I mean seriously buy lukaku for 70m and save the other 52 million for a keeper who can save a penalty or a midfielder to replace santi.

What's also funny is it's all irrelevant anyway as we have Wenger as our manager and he'll never set the team up right.

Looking forward to watching mbappe play wing back next year

What do you mean keeper?.........Mbappe is our new keeper.

Not being an upgrade on Monreal means little. Anyone who is an upgrade on Monreal would have to be at or very near the top of the tree for left backs as he really has been a quality signing for Arsenal. If the new bloke from Schalke is as good as Monreal, and not being an upgrade doesn't mean he isn't, then he's going to be bloody good.

I think that's right.

I agree with that Haz. I recall reading a few seasons ago that we have some transfer funds that are deliberately set aside should a really fantastic player become available and Wenger feels he's worth pursuing.

Perhaps this is one such case, although clearly with a fee in excess of £100m for an 18 year old kid you are clearly gambling that that massive potential is realised.

Like Lauren, unsmiling. Looks like a hard case - let us hope he is.

Wenger hasn't managed to make Monreal go downhill?

Mo Salah is supposedly going to Pool for 35m. Could be a vrry good buy. His record in Italy is similar to Sanchez's.

Unlike what seems like most of his more recent signings, no he hasn't. Shows how good Monreal really was, perhaps.

I agree - he gets too much criticism.

What we've always needed since Henry is a proper striker with blistering pace, aggression, and finishing ability. If we finally get that, who knows? Liverpool almost won the league with Saurez, after all.

We can get a keeper too.

The rest of the squad that Wenger put together looks pretty damned good to me.

It would have been if we had actually bought the striker we needed and used Giroud as backup/sub. However we didn't so it wasn't.

I'd agree with you Decaf that Wenger has actually accumulated a strong squad of players. However, I think that goes some way towards supporting Top Gun's middle paragraph that implies one of his biggest problems these days is not being able to organise them into a winning unit, or one that performs as well as it should do. As I've said before, I genuinely think that if Conte or Pochettino had Arsenal's squad of players last season, with no additions or deletions, they'd have seriously challenged for the title and perhaps even won it. I reckon Wenger is very good at judging or recognising talent. However, when he has such talent under his charge, I'm less convinced he knows what to do with it.

I'm less bothered about getting a new keeper than you, although I would have preferred to keep Szczesny than Ospina. I felt Čech finished the season excellently. Regarding penalties I think his big problem has been diving way to early. If a keeper dives almost before the penalty taker even starts his run up, he makes it too easy to place it where the keeper isn't. But against Tottenham and Everton, the last two Čech faced, he didn't do that. Unfortunately Kane and Lukaku hit practically perfect penalties, hard and low into the corner, to ensure they scored. But many penalties aren't taken as well as those two so if Čech has stopped diving ridiculously early, I think he'll greatly improve his chances of saving one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40173168

Nice of the BBC to report on our new signing with a video of him scoring an own goal v argentina

All good points but I would prefer to focus on the outfield players not giving away so many penalties - I think it was 10 last season. There were obviously a few debatable ones but too often the penalty wasn't given away as a result of a last ditch tackle to stop a striker who was through on goal, it tended to be a defender making a rash lunge or bad decision instead of shadowing the player in to a less dangerous position.

Happy with the Kolasinac signing. Appears more attacking than Monreal but capable of playing LB or LWB. Given he was voted in the German league team of the season and has champions league experience and is first choice for his country he is probably in the £15m range so to get him on a free is good business.

If we keep all the players we want to keep I would be minded to agree with Wenger that maybe 3 players might be enough for us. Fans always want more players but to bring in a top class centre forward and a Cazorla replacement would leave the squad very healthy with the only problem being which ones to leave.

If the above happened I'd lose Ospina, Jenkinson, Debuchy, Gibbs, Campbell and Sanogo has already gone. Get Jeff and Maitland-Niles on loans to prem clubs. Bring back Szczesny and Chambers from loans.

Čech, Szczesny, Martinez
Bellerin, Chambers, Monreal, Kolasinac,
Koscielny, Mustafi, Mertesacker, Holding, Gabriel
Coquelin, Elneny, Xhaka, Ramsey, Cazorla, Ox, Wilshere
New ACM, Özil, Sanchez, Iwobi, Perez
New Striker, Walcott, Welbeck, Giroud

That is a 28 man squad. Ins and Outs are based on sticking with the 3-4-2-1
There are question marks over the futures of Perez and Wilshere and we could arguably sell both as neither had many minutes for us last season. I think Wilshere will get a new deal to protect his value but Perez may go. The 3-4-3 really suits some players but others like Perez and Walcott don't fit in as well.

