Looks *%^@.

Hi Haz,

Yes, but if our ambition is to challenge for top four this year we need some immediate goal threats, not ones that will develop over the next 3 or 4 years.

Maybe Saka and Emile Smith Rowe will have a decent season goals-wise, it can happen that they have a break-out year. It did with Cesc. It could happen with Ødegaard of course but I think on balance I'd be happy to see a more proven goalscorer come in.

Madison scored 8 goals and made 5 assists in 31 games (7 as a sub) last year. Maybe not £70m stats but as we only finished 6 points shy of 4th last year that probably would have been good enough to have given us a decent shot at 4th.

Ødegaard scored 1 goal and made 2 assists in 14 PL games, albeit he was new to the PL and had some injury niggles.

My cards haven't arrived yet but I've had the relevant emails that include the option to download a digital pass to my iPhone wallet. It looks as though I can go through the turnstiles with just my phone.

What could go wrong, eh?

Hmm, I’ll be taking my card (imagine a smiley here).

I've seen more from Smith Rowe and Saka increasing the tempo than I did from Ødegaard and we need a bit more if that someone who is willing to exert a bit more energy into trying to speed things up. Maybe Ødegaard could develop that but I haven't seen it yet and aside from creativity I think it's one of the biggest things missing in the midfield. Partey tries to push through but we can't keep him on the pitch for more than 2 matches.

To be fair socrates we improved significantly when Ødegaard was in the team. In the 14 Premier League games he played we won 24 points, an average of 1.71 points per game. In the 24 games he missed we won 37 points, an average of 1.54 points per game.

Also, it’s worth noting that three of the four games he missed after joining us were against the relegated teams Sheffield United, Fulham and West Brom (the other was against thirteenth placed Wolves).

He played in the second half of the season games against Manchester United, Manchester City, Leicester, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea. So his points per game stat wasn’t improved by him playing easier matches after he’d joined.

Let me be clear. I’m not saying we improved solely because of signing Ødegaard. That would be a nonsense claim to make. But what I am saying is that our improvement did coincide to at least an extent with him joining.

There - Fixed it for you.

I wonder when was the last time we had a "good" team? Was that the season we had the midfield of Fabregas, Hleb, Flamini and Rosicky (when he was healhty)? 2008?

Two days before Arsenal's first match and still no back up keeper. If Leno gets injured or sent off we are currently throwing Hein or Okonkwo under the bus. What are Arteta/Edu playing at.

15/16 was a good side that should have taken advantage of all the other big sides failing or being in transition and should have been more strongly backed in the transfer market for that final push of quality.

Sanchez, Özil, Cazorla, ramsey, giroud, per+kos at the back, the underrated Monreal and prime Bellerin - even our unused or fringe players were the likes of Ox, Walcott, Welbeck.

This was the summer when we only signed Čech and added Elneny in the January. Injecting a top class striker and a top class CM partner for Cazorla really could have won us the title that year. Leicester won it with one of the lowest points totals for 15 years

https://www.football365.com/news/most-e ... es-everton

Arsenal's most expensive 11 cost £417m and 9 of those players are currently still with us......and finishing 8th

Cazorla missed most of that season and we had a big hole where a good DM was needed. Welbeck missed a lot too through injury, I think. I know Giroud gets a lot of praise but was never good enough to be the main striker in a title winning side. By contrast, Leicester had Vardy. We had a good team that season but we never really clicked into gear due to the weaknesses at striker and DM. Better than what we have now for sure.

Ramsdale gathering pace. £24m is the latest.

I kind of don't care what we spend to sign players as long as all areas of the team are addressed, but what Arsenal fans will have a problem with is seeing Elneny trot out on numerous occasions and Ramsdale sitting on the bench when we could have signed Matt Ryan and someone like Aouar for the same expenditure.

If we get Ramsdale it will be £100m on Ramsdale, White, Lokonga and Tavares - in a summer when there really are going to be bargain signings cropping up everywhere.

I saw someone else note that of all Arteta's permanent signings only 1 of these (Willian) has been an attacking player.

The other things that confuses me with the supposed Ramsdale chase if that if we are looking to have a GK who is more suitable to Arteta's playing style so better with his feet like an extra defender when building from the back what evidence have we seen that Ramsdale is that GK. His passing accuracy last season was 43% compared to 76% by Leno, and both had about the same 32% accuracy on long balls. Perhaps if we ask Ramsdale to keep playing 10 yard 1-2's in his own area he'll be brilliant but he hasn;t been asked to do that at Sheff Utd or Bournemouth so how do we know?

