So E. Cavani to MU. Incredible.

Good deal for them. They are desperate for someone to lead the line

If we couldn't go to £50m for Aouar (with the probable benefit of payments in installments) what makes you think we can pay £45m in a lump sum for Partey?

I hope you are right but I think the chances are higher of some lesser knowns or loans as you suggest.

They might have been struggling to contemplate the fee for Aour. He’s still developing and 50 + 10 in add ons is mega money.

I think it could potentially be a good deal. He's not clinical but his pace, movement and strength gets him into so many goalscoring positions that he still ends up scoring lots of goals.

I agree with that analysis. There is a huge potential upside if his talent can be harnessed and he can get going.

Maybe. We'll see.

When Pépé was bought there was the thought that he was for the games when we could spring the counter attack. I think he’s suited to the games when we face packed defences because he is one of the few people in the squad who can drop a shoulder, or have a trick and make half a yard. He does need to improve the consistency of his end product and needs to learn he only needs to beat his man once

Lyon say Aouar deal is off, we seem to be about £10m apart. Such a shame because we’ve got a free run at him this year. Won’t be the same next year.
Arsenal better have some alternatives lined up. There are plenty of very good central mids at the same price or cheaper than Aouar and Partey.

I was hoping that the Arteta era would herald a new decisiveness at Arsenal, particularly in the transfer market. I hope this isn't a bad sign.

I know many will disagree, but I think Willian is a more useful player than Zaha. Not necessarily better, but more useful for what we need. Zaha has gamebreaking talent on a good day, but he also struggles a lot with inconsistency and like Pépé he can totally disappear. Willian is more dependable, won't win games on his own but over the course of a season he's proven himself to be a very consistent creative outlet. Covers several positions as well, and since he was a free agent he shouldn't really affect our transfer budget much at all.

If we do let Torreira leave it will be astonishing not to recruit a midfielder or two. Especially if Torreira joins Atletico, a club with one of the two we’re supposed to want.

However good Gabriel turns out to be, and so far he’s looked very promising, if we end up losing Torreira and not getting either Aoura (I’m still not sure of the spelling) or Partey, I agree with both socrates and Hazuki (by firm implication) that it’s been a very poor transfer window for us. Even keeping Guendouzi, for me a big bonus, won’t change that. Unless a nobody who’s under the radar, like Top Gun implies is feasible, turns out to be another Brady, Vieira or Petit (and so on including Williams and Davis).

I was using Zaha as an example of a game-changing talent that you might be able to make a case for. He is inconsistent but would be be better at a bigger club where he might see more of the ball?

Willian is an odd one because we've given him 4 year deal so despite no transfer fee I am assuming there is a big signing-on fee and fairly large wages. The total outlay is not insubstantial, plus he will have little or no sell-on value towards the end of the contract.

i know its easier said than done, especially if you are chasing an elite talent, but we should have drawn a line under the Aouar and Partey deals days ago if it was clear we could not afford them and moved on to other targets.

He's 33 on a free. A strong and still feared striker.

Indeed. If by the end of this transfer window we end up with Torreira gone and no midfield player(s) brought in then Edu is a shoe in for the Ivan Gazidis award for doing *%^@ all to justify your handsome salary. Pull your finger out fella.

I really don't think it's odd though. Whether we use Zaha or someone else like him as an example, we're talking a big transfer fee, and seeing how we're struggling to get our midfield targets it would've been complete neglect to spend big on a winger. Willian's wage is another matter I think, it's a big cost in total but spread out over multiple years. Getting a player of quality without taking a big chunk from the transfer budget was a really smart move on our part.

Great stuff from Leeds. City did well to get a point.

Maybe it is, maybe is isn't. Only time will tell. At his age we don't know if he's got 2,3 or 4 years left at the top.

What we did need was smart moves on the types of players who could address obvious deficiencies in the team. I'm not even talking about well known names such as Partey or Aouar, there must be some decent young talent in the Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese and Dutch leagues. Not to mention South America where Edu allegedly has an advantage.

Leeds are brilliant to watch. Much more exciting than us.

Bielsa certainly gets the most out of what you would perceive as some fairly ordinary players.

What I would say is that we can't be loaning out Torreira if we aren't bringing someone else in. That would be madness.

He may not have had the greatest season last year but he's still a young and talented player who would have got plenty of games in shortened season. A very useful player to have when the games are coming thick and fast.

You might be right soc

There’s no way the club can conclude it’s negotiation on Torriera without understanding clearly what’s happening with Thomas Partey. Just the natural conversations between the clubs would determine that.

I read that Torreiras option to buy is only 18.8 million which seems quite low. Just a gut feeling but I think we might have signed Thomas Partey and his price was somehow agreed in conjunction with the other transfer.

Admittedly a boring position to take but let’s wait and see what’s happened with transfers in a few days time. There are a lot of poker faces and little cash around but I’ll be surprised if the only change to our midfield is effectively swapping Torreira for Elneny.

Boring perhaps, but you're right of course. Shouldn't be panicking yet, though I have to admit at being disappointed that we're seemingly not getting Aouar. I watched almost an entire Lyon game last weekend to get a better look at what kind of player he is, and not it was probably all for nothing.

