https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... ion-widget

"Arsenal are understood to have agreed terms with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang over a new contract and are also closing in on the signing of defender Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille.

Sources on Sunday night suggested that the club is confident that they are now “extremely close” to securing their captain, who has less than a year left on his current deal, on a new, improved contract which is expected to increase his wages to around £250,000-a-week over a three-year period."

There has been a trend recently of lots of big clubs needing to get rid of their high earners who are pushing 30 and who aren't quite delivering against the clubs outlay. It seems the last 6 months more than any time I've noticed. I'd be surprised if it isn't some belt tightening after covid stripped a lot of teams of huge match day revenue and some TV money. A lot of teams now pushing their 'star' players out of the door. I think it is going to be a really interesting transfer window

The clubs with a lot of money can afford to get rid of the north side of 30 stars. They are doing what Ferguson has done and others have done, rebuild their side over and over again with younger, quality players. They have the money to take a chance on the next big thing or the hottest thing now. Neymar and Messi (for the time being) are probably the only players that are priced out of everyone's budget because FFP or whatever. Mbappe may be in that category as well

Afternoon Rich, It’s already been described as a buyers market to say the least, if the market is then flooded with players, possibly mostly near 30, could be very interesting as you say. Carnage might be more accurate. Chelsea already taking huge advantage already having been forced to save over the last window. If ever there was a time to twist for us it’s now, a new manager to back and young players coming through, you could set the club up very well for quite a while if you gambled and perhaps weren’t so tight - relatively - just asking for a couple hundred mil Kreonke!

Assuming Magalhaes is in, he would be one of five CBs along with Luiz, Saliba, Mari and one other as part of the squad? Mustafi, Sokratis, the other Greek defender, Chambers and Holding - I suppose we'd retain at least one homegrown talent.

Reports are Messi wants out of Barca, now! C'mon Arsenal, stop mucking about and make an offer. What's his buyout clause again? We'll pass the hat.

Can you imagine it ! It would be great fun for a couple of seasons watching him strut his stuff for us.

Wonder if Barca would entertain a swap deal for Kolasinac

Selling our gaff.

Estate agent had an offer below the asking price on Friday which we promptly rejected. Estate agent then comes back to us today with another offer but this time 18 grand lower than the one they had on Friday.

2 things really. 1) I’m really not sure if they get how this is supposed to work But the people involved must have been employed by Arsenal at some point to conduct transfer negotiations during the Wenger period.

2) for this level of excellence they get 1% of the sale price. Name me a bigger racket

Is your estate agent named Raul Sanllehi?

No if he was he would be getting the bidder to offer 20% more than the asking price and giving it all to his mate

My guess is he’ll go to City to play under Guardiola again.

Very true.

Somehow this Sanllehi-Pepe debacle smells like money laundering.

This is also going to be an interesting development. We’ve just signed a 19 year old midfielder released from Huddersfield, this from arseblog



We’ve benefited from this as much as anyone, it’ll be interesting to see if any more uk based talent actually comes through premier league clubs as a result.

I’m not a financial whiz but laundering may not be the right terminology.

Fraud maybe better,

The example Arseblog used the other day was based on the Leno transfer, .... Arsenal start negotiating to buy Leno whose price was 18 million..... Sanllehi introduces his mate the agent Arturo Canales into it as an intermediary who he knows well and represents many Barca players and Unai Emery .... voila final transfer price is inflated to 22 million with costs for the multiple agents. It sounds like scratching people backs with cash for mates. Other business would probably call it fraud but in football it’s probably just another day for some clubs

Offs is there anything this political disaster doesn’t wreck.

I don’t mind it, there was a loophole for the uk somehow anyway that meant we offer pro contracts when eu teams couldn’t, and it never seems right offering kids big money to move far away from home.

Any idea what the kid’s name is Ash?

Would have meant we would never have seen Anelka, Fabregas or Bellerin grace our hallowed turf.

He's called Tim Akinola Bernard.

Yep, he’s a CM, former winger, forceful in the challenge and a decent burst of pace. It’s a long shot signing but apparently Mertesacker and others were impressed with his “underlying metrics” whatever that means. I wouldn’t have thought he will have any sort of a path to the first team but it’s all in the attitude isn’t it.

Well I think “grace our hallowed turf” is a bit Clive Tyldesley but yes I suppose, I take your point. The next British player that comes through we can say the opposite can’t we. We can still sign as many 18 year olds as we like.

