I love elephant sphincters

I'd be interested in this 'would you rather' question.

Win Europa League but finish 6th

Win the league cup and finish 3rd

both scenarios get us back in the Champions League, which has to be the minimum expectation this season. Both scenarios win a trophy, albeit the much more prestigious trophy comes with a feeling of a lack of progress in the league

Not a lot of interest.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... sfer-exit/

Arsenal fear being left with Nicolas Pépé with NO transfer interest in flop £77m winger yet amid Raphinha bid

ARSENAL fear they could be left stuck with flop Nicolas Pépé this summer.
That’s because the £77million club record signing has so far attracted ZERO interest.

Not particularly surprising. The best bet would be a middle ranking French club given that he did well there before we signed him, but no doubt he’s on stupid wages that nobody else could or will pay.

He looks to be a bigger waste of money than Lukaku.

I've never seen us win the league cup in my time as a fan but a European cup would be far more prestigious. I'd take 3rd and the league cup, thank you.

Rich, do you know if the European Confederations cup or whatever that thing is Mourinho's Roma won last term would get us into Europe?

that his real name or his porn name ?

If we sign Martinez and only sell Mari he would be centre back number 6 for us so I doubt he would be involved.

Bet he never kicks a ball for us. That screams like something done to keep kroenke happy or PR. I wonder if Arteta even knows the blokes name

Oh he's real alright. On loan to Colorado Rapids till July 17, 2022. Then he's all Arsenal. Possibly part of the Arsenal summer tour.

Ornstein calling Raphinha to Chelsea now. “North of 55m” are his exact words. Shame.

Heard Tuchel wants Raphinha as a wing back. Crazy. If he sticks with his wing back formation, and two central mids Raphinha would probably play one of the two positions behind the striker. They’re favoured striker last year was Havertz.

Nobody actually knows the level of our interest in Raphina anyway, it may even be a convenient smokescreen for somebody else.

Nah, this part I do think we know. When several reputable journalists report the same thing (us placing bids and negotiating with Leeds) independent of each other, I think that can be taken as solid info. We tried signing Raphinha, but Chelsea stepped in and were prepared to go much higher than us, it happens.

Still plenty of time left though. Martinez looks like a goer, we're clearly pursuing him strongly, and with Man Utd apparently close to signing a left back from Feyenoord, there doesn't seem to be much competition for him at the moment. With both Barcelona and Chelsea interested in Raphinha, it was always going to be risky.

Doesn't mean we haven't been talking to other clubs about other players whilst the media concentrate on Raphina.

It's a game of poker.

Doesn't mean we haven't been talking to other clubs about other players whilst the media concentrate on Raphina.

It's a game of poker.

It’s a bit of an odd one really. How serious were we?

60 million is huge money for us to spend on a winger. You would think given the Brazilian connection we could have had him if we wanted.

I was excited about the prospect of seeing him but if the club could bring in a dominant midfield player it could have a massive impact

Not sure where this really leaves our summer

Our 2nd bid was 15 million less than they wanted. That’s a pretty big gap to fill. There was always a chance of getting gazumped. Did we really think our offers were going to get accepted. You either want him or you don’t.

Moving away from Raphinha a moment. One interesting thing for me is in January we supposedly went very strong for Vlahovic, it didn’t work and now we have Jesus. They are two very different strikers in almost every way. It would seem strange that we’d change the entire focus and plan for team structure, style of play etc in 6 months.
So either, we were never really that strong for Vlahovic or, we were so you’d assume we still want a striker with a similar profile.

It’s a bit of an odd one really. How serious were we?

60 million is huge money for us to spend on a winger. You would think given the Brazilian connection we could have had him if we wanted.

I was excited about the prospect of seeing him but if the club could bring in a dominant midfield player it could have a massive impact

Not sure where this really leaves our summer

I still think we need a wide player. There seems to be some games where for whatever reason martinelli is less effective. If Pépé and nelson leave really we only have 2 natural wingers as Emile Smith Rowe and vieira look more like attacking midfielders. I wonder what our options are