Well we did we signed Podolski at the same time but the only thing he was good at was selfies

Decaf with respect.
Its irrelevant whether we bought thr top striker or not. For the type of money we spent on Giroud. He has been an excellent buy and given us value for money. Chronic lack of pace but has still been a great buy.

Yes I think he will be better than Gibbs and we do have to look at a succession plan for Monreal.

I agree he has performed well for the club.

It's a pity Giroud just could not be that top striker we need. With his looks we could have sold millions of his shirt.

Both players are, I would assume, waiting to see what offers they get and what business Arsenal do early this summer.

Barcelona want Bellerin and offer either Turan, Denis Suarez or Rafinha. I want us to keep Bellerin obviously but D. Suarez could be a superstar under Wenger. Wouldn't mind Rafinha either.

To be fair, half of those were late substitute appearances when Valerie Germain was in a great run of form alongside Falcao, and at which time Mbappe was still 17 and mostly playing on the wing. As soon as he started regularly and up front, his stats were fantastic.

Also, Cavani, for all his wastfulness is one of the best 10 centre-forwards in the world for me. 6 foot 3, quick, strong, good touch, as good movement as anyone at the moment, and for all his missing chances, he scores the greatest variety of goals of anyone I can think of. While capable of missing open goals from 3 yards out, he has an impressive track record of diving headers, deft flicks, acrobatic volleys and 30 yard thunderbolts. If his finishing was as on point as say, and Ian Wright, he'd be the best striker in the world. And he plays in a team that batters most of their opponents.

I'd take Morata in a heartbeat...

Problem is Bale is (before tax) on 500k p/w. We just can't pay that...though as I said in this weeks podcast, I'd love it...imagine Spurs finally finishing above us and we buy the best player to play for the club in the last 40 years....

In which case you'll like him. The guy has two nicknames in Germany. 'The Tank' and 'The Bosnian Hulk'. Opposition wingers have a habit of bouncing off him...and he likes a tackle.

Remember seeing him as a kid in some international games about 3 years ago and liking the look of him. Not always subtle, but a brick of a player with a decent left foot who can run all day.

And shooting with his left foot. If you could combine Welbeck's mobility, athleticism and workrate with a left foot like Podolski's you'd have a world beater.

Barca aren't as loaded as before. I'd make a cheeky bid for Denis Suarez for sure. A bit lightweight but very very talented

Agree on this one

A few reports suggest that Real are asking 78mil for Morata and refused an offer of 52mil from Man U. So if Bellerin is heading to Barca (another rumour) then I want to see large numbers in that transfer.

Alexis - Bellerin - Perez out. $150m
Mbappe in. $150m

Yeah sounds like bellerina is off. One for the "don't sign young Spanish players because they always want to go home " theory

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 75311.html

We forget that Henry wasn't really an instinctive finisher and also used to miss sitters ... including in the CL final.

I agree, David. He's a useful weapon and was worth what we paid. We can't blame Giroud. The issue is whether he fitted what we needed.

That is arguably Wenger's biggest flaw. Since the beginning of his tenure, he has tended to fail to cover glaring squad hole, either by not filling them with the quality required, or by buying square pegs and trying to get them to fit into round holes. That worked spectacularly a couple of times but mostly its meant we've spent the post-2005 period either a midfielder, a keeper (during the Manuel era), central defender, or a striker short.

Sadly you can't. You need to find these attributes in one player. And you won't find that player in the bargain basement section.

Gotta keep Alexis and Bellerin. Gotta fight to keep them. Its the marginal players we need to get rid of. Is Mbappe worth that much? Really? Ive seen him play and he's great. I'd make a cheeky 50 mil bid for Martial for example. even 60 mil I love his upside potential.

I like that we bought a defender. The other 5 main rival sides had a better goals against than we did (44). We had the same as Everton! You have to go 8 deep in the table to find a worse goals against. That's a huge issue with me. Shockingly, Mourinho's Man Utd had the leagues best goals against (29) second only to Tottenham but ended up 6th. Which means they didn't score enough.

Shouldn't have signed a six year contract then, should he? He may well prefer to go, but I don't get the impression he's agitating as extremely as Fabregas did to secure the move. If I had to bet on it my money would go on Bellerin still being an Arsenal player next season.

Having said that, I doubt he'll be an Arsenal player for too much longer after that. Didn't someone say a while back that Bellerin is more acclimatised to life in London (however he put it) so could stay for the longer term? Can't recall who it was, but I'm fairly sure someone did. Whoever it was, I wouldn't bet that their idea will prove to be right.

To be fair I've seen far easier chances than that missed by other players, and it was a very fine save. Also how many other 'sitters' can you recall Henry missing? There probably must have been some as every striker, however good a finisher they were, will surely have missed a few over their career. But missing sitters is not something that automatically springs into my mind for Henry.