If the club shares your lack of ambition it will never happen. I’m hoping it doesn’t now.

Episode

It’s clear we’re targeting multi functional players who are two footed and play in numerous positions and are the ‘right’ age. It’s the first time in ages there is a coherent transfer strategy everyone can get behind. Now it’s down to the manager and the players to get the results.

If we get the rumoured signings of say Jesus, Tielemans and a defender I think we should be getting top 4 and we should be one of the absolute favourites to win the europa league and I’d expect an incredibly strong showing in that competition, and baring any genuine European giant dropping in from a poor CL campaign if almost be a bit disappointed if we don’t win it this year. The FA Cup bought Arteta time, the effectiveness of the most recent set of transfers has bought Arteta time, next season is time to deliver for me. CL is a must either via the league or Europa victory

Nketiah contract extension and No.14 shirt confirmed. Given the lack of options in world football for decent strikers that don’t cost a bomb I think it’s a smart move for the club to get Eddie to extend.

Look at all the forwards we’re linked with and the prices are £50m+ for all of them. It’s almost like the lack of strikers is a by product of a lot of teams initially going to the single striker system and more recently to the false 9 system. Genuine all round strikers who can essentially do both jobs strikers did in an old fashioned 4-4-2 are very few and far between.

Why? I keep thinking of the game against the Champions City at home. Until Gabriel was sent off we were much the better team. We drew with Liverpool away in the LC and matched them at home in the league. Had Odegard scored just before Jota did the outcome might have been different. Time was against those two the game was over before half time. It;s some silly loses against the lower teams that cost us. Turn that around and we have a chance.

I think you make a decent point but I feel Arteta actually sets us up very well in these big games the team always turn up motivated and out performs itself.

Our issues stem from a lack of strength in depth that consistently hurts us And probably 1 or 2 world class players we are missing. We don’t have a salah or de bruyne type that wins us games out of nothing.

We’re doing better and the players being linked will improve us hugely but even if all these players arrive I don’t really still see a world class match winning talisman in our group more an exceptionally well coached and organised 11.

Xhaka for sure. Always a safe bet.

This reported link is a bafflement. If we don’t have unlimited funds then I can’t see why we would be wanting him as a CB. Surely with White, Gabriel and Saliba plus others we have more pressing issues elsewhere?

Agree with you, safest bet ever

I don't think it is lack of ambition. We are spending money and improving. In the last 3 seasons we got 56 points, 61 points, and 69 points.

69 would normally get 4th place. For me, 4th place is a pretty ambitious target. As you suggested, even with spending, there is no assurance that thing will gel sufficiently for us, and the quality of opposition is fearsome.

Expecting to challenge City next season, as opposed giving ourselves a chance if the other top sides have mediocre seasons, is unrealistic.

Odds on. A sure fire winner.

The last 2 seasons came apart because of injuries to Tierney and us not having adequate back up so you can only assume that he would be targeted to cover that but it’s odd you are signing a centre half who occasionally plays there rather than a dedicated left back for that large fee.

Maybe the club are cashing in on both Mari and rob holding and want a player who can cover both positions. No way would they sign that player if they didn’t know a forward and another midfielder were likely to join though. Head scratcher for sure though

I agree with that - if Arteta gets us in Europa he will have done well, though no doubt his sights are set higher.

This Lisandro Martinez rumour seems more like a smokescreen to me. The club like feeding little titbits of info to credible sources like Ornstein and the The Athletic because it suits their agenda. They are not lying, just being a little economical with the truth, and that allows the club to pursue their real targets quietly whilst the press and twitter focus their attentions on players who we like but are not necessarily our top targets.

If we really wanted Martinez that desperately I am sure we would not be making our intentions so public and bringing it to the attention of other would be suiters. Why would you?.

The same may well be the case with Tielemans.

I’d be shocked if the club aren’t seriously interested in Tielemans. It was widely reported his agents had meetings in colney as far back as January. It’s being reported on Leicester blogs and all sorts. I think it’s probably a difficult negotiation for Leicester as 25-35 million seems very little for a player of his quality they are probably demanding a large fee and we’ve had to walk away for the time being.