I am not going to come on here saying what a crap deal it is if Aaron Ramsey happens, if it happens, because I don’t claim to know how good he is. He might be a potentially world class keeper.

What I will say is that it ranks up there with the weirdest transfers I can recall at Arsenal and there have been some weird ones.

I assume we have a limited budget and a number of key positions to fill so to spend £25m+ on a back-up keeper makes no sense unless he’s not a back-up keeper, which makes even less sense unless Leno is leaving.

It’s a massive amount to spend on a keeper from a relegated club with no other clubs seemingly in the mix.

If we stick Aaron Ramsey in goal we really are in trouble. Mind they way this window is going nothing Edu/Arteta do would surprise me.

Bayern are ‘desperate’ to sell Tolliso, 27 year old French international central midfielder, asking price is allegedly 10m euros.

I also read that Kolasinac was only on £11k a week at Shalke before we signed him and wenger gave him £100k a week. I’ve already said that the signing of Kolasinac wasn’t touted as terrible business at the time and it’s mainly with hindsight of his performances and our failure to be able to shift him that makes us look back on this as a bad deal - but - giving someone a near 10 fold pay rise is incredible whether he turned in to an excellent player for us or not.

Very good tomc.

sorry guys, you know I meant Ramsdale

Just couldn't resist this wrong last name.

Soc,
If it is Ramsdale, time will tell whether he's closer to a Seaman, Almunia, Lehman, Fabianski. Could turn out to be a surprise Martinez.

This is pretty much it for me. I wasn't impressed with Ramsdale whenever I saw him last year, but by all accounts he had a very good season for Bournemouth the year before. He just turned 23 which is no age for a goalkeeper so he could still be all right quality wise. If we can still make two more signings apart from him I have no problem with it, but if he's the only signing we make before the window closes then Edu and Arteta have certainly made their bed and it will be very hard to find excuses if we don't deliver on the pitch.

Carabao second round draw. It’s a very very long time since we were involved at this stage.

Away West Brom

Not an easy start then.

Lots of reports breaking that Arsenal and Sheff Utd met to discuss Ramsdale but couldn’t agree on the fee. Sheff Utd waited at least £35m and Arsenal wanted more like half that amount. Arsenal now said to be pursuing other targets.

Sheff Utd have pretty much stuck to their valuation and we’ve probably hoped they’d drop it as it got near the end of the window, they didn’t and now we’re two days away from the start of the season without a senior back up GK.

I understand that he cost Sheffield 18mil so I don't think they will be interested in us making any offer than one that gives them a bit of a profit.

People have been telling me for a long time on here: don't panic about our lack of signings. So a few suggestions. White cost 50mil - maybe he once played in goal for the U10's. Or Saka as he can play anywhere on the pitch and I am sure he would be prepared to give it a go.

Yeah, they were decent. 2008 was better in my opinion but that 16 side was pretty good.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/08/11/n ... -year-old/

I feel sorry for AMN. But can't help thinking that it is all down to him. Perhaps an attitude thing. Getting too dense about himself before he has actually arrived as a reliable and matured player?

Rumor is Mbappe wants to leave PSG before the end of summer. (not much time left). I've read reports the issue is mainly his ego. Maybe it is, maybe its not. But I read articles here and there about his head not being right.

Where could he go? Only a handful or less of places: Bayern Munich. Not sure about the two Spanish giants as there are money issues in la Liga. We'll have to count Barca out from what I am reading. I don't know RM's financial status so maybe they would buy him. City for sure has to be discussed as possible clubs he'll end up. Liverpool is another. Does Juve have the money? I don't know. That's pretty much all the clubs I can think that he could possibly go to.

And being determined to be a central midfielder instead of a wing back. He has a lot of the natural attributes to succeed at right or left wing back, and of he’d committed to that position 2 years ago who knows where he’d be in his career now. As a central midfielder he might just be a championship player level.

It is a little bit similar to Oxlade-Chamberlain, he did well at wing back but was determined to be the next Gerrard. Injuries haven’t helped him but there was talk recently of Southampton wanting him on loan. We talk about poor transfer mistakes we’ve made but selling Ox for £35m odd was a very good move considering what he’s done since

Obviously you meant Ramsdale. Would have been nice if we could have kept both Leno and Martinez. At the time it seemed it was 'impossible' to keep both and a decision had to be made on one of them. Or was that definitely the case and nothing could be done? Yes, unlikely to keep both but was it possible?

