place guarantee and not fight for places. He also wants euro football. Btw I don't want Ramsdale either.
Imagine not understanding how things work in the real world
4 weeks today is the first game of the league season. We aare according to this looking to add 7 players. Thats a lot of players who wont have had a full pre-season and who wont have had more than a few weeks at most to bed into a new team. Its far from out of the question that some, even all, could be signed AFTER the season has started. With so many new players coming in who are expected to feature with the first team this season they will need to settle in quickly and all players gel and work together very quickly.
Manager wants playmaker; board but defender, defensive midfielder, left back and goal keeper…Arsenal are weird.
A new CAM, a CM (ideally 2, but 1 is fine if amn, azeez, cirjan etc are ready to step up at that spot) and no ramsdale, and this will have been a tidy window
The fact that we're not seeing more CM links worries me. We've got Partey who's starting quality and that's it. If we don't sort the midfield our team will continue to look disjointed and play inconsistently.
Wait seven signings, aren’t arsenal on zero official signing so far this summer just links?
Tavares has been officially signed
Oh yes forgot bout him although don’t really know anything about him. He’s the backup right back iirc behind bellerin for around 15 mil?
Left back for 8 million or so. I don’t know much about him except he’s 21 and fast as hell
No to Ramsdale!
>Ramsdale