Sorry to spam posts but just reading about why Sanlehi left and this smacked me in the face:

“The Athletic understands Arsenal exceeded the asking price for Bernd Leno and paid €5 million above the buyout clause for Lucas Torreira.“

I’m sorry 5m ABOVE the buyout!? That was never mentioned near the time and I missed it was it???

Sorry to see public health England being scrapped in a political stunt to divert attention from how badly the government dealt with the Covid situation.

Had some dealings with some people there once and found them forward thinking and progressive. The populism is wrecking everything.

It worked with my boy...

Thanks Bromley and Ash. Just did a quick search on him. The Metro says he was recently released by Huddersfield. Hence before we signed him. Unless I’m missing something (I didn’t read the whole article) I’d assume that means he either has a poisonous attitude or they felt he wasn’t good enough for them (and we’re talking Huddersfield, not Bayern Munich).

Seems a bit strange for Arsenal to be signing Huddersfield’s cast offs. But didn’t we play them quite recently in the League Cup? I’m not sure we did but there’s something in the back of my mind that we did. Perhaps he played a blinder?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 40231/amp/

I thought I heard at the time we'd gone above the buy-out clause in order the stage the payments. Usually buy-out clauses are required to be paid in 1 lump sum (or at least that what I've read). So if you can't afford £25m in 1 go because you haven't got the money or need to spread some of it on other transfers as well, you could offer £30m but say you'll pay them £10m a season for 3 years instead of £25m upfront

Two young, decent looking CBs is more than I ask for. I am not expecting Adams and Bould but it has to be a big improvement on what we already have.

I wonder if Barca has approached Wenger? I love the man but the planets aligned for him at Arsenal. I don't think he'll be successful anywhere else really. Adaption is not one of his strong points. Can't see Koeman as anything but a stop gap manager till they go after a big name. Sarri maybe? Koeman is a known name but I wouldn't say a big name. At least at that level.

As some have already pointed out, there are a lot of clubs around desperate for money post covid. Those with money could thus have a field day.

It's not just that clubs may accept a lower fee for players but that they are being forced to sell them even though they would ordinarily keep them. Thus, a lot of players who may well have been unavailable, except for an extortionately high bid, may be available at a less eye watering price.

The question is which are we?

Some real investment in this window could reap huge rewards for some clubs.

This deal is a classic example of how our scouting at this level has changed, and will be done going forward.
It was done purely off of video analysis and statDNA data.

Hey Hodd,

What do you make of us signing this kid from Huddersfield without even going to watch him or giving him a trial?

Another one.......Arsenal are set to sign 20-year-old centre-half Jonathan Dinzeyi after his release from Tottenham.

Wow. It’s like Arsenal are playing Football Manager 2020.

It’s the way everyone does it now
We WILL have seen him in the flesh at some point.
During lockdown we had some training on video scouting and TBH I can see the benefits, particularly with overseas players.
I think the use on the 3 we have signed during this pandemic are more down to the circumstances, but we will see it’s use expand.
The success of it sure won’t have helped the cause of our recently departed scouts.

Thanks Hodd.

Huddersfield let him go which is a bit odd if he's that good.

Same goes for the Spurs lad who they let go and has now joined us.

It’s just more effective and efficient to use the tools available
Under normal circumstances the player will be flagged in a live game - either through an in-country contact or club scout, depending on location etc.
Based on that someone will then watch the player on the scouting video app (hudl) and review vitals on statDNA.
This will the be pulled into a comprehensive report and based on that someone from the senior recruitment team will watch him live again; then a decision will be made.
It reduces the cycle time and cost significantly
We’ve lost out on a number of players in the last couple of seasons because the “old” model took too long.

I can’t speak for the specific details of each player, as I haven’t been involved.
The only thing I would say is that it could just come down to how well covered clubs are in certain positions e.g. club 1 may have 2 right backs in the 18’s already whereas another club may be short in that position. Not every player is “released” because a club doesn’t think they have the potential to be a pro.
The biggest decisions are made at u14, giving the players a chance to focus more on school work if they are less likely to make football their career.

Ah that makes sense in context. I do have a vague recollection of that now you mention it. Although I also had no recollection 5 minutes ago

I guess that it’s moved on a bit then since the time when Graeme Souness signed “George Weah’s cousin” for Southampton.