The other guy who knows. Seems a weird link I have to say but ornstein is rarely wrong

Not saying we aren't interested, just saying all may not be as it seems and we may have other irons in the fire that we are awaiting a decision on first. Look at the Vieira deal that came deal completely out of the blue. It's far from easy to do a transfer like that these days but who is to say we aren't working on other such deals.

It suits Edu and Arteta to put a few plausible names into the public domain to capture the attention of the press and the twitter bloodhounds.

Grow up or learn the true meaning of episode.

So much for your claim that you would ignore my posts!

I can’t get my head around some of the pricing for various players. Is 25-35 million very little? Mané is going for that and I’ve be delighted if we had got him.

I don’t think the club lacks ambition either.

I never said that i said I wouldn’t engage your posts anymore which I am. However I’m happy to point out when you are having another episode in response to one of mine. Which is frequent.

Yes you did. In post 548132 you said “You have issues, I’ll go back to avoiding engaging you again.” To that I replied in post 538133 “Delighted to hear you’ll stop engage with me. I won’t miss you.” Then in post 538137 you said to me “I’ll reply to this but no more other topics because you get yourself in a state.”

I do wonder if pretending that I, a very calm level headed person, have episodes or get in a state is possibly a form of self denial for your own psychological problems. But regardless of this pub psychology, how on earth can you possibly claim that you never said that you wouldn’t engage my posts anymore. What else can you saying “I’ll reply to this but no more other topics because you get yourself in a state” mean?

You memory is either so bad that you forget what you said or there’s a less savoury reason linked to dishonesty? I hope it’s that you have a bad memory and forget what you’ve previously said.

EDIT: After posting this I read again your post that I’m replying to. It closes: “However I’m happy to point out when you are having another episode in response to one of mine. Which is frequent.”

Your point that you’re happy to point out when you reckon I’m having another episode appears to contradict what you said in posts 548132 (I’m taking you mean the same or at least very similar by ‘episode’ and ‘issues’). It also contradicts what you said in post 548137 when you said you’ll reply no more to me because you claim I get in a state (I’m taking you mean the same or at least very similar by ‘episode and a ‘state’).

There’s the obvious hypocrisy by replying to me, but the reasons you give for not doing so previously were me having issues and getting in a state. You now claim you’re happy to point out when you reckon I’m having an episode. The word hypocrisy could have been invented to describe your thought process here.

As a side issue, you said you’re happy to point out when I’m having an episode (which I deny) “in response to one of mine. Which is frequent.” You either think you have frequent episodes yourself (taken literally your text can be taken as that), or it’s poorly written. I suspect it’s the latter as I’m not sure critical self-appraisal is something I’d associate with you.

Episode

I don’t respond to your posts anymore. Look at what you do to this forum. Total nonsense

Do you not know what saying “I don’t reply to your posts anymore” (your direct quote) means? It should mean you don’t reply to my posts. You just did. As I implied in the edit to the above post, you seem a bona fide hypocrite to me. Let’s see how long it takes you to respond to this, even though you’ve just said you “don’t reply to my posts anymore”? Perhaps it’s you having the episode?

The penultimate sentence should not have have had quotation marks: “ “.

I like Nketiah. He's not a player I'd have in the starting XI for most PL games but he does well off the bench. Has a poachers mentality about him as well. When I have seen him, he's caused the opposition problems. I'm happy we extended him. However, I don't think he'll be with us for his career. The extension may be a move that is more about us having enough 'decent' attacking players in that position than about his quality overall.

As the guv'nor of my local used to advise to the lairy boys, take it outside?

Me too - good to see faith placed in our young players. Eddie likes scoring goals - that'll do for me.

When Partey started last season we won 2.43 points per game. That’s 92 points over the season. Obviously I’m not expecting 92 points if Partey was fit all season but it shows his importance

As a pre-teen watching 'Alfie', Michael Caine gave me my first real advice on women. Hadn't realized that was the movie attached to the song that was on my mom's Dionne Warwick album. Great to see both Bond men, 2 of the best to do it. Must admit I like Connery's bond a wee bit better than Moore's but its no critique of Moore.