Totally agree with you in terms of minutes played compared to Liverpool and us, and of course the injuries you stated but, I don't think AOC would have traded his time at Liverpool to start in his preferred position for us.

He's won everything you can as a player in terms of club honors.

I had a look through the squads of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U and our won and listed out all the players these teams would happily sell but can't or would simply get rid of for free but no one else would pick up their wages. It is pretty astonishing the amount of money being wasted. (Man City and Spurs aren't on the same level as they've kept a lot of 'deadwood' away from their squads)

Arsenal: Elneny, Bellerin, Cédric, Kolasinac, Willian, Xhaka, Nketiah, Nelson, Lacazette
Chelsea: Alonso, Emerson, Zappacosta, Rahman, Ampadu, Miazga, Barkley, Loftus-Cheek, Bakayoko, Kenedy, Drinkwater, Batshuayi
Liverpool: Karius, Davies, Ox, Shaquiri, Origi
Man U: Grant, Bailly, Jones, Dalot, Pogba, Matic, Lingard, Pereira, Mata

I'd be hopeful that covid and the massive financial hit that has meant for every football club might finally have burst the bubble in football. Football seemed to be the only industry that sailed happily through the last global financial crash. More and more players are sitting out their contracts as no one else will pay them so hopefully clubs will start to take notice and start to take some of the power back from the players (no real blame on the players, blame the clubs for offering silly money not the players for accepting it)

In Arsenal's case you could at a stretch take all those 9 players listed above out of our squad for this season and with a fair wind on injuries and barring a bit of cover in the middle of the park it probably wouldn't effect us that much. That is pretty damning.

Of course yes he's won the league and champions league and he can look at those medals, but in reality we could have sold Liverpool Elneny and it would be Elneny sitting there with league and champions league winners medals.

Nathan Ake has a premier league winners medal but Bournemouth have £40m for a player who City won't be able to sell for half that now.

So 1 day before we kick off the new season we have no back up senior GK we're able to trust. Strange that we pursued Ramsdale for so long and the respective clubs valuations were still so far apart. I've never understood this with football transfer negotiations. I mean I get that agreeing £xm transfer fee is only a very small part of the negotiations but it is the fundamental one and the starting point for all other discussions. Why does it take months and months to realise neither party is going to get anywhere close to the other's valuation?

I posted my predicted line up for the first game of the season a couple of weeks ago:
Leno, Chambers, White, Mari, Tierney, Xhaka, Elneny, Smith-Rowe, Pépé, Lacazette, Aubameyang.

It was depressing writing it at the time and I still think it has a very good chance of being that exact line up

Groundhog Day.

Or should I say Groundhog Season?

The Mirror today gave its prediction for each club’s final position at the end of the Premier League season. It was:

1. Manchester City
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Manchester United
5. Leicester City
6. Tottenham Hotspur
7. Arsenal
8. Everton
9. Aston Villa
10. Leeds United
11. West Ham United
12. Newcastle United
13. Wolverhampton Wanderers
14. Brighton and Hove Albion
15. Southampton
16. Burnley
17. Norwich City
18. Crystal Palace
19. Brentford
20. Watford

Overall I suppose it’s a decent decent bit of guesswork although myself, I expect Chelsea to come second rather than Liverpool.

I see Norwich without Buendia as more likely to go down than Crystal Palace, so I’d certainly swap them around. I also think Leicester will struggle to come fifth. If Tottenham keep Kane I expect them to finish above Leicester. If they lose Kane, call me hopelessly over-optimistic but on the assumption there will be some new arrivals at Arsenal (hopefully including Ødegaard), I wouldn’t completely write off our chances of finishing above Leicester and Tottenham to come fifth.

Hey Rich, I hear ya, but Elneny was never good enough to get on LFC's books. My overall point is, would AOC have liked to play more for LFC? Sure. Does he regret going? I'd be shocked if he said yes. That's all.

I keep hearing Holding is being sold, and then he's staying. Any word on what is happening?

For what it’s worth (as you presumably won’t read this), my advice is to ignore transfer gossip. The huge majority is ‘clickbait’, so don’t fall into the trap of biting the worm on the fishing line to become the catch.