I hope you’re right but what’s the point in not confirming it on Arsenal.com if he’s already signed? It has to be confirmed in a couple of days anyway. So is there an advantage for either Arsenal or Atletico in waiting 48 hours? If there is, what is it?

So he could play today ? They might have been short in midfield or had already travelled to play

Aren’t all the announcements delayed also.

Somebody on twitter made me chuckle.........in response to the rumours of our interest in Jorghino they said that knowing our lot they are probably offering Chelsea cash + Willian

Did Partey play today? If so and he was joining us, that sounds risky in case he got injured. Unlikely but players do get injured, so certainly possible. If he played what was the reaction of Atletico fans to him? Had he already signed for us I’d be surprised if there were no reports in Spain about it. From that, some sort of reaction from Atletico fans be it a positive ‘thanks for everything‘ or a negative ‘sod off you disloyal git’.

I’m not sure if announcements are delayed. Perhaps they are but Arsenal.com always seem to confirm them pretty quickly, as far as I’ve noticed anyway.

We made a £32m bid for Aouar, no excuse to not spend that on another centre mid. We’re not in the position to keep our money and wait for the preferred target.
Pellegrini, Zakaria, Soumare....something must be done.

We have maybe 6-7 players who will contribute barely anything this season and will eat up close to £1m a week in wages.

Not being able to shift these players is holding us back more than anything at the moment

Do you remember when Nasri played for us at the weekend and it was totally evident he was leaving for city on the Monday. Everyone knew. Possibly the same thing. I don’t know just a hunch.

Saliba potentially going on loan is a strange one. Looking at the Europa league draw there are game right there than he can play, use those to see if he’s ready. He’s not exactly some inexperienced kid, he’s still played at the top level in France against Neymar and Mbappe.

Right now the best back 3 for me is Mustafi, Luiz, Gabriel. Mari and Tierney May be more reliable than Mustafi but we’ve left ourselves unbalanced with better left sided CB now

I don’t expect much transfer work to be done today with a game on so it could all go to the last day. We’re ideally still looking at 5 or so out and at least 2 in. Right now this squad is still only a top 8 squad. We’re at the level of Leicester and Everton And Wolves for quality in the squad, our second 11 is probably stronger than those 3 but I’m not certain the first 11 is

As a club there is a undoubted feeling we are on the up again. We have have one of the most promising managers in the league, we’ve just won the FA cup, we have kept Aubameyang, and we are developing into a properly drilled team with tactics and fight. Yet annoyingly it’s all relative to what other clubs are doing. Unless we see some significant transfers in the next few days, it’s hard to argue that the team has been equipped to make up ground on our immediate rivals who have all strengthened. Perhaps Wolves and Sheffield Utd look the most vulnerable but then Leeds and Everton look very promising at this very early stage. Right now, on a very wet and gloomy Sunday, I would say the best we can hope for this season is to tread water. Hopefully a cup run and Europa League qualification, but with the team settling down and developing tactically and mentally. Hopefully by next summer we will finally get rid of some serious deadwood, whilst getting some serious money back into the club and rebuilding can continue.

having just re-read my previous post, perhaps I should have said I expect us to tread water this season, but my big hope is that we win a trophy and actually compete for a place in the top four.

In this mornings Arseblog he says that FFP has been relaxed and now is the moment for KSE to kick in with some extra £££ for team building.
Nobody expects them to do that as they clearly aren’t interested in Arsenal’s sporting performance. But it will be a massive statement of DISINTENT not to use this opportunity to push Arsenal forward.

No I don’t remember Nasri’s final game for Arsenal. But if Partey is joining Arsenal I still find it odd for Atletico to play him, and he did play yesterday, and risk him getting injured. Whether Wenger played Nasri or not. Wenger was a bit of a nutter in some respects, anyway.

What I find more supportive of your hunch is if Torreira goes to Atletico, whether it’s a loan or a permanent deal. Swaps are more difficult to conclude, but if they’re both defensive midfielders it seems strange for Arsenal to offload Torreira to Atletico without Partey coming the other way. Unless they know Aouar is arriving.

Well, all will be known tomorrow evening. But I am less confident than you.

Sums it up. Stan Kroenke: “I didn’t buy Arsenal stake to win trophies” and “If you want to win championships then you would never get involved”.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standa ... html%3Famp

This is kind of why I think Socrates was right. We bid 38 million for Aour and we know that because they said. The club decided not to make any further offers for a reason and that might be that he was too expensive or it could mean that we have decided to go in a different direction. What hasn’t changed is we are desperate for midfield reinforcements so do we believe we have simply decided not to do anything and at the same time we’ve been locked in discussions with athletico. I wouldn’t be shocked if Partey turns up tomorrow

If Wolves continue to struggle, I would like to see us try get some of their players next season.

I think I heard there is a rule for Spanish clubs where they can only spend 25% of money coming in. Not sure if this is all Spanish clubs but it has been mentioned in relation to Atletico. Could suggest why they don’t want to do a swap or a linked deal. They want the most cash direct in to the club.
If Torriera is a £7m Liam with option to buy for a further £19m then that sounds ok as long as we replace him. Getting decent loan fees is a decent income, chelsea loaned Zouma to stoke and Everton for a combined £15m, so £15m in for a player who is still on your books and retains his transfer value to you