Got next season’s home shirt (the long sleeved version) as a Father’s Day gift earlier.

Interesting that the signing of Vieira has yet to be confirmed on Arsenal.com. I have no doubt he is joining. In my view the surprise of the deal if anything made it more believable. It all broke on Friday out the blue that he was flying to London for a medical and Porto apparently declared he was leaving them (I don’t read Porto’s official website, hence my use of the word ‘apparently’).

On Saturday Vieira gave interviews about his joining, so the contract was surely agreed that day? So why isn’t it on Arsenal.com? They have staff who work weekends after all.

I’ve seen two explanations. One here when, I think it was Darren but I’m not sure (so apologies to Darren if it wasn’t him and to whoever else it was) that the club is delaying the official announcement until Jesus has signed when their arrivals would be confirmed together. I’m not convinced about that as football clubs want as many hits on their official websites as possible as it’s allegedly something that increases sponsorship revenues.

Surely confirming new and expensive signings separately on different days would increase the number of hits. If Vieira’s joining had been confirmed Saturday and that of Jesus was announced a few days later, Arsenal.com would get shedloads of extra hits on different days, rather than a shedload more on one day from announcing them together?

The other explanation I’ve seen looks even less likely. It was that Vieira’s signing would be confirmed on 1st July as players’ contracts routinely terminate on 30th June. But Vieira’s contract at Porto doesn’t expire on 30th June this year. That’s why Arsenal are paying a significant transfer fee of over £30m.

I’ve seen that Vieira’s going to be paid £130k a week (which equates to £6.76m a year) at Arsenal. So delaying his signing by 13 days until 1st July would, if he was willing to join on Saturday 18th June, save a little over £240k. Not exactly peanuts but not an amount worth saving at the risk of someone like one of the Manchester clubs, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern deciding they could do with another creative midfielder and snatching him.

I do expect Vieira to join. But the delay in the Arsenal.com announcement puzzles me. Has he actually put pen to paper already? Despite the reports that he has, I doubt it.

Long sleeves? Thinking of your age were they Bernard?

Cheeky. Actually I’ve always preferred long sleeves. More of the season takes place in colder weather than when it’s bright and sunny.

Your logic, as ever, is faultless.

A strong candidate for post of the month (imagine a smiley here).

Can still get a bit chilly when he's got the shorts and socks on as well.

A lot of fans are getting a bit too excited about the potential arrivals of Jesus, Tielemans, Martinez, Raphina etc but I think we have to take a step back and take a breath.

None of those transfers are easy and there is a massive difference between wanting to sign a player and actually signing him. Not only do you need to agree a price and personal terms but you have the ever-present danger of other clubs lurking and waiting to strike. Hence the need for as much secrecy as possible, as hard as that is in this day and age.

You are possibly right soc,

Can you honestly see us shelling out the 50 million quid necessary to get Raphina ? I can’t.

Tielemans clearly wants to come but that’s not an easy negotiation with Leicester who don’t sell cheaply and no way is he going for just 25 million even if he has a year left on his contract.

Martinez seems an odd link but assuming it’s true can you see Ajax selling us their player of the season for just 30 million. Doesn’t seem much right.

And all of these links whilst it seems we aren’t very close to selling any of our lot. If those 4 players you mentioned all rock up at the emirates in august I’d be delighted but very surprised

Probably awaiting results of medical

That’s possibly as good an explanation as any. But am I wrong in thinking when Arsenal have had these last minute trolley dashes on the last day of a transfer window, I thought I’ve seen the transfer confirmed on Arsenal.com pretty damn quickly after the closure deadline?

The player(s) concerned presumably had their medicals earlier that day. So why could it be confirmed so promptly then and not this time? Sure it was a weekend but I’ve worked with enough medical doctors to know many would do practically anything for money. Most definitely performing a medical and reporting the result to whoever wants it (in this case Arsenal) very quickly.

Having said that you may well be right, as off hand I can’t think of anything else.